Nation
Greg Abbott restricts use of ‘vaccine passports’ via executive order
On Tuesday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued an executive order restricting the use of COVID-19 “vaccine passports,” as many Republicans rally against the concept, which allows individuals to provide proof of having received a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Everyday, Texans are returning to normal life as more people get the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine. But, as I’ve said all along, these vaccines are always voluntary and never forced,” Abbott said in a video statement on Tuesday.
MORE ON GOV. ABBOTT: Gov. Abbott declines invite to throw out first pitch at Rangers’ opening game
“Government should not require any Texan to show proof of vaccination and reveal private health information just to go about their daily lives,” the governor added. “That is why I have issued an executive order that prohibits government-mandated vaccine passports in Texas. We will continue to vaccinate more Texans and protect public health—and we will do so without treading on Texans’ personal freedoms.”
The executive order prohibits state agencies, political subdivisions, and organizations who receive taxpayer money from creating “vaccine passports” or mandating individuals to present evidence of COVID-19 vaccination in order to receive goods and services.
Another Republican governor, Ron DeSantis of Florida, last week signed an executive order banning the use of vaccine passports. He went a step further than Abbott and also prevented businesses from requiring customers to provide proof of having received a COVID-19 vaccine.
RELATED: DeSantis signs executive order prohibiting vaccine passports
Many Republicans have expressed data, privacy, and civil liberties concerns with the adoption of vaccine passports. Proponents, on the other hand, argue that the measure will allow the reopening of the U.S. economy to speed up, as well as international travel.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert and President Joe Biden’s top COVID-19 adviser, in a Monday interview with the Politico Dispatch podcast that he doubts “the federal government will be the main mover of a vaccine passport concept.”
RELATED: Fauci: Federal government won’t mandate vaccine passports
You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @DouglasPBraff.
“Just when you think Alec Baldwin can’t go any lower, he blames Halyna Hutchins, the woman he shot to death, for getting shot to death” writes the New York Post. Naturally, Baldwin gifted his first interview since the tragic death of Hutchins to his Hampton’s buddy and leftwing media host George Stephanopoulos.
“Everything is at her direction,” Baldwin told George Stephanopoulos during the hourlong interview that aired Thursday night on ABC. Ultimately the entire one hour can be summed up by Baldwin’s twelve words: “Someone is responsible for what happened, and I know it’s not me.”
For any viewers looking for anything particularly meaningful from Baldwin or for him to answer tough questions, a sit-down with his liberal elite buddy was not the place to get it. “I’m holding the gun where she told me to hold it,” Baldwin said, “which ended up right below her armpit. Which is what I was told — I don’t know.”
He carried on, “I would never point a gun at anyone, and pull the trigger at them. Never.” Oddly he had just finished describing how he was pointing the gun at Hutchins.
Agent Bobby Chacon, a retired FBI agent who works as a writer and on-set consultant for Hollywood stated “The bullet striking and killing that woman came out of the barrel of the gun pointed directly at her…Bullets don’t curve. He isn’t in ‘The Matrix.’ The trigger would still have to be pulled.”
“I’m not aware of any gun firing itself,” says Steve Wolf, a Hollywood firearms and special-effects expert since 1994. “I’ve never seen a gun self-discharge. A single-action revolver like this” — the Colt that Baldwin fired — “can be discharged very easily, with minimal input required … The trigger still must have been pressed.”
Wolf is also outraged by a larger concern. “It’s really important to discredit anyone who claims that guns fire themselves,” he says. “If this becomes an acceptable defense, there goes any accountability when it comes to shooting people. We can’t have this kind of ‘guns shoot themselves’ thing. They don’t.”
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