PSA: keep masking when flying!

[Not_a_Number]

25 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I prefer that discussions of Covid are scientifically factual. The facts support masking everywhere an airborne virus can be transmitted. This obviously includes airplanes. It equally obviously includes other places where people congregate. 

Depends on your goals.

[Not_a_Number]

As I said, I find this hurtful and it’s making me keyed up.

I’m obviously failing to bow out, lol. Always a sign I didn’t mean it.

Edited October 30, 2022 by Not_a_Number

[Jean in Newcastle]

1 minute ago, Not_a_Number said:

Depends on your goals.

Nope. Your daily practices (and mine) can depend on our goals.  The science of how an airborne virus is transmitted and contracted does not depend on your goals. 
 

I have zero problem with you or anyone else making decisions about their own life and practices. I have a huge problem with what is posted as “facts “.  

[Not_a_Number]

1 minute ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

Nope. Your daily practices (and mine) can depend on our goals.  The science of how an airborne virus is transmitted and contracted does not depend on your goals. 
 

I have zero problem with you or anyone else making decisions about their own life and practices. I have a huge problem with what is posted as “facts “.  

The point was that flying seems to be much higher risk for transmission per hour than most activities. That’s the only even vaguely charitable interpretation of what I posted.

[Not_a_Number]

48 minutes ago, catz said:

I have to say the OP on this thread does sound a little either condescending or tone deaf.  So maybe that's why that isn't being well received by everyone.  

Gee, thanks. It’s like I’m not here. We can just refer to me in the third person. 

[Not_a_Number]

Honestly, this is reminding me that I’m not particularly well-designed for forums. I always feel hurt by things like this. I’m sensitive enough to negative reactions in person one-on-one, and managing lots of people’s negative reactions just feels overwhelming. Even if it’s just words on a page.

I’m going to have to ponder this and come back in a bit, I think. I don’t want these interactions to have a negative impact on my real life, and that has happened before.

I also tend to think I can sometimes be helpful and I like talking to people. So it’s a hard balance for me. 

Anyway, I need to think about it.

[catz]

6 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

Gee, thanks. It’s like I’m not here. We can just refer to me in the third person. 

By OP I meant original post.  Iam on a mobile device and I don't often post from one so sorry if tone didn't convey well.  I just meant I can see why people who have been masking all along might have feelings too.  It feels like saying the sky is blue or water is wet.  

Are you ok?   We are just discussing.  No one is targeting you.  I hope you are ok.  

[Longtime Lurker]

46 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

The point was that flying seems to be much higher risk for transmission per hour than most activities. That’s the only even vaguely charitable interpretation of what I posted.

This makes a lot of sense. I think that Not_a_Number is just trying to point out that it is worth masking on planes (and other crowded indoor areas with potentially poor air circulation) even if your family has transitioned to not masking much anymore. 

ETA: I also have mostly stopped masking, but plan to still mask when flying. And on other public transport, although that is not relevant where I live.

Edited October 30, 2022 by Longtime Lurker
typo

[KSera]

24 minutes ago, Longtime Lurker said:

This makes a lot of sense. I think that Not_a_Number is just trying to point out that it is worth masking on planes (and other crowded indoor areas with potentially poor air circulation) even if your family has transitioned to not masking much anymore. 

That wording makes sense. I think part of the disconnect is that Not_a_Number has been mostly gone from the forums for quite a while, while the rest of us have been here and discussing all these Covid prevention things for all this time. And those of us who are trying to avoid Covid have been doing all the things for all this time, so it kind of read like someone was saying, “hey if you don’t want to get covid you should wear a mask on a plane” but otherwise you can live your life as usual like we did and you will stay healthy as long as you mask on planes. Which is clearly not true and makes light of what many of us have been doing for a long time now to avoid covid, most of us now without the solidarity of others around us.

 

[TCB]

We flew to Europe during the summer, to the UK and then to Italy. We wore masks on the plane and surprisingly we did not end up getting covid. I wore an N95 during boarding and deplaning and a KN95 once the plane was on its way and the air handling system in operation. My dd and dh just wore KN95s but we all managed to avoid it. In my opinion it’s definitely worth a try to mask when flying. Having said that, I still also wear a mask indoors when I’m out and about, usually a KN95. I don’t think I’ve had covid yet. Just got the bivalent booster yesterday. I would really like to avoid it until we have more information about the longer term effects.

[Wildcat]

36 minutes ago, Longtime Lurker said:

This makes a lot of sense. I think that Not_a_Number is just trying to point out that it is worth masking on planes (and other crowded indoor areas with potentially poor air circulation) even if your family has transitioned to not masking much anymore. 

ETA: I also have mostly stopped masking, but plan to still mask when flying. And on other public transport, although that is not relevant where I live.

This.

For us, masking over the last couple of months has been moved to "situational".  We are now masking all the time because of the onset of Flu season, an uptick in Covid, and more people out and about in the areas we frequent.

I truly appreciated Not_a_Number's post because it never occurred to me about the planes sitting at the gate and the lack of air circulation being a possible place of increased risk (we don't fly much).  

Not_a_Number, please don't leave/pull back from posting. I have appreciated your posts since the beginning of all of this and have learned a lot because of it. I don't know what happened for your OP to have gone sideways but I totally understood what you were saying.

[Longtime Lurker]

11 minutes ago, KSera said:

That wording makes sense. I think part of the disconnect is that Not_a_Number has been mostly gone from the forums for quite a while, while the rest of us have been here and discussing all these Covid prevention things for all this time. And those of us who are trying to avoid Covid have been doing all the things for all this time, so it kind of read like someone was saying, “hey if you don’t want to get covid you should wear a mask on a plane” but otherwise you can live your life as usual like we did and you will stay healthy as long as you mask on planes. Which is clearly not true and makes light of what many of us have been doing for a long time now to avoid covid, most of us now without the solidarity of others around us.

 

I guess I did not read it that way, since the OP was very, very careful for a very long time. And I understand about masking without the solidarity of others as I was one of only 3 staff at my school (out of maybe 100 or so) that made it to the end of the school year last year. 

[vonfirmath]

21 hours ago, Not_a_Number said:

We just got COVID on a plane. A week before that, another kid in our small co-op got COVID on a plane.

It seems pretty clear to me that whatever people are saying (no, a sample of 2 doesn’t suffice, but combined with other information I have, I find this suggestive…), it’s easy to catch COVID on a plane.

So keep masking when flying, everyone! Even if, like me, you don’t mask otherwise.

My friend and her daughter masked on the plane and still caught Covid last May. I think its just a petrie dish in a way.

 

(OTOH my son escaped over the summer. So. Data points)

Edited October 30, 2022 by vonfirmath

[ikslo]

I’m going to give my experience as a counterpoint. I have been not masking since I got the vaccine. I fly a lot for work. I have flown a dozen or so times without masking and have not gotten Covid. Flying without masking does not automatically mean one is going to get Covid. 
 

I will also say for full disclosure that I never got it even when my husband got it (not on a plane). We distanced from others during that time but not from each other. So I may just be lucky.
 

Or maybe flying is no more risky than every other situation we encounter. 
 

Like I said, though, that’s my experience - and I’m only one itty bitty data point.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

I think it’s hard to extrapolate much from personal experiences.

DH was in NYC/NJ on a paramedic deployment right in April 2020 in the thick of Covid there. He then flew in June 2020 twice. I flew several times in 2021 and 2022, both masked and unmasked.  We have generally never really stopped living as we normally did.

I caught Covid the first time from a coworker. I caught it a second time from my son, who was in school and presumably caught it there.  
 

I am at a conference right now filled with everyone from basic level EMTs to emergency nurses and doctors.  There is no masking. People are crowding into small conference rooms.  There’s a lot of coughing going on.  I fully expect to come home sick. 
(and the big topic? Pediatric emergency room waits and long distance transfers for beds because RSV and flu this year are absolutely overwhelming our pediatric hospital systems in this country)

[Ausmumof3]

If we’re doing anecdote, my husband stopped masking and got covid from an indoor cafe three weeks later. So don’t eat indoors. My friend got it from public transport. I do think air travel is one of the riskiest things but I also kind of think you’re either trying or you’re not. There’s probably not a huge amount of point masking and not eating on a flight if you’re going to a bar where you land. 
 

I’m definitely a bit sensitive about still masking, as most people kind of pity you now I think, or that’s the vibe I get. I’m still not happy about the long term data so I hope that doesn’t flip on it’s head at some point. I suspect most people won’t know that the long term stuff they experience came from Covid though. They’ll just assume it was going to happen anyway. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

This pandemic has been a game of Russian Roulette from the start. It’s always been a fact that we can’t tell who is contagious in any given setting. It’s always been a fact that virus particles have to hit the right receptor in the right amount to get someone sick. (I don’t know if science has teased all of this out especially since some people do seem to be naturally immune).

Everyone has to do their own risk assessment and decide how much they want to gamble. I personally do take risks in some areas and not in others. I fully recognize that there is an arbitrary element to my own decisions. But I also recognize that every time I am unmasked in a social setting that there could be a Covid positive person (or persons) there and I could be infected. If I am infected in a certain setting it doesn’t make that setting any more dangerous than it was from the start. (Read my first paragraph again to see why.). 

[bookbard]

I think I'm at the point where yes, I mask to prevent illness, but I also mask to support other people who might want to mask but feel social pressure about it. I know at least one woman my age who *wants* to mask, intellectually, but simply can't bring herself to do it. She's now had covid twice. I feel like you never know who you might be helping when you mask in public.

[Jean in Newcastle]

My personal calculus for where I mask and where I don't has to do with size of venue and air flow.  Places that have a lot of people coming from a lot of different places (where they could have encountered Covid along the way) and then congregate - like say, an airplane  or airport - are places where I mask.  This means that I mask most places outside of private homes.  I do know that going to someone's home or to one of the small hole-in-the-wall restaurants that I go to once a week still puts me at risk.  The restaurant at a greater statistical risk than someone's home but the risk is still there in someone else's home.  I have no problem with other people making other risk calculations (which probably factor in other things other than Covid risk) but I cringe when they are not honest about the Covid risk.  Make a decision and own it. 

[easypeasy]

I flew quite a lot (relatively speaking) when COVID numbers were high. I double-masked on those planes and basically tried to will myself to not breathe. lol

I was convinced that I would never, ever fly again without a mask - why take the risk to catch anything if a mask could reduce the chances, right?

And yet, the FIRST TIME I could fly with masks being optional (my son and I had flown *out* when the masks were mandatory, but the flight *home,* masks were optional), that mask chafed and irritated my face. I felt smothered. I had to rip it off IN the airport - didn't even make it on the plane.

I have pretty strong claustrophobia and, historically, have not been able to wear masks. I don't play laser tag or paintball with the family because I can't wear the gear, etc, etc, etc. I can tie a bandana briefly on my face if doing something with strong fumes, but can't tolerate a mask.

Then, COVID hit and I masked up, baby. Doubled up all the time, in fact. Didn't even flinch.

I guess I was more afraid of COVID than of being smothered by claustrophobia. But, as the COVID numbers went down and my fear reduced (I've had it twice already), the fear of the mask became the greater risk to my brain, lol.

With that said, I'm sure there are lots of people who catch COVID on a plane. For my family, as much as we have flown these past couple of years - it's a place where we haven't found it yet *knocks on wood.*

Last time we flew (very recently), I brought masks for everyone to use if they wanted and they all completely forgot about them. It's been really interesting for me to see how quickly we fall back into old habits.

[mathnerd]

A lot (more than 20) of my acquaintances who stopped masking recently got covid from going to restaurants (weather is still good, so many of them ate on outside patios), movie theaters, sporting events and shopping in malls. It is absolutely possible to get severe covid in these situations as my friends have experienced and it probably was because they were infected by a heavier viral load.

My personal theory is that when one can not move around for a prolonged period of time and there is someone nearby who is infectious, then the chances of breathing in a heavier viral load from them are high. This is the case in airplane travel and in movie theaters. But, if you are moving around or if there are open windows or you are socializing outside in a park, chances of the virus dissipating in the air you breathe are higher.

I still mask everywhere. This is because I don't want to get covid for as long as possible. It is just a matter of time until I get it because my family members need to be in social situations where they have to eat with others (business lunches, travel team for sports etc) and we can not isolate if one of us catches covid. But, right now, I am still the weird lady who wears a double mask when buying vegetables and sitting in on her son's extracurricular lessons.

@Not_a_NumberI hope that you and your family recover quickly. From what I hear from friends, the symptoms are waning in 3-4 days for several of them who got sick with covid recently.

[KSera]

2 hours ago, easypeasy said:

Last time we flew (very recently), I brought masks for everyone to use if they wanted and they all completely forgot about them. It's been really interesting for me to see how quickly we fall back into old habits.

My observation has been that this happens primarily with people who have had Covid already. A lot of the people I know still masking despite most people around them having stopped are people who still haven’t had it. I do know people who have had Covid and are still masking because they don’t want it again, but I think a lot of people who have had Covid stop seeing it as a risk after they’ve had it, and especially if they’ve had it twice. Which is kind of interesting now that I’m saying it and thinking of it, since getting a third case of Covid really ups the risk to someone, but I don’t think people think like that. There’s that whole phenomenon where a familiar risk ceases to feel dangerous the more a person experiences it. 

[Teaching3bears]

I agree that airplanes are big germ spreaders, not just for Covid but lots of other germs!  I wish you could open the windows on planes.  

[Scarlett]

15 hours ago, MEmama said:

I understood that your post was insinuating that planes are the only place to catch Covid, which I thought was very weird and obviously untrue. I absolutely agree with you that we should be masking on planes—I’m still always masking in public (except for a handful of times on a recent international trip). I just don’t know why planes would be inherently *more* likely to be vectors of a virus, when said virus is circulating everywhere.

Perhaps I misunderstood and you were reminding people who think planes are safe that they are not? If so, I apologize for the misunderstanding.

Either way I hope you feel better soon. 

The bolded is what I understood her post to mean.

[AmandaVT]

10 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

If we’re doing anecdote, my husband stopped masking and got covid from an indoor cafe three weeks later. So don’t eat indoors. My friend got it from public transport. I do think air travel is one of the riskiest things but I also kind of think you’re either trying or you’re not. There’s probably not a huge amount of point masking and not eating on a flight if you’re going to a bar where you land. 
 

I’m definitely a bit sensitive about still masking, as most people kind of pity you now I think, or that’s the vibe I get. I’m still not happy about the long term data so I hope that doesn’t flip on it’s head at some point. I suspect most people won’t know that the long term stuff they experience came from Covid though. They’ll just assume it was going to happen anyway. 

I get the same vibe - there was a school meeting at the start of this year where our admin said, "Remember, some people are still too afraid not to mask and we need to respect that." I almost lost it. I'm the only teacher who is masking this year. Last week, we had 50% of the teachers out sick in one of our schools. Tell me more about my "unreasonable" fear....

[Jean in Newcastle]

1 hour ago, Teaching3bears said:

I agree that airplanes are big germ spreaders, not just for Covid but lots of other germs!  I wish you could open the windows on planes.  

You would die much quicker and surely  that way!!!  

[MEmama]

5 minutes ago, AmandaVT said:

I get the same vibe - there was a school meeting at the start of this year where our admin said, "Remember, some people are still too afraid not to mask and we need to respect that." I almost lost it. I'm the only teacher who is masking this year. Last week, we had 50% of the teachers out sick in one of our schools. Tell me more about my "unreasonable" fear....

😡😡😡😡😡😡

My DH's work said something similar when they had to return to the office. He and one other are the only holdouts remaining. 

[regentrude]

10 minutes ago, AmandaVT said:

I get the same vibe - there was a school meeting at the start of this year where our admin said, "Remember, some people are still too afraid not to mask and we need to respect that." I almost lost it. I'm the only teacher who is masking this year. Last week, we had 50% of the teachers out sick in one of our schools. Tell me more about my "unreasonable" fear....

I told my in-person students on the first day of the semester that I mask because I interact with 400 students in person each week, and that if *I* get sick, *they* will have online classes and they sure don't want that, since they specifically signed up for the in-person sections. Even if I had a "mild" case, I would be out at least a week. (Long Covid aside, I don't particularly want to be out of commission for a week either)

Edited October 30, 2022 by regentrude

[Granny_Weatherwax]

I get what you're saying @Not_a_Number.

Precious few people in my area mask anymore. I got COVID from DH who got it from riding in a work van with 4 other people. The driver was coughing the entire trip. None of the people in the van were masked. All four passengers have either tested positive or have family members who are now positive.

I am livid with DH for not masking when riding in crew vans. Especially under the current climate with no sick leave available to employees. DH was either asymptomatic or tested at the wrong times. He never tested positive but here I am on Day 8 and still sick, still positive, still having to limit activity. I'm going to miss Halloween with my DGDs. I missed out on a weekend of work. I can't donate blood or volunteer.

[AmandaVT]

17 minutes ago, MEmama said:

😡😡😡😡😡😡

My DH's work said something similar when they had to return to the office. He and one other are the only holdouts remaining. 

Tell him I stand with him from VT!! 

14 minutes ago, regentrude said:

I told my in-person students on the first day of the semester that I mask because I interact with 400 students in person each week, and that if *I* get sick, *they* will have online classes and they sure don't want that, since they specifically signed up for the in-person sections. Even if I had a "mild" case, I would be out at least a week. (Long Covid aside, I don't particularly want to be out of commission for a week either)

We've had quite a few days so far this year where one school or another has had to close due to too many staff being out sick. You'd think admin would at least appreciate it when staff do their best to not get sick. 

[mommyoffive]

Still masking here.  And there are so many days like today that I am glad that I do.  I took some of the kids for their covid booster shot today at Walgreens. Nobody masked in the place.  Lots of  coughing and one of the pharmacists coughing and blowing their nose.   I would mask all the time if I was a pharmacist, but they don't at this store at all, except when they gave the shots.   Like I said before, we will mask in the future no matter what happens with Covid in certain situations like flying.

[KSera]

15 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

Lots of  coughing and one of the pharmacists coughing and blowing their nose.

 Could we at least get a PSA campaign to teach people to sanitize their hands after blowing their nose? Grosses me out so much how often I see someone blow their nose and then carry on their way, touching things in public. 

[mommyoffive]

1 minute ago, KSera said:

 Could we at least get a PSA campaign to teach people to sanitize their hands after blowing their nose? Grosses me out so much how often I see someone blow their nose and then carry on their way, touching things in public. 

Yeah there was none of that.   We sanitized as soon as we left.

[Matryoshka]

Dh was sick half of our honeymoon with something he got on the plane (congestion, fever, chills type thing, not intenstinal - we spent our only day in Athens looking for decongestant instead of at the Parthenon).  Even if Covid magically went away, there are plenty of other bugs that can ruin your vacation - why risk it?  I'm masking on planes forever.

In my extended family, while there have been two likely plane-transmitted cases (nephew #2 and DIL - she spent her entire trip to visit her sister in isolation), the bigger spreaders have been weddings.  About half my brother's extended family got it at SIL's brother's wedding, and pretty much the other half that hadn't gotten it there got it from nephew #1's wedding.  Where dh and I were literally the only two people masking.  My friend's SO who was sitting at our table also got it there.  Dd24 missed that wedding because she was still testing positive from a case she got at game night with friends the week before (that she went to hours after we had just shopped for her dress to attend said wedding...)

Edited October 30, 2022 by Matryoshka

[kbutton]

I appreciate posts/threads (like this one) that discuss ways to strategically mask. I firmly believe that strategic masking is better than none and would reduce Covid rates if embraced more widely. Strategic thinking requires relying on experiential data, common sense, and hard science together.

Risk is relative unless you plan to navigate life in a hazmat suit. Our family masks as strictly as possible—there are some small situations out of our control.

Electively, we mask more strictly than Jean. In actuality, our risk is similar when mixing in what we cannot control with what we can—we never electively unmask with people outside our home except outside without crowding or inside with people who commit to masking as strictly as us for ten days prior to being together. Both Jean and our family are using a variety of calculations to determine which kinds of risks we are willing to accept. Our risk is that one DS must eat at school, which is a small school. DH is finding it harder to eat around masked individuals at work (no breaks or lunch even for 12 hour shifts). 

 

 

[wathe]

I am one of those people who travels with a CO2 monitor.

I took a trip in the spring that involved 6 flights and 4 Canadian airports, ranging from very large t tiny (YYZ, YOW, YFB, YCY)

Invariably, CO2 levels in airports were very good to excellent.  Even at a crowded gate, levels never exceeded 800ppm

CO2 levels while boarding and deplaning were terrible.  As PP noted, and as I understand it, ventilation and HEPA in the plane don't run until the engines are turned on.  A packed plane with no ventilation fills with everyone else's respiratory plume very, very quicky - it's the epitome of a crowded poorly-ventilated indoor space.  

Once in flight, the levels fell and levelled out around 1500ppm.  Not great, but I know that there is HEPA running, so less bad than it seems.

 

[AmandaVT]

[Shoeless]

Still masking in Texas. I give no f*cks when people give me a pitying or smug look for my mask. 

I do admit that I have sometimes dashed in and out of the post office without a mask. It was so hot this summer and I was inside only long enough to put a letter in the box. 

Anecdata: we still have not had Covid, knock wood. Every extended family member stopped masking and all contracted Covid within a month. 🤷

[Elizabeth86]

Yes! Anytime I’ve EVER been on a plane I end up sick. I no longer mask, but I sure would on an airplane.

[Not_a_Number]

Hey all. If anyone's wondering, I'm fine, although still a bit perturbed by how these discussions can go. I don't feel wound up anymore, but obviously I did yesterday. 

I'm going to give it a bit more time, then come back with a few reflections. This is a really pervasive pattern for me. I'd like to debug it. 

[Not_a_Number]

6 hours ago, wathe said:

I am one of those people who travels with a CO2 monitor.

I took a trip in the spring that involved 6 flights and 4 Canadian airports, ranging from very large t tiny (YYZ, YOW, YFB, YCY)

Invariably, CO2 levels in airports were very good to excellent.  Even at a crowded gate, levels never exceeded 800ppm

CO2 levels while boarding and deplaning were terrible.  As PP noted, and as I understand it, ventilation and HEPA in the plane don't run until the engines are turned on.  A packed plane with no ventilation fills with everyone else's respiratory plume very, very quicky - it's the epitome of a crowded poorly-ventilated indoor space.  

Once in flight, the levels fell and levelled out around 1500ppm.  Not great, but I know that there is HEPA running, so less bad than it seems.

CO2 levels would be a good proxy for how dense the particles people breathing out are, right? 

Have you measured other places? As I said, I've been going to restaurants and coffee shops for a good long while now. I'd be curious if you know the stats on those. 

[EKS]

6 hours ago, MissLemon said:

I do admit that I have sometimes dashed in and out of the post office without a mask.

Ha! Me too!  It's the only indoor public place I go without a mask.  I hold my breath.

Edited October 31, 2022 by EKS

[EKS]

3 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

CO2 levels would be a good proxy for how dense the particles people breathing out are, right? 

Have you measured other places? As I said, I've been going to restaurants and coffee shops for a good long while now. I'd be curious if you know the stats on those. 

Interesting article: https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2021/04/is-outside-air-covid-safe-are-masks.html

It says it's about outdoor air, but he also talks about indoor air a bit.

Edited October 31, 2022 by EKS

[Not_a_Number]

4 minutes ago, EKS said:

Interesting article: https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2021/04/is-outside-air-covid-safe-are-masks.html

It says it's about outdoor air, but he also talks about indoor air a bit.

Fascinating!! And it provides readings for a variety of environments. 

I am personally not surprised, @wathe, that airports were pretty good. Almost every airport I've ever been in has incredibly high ceilings. The volume of air for people's breath to mix into is vast. 

Honestly, I feel kind of duped by the airline industry 😕 . There was all this talk of how the air is constantly renewed, but obviously, they weren't doing any kind of rudimentary checking of what the air is actually LIKE if the CO2 levels are like that. 

I also just kind of feel... gullible? I've always known we catch things on planes. Why I let myself be conned by the promotional campaigns, I don't know. Probably because it made me less anxious and it was convenient 😕 

[Matryoshka]

11 minutes ago, EKS said:

Interesting article: https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2021/04/is-outside-air-covid-safe-are-masks.html

Yeah, I mask pretty much everywhere inside outside of my home, and visitors are outside or mask when they come in. But I don't mask outside, including outdoor dining and I even volunteered a full day at a regatta (a lot of people, but they were mostly coming and going other than my fellow volunteers).  I've been rowing, including in boats with other people, from spring through fall. I know the risk isn't zero outside,  but it is much lower than most places indoors!  

I'm bringing our CO2 detector (yeah, we got one, but usually dh has it) with me on our trip - I'm also curious about the airport /plane levels. We'll probably also take a few trains.

Edited October 31, 2022 by Matryoshka

[Not_a_Number]

Just now, Matryoshka said:

Yeah, I mask pretty much everywhere inside outside of my home, and visitors are outside or mask when they come in. But I don't mask outside, including outdoor dining and I even volunteered a full day at a regatta (a lot of people, but they were mostly coming and going other than my fellow volunteers).  I know the risk isn't zero outside,  but it is much lower than most places indoors!  

I'm bringing our CO2 detector (yeah, we got one, but usually dh has it) with me on our trip - I'm also curious about the airport /plane levels. We'll probably also take a few trains.

Please post on here with results if you do??? 

Is it easy to get a CO2 detector? Now I kind of want one. 

[Matryoshka]

5 minutes ago, Not_a_Number said:

Please post on here with results if you do??? 

Is it easy to get a CO2 detector? Now I kind of want one. 

Wathe has a thread here where she's posted results from all kinds of places over the past year (or more?). It's what got me interested to get one, especially since some of the worst results she recorded were in a huge multi-sports complex that seemingly had tons of air and few people, which is just the kind of place dh is all the time.

She very helpfully gave me the brand. I got it off Amazon.

Edited October 31, 2022 by Matryoshka

[Not_a_Number]

Just now, Matryoshka said:

Wathe has a thread here where she's posted results from all kinds of places over the past year. It's what got me interested to get one, especially since some of the worst results she recorded were in a huge multi-sports complex that seemingly had tons of air and few people, which is just the kind of place dh is all the time.

Oh, wow. 

I'm going to go look. That's fascinating. 

[happi duck]

@Not_a_Number

@Matryoshka

Here's the thread about CO2 detectors: 

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by happi duck

[Not_a_Number]

@wathe -- you should put the airplane data on your thread!!! It's more useful than this standalone thread.