The key thing here is the choice to share our health records. Choosing to go a place and to share your health records with that place, is very different from them being involuntarily made public.
if people, for whatever reason, want their covid status to be kept private, they should be allowed to do that.
The fundamental question is - does a business have the right to disallow patrons for not being vaccinated? My sense is that answer is yes, that is their right as a private enterprise. For those who do not wish to get the vaccine, they can still order their groceries for pick-up or delivery so they are not being denied access to groceries.
If that's available, right? I mean, in real life of course it would be, and in general, I don't expect any major big box stores to require vaccines for entrance, probably just a very small number of small businesses. But it's pretty much the same question as your first, does a grocery store have the right to tell people to get lost over no legal reason? I honestly don't know, like you I assume that answer is yes, but for things like gas, groceries, utilities, (not Twitters sorry Os) I'm not sure if that should be the case. What if Walmarts made a requirement that all Patrons had to be pegged before entering? Legal? lol
I think in some cases it's the related health info that could be linked, co-morbidities and the like. That and the sincere worry that this is opening a Pandora's Box of slippery slope-ism . . . another complaint against New York's Excelsior Pass is that there is no end date, so once this is established will it outlast covid? "Why the first state vaccine pass isn't ready for prime time": https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/29/opinions/covid-excelsior-pass-new-york-sepkowitz/index.html
We live in a country where some are defending the rights of a baker not to have to serve gay customers, which clearly is discriminatory. Pharmacists have denied filling contraceptive prescriptions - again this can be legal. Since vaccination status is not a protected class, then without additional laws passed, yes, it is completely legal for a business to deny service based on vaccination status. That is 100% legal.
So long as it complies with HIPPA, I'm not sure what the issue would be. You have to voluntarily agree to provide and share that info. I agree that the antigen test is bonk and shouldn't be included though.
Israel’s dilemma: Can the unvaccinated return to workplaces? https://apnews.com/article/israel-c...-coronavrius-7e18cdee3a66018c36a6c61d5bc8a4c1 excerpt: JERUSALEM (AP) — After spending much of the past year in lockdown, Tel Aviv makeup artist Artyom Kavnatsky was ready to get back to work. But when he showed up for a recent photo shoot, his employer turned him away. The reason? He had not been vaccinated against the coronavirus. “He didn’t take me because I didn’t get vaccinated,” Kavnatsky said. “It’s discrimination, and it’s not all right.” The breakneck pace of Israel’s vaccination drive has made it one of the few countries able to return to much of its pre-pandemic routine. Bars and businesses, hotels and health clubs have all sprung back to life in Israel, where some 80% of the adult population is fully vaccinated and new infections and COVID-19 deaths have plummeted. *** So far, Israel has relied primarily on a series of incentives meant to encourage people to get a vaccine. It has established a “green pass” for the fully vaccinated whose holders can attend concerts, dine out, go to the gym or travel to popular vacation spots in places like Egypt, Cyprus and Greece. Those who do not have the pass are out of luck. The system has worked well in areas of leisure and entertainment. But now, it is moving into other realms. Health officials have recommended barring unvaccinated workers who have not recently tested negative for COVID-19 from schools, elder care facilities and other high-risk workplaces. Israel’s health care system has also mandated that all employees — doctors, nurses, administrators, and support staff alike — receive the coronavirus vaccine. If they refuse, they will be transferred to jobs that do not involve contact with high-risk patients. Rights groups have expressed concern that such regulations could jeopardize workers’ income. *** Kavnatsky, the makeup artist, objects to vaccines and modern medicine more broadly, saying he doesn’t want to put “any needles in my body.” He is not alone. He is one of over 15,000 members of a Hebrew-language anti-vaccine Facebook group who are critical of what they see as forced immunization by the state. Rappeh, a political party headed by outspoken anti-vaccine advocate Aryeh Avni, garnered over 17,000 votes in last week’s recent parliamentary elections. That was not enough to get into parliament but illustrates the challenge for policymakers. Israel’s Health Ministry acknowledges its powers are limited. “We cannot force people to vaccinate,” said Einav Shimron, the ministry’s deputy director for international relations. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, a nongovernmental organization that deals with labor issues, said that the long-term application of the green pass raises a potential civil rights issue, and has called on the government to pass legislation on the matter. “If there is going to be a policy that infringes on the right to employment and on the right for a person to choose what to do with his or her body in order to be employed, then it needs to go through the legislative process,” said spokeswoman Maya Fried. “There needs to be a public discussion.” In the meantime, the debate is already playing out in the courts. more at the link
Will vaccine passports be biggest campaign issue of 2022? https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/546062-the-biggest-campaign-issue-of-2022-vaccine-passports
Biden admin will only act in a regulatory role. It's all up to local gov and private business on what they want to do. Are ‘Vaccine Passports’ Legal? (lawandcrime.com) Vaccine passports are on the way, and they are legal. New York State has a pilot program developed by IBM that was recently tested during NBA and NHL games. Hawaii has also made strides — and a good deal of noise — about its own vaccine passport system, and officials hope to introduce the Aloha State’s version by May 15. Meanwhile, White House COVID-19 adviser Andy Slavitt suggested a non-governmental passport would be ideal. On March 29, he said: “The right way is that it should be private, the data should be secure, the access to it should be free, it should be available digitally and in paper, and in multiple languages, and it should be open source.” Key to understanding the concept is that states and businesses view vaccine passport systems as ways to quickly, safely and efficiently open up their economies — not as mandatory documents U.S. citizens must hold and present in order to comply with the law. Various international bodies have also stressed that vaccine passports will not and likely cannot be mandatory, but will help make international travel substantially less painful. The upshot is traveling without one would all but certainly be more trouble than it is worth. The only role likely for the federal government here would be some form of regulatory approach in order to guide the various state and private-enterprise-generated mobile apps toward some sort of a standard. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki explicitly said the Biden administration will not be creating a “centralized, universal federal vaccinations database” and added that there will be “no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.” Frank Bowman is the Floyd R. Gibson Missouri Endowed Professor of Law at University of Missouri Law School. In recent comments to the Blog for Arizona, the constitutional scholar noted that a federal mandate of some sort would also be constitutional—if the federal government were looking to institute such a mandate. But, again, they’re not. “[T]he federal government has the express constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce,” he noted—and therefore could draw on the same broad and sweeping scope of authority that the Supreme Court has used in the past to justify various grants of federal authority over citizens. “I think that the national government could prohibit interstate travel (or travel on airplanes, buses, trains, or other modes of interstate travel) without proof of vaccination (perhaps subject to some reasonable exceptions),” Bowman continued. “The question again would be who instituted such limitations – i.e., president by executive order, agency by regulation, or Congress – and whether the mandating authority possessed the constitutional authority to do so. But that such a power resides in the national government, in general, seems reasonably plain to me.” As for “local restrictions,” Bowman doesn’t think the federal government would or could try to govern there. Private entities, however, are free to condition entry or use of services on compliance with a vaccine passport regime. “It certainly depends on the businesses,” attorney and legal analyst Ed Booth recently told Virginia-based ABC affiliate WVEC. “Let’s say in very broad terms, this could be viewed as sort of a ‘no shirt, no shoes, no service’ kind of thing. Private enterprises have a certain amount of freedom to decide how they conduct their business.” Despite these fairly obvious distinctions between private and public action, and the words coming from numerous officials about said distinctions, conservatives sounded alarms about what was described as a “show us your papers” system. Early this week, Twitter was abuzz with conservative personalities wondering what the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has to say about vaccine passports. The answer is: nothing. HIPAA is a law that governs the disclosure of patient information by health care providers and affiliated third parties. In the context of vaccine passports, references to HIPAA are meaningless because anyone providing such information would be self-disclosing their status. Fox News’s Tucker Carlson repeated the false HIPAA claims and other associated conspiracy theories on his Monday night broadcast. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) stated his opposition to the concept in a speech on Tuesday — and incorrectly stated the law. “It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply participate in normal society,” DeSantis said. That’s not true. The private sector is well within its rights to condition entry or use of services upon adherence to public health guidelines. Private businesses cannot discriminate against people based on their being members of various distinct protected classes, such as race, color, religion, creed, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, and sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), among others. So, for example, the Civil Rights Act would preclude a private business’s use of a mobile app that identifies someone based on their gender at birth, sexual orientation, race, national origin, veteran status, religion, or color, but it would not preclude a business from using a mobile app that plainly identifies someone’s health status because political beliefs, including political beliefs about COVID and its vaccines, are not protected under anti-discrimination law. Therefore, in strict theory, businesses can discriminate against people based on political beliefs and vaccination status. “A private entity is entitled to do that, and a private business can have restrictions,” Florida Gulf Coast University Law Professor Pamella Seay told local NBC affiliate WBBH-TV in response to DeSantis’s statements. “If it’s a private venue and a private event, yes; you can make that requirement. But if there’s a public aspect to it no, you cannot.” DeSantis also promised to sign an executive order barring the use of vaccine passports for government services, buildings and property—but the impact of that order, while exceedingly ballyhooed by some conservatives, would actually be quite limited. Seay said the order simply wouldn’t apply to private enterprise. “A private entity is entitled to do that, and a private business can have restrictions,” she noted. Meanwhile, there are reports of burgeoning fake vaccine card scams. The FBI spelled out the issue clearly: “If You Make or Buy a Fake COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card, You Endanger Yourself and Those Around You, and You Are Breaking the Law.” A similar alert was sent out last year in response to fake “face mask exempt” cards that had gone viral.
Um, certain countries do require other vaccinations... One only has to check the CDC web site... and this was something needed before COVID-19... https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/parents/travel-vaccines.html https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices
I guess governor wheels doesn't think attending school is a normal part of living lives? Texas Minimum State Vaccine Requirements for Students Grades K-12 This chart summarizes the vaccine requirements incorporated in the Texas Administrative Code (TAC), Title 25 Health Services, §§97.61-97.72. This document is not intended as a substitute for the TAC, which has other provisions and details. The Department of State Health Services (DSHS) is granted authority to set immunization requirements by the Texas Education Code, Chapter 38. Vaccine Required (Attention to notes and footnotes) Minimum Number of Doses Required by Grade Level NOTES K - 6th 7th 8th - 12th Diphtheria/Tetanus/Pertussis (DTaP/DTP/DT/Td/Tdap) 1 5 doses or 4 doses 3 dose primary series and 1 Tdap/Td booster within last 5 years 3 dose primary series and 1 Tdap/Td booster within last 10 years For K — 6th grade: 5 doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine; 1 dose must have been received on or after the 4th birthday. However, 4 doses meet the requirement if the 4th dose was received on or after the 4th birthday. For students aged 7 years and older, 3 doses meet the requirement if 1 dose was received on or after the 4th birthday. For 7th grade: 1 dose of Tdap is required if at least 5 years have passed since the last dose of tetanus-containing vaccine. For 8th — 12th grade: 1 dose of Tdap is required when 10 years have passed since the last dose of tetanus-containing vaccine. Td is acceptable in place of Tdap if a medical contraindication to pertussis exists. Polio 1 4 doses or 3 doses For K — 12th grade: 4 doses of polio; 1 dose must be received on or after the 4th birthday. However, 3 doses meet the requirement if the 3rd dose was received on or after the 4th birthday. Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) 1, 2 2 doses For K — 12 grade: 2 doses are required, with the 1st dose received on or after the 1st birthday. Students vaccinated prior to 2009 with 2 doses of measles and one dose each of rubella and mumps satisfy this requirement. Hepatitis B 2 3 doses For students aged 11 — 15 years, 2 doses meet the requirement if adult hepatitis B vaccine (Recombivax®) was received. Dosage (10 mcg / 1.0 mL) and type of vaccine (Recombivax®) must be clearly documented. If Recombivax® was not the vaccine received, a 3-dose series is required. Varicella 1, 2, 3 2 doses The 1st dose of varicella must be received on or after the 1st birthday. For K — 12th grade: 2 doses are required. Meningococcal (MCV4)1 Not Required 1 dose For 7th — 12th grade, 1 dose of quadrivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine is required on or after the student’s 11th birthday. Note: If a student received the vaccine at 10 years of age, this will satisfy the requirement. Hepatitis A 1, 2 2 doses 12th Grade: Not Required The 1st dose of hepatitis A must be received on or after the 1st birthday. For K — 11th grade: 2 doses are required. Footnotes https://www.dshs.texas.gov/immunize/school/school-requirements.aspx And separate ones for college and university students: https://www.dshs.texas.gov/immunize/school/college-requirements.aspx
I haven't been following this case issue but I think there is a good argument that requiring proof of vaccination might be discriminatory. Not just because of HIPAA but there are people who cannot get vaccinated for reasons such as compromised immune systems so it would be discriminatory, or burdensome, if they weren't allowed to have access to businesses or needed some other proof. What I think is the most likely path is a reasonable accommodation system such as with have with accessibility. Businesses cannot keep people out if they aren't symptomatic or have a vaccine passport. As such businesses can do things like temperature checks but given that human temp varies and there are many reasons someone might have an elevated temperature if they have a vaccine passport they can bypass a temperature check.
I fully expect many countries to require proof of vaccination for travelers especially coming from the US.
I would think a medically provided reason for not getting vaccinated would be (1) easy to prove and (2) easy to get a waiver. On the other hand, if the reason for not getting the vaccine is due to personal choice ("I am waiting for bright light therapy or bleach ingestion"), then with my sympathies the person has bigger problems than not being able to go to the store...
I expect that once the US is "vaccinated" and contain covid, we will be demanding the same. Australia and New Zealand will be allowing no restriction travel between them. We are going to see more and more of these types of travel "bubble" between nations with little to no covid cases. Vaccine passport not necessary for these cases.
