Harvard researcher says vaccine passports are unscientific and unethical

The website medRviv has stirred up some controversy by publishing a report suggesting that natural immunity may provide a stronger defense against the Delta variant of COVID-19 than vaccines do.

In reaction to this research, Harvard Medical School statistician Martin Kulldorff questioned how effective vaccine passports are in general — and he goes so far as to say that they may be unscientific and discriminatory. A “vaccine passport,” for the record, is the unofficial way we describe any proof of vaccination as required by some states, countries, and event organizers for incoming travelers and guests.

Mainstream reaction to vaccine passports

Reception to vaccine passports has been mixed among the general public in the U.S. In a recent Gallup survey, roughly 57% of respondents agreed that proof of vaccination should be required of airplane passengers, and 55% said the same with respect to crowded events, “such as concerts or sports.”

However, less than half of the participants polled (45%) believe that employers should implement proof of vaccination policies on their staff and even less (40%) want restaurants to do this for customers.

“Although the Biden administration says it does not plan to put a vaccine passport program in place in the U.S., individual states, private companies and non-profit organizations are free to devise their own guidelines for requiring vaccines,” Gallup reports.

As of the time of this writing, 20 U.S states have banned vaccine passport programs.

The ethics of vaccine passports

Kulldorff has effectively called the ethics of vaccine passports into question. “Prior COVID disease (many working-class) provides better immunity than vaccines (many professionals), so vaccine mandates are not only scientific nonsense, they are also discriminatory and unethical,” Kulldorff explained.

His argument weakens the assumption that those who have reservations about vaccines are being predominantly motivated by factors that have little to do with science, while also going a long way to justify some of the non-scientific hurdles standing between the unvaxxed and the doses currently available to Americans above the age of 12.

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey identified “a lack of access” as the most common reason that some Americans have yet to receive a vaccine.

“Access doesn’t just mean we’ve opened up eligibility to everyone,” Liz Hamel, director of public opinion and survey research at Kaiser, adds. “Access also means that I can find a way to get the vaccine without putting my livelihood at risk, or I can get it in a place I feel safe getting it.”

A story published in The New York Times further complicates the fundamental reasons why some 30% of Americans have yet to be vaccinated.

Their data showed that only some of these people do not intend on being vaccinated at any point, while the remaining either don’t have access or are unconvinced by the available information.

At the very least, the indecision expressed by medical professionals on the topic of COVID should at least partially justify the skepticism of laymen.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, MD, who is the nation’s top infectious disease expert, described the COVID-19 pandemic as an infectious disease scientist’s “worst nightmare.”

“Of all the emerging infections that I’ve had to deal with in the 36 years that I’ve been the director of the institute — starting off from HIV in the early ’80s with Ebola and Zika, and anthrax attacks — this is clearly the most challenging.”