No plans are currently in place to reduce or eliminate two key measures which were implemented and intended to inhibit the spread of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus pandemic with regards to passengers who travel to the United States from other countries and territories.
No Plans to Eliminate Masks and Testing on International Flights By the United States At This Time
One measure — which currently applies to both domestic travel and international travel — is the mandate for passengers to wear masks or other coverings of the nose and mouth aboard airplanes and other transportation modes; and the other measure is the requirement for all passengers who enter the United States to be tested for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.
At the press briefing in the Briefing Room at the White House on Tuesday, April 5, 2022 by both public health officials of the Department of Health & Human Services of the United States and what is known as the White House COVID-19 Response Team, Tamara Keith — who is the White House correspondent for National Public Radio, which is more popularly known as NPR — asked “is there any thought of changing the requirements of testing for international travel and masks on planes? If we could get an update on that.”
Jeffrey Zients — who is currently both the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator and counselor to the president of the United States — responded: “Okay, on your second question: No, there are no plans to change the international travel requirements at this point.”
The call for removing the aforementioned mandates and requirements has been gaining momentum. For example, the board of directors of Airlines for America — which is a trade group that represents the commercial aviation industry in the United States — have written an open letter to the current president of the United States which calls for the end to both the requirements for testing for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus prior to departure and the mandate to wear masks and other coverings for the nose and mouth.
Nine flight attendants from Allegiant Air, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines are reportedly suing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States pertaining to the federal travel mask mandate, claiming that masks and most other coverings of the nose and mouth are ineffective, obstructs the ability to breath normally, and that the policy is difficult to enforce in general — especially as it has led to numerous dangerous incidents aboard airplanes, as approximately 75 percent of the greater than 5,800 incidents at airports and aboard airplanes during 2021 were due to the mask mandate. The lawsuit calls the mandate “an illegal and unconstitutional exercise of executive authority.”
In sworn declarations provided by the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the “face masks cause us numerous health problems including lightheadedness, dizziness, chest pain, overheating, perspiration, irritation, increase in stress, sore throat, fatigue, limited breathing capacity, reduced circulation in the limbs, headaches, weakened immune system, nausea, lung pain, brain fog, anxiety, inflammatory response, multiple upper respiratory disturbances, inflammation, sinus infection, cognitive dysfunction, malaise, coughing, and wheezing.”
Additionally, ten pilots from American Airlines, JetBlue Airways, and Southwest Airlines reportedly filed a similar lawsuit against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States last month in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to end the mask mandate.
Final Boarding Call
Having been already extended several times, the federal mask mandate in the United States is currently set to expire on Monday, April 18, 2022 — but if what Jeffrey Zients said is true, that mandate may be extended yet again. That would be disappointing, to say the least.
I believe that the end to both the requirements for testing for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus prior to departure and the mandate to wear masks and other coverings for the nose and mouth should have already occurred. I further believe that if testing for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus was really that critical prior to boarding an airplane for a flight, then stations with the proper acceptable tests should have been set up at every airport possible around the world so that travelers did not have to run around finding someplace where they could be tested within the proper timeframe prior to a flight — regardless of whether this process was available free of charge or for a fee; and acceptable masks should also have been available at every airport possible.
The time to end both of those requirements and mandates cannot come soon enough, in my opinion — and in my travels, I still see the ground littered with masks and other coverings for the nose and mouth and gloves…
All photographs ©2019 and ©2020 by Brian Cohen.
