How to avoid illness cheaply and easily while traveling and attending a large global conference

If you're into that kind of thing.

Welcome to Not a Doctor. I’m Melody Schreiber, a journalist and the editor of What We Didn’t Expect: Personal Stories About Premature Birth. I’m not a doctor, or a scientist, or really an expert of any kind. I just like to ask questions and try to find the answers to them.

I recently flew to Iceland and attended an international conference with about 2,000 people, almost none of whom were taking precautions. I was around plenty of unmasked people indoors at the airport, in restaurants when I picked up meals, at coffeeshops while meeting my reporting sources, and more.

And I didn’t get sick — with anything. I tested negative for Covid on rapid tests and a PCR five days after getting home, and I stayed symptom-free from other illnesses.

That was the first conference, and possibly the first work trip, where I didn’t catch a cold, flu, strep, or anything else. It was incredibly helpful to be able to attend the entire conference without feeling terrible by the last day or two, and to get right back to everything waiting for me at home.

Here’s what I did to stay safe. It was honestly really easy and cheap to take these precautions, especially since they likely saved me a few days’ lost income from illness.

All I did was: stay up-to-date on all vaccines; wear a mask consistently; and use an air purifier. That’s it! The entire setup cost me about $70 (plus an optional portable battery pack).

One important thing to remember: you don’t have to do everything perfectly all the time! (In fact, I’m hearing word that being perfect all the time isn’t possible? I’ll stay on this story and report back.)

It was a high priority for me not to get sick so my family could keep working and attending school, so I was pretty consistent with my precautions. If you’re more hands-off, but want some protection, just taking some of these measures or doing them at particularly high-risk times will help. It’s never all or nothing.

1. Immunity

I have had three Covid shots, and I would’ve gotten the bivalent booster before this trip if I were eligible — I needed to wait a few months after my Covid case. I recovered from that case about two months before the trip. I cannot recommend getting Covid, and certainly not as a protective measure; having it did not make me eager to repeat the experience. However, since I did recover recently, I kind of viewed that case as the worst booster ever.

I also scheduled flu shots for me and my son a few days before the trip. That way, I’d be less likely to bring home and spread the flu, which hits kids particularly hard. And I’m current on all other vaccines (Tdap, etc).

2. Masks

I wore the 3M Aura N95 mask, my favorite. In other situations, I might have been comfortable wearing a KF94 (I personally don’t like the way KN95s feel on my face), but this time I wanted the highest-quality mask that would still be comfortable for me. I usually re-use masks until they break, but in this case I wore a new one each day, mostly to avoid maskne.

I wore masks very consistently in the airport and on the plane, only pulling them down to take sips of water or a bite to eat, or to show my face at immigration checkpoints. Around sick people, I held my breath when the mask was off, because I’m me.

And I wore my mask consistently at the conference, never taking it off or moving it down when I was indoors. I ordered my meals to go at local restaurants and ate them outside along with a cup of coffee or tea. I probably should’ve been drinking water more often, but that’s not because of my mask, it’s because I’m bad at drinking water.

Eating outside was the specific thing I was perhaps most apprehensive about. It’s cold in Iceland! And I was at the conference largely to network and meet sources — what if someone wanted to talk over a bite to eat?

But this ended up actually being a great plan for me. If someone wanted to meet over food, I would, but I kept my mask on and talked while they ate. Then I’d grab food and eat it by myself outside, which was a really lovely little break for this introvert to re-center and think about what I needed to do next.

And getting food to go while attending a busy conference was an unexpected plus. Often I’ve found myself trapped at a table, waiting for a check, when I really needed to go to my next meeting or head to bed. This made my schedule a lot more flexible and doable.

3. Air quality

I carried a portable HEPA air purifier with me most of the time. (It’s important for it to be HEPA or better; the little necklaces that claim to ionize [?] the air don’t cut it.) I used the PureZone, although I have also ordered the QT 3 purifier (which is on sale right now, but backordered for a few weeks).

The PureZone is about the size of a water bottle, which makes it pretty easy to stash in a backpack and set on a table. I ran it the entire time I was at the airport and in the air, especially because there were very symptomatic people around me on the plane. When I needed to take my mask off, I pointed the stream of air directly at my face.

Airplanes actually have super good air quality when the filtration system is working. While flying, the very best time to eat, drink, and otherwise take your mask off is on the plane about 30 minutes after takeoff — with one exception that I’ll return to. Just make sure that little nozzle of air above your seat is open all the way.

The worst times are usually when the plane is on the tarmac and the air is not being cleaned — air quality is terrible then. And airports don’t have as good filtration as that little nozzle of clean air pointed directly at you when you are flying.

So I typically save eating and drinking for times when we are in the air. The only exception that I mentioned is this: In an airport, you can move away from other people. You can’t do that (as easily?) on a plane. When I had symptomatic people very close to me on the plane, I tried to keep the mask on as much as possible, even with filtered air.

When I was at the conference, I usually had my portable air purifier going. I’d often stick it in my backpack with just the nozzle pointing up, or set it on a table in front of me, but usually I’d just turn it on and forget about it.

The PureZone has a battery life of a few hours, depending on which setting you choose. I would charge it each night, and if the battery ran out during the day, I would plug it into a portable charger. I brought my Anker battery pack and I also have a Solgaard backpack (I love it) with a solar charger. So, I was cleaning the air with the sun! SCIENCE.

If you’re really into air quality, or very vulnerable to illness, you can also get a little CO2 monitor to see what air quality is like anywhere you go. But they’re a bit pricey for me, and I felt comfortable with the layers of precautions I took based on my immunity profile and my risk levels. If a room seemed stuffy to me, then I tended to avoid it.

That’s really it.

When I was outside, I didn’t worry about wearing a mask or running the air purifier. (Sometimes I just kept the mask on because Iceland is often windy and it was warmer to have my face covered.) When I got to my AirBnB, I ran the purifier overnight, but I didn’t mask. I think I kept on my mask when the rental car dude brought my car around, because I forgot I was wearing one, but I didn’t bother with it after that.

Otherwise, I spent much of my time indoors with other people, shaking hands, talking, the whole nine yards. My precautions felt pretty set-it-and-forget-it. I didn’t feel self-conscious in a mask or with the air purifier, because I knew how valuable it was not to get sick.

It was lovely to be able to attend this conference, which I hadn’t been able to go to in the past few years, and to see Iceland again.

Honestly, I can’t see myself flying or attending conferences in the future without these measures. I can’t stress enough how amazing it was not to get sick while working or after getting home.

As ever, please leave a comment or email me (melodyaschreiber@gmail.com) if you have any questions or thoughts. If you liked this post, don’t forget to hit the little heart at the top. And if you know someone who might appreciate this newsletter, please forward it to them!

Stay safe out there, and be kind.