National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday on ABC’s This Week that he would be pleased with a vaccination requirement for domestic air travel.
Guest-host Jon Karl said, “There is no vaccine requirement for domestic air travel in the United States, and when the president was asked, should there be one, he said that his team has said it’s not necessary at this point. Do you agree with that? That there shouldn’t be a vaccine requirement for domestic air travel?”
Fauci said, “Well, it depends on what you want to use it for. I mean, vaccine requirements for people coming in from other countries is to prevent newly infected people from getting into the country. 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. Namely, you can’t get on a plane unless you’re vaccinated, which is just another one of the ways of getting requirements, whatever that might be. So I mean, anything that could get people more vaccinated would be welcome.”
He added, “But 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. We want to make sure people keep their masks on. I think the idea of taking masks off in my mind is really not something we should even be considering. That’s what we meant by it depends on what the goal of getting people vaccinated before they get on a domestic flight.”