Let’s say it’s flu season. You’re on an airplane or a bus, and someone coughs. You’re in your cubicle at work. You’re a full five feet away from the infected person. Not far enough, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which puts the flu’s range of travel by sneeze or cough at six feet. Or you can get flu on your skin through a touch on a handrail that a carrier has touched not long before. A kiss, a hug, a handshake. You wipe your nose, and now the virus has a warm and comfy place to reproduce.
