GAO: TSA changes could reduce spread of infectious disease

Better monitoring of safety measures taken to prevent the spread of infectious diseases by the Transportation Security Administration could prevent the spread of infectious diseases, a new report by the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) said.

According to the GAO, while the TSA implemented several preventative measures during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent the spread of the disease – like social distancing of Transportation Security Officers from passengers and co-workers; wearing surgical masks and face shields; and changing gloves between each pat-down – little was done to monitor that those measures were routinely carried out.

Better monitoring, the GAO said, could help airports identify and fix problems, as well as continue to reduce the spread of infectious diseases.

“About 46,000 Transportation Security Officers closely interact with passengers when they screen them at U.S. airports,” the GAO said in its report. “TSA’s monitoring and analysis of its measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 is limited. For example, supervisors’ operational checklists do not specifically include the revised COVID-19 procedures, and the data that TSO monitors collect (e.g., on whether TSOs are properly wearing masks or changing gloves) reflect implementation at a point in time rather than throughout a shift. Conducting more complete monitoring would help TSA ensure that its TSOs are properly implementing COVID-19 procedures.”

Monitoring data for different subsets of airports to understand how the procedures are being implements would help TSA officials better analyze the data they collect, the GAO said. However, the office said TSA officials told them there were no plans to analyze the data.

The GAO reviewed the measures taken by airports because of a requirement in the CARES Act for the office to monitor and oversee the federal government’s response to the pandemic.

The GAO recommended the TSA take steps to strengthen monitoring of measures to reduce the spread of infectious disease at passenger screening checkpoints and analyze available data to identify patterns of success and failure in implementing those measures.

According to the report, the TSA concurred with the GAO’s recommendations.