Dr. Anthony Fauci , in an interview with "60 Minutes" in March 2020, explains why he's against universal masking during a pandemic. (Video screenshot)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is an advisory agency that proposes health guidelines to the executive branch, but Dr. Anthony Fauci complained in an interview that the federal court that blocked the Biden administration's federal transport mask mandate "superseded the authority of the CDC."
In an interview with The Tennessean newspaper of Nashville, Fauci said the mask mandate was extended because the CDC "wanted to see what the pattern of infection is during this bit of a surge we're seeing [in areas of the country]."
"I think it's unfortunate that a court order came in and, I believe, superseded the authority of the CDC," said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle ruled that the CDC failed to provide justification for the Biden administration's extension of the mandate 15 days to May 3 and did not go through the required notice and comment period for federal rulemaking. The judge found that the mandate, in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, was outside the scope of the CDC's authority, calling it "arbitrary" and "capricious."
"Because our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends, the court declares unlawful and vacates the mask mandate," the Trump-appointed judge wrote.
Major U.S. airlines immediately made masks voluntary, putting the carriers in line with major foreign airlines that already had made that move. Amtrak also dropped its mask requirement while stating "masks are welcome and remain an important preventive measure against COVID-19."
On Tuesday night, the Justice Department and the CDC released a statement saying we "disagree with the district court's decision and will appeal, subject to CDC's conclusion that the order remains necessary for public health."
The CDC argues that the seven-day moving average of COVID cases has increased.
However, every state that had a mask mandate has lifted it. And COVID-19 data collected by the New York Times shows that the mandates had no impact on case rates. The Manhattan Institute’s City Journal published a graph based on that data comparing the cases in the 11 states that never mandated masks with the 39 that did.
Further, the "risk of contracting coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during air travel is lower than from an office building, classroom, supermarket, or commuter train," affirms an article in JAMA Network, a publication of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
And scientific studies and data accumulated from two years of mask mandates indicate they are not effective in curbing the spread of the virus.
Fauci, in fact, spoke out against universal masking amid a pandemic in a "60 Minutes" interview in March 2020, affirming the standard viewpoint at that time. He warned of "unintended consequences," saying there's "no reason to be walking around with a mask" in "the middle of an outbreak."
Fauci later said he told Americans they didn't need to wear a mask because he wanted to ensure there was enough supply for frontline workers.
However, at the time of his interview, the executive director of the World Health Organization health emergencies program, Dr. Mike Ryan, said there was "no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any potential benefit."
"In fact, there's some evidence to suggest the opposite in the misuse of wearing a mask properly or fitting it properly," he said.
The WHO at the time recommended people not wear face masks unless they are sick with COVID-19 or caring for someone who is sick.
In March 2020, the CDC also said masks "are usually not recommended" in "non-health care settings."
Surely now masses of travelers will die of Covid due to maskless flights.
But if not, are CDC and Fauci going to admit that their mask recommendations were not based on any science or evidence?
— Dr. Eli David (@DrEliDavid) April 19, 2022
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted Monday after the mask ruling: "Great to see a federal judge in Florida follow the law and reject the Biden transportation mask mandate. Both airline employees and passengers deserve to have this misery end."
EDITOR'S NOTE: Last year, America's doctors, nurses and paramedics were celebrated as frontline heroes battling a fearsome new pandemic. Today, under Joe Biden, tens of thousands of these same heroes are denounced as rebels, conspiracy theorists, extremists and potential terrorists. Along with massive numbers of police, firemen, Border Patrol agents, Navy SEALs, pilots, air-traffic controllers, and countless other truly essential Americans, they're all considered so dangerous as to merit termination, their professional and personal lives turned upside down due to their decision not to be injected with the experimental COVID vaccines. Biden's tyrannical mandate threatens to cripple American society – from law enforcement to airlines to commercial supply chains to hospitals. It's already happening. But the good news is that huge numbers of "yesterday's heroes" are now fighting back – bravely and boldly. The whole epic showdown is laid out as never before in the sensational October issue of WND's monthly Whistleblower magazine, titled "THE GREAT AMERICAN REBELLION: 'We will not comply!' COVID-19 power grab ignites bold new era of national defiance."
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