Last night I flew into Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and want to provide a few observations on the newly-reimposed mask rule at one of the nation’s busiest airports. In short: it was widely disregarded.
LAX Mask Rule: Disregard By Passengers And Employees
I arrived on United Airlines in Terminal 8 to messages over the loudspeaker reminding people to mask up. There were also signs noting that masks were again required.
But I’d put compliance at less than 50%…which is really a striking indictment of the public officials in Los Angeles County.
And it wasn’t just passengers: I was very tempted to take a picture of three unmasked United flight attendants standing in front of the sign above. But it was just too obvious…and I would not want to get them in trouble at this point in time. I also noted several gate agents who were not wearing masks. Nor were the TSA officers I passed. Or the LAX Police officers I saw in the baggage claim area. In short, the people who arguably should be “setting the example” were instead flouting the rule.
It’s an amazing lesson that the people will only respect rules when they believe those rules are rooted in legitimacy. At this point, people are so over masking up that they will no longer respect clear and umbagious rules. And clearly there seems no appetite to enforce such rules at LAX.
As an aside, I put on my KN95 mask when I stepped off the plane. I no longer favor masking, believing it should be up to each person. I’m also not a “sheep” who blindly follows government rules. But I am an old-school institutionalist, who believes that elections have consequences, public officials should be held accountable, but society is better when we follow the lawful rules of those we elect to power, either directly or indirectly. Don’t like the rules? Throw the bums out of office. It’s not unconstitutional for a local government to require masks. That is the prerogative of LA County.
That’s not really the point of this post, though. The point is that the re-introduced mask experiment at LAX is not going well. Passengers, employees, and airport officials are simply ignoring the rule.
CONCLUSION
Based upon my observations at LAX last night, it appears most people no longer have an appetite to wear a mask. For all the public polling that suggests the majority still favor the public transportation mask mandate, I certainly witnessed a different sort of consensus at Los Angeles International Airport last night.
> Read More: Los Angeles County Reimposes Mandatory Masking At LAX Airport
Awesome. Glad to hear that half the people aren’t blind clones to all this nonsense. End the virus theatre!
Amen. END COVID HYSTERIA.
The right to govern is ultimately derived from the consent of the governed. I applaud the citizens in LAX collectively disregarding local government mandates that are wildly out of step with science, logic, and state/federal policy. Enough is enough.
I guess someone should tell the million or so Americans who’ve died from COVID that they were just in a “theater.”
The Multiple Comorbidity Theater, specifically.
And how many of those were elderly, obese, or in otherwise poor health? Can we really say COVID killed a 90 year old who was already on borrowed time?
Republicans in 2010: Universal healthcare = death panels!
Republicans in 2022: hey you already lived long enough, off with you!
It’s also my prerogative to decide for myself whether it is worth the potential fines / etc. of ignoring a law I feel is oppressive, stupid, or based on lies, psuedo-science, fear-mongering and / or power-grabbing totalitarianism
Civil disobedience! Americans, throw off your chains and be free. There aren’t enough jails in California for all of us.
Love these people describing masks as chains lol. It’s a cloth covering — stop being such a snowflake. 🙂
ScienceDirect : Detection of microplastics in human lung tissue using μFTIR spectroscopy.
Highlights: 1) Microplastics were identified in all regions of the human lungs using μFTIR analysis. 2) Polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate fibres were the most abundant. 3) The results support inhalation as a route of MP exposure.
there’s a snowflake made of plastic fibers in your lungs.
This is interesting, especially since there has been a hockey-stick uptick in lung cancer detections since 2019 (from 41.5 per 100K to the current track of 51 per 100k ini 2022, despite the fact that there has been much less routine screening during that time.
exactly and the quality of most masks is very very questionable to begin with. i’ve seen pictures of asian kids assembling them on dirty floors. a damn shame all around.
Do you really believe this crap, or are you just a Russian troll?
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722020009#!
Detection of microplastics in human lung tissue using μFTIR spectroscopy
Lauren Jenner, Jeanette Rotchell, Robert Bennett, Michael Cowen, Vasileios Tentzeris, Laura Sadofsky
Hull York Medical School, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, United Kingdom
Department of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, United Kingdom
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Castle Hill Hospital, Cottingham HU16 5JQ, United Kingdom
Received 23 December 2021, Revised 25 March 2022, Accepted 25 March 2022, Available online 29 March 2022, Version of Record 6 April 2022.
Editor: Yolanda Picó
“TRUST THE SCIENCE”
That study does not mention masks, unless I misread it, in which case I apologize.
they study wasn’t about masks. but it also doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make the connection. that being said, 99% of the left wouldn’t believe the study even if it did mention masks. either way, people are wearing masks with tiny particulate fibers constantly. now there are microplastics in peoples lungs. figure it out. or don’t.
MUh LeFTiSt.
Did you even read the sources in that meta analysis? It covers studies from the 90s all the way to updates in 2022, and leans heavily on days 2-4 years before the pandemic even started. It has nothing to do with mask wearing.
My problem is that folks are unable to admit that cloth is useless as a masking material for filtering virus aerosols.
Actually chains would be a better barrier, but uncomfortable as hell, sort of like an N95 which actually does filter viral particulate, but like chians are not too comfortable to wear for long periods of time.
How is this supposed to be enforced? TSA Ain’t doing it, apaprently the LAX officers ain’t doing it.
Do you think the officials in LA county had a “hurr durr Florida Trump judge” kneejerk reaction and just didn’t think this through? Because had the mask mandate expired without judge intervention, I have a strong feeling that they wouldn’t do their own local mask mandate in defiance.
the fact that DOJ requested no stay on the ruling says it all.. they just want power for future scamdemics
Meanwhile 85% of people at SFO were masked yesterday, with no requirement in place. Felt like a political statement to me, but maybe I’m just being presumptuous.
it’s SFO.. one of the most liberal places in the country. what would you expect? San Francisco has a higher percentage of democratic voters and election results than LA. so not surprised.
They figured out masks is a good idea because their streets is literally filled with human shit.
Let me guess, you’ve literally never been to San Francisco
I have. a few years ago. and despite its natural scenic beauty, it was just as nasty as predicted.
How about literally every other year for 25 years. My relatives live in the Bay Area and have always gone To SF. Too much bums and feces ruining an otherwise good looking town
Lol, yeah, keep pretending. Do you have actual data, or just some Photoshop meme?
I have, it’s full of subhumans like yourself.
proclamations AKA mandates by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health are NOT laws passed by local government. hence they likely null & void and unconstitutional.
Let’s get this to SCOTUS asap so we can put this to bed once and for all.
And the maskers who insist can wear them until the end of time. have at it. at least we know they are in the minority.
like someone else said, at least for the strong majority of wearers, it’s the MAGA hat for the left.
The right to govern is ultimately derived from the consent of the governed. I applaud the citizens in LAX collectively disregarding local government mandates that are wildly out of step with science, logic, and state/federal policy. Enough is enough.
Don’t ever make the mistake of trusting polls. Polling companies get the answers they want based on how they ask the question. It could be as simple as asking “do you feel more comfortable if people wore masks at airports and on planes” instead of “do you support the government criminalizing not wearing masks at an airport and on a plane and support the police arresting people for…..” The same person will answer those questions very differently. Random sampling also isn’t random. Asking 20,000 people isn’t enough to get an accurate picture either.
I wish conservatives recognized they outnumber the cops and agents 40 times over and can become the cops themselves. Democracy where leftists can vote will always have the same result for us. It’s not being principled to support people who hate us telling us what to do. That’s a slave mentality. All current Republican leaders commit treason against conservatives by telling us to vote and accept the results in a system we don’t support. We outnumber them when it comes to force.
Once Biden and the Center for Democrat Control (CDC) win the appeal and the mask mandate is reinstated nationwide, these anti-mask scofflaws will fall in line.
the Center for Democrat Control tried to self appoint themselves as the 4th branch of government. good to see their house of cards falling.
I get your point and your view point, but I am not entirely sure it is going to be so easy to put the cat back in the bag so to speak.
The appetite for making seems low and most folks seem happy to not wear one.
Do you actually believe this horseish, or are you a Russian troll?
Regarding modern day polls, people need to realize nearly all of them are not an honest attempt to measure public opinion. Rather they are just another propaganda tool that is meant to shape public opinion about whatever the hot button issues of the day are.
The current poll about masks is not an accurate survey, rather it is an attempt by the mask mandaters to make the general population think they are out of step with society, and question their decision to trust their own judgement. Remember, to a progressive authoritarian, your job as a subject is not to think, it is to OBEY.
Thinking out loud here…
If state anti-mask laws didn’t apply at federal airports, why would local mask mandates apply at a federal airport?
ie, if Florida’s anti-masking policies weren’t able to override mask mandates at airports in Florida, then what jurisdiction does LA County have in mandating mask wearing at LAX, BUR, and LGB?
The thing that separates Americans from Chinese is that they don’t just accept any rules shoved down their throat. The thing that separates american cops from Chinese cops is that american cops discriminate who they will choke to death, picking on non whites disproportionately.
This is a golden opportunity for a short period of time. White Republican men can become martyr to freedom of choice
(, conveniently selective of course) protesting mask mandate while getting choked to death. Cops can burnish their credentials and show they are not racist fucks by choking conservative anti maskers.
This will be cathartic and the country will come closer through shared experiences.
wut? James D. Agresti, president of Just Facts, a think tank dedicated to publishing rigorously documented facts about public policy issues:
“A study conducted by the left-leaning Center for Policing Equity reveals that police are 42 percent less likely to use lethal force when arresting black people than when arresting whites. Yet, the authors of this study buried that data on the 19th page of a 29-page report and wrote an overview that gives the opposing impression.”
“It is irrational to accuse police or any other group of people of brutality or systemic racism based on the actions of an infinitesimal [extremely small quantity in calculus] portion of them. Yet the media and activists repeatedly do this, even though it is a hallmark tactic of racists and demagogues.”
“A study conducted by the left-leaning Center for Policing Equity reveals that police are 42 percent less likely to use lethal force when arresting black people than when arresting whites”
Yeah, no.
look it up and do the research yourself and you’ll find that it’s true
Covid is over. If your worried about covid then go ahead and mask up but don’t ask me to. Everyone is tired of the [redacted by admin]. I voted for Biden.
Pretty much exactly what I observed at LAX yesterday morning. Roughly 50% noncompliance, including airport/airline employees. I can probably chalk up yesterday morning at least partially to not knowing. I actually had no idea the mandate was reinstated when I arrived at T2 around 7:15, and there was no signage/announcements anywhere. But I think enforcement is going to be a major challenge anyway, since there’s going to be people arriving from any number of airports where there are no mandates, and so they probably didn’t even think to pack a mask.
I do disagree with you on one point, though.
“But I am an old-school institutionalist, who believes that elections have consequences, public officials should be held accountable, but society is better when we follow the lawful rules of those we elect to power, either directly or indirectly.”
Mass civil disobedience has long been a tool used by American citizens to protest laws they feel are unjust and push their elected leaders to change them, even if technically constitutional. And besides, how exactly do you propose the voters throw out “Doctor” Barbara Ferrer? She’s an unaccountable bureaucrat, and unless LA County voters decide to wholesale throw out its Democrat Party leadership and elect Republicans in the next election (there’s a snowball’s chance in Hades that happens), she’s not going anywhere. So what’s your option besides protesting to force the county government to pressure her to back down?
Thank you, so glad you put this here. She was NEVER elected. Appointed to an established position and making unilateral, double-standard rules, even though she is neither a legislator nor elected. And besides making what’s now unconstitutional rules done in a government agency, also doesn’t even have a M.D.!
People, it is a mask. You are not fighting for some high minded ideal. That only 50% of people comply will have little or no impact of whether the rule remains in place. That’s actually pretty good for any regulation in the US. Agree 100 percent with post. Don’t like the rules, throw the bums out but don’t expect that ignoring regulation will change much of anything. Find the fury over masks kinda of comical. Is it really that much more of an indignity than a middle economy seat on AA?
perhaps there a lot of theater fans in Miami. the rest of us see through this charade.
Ah, yes we are, fighting for some higher idea. You have a choice of carriers and seating. This you don’t. Look at what all of this has done to people’s lives the last two plus years. I might have taken your position 30 years ago. But I’ve seen what power hungry people will say and do. These people are not good intentioned. Everything is a crisis, designed to give the federal government more control.
I used to be an institutionalist, too, and believe in meritocracy, the rule of law, and all that wholesome stuff. A few years ago, I started doubting myself upon discovering that money is literally created out of nothing and with very limited restrictions ( https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057521914001070 ).
Subsequently, the pandemic response destroyed any remaining illusion of value in actively supporting those frameworks.
I am too invested in the status quo to be proactively fighting against it, but at least I can avoid the trap of believing that it actually is virtuous (admittedly, it may well be less bad than the alternatives).
100%.
the only thing federal about the federal reserve is the word federal in the name. it is privately owned. This was also the key to my awakening.
awake > woke.
@ ECH….please…We also know the the earth is flat, 9/11 was perpetrated by Zinosist, climate change is liberal hoax, fluoride is added to toothpaste and weather to keep people stupid, etc….
climate change is certainly suspect. we’ve heard it all before. for decades. acid rain, etc. why are all the elites buying coastal real estate? flouride, yes. it’s clearly working as most of you are clearly stupid. 9/11 was an inside job, for sure. there are many documentaries which explain in detail and explain it well. unclear on flat earth – until I get to space myself to observe I’ll withhold judgment on that one. seems plausible though.
climate change is certainly suspect. we’ve heard it all before. for decades. acid rain, etc. why are all the elites buying coastal real estate? fluoride, yes. it’s clearly working as most of you are clearly stupid. 9/11 was an inside job, for sure. there are many documentaries which explain in detail and explain it well. unclear on flat earth – until I get to space myself to observe I’ll withhold judgment on that one. seems plausible though.
Miamiorbust – do not waste your time….
I was at LAX early this morning and had no clue the mask mandate was reinstated because the vast majority of people didn’t have one on (including employees, as you mentioned in the article). It’s probably hard to enforce when people are coming off of a plane that didn’t require a mask for the journey. Very different than my experience flying last week where a flight attendant had a passenger arrested for not putting his mask up between sips.
Why these morons think Covid is dangerous inside an airport but 20,000 people can sit next to each other with no masks at Staples Center for a basketball game? The theater is obvious as liberal LA wants to show they agree with Brandon by following him science.
I named my chicken after you.
So you named yourself.
A lot of borderline sovereign citizens in here
We lost our sovereignty in 1913 as Ron Paul just tweeted today: “1913…The year that led to today’s economic torture. Both the income tax & The Fed were created that year. The income tax made everyone’s earnings the property of the government first. What the government allows people to keep is then relentlessly stolen by The Fed’s inflation. Freedom was put in a vice in 1913, and after 100 years, there’s almost nothing left to be squeezed.”
I don’t think they’re borderline – they’re just this side of anarchists.
So basically the right wing approach is – if the government agrees with me, then it should get involved (e.g. it’s really important to me that the government control women’s bodies). If the government disagrees with me, then it should not get involved, and if it does, then I should do what I want anyway. The descent into anarchy is here, fueled by a bunch of morons.
Same idiots wouldn’t dare refuse to take their shoes off for TSA, even though that is infinitely stupider than any mask. Even a pathetic cloth mask has more value to society than you taking your shoes off.
Don’t always agree with you, Matthew, but kudos to you for respecting the rules even when you disagree with them.
Don’t forget using the full power of the government to exact revenge on those daring to speak out against their policies (stripping Disney of their self governance). Just wait until the gop gets the presidency and they pressure companies to fire individual employees for speaking out against them.
Not only does federal laws supersede local rules and make the public transportation mandate unconstitutional, taking off shoes more ridiculous!? bruh tell that to the people on the same flight as Richard Reid. I’ve gone through life cheating death and I can say getting covid from someone coughing up a storm on me wasn’t one of those times. However I don’t believe I could cheat death again if someone successfully lit plastic explosives that weren’t too humid/moist on the same plane as me
ECH- good grief, relax…
Glad to see that so many people are ignoring this So you’re telling me that after getting off a crowded and packed airplane I need to put on a mask in the terminal? What a joke.
The CDC should be the ones that decide transportation mask mandates. They have the expertise and ability to make projections, not some unqualified Trump federal judge.
I fail to see what the CDC has done in the last two plus years that would causing anyone to grant them such powers. If fact they have done harm to themselves which won’t be undone anytime soon.
This whole thing is a joke. Here in Ghana they dropped the mask mandate. The hotel has signs everywhere asking people to wear masks. Very few are complying. Even the hotel staff has them hanging way below the nose. What’s the point anymore?
Masks don’t work. People are over it. Stop trying to scare us into compliance just so you csn keep the power you’ve abused for 2 years. I’m talking to the walking dead extra, Barbara Ferrer.
The data is very clear. N95 masks work. Crappy cloth masks are worse than useless, because they make stupid people think they don’t need to be vaccinated and take other precautions.
My kids’ high school has about 80% or so voluntary mask compliance, and the community is about 90% fully vaccinated. Their case rate all year has been about 3% (at a school with 2500 students and staff).
This stuff works if everyone does it. The problem is that too many people are too mentally weak to get a little poke in their arm and wear a real mask.
110% agree!
love your comment Ed. A never elected tyrant appointed to an established position unilaterally making rules that are now declared unconstitutional & by someone even without a medical doctorate! Had to time my errands in OC & Inland Empire for 8 months due to her double standards created last July that barely were erased last month!
Don’t like the rules? Throw the bums out of office.
Yeah the problem is:
1. I don’t live in LA
2. Even if I did, they would never elect an anti-mask Republican anyway.
3. Do elected officials even make these rules or do low level bureaucrats?
So by your cuck logic, we should just obey if the government says so, even if it is utterly pointless.
You don’t get to determine what is pointless or not – when we do that, all order breaks down. You know, looting, rioting, burning…
Of course – don’t question, don’t resist, don’t ignore the authorities. We normal people cannot question the wisdom of the government can we? Perhaps you should have lived in a society that teaches people to obey and not use their (often better) judgement – like China.
I am an airline pilot and I do not wear a mask when transiting through LAX. Most of my coworkers do not wear masks at LAX either.
In the case of LA County and the State of California, the people in power don’t follow their own rules and actively promote the type of rioting and looting you describe. They’ve become the laughing stock of the rest of the nation. The overwhelming disregard for LA County’s latest mask mandate exemplifies this.
Take picture of the FA’s what are you the mask police/ Give it up.
I don’t care—that’s why I DIDN’T take the picture. But it was such a stark juxtaposition.
her double standards are already void because federal law supersedes local laws and enforcing public transportation mask mandates are UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Going so far as a KN95 already shows bias. You are a sheep going along with the fascist that cries wolf gaslighting every single time.
Your argument is invalid. BARBARA FERRER WAS NEVER ELECTED AND HAS TYRANNICALLY BEEN IN AN ESTABLISHED OFFICE FOR 15 YEARS! WE CANNOT THROW HER OUT, SHE WAS APPOINTED TO A NEW POSITION IN 2006 & USUPED UNILATERAL POWER!
And in your conclusion, maybe those “polls” supporting control aren’t inaccurate.