Are vaccine passports fair?

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There's a sobering reminder of the power of disinformation in a new poll released today by Reuters/Ipsos. The poll finds that about half of Republicans now believe the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol was either a mere non-violent protest or a left-wing false-flag operation. Further, six in 10 Republicans believe the false claim that the presidential election was "stolen" from Donald Trump due to widespread voter fraud. This isn't just a Trump problem; it's become a rampant and pernicious Republican problem. In his farewell speech last December, upon retirement from Congress, Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman warned, "We must work together to inoculate against the social contagion of disinformation, conspiracies...Deep State cabal nonsense, cults, and those grifters posing as servants of the people." He is right, and as this poll reveals, there's still a lot of work to do. —Evan McMullin

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** No shirt, no shoes, no passport—no service?
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After a year of partisan fights over masks, pandemic restrictions, resource allocation, and medical treatments, the latest battleground in the Covid wars is over so-called vaccine passports, which could provide vaccinated individuals with certain freedoms unavailable to the unvaccinated. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis preemptively signed an executive order last week banning government entities from giving out digital or physical vaccine passports to residents and prohibiting businesses from demanding proof of vaccination to receive services. New York, on the other hand, launched the Excelsior Pass last month, which uses a QR code on a phone app to verify proof of vaccination. ([link removed])
* — Fauci weighs in. President Biden's chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said today that the federal government will not mandate passports that show proof of COVID-19 vaccinations. However, as with masks, he expects certain private businesses and educational institutions may require them. White House Press Sec. Jen Psaki also has said that there will be "no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential." —The Hill ([link removed])
*
* — "Wow a record reporting day!!" Whatever the fate of vaccine passports, more and more Americans would qualify for one. Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, the COVID-19 data director at the White House, tweeted early Saturday afternoon that more than 4 million doses of the vaccine were administered in the previous 24 hours, setting a new record and bringing the seven-day average to more than 3 million doses per day. —CNN ([link removed])
*
* — It's not enough yet though. Only about 18.5% of Americans are fully vaccinated, and cases have increased for a fourth straight week, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control Prevention, this morning. "We know that these increases are due, in part, to more highly transmissible variants," Walensky said. She also said that several clusters among young people are connected to youth sports and extracurricular activities. —CNN ([link removed])

MORE: David Frum: The strange new doctrine of the Republican Party —The Atlantic ([link removed])


** Capitol suspect identified
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The suspect in Friday's attack at the U.S. Capitol has been identified as Noah Green, a 25-year-old Indiana man. Green rammed a car into two Capitol Police officers before hitting a barricade and exiting the vehicle with a weapon. He was shot and killed by police. Ofc. William Evans, an 18-year veteran of the force, died of his injuries. Social media posts indicate that Green believed the government was targeting him with "mind control," and that he has suffered "terrible afflictions...presumably by the CIA and FBI." He also was an apparent follower of the Nation of Islam, an organization that has been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. —The Hill ([link removed])

MORE: Capitol Police union warns of potential exodus after latest attack, urges security increases —NBC News ([link removed])


** Zelizer: Will the GOP dump Matt Gaetz?
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"The Gaetz scandal will be another test to see how far Republicans are willing to go to protect their own. Over the past four-and-a-half years, we have repeatedly witnessed how the immense power of partisanship within the GOP overwhelms its moral concerns—despite the party's widespread support among evangelical Christians. As long as Gaetz is considered valuable to the party—and a major player among Trump supporters—it is a safe bet that the modern GOP will stand by his side until the bitter end." —Julian Zelizer on ([link removed]) CNN ([link removed])

Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University and the author of "Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party."

MORE: Republicans quietly say Gaetz's days in Congress are numbered —The Hill ([link removed])


** Schumer has high hopes
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says he'll make a bid to federally legalize marijuana, even if President Biden resists it. Schumer, who once opposed legalization, says his "thinking evolved" when early legalizers like Oregon and Colorado didn't experience a predicted increase in crime and drug use. "They were a great success. The parade of horribles never came about, and people got more freedom," he says. Though Biden continues to oppose legalization, Schumer will "give him a little time to study it" and "make my arguments to him, as many other advocates will." But whether or not Biden comes around on the issue, Schumer says the Senate will still "move forward." —Politico ([link removed])

MORE: Gov. Andrew Cuomo signs bill to legalize recreational marijuana in New York —CNBC ([link removed])
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** Scott: Disinfo is still a top threat to democracy
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"Hearings held by the House of Representatives on March 25 focusing on the role Facebook, Twitter, and Google played in the Jan. 6 insurrection did not yield definitive conclusions. However, they did suggest bipartisan support for holding the companies accountable for the spread of disinformation. The Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building...has brought forth an uncomfortable reality: Disinformation in all of its insidious forms is an existential threat to civil society and democratic ideals." —Thomas Scott in ([link removed]) MinnPost ([link removed])

Thomas Scott is an adjunct professor of social sciences at Metropolitan State University and a professor of education at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota.

MORE: One Republican's lonely fight against a flood of disinformation —The New York Times ([link removed])


** Focus on the Georgia voting law
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Georgia's recently passed voting law is already having real repercussions for the state, and it's not even election season yet. Major League Baseball announced on Friday that it is moving the 2021 All-Star Game and 2021 draft out of Atlanta in response to the law. "Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box," MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said. The decision has created a firestorm on all sides, among those who support MLB, those who don't, and those who fall somewhere in between. —CBS News ([link removed])
* — GOP reaction. Outraged Republicans are encouraging a boycott of baseball. Rep. Jeff Duncan says that he's told his staff to start drafting legislation to remove MLB's decades-old antitrust exemption "in light of @MLB's stance to undermine election integrity laws." Sens. Mike Lee and Ted Cruz also have joined calls to end the exemption, which dates back to a 1922 Supreme Court decision and is not shared by other professional sports leagues. —The Hill ([link removed])
*
* — An economic hit. Georgia's Cobb County estimates that MLB's decision to move the All-Star Game from Atlanta will cost the tourism industry in the area about $100 million. Holly Quinlan, president and CEO of Cobb Travel and Tourism, said that the event "would have been a big boost to Cobb businesses and help with recovery efforts after the COVID-19 pandemic." —The Hill ([link removed])
*
* — On the fence. Georgia voting activist and politician Stacey Abrams released a statement praising the move by MLB, though she was "disappointed" that the game will no longer be played in the state. "I respect boycotts, although I don't want to see Georgia families hurt by lost events and jobs," Abrams said. "Georgians targeted by voter suppression will be hurt as opportunities go to other states." —Newsweek ([link removed])

MORE: Election laws: How Georgia compares to other states —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ([link removed])


** Ackerman & Schoen: The future depends on reform now
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"Our current system offers no stable solutions and no consensus of ideas, which is why younger voters across the country in particular want to see more unaffiliated candidates. We must act on these political and electoral reforms, while maintaining those rules that encourage bipartisanship, to make our democracy one that is truly by and for the people." —Peter Ackerman & Douglas Schoen on ([link removed]) The Hill ([link removed])

Peter Ackerman is the founder for Americans Elect. Douglas Schoen is a consultant who served as adviser to former President Bill Clinton and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

MORE: WaPo Ed. Board: Gerrymandering was already going to be bad this year. Then the Census was delayed —The Washington Post ([link removed])

I wish Read G. of Utah's comment could be duplicated and passed around the country. I often, with a sinking heart, wonder how anyone could believe the senseless "news" promoted on the right. It seems to me to be partly because foolishness is not forthrightly quoted and refuted in no uncertain terms as Read G. has done. It's not journalists' job to do more than report. I guess democracy depends on citizens breaking their polite, tactful silence. —Anna K., Washington
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** The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.
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