Despite scenes of jubilation when the US dropped its mask mandate for mass transit earlier this week, a majority of Americans continue to support a mask requirement for people travelling on airplanes and other shared transportation, a new poll finds. However, the Justice Department filed an appeal in Tampa seeking to overturn a judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes, trains and travel hubs.
It came minutes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked the Justice Department to appeal the decision handed down by a federal judge in Florida earlier this week.
Meanwhile, the poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that despite opposition to that requirement that included verbal abuse and physical violence against flight attendants, 56% of Americans favour requiring people on planes, trains and public transportation to wear masks, compared with 24% opposed and 20% who say they’re neither in favour nor opposed.
Interviews for the poll were conducted Thursday to Monday, shortly before a federal judge in Florida struck down the national mask mandate on airplanes and mass transit. Airlines and airports immediately scrapped their requirements that passengers wear face coverings.
The Transportation Security Administration stopped enforcing the mask requirement, and the Justice Department announced on Tuesday that it would not appeal the ruling unless the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined it was still necessary.
The CDC said in a statement on Wednesday that it is its “continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health.
The poll shows a wide partisan divide on the issue. Among Democrats, 80% favour and just 5% oppose the requirement. Among Republicans, 45% are opposed compared with 33% in favour, with 22% saying neither.
The continued support among Americans overall for mandating masks on transportation comes even as worries about COVID-19 are among their lowest points of the past two years. Just 20% now say they’re very or extremely worried that they or a family member will be infected. That’s down slightly since 25% said the same just a month ago and from 36% in December and January as the omicron variant was raging. Another 33% now say they are somewhat worried, while 48% say they’re not worried at all.
In another AP-NORC poll conducted last month, 44% of Americans still said they were often or always wearing face masks outside their homes, though that was down significantly from 65% who said that at the beginning of the year.
The latest poll also shows about half of Americans favour requiring masks for workers who interact with the public, compared with about three in 10 opposed. Support is similar for requiring people at crowded public events such as concerts, sporting events and movies to wear masks.
On these, too, there are significant partisan divides. Seventy-two percent of Democrats favour requiring people attending crowded public events to wear masks, while among Republicans, 25% are in favour and 49% are opposed. The numbers are similar for requiring masks for public-facing workers.
Lee, who said she doesn’t “do politics,” wondered aloud why people are complaining about the judge’s ruling and said nobody is stopping anyone from wearing masks if they want to.
“We all have our beliefs and obviously different views,” said Lee, who is unvaccinated. “Mine are definitely different from the people who are angry and upset.”
Employed Americans are divided on whether people working in person at their own workplaces should be required to wear masks. Thirty-four percent say they’re in favour of that requirement, 33% are opposed and 33% are neither in favour nor opposed. Among workers who are Democrats, 48% are in favour and 18% are opposed. Among workers who are Republicans, 53% are opposed and 18% are in favour.
Mike Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said messaging over the mask mandate would have been more effective if it required N95 or KN95 respirators, which are more effective at preventing transmission of the virus.
“But you have actually created a real challenge with yourself with the public who are now being selective if not outright angry about these mandates,” said Osterholm, who added that he will continue to wear his N95 mask on planes.
The CDC said it will continue to monitor public health conditions to determine if a mandate would remain necessary. It said it believes the mandate is “a lawful order, well within CDC’s legal authority to protect public health.”
The AP-NORC poll of 1,085 adults was conducted April 14-18 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the US population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.