Boris should copy Biden – and ditch the vaccine passports
The US wants to safeguard its citizens’ freedom. Will it catch on?
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The US government has ruled out the introduction of federal vaccine passports, preferring to prioritise its citizens’ basic freedoms.
NEW: Press sec. Psaki rules out any possible federal vaccine passport: "There will be no federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential." https://t.co/hXfY2xeyb4 pic.twitter.com/Akddrit52E
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 6, 2021
Press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Tuesday that the Biden administration would not be ‘supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential’. She said that ‘Americans’ privacy and rights should be protected’.
This is welcome news. Vaccine passports are an authoritarian intervention into our private lives, threatening to create a two-tier society of vaccinated and unvaccinated.
At the state level, Florida and Texas have both banned vaccine passports, too. Texas also recently lifted lockdown restrictions and ended its state-wide mask mandate. Despite prophecies of doom, things are going fine.
In the UK, by contrast, lockdown is being lifted painfully slowly and vaccine passports feel like a fait accompli – even though the threat from Covid has massively receded thanks to the UK’s impressive vaccine rollout.
Vaccine passports are morally wrong as well as unnecessary. It’s time for Boris to govern in the spirit of Biden and Harris – and ditch them altogether.
Picture by: Getty.
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