Texas companies that require customers to be vaccinated against Covid-19 will be denied state contracts and could lose their licenses or operating permits after Governor Greg Abbott has signed a bill barring the use of vaccine passports blasting them as an infringement on individual liberty.
Before signing the bill on Monday, Abbott said in a tweet that Texas is open 100% and Texans should have the freedom to go where they want without any limits, restrictions, or requirements, and without being forced by the government to show proof of their vaccinations and reveal private health information.
He added that the legislation prohibits any business or government entity from requiring vaccine passports or any vaccine information.
According to the bill, businesses will still be permitted to screen for the coronavirus itself and implement “infection control protocols in accordance with state and federal law to protect public health” although nearly half of all Texans have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine and about 36% has been fully immunized.
Texas is the latest state to ban the passes with lawmakers’ consent, along with Alabama, Indiana, Iowa and North Dakota that have barred vaccine passports outright, including for both business and the government. Utah and Arkansas prohibited only government agencies from requiring proof of vaccination.
Majority of GOP governors are blasting vaccine passports as dangerous to personal freedom.
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