National Post ePaper

Bring on the vaccine passports

Tasha Kheiriddin

WE’RE NOT GONNA HAVE A SPLIT SOCIETY. — PREMIER DOUG FORD

Passport, please. Before COVID, that phrase conjured up visions of beach holidays or trips to far-flung destinations. The last time anyone said that to me, I was travelling to India; little did I think that the next time might be at the local Kelsey’s. Such is the world we now live in; “Black Mirror” couldn’t have come up with a weirder storyline.

While I would happily flash my credentials to drink among the vaccinated, not everyone shares that opinion. “We’re not gonna have a split society,” intoned Ontario Premier Doug Ford. “We’ve been very clear from the beginning that we will not facilitate or accept vaccine passports,” chimed in Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. The premiers’ anti-passport rationale ranges from creating two classes of citizens to contravening privacy rules, but is rooted in one clear reality: Their base doesn’t like the idea.

According to Abacus research, while 89 per cent of left-of-centre voters believe a second shot is essential to end the pandemic, only 70 per cent of right-of-centre voters feel the same way, with 17 per cent saying it’s an outright bad idea. Only three per cent of left-of-centre voters share that view.

And while a clear majority of Canadians support the idea of vaccine passports for certain activities, the rates are sharply lower among the unvaccinated. Whereas 80 per cent of vaccinated Canadians support passports for indoor events, for example, only 51 per cent of unvaccinated Canadians do.

So rather than risk the wrath of their vaccine-resistant base, both premiers have capitulated. The result leaves both citizens and businesses in the lurch, freer to resume their pre-pandemic lives, but at their own risk.

In Ontario, it’s an astounding contradiction for a premier who in 2018 had signs posted at the United States border that read, “Welcome to Ontario: Open for Business.” The one thing the business community craves is certainty. It doesn’t want to be on the front lines of public health. It doesn’t want to have to decide between the preferences of its vaccinated and unvaccinated clientele. Yet without a passport system, that is exactly what Ford is asking it to do.

In Alberta, meanwhile, the province is lifting all restrictions, including the requirement to quarantine if you test positive for the virus; after Aug. 16, it will be recommended, but not mandatory. “We have to get used to (the) fact that cases no longer equal high levels of hospitalizations or fatalities,” Kenney said. “Our focus is on vaccines instead of restrictions.”

That’s very nice, but currently, only 55 per cent of Alberta’s population is fully vaccinated, and Kenney expects that 10 per cent will not take the vaccine no matter what. This leaves millions of people as living Petri dishes, able to host the virus and allow it to potentially mutate into a more dangerous strain. This past week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control declared the Delta variant to be 1,000 times as contagious as the original SARS-COV-2 virus, capable of causing breakthrough infections in vaccinated persons who then can spread it to others.

Memo to Ford and Kenney: If you really want people to get vaccinated, you have to give them an incentive. And that incentive is safe access to their pre-pandemic life. After France announced “health passes” would be needed to access indoor spaces like cafés, restaurants, theatres and trains, four million people got their first shot within two weeks and nearly six million more have made an appointment. Italy’s similar “green pass” requirement saw vaccination rates rise between 15 and 200 per cent, depending on the region.

Yes, there have been protests. Yes, not everyone agrees. But with the Delta variant on the rise in Europe and everywhere else, including Canada, the other option is shutting down again, which would be far worse.

We live in a free country. People have the right to get vaccinated, or not. But their choice should not take away the choices of others, and politics shouldn’t either. Bring on the passports, and bottoms up.

ISSUES & IDEAS

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2021-08-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-08-04T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://nationalpost.pressreader.com/article/281719797631477

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