The CEOs of 10 U.S. passenger and cargo airlines asked President Biden in a letter Wednesday to lift the onboard mask mandate and predeparture testing rules.
The chiefs of Alaska, American, Atlas, Delta, FedEx Express, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, United, UPS Airlines and the Airlines for America trade association signed the letter.
This month the Biden administration decided to extend the mandate through April 18 before it was set to expire on March 18.
“Now is the time for the Administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions – including the international predeparture testing requirement and the federal mask mandate – that are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment,” the CEOs write.
Airlines to Biden: Drop the Mask Mandate.
10 CEOs of US passenger and Cargo airlines send letter to President Biden calling for an end to the onboard mask mandate and predepature testing rules pic.twitter.com/Xcl1kWJ3pf— Kris Van Cleave (@krisvancleave) March 23, 2022
Last December, American Airlines CEO Doug Parker and Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said in a Senate hearing that mask mandates for air travel should be lifted, arguing the air in an airliner cabin is safer than any other indoor environment.
They pointed out that the HEPA air filtering systems capture nearly 100% of airborne contamination, exchanging cabin air without outside air every two or three minutes.
Parker said an airliner “is the safest place you can be indoors … far safer than a theater, safer actually than an intensive care unit.”
Kelly asserted “the case is very strong that masks don’t add very much, if anything, in the air cabin environment.”
“It is very safe and very high quality compared to any other indoor setting,” the Southwest CEO said.
See the airline CEOs’ remarks:
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly: Face masks “don’t add much” additional protection against the spread of COVID-19 on airplanes.
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker: “The airplane is the safest place you can be indoors… safer than an ICU.” pic.twitter.com/SeuCvTCLVQ
— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) December 16, 2021
At the time, Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants, insisted the mandate should remain in place, arguing it makes passengers feel safer. And she argued that some older planes don’t have HEPA filters.
“I hope we are going to stay on the same messages and follow the medical experts, and do what’s necessary to keep everybody safe,” she said.
However, studies by medical experts along with data accumulated from two years of mask mandates indicate they are not effective in curbing the spread of the virus. A study from Bangladesh touted by advocates of mask mandates was shown to have fundamental design flaws. And after researchers released more of their data, it was discovered there actually were minuscule infection differences between the treatment and control groups randomized across 600 villages.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Last year, America’s doctors, nurses and paramedics were celebrated as frontline heroes battling a fearsome new pandemic. Today, under Joe Biden, tens of thousands of these same heroes are denounced as rebels, conspiracy theorists, extremists and potential terrorists. Along with massive numbers of police, firemen, Border Patrol agents, Navy SEALs, pilots, air-traffic controllers, and countless other truly essential Americans, they’re all considered so dangerous as to merit termination, their professional and personal lives turned upside down due to their decision not to be injected with the experimental COVID vaccines. Biden’s tyrannical mandate threatens to cripple American society – from law enforcement to airlines to commercial supply chains to hospitals. It’s already happening. But the good news is that huge numbers of “yesterday’s heroes” are now fighting back – bravely and boldly. The whole epic showdown is laid out as never before in the sensational October issue of WND’s monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled “THE GREAT AMERICAN REBELLION: ‘We will not comply!’ COVID-19 power grab ignites bold new era of national defiance.”
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This article was originally published by the WND News Center.
