April 19, 2022 07:44 AM UTC

Be Kind To Transportation Workers Today

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• by: Colorado Pols

As AP reports via the Colorado Sun, last night the cantankerous, sometimes openly belligerent, and always just kind of silly opponents of the mandate to wear a protective face mask while riding public transportation to protect against infection from COVID-19 appear to have won the argument at long last with the help of a Donald Trump-appointed conservative judge:

A federal judge in Florida on Monday voided the national mask mandate covering airlines and other public transportation as exceeding the authority of U.S. health officials in their response to the coronavirus pandemic…

A Denver International Airport spokeswoman said the airport is waiting for official direction from TSA, but is still strongly encouraging passengers to wear masks.

The same goes for RTD, which has been consistent with reminders to bus and rail passengers that wearing a mask is required under federal law.

The Biden administration, which had recently extended the transportation mask mandate until May 3rd but was widely expected to drop it following that date, says it will drop enforcement of the mask mandate immediately pending their response to yesterday’s decision. That could leave individual employees in the transportation industry who have relied on the mask mandate for their own protection against the objections of anti-maskers in the lurch awaiting of new policies from their employers.

It’s a situation in which we can easily see transportation workers being harassed by jubilant anti-maskers taking out two years of frustrations (like they have from the beginning) on employees with no say over the policies they have been required to enforce. Nobody who was just doing their job all along is the “loser” in this decision, so we hope that doesn’t happen.

Rather than gloating, show your conductors and flight attendants a little extra appreciation today.