Reflecting on post-covid travel: how rules, testing and anxiety shaped us
You’ll rarely see an aircraft passenger wearing a face mask these days. Have we got short memories?
Five years on from the start of the Covid pandemic have we, as travellers, learnt anything? I think back to those dark days, and it feels like some kind of bad (I won’t say “fever”) dream.
Trying to get on a plane caused a lot of anxiety back then. Every state and territory had a different set of rules to adhere to. Flying internationally, which was gradually allowed after November 2021, was a whole other minefield. Remember when you were required to have a PCR test within 24 hours – or was it 48 – of flying? Or when you had to allow an extra hour at the airport because you needed to be swabbed at a temporary testing facility outside the terminal? There was a nervous wait for a text message to give the all-clear before you could even approach the check-in desk.
Then there was your vaccination certificate, carried in paper form as well as on your phone. Which particular version of the vaccine was required to ensure you were up to date?
And I recall the desperate hunt for face masks, the N95 being considered the gold standard, and the vast array of little bottles of hand sanitiser and wet wipes that filled our cupboards.
It all feels like a lifetime ago. These days, flying is a breeze. We waltz on to planes and there’s barely a face mask in sight; all that paperwork has long since been assigned to the recycling bin. The only causes for concern are whether our flight will depart on time and if there will be room left in the overstuffed overhead lockers for our carry-on bags.
But I worry we’ve become cavalier with our wellbeing and that of fellow travellers. Airline rules still insist passengers should not fly if they have Covid-19 yet how many times have you sat beside someone coughing and spluttering and wondered what particular lurgy they might be carrying? In the absence of vigorously enforced health edicts, decried by many as nanny-state overreach, the onus is on us to do the right thing. Given how rare it is to see travellers wearing a face mask, I fear we’re not always as diligent or cautious as we should be.
For evidence of just how blase we’ve become, check out the water dispensers next time you’re at the airport. I guarantee you’ll see someone filling their bottle with the mouthpiece in direct contact with the water spout. You wouldn’t have seen that in 2021.
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