By Jimmy Orr, Cowboy State Daily
Gov Mark Gordon on Friday said Wyoming will not be participating in any vaccination passport program no matter what the federal government says.
“Wyoming has no plans to require vaccine passports or require participation in a vaccine passport program,” Gordon spokesman Michael Pearlman told Cowboy State Daily.
“While the governor encourages residents to get vaccinated, COVID-19 vaccinations are entirely voluntary in the state of Wyoming,” Pearlman said, noting that there hasn’t been any indication the federal government is pursuing such an idea.
Speculation about a possible federal vaccination passport surfaced last week when the Washington Post reported that the Biden administration would be developing standards for how Americans can show proof that they’ve been vaccinated.
A White House advisor later clarified that there would not be a government-issued vaccine credential nor would the government be storing vaccination information in a database.
If there is some sort of vaccination passport, it would come from the private sector, said Andy Slavitt, acting director for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“We view this as something the private sector is doing and will do,” he said. “What’s important to us, and we’re leading an interagency process right now to go through these details, are that some important criteria be met with these credentials.”
The news of any type of vaccination credential has not set well with many Republican governors.
Leading the way is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who said any type of vaccination passport — whether issued by the government or the private sector — is not ok. He issued an executive order to that effect on Friday.
“It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society,” DeSantis said.
Nebraska Governor Pete Rickets of Nebraska said the idea of any type of medical passport “violates two central tenets of the American system: freedom of movement and health care privacy.”
The Centers for Disease Control issued new guidance on Friday stating that Americans who are vaccinated can travel again without worrying about getting tested or going into quarantine.
“The C.D.C.’s new travel guidance is a major step in the right direction that is supported by the science and will take the brakes off the industry that has been hardest hit by the fallout of Covid by far,” Roger Dow, the chief executive of U.S. Travel, an industry group, said in a statement. “As travel comes back, U.S. jobs come back.”
