Virus hits over 1,000 TSA screeners, others
WASHINGTON — More than 1,000 employees of the Transportation Security Administration have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to figures the agency released Thursday. Nearly all of them are security officers who have continued to work screening passengers at airports throughout the pandemic.
Hydrick Thomas, president of the union that represents the officers, said the figure is a reflection of the agency’s ongoing struggle to do enough to protect its employees. Air travel numbers, which collapsed in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, are steadily climbing even as the virus is surging again: Nearly 2.7 million people traveled over the July Fourth holiday weekend.
“Right now, they’re bringing people back to work and the social distance is not in total effect,” Thomas said. “Employees are still complaining there’s too many of them in one area.”
In all, the TSA says 1,018 employees have tested positive. Its 50,000-strong force of screening officers has borne the brunt, accounting for 907 of the cases. Six employees have died, as has a contractor.
Thomas had long worked with the first agency employee to die of the disease, Newark airport K-9 officer Francis Boccabella, who was known at work as “Big Frank.” The TSA said the 39-yearold Boccabella, who had previously worked at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, died April 2.
“He was younger than me, I know that for a fact, and he’s gone,” Thomas said. “When we all heard that he passed away, it hit a lot of the workers very hard at JFK.”
A TSA spokesman didn’t immediately respond to questions about Thomas’ complaints, but the agency says it has been continually updating its safety protocols. Face coverings are now mandatory for officers. And after a whistleblower complaint, the agency ordered more steps, including the use of protective face shields in some instances and regular changing of gloves after coming into contact with travelers and their property.
But Thomas said the rollout of some of the steps has been uneven. Even before the pandemic, officers had been complaining about a shortage of gloves, which Thomas called an important tool of their trade. That has been resolved, he said. But the face shields aren’t always available, Thomas said. The TSA is allowing officers to use goggles when there are shortages.
Thomas said the agency could be doing more, including taking employees’ temperatures or conducting a health screening at the beginning of their shifts.
“There should be someone in management trained to do those type of tests when you come in,” he said.
The virus spread rapidly among the TSA’s workforce in the spring, forcing officers to stay home to try to limit its spread. The difference then was that air travel nearly had come to a standstill, with fewer than 100,000 people passing through the agency’s checkpoints on some days, compared with a normal volume of 2 million or more.