Last Monday, Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled that masks are no longer going to be required on flights and public transportation in the U.S. While certain airlines have chosen to keep their own mask mandate in place, a majority of them have lifted theirs as soon as it was allowed. 

There was a viral video earlier last week depicting a Jetblue flight attendant walking down the aisle of a plane with a trashcan singing “Thow Away Your Mask” while passengers laugh and cheer with excitement. There are many people who are ecstatic about the mandate being lifted; it makes them feel as though progress is being made and the world is slowly going back to the way it was over two years ago, before the Covid-19 pandemic. 

During the pandemic, one of the flight attendant’s jobs was to enforce the mask mandate, which led to many unhappy and even violent passengers that they had to deal with. So it is no secret that many flight attendants feel relieved they no longer have to deal with enforcing these rules, even though a majority of flight attendants still choose to wear face coverings.

Like with most things involving Covid, there are people who are not happy about the mandate being lifted. People who oppose the lift worry that it will cause a surge in Covid cases. However, those who believe this has not caused any uproar simply choose to wear their face coverings when on planes. 

 It is unclear if the lift will soon apply to other certain countries or not as of yet, but for now, it seems that it will only apply to flights within America for the foreseeable future. While this is a very small change, for many it feels like a giant leap to the world returning to the way it once was.