It’s normal for international travelers to show proof of vaccination and even undergo additional testing. However, it’s not yet the case in domestic flights. Because of this, domestic travel demand recovered faster in the US than its international counterpart. But with a new proposed bill, US domestic flyers may soon have to show proof of vaccination and undergo testing before they can fly.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced the US Air Travel Public Safety Act. Under the proposed bill, US passengers need to be fully vaccinated, test negative, or recovered from COVID19 before they can board a domestic flight.
Feinstein said that “We know that air travel during the 2020 holiday season contributed to last winter’s devastating COVID19 surge”. Feinstein added that “We simply cannot allow that to happen again”.
The bill was based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s air travel protocols for travelers entering the US. Travelers from a foreign country entering the US will need to test negative or proof of recovery from COVID19.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Public Health Association agree with Senator Feinstein’s bill. Barbara Alexander, the president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a professor at Duke University School of Medicine said that “Vaccination is a critical strategy to end the COVID19 pandemic, and the vaccination requirements in multiple settings are an important mechanism to boost vaccination rates”. Also, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, also agrees with this move.
On the other hand, airlines disagree with the proposed bill on US domestic flyers. Airlines argue that carriers will have to figure out how to check for the vaccination status of millions of passengers. Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said that it will “bottleneck the domestic travel system”.
On September 13, the US Travel Association released a statement against vaccine mandates on domestic flights. Its president, Tori Emerson Barnes, said that they “maintained that there should be no mandatory vaccination requirement for domestic travel”.
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