Editorial: Vaccine passport not a mandate

William Shakespeare, who wrote some of his best plays during a plague lockdown, saw this coming.

A vaccine passport, by any other name, is still a vaccine passport.

That beat-up CDC card, photo of the card or electronic representation of your vaccine history will gain you entrance to the TD Garden to see the Bruins or Celtics, allow you to attend a concert, or reserve a table at your favorite restaurant.

It’s not mandatory, according to the governor’s office. It’s just required by many establishments. Other stores and smaller shops have signs at the doors asking that you wear a mask. It doesn’t say you can’t come in if you don’t have a mask, it just lets you know they’d prefer if you wore one.

Gov. Charlie Baker’s new vaccine passport idea is no different.

The new tool, called My Vax Records, gives residents the option of accessing a digital version of their COVID-19 vaccine record directly from their phones.

From the app, people who received their vaccination in Massachusetts can access their own vaccination history and generate a COVID-19 digital vaccine card, which would contain similar vaccination information to a paper CDC card.

WebMD states that a vaccine passport is “proof that you’ve tested negative for or been protected against certain infections. It can be digital, like a phone app, or physical, such as a small paper card. You can carry it with you and show it if required, like before you go into the office, board an airplane, or visit a restaurant, movie theater, or gym. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the idea is that with a vaccine passport system in place, companies could fully open for business to anyone who shows proof of vaccination.”

A vaccine passport, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is “a physical or digital document providing proof of vaccination against one or more infectious diseases (such as COVID-19).”

Many reports say the idea dates back to at least 1897, when a vaccine for plague was developed.

Civil libertarian Harvey Silverglate says it all boils down to “self-regarding conduct.” That’s a concept established by ethical theorist John Stuart Mill (1807-1873) who argued that “no person is an entirely isolated being.”

If you are drunk and while driving home kill someone, you forfeit any self-regarding conduct. Your action robbed someone else of their freedom.

“I’m a hard-core libertarian,” Silverglate said Monday after the Baker administration announced a state-sponsored digital vaccine system, “but each restaurant should have a choice.” A choice to require proof of a vaccine or not.

Why? He said the coronavirus can and does infect innocent bystanders. He’s against a government mandate, but not one for businesses or any private company.

The Baker administration agrees. “The administration is not requiring residents to show proof of vaccination to enter any venue, but this tool will help residents who would like to access and produce a digital copy of their record,” according to a press release.

“The dividing line between the legitimate and illegitimate use of our freedom, however, is surely difficult to draw,” Mill wrote. If he were alive today, what would he say about vaccine passports — or whatever you want to call them?

We’d guess he would say if there’s proof — even the slightest possibility — that a virus that infects the lungs and puts those with comorbidities and the very young at risk, it’s just smart to think of others and the freedoms they cherish.