Pennsylvania Senate Passes Vaccine Passport Ban, Governor Says He’ll Probably Veto

This is actually a good lesson in Government over-reach, refusal to give up power, and the law of unintended consequences

Gov. Wolf says he’ll veto just-passed anti-vaccine passport bill, “probably a little far”

An amendment to legislation that would prohibit “vaccine passports” in Pennsylvania is “probably a little far” and will cause him to veto it, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf said Wednesday.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 29-20 Wednesday afternoon in favor of a bill, sponsored by State Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York County), to prohibit “vaccine passports” in Pennsylvania. The bill alone seemed unlikely to cause a veto threat: “Vaccine passports” — in other words, standardized proof of vaccination status that could be required to enter some places and attend some large gatherings — have generally been a political nonstarter in America overall, a popular concept among some Democrats but a battle President Joe Biden and others have concluded they won’t win and isn’t worth fighting.

Governor Wolf’s objection to the legislation?

An amendment offered by State Sen. Judy Ward (R-Blair County), whose district includes part of Cumberland County, and included in the final bill which would stop Pennsylvania’s secretary of health from requiring face masks, imposing travel restrictions, requiring social distancing and ordering private businesses to close. It would also stop publicly-funded colleges and universities from requiring students and faculty to be vaccinated.

“As I understand it, the health secretary would be prohibited from telling anybody they ought to wash their hands,” Wolf said. “I think that’s probably a little far.”

Legislators do this all the time. Have something simple, then complicate it with all sorts of other things. They just can’t keep it simple and targeted. The point here was to ban vaccine passports. That would have been accomplished, Wolf would have signed it. But, then the Senate added on the other stuff, which seemed like a good idea at the time, right? But, previous legislation ended up giving the health secretary all that extra power to do things that really shouldn’t be able to do, probably unintentionally in some legislation that was overblown and bloated. Any powers like that should be temporary as voted on per incident by the legislative branch. But, they weren’t, and the Executive Branch doesn’t want to give up it’s power, even if it was given unintentionally.

This also shows the danger of vaccine passports. It really should have been a simple, innocuous idea, something basic to get back to normal, something to show that you’ve had the vaccine or the antibodies from having had COVID19. But, due to the vast overreach and authoritarian policies of so many governments, along with a serious concern that government will mission creep, just like they do with legislation (see above), people became dead set against them. Same thing with some sort of pin, which would have helped alleviate many people’s concerns. Let’s not forget this tidbit I noted the other day on NY’s passport

(NY Times) But newly obtained documents show that the state may have larger plans for the app and that the cost to taxpayers may be much higher than originally stated.

The state’s three-year contract with I.B.M. — obtained by an advocacy group and shared with The New York Times — to develop and run the pass establishes the groundwork for a future where at least 10 million people in the state would have an Excelsior Pass. It would provide them with a QR code that would not only verify their vaccination status but could also include other personal details like proof of age, driver’s license and other health records. (snip)

But Eric Piscini, the vice president of emerging business networks at I.B.M., said in a recent interview that the state was considering broader uses. He said discussions were underway to expand the pass into a broader digital wallet that could store driver’s license information, other health information and more. He also said that other states and foreign governments were exploring ways to integrate the Excelsior Pass into their own verification systems, as New York seeks to include records from other states in its system.

Instead of just having your vaccination status, it will contain much more information. And then it will start carrying even more. That’s a serious concern.