Our View: Require air passengers to show proof of COVID vaccination
Good evening y'all! Today we have two opposing views on COVID vaccinations for airline passengers — one from our Editorial Board and another from the president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. We also have a column on Colin Powell and some what-ifs with his career.
Our View: Require air passengers to show proof of COVID vaccination
By The Editorial Board
The nation remains locked in a life or death debate with 66 million Americans over the rightness of being vaccinated against COVID-19.
About half of the unvaccinated – an estimated 12% to 18% of eligible Americans – stubbornly refuse the shot for reasons ranging from distrust of government or health institutions, to an embrace of conspiracies, to a fear of needles. The rest of the holdouts are those who simply haven't gotten around to it (a dwindling percentage), are in still a wait-and-see frame of mind or will be vaccinated only if required to do so.
Sixty-six million unvaccinated people are more than enough to fuel another surge in infections as winter approaches, and they carry the added risk of generating a variant capable of rendering vaccines less effective.
Today's Editorial Cartoon
Vaccine mandate is an unnecessary burden for airline passengers
By Roger Dow
As Americans and the airlines that serve them plan for the holiday travel season, we can hold confidence in knowing the air travel system today has been proven effectively safe from COVID-19 transmission.
The data, including independent studies from the Harvard School of Public Health and the U.S. Department of Defense, overwhelmingly points to the safety of air travel as long as face masks are worn. Both studies found the use of advanced air filtration systems on aircraft makes the risk of masked passengers contracting an airborne virus such as SARS-CoV-2 extremely unlikely.
Even without a vaccine mandate, American air travelers have vaccination rates greater than the general public. While 57% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, 71% of Americans who have traveled in the past two years are vaccinated.
What if Colin Powell had run for president?
By Austin Bogues
Colin Powell climbed to the highest ranks of the armed services, advised U.S. presidents and even served as the first Black Secretary of State. After news of his death Monday morning, tributes poured in from across political aisles. But a big "what if" looms over his storied career.
What if he had sought the presidency?
In 1995, his memoir "My American Journey" was a bestseller and speculation reached a fever pitch that Powell, with his sterling defense credentials coupled with an affable demeanor, would seek the United States presidency, as a Republican.
Would a Powell presidential run have changed the course of the GOP and American politics? It's impossible to know for sure.
Other columns to read:
- Let's not forget about the IRS leak scandal; we still need answers
- Why this nation needs to hit the reset button on bullying
- School administrator Holocaust remark invalidates pain of generations
Columns on qualified immunity
Here's a new section we're adding to the newsletter. Currently we are doing a series examining the issue of qualified immunity. For more on the series read here.
- Ending qualified immunity won't ruin cops' finances
- I refused to lie under oath for the state of Arizona, and the courts aren't on my side
- Supreme Court can protect citizens by striking down qualified immunity
- Qualified immunity: 8 myths about why police need it to protect the public
This column was compiled by Jaden Amos.