WCPO: Is it safe to fly this holiday season? Expert says yes, with the right precautions
10/23/2020
WCPO-TV 9 / Raven Richard / October 22, 2020
CINCINNATI — October is almost over, which means holiday plans are probably on your mind. Is it safe to get on a plane and fly home this Thanksgiving or Christmas?
A Cincinnati-area infectious disease expert says the answer is yes, assuming passengers practice mask-wearing and social distancing during their journeys.
“As long as everybody’s wearing a mask and at least in the airport area staying socially distant, it’s relatively safe,” said Tri-Health infectious disease doctor Steven Blatt. “They’ve done some studies looking at flights to the Middle East from China where they tested everybody who got on the plane and they knew who had COVID, and there’s hardly been any transmission to other people as long as everybody wears their mask on the plane.”
So what about that “recycled air” that everyone is breathing on a plane? Blatt says it’s all about circulation.
“It circulates the virus out of the airplane through filters so that it can’t come back in,” he said “If there’s no air circulation, the virus would build up in the air around you.”