A resigned sigh is the adult response to this week's announcement that air travelers must continue donning face masks amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
What's not welcome: entitled bellyaching. Continued masking is a minor inconvenience as leisure and business travelers return, especially for the shorter flights domestic travel involves. Just deal with it like a grown-up. Any complaints should be stuffed into the overhead bin next to carry-on luggage instead of being hurled at flight crews.
On Wednesday, federal officials announced a two-week extension of the mask requirement for travelers on "planes, trains and in transit hubs." That requirement previously had been set to expire on Monday but will remain in place at least through May 3.
As much as everyone wants this pandemic to be over, it clearly isn't. The continued mask requirement sensibly reflects this reality, though the two-week extension may be overly optimistic.
As of this week, more than 500 Americans are still dying each day on average after infection with the COVID virus, according to the New York Times COVID tracker. That's down 26% over the previous 14 days, but nevertheless is an appalling number.
A comparison of the current COVID death count to that from a recent severe influenza season offers chilling perspective. The flu virus often arrives with winter weather. In the 2017-18 flu season, an estimated 61,000 Americans died after contracting the virus, far outpacing any year in that decade.
That works out to a 167 deaths a day on average. Now consider the same stat for COVID: 533 deaths daily. COVID may now be a familiar foe as the pandemic enters its third year, but it remains a serious health threat.
News reports from the United Kingdom underscore this. New, more transmissible COVID variants are circulating. Cases spiked in the U.K. in mid-March. Employee infections contributed to flight disruptions and airport security backups.
