Dr. Michael Osterholm
MINNEAPOLIS – The U.S. Justice Department is filing an appeal seeking to overturn a judge’s order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs, officials said this past Wednesday.
The notice came minutes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked the Justice Department to appeal the decision handed down by a federal judge in Florida earlier this week.
A notice of appeal was filed in federal court in Tampa.
The CDC said in a statement Wednesday that it is its “continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health.”
The Director for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Michael Osterholm, said there are really two parts to the question of the mask mandate for transit being thrown out by the judge in Florida.
“I think the legal aspect of whether CDC has authority to make such recommendations is really critical,” Osterholm said. “Not in the entire history of health in this country have we had a ruling that could limit significantly what a public health agency can recommend or do in the time of a public health emergency or crisis. That would be a really shortsighted mistake to do that. So I hope that from that standpoint, this decision is overturned.”
However, from a pure health standpoint, Osterholm does not believe the mandate as it has existed is effective.
“In terms of the actual mask mandate is the fact that if you’re using an N95 respirator and you actually wear it over your nose and don’t take it off to eat or drink, then the impact of that, both in terms of you transmitting the virus to someone else, if you’re infected or of you becoming infected from someone else, is remarkable, that would be outstanding,” Osterholm said.
That is not how the mandate was being enforced.
“The bottom line is the mask mandate doesn’t require that,” Osterholm said. “What it says is you’ve got to put some kind (of mask) in front of your face. And oh, by the way, if it’s all underneath your nose, so what? Which a quarter of the people do. Oh, by the way, if you’re eating or drinking, you don’t have to wear it. Like somehow the virus is going to take a vacation while you’re eating or drinking. So, from that standpoint, the mask mandate has never made public health sense to me because it’s really extracting a lot of political capital from public health.”
No matter what happens with the federal mandate for transportation, Osterholm said he does have a very important message for the at-risk people out there.
“I come back to the fact that there are many people in our country today who are at very high risk for serious illness,” Osterholm said. “7.2 million immune compromised people, more who have other underlying conditions. I want them to know that masking can be very important in addition to getting vaccinated. If they wear an N95, they can protect themselves substantially. When I’m on a plane, I wear an N95. And the few times I’ve traveled recently, the person next to me always put it under their nose, or didn’t wear it at all as they ate and drank the whole flight. Is that a mandate? Come on.”
Osterholm added that the ruling by the judge overturning the mandate should still be very concerning should we have another major health emergency in the country.
“Public health has to guard that responsibility very, very carefully,” Osterholm said. “We should only use it when it’s really necessary, but when it’s necessary, you have got to have the authority. It’s just like in a major disaster. A fire department has to have authority to be able to do certain things that in everyday life they don’t, couldn’t, or shouldn’t do. But during that crisis, if they’ve got to block a bridge or they’ve got to do something like that, they’ve got to have that authority. And that, I think, is what we’re talking about here.”
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