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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

Lately I hear about more COVID cases that presumably started on an airplane. Therefore I am now wondering how great these ventilation systems on airplanes really are, compared to, say, those in restaurants and theaters.

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Once the plane is in the air? Fantastic! It’s when the plane is on the ground and the main power and filtration is off is where the danger is. On my last few flights I’ve brought a high quality co2 meter and it consistently hit 3000-5000PPM in the time between boarding and when the plane was moving.

What is the best response here, carry an emotional support plant / tree?

N95 mask and goggles....

"CO2 level on this @VirginAtlantic A330 indicates that it isn’t really safe to remove your mask shortly after the doors have closed. Hopefully this number will drop soon."

https://twitter.com/alexr/status/1523125114371719168

"Hey @united, it'd be great to see better fresh air circulation in your Austin airport Club. The box in the photo is a CO2 sensor measuring parts per million, and 1117 was pretty high for just a few people in the bar area at the time. Above 1000 cognitive function can be impaired."

https://twitter.com/brianbehlendorf/status/15407875450338181...

We don't hear how great the ventilation is in all the lines one has to wait in to get on the plane. If someone got COVID after a flight, it's hard to tell if they got it while the plane was in the air, or while waiting to board in or near the jetway.

The counterintuitive thing is people stand in lineups or sit shoulder-to-shoulder in airport seating with their masks off sipping coffee or eating chips, then get on the plane and put masks on.

It's possible (but not proven) that inverting this would be much safer, since on the airplane the air gets exchanged a lot.

I'm currently dealing with a Covid infection that, given the timing involved, I'm pretty sure I got on an airplane. It could have been at the airport, I suppose, but the guy sitting in the seat next to me sniffling and coughing, and with no mask on gives me a pretty good idea where I got it.

Airlines never stopped allowing CPAP in flight even though the US Government warned it is extremely dangerous to be around because it aerosolizes and projects virus particles.

Even NPR summarized the risks. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/27/8222116...

Airlines, and the regulators, are only worried about optics, not our health.

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