Can’t we hire Marlon Perkins and equip him with a team of assistants with those dart guns?
I understand the temptation to think in these terms.
My preference is to think in terms of making everything of any value or enjoyment conditioned on proof of vaccination or proof of medical exemption, once anyone who wants vaccination can get it.
The “vaccine passport” concept. Show your passport before you can get into the bar/restaurant/movie theater.
Fox News would scream bloody murder, but this would get us to 90% vaccinated in a heartbeat.
The CDC is concerned about a fourth wave due to the increasing numbers in several states, thought to be due to the rise of variants.
This is why I’m trying to get my vaccine ASAP, and may even buy another set of N95 masks.
Unfortunately, I think this would get us to 65% vaccinated and 34% with a forged passport. Have you seen them? They aren’t difficult to fake.
Only stupid people go to the bars or the beach, but stupid people don’t go only to the bars or beach.
On top of that, it’s a crappy time to have cancer, a stroke, or a heart attack. Not only are ICU beds full, but a weak patient is much more likely to pick up Covid in the hospital.
The passport would have to be different from the card. And the numbers I’ve seen say only 11% say they definitely won’t get vaccinated. Make being unvaccinated a big disadvantage, maybe that number gets smaller.
The passport would probably be an app, not a card at all.
Our university already uses a similar app for students to prove that they’re up-to-date on their bi-weekly testing and have tested negative.
There’s no way it would be an app. This would cut out a significant (and mostly minority) population that doesn’t have smart phones.
Sure, some businesses might implement something like this because equity is not a priority for them. But there won’t be some large-scale passport limited to technology that not everyone can access.
I don’t know about that, According to Pewhttps://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/ 81% of Americans have smartphones, 82% of whites, 80% of blacks, 79% of Hispanics. Hardly looks like the “minority population” is behind the times.
As soon as you tell Americans the app is connected to the Federal Government, 50% won’t install it.
And for folks who’ve already been vaccinated, e.g. me, how will I prove to the app I’ve already been vaccinated? The US medical records system is deliberately balkanized so nobody can go look in the big computer and load my vax records into the app. And if the only records kept are the silly paper cards we all got, then any app is totally subject to “Garbage in Garbage out”. Or more accurately: “Lying thieves in, Lying thieves out”.
The USA is stuck with no reliable “vaccine passport” system because most of us won’t tolerate such a system. Just like we can’t have a reliable contact tracing system. Morons.
Because “For the rest of you…it’s your funeral” isn’t true. People still need to work, to get groceries, to do the things necessary for life to continue, while being vaccinated, wearing a mask, and social distancing is smart, it isn’t perfect protection from the dimwits who don’t. Thousands of people who do all the right things will die.
Second, even the dimwits deserve your support and protection, even if only from themselves.
That would screw over anyone who didn’t have a smartphone. Which is still about 20% of the US or about 66 million people.
We’re already seeing this problem with the majority of vaccination sign-ups being via smartphone - those 66 million people don’t have access to an appointment under that system. Sure, in some places you can use the app on a computer, but 10% of the US doesn’t have one of those.
And, of course, however you issue such a passport you’ll get fakes popping up. Which will probably be a minor problem compared to some other issues we’ve face over the past year-and-some-change.
I agree with you, but it would be political suicide. The hard line republicans would view him as a traitor and a sellout. He’d never get reelected. It would also weaken his party as a whole because it would be a tacit admission that their stance was wrong all along. Finally, as was pointed out already, people need to be lead. That’s why we’ll always have the rich and powerful leading the hoi polloi.
Very easy to respond - take a look at what is happening in Brazil right now - this country is the poster child for the results of a Trumpesque Coronavirus policy.
The situation there is utterly horrifying - they are at 3900 deaths a day, and the trend is firmly upwards. 60 thousand deaths last month alone.
The worst days in the US were back in January. We hit about 3300 deaths per day, but we have 150% of the population of Brazil. Which means Brazil’s present situation, measured in deaths per capita, is 77% worse than the US was back then.
I assume that records are kept by the medical entity who gave you the shot, as is required by medical ethics, and I expect, by law. And you can prove it the same way you’d prove any other medical procedure was received, by getting copies of the records, sent by the provider on your request.