Qatar Airways insists economy passengers wear a face shield AND a mask

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• Nick_C says:

  2 Jul2 July 19:10

  Good that they are providing masks, but one mask will not be sufficient for as long haul flight.

  I wonder if BA will bring in similar PPE for their cabin crew? Disposable uniforms for disposable staff. 😔

  • Andrew says:

    2 Jul2 July 20:09

    BA would make them cover the cost through salary sacrifice!

  • Lady London says:

    2 Jul2 July 21:20

    Ouch 🙂

• Bill says:

  2 Jul2 July 19:40

  There’s no way I’m getting on a plane if I have to do all this face shield stuff. Forget it. Leisure travel isn’t worth that amount of hassle

  • David says:

    3 Jul3 July 02:47

    Get a grip.

  • Callum says:

    3 Jul3 July 02:51

    I’d question why you bother traveling for leisure in the first place if it means so little to you!

  • Mingus says:

    3 Jul3 July 06:10

    Agree. Lots of panic merchants here. I wouldn’t advise my 89 year old grandmother to fly at the moment, and if she needed to travel I’d suggest she used protection like this. But to make it compulsory for everyone is out of all proportion to risk. You’re probably more at risk of malaria when you reach your destination, because you’ve spent so much time worrying about COVID that you’ve forgotten your Malorone.

    • Bonglim says:

      3 Jul3 July 07:26

      The problem with your approach is some of the protection (the mask) does not protect the wearer – but protects others from the wearer.

      So if your 89 year old grandmother had to travel you should not make her wear a mask, instead make everyone else wear one.

      Vulnerable people do sometimes have to travel. I know a chap who has had his specialist Medical treatment in Israel put on hold because of the pandemic. But someone else in his position will be considering factors like this before deciding to go.

      • Mingus says:

        3 Jul3 July 08:07

        Your argument does not apply to face shields. They are there to protect other people’s germs landing on your face.

        • Mrs_Fussy says:

          3 Jul3 July 08:41

          Oh boy! You win some, you lose some.. don’t think I can convince my 3 year old to wear a screen through the flight so that effectively discounts us. Having said that, dont fancy travelling long haul with a 3 year old right now anyway

• The Savage Squirrel says:

  2 Jul2 July 20:03

  Have any of the amusingly outraged “I’ll never fly if .. ” (even though they’d never have flown economy anyway). brigade here actually worn a face-shield? I wear one for eight hours per day and it’s more comfortable and less invasive than any other PPE (including a mask). It’s the only one you can eventually forget you are wearing; It’s no more onerous or uncomfortable than wearing a baseball cap, and you can flip it up to eat/drink in a second. Wearing one where social distancing is not possible (economy) or for five minutes each way (the level of inconvenience that business-class HfP passengers will actually suffer) during boarding – the point when social distancing is most likely to break down given constrictions of airplanes, shuttle busses and airports – seems extremely sensible.

  • RussellH says:

    2 Jul2 July 21:06

    Although it is very many years since I (occasionally) wore a face-shield I would absolutely agree that face-sheilds are the least uncomfortable and least intrusive form of face protection available. I was a research organic chemist 1970-76, and sometimes did work with some seriously dangerous chemicals.
    Far preferable to goggles as eye-protection, and a facemask – which I wore for the first time ever a few days ago – was seriously unpleasant.

  • Bill says:

    2 Jul2 July 21:08

    My 5 year old would quite possibly kick up hell. There’s only so many times / and a finite amount of time such a thing can be done for a bit of a laugh. His brother nearly 7 would probably have a rage on a bad day too ! Thankfully we have no long haul plans. Just a page of yellow in the easyjet app

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      2 Jul2 July 21:57

      I agree that very small children present a different challenge and that a degree of understanding will be necessary and nobody’s suggesting sticking this on a baby – although I’ll repeat, a faceshield should be no problem for any child old enough to keep a hat on their head when asked – and is a lot more likely to be tolerated than any mask. It’s the adults describing this as intolerable that more surprise me. Planes have lots of rules for your safety that are non-negotiable. You have to sit in your assigned seat, wear your seatbelt, and remain there during takeoff/landing, stow luggage appropriately, follow crew instructions etc etc etc. I don’t see this proposal as any more onerous or unreasonable than these other rules; in many ways a lot less onerous.

      • Lady London says:

        3 Jul3 July 12:28

        Well I dont think most people understand that a sestbelt on a plane is more to stop bodies flying through the air killing and injuring other passengers and piling up blocking the exits if sonething happens, than to protect the passenger themselves who is being told to fasten their safety belt.

        I am pretty sure that if only the first reason above applied for fastening your safety belt then 80% of the so-called civilised Western world wouldn’t take care to fasten their safety belt.

        I’m waiting for when the virus mutates and returns attacking people aged 20-50 and killing a high percentage of them like the Spanish flu did. Especially women in supermarkets many ofvehom seem to have no clue especially when accompanied by children.

  • Dezbez says:

    2 Jul2 July 23:05

    Serious question S Squirrel – do you think people could forget about them enough to be able to go to sleep in them? I imagine your movements would be very restricted and you wouldn’t be able to sleep for long without waking yourself up?

    • Andrew says:

      3 Jul3 July 09:49

      Tens of thousands of people go to bed every night with CPAP masks or kit on their faces.

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      3 Jul3 July 17:45

      Well it’s less invasive than an eyemask as it’s not touching your face, just your forehead for the elastic strap, so I don’t see why not. Funny how many of the people who find facemasks so “intolerable” have no problem with an eyemask … but then that’s just for your personal benefit, not the benefit of others….

  • Tim M says:

    3 Jul3 July 06:29

    I wouldn’t fly economy if I had to wear a baseball cap. There are limits.

    • Andrew M says:

      3 Jul3 July 10:19

      LOL, fantastic!

    • The Savage Squirrel says:

      3 Jul3 July 17:42

      “I wouldn’t fly economy if I had to wear a baseball cap. There are limits.”

      I can’t argue with that 😀 😀

• Charlieface says:

  2 Jul2 July 21:09

  Quite why airlines are not willing to up the amount of fresh air (rather than recirculated) in the cabin, I don’t understand. It would help a lot with people getting ill on flights. But I suppose it’s less visible so they get less recognition for it.

  • Mr(s) Entitled says:

    2 Jul2 July 21:13

    Open a window?

  • Lady London says:

    2 Jul2 July 21:33

    It uses more fuel if more air is taken from outside.
    And fans use fuel on the ground.

    Airlines are trying to claim their cabin air iis changed every 3 minutes and stating they have the same hepa filters as hospitals.

    I just don’t find this convincing on any aircraft except Airbus A350 snd A380 and possiblytgr B787 (unsure as I’ve not flown the Dreamliner enough). On other aircraft I’ve definutely felt my body fighting off an infection if somebody has a nasty cold even 6 or 8 rows ahead.

    • Bill says:

      2 Jul2 July 21:35

      Let one rip and then look round. That will inform you how far

• Gavin says:

  2 Jul2 July 22:31

  In a way this is akin to airport security.

  Unnecessary for almost everyone except the terrorists or in this case the people with the virus.

  However it does mean Qatar can effectively say “there’s no way you are catching or spreading COVID-19 on our planes” and probably allows them to fly to “clean” countries from “dirty” countries and vice versa.

  • Bonglim says:

    3 Jul3 July 07:31

    It definitely does not mean Qatar can say that.

    The best they can say is they have taken a good number of steps to reduce the risk of transmission.

    If you are sat next to a highly infectious person, in economy, for several hours, with all the ppe my estimation is that you are likely to catch covid. As in over 50%. All the steps probably reduce it from 80% to 65%.

    One of the biggest concerns in public health is people thinking that by taking appropriate steps they are complete safe. Could not be further from the truth.

    • Bonglim says:

      3 Jul3 July 07:32

      ‘All the Ppe’ means all the Ppe provided for the flight – not all the Ppe possible.

    • Stoneman says:

      3 Jul3 July 08:48

      Yup. I am staggered that given we have access to amazing resources via that thing called google the levels of ignorance people have towards the effects of masks, shields etc, is so high.

• Will says:

  2 Jul2 July 22:41

  Ridiculous. Absolutely over the top.

  • David says:

    3 Jul3 July 02:52

    Says Will, the public health expert (aka Karen from Facebook).

    • Baji Nahid says:

      3 Jul3 July 03:21

      LMAO

• Aston100 says:

  2 Jul2 July 23:40

  Really good move.
  I also disliked the previous ppe worn by crew.

  Qatar have had so much positive publicity throughout this Corona crisis.

• Nick_C says:

  2 Jul2 July 23:52

  After three months of lockdown we still have more than 100 deaths a day in the UK, yet some people are still not taking it seriously.

  • Nick_C says:

    3 Jul3 July 08:22

    Women are certainly at lower risk of dying than men (roughly half the risk). But young healthy women can infect the more vulnerable.

    Clearly, you only care about yourself.

    • unbelievable says:

      3 Jul3 July 09:19

      Exactly. The virus isn’t being spread by those who are sick and self-isolating, it’s being spread by those who don’t know/don’t care if they have it, believe they know more than the medical experts and think that their needs and wants are more important than anybody else.

  • Rob says:

    3 Jul3 July 12:01

    Here’s the thing …. Scotland is now into negative net deaths. It is very possible that, over 2020 as a whole, fewer people die than usual in the UK, not more. 50k CV deaths (plus all those from undiagnosed cancer etc) can easily be offset by lack of death elsewhere. I would expect very few Winter flu deaths this year for example due to distancing. Lots of other nasty diseases, spread person to person, are also in retreat for obvious reasons.

    • Lady London says:

      3 Jul3 July 12:43

      Let’s hope you’re right Rob. If we keep social distancing, PPE for others’ as well as our own sakes even if we feel perfectly well, and all go back to work so that we can try to stop other things people are currently not receiving help with killing them, this will be the best we can do for now.

      I agree with you about other suffering also killing people because surgeries are being delayed and the effects of poverty. So all but the vulnerable must now circulate but with care.

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