Why You Should Keep Wearing a Mask on Planes—Even When You No Longer Have To
I enjoyed everything about my vacation in Warsaw back in the fall—everything but the first 11 hours, two-and-a-half of which I spent in the airport, eight-and-a-half of which I spent in the air, and every second of which I spent wearing a mandatory surgical mask. That’s a long time to go without a moment of bare-faced relief.
Now, as my colleague Jamie Ducharme reports, all of that is changing, as the federal mask mandate for planes, trains, buses, and transit stations, including airports, is set to expire on March 18, assuming the TSA does not extend the mandate, as it has three times since it first went into effect in February 2021.
As Jamie reports, one meta-analysis published in September 2021 found that while transmission of SARS-CoV-2 does happen on planes, it’s “a relatively rare event.” Another study, conducted in 2020, found that air filtration systems on planes could reduce the risk of airborne virus exposure by 99%. So all good news, right? Not so fast.
The risk can go up depending on a variety of factors, including how much virus an infected passenger is carrying, the vaccination status of the other people on the plane, and even whether an infected person is talking, and thus expelling viral particles. A March 2021 paper published in the Journal of Travel Medicine found that during a 12-hour flight in which the plane was full, no one was masked, and an infected person was on board, the average risk of infection for someone seated in economy class was 11%—and rose to 99.6% if you were seated near that passenger. If everyone was masked, the overall risk dropped to 3%.
The March 18 expiration of the mask mandate may not make you feel comfortable going maskless while flying. If that’s the case, you probably already know this, but just to reiterate: a surgical or cloth mask offers some protection against spreading and contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but your most powerful tool is a well-fitting N95 or KN95 mask.
Nearly 437 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 12 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 5.9 million people have died. On Feb. 28, there were more than 1.4 million new cases and 7,518 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending, in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 6 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 79 million coronavirus cases as of 12 a.m. E.T. today. More than 950,000 people have died. On Feb. 28, there were 105,840 new cases and 2,093 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of March 1, 12 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Public schools around the U.S. may be easing mask mandates, but parents remain unsure about the change, with 43% saying masking rules should remain in place, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll. The biggest worry of the 1,502 people polled concerns the unavailability of vaccines for kids under 5.
A broader poll, conducted by the Washington Post and NBC News, finds Americans are generally pessimistic about the state of the pandemic. Of 1,011 adults surveyed, just over a third said the pandemic is “mostly” or “completely” under control. Nearly 60% prefer continued restrictions on daily life, like masking and social distancing, the poll found. Politics play a role here, with just 11% of Democrats saying they have returned fully to pre-pandemic life, compared to 28% of Republicans.
The arrival of March could see a broad reopening of offices around the country as Omicron cases continue to fall, reports the Wall Street Journal. Citibank, American Express, Wells Fargo, and Facebook parent company Meta have all announced reopenings of work spaces in the past few weeks. Employees at Cisco, the multinational tech company, returned to their offices today—but the company has said that should cases begin to rise again, it could send employees back home to resume working remotely. That, the Journal argues, reflects the most common view among large employers.
In tonight’s State of the Union address, U.S. President Joe Biden will lay out demands for new steps to protect residents of nursing homes, following an estimated 200,000 COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic among patients and staff at the facilities, reports the New York Times. The new measures will include increasing staffing levels, expanding scrutiny and inspection of the homes, creating a database to track performance, and boosting overall COVID-19 preparedness in the event of another variant or surge.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Jeffrey Kluger and edited by Angela Haupt.
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