Air Travelers Can Ditch COVID Masks For Flights In The U.S.; 'I'm Just So Tired Of Wearing Masks'
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/AP) -- Once a required travel companion, COVID masks began disappearing from the faces of travelers at San Francisco International Airport less than 24 hours after the Transportation Security Administration announced it would honor a judge's ruling ending the face-covering mandate on public transit.
Among those traveling Tuesday morning was Jessi Phillips. She was wearing her mask for now, but said she'll put it away once going maskless becomes more commonplace.
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"I'm personally vaccinated and boosted and I've had COVID so I feel pretty safe not having a mask, but I don't want to be the person, the one person who is not if everyone else is," she told KPIX. "I saw an employee not wearing a mask so if they aren't, I won't."
Chris Cuevas chose to ditch his mask.
"We've so happy about it," he told KPIX 5. "I'm just so tired of wearing masks."
Oakland International Airport officials issued a statement on their new policy.
"Effective immediately, following the updated TSA guidance, Oakland International Airport will no longer require airport employees or patrons to wear a face mask at its facility," the statement read. "The CDC continues to recommend that individuals wear masks in indoor transportation settings. We recognize that travelers and employees will have varied opinions about this sudden change, and we ask that people respect the individual decision to wear a face mask or not."
While a majority of passengers arriving for early flights were wearing masks, travelers without masks were also seen hustling through the terminals to their flights.
On Monday afternoon, major airlines and many of the busiest airports rushed to drop face covering requirements, but the judge's ruling still gave those entities the option to keep their mask rules in place, resulting in directives that could vary from city to city.
Passengers on an United Airlines flight from the Bay Area to New York, for instance, could ditch their masks at local airports and on the plane, but have to put them back on once they land at Kennedy Airport or take a subway.
In a 59-page lawsuit ruling, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overstepped its authority in issuing the original health order on which the TSA directive was based. She also said the order was fatally flawed because the CDC didn't follow proper rulemaking procedures.
Mizelle, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said the only remedy was to throw out the mandate for the entire country because it would be impossible to end it only for the people who objected in the lawsuit.
The White House said the mask order "is not in effect at this time" and called the court decision disappointing.
The Justice Department declined to comment on whether it would seek an emergency stay to block the judge's order. The CDC also declined to comment.
United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines all quickly announced they were yanking the mask requirement for domestic and some international flights. So did American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways.
Sleepy passengers on a Delta flight between Atlanta and Barcelona, Spain, cheered, whistled and applauded when a flight attendant announced the news mid-flight over the ocean.
"No one's any happier than we are," the attendant says in a video posted by Dillon Thomas, a CBS Denver reporter, who was on the flight. She added that people who wanted to keep on their masks were encouraged to do so.
"But we're ready to give ém up," she added. "So thank you and happy unmasking day!"
Major airports dropped their requirements but sided with the CDC in recommending that people be voluntarily masked. They included Los Angeles International Airport, the world's fifth-busiest by passenger volume, Oakland, San Francisco International and Salt Lake City International Airport, which announced it would hand out masks to anyone requesting them.