The middle seat is not the problem.

The lack of gate-based ventilation is.

In 2013 I led work on this Nat'l Acad of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report:

"Infectious Disease Mitigation in Airports and on Aircraft"

Note the highlighted sentence about pandemics

THREAD https://twitter.com/SouthwestAir/status/1319292261599903746

Here it is: "Airport operators and airlines should make preparations to provide gate-based ventilation to all parked aircraft in the event of an emergency or pandemic."

(I'll also note that one of our other key recommendations, in 2013, was that airports and airlines should have a pandemic response plan....)

The perception that the airplane cabin is a hotbed of transmission doesn't agree with the science on outbreaks and our understanding of the environmental control system on airplanes.

I wrote about it in May: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/18/airplanes-dont-make-you-sick-really/

During a flight, the risks are quite low. Read the op-ed to see why.

And the new study by DoD adds to that weight conclusion.

It shows that the engineering controls are playing a big role. (still, masks are important) https://twitter.com/cedenolaurent/status/1319333976541200388?s=20

This doesn't mean there aren't areas for improvement.

I used the op-ed as an opportunity to again raise the recommendation we made back in 2013:

"Airlines should ensure gate-based ventilation is operating during boarding and disembarkation"

Also want to note this is not a call for everyone to rush back to flying. As I wrote:

"Before we go any further, let’s make one thing clear: Airplanes are certainly vectors of disease, efficiently transporting infectious people around countries and the globe."

But back to the main reason I started this thread

Focusing on the middle seat is the wrong thing to focus on.

There are actual issues that deserve attention.

Gate-based ventilation is one.

Full ACRP Report 91 here:
http://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/169466.aspx

Want some evidence that ventilation is low during boarding? We published a peer-reviewed paper on this in 2019.

Figure from the paper shows measured CO2 during flight phases (link to paper at end of thread)

Turns out that during boarding, airplanes in our study weren't meeting the specified ventilation rate 58% of time

(FAR = Federal Aviation Regulations)

Work was a collaboration with other researchers involved in an FAA Center of Excellence focused on air quality in the airplane cabin.

Link to study: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1420326X18793997