dddc

This thread got me curious to see what masks are currently available to buy. I think I may start wearing them. Not because of the coronavirus, but rather from a pollution aspect! However having lived and worked nearly 3 decades in Zones 1 and 2 of London I think any damage has probably already been done!

chipmaster

The real reason to wear mask!

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/o...effective.html

ajdj

BA crew on one of my flights last week jokingly asked a mask wearing passenger if he was contagious before telling him that the mask he was wearing was pointless.

I was coming back from 5 weeks travelling around South East Asia and on every airline I used the staff wore masks, apart from BA.

I certainly didn’t feel the need to wear one. Good and regular hand washing is key. I had some hand sanitiser for when that wasn’t always easy out and about.

drvannostren

I'll be in Tirana next week, I'll let you know if I catch it!

FLYGVA

I would not be too concerned in regard to your destinations.

I am in Asia and even here is - as mentioned by others - the situation very different. In Taiwan, not wearing a mask in public is the exception. Put aside the usefull / uselessness of wearing a mask, I wear one myself. Especially in crowded undergrounds. In hotels, staff is wearing masks, but most guests do not. But I think this is mandatory right now for them. Some hotels (like the Hilton) put a plastic cover over button ins elevators to easier clean them. Sanitizer bottles were placed in all public places and on every floor.

In Singapore, is was quite different. Not many people wear them in public places. Kuala Lumpur was the same with the only difference that sanitizer were less frequently available in the hotels on floors and in public places.

Staff tend to wear mask as front desk, but not in the exceutive lounge unless doing food services.

In planes, all TG flight attendants wore mask on BKK - TPE. No masks for MH flight attendants on KUL - TPE and KUL - SIN vv. Some wear mask in Economy on TPE - KUL (Business load was low on all flights).
If you want to be on the save side, use a sanitary nap to clean tray tables, seats and button of inlifght entertainment system, scree, seat adjustments. But this could also be a general advice. I wore a mask on KUL - TPE, but given that the air was chilly, that was simply to avoid a cold myself. One passengers wore mask, gloves and cleaned the area around his seat with a packet of sanitizers naps before taking the seat. But he ate without gloves, which made his efforts in my eyes a bit useless.

To sum up - enjoy your travel, just be a bit more carefull it it comes to touching things and your face afterwards with your hand. And do not overreact. Personally, dying on the way to the airport in a car accident is still at a higher risk than getting infected by Coronavirs. But that is of course my own personal point of view.

FLYGVA

Thanks for this article, this sums it up quite well - especially the last paragraph

Yeoman5

Surprisingly no one appeared to be wearing masks on my half-full (or half-empty, depending on your outlook) BA11 LHR-SIN flight last week, including no crew doing so. I saw one couple pop them on when leaving the aircraft. Also surprisingly very few wearing them in the airport. Plenty on my subsequent SQ flight to Oz with most crew doing so.

Starship73

I think we're seeing the novelty factor beginning to literally 'wear off', as people realise masks are relatively expensive to obtain, uncomfortable to wear and difficult to dispose of properly. Meanwhile the persistent scientific and medical advice that wearing them is ineffective is finally beginning to sink in.

cupsandsaucers

Well, I'm flying to, through and around London today. While I'm not going to wear a mask I am going to pop a few pairs of disposable surgical gloves in my bag. Might seem extreme and look bizare paired with a suit but I think I'm going to wear them through security and any other high contact areas. The amount of people who touch those security trays!
I might look a bit silly but I can live with that to be honest.

SarahWest

Remember to take the mask off when you get to the biometric passport gates. Arriving back at LGW last week the passenger next to me didn't and she couldn't understand why 'computer said no'

Wong Jnr

So last night I'm on a flight from LGW to SIN, and this Asian couple who take their seats near to me and the wife has taken things way way to the extreme. They were the last to board and she comes on with the mask OK fine, perhaps 3 other people on the plane are wearing one, BUT she's also got lab goggles on and wearing surgical gloves

Funniest thing is when her husband pulls down his mask, she berates him to say that everybody is looking at him for pulling it down. Err no I think everybody is actually looking at you for your getup and drawing attention to yourself

Doesn't end after the flight either, so we get off the flight and there's a sanitising spray which she uses while her gloves are still on, ok weird. Then we get to immigration and now she has to take her gloves off and use the finger print scanner, so out comes her own hand sanitiser and then after those machines are once again hand sanitisers which she uses. I'm chuckling all the way and the husband by now has removed his mask and she berates him one more time for the road, saying how do you expect a taxi to let us in the cab without a mask...
At this point I've had my fill of entertainment and zoom past them. Serious case of the Covid-19 OCDs

cupsandsaucers

I see your story and raise you..

Grace B

Well, this thread has raised a lot of interesting points.

My partner and I already have a stock of N95 masks because of the recent thick bushfire smoke in our region. We are booked to travel to the Pacific islands, south east Asia and the middle east next month, and would certainly be taking them with us to wear when considered appropriate (that's for us to decide).

However, with the wider spread of the virus and the impossibility of knowing who you will sit or stand near, we have decided to cancel our trips. I take the point that there appears to be only a small risk of catching the virus, but as we are over 60 and have minor ailments that go with the territory (such as hypertension) we are immediately in a higher risk category.

And you can take all the precautions you like in terms of hand sanitation, etc, but if some infected person coughs or sneezes close by, it's all for nought, as I discovered a few years ago with the flu, where I ended up very close to death's door. At least with flu you can get a vaccination that will give you a fighting chance of avoiding it.

But, each to their own. It's a personal choice.

Tobias-UK

There is an interesting piece on this topic by National Geographic, it's a short piece and the title itself actually provides adequate synopsis:

Here’s how coronavirus spreads on a plane—and the safest place to sit

cupsandsaucers

Just been through GLA on way the LGW. No sign of any masks or gloves or anything other than "business as usual". Plane is notably considerably less than full though. That's fairly unusual.