Though the family wore masks and the father promised to cover his daughter's face with a mask that he placed on her face, it made no difference. Though the child was completely asymptomatic, and though it is exceedingly rare for a child to transmit COVID-19 to an adult - that is why Sweden kept its schools open all spring and summer, with its students not wearing masks - the airline had its orders, and the flight attendant duly obeyed them.

As I watched the video, I wondered what the flight attendant thought.

For example, did he think this was absurd, not to mention cruel?

Did he know that 2-year-olds present virtually no health risk?

Did he wonder why adults can sit without masks inches from other passengers while eating but a 2-year-old seated only next to family needed a mask?

Or did he think he was performing a noble service in kicking a family off an airplane because their 2-year-old wouldn't wear a mask?

I hope he thought he was enforcing an idiotic rule and had no choice.

Then there is hope for him and for America. Otherwise, he's an irrational automaton, among the scariest people in any society.

Does United Airlines think it's enforcing a rational and humane policy, regarding 2-year-olds as dangerous disease spreaders?

Here is what we can assume:

United Airlines has made the calculation that if it doesn't enforce every directive from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two bad things will result:

1) People will be too scared to fly United;

2) If anyone gets COVID-19 after a United flight on which a 2-year-old was allowed to fly without a mask, the airline will be sued.