CDC asks Justice Department to appeal ruling that revoked ‘necessary’ travel mask mandate

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has asked the Justice Department to appeal a recent court decision that struck down the federal mask mandate on public transit like airplanes and buses.

“It is CDC’s continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health,” the agency said in a release.

A federal court in Florida struck down the mask mandate on Monday, but the DOJ said previously it would challenge the rulling if the public health agency directed it to.

“When people wear a well-fitting mask or respirator over their nose and mouth in indoor travel or public transportation settings, they protect themselves, and those around them, including those who are immunocompromised or not yet vaccine-eligible, and help keep travel and public transportation safer for everyone,” the CDC added in its Wednesday announcement.

For now, however, many of the nation’s leading transport providers followed the Florida court’s lead and dropped their mask mandates.

All of the major airlines in the US are mask optional for the time being, and the Amtrak rail system has also dropped its mask requirement for passengers.

The Monday decision from Trump-appointee Kathryn Kimball Mizelle argued that the CDC had overstepped its regulatory authority by requiring masks on planes, trains, buses, and other forms of public transit. To interpret the law otherwise would give “breathtaking” power to the CDC, the judge wrote in her ruling.

The holding was the latest blow to a key prong of the Biden administration’s approach to Covid.

A federal court in Texas previously blocked the administration’s vaccination mandate for federal workers, though the decision was reversed on appeal.

And in January, the Supreme Court stopped another Biden policy that would’ve seen large employers require vaccination or regular Covid testing.

Public health experts maintain that wearing a mask on planes is still a valuable way to stop the spread of coronavirus, especially considering the rise of the hyper-transmissible BA.2 variant and the ongoing risks of Covid complications to immuno-compromised and non-vaccinated people.

“You can quote me on this: I’m going to continue to wear an N95 mask,” David Freedman, professor emeritus of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told The New York Times after the mandate was struck down. “No question. You have no idea who’s on a plane...I think everyone should.”

New Covid cases in the US have been steadily increasing since the beginning of April to a daily average of nearly 42,000 new cases on Tuesday, even as many cities and employers have dropped their Covid precautions this spring.

Those figures are likely an undercount, too, given the rise of at-home Covid tests, whose results aren’t often reported to public health officials.