Masks on planes: It’s a topic of conversation that has become more and more convoluted in the past year and change. But in the gauntlet of holiday air travel, one of the most challenging factors for fliers to contend with is avoiding getting sick in overcrowded terminals and jam-packed plane cabins.
The Christmas season is usually when outbreaks of all sorts of nasty bugs and viruses start peaking across the country. As of the first week of December, at least 15 states plus New York City are experiencing high or very high levels of respiratory illness activity, according to data from the CDC. Levels are elevated or increasing across most of the country, the organization says. Illnesses tracked by the CDC include COVID, influenza, and RSV, a virus that causes mild cold-like symptoms for most people, but can be serious for infants or older adults.
“The U.S. is experiencing elevated RSV activity, particularly among young children,” says the CDC’s report. “COVID-19 activity has continued to increase, especially in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Influenza activity continues to increase in most of the country with the southeast and south-central areas of the country reporting the highest levels of activity.”
So with all of those viruses circulating throughout the country—plus the crowds at airports and on board planes—will wearing masks on planes help travelers avoid illness this season?
Experts say that wearing a face mask is still a reliable way to help decrease your chances of catching COVID or another bug that could ruin your festive travel plans. “If you want to avoid a respiratory viral infection, then you should wear a mask, and perform hand hygiene frequently,” says Dr. Bernard Camins, medical director for infection prevention at the Mount Sinai Health System.
Although wearing a mask in a crowd of people who might be freely coughing and sneezing into the air isn’t a perfect solution, it’s still worth pursuing if you want an extra layer of personal protection. “Ideally, in order to prevent transmission of respiratory viral infections more effectively, everyone should wear a mask. Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen.”
Instead, the best shot at mitigating viral exposure is to choose the right type of mask. If you’re still wearing them, ditch the cloth face coverings—which Camins says aren’t very effective—for something medical-grade. “If one decides to wear a mask, they should choose a well-fitting effective mask,” Camins says. He recommends an N95 and KN95 mask, which are thought of as a gold-standard face covering, thanks to their high-filtration ability and snug fit over the nose and mouth. These top-notch masks “are still easy to find nowadays,” Camins says.
