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As more businesses emerge from lockdown around the county, the Biden administration, alongside tech companies, are working to develop a digital passport to show proof of vaccination and other health certificates.
An odd time as we continue to navigate through the waves of information to return to some type of “normalcy.”
More people are lining up to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, but we still don’t widely know the full protections provided by the shot. Just getting inoculated won’t give you immunity from the virus. However, it is the best way to prevent a severe case or symptoms. One of the things government officials like Dr. Anthony Fauci should be emphasizing to the public on a more frequent basis.
We’re now hearing more people tell their friends and family not to visit, unless they’ve received at least one dose of the vaccine. In a way, this is flawed logic because you’re still at-risk for carrying and transmitting the virus. In fact, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, stressed the need for less travel ahead of the summer months regardless of your vaccination status.
“What we’re seeing now is more travel than we saw – than we saw throughout the pandemic, including the Christmas and New Year’s holidays,” she said on Monday. “I think people have taken advantage of what they perceived as a relative paucity of cases, a relative lull in where we were, to take advantage of their time of spring break, of holiday travel.”
It’s a bunch of mixed messages from government officials who don’t seem to be on the same page. Gov. Cooper says cases are going down and more businesses in North Carolina can open back with 100 percent capacity. But those in the Biden administration believe we need to do everything to prevent the virus and stay away from each other. There needs to be a clear directive from the top that explains these decisions.
If we can’t distribute information about the vaccine effectively, who’ll believe support for digital passports would work?
Everyone should be vaccinated to protect themselves against the virus. We need to advocate for that before trying to roll everything back the way it was prior to a year ago.
Listen to Pat’s thoughts on COVID-19 passports and restrictions below.
