Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Why is anyone flying on planes at the moment?

I keep reading articles about the number of flights that are delivering passengers infected with COVID-19 into Canadian airports. The latest such article shows that, contrary to a few months, or even weeks, ago, most flights carrying infected passengers were domestic, not international, ones

So, really we're just spreading the disease more effectively around the country (particularly from hotspots like Alberta). Mind you, the ratio is only about 60:40, so there's plenty coming in from abroad too. In total, in the four months between January 1st and May 5th of this year, there were no less than 1,873 flights arriving or departing from airports in Canada that had at least one passenger who tested positive for the coronavirus. That's a lot.

It's all fascinating analysis. But my response is always: why is anyone flying anywhere anyway? Who are all these people? Pretty much the whole country is locked down - there's a pandemic on, don't you know? - so why is anyone jumping on a plane to anywhere?

I m missing travel, including international travel as much as the next guy. Possibly more so, because we had plans to ramp up our travel while my wife is still reasonably mobile. But all those plans were put on hold in March 2020, and since then we haven't even been out of our immediate area. That's what we're all supposed to be doing, right? So, why are some people going to cottages, visiting relative in other parts of the country, going abroad for sun holidays?

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