The federal transportation mask mandate has been extended through March 2022, but it seems like we should expect it to stay around for a long time.
Dr. Fauci has more about masks on planes.
Dr. Anthony Fauci answered questions from Jonathan Karl on the Sunday morning show. Following comments from some airline executives this past week, one of them involved masks on airplanes. The key part of the interview is here.
Several of the CEOs of top airlines said that on an airplane you are actually safer than you are in an intensive care unit. They were suggesting that there isn't much of a need for a mask on an airplane. Are we going to stop having to wear masks on airplanes?
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I don't think so. When you have people, you want to go that extra step, even though the filters are good. I still believe that masks are a prudent thing to do, even though you have a good filtration system, even though you get a flight from Washington to San Francisco that is over five hours.
That is a pretty drastic statement, assuming Dr. Fauci understood the question correctly. Dr. Fauci said he doesn't think we'll get to that point where masks won't be needed on planes. According to him, masks on airplanes are here to stay forever.
My take on the comments made by Dr. Fauci.
It is hard to have reasonable discussions about masking or coronaviruses online. There is no middle ground between the people who wear masks and those who don't, and they don't want anyone to know how much they enjoy wearing masks.
I am neither a doctor nor a scientist, so I want to take a middle-ground approach. I am just a person who travels a lot, who is boosted, who appreciates what scientists and doctors have done, who has avoided getting coronaviruses, and who continues to apply common sense and take precautions that protect me.
Here is my take, with that in mind.
At the start of the Pandemic, did a mask mandate make sense? Absolutely...
Does a mask mandate make sense right now? I can't count the number of people I know who have coronaviruses or are sick, but I will say yes at this moment.
Even if there is no requirement to wear a mask when flying, could I see myself wearing one in the future? Possibly...
I don't understand how Dr. Fauci thinks we won't be able to get to the point where masks on planes aren't needed.
I suppose I can rationalize this from a public health standpoint, in that wearing masks on planes might reduce the risk of illness and death, but Dr. Fauci isn't really here to weigh that.
The reason I find these comments so odd is that if the COVID-19 pills currently being tested work even slightly as well as planned, they could greatly reduce the severity of illness caused by coronaviruses.
Dr. Fauci doesn't think that coronaviruses will get to the point where we can reduce the death rate.
I understand that wearing a mask on a plane will offer some form of protection from illness for a long time to come, and that is great. We took a lot of other risks in life that could have been avoided, like getting in a car, going to a social event and getting the flu. We didn't think twice about them.
The bottom line.
In an interview this morning, Dr. Fauci stated that he thinks wearing masks on airplanes is here to stay, and we likely won't get to the point where that's not happening. Public health experts can only provide input, and don't have the power to regulate things like masks, so I wouldn't assume that this means a mask mandate is going to stick around forever.
I hope that masks are no longer required on planes. I hope that the death rate from coronaviruses will eventually decrease thanks to new treatment options. coronaviruses should be treated like many other risks if the death rate decreases.
Do you think we will be wearing masks on planes forever?
