COVID anxiety on Public Transpo
 

Hi guys,

Would like to ask your opinion if its still safe to ride public vehicles as mode of transportation. If we follow the news, covid cases are increasing despite of vaccines availability. Last time, my neighbor was infected with COVID and according to him, he acquired it most likely in the rail station. I have a conference next week and I need to go to the same rail station where my neighbor got infected and I'm kinda anxious. I'm having panic attacks to be honest. How can I overcome this anxiety?

Wear a mask. Same as if in any public space that is crowded, whether it be a bus, sports stadium or shopping mall. There is also a chemical coating that can be applied to kill germs. I've seen this brand used in a number of public spaces in Hong Kong : https://www.germagic.com/en/index.php

Seems one application can last many months.

Hand sanitizer kit is needed coz mask alone is not enough. Virus still can remain at the holder bars longer according to your city's temperature.

Virus has been found on frozen packaging. Outside temperature won't make a difference unless you're living in conditions that are worse than in a freezer.

Virus can be found everywhere. Frozen condition is about for science experimental. If once pandemic means SUPER fast virus spreading, the condition of life is not like before anymore.

https://images.theconversation.com/f...w=754&fit=clip
https://theconversation.com/we-know-...nd-more-134671

The risk from taking public transport is no different from oher public spaces such as offices or sports stadiums. If a surface is contaminated, many people would have touched it and spread it around by the time the virus is supposed to lose its potency. While COVID can also be spread by air, it is far easier to get it from a surface unless you are very near an infected person that sneezes or releases droplets into the air.

This is why masking can prevent the airborne transmission method as well as prevent your dirty hands from transferring the virus into your mouth or nose.

The thing is the one who infected do not know themselves coz there's no symptom for almost COVID infection, that's why daily cases are increasing by cluster to cluster until become pandemic. Once infected people travel by public transport, it's very risk to touch survival virus on the various surfaces too. So hand sanitizer with face mask are A MUST.

If you're vaccinated and still scared to ride public transit, I don't know what to tell you. Stay home.

Ride a bike!

If you are vaccinated and wear a mask, you should be fine. With that said, we are hesitant to take our young children (two years old and four months old) on public transit or planes at this time.

If you are vaccinated it's certainly lower risk to your health to take public transport than to take a private vehicle. Even if you aren't vaccinated it's probably still safer as long as you aren't in a high risk category.

As for how to overcome the anxiety, I'd recommend you stop watching or reading the COVID news. Fear sells.

I've read that Up to one-third of people in some cities have stopped using public transport because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether they’ll ever get back on board is impossible to predict, but according to research into the travel habits of people in 104 cities across 28 countries, lockdowns, the rise of remote working, and stay-home orders have all meant a reduction in the volume of people commuting. The sad part is not all are remotely working and not all can buy vehicles so greater risk are faced by public commuters.

I don't understand why public transport gets singled out, as there is also a risk of infection in other crowded places such as offices, restaurants, Starbucks, and sports games. It wouldn't be a public transport phobia, but a phobia of crowds in general.

Most big cities have mask mandates. If you use PT in one of these cities, and you are vaccinated, you should be ok. If you’re in a city with lower COVID-19 cases, you should be even better off. Cities with high case numbers, and no mask mandates, I’d be hesitant to encourage you to use public transportation.

The problem is compliance. I've been favoring taking Metra to work versus CTA due to much higher compliance (and conductors available to enforce compliance, if only softly by their presence).

Public transport is such like one of the CENTRE where the all life will begin coz every people will go to every target of place. If you are the one of COVID infectious, you can be a super spreader man like never end!

Double-mask.

where are you riding? no worries here in nyc. almost all mask well. i work all over the city and ride all the time. once in a blue i change subway cars if there is a no mask nitwit or unruly homeless, but thats rare. i am much more surprized at how good everyone handles this.

also, i was just in los angeles for a couple weeks, rode trains and took busses and it was the same there.

People that are under 90 and vaccinated who still suffer from covid anxiety need to get a grip and need to stop paying attention to CNN et al.

Get a grip, seriously. You should be more worried about second hand smoking at this point than dying from covid. Also, you should be terrified by getting killed by a small meteorite or spontaneously combusting as you have a tiny tiny tiny slight tiny percentage of that killing you too if you are vaccinated. And if you aren't vaccinated and under 75 you have virtually no threat of dying from covid. Stop listening to or reading media companies who thrive on ad revenue by scaring people. Stop being stupid.

I am certified laboratory staff here before become medical equipment very own bizness man. All I advice is for human being across the world. the one who infected almost don't even know where they infected, are they talk to you that they infected from the one who sneeze beside them? the one who infected, infected from touching many surfaces from hands!! mask is just only very basic for primarily protection. You better have to aware of any inch of your body especially your fingers of hand coz we'll never know the one who infected, when and where they are sneeze or spit their saliva and then flick their hands to any surfaces outside beside you. this virus not only in the air but also can survive on the many many many surfaces. That's why hand sanitizer is very needed!

Vaccinated is good coz if you infected, you can cure faster than unvaccinated but that does not mean you won't infect another variants again. So you have to aware of it.