Why Trump-appointed judge's mask decision is particularly disastrous

I absolutely hate wearing a mask on long flights. I'm also appalled that masks are no longer required for air travel and on other forms of public transit.

On Monday, a federal judge in Florida ruled that the Biden administration's public transportation mask mandate was unenforceable. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, US District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle held, overstepped its authority in issuing the directive requiring masks on airplanes and other forms of mass transit.

This decision is particularly disastrous for older adults, the ill and the immunocompromised, who still face a much higher chance of being hospitalized or even dying if they contract Covid-19 (so do the voluntarily unvaccinated, but they've made the decision to assume that risk for themselves). For most people, going to work or the grocery store is not optional, and many people need to take public transport to get there. Forcing those who have done everything right except had the bad luck to be sick or old to assume the risk of contracting a potentially fatal illness, just so that people who find masks uncomfortable -- myself among them -- don't have to take basic precautions, is an appalling level of disregard for the lives and well-being of our fellow human beings.