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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently indicated that it would be rescinding a law called Title 42 under a public health order first instituted by President Donald Trump in 2020. As reported by CNBC, Title 42 was “instituted to stop the spread of Covid-19 across the nation’s land borders with Mexico and Canada.”
The CDC announced that it would lift the order on May 23, 2022. According to agency spokesperson Kristen Nordlund, after reviewing current public health conditions, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky decided it was no longer necessary.
On top of the serious ramifications of this move, the CDC’s decision is mind-boggling given how it has handled Covid-19 in other contexts, including aviation and other transportation hubs.
Florida, joined by 20 other states, recently filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration and other entities challenging the mandatory mask mandates imposed on transportation hubs and airplanes.
The CDC relied heavily on Title 42 in issuing this mandate. This law authorizes the CDC to “make and enforce such regulations as in [its] judgment are necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases” into the United States or across state lines.
Clearly, it is difficult to reconcile the CDC’s competing policies and arguments. On the one hand, the CDC asserts that Title 42 is no longer needed because current health conditions no longer warrant it. On the other hand, Americans, many of whom have either had Covid-19 or are vaccinated, continue to face mask CDC-imposed mandates on transportation hubs and airplanes.
Suppose the CDC is going to rely on the now-revoked legislation and take the position that mask mandates are needed to “prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases” into the United States or across state lines. Why would the CDC rescind an order that was meant to stop the spread of Covid-19 and which “allowed the U.S. to expel more than 1.7 million migrants, overwhelmingly at the southern border”?
These positions are inconsistent and will continue to tarnish the CDC’s credibility and image in the eyes of many Americans!
Mr. Hakim is an attorney and columnist. His articles have been published in The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, American Thinker, and other online publications. He is also a regular guest on OANN’s Tipping Point, and has appeared on Newsmax, The Dave Weinbaum Show, and Real America’s Voice.