Leading airline and business groups are asking the administration of US President Joe Biden to develop temporary credentials that would let travelers show that they have been tested and vaccinated for COVID-19, a step that the airline industry believes would help revive business.
Various groups and nations are working on developing so-called “vaccine passports” aimed at allowing more travel, but airlines fear that a smattering of regional credentials would cause confusion and none would be widely accepted.
“It is crucial to establish uniform guidance [and] the US must be a leader in this development,” more than two dozen groups said on Monday in a letter to White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients.
However, the groups said that vaccination should not be a requirement for domestic or international travel.
The groups include the main US and international airline trade organizations, airline labor unions and the US Chamber of Commerce.
The White House did not immediately comment.
The WHO and the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization are working on the type of information to include in a credential. The airline industry groups are particularly interested in having the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) take a leading role, believing that would increase certainty that information in the credentials is legitimate.
The CDC on Monday issued new guidelines for fully vaccinated people, saying they can — without wearing a mask — meet other vaccinated people and visit unvaccinated people in a single household who are at low risk for severe disease, but it still recommended against travel.
“Every time that there is a surge in travel, we have a surge in cases in this country,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said.
Walensky said that many variants of COVID-19 now spreading in the US started in other nations, but she held out the possibility that with more data, the CDC could soon approve travel by vaccinated people.
Airlines have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. Despite a partial recovery, US airlines are still losing US$150 million a day, according to Airlines for America.
The number of people going through US airports remains down nearly 60 percent so far this year compared with 2019. Most of those people are flying within the US.
Airlines are counting on widespread vaccinations to boost domestic travel, and for “vaccine passports” to give a boost to highly lucrative international travel.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
RSS