William Lincoln Corbett, Jr.
AUSTIN - William Lincoln Corbett, Jr. died on September 26, 2020, peacefully in Austin, Texas at the age of 74, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
William is survived by his partner and wife of 48 years Kitty Corbett who was by his side when his journey on earth ended. He was a loving father to 3 children: William Lincoln Corbett, III and his wife Alexa, Robert Dempsey Corbett and his wife Amanda, and Mary Kathryn (Corbett) Murphy and her husband Mike. He leaves 6 grandchildren: William E. Corbett, Colin A. Corbett, Aliana M. Corbett, Andrew S. Corbett, Ryan L. Corbett, and Ava K. Murphy all of Texas. William is survived by 2 brothers: Mark Corbett of Hamden, Ct, and Keith Corbett of Alton, NH and 2 sisters: Diana Ryder of Hudson, NH and Elizabeth Corbett of Kingston, MA. He is predeceased by his brother Christopher Corbett.
William was born on October 19, 1945 in Dorchester, MA to William L. and Rita F. Corbett. The family moved to Billerica, MA in 1953. He graduated from Keith Academy in Lowell, MA in 1963 and from Merrimack College in 1972 with a degree in Sociology. He was an accomplished athlete in baseball and football. One of Williams early careers was a harness horse racer. After working for several companies in New England he and his family moved to Texas in 1988. He became a skilled painter in both the modern and realistic styles. His hobbies included antique bottle digging and scuba diving.
To honor William and his character, there will be no services.
Financially strapped airlines are pushing an idea intended to breathe new life into the travel industry: coronavirus tests that passengers can take before boarding a flight.
Several airlines, including United, American, Hawaiian, Jetblue and Alaska, have announced plans to begin offering testing — either kits mailed to a passenger’s home or rapid tests taken at or near airports — that would allow travelers to enter specific states and countries without having to quarantine.
The tests will cost fliers $90 to $250, depending on the airline and the type of test.
At Los Angeles International Airport, a design company has announced plans to convert cargo containers into a coronavirus testing facility with an onsite lab that can produce results in about two hours. On Thursday, Tampa International Airport began offering testing to all arriving and departing passengers on a walk-in basis.
It’s an idea that has gone global, with a trade group for the world’s airlines calling on governments to create a testing standard for airline passengers as a way to fight the COVID-19 pandemic instead of using travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines.
“Testing all passengers will give people back their freedom to travel with confidence,” Alexandre de Juniac, director general and chief executive of the International Air Transport Assn., said in a statement. “And that will put millions of people back to work.”
Although the idea is primarily designed to help passengers avoid quarantine requirements at their destinations, health experts say testing passengers immediately before a flight would also lower the odds that an infected person will board a plane and pass the virus to others.
But, the experts emphasize, testing won’t make flying free of health risks.
For one, coronavirus tests aren’t 100% accurate. Additionally, people who are tested a few days in advance have time to catch the virus before flying. And, of course, optional testing can’t detect the virus in travelers who choose not to be tested.
“If it’s an accurate test, a good one, it will help,” said Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor in the division of infectious diseases at Ucla’sdavid Geffen School of Medicine. “It won’t eliminate the risk, but it will reduce it.”
Experts fear that if testing expands, there may not be enough rapid tests available for all passengers who request it, and that if enough tests are produced, the process could take hours rather than minutes, creating added gridlock at airports.
“There are a lot of logistics that would have to be worked out,” said Dr. James Zehnder, director of clinical pathology at Stanford University Medical Center.
Despite the obstacles, the airline industry is describing rapid preflight testing as one of the best ways to revive a slumping travel industry, short of distributing a COVID-19 vaccine to all Americans.
“We view this as an important step in our work to accelerate an eventual recovery of demand,” Robert Isom, president of American Airlines, said in a statement Tuesday.
Although the number of Americans flying on commercial airlines has increased slightly in the last few weeks, overall travel demand is down about 70% compared with prepandemic numbers.
Several of the nation’s largest airlines have been pleading for financial relief from the federal government to avert massive layoffs. The nation’s air carriers have already shed about 45,000 full-time positions, mostly via buyouts and early retirement, according to an industry trade group.
Furloughs
On Thursday, United and American furloughed more than 32,000 workers combined. And five regional carriers, including Compass Airlines and Trans State Airlines, have ceased operations because of the effects of the pandemic.
Travelers seem to like the idea of testing passengers to reduce the virus risk on flights. A survey by IATA of 4,700 travelers in 11 countries, including the U.S., found that 84% supported testing all travelers.
United, American, Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines plan to offer coronavirus tests in select airports for passengers traveling to Hawaii.
The Aloha State requires all visitors to either quarantine for 14 days upon arrival or show a negative result from a recent coronavirus test.
On Oct. 15, United will begin offering Hawaiibound fliers the option of taking a test at San Francisco International Airport, with results available in about 15 minutes. Passengers can also order a test to be mailed to their home so they can collect their own sample within 72 hours of their flight and mail it to a laboratory that will send the results via text or email within 48 hours. United plans to charge $250 for the rapid test and $80 for the mail-in test.
Hawaiian Airlines will also begin Oct. 15 to offer passengers flying to Hawaii access to drivethrough coronavirus testing near the San Francisco airport and LAX, charging $150 for the day-of-travel express service and $90 for results within 36 hours.
American Airlines announced this week that it will also offer preflight testing for passengers flying to Hawaii as well as tests for fliers heading to Jamaica and the Bahamas, with additional markets to be added in the coming weeks and months.
For passengers flying to Hawaii, American will offer either at-home tests or tests that can be taken at Dallas-fort Worth International Airport or at an urgent care facility near the airport.