This stinks

It may have annoyed me (and every other smoker on a long haul flight) when governments, followed by airlines, decided to ban smoking on planes, but it made the airlines themselves very happy, because it meant they could save money.

When smoking was allowed, airlines had to spend money sucking smoky air out of planes and sucking fresh air in. Now, as far as they were concerned, they no longer had to bother with this. So they stopped. Hardly a surprise to learn that the number of people who got sick after flying increased exponentially as passengers sat in cabins for three, five, nine or more hours breathing in whatever germs their fellow passengers were breathing out. Win for the anti-smoking lobby (and the bottom line of the airlines). Loss for the general health of everyone flying.

Covid, of course, shut air travel down completely in 2020. When the airlines started to lobby for normal service to resume they were told they’d have to bring back fresh air, which they did. Along with the mask requirement that caused fist fights on US flights.

The mask mandate is now gone. I don’t know this for a fact, but I am prepared to bet the fresh air is, too.

A friend came to visit me recently. It was her first plane journey in at least four years. I was surprised when she told me she had not worn a mask during the flight. Nor, of course, had anyone else. This is someone who has been very cautious since the pandemic began. 

Five days into her visit she started to feel sick. By the time she left two days later she had a stinking cold.  Multiple tests indicated it was just that: a cold, not Covid.

Four days after she left I had a tickly throat and the sneezles. Yesterday I felt like shit. Didn’t make it out of the house. Didn’t even make it out of my dressing gown.  I still feel like shit today. 

Three years of being careful. Two of those wearing masks in shops (and on my flight to London last summer and on every train I took whilst there) long after the majority of the population – and government health authorities – had thrown in the towel. Not one sick day. 

As I said to her after she got home, I always thought it would be stranger danger that go me, but, no, it was one of my oldest and dearest friends. Apparently you can’t trust anyone.

Okay, I am being facetious here. It was absolutely lovely to see her after such a long time. A cold seems a small price to pay. But still.

I am one of a handful of people I know who has managed to dodge Covid completely. At least that’s still true.