Flying during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Leaving the middle seat empty on airplanes can significantly reduce the risk of exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control found in a new study.
“When the infectious and other passengers who would have had middle seats were removed, leaving six infectious passengers out of 12 total passengers remaining in the window and aisle seats, a 57% exposure reduction was observed,” the researchers said.
However, the tests were conducted without masks, whichare currently required on all airplanes and in U.S. airports.
“A case study of COVID-19 transmission on a flight with mandated mask-wearing … suggests that some virus aerosol is emitted from an infectious masked passenger, such that distancing could still be useful,” the CDC said.
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Delta Air Lines is the only major U.S. airline that is still not selling middle seats on flights,though they will resume doing so on May 1.
Airline experts said that this CDC report is unlikely to lead to changes from the airline industry, which is trying to rebound from losses over the last year.
“This is a giant bombshell from the CDC,” Henry Harteveldt, an industry analyst and co-founder of Atmosphere Research Group,told theWashington Post. “I think the airlines are going to look at it and say, ‘That’s nice. We’re not going back to blocking middle seats.’ "
“Current CDC guidelines recommend against travel for persons who have not been vaccinated and require masking for all persons while on aircraft,” they said. “Physical distancing of aircraft passengers, including through policies such as middle seat vacancy, could provide additional reductions in SARS-COV-2 exposure risk.”
source: people.com
