Why Not Just Remove Masks on Airplanes?

They Don't Work Anyway...

It’s in the news these days that there is an alarming rise in the number of unruly passengers and even assaults taking place on airplanes, and it would appear that a substantial number of these issues are related to passengers refusing to follow Covid masking requirements.

     Obviously, there is no excuse for this behavior, and it seems like additional penalties imposed by the federal government should be considered. At the same time, if a currently imposed federal regulation is contributing to this problem shouldn't we start by eliminating that regulation first?

    Say what you will about the benefits of masking airplane passengers throughout the pandemic (many of us looked at decades of science and concluded they were useless...), but does anyone really think they still have that benefit now? Everyone who wants the vaccine has taken it, nearly all of the vulnerable have immunity via nature or the vaccine, and case numbers have cratered. Furthermore, airplanes have much better ventilation than many of the indoor spaces where we are all now comfortable going unmasked.

      People often argue that masks are a zero cost intervention, but by apparently that isn't the case here. We should avoid falling into the big government trap of fixing one useless government law by adding more laws instead of just removing the bad law to begin with.

      I say let's take off the masks and maybe when everyone can see each other's smiles, cooler heads will prevail.

   Anyway 0 and 2...