How Do Transportation Policies Drive Geographic Disparities in COVID-19 Infections and Deaths in the United States?

Like many countries, the US government-imposed travel restriction policies on selected countries with a high spread of COVID-19 airports to prevent the introduction and spread of COVID-19. Between March 2020 and October 2021, travellers from China, Iran, European Schengen countries, the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Brazil, South Africa and India were restricted with some exceptions. The main objective with this study was to explore the associations between COVID-19 cases and death rates, and the proximity to airports, train stations and time of public transportation. To address the study objective, the authors used the most recent JHU COVID-19 database, the American Community Survey and Airport and Amtrak data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics from 3,132 US counties. The authors categorised the counties into three groups according to their distance from an airport: less than 25 miles, between 25 and 50 miles and more than 50 miles. The authors then ran negative binomial regressions and Cox regression models, adjusted for population density, population race/ethnicity, travel time, being close to an international airport and the main sources of commutes. The findings showed that the number of airports, the number of train station and the length of commuting time were predictors for the number of deaths and cases in a county. The authors found that counties within 25 miles of an airport had 1.372 times the rate of COVID-19 cases and 1.338 times the rate of COVID-19 deaths compared to the counties that were more than 50 miles from an airport. To prevent the introduction and spread of COVID-19 and any similar pandemic that transfers by air, the timing of the travel restriction policy is a crucial element. Policymakers and officials in transportation and public health should collaborate to promulgate policies and procedures to prevent the spread of airborne infectious diseases.