# Who has legitimate business traveling these days? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 24, 2020, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-legitimate-business-traveling-these-days/850169 "2020-03-24T12:09:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-legitimate-business-traveling-these-days/850169/1 "2020-03-24T12:09:35Z")
The area where I live has been a relative latecomer to coronavirus, with only six cases as of yesterday. All six are reported to be travel related, including one person who is from “out of town.”\* Naturally much arguing has taken place on the Facebook pages of the local news stations and newspaper regarding why these people were traveling at all. So here is the debate. What people have legitimate business traveling these days? I’m defining traveling as going between distant places, not a trip to the grocery store or pharmacy. In my opinion the list is very small. I would start with truck drivers and the pilots and crews of cargo planes. In places where the crisis is further along I would add medical personal traveling to the hard hit area as well as national guard personnel. Who am I missing from this list? Again, I’m talking about travel from one city to another, not a trip to the store to buy necessities. \*. In this area being from “out of town” implies someone from at least a hundred miles away, not someone from one of the surrounding small communities who come into the city to buy necessities. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-legitimate-business-traveling-these-days/850169/2 "2020-03-24T12:17:17Z")
How about specialized repair people? Especially for medical equipment but I could see power plants and water plants as well. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-legitimate-business-traveling-these-days/850169/3 "2020-03-24T12:21:50Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > How about specialized repair people? Especially for medical equipment but I could see power plants and water plants as well. Agreed on the people who repair medical equipment. Aren’t most people who work power and water plants local? I can’t imagine someone driving from say, Dallas to Houston, to work at a power or water plant. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-legitimate-business-traveling-these-days/850169/4 "2020-03-24T12:52:15Z")
People going to funerals, maybe. One of my dad’s neighbor 's siblings is dying and the neighbor is trying to figure out logistics. Me, I think he should skip it as his health is not good himself, but I know people can get determined about attending funerals. ---
**Author:** ![OldOlds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a3d4f5/32.png) [@OldOlds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldOlds)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-legitimate-business-traveling-these-days/850169/5 "2020-03-24T12:53:24Z")
Bingo. I used to work for a major medical device manufacturer (I was in the pharmaceutical part of the business) and they simply must send their repair personnel (and installers, validation experts, trainers, etc) around no matter what. Indeed, in this time their availability is even more critical. My friends still there (in that part of the business) are working full tilt. Which is another reason we can’t shut down all air traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-legitimate-business-traveling-these-days/850169/6 "2020-03-24T13:44:49Z")
Telephone handset sanitizers. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-legitimate-business-traveling-these-days/850169/7 "2020-03-24T13:50:33Z")
People who repair machinery used to manufacture/package essential supplies. The machine used to manufacture face masks or to put hand sanitizer or milk into containers, for example. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-legitimate-business-traveling-these-days/850169/8 "2020-03-24T14:08:23Z")
> [@kitap](#): > > People going to funerals, maybe. One of my dad’s neighbor 's siblings is dying and the neighbor is trying to figure out logistics. Me, I think he should skip it as his health is not good himself, but I know people can get determined about attending funerals. No one is even doing funerals around here. All obits state that a memorial service will be held at a later date. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-legitimate-business-traveling-these-days/850169/9 "2020-03-24T14:56:25Z")
How about researchers who are working on treatments for the disease? I’m sure there are some things that can’t be done remotely. I just thought of one group of people who usually travel and won’t be. Children of divorced parents who usually see the non-custodial parent for spring break.