Ron DeSantis Drops the Hammer on 'Vaccine Passports'

This is going to make Democrats and the guys over at Reason squeal, but it needed to be done. Gov. Ron DeSantis has dropped the hammer on the idea of a “vaccine passport,” signing an executive order that bans businesses from attempting to implement such stupidity.

The idea is being pushed by the White House, with the presumption that corporations are so woke these days that they don’t even have to mandate it. DeSantis is getting ahead of things, though, as he so often has the last few years. That’s what makes him the best governor in the country, at least in my opinion.

Florida Gov. @RonDeSantisFL signed an executive order that stops state businesses and government from using "vaccine passports" or publishing a person's vaccine status. https://t.co/9SJ3F5kul8

— MediaResearchCenter (@theMRC) April 3, 2021

Here are DeSantis’ comments and some excerpts from the order, per CNS News.

“Today I issued an executive order prohibiting the use of so-called COVID-19 vaccine passports, Gov. DeSantis announced in a tweet linking to his executive order, which he says serves as a stop-gap measure while Florida’s legislature crafts legislation to codify the elements of his order.

The order prohibits Florida’s government from issuing “standardized documentation” certifying, and from publishing, a person’s vaccine status:

“No Florida government entity, or its subdivisions, agents, or assigns, shall be permitted to issue vaccine passports, vaccine passes, or other standardized documentation for the purpose of certifying an individual’s COVID-19 vaccination status to a third party, or otherwise publish or share any individual’s COVID-19 vaccination record or similar health information.”

Likewise, businesses are prohibited from denying access and service to patrons who do not provide proof they’ve been vaccinated:

“Businesses in Florida are prohibited from requiring patrons or customers to provide any documentation certifying COVID-19 vaccination or post-transmission recovery to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the business.”

Measures like this are absolutely necessary for a variety of reasons. One, there are many reasons someone might not have gotten the vaccine yet. They may be in an age demographic that bears almost no statistical risk from the virus, or they may have had COVID already (and still have immunity). The idea that those people should be punished and made to remain locked down, when science says it’s perfectly safe for them to be out and about, is asinine.

But it goes past the practical aspects of all this. Privacy issues are a big concern. Why should a business be able to demand protected, private medical information in order to sell you a product, especially when there are myriad of reasons why you might be “safe” but still not have the vaccine? That’s not allowed on any other front, and it should not be allowed here.

As DeSantis pointed out in his previous comments on this matter, big corporations have proven to be horrible stewards of personal information. Now, we want to create a China-like system of social credit via a vaccine passport? Yeah, that’s gonna be a hard no from most Americans. That some actually think this is a good idea proves once again how short-sighted people can be.

DeSantis is doing the right thing, and he’ll no doubt get push-back from the left and even some, ostensibly, on the right (Libertarians are big on allowing private companies to do absolutely anything they want, for example). The governor doesn’t care about the criticism, though. He’s led through the pandemic with fearless resolve, only doing things that make scientific sense and are constitutionally supported. Thus, the Free State of Florida continues to be a beacon among most of the rest of the union.