In a news conference Tuesday June 16, 2020, Governor Ron DeSantis said that 260 workers from the Orlando International Airport tested positive for Covid-19 after nearly 500 employees were tested. Airport Chief Executive Phil Brown had to correct the Governor’s statement. According Brown, of the 500 airport workers who were tested for Covid-19, only two had positive results. Those tests were done over a three day period.
Between mid-March and through June 6, there were 132 employees of all the airlines, rental car companies, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Aviation Authority that tested positive, according to the statement. Another 128 people who tested positive were not airport employees but were traceable connections to the workers who tested positive for Covid-19, according to the public health team. so, 132 plus 128 is, 260 people with some affiliation with the airport have tested positive for Covid-19. This shell game is rather funny as executives try to confuse and downplay the numbers.
Clearly the airport executive tried to downplay the number of workers affected but regardless, 260 people were infected by the virus. That left me wondering, what would it be like to try and get through security knowing the TSA agents might be infected with the virus. A pat town might not just be invasive but downright terrifying.
On Wednesday June 17, 2020, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority approved a new policy requiring all 22,000 airport employees to wear facial coverings in public areas of the airport. Employees will need to observe social distancing “to extent that they can.” I imagine social distancing goes out the widow as a TSA agent spears the virus all over your clothes as they pat you down.
Some people have felt they were sexually assaulted when they were patted down. a well-known CNN political commentator and analyst, Angela Rye was subjected to a humiliating vaginal pat-down before boarding a regular flight from Detroit to New York. In addition to being screened by the backscatter X-Ray machine, the female officer advised that she had to be patted down. It was only supposed to be “a backhanded pat around her upper thigh.” Instead, the female officer went down her leg, up her dress and her hand sideways touched Rye inappropriately. The same officer then faced Rye, and her sideways hand once again hit the middle of Rye’s genitals. Rye believed she was sexually assaulted. She filed a complaint.
OIA is stepping up its cleaning efforts in high traffic areas, and hand sanitizer stations have been added throughout the airport. And as reported earlier they are downplaying the tread of the virus.
I hear flights going into and out of OIA all day long. Airlines have to keep the flights on schedule even if they are empty because it is a requirement of the 25 billion dollars in government bail outs. Known as the CARES Act, airlines receiving aid are required to continue flying to every domestic destination they already serve, even with low passenger numbers. The requirement is designed to keep supply chains stable and transport essential personnel, like government and healthcare workers, as well as to maintain connectivity to smaller areas. While airlines collected 25 billion dollars small businesses are folding all over the county. So, ghost planes are flying all over the country literally empty except for plane crews and very few passengers.
We are living in the age of ghost planes and zombie molestation in the name of “security.”