The global COVID-19 pandemic has given authoritarian leaders far more leverage in their efforts to control the population through increased restrictions and regulations.
During the recent G-20 meeting, which involved leaders from many of the world’s most influential nations, officials unanimously voted to support one particularly draconian measure.
According to reports, the summit in Indonesia led to a resolution that seeks to introduce vaccine passports as a prerequisite to an individual’s freedom to travel internationally.
So the G20 / WHO are pushing for a globally standardised digital vaccine passport / certification. No one voted for this. This illiberal and discriminatory mandate is an affront to democracy and civil liberties. #NoVaccinePassports
— James Melville (@JamesMelville) November 17, 2022
As the resulting declaration asserts, the participating nations “recognize that the extensive COVID-19 immunization is a global public good.”
That acknowledgment served as the impetus to not only continue pushing “timely, equitable and universal access to safe, affordable, quality and effective vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics,” but also to develop a “digital health certificate using [World Health Organization] standards” to be prepared for any future public health crisis.
“Let’s have a digital health certificate acknowledged by WHO,” argued Indonesian Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin. “If you have been vaccinated or tested properly, then you can move around.”
In addition to a declaration that essentially accepts Sadikin’s proposal at face value, G-20 nations also released another proclamation vowing “to move towards interoperability of systems including mechanisms that validate proof of vaccination, whilst respecting the sovereignty of national health policies, and relevant national regulations such as personal data protection and data-sharing.”
Of course, such proclamations would likely align with many leftists in the United States who have long argued for the creation of vaccine passports. A number of GOP officials, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have pushed back by advancing prohibitions on such strict mandates.
Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver reacted to the recent G-20 decision with a statement denouncing it as “a serious threat to freedom,” adding: “Vaccine passports and tracking apps are about collecting data and control. The vaccine passport is being promoted worldwide to limit a person’s ability to leave home, work, shop, dine, travel, attend a public event, or even worship.”
He went on to lament that COVID-19 has been used as an excuse for leaders to assert even more control over populations, warning that people “must never accept vaccine passports or tracking apps as the new normal.”
