Hawaii entrant Southwest Airlines confirmed today that their CEO CEO Gary Kelly tested positive for Covid in a bizarre coincidence following a Senate hearing with airline execs. This was very poor PR timing at best, inasmuch as Kelly had just made a statement that he did not believe that masks mandates on planes were needed. Kelly was testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday regarding the industry’s Covid bailout when he made that statement. Neither witnesses including Kelly, nor lawmakers, wore masks at that meeting.
How this impacts Southwest Hawaii’s winning streak is unclear. But it comes on a day when Covid cases just skyrocketed back to near-record numbers yet again, with an additional 797 infections reported by the Hawaii Department of Health.
SWA spokesperson said, “Gary tested positive for COVID-19 after returning home, experiencing mild symptoms, and taking a PCR test. Gary is doing well and currently resting at home, he has been fully vaccinated and received the booster earlier this year. Gary’s symptoms continue to be mild, and each day he is moving closer to a full recovery.”
Apparently, the other airline executives who were present have not tested positive following the hearing at which senators asked about a variety of issues including both airline vaccination and mask mandates.
At the hearing, unmasked Kelly said “I think the case is very strong that masks don’t add much if anything in the air cabin environment.” Hawaii-longtime airline American Airline’s CEO appeared to say that he too felt masks were unnecessary onboard, although he later issued a statement that he “did not intend to cast doubt on the necessity of face masks on planes.”
In an interesting anecdotal comment, Catherine just said with regards to flying, masks, and Covid, “We flew from the mainland to Oahu on Hawaiian Airlines. Two sick coughing, crying kids under the vaccination age sat across the isle from us. I wore my N95 and “double masked” until the hours long crying and coughing stopped. My husband only wore a surgical mask and was more casual about removing the mask for his beverage. He now has tested positive covid that presented 5 days after the flight. We are both double vaccinated and boosted. Was it my mask that saved me? I don’t know, I think so.”
Hawaii travel is just returning to recovery at a time when more cases of Covid are rearing their heads again, both on the mainland and here in Hawaii.
It isn’t clear how this may influence Southwest customers both in Hawaii and those flying to Hawaii. The announcement comes just on the heels of yesterday’s announcement: Southwest Hawaii Extends Booking Schedule | Summer Fares 50% Off and concurrent with competitor Hawaiian’s Flash Sale | Hawaiian Airlines Deals | 15 Routes $84.
What’s your take and does this change your feeling about flying Southwest Hawaii one way or the other?
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Masks are a red herring. There has never been a national standard or criteria signifying mask efficacy or requirement. Instead people can wear a bandana or whatever . . . This was the first heads-up in the government not treating Covid as a deadly disease (for those without co-morbidities) over a year and a half ago.
The CEO of SWA got Covid because he wasn’t wearing a mask after having being fully vaccinated including booster? You can’t make this stuff up nor can you have it both ways !
There you have it! Masks do work. Personally, we make a regular 5-6 week trip to Tampa each year for the past 8 years. Each of the first 6 years I’ve caught a cold, one a bad cold that lasted over a month until I got antibiotics before our flight back home to Hawaii. Last year, this past August (on a quick stay in Tampa) and now while here in Florida I’ve worn a mask. No cold!
Just a little research, how about Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, will add to upper managements understanding of what COVID-19 is and how to safeguard the millions of fliers they are impacting when promoting a proven infectious method, specifically no mask mandates. It’s a shame people in power don’t take care of the very person’s they are entrusted to keep alive in more ways than one.
It’s difficult to get covid on the aircraft because of the Hepa filter system on the aircraft. However, the airport is a different story and it’s very easy to get covid there. Small children usually cry on aircraft because, of the change in altitude when flying. That ear popping thing hurts babies badly and it’s not a good idea to put your child through that. I don’t understand why parents would give their child such pain.
Aloha Guys
Seems to me the Covid case numbers should be number of hospitalizations and not include the mild positive tests. It sounds like the OMG variant may be milder. if you are vaxxed you are relatively safe, others have survived and have some immunity, if not vaxxed it’s your choice and the new Pfizer drug sounds effective. It’s time to start realistically moving on and learn to live with this rather then keep fighting among ourselves.
I should clarify I don’t think it’s quite yet time to make masks optional on airplanes. Wearing them in crowded scenarios is still needed to slow the new variant until we get through this surge. If everyone was vaxxed it wouldn’t be necessary obviously but that’s not possible. Kelly’s pandering to the anti mask faction is just one more example of SWA’s disrespect towards Hawaii.
I will only fly one airline to Hawaii and that’s Hawaiian. They are very diligent to keeping an eye on their passengers and make sure they are following protocol.
I have to keep that in mind. On our recent SWA flights (to/from Hawaii included) the flight attendents ranged in their diligence in checking on masking.
There’s a difference between Hawaii (Aloha means caring for others) and Texas (my freedoms are more important then anything).
Not saying Freedom isn’t important but Hawaii is unique and there is still plenty of the Aloha spirit that makes it so.
I’m a little pressed to understand how repeating the same measures that thrice before have not measurably retarded the virus are the answer for this iteration. In my mind it seems an odd manner in which to move toward progress.
What is it about us that compels us to cling to things that demonstrate lack of success?
Perhaps it is because we can never determine failure if we cannot define success.
For the record Heyward Hawaii has been very successful at mitigating death and suffering from the virus. Interesting enough many many businesses have survived, innovated and made themselves stronger Also unemployment levels are very low here. These times have been very tough and I’m not minimizing the many who are struggling, but we will come out of this stronger with a bright future. Just like every other crisis this country has faced. We recover and thrive.
Hi JOHNW
I am happy to read Hawaii is doing well.
However, I do think we will only be allowed to know this with complete certainty when the elephants tire of their dance, turn off the COVID music, and loudly announce to we ants they have single-handedly won the battle with the virus.
Good news is when the nfl has the pro bowl on Oahu all the players will have had covid and the three therapy shots. So we got that going for us which is nice 🙂
I respect this CEO for coming out against the ridiculous mask mandates! People need to wake up, fully vaxxed forever maskers are getting covid. Do you really want to live the rest of your life in all this fear? You can not run from covid. I just pray my new years plans are not ruined by all this. I seriously regret not going to florida.
So much negativity in these conversations.
Everybody is so focused on being right and the ego.
Its sad.
Be nice everyone, be kind, it goes a long ways.
xoxox
He was fully vaxxed and boostered. It appears the vaccine doesn’t work.
I am at my limit with people who won’t even try to educate themselves about how vaccines work. I’m not talking about the Covid vaccine, but any vaccines. Vaccines do not prevent anyone from having a virus enter their system and testing positive for the presence of that virus in their bodies.
The antibodies & immune responses that vaccines enable the body to produce are TRIGGERED by the presence of the virus. This is the way that vaccines enable us to escape hospitalization and death. Sheesh.
It’s amazing after 2 years that anybody does not understand this.I suppose if you get all your information from anti-social media then that might explain it. I feel your frustration.
Nobody has ever said the vaccination totally prevents getting Covid, but it is very effective at preventing serious illness and death as is the case here….I would say Gary feels the vaccine is working very well indeed. No doubt he’s very happy he had it.
He is alive and breathing and not on a ventilator so it seems the vaccine does work
I have a problem with the SWA crews that fly in , spend the night and do an inter island leg, then go home. Their pilots sued to avoid the vaccination mandate, clearly they don’t respect us enough to at least offer the courtesy of being vaccinated when in our state. SWA reflects the Texas approach to dealing with Covid and Hawaii has a very different approach.
It won’t and shouldn’t have any effect on the flying public. Everyone wears a mask on a plane. There is no telling where or when we he contracted it. If he has no comorbidities statistics say he will be fine, as will more than 99% of people who get Covid-19 and are double vaccinated.
My daughter, who is a RN, is double vaccinated and boosted and still came down with it. It was little more than a bad cold. But, she is otherwise healthy and not overweight.
Time to get on with our lives.
Yeah Edc!!. I’m coming back from 5 days of Colorado skiing. Love keeping my life going strong at 70 years old. I’ll continue to take care of myself and not be afraid to thank my freedom as an American.
Time to move on? Tell that to the families of > 800,000 people who have died so far with no end in site — because people don’t want to be inconvenienced by wearing masks AND getting fully vaccinated.
Annette C – I never said move on from Covid-19. I said it’s time to get on with life. According to the CDC (you can look it up) “COVID-19 was reported as the underlying cause of death or a contributing cause of death for an estimated 377,883” in the United States in 2020. So, more people have died since the vaccine has been available than before it was available.
We have never stopped traveling since the start of the pandemic. We have lost family members and friends close friends.
Hopefully your constant travelling and the loss of your friends and family are not related.
Peter W – Nope they aren’t related. But thanks for your “concern”, anyway.
Maybe it was someone else’s constant travelling and lack of precautions then.
One of those people who died was my dad! And yes, it’s time to move on, even he would say so! Fear is the most powerful control any government entity can exert over you. If we cave, we are no longer free. I’m positive my dad would not want that for his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren!!!!
Good Day MARY S
Those who have suffered a loss understand, and we extend our hands.
You write of things that we all should consider.
It is difficult to want to understand that there are those among us that would expound fear rather than assurance and positive expectations. Those that would impede rather than progress. But the answer may be simple.
“Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it.”
― Tobias Wolff, This Boy’s Life
Just to show you how easily different perspectives can be used Heyward ….my take is the people spreading all the rampant anti vax misinformation are using fear to counter the simple reporting of facts about the number of deaths and the relation to that among the unvaxxed vs the vaxxed.. The Jabs are saving lives and are very safe….now start the personal choice side of the debate with that fact established…….
Good Day JOHNW
I realize you are a strong proponent of vaccines and the vaccination programs. I applaud your stand.
Arguably “Jabs” are safe and saving lives. Arguably they are not. Evidence of both is plentiful. As yet, I remain convinced of neither.
But as with most things that are unclear, I think it is the honest disagreements, rather than the unquestioned agreement, that will ultimately lead us to the truth.
Heyward, On one hand you have the simple fact that the vaccines have been scrutinized and tested extensively and the vast majority of apolitical experts in the field have reams of Data proving how safe and effect the vaccination is versus some very politically focused “Doctors” who clearly are factoring their political views over just plain what’s best for the patient. Many making money selling “alternatives. Not to mention the crazy conspiracy theories. Seems like an ez judgement call to me.
Time to move on
I’m sure he’s been wearing a mask per the guidance, got his vax, and he’s following all the rules, right? So, he’s right – masks make no difference. He just proved his own point.
There is no logic to your statement. Maybe 30 other people on the plane didn’t contract the disease because they were wearing a mask.Its an upper respitory illness if you keep the droplets down by wearing a mask then you and others around you will have less chance of inhaling from others or exhaling on others. Logic.
“he has been fully vaccinated and received the booster earlier this year.”
The masks don’t work and neither do the vaccines. See the Truth.
And let’s return our freedoms for all.
What “freedoms” would those be then? How is wearing a mask a loss of freedom. Is wearing clothes on a plane a loss of freedom? Is wearing a seat belt? How about having to have a boarding pass or sitting down at take off? Think people use your brains. It’s just common sense.
People are being fired for not vaccinating. That is losing your freedoms.
No that’s making the wrong choice. All those people have a choice.
I’m just not quite convinced of this.
A choice imposed by another that presents itself holding out suffering for the decider as one the alternatives may indeed not be a choice at all. At some point such changes from choice to coercion.
A choice arises from strength and confidence and with respect for either outcome. Coercion stems from fear and weakness.
Jennifer, had he not been vaccinated he would have had a much higher chance of needing hospitalization or even dying.
That truth has been proven over and over again.
I’m fascinated that people are believing the misinformation about vaccines being spread. There is no denying that the vast majority of Covid deaths are unvaccinated. No credible Doctor would say the vaccines “don’t work”. . I do get the personal decision argument and understand that, but to try and alter someone else’s personal decision with misinformation and lies is disingenuous to say the least. You are culpable in people dying from Covid when you spread misinformation.
Lots of credible doctors are questioning this vaccine, I can provide you with a very long list of them, including a head cardiologist at Baylor university, Dr Peter McCullough. My dad died of covid in June 2021, so I know a little about loss from it. I also know that he would not want the USA to be heading down the path that we are on, he would fear for his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. So many people are being controlled by fear. There are lots of problems with this vaccine.
Truly sorry about your Father Mary Kay. While I agree with you that we should be avoiding living in fear, (especially of the vaccines that have been proven to save so many lives) You might consider you Father’s life could have been saved by being vaccinated. Let’s learn from what’s going on and stop the anti vax misinformation that is spreading fear and making this so much worse.
The jab should be a personal choice, based on facts, not fear.
Her father would still be alive if he had the jab. Unless he were one of the unlucky rare few, statistically, who dies regardedless of vaccination status.
Still, her father would still be alive if he had the jab.
MARY KAY S’s shares with us that her father has departed this life. I suggest this is the issue that we who post here should be concerned with.
I don’t think it is of benefit to opine what might have been. And I strongly don’t believe any among us possesses the requisite clairvoyance for that determination.
I think all are best served to leave the forensics and discussions of the relevance of vaccinations to his passing to other places.
Btw Mary, I quick google check and Dr “Doctor” McCullough pretty much proves his credibility is very doubtful.
Unless you think the vast majority of medical professionals are wrong and this guy was fired because he is unique and knows more then everyone else in the medical field and his penchant for putting politics over saving lives is not an issue.
PCR tests are well known for gross inaccuracies, & that they can’t differentiate SARS-Cov2 from any strain of flu. And it IS flu season. It was last year at this time as well though there was virtually NO mention of flu cases. Only Covid. Crazy.
The man is fully “vaxxed”, including booster. These injections were created for the very first version of the SARS-Cov2 virus, not any of the subsequent variants, so little wonder we are seeing a pandemic of the vaccinated.
Vaccines do not prevent infection. They reduce the consequences of the infection which is probably why this man is experiencing mild symptoms. Masks reduce the spread of airborne pathogens, flu included. And finally we are seeing a pandemic of the unvaccinated, they are the ones ending up in hospitals and icu’s preventing people from getting an icu bed to get surgery.
Incorrect calling these injections vaccines as they are NOT attenuated or dead viruses as in true vax, but mRNA “messengers” developed for one sole spike protein out of about 25. They don’t offer protection against variants, well evidenced by Delta. Simply look at multiple studies out of Israel, who very early injected most of their populace, you will find their hospitals & ICU beds are at least 75% injected. Read studies not listen to media. Shalom.
We flew from the mainland to Oahu on Hawaiian Airlines. Two sick coughing, crying kids under the vaccination age sat across the isle from us. I wore my N95 and “double masked” until the hours long crying and coughing stopped. My husband only wore a surgical mask and was more casual about removing the mask for his beverage. He now has tested positive covid that presented 5 days after the flight. We are both double vaccinated and boosted. Was it my mask that saved me? I don’t know, I think so.
Catherine, you are absolutely right. In our hospital environments we find every day that medical grade N95 masks work if you have the discipline to keep wearing them consistently. (We also have ample evidence that vaccinines do work.) The proof is in our many nurses, who deal with severe Covid cases without getting sick. Covid has other means to enter the body, eyes for example, but that seems to happen only when “viral loads” are very high in a given environment.
Aloha! So first we have no idea where he caught Covid. Second if he’s been flying he wears a mask so his comments about masks don’t make a big difference was validated. Third he’s vaccinated. Get used to vaccinated people testing positive. He’ll be 99% fine. It’s cold and flu season. Now a days if you have a sniffle you get a Covid test. Just do what you need to do to keep yourself healthy. I honestly think we all test positive one day and 99% will be just fine.
tell that to my three dead friends. How heartless of you.
I don’t think she is being heartless, she is being truthful. And my dad died, er was killed, in June, 2021, and he would agree with her.
Hopefully you weren’t the cause of your father’s death. Wouldn’t want to live with that.Thats why I got vaccinated and wear a mask.
How was he killed? Sorry for your loss.
I only Fly Hawaiian or Alaska air so no this changes nothing for me
I stay off the blue planes; SWA has had negative affects on our state – way beyond economics.
Something has to be over before you can move on. This thing is far from over.