I had to fly back then. I remember asshole flight stewards lecturing us that if we cared about humanity we’d keep our masks on, unless we were drinking coffee or eating peanuts. I’m not forgetting.
And the orders came from “public health officials” i.e Fauci et al, if you contravene them you were going against the science
And a threat to the plane
I live in a state that inflicted none of the Covid nonsense. It was eye-opening to me to see other areas that were under their governments thumb. I flew commercially eight times in 2020-21. The 2020 flights weren’t terrible because they were sparsely populated and they weren’t fanatical about masks. That changed in January 2021 and flying really became unbearable. It got even worse the next few months with the “vaccine cards” such that Grayhound and hitchhiking seemed to be viable alternatives. It did ease but since the customer service bar was reset to an incredibly low level it hasn’t returned to pre-COVID mediocrity. I’ve flown a couple of Canadian airlines this year and the flight crews were about half a step up from “surly.” Commercial flight experience has changed significantly in the forty years I’ve been doing it. Now it is just something to be endured.