HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Vaccine passports being developed to verify COVID-19 vaccination status and allow vaccinated people to travel, shop, and dine more freely have become the latest flashpoint in America’s ongoing political wars, with Republicans portraying them as a tough – convenient intrusion into personal freedom and personal health choices.
They currently exist in only one state – a New York limited partnership with a private company – but that doesn’t stop GOP lawmakers in a handful of states from issuing legislative proposals to ban their use.
The argument over whether passports are a sensible response to the pandemic or government overload echoes last year’s bitter disputes over masks, shutdown orders, and even the vaccines themselves.
Vaccine passports are usually an app with a code that verifies if someone has been vaccinated or recently tested negative for COVID-19. They are in use in Israel and in development in parts of Europe, seen as a way to safely help rebuild the pandemic-devastated travel industry
They are intended to enable businesses to open up more safely as the vaccine driver gains momentum, and they reflect the measures already in place for schools and trips abroad that require proof of immunization against various diseases.
But lawmakers across the country are already taking a stand against the idea. Pennsylvania GOP senators are working on legislation that would ban the ban on vaccine passports, also known as health certificates or travel passes, to keep people out of routine activities.
“We don’t have constitutional rights and health laws for nothing,” said Kerry Benninghoff, a Republican, the majority leader of the Pennsylvania House. “They must not cease to exist in times of crisis. These passports can start with COVID-19, but where will they end? “
Benninghoff said this week that his concern was “using tax money to generate a system that may now be in the hands of mega-tech organizations that have already had hacking and security issues.”
A Democratic colleague, Rep. Chris Rabb of Philadelphia sees value in vaccine passports if implemented carefully.
“There is a role for the use of technology and other means to affirm the status of people,” Rabb said. “But we are concerned about privacy, security and unequal access.”
Republican lawmakers in other states have also drafted proposals to ban or restrict them. A bill filed in the Arkansas legislature on Wednesday would prevent government officials from requiring vaccine passports for any reason, and would prohibit their use as a condition of “entry, travel, education, employment, or services.”
The sponsor, Republican State Sen. Trent Garner, called vaccine passports “just another example of the Biden administration using COVID-19 to impose rules or restrictions on ordinary Americans.”
President Joe Biden’s administration has largely taken a hands-off approach to vaccine passports.
At a press conference this week, Andy Slavitt, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said he viewed them as a project for the private sector, not for the government.
He said the government is considering federal guidelines to direct the vaccine passport process. One of the concerns: not everyone who needs a passport has a smartphone; passports must be free and in multiple languages; and personal health information must be protected.
“There will be organizations that want to make use of this. There will be organizations that don’t want to use them, ”said Dr. Brian Anderson of Miter, who runs federally funded research centers and is part of a coalition working to develop vaccine certification standards to make it easier for suppliers to use.
Anderson noted that the Vaccination Credential Initiative makes no recommendations on how – or even if – organizations choose to use the certifications.
In Montana, GOP lawmakers voted along party lines this week to introduce a few bills that would prohibit discrimination based on vaccine status or possession of an immunity passport, and to ban the use of vaccine status or passports for certain benefits and to obtain services.
And a freshman Republican state lawmaker in Ohio spoke out on the concept, saying that more restrictions or mandates aren’t the answer to every COVID-19 problem.
“Ohioans are encouraged to take the COVID-19 vaccine for the health and well-being of themselves and others,” said Rep. Al Cutrona. “However, a vaccine should not be imposed or required by our government so that our people regain a sense of normalcy.”
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida on Friday issued an executive order stating that no government agency can issue a vaccine passport, and companies in that state cannot demand them. He said he expected the legislature to pass a similar bill.
His order said that requiring “so-called COVID-19 vaccine passports to participate in everyday life – such as attending a sporting event, patronizing a restaurant, or going to a movie theater – would create two classes of citizens.”
US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, a newly elected member who has embraced and promoted a range of far-right political positions, told her supporters on Facebook earlier this week that “something called a vaccine passport” was a form of “corporate communism” and part of a democratic effort to control people’s lives.
And a GOP lawmaker in Louisiana has introduced a bill to prevent the state from including vaccination data on Louisiana driver’s licenses or to make the issuance of a driver’s license conditional on vaccination status.
In New York City, a government-sponsored vaccine passport called the Excelsior Pass is introduced. A smartphone app shows whether someone has been vaccinated or recently tested negative for COVID-19.
Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo praised the idea of letting an event venue, for example, use their own smartphone to scan a concert attendee’s code.
New York officials have not released specific details about how the app will work, access someone’s vaccination or testing status, or protect the name, date of birth, or the location where their code was scanned. According to the app’s privacy policy, data is “held securely” and will not be used for sales or marketing purposes, or shared with third parties. But some privacy experts say the public needs more specific information to ensure their information is protected.
Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project at the Urban Justice Center, a New York-based civil rights and privacy group, warned that the Excelsior Pass creates a new layer of surveillance without sufficient detail on how it collects or protects the data. privacy.
“We really only have screenshots of the user interface and not much more,” Cahn said of Excelsior Pass.
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.