Flight attendant reported a passenger was not wearing a covid-19 mask because he stated that he had ...

Narrative:

Passenger came on the plane with mask but then when he was seated he took it off. I made an announcement about airline policy to wear a mask on the plane. Passenger didn't comply; I went over and asked him why he wasn't wearing a mask; he said that he had a medical condition and that he didn't have to. I looked at the manifest on my device; there was no notification about his medical condition. I asked him if he notified our gate agent and he said he talked to them about it; and they said it was ok. When the gate agent came on board I asked her to go talk to the passenger; because she said that no one talked to her about any medical conditions. After gate agent spoke to passenger; she got back to us and said that he claims that he has a medical condition; and that he might have talk to someone about it but it wasn't her. She said that she will make a note about this passengers situation. Can we please make it clear to the passengers about providing medical documents to gate agents. This is frustrating for flight attendants because we can't force someone to wear a face masks; and we can't take them off flights because he claims he has a medical condition and he can claim discrimination. I don't know if this passenger has a medical condition or not but there needs to be something done to help flight attendants and gate agents to our job and help our passengers.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Flight attendant reported a passenger was not wearing a COVID-19 mask because he stated that he had a medical condition; but was unable to provide any documentation.

Narrative: Passenger came on the plane with mask but then when he was seated he took it off. I made an announcement about airline policy to wear a mask on the plane. Passenger didn't comply; I went over and asked him why he wasn't wearing a mask; he said that he had a medical condition and that he didn't have to. I looked at the manifest on my device; there was no notification about his medical condition. I asked him if he notified our gate agent and he said he talked to them about it; and they said it was OK. When the gate agent came on board I asked her to go talk to the passenger; because she said that no one talked to her about any medical conditions. After gate agent spoke to passenger; she got back to us and said that he claims that he has a medical condition; and that he might have talk to someone about it but it wasn't her. She said that she will make a note about this passengers situation. Can we please make it clear to the passengers about providing medical documents to gate agents. This is frustrating for flight attendants because we can't force someone to wear a face masks; and we can't take them off flights because he claims he has a medical condition and he can claim discrimination. I don't know if this passenger has a medical condition or not but there needs to be something done to help flight attendants and gate agents to our job and help our passengers.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1752705
Time
Date	202007
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Parked
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Flight Attendant In Charge
Qualification	Flight Attendant Current
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Passenger Misconduct

Flight attendant reported a passenger was not wearing a covid-19 mask because he stated that he had a medical condition; but was unable to provide any documentation.