Mask rules on airplanes are totally crazy

I'm not here to start a mask debate. That has been talked into the ground to the point where nobody actually knows anything and are just re-telling what their website of choice has told them to say. I'm sure there are plenty of lies on both sides of the spectrum here but here is what I do know from seeing it with my own eyes: Masks on flights just don't make any sense in how they are carried out and just seem to be an arbitrary rule like having your seat in the upright position during takeoff. I'm not saying that there has NEVER been an instance where it was a factor, but for the most part it just doesn't make any sense.

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Just for the sake of this discussion let's assume that masks do in fact work when they are attached to your face properly and are made of the correct materials. Here is where problem number one is introduced: Very few people actually wear the kind of mask that the various authorities have said can work as a filtration against Covid-19. Most people wear some sort of mesh fabric or those really cheap surgical masks and then they wear them in a rather laid-back fashion which is definitely not going to offer much protection unless someone was to sneeze directly on their face. Others, after years of being forced to wear these things have reusable cloth ones with designs on them that are made of cloth. These people are doing this in order to comply, not because they really believe that the $3.99 Pokémon mask they bought at Wal-Mart actually protects against the spread of disease.

But I digress, let's go back to assuming that all of these masks, regardless of type, actually do work.

I have been on 5 airplane trips in 2022 and all of these flights required the wearing of masks at all times unless you are eating or drinking. This is where the real "kicker" happens about how silly the requirement of wearing the masks at all is concerned.

Here we are crammed into a metal tube in much closer proximity to other people than we would normally be for most people, and then, all at once the drink or meal service happens in exactly the same fashion that it did pre-pandemic.

Every single person on the plane has their masks off at the same time so they can have their tiny bag of pretzels with a diet Coke. So if the masks did work, there would need to be some other protocols in place like staggering the rows as far as food and drink service is concerned. Yet they do not do this because it would be entirely too time-consuming.

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So when you receive your warmed-up-slop-on-a-tray portion of the journey, everyone else on the plane is getting theirs at exactly the same time. This doesn't take very long, maybe 30 minutes to an hour, but during that time hundreds of people are in close proximity to one another without their masks on in an environment where they are required to have their masks on during all other times.

In other instances I have witnessed, people who are severely anti-mask will get on the plane with a bag of chips and then very slowly, continue to eat them for nearly the entire duration of the flight. This is allowed yet if you pull your mask down even accidentally because you fall asleep, you will be reprimanded by the flight staff. So if you don't want to wear a mask all you have to do is buy a pack of Lay's before you board your flight. Then you'll be given a free pass to not wear a mask, provided you continue to slowly consume some snacks.

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Another great way to get around this would be to get really drunk on the plane from overpriced beers. Once you buy some of those, you and your pals are given a pass on the mask rule as well.

It's just juvenile at this point. Do masks work? I don't know and chances are neither do you but I do know that if something does work, no matter what it is, and everyone in a enclosed environment all stops using said thing at the same point in time, it kind of negates the effectivity of said item, doesn't it?

The world is starting to get rid of masks on planes and I look forward to the point where they end this insanity in all other aspects of life as well. If there are people out there that truly believe they work, there is nothing stopping them from wearing them whenever and however they see fit. Even before Covid was a thing I wore a mask on planes because the dry air negatively affects my sinuses. I wore one on my own volition and that is the way that I think it should be.