When President Joe Biden took office earlier this year, he implemented a mask mandate for airlines and airports, among other forms of transportation. But, with the pandemic surging back with a vengeance, the airline mask mandate is extending through January.
President Biden’s travel mask mandate was seen as largely a symbolic move when it went into effect earlier this year. That’s because airlines already had mask mandates of their own. However, actions taken by the previous administration turned the pandemic into a decisively partisan issue. As a result, anti-maskers frequently fight with aircrews over the mandates. Biden’s mandate helped in this regard, by putting some teeth behind mandates that were already in place. Heck, look at the numbers! Of the 3,889 unruly passenger incidents so far this year, 2,867 involved refusals to wear masks.
Airline Mask Mandate Extending Through January
When it went into effect, the mask mandate was scheduled to expire on September 13, 2021 – that’s in less than a month. However, the Delta variant is changing the game. The more infectious variant is spreading like wildfire across big swaths of the US. What’s more, the variant more easily evades vaccine-induced immunity and can create a high enough viral load to make a vaccinated infected person just as infectious as a non-vaccinated person. The good news, though, is that the vaccine is very effective at preventing serious illness and death – which is exactly what vaccines, in general, are supposed to do. And that’s why we need these mandates. They aren’t necessarily to protect vaccinated people, but those that are high-risk and those that remain unvaccinated.
Given the current situation, it comes as no surprise that we’re seeing an extension of the travel mask mandate. And that’s exactly what’s happening. During an announcement yesterday, the TSA announced an extension to the mandate through January 18, 2022.
Final Thoughts
People, the pandemic is not a political issue. Please, for the good of everyone, please mask up and vaccinate. The sooner we can all do our part, the sooner we can beat back this virus and return to normal. I’m sick of COVID life already, as I’m sure you all are, and we can do this. And, please, if you’re coming to Hawaii, be respectful of, not only our pandemic measures, but our land, culture, and people as well.