Travel industry leaders strongly oppose the Biden Administration’s decision to fight to keep a mask mandate in place. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments from the Biden Justice Department on behalf of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to reinstate a mask mandate for air travel after a federal judge in Florida struck down the mandate last April, according to news reports.
“The decision by the Department of Justice to fight to reinstate the mask mandate is not medically indicated and it contradicts President Biden’s declaration in September that the pandemic is over,” said Dan Richards, CEO of Global Rescue, the world’s leading provider of medical, security, evacuation and travel risk management services and a member of the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board at the U.S. Department of Commerce.
“It is a reckless, unnecessary action that will spread traveler fear and uncertainty further damaging an industry badly ravaged by the pandemic,” Richards said.
The fight to keep mask mandates is not popular among travel industry groups. For example, the U.S. Travel Association praised the mask mandate’s elimination. “The current decision to halt enforcement of the federal mask mandate effectively returns the choice of mask usage on planes and other forms of public transportation to travelers and travel industry workers, a further step toward endemic management of COVID,” Tori Emerson Barnes, the association’s executive vice president, said at the time.
Written by: Bill McIntyre
