# Won't "vaccine passports" affect poorer/"blacker" people more (a la Voter ID)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 3, 2021, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986 "2021-08-03T19:25:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/81 "2021-08-03T22:14:22Z")
As above, who said they’re an ID? As I said, there’s a terribly broken syllogism here. Assumptions need to be re-examined if your conclusion is that vaccine cards are accepted as identification rather than merely evidence one has been vaccinated. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/82 "2021-08-03T22:14:34Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > My question was about what you were Ok with inconvinencing “black people” about? I’m OK with inconveniencing black people (or anyone) who refuses to get vaccinated. Because, as pointed out, the vaccine is so readily available that it’s only mental stuff that prevents people from getting it, not any actual logistical hurdle. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/83 "2021-08-03T22:16:04Z")
OK, but you specifically called out “black people”. Why should vaccination against a pandemic be inconvenient? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/84 "2021-08-03T22:20:54Z")
> [@LauderdaleFort](#): > > Given that poor people and African Americans and Hispanics have lower vaccination rates that whites or Asian, won’t vaccine passports end up being racially biased? “Given”? Cite? ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/85 "2021-08-03T22:38:44Z")
> **[Latest Data on COVID-19 Vaccinations by Race/Ethnicity](https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-by-race-ethnicity/)** > > KFF is collecting and analyzing data on COVID-19 vaccinations by race/ethnicity to gain increased insight who is receiving the vaccine and whether some groups are facing disparities in vaccination. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/86 "2021-08-03T22:44:48Z")
That’s “Latest Data on COVID-19 Vaccinations by Race/Ethnicity”, what we need is a report about the race/ethnic makeup of the UNvaccinated and preferably with their (self-reported) reason(s) for not getting the vaccine. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/87 "2021-08-03T22:49:02Z")
> [@LauderdaleFort](#): > > They aren’t completely unrelated. Many people said, here, that even free, easy to get ID was racist because even going to the ID-getting place was an unsurmountable problem. I know that getting the jab is easier and more available, but so could ID-getting be. It could be, but the people passing the voter ID laws don’t want it to be. I’d be all for voter ID if the IDs were as easy to get as vaccinations are. But that defeats the purpose of the voter ID laws. > [@LauderdaleFort](#): > > the practical issue is very similar, It would be if the goal was to get everyone a free ID. It’s not. > [@D\_Anconia](#): > > I directly addressed YOUR claim that those cards are proof. They are not, by any reasonable understanding of the word “proof”. OK. I’m all for a hard to fake card that is free for everyone vaccinated. Something, like, say, a vaccine “passport”. Unfortunately there’s a lot of stupid people violently opposed to this idea. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/88 "2021-08-03T22:51:55Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > That’s “Latest Data on COVID-19 Vaccinations by Race/Ethnicity”, what we need is a report about the race/ethnic makeup of the UNvaccinated and preferably with their (self-reported) reason(s) for not getting the vaccine. I’m not sure the specific data exists in a format you prefer, or what you consider “latest,” but here’s some information from May: > **[COVID-19 Vaccines](https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/covid-19-vaccine)** > > Vaccines are seen as one of the best ways to stop COVID-19. Learn more about the types of vaccines, including the newly approved Novavax. I will add that I’ve seen more recent statistics on news coverage that reflect much the same. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/89 "2021-08-03T22:53:43Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > I’m not sure the specific data exists in a format you prefer, or what you consider “latest,” That’s entirely possible. I probably should have been clearer. The point I was making was that the article was really the opposite of what we’re looking for. It was a study on people that had the vaccine. This thread is about people that haven’t had it. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/90 "2021-08-03T22:55:33Z")
Moderating: > [@Yookeroo](#): > > OK. I’m all for a hard to fake card that is free for everyone vaccinated. Something, like, say, a vaccine “passport”. Unfortunately there’s a lot of stupid people violently opposed to this idea. As I cautioned @D_Anconia , please drop this hijack. All types of identification can be faked, it is illegal to fake them and it’s not the issue under discussion. Not a warning, just guidance. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/91 "2021-08-03T22:59:36Z")
Yes, I understand. I think his link did contain some useful information – but it wasn’t in the format you hoped for. Since I think that the issue under discussion is whether fewer people of color are getting vaccinated, I hope my link is more germane – but the information is not super recent. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/92 "2021-08-03T23:09:42Z")
What are vaccine passports being used for? I mean, I fully expect to provide vaccination status (I already did) for an international trip I’m hoping to take this fall. And a trip to Hawaii this Winter. But frankly, it isn’t exactly a hardship to expect someone who can afford a vacation in Hawaii, or concert or sporting event tickets, or a Broadway play, to be able to get themselves a free vaccine. Poverty does disproportionately impact people of color. But that’s only going to make vaccine passports onerous for them if they are required for day to day activities. Most people living in poverty aren’t traveling and seeing concerts. Now, if we are requiring vaccine passports to go grocery shopping - yeh, that’s onerous. Bars and restaurants are in between. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/93 "2021-08-03T23:25:42Z")
Any incentive to vaccinate, including passports, will reduce the proportion of people who get severe COVID, including fatal COVID. That’s what I care about. Since rural whites and African Americans have lower vaccination rates than my own demographic (white, somewhat above average income, living in an affluent neighborhood) widespread passport requirements would disproportionately help people who are poorer than I am, including many Black people. As for the idea that passports could have a net negative affect on African Americans, this is only possible if the passports are a bad idea overall, or if — bad idea! — they are only required for activities very affluent people engage in. When you have leftover money after buying necessities, everything is more convenient, including getting you and your kids vaccinated. I don’t see this a reason for public policies that will result in more people in poverty, of whatever race, dying. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2021, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/94 "2021-08-04T03:22:01Z")
He asked for a cite that African Americans and Hispanics have a lower vaccination rate. I provided one. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2021, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/95 "2021-08-04T04:08:58Z")
> [@LauderdaleFort](#): > > I’m saying that actions (even very good and logic ones like getting a vaccine) that disproportionately affect minorites and poor people have to give us a moment’s thought And everyone else is saying that they _have_ given it a moment’s thought, and come up with all these different ways to make getting vaccinated as easy as it can be made. If you think more needs to be done, then suggest something else that could be done, but stop acting like no one has even bothered to think about the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2021, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/96 "2021-08-04T04:30:35Z")
…just watching this thread play-out is an exercise in extreme frustration. Is the OP conflating two different things to make a political point? Yep. Is the question will “vaccine passports end up being racially biased” a reasonable question to ask, and something that should be of concern to everyone here? Yes it is. The thing about being marginalised is that…you are marginalised. As in pushed into the margins. You don’t have the same opportunities, the same ability to get things done. Things are just harder. The fact that we are even having this discussion shows how reactive the US strategy against Covid is. The vaccines were always a “Hail Mary.” The Christmas surge was devastating, and who knows how much worse it would have gotten if the vaccines weren’t around to stop thousands of people dying every day. But then you started acting like you had won. The masks came off (both literally and figuratively) and you opened up again. And now that the cases are starting to skyrocket once again you are looking for “easy solutions.” Vaccine Passports are not that easy solution. They will be most useful in getting international travel started again. It is likely that when New Zealand does begin to expand their travel bubbles that a Vaccine Passport will be required to bypass quarantine. They would be least useful at the other end of the scale, like at the grocery stores. If you thought mask mandates were hard and dangerous to enforce, imagine what will happen when people have to “produce papers” in order to buy a bottle of milk. It’s adding layers of bureaucracy onto what is ultimately a failure of vaccine rollout. We can’t have this discussion without taking the time to listen to marginalised voices, and all of the activists that I follow have been rightly pointing the problems with passports. Just because the OP was making a political point it doesn’t mean everyone else has to do the same. Its a pandemic, and playing politics has already cost the lives of over 650,000 people in the US. Its a public health crisis that isn’t going to be solved by pointing fingers. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2021, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/97 "2021-08-04T12:52:01Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > Is the question will “vaccine passports end up being racially biased” a reasonable question to ask, and something that should be of concern to everyone here? In a narrow way, yes, I suppose? The question, as above is why would they end up this way. Is it because we are making it harder for traditionally marginalized groups to get vaccinated (and hence have evidence of some sort they are indeed vaccinated)? That’s emphatically a no. Is it because traditionally marginalized groups have built up a mistrust of vaccinations due to historical reasons? Yes. Perhaps you are missing some nuance since it is a US (in this case) issue? The idea that we might actually enforce some kind of vaccine passport system in a systematic and widespread way and that it ends up being racially biased when the biggest bloc of unvaccinated are conservative white Americans blatantly ignores reality. And would never happen in the first because, again, the biggest bloc of the unvaccinated are not a marginalized group. You might see things like that in isolated cities (and good luck with enforcement there anyway) but it’s just not going to be a thing in the US in general. As mentioned ad nauseum at this point, it really is coming down to a personal choice at this point. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2021, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/98 "2021-08-04T16:05:27Z")
Moderating: This is **not** a thread about voting. Stick to the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2021, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/99 "2021-08-04T16:05:54Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > In a narrow way, yes, I suppose? …you suppose? I just don’t get it. This really shouldn’t just be an “afterthought.” There should be modelling, studies, consultation with marginalised communities. I’ve gone back and reviewed the thread and there haven’t been any cites to anyone from black or poorer communities. Where is the engagement? The pilot programmes? The different proposals on how it will work? What venues will it apply too? Will this be Federally mandated or a State by State thing or a district by district thing or a town by town thing? Who enforces it? Why are we starting with a conclusion when we don’t really know what the plan is? > [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > The question, as above is why would they end up this way. > > Is it because we are making it harder for traditionally marginalized groups to get vaccinated (and hence have evidence of some sort they are indeed vaccinated)? **That’s emphatically a no.** That’s a mighty big conclusion here that demands a cite. Can you back that up with anything? From the Washington Post: > [@Washington Post](#): > > Telling her patients to talk to their primary-care physician about being vaccinated can pose a barrier to access because many don’t have a doctor they see regularly. That means people don’t have access to [one of the most trusted sources of information](https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/dashboard/kff-covid-19-vaccine-monitor-dashboard/) about how the vaccines were created and approved so quickly, or their safety and potential side effects. And that creates a barrier to knowledge about appointments and shot providers. > > Researchers have found that people living in mostly Black neighborhoods in Philadelphia were 28 times as likely to lack local access to a primary-care physician as people in overwhelmingly non-Black neighborhoods. > > … > > A third of the census tracts with populations more than 80 percent Black had the lowest supply of providers. > > … > > “You can have health insurance and not have access. Knowing that is how and why we were started,” Stanford said. “People were calling, saying, ‘Hey, Ala, I think I have covid, but I can’t get a test anywhere.’” > > People were being turned away. Some because symptoms didn’t meet early testing guidelines. Others because they took the bus to drive-up testing sites meant for people in private cars. There were those who struggled to get telehealth appointments, limiting their chances of acquiring the doctor’s referral required by some testing providers. > > “The health-care system has been largely untrustworthy to African Americans,” Stanford said. “Which is different than saying African Americans don’t trust the health-care system.” > > … > > Analyzing local health department data on the number of tests, confirmed cases and deaths by Zip codes, the researchers found those Zip codes with the highest testing rates but lowest positivity rates were in the neighborhoods with the greatest concentration of White residents. > > The inverse was true in predominantly Black or Latino areas. Those Zip codes now overlap with under-vaccinated areas in Philadelphia and many other cities, said the study’s lead author, social epidemiologist Usama Bilal. > > **“We are finding exactly the same pattern,” he said.** > > … > > “One vignette talked about how this particular person went to their physician, who didn’t believe their symptoms and said they weren’t eligible for coronavirus testing. It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth,” said Brown, who was not involved in Bilal’s study. “My point is that if you’ve got all of this in the testing piece, you’re not going to have an easy rollout of the actual vaccine.” > > … > > The city adopted a policy restricting registration to Philadelphia residents, figuring that chances of an appointment going to a person of color increased if appointments were limited to residents, given the city’s demographics. But, Garrow said, Rite Aide’s system didn’t restrict registration to residents. > > “The slots ended up filling up very much with White folks,” he said. > > … > > “You ended up with everybody from a very White family out in the far northeast coming down to North Philadelphia to get vaccinated and leaving out everybody in that neighborhood who may have received the invitation but was stuck at work all day and couldn’t sign up,” Garrow said. > **[Anatomy of a health conundrum: The racial gap in vaccinations](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/06/27/why-black-americans-arent-being-vaccinated/)** > > A racial divide persists in the nation’s vaccination campaign, with federal figures showing counties with higher percentages of Black residents having some of the lowest vaccination rates in the country. The article was from June. Your assertion ignores the historic ways black and marginalised communities have been treated by the US health system as recently as…today. Because it never ever stopped. You set up a system where they were not initially prioritised a vaccine slot, when the slots opened they were taken by white people. Sure, vaccines are more available **now** (in the US, not the rest of the world). But how is this being communicated to marginalised communities? The one that have no access to healthcare, the ones who do not trust the healthcare system? And now you want to punish them? Deny them the right to go somewhere because of a fundamentally flawed racist process? > [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Is it because traditionally marginalized groups have built up a mistrust of vaccinations due to historical reasons? Yes. It’s not mistrust in the **vaccines**. A lot of it is mistrust and a lack of faith **in the system.** And a lot of it is the people in the heathcare systems **lack of trust and lack of faith in black people.** And that distinction is important, because you can’t address either of these things by simply making vaccines widely available. > [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Perhaps you are missing some nuance since it is a US (in this case) issue? Perhaps you are missing some nuance because for the first year of the biggest worldwide public health crisis in a generation your country was governed by a bunch of conmen and grifter’s whose number one priority was making lots of money. And in the second year some nicer people took over who have done a much better job but has made significant and damaging strategic mistakes. And then you get the States who are led by a variety of people from the semi competent to the outright corrupt. All of this hampered by a constant barrage of deliberate dis-information. Perhaps…because you are in the middle of this absolute chaos storm of destruction, you are missing some of the nuance? Because from where I am over in my little corner of the world I’ve been watching this all play out in abject horror. > [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > The idea that we might actually enforce some kind of vaccine passport system in a systematic and widespread way and that it ends up being racially biased when the biggest bloc of unvaccinated are conservative white Americans blatantly ignores reality. And would never happen in the first because, again, the biggest bloc of the unvaccinated are not a marginalized group. You might see things like that in isolated cities (and good luck with enforcement there anyway) **but it’s just not going to be a thing in the US in general.** The degree of confidence in which you state this is kinda offset by the fact that you feel the need for vaccine passports in the first place. I have no faith in your assertion that I’m “blatantly ignoring reality.” Just because “biggest bloc of unvaccinated are conservative white Americans” doesn’t mean that black and marginalised people won’t be disproportionally disadvantaged by vaccine passports. Do you know how I know this? Because :: points around :: the entire history of America. In the Washington Post article I cited it showed how white Americans took vaccination slots from black Americans. We also saw how the police in New York ignored parks full of white people but cracked down hard on parks full of black people. Conservative white Americans will figure out a way to **game the system**. They always have, and they probably always will. And to think that this won’t happen is to blatantly ignore reality. > [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > As mentioned ad nauseum at this point, it really is coming down to a personal choice at this point. Ah yes, America. The “land of the free, the home of the brave.” Where ultimately everything comes down to “personal choice.” This has probably ultimately been the biggest failure of the pandemic response in America. You’ve summed it up quite perfectly here. Every person for themselves. I’m going to talk about New Zealand for a minute…so apologies in advance. But one of the cornerstones of why we have successfully eliminated Covid (and why we have been able to stamp out several community outbreaks) has been the public health messaging. The slogan we rallied around at the start of the pandemic was: “Unite Against Covid.” > [@The Guardian](#): > > With a budget of NZ $25m (£13m), he tasked the advertising agency Clemenger BBDO Wellington with coming up with a public information campaign to reach every New Zealander. > > … > > The first major creative decision was not to centre on the virus itself. That January, a visualisation of the virus particle by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was ubiquitous. [An illustrator said](https://www.dezeen.com/2020/05/14/covid-19-images-coronavirus-cdc-medical-illustrator-dan-higgins/) their aim was to help people picture the threat while out in public, in colours chosen to create a “feeling of alarm”. > > The New Zealand government’s team opted to take a different route, focusing on the impact on people’s daily lives and steps they could take to protect each other. “We wanted something that was very human,” says Major. Within 48 hours of being briefed, Clemenger had landed upon the organising principle of their campaign: “Unite Against Covid-19”. > > … > > But the Unite brand was designed not just as a “top-down directive from government but a call to participate,” says Major. > > The aim was to trigger team spirit, not fear; to bring New Zealanders together, and galvanise them to act. “ **Partly what we were trying to do was give people a common thing to rally or fight against,”** says Mark Dalton, Clemenger’s creative director. > > … > In seeking to foster calm and compassion, New Zealand’s messaging was starkly different to that elsewhere. The state of Oregon, for example, [ran a campaign](https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/2020/03/oregon-launches-stark-new-public-appeal-stay-home-dont-accidentally-kill-someone.html) with the slogans “Don’t accidentally kill someone” and “It’s up to you how many people live or die”. In the UK, government campaigns have warned “don’t let a coffee cost a life” and shown the reproachful faces of people on ventilators: “Look him in the eyes and tell him the risk isn’t real.” > **[Words matter: how New Zealand's clear messaging helped beat Covid](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/26/words-matter-how-new-zealands-clear-messaging-helped-beat-covid)** > > One year on from the nation’s first case of coronavirus, Aotearoa has largely eliminated the virus - communications played a key part in its success “Stay home, save lives.” “Be kind.” “Act like you have the virus.” [“The virus is the problem, not the people”.](https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/08/coronavirus-the-virus-is-the-problem-not-the-people-bloomfield-slams-online-haters.html) In New Zealand we **united against the virus**. Covid-19 was the enemy that needed to be defeated, and it will take continued vigilence to keep the enemy at bay. In America you are **uniting against the unvaccinated**. The enemy is within. You can see it here in the pit threads, in the Quarantine Zone. Its all the fault of the unvaccinated people that you can’t “open up” properly yet. It’s their fault that the hospitals are starting to fill up again. A convenient scapegoat that allows you to ignore the many failures to control and mitigate the pandemic. Its easy to point the finger. Its easy to ignore the corruption and the politicization and the outright incompetence and the racism and to put the blame on “that group of people” but that really misses the point. In New Zealand we’ve been fortunate that we didn’t need to rush our vaccination process in order to save lives. Instead the vaccines went through our standard (but expedited) approval process, and schedule was prepared with the goal of getting everyone who wants to get vaccinated a vaccine by the end of the year. That schedule is here: > **[COVID-19 vaccine data – Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand](https://www.tewhatuora.govt.nz/our-health-system/data-and-statistics/covid-vaccine-data)** > > The COVID-19 vaccine data is updated weekly at 1 pm on Wednesday. Vaccine data is up to Friday 28 July 2023. We are ahead of schedule and have been ahead pretty much since the beginning. And there is a real _buzz_, going around right now. Everyone I know wants a vaccine and are booking as soon as they become eligible. And the thing is…we don’t want to get vaccinated to protect ourselves. We want to get it to protect each other. Our community. Our whanau. Our incentive to get vaccinated is to protect each other. To unite against Covid. The kid at the start of this video said it best: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcIQATtAkS0) “HEY COVID!!! You were a bit of an egg in 2020 eh?” We’ve taken a lot of criticism in the last few months because of our alleged “slow rollout” of the vaccine. But lets be real here. Vaccinating an entire country in the middle of a global pandemic where demand is exceeding supply and where many countries are struggling to get vaccines was never going to happen overnight. Getting it done in a year isn’t a bad thing. It was never a race for us. Vaccine passports are ultimately an unproven idea. I understand the theory. But I’m not convinced that enough work has been done to develop a system that is consistent and equitable and won’t require the creation of a brand new level of bureaucracy that is open to corruption, grifters, and over-policing of marginalised people that is all too common in the US. Its just another “Hail Mary.” ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2021, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986/100 "2021-08-04T16:12:45Z")
Not moderating: What I don’t fully understand is why the level of mistrust of the medical establishment in the Black community is so deep that many will not get vaccinated even in the face of the fact that whites are getting vaccinated in large numbers. I know all about Tuskegee and all the other things (e.g. Blacks feel less pain, so we don’t give them as much pain killers), but can’t they see that this is different? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wont-vaccine-passports-affect-poorer-blacker-people-more-a-la-voter-id/947986.md?page=6)