If you empty the middle rows of planes, passengers could limit exposure to the coronavirus during flights by a third, suggests a study released Wednesday.
The results of the new CDC and Kansas State University study come after Delta became the last major airline from May 1 to end the practice of emptying the middle row of seats for remote passengers.
“Research suggests that sitting near aircraft is associated with an increased risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2,” begins the study led by Watts Dietrich of the CDC.
However, how much risk remains unclear.
In the study, researchers approximated the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in aircraft cabins with viruses attacking bacteria to simulate the coronavirus (these bacteriophages are harmless to humans). Similar modeling has been used in the past, for example, to determine the risks of exposure to anthrax on metros.
The aircraft simulations showed a 23% reduction in exposure for the nearest scenario: a person separated by an empty middle seat from an infected passenger, compared to sitting right next to them.
For a simulation of three rows of airline seats, the decrease in exposure was 57% for passengers separated by empty middle seats from infected persons.
Overall, the study suggested that emptying the middle seats reduces the risk for all passengers from 35% to 39% on flights with one to three infected passengers.
It is noteworthy that the study looked only at exposure to viral particles, not the actual transmission of diseases, where people who have been fully vaccinated need a lot of protection. The study also could not influence the effects of masks to reduce exposure risks, the researchers noted, but they cited some studies that suggest that masks do not block all viral particles released by infected passengers as aerosols.
“The combination of the effects of masking and distancing is more protective than in itself,” they concluded.
The CDC recommends that you do not fly until you are fully vaccinated, and that travelers should wear masks while flying.