The Centers for Disease Control mask mandate was still the law of the air when I boarded a Delta jet on Monday, April 18, to fly from Boston to Detroit to Denver.
Most travelers I saw were masking diligently and didn’t need a mandate to ensure their facial coverings were secure. After all, three passengers hacked for more than two hours as their seatmates leaned away, trying to eke out every inch of buffer space they could. The copious coughing would have been unnerving even if it wasn’t happening during a pandemic that has killed 986,000-plus people in the United States alone.
When we landed in Detroit, I read that a Donald Trump-appointed, Florida-based federal judge, Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, had single-handedly struck down the CDC’s extension of its mask ordinance. Face coverings were no longer required.
At the time, I read that Denver International Airport had indicated it would continue to enforce the mask mandate, and the Delta flight that I boarded to come back home didn’t announce any immediate changes to the company’s policy.
As the plane took off from Detroit, I thought Mizelle’s ruling was more of an interesting legal factoid that might eventually have ramifications for travelers rather than an immediate shift in practice. But what did I know? It’s hard to follow policy when you’re 36,000 feet above the earth.
Then, after over two hours of flying in masks, we landed. The Delta crew announced that employees and travelers would no longer have to wear facial coverings on the airline’s flights.
Passengers cheered, and in the few seconds it took me to turn around and see how people were responding, most had already ripped off their masks.
“It’s nice to see smiles again,” said one flyer.
“What are they thinking?” said another.
“This isn’t going to go well,” lamented a third.
One flight attendant, still masked, looked nervous. Another grinned, mask free.
Delta’s corporate statement was cheery: “We are relieved…