Masked Journalist's Hysterical Rant About Air Quality on Her Flight Gets Fact Check Added to Post
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Admit it: At one point, the prospect of COVID-19 frightened you.
It’s OK to say it. The most ardent conservatives who, quite rightly, protested the lockdowns and preposterous restrictions that followed, probably had a moment or two where they didn’t just think it was a “little cough.”
And why wouldn’t we? We were being told by supposedly reliable media sources all over the political spectrum that this was a plague that could have a death rate of somewhere in the area of 3 to 5 percent and was wiping out entire nursing home populations. (By the way: Thanks for that, former Gov. Cuomo.)
We put on masks at and wiped down groceries with hand sanitizer. We bought toilet paper like it was going out of style. Many of those whose jobs allowed it did remote work and binge-watched “Tiger King” for weeks on end.
Eventually, most of us realized, we had to go on living life. By the end of 2022, according to CBS News, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Data show that 77.5 percent of Americans showed antibodies indicative of at least one prior COVID-19 infection.
Tellingly, only 54.9 percent of Americans thought they had a bout with the disease, indicative of the fact that for some people, symptoms were mild or nonexistent. As for me, I mistook my first infection for a case of allergies and overwork — hardly a dread disease, but then, I’m not high risk.
So, yes — most of us have moved on. And then there are those who will be perpetually stuck in April 2020.
Alyssa Edes is apparently one of those people.
On her X profile, Edes describes herself as a “recovering journalist” who used to work at NPR affiliate WNYC, specifically on “More Perfect,” a podcast about American history, law and the Supreme Court.
In other news, she is a “rank sentimentalist, as suspected. she/her. still bi. still masking.”
You may perhaps see where this is going — but, on Feb. 16, Edes apparently was forced to (gasp!) go on an airplane with a whole bunch of people who weren’t wearing masks. And, because she was still stuck in those heady days of April 2020-level fear, she brought an Aranet4 CO2 air quality monitor with her. Because of course.
“Jfc [Jesus f***ing Christ] @united, the air quality on this flight is horrifying and one, maybe two other people on this full flight of 170 people are wearing a mask,” she wrote in an X post the evening of Feb. 16. “A reading like this means air is not circulating. CO2 itself at these levels are unhealthy, not to mention viruses being breathed out.”
According to the Aranet4 users’ manual, the numbers on the screen indicate air temperature, humidity, and the level of carbon dioxide as measured by parts per million. CO2 levels above 1400 parts per million are considered “unhealthy.”
However, community notes appended to her post indicated that using the monitor on a commercial plane presented challenges beyond just hypochondria:
Jfc @united, the air quality on this flight is horrifying and one, maybe two other people on this full flight of 170 people are wearing a mask. A reading like this means air is not circulating. CO2 itself at these levels are unhealthy, not to mention viruses being breathed out. pic.twitter.com/aFCzQ06xzE
— alyssa edes (@alyssaedes) February 16, 2024
“The Aranet4 CO2 sensor requires calibration for use at altitude; which would not be possible on an airplane,” one note read. Another added: “The indicated humidity of 31 percent is also not possible on airplanes, where typical cabin humidity is between 10-20 percent.”
She reacted about as well to this as she does to people who don’t wear masks in anno Domini 2024: “lol a ‘community note’ added to this post implies the reading is inaccurate because of altitude. THIS READING WAS BEFORE TAKEOFF ON THE GROUND IN CHICAGO, IL, which is notably flat.”
lol a “community note” added to this post implies the reading is inaccurate because of altitude. THIS READING WAS BEFORE TAKEOFF ON THE GROUND IN CHICAGO, IL, which is notably flat. https://t.co/Z8ZCQ7btsB
— alyssa edes (@alyssaedes) February 18, 2024
Thankfully — whew! — things got better once they were airborne:
Glad that it was better when we finally took off. Still. Really not safe. https://t.co/q5poumqxZn
— alyssa edes (@alyssaedes) February 16, 2024
Imagine my relief.
Interestingly, only those Edes follows or mentions could reply to her posts, however, there was still evident skepticism about her concern.
It’s higher on the ground because filtration system is turned off.
— Teri (@Teri_careforall) February 17, 2024
That’s normal. A lot of university lecture halls would be 1000ppm
— Not Elon Musk (@ForSureNotElon) February 17, 2024
How many deaths were on this flight? Scary stuff!!
— James Wesley (@ehbud2more) February 17, 2024
Edes has not, as of this writing, announced that she contracted COVID from her scary, scary flight from Chicago to wherever. I’m sure if she had, she’d have posted the test the moment the strip turned pink.
These are some of the things she’s seen fit to repost in the interim on her feed, however:
I often get comments on our photos claiming masks are bad for breathing. I just delete those replies and block the person tweeting them, but this time, I will cite some of the science we in the dojo depend on. pic.twitter.com/Em7mPHgv1r
— Doug Aoki (@Nantanreikan) February 17, 2024
COVID advocacy groups are doing an incredible job on extremely limited resources pushing back on potential changes to the CDC’s COVID isolation guidelines.
But where are the labor unions? Forcing people back to work when they are sick is a critical labor issue.
— Dr. Lucky Tran (@luckytran) February 17, 2024
Vulnerable peoples’ anger is justified. We go to the hospital for help, get infected with covid there, and then we die. These dots are connected, we’re allowed to be pissed about being left to die while most people are oblivious. Masks in med settings is the bare minimum. 😷 https://t.co/vIraDPZaZc
— Katie Klocksin, by the wayside (@KatieKlocksin) February 18, 2024
Please.
It’s been four years since SARS-CoV-2019 began infecting people, and some still aren’t willing to let it go. They want masks forever — even though health authorities have accepted this is an endemic disease, and that even the temporary restrictions of 2020 and 2021 created externalities like mental health issues, deaths of despair and massive educational lapses.
To COVID warriors, no restriction is long enough. We need to all put on as many masks as possible and carry CO2 monitors everywhere we go, even if they’re not being used in an environment where they’re necessarily reliable.
Yes, we all may have been scared of COVID once. But if this is the level of fear you insist on applying to life four years into COVID, one wonders how much worse could death possibly be.
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