Empty middle seats reduce virus risk on planes, a new study says, taking no account of mask-wearing. The study used aerosol dispersal data from before the coronavirus pandemic that did not take into account any protective effect of masks worn by passengers.Credit...Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times By Emily Anthes April 14, 2021 Keeping the middle seats vacant during a flight could reduce passengers’ exposure to airborne coronavirus by 23 to 57 percent, researchers reported in a new study that modeled how aerosolized viral particles spread through a simulated airplane cabin. “Farther is always better in terms of exposure,” said Byron Jones, a mechanical engineer at Kansas Sate University and co-author of the study. “It’s true in airplanes, it’s true in movie theaters, it’s true in restaurants, it’s true everywhere.”