Dr. Hotez: Airline CEOs Objecting to Masks on Planes Have 'Emotional Intelligence of a Doorknob'

Center for Vaccine Development director Dr. Peter Hotez said Thursday on CNN’s “Newsroom” that airline CEOs who thought mask-wearing was not required on airplanes have “the emotional intelligence of a doorknob.”

During testimony to Congress on Wednesday, Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said, “I think the case is very strong that masks don’t add much, if anything, in the air cabin environment it is very safe and very high quality compared to any other indoor setting.”

American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said, “I concur. The aircraft is the safest place you can be. It’s true of all of our aircraft. They all have these HEPA filters and the same airflow.”

Anchor Ana Cabrera asked, “Would you get on a plane right now or in the coming weeks without a mask?”

Hotez said, “No. And, you know, we have data from the National Academy of Sciences … a systematic review, and we also have, you know, randomized clinical trial designs that were done in Bangladesh by Stanford and Yale. So the data supports the use of masks. But also, why say this now when we have the most transmissible variant of all accelerating? I don’t know. Some of these CEOs they have the emotional intelligence of a doorknob. I don’t know why they would say that kind of thing.”

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