Page 53 - May 3rd News Today

Improving. indulge me a little bit because i think the other thing that people might not realize is when you lose a court case at the federal level the solicitor general of the justice department he or she is the one who makes the decision on whether or not they should appeal. i have a feeling that they realize they were not going to win this case or it would be too hard and mask mandate was supposed to come off two weeks from now so they probably thought lets get it over with. theyre not happy ...

May 3rd, citing a rise in coronavirus cases. but only hours prior the airline industrys top lobby wrote the white house to say the mandate must end. >> we have done it for two years. its time to move beyond that. and now make that the responsibility of individuals. >> reporter: the judge was appointed the federal district court in 2020 by then president donald trump in her ruling she said travelers have been, quote, forcibly removed from their airplane seats, denied boarding at the bus steps and...

In the united states, a federaljudge in florida has voided a national mask mandate, covering planes and other public transport, ruling that the covid—19 mitigation measure exceeds the authority of federal health officials. the mask mandate was recently extended by the cdc until may 3rd. heres our north america correspondent peter bowes. this mandate has been enforced since just afterjoe biden took office, february of last year. it has been extended several times, most recentlyjust a couple of ...

Now, the mandate had applied to airline, trains, and other forms of public transportation. several major airlines immediately made masks optional. you see a list there. and some warned, enforcement might be inconsistent because the nounment was unexpected. pete muntean picks it up from there. >> reporter: this was one of the last major mask mandates to remain in place. federal transportation mask mandate was slated to end in two weeks, on may 3rd. now, by order of a u.s. district judge in florid...

A lot of screams for joy. talk about what youve seen. >> reporter: yeah, were seeing about 50/50 here at reagan national airport of folks wearing masks versus not wearing masks. a little surreal to not wear a mask during a live shot at reagan national airport, a place ive been wearing a mask since the early days of the pandemic. this applied, this federal mask mandate, starting in february 2021, the early days of the biden administration. it was extended again until may 3rd on planes, trains, bu...

Appeal this ruling if the cdc says it is necessary, and this is where the timing of where two weeks before it expires is coming into play, but you have to new white house lead on covid, and he called the judges decision deeply disappointing, and also saying, and writing this, the cdc scientists had asked for 15 days to make a more data-driven durable decision, and we should have given it to them, and is he wrong? >> i dont necessarily think he is wrong, but it is unclear what would have changed ...

Said is, look, ba.2, this new variant is obviously circulating quickly. we still need to get an idea of just how transmissible it is. it is true that airplanes have been generally one of the safest environments because of the air exchange and ventilation. but when you have a really transmissible virus, how much of a problem is that going to be? we they say we want until may 3rd. what struck me is it did not come from a public health agency, it came a judge, and there was no phasing in. people we...

>> thank you. >> were going to discuss the ukraine situation more a bit later in this show. but now we turn to the covid-19 pandemic. its entering a new phase driven by fear, uncertainty and apathy. in the united states, it is reaching a new high and the mask mandate will still be required for commercial flights until at least may 3rd. the hospitalizations are at the lowest point since the pandemic began, dropped to an average of 21,000 in january. cases have ticked up in the past week. take a l...

Right. and theyve got to figure out a way to communicate that so people understand. when cases go up, theyre going to look at their own local communities, figure out where its spreading and make those decisions. i dont think its useful for those of us sitting in washington to second-guess those decisions. >> speaking of washington, a federal transportation mask mandate is something that is a washington decision, whether on airplanes or other federally funded transportation. what metric are you l...

That this is the biggest challenge yet to the white house transportation mask mandate since the early days of the biden administration. this is from a judge in florida, catherine kim bell and said this order exceeds the cdcs authority. the history on this, is that planes, trains, buses, boats, terminals, masks have been required since early in the biden administration, one of the first things the administration did. not long after president biden took the oath of office. this is been extended ov...