White House Announces That They Won't Support Vaccine Passports

Vaccine passports may be coming to China and the European Union, though the United States won't be joining in.

Earlier today, the Biden Administration stated that they would not be supporting a federal vaccinations database or a "vaccine passport".

Israel initiated its "green badge" system in February, which prevents non-vaccinated people from taking part in certain activities.

China and the European Union have both signalled their intention to create government-mandated "vaccine passports".

The United Kingdom has said that they will be testing out "vaccine passports".

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Some thought that the Biden Administration may go down the same road, though there would have been enormous obstacles in establishing such a program in the United States, such as:

1. Privacy. How secure would the information contained in a "vaccine passport" be?

2. Technical Issues. Creating a vaccination database AND issuing vaccination passports would have been a massive undertaking. Given the issues with the creation of other government databases/sites in the past, there was little hope that a vaccine passport program would have run smoothly.

3. Privilege. If certain groups are more distrustful of vaccines than others, or are less able to receive vaccines, should they be excluded from the rest of society?

4. Legal Issues. Would the establishment of a vaccine passport/database system hold up to legal challenges?

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Earlier today, President Biden announced that every adult that wanted to get vaccinated would be able to do so by April 19th.

Filed under: General Knowledge