Air Travel and the Pandemic: an Epidemiologist’s Perspective

by Peter Schnall, MD, MPH*

An epidemiologist walks into an airplane

Prior to COVID-19, I was a frequent flyer: traveling internationally almost monthly for both work and personal reasons, and logging more than one million miles in the past decade. As a physician/epidemiologist, I have had a research and public health focus on working conditions and their impact on physical and mental health for the past 30 years. During plane trips, when passengers beside me asked me what I…