Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and several other Democrats in the House of Representatives have expressed their support for a federal COVID-19 vaccine requirement for air travel.
”Prediction: we can go from 60% Americans vaxxed to 80% if we require vaccines to fly,” Swalwell posted to Twitter on Sunday.
Rep. Kaialiʻi Kahele, D-Hawaii, responded to Swalwell’s post a few hours later.”@RitchieTorres has been calling for this since August & I support it,” Kahele said, linking to legislation addressing Swalwell’s concerns by New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, a fellow Democrat.
Swalwell responded a few moments later, announcing support for the bill, saying, ”Count me in.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters earlier in December that the Biden administration was not ruling out an air travel vaccine requirement with the advent of the COVID-19 omicron variant, Fox News reported.
”I would say that nothing is off the table, so including domestic travel,” Psaki said, mentioning there are ”some strong protections in place already, including the requirement of mask-wearing.”
U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts dismissed an emergency request to issue a temporary stay on the federal mask mandate for air travel on Thursday amid litigation in the lower courts, according to Kaiser Health News (KHN).
Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the president, told the podcast ”theSkimm” in September that he would be supportive of vaccine mandates for air travel, The Hill reported.
”I would support that if you want to get on a plane and travel with other people that you should be vaccinated,” Fauci said.
