American Airlines pilot tests positive for Cononavirus

[Winemaker]

On Thursday, CNN reported (https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-03-12-20-intl-hnk/h_1a9404d1d6c53a70163ff82af08fcf51) that a pilot for American Airlines has tested positive for the coronavirus.
https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-03-12-20-intl-hnk/h_1a9404d1d6c53a70163ff82af08fcf51

[marchino61]

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-03-12-20-intl-hnk/h_1a9404d1d6c53a70163ff82af08fcf51

OK. And so what? Ten of thousands of people have contracted Covid-19.

[Dog Star]

Many of us here on this website have made aviation their live's work. We are intensely interested to know how this pilot might have contracted the new coronavirus: Was this community spread, had there been a recent ID 90 visit to a virus hot spot, was the pilot flying international routes or domestic, was there a close family member who infected the pilot AND will the crew who flew in close proximity with this pilot be stood down for 2 weeks quarantine?

A few of us are out there in far flung parts of the world where we have absolutely no protection as might be expected when flying with one of the larger EU/USA airlines. If this could happen at AA then what befalls us in our 3rd world assignments? If we come down with the coronavirus will we be flown home to our home country for treatment? Will be denied entry home because we are know carriers of the virus?

[a5in_the_sim]

As this virus becomes “pandemic” and “endemic” this question of how and why is pointless!

[pattern_is_full]

Reading the headline ^^^^^^ - is this Conona-The-Barbarian-virus?

More seriously, yes, an investigation is worthwhile to determine if this exposure was aircraft-related, other-work-related (while in duty hours on the ground), or just the usual social exposure like hundreds/thousands of people, one of whom happened to be a pilot.

Are there weak points in the system that can be fixed - or is this just what happens in a fairly free society, when there are lag times both in prevention-awareness, and in incubation time? And pilots do lead normal lives like other people.

[nonsense]

OK. And so what? Ten of thousands of people have contracted Covid-19.

During the "festivities" in the Middle East / Gulf region in the early 2000s my father and I mused over what his father's generation would have made of the reporting of each individual casualty, considering that in granddad's war, for example, 13,000 allied soldiers (and 12,000 Germans) died in one day at the First Battle of Passchendaele.

We're seeing a kind of reverse effect, where the media obsessively told us all about the first locals to get Covid, age, gender, where they caught it, etc, but are now rapidly transitioning to just reporting numbers. In the context of having lived through the Spanish Flu, I wonder what grandad would make of the modern detailed reporting of coronavirus right from the first dozen or so cases.