Human Behavior

Air Pollution Causes People to Choose Food Delivery Services, Resulting in Plastic Pollution – Science Times

Researchers from the National University of Singapore discovered a link between air pollution and plastic pollution: food delivery services. In a recent study, office employees tend to call food delivery services when the air outside is unfavorable which results in increased plastic waste from single-use food packaging.

The paper was published recently in the Nature journal Human Behavior. Professor Alberto Salvo said that plastic pollution is a global issue that's only gotten worse in the past few years. There has also been more research on the impact of plastic pollution on global environments but there is a lack of research focused on what influences human behavior to contribute to plastic waste.

With the decline of air quality in urban areas, busy work routines, and the current pandemic, the demand for food delivery services have spiked as well. Their evidence, explained Professor Salvo, includes a collection of single-use plastics ranging from food containers to carrier bags.

The team focused on the online food delivery platform, which has the most registered users in the whole world with nearly 350 million users, from China. They surveyed officed workers from three cities, measured particulate matterpollution in the cities, and quantified the tendency of employees ordering food via delivery services.

Results showed that the increase of particulate matter in air pollution had a direct impact on the number of food deliveries to offices. The team estimated that nearly 65 million single-use meal containers are used every day all over China. Office workers contribute to more than 50% of the plastic waste from food deliveries.

In the heavily polluted cities of Beijing, Shenyang, and Shijiazhuang, 251 office workers were surveyed for their lunch choices between for the first six months in 2018. The researchers also analyzed data from 2016 containing more than three million food delivery orders from more than 350,000 users.

The U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standardis 35 g/m but the three cities were measured to have significantly higher levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations. When PM2.5 levels were increased by 100 g/m, the number of food deliveries increased by 7.2%. At the same time, office worker food deliveries increased by six times.

(Photo: Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

Read Also: Researchers Claim Higher Levels of Air Pollution Increases Electricity Consumption

Professor Junhong Chu said that ordering food via delivery services was the only way that office workers could avoid smog or haze outside during their lunch break. Meanwhile, other consumers avoid outdoor pollution by staying at home where they can cook their meals.

"This explains why the impact of air pollution on food delivery is smaller in the firm's order book study than what we observed among workers, particularly those without access to a canteen in their office building," said Chu. On days of greater air pollution in Beijing, 2.5 million more meals would be delivered, meaning a total of five million food containers plus plastic bags.

Professor Haoming Lui shared that although they focused on Chinese cities, the results have implications for other heavily polluted cities such as in India, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Waste management policies are another major factor in the increase in plastic pollution. They hope that their study can help accelerate the movement of food delivery services switching to eco-friendly packagingand vehicles.

Read Also: Tire Pollution May Be a Significant Plastic Pollutant in Oceans, Researchers Reveal

Check out more news and information on Pollutionon Science Times.

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Air Pollution Causes People to Choose Food Delivery Services, Resulting in Plastic Pollution - Science Times

Human Behavior

Hope And The Patient With Cancer – Curetoday.com

As an individual diagnosed more than 5 years ago with multiple myeloma, I have been struck by the reliance on the part of some cancer patients who place significant emphasis on clinical trials and research, and the desire to battle and fight the disease in order to seek cure and avoid untimely death. This emphasis also applies to healthcare providers and researchers, many of whom are the very originators of this focus. Offering hope supports that singular human need to achieve another state of being. As a need, hope is more than an emotional state with something that could be different in our lives.

Hope is a multifaceted human need that drives one to achieve or craft ones life in a certain direction. More than a guide or roadmap for ourselves, our families, our friends and beyond, hope can influence the essence of very fundamental human behavior from birth to death.

There are many ways of examining the concept of hope as it applies to the cancer patient. At its very core, hope and the patient may be seen through the lens of the quality of life or lifestyle, a religious orientation and faith, and the belief in the human soul.

Hope can produce a quality of life which may be considered a lifestyle. That is, our daily behavior from birth onwards is built around a series of ideas, principles, concepts and others thoughts that from a belief system and ultimately organized as a lifestyle. While the concept of lifestyle is a complicated phenomenon, the idea of grouping the many forms of individual human behavior into a set of mostly observable behaviors can have, at its core, the idea of hope. Hope may well be the driving force as we traverse our way through life. And part of this is the idea that hope is an amazing gift from God which underlies the very essence of a positive quality of life or standard by which we live from birth to death.

In many organized religions, hope is part of the foundation of religious faith which is built around the omnipresent force commonly referred as the concept of God. And, as some religions have espoused, the human soul is the persons window to God, which guides our thoughts and beliefs about our future, and ultimately to our understanding about the hereafter. Hope also helps to form three other aspects of human behavior.

These three beliefs are the belief in the human soul, belief in our own future, and finally, a belief in the hereafter. Aside from biological growth and development, the human being also learns, accepts, and inculcates into our being the beliefs in the human soul, our own future, and the hereafter forming our human core. Hope, then, becomes a primary vehicle for understanding human existence.

So, how do we make sense out of this? My own interest in this topic grew out of my volunteer work as a moderator for a digital support group for people with Blood Cancers.

This group is nationally supported by ANCAN, a cancer information organization. In my moderating work I was struck by the almost exclusive interest on the part of participants in medications they were taking, clinical trials they were participating in, details about their chemotherapy designs, and related topics.

Initially, I was shocked to listen to the conversation. As a psychologist, I had much more anticipated that discussion questions about, What are you feeling? How are you coping? What is your family doing to help you? Are you ever angry about getting cancer? If so, how do you express yourself? And to my professional amazement, these discussion points never came up and when asked if they were interested in talking about this, there was only some quiet grumbling.

The good news is that silence almost always works, so after a moment or two, one brave soul said, you know, I always wanted to know what it will feel like when the end for me is near?Understandably, this generated a good deal of healthy discussion. So, from a hope perspective perhaps what I call Medication Talk is really Help Talk organized in a way that is emotionally acceptable to the participants.

As mentioned earlier, hope can also be viewed as a form of quality of life or lifestyle in which some have built their style of living around the concept. Virtually everything they do involves some consideration of hope. Ones personal thinking about self, spouses, extended and close-in family, siblings, employers, friends and acquaintances, neighbors and virtually all others that we have contact with have hope woven into those relationships. Hope that it will remain the same, or that it will change for the better, or somehow be different. Hope is tightly woven into our very essence or being and is the principle upon which we judge and evaluate virtually all our thinking concerning the past, the present, and the future.

From a practical point of view, the concept of hope is difficult to understand, especially in the presence of catastrophic disease. Disease challenges us to live beyond the confines of the disease as we know it or come to understand it. One way of understanding this is to examine the emotional role of medications at the center of disease treatment, most especially cancer treatment. The principal advocates of this are first the practitioner who provides the diagnostic understanding of the disease and prescribes the medication to fight the disease.

And second are the patients who often develop an fixation around the current medication, the clinical research around new medications, and the overall effectiveness of both. What is interesting to note is this authors own experience with his multiple oncology physicians wherein the regular monthly appointments are almost completely focused on the efficacy of the medications that fight the symptoms of the disease itself and the side-effects of the disease fighting medications. Only under a few rare circumstances have we have conversation about feelings, emotional coping strategies, and end-of-life expectations.

Hope is a complex concept that each of us has a multitude of thoughts about. Conceptually, hope may be characterized as a religious phenomenon involving the idea of God and eternal life. On the other hand, but clearly related, hope can be considered a common part of the human ego or the emotional and biological structure of the human person. Finally, while hope is thought to be a universal aspect of all persons, its parts and dimensions certainly have cultural components that differ for all human beings. How one defines hope is both individualistic and group or culturally determined.

Hope does not equal living per se. Some have the idea that if they go through life embracing hope that they are truly living. Yet, hope alone does not and could not define living.If all our ideas, actions, behaviors, thoughts, and the like are based solely on hope, then indeed we are deferring the present reality for the future which is, by definition, hope oriented. While living, meaning the past, present, and future, does contain elements of hope, it is the totality of the hope concept that is problematic as it could keep us from what is happening because we are focused only on hope elements for the future. It is a sort of childhood version of, when I grow up, Im going to be.Hope for the past, present, and future is necessary, but it is the totality of it that does not constitute living in and of itself.

As mentioned, hope feeds the soul with a sense of identity which enables the person to live beyond the current situation that individuals find themselves in. As humans, we are complex individuals who are relatedly close, but not a copy of one another. We are created with the idea of a soul or a sense of self that combines our past, present, and the future. This is best understood as a combination of behaviors, religious beliefs, thoughts, feelings, guidelines, cultural belief systems and the like that can structure how we think and behave. This is most especially the case as we contemplate future thoughts, wishes, desires, and behaviors. How our soul is developed will determine in part how we will behave in the future. And for many, our souls have an exceptionally large religious or spiritual component which serves to help guide us through all our days on Earth.

This is especially the case for those of us with a terminal illness whose end can and is predicted in terms of time-based sequences and levels of disease. The longer the time with the disease and its level provides a statistical determination of the average life span. Hence, the role of hope and its foundation in God becomes even more important to the cancer patient as one prepares for life hereafter. Perhaps the final and most significant statement about hope is the question about God being eternal life. As cancer patients and others face the probability of near death, the idea that God is about eternal life gathers increasing importance and meaning. As human beings facing imminent death, the idea of the hereafter takes on ever-increasing importance. And, for those of us raised with a concept of God as part of our intellect and being, at the very essence of hope then is an ever-strong belief that God is responsible for our hopeful belief in our daily existence and in the afterlife.

Hope is indeed a complex issue for all human beings to deal with. While this complexity applies to all human beings, it is particularly relevant to those whose illness or age is such that it is likely to be more imperative. Hope provides a livable statement about quality of life. As an alternative to the idea of hope as a pathway for disease-fighting, hope can provide a set of statements or directions to be followed for the living of a quality life. While the concrete approach determining a sort of mechanistic attitude is a normal human process, hope can be useful for conceptualizing a much broader approach to living. The dimensions of this are endless and usually involve other people, family, friends and perhaps even volunteering yourself to assisting others in need.

Even though cancer patients must follow a structured path of treatment for disease resolution, that path does not preclude additional elements which have a broader appeal and usefulness for the patient. In fact, an attitude of belief that the future may be pre-determined because of the disease, adding other dimensions like hope to ones living can strengthen ones approach and add richness to their quality living.

To this end then, hope is a gift and becomes the essence of a quality of life issue for us. We surround ourselves with the idea that hope is a gift, and one which has been nurtured by ourselves over time and often nurtured by other people in our lives. We have been taught or otherwise learned that the idea of hope provides one of the principle ways to achieve happiness in life even within the context of catastrophic disease. As we move through our own individual stages of development, hope is a human quality that enables us to create opportunities for positivity and peace of heart.

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Hope And The Patient With Cancer - Curetoday.com

Human Behavior

The value of what we have lost in 2020 – Brunswick News

My friend Dan will die today. I am writing this on Friday morning, Oct. 16. Later today, doctors will turn off the machines that are keeping Dan alive. Dans symptoms began two days ago. He is young in his early 30s and this is a shock.

As I have learned of Dans short illness and impending death, I have been especially sad for his young wife. Dan does not have COVID-19 but due to the pandemic, his wife has not been able to visit him as he lay dying.

This is a familiar, tragic story for so many families who have lost loved ones this year. So far, COVID-19 has killed almost 219,000 Americans, and we have heard floods of stories not only of grief but also of the added trauma of separation as loved ones die alone.

We have lost so much this year.

As I am trying to wrap my head around all we have lost, I return to one of the more interesting results from the field of labor economics, a trick used to assign a dollar value to human life.

Certainly, the true value of the lives lost cannot be measured and is known best in the hearts and lives of those who loved them.

But, as impossible as it may be and as dehumanizing as it may seem, the ability to assign an approximate value to human life is an important one in many policy decisions. For example, it can be a factor in determining how we set fines for pollution or other behavior that can be shown to be a risk to life. It can be a factor in settling lawsuits involving loss of life. Or it can be a consideration in evaluating insurance premiums and payouts.

There are a couple of ways to think about the value of a life. One is to consider the productive potential of an individual, which, in theory, is approximately equal to what he or she would earn as a participant in the labor market.

Productive potential, however, is a very narrow way to define ones value.

A more all-encompassing technique is to observe human behavior and to infer from our choices the value we place on our own lives.

Every job has associated with it a risk of injury or death. Other things equal, the higher risk involved in a job, the more an individual in that position is paid. When a market is in equilibrium, workers are indifferent between a higher-paying riskier job and a lower-paying safer job.

This is how we know the dollar value workers place on their own lives.

We can observe labor market behavior to see how much money workers are willing to give up for a specific decrease in their probability of death, and this gives us what is known as the value of statistical life.

There have been many estimates of the value of statistical life, but the EPA currently uses a value of approximately $7.4 million, regardless of the age, income, or other characteristic of the individual.

You can do the math, but we really dont need a dollar sign to know we have lost a lot this year. Praying it ends soon.

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The value of what we have lost in 2020 - Brunswick News

Human Behavior

Corporate execs are talking differently on earnings calls to please the machines – CNBC

Would you talk differently if you knew a machine was listening to you and grading you based on what you were saying, or based on whether you were using positive or negative words, or even if the sound of your voice was optimistic or pessimistic?

Apparently, Wall Street executives are talking differently.They are trying to game machine algorithms on earnings calls.

You've heard of George Carlin's "7 words you can't say on TV?"We may now have "words you can't say on an earnings report."

A recent study found that executives on earnings calls are increasingly avoiding using negative words and trying to sound more upbeat, so machine algorithms will score the call as more "positive" than "negative."

Oh man.Anything to fool the algos.

This is a new round in the war between machines and people.Machines can fool people, but people are trying to fool machines, too.

All of this makes sense if you understand the evolution of trying to figure out what is "really" going on with corporate earnings.

First, there were earnings reports, which came out of the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the early 1930s.Then there were earnings calls.Then there were analysts trying to figure out the "body language" of the executives on the calls to determine how they "really" felt about their company prospects.Then came machines listening to executives for keywords that were deemed important and deciding whether the calls sounded "upbeat" or "downbeat" based on the words being used.

Now, there's a new twist:Seems like the executives have figured out that the machines are listening, and that if they (the executives) avoid using certain words that sound "downbeat" or "negative" they can improve the score they will get, and their earnings call will magically sound more positive.

So say Sean Cao, Wei Jiang, Baozhong Yang & Alan L. Zhang, authors of "How to Talk When a Machine Is Listening: Corporate Disclosure in the Age of AI," published on the National Bureau of Economic Research website.

Their main conclusion:"Firms with high expected machine downloads manage textual sentiment and audio emotion in ways catered to machine and AI readers, such as by differentially avoiding words that are perceived as negative by computational algorithms as compared to those by human readers, and by exhibiting speech emotion favored by machine learning software processors."

In other words, humans are using words they think the machines want to hear and that will give them a more positive score.

The authors noted that this effect was particularly notable on companies that had very high interest in their filings.In other words, the more people paying attention, the more likely the execs were to change their behavior.

Of course, we have known for years about the ability of machines to analyze earnings calls, but the authors say "our study is the first to identify and analyze the feedback effect, i.e., how companies adjust the way they talk knowing that machines are listening."

OK, so we are in a giant hall of mirrors. Humans (investors) are trying to figure out what other humans (corporate executives) really feel about their company's prospects by listening to earnings calls that are analyzed by machines, and the humans (corporate executives) are changing their behavior so the machines will tell the other humans (investors) that things are better than they really are, or at least as good as the executives really meant it to sound.

Got that? What could go wrong?

"Humans are taking machines and using them to analyze emotional signals so we can analyze other humans more efficiently," said DataTrek's Nicholas Colas. "But the machines are doing it on a scale humans could never do.There's an endless loop that is being set up, and expect this to get even more refined over time."

Even the study authors are a little worried about where this will ultimately lead us:"Such a feedback effect can lead to unexpected outcomes, such as manipulation and collusion," they said.

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Corporate execs are talking differently on earnings calls to please the machines - CNBC

Human Behavior

Therapy Plus Medication is More Effective Than Medication Alone for Patients With Bipolar Disorder – Pharmacy Times

Therapy Plus Medication is More Effective Than Medication Alone for Patients With Bipolar Disorder

The review, published in JAMA Psychiatry, assessed data from studies that included adult and adolescent patients who were receiving medication for bipolar disorder at the time of the study. Additionally, the patients were randomly assigned to either an active family, individual or group therapy, or "usual care," which meant that the patient was receiving both medication with routine monitoring and support from a psychiatrist.

In total, the studies reviewed by the researchers followed the patients over a period of approximately 1 year; measured rates of recurrence of bipolar disorder, depression, and mania symptoms; and included study attrition or dropout rates.

The results demonstrated that psychoeducation with guided practice of illness management skills in a family or group setting had greater efficacy in reducing recurrences of mania and depressive symptoms than the same strategies in an individual therapy setting. Also, patients who received family-oriented therapies had lower rates of dropout than other patients.

Additionally, cognitive behavioral therapy, family therapy, and interpersonal therapy were more effective at stabilizing symptoms of depression than other types of treatment, according to the study.

The study's lead author, David Miklowitz, PhD, a distinguished professor of psychiatry at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at University of California, Los Angeles, explained in a press release that these results show the importance of a support system for those with bipolar disorder.

"Not everyone may agree with me, but I think the family environment is very important in terms of whether somebody stays well," he said in the press release. "There's nothing like having a person who knows how to recognize when you're getting ill and can say, 'you're starting to look depressed or you're starting to get ramped up.' That person can remind their loved one to take their medications or stay on a regular sleep-wake cycle or contact the psychiatrist for a medication evaluation."

Miklowitz noted that this can also be true for patients who may not have close relatives to attend family therapy, as these patients could still receive that type of support through the group therapy environment.

"If you're in group therapy, other members of that group may be able to help you recognize that you're experiencing symptoms," he said in the press release. "People tend to pair off. It's a little bit like the AA model of having a sponsor."

REFERENCETherapy plus medication better than medication alone in bipolar disorder. Los Angeles: University of California Los Angeles Health Sciences; October 14, 2020. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-10/uoc--tpm101420.php. Accessed October 15, 2020.

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Therapy Plus Medication is More Effective Than Medication Alone for Patients With Bipolar Disorder - Pharmacy Times

Human Behavior

The Key to Business Growth is as Simple as Looking at Your Employees Actions, New Study will Unveil Best Practices – GlobeNewswire

Boca Raton, FL, Oct. 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Brandon Hall Group, the preeminent independent human capital management research and advisory firm, launches its 2020 People Data, Analytics and Algorithms Survey to identify the most successful organizations methods, techniques and best practices.

Data science involves collecting, sorting and analyzing large and highly diverse data sets to identify and predict outcomes, activities and actions. People data science leverages data to predict human behaviors, outcomes and actions. It is critical for identifying internal and external influences that impact peoples behavior and reactions, ensuring only the best, most ethical and productive techniques are used.

There is an increasing reliance on people data for decision-making, and the pace and rate of adoption continues to grow, said Brandon Hall Group CEO Mike Cooke. Human resources professionals, having accepted the inevitability of the people data revolution, must now lead their organizations further in this direction.

Part of being more analytically advanced involves how and why data is collected and used, which will be analyzed in this study, said Cliff Stevenson, Principal Workforce Management Analyst at Brandon Hall Group.

Brandon Hall Groups 2020 People Data, Analytics and Algorithms Studyconsists of a survey sent to its global database and scores of qualitative interviews with research participants, HCM Excellence Award winners and its members.

To learn more about this research study or to participate,click here

Those who participate will receive a summary of the results and the ability to connect with Brandon Hall Groups analyst team to gain further understanding of the issues.

-About Brandon Hall Group-

Brandon Hall Group is the worlds only professional-development company that provides data, research, insights and certification to Learning and Talent professionals and organizations. The best companies in the world rely on Brandon Hall Group to help create future-proof employee-development plans for the new era of work and management.

For more than 27 years, BHG empowers, recognizes and certifies excellence in organizations throughout the world, driving the development of more than 10,000,000 employees and executives. Our annual HCM Excellence Awards program was the first to recognize and celebrate organizations for learning and talent, and as the industrys gold standard is known as the Academy Awards of Human Capital Management.

Brandon Hall Groups cloud-based platform delivers evidence-based insights in Learning and Development, Talent Management, Leadership Development, Diversity and Inclusion, Talent Acquisition and HR/Workforce Management for corporate organizations and HCM solution providers.

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The Key to Business Growth is as Simple as Looking at Your Employees Actions, New Study will Unveil Best Practices - GlobeNewswire

Human Behavior

Excess Sugar(s) May Be Contributing To Mental Disorders And Aggressive Behavior – Anti Aging News

According to research from the University of Colorados Anschutz Medical Campus, sugar intake may play a significant role in mental health disorders and even aggressive behaviour.

Mental health disorders can have damaging effects on all aspects of life, as scientists are investigating the causes of ADHD and bipolar disorder a new catalyst appears to be emerging; according to a recent study fructose and uric acid increases the risk of developing various behavioural conditions.

We present evidence that fructose, by lowering energy in cells, triggers a foraging response similar to what occurs in starvation, says lead author Richard Johnson.

The team explains that foraging responses cause humans to act impulsively, and this survival instinct can also trigger more risk-taking, rapid decision making, and aggressiveness. While genetically this response helped our ancestors to secure food, today, the explosion of additives and sugary foods/beverages to the typical Western diet may be keeping this emergency reflex around needlessly.

While the fructose pathway was meant to aid survival, fructose intake has skyrocketed during the last century and may be in overdrive due to the high amounts of sugar that are in the current Western diet, Johnson adds.

Findings of the report published in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior examining how refined sugars and high fructose corn syrup may be linked to behavioural issues and obesity and Western diets suggest that components of sugar and high fructose corn syrup can trick the body into thinking that it is starving, thereby changing a persons mental state as well.

We do not blame aggressive behavior on sugar, but rather note that it may be one contributor, Johnson explains. The identification of fructose as a risk factor does not negate the importance of genetic, familial, physical, emotional and environmental factors that shape mental health.

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Excess Sugar(s) May Be Contributing To Mental Disorders And Aggressive Behavior - Anti Aging News

Human Behavior

The Truth: Tied to Technology – The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

Credit: Alexa Druyanoff/Chronicle

Then school starts, and we receive our daily doses of disheveled bed head and pajama tops via Zoom. For almost a quarter of each day, we sit facing the screen, filling breaks with TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram. Whether for work or for play, were constantly on our devices.

How do you start talking to someone youre interested in being more than just friends with? The first step usually begins with responding to a Snapchat story or a direct message on Instagram. The second step entails sending a daily Snapchat message. After the third stepbeing added to their private story the real-time conversations through FaceTime begin.

All three steps have one common thread tying them together: technology and, more specifically, how involved our beloved tech has become in our daily lives.

The recently released Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma lays bare the prevalence of Big Tech and its power. The sources, which include former Silicon Valley executives, add nuance to the ever-growing debate over the detrimental effects of technology on our mental health. The Social Dilemma argues that our growing addiction to the virtual world comes from the nature of technology, which is designed to create profit like any other type of corporation in America. As Facebook, Google and even Pinterest have come under the social microscope, we see that the concerns over data harvesting arent about security. These companies are the largest advertising powers in the world and use their data to predict our human behavior. In order to make sales as ad placement sellers but also to create tech companies expanded their reach and honed in on their AI systems to not only target customers, but to also create the impetus for us to buy that tennis skirt on Etsy or a new pair of AirPods. On a larger scale, this sways elections through the Facebook ad situation, like in 2016. And it looks like, with the greater integration and reliance on technology, the stakes will only get higher.

The first iPhone came out in 2007, Instagram was released in 2010 and Snapchat was developed in 2011. Gen Z is the first generation to live with this phenomenon called social media.

Look at your pinky finger on the side that you hold your phone. Compare it to your other pinky. Is there a little indent on the inside of that second ridge where you hold your phone?

Or maybe you instinctively open Snapchat or Instagram out of nervous habit when youre waiting in public. We see technology expanding its reach over us, and we have the authority to make what we want of it. The next time you wake up on the phone side of your bed, just keep this in mind.

overstimulation, phones, social media, technology

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The Truth: Tied to Technology - The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

Human Behavior

‘Safer, but not safe’ | New study looks at how COVID-19 is spread on airplanes – WWLTV.com

Keep in mind it takes 90 minutes to clear particles in the average home.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana The airline industry has been hit hard since the coronavirus spread to the U.S.

People are fearful of becoming infected in a closed airline cabin.

Now a new study finds it is much safer than we originally thought, but a local doctors says there are still reasons not to let your guard down.

The new study is from the U.S. Department of Defense. Using a mannequin, they found that 99.99 percent of particles, released in the air from an infected person wearing a surgical mask, were removed from an airplane cabin within six minutes.

Keep in mind it takes 90 minutes to clear particles in the average home.

So we turned to Tulane Public Health Epidemiologist Dr. Susan Hassig for her analysis.

In the perfect conditions that were indicated by the study, one is relatively safe. I think safer, but not safe, explained Dr. Susan Hassig, an Associate Professor in the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

So lets look at the study limitations. The mannequin spreading the aerosol particles, never took off her mask, always faced forward, and never moved.

Now consider real human behavior.

Masks come off to eat and drink, you go to the restroom or get something out of the overhead bin, children cry and take off masks, you turn and talk to others. So, she says you still need protection.

You have to mask. You have to still be very aware of surfaces and hand contamination that you could bring your eyes, to your nose or your mouth, said Dr. Hassig.

So with these new, promising results would you now travel by air? We asked various people out doing their grocery shopping.

I just would not feel comfortable until there's a vaccine, said a man who used to travel internationally a lot before the pandemic.

It's getting better and safer. I think they take a lot of precautions for traveling people, and I think we doing a little better, said a woman who would travel.

I would not feel safe right now. I wouldn't do it, maybe probably 'til next year, said another woman.

I do would prefer if everyone wore a mask. I just feel like it controls the virus, said a woman who would travel but wants to make sure she is protected.

I'd feel safe on a plane, because if you got on a mask. I don't usually get on a flight that long, explained a young man.

And Dr. Hassig says that young mans point is important, because on a shorter flight there will most likely be fewer people moving around the cabin or taking off masks to eat meals.

The study was done in Boeing 767 and 777 aircraft. The doctor says newer aircraft will have better filtration technology.

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'Safer, but not safe' | New study looks at how COVID-19 is spread on airplanes - WWLTV.com

Human Behavior

Doctors say second wave of COVID-19 infections in Florida is preventable – WTSP.com

What happens in the next months is all dependent on human behavior, experts say, with models for COVID-19 showing three different scenarios for Florida.

TAMPA, Fla A month into fall in Florida and infectious disease experts are closely monitoring the state's COVID-19 numbers.

With fewer restrictions in place, cooler temperatures and the thick of flu season on the horizon, a second wave of new coronavirus infections is expected.

In reality, it's kind of the perfect storm, Dr. Jill Roberts with USF Public Health said.

She says cases are slowly rising right now. With more than 750,000 cases reported, the state's daily percent positivity stands at 4.8 percent.

One of the reasons we pick on Florida is because we have been historically one of the earliest to sort of release all those restrictions, Roberts said. We have the potential to prove everyone wrong and we can simply do that by continuing to do what we've been doing all along. We can continue to our masks and we can continue to social distance.

Doctors say what happens in the next months is all dependent on human behavior. The models for COVID-19 in Florida, created by the College of Public Health at USF, show three different scenarios:

Model 1: Cases will go down and stay down if mask-wearing and social distancing continue.

Model 2: Everything stays how it is and cases continue to plateau.

Model 3:We act as the virus doesn't exist and cases spike because we let our guard down.

It's this third scenario is one we should work together to prevent, Dr. Marissa Levine said. The public health expert with USF Public Health says COVID-19 measures have to stay in place a little longer.

I'm not here to scare anybody, I would say that the critical public health message is, we have to keep doing what we know works. If we stopped doing that, if we increase our mobility, and we take away our protections, then we are going to see a spike we've seen. We're seeing that happen in other places in the United States, Levine said.

Doctors urge everyone to keep wearing their masks and social distancing until we find a COVID-19 vaccine.

Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida won't shut down again even if infections rise. He wants the state to stay open and keep moving forward.

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Doctors say second wave of COVID-19 infections in Florida is preventable - WTSP.com