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Today Biden realized my worst fear.. worst president in fucking history.. He just announced today a "vaccine passport" where it can be freely used to discriminate against you if you don't have one showing you got a COVID vaccination. This means jobs can fire you, businesses can require it to enter, and it can prevent you from flying.
In effect it now encourages and enables business and entities to discriminate based on an aspect of your medical records and effectively provides a means to circumvent existing laws that would otherwise protect your medical records.
To add insult to injury we arent even talking about a normal vaccine, we are talking about the first vaccine in US history that was allowed to completely bypass the last stage of safety tests, which give legal immunity for the companies so they can not be sued if people get sick from the vaccines. So in effect they have set up a situation where you are forced to take a drug that didnt pass full safety tests, against your will, and be excluded from the whole of society if you dont.
@freemo Are you sure about this? Of the three general news sources I normally consume, two (which I would've expected to support the president) have no coverage of this at all, and the third (which I would've expected to criticise the president) is carrying a statement from the White House Press Secretary which denies that the administration is creating vaccination passports.
I think it's much more likely they'll treat it like other vaccines anyway - your school or employer or whatever can require you to document that you're vaccinated against measles, for example, but there is no national "measles passport" everyone's required to have.
@khird CNN and business insider supported it.. plus biden made it as one of his campaign promises at the DNC acceptance speech.. i am positive.
@khird tons of news about it everywhere, was just announced today officially:
@freemo [Here](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/03/29/p)'s the primary source:
Relevant quotes:
> [A] determination or development of a vaccine passport, or whatever you want to call it, will be driven by the private sector.
> [T]here will be no centralized, universal federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.
It looks like it'll be up to the individual to prove he's vaccinated in some way that's acceptable to his school or employer - which is pretty much how measles or hepatitis or whatever already works. I don't think it's quite the cause for alarm it sounded like initially.
@khird It is **not** how other vaccinations work.. As it stands right now outside of the nursing/medical field employers do not require proof of vaccinations. But yes it will be driven by the private sector and effectively support the idea of requiring this "passport" in order to enter a building (like if you want to go grovery shopping) and even mention of requiring it for flying.
@khird This was in the USA? thats very interesting.. I have had so many jobs over the years and never once have I heard of such a thing... what state was this in?
@khird I dont even know what I would do.. like I know I had all my childhood vaccinations and when i was a kid there was records.. but now as an adult, no one has my medical records from 30 years ago.. im vaccinated and would have no way to prove it even if i wanted to.
@freemo Ohio. I didn't have to for my previous job in Pennsylvania though, as far as I remember.
@khird so strange, i have never heard of any job doing that.. i believe you, but weird.
@freemo I guess. I thought it was normal, actually - just checked with my gf (also not in healthcare) and she had to as well.
@khird what state was it that you and your GF had to do it? I'm really curious now...
@freemo Both Ohio
@khird I wonder if this is a state by state thing then.. I have never worked in ohio which may explain why i never experienced it.
@freemo could be - I don't *remember* it coming up when I worked in Pennsylvania, but I can't guarantee it didn't. In any case, if I had to show immunity to MMR, hep, *and covid* the difference is too insignificant to bother me much.
Thanks for discussing this civilly, by the way - I know that *should* be the norm among adults, but it's unfortunately not that common in practice.
@khird i do agree that adding one more disease to a list for a immunity check that already exists is minor.. with that said I'd argue even the existing immunity checks should be abolished and, at least from my expiernce, extremely rare.
The big issue here is that it seems to be supported by the federal government and may even bleed over to things like obtaining flights.
@freemo
I just wanted to pipe in that when I went to study abroad (in DC, USA, late 90's), I was required to get a Tetanus vaccination. Otherwise I would not be allowed to study there. My last Tetanus shot was too long ago according to them. So I got a (painful) shot from one of the nurses in that university's medical facility. My study was not in a medical field. All (foreign?) students had to do this.
@khird
This is Mur 
@mur2501 Of course. But I got the impression from @freemo that [showing proof of vaccination] wasn't acceptable [outside of the nursing/medical field]. That's why I piped in.
(For the 'official documents' there was no mention of the Tetanus vaccine. I had to scramble up a doctor's note (from overseas, when internet was fairly new, fun!) and show it to the medical facility that I indeed had this vaccination. No immigration department involved for this.)
Yup that is tetanus alright. Well scary to know they are already doing this at all. What happens if you say you got the vaccine but simply cant obtain proof for reasons outside of your control (records were not even kept for example which is common with birth vaccines for people over 30)?
@freemo I suppose they just go jab you themselves, like they did with me? Unless, of course, you wanted to abort this whole study thing and go back home.
And even if you have proof.. I was vaccinated already, but they shrugged and vaccinated me again. Who knows, maybe I've been nanoteched up already. :P
Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. Forcing someone to violate the fda recommended dosage on a vaccine by doubling up on it simply because it was before official records were kept... this effectively risks a persons health without any health benefits, which seems wrong.
In your case its a vaccine we all get every 7 years anyway so doesnt exactly apply to other once-and-done vaccines.
@freemo Well, younger me would totally stick out a tongue towards you. It hurts!
:P
But as far as I remember, I only needed to do that tetanus shot at the medical facility. Don't know about the others.
Your idea of vaccinations might be a tad not fully in line with what's already happening in your country. 'Twas all I wanted to say. Whether you want to look up more info about this or not is up to you.
@freemo Off the top of my head, I was required to show measles, mumps, rubella, and hepatitis vaccines for my job (fluid dynamics research, has no medical relation at all). I didn't have "passports" for any of those, but I think I got a doctor's note? I might have just had to sign an affadvit or something; I've forgotten the details. And it's an indirect requirement for many flights, at least internationally - because an airline won't board you without a proper visa, and vaccines for things like yellow fever are widely (though not universally) required.
About the only new thing here is the idea that a business might require its customers to show proof - I think that's stupid, but hey let the free market show them when they lose the customers. Unless Biden starts requiring businesses to require their customers to show proof, I still think the alarm is unwarranted.