Posted on 09/01/2023 6:51:50 PM PDT by lightman
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has responded to speculation that the agency could be bringing back mask mandates on public transportation or in federal officials.
A spokesperson for the CDC told The Epoch Times on Aug. 29 that COVID-19 hospital admission levels "are currently low for more than 96 percent" of the United States, but that the agency recommended that transportation workers, travelers, passengers, and others get the COVID-19 vaccine "before they travel."
"Anyone may choose to wear a mask in crowded or poorly ventilated indoor areas, including on public transportation and in transportation hubs at any time," the CDC spokesperson said.
The agency also doesn't currently have any mandate in effect, and the "CDC’s advice for individual and community actions around COVID-19 are tied to hospital admission levels," the spokesperson said.
Earlier this week, a CDC spokesperson told NBC News that there have been no agency discussions about bringing back mask mandates, which comes as a handful of hospitals and offices around the country started reimposing them this month. There has also been speculation that federal officials may bring back mandates or even push for lockdowns, similar to what happened in 2020.
At the same time, the CDC hasn't issued any updated guidelines regarding mask mandates on its website.
About a week ago, a report from Alex Jones's InfoWars claimed that a high-level Transportation Security Administration (TSA) official, who wasn't named, informed him that lockdowns and mandates would be coming back in the fall. That person cited discussions among agency officials as the basis for his claims.
However, a spokesperson for the TSA told The Epoch Times on Aug. 25 that those claims are false and that the agency "does not have any new requirements and there has not been any meeting on the topic."
While the "TSA has authority to impose mask-related requirements to implement mask orders from the CDC related to transportation systems," the "TSA is not imposing mask-related requirements at this time," the agency stated.
Benjamin Haynes, a spokesperson for the CDC, told The Associated Press at about the same time that reports of upcoming lockdowns are “utterly false.”
Over the past several weeks, COVID-19 hospitalizations have been on the rise across the country, according to CDC data. Despite the increase, it's among the lowest levels of hospitalization recorded since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.
"An upswing is not a surge; it's not even a wave," Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer for Tufts Medicine, told ABC News last week. "What we're seeing is a very gradual and small upward trajectory of cases and hospitalizations, without deaths really going along, which is great news."
On Jan. 29, 2021, the CDC issued an order requiring people to wear masks on public transportation, including airplanes, and in transportation hubs that was implemented and enforced by the TSA. A federal judge in Florida struck down the mandate on April 18, 2022, finding that the CDC failed to justify the order and that it didn't follow proper rulemaking procedures.
Mandates
Over the past two weeks, a handful of hospitals across the United States have started to reinstate mandates, although some have required masks only for staff, nurses, and doctors, while patients and visitors are exempt from the rule. However, a few have made masking mandatory for anyone who goes into the facility.
In Massachusetts, UMass Memorial Hospital confirmed in a statement on Aug. 24 that it would reimpose masking for staff. Patients and visitors are exempt from the mandate, it stated.
“We have continued to see a dramatic increase in the number of COVID-19 positive employees over the past two weeks, which has led to exposures of both fellow caregivers and patients,” the statement read. “In response to this, as a protective measure for our staff and patients, effective immediately we are requiring mandatory caregiver masking for all patient encounters in all licensed clinical areas.”
In New York, several upstate hospitals have required masking for anyone who goes into the facilities. They include United Health Services in Binghamton, Auburn Community Hospital in Auburn, and University Hospital in Syracuse.
In California, a Kaiser Permanente facility in Santa Rosa said it would reimpose its mask mandate, but it then issued a statement several days later saying it only applied to staff.
“Our intent was to communicate that as of Tuesday, we have expanded the masking requirement for our employees and physicians to medical offices and clinic settings; we apologize for any confusion among Press Democrat readers,” the hospital’s updated statement to local media said.
Other than hospitals, Lionsgate studios in Southern California and a college in Atlanta also announced the return of masking. But as with Kaiser Permanente, Lionsgate later said that it won't be requiring masks and it suggested that the company was being pressured by the Los Angeles Department of Health.
“The LA County Department of Public Health notified us yesterday that we could lift the mask requirements, effective immediately, and we have," the studio told TheWrap. The statement added that "Lionsgate never changed its own mask policy. The LA County Department of Health ordered us to institute the temporary masking requirement after we reported a cluster of COVID cases to them and we have an obligation to comply with their orders.”
This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere:
Explain to me again how “advice” and “guidance” can be employed to become MANDATES?
Where was the part where they admit that masks have nothing to do with health but everything to do with submission to the state?
TSA has no authority to tell me to wear a mask, if I don’t fly commercial.
Wearing a non-N95 mask is like putting up a chain link fence to keep mosquitoes out of your yard.
I’m going on my first cruise next month. I know a cruise ship is a Petri dish for viruses, so I’ll be wiping down my cabin with Lysol wipes and refraining from touching door handles and railings as much as possible. I won’t be masked up and I’ll remain a pure blood as far as the vaccine. If I come home with a bug, then que sera. That’s how life used to be pre-pandemic, BTW.
BINGO!
It is the underwriters who are undermining freedom!
Two years ago there were four forest fires within 40 miles of my house, in Western Oregon. All starting at the same time, from hot, dry weather and high winds.
There was heavy wood smoke all through the region for a week, until the wind shifted direction.
My N95 masks were useless against the smoke. My N99 mask allowed me to breath clean air.
Saint Fauci said years ago that mask do not do anything having to do with Covid.
It is submissions and control. Some people like to be subjected to abuse.
Masks are:
1) a sign of submission, subversion and subjugation
2) mandated in order to dehumanize
3) virtue signaling devices
4) meant to provide constant reinforcement of fear
5) used to destroy community, friends and family normal communication
6) implemented to create isolation, confusion, anxiety, destroy human connectivity, trust and interactions
7) mandated to exacerbate illness
8) intended to aid in the abandonment of the belief and reliance on our immune systems
9) intended to refute integrous science
10) signal to positions of power that you are willing to give up all of your rights and freedoms based on anything they say, even if it is a BIG FAT LIE!
I really need to dig thru my boxes of old computer stuff to see if I still have one of those CDs. I'd love to have such a mask. Plus I need to get rid of that stuff.
That’s so funny. Good thing it’s a joke ‘cause it looks REALLY uncomfortable! LOL
Viruses don’t have wings....they don’t fly....they ride on “spit” and “snot”. Spit and snot particle size would be a more appropriate gauge.
I don’t think that the CDC has legal authority to issue mandates. I understand that they’ve DONE it, and people were stupid enough to go along with the illegal mandates.
It's all about teaching COMPLIANCE....
Yet over on this thread yesterday...
...4Runner was basically booed and mocked for being thin-skinned.
Well, it wasn't really about senior citizens. It's much worse than that. 4Runner was instructed to chill, because after all,
It's "the law".. it applies to everyone.. the clerks are just following orders.. no exceptions, no thinking, everyone is checked.. prevents lawsuits.. it's no big deal.. we just laugh..
and so on.
That's right, Automaton World goes along with abject absurdities, because it removes individual reason and discernment. And it's a good thing.
It's all about teaching COMPLIANCE....
Few ever catch on.
I was at a Buffalo Wild Wings once and ordered a drink. The server asked to see my ID…”that’s the rule”. As I am decades over 21, I refused and canceled the drink order. The point of showing ID is to verify the person is over 21. That’s it. If that determination cannot be made by simply looking at me, then it’s a stupid rule. There is no compliment to be made or taken. If someone is in their 50s and gets carded it’s not because they look like they might possibly be 21, it’s because we’re spiraling into a “do not question your overlords” society. It’s not a compliment.
Tell you what, Dickheads! I just won’t do any traveling!
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