Vaccine Passports: an attack on SMEs | Lukhani Rogol

‘We are fast approaching the stage… where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission...’ ~ Ayn Rand. Many would say that this has never been more true than in this “new normal” post-Covid era… And the mother of all these attacks on our freedoms is the possibility of the implementation of vaccine passports.

The purpose of the Vaccine Passport is to allow those vaccinated to return to ‘normal’ lives whilst those who have decided not to have the vaccine will be barred from societal activities. The introduction of Vaccine Passports would, therefore, inevitably lead to a loss of individual liberty and the creation of an unnecessary discriminatory class system within British society - between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Earlier this year, Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccine minister suggested such a scheme was “discriminatory” to use whether someone is immunised as a barrier to returning to normal life.   

The obvious concern arising from such a scheme is that there would be an element of the population that doesn’t feel comfortable getting vaccinated and would prefer to see the long-term impacts of the vaccination, or for various reasons, will choose not to, or cannot be, vaccinated.

The government tells us that adults living in the most deprived areas and certain ethnic minority groups who statistically are less likely to take the vaccine. Are these people going to face even more discrimination and barriers that they typically would in society even before Covid? These are questions that need to be answered honestly by the government if we are to understand the real impact of Vaccine Passports.

There are also the obvious drawbacks that can occur with the implementation of Vaccine Passports in an economy that operates by relying heavily on frontline workers who as we have seen during this pandemic have come largely from the same ethnic minority and deprived communities who are vaccine-hesitant. This is particularly true in the Care and Hospitality industries where we have already seen scores of workers resign in lieu of taking the Covid vaccine. Businesses that have already suffered tremendously during the successive lockdowns and have not yet recovered now have another beast to contend with seemingly imposed by their own government - and that beast is the threat of the Vaccine Passport.

Kate Nicholls, Chair of UK Hospitality, also expressed her concerns on vaccine passports, and said: "It could potentially give rise to a two-tier system of viability among businesses...” With the majority of young people working within the hospitality sector - we would inevitably see a rise in unemployment due to this. 

  Things are looking no better from the Arts sector point of view where over 50% of businesses agree that vaccine passports would not be effective in enabling their businesses to reopen fully.

Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi confirmed that Vaccine Passports are intended to encourage young people to get vaccinated. The graph below from Public Health UK shows CoVID19 deaths among different age groups in England - it is clear that there is a minimal difference of fatality in the younger generation between the vaccinated and unvaccinated - and between the ages of 29 and 40, your chance of dying from Covid is 0.1%. So this begs the question, why is the government trying to forcefully coerce young people into getting vaccinated?... And unnecessarily disrupt the UK workforce in most of our key sectors. 

The Conservative Party has always been the party of business and entrepreneurship, so it is completely unclear to the Tory faithful why their government is set on imposing this clear attack on the concept of free market economy.

My fear is also that imposing Vaccine passports in society would give an unfair advantage to large corporations over SMEs. Large corporations have very sophisticated e-commerce business models which they developed even more during the Covid pandemic. SMEs already struggling due to Covid are likely to be unable to keep up in this ever- expanding e-business environment. With customers, whether vaccinated or not vaccinated, rejecting the idea of a Vaccine Passport and therefore only shopping online; will lead to the inevitable death of the SME.

There is already a potential 250,000 small firms and businesses that are set to close this year under combined pressure from the Covid pandemic. It is accepted that having a vaccine doesn't mean people are immune or can’t pass on the virus. So, making Covid-19 passports mandatory is probably the wrong focus. For example, there could be more regular and accurate testing. There is just too much risk and too much to lose in implementing mandatory Vaccine Passports and then realise somewhere down the line that it was the wrong thing to do. 

Vaccine Passports will infringe on people’s freedoms. It would set a dangerous precedent for the UK to establish as a world leader on rights and freedoms.

Party members are looking to our backbenchers to challenge the government so we do not not drift into the technocratic controlling route seen in other countries.

The government ought not to waste any more money on implementing mandatory vaccine passports as we attempt to get back to normal life. We have already spent circa £22billion on Track and Trace - and we were told that this was our key to unlocking the country. The government must find new, cost effective ways of bringing the country back but stay clear of that which could be considered - as with the Vaccine Passport - as simply un-British, un-conservative and a threat to the functions of modern society.

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