In an effort to continue to contain COVID-19 and limit moral liability of business owners, vaccine passports have been a proposed concept for the upcoming months to allow businesses to only admit people who have been vaccinated.
The CDC announced on May 16 that masks are no longer required for those who have been vaccinated, whether indoors or outdoors. The questions quickly followed of whether or not privately owned spaces are allowed to require proof of vaccination for entry and if they can enforce that.
This proof of vaccination – a vaccine passport – is a common practice in many areas that have been subject to epidemics. This would be largely beneficial to the private sector of the U.S. population and forbidding vaccine passports would be detrimental to businesses and public health.
Tech startups such as ImmunaBand have already offered ways to securely take a copy of your passport wherever you go, such as on your wrist. Products like these make it easy and barely an inconvenience to require proof of vaccination for entry.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has already passed a state executive order and signed legislation that forbids businesses from denying entry to customers based on vaccination. His reasoning is that vaccination is a private decision and the right to make that decision is infringed upon by vaccine passports.
However, this is ignorant to the fact that businesses have rights as well. A business owner may not feel as comfortable serving someone who potentially could be carrying COVID-19. If they were to test positive and spread it to other customers, it could result in closure and loss of money. If an employee is immunocompromised or ineligible for the vaccine, the business owner should have the privilege to protect their employee.
DeSantis has consequently put businesses, especially cruises like Norwegian Cruise Lines, in a position where they cannot operate in Florida. Most cruises require proof of vaccination to board to prevent spread and now cannot launch from Florida. This type of executive order from DeFrancis is unconstitutional and violates the rights of the business owners while not doing anything to protect the citizens of Florida.
The government treats corporations as persons in most aspects of legislation, so they should have the decision to deny entry to those who are not vaccinated. Discrimination legislature does not protect against vaccine passports because it is specific to factors people cannot control, such as age, race, or gender.
In workplaces an employee should not be liable for “vaccine discrimnation” because vaccines are so widely accessible. If someone is choosing to avoid vaccine culture simply because of distrust in the science, as opposed to religious or medical reasons, they should understand that they may have different opportunities then their peers. An employer has the right to select certain vaccinated employees for higher contact jobs if they do not feel comfortable putting forth an unvaccinated counterpart.
Coming alongside vaccine passports is a need for vaccine acceptance and education. The government needs to fight propaganda about vaccines and promote scientific journals and research as opposed to biased news media.
Vaccine passports are an integral part of keeping people safe and are in no way a violation of privacy rights. The bigger violation rights would be subjecting potentially medically exempted non-vaccinated persons to those who simply choose to not receive their vaccine.