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wearing mask at the airport

ulsteryt
Explorer C

Is it ok to wear a n95 mask at the airport and on the flight even if you aren't sick? I know I am extremely paranoid and it probably doesn't do much to protect me but I will feel better about flying by doing so. 

21 REPLIES 21

Re: wearing mask at the airport

dfwskier
Aviator A

Sure you can wear a mask. - a full body suit might be a different story.

 

I see mask wearing people on planes all the time.

 

As you said though, masks don't provide much protection. CDC recommends that you wash your hands frequently, and that you NOT touch your face with your hands. I'll be traveling tomorrow, and I'll do one more thing. I'll bring sanitizing wipes along and use them on the tray table, armrests, and seat.

Re: wearing mask at the airport

DancingQueen77
Explorer C

Don't forget your seatbelt buckle!!

Re: wearing mask at the airport

ffflyer
Frequent Flyer B

 And your flight attendant.  Oh wait, they probably discourage passengers from wiping down their flight attendants. But then, you can't be too careful. 🙂  Safe travels.

Re: wearing mask at the airport

ceecee1955
Explorer C

don't forget to wipe the tab to pull window shade down, and the air outlets

 

Re: wearing mask at the airport

StAugustine
Frequent Flyer C

Flew this morning from Fort Myers to Hartford. There were 3 people on the plane wearing masks including my neighbor. My wife and I did wipe down the seat, armrests, seathack in front of us, tray table, wall next to me, shade, all the call buttons and vents. Not the only passengers doing this. The FA came around just before takeoff collecting wipes.

Re: wearing mask at the airport

dfwskier
Aviator A

Flew from Love Field to Midway earlier tonight. I did not see a single masked person in either airport. No one on my plane was wearing one either.

Re: wearing mask at the airport

timpapp
Explorer C

Masks are nearly worthless...they always have been unless you have some sort of respiratory issue already and/or some weakened immune system.  This is NOT news. The CDC isn't even recommending people wear them but not saying anything because it gives people some psychological boost.  When's the last time you saw the CDC commercial or the Task Force recommending them?  Weeks ago....  The W.H.O. absolutely does not recommend them because they are ineffective.

 

Fact is that almost no one knows how to wear a mask, people touch their faces more than normal (already 23x per hour on average before the mask), people touch the mask and move the mask because they aren't used to them and they are uncomfortable thereby contaminating them and then touching everything around them, and a very large percentage of illnesses (e.g. influenza) enters our bodies through our eyes (from the face touching).  And, research shows that when people are wearing masks they tend to take more risks and forget about the other things.   Therefore, the masks are NOT effective and I will not be wearing one.

 

Wash your hands...it's 1,000 times more effective.  If everyone washed their hands more often and more effectively we would cut all person-to-person illness transmissions in half.

 

Don't believe me?  That's fine....go to the WHO and the CDC and other scientific sites and see for yourself.  Do not just listen to the media; the media is not our friend.

 

 

Re: wearing mask at the airport

chgoflyer
Aviator A

@timpapp wrote:

Masks are nearly worthless...they always have been unless you have some sort of respiratory issue already and/or some weakened immune system.  This is NOT news. The CDC isn't even recommending people wear them but not saying anything because it gives people some psychological boost.  When's the last time you saw the CDC commercial or the Task Force recommending them?  Weeks ago....  The W.H.O. absolutely does not recommend them because they are ineffective.

 

Fact is that almost no one knows how to wear a mask, people touch their faces more than normal (already 23x per hour on average before the mask), people touch the mask and move the mask because they aren't used to them and they are uncomfortable thereby contaminating them and then touching everything around them, and a very large percentage of illnesses (e.g. influenza) enters our bodies through our eyes (from the face touching).  And, research shows that when people are wearing masks they tend to take more risks and forget about the other things.   Therefore, the masks are NOT effective and I will not be wearing one.

 

Wash your hands...it's 1,000 times more effective.  If everyone washed their hands more often and more effectively we would cut all person-to-person illness transmissions in half.

 

Don't believe me?  That's fine....go to the WHO and the CDC and other scientific sites and see for yourself.  Do not just listen to the media; the media is not our friend.

 

 


 

Actually, the CDC recommends wearing face masks whenever social distancing isn't possible. All major US air carriers now require face masks to be worn on board.

 

Recommendation Regarding the Use of Cloth Face Coverings, Especially in Areas of Significant Communi...

 

 

Here's some great, fact-based info:

 

What is the evidence on wearing masks to stop COVID-19?

 

Face Masks Against COVID-19: An Evidence Review

 

The preponderance of evidence indicates that mask wearing reduces the transmissibility per contact by reducing transmission of infected droplets in both laboratory and clinical contexts. Public mask wearing is most effective at stopping spread of the virus when compliance is high. The decreased transmissibility could substantially reduce the death toll and economic impact while the cost of the intervention is low. Thus we recommend the adoption of public cloth mask wearing, as an effective form of source control, in conjunction with existing hygiene, distancing, and contact tracing strategies.

 

 

Re: wearing mask at the airport

timpapp
Explorer C

Two of the world's major health organisations disagree on mask wearing. The World Health Organisation (WHO) currently discourages mask use:

There is currently no evidence that wearing a mask (whether medical or other types) by healthy persons in the wider community setting, including universal community masking, can prevent them from infection with respiratory viruses, including COVID-19.

 

There are several possible routes to infection. An infected person can cough, sneeze or breathe while within about two metres of another person, and the virus lands in the other person's eyes, nose or mouth (1).

Another route is when an infected person coughs or sneezes onto their hand or onto a surface. The uninfected person then shakes the hand (2a) or touches the surface (2b), and transfers the virus to their own eye, nose or mouth.

It is possible that an infected person can also cough or sneeze to create an airborne spread (3) beyond the close contact range – but it is controversial whether this last route is a major means of transmission.

We don't know how much transmission occurs by each of these routes for COVID-19. It's also unclear how much protection a mask would offer in each case.

 

There are several possible reasons why masks don't offer significant protection. First, masks may not do much without eye protection. We know from animal and laboratory experiments that influenza or other coronaviruses can enter the eyes and travel to the nose and into the respiratory system.

While standard and special masks provide incomplete protection, special masks combined with goggles appear to provide complete protection in laboratory experiments. However, there are no studies in real-world situations measuring the results of combined mask and eyewear.

The apparent minimal impact of wearing masks might also be because people didn't use them properly. For example, one study found less than half of the participants wore them "most of the time". People may also wear masks inappropriately, or touch a contaminated part of the mask when removing it and transfer the virus to their hand, then their eyes and thus to the nose.

Masks may also provide a false sense of security, meaning wearers might do riskier things such as going into crowded spaces and places.

 

Paul Glasziou, Professor of Medicine, Bond University and Chris Del Mar, Professor of Public Health, Bond University