I traveled to southern Africa in November to report on the state of the Covid-19 outbreak and the work being done to stop the emergence of new coronaviruses. South African scientists announced the discovery of the Omicron variant. I got on a plane in South Africa to return to Canada.
The world went into full panic mode when I arrived in Amsterdam on the morning of Nov. 26 and I was swept up in a chaotic, frightening tangle of orders and conflicting rules.
Two years into the Covid response measures, I have learned that we have yet to learn how to anticipate how both people and viruses will behave. We need to get better at both if we are to have less loss of life and less suffering in the next Pandemic.
The flight attendant told us that we would need to be tested for Covid before we could continue our journeys. We were on the tarmac for five hours, with more and more travelers wearing masks.
The pilot told passengers that the airport wouldn't allow food and drink to be brought on the plane, which made me worry.
We were taken to an unused departure area and given Covid tests for three hours. Many people gave up on pretenses as the hours went on in the room where we were being held. The authorities did not attempt to enforce masking rules.
A Dutch journalist who had seen my posts got in touch with the health ministry to say that test results were being reported. He said that between my flight and another that had come in from Cape Town, there were over 100 tests that had been processed, and 15 of them were positive.
I looked around the room and saw many people screaming and crying, and began to panic.
I would have to wait hours more before I received my results. At 3 a.m., a couple of weary-looking public health staff members packed us into a line, had us hold up our passports, and read the results from a database.
We were required to sign a document in Dutch if our tests were negative. The traveler who translated for me said that he was going to leave the country to be with his family.
Travelers are in limbo at the O.R. Tambo International Airport.
I signed the pledge because I was desperate to get out of that room after being awake for 42 hours.
The bus took me to a dark and silent part of the terminal. I spent another nine hours searching for someone who could help me access a copy of my negative test, without which I would not be able to continue my journey.
Dutch airport and health authorities blamed the lengthy delays on the fact that they had never anticipated such a situation and had no provisions for how to safely screen passengers, even though we were held just weeks short of the second anniversary of the first known case.
I was able to get access to my negative test at the eleventh hour and flew to Toronto. When I identified myself to the border agent as having flown from South Africa, he waved me into a special line, because my phone was filled with warnings about new regulations. The public health screener took my name, address and temperature.
I was in the line and was confused.
I said that I was held for almost a day with people we know have Omicron. You want to keep me away from you!
She shrugged. I think you should get your connection and then stay at home. Get tested on the fourth day. I don't have any other guidelines for you.
This was the first day of conflicting messages from health authorities that left me confused as to how to keep people safe.
On November 28, boarding on a flight from South Africa to Amsterdam.
I flew on to Halifax with my N95 and collected a series of P.C.R. test kits from the airport and then made my way to my home. My children came for a weird reunion, standing masked at the opposite side of the backyard.
I received a number of calls from federal and provincial health authorities. They said I should be in a hospital for a while. I only needed to be in a state of isolation until I had a negative test. No, Day 8. Oh, fully vaccineed? In that case, there was no outbreak. I was able to stay at home until the test came back negative. Or 8. Or 10. I had to stay at home until Day 14.
I didn't have any kind of guidance when I stayed in the apartment.
I missed my daughter's 12th birthday party. A kind friend brought over a portable fire pit and some food, and we sat in parkas on opposite sides of it, and had a conversation in raised voices.
The doorbell rang at 11 pm on Day 8. I assumed it was visitors for the tenants on the second floor, so I didn't reply. The banging grew louder as the ringing turned to banging. When I opened the door, I found a police officer who demanded my name and said she was going to do a Covid check.
I asked her what she wanted me to do. She said that they were supposed to check you out until December 11.
Another public health tracker called the next day. She asked if I had visitors. I said that I had seen my children. She told me she would have to report it. It was forbidden to visit distantly outdoors.
No one had ever told me that. I kept my opinion that it made no scientific sense and worked against the conditions that would help people stay out of the hospital.
A passenger disembarks from a flight in Amsterdam and takes a Covid test.
The instructions from Canadian officials were confusing. I learned from other passengers on my flight how far away we are from a uniform global response for travel. The people who went on to the United States and Britain did not have to worry about quarantining. Those in Germany and the Netherlands were told to stay indoors until the negative test came back.
18 passengers on the two South African flights had tested positive, but we had to show a negative test to board the flight. Preflight testing requirements are set by the country of destination, I learned while in the airport lockup. The negative test Canada required of me was closely scrutinized by the South African airport authorities. A British man in front of me in the final line in Amsterdam was told by a police officer that he was positive and was led away.
The British policy has changed since Omicron began to be detected in Europe and the United States. It should not have created a testing standard for safer flying.
I would have willingly gone into Amsterdam for the sake of my travel. I am a fan of public health measures.
I am angry that the Dutch put me and other passengers at unnecessary risk. They should have taken us to a location where we could be held separately from each other while they made a plan and bundled us off the plane.
Canada has done a lousy job of communicating its rules or using evidence to make them. Only flights from southern Africa are banned because of the rapid circulation of Omicron.
The discovery of Omicron and the rapid transmission of critical information about the variant around the world showed how well the scientific response to the epidemic is working.
Everything I saw in the days after that makes it clear that we still haven't mastered the messy human steps.
