Health Communication Specialist Jill Brown normally spreads the word about CDC research to news outlets and the public. But in mid-January, she joined the first wave of about 40 CDC volunteers to help screen arriving passengers at San Francisco International Airport for three weeks. “I saw this as a great opportunity to do something in the field and be more on the front lines,” she says.
San Francisco International was one of the first three airports where CDC began screening arriving passengers from Wuhan. Working with CDC’s San Francisco Quarantine Station and Customs and Border Protection, she and her fellow volunteers asked arriving passengers about their travel history and looked for signs of illness.