In a statement that is sure to spark debate from anti-vaccine supporters as well as civil liberties proponents, the nation’s preeminent immunologist and infectious disease expert said it’s “quite possible” that having the vaccine for COVID-19 becomes a requirement in order to travel.
“Anything is on the table. Anything is possible, of course,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told Newsweek in an interview.
Fauci, who has worked closely with President Trump for the last 11 months in battling the coronavirus, said he didn’t believe the vaccine would be mandated by the federal government but by state and local governments or other entities.
“I’m not sure it’s [the COVID-19 vaccine] going to be mandatory from a central government standpoint, like federal government mandates. But there are going to be individual institutions that I’m sure are going to mandate it,” he said. “For example, influenza and Hepatitis B vaccines are mandated at many hospitals. Here at the NIH [National Institutes of Health], I would not be allowed to see patients if I didn’t get vaccinated every year with flu and get vaccinated once with Hepatitis [B]. I have to get certified every year…if I didn’t, I couldn’t see patients.”
It’s certainly not the first time that the idea of a ‘travel passport’ has come up. Many states are already requiring proof of negative COVID tests for travel, such as New York, which requires 14 days of quarantine upon arrival or three days of quarantine and a negative test on the fourth day.
“It’s not up to me to make a decision,” Fauci said. “But these are all things that will be discussed [under the Biden administration]. … I would not be surprised, as we get into the full scope of [COVID-19] vaccination, that some companies, some hospitals, some organizations might require vaccination.:”