WH Press Secretary Psaki Encourages Private Companies to Use Vaccine Passports

(FOX Business) – White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that the Biden administration will not mandate vaccine passports, but it will encourage private businesses to use them as they see fit.

“That’s not currently the role of the federal government,” Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One. “There are a number of private sector entities, universities, institutions that are starting to mandate, and that’s an innovative step that they will take and they should take. That’s not — and we’re not taking issue with that.”

Some prominent institutions have implemented mandates as vaccines have become available to more Americans 12 and older over the past couple of months.

The University of California system, which has 280,000 students and 227,000 staff members across 10 campuses, announced on June 15 that it is mandating a vaccine for anyone who wants to come back to campus in the fall.

Royal Caribbean, which just restarted cruises after a 15-month hiatus, has mandated that passengers from some states show proof of vaccination upon boarding.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other Biden administration officials have echoed Psaki’s position, saying that private businesses should be free to use vaccine passports and other mandates if they want to.

“If a company, a business wants to take steps to keep their workers and their passengers safe, I would think that, from a government perspective, we want to do everything we can to encourage that,” Buttigieg told KDFW FOX 4 in Dallas when asked about vaccine passports last month. “And that’s certainly our view at the federal level.” Read Full Article >