According to Amesh Adalja, MD, a physician and faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health’s department of environmental health and engineering, it’s definitely way harder to keep your mask on the whole time when we talk about long bus rides because people have to eat and drink water than it is on a plane where you spend less time.
We still don’t have a lot of information about how dangerous bus travels are right now, one particular study published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine in September analyzed a group of people in China who traveled in two buses to a Buddhist event that was being held outdoors, at a time where masks weren’t mandatory and the pandemic was in the beginning phase.
Make sure to also check: White House Warns States To ‘Roll Back’ Reopening.
The researchers have discovered that one infected individual transmitted the virus to other 24 bus passengers, even though they tried to keep their distance. The other bus didn’t have any COVID-19 patients. However, the researchers have mentioned that Greyhound, the largest national bus company, has implemented a strict mask mandate and they’ve started using filtration systems that do not recirculate the air directly within the bus.
It’s better to be safe than sorry. According to Krysia Lindan, MD, an epidemiologist at the University of California San Francisco, “Given the rise in cases throughout many parts of the U.S., the best advice is to avoid travel at this time.”
Read on to discover other ways of traveling this time of the year, and find out which is the safest!
See also: A Second COVID-19 Lockdown? Here’s What You Can Do And What You Should Skip!
