MICHAEL SKAPINKER: Are planes as Covid-safe as the airlines say?

The vaccinations have begun, but so have the coronavirus mutations. We may be able to limit Covid-19 but it’s going to be around, as UK government chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance says, “probably forever”.

So will we be able to fly again without fear of infection? How safe can we feel sitting shoulder to shoulder with strangers for hours in a sealed tube? Pretty safe, according to the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, which says we have less chance of contracting Covid-19 on an aircraft than almost anywhere else...