With Thanksgiving upon us and even more winter holidays just on the horizon, this week officially kicks off the busiest month of the year for U.S. travelers. And if you’re one of the many people who will be boarding a flight, you may want to take some advice from a physician who has spent years keeping the world’s top athletes healthy.
Dr. Jonathan Finnoff is the chief medical officer of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, setting and implementing the organization’s strategic direction for promoting the physical and mental health of Team USA athletes both on and off the field of play. He was named Most Valuable Section Editor by Current Sports Medicine Reports, the medical journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, in 2019. He’s served as medical director for the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Center in Minneapolis; worked as a team physician for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and WNBA’s Lynx, and has accompanied Team USA to multiple Olympic Games. He also happens to be an athlete himself—an accomplished mountain biker.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal published earlier this month, and an accompanying TikTok video posted Monday, Finnoff shared four key ways to ensure you don’t catch something nasty during your flight.
Choose the right seat
Seats matter—not just to get on and off the plane faster, but also to keep you healthier.
Finnoff says if you want to steer clear of germs, choose a window seat, and try to find one toward the middle of the aircraft. This ensures you stay away from the plane’s high-traffic areas, like the entrance of the plane and the bathrooms.
Research supports Finnoff’s recommendation. A 2018 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Emory University and Georgia Tech researchers found that sitting in a window seat—and staying seated for the duration of the flight—may be your best bet for not getting sick from fellow passengers.
The study tracked movements in the economy cabin during transcontinental flights and found that passengers in window seats were far less likely to get up during flights, with only about 40% doing so compared with 80% of those in aisle seats. Window-seaters also averaged just 12 contacts with other passengers per flight, compared with 64 for aisle seaters.
Clean a select few areas
If Naomi Campbell does it, maybe you should, too. We’re not talking about walking the runway here, but rather bringing sanitizing wipes onto your flights. Finnoff recommends sanitizing any areas you might touch: the seat belt, armrests, air nozzle, and even the bathroom door, should you (likely) need to use the facilities.
But the most critical surface you should clean? The tray table.
According to a 2015 study by Travelmath, which sent a microbiologist to collect samples from five airports and four flights, tray tables harbored 2,155 colony-forming units of bacteria per square inch—more than eight times the bacteria found on lavatory flush buttons, which registered just 265 colony-forming units.
For comparison, a typical home toilet seat has roughly 172 colony-forming units per square inch.
The discrepancy exists in part because airline crews have limited time between flights for thorough cleaning, while restrooms are cleaned more frequently.
Every seat has an air nozzle. Use it.
Finnoff made special mention of the overhead air vent. What you want to do is direct the air nozzle between you and the person next to you to create a barrier for germs.
While research on whether individual air vents significantly reduce transmission risk has shown mixed results—with European and American health authorities offering differing guidance—some experts believe the turbulence created in your personal air space may help prevent particles from landing on you.
Most modern aircraft cabins already employ hospital-grade HEPA filters that remove 99.97% of particles, including bacteria and viruses, with air renewed 20 to 30 times per hour.
The science of sleep
Sleep. Yes, sleep. It’s not just nice to help shut out the world—and your fellow, albeit likely obnoxious, travelers around you—but it also boosts your immune system. Like most research out there will tell you, Finnoff says travelers need seven to eight hours of restful sleep each night to help prevent illness.
A study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine found that sleep alters the structure of DNA inside stem cells, and consistently getting less than seven hours can increase inflammation and susceptibility to disease. According to Yale Medicine, those who chronically get less than seven hours of sleep are three times as likely to develop the common cold compared with those who routinely get eight hours or more.
