Mandatory COVID Tests Could Be Coming for Domestic Travel

As we enter into the first few weeks of the Biden administration, Americans certainly expected that a new approach to the coronavirus pandemic could be coming.

This was one of Joe Biden’s most ferocious campaigning points, using Donald Trump’s virus response in a number of denigrating missives aimed at No. 45.  Biden felt as though painting himself as the polar opposite of Trump on the pandemic would provide him an edge among undecided voters who may have been squeezed by the economic impacts of the virus.

Now, with Biden at the helm, there is talk of mandatory COVID testing for American travelers.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official said Tuesday that restrictions requiring travelers to test negative for COVID-19 before flying domestically in the U.S. are being seriously considered.

Reuters reported that the head of the CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine said on a call with reporters that the agency is “actively looking” at tightening restrictions amid new variants of the COVID-19 virus spreading in parts of the world and now being reported in the U.S.

There are “conversations that are ongoing and looking at what the types and locations of testing might be,” said Marty Cetron, according to the news service. “We’re actively looking at it.”

The move would certainly not sit well with many Americans, who’ve long been opposed to mandatory mask wearing or mandatory vaccines in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic.