When I left last Tuesday on an early flight out of HNL to LAX for the Fred Hall Show, there were no confirmed cases in Hawaii. The Hawaiian Airlines terminal was emptier than normal and there was no mention of taking precautions to not be exposed. It seemed like the airport personnel wanted to downplay the concern since they were already seeing a drop in passengers coming through.

The passengers on my flight didn’t seem too occupied with avoiding germs so I felt a little germaphobic when I wiped down my seating area with a Purell Hand Sanitizing Wipe.

The lobby of my Torrance hotel was always filled with Chinese speaking flight attendants wearing face masks so I did the antibacterial wash coming and going.

The Fred Hall Show seemed a touch less crowded than last year and those there still shook hands for the most part. A few booths had antibacterial soap dispensers that were being used occasionally.

By the time I was heading back to HI on Friday afternoon, there were 14 confirmed cases in Los Angeles and one on Oahu. The LAX Hawaiian Airlines Check-In was much emptier than normal but my flight was full and again, no one seemed concerned about catching germs from the plane.

I have been doing a self-quarantine around at-risk people (elderly, heath compromised, very young) just in case, and am hoping the spread of the virus is diminished as we all adopt better hygiene habits as a whole. Maybe this time I won’t catch a cold after traveling like I do 50% of the time.

I’ll write up the Fred Hall experience next!