Wake up to the true cost of vaccine passports

Too few seem to realise that we are now in a fight for both our liberties and our financial futures

‘Idon’t see a problem. You just have to flash your phone or show your vaccine certificate to a member of staff when you go in.” Nothing riles me up more than statements like this, pushed by arrogant pundits and peddled by mostly middle-class, occasional pubgoers.

Despite previously saying that they had no plans to introduce vaccine passports – or “Covid-status certification” – in the UK, the Government has gone back on its word and endorsed the scheme, saying that businesses have a “responsibility” to admit only those who can prove they’ve had two jabs or a recent negative Covid test. And it isn’t just “large events” at which they want to start using the passes. The guidance covers pubs, bars and restaurants, too.

Have these people ever run a pub? For a Covid passport to serve any purpose, no patron without one should step foot inside that business. To do that you need staff on the doors, open until close, seven days a week. Even for a small pub this could cost between £1,000 and £2,000 per week, making those businesses unviable.

Then there’s the ethics of the scheme. A parliamentary committee found them to be discriminatory, on the basis of race, religion, socioeconomic background and age, because of differing levels of vaccination. And what purpose do they serve? How can a Covid passport be of any use whatsoever, if it’s now obvious that double-jabbed individuals can still test positive and pass on an infection?

The committee also stated that “if a Covid-status certification system is to be introduced, there must be a clear scientific case for its introduction. But while the Government accepted this, we found that the Government failed to make a sufficiently strong scientific case for introducing Covid-status certification in the UK”. Case closed for me.

Prof Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, said back in April that we must learn to live with Covid, in a similar way as we live with flu. So, what happened? I can’t ever remember declaring my flu jab status. Can you?

Many American states, meanwhile, have passed laws to make implementation of Covid passports illegal. That tells you something. America is 80 per cent open, without restrictions or face masks.

I fear for the future of my three kids, if a section of society here in the UK truly believes we need these sorts of controls on our lives. Too many have been sucked in by the fear and constant doom and gloom from our scientists and sections of the media.

They allow the likes of Independent Sage to rattle off apocalyptic predictions with little pushback, when they almost always turn out to be wrong. It seems the only winner in all this is the Fear PR machine and all the trappings of attention and money it generates.

I’m urging normal people to regain their senses and realise that we are in a fight for our liberties and futures. I stand here as someone with more than most. I’m not super wealthy but I’m able to give my family a good life. Others are not so fortunate and it’s them I fear for. Too many selfemployed businessmen and women have lost everything and failed to get the help they needed. Hospitality supports up to six million jobs directly and indirectly and its supply chains support the industry in a big way. These passports, if they were to become anything more than “advice” or a “recommendation”, would destroy the pub industry and much of what is left in hospitality.

I’m writing this on the back of a morning arguing with apparently educated people over Covid passports. It’s clear that these people don’t understand the implications of them, or they simply don’t care.

For some, it suits them to have the state control their lives. For others, it will maybe make their retirement a more relaxing affair. The rest of us need to wake up before it’s too late.