If I had to ride the NYC Subway & walk around in Manhattan right now, I'd probably invest in some Walter White gear. I don't think it's necessary on airplanes though as they seem to be rather sterile these days.

The passengers aren't sterile, though (at least not in the sense you're using the word), nor are their exhalations escaping around the loose edges of makeshift, ill-fitting, granny-sewn bandannas -- even assuming passengers keep them on every minute of the flight. Kinda hard to eat those cookies through a mask? "Rather sterile?" Methinks not.

Citation, svp?

If the chances of dying in an aircraft accident was 0.01% I would think Flyertalk audience would decrease quite quickly :D

Complete nonsense stats pulled from a blog.

Aye.
What many seem to misunderstand is that the usually cited "Odds of Dying" from something is over one's LIFETIME.
Some often use that number and compare it to odds of dying of COVID-19 once infected. Others 'quote' [unknown] odds of dying of COVID-19 overall (COVID-19 has only been around for ~1/2 year); and yet others produce some further odd comparison using dubious, incompatible data.

This is a list from the National Safety Council from a few years ago (for the US).
https://www.nsc.org/work-safety/tool...ry-facts/chart

Here's some NSC info on odds of dying from COVID-19:
https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-inju...odds-of-dying/
(...Currently, COVID-19 trends are changing too rapidly to confidently anticipate future risk levels....)

Well that's utterly useless information.

I've been on ~50 flights (maybe a few more) since the end of Feb. Mostly domestic, but a few international as well.

Mast compliance, esepcially recently, has been high.

People wearing more intensive PPE (tyvex suits, respirators, etc) are out there - I'd average I see 3-4 before each flight in major airports.

I'm sure people may cast them occasional askance glances, but I don't believe they've experienced any true hassles because of the gear. The only thing I can offer is to make sure TSA can view your face at the checkpoint. With a standard mask, just lower it for a second. If you add a hood, etc - you should have a plan in place, if needd, to don/doff.

Note: I see a mod removed an image - so if my reply isn't geared to what you were discussing, sorry - made my best guess.

Mask refusers on flights when it's mandatory
 

Took my first flight today in months and it was a flight where masks were mandatory.

Absolutely full - not a single seat left - and given contact tracing, I was quite keen on it being a safe flight.

Not to stereotype but men between the ages of 40 to 60 appear to do anything possible to not wear a mask. Nearly all in this category, plus some others, had them over their mouth only in the waiting area at best.

On the plane despite the many announcements many had them off too. The poor flight attendants kept pointing it out and asking them to put it over their mouth and nose.

The guy next to me did so when asked and as soon as the attendant went past, he took it off again.

It being my first flight during the pandemic I was slightly on edge so I, much to my own surprise, spoke to and asked him to put it on.

As far as I am concerned; whether you like it or not, it's mandatory, so do it.

He proceeded to yelling at me in front of the whole plane and during the entire flight, he was panting as if to make a point that he could barely breathe in the mask or something. He did keep it on anyway.

So awkward. But, whether you like it or not, how hard is it to follow the rules? We all know what to expect on a plane now.

​​​​​

It's up to the crew to deal with it, passengers have no right to talk to passengers about it, if there is an issue, raise it with the crew.

What happens if you ask about the mask and they say they are exempt?
Don't forget that some people are exempt.

I hope you won't be starting a riot about this!

Also I noticed some people are eating and drinking on the flight and taking off their mask, which is allowed.
Will you get angry at people for taking 'too long to eat'?

Please don't call everyone who find masks hard to deal with mask refusers.

Agree about letting the crew handle all problems in general, especially ones where a friendly request is likely to be rejected with hostility.

However I call BS on the exempt nonsense. Reminds me of the ESAs aka emotional support animals and similar nonsense. If your breathing is so labored that you can't wear a mask then you should not fly and expose yourself and others to pathogens. This thing is never gonna get contained until people get religion about masks and avoiding parties, bars and other in-your-face indoor spaces.

The exempt is BS, most medical professionals recognize it. Passengers should have no issue asking neighbors to wear sit, and if they refuse to do so I would ask to be offloaded and rebooked. I would have no problem reporting the airline to the health regulatory agency. I would like to remind some airlines like AF take that seriously and refusal to wear a mask is treated as not following safety instructions, thus deboarding by the police and if warranted a diversion.

The airlines allow it, so people's opinions don't matter. Some people find it hard to manage masks, especially for hours on end. Those cheap masks people wear are next to useless, the only mask I find actually is effective would be N95 type masks. It is true some airlines are stricter than others, just like some countries are stricter than others. The UK and Switzerland are among the most liberal mask wearing countries, so it is natural their airlines are the least strict. Germany is reasonable as well. France, Greece and Spain would be the strictest, most US airlines allow for exemptions on medical grounds.

The virus will never be 'contained' unless you do a New Zealand and hide, lock the doors and throw the keys to the country away; it will die out on its own naturally/with vaccine. Sweden didn't do much to contain it, and they are doing quite well right now.

And stop hating on the bars/masks so much, in the UK all the bars are open, no one is wearing a mask, and it's looking good so far, as I said mainly due to London having already had millions of cases, so a good amount of immunity, but not complete herd immunity.

UK and Sweden being treated as pariah states is starting to get boring, the UK actually has quite a low infection rate, 380 new cases yesterday out of a population of 60,000,000 people with 200,000 or so tests, so an infection rate very very low, per capita the same as 'success story' Greece! Two towns have issues, they are densely populated and never had a first wave unlike London, so are very vulnerable.

I agree on one thing though; people are terrified of others without a mask, so if you are not wearing a mask, Business Class is the best place to be as you are never sitting directly next to someone. Some crew will give you the benefit of the doubt if you show them an inhaler, others will insist on a doctor's note, it's very inconsistent, just like the 'Science'. At the airport it is easier to not wear a mask, but social distance from everyone.

If you are not within 2 meters of someone, really not easy to pass the virus, assuming we are all infected 100% of the time, which everyone loves to do these days.

I took a flight with Swiss when masks were recommended and not mandatory a few weeks ago and I never wore one at any point; the person in front of me was staring at me a lot, although I don't know what his issue was as he was wearing a face mask, a face shield, a plastic covering all over him, and gloves, and I was sitting 2 meters from him, so was clearly quite well protected! I guess he didn't like the fact that I was not worried about it as much as he was, despite taking reasonable precautions myself, washing my hands etc, keeping my distance from people etc.

I naturally social distance anyway, was never much of a hugger!

Reporting them for what? Airlines introduced compulsory masks as a commercial decision, most regulators don't require them.