As the number of confirmed Covid-19 coronavirus cases continues to rise, many travelers are experiencing heightened concerns about their
health while flying.
Experts, though, say that for the most part, flyers should
take the same precautions now that they always should.
“I think it is important that anybody, when they fly ...
should practice universal precautions. That’s a given on any flight, at any
time,” said Dr. Robert Quigley, regional medical director for the travel risk
management firm International SOS and its subsidiary MedAire.
Scientists aren’t yet certain how Covid-19 spreads, but the
consensus opinion is that transmission occurs via respiratory droplets,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Such droplets can
be spread directly between people who are within approximately 6 feet of each
other via coughs and sneezes. A person might also be able to contract the virus
indirectly by touching an infected surface and subsequently putting their hand
in their mouth or rubbing their nose or eyes.
Dr. Mark Gendreau, an aviation health specialist who is the
chief medical officer at Beverly Hospital in the Boston area, said, “When you’re
traveling, you’ve got to be incredibly mindful of where your hands are, because
our hands transmit 80% of infectious diseases that are known.”
Both Quigley and Gendreau emphasize hand sanitation as a
leading precaution against contracting viruses and recommend that flyers carry
hand sanitizer on the plane.
Gendreau said he has a routine when he gets on a plane.
After fastening his seat belt, he takes his seatback tray table down and
sanitizes it, then returns it to its upright position. Next, he adjusts the air
vent. Then he sanitizes his hands. He also sanitizes his hands after trips to
the lavatory and before eating.
Sanitizing, or handwashing, can’t be done haphazardly,
however. Gendreau suggests doing either for 20 to 30 seconds -- long enough to get to both sides of the hands
as well as between the fingers and underneath the cuticles. At a 2016 TED talk,
the physician had the audience sing “Happy Birthday to You” with him twice to
illustrate how long a thorough handwashing should take.
Handwashing may prove to be especially useful against
Covid-19. A study published this month in the Journal of Hospital Infection
postulates that the virus can survive as long as nine days on surfaces at room
temperature.
Gendreau said that if he has to scratch his face, he makes a
point of doing so with his arm rather than his hand.
With their crowded confines and lack of fresh air, many
travelers think of airplanes as veritable traps for airborne germs. That’s not
true, Quigley said. With some exceptions in the regional-aircraft category,
planes are equipped with hospital-grade air filters. Such filters remove 99.5%
of bacteria and virus particles from the environment once an aircraft is in the
air, he said, though they don’t function as efficiently while the plane is on the
ground.
Nonetheless, infection remains a possibility. The World
Health Organization says infected flyers can transmit a virus to people within
two rows on either side of them. A 2018 paper published in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) says the at-risk zone extends one row
on either side of an infected passenger.
One key strategy to ward off the risk of airborne
contraction, Quigley said, is to keep the air vent above your seat open.
“I’m a firm believer that doing that keeps the area around
you free if somebody is coughing,” he said.
As to where to sit, the PNAS paper suggests that one’s risk
of infection is lowest in a window seat and highest in an aisle seat -- at
least on flights similar to the transcontinental routes examined in the study.
The reason, the authors found, is that people sitting in a
window seat get up the least, which brings them within transmission range of
the fewest people. Those in an aisle seat get up the most, and they also come
within close range of individuals walking past them in the aisle.
One common precaution that won’t work against contracting a
virus in flight is a standard-issue face mask. Such masks, Gendreau said, do
prevent someone who is already sick from pushing his or her infected germs into
the plane’s environment when they cough or sneeze. However, they don’t stop
someone from breathing in a virus droplet.
Gendreau, Quigley and public health bodies recommend that
sick people avoid flying.
One type of mask that does work is the FDA-approved N95
fitted mask, which blocks at least 95% of droplets, according to the FDA.
However, such masks can be uncomfortable to wear for long periods of time.
Gendreau said he would wear an N95 mask to protect against
Covid-19 while flying in China right now or in any other future area of
infection.
Quigley said that as long as the outbreak continues, flyers
traveling to the Eastern Hemisphere should be ready for long lines, especially
upon entry to a country. He suggests booking flexible itineraries and said
people who have cold symptoms should be aware that they might be questioned or
barred from a flight.