The federal mask mandate for transportation is slated to expire in less than a week, but it remains unclear if federal health officials will force yet another extension, as Americans await to see if they will finally be able to travel on planes without covering their faces in President Biden’s America.
The federal mask mandate is currently set to end April 18, 2022. The date comes after officials extended the previous March 18 deadline. However, over the last two years, officials have continued to extend the federal mask mandate for public transportation, even as Americans attempt to return to a state of pre-pandemic normalcy. Currently, every single state is free of a statewide mask mandate, yet Biden officials are iffy when it comes to wholly relieving Americans of the burden of masking and continue to waver due to the possibility of surges related to new variants of the virus.
White House coronavirus czar Ashish Jha dampened hopes of the mask mandate finally expiring after telling NBC’s TODAY that an extension is “absolutely on the table.”
“We’re going to see that framework come out, I think, in the next few days,” he said.
“And based on that, we’re going to want to be guided by this decision. Throughout the entire pandemic, we’ve wanted to make decisions based on the evidence and science. And that is what I expect we’ll do again this week,” he asserted, although it remains unclear how officials would justify extending a mask mandate from a scientific perspective, as even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has admitted that cloth and surgical masks are not very effective. Studies have also backed that up, despite the Biden officials pushing masks on the American people over the last 14 months. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted in a February 2020 email that typical drugstore masks are “not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material.”
If the Biden White House fails to allow the mandate to expire, it will serve as yet another example of Biden’s failure to live up to his promise of “just” 100 days of masking.
Meanwhile, leaders of major airlines have called for the end of the federal mask mandate, arguing that the mandate makes “no sense” anymore.
In a letter to the Biden White House, Airlines for America’s (A4A) Board of Directors made it clear that “much has changed since these measures were imposed and they no longer make sense in the current public health context.”
The persistent and steady decline of hospitalization and death rates are the most compelling indicators that our country is well protected against severe disease from COVID-19. Given that we have entered a different phase of dealing with this virus, we strongly support your view that “COVID-19 need no longer control our lives.” Now is the time for the Administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions – including the international predeparture testing requirement and the federal mask mandate – that are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment.
“It makes no sense that people are still required to wear masks on airplanes, yet are allowed to congregate in crowded restaurants, schools and at sporting events without masks, despite none of these venues having the protective air filtration system that aircraft do,” the letter continued, adding that mask enforcement is an unfair burden on airline employees.
“This is not a function they are trained to perform and subjects them to daily challenges by frustrated customers. This in turn takes a toll on their own well-being,” it continued, contending that lifting the mandate will benefit everyone, including “thousands of airline employees charged with enforcing a patchwork of now-outdated regulations implemented in response to COVID-19.”