Are Iowans Going to Need A Vaccine Passport?

I'll say it...I'm tired of the pandemic. All of us are just plain exhausted from all of this COVID craziness over the past year. I count my blessings that I have not gotten the virus nor have any of my family members.

Like a decent number of people in the United States, I have gotten the COVID-19 vaccine. The fact that vaccine numbers are going up and COVID cases are going down means that a lot of us will be traveling again.

This brings up a question that we've been asking for months...

How do we make sure that COVID doesn't spread again?

Some people's answer to this is a COVID-19 vaccine passport.

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Nationally & Internationally

As reported in this New York Times piece, there are multiple different incarnations of the "vaccine passport." Officials are saying that this sort of passport could either be a paper or digital version. Denmark will have a digital passport that can get you into sports games, indoor seating at restaurants, and tattoo parlors.

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Here in Iowa...

Bringing it to the Midwest, this is a hot button issue. There is a movement in the Iowa House of Representatives that is pushing to ban any form of ID card with an individual's vaccination history, according to Radio Iowa.

This would place a ban any any Iowa private business or venue to deny entry to individuals who have not received the COVID-19 vaccination. Health care facilities would be exempt from this however. Local businesses and governments could actually lose state funding i.e. grants if they require proof of getting a COVID-19 vaccination, according to the piece of Legislation. 

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What does Governor Reynolds think?

Governor Kim Reynolds has made it clear that she believes people should get vaccinated. According to her, "Every one of the vaccines are safe and effective, especially at preventing serious illness that can result in hospitalization or death."

She is in support of this bill otherwise known as House File 889. Reynolds says that a "vaccine passport" would create a "two-tiered society" during a recent news conference.

As it stands, Iowans might not need it, but other parts of the country may require it.

Visit 939 Iowa

Two college sophomores from the University of Nebraska at Omaha are traveling across Iowa with the goal to visit all 939 of the towns in the Hawkeye State. They've already visited twenty towns so far, and they've only been exploring Iowa for a week!

LOOK: Answers to 30 common COVID-19 vaccine questions

While much is still unknown about the coronavirus and the future, what is known is that the currently available vaccines have gone through all three trial phases and are safe and effective. It will be necessary for as many Americans as possible to be vaccinated in order to finally return to some level of pre-pandemic normalcy, and hopefully these 30 answers provided here will help readers get vaccinated as soon they are able.

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