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Travelers on airplanes and public transportation like buses and subways will be required to wear face masks starting next week to curb the spread of COVID-19.The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a mask-wearing rule late Friday that builds on an order announced Jan. 21 by President Joe Biden. The rule “will protect Americans and provide confidence that we can once again travel safely even during this pandemic,” said Dr. Marty Cetron, director of CDC’s division of migration and quarantine, who signed the order. (1/30)

The order, which takes effect at 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, requires face masks to be worn by all travelers on airplanes, ships, trains, subways, buses, taxis, and ride-shares and at transportation hubs like airports, bus or ferry terminals, train and subway stations and seaports. ... Under Donald Trump, who was president until Jan. 20, a CDC push to mandate masks in transit was blocked and the agency instead only issued strong recommendations for mask use. Trump also rejected efforts by Congress to mandate mask use. (1/30)

The Department of Homeland Security said Sunday that Transportation Security Administration workers now have the authority to enforce President Joe Biden's transportation mask mandate "at TSA screening checkpoints and throughout the commercial and public transportation system." (Muntean and Cole, 1/31)

Michael Osterholm, who was a member of the Biden Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board, gave a second opinion after Dr. Anthony Fauci said last week that doubling up on face masks “likely” provides more protection than wearing just one mask. "When we talk about double masking, remember what we're really talking about is just trying to prevent the virus from being excreted by me into the air or me inhaling the virus from someone else in the air, and it's both a function of face fit and face filtration," Osterholm said during an interview Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. The director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota compared face masks to swim goggles, noting that leaks usually happen "at the fit" rather than at the lenses. (Chaitin, 1/31)

The goal of the "100 Days Masking Challenge" is to curb the rapid spread of the coronavirus, which has already claimed the lives of more than 400,000 Americans. Indeed, a study published on January 19 in the Lancet Digital Health journal Studies found that increasing mask-wearing across the U.S. by just 10% would significantly curb the transmission of the coronavirus. Mask-wearing is even more effective when the face coverings fit properly and efficiently filter aerosol particles, according to medical experts. (Cerullo,  1/29)