Several CEOs of the largest airlines in the United States have urged President Joe Biden to lift mask mandates on airplanes and testing requirements for pre-departure of international travelers, citing the decline in hospitalization and death rates.
Despite the number of coronavirus cases in the nation falling sharply in the last two months, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) opted to extend its mass transit mask mandate earlier this month. The decision will increase the requirement by 30 days, making it last until mid-April while maintaining mask mandates for airlines.
Airline Mask Mandates, Testing Requirements
In a letter sent to President Biden, the CEOs of 10 U.S.-based passenger and cargo airlines, including Delta, American, and United, said that it was time for the government to lift federal transportation travel restrictions. They argued that the mask mandates and testing requirements were no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment, as per CBS News.
Furthermore, while the letter states that airlines and their employees supported the removal of the federal mask mandate when it was initially implemented, they argued it was no longer necessary.
According to CNN, the letter also comes after CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Wednesday said that the Omicron BA.2 subvariant was not observed to be causing more severe COVID-19 symptoms compared to the original strain. However, the health expert warned that the new subvariant was more transmissible than its predecessor.
The letter is the first time that the aviation industry has banded together to publicly express its disagreement with the mask mandate. In December, the chief executive of Southwest Airlines, Gary Kelly, cast doubt on the effectiveness of masks on airplanes during a congressional hearing but was not supported by any other.
A day after that hearing, Ed Bastian, the chief executive of Delta airlines, said in an interview that masks were crucial as a safeguard against the coronavirus infection. The union that represents flight attendants from Southwest Airlines, TWU Local 556, wrote a letter earlier this week.
Coronavirus Situation in the U.S.
They sent it to the Biden administration and said that they were urging the government to drop the federal mask mandate for public transportation as a whole. In recent weeks, there is a growing number of Americans, politicians, and business leaders that are calling for the removal of such mandates. Hawaii became the 50th and final state this month to remove its indoor mask mandate, the New York Times reported.
The situation comes as health officials reported that the number of infections caused by the BA.2 subvariant has more than doubled in the last two weeks in the U.S. It is now accountable for more than 34% of all cases that were subject to genetic sequencing.
As per CNBC, the subvariant has steadily been spreading in the United States since Feb. 5 when it was only responsible for roughly 1% of genetically sequenced samples. The CDC said that the BA.2 is found in roughly 50% of new infections in the country because more people are taking tests at home whose results are not included in the official data, said Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
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