Governor Andrew M. Cuomo is expanding his pilot program for the so-called “Excelsior Pass” that can be used for events at places like Madison Square Garden.
The vaccine passport was developed in partnership with IBM, and features technology that will operate much like a person’s “Wallet App” on their smart phone, with a QR code that can be scanned by ticket takers at venues. Many traveler in Alaska are used to using a QR code to board a commercial aircraft, as the code links to their ticket information.
The technology was used during the Brooklyn Nets game at Barclays Center on Feb. 27 and again at the New York Rangers game on March 2.
As of March 26, its use has been expanded and the vaccine passport will now be accepted at many events and venues statewide. Using the vaccine passports will allow New Yorkers to expand the number of people who can attend weddings, funerals, and catered events. Those that don’t use the technology will face restrictions.
The QR code will reference the state’s database of those who have been vaccinated against the Covid-19 coronavirus.
“We’re doing everything we can to vaccinate as many New Yorkers as possible, as quickly as possible, while keeping the infection rate down and reenergizing our economy in a safe, smart way,” Gov. Cuomo said in a press release. “As we begin reopening the valves on different sectors of our economy, we are putting guidelines in place to ensure individuals attending events involving larger gatherings have tested negative for COVID or have been vaccinated to avoid an outbreak of the virus. The Excelsior Pass will play a critical role in getting information to venues and sites in a secure and streamlined way, allowing us to fast-track the reopening of these businesses and getting us one step closer to reaching a new normal.”
“This solution can provide New York, and other states, a simple, secure, and voluntary method for showing proof of a negative COVID-19 test result or certification of vaccination. IBM is proud to support the State of New York with its efforts to apply innovative technologies to help residents and communities respond to COVID-19,” said Steve LaFleche, General Manager of IBM Public and Federal Market.
“The technology is flexible and built to scale, allowing other states to join and help foster a safer, trusted transition to a post-pandemic reality,” according to the New York Governor’s Office.
Critics cite privacy concerns, and say that it also creates a digital bias against those who don’t have smartphones. Further, there are concerns about how the information may be used by various government agencies.
Papers, please.
Congratulations America. You got scared of an overactive virus and gave away your freedoms.
And so many of you claim to wonder why the muni took a hard left.
Exactly.
Just like the introduction of income tax in 1913, this will snowball, adding more and more “requirements” every year. Next year it’ll be flu shots, and so on. When you refuse the incremental creep, they’ll threaten you with cancelation of your Covid QR code, and you’ll be saying yes to whatever crap they’re pushing on any given day. Good luck!
A good use of technology. And before you work yourselves in a lather, Libertarians, remember that for years people have had to show proof of vaccination before putting their kids in school, before entering certain countries, or before working in certain healthcare positions. So this is nothing new, just a different way of doing it. Politicizing vaccines is like politicizing gravity – laughable, and irresponsible.
When your BMI is integrated in that COVID QR as a “Health risk analysis” and your health insurance company has a right to view it, you’ll have ZERO recourse to object in your inflated premium costs.
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If you’re too fat/unhealthy, you’ll eventually be restricted from certain personal activities. “Sorry we cannot rent you a jet ski, your Health score (Health QR code) rating is too low, our insurance company rejected you. Will you be happy with that too?
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Time to wake up, and recognize this has little to do with COVID, but everything to do with social conditioning and control.
Well now, if we had a proper national health service like in many other countries, then the whole insurance goes away and isn’t a complication.
Solve the real problem, not those artificially introduced by a twisted insurance system.
Proper NHS, like the UK for example. Just so you know, the British NHS is “means-tested.” That’s correct, save any cash from the Public Sector job, and it’s “AT RISK” if you go for ANY long-term care…………, or further education for that matter!
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Be careful what you wish for here, the only people in socialist countries who get EVERYTHING for free, are those with NOTHING to start with. End result, if you want everything, expect to have nothing. Cake gets boring after a while.
Have you actually ever lived under a national health care system? I have and it is not pretty: long waiting times, approvals required for everything, mediocre care, poor reimbursement for doctors and considerable out of pocket expense, if you need a medication not in the formulary and not only for you but also a ding against your doctor. One of the reasons Europe is going back to another shut down is in part because the EU can’t get over all the bureaucratic hurdles to actually distribute the vaccine in a timely manner.
Some people exist only wanting to be taken care of; others (fortunately) live to take care of them selves.
The flu vaccine isn’t an experimental drug… If you think this isn’t call your life insurance company and ask if they will pay out if you die… Can’t sue the Dr. Or drug company… Have fun with that “little prick” or the “fauci ouchie”…
Well, that’s great, but I didn’t read anything in the article to indicate what you’d use if you don’t have a cell phone.
Virtually everyone has a phone today. If you don’t have one, Obama will give one to you.
Well, if it’s okay to do this for Covid, it most certainly be okay to adapt that for voting. ?
Brilliant.
They should just go to a yellow star on the chest and barcode tattoo on the arm.
Who exactly is the “they”? Names please.
Dear AK, you are being swept away by thoughts and ideas put into your head by people who claim to be Conservative thinkers and ideologues, but who really only espouse such views and theories for profit, clicks, and notoriety (MRAK included).
I trust that you are wiser than they are, that you can think for yourself, and that when you really think about it, you will conclude that the current public health efforts are aimed at avoiding suffering and death for the general population. And that includes you and those that you care about.
You are imagining threats that aren’t real, and which are being planted in your psyche by others for their own profit.
The same ‘woke’ progressives who place oppressive mandates and destroy the economy over an illness with about a 0.3% fatality rate in mostly old obese people. Obama, Biden, Fauci, Harris, Rice, Schumer, Pelosi, and all the other delusional fools who think themselves divinely (that is certainly the wrong word) appointed to rule. My body, my choice. My community never masked, fortunately, and suffered minimal disruption.
And I don’t blindly follow anyone. I see an issue and research both sides (that means the New Republic, Huffington Post, Federalist and National Review) and come to a conclusion of the proper stance. And almost always it is on the ‘right’ side. I believe in human dignity and in liberty. No one, especially those who think themselves divinely appointed, has the authority to strip rights from free citizens.
And the opportunity for a new business, that of providing fake QR codes and proof of vaccination arises. Cheers –
Is this legal? May violate the current HIPPA and pricacy laws.
All of the covid “safety measures” are a violation to the HIPPA act. As far as I’m concerned, it’s no one’s business if you had a test, vaccine, mask or the infection itself. People freaking out about “getting sick” is prolonging this nightmare.
The first step in Government tracking and control. The one reason why I will not take the shot especially with a 99.7% survival rate.
Flexible my arse. It’s so flexible and trackable that it will be used to lock you in your house.
And who, dear paranoid Willy, wants to lock you in your house? No one. You are imagining threats that aren’t really there.
Stay Home Save Lives, that’s who………… here’s your list of oppressive ne’er-do-wells Whidbey.
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The undersigned are concerned health care professionals:
Andy Slavitt, MBA – Former Acting Administrator of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Bill Frist, MD – Former Senate Majority Leader
Asaf Bitton, MD MPH – Executive Director, Ariadne Labs, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Lanhee J. Chen, PhD – David and Diane Steffy Fellow in American Public Policy Studies, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
Ezekiel Emanuel, MD PhD – Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Atul Gawande, MD MPH – CEO, Haven; Professor, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health
Sandra Hernandez, MD – President and CEO of California Health Care Foundation
Bob Kocher, MD – Former Special Assistant to the President for Healthcare and Economic Policy
Vivek H. Murthy, MD MBA – 19th Surgeon General of the United States
Michael Osterholm, PhD MPH – Regents Professor and Director, Center for Infectious Disease and Research & Policy, University of Minnesota
DJ Patil, PhD – Former US Chief Data Scientist
Jennifer Peña, MD – Former White House Physician (Obama administration) and Primary Physician to Vice President Pence
Jordan Shlain, MD – Internal Medicine, former Commissioner, Health Services System Board, San Francisco
Eric Topol, MD – Founder and Director, Scripps Research Translational Institute
Leana Wen, MD MSc – Former Baltimore City Health Commissioner and Visiting Professor at George Washington University School of Public Health
Michelle A. Williams, ScD – Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Angelopoulos Professor in Public Health and International Development
Additional support from the following health care and health policy leaders:
Mike Leavitt – Founder, Leavitt Partners and Former Utah Governor and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary
Donald M. Berwick, MD – President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
J. Mario Molina, MD – former CEO of Molina Healthcare and President of Golden Shore Medical Group
Janis M. Orlowski, MD MACP – Chief Health Care Officer, Association of American Medical Colleges
Jeff Tangney, MBA – CEO and Co-Founder, Doximity
Frances F. Townsend, JD – Former Assistant to President George W. Bush, Homeland Security Advisor, Author of the 2006 National Strategy for an Influenza Outbreak
Still no ones business. Why not while government is at why don’t they just release All our medical and behavioral health records to the whole world. Everyone can know what is going on under your skin!
Still its none of anyone’s business
Our Constitution’s First and Fourteenth Amendments and the Commerce Clause state otherwise.
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Whether a governor whose orders led to the deaths of nursing-home patients succeeds in permanently curtailing Americans’ freedom to assemble remains to be seen.
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New Yorkers (and Alaskans) may already be working on ways to defy, defeat, and disrupt (civilly of course) the invasion of the Cuomo Card.
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Jury nullification and willingness to invoke it will be a powerful part of that process.
Hey WHIDBEY THEDOG.. the names are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, WHO, NIH, ann zinc, mainstream and Fox News, John Hopkins University, big Pharma, ect… there’s not one conservative in this list.. you’re not only a slave but you’re a stupid one
Well I’ve been called worse. But at least I’ll follow good, well intentioned health advice when offered and live. Not so sure about you and all of the other deniers.
Communists are insatiable. Please head over to China.
FYI I lived there for years and used it. It worked great.
Well, yes, actually. I lived in the UK for years and found the NHS to be excellent. And as a plus, no one goes bankrupt from medical bills, or needs to worry about from where their healthcare will come. That’s real FREEDOM.
Only the self-employed taxpayers who pay for the interloping medical tourists sponging off their NHS go broke when the whole economy is closed down for the best part of a year…….. but never mind them eh.
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Betting you’re covered here under a US tax-payer funded public employees union contract anyways?
I’m with Dalton, WtD. If you’re so cock sure that MRAK exists only to “…espouse such views and theories for profit, clicks, and notoriety…” why don’t you opine elsewhere. Or, are we so far gone that you feel your presence here is your philanthropic duty to save us from ourselves? Your condescending comments are nauseating.
Democrats don’t want voter ID laws, but they’re all for this nonsense.
This is how the government gets around constitutional constraints…they “partner” with big business to implement unconstitutional restrictions under the too broad umbrella of private property rights.
Businesses are private property and if you refuse to obey their demands you can be labeled as a trespasser and arrested because private property owners have rights and can discriminate against, for instance, unvaccinated people…apparently.
Of course if the government doesn’t agree with the form of discrimination involved it simply passes a law that takes away the private property owners right to discriminate as they please.
It’s perverse…we have natural rights that were acknowledged in our Constitution and protected against government infringement but the government will employ the police powers we delegated to it to help a private business owner violate those same rights…unless we’re in one of those special protected classes.
It shouldn’t matter if we’re on our own property, government property or someone else’s property…our rights should remain exactly the same.
The government can’t force us to get vaccinated but it will allow a business to refuse to serve you, to discriminate against you, even have you labeled as a criminal and arrested for something it, the government, cannot constitutionally do.
No business has any right to even ask us to show proof of vaccination before they’ll allow us to patronize them.
If they have that right then where does it end?
Could they demand proof that we don’t own a firearm or that we haven’t been expressing contrary political views or that we voted Democrat?
What are the natural limits on private property rights?
I’ll tell you where that limit is…their right to tell me what to do on their property ends where my right to privacy begins and that begins well before I have to prove that I got some shot.
It is fine to resist publicly so we can update your social score more efficiently. This digital passport system has been most effective in china promoting a desired order and correctly behaved people. We must include a full medical and mental health profile to achieve total safety goals for societies good. All will be protected and happy as the dangers can be controlled most effectively.
All coming to a smart phone near you, and when out of compliance, it’s simply a button push to cut someone off. Lockdowns, no problem, with every infraction your credits (virtual cash) will get dinged:
1. UBI Deposits/Payments (Europe for COVID)
2. EBT Payments (USA)
3. QR Compliance Codes (NY/Europe/China)
4. Personal Tracker/Monitor (USA/Cell phone GPS) Obama Phone
5. Biden’s new vehicle mileage Tax/Road Tolls (Cell Phone GPS)
And still, many people Keep choosing to play the games that are being dealt to them by the government and others who want to further their evil end game. Vaccine passports, yep, make sure to get one so you can be a player in the game, just like Facebook, people just cannot step away. People and especially businesses feel they aren’t doing their part unless they have that Facebook page. The people have been and still are being played, by their own actions. If you play along, you’re just as guilty.
Sounds almost Orwellian, Mr. Blair.
You’ll think so when this cr@p is mandated for everyone in your social group, all those with a free Obama phone will have zero excuses for exemptions.
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Here’s what’s coming your way. Every poor, downtrodden underprivileged democrat voter will also be looking at a *VOTER ID QR Code* when the next Trumpster gets elected, turn around is fair play!
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I can hear your howls now, “this is so unconstitutional” at which point the Trumpster wannabe will say “who mandated these QR code’s stupid, you lot did.”
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