Current trends in COVID cases are proving what many of us already knew, that states with the least restrictive policies would burn through COVID and recover quicker, while those choosing the most authoritarian policies would continue to suffer. Florida and Texas have been at the forefront of opening up their societies, eliminating mask requirements and allowing businesses to open. They’re relative bastions of freedom in comparison to the rest of the country, and even the rest of the world.
New York and New Jersey, on the other hand, have seen their restrictive policies result in among the highest COVID infection rates in the country. Not content to learn its lessons from New York’s failures, the Biden administration is set to consider taking another page out of New York’s book by looking into the adoption of a vaccine passport.
The concept of a vaccine passport reared its head almost as soon as COVID first appeared. Governments for years have looked for an excuse to implement a vaccine passport scheme under the guise of protecting public health, and COVID has given them just the excuse they’ve been looking for. Under the schemes being proposed, your ability to travel, attend public sports events, and perhaps even go shopping or find a job could be tied to your ability to prove that you’ve been vaccinated against COVID.
The concept of a vaccine passport is a violation of basic freedoms such as the freedom to travel, to assemble, or to do business with others. But too many Americans have been conditioned to believe that government knows best, and so the fight against vaccine passports will likely be a difficult one. Too many people are willing to compromise, accepting the adoption of vaccine passports if it means they can enjoy the life they used to live. Rather than demand the unilateral revocation of government restrictions, they’re only too happy to jump through the government’s hoops in order to get back to business as usual.
Given the fact that COVID isn’t a major health threat and isn’t uniquely deadly, and that COVID vaccines use novel and unproven technology whose long-term effects are unknown, it’s unconscionable that COVID vaccination should be forced on anyone, and most especially as part of a quid pro quo for a return to normal life. If Americans, and indeed anyone around the world at risk of these schemes, fail to combat these draconian vaccine passport schemes tooth and nail, the future could look very grim indeed.