Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte became the latest governor to ban vaccine passports in his state Tuesday.
While Montanans should take the vaccine, Gianforte said after he signed the order in isolation following a positive COVID test, “receiving one is entirely voluntary and won’t be mandated by the state.”
Other states run by Republican governors have also signed similar bans on vaccine passports after Democrats in New York and Hawaiiimplement programs to require proof of vaccination to participate in society.
Texas, Florida, Idaho, through executive action, and Utah through the legislative process, have each also banned COVID vaccine passports. Bans in Montana and Florida, however, stand out among the rest in applying the prohibition on passports to private businesses, with threats of license suspension for enterprises that require them. Idaho and Utah only prohibit government agencies from requiring proof of vaccination, and in Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s Texas, only private businesses that receive public funding are banned from implementing the mandate.
Missouri lawmakers are also considering a vaccine passport ban more in line with Montana and Florida’s than Abbott’s in Texas, in which private businesses would be banned from requiring people to disclose sensitive private medical information in order to participate in society.
“If we’re not careful … we’re going to allow corporate America to become a fourth quasi-branch of government that is far more powerful than anything that we have ever seen,” said Missouri Republican State Rep. Adam Schnelting, as reported by the Kansas City Star.
No comments:
Post a Comment