At first, a Florida federal judge’s decision last Monday to overturn the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mask mandate was received with delight and relief. Videos of passengers cheering and flight attendants weeping for joy spread far and wide on social media.
Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, and United all announced on that very same day that they would no longer enforce the mandate on their flights. The Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration followed suit on Tuesday.
Even President Joe Biden, when asked if Americans should still wear masks when traveling, said, “It is up to them.”
But by Wednesday, in classic, indecisive Biden fashion, the administration began to have second thoughts. The Department of Justice said it would appeal the judge’s ruling but declined to ask for a stay of the order, which would have put the mandate back in place until the appeal is heard. In this election year, one cannot help but believe this decision comes out of fear of political backlash. Now that those masks have come off, people are not going to put them back on easily.
By Thursday, Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was attacking the judicial system. “I clearly disagree,” he told Robert Costa of the judge’s decision. “I mean, those types of things should be decided as a public health issue by the public health organizations, in this case the CDC. This is a public health matter, not a judicial matter.”
Wrong, doctor. The CDC’s authority over U.S. citizens is absolutely a judicial matter. That is why the CDC’s order to end all evictions went all the way to the Supreme Court. In that case, it was a legal question, not a public health question, whether or not Congress had given the CDC authority to regulate the entire housing sector. In this case, it is a legal question whether Congress gave the CDC authority to regulate the transportation sector in such a manner.
To be sure, there are some important facts that count against keeping the mandate. For example, planes have better ventilation than most buildings. There is no evidence that COVID spreads faster on airplanes, and what little evidence we do have on masking shows that the effectiveness of masking on airliners is very limited.
However, the judge’s ruling on the mask mandate did not touch on any of these arguments, nor upon any of the scientific details of COVID-19 or the BA.2 variant. Those questions are scientific, best left to the CDC.
What the judge’s ruling did examine is whether or not Congress intended to grant the CDC the power to issue a mask mandate on airplanes when it passed the Public Health Service Act of 1944 and whether or not the CDC properly followed the procedures necessary to activate those powers. These are very much legal questions upon which Dr. Fauci has no training or expertise that we are aware of.
Mask-wearing has unfortunately become a polarizing issue. With the mandates now temporarily gone, people are free to wear masks, if they feel more comfortable, or not to wear them. If your desire to wear a mask on a plane is that strong, find an airline that is still enforcing the rule.
Biden’s first instinct on Tuesday was correct: “It is up to them.” Unfortunately, some in his administration just can’t let the issue die. And so now, the country must wait in limbo until either the CDC finally drops it or an appeals court overturns the recent ruling.
The nation has already gone through enough. Just let the mask mandate die now.
