Biden Administration pushes court to restore traveler mask mandate. 

Lebanon, NH – January 17, 2023 – 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 will hear arguments on Tuesday 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 a popular one among travel industry groups. The U.S. Travel Association, for example, praised the elimination of the mask mandate. “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. 

### 

About Global Rescue    

Global Rescue is the world’s leading provider of medical, security, evacuation and travel risk management services to enterprises, governments and individuals. Founded in 2004, Global Rescue has exclusive relationships with the Johns Hopkins Emergency Medicine Division of Special Operations and Elite Medical Group. Global Rescue provides best-in-class services that identify, monitor and respond to client medical and security crises. Global Rescue has provided medical and security support to its clients, including Fortune 500 companies, governments and academic institutions, during every globally significant crisis of the last two decades. For more information, visit www.globalrescue.com