I Just Flew. It Was Worse
Than I Thought It Would Be.
Atlantic,
by
McKay Coppins
Original Article
Posted By: Pluperfect,
5/9/2020 5:16:10 AM
The cabin was restless. It was a weekday afternoon in late April, and I was among dozens of people boarding an airplane that most of us had assumed would be empty. Flight attendants were scrambling to accommodate seat-change requests. Travelers—stuffed shoulder to shoulder into two-seat rows—grumbled at one another from behind masks. An ominous announcement came over the in-flight PA system: “We apologize for the alarming amount of passengers on this flight.” Each of us was a potential vector of deadly disease.
I arrived at my assigned row, and found a stocky, gray-haired man in the seat next to mine.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Turninggrey 5/9/2020 6:30:43 AM (No. 405648)
Typical Atlantic “journalist”. What a whining article. I really thought it was a liberal woman writing the piece. Got to the bottom and saw “his” picture. That picture should be the poster for the reason the recovery will take 10 times longer than it should.
35 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Highlander 5/9/2020 6:35:20 AM (No. 405651)
Atlantic. Skipped it.
27 people like this.
There’s a good chance this author's grandfather waded ashore at some garden spot like Normandy or Iwo Jima, yet he’s terrified of a flight to Chicago. Boggles the mind.
I just got out of bed. In an hour my wife, who was sleeping next to me, will be going to work at a facility where 3/4 of the patients are positive. Yet he fears sitting next to a stranger. What a ball-less wonder.
44 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
petrichor 5/9/2020 7:00:40 AM (No. 405660)
LOL! I'm guessing the author is not a man who once served his country. I caught some of the other articles referenced at the end of this nitwit's whine. Can this country actually have so many highly educated, stupid people?!
28 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
MissGrits 5/9/2020 7:05:41 AM (No. 405665)
The gutless leftists in large part thrust us into this with their love of hysteria and hate of the country!
20 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Sunhan65 5/9/2020 7:08:00 AM (No. 405667)
Oh, grow up. Planes have always been crowded, and people sometimes travel and get sick. I commuted between countries for 10 hours twice a week. Four flight segments. Much time in airports.
Long before this latest nonsense, I wore a mask on the plane when needed. It was a basic courtesy I learned in Asia 25 years ago: If you're sick, don't infect others. Also, wearing a mask seemed to reduce my chances of catching something. I turn off the air vents above my seat for the same reason. It just seemed to help.
More to the point, this latest virus has a mortality rate far less than the ridiculous numbers used to justify this insanity. It's less than 1%. Much less. When you focus early testing on people showing severe syptoms, you are testing those most likely to die. The actual Covid-19 mortality rate (i.e. number who die versus number in a total population) is turning out to be about the same as seasonal flu. No fun for those who die, but also no reason to strangle our economy. As with anything, people with other conditions (obesity, diabetes) should be more careful, and we should all exercise appropriate caution to avoid infecting the elderly.
That's it. It's over. Open America up again.
29 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
JackBurton 5/9/2020 7:15:24 AM (No. 405673)
Looks like the author line is incorrect.
It should read 'Karen Coppins' or McKay Karen Coppins. Wot?
19 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
worried 5/9/2020 7:16:55 AM (No. 405674)
What a wuss! And, according to him, so were most of the people he encountered on his trip. He would have a heart attack if he knew I went shopping without a mask or gloves, and failed to wipe down the handles of the cart or the groceries I brought home. But I did save my wife from being exposed to all those microbes. Except she didn't wipe down the groceries, either. So maybe he could write another article about how bad shopping is with the type of people you meet in stores.
20 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Strike3 5/9/2020 7:21:16 AM (No. 405678)
I would have driven. Airline travel is distasteful enough without a panic-inducing virus lurking around. Had I decided to take this particular flight, the stocky gray-haired man would have been given a chance to apologize before being punched in the face and I would have ended up being thrown off the plane. Rude travelers do not deserve any slack.
8 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 5/9/2020 7:29:00 AM (No. 405687)
He is upset because he considers himself part of the elite class. It is beneath him to fly in the back with the commoners.
15 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
JunkYardDog 5/9/2020 7:43:39 AM (No. 405704)
Who names their kid "McKay" ??? McHale is more like it. Congrats McHale, you just witnessed-if your story is actually true, that is-what the media has managed to do to the country-turn it into a mess of frightened, snivelling fools scared of their own shadow. I never bought into the hype; despite the deaths, we should have never locked down as we did. HERD IMMUNITY is what we should have pursued, like Sweden did. Has anybody seen what the death rate was from the regular flu this season, compared to Covid? If you were successfully scared by the media over Covid then prepare to be SHOCKED. The death rates are about the same...but did anyone ever close the economy over the flu? And when H1N1 was burning its way through the US, did Obama ever even mention closing the economy? People get sick and die all the time-but only in an election year after the Dems have been trying for 4 years to unseat Trump do we get a panic over Covid.
11 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
ROLFNader 5/9/2020 7:44:42 AM (No. 405706)
Yeah, whatev, McGay Poppins....
11 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Mofongo 5/9/2020 8:17:03 AM (No. 405743)
What a basket case, but perfect for The Atlantic.
9 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
TJ54 5/9/2020 8:36:58 AM (No. 405764)
One bonus of the China Flu would be The Atlantic finally going out of business
3 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Paperpuncher 5/9/2020 8:42:56 AM (No. 405772)
I believe my flying days are over. The only trip I take is an annual run to Florida each spring. Last year I drove rather than fly and found the drive was only about 14 hours. I saved all the hassle of going through airports, the cost of a round trip ticket and several hundred dollars for a rental car. The cost of gasoline totaled around one hundred or so dollars for the whole trip. The interesting thing is by the time you get to the airport early, go through security, wait for your flight, land in Atlanta and then wait for your connection, fly to your destination, wait another hour to get your luggage, wait in line to get your rental car you have spent about ten hours or so on the trip anyway. I am now a road warrior and will remain so unless (unlikely) I decide to travel a couple thousand miles from home. Up yours to the airlines and the crappy service I have been getting over the past few years.
8 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
msjena 5/9/2020 8:58:20 AM (No. 405786)
Actually, the article is not really very "whining." The author was blocked from his seat by an irate seatmate and told he couldn't sit anywhere else. The germophobe had to relent when the flight attendant threatened to remove him. But in the end, the author was upgraded to first class. Good for the airline.
2 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Rather Read 5/9/2020 8:59:58 AM (No. 405789)
I'm 69. I'm not afraid. I'd gladly fly and I wouldn't whine a bit. What a nancy boy this writer is.
6 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
franq 5/9/2020 9:09:18 AM (No. 405796)
Are your arms tired, sir?
0 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
cor-vet 5/9/2020 9:11:54 AM (No. 405799)
I should have listened to Poster #2.
1 person likes this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
bythegates 5/9/2020 10:48:24 AM (No. 405934)
Fearmongering.
0 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
joew9 5/9/2020 11:09:08 AM (No. 405972)
I'm 6ft about 215lbs. Old age arthritis in my knees and hips. Flying is just impossible for me. Seats are way too small. Even first class is the size of regular class in the 1970's. My knees jammed into the seat in front of me. Last time I flew I was so cramped up I was unable to get out of my seat at the end of the flight without waiting for everyone else to get off. Then I raised all the arms and straightened out laying across the seats before I could get up. On one of my final flights I pretended to be waiting at the back for the bathroom. Actually I was just standing up for the whole flight reading a book because the seats were so uncomfortable. Bring back the L1011.
1 person likes this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 5/9/2020 11:53:29 AM (No. 406037)
I was supposed to fly back home to upstate NY this week but cancelled.
I didn't want to risk getting sick. I have become sick after flying in the past. Flying is stressful enough even without CV19.
Its probably not a good time to be alone. For both me and my friend that I have been living with for the last seven months (I'm a snowbird).
I don't want to fly into a quarantine situation where I cannot leave my house for 14 days. The refrigerator is empty.
I can stay where I'm at for as long as I want.
I'm gonna wait for things to settle down.
Don't kid yourselves. The fear and panic are real. We are seeing the uglier side of people out there. Fear has taken over. Goodwill, reason, and logic are taking a backseat.
All because the Trump haters want to get rid of Trump. Have always wondered what the Trump haters would do to us if the necessity arose. Now we know. This is all about people. There are alot of people out there that have no regard for others. Some of them are powerful. We are seeing what they would do.
2 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
DVC 5/9/2020 11:57:52 AM (No. 406040)
Oh, well. Other than the one surly passenger and his own nearly hysterical fears....sounds OK to me.
0 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
Omen55 5/9/2020 6:38:28 PM (No. 406396)
We know who the overwhelming victims of the Wuhan virus are.
So why not just keep them off the flights?
Certainly one of dem Govs will order it.
0 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
DVC 5/10/2020 1:35:36 AM (No. 406627)
Question: Does anyone know if the airlines are actually REQUIRING that passengers wear a mask to fly?
I will NOT wear a mask, and if that keeps me from flying, they can just drop dead.
0 people like this.
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