As more and more people begin to receive their COVID-19 vaccines, there is a chance that we can slowly return to “normal” life before the pandemic. With this being said, how can we know that it’s safe to go into areas without social distancing or masks?
This is where the idea of vaccine passports comes into play.
The concept of a vaccine passport seems somewhat simple: It’s a piece of documentation that someone would provide in order to prove that they have been vaccinated for COVID-19. However, it’s much more complicated than that.
Although these passports could be beneficial when it comes to travel, it starts to become a moral dilemma when they become a part of people’s daily lives. Would it be ethically okay to make someone show their private health records to pick up groceries?
This is where the main divide comes in. There are two major schools of thought when it comes to vaccine passports:
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Create a way for people to prove that they have received their vaccines and are safe to go back to normal with minimal risk for spreading coronavirus.
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Whether or not someone gets vaccinated is a completely personal choice, and they should not have to disclose their private medical records in order to carry on with their lives.
And honestly, it’s a really sticky situation. For years, public schools have required proof vaccination for children. A sign that read, “No shots, no school. No kidding,” hangs in the nurse’s office of a Palm Beach County school. But, at the end of the day, the government cannot require people to get the COVID vaccine; it’s a personal choice.
This is where government officials step in. In a press briefing on April 6, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the Biden administration has no intention of requiring Americans to carry any documentation to prove that they’ve received their COVID vaccine.
“The government is not now nor will we be supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential,” she said. “There will be no federal vaccinations database, and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.”
She made it clear that the federal government would defer to private companies if they wanted to create a vaccine passport system to prove that an individual has been vaccinated.
“Our interest is very simple from the federal government, which is American’s privacy and rights should be protected so that these systems are not used against people unfairly.”
This comes after Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order on April 2 banning the vaccine passports in the state of Florida.
“Individual COVID-19 vaccination records are private health information and should not be shared by a mandate,” reads the executive order.
DeSantis has been vocal about his disapproval of vaccine passports.
“It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society,” he said March 29 during a press conference.
Governor Greg Abbott of Texas has followed in DeSantis’ footsteps, signing a similar executive order on April 5 that bans Texas organizations from requiring a vaccine for any service.
“Government should not require any Texan to show proof of vaccination and reveal private health information just to go about their daily lives,” he said in a video posted on Twitter.
Some states are going in a different direction though. New York has released the “Excelsior Pass,” which is described as “a free, fast and secure way to present digital proof of COVID-19 vaccination” in the case that a venue or business requires proof of someone’s status.
Businesses like Walmart and Cathay Pacific airlines are also testing out apps in order to prove that individuals are negative for Covid/have been vaccinated.
And while it seems like the United States is pushing away from federal vaccine passport programs, areas like the European Union, China and Israel have decided that they are moving forward with government-mandated vaccine passports.
The EU said that it has plans for a Digital Green Certificate that would allow for safe travel within the EU by showing documentation that a person has been vaccinated, tested negative for COVID-19 or recovered from it. In a press conference on April 5, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the UK will test out vaccine passports. China’s government said that it would also develop a certification program, and Israel created a program in February that excludes unvaccinated individuals from certain activities.
It is still not 100% certain how the U.S. will move forward with allowing schools or businesses to require vaccines, but for now it seems as though it will be in the hands of the states and private companies to determine the next course of action.