It is a mystery why so many use Twitter to prove they are idiots. In recent days, tweets like the following have been widely shared (see another below – it’s even worse):

The meme is that flight cancelations are due to the end of mask mandates that led to crews all getting Covid and that’s why there is a shortage of crews.

That conclusion, of course, is not based on evidence. It’s assertion from the maskaholics.

The pilot shortage was evident in 2019, pre-pandemic, and became much worse as a result of up to 15% of pilots taking early retirement or buy-outs at some airlines in 2020 and 2021 due to pandemic policies.

In the real world, per CDC, cases were rising by late March 2021, and continued at same, slow, steady rise from April 18th (end of mask mandates on airlines) to about May 18th, and then declined since then. But who needs data when you’ve got initials after your name?

It takes years to fully train a new airline pilot in the U.S. and is why the pilot crew shortage may remain out to 2024. It has nothing to do with mask mandates. Pilots start in most other countries with around 500 hours of initial flight time – in the U.S., the default is a minimum of 1,500 hours. This requirement has greatly reduced the number of prospective commercial pilots – it can take several years to reach that number of pilot hours.

We knew this shortage was coming in mid-2021: Analysis: Pilot Shortage 2.0 on Horizon Unless Airlines Act (futureaviationaerospaceworkforce.com)

Today, we understand the problem – the pandemic policies led to early retirements and buy-outs creating this shortage: Why are airlines canceling so many flights? (msn.com)

This is not a secret. It has nothing to do with mask mandates on airline flights.

Update: Germany still mandates masks and not just any mask but FP2/N95 masks for all passengers and crew, as of June 2022. And Lufthansa just canceled 3000 flights. Apparently masks have nothing to do with it.

Update: I’m not going to be nice anymore. These Expertstm are idiots. Cases are today less than the peak on May 18th – the mask mandate went away on April 18th. Cases began rising late March – there was no change in the rate after April 18th. Below, an epidemiologist (synonym for medieval witch doctor?) tells us that flight disruptions are a direct result of ending the mask mandate. She is too arrogant in her brilliance (see past tweets) to recognize her errors on this issue, ignoring the obvious reality of what is going on in the airline industry. But because she is an epidemiologist, she is smarter than you, you stupid peon – know your place plebian! Epidemiologists and public health officials should be given total control over all society because they know what is best about everything!

I no longer believe the public health community – not a single word. They have destroyed their fields of study and their own credibility. It is gone forever. Worse, there are spillover effects. I’ve lost faith in the science community itself having now seen these behaviors in other fields of study. What a disaster.

UPDATE

Public health quacks are insisting airline flight cancelations are due to the end of mask mandates on April 18, 2022. A Federal Court ruled the CDC lacked the legal authority to have enacted mask mandates on airlines and had not followed the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act (Public health believes they are exempt from laws and the Constitution).

Now we have Jerome Adams piling on to the absurd claim that flight disruptions are due to dropping the mask mandate – there is zero evidence to support that claim and enormous amounts of evidence going back to the pilot shortage of 2019, before airlines bought out up to 15% of their crews in ’20 and ’21. It takes years to retrain new crews from the ground up. But epidemiology … doesn’t need evidence. They just know.

Also, the linked news article is from … April 11, 2022. It’s way out of date. “Cases” rose from late March to May 18th; after April 18th, the slope of the curve (rate of change) did not change. Cases have dropped since mid-May. But when you are a public health official, expert opinion outranks data and facts.

The entire field of epiastrologists is posting these memes on Twitter this week – they are convinced that airline flight cancelations are due to masks. Seriously.

And does he realize that if a mask is 100% effective (it is not), you will have to wear it 100% of the time (which no one will, including him) for the remainder of his life. The only end point is immunity.

I no longer take anything said by MPHs and epidemiologists seriously.

Coldstreams