Choosing to stand on the side of freedom and individual liberty, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flat out rejected the Biden administration’s push for “vaccine passports.”
The Republican governor said Monday during a bill signing ceremony that he would issue an executive order forbidding local governments and businesses from requiring “vaccine passports” to prove an individual has been vaccinated against COVID-19.
“We are not supporting doing any vaccine passports in the state of Florida,” DeSantis stated. “It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society.”
And with that, DeSantis set Florida up again as an example to the rest of the nation, just as he did with opening up the state — Florida’s unemployment rate is at 4.7% and the economy is going strong — keeping children in school and vaccine distribution. In the process, he also set himself up nicely for a possible 2024 presidential bid.
“I think it’s something that people have certain freedoms and individual liberties to make decisions for themselves,” DeSantis said of the passports. “I also wonder it’s like — you’re going to do this and then what, give all this information to some big corporation? You want the fox to guard the henhouse? I mean, give me a break.”
“I think this is something that has huge privacy implications, it is not necessary to do,” he continued. “We’re going to have hit 3 million seniors that have gotten shots sometime this week, like 75% of seniors. It’s important to be able to do it. But at the same time, we are not going to have you provide proof of this just to be able to live your life normally. And I’m going to be taking some action in an executive function, emergency function, here very shortly.”
The Biden administration has reportedly been working with private technology and travel companies to develop vaccine credentials of some sort so the public can show proof of vaccination.
“Our role is to help ensure that any solutions in this area should be simple, free, open source, accessible to people both digitally and on paper, and designed from the start to protect people’s privacy,” White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said during a March 12 briefing.
This coming from the same cabal that fights efforts to require identification to vote.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that a “development of a vaccine passport or whatever you want to call it will be driven by the private sector.”
“Ours will more be focused on guidelines that can be used as a basis,” she explained. “There are a couple key principles that we are working from: one is that there will be no centralized, universal federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential; second, we want to encourage an open marketplace with a variety of private sector companies and nonprofit coalitions developing solutions; and third, we want to drive the market toward meeting public interest goals.”
DeSantis signed into law Monday legislation that will bar COVID-related lawsuits against businesses that have made good-faith efforts to comply with guidelines to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
The governor touted his state’s successes earlier this month during his state of the state address.
“Florida’s schools are open, and we’re one of only a handful of states in which every parent has a right to send their child to school in person. All Floridians have a right to earn a living, and our citizens are employed at higher rates than those in the nation as a whole. Every job is essential,” DeSantis said.
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Tom@bizpacreview.com
The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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