The first study of coronavirus transmission aboard airplanes actually offers good news

[Chris Smith]

• A new coronavirus study gives us a first look at the transmission rate on airplanes, suggesting that the risk of catching COVID-19 might be small — though it still exists.
• German scientists studied several people from a 102-passenger flight between Israel to Germany in early March. At the time, airlines were not enforcing face mask rules aboard their planes.
• A 24-person group was exposed to a COVID-19 carrier one week before the flight, and seven of them tested positive at the end of the journey. Two other passengers caught COVID-19 as well.
• Other passengers could not be tested for antibodies and the researchers did not get information on the crew.

The novel coronavirus spreads mainly via droplets, but researchers have proven that they become aerosols while speaking and also favor transmission. Those aerosols allow the virus to spend more time in the air, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has already acknowledged that airborne spread is possible. Add to that the theoretical risk of getting infected from touching surfaces that are contaminated, and you’ve got three reasons to avoid being trapped with other people in an air-conditioned box flying through the sky. Airlines have tried to reassure customers that flying is safe and have implemented several measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 aboard their planes. While those precautions can indeed lower the risk, no measure can eliminate it.

The good news is that we now have a first study that shows what happens on a plane when some of the passengers happen to be COVID-19 carriers, and when no safety measures are applied. As it turns out, the risk is a lot lower than many people would have thought.

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The first study of coronavirus transmission aboard airplanes actually offers good news originally appeared on BGR.com on Thu, 20 Aug 2020 at 13:39:23 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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