CDC’s test requirement for travel from China isn’t enough

In February 2020, I traveled to Dulles airport with Fox News to see if I could assess how President Donald Trump’s COVID-19 ban of travel from China was working. Though it was clear to me it was having an impact in slowing the spread of the novel pathogen, nevertheless I discovered several areas of concern.
First, people traveling to China were finding ways to return. (Air China was operating, and passengers told me at the counter they would work out a way back.) In fact, in speaking to Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli and Customs and Border Protection agents, I was able to piece together a picture where people left the People’s Republic of China and flew to intermediary countries, including in Europe (where there were no restrictions), and then on to the United States.
Here these travelers were supposedly screened for fever and other respiratory-virus symptoms and brought to quarantine stations if they were suspected of being sick, but a CBP agent told me he was positive many eluded detection by popping a few Tylenols or Advils: “No one wants to be detained.”
Ken Cuccinelli served as Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli from 2019 to 2021. Bloomberg via Getty Images
Flash forward almost three years and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced a new restriction on travel from China. This negative-test requirement should be applauded because it comes as China has an enormous outbreak that’s shrouded in secrecy. Many millions are clearly being infected, and hospitals and morgues are filling. But the delay of implementation until Jan. 5 makes no sense whatsoever.
By all accounts the predominant strain is Omicron subvariant BF.7, which is highly contagious and immune-evasive — meaning we don’t know to what extent prior infection or vaccination will protect us here. China’s ill-conceived zero-COVID strategy is clearly working against the country because this “virgin population” is much more at risk for not having been exposed. This is exacerbated by poor compliance with any recent vaccine or booster and refusal to use clearly superior Western vaccines, especially problematic with high-risk groups and the elderly. Since we don’t know the extent of the risk to us, it makes complete sense to block US entry as much as possible.
Is the CDC doing enough or should we simply close our borders to China — or is it already too late for that to have an impact? Time will tell, but there’s reason to believe the new restrictions will once again be more of a leaky sieve than an effective barrier.
Having plentiful rapid COVID tests available is a big improvement over 2020, even with the caveat that the test for travel has to be sanctioned by a health provider or an online app. But even then, a negative rapid test within two days, as the CDC requires, doesn’t mean you won’t test positive the following day, especially with Omicron, which is so contagious it can spread even before it turns a test positive.
China’s most recent COVID outbreak will likely make its way to the US. AFP via Getty Images
And though it’s a fine policy to try to block entry from an intermediary country, who exactly is going to enforce this? Will the airlines readily release this information to the Department of Homeland Security unlike in early 2020? Can airports’ passport control somehow enforce a certain travel itinerary?
The answer is no, and sooner or later China’s massive outbreak will find its way here. We can only hope the partial immunity we have protects us and we won’t see a completely new immune-evasive variant spinning out of China and threatening the world, the way Delta came from India in 2020 and Omicron came from Africa in 2021. New variants must be more contagious to outcompete the ones already around, but there is no way of knowing whether they’ll be more virulent or deadly.
One thing that’s certain: It is high time we called this the China virus and exerted whatever influence we have to get this dangerous country to be more responsible when it comes to global health. In the meantime, we must close our borders to the originators of SARS-CoV-2 — if it isn’t already too late.
Marc Siegel, MD, is a clinical professor of medicine and medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Health and a Fox News medical analyst.