A Quick Hot Take on COVID Vaccine Passports

Some people don't like the idea of COVID vaccine passports because it somehow infringes on liberty or human rights or something like that.  This includes Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and an alumnus of Yale and Harvard Law School and a former JAG Corps officer at Guantanamo Bay (which is to say a smart guy who knows a thing or two about liberty and human rights).

I think this position is wildly overblown.

If you want to attend public schools you have to show proof of vaccination.  Yes, you can obtain a waiver in many states for religious or philosophical reasons, but either way your local school district knows whether your kids have or haven't been vaccinated for various things.

Many other countries require visitors to get vaccinated for Yellow Fever before they can enter.  So, for example, if you want to visit Angola or Benin you have to show proof of vaccination.  To make this easier, WHO even has an international certificate of vaccination or prophylaxis, or ICVP, to carry with you to these places.  A vaccine passport, if you will.  So when you go to these places their governments know you've been vaccinated for various things.

If you want to leave the US and go to another country, you need ... a passport!  I have one and you probably do too.  Getting it required a bunch of paperwork, a photo, a fee, and an inordinately long wait but now I can leave the country and get back in.  As a result, the government knows a bunch of things about me and so do the governments of the foreign places I visit.  That's just the cost of travel.

Sharing information about yourself with your government is the cost of citizenship.  We share health information all the time (see my school example above; see also anyone over 65 who uses Medicare).  This circumstance shouldn't be any different.

At the end of the day which is worse: a bunch of bureaucrats knowing that you got the COVID shot, or dealing with more masking/distancing/shutdown precautions?  So lighten up Ron.

Venezuelan Beaver Cheese

We never really closed the book on 2011 Rugby World Cup, so here goes.

Kiwis.

As predicted by many (except Jerry), the host nation of New Zealand won. The All Blacks topped Les Blues by the narrowest of margins. Read the recap here for more details, but there was a good story to emerge in the result.

All Black flyhalf Dan Carter, regarded by more than a few as the best in the world, went down during the tourney with a groin injury. G-g-g-groin in-ju-ry.



His replacement was Colin Slade, who went down with a groin injury as well. His replacement was Aaron Cruden, who was preparing for a Disneyland vacation but jetted to Auckland post-haste. Inspiring stuff, but in the Final, Cruden nearly buried the hearts of the Kiwi faithful with a wounded knee.

Enter Stephen Donald, the fourth choice for flyhalf, one of the most pivotal positions on the pitch. Stephen "Beaver" Donald, as he's known. Not a joke. Donald wasn't en route to visit Mickey, he was whitebaiting elsewhere in New Zealand when he'd been asked to join the rest of his countrymen. "Whitebaiting Beaver" apparently means something entirely different than when I was in undergrad. It's this. So he signed on to ride the bench.

As fate would have it, however, "Beaver" Donald was called upon at the 34-minute mark when Cruden went down. And, in storybook fashion, in a Cup marked for the number of critical missed kicks throughout, it was Donald's kick that notched the 3 points that ultimately decided the match. He's been appropriately heralded by the legions of All Blacks fans, even leading to what this article describes as "Beaver Fever." The best part is you don't need penicillin for that variety.

New Zealand 8, France 7

The French put up a good fight all the way but ultimately surrendered. The All Blacks won for the first time since 1987 (when they also beat the Beret Boys). Good Cup, more coverage than I'd expected, mostly enjoyable action.

Also great to see old roommate, teammate, and cellmate Brian Hightower getting some airtime on NBC and its subsidiaries. Consensus among our friends is that Highcheese acquitted himself very well throughout, and here's hoping it only leads to more of the same.