'We have Covid...shhh'—Woman's Overseen Text Message on Plane Sparks Fury

A photograph claiming to show a woman on a plane texting a friend to tell her she had Covid has sparked outrage on social media.

The image was first shared to Reddit by tristydotj, who captioned the post: "Caught this woman sitting in front of me on a plane sending some very alarming texts."

"We have Covid... shhh," the portion of the message visible on the screen reads. "That's why we're coming home a day [early]. On the plane [indecipherable]."

A second image shows the woman's follow-up message, which appears to read: "When we got to the hockey game last night you either had to have proof of a vaccine or a negative test.

"We had neither so the guy let me sneak in sharing [nana's] but he made dad go next-[indecipherable] and get a test.They tested him twice and [...] positive.''

The origins of the images are as yet unknown. Newsweek has contacted tristydotj for comment on the post, which has been upvoted more than 70,000 times on the platform.

The image has been shared across multiple subreddits and has also appeared on Twitter, with users across the board expressing anger at what it apparently shows.

xSTSxZerglingOne said the woman deserved to be "called out" for "causing imminent danger to everyone on the plane," adding that she had "knowingly defrauded a government organization."

Another user, posting as Oflowz, said her behavior was "pretty s****y," but added that he thinks there's "a larger percentage of people that act this way than people realize."

A despondent jarvisismycopilot, meanwhile, said his "faith in humanity" had been "completely wiped out" by these kinds of actions.

Elsewhere, a user posting as Cheekyness called on the identity of the woman to be revealed so she could be "blacklisted" and prevented from flying again, while shrike71 called her a "cancer on society."

Under CDC rules, anyone who tests positive for COVID must enter isolation for at least five days and should avoid travel until "a full 10 days" after their symptoms started or the date of the positive test if they had no symptoms.

Anyone needing to travel after the initial five days of quarantine must wear a "well-fitting mask" for the duration of their flight.

Despite the guidance on masks and vaccines being clear for all to see online, people continue to flout the rules.

The viral post came just days after the passengers on a maskless party flight to Mexico discovered they could each be facing a $5,000 fine for COVID rule violations.

Separately, United Airlines has banned a passenger who attempted to get around facemask rules by wearing a thong over his mouth.