Why the DOJ is appealing a judge’s decision to drop transportation mask mandates

Amna Nawaz:

After a judge struck down the federal mask mandate for public transportation, the CDC says it still recommends masking. Yesterday, the Department of Justice appealed that decision.

For more on all of this, I'm joined by White House COVID response coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha.

Dr. Jha, welcome back to the "NewsHour." Thanks for making the time.

So, the judge that struck down that mandate said the CDC was exceeding its authority. As we mentioned, DOJ is now appealing.

But if the government loses that appeal, doesn't that kind of shut down the CDC's public health authority and your options in the future? Isn't that — in your view, is that a risk worth taking?

Dr. Ashish Jha, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator:

Yes, Amna, first of all, thanks for having me back.

I think there are a couple of points here that are worth mentioning. First, decisions like how we protect the health of the American people should be decided by public health scientists and our public health agencies like the CDC, and not by a federal judge.

In terms of legal strategy and legal issues, the Department of Justice, their lawyers felt very clearly that the CDC had acted within its powers. And that's why they appealed. And the administration and the legal experts around the country are confident that the CDC was acting lawfully and that eventually the CDC will win this case.

Amna Nawaz:

But from a public health perspective, if you don't win, doesn't that limit CDC's authority in the future?

Dr. Ashish Jha:

Well, there's no question about it, it is absolutely essential that CDC have this ability, whether it's for the rest of this pandemic or for future health crises. It is essential that CDC have the ability to put in rules that are going to protect the traveling public.

They have had that rule for — that authority for decades. And it's essential that we continue that. That's one of the reasons why the Department of Justice filed this appeal, to preserve that authority for the CDC.

Amna Nawaz:

OK, so I want to clarify a couple of points, because I think people are unclear about where they could still be required to wear a mask.

Obviously, we saw some city officials, like in Philadelphia, reimplemented an indoor mask mandate. Where else might people be required to mask? Can private businesses, for example, require that?

Dr. Ashish Jha:

Again, there are some legal issues here. I'm not a legal expert, right? My understanding is, private businesses can require it.

Certainly, we're seeing certain cities require it on mass transit. And then, if you take a step back and ask, what does CDC recommend, CDC recommends that, on all public transportation, people should continue masking up. But we are seeing different cities, different communities implement that differently in terms of requirements.

Amna Nawaz:

So can I ask you about the increase of both cases and hospitalizations we have been seeing in New York? Because they're both far below the January peaks. We should say that, but they are rising quickly.

Hospitalizations are up 35 percent over a two-week period, more than 1,400 a day. We have seen New York before be sort of a leading indicator for other urban areas. Do you see that? Do you worry it's a sign of what could come other places?

Dr. Ashish Jha:

This is one of the reasons why the CDC scientists thought it was very important to wait an additional 15 days, gather more data, before we made a more — they made a more durable decision about what to do with the mask mandate.

As we look across the country, 30 states are seeing increases in infection. We're starting to see increases in hospitalization. Good news, nothing like the Omicron wave of January, but it clearly bears close watching and close analysis to see where this goes next.

Amna Nawaz:

It does feel like it's a matter of time, a lot of people are saying, before they get it. Even if you are vaccinated and boosted, so many more people are getting infected.

And I hear a lot of questions about long COVID and how much we do not know — you do not know, rather. If you go to the CDC's Web site, there is, quite frankly, a very long and unhelpfully exhaustive list of symptoms there, things like fatigue and headache and joint pain.

The big question is, two years in, why don't we know more about long COVID?

Dr. Ashish Jha:

Yes, it's a very important question about long COVID.

And we just recently launched — the president authorized a new set of work that the White House is going to be doing on long COVID. We think this is an important area. There's important questions that we don't know the answers to. To what extent do vaccines protect against long COVID? To what extent do we — can we use therapies for long COVID?

And then, of course, you're right. There are a broad set of symptoms. Some people have some of them. Many have all of them. So we have got to learn more. NIH has gotten involved in starting to create cohorts of people that they're going to track.

I suspect we're going to learn a lot more in the months and years ahead. There's no time like now to get going on understanding this condition and figuring out how to help people who suffer from it.

Amna Nawaz:

Specific to that, there's another concern being raised by a number of doctors about the racial disparities that have played out throughout the pandemic carrying over into long COVID, and, again, having no idea how long that will take.

But already knowing Black Americans suffered higher rates of infection, hospitalization and death, there's doctors raising concerns that, again, Black Americans do not have the same access to treatments that are now available, and specifically support for long COVID.

So what's the administration doing about that?

Dr. Ashish Jha:

Yes, so one of the things this pandemic has taught us is that, when you have a health crisis like this, longstanding systemic inequities in our society are exacerbated. They're identified. They're exacerbated.

We have got to continue addressing that. So we have got to take a double-pronged strategy, right? We have got to work on those longstanding systemic inequities and make real progress there. But we also have to really track these things very carefully.

So, one of the things we're doing is, on vaccinations, on therapies, we're looking at who's getting them, who's not, what are the barriers, and how do we break down those barriers? It is absolutely essential, as we get these tools that we have, tests, diagnostics, therapies, vaccines, that we're making sure that every American is getting them and that these things are being used equitably across the country.

Amna Nawaz:

That is Dr. Ashish Jha, White House COVID response coordinator, joining us again tonight.

Thank you so much.

Dr. Ashish Jha:

Thank you.