David J.
Danto
Business travel
thoughts in my own, personal opinion
eMail: ddanto@IMCCA.org 
Follow Industry News: @NJDavidD
Who Was That Masked
Man…
Uch. In my household that’s the sound we make when
faced with sheer stupidity. It’s really the best reaction to what is going on with
airlines and COVID19 right now. An
idiot judge said that the CDC didn’t have the authority to make passengers
wear a mask, the TSA
said they’d no longer enforce it and therefore the airlines
have removed the requirement.
Mind you, the TSA is the same
authority that makes you take off your shoes and unpack your bags to get
through insane security, so claiming they don’t have the authority is very
disingenuous, but it is what it is.
The major US airlines have quickly
responded, saying that masking is now optional.
Let’s be clear that “optional” masking is not a
real choice. As I’ve mentioned before,
it’s like saying that peeing in the pool is optional – the people that choose
not to urinate in the community pool still have to swim in other people’s mess
– they don’t get the option of a clean environment if even just one other
person chooses to mess it up for everyone.
Masks protected us in two ways. They minimized the distance that possibly
infected air would travel, and they – depending on the type worn – reduced the
amount of viruses, bacteria and other tiny particles that would get into one’s
lungs. Let’s detail both of those one at
a time.
Transmission Distance: Science – even individual
experiments in people’s garages – showed that masks – even cheap cloth ones – reduced the travel distance of exhaled air
and the possibly infected droplets within it.
With droplets now traveling unobstructed on
maskless passengers, the chances of being exposed to COVID19 have gone up
exponentially.
Individual Protection: Wearing an N95 or KN95 mask (like the ones I’ve been recommending for
nearly the entire pandemic) reduce the amount of virus that gets into your
mouth and lungs. The better the mask the
more protection afforded. If one inhales
only some COVID19 virus (a small viral load) then one might not have as bad an
infection. If one inhales more COVID 19
virus (a larger viral load) then the chances of a far worse infection are much
higher. The image below shows how much
protection (in general) one gets from masks with and without a potentially
infected person wearing masks as well.
So, the protection that someone wearing an N95 mask
had when everyone was required to wear a cloth mask (estimated to be at 3.3
hours) goes down to 2.5 hours when the infected person is maskless.
If I had the choice I’d stop flying and taking
public transportation now that peeing in
the pool is condoned. Regrettably, I
have business commitments and have to travel on aircraft. What will I be doing? I’ll be double masking. I’ll be wearing this N95
mask with this surgical
mask over the top of it. The
surgical mask will trap some particles before they get to the N95 and it will
allow me to wear the N95 for longer periods of time before disposal. (I learned about this method from the healthcare
professionals I saw during the last two years.
Most of them followed this method to stay as safe as possible from those
people who were not obviously infected with COVID19 but might be.)
It also means that eating and drinking on flights
is no longer acceptable to me. The risk
to someone when lifting their mask to take a sip/bite then masking-up again
immediately afterward is now much greater because their fellow passengers are
not covering their nose and mouth. My
next few trips are now going to be some looooong
flights.
So, sadly, we live in world where being smart about
things is not a requirement. Everyone is
tired of COVID19 so they are eliminating precautions, either because they want
a return to a life before it was around, or because they’re worried about the
political ramifications of the annoyingly difficult decisions required to
prevent it.
The good news is that while the COVID19 positivity
rate is currently soaring around the country, the death rate is staying low –
as treatments are available and the latest variants are less deadly. That’s good, but it doesn’t mean this is
over. The very definition of a variant
means it is subject to change as the virus mutates. Let’s hope the next one doesn’t start killing
us all.
As for me, if necessary, I’ll be the Lone Smart
Person on my flights. I’ll add the
William Tell Overture to my smartphone playlist and keep an eye out for
Tonto.
This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal
opinions.
All image and links provided above as reference under
prevailing fair use statutes.
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As always, feel free to write and comment, question or
disagree. Hearing from the traveling
community is always a highlight for me.
Thanks!