Vaccine passport efforts draw opposition from GOP lawmakers
HARRISBURG, PA. — Vaccine passports being developed to verify COVID-19 immunization status and allow inoculated people to more freely travel, shop and dine have become the latest flash point in America’s perpetual political wars, with Republicans portraying them as a heavyhanded intrusion into personal freedom and private health choices.
They currently exist in only one state — a limited government partnership in New York with a private company — but that hasn’t stopped GOP lawmakers in a handful of states from rush- ing out legislative proposals to ban their use.
The argument o ver whether passports are a sensible response to the pandemic or governmen- tal overreach echoes the bit- ter disputes over the past year about masks, shutdown orders and even the vaccines themselves.
Vaccine passports are typically an app with a code that verifies whether some- one has been vaccinated or recently tested negative for COVID-19. They are in use in Israel and under development in parts of Europe, seen as a way to safely help rebuild the pandemic-devastated travel industry.
They are intended to allow businesses to more safely open up as the vaccine drive gains momentum, and they mirror measures already in place for schools and overseas travel that require proof of immunization against various diseases.
But lawmakers around the country are already taking a stand against the idea. GOP senators in Pennsylvania are drawing up legislation that would prohibit vaccine pass- ports, also known as health certificates or travel passes, from being used to bar peo- ple from routine activities.
“We have constitutional rights and health privacy laws for a reason,” said Penn- sylvania House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, a Republican. “They should not cease to exist in a time of crisis. These passports may start with COVID-19, but where will they end?”
Benninghoff said this past week his concern was “using taxpayer money to gener
ate a system that will now be, possibly, in the hands of mega-tech organizations who’ve already had problems with getting hacked and security issues.”
A Democratic colleague, Rep. Chris Rabb of Philadel- phia, sees value in vaccine passports if they are imple- mented carefully.
“There’s a role for using technology and other means to confirm people’s statuses,” Rabb said. “But we do have concerns around privacy, surveillance and inequitable access.”
Republican legislators in other states have also been drafting proposals to ban or limit them. A bill intro- duced in the Arkansas Legis- lature on Wednesday would prevent government officials from requiring vaccine passports for any reason, and would ban their use as a condition of “entry, travel, education, employment or services.”
The sponsor, Republican state Sen. Trent Gar- ner, called vaccine passports “just another example of the Biden administration using COVID-19 to put regulations or restrictions on everyday Americans.”