America is one year into President Joe Biden’s presidency, and Americans are still being forced to wear masks on airplanes, with no clear end in sight.
Thursday marks one official year of Biden’s presidency, which he kicked off with a grand pitch for “just” 100 days of masking.
Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Jill Biden holds the Bible on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021 (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik).
“My first 100 days is going to require — I’m going to ask for a masking plan. [I’m asking] everyone, for the first 100 days of my administration, to wear a mask,” Biden said in December 2020, prior to taking office.
“We’re going to require masks wherever possible, but this goes beyond government action. And so, as a new president, I’m going to speak directly to the American people and say what I’m saying now,” he said, begging Americans to wear a mask “for just 100 days.”
“It’s the easiest thing you can do to reduce COVID cases, hospitalizations, and death,” he said. Notably, that did not appear to be the case, as the county continued to experience spikes of the Chinese coronavirus, even in restriction-heavy areas where masking has become the norm.
“Whatever your politics or point of view — mask up for 100 days,” he continued, adding that 100 days would “make a difference.”
The first 100 days of Biden’s masking plan went by, and instead of easing up, his administration continued to extend the mask requirement for air travel throughout the year. In December 2021, a year after pitching his “just” 100 days of masking plan, Biden announced yet another extension of the federal mask mandate on planes.
“And we are extending the requirement, both internationally and domestically, to wear masks for travel on aircraft, train, public transportation, through the winter months,” Biden said during a speech at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The mandate, however, was slated to end January 18, but that now stands at March 18, 2022. It remains unclear if Biden will extend it further, although given his past action, that seems likely.
Additionally, nearly two years into the pandemic, public health officials are continuing to urge everyone — even fully vaccinated Americans — to wear masks.
“To protect yourself and others from COVID-19, CDC continues to recommend that you wear the most protective mask you can, that fits well and that you will wear consistently,” current U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states.
This week, the Supreme Court formally rejected a request to block the federal mask mandate for air travel. However, as Breitbart News reported, the decision “should not necessarily be seen as reflection of the legal merits of coronavirus mandates, as any non-lawyer can file lawsuit papers against anyone, as it appeared to occur in this very case”:
Additionally, the case was filed in one of the most liberal courts in the country, further suggesting the Supreme Court’s declining to weigh in should be viewed more as resulting from the lack of legal skill of the individuals taking the issue to court rather than a reflection of the underlying issue itself.
All the while, one year in, Biden continues to push masking on the American people.
“As I’ve said in the last two years: Please wear a mask. If you’re in a — you know, I think it is part of your patriotic duty. It’s not that comfortable. It’s a pain in the neck,” Biden said during a speech last week, bragging about the actions he has taken to “require people to wear masks in federal buildings and on airplanes and trains because they’re inter-…they cross state lines.”