As tens of millions are inoculated against Covid-19, officials in places as diverse as New York State, Israel and China have introduced “vaccine passports” and there is talk of making them universal. The idea is simple: Once you have received the photos, you receive a document or a phone application, which you block to enter previously blocked locations – restaurants, theaters, sports arenas, offices, schools.
Sounds like a way to ease coercive blocking restrictions, but it’s the opposite. To see why, consider the table. Restaurants in most parts of the United States have already reopened, with limited capacity in some places. A vaccine passport would be prohibit entry by potential customers who have not received their photos. It would restrict the freedom of even those who have: If you are vaccinated, but your husband is not, forget to eat as a couple.
Planes and trains, which continued to operate throughout the pandemic, would suddenly be banned for the unvaccinated. The only places where restrictions would be relatively eased would be those still completely blocked, such as many locations for live events and schools. However, even there, the idea of the passport depends on maintaining the underlying restrictions in place – giving officials an incentive to do so much longer, as a leverage to overcome vaccine resistance.
Therefore, the vaccine passport should not be understood as a reduction of restrictions, but as a coercive system to encourage vaccination. Such measures may be legitimate: many schools require immunization against common childhood diseases, and visitors from some African countries must be vaccinated against yellow fever. But Covid vaccine passports would harm public health, they would not benefit.
The idea that everyone should be vaccinated is as unscientific as the idea that no one does. Covid vaccines are essential for the elderly, at high risk and for their caregivers and recommended for many others. But those who have been infected are already immune. Young people are at low risk, and children – for whom no vaccine has been approved anyway – have a much lower risk of death than from the flu. If the authorities impose vaccination on those who do not need it, the general public will begin to question vaccines in general.