When the U.S. federal government’s mandate requiring masks for transportation was lifted this week, reports of celebrations followed.
Videos were shared of people taking off their masks and cheering, music was blown up via airplane speakers, pilots shared the news from the cockpit and the flight attendants jumped for joy.
When Maureen Miller, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, heard the news, her reaction was very different. She was “horrified”.
“We’re basically making sure that contagious and susceptible people are together part of the time, without any protection,” she said.
Public health experts like Miller have widely criticized the lifting of the federal travel mask mandate, in contrast to the jubilant attitude from airlines, and some passengers have taken to the news. The dissonance in the reactions adds to the confusion over how to behave during the pandemic. People now have to weigh how much risk they want to take – and how much risk they want to be to other people – when traveling on planes, buses and trains. The thought worries some who have studied the pandemic.
“I don’t think individual responsibility can solve the epidemic,” said Abraar Karan, a Stanford University infectious disease physician and researcher.
Karan noted that effluent monitoring tests — which are increasingly being used as official reporting of cases is becoming less reliable — have indicated an increase in cases as the BA.2 Omicron subvariant becomes more widespread.
“This is not the time to withdraw mitigation measures in shared public indoor spaces,” Karan said. “The problem is that everyone gets together and spread out in different places. They may be seeding outbreaks in different areas.”
The potential for outbreaks has prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to delay the April 13 end of the transport mask mandate by two weeks, from April 18 to May 3. The agency said it wanted to assess the rise in cases attributed to the spread of subvariant BA.2 Omicron before lifting the mandate.
A Southwest Airlines flight attendant prepares a plane bound for Orlando, Florida for takeoff at Kansas City International Airport in May 2020. Photo: Charlie Riedel/AP“Since early April, the 7-day rolling average of cases in the United States has been increasing,” the CDC said in a statement at the time. “To assess the potential impact of the surge in cases on major illnesses, including hospitalizations and deaths, and health system capacity, the CDC rule will remain in effect at this time.”
But then on April 18, a US District Court judge in Florida revoked the extension, saying the agency had exceeded its powers. Watch videos of people without masks cheering on planes.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department said it was appealing to overturn the judge’s ruling, though it remains unclear whether the mandate will be permanently overturned. In a statement, the CDC said it was still evaluating the potential for another wave and continued to recommend people wear masks “on all indoor public transportation.”
Miller said she was concerned about the message the repeal of the mandate was giving to Americans.
“The lifting of the federal travel mandate is the latest nudge over the edge that tells the populace you don’t have to worry about this anymore, it’s under control,” she said.
The travel industry has been particularly excited about the end of the mandate and airlines have campaigned for the mandate to be lifted in recent weeks. Earlier this month, trade group Airlines for America sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services, saying the “public health environment” has changed and that “science and research … unequivocally supports lifting the mask mandate.” .
All major airlines quickly dropped their mask policies once the mandate was lifted. Delta Air Lines went so far as to release a statement saying the company was “relieved” at the end of the mandate “as Covid-19 has become a common seasonal virus.” According to setback With that wording, the airlines updated the statement, calling Covid “a more manageable respiratory virus.”
For many airline employees, the issue with face masks arose not from fulfilling the mandate itself, but from dealing with disgruntled customers who refused to wear masks. A survey by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) revealed an increase in the number of flight attendants who have had to deal with unruly passengers. One in five had physical incidents, while 85% in 2021 dealt with unruly passengers. The Federal Aviation Administration reported that investigations into unruly passengers rose sharply during the pandemic, largely due to problems with mask compliance.
“They don’t like being cops on airplanes,” David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue and CEO of Breeze Airways, told the New York Times.
In a statement released after the mask mandate was lifted, AFA President Sara Nelson highlighted the problems flight attendants have had in enforcing mandates.
Passengers are lining up to check in at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia this week. Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters“During this pandemic, flight attendants have faced constant disruption in our workplaces, including harassment and violence on an unprecedented scale,” she said. “We are urging the government, all airlines and airports to work urgently on consistent, clear messaging on the new policy, recommendations to protect everyone and expect mutual respect and calm at our airports and planes.”
To the dismay of union leaders, including Nelson, some airlines – American, United and Delta – said they would allow passengers who were banned from flying for refusing to wear masks to fly with them again.
“We spoke to them individually,” United CEO Scott Kirby told NBC. “Many of them are reassuring that everything will be fine now that the mask mandate is lifted and I have faith that the vast majority of them will do so [be].”
While airlines are happy to get their passengers back on board, it’s unclear what the lifting of the mandate will mean for the pandemic.
Some public health experts have expressed concern about the uncertainty of the effects of long Covid, even among those who initially had mild cases of the virus. Karan recalls contracting Covid in January and being ill for 10 days. He had symptoms that lasted for weeks.
“I don’t want to get infected again. I just don’t want to keep getting reinfected with every wave, and I’ve advised people not to take that lightly,” he said.
“[The judge’s decision] is currently a real hindrance to public health efforts. We may see consequences of this. We may have more population immunity than we realized from day one, we have vaccinations, but we just don’t know. There’s a lot of uncertainty right now.”