WHO Rejects Vaccine Passports ‘At This Stage’

WHO Rejects Vaccine Passports ‘At This Stage’
The new "Excelsior Pass" app, a digital pass that people can download to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test, in an undated photo. (NY Governor's Press Office via AP)

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it rejects using CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccine passports “at this stage” for travel because health authorities are not sure whether the vaccine is effective.

“We as W.H.O. are saying at this stage we would not like to see the vaccination passport as a requirement for entry or exit because we are not certain at this stage that the vaccine prevents transmission,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday.

“There are all those other questions, apart from the question of discrimination against the people who are not able to have the vaccine for one reason or another,” Harris said, reported the Reuters news agency.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) made a similar argument for barring the usage of a vaccine passport system, citing privacy concerns and whether or not such a system would be kept in a centralized database. Some, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have said that it would create a class system of vaccinated and non-vaccinated people.

Previously, WHO officials have rejected passports when asked about them.

“Vaccination is just not available enough around the world and is not available certainly on an equitable basis,” Dr. Michael Ryan, the head of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, told reporters March 8.

On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, became the second U.S. governor after DeSantis to issue an executive order barring vaccine passports. DeSantis, also a Republican, became the first governor to do so last week.

“Today I issued an executive order prohibiting the use of so-called COVID-19 vaccine passports,” DeSantis wrote Twitter April 2. “The Legislature is working on making permanent these protections for Floridians and I look forward to signing them into law soon.”

“No COVID-19 vaccine is required by law,” the governor’s order stated, adding that “vaccination records are private health information” that shouldn’t be shared by a mandate. The passports, he said, would harm individual freedom and harm patient privacy.

“A requirement to show a passport to take part in everyday life such as a sporting event, going to a restaurant or going to a movie theater would ‘create two classes of citizens,’” DeSantis stated.

His order forbids local governments and businesses from implementing the system.

Some firms—such as airlines and cruise companies—have floated the idea to entice people into using their services. New York state, meanwhile, has set up its own “Excelsior Pass” that would be used in large-scale events such as Madison Square Garden and sporting events.

From The Epoch Times

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