Skip to content

Wednesday, Jun. 9, 2021

Are airlines holding meetings to discuss the risks of blood clots for COVID-19 vaccinated passengers?

Kaiyah Clarke, Lead Stories

no

There is no public evidence of such meetings, and various claims posted on social media offer no proof. Posts have gone so far as to say airlines are looking to ban vaccinated people because of the risk of blood clots. That's not true.

While federal health officials paused the release of the Janssen/J&J vaccine when six women out of the first 6.8 million who received it developed a rare clotting disorder, there was no correlation to air travel noted by the FDA when it reapproved the vaccine.

In fact, CDC guidance for domestic and international travel recommends delaying a trip until fully vaccinated, and the Federal Aviation Administration shares that guidance on its website.

Airlines for America, a lobbying group, says U.S. airlines "have routinely expressed our belief that widespread vaccination can serve as the foundation for re-opening critical international markets."

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

See all fact briefs

Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.

Learn More

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.