SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS: White House Working With Private Companies to Develop COVID Passports; GOP Lawmakers Slam ‘vaccine passports’ Being Considered by Biden Admin, and other C-Virus Updates

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White House working with private companies to develop COVID passports:

The Biden administration is helping the private sector develop COVID-19 vaccine “passports” for Americans inoculated against the virus, the White House confirmed on Monday.

The government is working to set standards for Americans to prove that they have been vaccinated, as businesses try to reopen, travel begins to pick up and sports teams plan a return.

“The government is not viewing its role as the place to create a passport nor a place to hold the data of citizens. We view this as something that the private sector is doing, and we’ll do what’s important to us,” Andy Slavitt, the senior adviser to the White House Covid-19 Response Team, told reporters at Monday’s briefing.

“And we’re leading an interagency process right now to go through these details and that some important criteria be met with these credentials. No. 1 that there is equitable access. That means whether or not people have access to technology or whether they don’t,” he continued.

Slavitt also said the administration recognizes that millions of Americans have yet to be vaccinated and that people’s private information must be safeguarded.

It’s important, he said, that the passports be free, distributed equitably among the population and be available in multiple languages. --->READ MORE HERE

REUTERS/Erin Scott

GOP lawmakers slam ‘vaccine passports’ being considered by Biden admin:

Top-ranking Republicans are trying to stamp out digital vaccine passports, that would allow businesses to check if customers are inoculated against COVID-19.

The White House is working on a private sector-driven initiative to help businesses identify people that have been vaccinated, as venues reopen and travel begins to pick up.

New York has already developed its own version, dubbed the “Excelsior Pass.” The digital app doesn’t display the user’s health information, and will be required for vaccinated customers to gain entry to large venues like Madison Square Garden.

The “passports” have been criticized as invasive and hypocritical by some Republicans, including the party’s second highest ranking member of Congress.

“Considering that Democrats want to require vaccine IDs for people to conduct their basic daily activities, they now have zero grounds to object to voter ID laws,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise told Fox News. --->READ MORE HERE

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