In December of 2001, terrorist Richard Reid tried to blow up a plane by placing explosives in his shoes. During the flight he attempted to ignite the bomb with a match, but other passengers blew out his matches, and he was eventually subdued.

The shoe bomb didn’t work very well, but just months after 9/11, it showed us another possible way terrorists could strike. In reaction to this potential threat, people were asked to take off there shoes and have them run through the x-ray machines at the airport. The hope was that a security agent scanning hundreds of bags and thousands of shoes every hour would be able to to pick out the one shoe with plastic explosives in the heel.

Yesterday l flew to Florida and had to take off my shoes to go through security. Twenty years later and shoe bombing is still threat? Is there intelligence stating that terrorists are working on shoe bombs? No, the shoe bomb wasn’t a great idea and it is unlikely that this is a top threat to air travelers. Though not probable, it is still possible that someone could become the next shoe bomber, so we still check shoes (but not if you’re old).

Which brings us to COVID.  With vaccines and natural immunity, the virus is already less of a threat than it once was, but the threat will never be zero. There will always be the chance that someone somewhere could contract the disease. So, 20 years from now, do you think that there will still be mask mandates on planes an other places? I want to say, “No,” but I have seen how the government works. What say you, Ricochet? Will people keep this up indefinitely?