United CEO expects more companies will heed Biden's call to vaccinate

Reuters

Published Aug 11, 2021 08:53AM ET

Updated Aug 11, 2021 09:20PM ET

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Tracy Rucinski

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -United Airlines Chief Executive Scott Kirby (NYSE:KEX) said he believes more U.S. companies and organizations will begin requiring COVID-19 vaccinations, after a meeting with President Joe Biden on the topic on Wednesday.

"A few weeks from now, this is going to be something that's widespread across the country because it's really just a basic safety issue," Kirby told CNN after the meeting.

United is among a growing list of U.S. companies mandating shots for workers as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations https://tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR soar in areas with low vaccination rates, mainly conservative states in the U.S. South.

Kirby said Biden had asked those at the 30-minute meeting about their vaccination efforts and encouraged them to persuade other business leaders to follow suit.

Alaska Airlines, which employs about 20,000 people, said separately that it was looking closely at whether it would require that its employees be vaccinated.

"If we do, the requirement would not be effective until at least one vaccine is fully approved by the FDA and would include appropriate religious and medical exemptions", an Alaska Airlines spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Earlier, a White House official said Howard University President Wayne Frederick, Kaiser Permanente Chief Executive Gregory Adams and a South Carolina business owner who adopted a vaccinate-or-get-tested requirement for her workers would also attend the meeting.

Biden has endorsed companies and local governments pressing more people to get vaccinated. His administration is also looking into what authority businesses have to mandate vaccines, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Reuters last week.

"I will have their backs and the backs of other private- and public-sector leaders if they take such steps," the Democratic president said last week.

United announced https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/united-airlines-makes-covid-19-shots-compulsory-us-employees-2021-08-06 its vaccine requirement for U.S.-based employees last week and Kirby said that while some had opposed the move, the overall response had been overwhelmingly positive.

Mandating vaccines for passengers would be more difficult, he said, citing logistical challenges.

Its major U.S. rivals, American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL), Delta Air Lines (NYSE:DAL) and Southwest Airlines (NYSE:LUV), are encouraging employee vaccinations but not imposing them.