The federal agency in charge of airline travel said Thursday that online rumors of a return to a mask mandate this fall are simply untrue.

“TSA does not have any new requirements and there has not been any meeting on the topic. CDC is the lead federal agency for public health determinations, including whether people should be required to wear masks in transportation systems. TSA has authority to impose mask-related requirements to implement mask orders from the CDC related to transportation systems. TSA is not imposing mask-related requirements at this time,” TSA tells GV Wire.

The rumor apparently started with Alex Jones of InfoWars. Since then, several colleges and hospitals have reinstituted masks.

CDC did not reply to GV Wire’s inquiry about the return of mask mandates.

COVID Increasing, CDC Says

The COVID Data Tracker, administered by the CDC, shows a 22% increase — more than 12,000 nationwide — in hospital admissions for the week ending Aug. 12. Deaths were up 1.7% in the same period.

CBS News reported that the CDC says COVID-19 hospitalizations are trending upward, thanks in part to the BA.2.86 “Pirola” variant.

TSA and CDC stopped enforcing the mask mandate in May 2022. It had been in place since January 2021.

Fresno Councilman: Follow the Science

In Fresno, the city manager can implement emergency protocols, which is what happened in 2020.

Fresno City Councilman Miguel Arias, who supported the 2020 city lockdown, said that he would seek advice if COVID caused another pandemic concern.

“We were very clear about during the pandemic is that we’re going to take the leadership of health care professionals and we’re going to follow the science and the evidence. I’m not going to get into what ifs or innuendoes or hypotheticals,” Arias said.

City Councilman Garry Bredefeld was more skeptical.

“The public was lied to over and over by the CDC, as well as government officials, and unfortunately locally. … We had basic talking points that were not true. You take the vaccine, you won’t get COVID; you take the vaccine, you can’t transmit it. Lie after lie after lie. So we’ll see. I think Councilmember Arias is right. We have to see how things unfold,” Bredefeld said.