The worst U-turn on vaccine passes
26 July 2021 — Big Brother Watch
Dear friends,
You can’t have missed the news that the Government wants to make vaccine passes mandatory from September for large gatherings, without even the option of a test as an alternative. The front pages have been filled with Government threats confirming our worst fears – access to nightclubs, sports events, and even universities could be restricted to only those with COVID vaccine IDs.
It’s a U-turn of the harshest kind.
It’s dangerously coercive, counter-productive and wrong.
This cruel policy will exclude millions of people, especially pregnant and breastfeeding women, ethnic minorities, young people, people on lower incomes and migrants who are all disproportionately unvaccinated.
Support is better than coercion. No one should be forced to have a medical treatment they don’t want to have.
Studies show time and time again that vaccine compulsion doesn’t increase uptake or trust – it further alienates people. Whilst some will do anything to paint opposition to vaccine passes as ‘anti-vaccination’, it’s anything but. Good healthcare relies on nurture, support, privacy and autonomy – not coercion, exclusion, or fear of authority.
This Government’s whole pandemic strategy has rested on compulsion, policing, threats and criminalisation. And look where that got us.
No