By Beatriz Garay
Travelers are demanding the Transportation Security Administration end its mask mandate while inside airplanes.
It is yet again another instance of reckless actions of those who think they know what’s best for others without considering the facts that show it could do the opposite.
A Pandora’s box effect has opened with the TSA receding its mask mandate policy. It brings to question whether both U.S. and international travelers can do pre-pandemic things without having to worry about the dangers of the ongoing pandemic.
Since its sudden rise at the start of the new decade, COVID-19 has severely impacted airline businesses by limiting the number of passengers, requiring them to frequently update regulations and enforcing strict guidelines to ensure all measures are taken to keep passengers safe.
Wearing a mask has become a major guideline for this industry. Viral videos on social media and news outlets have shown how some passengers can get violent or even make a deviation because they don’t want to wear a mask.
It has been difficult having to wear a mask at all times, but it’s for the safety of one’s self and to keep those around safe.
Following these directives has brought positive outcomes to how people are able to deal with the growing problem of the pandemic.
One example of why it’s wrong to recede mask ruling is that it has somewhat reduced the number of people catching COVID-19.
Leonard Marcus, a medical director from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health says that wearing masks “can lower the risk by roughly 50 percent.”
Wearing masks has kept immunocompromised people safe. With that knowledge, there is an accountability for everyone to the dangers of the virus.
Keeping accountability of those who do follow these directives and socially distancing has enabled airline companies to rise up again slowly from where they were before the impact of COVID-19.
It also sets an example that the United States is trying to make up for its mistakes at the beginning of the pandemic so that it will not be looked down upon by other countries’ successes in handling COVID-19.
There has been moderate success in the number of decreasing cases and hospitalizations across the U.S. and other nations, but that was due to careful and calculated actions to ensure that each step was made carefully.
If we were to drop the mandate without planning ahead and with ruminative instructions, the U.S. might revert to where it was during the first year of the pandemic.
This can be evident in Florida’s decision to do so as one of its court judges decided to backtrack the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s directive on the mask mandate for airlines and other forms of transportations.
The lifting of the mandate is due to the calculative actions of those who think decisions of people’s health should be made on their own rather than from a health institution.
The CDC has made some mistakes in handling the pandemic as new information regarding the virus surfaces with time. This caused them to lose credibility when the public have their own beliefs and opinions regarding the errors. Politicians then have used the CDC’s mistakes to benefit their agendas.
As a result of Florida’s success, it would give other so-called “red states” the necessary backbone to stand up against other medical and federal institutions that want to maintain COVID-19 rulings and end mandates without considering the repercussions.
If the U.S. is unable to stop these kinds of actions from continuing, then those with low health are at greater risk and will push our healthcare system to the brink of total collapse.
It is completely careless and downright moronic for the federal judiciary system to do something like this without consulting scientists and healthcare officials to carefully plan how they can reduce the mask mandate without fully abandoning it.
If we continue to make rash decisions without plans, then more people will die because of carelessness.
It is up to those in power to make the necessary actions to keep everyone safe if the U.S. is to overcome and put an end to the pandemic. Even though everyone has their own opinions on mask mandates, science has shown that they work. One can only hope they reconsider having lifted the mandate before cases rise again.