The Biden administration insisted on Tuesday that the federal government will not be supporting any initiative to require credentials to prove a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status or a database to keep track of inoculations.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated comments she made at her March 29 press briefing, in which she said that the administration would not push for the use of what have colloquially been referred to as “vaccine passports.”
“Let me be very clear on this. I know there’s been lots of questions,” Psaki said during the Tuesday briefing. “The government is not now, nor will we be, supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential.”
VACCINE PASSPORTS RAISE PRIVACY AND DISCRIMINATION CONCERNS
Psaki continued, “There will be no federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.”
Psaki added on Tuesday, as she has before, that the decision to employ vaccination credentials would be left to nongovernmental entities.
“As these tools are being considered by the private and nonprofit sectors, our interest is very simple from the federal government, which is Americans’ privacy and rights should be protected and so that these systems are not used against people unfairly,” she said.
Although Psaki emphasized that the matter will be left to the private sector’s initiatives, some states are intervening and taking divergent approaches on the use of coronavirus-related credentials.
New York established a digital app that residents can use to offer proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or recent negative test.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order on Friday prohibiting state and local governments from issuing vaccination credentials. His order also prohibits businesses from requiring proof of vaccination “to gain access to, entry upon, or service from the business.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued his own order on Tuesday prohibiting Texas’s state and local governments from requiring residents to get a coronavirus vaccine or to carry vaccine passports.
