If Rep. Ritchie Torres has his way, vaccine hesitancy won’t fly.
Torres (D-N.Y) said Thursday that he was embarking on a push to require that eligible Americans get immunized against COVID-19 for domestic and international air travel, introducing a bill that would cement the rule into law and penning a letter to the Transportation Security Administration pleading for such a policy.
Almost 30% of U.S. adults have not received a single coronavirus vaccine dose, according to federal data, even as the highly contagious delta variant wreaks havoc across swaths of the country.
“The TSA never allows people to enter planes or airports with a weapon, and the delta variant is a weapon,” Torres, who represents a Bronx congressional district, told the Daily News. “It is a threat to everyone in an airport and everyone on a plane.”
In the letter sent Thursday to the TSA and to the Department of Homeland Security — which has authority over the TSA — Torres described the mandate as a “commonsense step.”
Torres, the vice chair of the House Committee on Homeland Security, told The News he was pushing for administrative action because “legislation takes time.”
But he added that he would lobby his colleagues on the need for swift action. He said he planned to introduce his bill on Friday.
A survey published in June by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit, found that around 40% of respondents who were considering shots said they would be more likely to get the jabs if they were required to travel in airplanes. Currently, passengers on domestic fights are required to wear masks.
Torres’ push to get the vaccine into the arms of reluctant U.S. travelers comes as the pandemic enters a turbulent new phase.
The moving seven-day average of new cases increased by more than 500% in July, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and news arrived last week that the delta strain may spread as nimbly as the highly contagious chickenpox.
Concerns about a future vaccine-resistant variant have increased, raising the stakes of the incomplete inoculation drive and sending federal officials scrambling.
In a speech last week, President Biden said that federal workers who remain unvaccinated would face regular testing and other restrictions, a policy his administration hopes will be replicated by other employers. And he urged local governments to dish out cash with shots.
On Wednesday, Reuters reported that the Biden administration was also toying with a plan to require vaccinations for almost all foreign travelers who come to the U.S.
But Biden has shied away from outright mandates for Americans. And Torres said he would like the White House to move further and faster.
“We’ve seen the limitations of purely voluntary vaccinations,” he said. “It will only take us so far.”
