Showing proof you’ve been vaccinated a sensible idea

Even if 80% or more of the population eventually gets vaccinated against COVID-19 and its many variants and we approach so-called “herd immunity,” it does not follow that those not vaccinated will never contract or spread what may be a fatal illness.

Even already vaccinated people can still fall ill, though probably with a milder form of the disease.

It is these potential outcomes that have led to consideration of two extreme-sounding policies: making vaccination compulsory or instituting “vaccine passports.”

While both of these alternatives have the same objective — that is protecting the population at large from illness if not death — they have widely different consequences for civil liberties.

Mandatory vaccination implies that democratic institutions can tell a person they must subject their bodies to a physical treatment, an invasion of their bodies, regardless of the reason they may not want to be vaccinated.

That type of violation of a person’s control over their body is rarely tolerated in a free society.

In a society that has determined that the state should not rule out abortion but defer to the views and beliefs of an individual woman carryng a fetus and her medical advisors, compulsory vaccination seems unlikely.

With vaccination, however, there is a cost to society of refusing the jab and that is the possible infection of others. The alternative, the so-called “passport,” largely avoids this complication and allows each adult to make his or her own choice as to whether or not to be vaccinated while protecting everyone else from the consequences.

It appears COVID-19 is transmitted by close contact with those carrying the living virus, mostly in enclosed spaces. Protection from possible infection while sharing space with others outside their immediate circle would be possible if the government simply required that anyone attending a public or private event outside the home provide evidence of up-to-date vaccination.

If British Columbians, when fully vaccinated, were issued a card with a photo ID (or received an endorsement for our driver’s licences) which encodes the date and place where they were vaccinated, we could show it at a sporting or cultural event — or indeed any type of controlled access event where more than 10 people want to participate. Anyone who could not show such evidence or objects to having to show it could just stay safely at home.

Mandatory vaccination would impose a high price: an invasion of a person’s body. The vaccine ID would also have a price, but one that most of us would find acceptable. Each individual makes the choice about how important it is to attend a wedding, a football game, a concert, a play or a movie. No ID, no admittance. But, safe access to community life is a big pay-off, as we have all discovered in the last year.

Enforcement would be relatively easy. A simple electronic swiping of the ID would create a record of who attended and, if someone circumvents the requirements, the host — be it an individual or a corporation — would face fines and other possible penalties including loss of a business licence. Any person who crashes the event would also be subject to a substantial fine.

Moreover, as we learn more about the duration of effective immunization, the vaccine ID could carry an expiry date. Just like a driver’s licence, it would be valid for a defined period.

The safety of the population is at stake in this debate about how to control the spread of this terrible virus. People who do not get vaccinated are putting others at risk of infection. Requiring evidence of your immunization to attend various functions is no more a restraint on your liberty than the prohibition against shouting “FIRE” in a crowded theatre — somewhere many of us would like to enter again someday soon.

Finally, epidemiologists are saying that similar pandemics are a high probability in the future. Hopefully, we will have learned from our experience with COVID-19 how to deal with them successfully.

Vaccine ID will be a key ingredient in any future battles against these transmissible diseases. In the meantime, the federal government should be developing an app that would permit smart phones to carry proof of vacination