Should you fly or drive during the pandemic? Here are safety concerns to consider

As states continue to reopen following closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, you may be wondering whether it’s safer to fly or drive when traveling.

While experts say there’s no definitive answer, there are a number of factors to consider when deciding how to get to your destination.

The most important? Why you’re traveling at all, Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious diseases physician and vice chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America Global Health Committee, told The New York Times.

She told the newspaper that the point of limiting unnecessary travel is to promote social distancing and to help prevent transmission of the virus. While you may be able to take safety precautions on your journey, they could be nullified once you arrive, the Times reported.

“It’s about what you’re going to do when you get there,” Kuppalli said, adding that when you reach your destination, you’ll still likely be interacting with other people.

If you do deem your travel necessary, health and safety behaviors during your journey — whether by plane or car — bear heavily on the degree of risk.

“The risks of travel are usually more dependent on the personal choices of the traveler rather than the means of transport,” Dr. Daniel Griffin, an infectious disease specialist at Columbia University Medical Center, told CNN.

Still, experts say there are a number of pros and cons that might tip travelers toward one mode of transportation or another.

Driving

Business Insider ranked traveling alone by car as one of the safest modes of transit — several spots higher than flying — during the coronavirus pandemic, but it’s not without its own risks.

The chance of getting into an accident or having car trouble — which could both result in unexpected interactions with other people — is unavoidable, Lawrence Gostin and Dr. Henry Wu told NPR.

Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, said that he worries people are more likely to relax hygiene protocols throughout a long drive with several stops, according to the outlet.

That said, driving allows travelers to control more safety factors on their journeys, Dr. William Schaffner, infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told CNN.

He said he believes driving is a safer alternative to hopping on a plane.

“When you drive, you have much greater control of your own environment and the people around you and so I would think it’s safer to drive in the present time,” Schaffner told the outlet.

If you do choose to drive, Gostin and Wu, a professor of infectious disease medicine at Emory University and director of its TravelWell Center, recommend packing as much food and water as possible in an effort to minimize stops, choosing drive-thru options if you do stop for food, regularly washing and sanitizing your hands and eating outside away from any crowds, according to NPR.

Flying

The risks of air travel during the coronavirus pandemic have been highly publicized, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending that people avoid air travel if possible due to social distancing concerns, McClatchy News previously reported.

“Air circulation systems on planes are quite good. They have high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters and high rates of air exchange,” Wu told NPR. “But that still doesn’t protect you from what is happening immediately around you.”

It can be next to impossible to predict how many people will be on your flight or whether you’ll be able to social distance, NPR reported.

James Armstrong chose to travel by plane when he and his daughter went to move her belongings out of her college dorm, according to CNN. He chose flying because he didn’t think the stops and lodging requirements for a cross-country road trip would be much safer than flying, the outlet reported.

While the family — two more children went with them — wore masks and used sanitizing wipes at the airport, Armstrong said there wasn’t much enforcement of mask requirements and that passengers on one flight were grouped toward the front of the plane despite the flight not being very full, CNN reported. The family never developed symptoms of the virus, according to the outlet.

When deciding whether to travel by plane, the CDC recommends considering a number of factors such as the infection rate at your destination and if others on your trip, at home or at your destination are at higher risk for serious illness due to COVID-19.

If possible, try upgrading to business or first class to give yourself a little more room, McClatchy News reported. If you can’t, the window seat is your best bet to minimize contact with others, according to the report.

You should also do your best to avoid using aircraft bathrooms and wipe down all high-contact surfaces including the tray table, arm rests, head rests, air vents and any screens, McClatchy News reported.

It’s also best to avoid eating and drinking on your flights.

“When people eat on planes, they tend to touch their masks, uncover their nose and mouth and potentially expose themselves and others,” Griffin told CNN.

This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 12:31 PM with the headline "Should you fly or drive during the pandemic? Here are safety concerns to consider."