Day: 18 July 2021

Vaccine Passports are Dead – Long Live Vaccine Passports!

by David Livermore Vaccine passports or certificates – an idea we thought dead – have, regrettably, just been sleeping. With no little sense of irony, the Government is busy resurrecting them in time for “Freedom Day”. To be clear, I won’t be too put out if an immigration officer demands a SARS-CoV-2 vaccination certificate in future, especially if I’m travelling to a low-Covid country, like Taiwan. I doubt it will protect them in the long term, but I’m happy to be vaccinated and it doesn’t upset me any more than having to obtain a yellow fever vaccine and certificate. The issue is with using vaccine passports internally, to restrict access to large events and maybe even pubs and restaurants. Certificates will be used to discriminate against the unvaccinated, not all of whom belong to the awkward squad. They include the young, not yet offered vaccination, as well as those who can’t be vaccinated. But, set aside the ethical. Others have written extensively. What concerns me is the practical. Certificates are touted on the basis that ‘They will make concert-goers feel safe.’ Really? Perhaps the concert-goers should while away one of Wagner’s tedious half hours counting the odds. Suppose a concert is attended by 1,000 people, 900 vaccinated and 100 unvaccinated, which is about the current split. Assume also that vaccines ...

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