a federal judge in florida yesterday decided to strike down the cdc s mask rule. for airline travel, train travel and public transportation. little bit of a strange decision by the judge. she made the decision even without hearing arguments in the case. she said she didn t need to hear the arguments, she just rolled on her own. and she said her ruling would apply nationwide even though the plaintiffs only brought suit in her single district in florida. nevertheless, that immediate change ordered by that one judge to this nationwide public health rule has immediate consequences. if you for example, flew out somewhere for spring break, before yesterday s shock ruling you re going to find yourself flying home from spring break under very different public health rules that you might have been counting on. and maybe that doesn t matter to you, maybe don t feel strongly about it, maybe weren t factoring that into your sort of covid safety matrix with your planning this travel. but maybe it d
you. maybe it was a big factor. the context in which this happened, not just its suddenness. that matters here to. the cdc had just decided last week that they were going to extend the mask rule until may 3rd. it s a short extension. they just want to give the agency a few more weeks to assess what the current uptick in covid cases might mean. for our health care system, for hospitalizations, four deaths. they needed a little more time to assess how much the mask rule might help over the worst of those consequences. and so again, they plan to extended just until may 3rd. may 3rd is right around the corner. now that this judge has thrown out the ruling. effective immediately nationwide. well the timing has to factor into the government s decision as to whether or not to appeal. by the time they brought the appeal, may third will probably have come and gone. which means the extension that the judge ruled against would
transportation sector is a valid order for department of health. if cdc concludes that a mandatory order remains necessary for the public health after that assessment, the department of justice will appeal the district court s decision. so, the doj is trying reinforce that the cdc has authority to set rules for public health. they re trying to give cdc room to continue assessing whether a mask rule is needed, whether it s still a necessary public health measure. well, it comes to the bigger, potentially, existential question of whether the cdc has authority to put public health rules in place in the middle of the pandemic, if that question is still open, as long as this judge s ruling goes unchallenged. what does that mean for doctors and nurses treating patients as a member of covid cases starts to tick back up again. joining us now is dr. craig spencer. he s the director of global health at columbia university urban medical center.
suddenness. that matters here to. the cdc had just decided last week that they were going to extend the mask rule until may 3rd. it s a short extension. they just want to give the agency a few more weeks to assess what the current uptick in covid cases might mean. for our health care system, for hospitalizations, four deaths. they needed a little more time to assess how much the mask rule might help over the worst of those consequences. and so again, they plan to extended just until may 3rd. may 3rd is right around the corner. now that this judge has thrown out the ruling. effective immediately nationwide. well the timing has to factor into the government s decision as to whether or not to appeal. by the time they brought the appeal, may third will probably have come and gone. which means the extension that the judge ruled against would effectively be moved. given the timing it has been an open question an interesting one whether justice department try to appeal. today the justice depa
think, legal precedent, what you saw here was not a public health decision, you had a legal decision that overrode the decisions of the public health short in the middle of a pandemic. and i m not just worried about what that means right now, today, for flights in the next few days and for the uptick in cases. i m worried about what that means in the future when we respond to pandemics. when we have further passage that threaten us in the u.s. we ve already had dozens of state implement measures to limit public health short. authority. now, you have one decision who has overrode the decisionmaking authority. i think that sets precedent for the cdc to challenge that. and the administration says they will challenge it provided that the cdc assesses in scientific terms that a continued mask mandate, a continued mask rule for public transit actually is in the public health interest.