Emirates Airlines in the Middle East is now making passengers submit to a COVID-19 blood test before boarding flights, and this will almost certainly be copied by other air carriers.
Certainly such information will be fed into various data banks, and now we may see the need for some kind of certificate that people will need to show to prove they passed the test.
Of course, once these measure are in place, don’t look for them to be removed. Keep that in mind when you read about these ’emergency measures’ to ‘battle the virus’. It’s amazing how much of our freedoms and privacy is being destroyed to keep the world safe from COVID-19.
Emirates said passengers “were all tested for COVID-19” before departing by way of blood tests conducted by the Dubai Health Authority at the airport’s check-in area, and “results were available within 10 minutes.”
Emirates called itself the first airline to conduct on-site rapid COVID-19 tests on its passengers. These blood tests are in addition to other precautions the airline has taken, such as requiring passengers to wear masks.
CNN notes that “serology (blood) tests aren’t meant to diagnose active coronavirus infections,” but they “check for proteins in the immune system, known as antibodies, through a blood sample,” and “their presence means a person was exposed to the virus and developed antibodies against it.”
CNN also observes, “this may be a sign of what the future holds for air travelers,” while NPR describes it as potentially “a step toward making air travel palatable to the public again.”
Welcome to the end times!