This week, TSA extended masking requirements for air and other transportation after a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control. Passengers around the country were thrilled to finally free their faces on March 18, when the current directive was set to expire. Now, they'll have to wait for at least another month. Contrary to TSA's statement on the decision, the recommendation wasn't made because of "the science."
The pandemic is essentially over. It was made on behalf of flight attendant unions whose leaders have been lobbying to keep the mandate in place. Every state in the country, including the medical police state of Hawaii, is dropping most pandemic restrictions by the end of March (small children will continue to be tortured in their schools with masks that hinder their development). At the White House, masks are no longer required. The same standard applies to Capitol Hill.
Unlike the shutdown and ultimate destruction of many small businesses during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, airlines were allowed to stay open and kept flying. Government officials and airline leadership reassured Americans that flying on a plane, where the air is constantly recirculated through advanced filtration systems, was safe and that the virus was highly unlikely to spread inside jet cabins. And yet, the mask mandates on planes were slapped on anyway and continue today. Bureaucrats expect passengers to believe a piece of China paper — loosely strapped across their nose and mouths — only to be removed between bites and sips — is really the thing that bolsters or completes an advanced filtration technology.
The airport is the ultimate gaslighting experience. The messages sent through signs, placards, TSA agents and flight attendants are contradictory or outdated. Many of the current protocols never had any scientific backing at all and yet have been implemented for years.
It starts with arrival at the curb. On the sliding glass doors, there are blaring stickers that say, "MASK REQUIRED." The photo used shows a surgical, non-medical grade mask. In January, Dr. Anthony Fauci told the country that only properly fitted N95 masks really work against current variants of the disease. This view is closer to his guidance early on in the pandemic when he emailed a Democratic friend about mask efficacy.
"The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through the material. It might, however, provide some slight benefit in keep out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you. I do not recommend you wear a mask," Fauci wrote in an email on February 5, 2020.
But back to the airport.
When passengers get to the security line, white and blue signs warn failing to wear a mask is a violation of "federal law." It may be a violation of a rule or requirement, but it isn't against the law not to wear a mask. Congress never passed this "federal law." After presenting identification to a TSA agent seated in a plexiglass box, travelers are required to touch their face in order to comply with the command, "Pull your mask down." A confirmed identity pushes you through to the luggage scanners, where you remember studies that show plexiglass doesn't do anything to stop the spread of a virus but actually makes things worse by limiting airflow.
At the gate, after passing open restaurants of patrons drinking and eating without their masks, the real fun and brain warping begins. Airport chairs have signs that say "please social distance" and "keep six feet."
"Nobody knows where it came from. Most people assume that the six feet of distance, the recommendation for keeping six feet apart, comes out of some old studies related to flu, where droplets don't travel more than six feet," former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in September.
On the jetway, large stickers plead, "Please leave some space," as you proceed to a plane packed full of people. Upon boarding, flight attendants hand out alcohol wipes, ignoring science that shows Wuhan coronavirus doesn't spread on surfaces but instead through respiratory droplets. Before take-off, the pilot comes on the loudspeaker to remind passengers that thanks to rules and regulations from the government, they will be kicked off the flight and permanently banned from travel for refusing to wear a mask. "If you want to sleep, be sure to keep your mask on so we don't have to wake you."
If only the country could finally wake up from the pandemic nightmare and the absurd inconsistencies the government has placed on citizens.