Pirate's Cove

On one hand, I can see the point of a COVID passport, something that mostly cannot be faked, which would allow those who have been vaccinated and/or have the antibodies to get out and about with full freedom among others with the same. On the other, what’s the chance for governmental abuse?

‘Vaccine passports’ are on the way, but developing them won’t be easy
White House-led effort tries to corral more than a dozen initiatives

The Biden administration and private companies are working to develop a standard way of handling credentials — often referred to as “vaccine passports” — that would allow Americans to prove they have been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus as businesses try to reopen.

The effort has gained momentum amid President Biden’s pledge that the nation will start to regain normalcy this summer and with a growing number of companies — from cruise lines to sports teams — saying they will require proof of vaccination before opening their doors again.

The administration’s initiative has been driven largely by arms of the Department of Health and Human Services, including an office devoted to health information technology, said five officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the effort. The White House this month took on a bigger role coordinating government agencies involved in the work, led by coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients, with a goal of announcing updates in coming days, said one official.

The White House declined to answer questions about the passport initiative, instead pointing to public statements that Zients and other officials made this month.

“Our role is to help ensure that any solutions in this area should be simple, free, open source, accessible to people both digitally and on paper, and designed from the start to protect people’s privacy,” Zients said at a March 12 briefing.

The passports are expected to be free and available through applications for smartphones, which could display a scannable code similar to an airline boarding pass. Americans without smartphone access should be able to print out the passports, developers have said.

That sounds like it is an….identification card. Aren’t ID cards evil, in terms of being necessary to vote? Racists, even? Say, how does one get the shot, anyhow? Wake County required a government photo ID to get the shot (and proof of work to make sure one was in the authorized group). From what I’ve been told, so did CVS and Walgreens drug stores. Have to make sure the person getting the COVID shot is actually who they say they are. And I had to carry an ID while driving to the center to get a shot. That’s raaaaacist! Right?

That photo above, which comes from a long past post, would be acceptable to me, would like a hard copy, just remove the physical address. City and state would be fine.

U.S. officials say they are grappling with an array of challenges, including data privacy and health-care equity. They want to make sure all Americans will be able to get credentials that prove they have been vaccinated, but also want to set up systems that are not easily hacked or passports that cannot be counterfeited, given that forgeries are already starting to appear.

One of the most significant hurdles facing federal officials: the sheer number of passport initiatives underway, with the Biden administration this month identifying at least 17, according to slides obtained by The Washington Post.

Those initiatives — such as a World Health Organization-led global effort and a digital pass devised by IBM that is being tested in New York state — are rapidly moving forward, even as the White House deliberates about how best to track the shots and avoid the perception of a government mandate to be vaccinated.

Now, you know if this was anyone within the Trump admin, the same Washington Post would be decrying this, would be slamming Trump, as would the rest of the Credentialed Media. But, anyhow, the China Joe admin is smart to low key this, because it will freak a lot of people out. If they’re smart, they will make these Bat Soup Virus passports as simple as possible, and contain the bare minimum of information necessary. No socials, no address, pretty much name and the passport, with a picture either off the state ID, US Passport, or uploaded. HHS should not be holding all sorts of unnecessary info. Run it through the IRS, which already has our information.

Public health and ethics experts agreed that the Biden administration needed to strike a careful balance: Encourage shots and support the private-sector initiatives but don’t put too much federal emphasis on the looming passports.

“If it became a government mandate, it would go down a dark road very quickly,” said Brian C. Castrucci, who leads the Bethesda, Md.-based de Beaumont Foundation, a public health group funding Luntz’s research into why some Americans are balking at the vaccine. “It becomes a credential. It becomes a ‘needing your papers,’ if you will. That could be dangerous — and it could turn off people.”

While the article mentions a whole bunch of Trump voters being against this, there are plenty of Biden voters against it, as well, along with plenty of Biden voters who do not want the vaccine, either. I guess we’ll see what is developed. What do you think?

And, even it it is minimal and acceptable, I will be sure to denounce it as Evil Racist Identification, because that’s how this works, right?

Read: China Joe Admin Looks To Lead On Developing COVID Passports »