Vaccine Passports: A Discrimination

On the ICOM newsletter dated 20.12.2021 I read the article “Most museums in Europe remain open – but demand Covid-19 passports” curated by Dana Andrew. It made me think, because I believe there is a lot at stake here. Please allow me to bring a small contribution to the debate on vaccine passports, seen by the point of view of an event industry’s operator. But firstly I would like to vehemently state that I am not anti-vax in any shape or form: vaccines (when properly tested, if really safe and efficient) do save lives. They have been, and are, extremely important tools in the fight against diseases.

The world of museums, exhibitions, music, entertainment, culture and education (and events in general) has gone through two horrendous years. We at World Touring Exhibitions, thanks to our international outlook and clients/partners worldwide, have been able to make it work. Notwithstanding the adjustments we successfully made, it’s still been a very challenging period and we did indeed face major financial and workforce risks. Then Covid seemed to have given our industry a break, but... now here we are again. Covid is back. And will probably come again and again and again every winter unless a “magic pill” (blue, red, you choose, whichever works!) to cure Covid were to be discovered.

Now, enter vaccine passports (called Green Passes in the EU).

Many countries in the world are already asking, and others planning to ask, for vaccine passports in order to enter venues – be them museums, restaurants, theatres, exhibition centres, and so on (and even to be allowed to work!). The problem is that a vaccine passport has no scientific base whatsoever, and creates major discriminations.

Harvard Medical School professors Martin Kulldorff and Jay Bhattacharya wrote on The Wall Street Journal: "The idea that everybody needs to be vaccinated is as scientifically baseless as the idea that nobody does. Covid vaccines are essential for older, high-risk people and their caretakers and advisable for many others. But those who’ve been infected are already immune.”

Vaccine passports very rarely cater for people who recovered from Covid: most vaccine passports require that, after 6 months since having recovered from the virus, one must either vaccinate or lose one’s passport. This is totally unscientific, there is by now overwhelming medical evidence that natural immunity is far stronger than vaccine immunity. This is what Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine professor Dr. Marty Makary said in a recent podcast: “The data on natural immunity are now overwhelming, it turns out the hypothesis that our public health leaders had that vaccinated immunity is better and stronger than natural immunity was wrong. They got it backwards. And now we’ve got data from Israel showing that natural immunity is 27 times more effective than vaccinated immunity. And that supports 15 other studies.”

Vaccine passports do not care about this. They only support the diktat “You must vaccinate, or can’t have a normal social and professional life”. Yes, you might say: one must protect oneself, unvaccinated people are more likely to carry the virus than vaccinated ones. Think again.

A University source (one amongst many) reports the following: “A new study from the University of California, Davis, Genome Center, UC San Francisco and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub shows no significant difference in viral load between vaccinated and unvaccinated people who tested positive for the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2. It also found no significant difference between infected people with or without symptoms”.

And The Lancet, one of the most reputable medical journals in the world, wrote: "People who are vaccinated have a lower risk of severe disease but are still a relevant part of the pandemic. It is therefore wrong and dangerous to speak of a pandemic of the unvaccinated".

After the initial big hope and our rush to be vaccinated, vaccines have unfortunately proven to be quite insufficient in facing the task of stopping Covid: their effect wanes very quickly eventually making little difference between being vaccinated or unvaccinated. I just lost two relatives who were vaccinated three times, yes, even the booster; but they still died of Covid.

The Lancet, in another article, states about the UK: "Between week 39 and 42, a total of 100,160 COVID-19 cases were reported among citizens of 60 years or older. 89,821 occurred among the fully vaccinated (89.7%), 3,395 among the unvaccinated (3.4%) [...] Many decisionmakers assume that the vaccinated can be excluded as a source of transmission. It appears to be grossly negligent to ignore the vaccinated population as a possible and relevant source of transmission when deciding about public health control measures" (the percentage of fully vaccinated in the UK is averaging at approx. 75% at the time of writing. Now you do the maths).

Jennifer Frazer wrote on Scientific American about a peer-reviewed study: "The vaccinated were just as likely to transmit Covid to people in their own households as the unvaccinated".

Wow! So if an unvaccinated person were to enter a museum or a music venue or an exhibition centre, s/he would not bring more risk than a vaccinated one?!? Then why can't they enter? And why they are not even allowed to work in some countries? If you have a sensible answer to these questions, please let me know. I haven't.

Vaccine adverse effects are also not to be understated: deaths, serious illnesses and disabilities have occurred following the jab. The British Medical Journal, one of the most influential medical publications in the world, even reported of alleged poor practices in the vaccine trials (their own words, not mine. I’d find this scary, if true). This should suggest us not to give-up on our right, and duty, to think independently.

It is also very important to underline that there are people who, due to pre-existing medical conditions, cannot be vaccinated. Some vaccine passports (not all countries apply the same rules) would basically prevent them from enjoying a normal social and professional existence. This adds insult to injury.

Last but not least: children and teenagers.

The mantra “The benefit outweighs the risk” does not seem to apply to them. They have an extremely low risk of death from Covid. On the contrary, serious adverse events seem to be more frequent in the lower age range, to include dangerous ones (sometime fatal) like myocarditis, stroke, heart attack.

Following what scientists, scientific journals and reputable public reports say (although they are very seldom mentioned by governments or the main media), one could draw the following conclusions :

1. Unvaccinated people are not a higher risk to society: worst scenario, they are a higher risk to themselves (and I don't remember a passport stopping alcoholics from entering a pub or morbidly obese entering a fast-food outlet).

2. Covid-recovered immunity is so much higher and long-lasting than vaccines, it does not make a lot of sense asking them to vaccinate.

3. Teenagers and children are at such low risk of Covid and higher risk of adverse events, it’s unnecessary and unethical asking them to vaccinate in order to enjoy a normal life .

So why do we need vaccine passports? It seems very unlikely them to help with the fight against the Covid pandemic.

We have a huge responsibility.

If we listen to science, there is only one solution: energetic opposition to any form of vaccine passports. They do not help to beat Covid, they instead create one more serious discrimination (as if our world needs another one…); and when liberties are lost and discriminations established, it's difficult going back.

Or we can listen to 'the majority' because it's easier; but then we should remember that the sentence "I was only following orders" did not go down well in history...

And shouldn't we learn from history? Oh dear, sorry, silly me, I totally forgot the words of German philosopher Friedrich Hegel: "The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history".

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