Another “more germs than a toilet seat” study and resultant media explosion

I’m torn between wanting to ignore this story and wanting to attack the media reports on the study.   I think I’ll compromise on a minimum set of complaints. Firstly, the paper itself (“Deposition of respiratory virus pathogens on frequently touched surfaces at airports“) is more or less fine.   The authors used real-time PCR to look …

Will you wear an N-95 respirator on your next flight? or in the airport?

Lots of attention to disease transmission and illness related to air travel lately. A new paper in the journal Indoor Air suggests that if passengers would wear N-95 respirators when they fly, they could significantly reduce their risk of infection. You can read the paper “Risk assessment of airborne infectious diseases in aircraft cabins” at …

Very interesting story “Destination — not the flight — more likely to make you sick”

Very very interesting article in the Globe and Mail by Alex Hutchinson: Destination — not the flight — more likely to make you sick, study says – The Globe and Mail.  The article discusses the issue of people (well, mostly athletes) getting sick when they travel.  What is fascinating is that a few lines of evidence indicate …

Airports, germs and contagion networks

A paper from MIT researchers, A Metric of Influential Spreading during Contagion Dynamics through the Air Transportation Network, a study of contagion dynamics shows that airports are among the more hazardous locations on your travel itinerary. Published in PLoS One, the paper is freely downloadable at this link The authors write: “Characterizing the early-time behavior …