Battle over vaccine passports possible
Ban by governor could lead to showdown with businesses
Vaccination passports have become a new ideological battleground of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis joining the fray by issuing an order banning their use by both local governments and businesses.
But already, businesses ranging from cruise lines to sports teams have announced they’re planning to require some kind of proof of vaccination for entry into their ships or arenas.
And with the Biden administration ruling out issuing federal passports, that means there could be a consequential showdown between the GOP governor and major national and international businesses.
“Every business has economic and reputational incentives to ensure that they have a safe place of business,” said Joel Zinberg, a senior fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C., which has studied the issue. “That’s partly to protect their own employees and to reduce absenteeism. And it’s also to provide the public with a reassurance that this is a safe place to patronize.”
As inoculations have increased and eligibility ages were lowered over the past few months, more countries have either announced plans to create vaccination passports or are considering it, Zinberg said. The European Union is planning to issue digital and paper “green certificates,” Japan and China plan on creating digital passports, and the United Kingdom also is working on them.
At least 17 consortiums of private companies are also working on developing passport standards and shared software, Zinberg said, and one of the biggest companies in the country, Walmart, is already on board.
But the idea almost instantly became wrapped up in the partisan culture war. Conservative media has condemned the idea as a violation of privacy.
DeSantis soon jumped on board.
On the same day he signed a bill protecting businesses from COVID-19 lawsuits last month, he announced he would sign an executive order banning vaccination passports. His order bans
both local governments and businesses from issuing them, with the penalty of state grants being pulled if they do.
“We’re not doing vaccine passports,” DeSantis said again last week. “What’s the next step? What’s the next thing that they’re going to want to do? I think it’s got profound privacy implications . ... It would be such a mistake to go down that road.”