By Sarah Jacoby, Today.com
With news that a federal court order struck down the mask mandate on public transit, passengers may feel a bit wary about traveling and confused about what precautions they should take. And, as COVID-19 cases steadily rise in some areas of the country thanks to new variants, experts say it's premature to lift the mandate.
Is now the right time for airlines and other public transportation to lift mask mandates?
Originally put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over a year ago, the mandate required masks for anyone flying on planes, as well as those using public transportation like buses, trains and subways. Experts previously told TODAY that when cases are inching upward — like they are now in some states due to BA.2 — is not the time to be scaling back mandates.
"We're not necessarily at the stage yet where I think we can completely take them off, especially on airplanes for a variety of reasons. And I think that's a big concern right now," NBC's senior medical correspondent Dr. John Torres told the 3rd Hour of TODAY.
He added that the decision to remove the mandate may have been more of a response to the "hassle" of enforcing the policies than any science suggesting that it's OK to remove the mandates.
“Frankly, wearing a mask is just not that big a deal,” Dr. Emily Volk, president of the College of American Pathologists, told TODAY. “It’s a small, relatively painless action that we can do to protect the vulnerable, including the vulnerable who have chosen not to be vaccinated.”
But considering that mask mandates in pretty much all other scenarios have already been lifted, a mandate on public transit may not have been doing much to protect the public, Dr. Bernard Camins, medical director for infection prevention at the Mount Sinai Health System, told TODAY.
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