Name: Empty middle seats on planes won't stop the coronavirus
Uploaded: 2020-08-22T18:05:04.000Z
Duration: 6 min 59 s

Listen, it's hard to maintain social distancing anywhere,

聽著，在任何地方都很難保持社會距離。

情態副詞

程度副詞

Recently United Airlines tried to implement distancing by announcing that

近日，美國聯合航空公司試圖通過宣佈實施遠距離。

they are "automatically blocking middle seats to give passengers enough

他們是 "自動擋住中間的座位，讓乘客有足夠的時間來休息。

space on board." But on May 9th a passenger on board a United flight to

機上的空間"。但在5月9日，美聯航一架飛往

San Francisco from Newark tweeted out this picture in which middle seats are

來自紐瓦克的舊金山在推特上發了這樣一張圖片，其中中間的座位是。

clearly occupied. The tweet sparked predictable backlash and prompted

明顯被佔用。這條推文引發了可預見的反擊，並促使了

demands to leave seats empty on airplanes.

But as the number of daily travelers slowly picks up again after the unprecedented drop in March

但隨著日均出行人數在經歷了3月份的空前下降後，又慢慢回升了起來

airlines like United will find it harder and harder to leave seats empty on their flights.

像美聯航這樣的航空公司會發現，在班機上留出空位越來越難。

所以，所有這些關於中間席位的爭論

makes me wonder: How far can an infectious disease actually spread on an

讓我很好奇。傳染性疾病究竟能在多大程度上傳播？

airplane even if we block the middle seat?

And if we do block that seat, are our ticket prices going to go up?

如果真的把那個座位堵住了，我們的票價會不會漲？

This is a visualization of the inside of a Boeing 767.

這是一架波音767的內部可視化。

It shows how a single cough can spread throughout a plane between air filtration cycles.

它顯示了一次咳嗽如何在空氣過濾循環之間擴散到整個平面。

you know, it definitely generates a lot of droplets.

你知道，它肯定會產生大量的液滴。

That's Professor Yan Chen. He helped create this animation to study the ways infectious

這就是陳彥教授。他幫助製作了這個動畫，研究傳染病的方式。

diseases in cough droplets can spread to other passengers. Due to the airflow

咳嗽飛沫中的疾病會傳播給其他乘客。由於氣流

design in most commercial planes those cough droplets are first carried upwards

在大多數商用飛機的設計中，這些咳嗽的飛沫首先被向上攜帶。

and then travel sideways through the cabin.

means it's between rows, is minimal, and therefore is much more dangerous to

意味著它是在行間，是最小的，是以對危險性較大的

get the those droplets if you sit in the same row rather than in a different row.

如果你坐在同一排，而不是在不同的一排，得到這些液滴。

But the model does not completely rule out transmission to

但該模型並不能完全排除傳染給。

people in different rows. In this simulation, all these people around the

人在不同的行。在這個模擬中，所有這些人圍繞著

passenger are at risk. In fact, those airborne cough droplets

乘客都有危險。事實上，這些空氣中的咳嗽飛沫。

can move even farther down the cabin if another passenger walks by the

如果有其他乘客走過機艙，可以在機艙內走得更遠。

This second simulation shows how that can happen.

第二種模擬顯示了這種情況是如何發生的。

Air movement created by the walker can carry the droplet down the aisle to a

步行器產生的空氣運動可以將水滴帶到過道上，到一個

When you walk around, there's a possibility to get the disease or you might not get it but you might bring

當你走來走去的時候，有可能會得病，也有可能不會得病，但是你可能會帶來

cough droplets can land on all the surfaces we touch.

咳嗽的飛沫可以落在我們接觸的所有表面。

Those droplets didn't go to you directly.

Properly just go to the tray table, armrest,  even head rest,

正確的只是去盤桌、扶手，甚至頭枕。

Dr. Chen says it remains hard for scientists to predict exactly how a

陳博士說，科學家們仍很難準確預測一個。

virus would spread on a plane or whether leaving a middle seat empty would

病毒會不會在飛機上傳播，或者說讓中間的座位空著是否會

He uses this reconstruction of a Boeing 737 flight

from Hong Kong to Beijing to illustrate his point.

從香港到北京來說明他的觀點。

seated in 14E was carrying the SARS virus. During the flight 22 other

坐在14E的乘客攜帶SARS病毒。在飛行過程中，22名其他乘客也攜帶了SARS病毒。

passengers and crew became infected. While data on this flight is incomplete

乘客和機組人員被感染。雖然這個班機的數據不完整

at least five people are known to have died.

these three rows before and three rows behind but you definitely see some of

這三行前三行後，但你肯定會看到一些。

those who sat pretty far away. There's two persons seated seven rows

那些坐得挺遠的人。有兩個人坐了七排。

in front of this infected person on the other side who were also getting infected.

在另一邊同樣被感染的這個感染者面前。

Dr. Chen says this flight has been widely studied but

陳博士說，這種飛行已經被廣泛研究，但

epidemiologists still struggle to explain exactly how the virus spread so

流行病學家仍在努力解釋該病毒究竟是如何傳播的。

So I cannot guarantee that our animation is a

所以我不能保證我們的動畫是一個

one hundred percent scientifically proven  result.

What does your simulation tell us about the effectiveness of blocking middle

你的模擬說明了什麼，能有效地阻擋中

By leaving the  middle seat open you will have a little

將中間的座位打開，你會有一個小的。

bit more social distancing. But if you look at our animation

多了一點社交的距離。但如果你看我們的動畫

So even if middle seats were open in this simulation,

所以，即使在這次模擬中開放了中間席位。

it wouldn't do much to stop cough droplets from reaching you.

它不會做太多的阻止 咳嗽飛沫從到達你。

Still, according to Dr. Chen, an open middle seat could be helpful if paired with

不過，陳博士認為，如果配合開放的中間席位，還是會有幫助的。

So if I were a passenger and the airline can guarantee that the middle seat is open

所以，如果我是乘客，而航空公司能保證中間的座位是開放的

I don't think I have a problem to go there with my surgical mask.

我想我帶著手術口罩去那裡沒有問題。

Surgical masks can reduce the distance cough  droplets travel from around six feet to

外科口罩可以將咳嗽飛沫的傳播距離從大約6英尺減少到3英尺。

more like two feet and combined with an empty middle seat they might actually   reduce risk.

更像是兩隻腳，再加上中間空著的座位，他們可能真的會降低風險。

陳博士說，開放的中間席位可以

help in another really important way: Limiting the total number of people on

在另一個非常重要的方面提供幫助。限制總人數

any given flight. But that could present a different problem when it comes to how

任何特定的飛行。但這可能會帶來一個不同的問題，當它涉及到如何。

The airline industry operates on very thin margins.

John Grant is an analyst at OAG, an organization that tracks global flight data.

約翰-格蘭特（John Grant）是OAG的分析師，OAG是一個追蹤全球飛行數據的組織。

Probably only 20 airlines in the world consistently make a profit.

全世界大概只有20家航空公司持續盈利。

If you're leaving every middle seat empty that's

如果你讓每一箇中間的座位都空著，那就是。

30% of your capacity that you're not selling.

mean a whopping 52% increase in average ticket price for passengers.

意味著乘客的平均票價大幅上漲52%。

Will the person sitting in New York today who wants to fly to Florida next week be

今天坐在紐約的人，下週想飛往佛羅里達的人，會不會是？

And particularly now, after nine weeks of lockdown,

尤其是現在，經過九周的封鎖。

the middle seat makes sense. Until we have a vaccine for the coronavirus

中間的座位是合理的。在我們有冠狀病毒的疫苗之前...

flying is gonna be kind of scary. But while we can take precautions like

飛行是會是一種可怕的。但是，雖然我們可以採取預防措施，如：

wearing a mask or leaving an empty middle seat, in the end we might have to

戴著口罩，還是留著中間空位，最後我們可能要......。

decide how much we're willing to pay for a slight bump in safety.

決定我們願意為安全上的輕微碰撞支付多少錢。

Thanks for watching! That was an episode of Vox's first ever

謝謝你的觀看！那是Vox有史以來第一集的節目

daily show. It's called Answered, it's on a new

每日節目。這就是所謂的 "答案"，它是在一個新的。

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Empty middle seats on planes won't stop the coronavirus

debate

guarantee

completely

unprecedented