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Covid-sniffing dogs just started working at Miami airport and they're incredibly accurate

via Florida International University

A new 30-day pilot program at the Miami International Airport has enlisted man's best friend to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Cobra and Beta are among the world's first canines trained to sniff out the virus and they are using their skills to detect potentially infected travelers before they board flights.

"We're blessed in Miami-Dade County to have the first COVID-sniffing dogs — actually, we have a couple of them — and it's the first airport anywhere that's utilizing this type of technology in our four-legged friends," Miami-Dade Commission Chair Jose "Pepe" Diaz said, adding that they're a "big win for the community."

Early studies show they're incredibly good at their new jobs.

"The dogs are 97% accurate," an airport official said. "I mean, it's the same as a PCR test, so it's a great thing." The dogs have been trained to detect the scent of COVID-19 on face masks and when they come across the virus, they jump to alert their handlers.

The dogs are part of a program with Florida International University (FIU) and were taught to detect the virus by smelling face coverings from recovering COVID-19 patients at the Baptist Health South Florida hospital.

Researchers used ultraviolet light on the masks to kill the virus without eradicating its smell. Then the dogs were exposed to masks with and without the virus to learn how to differentiate between the two.

The dogs' trainers say they're one of the most reliable ways to detect the virus and they will not need special training to recognize new variants.

"The dogs generalize odors, so … the dog will pick up the different variants," FIU Provost Kenneth Furton said.

Although the research on dogs and COVID-19 isn't robust, there have been a few reports of dogs getting the virus. But according to the Centers for Disease Control, COVID-19 doesn't pose much of a risk to them.

"Of the pets that have gotten sick, most only had mild illness and fully recovered," the CDC says on its website. "Serious illness in pets appears to be extremely rare."

If this pilot program is successful it could be a huge win for public health. COVID-sniffing dogs could be used at just about any large gathering of people to detect those with the virus. Authorities could pull aside those who set off a dog's covid senses and they could be given a rapid test to confirm the results.

Cobra and Beta are able to detect the smell of COVID-19 because they have a sense of smell that is so developed it's nearly impossible for humans to imagine.

It's estimated that dogs can smell anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 times better than humans. They have 100 million sensory receptors in their nasal cavities compared to a human's six million. The area of the canine brain that processes scent is 40 times larger than that of a human.

Let's hope that the test goes well and that man's best friend can give us one more option to protect ourselves from the coronavirus.

From Your Site Articles

Remember the viral video of someone with a Delta flight to themselves? There’s more to the story.

Twitter / Vincent Peone

When it comes to social media, things aren't always as they seem. Every now and then, we're reminded that sometimes an incredible viral video is just the result of movie magic.

Writer and director Vincent Peone posted a video on Twitter documenting his experience on a "private jet." Peone was the only passenger on a Delta flight from Aspen, Colorado to Salt Lake City, Utah. In the video, Perone is greeted by name, meets the pilots, and gets to sit wherever he wants on a completely empty plane. It seems like a pretty sweet experience, especially because flying commercial can be such a nightmare. When the video ends, it's presumably because the flight was taking off. The video went viral, getting millions of views on Twitter.

RELATED: 9 women describe the frustration, shame, and heartbreak of being a fat person on a plane

Last week @Delta gave me my own private jet...kind of. https://t.co/p14OGLw1jv
— vincent peone (@vincent peone) 1565633569.0

Delta even responded to Peone's initial Tweet, which seemed confirm the flight actually happened. "That looks like an awesome experience! Thank you for the shoutout, and we truly appreciate you for choosing Delta!" said the airline.

@vincentpeone Hi Vincent! That looks like an awesome experience! Thank you for the shoutout, and we truly appreciat… https://t.co/XPwpkr84O1
— Delta (@Delta) 1565634090.0

Peone ended the viral video with, "Up, Up and Away," but in reality, the flight stayed, stayed where it was. Delta admitted that Peone did get on the empty plane, but the flight never took off. "Delta Connection Flight 3652 last week pushed back but shortly returned to the gate due to a maintenance issue. The aircraft departed a short time later without any customers onboard," Delta spokesperson Anthony Black told The Washington Post.

RELATED: A 2016 take on a century-old map shows changes in travel over time

Peone himself confirmed that this was true. "My video was 100% true...and then I stopped filming. After the private jet broke down again with mechanical problems, I took a normal one the following morning," the filmmaker wrote on Twitter. "The story took off fast, but the plane didn't."

https://t.co/hdK7TvXDOF
— vincent peone (@vincent peone) 1565910266.0

"It reminded me of an experience you'd have flying in the '50s or something. It was very positive, and [the flight crew] thought it was funny. But I was like: Why would they even do this? Why even fly the plane? Delay me or cancel or something!" Peone said in an interview with the Post.

It turns out, it's actually not weird for a flight to fly without passengers. Instead of cancelling an empty flight, the airplane will still travel to the next destination if it's needed to operate later flights.

From Your Site Articles

Many airports in America have their own chapels. One question: Why?

If you're traveling in the U.S. in 2018, there's likely a chapel tucked away in at least one of the airports you pass through.

According to my research, 16 of the country’s 20 largest airports have chapels, worship spaces, or meditation rooms, as do many more around the world. But very few people notice, or even know, they're there — or why.

My interest in airport chapels started as simple curiosity: Why do airports have chapels? Who uses them? But after visiting a few, I realized that they tell a much more interesting story about religion in America and how it's evolved over time.

[rebelmouse-image 19533569 dam="1" original_size="3053x1565" caption="Photo by brownpau/Flickr." expand=1]Photo by brownpau/Flickr.

How did airports come to have chapels, anyway?

The country’s first airport chapels were intended for staff, not passengers. They were established by Catholic leaders in the 1950s and 1960s to make sure their parishioners who were pilots, flight attendants, and airport staff could attend mass.

The first one in the U.S., Our Lady of the Airways, was built by Boston Archbishop Richard J. Cushing at Logan Airport, and it was explicitly meant for people working at the airport. A neon light pointed to the chapel and souvenir cards handed out at the dedication read:

“We fly to thy patronage, O Holy Mother of God; despise not our petitions in our necessities, but deliver us away from all dangers, O glorious and blessed virgin.”

[rebelmouse-image 19533570 dam="1" original_size="800x450" caption="Our Lady of the Airways at Boston Logan International Airport. Photo by TUFKAAP/Wikimedia Commons." expand=1]Our Lady of the Airways at Boston Logan International Airport. Photo by TUFKAAP/Wikimedia Commons.

Our Lady of the Airways inspired the building of the country’s second airport chapel, Our Lady of the Skies, at what was then Idlewild — and is today John F. Kennedy — airport in New York City. And as the idea of the airport chapel caught on, other faiths followed suit.

The first was in New York — again at JFK. The Protestant facility was designed in the shape of a Latin cross and was joined by a Jewish synagogue in the 1960s. These chapels were located at a distance from the terminals — passengers wishing to visit them had to go outside. They were later razed and rebuilt in a different area of JFK.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Protestant chapels opened in Atlanta and in several terminals of the Dallas airport in Texas.

[rebelmouse-image 19533571 dam="1" original_size="640x425" caption="Orlando International Airport Chapel. Photo by brownpau/Flickr." expand=1]Orlando International Airport Chapel. Photo by brownpau/Flickr.

It wasn't until the '90s that airport chapels started to become more inclusive of multiple faiths.

By the 1990s and 2000s, single faith chapels had become a "dying breed." Most started to welcome people from all religions. And many were transformed into spaces for reflection or meditation for weary travelers.

The chapel at San Francisco International Airport, for example, known as the Berman Reflection Room for Jewish philanthropist Henry Berman (a former president of the San Francisco Airport Commission), looks like a quiet waiting room filled with plants and lines of connected chairs. A small enclosed space without any religious symbols or obvious connections to things religious or spiritual is available for services.

The scene at the Atlanta airport chapel is similar, with only a few chairs and clear glass entrances to provide space for quiet reflection.

[rebelmouse-image 19533573 dam="1" original_size="4592x2576" caption="Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta Airport chapel. Photo by brownpau/Flickr." expand=1]Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta Airport chapel. Photo by brownpau/Flickr.

But some airports retain indicators of their faith-based origins — like the one in JFK, which continues to hold its original "Our Lady" name.

Others include religious symbols and objects from a range of religious traditions. The chapel in Charlotte, North Carolina, for example, has multiple religious texts alongside prayer rugs, rosary beads, and artistically rendered quotes from the world’s major religions. Pamphlets on topics ranging from grief to forgiveness are available for visitors to take with them.

There's a uniformity in religion, but airport chapels operate by their own rules.

Each airport chapel has its own set of standards — but no two sets of rules are the same.

What is permissible in one city is often not in another. Often, local, historical, and demographic factors influence decisions. These could even be based on who started the chapel or how much interreligious cooperation there is in a city.

Certain airports, like Chicago’s O'Hare, have strict rules regarding impromptu religious gatherings, whether inside the chapel or out. Some use their public address systems to announce religious services. Others prohibit such announcements and do not even allow airport chaplains to put out any signs that could indicate a religious space.

[rebelmouse-image 19533574 dam="1" original_size="640x425" caption="Orlando International Airport Chapel. Photo by brownpau/Flickr." expand=1]Orlando International Airport Chapel. Photo by brownpau/Flickr.

Airport chapel culture has changed throughout time — and is bound to continue doing so.

Four of the largest American airports — Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and New York’s LaGuardia — currently do not have chapel spaces, although opening such a space is under consideration. In the interim, at LaGuardia, a Catholic chaplain holds mass in a conference room.

Each airport's chapel reveals something about its city. The variations within each space tell a story about local attitudes toward spirituality and travel and how those attitudes have changed over time.

On your travels, keep an eye out for these chapels. Note their similarities and differences and recognize how important local histories are to how matters of religion and spirituality are resolved — at airports and beyond.

This story originally appeared on The Conversation and is reprinted here with permission.

These adorable pics of dogs at airports show why pups are the ultimate stress reliever.

Airports are stressful.

Even the most relaxing vacations usually start with you dragging a half-broken suitcase through a maze of terminals and expensive egg sandwiches while removing your shoes in public and wondering if you forgot your neck pillow. (You did.)

You also forgot your headphones. Have a nice flight! Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images.

Things get way worse if you miss your plane or have to sit through a nine-hour delay. There's only so much CNN a person can watch before they start wanting to punch Wolf Blitzer in the mouth (about 5 minutes by my estimate).

"The most common thing we notice at airports is that most passengers don’t smile at all," says Aakash Lonkar.

Lonkar, a director at Animal Angels Foundation, which specializes in animal-assisted therapy, says there's one thing that always changes people's moods, even at airports: dogs.

"Whenever they see a dog, a natural smile comes on their faces — they keep their bags aside and pet the dogs. The entire mood at the airport changes," Lonkar told The Better India.

This is a picture of a very not-stressed-out person. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

That's why Animal Angels, an non-governmental organization in India, has started bringing dogs to Mumbai Airport (with the airport's permission, of course).

When it comes to animal-assisted therapy, animals are "a catalyst to help the patients help themselves," explains the Animal Angels website. "For example, a child may not want to walk or reach after surgery because it is painful, but will happily take a dog for a walk or throw a ball, forgetting the pain for a little while and moving closer to going home."

Photo from Animal Angels Foundation, used with permission.

While people waiting in line at the airport may not be recovering from surgery, the physical and emotional stress of traveling is no joke, and neither is the healing ability of some animal company. Being able to spend a few minutes with a friendly dog can do wonders to relieve that burden on passengers coming on or off their flights.

So far the group has brought three golden retrievers (named Pepe, Goldie, and Sunshine) to provide some much needed smiles at the busy Terminal T2.

It's a simple solution that has had hugely positive effects — Lonkar even said that some people cry when they see the dogs "because their stress is immediately released."

Photo from Animal Angels Foundation, used with permission.

The stress-relieving abilities of dogs are no secret, and other airlines and airports have run similar programs.

Many studies have found that spending even a short amount of time with a pet can lower blood pressure and stress hormones like cortisol while raising oxytocin, which is linked to happiness and relaxation.

San Jose International Airport was one of the first to introduce the concept of therapy dogs to airports following the events of 9/11. Since then, airports in other cities like Los Angeles and Miami have followed suit.

In 2013, San Francisco International Airport welcomed what it calls the "wag brigade," a legion of adorable dogs whose job it is to be adorable dogs while people are at the airport.

A boy pets a therapy dog at San Francisco International Airport. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

The Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wisconsin, also has a therapy dog program — though if you ask me, it's a totally missed opportunity if none of their dogs are Great Danes:

The point is this — dogs are awesome and they make people happy, and it'd be great to see more programs like this at other places too.

There should be dogs at work! There should be dogs when you're studying for finals! There should be dogs at the supermarket to help you deal with that lady in front of you who's somehow in the midst of her very first encounter with a self-checkout machine even though that technology has been around since the early '90s. And there should 100% absolutely and completely be dogs around at the DMV. Just thinking about that place makes me stressed.

Therapy dogs everywhere! C'mon, who's with me?