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Did you read the article? The main takeaway was to wear your mask and you will be less likely to get covid on a plane. They mentioned that the air is filtered every 6 minutes. Showed statistics where infected people on a plan with people who were all mandated to wear masks infected no one. That isn't fear mongering, that is letting people know they can fly safely, just wear a good mask.

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The presentation though does a backhanded attack on the science by clickbait headlining implying the matter is more dubious and promoting doubt while fearmongering the masks as ineffective. Publishing a high visibility "Did the Holocaust really happen?" headline in the New York Times would rightfully anger people even if the article answer is "yes, duh".

it's poor form (and against site guidelines) to question whether someone read an article. like many other npr stories, it insinuates a lot and provides a wholly and intentionally incomplete narrative to construct a solid argument in hopes that you miss the missing pieces and just nod along. it's entirely plausible that the filtration system did all the work and masking was merely performative. as others have pointed out, they completely skipped comparisons with other flights where people weren't all rigorously masked (just pick another airline in hong kong). it's hysterical, and it only distracts from the primary community transmission risk, the private social gathering, because it's uncomfortable and harder to tackle that issue instead.

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