Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted on Friday that the federal government is “taking a very close look” at the idea of creating federal vaccine passports for international travel. Mayorkas, who also oversees the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), made the admission on ABC’s Good Morning America.
The admission seems to contradict earlier statements from the White House that the federal government was not looking at creating vaccine passports for American citizens.
In April, Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the White House was not considering vaccine passports.
“The government is not now, nor will we be supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential,” Psaki said. “There will be no federal vaccination database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.”
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Psaki repeated the supposed White House stance against vaccine passports as recently as May 21.
So, is Alejandro’s admission that DHS and TSA are indeed looking at vaccine passports for Americans an about-face on the subject, or is it just the Biden administration speaking out of both sides of its mouth?
Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan asked Mayorkas if vaccine passports would be required to travel either “into or out of” the United States.
“We’re taking a very close look at that,” Mayorkas answered.
“One of our principles that has guided us throughout this pandemic is the value of diversity, equity and inclusion and making sure that any passport we provide for vaccinations is accessible to all and no one is disenfranchised,” Mayorkas said.
A DHS spokesperson attempted to clarify Alejandro’s remarks to Fox News. “We’ve always said we’re looking at how we can ensure Americans traveling abroad have a quick and easy way to enter other countries. That’s what the Secretary was referring to; ensuring that all U.S. travelers will be able to easily meet any anticipated foreign country entry requirements. There will be no federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential,” the spokesperson said.
Thus far, 15 states have either banned vaccine passports or have signaled that they won’t be using them. New York and Hawaii, on the other hand, have embraced the concept and have already rolled out their versions of vaccine passports.
Several countries, including Israel, Japan, Denmark, Estonia, Thailand, and the European Union are already using a vaccine passport system. And at a recent meeting of the globalist G7 bloc of nations, those nations involved discussed a collaborative effort to come up with a system that all member nations could recognize.
“The G7 partners agreed that there needs to be some consistency and some collaboration among the countries, so that we can have some kind of system that would be recognizable, no matter where a person was traveling,” said Canadian Health Minister Patty Hajdu.
Countries can already require vaccinations for Yellow Fever and Malaria for foreigners to enter. Why would the COVID-19 virus require a special passport? Perhaps it’s because creating a special COVID-19 “passport” would create a de-facto database of COVID-19 vaccine recipients for the federal government to use — at least for citizens who wish to travel internationally. A database that could be expanded quickly should states such as New York and Hawaii decide that they, too, would need proof of vaccination to permit entry.
The Biden administration is clearly playing both sides of the fence on the issue of vaccine passports. On one hand, they’re saying they will not create a federal database or require anyone to get a vaccine credential. On the other hand, they are admittedly taking a “very close look” on doing just that.
