Just last week we heard that the federal mask mandate on airplanes was extended to May 3rd. This was mildly reassuring to people like me, who are triple or quadruple vaccinated but are still careful not to catch covid. Long covid can be serious, and even “mild” breakthrough cases can result in an increase in diabetes, blood clots, strokes and heart attacks. Plus we have to consider medically vulnerable people including the elderly and children under five, who still can’t be vaccinated. I care about those people too and I’m going to stay masked for them. Guess I’m going to be only one of a handful of people on a plane who do this though, if I ever f’ing fly again. Following a ruling by a federal judge in Florida it’s now completely optional to wear masks on planes in the US. Airlines quickly announced that masks were not required on their flights.
After a federal judge in Florida struck down the Biden administration’s mask mandate for airplanes and other public transport methods, airlines are starting to act.
Several US airlines announced Monday that masks are now optional on their aircraft — Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and JetBlue.
Delta Air Lines (DAL) says it is making masks optional, and warned travelers they “may experience inconsistent enforcement during the next 24 hours as this news is more broadly communicated.”
“Given the unexpected nature of this announcement, please be aware that customers, airline employees and federal agency employees — such as TSA — may be receiving this information at different times,” the airline said.
United Airlines (UAL) said in a statement that “masks are no longer required at United on domestic flights, select international flights (dependent upon the arrival country’s mask requirements) or at U.S. airports.”
Alaska Airlines similarly said face masks are now optional and asked for passengers to be considerate.
“While we are glad this means many of us get to see your smiling faces, we understand some might have mixed feelings,” the airline posted on its website. “Please remember to be kind to one another and that wearing a mask while traveling is still an option.”
The judge who struck down the mask mandate, Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, was appointed by Trump and was considered “not qualified” for her position by the American Bar Association. Her ruling contains such inanities as claiming that masks “trap virus droplets” as if that’s a bad thing.
I’m so grateful we have the Biden Harris administration and I appreciate everything they’ve done. They’re working within a despicable mess of a white supremacist ableist system though and it’s been showing its whole ass during this pandemic. People have DIED OF COVID MID FLIGHT. This really happened several times. I write about these things so I can chronicle them and so I remember. I will probably stay masked in most public spaces until the day I die and I hope I get to be really old. In order to do that it looks like I’m going to have to give up public transit for a while.
You’ve heard of BA.2, which is of course on the rise in the US. This isn’t over but people are acting like it is.
People can’t bring toothpaste on a plane because of an attack 20 years ago but we don’t have to wear masks anymore for a disease that has killed way more people than that attack
— Budrino (@Budrino) April 17, 2022
My wife texted me that the pilot of @Delta flight 769 from ATL to SFO just announced that #masks are now optional. Mid-flight, no less! And some people are taking them off, of course. Feels unfair to the people who boarded with a different expectation. @CNN @andersoncooper @ajc
— Melanie Thompson (@drmt) April 18, 2022
Let's be really clear about what is happening at this stage in the pandemic: We are giving up on public health and embracing the privatization of health in ways that serve the able and young & write off anyone vulnerable. 1/
— Meghan O'Rourke (@meghanor) April 19, 2022
Photos from US Government via Rolling Stone and credit Gerrie van Der Walt and Ismail Mohamed Sovile on Unsplash
Gross.
It’s actually quite distressing that a lot of people wore masks only because they HAD to, not because they didn’t want to spread a devastating virus to others (like kids).
We’re screwed.
Attended my first indoor gathering with extended family in over 2 years. Included in the gathering were a heavily pregnant woman, 3 children under the age of 5, our 88-year-old family matriarch, and an immune-compromised person. My partner and I were the only persons masking, and we got pointed questions and rolled eyes. The oldest family member is pro-science, but didn’t want to offend or call attention to herself. We’re in a province that has pretty much stopped testing and removed all public health measures. Yep, we’re screwed.
This is the result of decades of attacks on public education. People do not understand the basic scientific facts of respiratory viruses.
It’s also the result of decades of concerted propaganda efforts to sow chaos and division in our country by the extremists who now control the Republican Party. People are very hateful and exclusionary.
We are. History will call us out for our stupidity and getting millions killed because WE CANNOT TOLERATE HIDING OUR FACE SO WE WON’T DIE. Literally, we’d rather die!
I will continue to wear my mask in public and on the plane. I also had my second booster shot. I just don’t want to catch Covid and believe that another big wave of the virus is going to hit the US. Stay safe my friends.
There is a new variant, the XE, already found in Japan, the UK, and AU. We still don’t know how we will react to it and/or just what it might do to us.
#KeepMasked people.
1,000% #KeepMasked.
Just read this on CNN: “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unveiled its new system for travel risk assessments on Monday. Many European nations are now considered at “high” risk for Covid-19, along with other marquee destinations around the world.”
Also: I traveled to Texas about two weeks ago and the weekend that I was there, there were several news articles about how thousands of flights had to be cancelled due to … (wait for it) … airline staffers calling in sick with COVID. Which means they were shortstaffed, which means no flights. Funny how the airlines aren’t saying anything about that.
Guaranteed there will be a surge. Philly has already reinstated its indoor mask requirement. Cases are rising in Europe, and so far, U.S. cases/trending follows Europe’s.
It’s unbelievable that we are (still) in this position 2.5 years later.
I work closely with an antivaxxer and it is super frustrating. I just assume I’ll get Covid at some point and fingers crossed the vaccine works. I double mask up when I travel. Will never fly maskless again.
Same here – I don’t plan on flying anytime soon, but I will wear a mask any time I do. I haven’t flown since covid, but often got sick when traveling before.
I’m with you on never flying maskless again. It’s so much better when I can’t smell the morning breath of all the surrounding mouth breathers.
I Had a 26+ hours journey a few days ago and I was shocked to see how many people did not wear a mask (even the flight attendants) on both flights. Told my husband no way in hell we are not wearing a mask, I kept mine even as I slept on the plane.
I have a friend who is a bit of a germophobe, so she wore masks on planes well before COVID and never got any sh*t for it. No way right wing loonies let anyone wear a mask without accosting them about it now.
It’s a shame masks got so politicized.
Eff that. People who are aggressive on airplanes should be banned.
The only bright spot out of the actions of this imbecile of a “judge” is that those banned will remain so. We have the BA2 coming our way and everyone acts as if the coronavirus is done with us. Not by a long shot!!!
No one is safe until coronavirus is no longer present, anywhere!
I was ridiculed on United’s Facebook page for stating I’d continue to wear mine.
I choose to believe in science rather than a Trump appointed judge.
If there were public mask factories, they’d be protesting like they do at planned parenthood. Then when they end up in hospital, the go fund me pleas for the “unexpected” hospitalization or funeral.
Misfit humans. I’m supposed to go to Europe in July.
I read US airlines have demanded President Biden lift PCR requirements for international flights! As it stands, only those with a PCR Negative can board a plane to the US but I’m sure they’ll remove those in no time SMH.
Just tell them all you’re not going to be a sheep and do what everyone else is doing. If everyone is taking their mask off, you’ll keep it on. No-one is going to tell you what to do! LOL
Oh no! We’re flying to the US this weekend and it’s the first time my kids will see their grandparents in over 3 years. My dad is terminally ill, but my mom isn’t. I seriously hope this doesn’t have an impact on international flights.
I will say it louder in the back.
The whole democratic party was shockingly stupid– yes, stupid — for not aggressively appointing judges during the Obama years and during the first two years of the Biden presidency.
The process is tortured, slow, invasive, non-sensical, and basically set up the way it always was (i.e. panels of people in the know in federal courts slowly vetting a slate of perfectly fine people for months on end before sending a name, which languishes in the Senate before it dribbles out of committee).
There should have been a developed slate of names for every single court on day one of the presidency. There isn’t. It is a “competitive” process, except it isn’t. It is a process driven by politics but in the least efficient way possible. Because AGAIN a federal judicial appointment is an exercise on who you know more than qualifications. Almost every candidate is qualified (I did this panels in Colorado for years during Obama’s presidency).
This. This. This.
The dem party is nowhere near ruthless enough. We keep bringing knives to a gunfight.
Evil will always triumph because good is dumb.
What? Obama didn’t have a majority in the Senate or House to do anything that you are talking about. You recall that whole Merrick Garland thing?
And Biden is now noted as the President who has seated the most number of federal judges. We can’t do crap about the fact that Trump during 4 years pushed ahead with people who were not qualified except being cited by the Federalist Society.
This. It is unfortunate that Trump got the judges he did in his term, but it is factually incorrect to say Biden isn’t aggressively pushing judges through.
agreed – nothing Democrats could have done during the Obama administration, and the Republicans are willing to lie, cheat and steal when they have the majority. Republicans have no honor, honesty, ethics or morals anymore. Voters need to step up – we are starting to rival 3rd-world countries when it comes to human rights and voters continue to vote for Republicans who are gleefully enacting laws to butcher the rights of women, minorities and the poor. As voters, we deserve the cesspool we’ve created.
Chilling is right. Mitch McConnell wouldn’t let ONE SINGLE OBAMA JUDGE nomination go through when he had the majority. And he is so damn proud of himself for doing so, the subject has come up and he crows about it.Mitch has probably become very rich for his efforts, dark money loves this. Biden has been on a nominating rampage to make up for lost time but he can’t kick Trump’s judges out. And this was a Trump judge.
* the most federal judges since 1981 (Reagan)
@janey janey You have a bit of revisionist history here. McConnel blocked all court nominees at all levels, and when Trump came to power he created a filibuster carve out for the courts. This is why we are in the sh*t show that we’re in.
We can also all recall how McConnel blocked Obama after the death of Scalia while he still had 10 or 11 months left during his term. McConnel is the most evil and power hungry dangerous man in Congress!!! McConnel is a man that has publicly stated that he was PROUD to block Obama!! Of course, we all saw what happened when the tables were turned even though the Repugnants had promised to honor the same position. We got Kavanaugh. We have two sexual predators on our governments SC.
I thought that when I was protesting the Reagan administration for their refusal to acknowledge and address the AIDS epidemic, that I had seen as low as the GOP would go. I am very sadly mistaken. AIDS is a horrific death that no one should suffer through. In addition to the coronavirus as well.
YES, exactly, Nicole!!
President Obama was not a dictator. He could not push through his judges without Congress doing their part.
Sometimes people attack democrats because they think it makes them sound unbiased, but many times those attacks are built on lies started by conservatives. Critique democrats for what they actually do wrong.
I’m still going to wear a mask on a plane when and if we ever go on a trip again!
Complete s***show. I have had to start traveling for work again and the only thing that made it tenable was that everyone on the planes and in the airports was masked. Now I guess my chances of getting infected increase exponentially even if I keep masking.
I flew yesterday on Southwest which is still requiring masks. But they sell booze again and you’re allowed to take the mask off to eat and drink. Of course we’re packed in like sardines because they won’t fly a less than sold out plane (cancelling flights and rebooking to make sure of that). I wish they’d require negative tests to fly domestically. But the airlines just want to pack us in. Health and safety of passengers and crew have never been their top priority.
I’m wondering the implications this will have on international flights. These travelers may board flights where masking is mandatory and they will have been unmasked on poor flight. Read COVID is picking up again in certain areas.
International flights still have a mask mandate UNTIL 3rd May. So, for example, I’ll have to wear a mask on my flight to the US, but as soon as I get on my connecting flight I’ll be surrounded by unmasked people. And I’m from an area with very low COVID at the moment (in fact, yesterday was the first time since 2020 that hospitals had 0 COVID patients, either in the ICU or just for treatment)
Exactly the scenario which will make things interesting. Wonder how international airlines will react.
But don’t most countries still require a negative test for entry? So passengers on an international flight presumably have tested negative in the last 24 hours, unlike domestic flights where there are no test requirements at the point of entry.
Yes, some still do, but some have false negatives and, in some cases, people have forged their results… Moreover, if I got COVID 3-4 days before getting tested, my result could very well be negative and still infect people around me.
IMO all precautions need to remain.
I will wear a mask. Haven’t flown in 2 years and this whole thing isn’t making it likely I do so in the near future. Apparently other countries are requiring them. What kills me is that some of the flight attendants wanted this struck down cause they got tired of being assaulted by passengers. We are a stupid country.
ChillinginDC,
I can see the Flight Attendants just being over it. Just the exhaustion of having to deal with it. I mean, I do NOT think dropping the mask mandate is a good idea at all. And I bet a lot of Flight Attendants know that, but boy have they been dealing with a lot of BS.
I work in the conference industry and we have safety policies in place re Covid. Most of our customers have been good about it, but the ones that aren’t are really, really hard to deal with and exhausting. Just passive-aggressive behaviour and everyone is an expert. If I hear “Covid is Over” one more time I am walking off a cliff. In the meantime, at least one colleague per event is testing positive.
Covid is over because some Americans are willing it to be over because they cannot be inconvenienced. It is very sad how individualism in American culture has turned so many into selfish individuals. I am in Canada and some have now taken the masks off, but I see plenty like myself wearing them still. Cases are rising again in the hospitals in Ontario and everyone Ive talked to thinks we took the mask off too soon due to polticial presssure from the truckers. This will be written in history books how idiotic we all were.
Agreed Turtledove. I think that they really are over it because it became something else they had to deal with. They begged airlines to ban alcohol and no one seemed willing to do that either.
It’s all Biden’s problem now. They were going to lift it anyway bc of pressures from airline industry who argued that their Flight attendants were constantly harassed from anti maskers. This admin were heeding advice from Dr. Leana Wen, the ousted Planned Parenthood head. Ugghh!
I’m flying to the US in less than 2 weeks and I will keep double masking. To make things worse, I’m going to FL. I really hope I don’t get COVID.
I’m flying to see vulnerable family members in early May. I will also be double masking.
I fly 2-4 times a month — every airport lounge, waiting area, block of seats are full of “unmasked” people. I would say a solid 1/4 of people walking around don’t wear masks and the second they sit they remove it to “eat or drink.” I travel a lot because I work for an airline — frankly we don’t have the energy left to confront people in the terminal for not wearing a mask…we make sure they pull it up when they get into the jet bridge.
The second they sit on a plane, out comes the water bottle to sip.
The second they walk into the bathroom it comes off.
While I don’t think the decision was rooted in science – I also think at this point it was a false sense of security.
I took a cross-country trip to Philadelphia in January. The flight attendants complained to the pilot several times about people not complying with the federal mask mandate; they’d get food & drink then just leave their masks off. The pilot came on the PA system more than once, then finally gave an ultimatum, sort of like a frustrated parent saying ‘I’m going to turn this car around if you kids don’t behave!’. He said, ‘one last time, this is a federal law, you must wear a mask at all times; if you take a drink or bite of food, you immediately put your mask back on while you chew or swallow; if I hear from the flight attendants that this is not happening, I’m going to put this plane down at the nearest airport, which may or may not be your final destination, and you will have to find your own way to that final destination’. I feel for the flight crew, I do.
I’m flying for the first time in several years on Friday and am so disappointed by this ruling. My daughter and I will wear masks. We’re going from one heavily masked area to another, so I’m not freaking out, but just…sad that we can’t do this minimal little thing to keep the people around us safe.
I used to regularly take a flight from Da gate at DFW next to an Air China (China Air???) flight and their passengers were always masked in the terminal and, assumably on the flight. I observed this for 20 years or so. Note: this is not a political post re: COVID/China, just an observation that some cultures have been masking for a long time. I will continue to mask if I fly.
I work with antivaxxers so I’m used to being the only one religiously wearing a mask. I’ll still be in my mask on the plane, and wish a mofo would say something to me. Minding your business is free.
Trump hasn’t been president for over a year and his awful legacy still lives on. Ugh. So much damage to this country.
I’m sure many people who have to work on airplanes may have breathed a sigh of relief. They are sick and tired of dealing with these selfish grown toddlers kicking and screaming about wearing a mask.
Southwest’s flight attendants (many, not all) wear the mesh masks so they can breathe better and be heard but they do absolutely nothing but provide the image of masking .
The airline industry is rejoicing.
It’s 100% auaranteed that someone who knows that they have Covid will get on a plane. They were doing that before and people feel even more entitled to walk around and infect others now. But we won’t hear about an entire plane being infected unless we are still monitoring, and we’ve lost the will to do that. But if that does happen and get out. I don’t see the airline industry rejoicing for their role in being superspreaders, especially if someone dies as a result.
I had a feeling this would happen. I think people have decided covid is over and are done with masks. I haven’t flown in years and don’t plan to anytime soon but planes are one place I think they still make sense. I’m in one of the last states to lift the mask mandate and I see a few in stores, especially older people (my area is a retirement area) but most people have taken them off the pat few weeks. I went to a concert Sunday night and only a few people had them and the vax card or negative test mandates from the last few months were gone too. Luckily we are vaxxed and low risk but I feel for higher risk people! I can’t imagine getting upset at people who choose to wear masks, what is wrong with people?!
I haven’t taken a covidcation the entire time and at this point I may never take another effing trip again. You have to plan them months in advance and who the hell knows the state of covid, mandates, etc. between the time you commit and the time you actually go.
My Korean mom said it best: Americans don’t know how to suffer. They won’t sacrifice for the greater good, they don’t change their ways for the better of the whole.
People will literally suffocate from this selfishness and I am so tired of the id run and entitlement mentality of the cuckoo conservative Christian wackadoo Trump worshipping anti vax
gun worshipping racist racist racist AF right
Your mom is right.
We’re lazy and entitled. Americans feel entitled to everything and responsible for nothing. And the white Christian right is leading that charge. So many people doing the work of the devil while pretending to be Christians.
My SIL told me yesterday that a good friend of hers is covid positive and jumped on a planet to Vegas anyway, bc it was her 40th birthday, and her symptoms were “just like a cold!” The selfishness of some people is infuriating.”
This is painfully true and it shows up in political apathy. A lot of Americans are asleep at the wheel as democracy becomes dismantled because they can’t be inconvenienced to get involved in grassroots movements or support even their local political ecosystem.
@Annaloo, my mom is from another country and just cannot grasp it no matter how many times I try to explain the other side (and I am very anti-otherside). She cannot comprehend no matter which language I use to explain. She just shakes her head and I recall er asking: all of Europe is doing this, why can’t Americans??
On gun control: don’t our elected officials see the death toll from guns???
We Americans are selfish. Well, not all of us.
Honk! Thank you for covering this 😷
Am I the only one who saw this judge’s picture and thought she looks like all of the Trump women and the only reason he appointed her is because he wants to have sex with her?
Although that might have something to do with it, her hubby is a bigwig at the Federalist Society, and is good friends with that walking cadaver Stephen Miller. Both of them played a role in #45’s first campaign (not sure about the second). Her real talent for the job of judge is not her legal skills – no one knows anything about them since she had never appeared in a courtroom prior to being appointed to preside over one – she did clerk for Clarence Thomas however. Her real talent is her age – she is 37, and McConnell/Trump/Federalists wanted to cram in as many younger judges as possible to really own the Libs for the next 30 – 40 years or so.
Of course. If it’s not the one gross thing, it’s another horrible thing. And I’m sure they’re all very pleased with themselves right now.
Because I am double boosted, I have been lax with my mask wearing. For the first time in 2 years I caught a nasty cold that lingered.( tested and wasn’t Covid) I am back to being more careful.
I am boosted and I believe in science, therefore I’m happy the mask mandates have been lifted. Because I believe in the vaccine. I may get COVID, but it probably won’t be severe. If people want to continue to wear masks, that’s fine by me. But if no one is taking masking seriously, then it’s just the “theater of safety” and conflicts will continue. Let people choose for themselves.
As a parent of a 19 month old I just feel so forgotten. He isn’t vaxxed, we are traveling this summer and at least the idea that some people on the plan have masks on made me feel better.
I’m flying in 5 days and will be double masking. I will NEVER fly maskless again.
Leave it to a magat judge to make sure no one has to be minorly inconvenienced for the greater good. If it is evil, non-inclusive, non-progressive, and self-entitled it is a major line item on the republican agenda.
We are a country in steep decline.
P.S. Thank you for covering these important issues.
New York Times has a good article on what the efficacy of masks are when you’re the only one masking. It’s worth a read. TLDR: it is still worth wearing the best mask you can, the % difference in risk is huge.
It’s crazy that a single judge can override a public heath initiative. And I hate that all the airlines and everyone didn’t say “That’s nice, but we’re going to continue to require them on our vehicles/trains/planes/buses”
I wish there was one airline that would still require masks cause a ton of people would patronize it. And all the maskless people could fly the other airlines.
As someone who travels frequently for business, I, for one, will continue to double-mask with a protective visor and gloves on flights.
And if anyone gives you guff, you point out that they don’t pay your bills! (It’s RuPaul’s philosophy that if you are not one of the three F’s in a person’s life, you have no say. Those F’s are feeding, financing or f***ing) I hope it helps, pointing out that they don’t pay your bills will shut them up, I promise you. Stay strong, stay healthy
It’s bad enough the mandate was overturned, but I truly cannot believe the pilots/flight attendants who announced this mid-air and then let it become a maskless free-for-all. The videos of FAs coming through the aisle with trash bags to collect the discarded masks is so unsettling. If I were trapped on one of those flights I would have gone ballistic. Many people chose to fly yesterday based on the expectation of mask wearing and that protection was taken away with no recourse. Unconscionable.