Delta Air Lines employees who are hesitant to get the COVID shot can now breathe a sigh of relief as the legacy carrier's CEO Ed Bastian announced that the company will not implement any COVID vaccine mandate. Bastian reported that the company has already achieved high vaccination rates without such a mandate.
"A month before the president came out with the mandate, we had already announced our plan to get all of our people vaccinated," Bastian said, as reported by Breitbart. "And the good news is the plan is working."
Bastian explained that the reason why President Biden announced a COVID vaccine mandate in September for private companies with at least 100 employees was "to make sure companies had a plan to get their employees vaccinated," which Delta Air Lines already had in place.
The Delta Air Lines CEO explained however, that such a mandate is "divisive" and is counterproductive. Bastian said that respecting people's decisions was far more productive than forcing anyone to get the jab.
The Delta Air Lines CEO said, "By the time we're done, we'll be pretty close to fully vaccinated as a company without going through all the divisiveness of a mandate," underscoring that it was all about "trusting your people to make the right decisions, respecting their decisions and not forcing them over the loss of their jobs."
The U.S. airline industry made headlines last weekend after thousands of Southwest Airlines flights were abruptly canceled, sparking speculation that it was because of a covert union strike.
The mass cancellation of flights came just two days after the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA) filed a case asking a federal judge to "temporarily block the company from carrying out federally mandated coronavirus vaccinations until an existing lawsuit over alleged U.S. labor law violations is resolved," Bloomberg reported.
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly admitted to CNBC that he was "never been in favor of corporations imposing that kind of a mandate. I'm not in favor of that. Never have been," but that President Biden's COVID vaccine mandates all federal contractors, which includes all major airlines to comply, forcing them to force their employees to get the COVID jab.
Recently, right-wing political commentator Dr. Jane Ruby reported that three whistleblowers from Delta Air Lines told her that "a pilot died in flight." She said, "The co-pilot told the flight attendant that the pilot was speaking normally one moment, then said a few weird things, then died. The flight had to make an emergency landing. The co-pilot also shared with the flight attendant...that the pilot who died had told the co-pilot had completed his second (COVID-19) shot," Snopes reported.
Delta Air Lines, however, has released no information about the incident and denied reports of a pilot dying after getting the COVID vaccine, Newsweek reported. In a statement released on Tuesday, the company said, "Delta is aware of reports suggesting one of the airline's pilots passed away from vaccine complications while operating a flight, resulting in an emergency landing. All of these allegations are false."
