Page 4 - Pandemic: How Climate, the Environment, and Superbugs Increase the Risk

INCREASED
TRAVEL
POTENTIAL
PANDEMIC

CHAPTER 2
Bugs on a

Plane

Within twenty-four hours, the SARS virus . . . had spread to five
countries; ultimately, SARS appeared in thirty-two countries.
Thanks to the miracle of air travel, one infected man seeded a
global outbreak.
—Sonia Shah, science journalist and author, 2016
n an average day, more than eight million people fly on
Ocommercial planes. Experts predict the number of people
traveling by air will double over the next twenty years. And these
millions of people take more than their suitcases, swimsuits, and

24 Pandemic