Editorial Board

The U.S. Needs an Airplane Mask Mandate

People who go barefaced in crowded cabins endanger everyone on board.

Safety means everyone wears a mask.

Photographer: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images

In a country where Covid-19 remains out of control, it’s wrong for anyone not to wear a mask on a commercial airplane. Increasing evidence shows that good cloth face coverings significantly lower the spread of the novel coronavirus at close quarters — and that not wearing them is risky, because this germ is so often breathed into the air by people who don’t yet know they have it. One passenger on a flight from Singapore to Hangzhou, China, was infected by neighboring passengers when he merely let his mask slip below his nose while talking with his family.

It is one thing for people to take chances with their own health. It’s quite another when their reckless behavior also puts others at risk. The evidence clearly shows that this is the case with masks during the pandemic. In fact, people who choose to risk their own health this way are exposing others to potentially worse danger. Smoking is banned almost everywhere — including on airplanes. During the pandemic, all air passengers should be required to wear masks, and face legal penalties if they don’t.