Planes, trains & poop: the future of coronavirus
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 April 2022
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What the end of the transportation mask mandates means for you. And, the key to tracking coronavirus surges across the country could be in your poop.
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Yesterday a federal judge in Florida struck down a national mask mandate on airplanes and mass transit. The Transportation Security Administration stopped enforcing the mandate, as did major airlines, with some of them informing passengers of the news midflight. The relaxation of the pandemic precaution has raised public health concerns: The decision comes as coronavirus cases are again climbing in the Northeast. Transportation reporter Michael Laris on what the end of the transportation mask mandate means for you.
As official case counts become less reliable, public health officials are looking at poop to predict infection rates. Wastewater surveillance – testing the poop in public sewage systems – can capture the presence of coronavirus infection rates earlier than other testing options. National health reporter Lena Sun on why wastewater surveillance can keep the coronavirus under control.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, it's Martine. |
| 0:06.6 | Okay, I know that y'all have heard me say this so many times in the past week, but we are |
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| 0:48.4 | Good morning, everyone from the Flight Day. |
| 0:55.4 | It's great to see you smiling faces this morning. |
| 0:57.6 | My name's Kevin. |
| 0:58.6 | I'll be your captain today on Flight 2289, Service Over to the Nations Capitol. |
| 1:04.0 | For a lot of folks traveling by plane today, the message coming from the cockpit is suddenly |
| 1:09.2 | very different. |
| 1:10.2 | There's a lot of excitement today about the Delta Nelson that we're no longer going |
| 1:15.6 | to enforce the mass mandate. |
| 1:16.8 | It's great for a lot of us. |
| 1:18.6 | I know some of us are a little bit more hesitant to go massless, so either way, whether |
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