In episode 5 of From the Cockpit, the Magellan Jets podcast, Chief Operating Officer Todd Weeber discusses what is Rt, an important metric the company uses to monitor the coronavirus situation. Additionally, Weeber breaks down the factors behind Rt, how it’s used for safety and feasibility checks, plus more insights. Click the link below to listen to the full From the Cockpit episode.
MAGELLAN JETS PODCAST: FROM THE COCKPIT EPISODE 5
In this episode, Magellan Jets COO Todd Weeber explains what is Rt and how the private jet company utilizes this data. Surprisingly, the up-to-date tracker that monitors “the effective reproduction number of the virus, or Rt,” was created by Instagram foudner Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.
This resources tracks how fast the coronavirus spreads on a state-by-state basis. Specifically, it measures the average number of people who become infected by an infectious person.
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If the number for a state is higher than 1, the faster it’s spreading. However, if a number is below one, then “the virus in a location will stop spreading.”
“It’s a metric that we should all be concerned about,” says Weeber. “It’s easily measurable, publicly available records and it’s a key measure of how fast the virus is growing.”
How Magellan Jets uses Rt
According to Weeber, Rt is also part of Magellan Jets’ service and safety management system. “We’ve been able to operationalize Rt and use it as an extra feasibility check.”
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For example, when going to low Rt locations, there should be no issues while things get back to normal. However, going to a high Rt location, “we know that there might be shortages of personnel,” explains Weeber, who notes other roadblocks like situations where FBOs restrict passengers from entering.
“The lower that number gets, the higher confidence that we have that our members, clients and their guests will have an excellent experience,” says Weeber.
