What’s more, airplanes are essentially designed to isolate airflow. Even if someone coughs on your flight without a mask, it is likely those virus particles will travel one or two rows, asStill, you might say, this only accounts for airborne transmission of covid-19. To guard against transmission via large droplets and contaminated surfaces, we do need to take some additional steps.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting we go about air travel as we did before covid-19. I’m just putting the risks of time spent on an airplane in context. It is prudent to take additional precautions during a pandemic. In 2013, I was one of the lead authors of on infectious disease mitigation in airports and airplanes. Let me distill some of the recommendations from that report to those that are most applicable now and add a few new ones based on what we now know about covid-19.
The Opinions section is looking for stories of how the coronavirus has affected people of all walks of life. Write to us. Individuals have an important role to play, too. First, stay home and do not travel if sick. Comply with rules for mask wearing; wash hands before and after each step at the airport; keep the personal overhead ventilation on and pointed down; and maintain physical distancing to the extent possible.If the necessary precautions are taken, and people do their part and behave according to rules, there is a path back to air travel.
there’s no bona-fide medical study backing-up this claim...
bethbourdon I can't believe you all charge for this kind of tripe. If we could just program all humans of any age to behave exactly as we wanted them to, why, we could all suck in each others' breath and use the same minuscule closet to urinate and magically avoid contamination!
gtfoh...
Yes, if the necessary precautions ARE taken, you may return to traveling like a sardine in a can at twice the normal price plus nickel and dime fees. Enjoy.
You can say this about literally any situation and yet somehow the virus has been able to spread.
bethbourdon The Onion is great.
Sorry...staying local for a LONG time. No planes for me anytime soon.