Conservative politicians and pundits, including Republican Sen.
The airline, its pilots’ union and the
“The weekend challenges were not a result of
Still, Twitter posts claiming airline employees were “standing up to medical tyranny” and participating in a “mass sickout” amassed thousands of shares. Vague and anonymous messages on social media speculated that
Even as flights appeared to be running closer to normal on Tuesday, the
Neither the company nor its pilots' union has provided evidence to back up their explanations for why nearly 2,400 flights were canceled from Saturday through Monday.
The crisis peaked on Sunday, when the airline canceled more than 1,100 flights, or 30% of its schedule. By Tuesday evening, it had canceled fewer than 100 flights, or 2% of its schedule, although more than 1,000 flights were delayed, according to tracking service
“When you get behind, it just takes several days to catch up,” CEO
Despite repeated requests, the company and the union have declined to say how many employees missed work during the crisis. They have said that absentee rates were similar to those over a typical summer weekend, but they have not put out numbers to support that argument. It is also unclear how many
“We don’t know, and the company doesn’t know,” said
Meanwhile, speculation from prominent conservative politicians and pundits has flooded into the void. Many shared the unsubstantiated theory, but few provided details, facts or examples of employees walking off the job to protest the vaccine.
“Joe Biden’s illegal vaccine mandate at work!” Cruz tweeted Sunday. “Suddenly, we’re short on pilots & air traffic controllers. #ThanksJoe.”
The Republican senator wrote in another tweet Monday that he met last week with leaders of pilot unions who “expressed deep concern over the vaccine mandates.” A spokeswoman for
Republican
Vague, familiar-looking “friend of a friend” stories are a dangerous form of misinformation because they “feel like insider information being shared by individuals directly involved in the action,” according to
Similar unsupported claims circulated online in August, when social media users falsely claimed that flight delays and cancellations out of
Some Twitter users connected
Asked on Tuesday to respond to claims that vaccine mandates have reduced the workforce and contributed to supply-chain disruptions,
“I know there was a little hubbub over the course of the last few days about
Biden’s order, which is still being finalized, would require employers with 100 or more workers to get vaccinated or tested weekly for COVID-19. Airlines, however, are government contractors because they perform work such as emergency flights for the
Following the lead of other airlines,
While some staff at airlines and other large companies have spoken out against vaccine requirements, comments on social media have created an exaggerated sense of the dissent, according to Moran, the misinformation scholar at the
“In reality, it’s quite a small number of people who are protesting employment-based mandates for the vaccine,” Moran said. “People are more vulnerable to misinformation in times of crisis, and these labor shortages and supply-chain delays either create a real sense of crisis or are manipulated by misinformation spreaders to make it appear like we are heading towards crisis.”
Swenson reported from
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