The Case for Governmental Vaccine Passports Has Never Been Weaker, and Yet Here They Come

posted by John Ziegler at Mediate

One of the many baffling and infuriating aspects of our reaction to this endless pandemic has been that public policy has so often lagged behind reality, and been dictated far more by politics than by actual science and logic. There is no more dramatic example of this than the sudden popularity of governmental “vaccine passports,” which are being planned and implemented in deep “blue” areas of the country and prevent unvaccinated people from taking part in some basic elements of society.

Putting aside the debatable legality of such measures, especially for vaccines which have not yet received full FDA approval, they are becoming a reality just as the case for them is now empirically weaker than ever. In fact, the very “Delta variant” surge in positive test results which has facilitated such extreme methods has actually stripped “vaccine passports” of perhaps their only strong moral justification.

Before the massive and sudden increase in “new cases” over the last month, because of the freefall during the first few months of vaccination, there was a perception (one that I held myself, which greatly influenced my optimism about the end of the pandemic being imminent) that vaccinated people very rarely got, or spread, the virus. If that was indeed the case, you could legitimately argue that segregating people by vaccination status, while still abhorrent in many respects, had a semblance of justification under the premise that vaccinated people posed a far lesser “danger” to others than those who had no known immunity to the disease while providing an incentive for holdouts to get vaccinated (of course, presuming the vaccines greatly reduce symptoms, which as a vaccinated person I hope/assume they do, it is still baffling why the vaccinated, if they are healthy, would care).

However, we now know definitively that, even if most of the “Delta surge” is among the unvaccinated, that “breakthrough” cases, are not at all unusual and that, vaccinated people may be able to spread the virus the same as the unvaccinated (even The New York Times has taken the CDC to task for their convoluted and contradictory messaging on this particular issue, on which the science is clearly not yet settled). With this in mind, the vaccinated have little rational claim to being allowed to be isolated by the government from the unvaccinated, and there is little justification for the government to ban the unvaccinated from basic parts of life, because there is no current evidence they are any more dangerous to strangers than those who have gotten the shots (to be clear, I am accepting premises which I personally believe to be absurd, simply for the sake of argument).

But this is hardly the only problem with the government mandating social segregation and the banning of huge numbers of people form public events (the vast majority of whom pose zero risk at any given moment) based on what used to be a private medical decision. Here are just a few of those.

Logistical/Enforcement: 

So now, in New York City, as well as other woke bastions like Los Angeles which are sure to follow, owners of restaurants and gyms are going to be tasked with determining on behalf of a government edict (one which will surely hurt their own business) if someone has been vaccinated while enforcing the government’s ban on those who are not?! In a situation where the only proof most people have of vaccination is easily forged or lost?! This is pure insanity.

What About Kids?: 

Since those under 12 years old cannot currently be vaccinated, will they all be banned from restaurants and theaters?! Apparently those behind the New York plan didn’t even seriously consider this huge problem, which is all-too-typical for how children have been mistreated during this endless nightmare.

Racial Discrimination:

Contrary to the sick fantasy the woke crowd has embraced and much of the news media has enabled, there are huge numbers of unvaccinated people who are NOT knuckle-dragging Trump supporters. Many of them are racial minorities, and the blatant hypocrisy of some progressive politicians in punishing them in ways reminiscent of pre-Civil Rights America is absolutely stunning (as well as politically stupid).

Natural immunity: 

One of the most anti-science elements of the “expert” reaction to Covid has been a systematic attempt to pretend that natural immunity obtained by having contracted the virus isn’t effective in certain cases. While we do not know for sure which variety is better in the long run (despite the news media’s best efforts to ignore it, there is some compelling evidence from Israel that natural immunity could be stronger), it is ludicrous to treat those who have had the virus and recovered the same as those who have never knowingly had it and decided not yet to be vaccinated.

All Americans Should Not Be Treated the Same: 

The notion that all Americans should be treated exactly the same in the response to a virus which is clearly FAR more dangerous to older and obese people is simply lunacy. If you are young and healthy and are not yet convinced of the safety of these brand-new vaccines, it is an understandable decision to not yet get injected.

Dangerous Precedents: 

With even government entities — including the military — starting to enforce these vaccine mandates it gives cover to lots of private businesses who are now forcing employees to get vaccinated (again, under the potentially false presumption that they would then be far less likely to pass the virus on to customers). If the government, even in a formerly free country, can force healthy people to take a vaccine for a virus with a low chance of death, what exactly could the government ever be preventing from forcing us to do?!

Timing:

The New York City plan is not currently scheduled to go into effect until mid-September (was this to give the vaccines more time to be officially approved?) If this is really an emergency situation, why is this not happening far more quickly? Also, in keeping with the trend since the start, based on how Delta cases are already fading fast in the United Kingdom, there seems to be an excellent chance that by then the hysteria/panic which helped facilitate pulling the trigger on this horrible idea will no longer exist once it finally comes to actual fruition.