The Uncanny Feeling of Mid-flight Unmasking Videos

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Late Monday night, following a U.S. district court ruling, the White House announced that TSA would no longer enforce the federal mask mandate inside airports and on flights. The news spread quickly. Within an hour, videos and anecdotes emerged online of giddy in-flight announcements from flight attendants delivering the news that masks were now optional. In some cases, passengers cheered. In one , a flight attendant is seen walking down the aisle holding a trash bag and singing, “throw out your masks!” It was an uncanny, not all that surprising, and, for many, deflating moment. In other