Vaccine Passports In VA? An Overwhelming 'No' From Patch Readers

VIRGINIA — The idea of “vaccine passports” has become a hot-button issue for policymakers, with advocates contending passports could help open up travel and other services and critics calling them discriminatory or privacy violations.

The term vaccine passport generally refers to documents — in paper or digital format — that certify a person is unlikely to either catch or spread a disease.

Supporters believe a vaccine passport would significantly increase the number of people eating at restaurants, attending concerts, or traveling on airplanes if the public knows others have been vaccinated.

Patch conducted a non-scientific survey to gauge reader sentiment. The survey was open from 3 p.m. on Wednesday, April 7, through 1 p.m. on Monday, April 12. We received 2,008 responses.

In the survey, more than 55 percent of respondents said Virginia should not mandate a statewide vaccine passport, while 44.7 percent of respondents favored a state-mandated vaccine passport.

“Vaccine passports are creeping authoritarianism,” a reader wrote in the comment section of the survey. “They will create a two-tier society marginalizing minorities who are less likely to get vaccinated and those who cannot take the vaccine.”

Another reader said a vaccine passport “would provide a false sense of security and people would begin to act more relaxed about following the standard guidelines.”

“Passports are also easy to fake so you would have unvaccinated people mingling with those that are vaccinated,” the reader said.

“We won’t need a COVID passport in future years when COVID eventually downgrades to a seasonal flu,” another respondent said. “But for now, as long as it’s deadly and having long-term complications and side effects, we should take it seriously.”

On the issue of privacy concerns, readers were almost evenly split, with 51.4 percent saying they do not have data privacy concerns about their health with the use of a vaccine passport and 48.6 percent of respondents saying they do have concerns.

“Personal health information is personal,” a reader said. “Emergency authorized vaccines should not be a requirement to participate in society.”

A different respondent said: “When I was in elementary school shots were required and it was not a big issue. We almost wiped out smallpox and polio. We also had international shot cards which we used for international travel. I don't see a problem with that.”

In response to the question about the choices for residents to show proof of vaccination, 48.8 percent of respondents said people should not have to show proof that they have been vaccinated. Among the readers who supported showing proof, 36.8 percent favored showing a vaccination record card from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and 26.8 percent supported a federal vaccine passport.

“This whole idea leads to a police state where everyone is part of the constabulary and leads us to be like East Germany where everyone spies on everyone else,” said a reader who does not believe Virginians should be required to show a vaccine passport.

While a majority of readers oppose the government mandating a vaccine passport, 54.5 percent of survey respondents said private businesses and employers should be allowed to put in place their own policies on proof of vaccination, while 45.5 percent oppose private businesses implementing their own proof of vaccination policies.

“Businesses should be able to require and customers can choose whether or not to patronize businesses accordingly,” a respondent said in a comment. “The state should have guidelines but not mandate except where attendance is required (i.e. public schools).”

On the issue of public schools, a plurality of respondents — 48.9 percent — said schools should require proof of vaccination to attend in-person classes once children are able to get vaccinated.

Close behind, 45.8 percent of respondents said public schools should not require students to show proof of vaccination in order to attend in-person classes. Fewer than 5 percent respondents said they were unsure or undecided on the issue or had a different response.

“Students already show vaccination records for school,” a reader said. “They should be updated to include the COVID vaccine.”

By a fairly wide margin, respondents said they would feel safer attending an event or eating at a restaurant knowing that others around them have been vaccinated for COVID-19. Exactly 50 percent said they would feel safer, while 38.4 percent said they would not feel safer knowing other people have been vaccinated. Slightly more than eight percent of respondents answered “maybe” to the question.

A majority of respondents — 52.9 percent — said they are in favor of any kind of health screenings like COVID-19 testing and temperatures checks at places like movie theaters, sports stadiums and restaurants. In the survey, 47.1 percent of the respondents said they are not in favor of these types of health screenings.

On the issue of air travel, whether domestic or international, 52.9 percent said they believe COVID-19 vaccinations should be required, while 47.1 percent said they do not believe vaccinations should be a requirement.

“I can see that could be useful. It might be required for international travel and that would be up to the policies of other countries whether we liked it or not,” a respondent said. “Americans have roamed freely sneezing and coughing and blowing their cold and (regular) flu germs around for decades. While that is gross and unhealthy and inconsiderate, I think we'd pretty much have to restrict ALL contagious/transmissible illnesses of that nature and not just COVID and that just doesn't seem practical.”

RELATED: How To Get The COVID-19 Vaccine In Virginia