Covid and planes

[RetMD21]

Wastewater analysis was positive in 28/29 flights. I don't know if the study will be repeated in the US. I am a little skeptical about being confined to a metal tube for hours with potentially infectious people.

https://www.audacy.com/wwjnewsradio...-found-in-samples-from-96-percent-of-flights?

 

[Aerides]

Flying will be the place I always mask if nowhere else. Haven't we all gotten sick after a flight far more than any other activity over the years? Almost every bad cold or flu in the 10 years prior to this started 3 or so days after a flight. My one roundtrip in 22 was with a K-95 and no illness as a result. Also I can fall asleep and not feel stupid that I'm sitting there with my mouth agape in that awkward-plane-sleep position.

And the idea that any random group of 300 ppl, doesn't include at least one person with an active infection would be crazy these days. Of course, probably more than a handful.

One thing not noted in the article, is how closely the wastewater positivity correlates to someone who is currently infectious. IE, does your waste continue to shed covid a week later...two weeks later? etc.

 

[punkinhead]

I'm glad I'm retired, but nowhere near as glad as the guy who retires from a job testing plane sewage for covid.

 

[athena53]

Flying will be the place I always mask if nowhere else. Haven't we all gotten sick after a flight far more than any other activity over the years? Almost every bad cold or flu in the 10 years prior to this started 3 or so days after a flight.

I agree. I wore N95s last year on the flights for all my trips (including 2 transatlantic TRTs) but did skip them for the 1-hour DSM-ORD flights last October. My late husband, whose immune system wasn't as robust as mine, would come down with a cold after every major trip, followed by pneumonia or bronchitis.

And don't forget to wear them on the airport trams and buses! Shorter transits (except for a bus I had in Malta from the plane to the terminal, un-ventilated, jammed, 30 minutes of waiting plus transit) but you're all breathing on each other.

 

[Chuckanut]

Everything I have read indicates that commercial aircraft air is very safe. I am far more worried about being in a crowded store or business office than a modern commercial jet plane.

 

[audreyh1]

Everything I have read indicates that commercial aircraft air is very safe. I am far more worried about being in a crowded store or business office than a modern commercial jet plane.

Most people don’t realize that the aircraft air is not filtered during boarding and deplaning which is precisely when people are crammed together the most. Also, no matter how good the filtered air, I would not want to be sitting right next to a contagious person for several hours.

I’ve heard of several people coming down with Covid right after a trip, and I suspect that the exposure occurred during their travel home.

 

[punkinhead]

The only things I've read claiming commercial aircraft air is safe is from the airlines themselves touting the fact that they use HEPA filters. Yes, the bulk air gets filtered but those filters won't be of much help if the person sitting next to you coughing is sick. Or the person standing in the back stretching their legs and coughing while the stewardesses prepare lunch trays. Or the person who coughs as they walk past your seat. Or the stewardess who is carrying the virus but doesn't know it yet and stops at each person's seat to give them a bag of pretzels. It also doesn't help with the thousands of people in the crowded terminal with you or the dozens on the shuttle to long term parking.

 

[Freedom56]

We have flown multiple times every year since the outbreak. We always wore properly fitted N95 masks and never contracted COVID. We will continue to wear N95 masks on flights especially during flu season. Those 3M Aura masks are not comfortable, but they do provide good protection.

 

[Aerides]

Everything I have read indicates that commercial aircraft air is very safe. I am far more worried about being in a crowded store or business office than a modern commercial jet plane.

But what "everything" is there really - what data-based-reporting that truly accounts for flying? Have any of us, in the past 24 months, flown, then been asked afterwards if you got sick? Were you asked if you were sick before you boarded? There's no track and trace for anything and never really was beyond a few voluntary apps in some states. And no way to isolate the flight vs. everything else.

If 300 people board a flight today, and 100 of them get sick later this week, or none of them do, how would anyone know? We land and go on about our lives. We huddle around the luggage carousel, ride on the rental bus, meet up with friends and family or go to meetings and conventions, and then 3 days later maybe we are sick or not - there is no way to conclusively say where we got it anyway. Or what activity of those dozen was safest or riskiest.

 

[Gumby]

Flying will be the place I always mask if nowhere else. Haven't we all gotten sick after a flight far more than any other activity over the years? Almost every bad cold or flu in the 10 years prior to this started 3 or so days after a flight. My one roundtrip in 22 was with a K-95 and no illness as a result. Also I can fall asleep and not feel stupid that I'm sitting there with my mouth agape in that awkward-plane-sleep position.

And the idea that any random group of 300 ppl, doesn't include at least one person with an active infection would be crazy these days. Of course, probably more than a handful.

One thing not noted in the article, is how closely the wastewater positivity correlates to someone who is currently infectious. IE, does your waste continue to shed covid a week later...two weeks later? etc.

I'm wondering how well the sanitary tanks are flushed when they drain them at the airport. Could trace amounts of the virus remain in the tank for multiple flights?

 

[COcheesehead]

I am fully vaccinated. I wore a mask where required and have had Covid twice now. Once pretty bad very early in 2020 and once more like a cold just this past year. My wife had it as well both times. If you’re going to get it, you’re going to get it.

 

[W2R]

I’ve heard of several people coming down with Covid right after a trip, and I suspect that the exposure occurred during their travel home.

+1

Wastewater analysis was positive in 28/29 flights. I don't know if the study will be repeated in the US. I am a little skeptical about being confined to a metal tube for hours with potentially infectious people.

https://www.audacy.com/wwjnewsradio...-found-in-samples-from-96-percent-of-flights?

I wouldn't voluntarily put myself through that, either. Not yet.

But then, I don't have to travel any more, so I don't. Others may differ and feel that for them, travel is more of an urgent need than it is for me.

TBH I'd rather stay home, sleep in my own bed or recliner, spend time living in my wonderful Dream Home, not go through travel exhaustion and jet lag, and so on. Life is pretty good here at Chez W2R.

 

[Surewhitey]

We flew 3 international trips and a few domestic in 2022. DW wore a mask and I didn't (we typically had the row to ourselves somehow...

We both had similar experience with regard to covid (none). She got a nasty month long cough but she thinks it came from the DGK... I haven't been sick since before 2020 miraculously. DW got Covid twice...

Full disclosure, I masked from Mar 2020-early 2022 about half the time in public...

 

[pacergal]

We continue to mask most all the time, especially now during winter cold/flu season, and definitely would if we went on any public transportation.

 

[Sojourner]

Being around large numbers of people in confined spaces for many hours is basically the perfect recipe for getting both COVID and flu, not to mention garden variety colds. DW and I have decided to always wear our KN95 masks in airports and on planes for the foreseeable future. Masking is easy and has very little downside, IMHO. A few hours of mild discomfort is certainly a good tradeoff for avoiding COVID and flu.

 

[Sunset]

I am fully vaccinated. I wore a mask where required and have had Covid twice now. Once pretty bad very early in 2020 and once more like a cold just this past year. My wife had it as well both times. If you’re going to get it, you’re going to get it.

I don't rely on gov't workers to decide for me when to wear a mask, so I wear them in grocery stores, even if not required.

I wear them on a plane and even if covid was gone I'll still wear it on a plane. I now realize how I got sick (flu ? ) from a 7 hour flight with a sick woman sitting beside me coughing pre-covid, I never thought before of wearing a mask but that has changed.

We haven't gotten covid, as far as we know.

 

[tmm99]

I flew to Japan when the infection rate was the highest in the world (End of Nov 2022). I wore an N95 to get there and KF94 to get back. When I ate, I switched to a 3-layer all-purpose mask and I only took it off to put food in my mouth (I held my breath when my mask was off) and then put the mask back on to breathe in/out and chew. I don't know if my method helped, but I didn't get sick.

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

In September I flew down to Disneyland for a few days with my kids and grandkids.
It’s about an 90 minute flight.
Youngest son and I traveled together and both tested positive a few days after we returned. Luckily mild cases.
Both went 2.5 years without getting it.
No one else in the family who went on the trip got it.
I’m pretty sure we got it on the flight there.

 

[11522914]

I'm glad I'm retired, but nowhere near as glad as the guy who retires from a job testing plane sewage for covid.

Stop it. I just spit my coffee all over my keyboard.

 

[jollystomper]

We have flown several times each year in 2020, 2021, and 2022. We are comfortable flying and am fine with wearing masks (KF94/KN95/N95) on flights. It seems the only ones who mind are the folks who want to talk during a flight. That is not me .

I traveled frequently to Asia while working, before the pandemic, and masking on public transportation was not uncommon, due in part to their bird flu experiences. It made sense to me. In general the exposure to all sorts of respiratory illness makes wearing a mask not a strange thing.

But, as COcheesehead said, if you are going to get it, you are going to get it. In the days before DW and I got it, the largest gathering we were at was a group of 8 folks. We caught in one of several environment that were much less crowded than an airplane or public transportation.

 

[11522914]

My wife flew 4 times last year and no issues. She always wears a KN95 in the airport and on the plane.

 

[USGrant1962]

Wastewater analysis was positive in 28/29 flights. I don't know if the study will be repeated in the US. I am a little skeptical about being confined to a metal tube for hours with potentially infectious people.

https://www.audacy.com/wwjnewsradio...-found-in-samples-from-96-percent-of-flights?

Well, the article says "detected". Having done tons of environmental sampling for hazmats, heavy metals, radionuclides, etc. I can tell you that detecting something is easy - and can be meaningless at the detection limits (e.g., lead and cadmium naturally in chocolate). As someone said above, unless they are steam cleaning the airplane sewage tanks between flights (not) this seems meaningless. And, in this case they are detecting RNA fragments, not SARS-CoV-2. Further, the article says:

RNA fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are found in the feces of infected individual regardless of health status (symptomatic, asymptomatic, pre-symptomatic, recovered) and can be detected in sewage. This form of the virus is not infectious and can't be transmitted via feces.

Seems like a clickbait article on a study that proves that Covid still exists. Who knew?

I'll throw in my anecdotal observations (not data):

• Looks like I've done 31 separate flights in the last year, I dropped masking some time last year - no Covid.
• Lots of work colleagues have been flying - little to no Covid. The few cases I've heard about were from known sources (grandkids had it, thought it was a cold), people that drove instead of flew, or were on work-from-home periods.
• If commercial aircraft were a huge Covid petri dish the flight crews would be chronically down with Covid - I'm not seeing it and can't find any reports that flight crew Covid absenteeism is worse than the general public. IMO, the unions would be all over it if that were the case.

 

[RetMD21]

One thing not noted in the article, is how closely the wastewater positivity correlates to someone who is currently infectious. IE, does your waste continue to shed covid a week later...two weeks later? etc.

Well it's not 100% that's for sure. It would be interesting to test all passengers as they deplane but not easily done

 

[6miths]

DW just took a flight from northern BC to Vancouver and then Vancouver to Toronto. Virtually no masks on the plane or in the airport she says. Full vaccination rate is over 90% and I get the impression that most people feel that they have done what they can and they are wanting to get back to normal. We fly to Cancun next week and I am still thinking that I might mask up for at least some of the trip.

 

[tmm99]

Masking is so easy, so why not? And I found out that I look much younger with a mask on, so at this point, I would like to have a mask on whenever I am in public. [emoji28]