Wearing a mask on planes reduces the risk of spreading COVID, a new study that used simulations to test how far viral droplets can travel and infect has confirmed. The scientists then compared the data with real flights on which passengers became infected with COVID. The developed model turned out to be 80% correct in predicting who was infected and who was not. A team of researchers found that a single flight of masks could reduce the number of coronavirus infections from twelve to one.
Many travelers, the Daily Mail writes, complain that they have to wear a mask throughout the flight, but this measure does reduce the likelihood of the spread of COVID-19, as the study confirmed.
Chinese experts simulated the spread of moisture droplets through the cabin of two passenger flights on two real examples of virus infection on airplanes. One example was the almost 12-hour flight from London Heathrow Airport to Hanoi in March 2020, when passengers were mostly without masks, and another was the five-hour flight from Singapore to Hangzhou in January 2020, when air passengers wore masks.
The researchers tested how far the droplets could spread through coughing, talking and breathing. They then used a computer model and predicted who would get infected with an overall accuracy of more than 80% compared to a real flight.
A team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University calculated that if all passengers used surgical masks on a flight from London to Hanoi, the number of people infected with COVID would drop from 12 to one.
However, on a flight from Singapore to Hangzhou, an investigation found that one passenger who later contracted the virus loosened his mask to talk, which the authors of the new study say “greatly contributed” to his infection.
The study was published in the journal Indoor Air.
Despite the fact that mandatory mask wearing in the UK has been introduced and removed, they have remained mandatory throughout the flight since the resumption of air travel. However, some people question their effectiveness as passengers sit so close together and remove their masks to eat and drink on board.
But study author Prof Dayi Lai says recent research has confirmed masks are “essential.”
“We are very pleased to see,” says Dr. Lai, “that our model, supported by experimental data, can achieve such high accuracy in predicting transmission of COVID-19 in airliner cabins. In addition, it is important to know that wearing masks has a significant impact on reducing transmission.”
Researchers have created a computer model that simulates the distance traveled by airborne droplets produced by passengers breathing, coughing and talking. They used data from influenza virus studies to determine how “contagious” each of these droplets was due to the lack of “detailed data” on the viral load of the droplets shed by COVID patients.
After running their computer model, they checked their findings against an investigation into a flight from London Heathrow to Hanoi, which found that one passenger infected 12 of his other companions with the coronavirus. The program was able to predict 11 out of 12 infected and five out of seven nearby passengers who did not contract COVID. This gave the computer model an overall accuracy of 84.2%.
On a flight from Singapore to Hangzhou, the team tested the effects of wearing masks and reducing conversation between passengers on droplet spread and found that both greatly reduced potential exposure to the virus. An investigation found that only one passenger, a male, contracted COVID during the flight.
The team’s simulations showed that coughing and breathing alone would not have resulted in enough droplets to infect a person, and therefore it is likely that conversation between nearby infected passengers led to him contracting COVID.
The scientists also said that, according to the investigation, the man took off his mask to talk to his wife and son, which greatly increased his chances of infection.
The team concluded that cutting back on all conversations between passengers would be an effective way to reduce the risk of infection.
The research team attributed the overall low infection rate during the Singapore-Hangzhou flight to the use of masks. The scientists added that their model also showed that if an infected passenger on a flight from London to Hanoi wore a mask, only two people would be infected due to the mask catching most of his droplets. According to the researchers, if all passengers were wearing masks, only one person would become infected.
Meanwhile, a flight from Miami to London on Wednesday night turned around and returned an hour and a half after departure to its point of departure because one passenger refused to follow a federal mask-wearing order on planes. The airline contacted police, and as soon as the plane landed, officers escorted the woman off the plane at Miami International Airport without incident.
A police department spokesman said American Airlines employees took “administrative action” against the passenger, resulting in her being placed on the company’s “black list” pending further investigation. At the same time, according to the Daily Mail, the woman was not arrested, as she did not violate local law. In September, President Joe Biden increased the federal fine for people who refuse to wear a mask on an airplane to $500.
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