It's been months since safe, effective, free vaccines against COVID-19 became widely available to the public, but—in the absence of herd immunity—the threat of deadlier, vaccine resistant variants still looms.
A key driver of lagging vaccination rates are vaccine skeptics, many of whom have fallen for far-right conspiracy theories regarding vaccines—theories like the vaccine is secretly magnetized or microchipped, and even that it's the biblical "mark of the beast."
But it's been more than a year and a half since the most deadly pandemic in U.S. history upended daily life in the United States. With the widespread availability of free vaccines, the public has grown weary of accommodating for the willfully unvaccinated. As such, more and more entities are mandating vaccines.
This is especially true for air travel, which saw a near-catastrophic dip in profits as the world went into lockdown. Airlines like JetBlue, American, and United are requiring employees to get the shots. Meanwhile, the White House and Congress are mulling legislation to require vaccinations (or a negative COVID test).
Though vaccine mandates have been implemented for centuries, even by the likes of George Washington himself, vaccine skeptics insist that any sort of mandate or even an effort to encourage vaccinations is un-American.
On Monday, far-right media personality Elijah Schaffer—who accompanied rioters during the January 6 insurrection, referring to them as "revolutionaries"—tweeted that he was considering getting a pilot license and a personal plane in order to bypass potential vaccine mandates for air travel.
"Surprisingly not expensive," he posted.
No cap, if flying becomes impossible due to vax status, I\u2019m going to get my pilot license and buy a small plane \n\nAlready looking at pricing and mods in preparation. Will probably share the plane w/ a few friends to cut down maintenance & hanger costs \n\nSurprisingly not expensive— ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ELIJAH SCHAFFER) 1633314976
Cheaper than some of my friend's cars
People think that flying is a luxury for the ultra elite
Absolutely not true
Sure, it's not cheap if you're on a tight budget
But just like any necessity, may require pairing up with a few friends
We will not submit
— ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ElijahSchaffer) October 4, 2021
People scoffed at the ludicrous idea.
The vax is too dangerous to play around with, so instead I'm going to fly a small, single engine plane with little to no experience with my friendshttps://twitter.com/ElijahSchaffer/status/1444853847734771712\u00a0\u2026— Will \ud83e\udda5 Menaker (@Will \ud83e\udda5 Menaker) 1633362916
Does Elijah know he will be subject to physicals on a regular basis as mandated by the FAA? And written tests as well as practicals? And annual or biannual flight reviews? I mean...signing up for lots of Federal regulation to avoid one Federal regulation.https://twitter.com/ElijahSchaffer/status/1444853847734771712\u00a0\u2026— Uncle Jimmy - Ivermectin Has What Plants Crave\ud83e\uddc2 (@Uncle Jimmy - Ivermectin Has What Plants Crave\ud83e\uddc2) 1633355580
yeah i\u2019m going to fly my small plane across the country. also buy all my own fuel and is it cool if i park it on the streethttps://twitter.com/elijahschaffer/status/1444853847734771712\u00a0\u2026— raandy (@raandy) 1633319206
Slamming into the side of a mountain to own the libshttps://twitter.com/elijahschaffer/status/1444853847734771712\u00a0\u2026— \ud83c\udf83 Deseret Treatbag \ud83c\udf83 (@\ud83c\udf83 Deseret Treatbag \ud83c\udf83) 1633363016
"I will NOT comply and get a free shot! Instead I will spend a ton of money to get a license from a federal agency and carefully obey their rules so I can exercise my newfound FREEDOM, within the very strict limitations that entails."https://twitter.com/ElijahSchaffer/status/1444853847734771712\u00a0\u2026— Spaghetti Kozak Media (@Spaghetti Kozak Media) 1633318278
After the tweet was heavily mocked, Schaffer insisted that people were actually "so pissed" at him and that he was "loving every second" of it.
They are so pissed. Loving every second lol
— ELIJAH SCHAFFER (@ElijahSchaffer) October 4, 2021
But that didn't seem to be the case at all.
"All of these people laughing at me are really mad"— DanFostersEthos (@DanFostersEthos) 1633323487
pic.twitter.com/TjWq1tZz76— MSgt Spooky Szn (@MSgt Spooky Szn) 1633351207
Dude we are laughing at you lmao— Center-left stan account (@Center-left stan account) 1633331949
losers love using this line when they\u2019re getting rightfully grilled on twitter. the shots are literally free idk how much cheaper it can be than buying a whole ass plane lmaooooooo— Gaba-ghoul Muncher (@Gaba-ghoul Muncher) 1633371359
Awkward.
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