Delta Air Lines promises to be at the “forefront” of any changes in commercial air travel and has already expressed a willingness to require immunity passports to travel.
Earlier this week Delta reported a first quarter loss of $534 million, its first loss in five years. During that presentation, Delta CEO Ed Bastian addressed the possibility of immunity passports:
“We will make whatever changes to the business model that will be necessary. If it turns out immunity passports will be a new form… You think about everything that came out of 9/11 with TSA and homeland security and new public agencies. Could there be a new public health agency coming out that requires a new passport to travel? We’ll be on the forefront of all those advances.”
Immunity passports are hardly a new invention of this era. Like a vaccination card, they have been used in the past to restrict movement. Chile is already in the process of issuing immunity passports to those who have contracted then recovered from COVID-19. These passports are also under consideration in several European nations.
The Problem With Immunity Passports
So much about COVID-19 remains unknown. In the context of immunity, it is not at all clear yet that those who have had it will not get it again.
From the World Health Organization (WHO):
“Some governments have suggested that the detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could serve as the basis for an ‘immunity passport’ or ‘risk-free certificate’ that would enable individuals to travel or to return to work assuming that they are protected against re-infection. There is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from COVID-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.”
WHO added that about 2% of patients who “beat” COVID-19 in South Korea have relapsed. Other data points are emerging.
In the United States, the Infectious Diseases Society of America also says that it is way too soon to start issuing immunity passports:
A5 pt1. We do not know enough about the new coronavirus yet to determine whether survivors are really immune. COVID-19 is such a new disease that there is no solid data on the immunity of survivors. #AskReuters https://t.co/tTwm5A2PgX
— IDSA (@IDSAInfo) April 22, 2020
There’s other problems as well. Problems of class, counterfeit, and other fraud. And this…if only those who have built up immunities can travel, I’d isolate myself for a few weeks, infect myself with the virus, and accept the attendant consequences that accompany it before accepting a long-term moratorium on how I make a living (not through this blog, but my other business). That’s a sobering thought…
CONCLUSION
Delta is ready to embrace immunity passports. While I understand Delta’s willingness to embrace whatever measures would be necessary to return passengers to the air, there is a lot more testing that should be performed before we even have a talk about the moral ramifications of COVID-19 immunity passports.
From a business perspective come summer this could have some devastating further effects on smaller businesses. For deals that require presence and travel the company that has the most employees with these “passports” will hold a massive advantage. Most likely they will be the larger company with more of a pool to recruit or find them. So those who managed to avoid the virus and not develop immunity will stand no opportunity to compete. Even internally, within one company, the employees who never contracted the virus are left aside for perhaps a year as others gain advantages in the field.
Take a construction project for example. The larger one will have more workers and project managers available to a work site (many of which they travel to) and will win the contract specifically on that ability. Smaller firms will be hung out to dry as they won’t be able to field as many and would require a longer wait.
This is a brave new world approach that is frightening on many levels. It begins to separate and offer special rights to a new society of, “The Immune.” My example is just one of thousands of ways this could harm the greater good.
And, let’s not forget the ability to abuse the system with fake passports and fake immunity clearance that people will be forced to do to try and stay relevant against, “The Immune.”
If there is no vaccine and poor immunity after getting Covid 19, then the solution remaining is drastic…
1. Let people die
2. Spend half of the country’s resources on medical care
3. Complete lockdown, not like this current one.
With a complete lockdown, truly essential workers would be quarantined (electricity, water, health care, gasoline). There would be required stockpiling and then a predetermined future date for a 3 week lockdown. Violate the lockdown and get an automatic prison sentence without a trial.
Do you really endorse the 3rd option? You endorse Stalin gulag or National Socialist camps? I will never set foot in such a country
Delta should go f*ck itself.
“In the context of immunity, it is not at all clear yet that those who have had it will not get it again.”
Which is the problem with getting an immunity passport these days…still not enough info about the virus.
A passport system would be unworkable. Not only are we unsure about actual immunity, there aren’t enough people who have recovered from COVID-19. Health care systems were initially stressed by the product of unmitigated spread of the virus. Now that we know it is out there, we can go about our lives in relative normalcy while wearing masks, practicing proper hygiene and etiquette and keeping our distance as much as possible. If you are afraid of catching the virus, you are free to stay at home. The rest of us should be free to get on with it. If 20% of New Yorkers have already been infected, they are well on their way to herd immunity. We should aim for herd immunity before a virus is even available. COVID-19 may be deadlier than the flu, but not so much that we need to endure a lockdown.
The mere concept is Repugnant to a Constitutional Republic. If this is the policy of DAL we shall hope other carriers will not adopt such a policy. Given the choice I will NEVER fly DAL ever again seeing this is the attitude of their management. Kiss my A– DAL.
Charger John
Spot on correct. The type of a response I wish that more would make.
@Charger John: Correct. This entire pandemic is seemingly being used to re-engineer entire societies, countries – especially Europe, the U.S, the Western World democracies. Something is afoot. Game it is. But not a four-footed type. It is amazing how quickly the likes of self-annointed medical doctor Bill V. Gates and his wife suddenly are catapulted onto the MSM news shows to bring up vaccines, control measures, immunity passports and tracking apps. You just cannot make up this diabolical rush to destroy our fragile United States. The deep state is alive and well and using this pandemic to push to usher in total control.
The entire aspect of the COVID-19 deaths, infections is a great calamity. But also great is the sinisterism employed by the elites to destroy humanity’s freedoms and enslave us all in their twisted fantasy world.
Consider, to all those who believe I’m off base, that the world saw the Spanish Flu 1918-19 in which 50 millions were have estimated to have died globally. Humanity survived, so did U.S. freedoms. We, in America and many other countries, used to require a person who enters the country show an immunization/vaccination card. That requirement ended long ago.
And, of course, those documents were hand written and could easily be falsified. With nano-techonology, with too many billionaires with too much time and money on their hands, with devious and psychopathic control freaks in our world, the employment of that technology, using COVID-19 as the basis – could spell the arrival of a global gulag.
Let me guess – you think George Soros is the ultimate puppet master? And that Faux News is just a BIT too lib’l for you these days?
LOL you stupid trolls.
How does an “immunity card” protect my HIPAA privacy? And can you IMAGINE how many people will have access to my info? Also..since vaccinating is still somewhat optional, how will the anti vaxers respond? I dunno smells like a war is brewing…
Even if this idea wasn’t morally abhorrent, I’d like to point out Delta would be losing about 84-96% of its market, given the tiny number of the “elites” that would be privileged to fly in this scenario.
Some of the things being discussed are infinitely more frightening than this disease.
a good reason to never fly Delta.
I totally agree with Delta airline recommendations requiring an immunity passport. I recollect when I was a kid living in the developing world we all had a WHO passport issued by the United Nations to show all the vaccinations administered….
This pandemic requires this type of an official United Nations WHO issued immunity passport to board or travel on any flight as a prerequisite for entry requirements by all countries. This should reduce the risk to passengers travelling as well as to countries you are visiting. Especially if our aim is not to infect others and to get the world economies moving safely again. This issues should not be used as a political football by both sides of the political divide, lives are at stake here. This should be our paramount concern to achieving a happy medium between civil liberties and privacy of individuals to keeping everyone safe.
Umm, but we don’t have a vaccination. Lol. It’s not the same.
Immunity passports for domestic travel would be brazenly unconstitutional. Moreover, if I was a Delta shareholder, I’d be enraged. Does anyone really think this country will have adequate antibody tests by the time that the public is ready to cautiously resume flying? Delta’s proposal would condemn airlines to financial misery for the rest of the year — and force taxpayers to give them yet another bailout. Really, the ignorance that comes from Atlanta is sometimes too much to bear.
Delta: We just lost $500 million. Let’s alienate half our potential customers!