Traveling During the Cold Season -
What to Take and Do
Every year in America alone, there will be more than 1 billion colds reported, resulting in more than 50 million missed workdays along with 60 million school days. And you see the news reports, school notices, and health alerts about cold and flu season. Why is it this time of the year? The answer is in how cold and flu viruses spread.
The “cold season” begins in November when the number of reported colds and flu illnesses rises sharply and remains elevated until late April. This is the case for North America. In the opposite hemisphere, the season has just passed. We keep passing colds back and forth across the hemispheres like the great, big, global family that we are. The main reason for it could be airplane travel.
A Harvard study found that domestic airline travel volume in November, especially around the Thanksgiving holiday, was an accurate indicator of how rapidly a flu virus would spread. The more air travelers there are, the higher are the rates for colds. The combination of drier air and people spending more time indoors enables the germs to survive during these times of the year and to migrate.
Cold weather doesn’t give you a cold. However, spending more time indoors causes you to breathe more germ-infested air, which likely contributes to why you get sick more often in the winter.
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