Omicron Disrupts Travel As COVID-19 Surges, Especially Among Kids

Beth Dalbey
Updated ·6 min read
Travelers at Miami International Airport were met with cancellations and delays Monday as airlines grappled with staffing shortages due to the rapid spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Travelers at Miami International Airport were met with cancellations and delays Monday as airlines grappled with staffing shortages due to the rapid spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
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Good morning! It’s Tuesday, Dec. 28, the third day of Kwanzaa, the annual celebration of African American culture that runs Dec. 26-Jan. 1 and culminates with a communal feast called Karamu. Some families may put those celebrations on hold as the omicron coronavirus variant continues to cause a wave of new infections. Here are a couple of other stories we’re following:

  • The Harvard biologist known as “the ant man” and “Darwin’s natural heir” has died.

  • A grandfather, 88, and his granddaughter, 23, graduated together from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Holiday travelers saw flights canceled or delayed again Monday as airlines struggled to staff flights as coronavirus omicron variant infections continued to surge across the country.

Delays and cancellations are possible throughout the busy travel week, airlines warned.

"We have seen an increasing number of sick calls from omicron," JetBlue said in a statement, adding it had entered the holiday season with the highest staffing levels since the pandemic began. “Despite our best efforts, we've had to cancel a number of flights, and additional flight cancellations and other delays remain a possibility.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert and President Joe Biden’s chief science adviser on the pandemic response, said Monday it may be time to consider a vaccine mandate on domestic flights — a move the Biden administration has so far eschewed as legally problematic.

Fauci thinks such a mandate would drive up the nation’s lagging vaccination rate and make flights safer than with mask mandates alone, a requirement for airline passengers ages 2 and older.

“When you make vaccination a requirement, that’s another incentive to get more people vaccinated," Fauci told MSNBC. “If you want to do that with domestic flights, I think that’s something that seriously should be considered.”

In other coronavirus news, a nearly fivefold increase in the number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 in New York City may be a harbinger of what’s to come nationwide and what already is being seen overseas.

A Dec. 23 analysis in the United Kingdom showed unvaccinated children ages 5-11 made up the highest percentage of positive COVID-19, and preliminary data from South Africa estimates that given the number of kids who remained unvaccinated, they had a 20 percent higher risk of hospitalization in the country's omicron-driven fourth wave.

Fauci echoed officials in New York City, where parents were encouraged to use the holiday break to get their kids inoculated against COVID-19.

"If you have a child 5 to 11, please get that child vaccinated to prevent them from getting anything that even resembles a serious illness," he said in an interview on ABC’s "Good Morning America" program Monday.

More Coronavirus News

‘Darwin’s Natural Heir’ Dies

Edward O. Wilson, a pioneering Harvard University biologist who advanced the provocative theory that human behaviors such as war and altruism are rooted in genetics, has died. He was 92.

Known as “Darwin’s natural heir,” he rose to prominence int he 1970s as an entomologist, studying the behavior of ants and similar species. He was called “the ant man,” according to an obituary by The Associated Press.

“It would be hard to understate Ed’s scientific achievements, but his impact extends to every facet of society," David J. Prend, chairman of the board of E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, wrote on the organization’s website. "He was a true visionary with a unique ability to inspire and galvanize. He articulated, perhaps better than anyone, what it means to be human." » Renowned Scientist Edward O. Wilson Dies At 92, via Burlington, Massachusetts, Patch

Grandfather, Granddaughter Graduate Together

Rene Neira has been trying to get his bachelor's degree since the 1950s. But things — mostly love, but also community activism and, finally, his health and the coronavirus — kept getting in the way.

Still, it was a special moment earlier this month when the 88-year-old Texan’s granddaughter, Melanie Salazar, 23, wheeled him across the graduation stage, where she also picked up her sheepskin. When declining health threatened her grandfather’s dream, Salazar and her family appealed to the University of Texas at San Antonio to give him a degree of recognition. » Grandfather, 88, And Granddaughter, 23, Share Graduation Stage, via Across America Patch

Around ‘The Patch’

Giuliani Sued For 'Partisan Character Assassination': Rudy Giuliani, the owners of One America News Network, and OAN commentator Chanel Rion are being sued by two Fulton County election workers, via Atlanta Patch.

Police Seek 3rd Person In Mall Shootout: Two people are in custody in a mall shooting that injured four, via Oak Brook, Illinois, Patch.

He Ate How Many Pancakes? Due to fantasy football, Abhi Shah had to spend 24 hours at IHOP, but could take off an hour for every two pancakes eaten, via Parssipany, New Jersey, Patch.

Cow Escapes Slaughterhouse: The cow named Stacy is now at Skylands Animal Sanctuary and Rescue in Sussex County, New Jersey, via Forest Hills, New York Patch.

Antisemitic Stickers Found: Police are asking the public to help find out who put antisemitic stickers in the Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach areas, via Manhattan Beach, California, Patch.

14-Year-Old Shoots Police Officer: The officer is expected to be OK, via Charlotte, North Carolina, Patch.

Today In History

The first American “test-tube baby” was born Dec. 28, 1981, in Norfolk, Virginia. In-vitro fertilization — a process in which an egg is fertilized outside of a woman’s body and the developing embryo is implanted — is commonplace now, but births like that of Elizabeth Jordan Carr were considered a miracle at the time, via History.com.

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This article originally appeared on the Across America Patch