Vaccine Passports to Hell

(Jeff Crouere) The latest CDC report shows that approximately 162 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered. This number is increasing steadily every day. These results show that millions of Americans are not reluctant to take the vaccine.

Despite the impressive distribution statistics, there is not universal support for the vaccine.  A recent poll revealed that 41% of Republicans will not get the coronavirus vaccine.  These results mimic other polls that have been taken in recent weeks.  Unfortunately, these Republicans, along with millions of other Americans who refuse the vaccine might face a severe infringement of their freedoms.

It seems that vaccine passports are being encouraged by the Biden administration and are being developed by the administration’s ideological partners in academia and corporate America.

On Friday, Cornell University president Martha Pollack and provost Michael Kotlikoff issued a statement that all students returning to the “Ithaca, Geneva, and Cornell Tech campuses for the fall semester” will be required to have a COVID-19 “vaccination.”

This announcement follows a similar statement issued by Rutgers University last week.  In the days ahead, many other universities will surely issue similar vaccine requirements for the fall semester.

The vaccine requirements will not be limited to colleges and universities.  Soon, the leading corporations in the country may require a vaccine for their employees to work in office settings.  Such vaccine passports may also be required to fly or to attend special events such as concerts and athletic contests.

The concept of vaccine passports should horrify Americans, regardless of their personal stance on the issue.  As Americans, we should have the freedom to either take the vaccine or not.

While older Americans may feel more vulnerable and want to take the vaccine, others should be able to refuse it for whatever reason.  Some Americans might not trust the government or the pharmaceutical companies; others may have read online reports about serious side-effects, including deaths, that have occurred after taking the vaccine.

In America, we should have the right to say “no,” especially on issues regarding our personal health.  Fortunately, a few political leaders, such as South Dakota governor Kristi Noem, have shown courage by publicly condemning vaccine passports.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has not only condemned vaccine passports, but also acted.  On Friday, he issued an executive order banning vaccine passports in his state.  In the declaration, he stated that “requiring so-called COVID-19 vaccine passports for taking part in everyday life — such as attending a sporting event, patronizing a restaurant, or going to a movie theater — would create two classes of citizens based on vaccinations.”

DeSantis banned government entities and businesses from requiring vaccine passports since “[i]t is necessary to protect the fundamental rights and privacies of Floridians and free flow of commerce in the state.”  DeSantis is also working with the Florida Legislature to make these protections “permanent” for the residents of his state.

While DeSantis is taking the lead at the state level, U.S. representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is the first to act in Congress.  She introduced legislation entitled the “We Will Not Comply Act.”  The purpose of this bill is to “ban vaccine ‘passports,’ prevent discrimination against the unvaccinated, and much more to protect the freedom of the American people.”  Rep. Taylor Greene is showing more courage than the vast majority of her Republican Party colleagues in the House or Senate.

Vaccine passports are the definition of medical tyranny.  The entire idea is Orwellian and dangerous.  It is what would be expected in a country ruled by a tyrannical government, not in a constitutional republic.

Even liberal author Naomi Wolf understands the dangers that vaccine passports represent.  She says that if these plans are implemented, it will mean “the end of human liberty in the West.”  Wolf believes that the real threat is the government’s access to the personal data of millions of Americans.  According to Wolf, a vaccine passport will lead to the “the end of civil society … it has the power to turn off your life, or to turn on your life, to let you engage in society or be marginalized.”

Wolf noted that communist China has such a system in place, which keeps “a billion people under the thumb of a totalitarian regime.”  This allows the communist rulers to “find any dissident in five minutes, and that can happen here literally within months.”

Whether the concerns are health or privacy, millions of Americans do not want to take the vaccine.  This will be unacceptable to the Biden administration and its allies.  These Americans will start to face incredible pressure to comply.

One tactic was revealed by Dr. Leana Wen, public health professor at George Washington University.  In a CNN interview, she admitted that Americans need to be given a “carrot” to “incentivize” them to take the vaccine.  According to Wen, “we need to make it clear to them that the vaccine is the ticket back to pre-pandemic life.”  Her fear is that “otherwise, people are going to go out and enjoy these freedoms anyway.”

In the view of Wen and many others demanding that Americans take the vaccines, freedoms should not be allowed for those people who refuse.  This is the antithesis of what it means to be an American, living in the “land of the free.”

Even if we take the vaccine, we must fight for the rights of those Americans who do not want to take it.  These are not passports to health; they are passports straight to hell.