Originally Posted by
ahmetdouas
You are wrong. There are many asthmatics to whom wearing a face-masks make it very uncomfortable and harder for them to breathe.
This is almost certainly psychosomatic, at least to the extent that it actually impacts breathing. The impact to airflow from wearing a compliant facemask is trivial. The change in altitude of the plane is far more significant than whatever change in airflow a person is getting from a mask (in terms of ability to release CO2 and inhale an amount of O2). The reality is that masks really aren't that comfortable to wear. So to say that "facemasks make it uncomfortable" - then that is a universal exclusion. There are hundreds of thousands of nurses, doctors, and surgeons that wear surgical masks and millions of workers that have to wear respirators - often in extremely high temperatures - that have asthma or other respiratory issues.
You know what else is uncomfortable? I'm 6' 4" and flying in a 30" seat pitch is uncomfortable and causes me knee pain. Yet somehow I've made it this far.
The CDC very clearly from the link you says states exemptions "anyone who has trouble breathing". Asthma is easily within that definition, so technically any asthmatic can claim the CDC style exemption. Let's see if an asthmatic flies with Delta and claims the exemption, I am interested to see what the Doctor says, but clearly since they will be on Delta's payroll they will obviously be biased for Delta's own benefit. It's like the equivalent of a pharma company giving a doctor an incentive to prescribe their specific medication!
You say Delta's benefit.. like turning away a customer is a benefit to Delta. Of course Delta wants to allow a passenger to fly. Otherwise they have to give a refund. I don't think Delta is in the business of giving unnecessary refunds right now.
I'm not going to say that there are not potential instances where someone would be fit to fly but not to fit a mask. But these are exceptionally few and far between. The physics of wearing a low-grade mask just doesn't impact airflow very much. An average healthy adult - even with non-acute asthma or in moderate/early stages of a lung disease like COPD - could layer on 5 surgical masks and still breath fine as measured by O2 sat. If wearing a mask creates immediate respiratory distress (i.e., causes a significant and sustained drop in O2 saturation despite natural adjustments to breathing rhythm) then that person should ABSOLUTELY not be on a densely packed plane and/or airport during a respiratory illness pandemic. Their respiratory health is already in such poor condition that COVID-19 would almost certainly be a death sentence. The exact flip side of this is Delta is being negligent by carrying a passenger who self-declared as inherently unfit to fly (respiratory distress from wearing a mask), potentially getting them exposed to COVID on the flight, and dying.
There really just isn't a lot of middle ground here. Outside of the mental health exclusion, either they can wear a mask, or their respiratory health is so compromised that Delta would be negligent flying them during a pandemic.