Originally published at: NYC will require proof-of-vaccine to enter restaurants, gyms, and entertainment facilities | Boing Boing
…
4 Likes
“If you want to participate in our society fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated,” de Blasio said today.
Exactly. There should definitely be (physician-confirmed) exceptions for those who can’t get the vaccine due to medical conditions and the passes need to be accompanied by greater efforts at vaccine equity and education. Also, there have to be solid privacy protocols around the passes But the bottom line is that if you’re not vaccinated by choice at this point you don’t get to have nice things.
I’m very.glad that government is finally taking the lead here. Leaving things to private businesses has only limited efficacy in reducing the spread
22 Likes
Why should there by physician-confirmed exceptions for people who can’t get the vaccine? None of these activities are required. When my wife was undergoing cancer treatment we limited our activities because she was more susceptible to infection. I feel bad for people who can’t get the vaccine for medical reasons, but those people will just have to limit their activities until herd immunity is reached or the vaccine is no longer contra-indicated.
ETA: fully agree on better vaccine outreach. As well as significant fines/penalties (felony charges?) for faked credentials.
7 Likes
Fairness. We accommodate people who are unable to do what the rest of us can all the time These cases are relatively rare, and a required mask or/or fast antigen test can replace the vaccine requirement for them.
In the end, it won’t be much of an issue. People with medical conditions that prevent them from getting vaccinated probably aren’t going out that often anyhow.
Thanks for bringing that up. The bad actors have already demonstrated they need to be harshly disincentivised from this anti-social behaviour.
16 Likes
Times Square Elmo branded vaccine cards in 3,2,…
3 Likes
Man, I hate the cold, but I really love science and logic. Time to reconsider moving back north? 
8 Likes
This bit confuses me a bit.
The state has had a functional vaccine passport app since vaccination started. Why is the City developing a separate app?
The Americans with Disabilities Act might require it.
People who can not be vaccinated absolutely should limit exposure by staying at home. But that may not be entirely possible in all circumstances, and as more things require a vaccination.
Just for example not everyone walking into a restaurant is there as a customer. I’ve walking into 10+ a day for the entire pandemic and I don’t have a choice in the matter.
Requirements like this should be pushed out in more contexts. And the more that happens the more can’t avoid it situations you’ll run into.
At a minimum leaving some accommodation cuts off a chance to legally challenge requirements.
6 Likes
According to this article, it’s a combination of slow adoption of and uncertainty surrounding the state’s Excelsior Pass as well as slightly different functionality.
Set to launch in early August, the “NYC COVID SAFE App” will allow people to upload and display their vaccination card or their recent negative test result. But the app is designed to let negative test results expire after seven days, requiring people using the app to show a negative result to be tested weekly. Unlike the state’s app, the city app will not rely on QR codes to show proof of vaccination, according to a spokesperson for the city.
I agree it would make more sense for the city to contribute to improvements to the state app, but there’s likely the usual Albany vs. NYC territory-marking contest going on as well.
4 Likes
Ah ok - fine. I thought you meant that people that could not be vaxxed should be able to go maskless indoors if they had an exception. If you mean that they could be required to wear masks (and it’s enforced), that is reasonable. To me it would not be reasonable to say, well, you unvaxxed person has an exception, therefore you can do everything in the same way as a vaxxed person. Although I would not describe this as “fairness” just reasonableness.
2 Likes
Not good enough. It needs to be every state and every business. If the willingly unvaccinated want to so much as buy groceries, make them do curbside pickup. If they want to go out and play, ban them from every venue. They’re the ones who seemingly don’t want the pandemic to ever end, so let them stay in those conditions indefinitely.
5 Likes
Yeah the state app could use some improvement, and they’ve done a shit job explaining and promoting it.
But that still confuses me a bit.
The state app uses QR codes so any cellphone can be used to scan it and confirm reality of the pass.
And this bit.
Sounds like it’s just working off your existing paper record.
From what I understand the state system uses your date of birth and first vaccine date or test date to pull the actual official records.
Hence the scanning to confirm.
You’re not uploading anything. More looking it up.
That’s a key functionality of a real vaccine “passport”.
Though the state app does use QR codes to setup/add stuff, in an obnoxious way that doesn’t quite work.
2 Likes
Vaccine mandates are a white supremacist policy, whether intended or not. From Dr. Drew, of all people: “The CDC reported today that only 28.4% of the black community have received the Covid vaccine. With states like CA and NY mandating vaccine passports to enter restaurants and businesses, the black community would be most affected by this modern day segregation.”
Correct, racialized people, poor people, and disproportionately uninsured people are now being further marginalized by being banned from public spaces. If the vaccine works, why are vaccinated people so scared of the unvaccinated that they want to ban their participation in civic society?
15 Likes
I’m annoyed to find that well known NCY YouTuber and Right to Repair advocate Lois Rossman is virulently against this new requirement.
Rossman has had lots of bad experiences with intractable NYC bureaucracy, so part of his reaction is understandable. But even though he’s vaccinated, he seems to greatly misunderstand the likelihood of permanent disability or death from the Delta Variant that necessitates taking stricter public health measures.
4 Likes
No. Just no. Vaccine mandates are an effort to keep people from dying. The fact that Black folks have well-earned mistrust of medical professionals is a sad consequence of institutional racism, and unrelated to mandates. We need to re-earn the trust of minority populations, and the first step in doing so is telling them the truth and not spreading more vaccine disinformation.
18 Likes
Is it your contention that the way to “re-earn the trust of minority populations” is to mandate that they take a still-experimental vaccine or face expulsion from most public spaces?
Yes. And please stop with the scare tactics. This “still experimental” (no, it is not) vaccine has saved lives, and continues to do so. Or do you dispute the fact that 99% of current covid deaths are among the unvaccinated? That over 95% of covid hospitalization are among the unvaccinated? Take your FUD elsewhere.
21 Likes
