CDC asks Justice Department to appeal judge's ruling that struck down mask mandate
Source: Washington Post
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that the Justice Department appeal a federal judge’s decision that struck down the mask mandate on public transportation, the agency announced. “It is CDC’s continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health,” the agency said in a statement Wednesday evening. “CDC believes this is a lawful order, well within CDC’s legal authority to protect public health.”
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of the Middle District of Florida on Monday concluded that the mandate exceeded CDC’s statutory authority, blindsiding the White House and sparking days of debate within the administration about whether to appeal the ruling. The Justice Department on Tuesday had said that it would wait for CDC’s recommendation on whether to proceed with an appeal. Public health officials have worried that the ruling poses a risk to the CDC’s authority, and outside experts had exhorted the Biden administration to act.
“If the courts handcuff the CDC in this most classic exercise of public health powers, it seems to me that CDC will not be able to act nimbly and decisively when the next health crisis hits. And it will hit,” said Lawrence O. Gostin, a Georgetown University professor of global health law, who advises the White House and urged them to appeal. If the decision is allowed to stand, Gostin said, the CDC “will always be looking over its shoulder, always gun shy about exercising its powers.”
But an appeal could tee up a battle at the Supreme Court, which has already dealt several blows to the administration’s coronavirus policies and could issue a new ruling that further constrained CDC’s attempts to fight future virus surges. Health experts had lamented Monday’s court ruling, saying it confused Americans about the need for masking and could increase the risk of virus spread.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/04/20/cdc-seeks-mask-mandate/
I was hoping they hadn't done this -
The GOP has been trying to eliminate "healthcare" and "public health" from day one. They want "survival of the fittest" and are willing to kill people (and even themselves - see Herman Cain) to uphold that nonsense.
= new reply since forum marked as read
if/when CDC gave them the go-ahead. That was posted yesterday - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142905861
(you may have missed it 
)
No? 
There is more and more concern about the potential loss of authority granted in the various Public Health laws due to unnecessary politicization of "health" in general, that is bubbling up from within the medical and public health community (and as people involved in "science", they have a tendency to be more introverted, less vocal, and often reticent about speaking up with their concerns - as a retired government scientist myself, I know how these folks are - basically nerds).
The problem here is that the era when those laws were drafted (during and post-WW2), society was a bit more duty-bound to follow the guidance (particularly due to the polio epidemic and so many other communicable diseases that were ravaging the country). So outside of some of the quarantine provisions, not much else has been "tested in court" - particularly nationally, as most of the mandates were being done at the state/county/local levels (e.g., "required vaccines for children to attend school, etc).
The one "federal" mandate that got challenged recently and has so far been beaten back, was the vaccine requirement for the military (I expect partially due to the UCMJ and the Constitution's designation of the President as the "Commander in Chief" ).
More of our side is vaccinated. It could make a difference in some swing districts this November 
