Dear Senator,
It is with tremendous alarm that I witness the calls from the political left to create and enforce some sort of domestic Covid vaccine passport. I cannot overstate how unpopular a move this would be, how draconian and dystopian the very idea is, and how disastrous the backlash and the consequences would be. Here are just a few reasons not to do this dumb, dumb stupid very bad no good thing.
1. POC are the group most suspicious of vaccination in general, and the covid vaccine in particular. In fact, they are being exempted in some areas from receiving the vaccine at all due to 'historical injustices'. Their position of not trusting the government where medical issues are concerned certainly seems valid enough! So by requiring (or allowing companies to require) a vaccine passport to participate in basic necessary functions of life, you will be disproportionally punishing already underprivileged and suffering groups.
2. People are already voluntarily getting vaccinated in sweeping numbers. There is no sign of serious population-level resistance to getting a Covid vaccine. I've gotten one, everyone I know has gotten one, even the people I know suspicious of it have gotten one just to avoid the social conflict that not getting one would engender. So there is absolutely no need for heavy-handed, jackbooted coercion. If almost everyone is vaccinated anyway, what is the justification for forcing voluntarily compliant citizens to prove it with some Stalinist 'papers' scheme??
3. No government program, once instituted, ever goes away. EVER. You so-called liberal senators have allowed the Patriot Act to stand intact 20 years after 9-11, despite the fact that it has yet to prevent a single instance of terrorism on US soil. Not a single one. Really, I'm not sure how you convince people year after year that you're some sort of champion of the people when you all go along with (and do nothing to end) the invasion of Americans' privacy, the illegal collection of their personal data, and the unconstitutional warrantless search and seizure of their communications. So forgive me if I am highly skeptical that this vaccine passport will be some sort of temporary measure. On the contrary, I expect it will only in scope, power, and invasiveness (but not security. Lord knows the security will be dog**** and Russia, North Korea, or Iran will have the whole database of it within a month because the bumbling assholes at the NSA are the dregs that couldn't get a job at Google). If not a 'passport' for the covid vaccine, why not for measles? Regular flu? Whooping cough? Why not a political ID passport, lest any business accidentally cater to a deplorable (although god forbid we ask voters to show a state ID to drop in a ballot...)?
I know the DFL camp is very concerned with being on the right side of history - allowing vaccine passports to become a reality is to be on the wrong side of history. Of course, only history will tell.
Sincerely,
A politically unaffiliated but active voter
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