Thread by @thrasherxy

Much bigger fan of the idea of breaking vaccine patents to get the world to herd immunity across borders than the idea of creating vaccine passports that only allow those w the privilege of getting a vaccine to cross borders (as same borders are used to deny vaccines to others)

The idea that "I need a vaccine passport so I can go on vacation!" isn't really morally justifiable if you want go to and from a place where you know that most don't have vaccines and you want to prove that you do and thus should be able to cross borders.

Vaccines are largely state administered and controlled. Powerful states (the US and the members of the EU) are keeping vaccines from moving into production as quickly as they could (fighting the TRIPS waiver) and saving lives across borders.

It is morally reprehensible that these states can keep vaccines from crossing borders, AND want their own citizens to travel freely for pleasure w a vax passport, AND then use the threat of infection to keep refugees out from COUNTRIES WHERE THEY DENIED VACCINES FROM GOING!

Vulnerable populations are routinely denied vaccines. In Israel, Palestinians in the Occupied Territories have been denied; in New York State, people in prison have been denied. State vaccine denial for these marginalized ppl & passports for the privileged create a viral divide—

—with the least privileged on one side and the most on the other. A passport granting or denying such privilege will have profound consequences (for the bearer, and for those denied, and for ppl in history in ways that can't be fully predicted).

For instance, the US created conditions in Haiti that were politically destabilizing and which set in motion many ways HIV could be transmitted.

Then, in 1991, when Haitians tried to flee to the US during a coup, the US stopped them, sent them to Guantanamo Bay, tested for HIV—

—& sterilized hundresds of Haitians living with HIV.

That fear of viral infection—even as the US caused the viral and political conditions that led them to flee!—created an excuse for keeping refugees out of the US. And also the architecture for infinite detention at Gitmo.

What if instead of focusing on individual anxiety of "But when can I travel again?" for those of us who can afford to do so—and what if, instead of worrying abt our individual condition—we insisted on breaking the patents and vaxxing the whole world ASAP? Think about it—

—if the whole world was vaccinated and we got to herd immunity, would there be a need for a vaccine passport?

Conceptually, the passport is abt asserting individual access while assuming (and accepting!) that most people don't have access!

And if states can deny exporting vaccine knowledge to vulnerable countries (the US) or deny them to vulnerable populations inside their own borders (the US, Israel), the power of who can cross borders (or have access to the commons internally)will be VERY dangerous

A people's vaccine—free to all, accessible across borders, given to everyone regardless of carceral or housing or national status—to get our species to herd immunity is a much more ethical & practical goal than a passport granting individual mobility

The language itself is interesting, and important. Framing the concept as a vacciine "passport" builds on and passively accepts the ethics of passport privilege, in general—the idea that those w citizenship from certain countries should be able to cross borders (for pleasure)—

—while those crossing borders w/i right passports (as climate, political or economic refugees) should not be able to do so. And which kind of migrant is most likely to be in the viral underclass? The poor migrant. So vaccine access should not be used to give them a BIGGER burden.

You get the vaccine to everyone and get our species to herd immunity, it's not so important to conflate border-crossing ability, intimate biosurveillance, state architecture and passports.

Do I think we need vax records? To see who has been vaccinated prior to being in congregate settings (schools, dorms, nursing homes)? Yes. But that's a different concept (w different enforcement & legal architecture) than a *passport* granting access to commons & across borders.

This @nytopinion piece by @katolivarius is really great on the history of some of these dynamics nytimes.com/2020/04/12/opi…

I'm also dismayed ppl have forgotten (or never knew) that for 22 years (from late 1980s until 2010!) the us BANNED anyone living w HIV from entering the country!

The goal shouldn't be banning ppl w viruses—the US ought to mitigate viruses globally!

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…

Records are a different concept than passports. I've gotten vaccines before crossing borders before (and I have immense US passport privilege).

But at this moment, I would rather see a global movement to break patents than a CONSUMER mvmt for travel.

https://twitter.com/MaryELosch/status/1377618230857043975?s=20

And selfishly, if you—LIKE ME—want to travel again, the safest and most efficient way to make that happen would be if pharmaceutical manufacturers around the world were all cranking out vaccines full steam right now & ppl were being paid to jab ASAP across the globe!

And yes, as some of you have noted, a passport shouldn't be needed to use local commons (public transit, food shopping). We needn't stigmatize this, or put the burden on the most marginalized amongst us. This is a collective project, one where the most privileged needn't opt out.

I think a lot of vaxxed ppl are expecting to be catered to “normally” as consumers (shoppers, travelers, audiences) without accepting that this relies upon much less vaccinated laborers NOT being able to distance etc (esp. in the Global South), which will propel the pandemic