(2021-01-15) Covid19 Exposure On Flights Is More Common Than You Think; The US Doesnt Share Details But Canada Does

COVID-19 exposure on airline flights is more common than you think. The US doesn't share details, but Canada does. Data from Canadian public health authorities show a near daily occurrence of flights where a passenger may have been infected while flying.

On the list: U.S. carriers American, United, Delta, Alaska and Allegiant. The U.S. cities with the most affected flights on the list: Chicago, Phoenix, a magnet for Canadian visitors, and Denver.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) doesn't publish a list of affected flights, nor do U.S. airlines.

The CDC has revealed little information on the scope of COVID-19 exposure on flights except to release, when requested, the number of affected flights. The latest tally: more than 4,000 flights within and into the United States.

That number has more than doubled since August and compares with infectious disease investigations on just 150 flights in each of 2019 and 2018.

"You could do the same study on Greyhound buses or Amtrak trains or the subway

travel has been strongly rebounding in the U.S. There were 2.1 million international passenger arrivals between Dec. 1 and Dec. 28, he said, an average of 76,000 passengers a day and quadruple the number of passengers in June.

Cetron also said publishing the list of flights is not contact tracing; it's the first step in a contact investigation. "All Canada really does is the first step,"" Cetron said. "That's a notification. We could do that." Yet they don't.

The CDC's advice on travel, which has gained an urgent tone since Thanksgiving: Don't do it.