Department of Defense

I know so many of us are struggling.  Many of us love to travel and going to see new places and experience new cultures and adventures. Yet, we can’t due to the pandemic, which seems to have no end in sight. But we now know more about the virus than we did back in March.  So many studies have been done to study how the virus is spread and how we can protect ourselves.  When it comes to travel, airlines, cruise lines, hotels and guided tours companies are really working tremendously hard to get you back to travel, safely.

When asked, “is it safe?”  I can only point you to what each travel companies have being doing and what studies have been done and what they proved with it.  It’s still a very personal decision.  I feel safe doesn’t mean you feel the same.  It all depends on our trust.  But there are evidence out there.

There are 2 reports released in the last week on air travel.  One from Department of Defense and one from Harvard.  Both are partnered with the airlines.  But it is still a 3rd party independent study. After all, they need to use the aircraft and also to test before and after the airline did the cleaning.  Here are links to the 2 studies if you wish to look in print.  Department of Defense study and Harvard study.

Both concluded that passengers wearing masks are at a very low risk of contracting Covid-19 on planes and that when a “layered approach of non-pharmaceutical interventions” is in place — air filtration, universal face-mask wearing, disinfection of high-touch aircraft surfaces, social distancing and passenger health check before boarding — there is a very low risk of SARS-COV-2 disease transmission on aircraft. 

My take is that there are limitations to all these studies and it does not cover the whole travel experience. They are not saying there is ZERO risk, but it seems to be a very low risk.  Use your own judgement.

I’m including here a quick 1 minute video of the Department of Defense study for your convenience.