Airlines struggle with mask mandates
Two recent incidents involving young children who refused to wear face masks show how airlines are struggling to balance safety with compassionate treatment of customers during a pandemic.
JetBlue Airways forced a woman and her six children off a plane when her 2-year-old daughter wouldn’t keep her mask on. “It was horrible, the whole experience was traumatizing,” the mother, Chaya Bruck, told the New York Daily News from the airport in Orlando, Florida, where the Brooklyn family was stranded.
Last week, a Texas woman said Southwest Airlines booted her family off a plane after one of the children, a 3-year-old with autism, refused to wear a mask. Alyssa Sadler said her son became upset because he does not like to have his face touched.
All major U.S. airlines have mask rules and have banned at least a couple hundred passengers who have refused to comply. Typically, the violators are adults who argue that there is no government requirement to wear a mask – there isn’t; the Federal Aviation Administration has declined to impose one, leaving it up to the airlines.
The U.S. has 5.5 million confirmed infections and more than 173,000 deaths. Worldwide, there have been more than 789,000 deaths and 22.4 million cases, according to John Hopkins University data.
Teachers may be sent back to classrooms even after exposure
New guidance from the Trump administration could send teachers back into their classrooms after potentially being exposed to the new coronavirus, bypassing quarantine rules as “critical infrastructure workers.”
The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency issued a revised guidance on who qualifies as a critical infrastructure worker, listing teachers for the first time. The document says it is not a federal directive or standard.
If one of those workers remains asymptomatic and additional precautions are put in place, they can continue to work in person, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
Some school districts in Tennessee and Georgia have already said they may employ this new guidance, drawing sharp criticism among some teachers who say they worry the practice could spread the virus to their students or colleagues.
Report: Vegas casinos likely hot spots for COVID-19 spread
Tourists visiting The Strip could be fueling the pandemic, according to a ProPublica investigation. An analysis of smartphone data during four days, a Friday to Monday in mid-July, revealed how most of the U.S. is connected to Las Vegas – a likely hot spot of COVID-19 spread.
During that time frame, about 26,000 devices were identified on The Strip, according to data mined by the companies X-Mode and Tectonix. Some of those smartphones then traveled to every state on the mainland except Maine. Where those devices ended up during those same four days:
• About 3,700 of the devices were spotted in Southern California;
• About 2,700 in Arizona, with 740 in Phoenix;
• Around 1,000 in Texas;
• More than 800 in Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland;
• More than 100 in the New York area.
The analysis highlights a reason the virus keeps spreading and shows how travel to Las Vegas could be fueling the pandemic, health officials say.
US senator tests positive
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., tested positive Thursday. He is a gastroenterologist and said he would quarantine for 14 days and notify everyone who may have come into contact with him.
Thirteen members of Congress have tested positive or been diagnosed.