The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said on Sunday that he would support a vaccine requirement for domestic air travel in the US since it would encourage people to get vaccine.
Fauci said that the vaccine requirement for international travelers to the US is to prevent them from getting sick.
He made the comments in an interview.
A vaccine requirement for a person getting on the plane is just another level of getting people to have a mechanism that would spur them to get vaccinations.
President Joe Biden said in December that he did not think a mandate was necessary.
I continue to rely on the scientists and ask them if we have to move beyond what we did yesterday. He told the New York Post that they were saying no.
This Week is on December 26, 2021.
In November, Pete Buttigieg said he didn't believe a mandate for domestic air travel was necessary, and that current strategies on planes were effective in stopping the spread of COVID-19.
Fauci called the mandate welcome, but pointed to existing strategies as effective in stemming the spread of COVID-19.
Fauci said anything that could get people more vaccinations would be good. He said that if you look at the filters on planes, they are safe.
More than 1.7 million people went through security screenings at US airports on December 24 compared to less than 600,000 people who traveled on Christmas Eve in 2020.
The Omicron variant of the novel coronaviruses is believed to be more transmissible than previous strains of the novel coronaviruses, which may cause more "mild" illness, experts say.
Fauci said the Omicron variant is "extraordinarily contagious."
It goes up and down. He said that the last weekly average was about 150,000 and that it will go much higher.
