Passengers Still Wear Helmets And Masks At Airports In 2026 — Suddenly ‘Freedom’ Has Limits

A passenger, at what looks to me like Tenerife South Airport, is in the gate area for their flight and they’re prepared to fly in a helmet and a mask. They are being mocked for ‘not knowing what time it is’ – that it’s six years since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and they’re “like Japanses soldiers still fighting the war.”

Japanese lieutenant Hiroo Onoda remained on Lubang Island in the Philippines until March 1974, continuing to fight a guerrilla war and surrendering only after his former commanding officer came and officially relieved him of duty three decades after Japanese surrender in World War II. There were others like him.

It seems to me, though, that opposition to masks during 2020 – 2022 was framed as being about freedom. Anyone who objected then has no basis for complaining about a passenger’s personal protective equipment being worn voluntarily now.

Airport departure lounge. 2026 and they’re still out there, like Japanese soldiers still fighting the war. pic.twitter.com/wGUrMzJTho

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 26, 2026

There are several general reactions to passengers like this:

• “The war is over” and “brains not updated.” It is simply out of date.

• PPE purism: “At least this person is actually going all-in,” unlike people who wear cloth masks on their chin.

• Where’s the rest of the PPE? They’re in a public space with no gloves! If you’re going to take it seriously, take it seriously.

• But airports are actually disgusting. “Have you ever been to IAH or JFK? You’ll be begging for a hazmat suit.” Between crowding, coughing, recirculated air and bad bathrooms, there’s a logic to this actually.

  Commercial jets recirculate cabin air through HEPA filters, refreshing it 20–30 times per hour (every 2-3 minutes) and downward air flow makes cabin air less conducive to infections than typical buildings. Those conditions don’t apply to airports.

At the start of the pandemic we saw people traveling in full hazmat suits. This passenger didn’t buy one for the flight – he happened to have it from going as Breaking Bad‘s Walter White for Halloween.

Airlines actually ban ‘too much PPE’ like body tents and pods, personal air purifiers and ozone generators. If there’s a concern with this man, it’s that he wouldn’t be able to quickly don an oxygen mask in the event of an emergency.

Masks were highly controversial during the pandemic, when they were required first by airlines and then by the federal government. There was a huge spike in passenger incidents onboard as customers refused to wear them (and also as passengers brought their own alcohol on planes, with airlines not serving booze at least in coach).

In this case, 20 passengers and even a 3-year old were removed from an American Airlines flight over masks. Here’s a case of a passenger wearing a pair of women’s red underwear on his face and calling it a mask, and getting kicked off – while a second passenger removed himself from the flight in protest over the unfairness of it all.

As a passenger I don’t want to be on a plane with sick passengers and I don’t want to be on a plane with sick crew. Years ago I sat next to a man with a bright red, almost glowing eye on a United flight from Washington Dulles to Los Angeles. Today I’d have excused myself, sought another seat. The plane wasn’t 100% full, but if it was I’d have gotten off while the doors were still open. I wound up with a dendritic ulcer in my eye.

I’ve hated flying in flu season. I was even a fan of ‘double masking’ long before SARS-CoV-2!

Airlines need to sell facemasks inflight. Guy next to me hasn't stopped coughing all flight. I'd gladly buy him one. Or two.

— gary leff (@garyleff) March 6, 2016

Ultimately I just have to ask, why are people bothered if nobody is forcing them to follow suit? The mask isn’t just a device or tool, it’s a tribal marker and moral signal.

It’s fair to say ‘don’t make me wear one, and you do you.’ But a lot of the opposition to masking was never about freedom. It was about resentment of institutions, experts, and identity. And when the public health bureaucracy believed masking wasn’t necessary, until it was, and then two masks were better – but public gatherings were fine if they were for Black Lives Matter – some of that resentment was fair. So-called experts performed badly.

Voluntary masking keeps the symbolism alive, and some people hate the symbol more than they ever cared about the actual mask. To me, it’s just like noise-canceling headphones or compression socks that look a bit odd, but aren’t your business.

Masks should never have been mandated by the Biden administration. Airlines mandated them themselves starting around May 2020, the federal mandate was duplicative and less strict, and lasted too long. It also came after people had access to vaccines broadly (and in the first half of 2021 those were broadly sterilizing), choice should have trumped.

But once mandates ended, voluntary masking should have become a non-issue. The fact that it still triggers people proves the fight was not just about compulsion.