New York became the first state to set up a vaccine passport in what Gov. Andrew Cuomo argued would be a "tool to help NY fight COVID while reopening our economy safely." But elsewhere, such as in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis recognized the threat it posed, not just in terms of privacy, but also in that it could be used to exclude people from participating in normal society. He took steps to ban vaccine passports in the Sunshine State, and several other states have followed suit since then. But the liberal media is decidedly not in favor of freedom on this front, and in some cases, are demanding vaccine passports at the federal level.
Speaking to Dr. Anthony Fauci on "Cuomo Prime Time" this week, host Chris Cuomo asked President Biden’s chief medical adviser to clear up some "confusion" over the CDC's new mask guidelines.
"The fix here is something that has been studiously avoided by the administration," Cuomo said.
"You have to have a tracking mechanism. You have to have a vaccine passport. Otherwise, this will never work. There is no way to differentiate the vaccinated from the unvaccinated.
"Why do [administration officials] avoid the passport?" Cuomo asked.
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"You know it's a complex reason, I believe, Chris, and one of them is that if you, in fact, require a passport you're going to be discriminating against people, and putting people at a disadvantage of essentially forcing them, in many respects indirectly, to get vaccinated," Fauci replied.
Cuomo then went on to argue for the point DeSantis was against—that requiring vaccine passports would create two classes of people.
"Why shouldn't I get opportunities as vaccinated, that you don't get as unvaccinated?" he demanded to know.
Fauci actually called this a "reasonable point" before noting that this is happening in places like college campuses, for example.
"Why put it on everybody else?" Cuomo wondered. "Why not do it centrally? You guys have the best way to do it. You got the most data, the most manpower."
The director of the NIAID said he didn't "have the answer," to which Cuomo expressed his disbelief in jest.
Dr. Anthony Fauci says the source of confusion around masks stems from the CDC’s wish to acknowledge the fully vaccinated can safely forego masks indoors and out.
— Cuomo Prime Time (@CuomoPrimeTime) May 20, 2021
“That triggered an interpretation that we can now just throw away masks…which is obviously not the case.” pic.twitter.com/dplitj3AoH
The Left's push to mandate COVID-19 vaccines prompted Fox News's Will Cain to note that in America, "we are on the verge of East German-style 'Show me your papers.'"
He added: "The pandemic is basically over, but the fight to control you, to lord over you, that's just begun."