Finally, some good news about airplane travel. If you are on a plane with a sick passenger, you are unlikely to get sick. That is the (26)_____ of a new study that looked at how respiratory (呼吸道) viruses (27)_____ on airplanes. Researchers found that only people who were seated in the same row as a passenger with the flu, for example—or one row in front of or behind that individual—had a high risk of catching the illness. All other passengers had only a very (28)_____ chance of getting sick, according to the findings. Media reports have not necessarily presented (29)_____ information about the risk of getting infected on an airplane in the past. Therefore, these new findings should help airplane passengers to feel less (30)_____ to catching respiratory infections while traveling by air.
Prior to the new study, little was known about the risks of getting (31)_____ infected by common respiratory viruses, such as the flu or common cold, on an airplane, the researchers said. So, to (32)_____ the risks of infection, the study team flew on 10 different (33)_____ in the U.S. during flu season. The researchers found that passengers sitting within two seats on (34)_____ side of a person infected with the flu, as well as those sitting one row in front of or behind this individual, had about an 80 percent chance of getting sick. But other passengers were (35)_____ safe from infection. They had a less than 3 percent chance of catching the flu.
