Traveling During the Pandemic

I have always enjoyed traveling like so many other people like to do. Having worked for the airline for many years, I have traveled to many airports throughout the world. During this Covid-19 pandemic I was apprehensive about traveling and obviously very nervous to get on an airplane and to be in a airport where there are people from all walks of life, not knowing if any one of those individuals had been exposed to the virus. However, I hadn't seen my family that lives in Michigan in over a year and my mother was turning 85 years old and I decided that if I was careful, I should be okay. So I started planning for my trip. My next dilema was transportation. How would I get there? I coud drive, but, realistically that really wasn't an option. It would take 3 days to get from my house to my parents house and that would mean stopping at restaurants and hotels along the way. How many people would I be exposed to? On a daily basis, the television news media reports Covid-19 numbers and deaths and on this one particular day as I was watching the news, this doctor who was traveling back to his hometown of New Orleans had come down with the virus. They interviewed him in his hospital bed and this is what he said, "I had a mask on, I had gloves on, I did my normal wipes routine ... but obviously, you can still get it through your eyes. And, of course, I wasn't wearing goggles on the flight." At that point, fear and sadness definitely took over. I remember thinking, "will I ever see my family again?" The days that followed I saw on the news that airlines were taking every precaution possible and were very strict regarding mask wearing. I made the decision to book my flight. Unfortunately, there were no nonstop flights from Phoenix to my destination. I had to make a stopover in Chicago for several hours before arriving to my final destination. I have to admit, I was not looking forward to this flight nor was I looking forward to being at the Chicago airport for several hours before boarding my next flight. A couple of days later, my son and I were off to the airport to catch our flight with masks and goggles on and our supply of lysol wipes. I had not been to the airport in almost a year. I did not know what to expect. We were both impressed with the protocal that had been put in place at the airport. No one was without a mask and social distancing was in place. So far so good. When we boarded the aircraft we were given a baggie with bottled water, a cookie and a alcohol wipe. The boarding announcements always included to keep your mask on for the entire flight, making sure the mask covers your mouth and nose. There was no onboard meal or drink service. This was definitely a big change but I certainly agreed with their protocal. As I looked around the flight, I could see that everyone was adhering to the rules. I have to admit that wearing a mask for 3 1/2 hours and wearing googles was not very pleasant but I knew it was not an option for me. The last thing I wanted to do was to expose my family to this terrible virus. There were times when I looked over at my son, his goggles would be all fogged up. The seating arrangement on the flight was actually very nice. All of the middle seats were empty and my son and I had the entire row to ourselves. When we arrived at Chicago O'Hare airport we didn't know what to expect. I know how busy Chicago O'Hare airport is and I was nervous. There are always people that hate rules and like to buck the system and I was sure that I would see people strolling throughout the airport with no masks on. I felt though that as long as we had our masks and goggles on we should be safe. We had a long walk from our gate to the next gate. We noticed that most stores and most restaurants were closed and you could see that people were trying to keep their distance as they were walking through the halls of the airport. We boarded our next flight and the same protocals were in place. We arrived in Michigan and my family was waiting for us outside in their vehicle at the pickup area of the airport. We hugged them dearly and got in the car and took off our masks and goggles and enjoyed our vacation with them. After our vacation ended, my son and I self-quarantined at our house for 2 weeks and we were just fine. My son and I were exposed to a lot of people when we were traveling and I feel that if we would have let our guard down by being careless and not wearing our masks, I feel one of us, or both would have come down with Covid-19. It was uncomfortable wearing the masks and goggles the entire day, but in the end, it was well worth it. In my opinion, if people would just use common sense and wear their mask when they are in public and wear it properly I think we would definitely see the covid numbers go down and perhaps go away. Closing down the economy is not the right answer but following the proper protocal is.

October 22, 2020

Lynn McNerlin

Lynn McNerlin

HSE

Arizona State University

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