United Airlines announced Friday that it will mandate its nearly 67,000 United States-based employees to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, making it the first major American airline to do so.
Executives acknowledged that some portion of the company’s workforce will disagree with the requirement but cited “incredibly compelling” evidence that vaccines cut away at the virus’s lethality.
“The facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated,” CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart wrote in a letter to employees. “Over the last 16 months, Scott has sent dozens of condolences letters to the family members of United employees who have died from COVID-19. We’re determined to do everything we can to try to keep another United family from receiving that letter.”
EMPLOYERS OPTING FOR VACCINE MANDATES AS DELTA VARIANT SPREADS
Employees must be fully vaccinated by either Oct. 25 or by five weeks after the Food and Drug Administration fully approves one of the three currently authorized vaccines, whichever of the two occurs first, the letter said. Some 90% of the company’s pilots and about 80% of flight attendants have reportedly already been vaccinated.
The announcement Friday came just days after the CEO of competitor Delta Air Lines stressed that the company is limited in its ability to enact vaccine mandates before vaccines are fully approved.
“It’s very difficult for us to come in and mandate a vaccine that isn’t even federally approved yet. The authorization hasn’t been final yet, so stay tuned,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said Tuesday.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top medical adviser to President Joe Biden, expressed hope on Tuesday that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine would receive full approval from the FDA by month’s end. The shot was the first to be approved for emergency use by the agency back in December.
