Latest news on COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates

While everyone in the United States is ready to move on from COVID-19, the litigation against vaccine and mask mandates continues.

Federal transportation mask mandate vacated

In the latest setback to the Biden administration’s attempts to control the COVID-19 virus, on Monday, April 18, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa, Florida, vacated the mask requirement nationwide and directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reverse the policy put in place in February 2021. The ruling was handed down in a lawsuit filed last year by the Health Freedom Defense Fund, a nonprofit group that says it focuses on “bodily autonomy” as a human right. The judge, a Trump appointee rated unqualified by the American Bar Association (ABA), ruled the CDC did not have the authority under the Public Health Service Act to issue the mask mandate, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision rejecting the agency’s claims the Act allowed it to restrict evictions during the pandemic. She also found the mandate violated the Administrative Procedures Act.

While the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and the CDC said orders requiring masks on public transportation would no longer be enforced in light of the judge’s order, the administration announced on Wednesday, April 20, that it had appealed her order. The concern for the administration is that if the decision is upheld, the federal government will lose its ability to reinstate the mask mandate if cases increase.

Vaccine mandate litigation continues