The Biden White House has refused to rule out extending its vaccine mandate to cover domestic air travel.
On the day that U.S. airports re-opened to fully vaccinated international travelers for the first time in 20 months, the possibility that Americans using them would also have to be fully jabbed remains open.
After she was asked about vaccine mandates for domestic travel, White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded, “We say this all the time – everything is on the table.”
“We just don’t have an announcement to preview right now on this,” she added. “So I don’t have anything more to share on the domestic travel.”
The option is being kept on the table despite a vaccine mandate imposed on businesses with over 100 employees being temporarily suspended by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals over the weekend.
The administration has also previously suggested that it could try to extend the mandate to businesses with under 100 employees, impacting millions more companies.
Any attempt to ban unvaccinated Americans from domestic travel will further exacerbate a $300billion hit on the economy caused by the suspension of international travel.
Around 20 per cent of Americans remain unvaccinated while 70 per cent have received both doses of the jab.
