Simply don't have police state totalitarian mandates.
"Simply don't have xy" doesn't work when the problem is actually real. The population will always choose safety or public health over some sort of libertarian daydream.
The "threat of terrorism" has long been used by media and governments in a cynical way to demonize specific groups. The most common act of terrorism in Western countries in the past few years has been arson of historical churches, yet we almost never see mainstream reporting. On the other hand, we are constantly told of the "[insert group] terror threat" that turns up no actual terrorist acts.
The QR code is the vaccine passport. The test with the 2-day validity is simply another way to get it temporarily.
And if everyone is vaccinated, why do we still need to do contact tracing? The idea was that it doesn't have enough hosts to reach R > 1 so it'll fizzle out anyway.
This is what works in most EU countries now.
I'd much rather deal with some minor distancing instead of having to ID myself everywhere I go.
Also, most people in the UK have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca which is much less effective (and this Pollard guy has a huge commercial interest in that so this won't factor into his story)
How does this work for those who don't own a smartphone?
With the previous covid detection apps (the covid API from Apple/Google) privacy was really a key design goal and I had no issues using that.
With these new QR apps (the EU CoronaCheck program) there was less of a focus on this. Part of that makes sense, as it's meant to identify the user's status it's not possible to be completely anonymous. But there has hardly been any info on whether the apps phone home. Also, the Apple/Google API apps from each country were almost all open source. None of that now. It's taken for granted that privacy is not a concern anymore, for some reason.
And most countries that enforce this are in the EU.
If every last man woman and child on the planet get vaccinated; if every mouse, cat, dog, ferret, pig, monkey and deer get vaccinated too, the potential for a breakout vaccine resistant infection is still there.
Also, there is still virtually zero talk of implementing vaccine exemptions for people with naturally acquired immunity, which seems superior in every way.
So, this isn't about "accommodating" the non vaccinated. It's not about safety, or science. It seems to be completely about control, complete control.
My country hasn't hired more nurses, built more ICU beds, legislated for or supported better air circulation indoors, or subsidised antigen testing - but they have implemented a vaccine passport for cafes and restaurants, against the advice of our council on civil liberties, our data privacy chief, and the WHO covid envoy. We're told it's a temporary measure, and I have no doubt that it will be as "temporary" as the Patriot Act.
Yeah this is what bothers me too. We're bound to see some more waves and continued pressure on the health system for a long time to come yet nothing seems to be done to actually fix that.
When Covid first hid the excuse was "we can't ramp up that quickly" but now that it's here to stay that excuse is still there. But every week they wait makes the wait even longer.
I agree natural immunity is good too. It's automatically adaptive to new variants (and the vaccine can help there as it'll be much less risky to get covid so everyone gets exposed to it a bit).
What I said about accomodating the unvaccinated, this was mainly because the government presents it as such. "We can't force vaccination so we have to check everyone every time". So many basic rights thrown in the trash without any debate. I agree there's probably ulterior motives. And I know it likely won't go away, this is why I'm so strongly against.
I think in the long term I will move to a country that doesn't do this. I've already been moving around all my life.
Yet you fell for government propaganda and report the fault on people who don't want to take part in clinical trial. The restriction of liberty with a vaccinal passport is purely a political choice and has nothing with health per se. A lot of countries are doing fine without it.
I agree a vaccine passport isn't necessary in these cases. I can see the benefit for international travel, but imposing it on every aspect of public life is a really invasive and unwarranted measure.
I don't think taking the vaccine is such a big deal, but I understand that others feel differently. I don't want to give up my privacy for their privilege though :)
How do you force everyone to get it without the apparatus of the police state?
Develop a more deadly virus?
But it's not as bad as a detailed step by step log of every person's activities every day.
Also, I think some level of noncompliance should be accepted. The vaccines don't work 100% anyway, these are just a few more percent. The number of people opposed to vaccination in Europe is very low compared to the US. The vaccination rate will be more than high enough for decent protection.
We're never going to reduce the risk of covid to zero for an individual. Just like we're never going to reduce the risk of dying from cancer to zero. Some risk just has to be accepted as a fact of life.
They are, in the UK attached to you NHS number for example. But the question is, how you you force the non-compliant to comply? Form the set-difference of the NHS and national DBs, hunt down and inject the non-compliant? Sounds a bit police-statey to me. Or make daily life dependent on showing your NHS number? Easy to fake, so we'd need NHS photo id-cards to get a coffee, ... sounds a bit police-statey to me ... etc
Exactly, yet this is exactly what Germany, France and Italy are doing right now.
You need the QR code which contains your name / DOB + Photo ID
That said, I've not actually looked in to how these work... In Berlin at least, it's rare to get an ID check at a restaurant, usually someone just glances at your phone.
[1] https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/coronavirus-re...
edit: further: "The CovPassCheck app processes the QR code only in the working memory of the smartphone and does not store any data." [2]
[2] https://digitaler-impfnachweis-app.apps.public.bfarm.de/en/c...
So many European countries are now requiring people to ID themselves and get a QR code scanned at every shop, every restaurant, every public transport journey. All combining to a detailed digital record of who has been where. Under the guise of protecting against COVID but who says this will disappear once the pandemic is over?
I think we're going too far to accomodate those who won't get vaccinated. If everyone gets it, this scanning wouldn't be necessary (after all, vaccination is enough to get access). We're giving up a lot of privacy all of a sudden without any serious debate. The alternative (getting tested every 2 days) is not viable anyway so eventually everyone will get it. IMO we should just make it mandatory now and skip the privacy invasion. Give the people who refuse anyway a fine and leave it at that (there will be so few left not to be an issue). I'm not in favour of forcing it.
I'm surprised Australia is still so worried about terrorism though. It never really had an issue with it in the first place and it's no longer the monster of the week.