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How a Virus Spreads Through an Airplane Cabin (gizmodo.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Traveling by plane greatly increases our chances of getting sick, or so many of us are wont to believe. To be fair, it's not uncommon to come down with a nasty illness after we return from a vacation or business trip. But is flying the culprit? The latest research suggests the answer is no -- but much of it depends on where we sit. New research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that airline passengers infected with influenza -- a disease that spreads through the air -- aren't likely to infect other passengers who sit more than two seats to the left or right, or more than two seats in front or back. In other words, your chances of contracting the flu from an infected passenger are slim -- unless you're sitting within about three feet (one meter) of them. Given that three billion of us fly annually, combined with the popular conception that we often contract diseases inflight, it's surprising to learn that very few studies have looked into this issue in detail.
No you won't get infected. If that were true everyone in the entire planet would be sick constantly. Amazingly your body has this thing called an "immune system". Get over yourself. And, wow, 30 deaths out of 350 million? You need to get a grip on reality. Over 3,500 people drowned last year in the US. Germaphobes have a complete lack of common sense.