Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order on Monday prohibiting Texas’s state and local governments from requiring residents to get a coronavirus vaccine or to carry “vaccine passports.”
The executive action bars Texas state government entities from forcing individuals to get the coronavirus vaccine, and government agencies cannot order an individual to provide “as a condition of receiving any service or entering any place documentation regarding the individual’s vaccination status,” the order stated.
“Government should not require any Texan to show proof of vaccination and reveal private health information just to go about their daily lives,” Abbott said in a video statement on Tuesday.
Sound on: pic.twitter.com/UgrO6YFgxh
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) April 6, 2021
VACCINE PASSPORTS RAISE PRIVACY AND DISCRIMINATION CONCERNS
Vaccine passports have been floated and employed as a way to bring back a fully operational economy safely. New York rolled out its own vaccine passport system, a digital app called Excelsior Pass, that can offer proof of a coronavirus vaccination or recent negative COVID-19 test.
“We are not supporting doing any vaccine passports in the state of Florida,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said on March 29. “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.”
Though the Biden administration has reportedly been working on a plan to provide for such credentials, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on March 29 that the White House would not push a vaccine passport program.
“A determination or development of vaccine passports, or whatever you want to call it, will be driven by the private sector,” she said.
DeSantis announced his own order on Friday prohibiting the issuance or requirement of proof-of-vaccination documentation, specifically prohibiting the private sector from making such requirements of patrons.
DeSantis and Abbott’s orders both make the receipt of public funds conditional on an entity’s compliance with the order’s restrictions on vaccine passports, though they have some significant differences.
Abbott specifically restricts state and local governments from compelling people to receive a COVID-19 vaccination “administered under an emergency use authorization.” The order’s prohibition against vaccination documentation also specifies that it relates vaccination status for any COVID-19 vaccine authorized under an emergency use authorization.
DeSantis’s order lacks similar language specifying that its prohibitions apply to vaccines approved under an emergency use authorization.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Abbott’s office regarding why his order’s prohibitions specifically apply to COVID-19 vaccines authorized under an emergency use authorization but did not receive a response.
Abbott’s order makes an exception for nursing homes and assisted living facilities, allowing them to require documentation of a resident’s vaccination status.
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Eighteen point eight percent of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, with 32.4% having received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 9% of Texans older than 16 have been fully vaccinated, and about 15% have had at least one dose, according to data provided by the state.
