JFK Airport Ranks Number One in Spreading Disease

A new study put out by MIT's Civil and Environmental Engineering Department ranked John F. Kennedy (JFK) airport as number one in spreading a contagious disease. The published paper revealed how its network theory computer model can predict which U.S. airports are the worst when it comes to spreading global pandemics such as SARS and the H1N1 flu virus.

The study covered the U.S.' 40 largest airports and had a number of factors associated with it including which are flown into the most, wait times between layovers, location and overall traveler wait time. The research focuses on the first ten days of a disease outbreak rather than targeting hot-spots that emerge once the disease has already spread.

Followed closely after JFK is Los Angeles' LAX airport and Honolulu airport. By using these new methods, the team at MIT has created a possible tool for predicting and preparing for outbreaks. Ruben Juanes, a professor of energy studies at MIT's civil and Environmental Engineering department and author of the paper said to WIRED, "The findings could form the basis for an initial evaluation of vaccine allocation strategies in the event of an outbreak, and could inform national security agencies of the most vulnerable pathways for biological attacks in a densely connected world."

JFK's status as a number one offender is due to a number of factors including its connectivity to other airports worldwide and its location in a large metropolitan area. The study also looked at geographic location and connectivity to find out how fast disease would spread from its origins over a 15 day period.

Top ten disease spreaders according to the study: