TAMPA, FL – April 18, 2022 – The CDC recently extended the mask mandate for airplanes, other forms of indoor public transportation and transportation hubs to May 3rd in order to allow some more time to study the rise in the latest subvariant of the coronavirus called BA.2. The mask mandate was due to expire two weeks earlier on April 18th. This was the 5th extension. It was begun on January 29, 2021, shortly after President Biden took office in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. The virus has been shown to be spread in the air through small droplets and particles that contain the virus. However, many air plane company CEO’s have disagreed with these guidelines because of the sharp fall of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. They feel that the mask rollback in other indoor settings like restaurants and stores should apply to the air plane sector because they feel that effective air filters on their planes make viral transmission unlikely. Last month, the Senate passed a resolution against this extension. Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss) said, “The testimony we’ve had in the Commerce Committee, from the airline industry and from scientists is that the airline air is the safest air that Americans can breathe indoors, anywhere.”
On April 18th, a federal judge in Florida, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled against a national mask mandate for airplanes and other forms of public transportation. Therefore, the Transportation Security Administration said that it will no longer enforce the mask mandate. Numerous airlines, rail and car carriers, and some airports have stopped requiring passengers to wear masks. Many medical and public health experts are upset about this ruling because it puts immunosuppressed people and children under 5-years-old at-risk to get sick with COVID-19. President Biden is disappointed in this judicial decision because he supports the latest CDC extension to continue mandates during a public health crises. The CDC feels that the mask mandate is still necessary on planes and other public transit in order to protect the public health prompting the Department of Justice to appeal the federal court decision ruling against the mandate. Dr. Robert Wachter, the chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco medical school, said “If this becomes a precedent, that a judge can overrule government and the CDC experts, that puts us in a problematic place for the next surge, the next pandemic, bioterrorism or who knows.”
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Contact: Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]
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