The Transportation Safety Administration is extending its requirement to wear a mask on all public transportation, including airports, train terminals, and bus stations to September 13. The mandate applies to both workers and passengers.
The agency says it’s just following recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control. If they keep doing that, we’ll be wearing masks going to grandma’s house for Christmas.
“The federal mask requirement throughout the transportation system seeks to minimize the spread of COVID-19 on public transportation,” Darby LaJoye, a senior TSA official, said in a statement. “About half of all adults have at least one vaccination shot and masks remain an important tool in defeating this pandemic.”
The Trump administration had rejected calls to mandate mask-wearing on planes, with the Department of Transportation in October saying it “embraces the notion that there should be no more regulations than necessary.”
But some travelers refused to follow mask rules issued by individuals airlines, sometimes responding with mockery or hostility to flight attendants who said they needed federal backup to help them with enforcement in an area that had become highly politicized.
Biden issued a federal mask mandate for transportation his first day in office. It was totally unnecessary since all airlines, foreign and domestic, had their own mask requirements and all major transportation companies like Greyhound and Amtrak had followed suit.
According to the order, people must wear masks “while boarding, disembarking, and traveling on any conveyance into or within the United States,” as well as “at any transportation hub that provides transportation within the United States.”
The order says operators “must use best efforts” to ensure masks are worn, including “at the earliest opportunity, disembarking any person who refuses to comply.” It says enforcement will be handled by the TSA and “by other federal authorities and may be enforced by cooperating state and local authorities.”
The TSA makes no distinction between vaccinated and non-vaccinated passengers. If so, why the hell get vaccinated in the first place? If the government is going to ignore the fact that someone is protected from the coronavirus and can’t spread it after getting vaccinated, what’s the point?
Did you think referring to wearing masks while traveling at Christmas is a joke? The TSA mask mandate has no end date.
A CDC mask mandate for transportation, which originally set out the requirement, does not include an end date, and the TSA can further extend transportation enforcement directives. The mandate “will remain in effect unless modified or rescinded based on specific public health or other considerations,” or when the secretary of health and human services finds there is no longer a public health emergency, according to the CDC order.
This mania to control people is needlessly causing divisions. If someone wants to wear a mask, that’s fine. If someone doesn’t, that’s their choice. Forcing people to act a certain way has never worked in America and it’s not working with a mask mandate.
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