Airplane Cleaner - In the cockpit of a Delta Airbus A321, sitting on the tarmac at Logan, war broke out.
A man with what looked like a bug sprayer walked slowly down the aisle of the plane, carefully pausing in each row as a hand-held machine released a visible cloud of disinfectant. The device emits an electrostatic charge of cleaning agent that sticks to surfaces it touches. After electrostatic spraying, the crew used a high-grade disinfectant to wipe down high-touch points such as seat belts, armrests and tray tables.
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The procedure is performed between each flight. If Delta Air Lines can turn around a plane once in half an hour, pandemic response procedures take twice as long.
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"Our view is that it's not going away," said Henry Kuykendall, Delta's airport manager for the Northeast. "If we wait for him to leave, that's not the plan."
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But even with the extra measures Delta and nearly every other US airline has put in place since Covid-19, is it enough to reassure passengers that it's now safe to travel? Alaska Airlines, Delta, JetBlue and Southwest Airlines will block middle or adjacent seats until at least September. Others limit the number of passengers per flight.
Again, American Airlines and United Airlines sell every seat on every plane. But they notify passengers if a flight is more than 70 percent booked and offer them the option to choose another flight.
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While some have resumed flying since April, when passenger numbers fell by more than 90 percent in 2019, the survey found that most Americans miss travel but still aren't ready to get on a plane. According to a survey published in late July by the business news website Manifest, 67 percent of respondents do not want to fly anytime soon, while half say they are "very uncomfortable" with the idea.
And a vaccine may not be enough to get the airlines out of trouble. Bloom Consulting found that 35 percent of Americans would not travel even if they had the vaccine.
It is not only the public that warns about repeated flights. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Market Watch last week that he will not fly because, at 79, he believes he is at high risk for the coronavirus.
Globe contacts 15 epidemiologists, COVID-19 researchers and doctors across the country. All but two said they had no plans to board a plane anytime soon.
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"I would only fly if absolutely necessary," said Dr. Daniel Fagbui, a biodefense and public health expert appointed to the Obama administration's National Biodefense Science Board. "If I was flying, you'd think I'd bring alcohol hand sanitizer, seat and face hand sanitizer, gloves, goggles, and an N95 mask, but that's me. It's all about risk tolerance and mutual protection."
For Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center, the problem is close to other passengers. If Doron wasn't 6 feet away from other passengers, the flight would be uncomfortable.
"Keeping that distance is difficult not only on the plane but also at the airport," he said. “When you're traveling with a family and you can have a whole section or a whole row, it's different than traveling alone and being stuck in the middle or even next to someone. Masks help, but they help to varying degrees, especially with non-medical masks."
Airlines, which are losing billions of dollars each quarter, have taken many steps to reduce the risk of passengers contracting the virus. Most of them will update contactless check-in and ticketing. Agents are behind Plexiglas shields and airport seating is restricted to ensure social distancing. JetBlue is testing UV disinfection. Many airlines now board from the back and only a few passengers at a time to reduce queues on the plane. Also, face masks are strictly enforced by all airlines. Last week, Americans announced a no-mask, no-service policy. Delta said it banned more than 120 face masks.
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A Delta employee cleans a plane with electrostatic spray at Logan. Charged disinfectant sticks to surfaces. Christopher Mutter/Globe Staff
Last month, United showed its cleaning protocols to the Globe at Logan, even demonstrating the HEPA filter used in the plane's ventilation system to capture 99.97 percent of airborne particles that contain dust, pollen, bacteria, including traces of viruses.
There is a misconception that the air in the airplane cabin simply circulates during flight. In fact, it is constantly refreshed 20-30 times per hour with a mixture of fresh air flowing through the duct and cabin air continuously passing through HEPA filters.
There are very few controlled scientific studies on the risk of illness on airplanes, but at least one suggests that it is possible to get COVID-19 if there are infected passengers and masks are not worn properly. On January 24, a person on a flight between Singapore and Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China contracted the virus after coming into contact with passengers who tested positive. However, he was found to be the only passenger out of 335 people on board who tested positive in the air.
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"The low in-flight dispersion rate may also be due to aircraft design and equipment," the Chinese researchers wrote in their study published in Elsevier ScienceDirect. "Air recirculation systems with highly efficient particulate filter equipment and the laminar nature of the airflow may not have effectively prevented or limited the spread of the virus," the study concluded.
Hundreds of flight attendants have contracted the disease, and several have died, but it's unclear how many were due to infections carried on planes.
Most doctors interviewed for this story said their concern is not the air in the cabin, but direct contact with other passengers or surfaces where the virus can hide.
"Even if the airline tries to clean and filter the air, it's not going to protect you from the person next to you who takes off their mask and breathes," said Brian Labus, an assistant professor in the university's School of Public Health. Nevada. "You cannot physically isolate yourself from others, and close contact poses the greatest risk of infection.
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United's chief communications officer called blocking the middle seat a "PR strategy," but early research suggests that keeping seats empty helps make flights safer.
A statistical model compiled by MIT management science professor Arnold Barnett found that a passenger on a full flight has a 1 in 4,300 chance of contracting COVID-19, compared to a 1 in 7,700 chance on an empty flight. middle seats.
"Although the calculations here are simplified, they show a measurable reduction in the risk of COVID-19 when the middle seats on airplanes are intentionally open," Bartlett wrote. "The question is, is giving up a third of the seating capacity too high a price to pay for the extra caution?"
Arnold's research remains to be verified. But given these numbers, the odds of dying from catching COVID-19 on a plane are significantly higher than the odds of dying in a plane crash. According to Arnold's study, the chance of dying from contracting COVID-19 during a full flight is 1 in 430,000 and 1 in 770,000 from an airplane with enclosed middle seats, with a 1 percent fatality rate. ; in contrast, the risk of dying in an accident is about 1 in 34 million.
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"I think it's a foolish choice for airlines to fill that middle ground," said Dr. Howard Foreman, a professor of public health and emergency radiologist at Yale who has studied the coronavirus. "Right now we need to do everything we can to reduce the risk, not increase it."
Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health have urged American Airlines to sell middle seats and full-capacity flights. An American spokeswoman said the airline had taken many security measures.
"We have several layers of protection in place for those who fly with us, including face coverings, advanced procedures and a pre-flight checklist for Covid-19 symptoms," spokesman Ross Feinstein said in an email.
It's understandable why airlines fill these middle seats. United reported a second-quarter loss of $1.6 billion, American a $2.1 billion loss and Delta a $5.7 billion loss. Spirit Airlines, which sells all seats, lost $144 million. Number of people flying
Using Disinfection Wipes On A Plane
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