U.K. Minister Rules Out Covid Vaccine Passports

London Heathrow Airport

The United Kingdom is not considering the use of so-called “vaccine passports,” its vaccine minister said Sunday.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment Nadhim Zahawi broke the news on a BBC Sunday morning talk show.

A vaccination passport is a form of certificate that proves that the bearer has been vaccinated against Covid-19 and possibly that he tested negative for the virus.  The goal of a vaccine passport is to allow individuals who have been vaccinated to travel with greater ease, although there is no current standard.

Zahawi told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that travelers could get proof of a vaccination from their physicians.  He said that one reason the vaccine passport would not be introduced in the country was because the vaccine was not mandatory.

“That’s not how we do things,” he said.  “We do them by consent.“

Zahawi also said vaccine passports would be “discriminatory“ although he didn’t elaborate on this.

Britain’s Labor Party has said that vaccine passports would be necessary.

Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair has come out in favor of them as has Ed Miliband, a former leader of the Labour Party and current shadow secretary of state for business.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)