Effect of Vaccination on Risk of Exposure to Airborne Infectious Disease During the Boarding Process in a Commercial Aircraft Using Agent-Based Simulation

ABSTRACT

As increasing proportions of the world's population have received at least one dose of the vaccine against COVID-19, everyday activities start to be resumed, including travels. The present study investigates the impact of immunization on the risk of exposure to an infectious disease such as COVID-19, during the boarding process in a commercial airplane. An agent-based simulation model considers different vaccine types and vaccination rates among passengers. The results show significant decrease in the median exposure risk, when the vaccination rate increases from 0% to 100%, but also that people in seats adjacent to an infectious passenger are in much higher risk, for a similar vaccination coverage. Such results provide quantitative evidence of the importance of mass immunization, and also that, when full vaccination is not guaranteed for 100% of passengers, it may be recommendable to avoid full occupancy of the aircraft, by implementing physical distancing when assigning seats. © 2022 IEEE.