Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe passengers who have not been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus should be barred from travelling on an airplane according to a new Reuters poll. Overall, 62 per cent of those polled said people should be vaccinated before being allowed to travel, with that number rising to 80 per cent amongst Democrat voters.
Reuters polled 1,005 people on Monday and Tuesday to gauge the American people’s current attitude to Coronavirus vaccines. 54 per cent of respondents now said they were “very interested” in getting vaccinated – up from 41 per cent who expressed the same desire to get vaccinated in January.
The idea of barring unvaccinated people from flying on airplanes has been widely discussed at an international level because some governments are likely to only first ease tough border restrictions to visitors who can prove they are fully vaccinated against the novel Coronavirus.
While U.S.-based airlines have been broadly supportive of such requirements for international travel, they are likely to outright reject a similar proof of vaccination for domestic air travel.
Last month, airlines lobbied the Biden administration to drop plans for a domestic pre-departure testing mandate arguing it would decimate demand and simply push people onto less safe modes of transport. A similar argument would be in play if vaccination became a pre-requisite to fly.
Digital vaccination passports are currently being developed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and several app developers but there is currently no internationally agreed standard. The European Union has said it will develop a vaccination passport scheme but this is unlikely to be ready before the summer.
The Biden administration has, however, avoided calls to lead the world in developing a global standard for vaccination certification.
The Reuters poll also found that 55 per cent of Americans believe that the unvaccinated should be banned from entering public gyms or movie theaters. So far, only 18 per cent of American’s have received at least a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine but President Biden hopes to make every American adult eligible for vaccination from May 1.
During a live televised address to the nation on Thursday evening, Biden said he was setting July 4 as Virus Independence Day.
The airline industry has touted its “multi-layered” protection measures, such as face mask mandates, deep cleaning and hospital-grade air filters as reasons why air travel should be classed as a low-risk activity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has, however, refused to change guidance dissuading people from traveling, saying fully-vaccinated people should still avoid all but essential travel.
Thanks for your article, however, there are a large percentage of us who are not yet eligible to get the vaccine because we are healthy. This type of reporting is informative, yet it places a seed of belief in people to follow the no vaccine no flight thought process. I cannot get a vaccine because I have no underlying health issues, not on medication, very last on the list at all to receive one. So this idea is constricting and ridiculous.
100% agree with Caroline. It is always interesting when you see these polls…I have never been asked to complete any of these…1,005 people are hardly representative of the population. Vaccinated people can still carry the virus to others and one could argue that allowing them to travel to other areas is worse because they won’t have symptoms so are more likely to carry the virus unknowingly to other people than an unvaccinated person who may be symptomatic.
Fine and dandy….my mother was in Nova Scotia when the borders closed (she’s Can-Am and has homes in Nova Scotia and Florida). Even though she is a dual citizen, because she has no medical card any more she cannot be vaccinated in Canada. So, not being able to fly without being vaccinated would mean a US citizen would be denied her right to return to the US. As long as she tests negative and isolates once she returns to FL, I think this is not only ridiculous, but not legally enforceable.
If the vaccine is so very effective, then why would a vaccinated person care if unvaccinated people are allowed to fly? Such unvaccinated folks would be the only ones at risk!!!
Please correct your article, as it is the Democratic Party, not the Democrat Party. So members of the Democratic Party should be called Democrats, yes, but in the way you framed it, it would be Democratic voters.
Whats really outrageous is that no one mentioned the fact there are a lot of FLIGHT attendants who refuse the vaccine when it was offered