
<p>By Chris Bishop</p>



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<p></p>



<p>Much has been written about Morris Isaacson High School in the last 44 years and its place as a crucible of the Soweto uprising, but very little about the man who gave his money and name to the school.</p>



<p>Children from Morris Isaacson High School led the march through Soweto, to Orlando Stadium on June 16 that culminated in shootings and bloodshed leaving at least 176 dead – reports say the death toll was many times more. The youth of Soweto was protesting against the use of Afrikaans as, a language of instruction, because they felt it was a tool of oppression preparing them for menial jobs. Morris Isaacson High School was sought after by parents as it stuck to English – seen as the language of opportunity – but, in 1976, the authorities decreed it too was going to teach in Afrikaans.</p>



<p>It was a bitter chapter in a long history of Morris Isaacson that dates back to 1896. That was the year the man himself landed in South Africa. Isaacson arrived from Lithuania, the Baltic state that yielded the majority of Jewish immigrants to South Africa. He made a name for himself in his adopted country as a trade unionist, businessman and philanthropist.</p>



<p>In his later years, Isaacson gave money to open a school in what is now Soweto with the idea of funding black children towards university. It opened up in 1956 with 10 classrooms and 300 pupils under the name Mohloding School. &nbsp;</p>



<p>The school educated leading lights of the South African liberation movement including Murphy Morobe, Tsietsi Mashanini &nbsp;&#8211; one of the leaders of the Soweto uprising – and activist Abram Onkgopotse Tiro who perished in exile in Botswana in a bomb attack in 1972.</p>



<p>Nelson Mandela visited Morris Isaacson High School in May 1993 to acknowledge its place in the history of the struggle.</p>



<p>In 2017, according to Jewish Report, Isaacson’s grandson South African born Kevin, who lives in Israel, visited the school in his first visit to the land of his birth for half a century.</p>



<p>Kevin said grandfather gave the educational cause top priority.</p>



<p>“He was very far thinking in those days,” he said in using his wealth in a positive way.</p>



<p>“And it is satisfying to see this is still ongoing. This community wants to be successful and to make this a better place for the younger generation.”        </p>



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June 16 1976: The man behind the high school that made history: who was Morris Isaacson?

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<p>CNBC Africa&#8217;s Chris Bishop and his expert guests look into the future of how the digital space is growing by the day and how it challenges our very view of media and how people get their news&#8230;.</p>


#BusinessTomorrow: What is the future of online and social media in Africa?


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<p>This looks like a picture to celebrate happy school days – yet, it is not; behind the smiles was sorrow. The snap was taken outside Morris Isaacson School, in Soweto, on the morning of June 16 1976 as children prepared to march into a day of blood and violence. By the evening three of the children lay bloodied and bruised as police opened fire killing at least 176 school children.</p>



<p>Mary Fisher, who grew up in Meadowlands, Soweto, was crouching to the right of the picture. She lives in Johannesburg and spoke to CNBC Africa about her brush with death during the 1976 uprising and the story behind the picture:         </p>



<p>“We thought this was going to be the last time we were going to see each other. We thought let’s take a memory picture so we won’t forget each other &#8211; I am the one squatting there. So if we lose each other we will at least have a memory. We put our placards on the floor; we took this picture just in case we are not coming back. </p>



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<p>We had assembly in the morning and during we sang Senzeni Na (what have we done ). We all sang together freedom songs and after that we started lifting the placards and the teachers were standing aside. Then Tsietsi Mashanini  (a Morris Isaacson pupil and one of the leaders of the uprising) says Amandla  and we all said Awethu!</p>



<p><strong>READ:</strong><a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/article/2020/06/16/june-16-1976-the-man-behind-the-high-school-that-made-history-who-was-morris-isaacson/">June 16 1976: The man behind the high school that made history: who was Morris Isaacson?</a></p>



<p>We marched out carrying our placards. We were showing our placards and singing all the freedom songs and walking and with one long, big, voice; there were so many. </p>



<p>Morris Isaacson was in the lead the other schools followed behind. Children from nearby schools primary schools they all came with their placards. By that time we didn’t know how big this was going to be. We thought it was only Morris Isaacson and Naledi High. We were heading for Orlando West we were supposed to collect other schools   As we got to Orlando we heard gunshots we were in the middle, but most of the guys were in the front…They were so brave that they always wanted to lead. Even, even when thugs wanted to attack the ladies at school they always wanted to protect the girls. We had so much brotherly love for one another. We heard the gunshots, then, we stopped the march. People were saying people are shot and there are two down now. So we started panicking, what I did with my friends, we ran into the schoolyard trying to hide in the classrooms.</p>



<p>As they were shooting we were scattered all over running into the houses… As I looked I saw behind me this dog. I was an athlete at school and thought I could outrun this dog. The dog was about to get my leg and one of the boys hit it with a dustbin. Then the police started shooting I didn’t see because I jumped over the fence. I don’t know if they got this guy.</p>



<p>We could hear helicopters and we thought wow now they are going to bomb the area and we are now going die. We were also aware that anything can happen. They will just come don’t switch on the light because aeroplanes can pass and see where Soweto is so they can drop a bomb. So we already had that fear that anything can happen to us we are not safe…</p>



<p>Everything was quiet at 6pm when we were at home bleeding and shaking with fear. The more they hit us; the more we bled and got angry; there were boys who took a dustbin and a stone thinking it will stop a bullet.</p>



<p>They made us so angry. We felt we did nothing and yet you want to kill us…In my mother tongue, there is a saying that says: &#8216;Don’t die like a sheep, you must die like a horse you must kick.’ You don’t just die, the person who is killing you must also get hurt…So we thought let’s just fight with our little stone. ..We were thinking: enough is enough.</p>



<p>It has made us fight for justice, even in my old age I don’t like bullies. I don’t like to be bullied and don’t stand to see people bullying one another. Sometimes when someone tries to steal my rights I always fight – so I&#8217;m always an activist for justice. I will not sit back and let other people take advantage or take anything that belongs to me.”         </p>


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June 16 1976:  A happy picture that masks the sorrow of a bloody and violent day.

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<p>Investing legend Warren Buffett wants you to keep it simple and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/08/where-warren-buffett-thinks-you-should-invest-your-money.html">trust index funds</a> when it comes to investing your money. </p>



<p>“I don’t think most people are in a position to pick single stocks,” he said during&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/04/warren-buffett-berkshire-hathaway-annual-shareholder-meeting-highlights.html">the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting</a>, which was held virtually this year from Omaha, Nebraska. “A few [are], maybe, but on balance, I think people are much better off buying a cross-section of America and just forgetting about it.”</p>



<p>In other words, buy a low-cost index fund — Buffett recommends the S&amp;P 500, which holds 500 of the largest companies in the U.S., from Google to Disney to ExxonMobil — and hold onto it for a long period of time.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Using index funds is a passive investment strategy that allows you to take advantage of the success of major corporations without the risks associated with buying individual stocks. It’s nearly impossible for the average investor to consistently pick the right stocks to “beat the market.” Studies show you’re better off owning the whole market with a low-cost index fund. This also removes the significant company risk of an individual stock drastically underperforming the market.</p>



<p>Rather than owning just one or a few stocks, you’re better off owning a bunch of different companies. Some of your shares will likely take off, while others will remain neutral and some will drop.&nbsp;History shows you should see favorable long-term results: The average annualized total return for the S&amp;P 500 index over the past 90 years is around 10% before adjusting for inflation.</p>



<p>Buffett isn’t the only expert who champions index funds. Certified financial planner&nbsp;<a href="https://creativeplanning.com/peter-mallouk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Peter Mallouk</a>&nbsp;says that if you are ready to dip your toe into the markets, “you should put your money in just one thing: the S&amp;P 500.”</p>



<p>“It’s the lowest cost investment that exists,”&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/03/wealth-manager-invest-your-money-in-the-sp-500.html">Mallouk tells CNBC Make It</a>. “You can buy it at a discount custodian, like a TD Ameritrade, Fidelity or Charles Schwab, where the trading fees are exceptionally low. And with those 500 stocks, you now own about 80% of the market capitalization of the entire United States.” In other words, an S&amp;P 500 fund covers about 80% of the U.S. stock market, so it’s an easy and affordable way for investors to capture core U.S. stock market performance.</p>



<p>Plus, “you have global exposure,” Mallouk says, “because these companies get a lot of their earnings overseas: McDonald’s has shops in China, and Walmart has locations in Europe. So you wind up with a low-cost, diversified portfolio that’s invested in the global economy.”</p>



<p>In short, if you’re looking for a good, reliable place to invest your money, go with low-cost index funds. And stay the course, even when you see market fluctuations or a bad headline, Buffett says. “Keep buying it through thick and thin, and especially through thin. … American business is going to do fine over time, so you know the investment universe is going to do very well.”</p>



<p><em>This article first appeared on CNBC and is republished with its permission <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/22/warren-buffett-most-people-shouldnt-pick-single-stocks.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/22/warren-buffett-most-people-shouldnt-pick-single-stocks.html</a></em></p>


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<h1 class="legacy">Why history will judge Burundi&#8217;s Pierre Nkurunziza harshly</h1>

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        President Pierre Nkurunziza arrives to inaugurate Burundi’s  Chinese-built state house on September 27, 2019.
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<span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-e-kiwuwa-170147">David E Kiwuwa</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-nottingham-1192">University of Nottingham</a></em></span>

<p>Pierre Nkurunziza, Burundi’s football-loving president and self-proclaimed pastor, has <a href="http://www.dirco.gov.za/docs/2020/buru0610.htm">died at the age of 55</a>. By all accounts this was death most cruel. He was soon to hand over power to his handpicked successor, Major General Evariste Ndayishimiye.</p>

<p>Ndayishimiye, the former army major, recently won a <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/20200525-ruling-party-s-presidential-candidate-secures-resounding-win-in-burundi">controversial election</a> which was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/06/05/world/africa/05reuters-burundi-election.html">reaffirmed by the constitutional court</a> only a few days ago. This would have been the first time in Burundi’s history that power was transferred peacefully from one leader to another, albeit from the same party. </p>

<p>So what does Nkurunziza’s passing mean for the transition process in Burundi? And to Burundi’s regional relationships?</p>

<p>When Burundians look back, some will remember their president as a man who laid the foundation for a belated political transition. Others will see his departure as good riddance. History will judge Nkurunziza as someone who brought unnecessary pain to a nation that had long suffered from political misrule, but who in death bequeathed it a golden opportunity for renewal.</p>

<h2>Iron fist</h2>

<p>Nkurunziza had been president of Burundi for the past 15 years. He came to power first as a parliamentary nominee in 2005, later winning two controversial popular <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-25/burundi-president-wins-controversial-third-term/6648132">elections</a>. </p>

<p>He ruled with an iron fist, making few compromises. For example, his insistence in 2015 on changing the constitution to enable him to have a controversial third term in power plunged Burundi into civil unrest of near civil war proportions. <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/africasource/burundi-s-flawed-constitutional-referendum/">Thousands died</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/06/unhcr-burundi-crisis-propels-refugee-exodus-150626180155576.html">many fled</a> the country.</p>

<p>To many, Nkurunziza was a hardliner within his National Council for the Defence of Democracy-Forces for the Defence of Democracy party. He presided  over wide-scale <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2018/06/1013292">purges</a> of opponents and the muffling of the press. He also oversaw the rise of the much dreaded <a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2015/04/28/who-are-imbonerakure-and-burundi-unravelling"></a><a href="https://africatimes.com/2019/12/17/report-burundis-imbonerakure-create-fear-ahead-of-2020-election/">Imbonerakure</a>  – militias that terrorised any real and perceived opponents.</p>

<p>His untimely passing, therefore, presents the nation of 11 million with an opportunity to chart a new path. </p>

<h2>The transition</h2>

<p>We could anchor Burundi’s political transition to Nkurunziza’s decision not to seek a fourth term of office, which he <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-32621442">first signalled</a> in 2015 and reiterated in 2018. Having muscled his way to a third term through the intimidation of judges of the constitutional court, and subsequently winning controversial elections, Nkurunziza must have understood the ramifications of his continued hold on  power.</p>

<p>His decision to “step aside” was instrumental in tempering political opposition and potential violent challenge to the status quo. Handpicking a successor, like many African strongmen, ensured both change and continuity – actions borrowed from the playbook of neighbours such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola.</p>

<p>It is highly unlikely, therefore, that transition in Burundi will dramatically deviate from the existing status quo, given the existence of entrenched interests, particularly the military and ruling party elites. </p>

<p>The fact that there’s an institutionalised dominant party will ensure ideological continuity, regime endurance and the strategic sequencing of transition or succession. </p>

<p>It is also crucial to appreciate that when authoritarian leaders die in office, more often than not regime elites coalesce rather than fragment. Regime elites are best served by ensuring the maintenance of the status quo. </p>

<p>In Burundi’s case this means rallying around Nkurunziza’s chosen successor, Ndayishimiye.</p>

<p>The sudden death of Nkurunziza is therefore unlikely to result in a fundamental change of direction.</p>

<h2>Protecting the legacy</h2>

<p>In handpicking the trusted party secretary, Nkurunziza ensured that his legacy wouldn’t be challenged or derailed by either the opposition or an outsider. </p>

<p>Nkurunziza had taken other steps to ensure that his influence on matters of the state continued uninterrupted. He had designated for himself the role of “<a href="https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/05/19/burundis-president-is-now-supreme-eternal-guide-retirement-is-out">supreme guide of patriotism</a>”. This was no doubt designed to ensure a “subservient” successor president whose fortunes would have been at the behest of the ex-president. </p>

<p>The incoming president is considered to be more open-minded and less prone to violence than other generals. But the death of his predecessor doesn’t necessarily provide him with an open hand to do as he pleases, given the need to balance various competing elite interests within the party and the military.</p>

<p>The country’s new leader will also have to consider mending fences with its neighbours.</p>

<p>Burundi’s regional and international relations have ranged from frosty to toxic. Burundi blamed the failed coup attempt against Nkurunziza in 2015 on its northern neighbour, Rwanda. Bilateral relations and trust plunged to an all time low. </p>

<p>Rwanda saw Burundi <a href="https://www.chronicles.rw/2020/04/27/kagame-burundi-troops-operating-in-drcs-south-kivu-province/">as sympathetic</a> to the FDLR rebels in the DRC fighting against the Rwanda government. In turn, Burundi accused its neighbour of actively supporting opponents of Burundi’s own regime. Many of those opponents found shelter in Rwanda. So did thousands of refugees.</p>

<p>Burundi took exception to this. Nkurunziza’s personal relationship with Rwandan leader Paul Kagame was, at best, <a href="https://www.softpower.ug/burundi-president-nkurunziza-decries-rwandas-evil-policy-of-destabilising-neighbours/">frosty</a>. His death presents the ideal opportunity to reset relations between Burundi and Rwanda.</p>

<h2>Global pariah</h2>

<p>Burundi under Nkurunziza was cast as a global pariah. International financial and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/mar/15/eu-suspends-aid-to-burundi-government">economic support</a> was all but frozen. Long accused of gross human rights violations, Burundi became hostile towards the international community. It purged  national and international NGOs, and expelled the personnel of international institutions. The World Health Organisation’s country representative was the <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-burundi/burundi-expels-national-who-head-during-election-campaign-idUKKBN22Q0Y1">most recent casualty</a>.</p>

<p>President Ndayishimiye now has the opportunity to be his own man, and chart a different course for Burundi. The hope is that it will be one of prosperity, and peace and good neighbourliness.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140492/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" /></p>

<p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/david-e-kiwuwa-170147">David E Kiwuwa</a>, Associate Professor of International Studies, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-nottingham-1192">University of Nottingham</a></em></span></p>

<p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-history-will-judge-burundis-pierre-nkurunziza-harshly-140492">original article</a>.</p>

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How history will judge Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza

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        A security guard checks the body temperature of a motorcyclist as a preventive measure.
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<span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrea-fuller-152862">Andrea Fuller</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-witwatersrand-894">University of the Witwatersrand</a></em> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/duncan-mitchell-152861">Duncan Mitchell</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-witwatersrand-894">University of the Witwatersrand</a></em></span>

<p>As lockdowns are lifted, procedures are being put in place to reduce the spread of <a href="https://theconversation.com/africa/covid-19">COVID-19</a>. Along with physical distancing, hand sanitisation and <a href="https://theconversation.com/african-countries-are-moving-to-make-masks-mandatory-key-questions-answered-137516">wearing of masks</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/technology/coronavirus-worker-testing-privacy.html">fever screening</a> is increasingly being set up as a requirement before entry is allowed into hospitals, shops, workplaces and schools. But there are physiological and clinical reasons why fever screening simply won’t work. </p>

<p>Andrea Fuller and Duncan Mitchell explain why fever screening is unlikely to reduce the spread of the virus. Their arguments are based on an understanding of the physiology of fever, body temperature measurement, and fever prevalence in people who transmit COVID-19. </p>

<hr>

<h2>What happens to your body when you have a fever?</h2>

<p>Fever is a temporary elevation of body core temperature. It is part of a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889159115004079?casa_token=7_0RxEml1XkAAAAA:BLgBVOlXpp6vZuDa5dwuIpbpsdNhIS0YbRX8Q7nI_0-MMw1GZzVz_WYtNCRq4Ue1qAEzwTIx7Mw">defensive response</a> to infection by a virus. </p>

<p>When you develop a fever, you feel cold, heat generation in your body increases (achieved by shivering) and heat loss decreases (achieved by seeking warmth, covering up and reducing the flow of warm blood to the skin). When a fever breaks, either naturally or because you have taken an antipyretic like paracetamol, you feel warm. Your reactions include increasing the flow of warm blood to the skin and sweating, which helps to bring the body’s core temperature back to normal.</p>

<h2>What are the limitations to infrared thermometers or thermal cameras detecting fevers?</h2>

<p>Detecting fever requires measuring body core temperature. To do that accurately, you need to put a thermometer into the body core. Temperature in the rectum and the mouth get close to body core temperature. </p>

<p>Needing to measure body core temperature raises the first problem with fever screening. Thermal cameras and infrared thermometers measure heat radiating from a surface – in other words surface temperature. They don’t measure body core temperature. </p>

<p>Measuring surface temperature has contributed usefully to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2907.2007.00111.x">healthcare and to biology</a>. For example, infrared cameras have shown whether <a href="https://www.plasticsurgery.theclinics.com/article/S0094-1298(11)00022-8/abstract">skin grafts are receiving blood</a>. On the biology front they have shown that toucans dump body heat <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/325/5939/468?casa_token=8sYjYaq1yM8AAAAA:qxvgTZ4nHtC8xT3kpf8OxWTmeGxRQqsPy2O6WGpdj0QyYm2g-rVUVkPQ0E2Hao025n_5C7mE_HEhf-Y">through their bills</a>. </p>

<p>But the forehead skin or inner eye temperatures that infrared thermometers or thermal cameras usually measure in fever screening are not body core temperatures. </p>

<p>Human surface temperature is heavily <a href="http://www.uhlen.at/thermology-international/archive/Fever%20screening%20and%20infrared%20...pdf">influenced by environmental conditions</a>. In cool environments, surface temperatures can be much lower than body core temperature. And doing <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03091900600711381">exercise</a>, or being exposed to the sun, can raise the temperature on our foreheads above body core temperature. Thermal cameras screen for high skin temperature. They can and do find high face temperatures that have nothing to do with infections. Those <a href="https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.5.2000080;jsessionid=tf38nvbo2h6-at8kDrFqpbG6.i-0b3d9850f4681504f-ecdclive">“false positives”</a> waste time and money in unnecessary follow-up.</p>

<p>Another problem is that skin temperature does not rise during the developing phase of a fever. It falls, because warm blood is kept away from the skin. So your skin temperature changes in the opposite direction to your body core temperature. </p>

<p>Thermal cameras would declare you safe, because your skin temperature is low, but you could be in the most infectious phase of the fever. No surface temperature is a reliable indicator of fever.</p>

<h2>Could better fever screening detect COVID-19?</h2>

<p>Even if infrared thermometers could detect fever reliably, they could not detect COVID-19 reliably. Nor could any other thermometer. Patients with COVID-19 are not guaranteed to have a fever. </p>

<p>Recent <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/30/could-nearly-half-of-those-with-covid-19-have-no-idea-they-are-infected">research</a> indicates that many people who test positive for COVID-19, and especially children, never have any detectable sign of illness, including fever. </p>

<p>Even people who later do show symptoms will not have a fever during COVID-19’s <a href="https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.7326/M20-0504">incubation phase</a>, which can last nearly two weeks. During this period, when they are asymptomatic, they <a href="https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/5-58">can spread the virus</a>. The finding that infected people without symptoms shed virus is the <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMe2009758">Achilles’ heel of controlling the current pandemic</a>.</p>

<p>To add to the problem, not all patients with symptoms will have a fever, at least on the basis of once-off measurement. Only <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2765184">31% of patients</a> presenting at New York State hospitals with COVID-19 had fevers. </p>

<p>So, in addition to not measuring body core temperature well, infrared thermometers are being used to find a high temperature that many people exposed to COVID-19 won’t have.</p>

<h2>Has fever screening ever helped to prevent the spread of viruses?</h2>

<p>Thermal cameras were introduced at airports at the outbreak of the 2002/3 <a href="https://www.who.int/ith/diseases/sars/en/">Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome</a> (SARS) pandemic. They were widespread in airports during the 2009 Influenza A (H1N1) pandemic. But for medical and technological reasons they have <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/23/4638">failed to prevent</a> the import of any virus causing respiratory disease. They have failed even in combination with other interventions like follow-up contact and health declaration questionnaires. For example, 930 people who presented as potentially infected candidates were picked out by thermal screening from over 9 million passengers entering Japan in 2009/2010. But <a href="https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2334-11-111">not one case of H1N1 influenza was diagnosed</a>. </p>

<p>The data from Ebola shows the same pattern. Not one case of Ebola virus infection was picked up in 166,242 airport passengers screened when entering and leaving Sierra Leone in the 2014/2016 <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6930773/">outbreak</a>. </p>

<p>In the case of COVID-19, CNN has reported that <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/19/health/coronavirus-airport-temperature-checks/index.html">no cases were detected</a> among the more than 30,000 passengers screened with thermal cameras at US airports by mid-February 2020 .</p>

<p>Some scientists have been forthright about the dubious value of fever screening, arguing that border screening for infectious diseases <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4313627/">should not be continued</a>. </p>

<h2>Is there any place for fever screening?</h2>

<p>Perhaps, there may be benefits. </p>

<p>Some people with viral infections who know they are sick attempt to conceal their illness. Travellers wanting to fly home are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1477893904001267?via%3Dihub">prone to do so</a>. Others take antipyretic drugs, hoping to avoid triggering thermal cameras. </p>

<p>Though there still is no scientific evidence, <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/why-airport-screening-wont-stop-spread-coronavirus">researchers have suggested</a> that the prospect of being caught by fever screening is a deterrent to such dishonesty. </p>

<p>But we do not believe that the potential benefit outweighs the negatives. Apart from fever screening being unreliable, infrared thermometry poses a risk to thermometer operators who are required to come up close to potentially infected persons. Successfully passing a fever screen can create a false sense of security. And the thermal cameras used for mass screening are costly. So are the personnel required for any fever screening.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140453/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" /></p>

<p><span><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrea-fuller-152862">Andrea Fuller</a>, Professor, School of Physiology; Director, Brain Function Research Group, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-witwatersrand-894">University of the Witwatersrand</a></em> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/duncan-mitchell-152861">Duncan Mitchell</a>, Adjunct Professor in the School of Human Sciences, University of Western Australia, and Honorary Professorial Research Fellow, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-the-witwatersrand-894">University of the Witwatersrand</a></em></span></p>

<p>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/so-you-think-investing-in-fever-screening-can-curb-the-spread-of-covid-19-think-again-140453">original article</a>.</p>

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June 16 1976: The man behind the high school that made history: who was Morris Isaacson?

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