The Biden administration said it will appeal a federal judge’s decision striking down a mask mandate for public transportation if the CDC deems the mandate necessary for public health
President Joe Biden earlier Tuesday appeared ambivalent, indicating that it was “up to” individual people whether they should continue wearing masks. But HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra later told reporters at a Las Vegas, Nev., event that the administration is “likely” to appeal the ruling. The White House and health agency did not respond to requests for comment.
Officials are still worried about the fallout if the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has jurisdiction over Florida, upholds the ruling. That could prove a politically embarrassing loss and set a precedent that could hamstring future public health crisis response efforts, one of the people with knowledge of the matter said.
There is anxiety within the administration over whether whittled-down mitigation measures are premature in the face of new subvariants and several case surges, including one among Washington, D.C., elites, according to conversations with four Biden officials and people familiar with the internal deliberations.
Officials had extended the transportation requirement for two more weeks in part because they wanted to ensure that declining hospitalization trends would continue even amid new subvariants, the two senior officials told POLITICO. The pills have quickly become a primary weapon against the virus, though even that supply is limited because Congress has not appropriated a fresh round of funding. The administration still owes Pfizer roughly $5 billion for pills that it already purchased, and cannot add to that supply until it gets more money.
The Biden administration’s strategy for this case will have implications for future public health battles, said Céline Gounder, an infectious disease expert who served on Biden’s Covid-19 advisory board during the transition and is now a senior fellow and editor at large for public health at the Kaiser Family Foundation and Kaiser Health News.
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