Concerns rise as passenger masks fall

Public health experts reacted with dismay to a federal judge’s ruling on Monday that struck down a mask requirement for plane, bus and train passengers, expressing concern that the case would set a precedent that erodes the authority of public health agencies and hampers their ability to respond to health emergencies. The Florida judge’s ruling was issued less than a week after the CDC had extended its mask order through May 3. The ruling also came in the middle of a school vacation that coincides with several major religious holidays, when many families are traveling to see relatives, some for the first time in two years. Many airplane passengers flung their masks off and cheered when pilots made announcements saying that the rule was no longer in effect. Others who have disabilities, are immunocompromised or were traveling with children too young to be vaccinated were caught off-guard and distressed that the rules were changed literally mid-flight. “If this ruling stands, it could put the American public at great risk,” said Dr. Richard Besser, president and CE of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting director of the CDC. He added that his concerns were less to do with the immediate consequences for mask mandates than with “the implications for future crises, of the ability to put in place simple public health measures to keep people safe.” Dr. Lakshmi Ganapathi, who teaches pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, pointed out that the ruling coincides with a recent rise in Covid cases nationally, driven by a rise in cases on the East Coast. “I think it’s extremely shortsighted and, if I were impolite would say, kind of stupid,” Dr. Ganapathi said. “This ruling is ill-timed, and it’s not commensurate with public health principles.”<br/>