A mystery pneumonia outbreak is spreading in the Chinese city of Wuhan. China Airlines and subsidiary Mandarin Airlines both offer direct flights to Wuhan. Their union says the airline is allowing flight attendants on flights to and from Wuhan to wear gloves when collecting meals, but they cannot wear face masks unless they receive authorization from the purser. The union worries that this course of action will result in vulnerabilities in disease prevention.
The cause of mysterious pneumonia cases in the Chinese city of Wuhan remains unknown. The Centers for Disease Control says it will send personnel to board flights arriving in Taiwan from Wuhan to carry out pre-entry quarantine procedures. China Airlines flight attendants said the airline announced on Jan. 6 that flight attendants working on direct flights to and from Wuhan may wear gloves when collecting meals. However, they cannot wear face masks unless authorized by the purser.
It would be better if you could give flight attendants the choice of wearing face masks. When we collect meals, we kneel in the aisles to collect used tableware. During this time, we are very close to passengers in terms of distance and height.
The responsibility of making a decision on whether to allow face masks is being passed on to the purser. That's fine. However, this also has to be included in reports. What if the airline looks at the report and sees there were only 100 passengers on the flight, which are not that many people, and says why did you wear a face mask when you could just have moved someone who was coughing? This is a possibility. Would the purser allow you to wear face masks then?
There are 12 direct flights between Taiwan and Wuhan every week. China Airlines offers flights on Mondays and Thursdays, and Mandarin Airlines has flights on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The Centers for Disease Control has already ruled out SARS and MERS as the cause for the outbreak. It advises flight attendants to wear face masks, but has not issued any mandatory provisions. Some doctors say airlines have the obligation to unify their policies to conform to the CDC suggestions. Others say the oral infection prevention effect won't be great unless everyone wears N95 masks.
If you advise everyone to wear face masks, then China Airlines should follow suit. The CDC's present method is probably making a unified decision.
If China Airlines flight attendants have symptoms, then they should wear face masks. There's no problem with that. However, there's no point in wearing regular face masks.
Flight attendants say there is a high risk of infection in their occupation, and therefore they would like their employer to allow them to decide whether to wear face masks, as well as provide sufficient protection equipment for all plane configurations during special circumstances. The airline says it is working with flight crews to learn more about the situation in order to respond accordingly.