No-mask ruling brings cheers, alarm

A ruling by a federal judge in Florida this week voiding the national mask mandate for airplanes and other public transportation has some cheering the move and others at high-risk alarmed.

The Justice Department says it will appeal the ruling by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa, who said officials exceeded their authority in keeping the mandate in place and that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention improperly failed to justify its decision and did not follow proper rulemaking.

Mizelle said the only remedy was to vacate the rule entirely because it would be impossible to end it for the limited group of people who objected to it in the lawsuit.

The judge said the courts have full authority to make a decision such as this, even as the CDC recently extended the mask mandate until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus that is now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S.

Among those alarmed at the decision to lift the mask mandate are immunocompromised people and their families.

Many medically vulnerable people are now questioning whether to go through with plane trips and are worrying how to navigate public transportation.

It remained unclear whether the Biden administration would ask the appeals court to grant an emergency stay to immediately reimpose the mask mandate on public transit. Most airlines and airports, many public transit systems and even ride-sharing company Uber lifted their mask-wearing requirements in the hours following Monday’s ruling.

ARMANDO L. SANCHEZ Chicago Tribune/TNS, file David Cedras, 25, wears a mask while riding a Brown Line train in Chicago’s Loop. Many airlines and transit hubs have already lifted their mask mandates after a federal judge voided them last week.