How safe is flying with the Omicron variant surging?
How safe is it to fly in the age of Covid-19? The question has been the subject of debate for almost two years. The airline industry has argued that the risk to passengers is very low; independent researchers have tended to say that it’s not high, while stipulating that it’s impossible to assess with real accuracy. Whatever the odds of getting infected by the coronavirus on a plane, they’ve grown worse with the spread of the omicron variant. Story has question and answer format. 1. How many fliers have caught the virus? It’s impossible to know. In October, a group of researchers published a paper in the Journal of Travel Medicine in which they tallied 64 cases of in-flight transmission documented in studies published roughly during 2020. But any count of known cases will reflect the difficulty establishing the spread of a virus on a plane. 2. Why is it hard to establish? It involves knowing a passenger was infected, interviewing and testing as many as hundreds of fellow fliers, then, ideally, analyzing the genomes of any additional viruses that turn up to check for connections to the first passenger’s infection. That’s a huge research project, impossible to undertake with every known case of someone flying while capable of infecting others with the coronavirus. A study published in March found that 14% of wastewater samples from 198 commercial planes arriving at Dubai Airport tested positive for the presence of coronavirus genes, suggesting at least someone on board was infected. With more.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2022-01-04/general/how-safe-is-flying-with-the-omicron-variant-surging
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How safe is flying with the Omicron variant surging?
How safe is it to fly in the age of Covid-19? The question has been the subject of debate for almost two years. The airline industry has argued that the risk to passengers is very low; independent researchers have tended to say that it’s not high, while stipulating that it’s impossible to assess with real accuracy. Whatever the odds of getting infected by the coronavirus on a plane, they’ve grown worse with the spread of the omicron variant. Story has question and answer format. 1. How many fliers have caught the virus? It’s impossible to know. In October, a group of researchers published a paper in the Journal of Travel Medicine in which they tallied 64 cases of in-flight transmission documented in studies published roughly during 2020. But any count of known cases will reflect the difficulty establishing the spread of a virus on a plane. 2. Why is it hard to establish? It involves knowing a passenger was infected, interviewing and testing as many as hundreds of fellow fliers, then, ideally, analyzing the genomes of any additional viruses that turn up to check for connections to the first passenger’s infection. That’s a huge research project, impossible to undertake with every known case of someone flying while capable of infecting others with the coronavirus. A study published in March found that 14% of wastewater samples from 198 commercial planes arriving at Dubai Airport tested positive for the presence of coronavirus genes, suggesting at least someone on board was infected. With more.<br/>
