Dr. Anthony Fauci is now backing calls to mandate vaccine passports for anyone trying to board a commercial airplane, saying he’s a fan of “anything to get more people vaccinated."
“Anything to get more people vaccinated is welcome,” Fauci said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" in response to whether he supports vaccine mandates for domestic air travel.
“There is no vaccine requirement for domestic air travel in the United States,” ABC's Jonathan Karl asked, referring to the Biden administration's current stance that such a policy is "unnecessary" at this time.
“Do you agree with that, that there shouldn’t be a vaccine requirement for domestic air travel?” Karl asked Fauci.
“It depends on what you want to use it for,” Fauci responded, openly suggesting a difference between a vax policy based in medical science and meant to protect "public health," and one meant simply aimed at controlling behavior and restricting personal choice.
“Vaccine requirements for people coming in from other countries is to prevent newly infected people from getting into the country,” he went on.
“A vaccine requirement for a person getting on the [domestic] plane is just another level of getting people to have a mechanism that would spur them to get vaccinated," he continued. "You can’t get on a plane unless you’re vaccinated - which is just another one of the ways of getting requirements, whatever that might be."
“So anything to get more people vaccinated would be welcome,” Fauci concluded.
The NIAID director recently stated he didn’t think society would ever get back to not wearing face masks on planes, saying that even though plane cabins have some of the best air filtration of any public space, masks are an “additional step” to keep from spreading germs – without actually specifying why, medically, that “additional step” is needed in an already clean space.