Cruising off the flight from the US to Beijing with my colleague Peter. We enter a phalanx of cameras and weird looking electronic sensors. Buzzers go off. I get waved into a side room, given a face mask, and the nurse comes after me with a big thermometer. Mask is on face. Where else can the thermometer go? I get up to take off my pants which yields a terrible reaction. Colleague takes off at high speed abandoning me to my fate. Armpit is pointed at. Up goes the shirt, thermometer is clamped inside my right pit, and the passing hordes look at me like Typhoid Dave.
After a few minutes the nurse extracts the thermometer, sticks an electronic doo-dad in my ear, scribbles on my health declaration, and sends me on my way. Total time in quarantine – 10 minutes.
