Exactly!
I recall joining a gym back in '96, after a few weeks/months I'd get the sniffles, it'd go away....then a few more months, I'd get a cold.....then a few more months it'd be something else. Basically, I'd catch something, get over it then not too long later I'd catch it again or something different. By about 2 years later in '98 I was about ready to quit going to the gym, as I had not been sick off and on like that for years.
Then it came to me: I've always been one of those that'll use the rest room and wash my hands really well then on the way out, push the door with my foot or elbow or use my short sleeve or my paper towel to pull the door handle. But this gym thing was new to me and maybe I wasn't being careful enough. All I did was be more aware of where I put my hands and fingers, keeping them away from face, in particular my mouth, nose and eyes....the entry points for contamination by touch. That's all I did and from '98 to '04 at that same gym, no more illnesses. Granted, it was a new group of people and my immune system likely had to deal with a new set of germs, etc. when I first started but I think I wasn't as careful as I needed to be regarding the touch contamination.
Anyway, I was healthy as a horse from '98 until early '04 when I flew from SFO to ATL for my mom's funeral. I was jammed on a 757 for 4 hours with a hundred coughing, sneezing, wheezing folks on that airborne cattle-car. I wound up with the flu!
Which is another story in itself. Dad worked for Delta Airlines for 32 years from '54 until his retirement in '86, so I had been flying since I was 5; props (Convair 440's, Douglas DC-6 and 7's) and jets (Convair 880's, Douglas DC-8's, 9's, MD-80's, Boeing 727's, 737's, 747's, 757's and Lockheed L-1011's). By the time I started flying in Naval Air in '68 I had probably flown 200 hours, I dunno. Then I flew a lot in the Navy (C-54's, C-118's) and when on leave from SFO (was based at Alameda in N. CA) back to ATL in Georgia, maybe six 4-1/2 hour trips each way. Then I lived in N. CA. for 29 years from '74 to '04 and made the same trip SFO-ATL-SFO probably at least a dozen times....and NEVER got sick.
Then in 1995, Delta banned smoking on all of its flights and by 2000, it was prohibited on flights by all domestic carriers. During the time that smoking WAS allowed, the airline maintained electrostatic air filtration systems for the cabin ventilation systems. Although the intent was to charge particulates in the air so they'd stick to an oppositely-charge grid or filter, the side benefit from the static electrical charge was that the air would be sanitized somewhat...not perfectly but a lot better than it would have been without the system. Those types of systems are very labor intensive and must be maintained frequently, adding to the airline's expense so not too long after smoking went away, so did those types of systems. Now they are simple particulate / HEPA type systems which get the particles but do little to improve the cabin air quality, IMO. Now this info about the upkeep and removal was told to me by an electrical material salesman in San Jose, CA circa 2001 who said his brother worked for a smaller, local airline and told him this. I cannot prove any of what he said but it makes sense to me....I can't get on an airplane these days without getting sick and many of my friends have said the exact same thing.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/4U2WU4LFNHZ3WANHHBWBYWA6I4.jpg)
