US Government Will Not Issue Or Require COVID Vaccine Passports
There has been a lot of talk about the concept of "vaccine passports" for the COVID-19 vaccine. It's a concept that multiple countries around the world are considering, or implementing. But in the United States, the dialog has been more turbulent than in other countries.
While there have been calls for the US to deploy something similar to a "vaccine passports", there has been an equal, if not greater, push against the concept. With the pushback coming from both privacy groups, and even medical professionals like the World Health Organization.
Now it appears that the White House and the Biden Administration have heard those concerns loudly, as they announce their intent to stay out of the "vaccine passport" issuing business. Andy Slavitt, Acting Director for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said during a White House COVID-19 briefing Monday:
"But unlike other parts of the world, the government here is not viewing its role as the place to create a passport, nor a place to hold the data of — of citizens. We view this as something that the private sector is doing and will do..."
According to Bloomberg, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also said that the White House would stay out of the "vaccine passport" arena. Psaki said this in a separate briefing from Slavitt's comments. According to the Press Secretary, the federal government will not be pursuing any centralized federal vaccination database, and no federal mandate requiring a single vaccination credential.