how to stay safe on planes now that the u.s. has gone maskless

the mandate was already previously scheduled to end april 18 , however, the centre for disease control and prevention had extended the mandate by 15 days due to the latest wave of the covid-19 pandemic. on monday, u.s. district judge kathryn kimball mizelle in tampa, florida ruled that the cdc didn’t follow proper procedures to create this new rule and didn’t adequately justify the reason for the extension. thus, the mask mandate on public transportation ended.

american airlines, southwest airlines, delta air lines, united airlines, alaska airlines, jetblue airways, spirit airlines and frontier airlines have all dropped mask requirements for u.s. domestic flights, according to the new york times .

air filtration on planes filter >99% of covid-19 particles 

a review of 20 studies published in the journal of travel medicine looked at the rate of transmission during air flight. they found that tracking these cases and determining exactly where transmission occurred was difficult, as passengers were coming from and moving to all parts of the world.

in fact, flying itself may not be the biggest risk while travelling as most planes have significant filtration systems which are able to filter out viruses and other particles leonard marcus, director of the aviation public health initiative at harvard university, told yahoo! news .

according to a report issued by the aviation public health initiative (aphi) at the harvard t.h. chan school of public health: “the on board ventilation system that continuously circulates and refreshes the air supply, filtering out [greater than] >99 per cent of the particles that cause covid-19, and rapidly dispersing exhaled air with displacement in the downward direction. this ventilation effectively counters the proximity travellers are subject to during flights.”

still, virus outbreaks on a plane are still thought to be possible. sitting close to someone with covid-19 , as well as being aboard a longer flight with a case of covid, increases the risk of contacting an infection. however, there’s not enough evidence to conclude exactly how close is too close.

how to stay safe while travelling

the cdc still recommends wearing masks in crowded areas — such as airplanes — as federal agencies continue to evaluate the risks. some travellers may also wish to take extra precautions before flying.

outside of masking, airlines should disinfect high-touch areas on the plane between each flight, keep ventilation systems on whenever passengers are on the plane (including while on the ground) and enforce physical distancing by only allowing a limited amount of people to embark/disembark at a time, according to recommendations released by the aphi .

travellers should also continue to wear a high-rated mask (i.e.. kn95) and reduce touch points at the airport by checking in at home or on their smartphone. washing or sanitizing hands often and trying to maintain distances from others in tight places like the security line are also encouraged. even better, travellers should try to limit time in crowded areas like restrooms, or wait until their seats have been called to approach the gate.

at-risk travellers may also want to put together a testing plan and consider how they might quickly get access to antiviral pills if they do test positive, gigi gronvall, an epidemiologist and senior scholar at the johns hopkins center for health security, told business insider .

enforcing mask mandates just got harder for flight attendants

“after two years, our members know the difficulty of enforcing mask mandates all too well, and we believe this development could make that job even harder when american carriers have no mask mandate but canadian carriers do,” wesley lesosky, the airline division president of the union cupe, wrote in an email to the toronto star .

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