United Airlines latest US firm to mandate COVID jabs for staff

United Airlines on Friday became the first major carrier in the US to require all of its domestic staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

United Airlines on Friday became the first major carrier in the United States to require all of its domestic staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, adding to the list of US corporations imposing vaccine mandates on employees as the Delta variant rampages through parts of the nation. “We know some of you will disagree with this decision to require the vaccine for all United employees,” CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart told employees in a memo on Friday. “The facts are crystal clear: everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated.” United said all of its 67,000 US-based workers will need to show proof of vaccination by furnishing an image of their vaccine card to the company by October 25 or five weeks after the US Food and Drug Administration grants full approval for the Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. All of the COVID-19 vaccines in the US still carry experimental status.