New Orleans, San Francisco Set to Join New York in Requiring Vaccination Proof for Indoor Activities

While opponents of COVID-19 vaccine passports have attacked them as authoritarian measures typical of a socialist country like China, Beijing’s public health agency has made voluntary and informed participation a cornerstone of its nationwide vaccination campaign. In fact, they seem to be more typical of capitalist countries with market economies.

On Thursday, the mayors of both San Francisco, California, and New Orleans, Louisiana, announced plans to require proof of COVID-19 vaccination for indoor activities. The orders come as the pace of vaccination slackens in the US and new coronavirus cases are exploding.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced on Thursday that restaurants, clubs, gyms, theaters, and large indoor entertainment venues will have to require proof of vaccination from patrons and employees before they’re allowed to enter the premises.

The order takes effect on August 20 and will require staff to be fully vaccinated by October 13.

“This is to protect kids, is to protect those who can’t get vaccinated, is to make sure that we don’t go backwards, is to make sure that I never have to get up in front of you and say, ‘I’m sorry, I know we just reopened and now the city is closed again because we are seeing too many people die,’” Breed said, according to KRON4.

He added that the order “also extends vaccination requirements to certain health care providers - including workers at adult day centers, residential care facilities, dental offices, home health aides and pharmacists - who are not already required.”

A fan shows a vaccine passport on her phone as she arrives for a New York Mets game, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, at Citi Field in the Queens borough of New York City, U.S., April 24, 2021

© REUTERS / JEENAH MOON

The order doesn’t apply to people ordering carryout or to people ineligible for vaccination, such as children under the age of 12. Since California recently rolled out an online vaccine record system, residents don’t need to take their paper vaccination cards with them to gain entry, just pull up the record on their cell phones at the door, the San Francisco Bay Chronicle noted.

According to Breed's office, about 78% of San Franciscans are vaccinated, well above the nationwide average of just 50.4%. California’s COVID-19 information portal says that 64.1% of state residents are fully vaccinated, with another 10.1% being partially vaccinated.

Deep South Epicenter

By contrast, Louisiana’s vaccination rate is among the nation’s lowest, with just 37% of its population vaccinated, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell also announced on Thursday that the city would begin requiring either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test in the previous 72 hours in order to gain entry to many indoor venues, including restaurants, bars, casinos, gyms, and sports complexes, according to The Times-Picayune.

According to state data, the region surrounding New Orleans has a much higher vaccination rate than the state overall, with about 49.9% of residents vaccinated. The new standard is expected to take effect on Monday, August 16, but Cantrell urged voluntary compliance before then.

"We are simply out of time," Cantrell said. "The outbreak is extremely severe… It is overtaxing our health care resources."

The state recorded an average of 5,600 daily new cases over the last week, among its highest ever, even compared to the massive wave that hit the US over the winter. According to WAFB, on August 10, the state had set new hospitalization records on each day of the previous week, part of a trend appearing across the region as the Deep South has become the epicenter of the US’ latest COVID-19 outbreak.

Florida is driving nationwide numbers, with White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients noting on Thursday that “in the past week, Florida has had more COVID cases than all 30 states with the lowest case rates combined. And Florida and Texas alone have accounted for nearly 40% of new hospitalizations across the country.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded 141,000 new cases nationwide on Thursday, with 24,000 of those cases coming from Florida alone. The state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, has aroused nationwide fury for his continuing disdain for outbreak-mitigating safety measures, including mask mandates and lockdowns, posturing against them as infringements upon Floridians’ freedoms. He has also specifically banned vaccine passports in the state.

A vaccination record card is shown during a COVID-19 vaccination drive for Spring Branch Independent School District education workers Tuesday, March 16, 2021, in Houston.

© AP Photo / David J. Phillip

‘The Key to New York City’

New York led the charge on vaccine passports in early August, with Mayor Bill DeBlasio referring to them as the "Key to NYC Pass.”

"’The key to New York City.’ When you hear those words, I want you to imagine the notion that because someone is vaccinated, they can do all the amazing things that are available in New York City," de Blasio said. "This is a miraculous place, literally full of wonders, and if you're vaccinated, all that's gonna open up to you. You'll have the key, you can open the door."

"But if you're unvaccinated, unfortunately, you will not be able to participate in many things," he added.

However, unlike New Orleans’ or San Francisco’s passports, New York’s will only require proof of receiving the first shot of one of the COVID-19 vaccines, not full vaccination.

Other city mayors, like Boston’s acting Mayor Kim Janey, have dismissed the idea of a vaccine passport, with Janey in particular noting it was too similar an idea to the “freedom papers” required of Black Americans during the era of slavery in order to prove that they weren’t escaped slaves. 

Vaccine Passports Around the Globe

However, some of the most vocal opponents of passports have been conservatives. Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has aroused fury for her comparisons between vaccine passports and the Holocaust, while Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who as House Minority Leader often finds himself castigating his freshman colleague, has referred to them as “something you’d expect in Communist China, not in the United States of America.”

Ironically, China’s National Health Commission has advised provincial and municipal governments in the socialist country against such policies, saying in July that "informed, consented and voluntary” are the most basic principles of a successful public vaccination program.

A number of European countries have begun requiring proof of vaccination for certain activities, ranging from booking hotels to entering public venues as the new rules in New York do. Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, and Austria have all introduced such measures in the last two months, while governments in the United Kingdom and Germany have also publicly weighed the option of doing so.

In France and Greece, the digital health pass provoked massive protests, which police put down with force.