More Americans used air travel on Sunday than at any point since mid-March, the Transportation Security Administration said Monday.
That broke the post-COVID-19 record that had previously been set… four days earlier, with the start of a wave of Christmas-related travel.
More than 1.28 million travelers passed through TSA checkpoints Sunday, according to the TSA, up from the pre-Christmas COVID-19 record of more than 1.19 million the Wednesday prior.
Sunday’s traveler throughput was roughly half of that on the same Sunday last year, the TSA said. Wednesday’s high was more than 60 percent of the throughput a year ago.
Since mid-March, TSA has recorded 11 days in which more than 1 million people used air travel. Six of those days were in the second half of December.
The record numbers come despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urging Americans not to travel for the holidays, an effort to stem the spread of the viral disease.
The United States has seen a surge in cases over the past three months. In all, the country has recorded more than 330,000 COVID-19 deaths
Guess they’ve run out of flying fucks to give…
YEAH!!! FREEDUMB!!!
BOOO!!! PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY!!!
People are greedy and stupid, film at 11.
I weep for our health care workers.
Well, sort of. They hedged their language in response to political interference, saying things like “it’s best not to travel during the holiday season, but if you do, be mindful of… blah blah blah”. Weak and over-nuanced. As the incoming CDC administrator commented, it’s like saying “don’t drive drunk, but if you do, try and be safe”.
Better language would have been “do not travel during the holiday season unless it is absolutely essential. Case numbers continue to rise nationwide at an alarming rate, and non-essential travel puts you and your loved ones at elevated risk by spreading hotspots of infection between communities”. Or anything else that wasn’t both-sides-ism, really. No one is kidding themselves that CDC language would have stopped travel dead, but they really did not urge Americans to avoid travel.