On the evening of day three of the new vaccine pass, we set out to host business clients at a local restaurant. Despite being double-jabbed for the purposes of travel and freedom (as we were promised) we were unable to dine there. Instead, we found ourselves on the outside looking in while our guests inside sipped their wine.
Why were we turned away? One of us had a Ministry of Health letter verifying vaccination status, which the restaurant deemed was not proof of vaccination status. The letter, on Ministry of Health letterhead and signed by Joanne Gibbs, National Director Covid-19 Vaccine and Immunisation Programme, Ministry of Health, stated:
“Confirmation of Covid-19 Vaccination. The information was sourced from New Zealand’s COVID Immunisation Register (CIR) on [date].”
The same place that the passport information originates from.
I had neglected to take my downloaded passport due to a last-minute handbag change but had with me the purple Covid-19 Vaccination Record Card that on its reverse reads, “This card provides a record of the vaccines you have received”: again, issued by the Ministry of Health. This includes my name, NHI number, batch numbers of each of the two shots, the date and time given, and the expiry date.
This was not considered by the restaurant to be official proof of vaccination status either, despite the Ministry of Health statement that this card provides a record of the vaccines you have received. So a record is not the same as proof, a certificate is not the same as a pass. More play-on-words from this government.
Between us, we had two Ministry of Health-issued documents, neither of which was accepted as being proof of our vaccination status.
The My Vaccine Pass states that
My Vaccine Pass is an official record of your COVID-19 vaccination status for use in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Both of the other Ministry documents we had shown them provided confirmation of vaccination status and more information than the pass itself, as outlined in an article on Stuff on 13 November 2021. A certificate includes more detail than, apparently, the pass does.
“The key difference is that a certificate contains the vaccination record, and a pass does not,” Chen said.
“The main difference here is privacy. A certificate would contain what is essentially health information about which doses of which vaccines you got, on which date.”
stuff
So, why are documents with more information not accepted as proof of vaccination status? Proof of vaccination status seems no longer to be about verification but about surveillance via QR code.
“But if you go to a concert or festival, to a restaurant or out shopping, you may be required to present your vaccine pass to gain entry. That decision will be left to the business owner or event organiser. Requiring a vaccine pass will be optional”.
“There will be incentives for businesses that do require a vaccine pass. The government has said those businesses or events will be able to open more freely than those that don’t require a pass”.
Stuff
So what changed?
“Government went against advice to limit COVID-19 vaccine passes to high-risk events or jeopardise [sic] social cohesion.”
“The Government went further than official advice to keep COVID-19 vaccine passes “narrow in scope” and only apply to high-risk events, documents show.”
“Option A, was the wide application of vaccination certificates, which ‘could be for customers and/or workers of bars, restaurants, cafes and other venues/events.’
“Option B, was the targeted application of vaccine passes for high-risk events and venues, such as “large gatherings/events held outdoors and indoors, particularly during the summer season.
“Option C, was no government requirement for vaccine passes, and to instead let the private sector decide who can access their premises. It’s noted the Government could play a role in providing verification.”
Of three options presented by officials, the government chose the most punitive and wide-ranging. The lesser option that excluded bars, restaurants and cafes was considered “to provide the best balance of risk mitigation, public acceptability and feasibility to implement as a priority step” the document, released on Friday 10 December stated. The report continued, “The Government was warned that going too far with vaccine certificates would risk social cohesion, due to restrictions on the unvaccinated.”
Newshub.10 December.
The passport is costing business dearly. Finance Minister Grant Robertson said that “economic impacts of the new system would be monitored and, if needed, any financial support for businesses would be considered by cabinet early 2022”. Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois said support was needed sooner rather than later.
“We expected sales to pick up by now… even with the Christmas bookings… many of them have not been as busy as they thought they might be.
“There’s no indication there’ll be anything [financial support] next year… businesses have lost a lot over 19 months… now hospitality is carrying the burden of the new system.
“They need assistance.”
A restaurant owner known to us said his business had dropped overnight by 30% with the introduction of the passport.
Stuff
The passport also sounds alarms about data collection, privacy and security.
In A simple guide to the NZ My Vaccine Pass – Bill Bennett said, “There is a lot of talk about trust and privacy. I asked the office of the privacy commissioner if there were any issues to worry about and was given a stock reply that the office has worked with the government on the pass.” He also stated, “There isn’t any formal reporting back to base although the Ministry will collect analytical data.” What analytical data would that be?
Andrew Mayfield on 19 October 2021 reported:
“The app shouldn’t collect anything more than vital health information, which is an individual’s vaccine status or a recent Covid-19 test result.
“The Covid-19 app will likely be modified and updated, as we gain more knowledge on the virus. To maintain public trust, there needs to be transparency about how data is being used, updated and protected by Covid-19 credential systems.
“It won’t be enough to share these data privacy conditions in tiny-lettered forms, buried somewhere online in a thornbush of government policy, it needs to be in clear and accessible terms on the app itself.”
RNZ News
The caution that there needs to be transparency is not at all reassuring given our PM’s track-record on transparency. The introduction of the government passport sets us on a slippery slope of data collection, security, and privacy issues. And those who decide this is a step too far and refuse to use the passport, despite having been brow-beaten into submission to this point, effectively become unjabbed and reviled along with the ‘anti-vaxxers’. Oh, what a tangled web she weaves…