The speculation and eventual rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has prompted some wild thinking about how government officials would distinguish who got the shots and who didn’t.
The rumor mill churned out stories of people being micro-chipped like animals or marked with invisible-ink tattoos after receiving the vaccine. Or one that’s more realistic, doable, and Naziesque: carrying paperwork testifying to having gotten the inoculation.
Well, this week U.S. Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., announced a less intrusive and bipartisan measure that would get ahead of the issue by identifying airline passengers with COVID.
The senators introduced the “Fly Safe Canine COVID Detection Act,” which directs calls for a Transportation Security Administration feasibility study on using dogs to screen airport travelers for COVID-19.
“As Americans begin traveling more, we have to ensure families are safe,” said Scott in a statement.
“We’ve seen reports that dogs can be effective in detecting COVID-19, and having canine units could provide an important additional level of screening at our airports. I’m proud to join Senator Sinema today to announce legislation directing TSA to conduct a feasibility study on the use of canine units, and will keep working to make sure Americans can travel safely.”
Under their bill, the TSA would study using dogs to screen passengers, individuals accompanying passengers, crew members, and other individuals who pass through airports.
The measure also would require the TSA to report to Congress the study’s results and make a recommendation on using dogs, or offering a plan on putting the dogs to work if the study shows canines can effectively detect people with the coronavirus.
The bill suggests the dogs would be best suited identifying asymptomatic passengers, who according to one recent study could be a problem.
A study published in January in the Journal of the American Medical Association noted that 59 percent of the spread of the coronavirus came from people who asymptomatic, meaning they either had the virus and never got sick or had it and spread it before getting sick.
“In addition to identification and isolation of persons with symptomatic COVID-19, effective control of spread will require reducing the risk of transmission from people with infection who do not have symptoms,” the study’s authors noted.
“These findings suggest that measures such as wearing masks, hand hygiene, social distancing, and strategic testing of people who are not ill will be foundational to slowing the spread of COVID-19 until safe and effective vaccines are available and widely used.”
Scott and Sinema’s dogs could be part of that “strategic testing.”
The local media in Orlando recently highlighted the “reports” Sen. Scott referred to in his statement.
Dr. Ken Furton, a professor of both chemistry and biochemistry at Florida International University, maintains that dogs can sniff out COVID-19 with 90 percent accuracy.
Furton learned this as FIU has been investigating and training dogs on COVID detection in people gathered in rooms and theaters.
Furton said a dog already trained in scent detection could add COVID-19 to its repertoire in about two weeks. He added that Disney World and Universal Studios are thinking about utilizing dogs as another tool to protect visitors.
“Rapid tests, maybe you can get the results in 45 minutes, these dogs will give you a response in seconds,” Furton told WKMG in Orlando.
Furton noted three FIU-trained dogs are already at work in Tallahassee at Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Emergency Operations Center.