Vaccine Passports: No -- And Yes
David R. Henderson writes at Econ Lib about possible state vaccine passport requirements versus those businesses might require:
That type of vaccine passport is one that governments are considering requiring. That's the issue on which I agree with DeSantis.
In other words, he opposes them. I agree. And I agree with him on the following, as a person who supports individual liberty -- including, one might say, that of individuals who run corporations.
But the other type of vaccine passport is one that firms and businesses are thinking of requiring before letting people into their buildings.This raises no issue of individual liberty. Well, actually, it does, but not in the way that opponents of these vaccine passports argue.The issue of individual liberty is whether companies should be free to decide whom they get to deal with. I say they should.
I have long been a supporter of freedom of association, even in cases where that view has been unpopular. I wouldn't require someone to be vaccinated before dealing with that person because I had my second Moderna shot 20 days ago. But other people have different attitudes to risk. And a business needs to take into account the different attitudes people have.
Some may decide that they can get more business by assuring the public that anyone who enters their business has been vaccinated. This is a great solution to a tricky problem. It also has the side benefit of giving people an incentive to be vaccinated.
We still hear about people who are nervous or hesitant about, or even opposed to, getting vaccinated. They should be free not to be vaccinated. But other people should be free not to deal with them.
This won’t be where the requirements end. In six months there will be a new hoop to jump through. Most likely a booster shot. And then another.
A lot of people who have had severe Covid already are reacting badly to the vaccines. And 10 percent of people who have been vaccinated are catching and passing on Covid anyway.
Most companies are not going to want to devote the time and resources to virus theater much longer. We are reaching the point where everyone needs to get back to normal life and take their chances.
Isab at April 17, 2021 4:13 AM
Also a business or individual requiring vaccination documents (which are easily faked) is gong to be a HIPPA violation.
Medical facilities would probably get away with vaccination as an employment requirement. No one else would.
Isab at April 17, 2021 4:29 AM
I thought we already settled this. If you are open to the public then you are open to the public. Bake the damn cake and all that.
Ben at April 17, 2021 6:07 AM
“I thought we already settled this. If you are open to the public then you are open to the public.”
Ben, a restaurant can refuse service to a person because they are not wearing a shirt.
A restaurant cannot refuse service to a person due to the color of their skin.
JD at April 17, 2021 6:56 AM
This will simply serve as a way of telling me to find someplace else to shop or eat or otherwise do business with. The good thing is that there are plenty of businesses like that. Plenty. I expect large businesses such as Lowe's or Home Depot to embrace this, but only for a while. Eventually such mandates will be allowed to quietly die. Money talks.....
Stephen Taylor at April 17, 2021 6:58 AM
I understand there are some jobs where people really need vaccinations.
And I agree businesses should be able to choose who they deal with.
But for the love of all I don't want to live in a world where businesses dictate more and more of what you need to do.
NicoleK at April 17, 2021 7:34 AM
“Bake the damn cake and all that.”
Ben, to further illustrate it for you...
If a couple wanted a baker to make a cake for them and write, say, “all women should be raped” on it, and the baker refused, he would have every right to do so. Doesn’t matter if the couple is straight, gay, Christian, Muslim, white, black, Korean or Russian. His discrimination isn’t based on who the people are.
JD at April 17, 2021 8:12 AM
One of my relatives has been told by her doctors that she cannot get the vaccine (actually any shots) until they figure out what caused some complications with the last time she got a shot. This feels like a problematic policy.
I think the biggest problem is how easy the passports are to fake.
The Former Banker at April 17, 2021 8:25 AM
> This won’t be where the
> requirements end.
> I thought we already
> settled this.
You kids are adorable.
Crid at April 17, 2021 8:48 AM
Here's Amy Alkon, one of the few Americans (libertarian, at that!) who understands the implications of asymptomatic transmission:
> They should be free not to
> be vaccinated. But other
> people should be free not
> to deal with them.
✓ ✓ ✓
Crid at April 17, 2021 8:56 AM
I had to be vaccinated to teach. It's not just medical fields that require it.
NicoleK at April 17, 2021 10:43 AM
So.
How many died of the FLU, and where is your passport stamp for this, you unpatriotic American who should be jailed?
What? Fly on an airplane? Are you nuts? It's already Constitutional for the Federal government to tell a private carrier they must strip-search your child because you want them to ride an airplane.
Ask Patrick.
So it will be Constitutional to keep you from traveling in any manner unless you have your shots.
Even though the President and Congress now conspire to violate the requirements of 8USC1182.
You animal, you.
Radwaste at April 17, 2021 10:52 AM
I will not be getting the shots. Neither will my kids, for as long as I have legal control over their medical decisions. We have next to no risk from Covid-we're white, healthy weights, no comorbidities. My kids, however, have decades upon decades, and all their reproductive years, ahead of them. That's a long time for unknown side effects, or effects to subsequent generations, to show up. (I'm looking at you, thalidomide).
I'm a nurse. I'm fortunate to work for a company.that doesn't think paying my check gives them the right to make my medical decisions for me.
Hubs on the other hand is a chunky prediabetic hispanic. He chose to get it.
Momof4 at April 17, 2021 2:16 PM
"So."
Crid at April 17, 2021 2:54 PM
"So it will be Constitutional to keep you from traveling in any manner unless you have your shots."
Including by foot?
dee nile at April 17, 2021 3:17 PM
"Including by foot?" ~Dee
Why not? Some places do that to catch drunks already.
And as JD makes clear the rules aren't you can't discriminate. They are that your discrimination must be trendy! Which makes sense. It is just expanding the sexual harassments rules to other things.
Ben at April 17, 2021 3:57 PM
This hypothesis may explain the adverse clotting and bleeding, as well as neurological problems, that have been reported.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyPjAfNNA-U
pteliolo at April 17, 2021 4:59 PM
Ben, how is a restaurant refusing service to a person because they are not wearing a shirt being "trendy"?
JD at April 18, 2021 11:34 AM
Now now JD, don't misrepresent your words. They are available just a few inches above here.
"If a couple wanted a baker to make a cake for them and write, say, “all women should be raped” on it, and the baker refused, he would have every right to do so. Doesn’t matter if the couple is straight, gay, Christian, Muslim, white, black, Korean or Russian. His discrimination isn’t based on who the people are." ~JD
So you can't refuse to make the cake if you are a christian baker and the potential customers want a gay wedding cake. But you can't refuse to make the cake if the potential customers are misogynists. And incidentally if the baker is a muslism that somehow trumps the gay wedding thing. Oh well.
Clearly the rules are you can discriminate . . . but only in trendy ways.
Oh, and the discrimination against the rape cake is based on who the customer is. At least as much as the gay wedding cake is.
Ben at April 19, 2021 6:39 AM
Don't pretend businesses would be free to refuse service to those who received the vaccination. This only ever goes one way.
El Verde Loco at April 19, 2021 8:48 AM
I was in the Moderna clinical trial (got the shot and the miserable side effects before anyone else I knew even qualified for it). I'll get it again + any and all boosters. I've long gotten a flu shot every year, along with the litany of vaccines recommended for places I traveled back when leisure travel abroad was a thing. My TDAP is up-to-date.
And I'm still against having COVID "vaccine passports" --especially for travel. As with any paperwork/documentation it'll be more accessible to those with means and flexible schedules. That means a wealthy person may be able to hop a flight to Jamaica, while a poor person (who doesn't have the time to obtain required proof of vaccination) might be grounded and unable to attend a loved one's funeral. Plus, there are people who should NOT be vaccinated (I happen to know a few whose doctors told them not to be vaccinated d/t their chronic conditions, or to skip the second dose).
We're going to Alaska in a couple weeks and are voluntarily following their request to have a negative COVID test within 3 days of travel, because it's the right thing to do. Those who are considerate of others (and able) will do the same. But I'm not in favor making travel a huge pain and inequitable for huge swaths of people.
sofar at April 19, 2021 1:20 PM
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