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Public Transport as the World Reopens
Last month I was finally able to visit my family! Before this trip–made possible by the COVID19 vaccine–I had seen my parents for only two days in 2020. To have those two days with them, I quarantined for two weeks beforehand and traveled straight to their home, alone, by car. Now that I live in Hawaii, traveling by car is not an option. When I moved here, I had some intense anxiety and sadness about my inability to travel home. I knew that without a quarantine at my own expense on the mainland, I would not be able to see my mom until I was vaccinated. Thankfully, I did not have to wait too long for that to be reality.
Even though my mom has been vaccinated, her post-lung-transplant status means that she likely has not developed significant antibodies to protect her from COVID19. So, while I can now visit her, we still don’t know when it will be possible for her to visit me in Hawaii. We are happy to take what we can get, but I would love to show my family my new home, and all that the island has to offer.
Thinking about all this has made me wonder if anyone out there in the PF and transplant community has safely used public transport during the pandemic. If you were once a regular user of trains, planes, or automobiles (the public sort, taxis, Ubers, etc.), have your habits changed since the pandemic started? How do you ensure your safety and social distance in these circumstances?
If you are still not comfortable flying or using other public transport (like my mom), what would make you feel safer to do so? Increased sanitary measures by airlines might help, masks are proven to help, but I fear that those measures will be reduced within the year, and the threat will still persist for those of us with weakened immune systems. How can we balance our risk as the world reopens? How can we encourage others to take some of the burden?
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