ATLANTA — A majority of Georgians believe masks should be required on airplanes and all other forms of public transportation.
That's according to a new 11Alive poll. The survey, commissioned by SurveyUSA, polled 2,000 Georgia adults between April 22-27.
A federal judge ruled against a national mask mandate for mass transit on April 19. The results of the poll show most Georgians may disagree with that decision.
Click this link to see Georgia polling results reflecting preferences on mask mandates for travelers.
Should masks be required to be worn on airplanes?
- Yes: 53%
- No: 36%
- Not sure: 11%
Should masks be required to be worn on other forms of public transportation, like buses and light rail?
- Yes: 54%
- No: 38%
- Not Sure: 9%
Just hours after the ruling, Atlanta agencies, like Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Uber, revealed they would be dropping the mask requirement. Moments after that, MARTA announced it would no longer require passengers on trains and busses to wear masks.
In the 59-page lawsuit ruling, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overstepped its authority in issuing the original health order on which the TSA directive was based. She also said the order was fatally flawed because the CDC didn't follow proper rulemaking procedures.
The CDC had recently extended the mask mandate — which was set to expire April 18 — until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus.
The results of the 11Alive poll are also in line with other recent survey results on the matter. A poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research last week found despite opposition to that requirement which includes verbal abuse and physical violence against flight attendants, 56% of those surveyed favored requiring people on planes, trains and public transportation to wear masks, compared with 24% opposed and 20% who said they were neither in favor nor opposed.