COVID infections are rising but it won’t mean masking up on planes this time around.
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As COVID-19 cases once again rise across the United States, it begs the question as to whether protective measures such as mask mandates will return, especially in high-risk, enclosed environments like airplanes. Recent data shows an uptick in cases during the latter part of 2023 and into 2024, largely driven by new variants and changes in vaccination behavior. According to the CDC, hospitalizations and positive case rates have increased, though nothing near the alarming levels seen in 2020 and 2021. However, despite these upward trends, it is unlikely that masks will return to widespread use on airplanes, and there are several factors behind this shift in public health policy and sentiment.
Context: Comparing Current COVID Numbers to Previous Years
Though COVID-19 cases are on the rise once again, they remain significantly lower than the peaks witnessed in 2020 and 2021. During the initial waves of the pandemic, infection rates surged dramatically, overwhelming hospitals and leading to widespread panic. In 2020 alone, the U.S. saw daily new cases in the hundreds of thousands at the height of the winter wave. Vaccination campaigns, social distancing, and mandatory mask policies in places like airports and planes made getting around difficult. However, in recent years, the situation has shifted.
By mid-2023, while COVID still circulated in the population, the severity of illness had diminished for many, with far fewer deaths and hospitalizations per number of infections compared to earlier in the pandemic. Correlations to co-morbidities seems to have diminished as well. This shift has been attributed to a combination of factors, including widespread vaccination, natural immunity from previous infections, and more targeted medical treatments. In comparison, the case numbers available today no longer justify the same level of public health intervention that some deemed necessary during the pandemic’s earlier stages.
Efficacy of Masks and Their Impact on the Airline Industry
One key reason for the absence of mask mandates, particularly on airplanes, is the evolving understanding of the efficacy of masks. While early studies suggested that masks could significantly reduce the spread of respiratory viruses like COVID-19, more recent case studies and reviews have indicated that their protective benefit, particularly in high-ventilation environments like airplanes, may be less than previously thought.
“In this review, we did not find evidence to support a protective effect of personal protective measures or environmental measures in reducing influenza transmission.”
“We did not find evidence that surgical-type face masks are effective in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza transmission, either when worn by infected persons (source control) or by persons in the general community to reduce their susceptibility…” – CDC study quoted by Utah State Legislature
The effectiveness of masks largely depends on the type of mask worn and the consistency with which individuals wear them. In public settings, compliance with mask usage has varied, and cloth masks, which many wore, were found to provide less protection compared to surgical or N95 masks. Mandating N95 masks seems to be extremely difficult even in more COVID-wary countries.
Furthermore, the airline industry itself suffered significant financial and operational challenges during the peak of mask mandates. Airlines experienced a sharp decline in passenger numbers, leading to widespread layoffs, government bailouts, and customer dissatisfaction. Enforcing mask mandates became a burden for airline staff, with many flight attendants reporting verbal and sometimes physical altercations with passengers resistant to wearing masks. Some pointed to this being the moment in which public behavior on airlines severely declined.
Airlines were eager to remove restrictions that were not only difficult to enforce but also contributed to the negative perception of air travel. This strain on the industry, combined with the evolving data on mask efficacy, has played a role in airlines and governments resisting a return to mandatory mask-wearing policies.
Regardless of a rise in cases, airlines would point to the CDC’s own findings in a lack of mask efficacy as well as a drop in severity either due to herd immunity, vaccinations, or generally better hygiene practices.
Early Assumptions About COVID’s Severity Hurts Further Mandates
Another contributing factor to the reluctance to reintroduce mask mandates on planes is a growing acknowledgment that some early assumptions about the severity of COVID-19 may have been overstated. While the initial spread of the virus was indeed deadly and disruptive, especially among vulnerable populations, the overall risk of severe illness or death has decreased significantly for the general population, particularly as vaccines and natural immunity have provided widespread protection. With improved treatments available, the death toll from COVID-19 is now much lower than during the pandemic’s early days, and for many, contracting the virus now results in mild to moderate symptoms that are manageable at home.
This recalibration of the perceived threat has led to a more measured response to rising case numbers. Instead of resorting to sweeping restrictions like mask mandates or lockdowns, public health authorities are focusing on targeted interventions, such as encouraging booster vaccinations for high-risk individuals and improving ventilation in indoor spaces. This approach reflects a broader societal shift towards learning to live with the virus rather than attempting to eliminate it through strict public health measures.
A number of measures thought to be effective at the time have been found baseless. Dr. Fauci’s own testimony on Capitol Hill suggesting the six-feet of distance metric was assumed by the CDC and unscientific yet implemented all the same.
Conclusion
Although COVID-19 cases are rising again, it is unlikely that mask mandates will return to airplanes anytime soon. The comparison between current case numbers and those from the pandemic’s height shows a far less dire situation, despite the virus still circulating. Furthermore, new insights into the limited effectiveness of masks in preventing transmission on planes, combined with the negative impact mask mandates had on the airline industry, make a return to those policies less appealing. Additionally, the evolving understanding of COVID-19’s severity has led to more measured public health strategies, favoring personal responsibility and targeted interventions over broad mandates. For now, it appears that air travel will continue to operate in a mask-free environment, even as the virus continues to persist.
C’mon man, mask up.
Best anti-virus medicine is champagne .
@Alert +1! Though I think the higher ABV in liquor does the job better!
Slow Sunday news, Kyle? You only get Covid if you get tested. Move on!
I thought vaccines stopped transmission and prevented sickness?
I’m pretty sure some powerful people said that…
What were their names again…. I can’t remember…
You do a disserve to everyone by not pointing out the effectiveness of higher grade masks, while only showing comments about surgical masks being ineffective.
Every study has indicated this, but the only quote you reference is about surgical mask efficacy. At the very least you should have linked and quoted from a medical source vs a state legislature summary that was based on data ending in 2020:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10446908/
Your bias is showing.
I contend that the essential aspect of a policy is a consideration of costs vs. benfits. I think it foolhardy to measure benifits of high-grade masks used properly instead of the masks that are used in the way they’re used. I don’t want a car that is extremely safe if I make no mistakes; I want one that is safe given I may not be the Stig.
From the highly respected Cochrane Policy institute:
N95/P2 respirators compared to medical/surgical masks
We pooled trials comparing N95/P2 respirators with medical/surgical masks (four in healthcare settings and one in a household setting). We are very uncertain on the effects of N95/P2 respirators compared with medical/surgical masks on the outcome of clinical respiratory illness (RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.45 to 1.10; 3 trials, 7779 participants; very low‐certainty evidence). N95/P2 respirators compared with medical/surgical masks may be effective for ILI (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.03; 5 trials, 8407 participants; low‐certainty evidence). Evidence is limited by imprecision and heterogeneity for these subjective outcomes. The use of a N95/P2 respirators compared to medical/surgical masks probably makes little or no difference for the objective and more precise outcome of laboratory‐confirmed influenza infection (RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.34; 5 trials, 8407 participants; moderate‐certainty evidence). Restricting pooling to healthcare workers made no difference to the overall findings. Harms were poorly measured and reported, but discomfort wearing medical/surgical masks or N95/P2 respirators was mentioned in several studies (very low‐certainty evidence).
One previously reported ongoing RCT has now been published and observed that medical/surgical masks were non‐inferior to N95 respirators in a large study of 1009 healthcare workers in four countries providing direct care to COVID‐19 patients.
There is no data to show that masking works. Now, or ever. It’s ironic that you claim his bias is showing when using a single study, of limited usefulness, to claim a definitive positive. This is why you never force your will on people because usually those using force are in the wrong.
Oh stop it
And yet, the commie fascists at the FAA still insist that we wear pants. Way to bury the lede.
This comment is why we don’t let the *stupid* make policy decisions. Comparing indecency to medical necessity based on no analytical data.
We’re still talking about Covid? Agree with other commenters…much be slow news day.
We’re all gonna die!
Stay home. Stay safe. Stop the spread.
You guys should do more satirical articles like this.
i am not a practicing member of the church of “The Covidians” – so therefore unfortunately i am unable to participate in the sacraments of the “Mask” and the “Injection”
@Tom +1
@tom edwards +2! Amen!
If just everyone stays home for two weeks, we can stop the spread.
Also another thing is the legal aspect… in the US, the federal transportation mask mandate was thrown out by a judge for several reasons, one being that the mandate exceeded CDC’s statutory authority.
While the appeal was ruled moot because the mandate ended when the public health emergency declaration ended, something happened later: Chevron was overturned. This basically means that judges will much more heavily scrutinize an agency’s interpretation of statutes.
Also, the 2024 FAA reauthorization law banned FAA from imposing mask mandates. (However, the mandate was issued by CDC and enforced by TSA, so this bill doesn’t apply to those agencies. Also, it wouldn’t apply in a pandemic other than COVID-19.)
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3935/text
Section 1106, subsection (b), states among other things: “The Administrator [of the FAA] may not implement or enforce any requirement that … passengers of air carriers … wear a mask as a result of a COVID-19 related public health measure.”
If a mask mandate were to be issued, of course, we’d see plenty of hypocrisy from a political group that likes to call themselves “law-abiding citizens”, and says things like “should have complied”, “back the blue”, and “law and order”. They’d probably go postal when told that they have to follow the rules, much like how they’d go postal if they were to try to travel internationally and get told that they have to leave their gun at home. See the chart and my comment here: https://viewfromthewing.com/biscoffs-skyrocketing-success-how-airline-passengers-should-have-become-rich-roundup/
You were off to such a good start and had to go full mouth-breather at the end. The irony of calling out the back the blue hypocrisy on one side and completely ignoring the “muh body, muh choice” on the other is astounding. Good job.
The CDC study relates to mask efficacy with respect to influenza transmission. COVID-19 has different transmission characteristics (i.e. all the hand sanitizing we do to reduce influenza transmission does little to reduce COVID-19 transmission).
COVID-19 has far higher airborne transmissanility than influenza. Masks are clearly effective in reducing COVID-19 transmission. I’m not advocating for a mandate. Make your own decisions but please understand the studies you choose to cite.
OMFG, stfu. No, it doesn’t have “differing” transmission properties. Geez, ^ stop letting children like this guide policy.
Fauci and his crowd did more to damage Americans’ trust in the government and institutions than anything in my lifetime. More than Nixon, Clinton, any president or member of Congress. I’m 75 years old and don’t know whether to trust the recommendations from the government and medical professionals that I need yet another Covid shot. There was a time I believed in those institutions. No more. I had two at the start of the pandemic and two boosters. That’s probably enough. Fauci is gone but the damage he caused will hurt this country for decades.
A lawyer should not be your doctor. Most politicians are lawyers.
Wearing of masks, particularly N95, is wise. The vast majority of flyers are not on a hot date. In fact, many are average looking or ugly so a mask protects and hides an ugly face.
I wear masks on planes and at an airport. I don’t want long covid.
Says the guy who couldn’t cite a single study, much less the entirety of them. If you want to hide your ugly face, please, be my guest. We don’t need your poor decision making infecting policy. It’s amazing you people having figured out in 4 years now THIS IS ENDEMIC. You will never “wish it away”. This is the flu. It is here to stay with us forever.
An email from some guy named Allan in Utah is not evidence. Try again. There is a mountain of evidence demonstrating the efficacy of masks.
Wait… i didn’t get the memo… we stopped wearing masks?
Normal people did. Rational people never wore them. Some of us with medical conditions tried to explain to you that you were playing silly games but you preferred to listen to your lying politicians instead of actual science and data.
You can never avoid a respiratory virus, on or off a plane. Masks don’t even work temporarily. We had known this for a century until suddenly, in April 2020, someone dreamed up an alternate reality.
It was “dreamed up” because South Korea seemed to, at the time, have lower “case rates” and the media latched on to it as a “solution” to appease the karens. Then the powers that be decided to make the messaging “muh mask protects you” which caused the hyperventilating karens, like Derek, to enforce/impose their will on the rest of us. Do they work a little, probably. By a little, I mean like at most 5-10% case reductions (MAYBE), but that wasn’t the message that was given. It was that they “DEFINITELY WORK TM” and “THIS WILL STOP THE PANDEMIC”. Neither, predictably, happened and then the goal posts (like they have frequently done in the last 8 years) magically became “well, it’s because you didn’t listen to us and we didn’t have high enough compliance”, which is pure, unadulterated BS. Then instead of viewing the data we were forced to listen to the church/priests of “science” and anyone with a differing opinion (supported by data) was tarred and feathered for “misinformation”. I can’t tell you how many “dereks” coined the term “Freedumb” during that time and now they want to whine about “muh body, muh choice” again.
Why are we still talking about covid? Covid is never going away, ever. It will be as ubiquitous as the flu. We just have to learn to live with it, just as we’ve lived with the flu for decades.