CDC Trying To Bring Back Airline Mask Mandate

By: Ben Schlappig

Updated: November 2, 2022
Published: April 21, 2022

73 comments

On April 18, 2022, the US federal transportation mask mandate ended. Not because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) decided it should end (the CDC wanted it to be valid through May 3), but rather because a judge ruled that the CDC failed to justify the order and didn’t follow proper rule making procedures.

Well, the CDC has now asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to appeal this decision and bring back the mask mandate…

In this post:

DOJ appealing end of federal mask mandate

It has been announced that the CDC has asked the DOJ to proceed with an appeal of a district judge’s ruling that led to the end of the face mask mandate. As it’s described:

This is being done “to protect CDC’s public health authority beyond the ongoing assessment”
Furthermore, “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 “CDC believes this is a lawful order, well within CDC’s legal authority to protect public health”

The DOJ is challenging the end of the mask mandate

I’m curious to see how this plays out

I’m obviously neither a legal expert nor a doctor, though a few thoughts:

If this is simply about protecting the CDC’s authority to make decisions like this going forward, I can appreciate the logic of the DOJ challenging this ruling
From a practical perspective, I just can’t imagine that we’ll see the mask mandate brought back, even if the DOJ succeeds; I would expect this to lead to more unruly passenger incidents than ever before, and for that matter I think the political implications for Biden would be… not great
The Biden administration’s messaging following the judge’s ruling has been strange, as it was stated on April 19 that the decision would be appealed “subject to CDC’s conclusion that the order remains necessary for public health”; the CDC had already extended the mask mandate, so this seems like an odd press release to put out a day after the judge’s ruling

My guess is that this legal process will take some time, and then even if the DOJ wins, the mask mandate won’t be brought back. I could be wrong, of course.

I have a hard time imagining the mask mandate will be brought back

Bottom line

The DOJ will be challenging the transportation mask mandate being overturned, on behalf of the CDC. It’s stated that this is being done both to protect the CDC’s public health authority, and because the CDC believes that this continues to be necessary for public health.

How do you see this situation playing out?

Support OMAAT

Conversations (73)

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Comment as a member

Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.

Loading comments…

Recent Comments

The latest from the OMAAT community.

NYGuy24 Diamond

November 19, 2022, 2:27 am

Biden announced the pandemic is over. Surely he wouldn't have lied just to gain an advantage in midterm elections. Frankly I complied with all the mask mandates when they existed. I'm done with masks. I've had every vaccination and had a mild case of covid. I'm not going back to masking everywhere. Screw that. Enough is enough. It has been years. Are we supposed to mask for the rest of our lives? If someone thinks they have covid or recently recovered from it, or is going into a place with a lot of people at high risk like a nursing home then yes they should certainly mask. Everyone else not so much.

‼ 0

Alan Diamond

April 21, 2022, 10:00 pm

I could understand the CDC if masks actually worked. Yet they cannot point to one study that actually demonstrates that they do. Many of us have lost faith in the CDC throughout this pandemic and I for one, do not believe they have any credibility left. They have ignored early treatments and provided guidance for those that test positive that they should remain at home and not go to the hospital unless they have smurf like symptoms. At best this is complete incompetency.

‼ 0

Bob Guest

April 21, 2022, 7:19 pm

Quite honestly regardless of it being about masking or cdc powers to protect we should probably just let it go and let people do whatever. Anything at this point is political theater even if it's not meant to be because that's how dumb Americans interpret everything. If they don't know or understand them just stand up and b+*ch about it to defer their ignorance. Vast majority of the country is already vaccinated anyway. So if those who aren't vax and get sick that's their business. Statistically it's not likely to impact hospitals. Regions where there are liw vaccinations and if they spike them they are getting what they created. If not nobody cares. We've spent enough resources on this and even though the cdc means well they've done a terrible job at reading the room from the early limited mask recommendation debacle and not understanding how half of this dumb country responds to pivoting guidelines on a monthly basis. We're a bunch of teenagers and should be treated as such.

‼ 0

MM Guest

April 21, 2022, 6:04 pm

The majority of opinions today is the DOJ is going to “slow walk” the appeal process, mainly because the next higher up Federal court that the appeal would go to is in Atlanta and that is considered to be overwhelmingly conservative. So it would be defeated there, dealing yet another blow to the CDC’s power. This appears to be more of a “save face” move on behalf of them. Especially in light of the President response that it was up to the individuals.

‼ 0

Darren C Diamond

April 21, 2022, 6:03 pm

Will Biden declare Global Warming an emergency and force everyone to buy an electric car? The dictatorial mask mandate is about expanding presidential power, not about health. Emergency powers should expire within 24 hours and require public debate and a vote in Congress to extend them. Even if loose fitting, unwashed, repeatedly used cloth rags provided 100% protection against Covid, the President does not have the authority to arbitrarily dictate when, how, and by whom they should be worn.

‼ 0