Sick Flight's Passengers May Have "Seasonal Flu"

Yesterday afternoon, a Continental flight from Hong Kong landed at Newark Liberty International Airport but passengers were held because some were feeling ill. In a reassuring piece of news, apparently seven passengers had "signs of fever and reported vomiting" even before the flight took off. We thought that Hong Kong's airport had those post-avian bird flu scanners that shows if a passenger has a higher body temperature than usual - and stop people who are sick.

The flight contacted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which interviewed the sick passengers once they landed and decided they had a "seasonal flu." Apparently the sick passengers were part of a group who had traveled on a river cruise in Asia and were continuing their travels to Canada. The flight was allowed to fly its next leg to Montreal.

Here's an MSNBC article about germs on a plane.

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By Jen Chung in News on March 27, 2007 7:47 AM

Comments [rss]

mrf

the temperature scanners in hong kong only monitor arriving passengers, not departing

anomalous

To second what Charles is saying, sure Gothamist could use better editing, but the reason why Gothamist allows comments is to discuss the substance of the post. Unrelenting bitching about typos isn't very interesting and only serves as a distraction. As the old saying goes "lead, follow, or get out of the way"

Keith

Hear, hear! It's so much easier to bitchily point out errors than, say, update a popular website throughout the day.

That being said, Gothamist definitely could benefit from proofreading. It has been proposed before that posts be sent to some sort of copyediting desk (i.e., volunteers or editors given an honorarium who could turn things around quickly) before being published. Maybe it's time?

Charles

"Poor writing not only makes you look unlettered but it also gives anyone who doesn't agree with you a good reason to not listen to anything you have to say."

Except this isnt an op-ed page. It's a blog where she basically puts up (often frivolous) stuff that she finds interesting and we go to read it and ignore work throughout the day (if we are working). Maybe too much importance is being assigned to it and that is fueling the sticklers.

Charles

I never said dont complain, but maybe she can have a private email address where you can point them out and she can then fix them. I dont disagree that she should be criticized (ridicule is a little strong) but the constant criticism that we all have to slog through in the comment section gets wearying. And if it bothers so many of you so much, then offer to give the articles the once over yourselves before she publishes them-they are short articles so it shouldnt be that much work.

The constant needling smacks of jealousy to me in a way-like she has this forum, we dont and the best some people can do is to point out the misuse of an apostrophe as if to assert that "Hey, I can write too! Someone hire me! Someone read me!"

l0b0t

I have to disagree with you Charles. If an author can't be bothered to give their article a once over they deserve to be ridiculed. Poor writing not only makes you look unlettered but it also gives anyone who doesn't agree with you a good reason to not listen to anything you have to say. Sticklers of the world unite.

Charles

Jesus Christ, could all the un/underemployed writers and copyeditors just...I dont know, go for a walk? Get some air? I understand that the grammar errors might be annoying, but cant you just email her privately or be judicious in pointing them out? Or do you have absolutely nothing else to do?