FAUCI ON VACCINE MANDATES FOR AIRLINES: ‘I DON’T SEE THAT IMMEDIATELY’

Anthony Fauci on Sunday said he does not anticipate vaccine mandates for domestic airline travelers any time soon.

“It’s always discussable. We always wind up discussing it,” Fauci said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Right now, I don’t see that immediately.”

A vaccine mandate for domestic air travel would likely be staunchly opposed by Republican lawmakers and the travel industry as such a mandate could be viewed as government overreach by the Biden administration.

Fauci declined to take a position on the issue, saying he did not want his comments taken out of context.

“I don’t want to be weighing in, because we wind up then having people taking things out of context. We have everything on the table, and it will be discussed by the medical group,” Fauci said on Sunday.

Fauci has previously indicated some support for a possible mandate for airline travelers if the president wanted to move forward with one.

There has been some movement among Democrats in Congress for air travel mandates: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced a bill that would require either vaccination, a negative test or proof of recent recovery from the virus mandatory to fly domestically. In the House, Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) proposed legislation to require proof of vaccination or a negative test for domestic air or Amtrak travelers.