Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order on Monday banning state and locally enforced vaccine passports.
The Republican’s move declares that “state agencies, counties, cities and towns cannot issue a measure that requires an individual to provide documentation of their COVID-19 vaccination status,” but “private businesses are not prohibited from requiring vaccination documentation in order to provide services or allow entry.”
“The residents of our state should not be required by the government to share their private medical information,” Ducey said. “While we strongly recommend all Arizonans get the COVID-19 vaccine, it’s not mandated in our state — and it never will be. Vaccination is up to each individual, not the government.”
ANOTHER STATE WILL LIKELY JOIN FLORIDA AND TEXAS IN BANNING VACCINE PASSPORTS
Schools, colleges, and daycare centers may still “collect vaccination documentation” in addition to “long-term care, health care institutions and other entities” that were permitted to do so prior to the executive order.
Arizona joins both Texas and Florida in restricting vaccine passport documentation, though the Sunshine State’s version of the ban is broader. On March 9, Gov. Ron DeSantis prohibited all Florida entities, public and private, from using immunization documentation to provide services.
Texas’s version of the law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on April 6, only forbids government agencies from mandating vaccine information.
Earlier in the week, the Tennessee Senate passed a ban on COVID-19 passports by an overwhelming 27-3 margin. The legislation will need to clear the House and be signed by the governor before it takes effect, and the ordinance would ban the use of the information for government entities only.
The White House has not expressed an interest in taking the reins on a potential nationalized vaccine passport program, though those in President Joe Biden’s orbit have left the process up to the private sector.
“A determination or development of vaccine passports, or whatever you want to call it, will be driven by the private sector,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in late March. “Ours will more be focused on guidelines that can be used as a basis.”
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On Sunday, the United States reached a vaccine milestone as over 50% of the country’s adult population received at least one dose of a vaccine. A total of 209,406,814 doses have reached U.S. arms so far out of 264,505,725 doses that have been distributed, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
