Former Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security under President Obama Juliette Kayyem called Tuesday for the Biden administration to restrict the unvaccinated from flying by placing them on a no-fly list.
Kayyem claimed in the Atlantic that “a no-fly list for unvaccinated adults is an obvious step that the federal government should take” due to TSA PreCheck, which “divide[s] passengers into categories according to how much of a threat the government thinks they pose.”
At the time of publication, the headline for the piece echoed this line, stating bluntly: “Unvaccinated People Belong on the No-Fly List.” The headline has since been changed to a more ambiguous sentence: “Unvaccinated People Need to Bear the Burden.”
The original headline still appears on social media shares of the article from The Atlantic‘s own account.
“If you submit to heightened scrutiny in advance,” Kayyem said, “TSA PreCheck lets you go through security without taking off your shoes; a no-fly list keeps certain people off the plane entirely.”
The author continues:
Flying is not a right, and the case for restricting it to vaccinated people is straightforward: The federal government is the sole entity that can regulate the terms and conditions of airline safety. And although air-filtration systems and mask requirements make transmission of the coronavirus unlikely during any given passenger flight, infected people can spread it when they leave the airport and take off their mask. The whole point of international-travel bans is to curb infections in the destination country; to protect itself, the United States still has many such restrictions in place. Beyond limiting the virus’s flow from hot spots to the rest of the country, allowing only vaccinated people on domestic flights will change minds, too.
Kayyem also suggests the “holdouts” with “a variety of motivations” include 41 percent of the unvaccinated that said “a prohibition on airline travel would get them closer to their shots.”
Kayyem champions shaming the unvaccinated, who should “face scorn among their peer group” and “may even be happy to have an excuse to protect themselves,” along with celebrating Broadway, Disney, and Walmart for forcing the unvaccinated to give up “certain societal benefits” to practice their their individuality and freedom of choice.
