NJ Legislators Ready Bill To Block COVID Vaccine Passports

NEW JERSEY - Although no one is proposing to utilize a COVID-19 vaccine passport system in the Garden State, Senator Jim Holzapfel, Assemblyman Greg McGuckin, and Assemblyman John Catalano are preparing a bill to block one.

Vaccine “passports” could take the form of physical or electronic documents or credentials that could be used to demonstrate that an individual has been immunized against COVID-19.

“We’re extremely concerned by Governor (Phil) Murphy’s willingness to consider the use of vaccine passports that could prevent people from working, going to school, or visiting public places,” said Holzapfel. “In a free society that respects individual rights, we believe health decisions should be a personal, private choice that a patient doesn’t have to discuss with anyone but their doctor. Our new legislation would prevent vaccine passports from being employed here in New Jersey.”

The legislators said they believe passports could be used to prevent unvaccinated individuals from traveling, accessing public places or events, attending school, or even working.

“We don’t think our state government should threaten or allow for personal freedoms to be restricted based on vaccination status,” said McGuckin. “Requiring vaccine passports to engage in everyday activities would be discriminatory and raise a host of serious constitutional and privacy concerns. This fatally flawed idea needs to be nipped in the bud.”

Murphy has not suggested New Jersey employ vaccine passports, nor has anyone else championed a bill regarding them.

"I was asked about the vaccination passport, if I was open-minded to it at one point. I said 'Yeah, that's something that I'd be open-minded to,'" Murphy said when asked in March. "I don't want anyone to think that we're up here pounding the table, to think that this is something we unquestionably support. The CDC is the place that that discussion and that guidance has to come from."

Holzapfel said he will introduce legislation in the Senate that makes it unlawful to ask a person if they have received a COVID-19 vaccination or require a person to display proof of vaccination as a condition of or as a prerequisite to:

• the exercise of any privilege or right granted under State or federal law;
• conducting any business or commerce;travelling to, outside, or within the State;
• obtaining or maintaining an internship, obtaining or maintaining employment, or receiving a promotion from an employer;
• participation in any governmental or political activity;
• admission or enrollment into any child or adult day care program;admission to, enrollment in, or graduation from a preschool program, elementary or secondary school, college, university, or any other institution of education;participation in any activity, internship, opportunity, program, or sport offered by a preschool program, elementary or secondary school, college, university, or any other institution of education;receiving adequate dental care or health care;
• maintaining, receiving, or renewing a professional certification or license;
• obtaining or renewing membership in any professional organization;entrance into or service from any place of business, including, but not limited to, any market, restaurant, or store;entrance into and service from any public building, office, or structure;entrance into and use of any public park or beach;
• or admission into or service from any amusement park, concert venue, theater, or sporting event.

Additionally, the legislation makes it unlawful to discriminate against or to take any adverse action against any individual who has not received a COVID-19 vaccine or who does not disclose whether the individual has received a COVID-19 vaccine.

The trio of Ocean County Republicans are not the only ones who disagree with the passport possibility. In a survey of Patch readers, respondents were overwhelmingly against the measure. Patch received more than 6,500 total responses to our survey, with more than 80 percent of respondents saying they opposed the idea of a vaccine passport. More than 73 percent of those respondents said they had data privacy concerns around the use of such a credential. When asked about the specific types of concerns they had, readers said they should be able to keep medical information private.

Last week, NJ13 Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso, a Republican who represents Monmouth County, said that she is working with state Senator Mike Testa (R-Cumberland County) to introduce a bill that would ban vaccine passports as well.

"It's a HIPPA violation. I have to let you know my health status?" she said. "That's why we have HIPPA. I think there are a lot of silent people out there who would support this."

DiMaso and many Patch readers referred to a HIPPA violation as a reason they were concerned with the vaccine passport. However, a fact check of this claim makes it clear that this is not the case. The law's privacy rule only applies to entities like hospitals and doctors' offices and prevents them from sharing medical information with third parties, as The Washington Post explained.

"HIPAA doesn't apply if nobody involved is part of the medical system; it's not technically a medical record," Carmel Shachar, a Harvard Law lecturer, told Slate in December.

A fact-check by Atlanta-based news outlet 11Alive also found that an individual voluntarily sharing medical information is consenting to let that information be shared.

This post contains reporting by Carly Baldwin

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