Flying in USA right now in regards to Covid measures

It's a little strange to be honest because a lot of states have given up on mask policies and some haven't, so the airports seem to be this grey area where everyone is still on high alert and sanitation, masks, and distancing is encouraged but doesn't appear to be required.

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I've always found the notion of social distancing to be a bit ridiculous in airports because if there ever was an environment where that isn't really possible this would be it! Also, basically anything qualifies as a face covering as you can see in the picture above where one of the girls is wearing a bandana. Maybe she is going to rob a bank in the old west later, who knows?

I have only been in 3 different airports in the United States since we went Rona-crazy and all of them, with the exception of maybe Houston, Texas, it has been mandatory to wear masks and there is sanitizer that is available if you want it. I actually don't mind hand sanitizer even before it became the big seller than it is these days so I use it. As far as I can tell it isn't required though.

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Texas is a funny state. They kind of do their own thing and don't really care what the rest of the country thinks about it. They may as well be their own country and several times they have tried to do exactly that. The TSA requires masks and what not but Texas does not, so my experience in the Houston airport was that in the TSA lines everyone was wearing masks (including me) but everywhere else in the airport it seems as though it was a 50/50 split of mask / not masked individuals. I don't even know if you are supposed to be wearing them but this is Texas ya'll, and they don't tolerate being told what to do very much. I suppose I can appreciate that.

If you want to wear a mask do it, if you don't want to, don't. It does seem a bit bizarre that in the TSA line masks are strictly enforced and we all know how much TSA people love shouting at people and flexing their authority so they were talking about mask this and mask that more than anything else. I did notice that I did not have to take my shoes off anymore.... are we finally done with that stupid crap?

Once on the planes you have to wear the masks again and they are a lot more polite about it there but even though I personally don't think that most masks actually do anything I still comply just because I don't see any particular reason to be a jerk if I don't have to be. So as far as I can tell masks are still required on flights but of course social distancing is not required because how the hell are you gonna do that on an airplane?

So in closure, I would say that you should probably still bring a mask with you to the airport because while most of them were giving out those disposable "dentist" ones for free, not all of them were... and at least for now you will be required to put one on during the TSA part of the experience at least.