Took a flight from Zürich to Seattle last Friday. Covid testing is no longer mandatory and masks are voluntary. My traveling companion is now down with Covid.

Be careful everyone and wear those masks. We didn’t.

We know 10 people who have traveled by plane in the past 90 days. Seven of them tested positive the day after returning home. I don't know if it's the airports or the planes, but AFAIK all 10 were very careful, wore masks, used sanitizer, etc. The current variants are just extremely contagious....

I also got Covid for the first time after a flight back to Seattle from Hawaii last month (could have been a day earlier perhaps, but I really think it was the airport/flight). Almost no one was masked including me; maybe 3% of passengers plus the flight crew.

I can't fathom why the generally over-60 group on Fodors won't wear a proper N-95 when on a plane especially before it takes off when the ventilation isn't working. Those lines at TSA are another nightmare.

There are certainly a lot of so-called careful people who have caught the latest variant, often while traveling. Eating indoors is a pet peeve of mine.

My hubs tested positive today he went to crowded funeral on Sunday.

We haven’t flown anywhere lately. I am still on cautious side,

We came home from Italy 2 weeks ago and masking is mandatory on Air Canada-I would mask even if it wasn’t. It was mandatory on domestic Italian flights when we were first there but I think they have dropped that. However it was mandatory on trains and buses and N 95 was expected. Everyone was complying.
My friend and I got Covid but I think we got it while shopping in Rome a couple days before leaving and I think we caught it by being unmasked outside, the streets were packed and we should have masked but it was 37 degrees. We did mask inside stores.
‘I started to feel sick on the flight home and tested positive at home, my husband tested negative and felt fine but 2 days later he was sick too.
He is fine now and I am still pretty sick. This is my second case of Covid.I have had every nasty symptom you can think of, the worst was the day of vomiting when I truly thought death would be preferable.

Those who tested positive a day after getting home had Covid before they flew. Incubation is between 2 and more generally 5 days from contact, and probably at their most infections with Omicron and it's variants 2 days before symptoms appear. You are also most likely to get a false negative test during that period.

This is part of the problem. Presumably some of these 10 people in the last 90 days flew when a negative test was still required. But they flew and then tested positive when they got home. For every masked person traveling like this there are a few that are not wearing a mask.. and a lot of people are asymptomatic.

For months and years I did not know that many people who have got Covid. Now it seems like everybody just had it, has it, or is about to get it.

Exactly.

And yet YOU aren't positive, correct? Makes you wonder, epidemiologically

Dukey1, I don’t have any symptoms yet so I haven’t taken the test. It doesn’t mean I’m not positive. I also had Covid in February so I may still have antibodies.

Meanwhile, my friend has just had a bout of vomiting

Los Angeles health department recommends masks when outdoors in crowded places, raincitygirl.

That probably includes both Waikiki and Rome. Risks increased by being around actively exercising and loudly talking people.

One of my few friends who has remained uninfected since the beginning has started wearing her mask again when going to the gym. She goes early when the treadmills are mostly empty as well as NO group fitness, only personal training with one other person.

Knock on wood, I'm also one of the lucky so far uninfected despite taking numerous trips but who knows when my luck will run out. I wasn't so happy about the refrigerator delivery guys who didn't wear masks as advertised. I figure by tomorrow I'll be in the clear.

I wonder how many people on a long flight NEVER take that mask off to eat or drink. There are going to be infected passengers on most flights. Do you feel lucky? Especially with all of the silent superspreaders?

My brother’s family went to Fl-Universal with extended family of his wife. Now back snd nephew and sister in law have it. I’m pretty sure they did not mask.

I just got my second booster as it’s been 10 months since the first. Was going to wait but the revised one won’t be out till Oct. I think I had BA 1 in February.

haven’t flown since last July just took train to NY a few times. I do want to travel, am hoping it won’t be crowded in early Dec going to Zurich.

I tested positive 3 days after returning home from Portugal. My husband tested positive 5 days after. It was no doubt in my mind that it was on the plane as we sat for several hours due to delays.

My super cautious sister who wears 2 masks when she is outside as well as inside, never eats indoors, wears masks whenever she shops, and hasn’t traveled further than taking a bus for a short distance from her apartment, just contracted COVID. It is a very contagious variant.

I’ve lost count how many people I know who have recently contracted COVID. But no one I know was seriously ill. Yes, it’s annoying, yes, you feel crappy, but I felt a lot worse a few years ago with a bad bronchial cold. My point is that this is a new normal. It’s not the COVID of the earlier pandemic. No one wants to get COVID but it’s not a death sentence. I’m not minimizing the fact that people with underlying health concerns might be at risk for serious problems with COVID, but for the vast majority, it’s not generally serious (unless you have other issues that put you at risk).

Darwin was right. Survival of the fittest, for viruses, means that any variant that is not stopped by resistance to previous variants and by the vaccines will be the variant that spreads. Any variant with high infectivity and/or infectious with a smaller exposure will also spread. The early variety may have had a social distancing distance of 6 feet, but the omicrons are as infectious as measles, which has a 30 foot distancing, so social distancing is entirely impractical, plus situations where people are less than 30 feet apart could be considered crowded.

The covid situation will not reach a tolerable situation until we have readily available safe cheap antiviral medication and/or a universal corona virus vaccine (that is, a vaccine that targets another part of the virus other than the spike protein). A random possibility would be a very infectious variant that causes only minimal symptoms and provides wide immunity to all other corona virus variants.

In other words, we're in for it for years.

I don't understand the comment about Kleeblatt not testing positive so it makes you wonder. COVID has been around a couple years now and plenty of people don't contract it in the same situation as others. Not to mention, the others could have been closer to someone who had it in any situation in the airport or plane or before. Some people just catch things easier than others, also, that's true for lots of infectious diseases. There is nothing remotely unbelievable or even unusual about such a situation. I know the airlines tout about how the air is purified and how safe it is, etc. Sure, but if you are sitting right next to someone expelling it, you are a lot more likely to get it than someone sitting 6 rows away.

I am always surprised at how many people don't wear masks in close proximity to others. I don't mind wearing them at all in stores or on buses, etc., I'm not there that long that it's a big deal. I would prefer not to on a plane, sure, but I do (an N95). Luckily, my last plane ride I sat next to someone from Switzerland who was very rigorous about wearing an N95 mask, also. I also wore one in the airport, but lots of people weren't even though there were signs all over saying it was required (this was DEN a few months ago).

In Los Angeles County, the number of weekly Covid deaths has doubled over the last month. Hospitalizations are also on the rise. If the numbers remain high for the next two weeks, L.A. County will re-impose the indoor mask mandate.

"There's a lot of misinformation circulating about Covid right now, including that, at this point, it only causes mild illness," said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. "Unfortunately, this isn't true. While we're not seeing anywhere near the devastation this summer that we saw during last winter's Omicron surge, we are seeing much higher case numbers than we saw during the peak of the Delta surge. It's unlikely that we are at the peak of our recent surge, given the increased circulation of new subvariants."

The fact that you don't personally know anyone who has become seriously ill with Covid may be more a reflection that your acquaintances are of a higher socio-economic level. As with previous surges, the poor are being hospitalized and are dying at higher rates.

I think that is a good idea, and will be masking outdoors in crowded situations in future no matter how hot and uncomfortable. I'm still too sick to go back to the gym but it's a small personal trainer type gym and my trainer and I are usually the only people there. I don't agree with people who say covid is just annoying and not all that bad. I have had it twice, both times sick as hell (and I have lifelong experience with sinusitus, flus, pneumonia etc) and it has been very long lasting for me. I guess I'm just susceptible. However I do know quite a few healthy younger people late 20s, 30s who also had nasty covid. My Dr was just telling me all her patients with covid right now are having a rough time of it.
Roll on the new vaccine and let's hope that works.

I definitely know people with lingering brain fog (at least they blame it on COVID).

If you think it's bad on planes, the cruise ships are worse and it's rampant in Alaska, for example. Just like in the old days with the "cruise crud", coughing everywhere and no masks in elevators or on tour buses and the virus passes from passenger to crew and back. Glad I snuck in my two cruises before the current variant and when the ships were 20-25% capacity (plus at the time the jabs helped prevent infection).

Good luck to all who choose to (or must) travel or attend mass events. I cancelled a conference I had planned to attend in early September. And I think I'm going to skip our ice cream social next week.

The virus is not only found on planes. It can be found with your coworkers neighbors and friends.
I would assume everyone who say they have had it were fully vaccinated at the time.
Some travel rules do not make sense. those have vaccinated/medal certificates are mixed in with those that are not.
Maybe it is all too early to travel.

I will add that any member who is thinking about taking a winter vacation should err on the safe side and hold off. Restrictions could be back with us if these rises continue.