Transportation in the Face of Communicable Disease
Beth Ewoldsen
Content Strategist
Transportation Research Board
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
bewoldsen@nas.edu
If you work in the transportation industry, you are probably working
through stages of your plan for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).
After all, part of the service you provide depends on the ability to
keep people safe and healthy regardless of their travel plans.
Bernalillo County Public Works Division in New Mexico prepares through
active planning and exercises that are funded through their regular
operating budget. Research published in the peer-review journal,Transportation Research Record (TRR) looks at their systems in
place. Basing their plan on analysis from the 1918 influenza pandemic,
they plan for difficult choices among determining essential staff and
clearly redefining roles for
all
personnel including political appointees, janitorial staff, civil
engineers, field technicians, and clerical staff. The county is
committed to intergovernmental cooperation and planning exercises showed
essential
functions could be relocated and operational more quickly than federal
and local targets.
A growing list of airlines and
governments have banned international flights. Fortunately airports,
airlines, first responders, and local health officials have been working
in tandem to
establish response
strategies, effective practices, and clear communication to
successfully combat the challenges of travel and disease. Their
collaborations
have improved
prevention, preparedness, and response efforts.
Researchers have explored a
bilevel
decision making framework to determine the best set of outbreak control
policies, while taking local and global outbreak dynamics into account.
A case study explored a hypothetical epidemic outbreak using the
worldwide air travel network to perfect optimization algorithms.
In regards to preventive measures, Trudy Henson, Public Health Program
Director at University of Maryland Center for Health and Homeland
Security says, “…it’s important to take measured, science-based
actions that build the public’s confidence, not undermine it or create
panic.”
Henson co-authored a 2017 TRB Legal Research Digest after the Ebola
outbreak in the mid-2010s. In some
cases workers
returning from saving lives were quarantined in the U.S., raising
legal concerns about civil liberties. In addition to violating rights,
“Closing or suspending transportation can make it difficult for people
to get proper medical attention—which can actually increase the spread
of a virus,” she notes.
Modeling done in the aftermath
of the Ebola outbreak showed that air travel will facilitate the spread
of disease in the cases of H1N1 and SARS. Research like this shows the
importance
of collaboration
between aviation and public health authorities to establish preventive
measures. The CDC has held health screenings at airports in response to
the current outbreak since January.
“These screenings
are very effective at raising awareness of the outbreak, and are a great
opportunity to educate travelers about what to look for, but the
efficacy is unknown, particularly given that we are still learning about
this new coronavirus,” says Henson.
Airport and public
health officials addressed key challenges facing
aviation’s role
in reducing communicable disease transmissions. In efforts to keep
terminals and vehicles safe, many airports, bus, and train stations, can
maintain rigorous
procedures for medical interventions to prevent the spread of disease
to passengers and staff.
The aviation industry is not
the only line of transportation defense against health emergencies. A
country’s ports
of entry have a special role in protecting the public’s health
regardless of the mode of transportation. Even in
non-emergencies, transit
ensures improved health care.
As telework options are increasingly available, employee mobility needs
are shifting. Coordination of regional transportation decision-making
plays an important part in promoting regional business continuity after
an emergency. Public-private partnerships, resource-sharing protocols,
and technology application all support the capability of
transportation
to meet ongoing employee mobility needs so that business can continue
as usual in outstanding situations.
Partnerships
between airports, airlines, and additional organizations known
as emergency
working groups allow staff to aid victims and their loved ones in the
face of aviation incidents resulting in injury or death. A March 23
webinar that is free and open to all will
explore practices
learned from other disease outbreaks. A 2020 webinar gave aviation
professionals the tools
to establish
these partnerships at their own airports. A 2018 webinar examined
the legal
issues that transit agencies may face in case of an infectious disease
epidemic.
COVID-19 poses evolving risks to economic
activity. A TRB committee proposed changes
in transportation
funding programs in light of economic downturns that would sustain
spending during economic downturns and methods for evaluating that
spending.
TRB will continue to study the topic with workshops already planned
around Effective
Collaboration to Plan and Respond to Communicable Disease Threats in
2020. Registration is open for the workshops in Houston, Minneapolis,
Irvine, and Washington, D.C.
To take the next step in
your career, get involved
with TRB
committees dedicated to transportation and safety. Stay up-to-date on
COVID-19 with
the latest news and
resources from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and
Medicine.
Agencies and organizations can
use TRB
publications and online
resources for useful and timely information to help address virtually
any issue related to transportation. Through its convening activities,
TRB can also can help agencies
by bringing
together the brightest minds to discuss and develop solutions to
problems and issues facing the transportation industry. Through its
advising role, TRB
can develop
policy studies for agencies to use when tackling complex and often
controversial issues of national significance.
TRB
resources in this article:
- Preparing
Airports for Communicable Diseases on Arriving Flights
- Airport
Roles in Reducing Transmission of Communicable Diseases
- Respecting,
Enabling, and Involving All Personnel in a Sustainable Continuity of
Operations Plan (TRR)
- Intergovernmental
Cooperation in Benchmarking a Local Government
Continuity-of-Operations Exercise (TRR)
- Public
Transit Emergency Preparedness Against Ebola and Other Infectious
Diseases: Legal Issues
- Germs
on a Plane: The Transmission and Risks of Airplane-Borne
Diseases (TRR)
- ACRP
Insight Events
- A
Guide for Public Transportation Pandemic Planning and Response
- Cost-Benefit
Analysis of Providing Non-Emergency Medical Transportation
- Effective
Collaboration to Plan and Respond to Communicable Disease Threats
- Multiscale
Network Model for Evaluating Global Outbreak Control Strategies, TRR
- Integrating
Measures for Business Continuity and Transportation Demand Management
to Ensure Regional Emergency Preparedness and Mobility, TRR
- Emergency
Working Groups at Airports
- TRB
Webinar: Let’s work together: Airport emergency working groups
- TRB
Webinar: Emergency Preparedness Against Infectious Diseases on Public
Transit
- Transportation
Investments in Response to Economic Downturns
Additional TRB activities regarding transportation and disease:
- Airport
Response During Communicable Disease Outbreaks
- Airport
Public Health Preparedness and Response: Legal Rights, Powers, and
Duties
- Infectious
Disease Mitigation in Airports and on Aircraft
- Quarantine
Facilities for Arriving Air Travelers: Identification of Planning
Needs and Costs
- Legal
Issues in Public Transit Emergency Planning and Operation
- Emergency
Preparedness, Response, and Recovery in the Transit Industry
- TRID
Transportation Research Database indexed with communicable disease
- The
Vector-Borne Disease Airport Importation Risk Tool
ByBeth
Ewoldsen/Transportation Research Board