Gov. Ron DeSantis Opposes Vaccine Passports in Florida

by Adam Dick, Ron Paul Institute
March 19, 2021

Good for Governor Ron DeSantis. In sharp contrast with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo who recently imposed “vaccine passport” requirements for people in New York to attend certain events, DeSantis is standing up for freedom and against the imposing of vaccine passports in Florida.

In a Thursday press conference, DeSantis stated his firm opposition to vaccine passports, as well as to requiring people to demonstrate they have tested negative for coronavirus. A WCJB-TV report quotes DeSantis’ comments on the matter from the press conference:

‘I just want to make very clear in Florida, we are not doing any vaccine passports,’ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said during his news conference on Thursday afternoon. ‘I think it’s a bad idea. And so that will not happen. And so folks should get vaccinated if they want to obviously provide that. But under no circumstances will the state be asking you to show proof of vaccination.’

‘And I don’t think private companies should be doing that either,’ added DeSantis. ‘So we’re going to look into see what we need to do to be able to make sure we’re protecting Floridians. But I do think it would be a big problem to start going down the road of vaccine passports.’
…
‘You have some of these states saying to go to a sporting event, you have to show either a negative test or a vaccine proof. I think you just got to make decisions. If you want to go to an event go to an event if you don’t don’t, but to be requiring people to provide all this proof,’ said DeSantis. ‘That’s not how you get society back to normal. So we’re rejecting any vaccine passports here in the state of Florida.’

Back in September, when most governors were extending and even adding to their states’ coronavirus crackdowns because of “the science,” DeSantis was terminating restrictions in Florida and giving a platform to scientists opposed to the multitude of draconian government actions taken in the name of countering coronavirus.