Calif. launches vaccine passports cloaked as convenience

Americans who have received both COVID-19 vaccines were handed a card with the admonishment to “keep it with you, like a driver’s license.”  The card notes the dates of the inoculations, granting certain privileges such as allowing recipients to travel freely and attend indoor events and even college.  Having such a document invokes the dreaded, “Show me your papers” mandate that is a cultural metaphor for life in a police state.

The pandemic is essentially over, but governmental control over American citizens is just beginning.

California democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is the subject of a recall, has said that the system he has put in place does not constitute a “vaccine passport” that businesses would use to filter people who are not vaccinated, though it does a good job of portraying one. Newsom mandates that entities hosting large indoor gatherings, such as concerts or sports events, verify that all attendees either have proof of a recent negative COVID-19 test or vaccination.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order on April 19, 2021, stating that no business can demand verification of inoculation. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a democrat, heads the only state that has an official vaccine passport, known as the Excelsior Pass, which is linked to its state vaccination database, and verifies vaccination status — an overreach and massive invasion of privacy that should terrify any American.

Though California’s portal functions as a website, rather than an app, it’s otherwise essentially the same thing, according to California’s chief technology innovation officer, Rick Klau.

“This is very similar in concept to what New York launched with Excelsior Pass, which is an opportunity for a resident, in our case the state of California, to have a digital copy of their vaccination record,” Klau said.

“An opportunity?” Giving up privacy for convenience is a slippery slope no thinking American should willingly travel.