all sketchy ideas are contained in ...

[calimac]

I'm thinking of taking a trip. This would probably be in late May. This trip would require airplanes, two of them in each direction, with a layover. About 9 hours with the layover.

What I'd like the group wisdom on is, would this be a reasonable risk for somebody like myself - no longer young, no longer in robust health, and thus accordingly more vulnerable - to take who has not had the Covid and wishes not to get it?

I'm less concerned about another trip I'm thinking of with a short, single-hop flight, but the problems with this one are the 3 airports in each direction instead of 2 - I'm told the airports are more risky than the flights - and that I wouldn't be able to keep my mask on at all times, because I can't spend 12 hours (the effective length of the trip) without eating.

My heart wants to take this trip, but my head is skeptical of its feasibility. What do you think?

Comments

Silliness

[sturgeonslawyer]

"[N]o longer young, no longer in robust health, and thus accordingly more vulnerable - to take who has not had the Covid" describes me fairly well also. So here's my perspective:

I went in December on a trip that went from Budapest to Amsterdam, two flights each way (SFO-MUN-BUD and AMS-LHR-SFO), and came away with nothing worse than a really persistent cold. (I know it wasn't COVID because I tested.)

Since there is no Tolkien Society moot in May, and the International Conference on Medieval Studies is in Michigan, I admit to being curious (which you may if you prefer read as "nosy").

Re: Silliness

[calimac]

Were you masked the whole time?

Not a conference trip.

Re: Silliness

[sturgeonslawyer]

Nope.

Re: Silliness

[calimac]

That explains how you got the cold, then.

Your avoidance of the covid must be attributed to the same reason that Sigerson is not better-known than Sherlock.

Re: Silliness

[sturgeonslawyer]

Indeed. Or else, fresh air and good clean living.

Nah, just lucky. (And thoroughly vaxed.)

[petrea_mitchell]

Current advice seems to have converged to it being not too dangerous to take your mask off long enough to eat, so long as you do it when the aircraft is above 10,000 ft.

[andrewducker]

I almost certainly caught Covid in an airport last summer. A friend of mine just caught it flying home from the Bahamas.

But I don't have any useful data of any kind, it's entirely possible we were just unlucky.