EU Vaccine Passports are Not Going Away Anytime Soon By Richard Miller (London)

While 12 European countries have either ended or eased their Covid vaccine mandates, the bureaucrats of the EU want the vaccine passports to continue for yet another year, and it would be a good bet that at year’s end, the call will go out to keep the passport system going yet again, as the ruling elites would rather cut off their own arms with a rusty pocket knife,  than give up power.

https://summit.news/2022/02/04/eu-wants-to-keep-vaccine-passports-in-place-for-another-entire-year/

“The unelected bureaucrat governors of the EU in the European Commission have proposed keeping the bloc’s COVID vaccine passport system in place for another entire year, despite the fact that many member countries are ramping down restrictions.

In a notice on its website, the Commission states “Today the European Commission is proposing to extend the EU Digital COVID Certificate by a year, until 30 June 2023.”

It continues, “The COVID-19 virus continues to be prevalent in Europe and at this stage it is not possible to determine the impact of a possible increase in infections in the second half of 2022 or of the emergence of new variants.”

“Extending the Regulation will ensure that travellers can continue using their EU Digital COVID Certificate when travelling in the EU where Member States maintain certain public health measures,” the statements adds.

It continues, “The Commission is adopting the proposal today to make sure the European Parliament and the Council can conclude the legislative procedure in time before the current Regulation expires.”

The move comes even as several countries, including Denmark, Norway, Italy, Sweden, France, in addition to non-EU countries such as Switzerland and England move to scrap restrictions including the vaccine passes.

The European Commission admits in its statement that it is up to the individual countries whether they carry on using the EU COVID vaccine passport scheme.

“The domestic use of EU Digital COVID Certificates remains a matter for Member States to decide, the statement notes, adding “The EU legislation on the EU Digital COVID Certificate neither prescribes nor prohibits the domestic use of EU Digital COVID Certificate (such as for access to events or restaurants).”

It also notes that “At the same time, where a Member State establishes a system of COVID-19 certificate for domestic purposes, it should continue to ensure that the EU Digital COVID Certificate is also fully accepted for those purposes. Beyond that, the Commission also encourages Member States to align their domestic validity periods with the validity period set at EU level for the purpose of travel.”

As we reported in November, despite vaccine passport schemes and high vaccination rates in many of the countries affected, COVID cases across Europe continued to surge as winter kicked in.

In addition, a recent investigation by experts in Spain concluded that vaccine passports have no significant impact on reducing COVID-19 infection rates.

The findings are similar to evidence found by the UK government that vaccine passports could actually increase Covid rates in the country.

The Spanish study noted that the only positives of such a scheme are that it “warns people that there is still danger from the pandemic and encourages vaccination uptake among the reticent.”

In other words, although vaccine passports have no discernible impact on their stated goal – reducing the spread of COVID-19 – they do succeed in keeping people fearful and compliant.

That conclusion dovetails with a recent admission by French Minister of Health Olivier Véran that the vaccine passports are “a disguised form of vaccination obligation,” but are “more effective.”