Ryanair CEO聽Michael O鈥橪eary has said that unvaccinated people should not be allowed to enter hospitals, supermarkets, or travel in airplanes and some other forms of public transport.
In an interview with聽 Daily Telegraph newspaper,聽O鈥橪eary said that while he doesn’t agree with mandatory聽COVID-19 vaccine programs, he does believe that governments should “make life difficult” for those who refuse vaccines without a good enough reason.
Mandatory vaccine programs,聽enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, are currently in place in the United States after President Joe Biden in September issued a sweeping set of new rules for employees聽regarding vaccinations and testing.
聽rules are scheduled to take effect on Jan. 4 and dictate that聽employers with 100 or more employees ensure each of their workers is fully vaccinated or that they test for COVID-19 on at least a weekly basis. All unvaccinated workers must also wear a mask in the workplace.
Health care employees working at facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid, including hospitals and long-term care facilities, must also be fully vaccinated, which is set to affect聽more than 17 million workers.
In the聽United Kingdom, as of April 2022, all National Health Service workers who have “direct contact with patients” will need to have received at least two doses of a聽COVID-19聽vaccine after lawmakers gave the measure the green light last week.
“I don’t think that governments should permit those people who are not vaccinated to go and infect everybody else,”聽O鈥橪eary said.聽“If you’re not vaccinated, you shouldn’t be allowed in the hospital, you shouldn’t be allowed to fly, you shouldn’t be allowed on the London Underground, and you shouldn’t be allowed in the local supermarket or your pharmacy either.”
“You can sit at home and you know, get your deliveries of medicines and food. But you should not, you know, go to work or go on public transport unless you have a vaccine certificate,” he said.
Ryanair CEO noted that while he believes聽mandatory vaccines would be an “infringement of your civil liberties,” governments could simply “make life so difficult. Or [make it that] there are lots of things that you can鈥檛 do unless you get vaccinated.”
O鈥橪eary’s comments come after聽White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients warned that unvaccinated individuals are facing a “winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm,” amid the new Omicron variant.
Speaking during a briefing on Sunday,聽Zients urged people to聽get vaccinated or receive boosters if they鈥檙e eligible, in line with Biden’s rhetoric in recent months.
new variant聽of the virus, which causes聽COVID-19,聽has seen American schools, businesses, and restaurants shutter their doors while events have been canceled as a precautionary measure as fears surrounding the virus continue to grow.
Meanwhile, governments across the globe have put in place various travel restrictions to stem the spread of the disease, caused by the聽CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
However,聽few Omicron-related deaths have been officially confirmed worldwide, and it is still unclear if any have been聽reported in the United States. UK has so far reported 12 deaths of people with the new variant, as the government debates on whether or not to tighten restrictions during the Christmas period.
Elsewhere,聽O鈥橪eary said Ryanair is expecting to fly one million fewer passengers during December due to the latest travel restrictions, which represents a fall of 10 percent.
“If there’s聽continuing uncertainty over Christmas聽on further restrictions or some kind of further restrictions, then January will be weak and the forward bookings in Easter and next summer will be weak鈥攕o we just don’t know,” he said, adding that the UK and Irish governments are “just trying to lock everybody down for another two weeks up to Christmas.”
“And these restrictions will be removed, but they will effectively have, you know, blocked a lot of people traveling or who are planning to fly over Christmas because they’ve created huge uncertainty and nervousness,” he said.
Pezou : Ryanair CEO Says Unvaccinated Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Enter Hospitals, Supermarkets, or Airplanes