Quote from Joe: "And all of this ignores the airport terminal....another place you are in proximity to many people for a long time. You can't deny that. So, what are people doing? Not getting it at either a terminal OR a plane? Or are people in denial out of some self-destructive sense of protecting business?"
Oh, I can deny it. Joe, if I read you correctly, the gassy dog anecdote was pre-pandemic. I previously "owned" that I'm a potential part of the problem (flew to see younger family at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year) and all I can tell you is it's at least as safe as going to the grocery. Either 6 foot of distance while wearing masks works or it doesn't. No one crowds in the terminal; seriously, the TSA lines are different, and if your flight is at Gate 15 folks tend to spread out across Gates 14-16; this is easy because there are fewer flights. And there's no place where folks are on better "mask behavior".
Another fun fact: the "inflection point" for cases in CA -- the date where cases started rising sharply -- was mid November, and for deaths it was early December. Those data suggest that it began before "holiday travel". Did it start because of Halloween, or did it start because it's simply when cold/flu season generally starts in CA? I don't know. But linking cause/effect to travel is a conclusion based on logical assumptions, not actual evidence.
