Wisconsin’s Ban on Vaccine Passports

One day you wake up and go out to pick up groceries. You try and get in, but you get stopped at the door. Not because you’re not wearing your mask. The reason you can’t get the food you need for your family and self is because you don’t have a vaccine passport.

The Wisconsin Assembly proposed on banning vaccine passports for business and government entities. This includes having health care workers not required to be vaccinated. Vaccine passports are a controversial concept.

The question of, is it governments place to force any individual to inject something in their body? It sounds extreme but by discriminating on where people can and can’t go limits their freedom. Especially when it comes to discriminating against individuals due to their choice of what goes in their bodies.

The board of Media Milwaukee got together to discuss our position on this new development. We all experienced the pandemic, and we all had varying ideas on what this ban could mean and the moral implications. We, the board decided that we are in favor of the ban with some exceptions.

Covid-19 isn’t simply a yes or no to the decisions on how we can keep everyone safe. In these situations, we need to come to a more nuanced answer. We the board acknowledge the history of the Tuskegee study and the ever-lasting impact it has on American culture.

In 1932 the U.S. Public Health Service ran a study with the Tuskegee Institute on syphilis where they observed untreated syphilis in more than 300 African American males. They were left untreated even when a treatment was readily available, and they weren’t told of their condition. It illustrates clearly that the U.S. government is okay with experimenting on its own citizens.

We believe in the ban to help ensure that unethical treatment never happens again. Although we also have to acknowledge those who are vulnerable to Covid-19. That’s why we ask for exemptions to the ban for nursing homes, hospitals and social/healthcare workers that aid the elderly. The elderly and those in need of medical care are extremely vulnerable to Covid-19.

The Wisconsin Medical Society, the Wisconsin Public Health Association and the Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards have all been against the ban. Mainly due to the devastation the ban could have on ensuring healthcare workers get the vaccine. Health care workers could put their patients in harm’s way without getting vaccinated.

That’s why we the board acknowledge that we need certain exemptions. Especially exemptions for those who work with the most vulnerable population. Covid-19 is making us all play a balancing act. The balance between safety and liberty.

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” ~Abraham Lincoln

The UW school system should comply with the ban and instead have a mask mandate. Masks have been proven to help stop the spread and they don’t need to be put in your body. This is to ensure the rights of those who are vulnerable that might be attending courses.

We, the board are concerned with the limiting of the public to travel and attend different activities if the individual isn’t vaccinated. The level of pressure makes vaccine passports seem more of a vaccine mandate. That kind of government control over an individuals body is unconstitutional.