The White House said Monday (March 29) that President Joe Biden‘s administration is not pushing for COVID-19 (the Chinese Communist virus) “vaccine passports,” but officials are working with private companies to develop guidelines for a vaccination certification system that people can use to prove they have been vaccinated. Officials are working with private companies to develop guidelines for a vaccination certification system that people can use to prove that they have been vaccinated.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington that the administration would “provide guidance” for developing vaccine passports or similar systems.
She added, “There is an interagency study that is looking at a number of issues related to proof of vaccination. This is an issue that will involve many agencies, because vaccination certification is an issue that can involve many areas of society, and we will provide guidance on that. The identification or development of the ‘vaccine passport’ – or whatever you want to call it – will be driven by the private sector. We will focus more on guidelines that can be used as a foundation, and we are working on some key principles.”
The key principles, Psaki said, are that there will not be a centralized, universal database to track COVID-19 vaccination; there will be no federal mandate requiring all Americans to obtain a single vaccine passport; companies and nonprofits will be encouraged to work together to develop the technology; and the government will work to ensure that all vaccine passports meet key criteria, such as “accessibility “and “affordability.
This is something we are working on,” she added. We want to provide clear information to the public.”
There were several reports over the weekend that the Biden Administration is leading and advancing the “vaccine passport” effort by developing standards for a vaccine passport system.
Last week, New York became the first state in the United States to issue a “vaccine passport. The technology, developed by IBM, will be used at entrances to stadiums, arenas and businesses to certify that the holder has been vaccinated against COVID-19 (the Chinese Communist virus).
In a statement, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, said, “As more New Yorkers are vaccinated every day, and as key public health indicators continue to reach their lowest levels in months, the use of the nation’s first Excelsior Pass heralds our next, well-thought-out , science-based reopening.”
Other companies and groups are developing similar technologies with an eye toward requiring those who will be boarding planes, attending concerts and entering other crowded venues to prove they have been vaccinated.
Some have expressed concern about these “vaccine passports” (passes).
In a recent interview on NTDTV’s “The Nation Speaks,” Dr. Sarah Chan, a bioethics expert at the University of Edinburgh’s School of Medicine, said, “I think technically, the ‘vaccine passport’ is a kind of a passport. I think ‘vaccine passports’ are a solution that would be disproportionately burdensome and they would probably be a waste of resources. And on top of that, I think there are serious ethical issues with it. It’s an unnecessary way to divide (society). It will create more inequity and inequality in an already unequal society.”
She added, “If we start deciding who is free to participate in society based on vaccination status, we’re really working hard to put the onus on individuals to have to be vaccinated. And that in turn assumes that whether a person is vaccinated or not is entirely a matter of their own right to freely choose. But that is not the case. In fact, vaccination will depend on many other factors beyond people’s control, such as the ability to obtain the vaccine, pre-existing health conditions, and so on.”
A senior adviser to Biden said earlier Monday that Americans, as well as people in other countries who get vaccinated, “want some form of proof that they’ve been vaccinated.”
Andy Slavitt, a senior White House adviser, told reporters in a virtual briefing, “Unlike the rest of the world, the government does not see its role as issuing its own (vaccine) passport or keeping data on its citizens. We think that’s what the private sector is doing and will do. What is important to us is that we are now leading an interdepartmental review process to examine the details of these measures, and these vouchers need to meet some important criteria such as ‘fair access’ and so on.”
He added, “Privacy of information, security and marketplace for solutions are all part of what we are following. We also believe that people should be able to use it for free and in multiple languages.”
When asked why the government did not develop its own passport, Slavitt explained that a segment of the population had become concerned that the government was taking drastic measures in certain aspects of vaccination.
He said, “The fact is that doing so would avoid people feeling that this is the role we are playing. So we think that we can have the best (measures) in the world and come up with guidelines.”
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