Update: Mask Mandate Extended

[gsking]

Are you saying laws aren't worthy of debate? 

Wow,  what country are you from?   In mine,  that's kinda the core process of the entire government. 

[chgoflyer]

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@gsking wrote:

Are you saying laws aren't worthy of debate? 

Wow,  what country are you from?   In mine,  that's kinda the core process of the entire government. 

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Yes, by lawmakers. Not random people on the internet who have no direct effect on the law.

[gsking]

Yeah,  true.   I agree with you there... not a really good topic to have started.   But the tone of the note was "just do what you're told", which runs counter to my mantra. 

Especially when those telling us contradict themselves,  don't obey their own rules,  and forget that telling people to get vaccinated so they can take their mask off... and then reneging on that reward... doesn't make people want to get vaccinated.   No carrot, all stick.   And they wonder why so many people are fed up. 

[jksobonya]

Oh for the love. Totally predictable that this was going to be extended, but I plead the 5th on this whole "debate" other than to say: we don't need masks any more now than we did at the start of the pandemic, or at any other time during it. Just wash your hands and keep proper hygiene - all the rest is performance theatre. But I think it has been shown that many people don't know how to do something as simple as wash their hands (or wear masks "properly", ha), so here we are. I can only hope that kids will be exempt from this in the future, for as long as this goes on. Kids as young as 2 should never have needed to be masked. FWIW, no one's ever needed to be masked, but now that we're 18 months into it and we've "dealt" with it for this long, why make it go away? Especially if many are so convinced that the measures "work", they will never want to go back anyway, and that was my biggest fear when this whole thing started back in March 2020. People will just want to adopt the new measures permanently which I *never* wanted to see happen. They'll just keep being extended and extended and extended and will essentially never end. What *should* happen is zero mandates for all of this and just make everything a choice. That's what it should have been from the start: if you want to wear a mask, wear one. If you don't, don't. I don't see why we need to force the issue one way or the other, and it would make everyone happy because they are doing what they want to do. 

--Jessica

[bwallet]

There is a choice. If you don't want to wear a mask, you can simply choose not to fly. Flying without a mask makes you a threat to everyone else. Not being vaccinated makes you a threat. It shouldn't be an allowable choice to endanger the lives of others.

[rich1954]

Mask mandate does not bother me but wish they would raise the age from 2 and up to age 5.

[jksobonya]

Bumping thread

The current mask mandate on planes / public transit is expected to end in about a month (January 18, 2022) - I have not heard whether it will be extended again. (IMO - it had better not be, but my hopes are not high.) 

Who wants to make a bet on this? What's the over/under it will be extended or dropped? 😉 

--Jessica

[TheMiddleSeat]

On December 2, 2021 the mandate was extended to March 18, 2022

https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2021/12/02/airport-planes-trains-buses-mask-mandate/88303...

--TheMiddleSeat

[bec102896]

I'd be curious if the mandate ended in March (or whenever it ends) which airlines would still require them. 

[gsking]

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@bec102896 wrote:

I'd be curious if the mandate ended in March (or whenever it ends) which airlines would still require them. 

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Exactly.   There's no real standard being applied,  so there's no way to decide when things are "better".

I'd be willing to bet some airlines keep them longer than mandated,  because they feel it improves their market position.   

I still hope they give us a maskless "smoking section" in the back of the plane.   It'd be a fun way to see how the cliques interact.  😄