Fauci: Officials Keeping an ‘Open Mind’ to Domestic Vaccine Requirement

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday said public health officials are maintaining an “open mind” when it comes to the prospect of implementing a domestic vaccine requirement, although he echoed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Rochelle Walensky by asserting that it is not happening at this “particular time.”

Fauci made waves this week after suggesting that officials are open to requiring vaccines to travel on domestic flights.

“When you make vaccination a requirement, that’s another incentive to get more people vaccinated,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC on Monday. “If you want to do that with domestic flights, I think that’s something that seriously should be considered.”

When asked about this controversial topic during Wednesday’s press conference with the White House COVID-⁠19 Response Team and Public Health Officials, Fauci backed off a bit, making it clear that such a requirement is “on the table” but adding that they do not believe it is necessary at this moment due to masks and filtration on planes.

“I had said, and I’ll say it again, that we — when we talk about keeping America safe and keeping our citizens safe, everything that is an intervention is always on the table and always discussed. And we discuss it regularly on — literally on a daily and a weekly basis,” Fauci began.

“The difference between requiring a vaccination before you get on a plane to come from out of the country into the United States is for the obvious reason of keeping infection, particularly new variants, out of the country,” he continued, explaining that officials feel like the masking requirement and filtration on planes is “sufficient to keep people safe” for the time being.

“However, as is very clearly the case for domestic travelers, as I mentioned, we want to keep them safe, but we believe that the requirement achieves that goal,” he continued, making it clear that the potential vaccine requirement is not out of the question entirely.

“If there’s a need to do more beyond this masking, mainly having a vaccine issue, we will seriously consider that as new information arises,” Fauci said.

“So, it’s just keeping an open mind that the situation may change,” he added. “But at this particular time, we do not feel that is necessary to make that a requirement for domestic flights.”

Walensky expressed the same sentiments during a Tuesday interview with NPR, explaining that a vaccine requirement for domestic travel is indeed a “topic of conversation” but “not something we’re revisiting right now.”

President Biden made it clear this week that he will impose the vaccine requirement if medical experts approve.