Washington, Dec. 27 (BNA): The United States should consider mandating vaccination for domestic air travel, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, said on Monday, suggesting a possible adoption of an idea previously avoided by the Biden administration, such as high COVID-19 cases.
Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief scientific advisor on the pandemic response, said such a mandate could raise the nation’s delayed vaccination rate as well as provide stronger protections on flights, where federal regulations require all people ages two and older to wear a mask, reports AP.
“When you make vaccination a requirement, that’s another incentive to vaccinate more people,” Fauci told MSNBC. “If you want to do that with domestic flights, I think that’s something that should be taken seriously.”
The Biden administration has so far refrained from imposing a vaccination requirement on domestic air travel. Two officials said Biden’s science advisers have not yet made a formal recommendation for such a request to the president.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said mandating the vaccine on planes could raise a host of logistical and legal concerns.
The US currently requires most foreign nationals traveling to the US to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, although citizens and permanent residents only need to show evidence of a negative test taken within one day of boarding.
Federal rules do not require people traveling by air within the United States to show a negative test. Hawaii requires travelers to test or show evidence of vaccination to avoid mandatory quarantine.
Biden did not respond to questions about whether he was considering implementing an internal vaccination requirement for air travel, but he did tell reporters that the topic was discussed in a call with the country’s governors Monday morning.
Earlier this year, the White House explored a domestic vaccination requirement for flights, a requirement requiring vaccination or proof of a negative test. But officials were not keen on imposing vaccination on domestic air travel because they expected it to face immediate legal challenges, mitigating its potential effectiveness as a tool for increasing vaccinations.
After being pressured last week about why Biden should not impose vaccinations on domestic air travel, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told MSNBC “We know that masking can be very effective on planes.”
“We also know that putting in place this additional restriction may delay flights, and may have additional effects,” she added. However, we will do so if the health impact is overwhelming. That is why we always rely on the advice of our health and medical experts. This is not a step at this point they have decided we need to take.”
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that more than 241 million Americans, about 77% of the eligible population age 5 and older, have received at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. Officials believe, however, that there is some over-counting in the numbers due to record-keeping errors in managing the booster shots.
Since the summer, the Biden administration has embraced various vaccination requirements as a way to get unvaccinated Americans to roll up their sleeves. It has set requirements that federal workers, federal contractors, and those who work in health care get their vaccines, and that employers with 100 or more employees establish vaccination or testing requirements for their workers.
These vaccination requirements have been mired in legal controversy, with the Supreme Court scheduled to hear arguments on January 7 in cases seeking to have them invalidated.
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