HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Vaccination passports developed to verify the immunization status of COVID-19 and allow vaccinated people to travel, shop and eat more freely have become the latest hotspot in the perpetual political wars in America, with Republicans calling them ‘ a heavy proposal-handy intrusion into personal freedom and private health choices.
They currently exist in only one state – a limited government partnership in New York with a private company – but that has not stopped GOP lawmakers in a handful of states from drafting legislative proposals to ban their use.
The argument over whether passports are a sensible response to the pandemic or government override reflects the bitter disputes over the past year over masks, closure orders and even the vaccines themselves.
Vaccination passports are usually an app with a code that verifies whether someone has been vaccinated or recently tested negative for COVID-19. It is used in Israel and developed in parts of Europe is seen as a way to help build the pandemic-destroyed travel industry safely.
It is intended to enable businesses to open more safely as the vaccine moves, and it reflects the measures already in place for schools and overseas travel that need to provide evidence of vaccination against various diseases.
Legislators across the country are already taking a stand against the idea. GOP senators in Pennsylvania are drafting legislation that bans the vaccination of passports, also known as health certificates or travel passes, to ban people from routine activities.
“We have constitutional rights and health laws for a reason,” said Republican Kerry Benninghoff. “They must not cease to exist in a time of crisis. These passports may start with COVID-19, but where will it end? ”
Benninghoff said this week that his concern is to use tax money to generate a system that will now possibly be in the hands of megatechnological organizations that have already had problems with hijackings and security issues. ‘
A Democratic colleague, Representative Chris Rabb of Philadelphia, sees value in vaccine passports if they are carefully implemented.
“There is a role in the use of technology and other ways to affirm people’s status,” Rabb said. “But we have concerns about privacy, surveillance and unfair access.”
Republican lawmakers in other states have also drafted proposals to ban or restrict it. A bill filed in the Arkansas legislature Wednesday would prevent government officials from engaging in gatekeeping for any reason, banning its use as a condition of ‘access, travel, education, employment or services.’
The sponsor, Senator Trent Garner of the Republican, cites vaccine passports “just another example of the Biden government using COVID-19 to place regulations or restrictions on everyday Americans.”
President Joe Biden’s administration has largely followed a practical approach to vaccine passports.
At a news conference this week, Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said he sees it as a project for the private sector, not for the government.
He said the government was considering federal guidelines to steer the process around vaccine passports. Among other things, it is worrying: not everyone who needs a passport has a smartphone; passports must be free of charge and in several languages; and private health information must be protected.
‘There will be organizations that want to use it. There will be organizations that do not want to use it, ‘says dr. Brian Anderson of Miter, which operates federally funded research centers and is part of a coalition working to develop standards for vaccine certifications to make their use easier.
Anderson notes that the vaccination initiative does not provide recommendations on how – or even if – organizations prefer to use the certificates.
In Montana, GOP lawmakers this week voted by party lines to promote some bills that would ban discrimination based on vaccine status or possession of an immunity passport, and to ban the use of vaccine status or passports to secure certain benefits and services to obtain.
And a first-year Republican lawmaker in Ohio commented on the draft, saying more restrictions or mandates are not the answer to every COVID-19 problem.
“Ohio residents are encouraged to take the COVID-19 vaccine for the health and well-being of themselves and others,” Al Cutrona said. However, a vaccine should not be instructed or required by our government to reintegrate our people into a sense of normalcy. ‘
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order stating that no government entity can issue a vaccine passport, and businesses in the state cannot require it. He said he expects the legislature to pass a similar law.
According to his order, “so-called COVID-19 vaccine passports must be required to take part in everyday life – such as attending a sporting event, enchanting a restaurant or going to a movie theater – creating two classes of citizens.”
U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, a newly elected member who has taken on and promoted a series of far-right political positions, told her supporters earlier this week that “something called a vaccine passport” is a form of “corporate communism ”and part of a Democratic effort to control people’s lives.
And a Louisiana GOP legislator has drafted a bill to prevent the state from including any vaccination information on the Louisiana driver’s license, or to issue a driver’s license subject to vaccine status.
In New YorkA state-sponsored passport called Excelsior Pass is introduced. A smartphone app, it shows if someone has been vaccinated or recently tested negative for COVID-19.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo cites the idea of having a meeting room used, for example, to use their own smartphone to scan the concert-goer’s code.
New York officials did not disclose specific details about how the app would work, protect access to someone’s vaccination or test status or the user’s name, date of birth or the place where their code was scanned. According to the programme’s privacy policy, data will be ‘maintained in a secure manner’ and will not be used for sales or marketing purposes or shared with any third party. Some privacy experts believe that the public needs more details to ensure that the information is protected.
Albert Fox Cahn, founder and CEO of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project at the Urban Justice Center, a civil rights and privacy group in New York, warned that Excelsior Pass creates a new layer of surveillance without sufficient details on how it collects data or protects privacy.
“We basically only have screenshots of the user interface and not much more,” Cahn said of Excelsior Pass.
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Associated Press Writers Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio; Marina Villeneuve in Albany, New York; Candice Choi in New York; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Montana; and Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed.