CDC Director Walensky on Transit Mask Mandate: There’s ‘a Lot of International Travel’ and People Can’t Always Choose Not to Travel

During an interview aired on Friday’s edition of ABC’s “Start Here” podcast, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky defended the extension of the transit mask mandate by stating that transportation corridors have “a lot of international travel that it’s hard to disentangle.” And people “may not have their own independence to be able to make a choice as to whether and how they use these transportation corridors.”

Host Brad Mielke asked, [relevant exchange begins around 5:00] “If someone is safe to go maskless, right now, in a small, crowded theater. Because it’s a green county, why isn’t that person safe to go on a ferry, like on a boat without a mask?”

Walensky responded, “Yeah, so, this is something that we’re going to be examining over the next four weeks or so. This was extended until April 18. Our travel corridors or our transport corridors are a bit different than our communities. There’s a lot of mixing, a lot of international travel that it’s hard to disentangle. People use and require transportation corridors for work. They may not have their own independence to be able to make a choice as to whether and how they use these transportation corridors. So, we have a bit more work to do, for all of those reasons, in that area.”

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