I’m about to get on a plane (4 hour trip) for the first time since the pandemic hit, and I plan to wear a mask in the airports, but am wondering about the plane itself. I could keep the mask on, or not. I also am traveling with a portable CPAP machine on battery, and was considering breathing through that instead on the mask while on board the plane, figuring that the filtration process may be more thorough than with the mask. (I’m also more comfortable with my CPAP mask than with a normal KN95, which I find a bit claustrophobic.) Any experiences or thoughts will be appreciated.
CPAP filters don’t typically filter for viruses, but you can get an inline filter for the tube to do that. Assuming you don’t already have one of those, the mask is the better protection.
Thanks. What’s the latest on wearing/not wearing masks while aboard the plane itself? Last I heard (last year), they were pretty COVID-free environments.
Very few if any airlines require wearing masks on flights at this point.
I understand that much. I’m asking if not masking on a plane is safe, for a healthy multi-vaxxed person. Not looking for a guarantee, of course–I just want to know if people don’t mask on planes anymore because the filtration process makes masking redundant.
People don’t mask on planes anymore because the airlines don’t require them to. The filtration process has not changed.
OK. Is the filtration process effective?
Yes and no. The plane filtration is pretty efficient and safe while flying, but this system is not typically running during boarding and deboarding. That’s more than enough time to catch a covid infection. Then there’s also the increased exposure potential of the airports themselves before and after you get on the plane. This article explains a bit more and recommends masking while on the ground, but you can be more relaxed in the air. You can also take a CO2 monitor to get an idea of the risk yourself.
I’ve flown a few times this year (and long flights at that) un-masked which was no problem. Almost all people on the plane are un-masked and it is no problem (if you want to wear a mask no one cares either). Air travel has recovered world-wide and we are not seeing any standout problems with people getting sick from flying. A few million people fly every day so one would think if there was even a small problem with this it would show-up pretty clearly.
Also, airplane filtration/UV systems are pretty good at cleaning the air.
That said, nothing is ever 100% certain and there is some risk. Not just on the plane but in the airport too (and not just air but touching surfaces). It seems a small risk overall but, again, it is not zero risk. If you are in a group of people for whom getting COVID is especially dangerous then you need to think more about this stuff. It may be worth discussing with your doctor if you are at-risk.
I’m pretty sure I caught Covid on a flight home last year. We tested before leaving Spain, and I started showing symptoms 2 days after arriving home. My wife, sitting next to me, did not catch Covid.
No, as stated, I’m pretty healthy and vaxxed up the yin-yang. I guess what I’ll do is mask up in the air port and while boarding and deboarding, but not once we’re in the air. Four hours in a mask is tough for me. Thanks.
If you want to be extra careful also pay attention to keeping your hands clean after touching stuff. Maybe some wipes to disinfect the tray table and arm rests (I assume some are sold in sizes appropriate to pass airport security).
The same filtration is used all the time. What does happen, especially on smaller planes is that there’s less total airflow early in boarding or late in deboarding after they’ve shut off the airplane’s HVAC system and you’re getting air conditioning provided by a ground based unit through a big hose plugged into the plane. The volume is reduced, but the air filters are still in the same part of the flow path.
The short version is that people don’t mask because their personal assessment is that COVID is rare enough, and unimportant enough, that precautions are unnecessary. Plus that masks are very, very weak precautions whose large downsides outweigh their virtually nonexistent upsides.
That’s what the public thinks, so that’s how the public behaves. Whether their thinking is right or not is a different question.
There’s plenty of evidence now that air travel unmasked is no more dangerous than lots of other public activities unmasked. There’s also little evidence masks do much good for the general public now.
How helpful a mask is for one person standing in a crowd with 99 unmasked people is a darned good question I’m not qualified to answer. But I will suggest that that is the question the OP actually needs an answer to. Actually that’s not quite the question the OP should be answering. It’s more like
Given my vax status, and crowds of unmasked average people with average degrees of varying individual vaccination and current or recent COVID infection, what are my odds of catching COVID with vs without me wearing a mask? And are those numbers large enough or different enough that I care about that difference?
I spent the last 2+ years flying multiple times per week. In and outside the US. No mask. No COVID. Yes I was vaxxed. YMMV.
My personal rubric is that planes are safer from COVID than is crowded public transportation or dense crowds in buildings. But I don’t worry in any of those settings.
Well, this is the best news I’ve heard–I’ll still wear a mask tomorrow (flying out of FLL, btw) in the airport, as much as I can bear it, and not on the plane. I just took the new vaccine last week, probably not 100% effective yet, so I expect to be ok. But I think it’s great that you flew so much safely.
My GF and I both got the most recent COVID vaccine last week and she said she worried it was too late because she has a business conference to attend early next week and the pharmacist said the vaccine takes 14 days for full effect. I reminded her that it is not like you wait 14 days and then poof you have protection. It is a process so, while maybe not as protected as possible the vaccine is already giving you some protection.
Honestly, I think COVID (in all its variants) is endemic now. Same as the flu which we have lived our whole lives with and which has killed thousands per year our whole lives (and many more like in WWI).
I think common sense health precautions (wash your hands, etc) are probably enough for most healthy people (and hope you are not seated next to a feverish person who is coughing and blowing their nose constantly…not to worry you 
).
ETA: I got COVID for the first time about six weeks ago and took one of the drugs (not Paxlovid but same idea) that is supposed to lessen severity. Did it work? I do not know. But, it wasn’t bad and short lived. I was sick (which sucked, of course) but for about 2-3 days. I have had much worse in my life with a flu/cold. I’d rather not be sick at all but this wasn’t terrible (although it scared me when I tested positive and not knowing where it might lead). Obviously, different people have much worse cases.
FWIW I am in good health but getting old(ish) (mid 50s) and a bit overweight (middle-aged man typical overweight).
Aren’t you a commercial pilot? So you’re not sitting in a coach seat in the passenger cabin with the rest of the peons like me. (Though the other day on Southwest, I was seated next to an Alaska Airlines pilot.) So you’re not getting sneezed on by that six-year-old.
Yes I was; just retired. But I also rode in the back about once a week for those same 2 years. And wandered around the same crowded terminals and immigration lines and hotels and … for 10-15 days per month. All that exposure adds up to far more close-contact hours than does sitting in a coach seat in a highly ventilated environment.
Our FAs ride around in the back with all the passengers all day every day. At no point in the pandemic was their COVID infection rate materially higher than the public at large’s. Not back in the must-mask days before vaccines, not in the early vaccine rollout days while Delta was rampant, and not now. Despite massive occupational exposure to an ever changing roster of people from all over the world.