This is bad news. In the article linked above the prison guard and prisoner only had one minute contacts (both were masked) but they added up to 17min.
If your seatmate is coughing or becomes ill after pushback, there may not anywhere to move to. Dreadful. Or your seatmate may be the type who makes 7 pretzels or cup of water last the whole flight to keep their mask removed.
Folks will also have more prolonged and cumulative contact as Southwest gates are more crowded, bins are more crowded, etc.
The airline/IATA sponsored reports showing how rosy the situation, one even straped sensors into seats) seems to neglect that masks are removed to "eat" or "drink", and don't seem to account for passengers standing in a crowded aisle.
IIRC, One confirmed report (pre masking) on a 5hr flight confirmed that a single passenger infeced all but one person in a full business class (lots of spacing) cabin. Situation is indisputably safer now with masking.. But since masks aren't glued to faces, flying has a risk.
Last edited by expert7700; Oct 22, 2020 at 3:20 pm