Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida recently signed a decree prohibiting businesses from requiring proof of vaccination for customers. He says that if businesses or local governments required proof it would “reduce individual freedom and harm patient privacy.”
Likely a Republican candidate for president in 2024, DeSantis seems to be suggesting that democracy would be dangerously impaired by such an assault on our liberties. But would vaccine credentials truly impact democracy like loss of the right to speech, press, religion or the vote? Not by any stretch of the imagination. Would dissenters go to jail? No, they would go somewhere else to eat, shop or watch a movie.
In New York City, Mary Mallon was found to be moving around from place to place infecting people with typhoid. The authorities got a hold of her and gave her a ton of privacy. She was put under house arrest, so she could not continue her habit of poisoning the community.
DeSantis also says vaccine passports would create two classes of citizens based on vaccination status. I suppose so, but that is not quite on a par with the huge gap between the common poor folk and the aristocratic rich that DeSantis so loves. That is a real class system.
Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross