Washington, Feb. 4 (BNA): Majority Leader Steve Scales said on Friday that the US House of Representatives intends to vote next week on a bill that would end the requirement to vaccinate most air travelers from the emerging coronavirus.
The Biden administration in June dropped its requirement that people arriving in the country by air must test negative for COVID-19, but did not raise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccination requirements.
Currently, adult visitors to the United States who are not citizens or permanent residents must show proof of vaccination before boarding their flight, with some limited exceptions, Reuters reported.
Republican Representative Thomas Massie introduced the measure to overturn the vaccine requirement. “The CDC’s unscientific mandate separates many people from their families and has been doing so for far too long. It must end,” he said on Twitter.
The CDC says vaccines remain the most important public health tool for fighting COVID-19 and recommends vaccinating all travelers. The CDC did not immediately comment on Friday.
The American Travel Association said Thursday that it “has long supported reversing this requirement and sees no reason to wait until May is over from the public health emergency — especially since potential visitors plan to travel in the spring and summer.”
The group says the US is “the only country that still has this requirement for international visitors when there is no public health justification”.
Mask requirements on planes were relaxed last year after a judge declared them illegal.
But in December, the United States imposed a mandatory negative COVID-19 test requirement for most travelers from China as COVID infections rose there.
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