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
