Leading airline and business groups are asking the Biden administration to develop temporary papers that can show travelers that they have been tested and vaccinated for COVID-19, a move that is believed to help the airline industry revive the journey.
Various groups and countries are working on the development of so-called vaccine passports aimed at allowing more travel. But airlines fear that a lot of local evidence will cause confusion and that no one will generally accept it.
“It is crucial to establish uniform leadership” and “the US must be a leader in this development,” more than two dozen groups said in a letter to Jeff Zients, a White House coronavirus response coordinator, on Monday. , said. However, the groups said that vaccination should not be a requirement for domestic or international travel.
The groups include major U.S. and international airline trade organizations, airline unions, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The White House did not immediately comment.
The World Health Organization and the United Nations Air Force are working on the type of information that should be included in a reference. The airline groups are particularly interested in getting the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to take a leading role, as they believe it will increase the certainty that the information in the credentials is legal.
The CDC on Monday issued new guidelines for people who have been fully vaccinated, saying that they can – without face masks – meet other vaccines and visit people who have not been vaccinated in one household that has a low risk of serious diseases. However, the health agency still recommends against travel.
“Every time there is a huge increase in travel, we have an increase in cases in this country,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said.
Walensky noted that many variants of COVID-19 now spreading in the US have started in other countries. She nevertheless expressed the possibility that CDC with more information could soon approve the journey through vaccinations.
Airline was particularly hard hit by the pandemic. Despite a partial recovery, US airlines are still losing $ 150 million a day, according to trading group Airlines for America.
In the US, the number of people passing through airports remains close to 60% so far this year compared to 2019, the last normal pre-pandemic year. Most of the people fly within the United States.
Airlines are counting on widespread vaccinations to promote travel, and to boost vaccine passports to extremely lucrative international flights.