Excellent point Ex-Tex. The more people TSA agents come in such close contact with (intimately), the higher chance of themselves and the people they are screening will be exposed to contagions - it's just common sense/logical.
We have a much larger population. We have jet airplanes as opposed to boats. So, the pandemics we experience now are far worse than anything we have experienced in the past.
Transmission of pandemic A/H1N1 2009 influenza on passenger aircraft - retrospective cohort study
Results Nine members of the school group were laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic A/H1N1 infection and had symptoms during the flight. Two other passengers developed confirmed pandemic A/H1N1 infection, 12 and 48 hours after the flight. They reported no other potential sources of infection. Their seating was within two rows of infected passengers, implying a risk of infection of about 3.5% for the 57 passengers in those rows. All but one of the confirmed pandemic A/H1N1 infected travellers reported cough, but more complex definitions of influenza cases had relatively low sensitivity. Rigorous follow-up by public health workers located 93% of passengers, but only 52% were contacted within 72 hours of arrival.
Attempting to ground planes during pandemics may not be worth the trouble, a panel of experts from the government, academia and the airlines industry heard at a recent meeting in Washington.
Biden - stay off subways during swine flu panic
Vice president Joe Biden said Thursday he would tell his family members not to use subways in the U.S. and implied schools should be shuttered as the swine flu outbreak spread to 16 states.
Swine is how I would describe the current Regime.