Disease Transmission on Aircraft - Howard WeissFirst the latex gloves go on, the antiseptic wipes come out, and then Naomi Campbell gets to work. A video recently posted by the supermodel on YouTube shows the extraordinary hygiene routine she undertakes every time she takes a flight. But should we all be going to such extreme lengths to protect ourselves from germs while flying? Well, ultimately, where you are sat on a flight can dictate what lurgies you end up with. Howard Weiss, a biomathematician and professor in the School of Math at the Georgia Institute of Technology, modelled behaviour on flights and calculated the risks of becoming ill with airborne diseases. “Direct transmission of diseases such as flu is very unlikely beyond passengers seated about a metre away from the infected passenger,” says Weiss. “For flu, I think the worst case was overall there would be two additional infections in the entire economy cabin.”
