Vaccine Passports

Why do I feel uneasy when I hear that IBM is one of the top IT firms pushing their Vaccine Passport?

I give up. Why do you feel uneasy when you hear that IBM is one of the top IT firms pushing their Vaccine Passport?

1 Like

Something about IBM helping a government track its people.

Ah, I see. :open_book:

I was not aware of that history.

The other IT firms helping the government track its people don’t make me feel any less uneasy, tbh.

Yeah, I don’t trust anyone with a profit motive and all companies have a profit motive even if they aren’t making money off of the specific project. And, of course, my trust of government comes in lower than that for corporations.

I think they should have tied last round of stimulus to getting vaccinated. A vaccine passport is stupid. No one will be interested in enforcing that.

One thing that worries me about vaccine passports is the potential for them to be used by abusers to control their victims. There are already many abusive relationships where one partner controls the others access to social media, friends, etc. But if a person literally can’t go to food shopping or a restaurant without an app on their phone, it really has the potential to be awful for people in abusive relationships.

3 Likes

The Florida Gov has already said he’s going to make rules preventing the requirement of a vaccine passport, and urge the legislature to make it law. This is the kind of thing that only works if it has buy in from everybody, and it already doesn’t. It’s just never going to happen.

In addition to the developers of the app, I have a problem with the businesses that will be scanning them. When you download the app, the developer will layout their terms of service and privacy policy. The businesses that are scanning the QR code, what are their policies? What information will they receive? How will it be stored (i.e. can it be hacked easily)? Will they hand this info to local/state/federal officials easily? Will they sell it to advertisers? If sold, can an advertiser piece together my habits if they’re purchasing this data from multiple businesses? The only way I see this being answered is through legislation, and it doesn’t seem like it will be answered any time soon given the back and forth going on between Congress and social media platforms. From what I have read, the federal government plans on developing standards, but leaving it up to the states and the private sector to decide if they want to implement them.

1 Like

Not exactly a vaccine passport, but the Wynn resort/casino in Vegas is telling its employees that they either need to get the vaccine or they need to submit a negative Covid test weekly. I wonder if more employers will go this route.

Wynn Las Vegas announces new COVID vaccination, testing policy for employees (ktnv.com)

Vaccine “passports” aren’t a new idea. We’ve used various forms of them for more than a hundred years. Fear of something like this to help public health seems really strange to me.

2 Likes

I think I’m skeptical of them from like an “everyday use” kind of thing. We know you need to provide proof of vaccination for certain types of international travel or school. Those records come from your doctor/medical history.

This is kind of new territory if we want people to prove they were vaccinated to enter a shop or get on a bus/plane with a flash of the card. To me it seems ripe for corruption, keep certain groups of people out of different areas like voting ID laws do. It also creates a weird relationship with medical history, something people have never needed to prove before for everyday type events (like going to a baseball game for instance). There are privacy concerns and general “setting a precedent” concerns I have.

I am 100% in favor of everyone getting a vaccine. I think they need to be encouraged. And even if certain jobs require it, it’s probably fine I guess. But I feel like it’s enabling a tricky situation with vaccine passports. I feel icky about it especially if it’s government sponsored. Just my thoughts, happy to consider the other side too, I get it for sure.

I generally agree with IPD on this. I don’t mind if a public-facing job requires the vaccine to work there (or documented reason why you can’t get it). I had a job as a health actuary that required the flu shot every year as condition of employment. I wouldn’t mind if schools require it (once one is developed for school-aged children) as they require many other vaccines to attend.

I’m also 100% in favor of everyone getting the vaccine. But I’d prefer some sort of $200 tax credit if you got the vaccine as an incentive, rather than displaying proof of vaccination at every business or restaurant you go to.

1 Like

Not really. We did it with small pox in the early 1900s. You needed to have a vaccine to get jobs, go to theaters, ride the train or go to school.

There is a reason why small pox is essentially eradicated today. Had we not taken strong public health measures then we might still be dealing with small pox.

2 Likes

Vaccinations being required of evacuees from St Vincent volcano eruption.

Tell me again why this is a good idea.

1 Like

Just in case someone questions the Twitter screencap:

Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said in a press conference that people have to be vaccinated if they go aboard a cruise ship or are granted temporary refuge in another island. He said two Royal Caribbean cruise ships are expected to arrive by Friday and a third one in the coming days, as well as two Carnival cruise ships by Friday. Islands that have said they would accept evacuees include St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados and Antigua.

2 Likes

Well, if they are offering the vaccines as people board the boats, it may not be a horrible idea.

But unless they are taking those people to someplace with a much lower rate of covid than where they are coming from, it seems weird, at best. And if they ARE taking them to a lower-covid place, just cruising around in circles for a couple weeks to quarantine seems a hell of a lot better than abandoning people to a volcano.

1 Like

Yeah, I’m okay if employers and schools and cruise ships require you to be vaccinated. I’m not okay if the grocery store and the post office do.

Helping with natural disasters seems like the worst time to be requiring vaccinations.

1 Like

The plan as of now is for the Buffalo Bills to be a full capacity in the fall. And they will require all attendees to be vaccinated with proof via a vaccine passport app.

Full Capacity and Fully Vaccinated: NY Exec Unveils Plan for In-Person Buffalo Bills’ Games – NBC New York