Federation of American Scientists Blasts American And United For Filling Middle Seats During COVID Crisis

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About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. @ Gary — Are these FAS people even a real thing? Keeping middle seats blocked isn’t really that much better, is it? I guess the upside is that 1/3 less people can get sick per flight.

  2. A middle seat is what, 18″ wide? Maybe less? Add in a couple inches for armrests and you’re still a very long way from 6′ social distancing. As an adjacent passenger, you’re not going to get much protection either way, even wearing a mask, as the virus proteins are miniscule, electron microscope small, and can be inhaled right through a surgical mask. In fact, a mask is helpful only when an already infected person is sneezing or coughing as the mask prevents airborne particles from spreading. That’s why doctors wear one when operating but patients don’t.

  3. I find this Eric Ding guy insufferable — and I’m Asian, you could even call me an Asian supremacist — but he’s right on the middle seat issue. We don’t need data to tell us whether or not blocking middle seats has any use. We only need basic scientific theory. Packing people closer together increases risk. A wayward sneeze or cough droplet has to travel far less to infect someone else. The increased risk might not show up in studies or reports but it’s there — it’s common sense.

    As to why Eric Ding sucks (outside this middle seat issue), first of all he actually calls himself “Dr.” No person of actual expertise is so insecure as to need to do that on freaking Twitter of all platforms. Besides, “Dr.” is popularly understood to mean either MD/DO or PhD. Eric Ding has neither of these degrees. He has an ScD whatever the fuck that may be. I’m not an epidemiologist but I know damn well the fields of epi and public health and biostats and all these fields relevant to COVID-19 have PhD programs.

    There are all sorts of degrees which are technically doctorates but do not involve the level of rigor that an MD/DO or PhD require. So you can call yourself Dr., which is laughable to begin with, but not even having a true Dr. degree, man what a joke. Eric, please.

    Second of all, he took his wife’s last name to appear more white. Hashtag cuck. Hashtag simp. Wanna know why I’m an Asian supremacist? Because it’s White supremacy that drove Eric to be a self-hater of his race.

  4. Jason, not to rain on your p(ti)rade about the ScD (Doctor of Science) degrees your hero Ding has, but here goes. Harvard offered those degrees in lieu of PhDs which weren’t offered in those particular areas by the School of Public Health when he attended the school. Beginning Fall of 2016 going forward, PhD’s replaced ScD’s in the School of Public Health in those areas of study. BTW, other professionals are entitled to be called Doctor such as Chiropractor, Dentist, Naturopath, Veterinarian, etc. Also, most lawyers are JDs (Juris Doctor), many religious leaders are Doctors of Divinity, and other cases, which I won’t belabor. Just sayin. Cheers Google is your best friend when in doubt!

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