Steve Quayle News Alerts

May 14, 2003
By Paul Sperry, © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

WASHINGTON – U.S. authorities have discouraged immigration inspectors from wearing masks as they process Asian passengers arriving at the nation's international airports from SARS hot spots such as Hong Kong and Beijing, according to an internal Justice Department memo obtained by WorldNetDaily.

Reason: They don't want to panic foreign visitors into thinking America is "disease central," as one official put it – even though many of those passengers themselves are wearing masks, which help prevent the spread of the deadly new flu bug.

"CDC [Centers for Disease Control] does not recommend the routine use of equipment, such as N-95 respirators," said the Justice memo sent April 25 to Bureau of Customs and Border Protection port directors and Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement directors.

The 2-page memo advises immigration officers to limit the use of such masks. "Personnel should wear surgical masks when in close contact with a person who issuspected of having SARS," it said (emphasis in original).

A spokesman for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, explains that while N-95 masks are available for inspectors to wear, their routine use is frowned upon because of the negative image it may convey to passengers entering the U.S. from foreign countries.

"A lot of people sort of thought, well, if we've got all of our people running around in surgical gloves and masks, how's that going to affect the people coming into the country when they see us for the first time, and it looks like it's disease central?" said CBP spokesman Bill Anthony.

A CBP supervisor at one of the nation's busiest airports scoffed at the notion foreign travelers would be offended at the sight of mask-wearing U.S. inspectors.

"We were told, you know, be careful about wearing masks, [that] you don't want to alarm people," he said. "But, like, half the passengers on flights from Beijing or the Orient have masks on."

Anthony points out that CDC personnel also are not wearing masks, as they board flights from SARS hot spots to hand out yellow pamphlets warning about SARS.

Yet the same Justice memo, written under the subject line, "Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)," warns port directors that SARS may be spread "through the air."

"Potential ways in which SARS can be spread include touching the skin of other persons or objects that are contaminated with infectious droplets and then touching the eyes, nose or mouth. This can happen when someone who is sick with SARS coughs or sneezes droplets onto themselves, other persons, or nearby surfaces," the memo states. "It is also possible that SARS can be spread more broadly through the air or by other ways that are currently not known."

At Los Angeles International Airport, which gets the most traffic from SARS hot spots, inspectors complain they recently got a memo from the deputy port director barring them from wearing masks while in uniform.

"We are allowed to wear surgical gloves and to use personal fans" to circulate the air in their areas, one LAX inspector said. "But we are not allowed to wear the mask in uniform."

Inspectors are the first people visitors from SARS hot spots come in contact with as they enter the U.S. And they say there is more contact – and potential for germ-spreading – than most know.

"We're touching hands all day long. If we want to wear masks because people are hacking, we should be able to," said one inspector.

"You know how many times I've had a passport given to me straight from the person's mouth, because they're holding it with their mouth?" he added. "You know, I tell them, 'You mind wiping that off before you give it to me?'"

Anthony insisted that any inspector who "comes up (to his supervisor) and says, 'Look, I'm uncomfortable doing this Chinese flight from Beijing,' can get a mask."

"They have that option," he added.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32563