United testing covid test, vaccine passport
 

https://amp.ft.com/content/8d603248-...mpression=true

“CommonPass will not conduct tests. Instead it aims to establish standard certifications for Covid-19 test results and, eventually, proof that a passenger has been vaccinated against the virus.“


Is United going to mandate a vaccine for all employees?

The first trials of a digital health pass that certifies airline passengers are Covid-free will begin this week in a push to reopen international travel fully after nearly nine months of disruption.

The World Economic Forum-backed CommonPass project aims to create the first globally recognised proof that a passenger has tested negative for the virus before a flight, using a digital certificate downloaded to a mobile phone.

CommonPass will not conduct tests. Instead it aims to establish standard certifications for Covid-19 test results and, eventually, proof that a passenger has been vaccinated against the virus.

Steve Morrissey, a regulatory and policy executive at United Airlines, which is part of the pilot scheme, said the trials were “critical” to developing an alternative to the quarantine requirements and travel restrictions currently in force in many countries.

United and Cathay Pacific Airways are set to begin testing the digital health pass on routes linking travel hubs including London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore on Thursday.

The aviation industry is hopeful that passenger testing can restart international travel but many governments, including the UK’s, have stuck to blunt measures such as self-isolation requirements for incoming passengers.

UK cabinet ministers, for example, have promised an announcement on airport testing, although industry executives expect any measures would only shorten the quarantine period.

Travellers are presenting their test results on pieces of paper — or photos of paper — with no standard format

Paul Meyer, chief executive of the Commons Project


There is currently no international co-ordination of Covid-19 testing at airports or universal quarantine requirements, and the airline industry has long-been pushing for a joined-up international approach.

Etihad’s chief executive, Tony Douglas, told the Financial Times last month that health visas would be preferable to the so-called air corridors employed by some countries, including the UK, which he dismissed as a “marketing exercise”.

CommonPass, which has been developed by the World Economic Forum and Swiss not-for-profit the Commons Project Foundation, was inspired by the cross-border co-operation between members of the East African Community. The six countries — including Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda — worked together to share test results to help shift miles of backed-up trucks along their borders.

“Individual national responses will not be sufficient to address this global crisis,” said Christoph Wolff, the World Economic Forum’s head of mobility.

“Bans, bubbles and quarantines may provide short-term protection but developed and developing nations alike need a long-term, flexible, and risk-based approach,” he said.

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Test before you board is the only route back to air travel
The pass’s creators say it will also help deal with the problem of forged or copied test results.

“As it stands, travellers are presenting their test results on pieces of paper — or photos of paper — with no standard format, often in a language foreign to those inspecting them,” said Paul Meyer, chief executive of the Commons Project.

This month’s trials will be monitored by government agencies, including US border officials and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the volunteers will still have to abide by national immigration requirements, including self-isolation.

Martin S. Cetron, a director at the CDC, said the agency was “eager to learn” from the pilot.

Cool, let's go. Time to fix this industry. Business travelers will come back when they feel completely safe.

Not sure this can be mandated without some exceptions made. As an example, I cannot get a flu shot ever because of a previous health issue back in high school. COVID-19 is in a family of viruses that include the flu from what I understand. That raises the question for me if I am restricted from getting the COVID-19 vaccine as well. I don't know the answer.

From everything I read, it sounds like they are pushing for 100% vaccination. Cuomo said that NY state will be a 100% vaccinated state without exceptions. Not sure how they can blanket force everyone. However this travel thing is concerning because if a certain government requires it, you just won’t be able to pass through customs.

Edit: I’m in the same boat in terms of bad reaction to vaccine, so I definitely don’t want to die or get permanently unable to work because of a vaccine for a virus that has a high survival rate for my age group.

LOL. That's what he thinks. :rolleyes:

Commies want this.

Not going to happen with mass testing With any of the current clinical tests, most of which were approved under emergency authorizations. Bayes Theorem eats you alive.

https://youtu.be/HaYbxQC61pw

https://youtu.be/VuskwsIW02M

That’s what I said, but would you be willing to give up your job?

They most likely can mandate it, it's fairly well established precedent.

If you have a *legit* medical reason, then you would be exempt most likely (not an emotional service animal style excuse that you bought on the internet). That's the case now for almost all vaccination mandates.

If you destination requires it, then it will be as condition of employment. Period. No grey area there. Assume that most foriegn countries (including Canada and Hawaii) will mandate vaccination for aliens, even if they don't or can't mandate it for their own citizens. I suspect the US will do that as well.

Yeah, let me know how that works out in the Hasidic Jewish communities in NYC. The recent measles outbreaks have been traced to low vaccination rates in Hasidic communities.

https://www.jta.org/2019/06/07/unite...cination-rates

Not to mention those giant bonfires they’ve built with their masks in NYC. I’m guessing our TEL flights are/ will be empty with the mask policy in place.

It's not in the same family of viruses at all, flu is influenza, covid-19 is a coronavirus, the two are nothing alike outside of the respiratory symptoms. Most of the vaccines they are working on aren't your typical vaccines either, they are using mRNA to get your cells to create their own antibodies (rather than injecting you with weakened or dead virus like most typical vaccines.). So, I wouldn't assume that you can't get it. However, if you truly can't get and UA's doctor agrees, I doubt there'd be any issue for you. Now there will be some antivaxxers that don't want to get it and make themselves a homemade certificate against government invention and that's a different story entirely...

My airline said they won't force us to take a vaccine. Can airlines can force you take a vaccine? What happened to my body, my choice?

The problem is it can affect other's health because not everybody can get the vaccine and there's precedent for vaccines being forced for public health. Many countries require proof of immunization, schools can require it, etc. This vaccine at best is probably only going to be 70% effective, which means to actually gain herd immunity, we still need just about everybody to get it to protect those who can't take it or it's not effective within. On top of that we will have to use masks potentially for awhile still to really eradicate it - making it incidental and reducing r0 substantially when it can't jump because of all the vaccinated population will eventually make it not a thing except in developing nations.


https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org...idemic/2006-04

I’ve worked at an airline that required international vaccine’s due to the areas we were flying. We carried our yellow vaccine cards with us while on duty.

You can choose to not be employed there. See how that works? It’s kinda like “freedom of speech.” Plenty of people think that gives them license to say whatever they choose. Your employer is not the government.

Freedom of speech has nothing to do with this.

Good luck to us all. I really don't think you're going to convince all 330 million in this country to inject themselves with the most rushed vaccine in the history of mankind for a virus that kills < 0.8%.

I would agree with that statement. What I disagreed with was what you said about your EMPLOYER. That’s why I COMPARED it to freedom of speech. For me personally, I don’t plan to get the vaccine....and the government can’t make me. However, my employer can make it a condition to work there....and so can a lot of businesses. That will change things.

Kills? Yes, that is one bad outcome. But it's looking like, the more we learn about the virus, the more we are seeing other long term lingering health issues that seem to be caused by the virus. This is also a consideration.

We need a new morbidity baseline. Funny how the media has moved on from the death count. This virus isn’t as deadly as once purported. Recent therapeutics along with better understanding of the virus have greatly increased survivability. I mean Chris Christy - older, morbidly obese, with asthma survived the Rona. We’re so close to seeing this in the rear view mirror.

PSA: None of the vaccines have been FDA approved. The EUA for each vaccine says that the FDA believes it to be safe and effective based on preliminary trials, but also warns that there is no FDA approved vaccine to prevent COVID-19. The vaccines haven't passed normal rigor, and they won't for about two years.

Though I think it's unlikely that an employer would require employees to take an experimental vaccine, I have personally decided to trust the FDA approval process on this. I'm saying no-thanks to anything merely emergency authorized unless risk factors worsen significantly.

Oh they are still flying....they just disregard the mask policy as soon as the wheels lift off. Had a constant battle with a group of them yesterday going EWR-MEX. FAs chose not to write an IOR which could’ve resulted in permanent bans.

Yup. Just like the military. I have 6 rounds of anthrax shots in 2006, smallpox, yellow fever, etc. Thanks, Osan.

Change "unlikely" to "cannot" (in the US). Once they get full approval then we'll see. Maybe the whole thing will have mostly blown over by that time.

The Company may not be able to force a vaccination mandate, but other countries can. If you don’t have a required vaccination to get into a specific country, you’ll simply be removed from the trip without pay. I think that’s how the Company will take care of it.

There is that. If certain countries have "approved" a specific vaccine to their own satisfaction, that's all the justification they'll need.

United must have a really weak CBA if the baseless acts of a foreign despot cause you to lose a trip and not be paid.

So which airline has this “get paid to sit home cause I dont have entry requirements due to mine own fault” clause?

Dude works for SWA and has a hard-on for bragging about making lots of money due to the pandemic.......so he’s just here to gloat and talk smack. Nothing to see here.

We were an AMC (Reach) contractor so we had many of the same requirements.

How is it your fault? taking an experimental vaccine or not is not a fault of your own making. Seems like contractually you would be pay protected for one of those trips. Surely your contract does not allow your whiz kid CEO to just make proclamations and change contractual protection. Maybe so

Too late to edit this....but I was incorrect about one detail. He’s an Alaska pilot, not SouthWest.

Gloating and money...Neither are my thing bro. Really curious about how the mando vax shots that y’all are talking about can even be a thing when a CBA does not allow it and I am not aware of any ALPA MEC anywhere that plans on signing off on it. Back to listening mode

The W2 thread says otherwise.....

As for the shots.....there’s MANDATORY and there’s “mandatory”. Yeah....I know my sentence is nonsense.....but my point is that it’s possible to make the alternative so undesirable and unpleasant that most people will go ahead and comply......regardless of whether it’s TRULY mandatory.

And United ALPA is good with that?

“You have to see it from the company’s point of view.”

My thoughts exactly. One of those things has NOTHING to do with the other.

There is a 2020 W2 thread on APC, therefore all pilots are greedy and conceited and ALPA is evil!:rolleyes:

nah....I think 9mikemike is tone deaf and kind of a Richard......and seems to want to provoke UAL pilots about UAL issues, despite not being a UAL pilot himself. All of those things add up to me not having much interest in what he has to say. I don’t think ALPA is evil, and I don’t think all pilots are greedy. Being VOCALLY greedy while many have suffered loss of livelihood is bad form. Defending that behavior after being called on it is even WORSE form.

Maybe breaking up the quotes makes more sense.

And this ^^^ is why you should always take your “meds” before posting on a public site….