Fauci Says He Would Support Vaccine Mandate For Domestic Flights

In a recent interview with ABC News, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he would be in favor of a vaccine requirement for all U.S. citizens on domestic flights.

The comments come at a time when the Omicron variant is busy spreading like a wildfire around the globe, prompting waves of new travel restrictions in many destinations, including Puerto Rico, Thailand, and much of Europe.

Fauci said that his support for such a mandate is more about supporting legislation that encourages people to get vaccinated rather than in-air safety.

“A vaccine requirement for a person getting on the plane is just another level of getting people to have a mechanism that would spur them to get vaccinated,” Fauci told ABC News. “Anything that could get people more vaccinated would be welcome.”

“But,” he added, “with regard to the spread of virus in the country, I mean, I think if you look at wearing a mask and the filtration on planes, things are reasonably safe.”

In other words, the data doesn’t show that planes are unsafe; rather, Fauci believes unvaccinated people may be motivated to get the vaccine if they knew they would not be able to fly without it.

Currently, international travelers are required to be vaccinated in order to enter the United States.

On Monday, Fauci reiterated his support for a domestic travel vaccine mandate, telling MSNBC it would be “reasonable to consider.”

In a later interview, he advised the country to cancel any large New Years Eve events or plans in light of Omicron.

Before and after Thanksgiving, both President Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said they didn’t believe a domestic airline vaccine mandate was necessary. However, things could obviously change if hospitalizations due to COVID-19 continue to climb.

Just two days after Christmas, some medical experts are predicting we could soon see a half million cases per day on average in the United States.

Of course, such a mandate would be highly controversial, and perhaps even legally challenged. So, it remains to be seen how much support the mandate would garner overall, or how exceptions to the mandate would be handled, say, for those who are medical unable to receive the vaccine.

Thus far, airlines have not officially commented on the idea of such a policy.