Juno News - August 31, 2021


What are you saying “yes” to when you approve of vaccine passports？


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

203.23288

Word Count

834

Sentence Count

39


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 A couple weeks ago, I put a couple questions to Canadians about vaccine passports and what they think they're saying yes to when they tell pollsters they approve of introducing domestic vaccine passports to Canada.
00:00:16.400 I said there were two big questions. One of them was, how many doses do you actually need to get the green light with these vaccine passports?
00:00:25.440 We saw that a majority of respondents and polls were saying, yeah, two thumbs up, bring on the vaccine passports.
00:00:30.420 But I felt like part of that was probably them just saying the vaccine passport was the government endorsing the choice that they had already made because a majority of Canadians have received two doses, double doses.
00:00:43.000 I was never confident about the phrase fully vaccinated that people used.
00:00:47.200 I tried in my writing and on videos and radio appearances to just say double doses because I thought, I'm not sure if it's going to stop at this.
00:00:55.440 And when you say yes to a vaccine passport, what actually are you saying yes to?
00:01:01.920 The other question I put forward, how long is this going on for?
00:01:05.700 Some people have told me, look, if we got to do this for a year or two just to get life back to normal, I'm OK with that.
00:01:10.860 OK, fine. That's an interesting perspective.
00:01:12.680 But is that actually what a domestic vaccine passport in your province will be?
00:01:18.140 For the most part, public health officials haven't actually clarified when they're talking about this.
00:01:22.620 The Quebec one, I think there's still a lot of confusion about how exactly it's going to roll out.
00:01:26.720 And yet it's rolling out pretty much imminently.
00:01:29.580 That's happening, you know, all throughout that province.
00:01:32.000 Pressure building for other provinces to do the same.
00:01:35.200 Interesting stuff happening in Israel right now.
00:01:38.640 Israel has now introduced a booster shot to, I believe it's everybody over the age of 60,
00:01:43.180 but they're planning on introducing it to two more age categories and their green pass,
00:01:48.100 which is what they call their vaccine passport.
00:01:50.080 Originally, the green pass was introduced and then they got rid of it.
00:01:53.140 They said there's no reason for it because vaccine rates all throughout the country had risen to a great degree.
00:01:58.600 They felt like it was mission accomplished.
00:02:00.000 Now they brought it back in and the green pass will soon require the booster shot as well.
00:02:06.080 And as Yahoo News was reporting at other news outlets, that the vaccine passport will sort of expire,
00:02:12.260 need to be renewed every six months.
00:02:15.560 Interesting stuff.
00:02:16.360 So is that going to happen here in Canada?
00:02:18.600 Is that going to happen in your province?
00:02:21.600 I mean, we just don't know because those details aren't really being spoken about.
00:02:25.180 When you listen to people talk about it, there's this manic energy around vaccine passports
00:02:29.080 that I think kind of glosses over all of those details.
00:02:32.220 So look, if you are fine with the fact that this is something that could conceivably expire every six months,
00:02:36.700 meaning unless you don't get a booster shot, you're going to be denied entry into whatever,
00:02:41.220 into the art gallery, the clothing store, the restaurant, and so forth.
00:02:43.740 If you're okay with that, so be it.
00:02:45.880 And okay with the fact that that could be in place for, I don't know, years to come
00:02:49.940 because nobody has said otherwise.
00:02:51.520 They haven't discussed sunset clauses where these things are automatically cancelled after, you know,
00:02:56.480 three years or what have you, unless they're renewed.
00:02:58.540 If you're okay with that, fine.
00:03:00.080 But let's not kid ourselves that there are just other questions.
00:03:04.480 There are other details, complications that need to be discussed, that need to be worked out,
00:03:09.500 that need to be acknowledged.
00:03:11.460 And the Canadian discussion around, we've got to bring in these passports ASAP,
00:03:15.380 I think there's a whole lot of people who have a whole lot of different perspectives on what it is.
00:03:20.120 And maybe when they find out what it actually does become, they might go,
00:03:23.820 well, hold on a second, that's not what I agreed to.
00:03:25.400 When I told a pollster I wanted it, that's not what I thought it would be.
00:03:28.580 So I think we have to just be still a lot more honest in our conversation about
00:03:32.420 what is this that we are planning, what is this we are discussing,
00:03:35.760 and what are the possibilities of what it could reasonably become.
00:03:39.400 Because Israel has shown you, yes, it can become a lot stricter
00:03:42.760 and something that needs to be renewed with a frequency that perhaps a lot of people here in Canada
00:03:47.900 just aren't expecting.
00:03:49.620 So calm things down, cool things down, maximum information should that not be the case,
00:03:54.880 and let's just talk it out a whole lot more.
00:03:57.080 This is not a thing that people should rush.
00:03:59.520 I'm not in support of domestic vaccine passports,
00:04:02.000 but even those who are, I think they need to talk it out a little bit better.