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Some Twitter users connected Southwest's flight problems to news that on Friday the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association had asked a federal judge in Dallas to block the airline’s vaccine mandate. In September, false internet rumors swirled that 40% of employees at defense contractor General Dynamics had declined the vaccine and threatened to quit. Similar unsupported claims circulated online in August, when social media users falsely claimed that flight delays and cancellations out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport were the result of vaccine mandates. 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 Rachel Moran, a misinformation scholar at the University of Washington. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin also posted the rumors on social media, without offering proof. A spokesperson for Cruz did not respond to emailed questions from The Associated Press about whether the Republican senator had any firsthand knowledge of pilots or air traffic controllers skipping work. 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 Southwest pilots said no one at the union had talked to Cruz. “Suddenly, we’re short on pilots & air traffic controllers. “Joe Biden’s illegal vaccine mandate at work!” Cruz tweeted Sunday. Many shared the unsubstantiated theory, but few provided details, facts or examples of employees walking off the job to protest the vaccine. Meanwhile, speculation from prominent conservative politicians and pundits has flooded into the void. “We don’t know, and the company doesn’t know,” said Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association. It is also unclear how many Southwest pilots are unvaccinated. 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. A senior executive admitted to employees Sunday that the airline is still understaffed and might need to reduce flights in November and December.ĭespite repeated requests, the company and the union have declined to say how many employees missed work during the crisis. Southwest struggled all summer with delays and cancellations. “We were significantly set behind on Friday.” “When you get behind, it just takes several days to catch up,” CEO Gary Kelly said Tuesday on CNBC.