Masks – Page 5 – COOPER GENERAL NEWS

Passengers, almost all with face masks, board an American Airlines flight to Charlotte on May 3, 2020 in New York City.

Eleonore Sens | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden signed an ordinance on Thursday requiring masks to be worn on planes, trains, buses, and airports as coronavirus infections continue to rise.

The Trump administration declined to use masks for air travel and other transportation, leaving private companies to set their own guidelines, despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention having repeatedly recommended their use.

That left flight attendants and other staff to enforce the rules. Unions pushing for a federal mask mandate cheered Biden’s orders.

“What a difference leadership makes! We applaud President Biden’s nationwide approach to fighting the virus and getting out of this pandemic,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the country’s largest flight attendants union. in a statement. “Today’s action by the executive regarding a mask mandate for interstate travel, including airports and airplanes, will provide much-needed support to flight attendants and aviation workers on the front lines.

Julie Hedrick, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents American Airlines cabin crews, also welcomed the move.

“As passengers travel on different airlines and through different airports, they deserve clear expectations of the rules. We thank President Biden for addressing this immediately,” she said in a statement.

All major US airlines require travelers to wear masks on board – a policy that extends to airports. Airline executives say the vast majority of customers follow the rule, but they vow to take a tough line against those who refuse. In the past week, airlines banned more than 2,500 people from flying for refusing to wear face covers. The FAA noted that some rare cases have even turned violent.

The FAA warned earlier this month to crack down on recalcitrant behavior and travelers who fail to follow instructions from the crew and fined those travelers up to $ 35,000.

Air travelers, including citizens, are recently required to show a negative Covid-19 test result before flying to the U.S. from overseas, Biden ordered, reiterating a CDC policy revealed last week. This rule takes effect on Tuesday.

Biden said travelers would have to self-quarantine upon arrival.

The incoming administration, he said, is exploring ways to take over the distribution of testing supplies and medical equipment. They are also trying to create financial incentives and “buy” American guidelines to bolster the handful of domestic companies that make PPE, he said. Mr Biden would not hesitate to adopt the Defense Production Act, said Dr. Bright, although he did not provide details on how it would be applied.

Industry executives say the only way to guarantee the United States a reliable supply of quality masks and other medical equipment is to recognize the sector as essential to national security, similar to the Pentagon’s approach to companies producing fighter jet components and military personnel manufacture to ensure uniforms remain viable in peacetime.

This could mean that domestic businesses receive loans and subsidies, that state and national inventory must acquire American-made medical devices, and that hospital chains may have to source some of their supplies from domestic manufacturers.

“Masks are not a huge expense,” said Mr. Bowen. “The whole damn market is less than $ 150 million.”

Dan DeLay, who oversees procurement at CommonSpirit Health, the country’s second largest nonprofit hospital chain, said the pandemic opened his eyes to the importance of home care. But it can be difficult to convince hospital managers to buy American-made protective equipment, which can cost 40 percent more than goods made overseas. “If we are serious about domestic manufacturing, we need to make serious investments that will be sustained in the long run if this happens again,” he said.

Currently, the legions of exhausted healthcare workers are focused on managing the current crisis. Mary Turner, president of the Minnesota Nurses Association, said the months of bottlenecks left many members unnoticed and angry. Ms. Turner, who is also an intensive care nurse at North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, recalled the days leading up to the pandemic when nurses were given an N95 mask for each patient. Nowadays she hears a lot about nurses being forced to use the masks up to ten times “or until they fall off their faces,” she said.

Despite her optimism that a Biden government will be different, it is tired of the political leaders who mark medical workers as frontline warriors but do little to protect them, she said.

“The total disregard for our security was incomprehensible,” she said. “They call us heroes, but we are not treated like soldiers in war because if we were, the federal government would make sure we have everything we need.”