NYSDOH Drops Mask Regulations and

Immediately After the Appellate Court Drops

Chad LaVeglia's Motion

As of Sunday, February 12th the NYS Department of Health has decided not to renew the emergency mask regulation for hospitals and other health care settings, such as long term care facilities. Although some hospitals are continuing to impose the requirement upon staff and visitors.

James McDonald, the new acting Health Commissioner, said that the Health Department will advise facilities to follow CDC guidance and come up with their own plans for when they will require personnel to wear face coverings based on community case levels, not on vaccination status. The DOH is expected to distribute a regulatory guidance memo on Friday. (Link to Politico article.)

Meanwhile, recall that the State had appealed the Mask Decision won by attorney Chad LaVeglia in NYS Supreme Court in January 2022. Due to the appeal, the State was able to obtain a stay of the mask decision through the Appellate Court. This summer Chad had submitted a motion to the Appellate Court to remove the stay -- and there has been no response from the Court to his motion for over 7 months (an unheard of delay), until this past Monday.

On the heels of the DOH's decision to not renew its masking regulations, the Appellate Court finally responded to Chad's motion!

The Appellate Court dropped the motion because the regulations have not been renewed by the DOH, which makes the motion to remove the stay moot. Lack of a decision on the motion benefits the DOH, because a precedent against its regulatory power over-reach has not been made in the Courts.

The timing of the Court's response on the motion is truly extraordinary. Any reasonable person would question if there's behind-the-scenes coordination between 2 separate branches of the government? In a healthy democracy, the Judicial, Executive, and Legislative branches ought to function independently.