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The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday voted down an amendment that would have reinstated pilots fired for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine. The vote was 294 to 141, with 83 Republicans joining the Democrats to sink the proposal.

The amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill was introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who told FOX Business:

“Hundreds of pilots were forced out of their livelihoods over the past several years for their refusal to get COVID vaccine. … They were denied medical freedom to decide whether they should take the experimental COVID vaccine or lose their job.”

This news comes “when the transportation industry is stretched to the point of dysfunction,” Joshua Yoder, president of US Freedom Flyers, told The Defender:

“Pilots are essential to keeping the economy moving. Pilots and the American public will continue to feel the negative effects of unlawful mandates and crippling policies of degenerative public/private partnerships.

“As is evident by this vote, our country is being run by a uniparty and it’s time for the American people to put a stop to it.”

Bob Snow, a commercial pilot who received the vaccine under duress and later suffered related injuries, told The Defender he believes the amendment was voted down “out of spite” by some Republicans because of Greene’s positions on a number of contentious issues that put her at odds with her own party.

Snow said:

“I think there are a large number of elected representatives who supported the draconian COVID-19 measures enacted by various entities in the country and now feel the need to ‘stick to their guns’ and ride the narrative even though the measures ran the gamut from ineffective (to include spurious and irresponsible) to criminal.”

According to the Texas Scorecard, members of Congress “were pressured by airline group lobbyists to vote against the amendment, arguing that the decision over rehiring those pilots should be left up to the individual airlines.”

Those same airlines, however, received $25 billion in taxpayer funds as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act bailout during the height of COVID-19, which was justified in part to keep airline workers employed.

Laura Cox, a pilot who helped found Airline Employees 4 Health Freedom, told Texas Scorecard:

“Hundreds of airline employees, not just pilots, were terminated at United Airlines if they were unsuccessful navigating United’s impersonal and discriminatory online system for obtaining a reasonable accommodation.”

FAA violated own guidelines in requiring COVID shots

During the pandemic, most major U.S. airlines imposed controversial vaccine mandates in accordance with President Biden’s 2021 executive order requiring federal contractors to get the shots. These requirements were lifted on May 1, 2023.

In response to the 2021 executive order, many pilot groups and unions pushed back, including the Allied Pilots Association and the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association.

Concerns over the FAA’s endorsement of the COVID-19 vaccines came as early as Dec. 15, 2021, in a letter from the California-based Advocates for Citizens’ Rights.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., then-chairman and chief litigation counsel for Children’s Health Defense (now chairman on leave), and Mary Holland, then-president and general counsel of CHD (now president on leave), co-signed the letter, which accused the FAA and the aviation industry of:

“Putting both pilots and the general public at risk of death and/or serious injury by operating in contravention of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, §61.53, and related guidance which together operate to disallow medical clearance of pilots who have injected or ingested non-FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] approved products — like the COVID-19 inoculation.”

Kennedy called this out again in a March 2023 letter to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, requesting an investigation into the spike in near-misses and narrowly averted airline accidents after the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Kennedy noted that the FAA violated its own guidelines by recommending pilots get the unlicensed COVID-19 vaccines.

The FAA Guide for Aviation Medical Examiners, under the heading “Pharmaceuticals (Therapeutic Medications) — Do Not Issue — Do Not Fly” states:

“The FAA generally requires at least one year of post-marketing experience with a new drug class before consideration. This observation period allows time for uncommon, but aeromedically significant adverse effects to manifest.”

FDA’s guidance on EUA medical products requires option to accept or refuse

Federal law also prohibits employers from requiring vaccines distributed under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).

As previously reported in The Defender, documents reveal that the FAA had strongly recommended pilots receive the COVID-19 vaccines issued under EUA, despite the agency’s own regulations prohibiting pilots from taking medications or therapeutics that have been on the market for 12 months or less.

For example, in a May 25, 2021, Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO), the FAA wrote:

“Crewmembers are encouraged to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Those who hold an FAA-issued airman medical certificate must comply with any applicable medical requirements following vaccination. Crewmembers are encouraged to share their vaccine status with their employer’s occupational health program. …

“… These vaccines are effective against COVID-19, including severe disease, and a growing body of evidence suggests that fully vaccinated people are less likely to have asymptomatic infection or to transmit SARS-CoV-2 to others, although further investigation is ongoing.”

The FDA granted the first EUA for COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020. Under FAA regulations, pilots should have been prohibited from taking the vaccines until December 2021 at the earliest, and perhaps not until EUA was replaced by full licensure.

The FDA’s guidance on the EUA medical products also requires the FDA to “ensure that recipients are informed to the extent practicable given the applicable circumstances [and] … That they have the option to accept or refuse the EUA product.”

Discrimination, wrongful termination lawsuits continue 

In January 2023, a class action lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County Illinois against United Airlines by furloughed and fired employees — including pilots, flight attendants and mechanics — alleging wrongful termination. United Airlines previously — in April 2022 — fired 232 employees who refused the COVID-19 vaccine.

The plaintiffs alleged the airline “used deception, discrimination, psychological manipulation, and physical isolation” to force employees “under threat of termination to participate in a dangerous social and medical experiment.”

They also alleged they were harassed in an attempt to force “to submit to an injection of an unknown substance” of “questionable efficacy.”

The suit, still in its infancy, is not the first of its kind triggered by COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

“The continued downstream carnage from the COVID-19 shots is not just leaving pilots unable to work while killing others, it is also punishing those still who chose not to take an unconstitutionally mandated experimental biologic by not allowing them to return to work after wrongful termination,” Yoder said.