{"id":1430972,"date":"2022-04-11T12:29:34","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T16:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1430972"},"modified":"2022-04-11T12:50:54","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T16:50:54","slug":"transportation-mask-mandate-likely-to-get-extended-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/transportation-mask-mandate-likely-to-get-extended-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Transportation Mask Mandate Likely to Get Extended Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftransportation-mask-mandate-likely-to-get-extended-again%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1430972&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<div class=\"RichTextArticleBody\">\n<div class=\"RichTextArticleBody-body\">\n<p><span class=\"ArticlePage-articleBody-firstLetter\">T<\/span>he <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/biden-administration\">Biden administration<\/a><\/u> is prepared to extend the federal <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/face-masks\">mask<\/a><\/u> mandate further for transportation networks, White House <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/coronavirus\">COVID-19<\/a><\/u> Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said.<\/p>\n<p><u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/3-million-to-lose-obamacare-in-2023-if-democrats-dont-extend-subsidies\">3 MILLION TO LOSE OBAMACARE IN 2023 IF DEMOCRATS DON&#8217;T EXTEND SUBSIDIES<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n<p>The federal mandate, which applies to transportation hubs, including airports, airplanes, and public transportation, was scheduled to lift on April 18, having already been extended a month. The administration has signaled that it is willing to prolong the mandate despite pressure from Republicans and outside groups.<\/p>\n<div class=\"Enhancement\">\n<div class=\"Enhancement-item\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThis is a [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] decision, and I think it is absolutely on the table,\u201d Jha <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TODAYshow\/status\/1513479635253837826?s=20&#038;t=nZsQelRpfv6rHGX7ItXyMA\">said<\/a> on the <i>Today Show <\/i>on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has been criticized for promulgating confusing and sometimes contradictory messaging from the agency concerning the best COVID-19 prevention practices, such as masking recommendations. For instance, when the CDC abruptly reversed its stance on masking last summer in the face of a new delta variant surge, announcing that people should mask up regardless of vaccination status, a group of Republican lawmakers joined forces <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rubio.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm\/2021\/7\/rubio-introduces-bill-to-audit-cdc-mask-guidance-decision-making-and-messaging-process\">to introduce a bill<\/a> that would compel the Government Accountability Office to review the CDC&#8217;s decision-making and messaging regarding its reversal on mask guidance.<\/p>\n<p>The CDC has also frequently <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/biden-officials-fall-behind-blue-states-on-masks\">fallen behind states<\/a> on masking, with a wide swath of Republican-led states ditching masking guidelines long ago. In February, blue states began rolling back their existing masking rules despite the Biden administration&#8217;s more conservative guidance.<\/p>\n<p>Walensky will \u201cmake her decision based on the framework that the CDC scientists create\u201d in the coming days, Jha said.<\/p>\n<p>The recent proliferation of the BA.2 subvariant, dubbed the \u201cstealth\u201d variant due to its wide range of mutations that make it difficult to detect in a standard PCR test, has not caused the same kind of public trepidation as the omicron variant did last year. A combination of wide vaccine coverage, population immunity conferred through continued exposure, and more lenient social distancing recommendations from the CDC have made people feel more secure in embracing the new normal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am not overly concerned right now,\u201d Jha said about a rise in BA.2 cases. \u201cWe were expecting this, right, because we saw this in Europe a few weeks ago. But the good news is we&#8217;re coming off of so very low infection numbers. Hospitalizations right now are the lowest they have been in the entire pandemic \u2026 We got to be careful, but I don&#8217;t think this is a moment where we have to be excessively concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n<p>The Biden administration has been lambasted by Republicans for what many in the party argue is an unnecessary mask mandate, given the CDC\u2019s renewed acceptance of living mask-free in daily life. For instance, a group of congressional Republicans who sit on various transportation industry committees wrote to the administration last week, <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commerce.senate.gov\/2022\/4\/senate-and-house-committee-leaders-renew-their-call-to-end-federal-mask-mandates\">urging Biden<\/a><\/u> to \u201crescind, or decline to extend, this unnecessary mask mandate and work with Congress to get our Nation\u2019s transportation system back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a coalition of 21 states announced last month that they are suing the administration over the mandate. The legal action was Republican-led, but three states with Democratic governors, Kansas, Kentucky, and Louisiana, joined the fight. Only a few days prior, the airline industry banded together <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/airlines-ask-biden-to-end-mask-and-testing-requirements\">to pressure Biden<\/a><\/u> to \u201csunset federal transportation travel restrictions\u201d that they said \u201care no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Biden administration is prepared to extend the federal mask mandate further for transportation networks, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said. 3 MILLION TO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1430972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1430972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1430972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1430972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1430972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1430972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}