With Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey being the latest to sign legislation prohibiting businesses from requiring customers to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination to enter, the trend of governors to sign similar vaccine passport bans have largely come from southern and midwest states run by Republicans.
??I’ve signed SB 267!
— Governor Kay Ivey (@GovernorKayIvey) May 24, 2021
Since the development of the #COVID19 vaccine, both Dr. Harris & I have said that we wouldn't mandate vaccines in AL. I’m supportive of a voluntary vaccine & by signing this bill into law, I'm only further solidifying that conviction. #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/Sw23e1eIfz
Alabama follows other states in the southeast and southwest U.S. to ban vaccine passport requirements. Florida, Texas and Arizona have already had legislation signed barring businesses from requiring proof of vaccination. Tennessee had a bill banning passports pass through the Senate last month.
Other southern states with governors voicing their opposition to vaccine passports include the state of Georgia. However, Gov. Brian Kemp has not yet signed legislation banning the passports.
I do not and will not support any kind of state-mandated vaccine passport. While the development of multiple safe, highly effective COVID-19 vaccines has been a scientific miracle, the decision to receive the vaccine should be left up to each individual.
— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) April 6, 2021
Midwestern states such as Iowa and Nebraska are joining in on the opposition to requiring vaccine passports.
Nebraska will not participate in any vaccine passport program. This concept violates two central tenets of the American system: freedom of movement and healthcare privacy. https://t.co/iGBKqDIqQ0
— Gov. Pete Ricketts (@GovRicketts) March 31, 2021
Utah and Pennsylvania are the remaining states to have taken action forbidding businesses from requiring proof of vaccination against the coronavirus, as of early May. States who are still undecided about whether a vaccine passport ban will be implemented include Connecticut and Louisiana.
New York has already launched a vaccine passport while other states, such as Hawaii, Illinois and North Carolina, are looking into technology needed to integrate the COVID passport.