Statement Reacting to "Vaccine Passports" Comments by Governor Ned Lamont
Meghan Holden, media@acluct.org
During a March 24 interview with WNPR's "Where We Live," Governor Ned Lamont speculated that he may be interested in the state of Connecticut pursuing "vaccination passports." The following is a reaction from ACLU of Connecticut executive director David McGuire:
"As tempting as vaccine passports may be for policymakers who want a quick fix to restart economic activity in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, they present both public health and civil rights concerns that cannot be overlooked. Given the state's deeply inequitable rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine to date, creating preferential access to employment, housing, or public accommodations on the basis of vaccination status would likely worsen existing racial, disability, and economic disparities in our state, which would undermine rather than uplift the goal of healthy communities. Depending on what information passports gather and how that information is collected, stored, shared, or used by the government or private businesses, vaccine passports may also raise serious privacy concerns.
Instead of conjecturing about potentially problematic measures that may not work, we encourage the state to focus on creating an equitable vaccination rollout that truly includes people with disabilities and Black and Latinx people, and on robust public education efforts regarding the vaccine."
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