No deaths among the vaccinated at United -CEO

A COVID-19 vaccine mandate seems to be working at United Airlines.

According to the company’s CEO Scott Kirby on Tuesday, while 3,000 airline employees have tested positive for COVID-19, none who were vaccinated have died or been recently hospitalized due to the disease.

Chicago-based United was the first U.S. carrier to mandate vaccines for its employees in order to facilitate travel and flight operations.

Airlines have had to cancel thousands of flights since late December, when the surge in Omicron cases and winter weather began impacting schedules.

According to Kirby, before United's vaccination requirements were put in place, “more than one United employee on average *per week* was dying from COVID."

But the company has now gone eight straight weeks with zero COVID-related deaths among vaccinated employees.

Last month, Kirby defended the airline's vaccine mandate decision in the face of Republican criticism.

CRUZ: "Why is United's conduct, disregarding the rights of your employees so different from the conduct of your competitor airlines which are protecting the rights of their pilots and flight attendants by not firing them and putting them on unpaid leave for exercising their religious liberty rights."

KIRBY: "I'm happy to talk about the rationale for why we did it, we did it for safety."

Kirby said last month about 200 employees did not comply with United's mandate and were fired out of its 67,000 employees.

Rival American Airlines said on Friday that more than 96% of its employees have submitted proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a request for an accommodation.