Reply to: Avoiding catching tulip on planes

[Eirikur]

Tube travel is more disgusting.

Exactly

[SueEllen]

Having never caught anything on a flight, and I travelled during covid times too, I stick by my method.

I am well aware that an anti-bacterial wipe doesn't remove viruses. The clue is in the name. However, in the interests of practicality, they work well enough to dodge most things.

Train travel, on the other hand, I catch a cold every time. Filthy people take the train.

Tube travel is more disgusting.

[woody1]

What about spraying bleach up your nose? Didn't someone with a bigly IQ propose something similar for covid?

[jamesbrown]

Yes, I guess I'll just have to get over coming across like Howard Hughes.

If you're worried about what other people think of you, perhaps address that issue first

[woody1]

Again, get an FFP3 mask. They work, end of story.

Yes, I guess I'll just have to get over coming across like Howard Hughes.

[jamesbrown]

Do (so-called) cold prevention sprays, like Vicks First Defence and Lemsip First Action, do any good?

Again, get an FFP3 mask. They work, end of story.

[woody1]

Do (so-called) cold prevention sprays, like Vicks First Defence and Lemsip First Action, do any good?

[ladymuck]

Alcohol gel and the antiseptic wipes you refer to do kill viruses, they just can't penetrate the cell structure of noroviruses. Viruses bind to other matter to spread, which is why your gel and wipes will technically inactivate influenza and stop it spreading.

And, with respect, one anecdote does not a study composition make. Enjoy living in your bubble.

Wow tetchy.

With respect, to you too, I never said I was stating the results of an empirical scientific study, which is how you have interpreted my post. You'll notice I didn't annotate my posts with links to published, peer reviewed literature because throughout I made it clear that it's "what works for me" and therefore by implication it's an anecdote.

Enjoy your bubble too; sounds like it's a laugh a minute in there.

[agentzero]

Alcohol gel and the antiseptic wipes you refer to do kill viruses, they just can't penetrate the cell structure of noroviruses. Viruses bind to other matter to spread, which is why your gel and wipes will technically inactivate influenza and stop it spreading.

And, with respect, one anecdote does not a study composition make. Enjoy living in your bubble.

[ladymuck]

Having never caught anything on a flight, and I travelled during covid times too, I stick by my method.

I am well aware that an anti-bacterial wipe doesn't remove viruses. The clue is in the name. However, in the interests of practicality, they work well enough to dodge most things.

Train travel, on the other hand, I catch a cold every time. Filthy people take the train.

[agentzero]

The quality of lurgy up the pointy end of the plane is better, and you can dull the symptoms with nicer booze.

Air in aircraft is actually quite clean and well filtered so it's more about ensuring that you don't touch your face, esp. nose/eyes/mouth, after your hands have touched a surface that someone else has touched - basic hygiene stuff. I do take anti-bacterial wipes for my hands but don't use them obsessively; I ditched the alcohol gel as it's ultimately less practical. Wipes have many more uses.

Alcohol gel and wipes won't remove some viruses from your hands, only soap, which attaches to the virus and washes it off. Norovirus is one of those, which is why it spreads so easily and quickly through the population.

Your assertion about the air on planes is also as good as wrong. When smoking was allowed on planes the air exchange rate per hour was many multiples of what it is now. Ultimately the air is exchanged and filtered, but as this isn't from the drop down oxygen masks attached to your face you are obviously going to breathe in the expelled air from those beside, in front, and behind you throughout the flight. This is the reason people cite becoming unwell from airports and flights, after traveling for hours.

Covid19 spreads very quickly and a 15 minute exposure is enough for you to get quickly unwell with it. Flu isn't quite as short and is 45 minutes or more for a good dose. Obviously a 1 minute exposure talking to an infected person is unlikely to get someone unwell unless they are very immunocompromised.

The traveling effect and subsequent illness increase statistics are real. The best thing and easiest thing to do is to wear an FPP3 mask but still eat the meals on long haul if you want. Wearing a mask for the majority of the flight will reduce exposure time. Since I've done this I haven't been unwell after flying and have been abroad a lot on business the last 2 years.

I don't blame people for repeating the flying air filtration myth, it was promoted by airlines and newspapers in 2021 to try and get people flying again. It was enough to get funding for studies, which actually found that people do get infected on flights and in airports, more so flights, quite regularly and easily.

It stands to reason too, because you're mixing people from all over the world in a confined area in an airport, and then on a flight where people are connecting from all across the world and taking multiple flights. It's why the top three contagious diseases, of which SARS-cov-2 covid19 is one, are able to spread to fast across the planet so quickly.

[woody1]

Business class...

I wish. Not from our local airports. Best we can get are extra legroom seats but it's still basically cattle class.

One of our neighbours regularly drives 5 hours to London, for a 2½ hour flight to Mallorca, so they can fly business class but personally I can't see the point.

[jamesbrown]

Business Class? Why would I want to drop down to that level?

TBF, class of travel isn't that important - there's probably a marginally reduced risk of some peasant sneezing in your face in business or first. The FFP3 mask is, though.

[Uncle Albert]

Get a job in a school for a few months. You'll be exposed to every bio-hazard known to man and will develop full immunity (probably).

[xoggoth]

Remember one of the two times I've been really ill in my life, coming back on a plane, Russia I think, seated next to two smelly blokes.

PS The other was after going swiming in the Thames estuary.