Americans are split after a federal judge struck down airplane mask mandate
For the first time in two years, Americans can fly maskless after a 33-year-old Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida struck down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's mask mandate for planes and public transportation on Monday, claiming the CDC overstepped its authority and failed to justify its decision.
Video showed an airline pilot announcing the court's decision mid-flight. Passengers cheered, and one man yelled, "Finally!"
But not everyone was cheering.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
According to polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation and analysis by Washington Post correspondent Philip Bump, the country was divided almost evenly on whether the mask mandate for trains and planes should be extended or be allowed to expire.
The largest split was along partisan lines. Around 70 percent of Democrats supported keeping the mandate, while nearly 80 percent of Republicans said to let it expire. Americans were also divided by vaccination status. The jabbed favored extending the mandate, but only by a slim margin. The unvaccinated, on the other hand, overwhelmingly wanted to go mask-less, with over 70 percent opposing the mandate.
This is not surprising, since partisanship is a strong predictor of vaccination status, and vaccination status is a strong predictor of support for COVID restrictions. "[V]accination status has long been intertwined with how people view the virus. If you think it's a serious risk, you will get vaccinated and want to see more people wearing masks. If you don't think it's a serious risk, you won't. And those views overlap with party, as they have for most of the pandemic," Bump wrote.
Even the split between people with chronic health conditions and people without was less drastic than the partisan divide. Those with a chronic health condition backed the mandate by a 56-43 margin, while those with no such condition opposed the mandate 55-44.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Grayson Quay was the weekend editor at TheWeek.com. His writing has also been published in National Review, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Modern Age, The American Conservative, The Spectator World, and other outlets. Grayson earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 2019.
-
Can Trump get a fair trial?
Talking Points Donald Trump says he can't get a fair trial in heavily Democratic Manhattan as his hush money case starts
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Crossword: April 24, 2024
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sudoku hard: April 24, 2024
The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
By The Week Staff Published
-
Texas dairy worker gets bird flu from infected cow
Speed Read The virus has been spreading among cattle in Texas, Kansas, Michigan and New Mexico
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Dengue hits the Americas hard and early
Speed Read Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic as dengue cases surge
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Covid four years on: have we got over the pandemic?
Today's Big Question Brits suffering from both lockdown nostalgia and collective trauma that refuses to go away
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
US bans final type of asbestos
Speed Read Exposure to asbestos causes about 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The hollow classroom
Opinion Remote school let kids down. It will take much more than extra tutoring for kids to recover.
By Mark Gimein Published
-
Excess screen time is making children only see what is in front of them
Under the radar The future is looking blurry. And very nearsighted.
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
Covid-19: what to know about UK's new Juno and Pirola variants
in depth Rapidly spreading new JN.1 strain is 'yet another reminder that the pandemic is far from over'
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
Long-term respiratory illness is here to stay
The Explainer Covid is not the only disease with a long version
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published