For Immediate Release
Washington, D.C Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. today called on
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to investigate the
spike in near-misses and narrowly averted airline accidents
resulting from pilots incapacitated by health emergencies since
2021, coinciding with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination
campaign in the U.S.
In a
letter to Buttigieg, Kennedy wrote:
Secretary Buttigieg, the safety of pilots, cabin
crew, airline passengers, and the general public is not and never
has been a partisan issue. Everything contained within this letter
pertains to fundamental issues of public health and safety, which
you, the DOT, the FAA, and the Biden Administration profess to
uphold and to protect.
The changes to FAA guidelines and the lack of
publicly available evidence on which these changes rest, along with
the increasing number of incidents involving the incapacitation or
vaccine-related injury of pilots, are highly concerning.
A Childrens Health Defense (CHD) analysis of raw data obtained
from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) determined there was
a marked increase, on a per-flight basis, in medical
emergency-related flight diversions in both 2021 and 2022, compared
to 2019 and prior years, Kennedy said.
Similarly, there was a marked increase in medical emergency
diversions on a per-passenger basis in 2021 compared to 2019 and
prior years, while the 2022 figure is higher than those for 2018
and 2019, indicating an increase in medical emergencies occurring
in the air, when adjusted for the reduced number of flights and
passengers in the 2021 and 2022 calendar years compared to the
pre-2020 period.
Kennedy said the FAA violated its own guidelines by recommending
COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use for pilots, contrary
to the agencys policy of prohibiting pilots from taking any medical
product that has been on the market for less than 12 months.
Kennedys 13-page letter citing 69 sources detailed evidence the
FAA loosened medical restrictions for conditions such as
myocarditis and Guillain-Barr Syndrome, both documented adverse
events related to COVID-19 vaccines.
The letter outlines 12 questions Kennedy said Buttigieg and the
FAA need to answer for the American public and demands a thorough
investigation into whether COVID-19 vaccines may be endangering
pilots, flight crews and the public.
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Childrens Health Defense is a 5...