A bipartisan group of Michigan legislators introduced a group of bills Wednesday intended to ban vaccine passport requirements in the state.
The six bills would prevent every level of state and local government from making a vaccine passport a condition of everyday life. Two bills also would prevent the private sector from making a passport a condition of employment or being a customer.
“The very idea of tracking and tracing citizens’ health data through a digital app should sound the alarm bells,” Michigan state Rep. Beau LaFave (R) said in a news release.
“Not only have vaccine passports been considered in some states, they have actually been implemented in liberal-run New York and marketed as something as similar and harmless as airline boarding passes,” he said.
“Disguising vaccine passports as anything other than an infringement on our civil liberties underscores the true nature of big government: greed, power, and overreach,” LaFave said.
State Rep. Shri Thanedar, a Democrat, introduced HB 4790, which would prohibit usage by political subdivisions of the state.
“We’ve given up way too much freedom recently. We don’t need more government needling into our bodies, our privacy or our personal healthcare decisions,” state Rep. Matt Maddock (R) told Breitbart News.
He introduced HB 4793, which would bar the secretary of state from adding coronavirus vaccine status to a driver’s license.
“Letting the government tell us where we can and cannot go or to deny access is to make our country an open-air prison and I’m going to everything I can to protect our privacy rights,” he added.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) recently revised its masking order to state that student athletes who are “fully vaccinated” are no longer required to undergo weekly testing to participate in sports, WOOD-TV reported.
Breitbart News asked the department how it would verify an athlete’s status — by the honor system or effectively implementing a vaccine passport — and did not receive an explanation.
MDHHS indicated in April it was at the “discussion stage” of creating a government-mandated vaccine passport.
“No work has begun…it’s strictly in the discussion stage,” department spokeswoman Lynn Sutfin told the Oakland Press. “I suspect it will be an app, but I don’t have any confirmation of that.”
“We are headed toward a true totalitarian state if we allow government officials to coerce us into providing them with personal health information in the name of safety,” LaFave said.
“Our governor has not yet attempted to regulate proof of vaccinations, but this legislation will ensure it will be unlawful to ever do so, protecting the rights of Michiganders in the process.”
According to LaFave, 11 states have banned or have publicly expressed opposition to vaccine passports.
Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays–download full podcast episodes. Follow him on Parler.