Leaving the middle seats vacant in single-aisle and twin-aisle airplanes could reduce exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19 by 23 to 57 percent, according to a study by researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Kansas State University.
A report on the study, published in the current issue of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly, was based on laboratory modeling of exposure to the virus in scenarios involving a fully occupied airplane and one with vacant middle seats. The study did not expose humans to the virus but instead used a harmless virus (the bacteriophage MS2 virus) to represent the virus that causes COVID-19 and mannequins that emitted humanlike body heat to represent passengers.
“Research suggests that seating proximity on aircraft is associated with increased risk for infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes C…
