Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I just don’t get it. I don’t get why some people are SOOOO up in arms about vaccination status information being needed for work, travel, entry to venues etc. It’s not like this, or showing other types of statuses, is anything new. For example, in the Australian state where I live and in many other places, you are subject to these requirements, at least:

• Drivers licence (state):
  • must have to drive a car
  • must sit a written test and a practical driving test to get it
  • must be at least 17 years old
  • must produce your licence on demand from a police officer
  • must have a photo taken for your licence, except under exceptional circumstances
  • can use as one form of verified (photographic) authentication of who you are
  • no licence = no driving
• Gun licence (state)
  • must have to own and use a gun
  • must get from police department
  • minimum 28-day waiting period to get approved
  • must have a REALLY good reason to get one
  • checks are made in state, national, and possibly international databases before issuance
  • no licence = gun confiscated
• Working with children licence (state)
  • must have if you want to work with children, whether paid or voluntary (e.g. teaching, child care, sporting teams, the local library, etc.)
  • must be able to produce on request of any prospective employer (including voluntary organisations)
  • must be authorised by the police department after checks are made in state, national, and possibly international databases
  • no licence = no work
• Fishing licence (state)
  • must have if you want to catch certain types of fish
  • must produce on demand from a Fisheries Dept officer
  • no licence = not allowed to catch those types of fish
• Boating licence (Recreational Skippers Ticket) (state)
  • must have to legally operate a boat >6hp on any body of water
  • must produce on demand from a Department of Transport official (and/or police or fisheries officer?)
  • must be at least 14 years old
• Passport (federal)
  • must have a photo taken for it
  • must have a passport to leave your home country and to enter any other country
  • typically, also need a visa to enter that other country (e.g. ESTA to enter the US from Australia)
  • multiple checks are done when leaving or entering another country (e.g. by air: airline employees at check-in, then security staff at the entrance to the immigration area, then customs/immigration/border force officers, then airline staff again when boarding the aircraft)
  • no passport = can’t leave home country or enter another
  • no visa = deported from other country, at your expense
  • in addition, I have to be photographed and fingerprinted every time I enter the US—the US government has more details about me than the Australian government as NO Australian government agency has ever taken my fingerprints!
  • if I’m in the US and within 100 miles of a border, I need to keep my passport with me at all times (yes, I was subject to a border patrol check near Tucson, AZ one time and fortunately had my passport with me, not locked in my luggage in the hotel room)
• Proof of age
  • required by licensed premises to sell you alcohol if they deem that you might be under a certain age
  • no ID = no entry or no sale of alcohol
• Proof of vaccination
  • for ALL my school years, my parents had to show my (government) school my vaccination card to prove that I’d had my required shots (diphtheria, polio, mumps, measles, rubella etc.); school nurses would also come to all the schools to do vaccinations [hand out sugar lumps for the polio vaccine] and update our cards (I think I still have that card somewhere)
  • for as long as I can remember, I’ve had to have proof of vaccination to travel to certain countries (most recently, I needed to get various hepatitis and typhoid shots to travel to a particular country, and much earlier, proof of smallpox, yellow fever vaccinations; I still have that card in my travel documents for any overseas travel)
  • no vaccination that’s required by a country (or by your home country on your return) = no entry to that country
• Workplace rules (public or private companies, government premises, retail premises, etc.)
  • many workplaces have employee/visitor ID badges (often with a photo) that must be scanned to gain entry to any building, elevator, or floor where they work (no badge = no access)
  • many workplaces have rules about fitness for duty (e.g. alcohol, drugs) and have random drug and alcohol tests that employees agree to as a condition of their employment (no compliance = anything from a warning to dismissal)
  • many companies have dress codes for employees, visitors, and/or customers, which might include safety rules for workwear (e.g. hi-vis clothing, all-cotton clothing, steel-capped boots, long sleeves/trousers, ear/eye protection, hard hats, PPE for certain activities [e.g. chemical gloves, breathing apparatus] etc.) (no compliance = anything from a warning to dismissal [employees] or refusal of entry [others], PLUS the potential to harm or cause the death of themselves or others)
  • public-facing workplaces (whether publicly or privately owned) have rules for visitor/customer entry (e.g. age restrictions, minimum clothing requirements, minimum behaviour standards) (no compliance = anything from a warning to ejection from the workplace)
  • some hotels (and all rental car companies) require proof of ID (e.g. drivers licence with a photo) as well as a credit card when you check in (the hotel requirement for proof of ID I’ve mostly encountered in the US); if you don’t provide it, you may be denied a room/car, even if you have a reservation.
  • these are their rules and if you don’t like it, you’re free to go elsewhere
• Cruise ships
  • require you to HAND OVER your passport for the duration of the cruise (my only experience was on my one cruise, in the Caribbean, but my parents who’ve been on many cruises, say this is standard, and you’re not allowed to embark until you do so)
  • you don’t get your passport back when you disembark in another country for anything from a few hours to a day or so (yes, that’s scary because if you’re taken into custody for whatever reason, you not only don’t have your passport, but you may not make it back to the ship either, thus perhaps never seeing your passport again)
  • you only receive your passport back a few hours before you’re due back in the disembarkation port, typically after the home country’s immigration people board the ship and check everyone’s credentials before disembarkation.

No doubt there are many others. I haven’t even listed any of the myriad health and safety rules and laws that manufacturers of goods/food must comply with, nor the rules about driving a car we must comply with (e.g. wear seatbelts, turn on headlights at night, obey traffic signals etc.), or anything else, nearly all of which are to PREVENT US HARMING OR KILLING OURSELVES AND OTHERS IN OUR VICINITY.

So why this frenzy about vaccination requirements? ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES. If you don’t have a drivers licence, you aren’t allowed to drive a car, and if you do, you’ll get fined or jailed—you might even kill yourself or one or two other people. If you don’t have proof of vaccination or refuse to reveal your vaccination status, you aren’t allowed to enter and/or work in certain places because you’ll endanger potentially MANY others in those places. And it’s always been so, at least for much of the last century and this one.

(Note: I will delete any comment that isn’t respectful or that spouts conspiracy theories garnered from the fringe corners of the internet—my blog, my rules. You’re free to voice your opinion somewhere else.)

Update: Since I wrote this an hour or so ago, I’ve found out that a best friend of mine in the US is now under self-imposed ‘house arrest’ all because so many won’t get vaccinated (COVIDIOTs, as she calls them). After decades of kidney disease, she was the recipient of a life-saving kidney transplant and is severely immunocompromised, and will be for the rest of her life. Their decisions are affecting her quality of life, and potentially her life.

Update 8 August 2021: Spotted on a retweet today; attributed to @KenTremendous: You are not allowed to claim something is a ‘personal choice’ if it affects literally everyone else you come into contact with. A ‘personal choice’ is what movie to watch, or what color pants to wear. Doing something that endangers the lives of others is an ‘everyone choice.’