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SCIENCEThursday 22 March 2018
Want to avoid the flu while flying? Try a window seat
By MIKE STOBBE an aisle seat.
AP Medical Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Worried About 80 percent of peo-
about catching a cold or
the flu on an airplane? Get ple sitting on the aisle
a window seat, and don't
leave it until the flight is moved at least once dur-
over.
That's what some experts ing their flights, compared
have been saying for years,
and it's perhaps the best with 62 percent in middle
advice coming out of a
new attempt to determine seats and 43 percent in
the risks of catching germs
on an airplane. window seats.
It turns out there's been lit-
tle research on the risks of —The 11 people sitting clos-
catching a cold or flu dur-
ing air travel. Some experts est to a person with a cold
believed that sitting in a
window seat would keep or flu are at the highest risk.
a passenger away from in-
fectious people who may That included two people
be on the aisle or moving
around. sitting to their left, the two
The new study, published
Monday, came to the to their right, and people
same conclusion.
For somebody who doesn't in the row immediately in
want to get sick, "get in
that window seat and don't front of them and those in
move," the study's lead re-
searcher, Vicki Stover Hertz- the row behind.
berg of Emory University in
Atlanta. A lot of frequent fliers will be
The study was ambitious:
Squads of researchers jet- interested in the study's re-
ted around the U.S. to test
cabin surfaces and air for sults, said Edward Pizzarello,
viruses and to observe how
people came into contact an investor in a Washing-
with each other.
But it also had shortcom- In this July 11, 2017, file photo, a United Airlines plane lands at San Francisco International Airport. ton-area venture-capital
ings. In a total of 10 flights, Associated Press firm who also writes a travel
they observed only one blog . "It's absolutely a fear
person coughing. And
though the experiment was Co. The Chicago-based jet But it's a novel study about trigued by the study's find- I hear from people all the
done during a flu season
five years ago, they didn't manufacturer also recruit- a subject that hasn't been ings about how people time. They just believe that
find even one of 18 cold
and flu viruses they tested ed one of the research- well researched, they said. moved about the cabin they're going to get sick
for.
It's possible that the re- ers, Georgia Tech's How- Studies have looked at how and came in contact with from going on an airplane,
searchers were unlucky, in
that they were on planes ard Weiss, and had input respiratory viruses spread each other. or they got sick from being
that happened to not have
sick people on them, Hertz- in the writing of the results. in labs and in homes, but It found: on an airplane," he said.
berg said.
The new study was initiat- "But there was no particu- "this is the first time I've —About 38 percent of Pizzarello said he's an aisle
ed and funded by Boeing
lar pressure to change stuff seen it done for airplanes," passengers never left their person, because he doesn't
or orient it one way or the said Seema Lakdawala, a seat, 38 percent left once, want to feel trapped in the
other," Hertzberg said. University of Pittsburgh bi- 13 percent left twice, and window seat if he needs to
The article was released ologist who studies how flu 11 percent left more than get up. Will he now go for
by the Proceedings of the spreads. twice. the window?
National Academy of Sci- She and others not involved —Not surprisingly, a lot of Maybe, he said, if a sick
ences. in the research were in- the people getting up had person sits next to him.q
The researchers did some
mathematical modeling Researcher captures striking
and computer simulations
to determine how likely Antarctic video of minke whale
people were to come close
to a hypothetical infectious
passenger sitting in an aisle of one swimming underwa- problems. A researcher at
seat on the 14th row of a ter near Antarctica. Now the University of Canter-
single-aisle airplane. They In this Jan. 31, 2018, image she thinks they're beautiful. bury, Eisert said they were
concluded that on aver- supplied by Dr Regina Eisert Eisert said the whales look in Antarctica this year
age, only one person on a of the University of Canterbury similar from the surface mainly to research orcas
flight of about 150 passen- a minke whale floats to the but that she gained a new in the Ross Sea. But she
gers would be infected. surface through the ice in Mc- appreciation for their indi- said their observations of
Researchers who were not Murdo Sound, Antarctica. viduality after seeing the minke whales could shed
involved said it would be markings on one up close. new light on their feeding
Associated Press
difficult to use the relatively By NICK PERRY She said her team got the patterns. "Baleen whales
small study to make any WELLINGTON, New Zea- underwater video by luck. are an important part of
general conclusions about land (AP) — Marine mam- They'd planned to film un- the ecosystem, but they're
the risks of an airline pas- mal expert Dr. Regina Eisert derwater for two weeks grossly understudied," she
senger getting a cold or flu, thought minke whales were but managed to get just said. The conventional
let alone other diseases like a little boring until she cap- 90 minutes of footage be- thinking has been that min-
measles or tuberculosis. tured some striking footage fore running into technical ke whales mainly chase krill,
Eisert said. But she couldn't
see any krill where the
whales were swimming, so
she thinks they may have
been chasing small schools
of fish. She hopes they will
be able to find out more
about what the whales eat
after taking a tiny amount
of skin and blubber from
the minke whales using a
modified tranquilizer gun.q
