ATL Standard

Financial incentives helped but what really got Delta Air Lines employees to bare their arms - 82% of them as of earlier this week - for the COVID vaccine was the $200 a month health insurance surcharge on for unvaccinated staff.

Delta's employee vaccination rate shot up about seven percentage points in three weeks after the surcharge was announced, Delta Chief Health Officer Dr. Henry Ting said in an interview with CNN published on Sept. 27.

Delta Chief Health Officer Dr. Henry Ting | news.delta.com/

"We know how to keep our employees and our customers safe," Ting told CNN.

Ting became Atlanta-based Delta's first chief health officer in January.

Delta made the COVID vaccine available to its employees and initially offered carrots in the form of financial incentives, paid time off and $100 in "health rewards" to get its staff vaccination rate to almost 70%. A $1 million employee lottery for vaccinated employees got the rate up to 74%.

The rate climbed to 75% by Aug. 25 when Delta CEO Ed Bastian thanked those who got their shots in a memo to employees and addressed those who resisted the earlier carrots. Those still unvaccinated by Nov. 1 will face a painful financial stick, the surcharge, Bastian said.

"While we can be proud of our 75% vaccination rate, the aggressiveness of the (delta) variant means we need to get many more of our people vaccinated, and as close to 100% as possible," Bastian said in his memo.

Unvaccinated staff also face weekly COVID tests "while community case rates are high" and that COVID pay protection would be shelled out only to fully vaccinated workers who suffer a breakthrough infection, Bastion said.

"Protecting yourself, your colleagues, your loved ones and your community is fundamental to the shared values that have driven our success for nearly a century," Bastion said. "Vaccinations are the safest, most effective, and most powerful tool we have to achieve our goals, live up to our values and move forward."

Delta's current vaccination rates are impressive for any company and Ting told CNN that employees immunized against COVID are in addition to layers of protection already in place aboard Delta flights. That protection includes mandatory masks and hospital-grade air filtration.

A joint study by Delta and the Mayo Clinic and the Georgia Department of Health indicates that the risk of exposure to COVID-19 while traveling after all passengers test negative 72 hours in advance of your flight is less than 0.1%, according to CNN.