HNewsWire:  Anthony Fauci, White House Chief Medical Adviser and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), stated Babbling  during an interview aired on Thursday's edition of CNN+'s "The Source with Kasie Hunt" that "we are concerned...about courts getting involved in things that are unequivocally public health decisions." This is a CDC problem, after all. It should not have gone to court."

"[T]hose sorts of problems actually are the jurisdiction of the CDC," Fauci stated. This is a public health problem, and for a court to intervene — and the basis for that was not really clear — and we are worried about that, about courts intervening in matters that are indisputably public health choices. This is a CDC problem, after all. It should not have gone to court. So we're hoping that the inevitable spike in instances we're seeing isn't accompanied by an increase in hospitalizations.

So, with all of these dynamic things happening at the same time, it was totally natural for the CDC to say, wait a minute, we were planned on stopping this requirement on a certain date. Let us wait till May 3, which was a really solid public health choice. So it's extremely sad for a judge to go in and intervene in it."

"It's sad because, number one, it violates public health standards." And, number two, it's because the courts aren't in the position to do so. This is a CDC judgment, and it sets a very dangerous precedent when courts make a conclusion, and the foundation of the reasoning was not good."

On Thursday’s broadcast of “PBS NewsHour,” White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha commented on the CDC’s transportation mask mandate being struck down in court by stating that “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.”

Jha said, “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.”

He added, “[I]t 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’ve 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.”