More worrisome are the 23.1% of people who wanted to take the flight while known to be positive. Thus, almost one in four people who follow a cautious doctor who writes frequently about Covid in the style above think that a known symptomatic Covid case should still go to a terminal and get on a flight. How many more of the general population must think the same way? That it’s fine to go around exposing people when you’re sick?
Well, maybe it’s not as clear cut as all that?
This is certainly a rather strong ‘planes are safe for Covid’ position, where it would be fine to put a known Covid-positive case on a plane (and more importantly, in the terminal to and from the plane) so long as everyone involved had masks, but without others wearing masks it turned into an unacceptable risk.
I notice my skepticism that things fit into these windows. A mask is a modest risk reduction. Even if we are super generous to both masks in general and mask use in practice and say 75% reduction between the two scenarios, a factor of four is actually rather unlikely to change the answer here. Which suggests that the masks are serving more of a symbolic ritual purpose, rather than anything else.
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Bill Gates tests positive for Covid, properly treats it as an annoying need to isolate.
I don’t see why this is worrisome. If a covid-positive person is wearing a ventless N95 (or better) respirator, the chance of them infecting other maskless people is miniscule. This is due to the fact that even if a small amount of aerosols leaked from the respirator’s faceseal, it would be quickly diluted, especially in spaces (including terminals and flights) using any kind of ventilation system. Another thing to consider is that people that don’t use respirators already accept the risk of becoming infected at any time.
I don’t see why this is worrisome. If a covid-positive person is wearing a ventless N95 (or better) respirator, the chance of them infecting other maskless people is miniscule. This is due to the fact that even if a small amount of aerosols leaked from the respirator’s faceseal, it would be quickly diluted, especially in spaces (including terminals and flights) using any kind of ventilation system. Another thing to consider is that people that don’t use respirators already accept the risk of becoming infected at any time.