COVID-19 vaccinations became readily available this past summer. Pretty much anyone who wanted a jab received one. Some recipients are already in the “booster” phase, while others are waiting their turn.
But others say they will not get a COVID-19 vaccination. Ever.
Wired’s Adam Rogers writes, “…between 15 and 30 percent of US residents tell pollsters and researchers that they will never get one—nope, nuh-uh, no way.”
According to one report, there are more people getting booster shots now than are getting their first COVID-19 vaccinations shots.
I know people who say the vaccines are dangerous — and they’ll never let anyone inject them with a COVID shot. I also know others who are vehemently pro-vaccination. (It’s basically a “sheeple” vs. “the idiots” on social media.)
Honestly, I see both sides.
Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, last week mandated all train and air passengers (12 years of age and older) traveling within the country must be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Starting next month, Delta charges unvaccinated employees $200 a pop if they’re not vaccinated. And that practice is apparently working and inspiring Delta employees to get vaxxed.
So if an airline chooses, should it be able to charge unvaccinated passengers more than those who received the COVID-19 jab? (Honestly, I’m half surprised the US federal government hasn’t mandated that only vaccinated passengers may board airplanes.)
I don’t know if that’s even legal. (Legal professionals: please weigh in below in the Comments section about the legalities. Thanks!) Although some governments sure have a good time passing laws requiring patrons and employees to be vaccinated before entering private businesses.
But should airlines offer lower rates or discounts to passengers who are vaccinated? (Spoiler alert: I think the prices of airline tickets would go up.) Should loyalty program members be charged different amounts of points or miles, depending on their vaccination status?
Below is a handy-dandy little poll where you can say yay or nay. And if you want to voice your (respectful!) two cents, please do so in the below Comments section.
Vote Now!
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We were on a European river cruise in August where everyone, both passengers &crew were required to be vaccinated. The ship was pretty much full, so it didn’t seem to reduce the number of passengers.
It was really comforting to only be around folk that were fully vaccinated.
I for one would love to be on an aircraft where everyone was vaccinated. Not going to happen though. The greedy airlines would be afraid they might miss a dollar or two of revenue
The first surcharge should be people over 250lbs. They burn more fuel, causing more carbon emissions.
Then a surcharge for people in wheelchairs. They slow the boarding process for everyone else.
Then a surcharge for late term pregnant women. They can cause flight diversions.
Then a surcharge for kids. They cry and scream and make it unpleasent
Then a surcharge for adults who are not physically fit, they add strain to the US medical system.
Next a surcharge for people who are a different political party than the CEO of the airline. Just for spite.
You people have no idea what you are inviting here. Medical segregation is real. You’re dividing up people and demanding those who are different than you, get second class facilities. Are banned from activities.
We spent the last 50 years getting over that non-sense, and now you’re bringing it back?
If you’re vaccinated – super, enjoy your decision. Isn’t the point that you’re protected from the virus?
Why would you want to deny services to others, just because they are different?
After this, will you all start using skin color, race, or maybe IQ points to assign different services to different groups?
I agree with most of the surcharges you suggested in your post. Great ideas!
I voted no as charging more for an unvaccinated person makes no sense. I’m vaccinated and I think it our common responsibility to protect others around us.
So I would go with requiring all travellers (with few exceptions) to be vaccinated.
I have zero responsibility to protect you. None. Zip. But in any case, me being vaccinated with this particular shot does absolutely nothing whatsoever to protect you or anyone else from this virus. But you knew that.
It’s not gonna matter if they don’t roll back this INSANE mandate… There won’t be any flights to have this stupid conversation about in the first place. Kudos to Southwest, FAA ATC, hopefully AA and anyone else who stands up and says no to that rotting old bowl of oatmeal pretending to be the Commander In Chief in the White House.
So we want to create 2nd class citizens now for those who don’t comply with these tyrannical edicts from the state and our corporate overlords? This should be a no-brainer to every freedom loving American. Take a second to think about how you answered this poll. If you’re honest with yourself, it tells you all you need to know about you and what side you are on. Freedom or authoritarianism.
At this point, these shot mandates are purely a compliance metric. That’s it. It’s not about health. It’s not about public safety. It is about compliance.
The government bureaucracy and covid tyrants only want to know one thing. Will you comply or won’t you?
Natural immunity? They don’t care. Side effect concerns? They don’t care. Extremely low risk from severe sickness? They don’t care. All they care about is who complied and who didn’t.
Compliance metric. Don’t forget it. Once the mandates started, that’s what it became.
Actually it is better business management to require workers to be vaccinated – especially if they self fund their own medical insurance (large companies) as the medical cost of caring for even one sick COVID patient is astronomical. 99% of the COVID cases in our ICUs are the unvaccinated – and length of stay in the ICU can average 4 weeks or more. They also have more missed days of work with exposures and illness if get COVID. It makes no sense for airlines to charge more but for their employees it is actually a good business decision.
No, they should not charge extra for the unvaccinated. Doing so gives the covidiots a pass on responsibility, “Hey, I *paid* to have my infectious, contagious a$$ here!, I ain’t bein’ owned by some gummint mandate!”
The airlines _should_ assume that there are unvaccinated (and possibly sick) people on board and enforce the mask rules for everyone so no one gets to act elitist (or defiant).
It’s a little more than a yes/no answer. If people choose not to be vaccinated they should NOT be allowed to fly. Why should I be put at risk for their choices? Money is not the issue here. Plus, I believe the airlines would recover faster if people knew they were safe from infection while on the plane/airport.
How does an unvaccinated person pose any risk to you? Be specific.
I want to hear that answer also. If vaccination is supposed to keep ME safe, why do I care if YOU get one?
@Alan @Sarah – An unvaccinated person is much more likely to end up in the hospital. If I need an ICU bed, but they are all taken by unvaccinated COVID19 folks, it will pose a huge risk to me or my loved ones who need a bed.
Not to mention the long term impact on my health insurance premiums to pay for all these unvaccinated folks who end up with massive hospital bills.
Beyond that the impact on some of the finest health care folks I know who are just about done because the stress of seeing so many die who would not have had they just got vaccinated.
I think this is a great post from Chris. I do think the only ones who should be allowed to fly are vaccinated and I think that is on the way soon.
I would love to see Delta do something like – you get bonus Skymiles every flight if you are vaccinated. 🙂
And, the person with other health issues, and, no, I’m not going to mention a specific disease, don’t raise your insurance premiums? Or keep you from a hospital bed?
I was told 15 years ago to take a medication because it would help me with my acid reflux. I did and, now, 5 years later, I have osteoporosis because that same medication leached calcium from my bones. Forgive me if I understand why people are hesitant to get any medication much less a mandated one.
P.S. I’m fully vaccinated and have an appointment to get my booster because I’m at the end of that run. I figure I’m old enough and have lived a pretty darn good life so, if the vaccine is going to be found to be harmful, I’ll be past my expiration date enough to not have to care. Unfortunately, I am very concerned about a broken bone and what that means for me at my age.
The first surcharge should be people over 250lbs. They burn more fuel, causing more carbon emissions.
Then a surcharge for people in wheelchairs. They slow the boarding process for everyone else.
Then a surcharge for late term pregnant women. They can cause flight diversions.
Then a surcharge for kids. They cry and scream and make it unpleasent
Then a surcharge for adults who are not physically fit, they add strain to the US medical system.
Next a surcharge for people who are a different political party than the CEO of the airline. Just for spite.
While this argument is (possibly) intended to be rhetorical, it completely misses the point.
None of these individual characteristics mentioned have the potential to cause significant illness, if not death, to those with whom they come in contact.
Frankly, at this point in time, proof of full vaccination must be required to: board a commercial flight, board a train, board a bus, board a ship, or any public transportation, AND the mask requirement must be eliminated.
Likewise for attending any public event that has more than 50 attendees.
Also, proof of full vaccination should be required to keep Medicare and/or Medicaid insurance coverage.
It is fair game for healthcare insurers to add a hefty surcharge for each covered individual that refuses to be fully vaccinated.
This is a public health issue and should not be politicized.
My employer and my clients require that I be vaccinated. So be it.
FWIW, I am a Libertarian.
A way of charging more without charging more is to required all unvaxxed passengers to have a negative test within two days prior to departure. We just returned from a cruise where they required everyone (vaxxed or not) to test negative within two days of embarkation. It was comforting to know the entire ship was negative.
NO!! Fat people are not charged more than skinny people.