For obvious reasons due to the coronavirus pandemic, so many people are actively *not* flying right now at all within the United States.
But for people who have emergencies, have to travel for some form of work, or flying is the only option for them to be able to see their families after months of quarantine, I feel for them!
However, a new study has found that there IS a way for airline travel to be a lot safer for those who feel they have no other choice than to fly, and the solution benefits the traveler for more than just health reasons: it is eliminating bookings in the middle seats on planes.
Obviously no one loves sitting in the middle seat, especially on long flights, but there's a chance that airlines will be eliminating them for the foreseeable future in order to significantly lower the risk of coronavirus spreading on flights.
A new study out of MIT says taking out the middle seats on flights would lower the risk by 50 percent.
The paper, which should be noted has yet to be peer-reviewed, says the risk of getting COVID-19 from nearby passengers on a full flight is about 1 in 4,300. But this new research says that the risk drops to 1 in 7,700 when the middle seat is not booked.
Some airlines have already vowed to travelers that they would not book middle seats on their flights, but other airlines are still filling to capacity. My advice to anyone who IS going to be traveling right now is to look into which airlines are allowing for as much social distancing as possible on flights and book those in order to keep yourself and your loved ones safe.
And of course, wear your mask, bring your hand sanitizer, and bring extra wipes just to be safe.
Have you been thinking about traveling at all during this pandemic? Leave me a Yap!
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Photo: Getty Images
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