A federal judge in Florida has voided the national mask mandate which applied to airplanes and other forms of public transportation. After the ruling, Gov. Phil Murphy ended the mask mandate for NJ Transit.
“The Transportation Security Administration – TSA announced that it will no longer enforce a mask mandate in public transportation settings. Masks will no longer be required on NJ TRANSIT and by South Jersey Transportation Authority. Individuals may wear a mask based on personal preference, informed by personal level of risk,” Murphy wrote on Facebook.
People were swift to comment on the decision.
“It makes no sense that a single inexperienced, unqualified, politically appointed judge by a president who had lost an election, and has no medical knowledge should have the power to make this national decision. The CDC or other qualified group should have this power!” wrote one poster.
“‘Individuals may wear a mask based on personal preference, informed by personal level of risk.’ Exactly how it should have been all along,” wrote another commenter.
The decision to end the mask mandate was made on Monday by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa, who said the CDC failed to justify its decision to require masks and did not follow proper rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act.
In her ruling, Mizelle said the only recourse was to void the rule requiring masks on transportation across the country as it would not be feasible to end it for the group of people who objected to it in a lawsuit.
The mask mandate was set to expire Monday, but the CDC had extended the mandate until May 3 in order to allow more time to study the BA.2 Omicron subvariant of COVID. Cases of COVID have fallen sharply since Omicron peaked in January. Airlines have lobbied for the removal of mask mandates, stating that modern filtration systems on planes make transmission of the virus on a flight unlikely.
The TSA said it will “no longer enforce its Security Directives and Emergency Amendment requiring mask use on public transportation and transportation hubs.”
As of now, masks will still be required on the MTA and PATH trains but are optional on Amtrak. Some commuter advocates have suggested the idea of a face coverings only car on NJ Transit, but no there has been no word yet on whether this will happen.