b'Winners of the 2023CDC Announces Expanded Virus Testing at AirportsNHF Health Freedomn November 6, 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and O Prevention (CDC) announced the launch of its expanded Hero Award Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance (TGS) program for international travelers. Although this program was actually fi rst intro-duced in 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic specifi cally to screen for COVID-19, the CDC is now expanding the program to screen in-ternational airline passengers for thirty other viruses and pathogens.According to the CDC, the expansion of the Traveler-based Ge-nomic Surveillance program to fl u, RSV, and other pathogens is essen-tial as we head into fall respiratory season. The TGS program, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic, acted as an early warning sys-tem to detect new and rare variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and will do the same for other respiratory viruses going forward.The CDC wants to implement this program in airports across America in three ways: taking nasal swabs of arriving passengers, testing aircraft wastewater, and testing samples of the wastewater in seven major airports. Participation in the program is voluntary and anonymous. For now.(See CDC Media Statement, Nov 6, 2023, at https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2023/s1107-testing-respiratory-viruses.html)An Herbal Heritage of HealthH ealtHF reedomN ews /w iNter2023 27'