Originally Posted by
dcoded
Or any other form of public transport, like the bus or the train.
Why is it that the public avoid air travel like the plague, when the same threat of contagion exist on the local bus or train?
i just don’t get it.
US passenger here, I might be able to give an answer for myself at least. On Monday, before the latest round of travel bans, we canceled a long (three passengers times five flight legs total) international trip, the first flight of which was to leave on Tuesday. Fear of actual infection on the plane wasn't really a big concern for us or a reason for the decision. We all figured we were just as likely to get sick staying in the US, or probably even more likely.
There were two big things that tipped us to cancel:
- Risk of being quarantined because someone twenty rows back got sick. And even if we do cross paths with someone sick here at home, two weeks self isolation is a much smaller burden at home than it is in a foreign country.
- Risk of flights getting canceled or someone with an itchy Twitter finger deciding that he needs to look tough and decisive and Protect the Borders from the Foreign Virus Problem, so that the return home falls through. Three weeks (when we were due to return) seemed long in Pandemic Time and it just isn't very clear what the political reaction will have gotten to in one week, let alone three.
We thought these risks were a lot higher than the risk of actually getting infected on the plane.
Does that help you understand the thought process?