Airlines Might Soon Require Proof Of Vaccination Or Covid-19-Free Status To Fly In The United States, Just Ahead Of This Holiday Travel Season.
by Heather Cassell
Thinking of flying home this holiday season? A Covid-19 vaccination and other proof that you are Covid-19-free might be required.
Democratic California Senator Dianne Feinstein is getting ahead of the holiday travel season this winter introducing the United States Air Travel Public Safety Act today. The bill will require all travelers flying throughout the US to be fully vaccinated or prove they are Covid-19-free by providing a negative Covid-19 test or have fully recovered from COVID-19 before boarding domestic flights.
“We know that air travel during the 2020 holiday season contributed to last winter’s devastating COVID-19 surge. We simply cannot allow that to happen again,” Dianne said about preventing another critical surge in a September 29 news release from her office. “Ensuring that air travelers protect themselves and their destination communities from this disease is critical to prevent the next surge, particularly if we confront new, more virulent variants of Covid-19.”
“It only makes sense that we also ensure the millions of airline passengers that crisscross our country aren’t contributing to further transmission, especially as young children remain ineligible to be vaccinated,” Dianne said.
Dianne’s bill applies similar requirements to domestic travel that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already has in place for international and domestic Covid-19 travel requirements for all air passengers traveling to the US from a foreign country. All travelers must provide proof of a negative Covid-19 test result or documentation of recovery from Covid-19 before flying home from abroad.
The bill follows President Joe Biden’s announcement to reopen US borders to travelers from abroad by November. In the same announcement, he stated he would work with the airlines to implement additional protocols to prevent the spread of Covid-19 on international flights.
Vaccination = Life
People traveling to other counties or states last year contributed to higher Covid-19 case numbers in their destination communities, according to a study published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” The study’s authors later found that this was especially true during the 2020 summer and winter holidays.
According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Covid-19 vaccines continued to offer strong protection after the Delta variant became predominant over the summer. People who were fully vaccinated were five times less likely to be infected and more than 10 times less likely to be admitted to the hospital or die compared to those who were unvaccinated.
Dr. Barbara D. Alexander, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, who supports the legislation, called Dianne’s bill “a part of our nation’s broader Covid-19 vaccination strategy.”
“Vaccination is a critical strategy to end the Covid-19 pandemic, and vaccination requirements in multiple settings are an important mechanism to boost vaccination rates, prevent infections and hospitalizations, and save lives,” said Barbara who is also a professor of medicine and pathology at Duke University School of Medicine, in the release.
A Mayo Clinic Proceedings study discovered Covid-19 testing requirements for airline passengers could have a meaningful effect on detecting active infections either immediately before or after a flight.
The Kaiser Family Foundation found in a poll last spring that about three in 10 people surveyed who were waiting to be vaccinated said they would be more likely to get vaccinated if airlines required passengers to be vaccinated. This number increased to about four in 10 among unvaccinated individuals who said they would only get the vaccine if required, according to the release.
The US Air Travel Public Safety Act will require the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Federal Aviation Administration, to develop national vaccination standards and procedures related to Covid-19 and domestic air travel in order to prevent future outbreaks of the disease. It will also require the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to make recommendations for Covid-19 vaccine use in health care settings and among health care personnel in other settings.
Book your next vacation with Girls That Roam Travel. Contact Heather Cassell at Girls That Roam Travel at 415-517-7239 or at .
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