{"id":48033,"date":"2021-04-04T08:44:59","date_gmt":"2021-04-04T12:44:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=48033"},"modified":"2021-04-04T08:45:10","modified_gmt":"2021-04-04T12:45:10","slug":"get-over-it-covid-passports-are-going-to-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=48033","title":{"rendered":"Get over it: COVID passports are going to happen"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em> @mikemcgannpa<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>On this Easter Sunday \u2014 one that feels a whole lot different than the one a year ago \u2014 there is both hope and fear.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re close. More than a third of the adult population of Pennsylvania, as of Saturday, has had at least one shot of the COVID-19 vaccine, with thousands more happening daily. Just short of 2 million have had both shots. Supply, while still not what we\u2019d like to see, is improving and we\u2019re just weeks away from a day when anyone over 16 will be able to get a shot if they want one, with everyone eligible to book appointments later this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they want one,\u201d though, is the big remaining question of when we are able to finally put this all behind us and resume something like a normal life.<\/p>\n

Yes, I understand why some people were initially hesitant about getting the shots \u2014 particularly as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use a very new and somewhat untested technology. I don\u2019t blame people for waiting and watching. With more than 100 million shots in arms nationally and few issues, many of those who were cautious are no longer waiting, which is a good thing.<\/p>\n

Still, we have a segment of the population that is selfish and ignorant, and as with wearing masks, refuses to do their part to help end the pandemic. This is not about the percentage of the population that is immune-compromised, allergic or otherwise has health issues preventing vaccination \u2014 we don\u2019t know enough yet to determine whether some or all of those folks can safely get the vaccine, so those folks should rightly hold off.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m talking about mostly white males \u2014 some of whom serve in our state legislature \u2014 who trot out some harebrained claim of \u201cliberty\u201d or whatever they heard on Fox News, OAN or NewsMax or on some social media site. Sure, those happen to be talking points currently being amplified by Russian intelligence and other foreign actors who want to sew chaos in the U.S. and low our recovery from the pandemic, but they cling to these bogus arguments like an old teddy bear.<\/p>\n

The newest argument \u2014 which is utter crap \u2014 is the new rants about vaccine passports and requiring said passports for things like schools, air travel, sporting events, cruises and such.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The challenge of coming up with a safe, dependable application that can be used quickly and without violating health privacy will be a big one. A single, worldwide standard will be needed and likely have to be backed by one of the tech giants such as Apple or Google. For those without smartphones, there would be a way to print out a QR code \u2014 as one can do with baseball tickets (the era of printed tickets for MLB is over, it seems \u2014 you need a smartphone or a QR code to get into ballparks this summer). Other countries are moving quickly in this direction and so will the United States, despite the pandering, ignorant statements of some state legislators in many states, including Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

The nefarious claims about\u00a0 such applications \u2014 and unConstitutional state moves to ban them \u2014 is pathetic.<\/p>\n

We have routinely required vaccines for school enrollment and travel and have for decades. The emergence of COVID makes having a master application for such vaccines all the more needed, not some violation of personal liberties. If you have a smartphone, your privacy is already entirely compromised: big companies know where you go, what you do, what you say and said data is often transmitted to government agencies during criminal investigations (note all the U.S. Capitol rioters losing their minds because their cell phones ratted them out). That ship sailed a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Beyond the privacy issue: you don\u2019t have a right to infect other people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Right now, if you don\u2019t have a meningitis vaccine, you\u2019re not getting into college. Period. There\u2019s a lengthy list of vaccines kids need to attend public school. Yes, there are exemptions \u2014 some still buy into lies about the impact of vaccine while others claim religious grounds.<\/p>\n

If you choose not to get a vaccine, deal with the consequences. You\u2019ll be a threat to other, responsible people who you might infect (as we\u2019re already seeing a spike in cases, thanks to the idiots who refuse to wear a mask). So boo-hoo if you can\u2019t attend a Phillies game or go to the movies \u2014 you made a choice, live with it. Personal responsibility, right?<\/p>\n

Most of us will be very happy to be able to show proof of vaccination if it means we can get back to something like a normal life \u2014 while keeping ourselves and everyone else safe.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s ultimately your choice, but don\u2019t assume you have the right skip the vaccine and return to attending concerts and ball games.<\/p>\n

We all have a shared responsibility in beating this virus, if you\u2019re not willing to do your part, you don\u2019t deserve to benefit from things reopening.<\/p>\n

Choices have consequences. Deal with it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa On this Easter Sunday \u2014 one that feels a whole lot different than the one a year ago \u2014 there is both hope and fear. We\u2019re close. More than a third of the adult population of Pennsylvania, as of Saturday, has had at least one shot of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12855,7426,8032,3962,13739],"class_list":["post-48033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-covid-19","tag-featured","tag-tech","tag-vaccine","tag-vaccine-passport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48034,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48033\/revisions\/48034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}