Florida Governor Ron DeSantis spoke out during a bill signing ceremony on March 29, rejecting the Biden administration’s push for “vaccine passports.”
“We are not supporting doing any vaccine passports in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society.”
Florida has become a success story in regards to the coronavirus pandemic, as the state’s unemployment rate is only at 4.7%, with a strong economy, children in school, and a great system for vaccine distribution. DeSantis continued his speech, discussing the fact that the vaccine is something that is widely encouraged, but not required.
“We always said we wanted to provide it for all, but mandate it for none,” the governor stated.
“I think it’s something that people have certain freedoms and individual liberties to make decisions for themselves,” DeSantis continued. “I also wonder it’s like — you’re going to do this and then what, give all this information to some big corporation? You want the fox to guard the henhouse? I mean, give me a break.”
He makes an excellent point. To set up a system of vaccine passports, the people would be required to give their private information to corporations in the process. As BizPacReview reports, “The Biden administration has reportedly been working with private technology and travel companies to develop vaccine credentials of some sort so the public can show proof of vaccination.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has promised to ban local government and businesses from using vaccine passports.pic.twitter.com/y8AGxHlkhB
— Sam Street (@samstreetwrites) March 29, 2021
“I think this is something that has huge privacy implications, it is not necessary to do. We’re going to have hit 3 million seniors that have gotten shots sometime this week, like 75% of seniors. It’s important to be able to do it. But at the same time, we are not going to have you provide proof of this just to be able to live your life normally. And I’m going to be taking some action in an executive function, emergency function, here very shortly,” DeSantis stated.
One of the most essential parts of liberty is the right to privacy, and the idea of vaccine passports clearly violates this right. Of course, the Biden administration is trying to claim that the system is set up in a way that will protect people’s privacy, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
“Our role is to help ensure that any solutions in this area should be simple, free, open source, accessible to people both digitally and on paper, and designed from the start to protect people’s privacy,” White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said during a briefing on March 12.
DeSantis isn’t just fighting back against vaccine passports, but against all COVID-related government tyranny. He has refused to implement strict authoritarian lockdowns, and has ended the mask mandate in Florida.
On March 29, the governor signed into law a bill that would bar coronavirus-related lawsuits against businesses “that have made good-faith efforts to comply with guidelines to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus,” according to reporting by BizPacReview.
The governor has been touting his state’s success in handling the pandemic for some time, and many see a potential presidential run in his future due to that success.
“Florida’s schools are open, and we’re one of only a handful of states in which every parent has a right to send their child to school in person. All Floridians have a right to earn a living, and our citizens are employed at higher rates than those in the nation as a whole. Every job is essential,” DeSantis said.
