Vaccine passports now

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Columnist

Masks are back and New Orleanians are frustrated. More than nearly any other parish, most of our citizens dutifully lined up to take the vaccine, yet ICUs remain packed with Delta-variant patients reveals the unwillingness of most of the rest of the state – and frankly holdouts in our own community – to simply protect themselves.

Employing the claim of “health choice,” countless citizens exercise their constitutional right to do nothing. However, their recalcitrance costs not just tax dollars to pay for expensive hospital beds (for many are on Medicaid), it’s also costing us tourism. There is a danger that minority resistance to vaccination could actually kill Jazz Fest for another year. For that reason alone, mandating vaccine passports should become the norm. A lot of peoples’ jobs depend upon it.

Last week saw New Orleans lose a major literary conference due to fears of infection. The Crescent City was to host Bouchercon in the last weekend of August, a gathering of the world’s leading mystery writers. The last time that the city hosted the conference, outside of the massive multi-million dollar economic impact which it provides, a slew of novels came with New Orleans as their setting. It was literally free advertising for us, spawning a myriad of subsequent visitors.

The recent spike in infections proved so daunting, though, that many of the famed authors attending opted out, and the conference collapsed upon itself – impacting the local economy to the tune of several million dollars. Several of the authors confessed privately to this newspaper that if the conference had been limited to those with vaccine passports, they might have come. No one wishes the danger of infecting people in a state where coronavirus cases are skyrocketing.

The Anthony Boucher Memorial World Mystery Convention stands as a comparatively small gathering when compared to the major events coming up, from Southern Decadence to the French Quarter Fest to Jazz Fest. Festival productions Chief Creative Officer Louis Edwards explained to The Louisiana Weekly what an incredible coup it was to draw The Rolling Stones to Jazz Fest. “It’s the only festival they’re going to play!”

As a result, tourism numbers promise to climb even beyond the most ambitious estimates for an October-held, comparatively temperate Jazz Fest. Those throngs of visitors could prove salvation to our struggling hospitality industry. Nevertheless, no one wants to see another super-spreader event. Moral implications aside, the negative public relations could damage one’s brand for decades.

There is a simple “carrot and stick” approach which the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana could take. Constitutionally, the local government cannot require a citizen to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Yet, John Bel Edwards and LaToya Cantrell could say that the mask requirement is waived for any business which insists upon vaccine passports in order for anyone to patronize their services – or a negative COVID test taken within that week.

Businesses which hate the mask requirement, most especially restaurants, would jump up on the idea of mandating a VaxxPass for services. Imagine if almost every local public space requires a vaccine passport or a negative recent test?

People would rush to get the needle-prick. The implications do not require much imagination. When French President Emmanuel Macron introduced such a mandate, vaccination rates increased by 1.3 million people in a week. With the LA Wallet app’s ability to show your vaccination status along with your driver’s license, the technical infrastructure is already in place.

Citizens have the right to be stupid. They do not have the right to shut down our economy because of their stupidity.

Hear the full interview with Louis Edwards on Jazz Fest by listening to the 8/8/21 program at www.thefoundershow.com.

This article originally published in the August 9, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.