Transportation Mask Mandate Will Be Extended Through March 18th, When Do You Think It Will Be Removed? Will The US Ever Get Sensible Toddler Masking Rules?

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On the day after he was inaugurated, President Biden signed an executive order requiring masks for everyone on all modes of public transportation and the CDC soon followed with updated rules that required everyone 2 or older to wear a mask. Before that, airlines like Delta offered exceptions for older children.

That mandate was supposed to expire on 9/13/21, but it was previously extended to 1/18/22.

And now it is being extended until March 18th. I’m actually surprised that the extension will just be for 2 months and not through the summer, but I fully expect that it will be extended further.

The FAA has received reports from airlines about thousands of passengers refusing to wear a mask this year. Many of those were removed from their flight and/or banned from flying the airline.

Here is what you should do to avoid that same fate on your next flight.

While most of the world’s transportation mask requirements exclude children under the age of 6 or 12, the US has by far the harshest rule, requiring toddlers from the age of 2 to mask up. I’ve written several time about how absurd it is to expect a toddler to keep a mask on and who you can contact about changing that.

But hey, all the airlines want you to do is glue it on your toddler. 🙄

The CDC mask order actually has no expiration date. A former Biden senior advisor for COVID response thinks we should never get rid of the mask mandate. Will that view win out? Will we see it removed before the November 2022 midterm elections in time to declare victory over COVID during a summer slowdown? Will the courts eventually strike down the transportation mask mandate?

With a family of 4 kids ranging from 1 to 10 years old, we have severely curtailed our family travel since February 2020. Our only family flight during the pandemic was a short 80 minute hop to Myrtle Beach. I was able to get our 3 year old to wear her mask during the boarding process, which is when nearly all mask incidents occur. We made sure that the kids ate and drank at the gate so that they would be able to keep their masks on until takeoff. She had a hard time keeping it on afterward, but we had plenty of snacks and made it back and forth without becoming a news story.

When do you think transportation mask requirements will be removed?

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89 Comments On "Transportation Mask Mandate Will Be Extended Through March 18th, When Do You Think It Will Be Removed? Will The US Ever Get Sensible Toddler Masking Rules?"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

Now it\'s just political theater

Jan 21, 2025 is when they will take the mandate off

Freedom Lover

So far every election the last minute they found a a bunch of absentee ballots in favor of the Democratic party. See November 2021 election in New Jersey.

BS

BS. Keep your comments to travel and your politics to yourself.

Jcity

That’s right! Only those on the left are allowed to voice their opinion!

RR

Canadian Govt just changed its guidance to 6 and under no need for Mask on planes. Wake up U.S.

Josh

My kids don’t mind the masks at all and are way more mature about them than most adults I deal with on a daily basis as an airline pilot.
The airlines want you to do it becuaw it’s a federally mandated rule. When you buy a ticket you click boxes several times saying you’ll comply. Even more when you check in. If you or your family can’t or don’t want to comply with the rules, find a different way to travel

Saul

It’s not mature, it’s dumbly obedient. There are plenty of (fully vaccinated) adults who are still masking at 1 AM while riding a bike on an empty street, is that also maturity? And the Democratic Mayor-elect of NYC said he wants to end masking for school kids, probably because it’s making them way too mature for their age. It may work for your personal situation but really can’t be expected of others.

MandateMadness

Now my work around for masks on longer flight or red-eyes (x-country) is in have a battery powered travel CPAP machine, I have a Medical device tag on my bag (also doesn’t count as a carry-on or get gate checked, or have to be squeezed into a bag sizer).

It’s also an ADA issue — so once your in the air – most FA will leave you alone. But you do have to have an RX to get a CPAP machine.

It has a a humidifier disk for high altitude or low humidity areas. I have noticed it helps keep.my O2 sat up.

I’m less worried about contacting COVID on a plane with postive pressure and HEPA filters than shopping in a store or dining.

dave

“We made sure that the kids ate and drank at the gate so that they would be able to keep their masks on until takeoff.”

can you please elaborate are you saying you made sure they were full so they could keep masks on during takeoff and not ask to eat?

Data

when the word boycott’s the airline industry for it or when Mashiach comes

Malky g

when trump gets re elected

Phil

We’ve got a three year old, and have been flying a decent amount. As a guideline, US flight attendants look the other way. But it’s an insane rule. We all had COVID as a family, and are among the least likely people to spread it to anybody. Having flown in other countries, and other countries for int’l flights, it’s always a huge relief.

Malky g

@josh
of course that’s the rule and we will comply but that’s exactly the problem!!!!
and I think your talking about a little older kids not 2 year olds go explain them to be mature about it

mnbska

It’s a war. This stops when the war is over and this thing is under control. It’s gonna take YEARS to get everyone on a vaccine & booster regimen. Don’t let up on the unvaxxed. Pressure them constantly so we can put this behind us.

It could also stop when the numbers get low enough. Right now they’re not. My old neighbor (from 20 years ago) has invasive cancer, and couldn’t get a bed for urgent treatment. That’s a real problem. If I get severely injured on my job, I might need to spend a couple hours in my city looking for an ER bed. This is an aspect to COVID that is invisible to most people and contributes to an “out of sight” dynamic. Again, the solution is the “vaccine” which keeps people out of the hospital.

It’s hard for people to grasp this is a totally new disease, like AIDS, and it’s even scarier because the vaccine really isn’t a vaccine. It just helps. But without near-universal vaccine adoption we’re going to be throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this thing.

Tim

Unless the R0 has changed, it’s mathematically impossible for hospitals to be inundated with only the unvaccinated, considering the vaccination rate for adults is decent. If the vaccine works, then only the unvaccinated would end up in hospital, and there are far less unvaccinated nowadays. For example, if the virus kills 2/100 before a vaccine, then 60/100 get the vaccine, then less than 1 will die of the virus, IF the vaccine works.

Avrahom Rosenberg, DMD

As a physician in a major children’s hospital, I have seen 100s of children – including those who are healthy and here for totally elective procedures – who not only have no problem at all with wearing the masks but have to be cajoled into removing their masks for me to examine their mouths and teeth. The overwhelming majority of children mirroring their parents’ attitudes – it is highly unfortunate and, quite frankly, a tremendous chillul Hashem, that the “frummer” people are or identify as, the more they’ve bought into the anti-science Trumpian view. If the adults would just grow up, the children would be totally compliant with mask mandates.

Ben

Thanks Dr. It’s good to see the CDC does your thinking for you and you’ve blamed everything on ‘anti-science Trumpian view’ and ‘“frummer” people’. 15 mins in a dentist office does not equal 2+ hours on a plane.

Saul

A short summary of your comment: Adults should teach their kids to practically glue their masks to their faces without really knowing why, and those that don’t are anti-science-Trumpian-tremendous-Chillul-Hashem-makers.

Mnbska

I’m sure you are a thinker, you don’t need a summary. Things are never that simple.

aaron

I find it very interesting and ironic that the “mask” mandate is extended till Purim.

Louie

I have a medical condition that prevents me from wearing a mask. My kids have the same condition, only worse, and have never put on masks. We haven’t flown and will not fly until sanity is restored. We had a family wedding in the spring and we drove the up and down the east coast to attend. We sold/gave away most of our miles as we have no use for it and don’t feel like it’s going to end anytime soon. We switched over to chase points because they are having great redeeming options currently. Still have a ton of southwest if anyone wants to buy.

Mnbska

What is the exemption?

HIPAA

Ever heard of it?

D.

Is Israel allow non residents but fully vaccinated to enter?

Mendy

Some say raising the age for mask requirements is “sensible” and other say removing the mandate all together is “sensible”. Why do you think the government has the sense you think they should have? I want them to have the sense I have and remove the nonsense mandate altogether.

Sam

It really depends on who wins the presidency in 2024. That should be one of the options in the poll

Mike

President Desantis will be redacting all mask mandates Jan 2025.

Imagine how strict they would be with masks if masks actually slowed down viral spread

Ben

I was just in his state the week before Thanksgiving. Did some shopping in the malls. Tons of people in the stores – thriving economy – lots of people buying. I told one of the clerks there that our malls are empty and many of what used to be stores were vacant, (I’m guessing she was born in a Socialist contrary) she replied with something that I would never say out loud here where I live in NJ. I told her so – in a complimentary way – She told me that we have to change our Governor. I told her that we tried!

Arjay7

Dan: Please stick to giving “deals”. You’ll never convince the mask believers of their ineffectiveness despite two years with the disease still here. I was on an international flight recently and my wife and I were the only two in our business class section. The F/A woke me up to make me reposition my mask. I’ve had three vaccinations and had been tested the day before. And they wonder why there is rage.

Gersh

Arjay7
The problem is that while you and some other people may be at lower risk, there’s no way for flight attendants to know that about each passenger and enforce the rules selectively.

Rage isn’t good response to frustration so I’m not eager to excuse it.

Arjay7

You are correct, they don’t know. Nor do they care. I try to explain what is, not what should be. We can all answer that. That still leaves the question of who is being compromised when my wife and I are the only two in the entire business class section and we are sound asleep.

M

This whole process is only going to encourage the unvaccinated to stay unvaccinated. Think about it, if someone is vaccinated they should be able to fly and do anything without a mask. Not only isn’t that the case but the US just changed the testing policy to a day before to everyone EVEN THE VACCINATED! (And on that note of everyone on the plane is supposedly immune why would you need to wear a mask). This is all a big game of political theater and lots of people (even intelligent ones) have fallen for this nonsense. The whole world is going nuts about Omicron when the symptoms that were found are mild. People need to get over this nonsense and realize that this is all political games. If airlines would allow people to just do whatever they want the flying environment would be a lot less tense. When you fly they announce every few minutes about wearing a mask over mouth and nose blah blah blah. They don’t announce about seatbelts anymore by takeoff. They will get destroyed in the Midterms but just wait till October 2022 when COVID will be declared over.

R

Need to teach your kid to wear a mask. It can be done – you see plenty of children who wear their mask.

This is really a parenting issue

CtownBin

That’s true for older kids. That’s why- in most of the world- the mandate starts at 5 or 6 and not, let’s say, 12. But for 2- and 3-year olds, especially when tired and in unfamiliar circumstances which are both true when travelling- there often isn’t much that even the best parenting will do. If it’s uncomfortable for them, they may just decide to take it off and throw a tantrum, regardless of whether or not the parent is wearing a mask, or whether the parent has done everything they can to teach them to wear it. Most people who have had children that age know this. I think that collectively we should all try to not shame or blame parents for everything we see their kids do, and not just assume that if the kids is doing something then that means the parent didn’t try hard enough. Especially for kids that age, it’s often not the case.

Michael

Dan- What about the new rules reducing the testing time from 3 days to 1 day? Certainly makes it more difficult to pull that off. Can you use an antigen test for that now? Flying to Panama and was worried getting a test done in 3 days let alone 1. thanks

Akuma

Sounds like a parental/conditioning issue to me. Maybe your lack of travel is actually a contributing factor? After some initial training/encouragement/bribing both my 2.5 year-old and 4 year-old have been wearing masks no problem since last summer (when they were 1.5 and 3 years old, respectively). Once they got used to wearing masks in public spaces we just continued having them do so because…why not? Sure is nice not having to worry about them constantly sticking their hands in their mouths at grocery stores, playgrounds and amusement parks, and especially on public transportation. Having character masks they are excited about wearing and properly fitted to their little faces also helps alleviate the pushback in wearing them. Maybe try different masks and/or mask cinchers which keep them from shifting around which seems to piss them off. Kids are amazingly adaptable creatures, especially after bribing.

Uri

Excellent post and well said. Dan understand your frustration, but not sure why you would make a mountain out of mole hill over this issue. Everyone hates wearing masks, but it has been proven that masking prevents spreading of viruses and given the situation masks are a good cheap solution. On top of that its more of an effort vs. forcing compliance from the airlines. I’ve flown dozens of time and never seen anyone get booted or harassed as long as they make some type of effort to have a face covering around the mouth/nose and I’m sure they are even more lenient to kids.

To me I feel like you could much better focus your energy on other more productive areas such as deals =). And if you really feel that greatly against masking here are a few countries you relocate to that doesn’t require masks at all currently: Sudan, Greenland, Yemen, Belarus, Sweden.

Tim

If people were serious about masking, they’d be wearing N95s and getting them fit tested with each use. Surgical masks are a joke, there’s an incredible amount of breakthrough, they’re only good for blocking spittle, literally.

You know what I don’t understand?

You do control your two yr old. If you’re waiting for another child’s bus and your two yr old wants to run into the street, you wouldn’t let. Even if it’s an hour.

If your two yr old wants to play with the Shabbos candles or urn, you don’t let. Even if it’s four hours.

If your two yr old wants to take off his/her coat outside in 10 degress, you don’t let. ESPECIALLY if it’s for a few hours.

Your make your littles keep on basic clothing, diaper, underwear, shoes, hat, scarf, coat………

I live near Chinatown and all the toddlers are wearing masks. I work near a preschool and the toddlers all wear masks.

I hate masks and don’t agree with them but you can make your two yr old waer one. And be ok with it bc they take their cues from US.

abe

Does my Puppy need a mask to?

Susan Wolf

Children respond to their parents attitude towards wearing a mask. I have seen young kids…two and over..just go with the flow.
Mask mandate….no big deal. Just wear a mask to protect yourself and others. Stop making a big deal out of it!

What will the first route be?

Time to start a mask free airline

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