The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reiterated its recommendation that travelers still wear masks when traveling on planes, trains and other forms of public transportation.
Why it matters: The news comes after a federal judge in Florida struck down the Biden administration’s mask mandate in late April.
- The CDC said that this recommendation is based on current data trends, circulating variants, the effectiveness of vaccines and projected trends in the coming months.
Flashback: The mask mandate had been repeatedly extended, recently until May 3, before the court struck it down on April 18. The TSA stopped encouraging masking the same day.
- According to ABC News, the CDC asked the Justice Department to appeal the decision, which the department did.
State of play: When the Utah Department of Health was recently asked whether Utahns should consider wearing a mask on public transportation, spokeswoman Jenny Johnson said the department is recommending “people use the CDC Community Levels and follow those recommendations for masking.”
- Johnson was referring to the agency’s data portal for the spread of cases by county. Masking is only recommended when the risk is high, wrote Lisa Riley Roche for the Deseret News.