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The thought of sitting on a plane during a flight among complete strangers can be terrifying at a time of a respiratory virus pandemic. But experts who pointed out that there are actually very few documented cases of transmission on airplanes say that the chances of becoming infected with the corona virus in that way are less than previously thought.
Air traffic has been drastically reduced due to the closure of state borders, but people’s fear of getting infected on planes has also drastically affected the fact that they are still half empty. If scientists are to be believed, fear that the risk of infection during the summer is completely unfounded.
After it was discovered that there were 12 passengers on the flight from the United States to Taiwan on March 31, who had no symptoms at the time, but were infected, the other 328 passengers and crew members on that flight were examined. All the results were negative.
There have been cases of virus transmission on airplanes in recent months, but the frequency of such infection is still low, reports CNN. A study published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open also analyzed the results obtained after observing a four-hour flight from Tel Aviv to Frankfurt in March. Only two passengers were infected during the summer, as they sat directly in front of previously infected tourists.
For now, it is assumed that the only flight where there was a greater transmission of the virus was from Great Britain to Vietnam on March 2. On that flight, one passenger infected 14 others.
The authors of the research say that one of the possible explanations for the low risk of infection is that modern aircraft are equipped with filters that purify the air every two to three minutes. Filters are designed to capture 99.99 percent of all particles.
It also helps that since the reestablishment of air traffic, the use of masks and many other protective measures are in force, such as measuring the temperature before the flight. Movement inside the plane is strictly limited.
Arnold Barnett, a professor of statistics at the University of Massachusetts, tried to determine whether an empty middle seat on the plane affects the risk of infection. The results of his investigation, which he based on the configuration of the Boeing 737 and Airbus 320, which have three seats in each row and assuming that all passengers wore masks, the probability that the passenger will be infected is 1: 4,300, and if the middle seat is empty, the probability is 1: 7700.
– Three things have to go wrong to get infected during the summer. There must be an infected person on the plane. You would have to have a poor quality mask. And third, you need to be close enough to that person for there to be a risk of infection, Barnet said.
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