The White House has confirmed and emphasized that there will not be system which entails a federal vaccine passport or requirement for people to get a vaccine. Nevertheless, the administration is still facing pressure to adopt one. "White House faces calls to embrace vaccine passports," Nathaniel Weixel reported for The Hill.
One of those calls comes from Dr. Leana Wen, a frequent guest on CNN who weighs in on COVID policies.
From Weixel:
“The Biden administration shouldn't be so squeamish about vaccine verification,” said Leana Wen, a public health professor at George Washington University and former health commissioner of Baltimore.
Wen said the administration should have supported a standardized verification system, calling it a “missed opportunity” to increase vaccine uptake.
Some people may just be waiting for the right incentive, and a mandate may push them in the right direction, she said.
“There are a lot of people in the middle. They're not eager to get the vaccine, but they're also not anti-vaxxers. They need an additional push. And that push is still not there, because we have not been requiring proof of vaccination in order to return to normal,” Wen said.
Such a stance, though, simplifies what may not be a simple issue for many Americans. While "a mandate may push them in the right direction," as Dr. Wen suggests, that doesn't necessarily speak to the merits of it.
Amesh Adalja, of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, references another aspect to these vaccines. They're not even fully approved by the FDA, but rather have been cleared for emergency use.
Republican governors have come out strongly against vaccine passports and have banned them, as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) did when he signed legislation in early May.
When it comes to Republicans and others who are hesitant about vaccines or have decided not to get one, Weixel admits a federal system could backfire.
Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association is quoted making disparaging comments against those who don't want the vaccine, such as equating them with those who "didn't believe COVID existed." However, he does offer a warning that those so eager to push vaccine passports would be wise to consider, which is the possibility they would be struck down by the courts.
As Weixel writes:
Benjamin said he thinks the inevitable lawsuits over vaccine mandates and passports is not worth the relatively small reward.
Instead, he said the administration should double down on its ground campaign; trying to convince individual holdouts to get vaccinated by promoting neighborhood events, employing trusted messengers in community churches, and even sending people door to door.
“You're certainly going to get some more people on board, there's no doubt about that,” Benjamin said. But, “you will get such enormous pushback. What happens when someone takes it to court, and the judge says no? Then it undermines the whole effort.”
For all of this talk about incentives, what needs to be emphasized is how the Biden administration failed to even attempt to reassure the American public until recently.
Even now, though, Vice President Kamala Harris, despite having been fully vaccinated, months ago, still appears in public wearing a mask.
She and President Biden did so, at times even double masked, or when outside and able to practice social distance.
Sen. Rand Paul may have come off strong to some when he told Fox News' Martha McCallum in April that "Joe Biden should go on national TV, take his mask off, and burn it. Light a torch to it and burn his mask and say, 'I’ve had the vaccine, I am now safe from this plague. If you'll get the vaccine, you can be safe too,'" but he had a point
If the administration wants to incentivize people to get vaccinated, in hopes of reassuring them that their lives will be able to return to normal, it has spectacularly failed.