{"id":1466432,"date":"2022-05-06T11:29:34","date_gmt":"2022-05-06T15:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1466432"},"modified":"2022-05-06T11:29:36","modified_gmt":"2022-05-06T15:29:36","slug":"no-increase-in-flight-cancellations-after-cdc-mask-mandate-lifted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-increase-in-flight-cancellations-after-cdc-mask-mandate-lifted\/","title":{"rendered":"No Increase in Flight Cancellations After CDC Mask Mandate Lifted"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fno-increase-in-flight-cancellations-after-cdc-mask-mandate-lifted%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1466432&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>It\u2019s been two week since a federal court threw out the CDC\u2019s transport mask mandate, to the glee of some and the outrage of others.<\/p>\n<p>While many people\u2014including <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EWoodhouse7\/status\/1516241224700768260\">flight attendants and passengers<\/a> on planes\u2014celebrated the court\u2019s decision, others predicted the move would have dire consequences.<\/p>\n<p>CBS News, for example, <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/airlines-face-mask-covid-rules-flights-canceled\/\">reported that<\/a> European airlines were forced to \u201ccancel hundreds of flights as they grapple with coronavirus-related staffing shortages weeks after they ditched rules requiring passengers and staff to mask up in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The news agency noted that UK airlines alone canceled 769 flights in total between March 31 and April 7 because of a shortage of flight crews due to illness. CBS quoted Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist, who said such outbreaks were needless and predictable.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s very clear that the airline industry is particularly vulnerable, and this creates a cascading effect on society more than, say, a restaurant closing would,&#8221; Feigl-Ding <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/airlines-face-mask-covid-rules-flights-canceled\/\">said<\/a>. &#8220;This is critical infrastructure and these are essential employees, and we&#8217;re endangering our economy. Stopping COVID is good for our economy, &#8216;letting it rip&#8217; is the exact opposite.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">SO DAMN PREDICTABLE\u2014UK \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 govt drops restrictions, airlines like <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/easyJet?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@easyJet<\/a> drops masks\u2026 and less than 2 weeks later\u2026 huge spike in pilots and flight attendants out sick with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/COVID19?src=hash&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#COVID19<\/a> unable to work, and 120 flights cancelled! Airline CEOs asked for this. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zVOc2g2KzS\">https:\/\/t.co\/zVOc2g2KzS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YWD7XIOodl\">pic.twitter.com\/YWD7XIOodl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrEricDing\/status\/1510942778850746372?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 4, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>How Are the Airlines Managing?<\/h2>\n<p>Few would disagree with Feigl-Ding that airlines are important infrastructure, but his claim that mask mandates are crucial to their success bears scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>First, it\u2019s worth noting that the 769 UK flights canceled between March 31 and April accounted for just 4 percent of those flights, which means that 96 percent went off without a hitch. Even more importantly, a single airline\u2014EasyJet\u2014accounted for roughly 40 percent of the canceled flights.<\/p>\n<p>This suggests the UK\u2019s numbers were skewed to a large extent by a single outbreak that disrupted many flights. Whether a mask mandate would have prevented this outbreak from occurring is impossible to know. But what we do know is that <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/news\/uk\/thousands-travel-chaos-cancellations-airlines-british-airways-rail-firms-b973170.html\">similar<\/a> cancellations\u2014<a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/11\/business\/omicron-united-airlines-flights-canceled.html\">much larger ones<\/a>, in fact\u2014occurred when mask mandates were still in place, so the idea that such mandates can prevent cancellations is simply not true.<\/p>\n<p>We also have fresh data on cancellations of US flights since the CDC\u2019s mask mandate was lifted. One astute Twitter user analyzed the data, which <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/flightaware.com\/live\/cancelled\/\">can be found here<\/a>, and pointed out that in the two weeks since the CDC\u2019s mask order was struck on April 18, there was no widespread cancellation of flights.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Two weeks (!) since the airline mask mandate was lifted. Experts insisted there would be widespread cancellations due to staff illness. Cancellation rates of major US airlines so far today:<\/p>\n<p>United 0%<br \/>American 0%<br \/>Southwest 0%<br \/>Delta 0%<br \/>JetBlue 0%<br \/>Allegiant 0%<br \/>Frontier 1%<br \/>Alaska 7%<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Eric (@The_OtherET) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/The_OtherET\/status\/1521159960146685952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 2, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>On the contrary, <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/1109993\/largest-airlines-north-america-passengers\/\">the four largest airlines<\/a> in the US\u2014American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and Southwest Airlines\u2014all had a cancellation rate of 0 percent, as did JetBlue and Allegian. Frontier Airlines, meanwhile, had a cancellation rate of 1 percent, and Alaska Airlines had a cancellation rate of 7 percent. (Since the publication of the tweet, Alaska\u2019s cancellation rate has fallen to 4 percent, and Delta\u2019s has increased to 1 percent.)<\/p>\n<p>The total number of canceled flights within, into, or out of the US in the past two weeks currently stands at 72\u2014about 0.15 percent of the roughly <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/air_traffic\/by_the_numbers\/\">45,000 flights<\/a> the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) oversees each day, on average.<\/p>\n<h2>\u2018One of the Great Mistakes\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>To be sure, we\u2019re still in a pandemic, at least in the sense that <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.worldometers.info\/coronavirus\/\">many people<\/a> are still getting COVID-19, still getting sick, and still dying. This means that we can expect there will be times when flights are interrupted by spikes of illness.<\/p>\n<p>That said, so far the data suggest that fears of widespread cancellation of flights in the wake of the mask mandate being lifted are baseless, thankfully.<\/p>\n<p>In many ways, this should not surprise us.<\/p>\n<p>Even mask champions like <em>The New York Times <\/em><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/01\/14\/health\/cloth-masks-covid-cdc.html\">have come around to the idea<\/a> that cloth masks are not very effective against Covid, which is why many scientists <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cidrap.umn.edu\/news-perspective\/2020\/04\/data-do-not-back-cloth-masks-limit-covid-19-experts-say\">have long doubted their efficacy<\/a>. (And even if cloth masks are effective, are we really supposed to just overlook the fact that there\u2019s a period of time on flights when patrons just remove them to eat and drink, which hardly seems like an effective virus containment strategy?)<\/p>\n<p>None of this is to say masking isn\u2019t or can\u2019t be effective. Perhaps it is. But I think we have an abundance of evidence that shows mask <em>mandates<\/em> are not effective, and the absence of a surge in flight cancellations following the striking down of the mask mandate is one more piece of that evidentiary record.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I was an early mask adopter &#8212; &#038; they make intuitive sense &#8212; but a growing body of evidence shows that mask mandates don&#8217;t appear to make much difference at the community level. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wnfBUKcZuM\">pic.twitter.com\/wnfBUKcZuM<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Liz Highleyman (@LizHighleyman) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LizHighleyman\/status\/1514321368921255940?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 13, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>All of this brings to mind a crucial lesson of economics. The Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once observed that one of the biggest problems of the modern world is how we assess public policy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results,\u201d Friedman noted.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no better example of Friedman\u2019s adage, I think, than masks, which became a symbol of <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2022\/04\/27\/covid-masks-for-common-good-protecting-others\/\">supporting \u201cthe common good,\u201d<\/a> which is why so many people publicly vowed to continue wearing them even after the CDC policy requiring them on transportation was struck down.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Tho it\u2019s not mandatory and it\u2019s a pain, I\u2019m masking it for my flight today. For myself, for others. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/spbl2jySsc\">pic.twitter.com\/spbl2jySsc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Ron Howard (@RealRonHoward) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RealRonHoward\/status\/1517481523506597888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 22, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Wearing my mask no matter what non-scientists tell me I can do. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qel4mAG9H5\">pic.twitter.com\/qel4mAG9H5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Valerie Jarrett (@ValerieJarrett) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ValerieJarrett\/status\/1516451750852575243?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 19, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If people wish to continue wearing masks to show they\u2019re not \u201cselfish\u201d or because they believe it will protect them, they are of course perfectly free to do so. That\u2019s the beauty of choice.<\/p>\n<p>But how much pain could have been avoided during this pandemic if only we\u2019d embraced the freedom of choice from the beginning, instead of succumbing to fear?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been two week since a federal court threw out the CDC\u2019s transport mask mandate, to the glee of some and the outrage of others. While many people\u2014including flight attendants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1466432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1466432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1466432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1466432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1466432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1466432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}