If you're traveling by airplane for vacation soon and don't want to ruin your trip by getting Covid or giving it to the friends or relatives you're visiting, check out this handy guide by Clean Air Club. It's chock-full of tips and tricks for reducing your chances of catching Covid in airports and on airplanes. The guide includes the following sections: Before the Airport: Gear, Before the Airport: Prep, Before the Airport: Last Minute Before Indoors, Mask Up from Start to Finish, On the Plane, On the Plane Part 2, After You Land, After You Land Part 2, and Citations (including studies on the efficacy of masks, nasal sprays, mouthwashes, and more).
In each section, the guide provides information about best practices and suggests various mitigation tools like masks, saline rinses, mouthwashes, C02 monitors, nasal sprays, and more. "Before the Airport: Gear," for instance, reads:
If possible, invest in some gear that will help you navigate plane travel. We recommend N-95 masks, the Sip Valve (practice beforehand), glasses (prescription or not), a portable far-UVC lamp or portable purifier, a portable CO2 monitor, antiviral nasal spray, mouthwash with cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), antiviral herbal tinctures, and a neti pot.
The list of suggestions might feel daunting and buying all of the precautionary gear suggested certainly adds up and is not in everyone's budgets. But you can reduce your risk of catching Covid by implementing even one or two of the strategies—and that's helpful for everyone!
ABOUT CLEAN AIR CLUB: A year ago I shared news about Chicago-based Clean Air Club and their efforts to help make arts venues more Covid-safe. They are still going strong, providing air purifiers for free to musicians, artists, music venues, and galleries. In the last year, the clean air movement has continued to spread in the arts, and there are now similar groups in many other cities—here's a map showing where many are located. If your city isn't on the map and you want to start your own clean air organization, here's a how-to guide.
