The Oregon Health Authority on Tuesday announced that it will let people go outside without wearing masks, but they must prove that they received the coronavirus shot before going maskless indoors.
The authority’s updated guidance, released on May 18, states that “businesses, employers and faith institutions” must continue to enforce face coverings and physical isolation procedures until they have “a policy for checking for proof of vaccination status of individuals.”
Private businesses and churches must ask for “proof of vaccination status from each individual” who enters and check “each individual’s proof of vaccination prior to entry or admission.”
The intrusive government-mandated vaccine passport policy will infringe upon health privacy protections.
The authority’s decision comes after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said her administration would followed the CDC’s updated face covering and physical isolation recommendations.
“Oregonians now have a choice of how to protect themselves and others from COVID-19: either get vaccinated or continue wearing a mask and following physical distancing requirements,” Brown said, according to KEZI.
Oregon’s enforcement model represents a growing trend in which governments weaponize private organizations for their authoritarian and unscientific projects.
The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division will fine, harass, and threaten to close businesses that do not enforce vaccine passports.
Yet, Dr. Dean Sidelinger, Oregon’s health officer and epidemiologist, said he does not expect businesses to have the ability to verify the authenticity of vaccine records.
“We hope that Oregonians will not lie or cheat and put others at risk by forging a vaccine record if they aren’t vaccinated,” Sidelinger said.
For businesses that refuse to enforce vaccine passports, employees and customers must remained muzzled.
“They can continue to serve their customers and have their employees wear masks in these settings,” Sidelinger said. “For a business that wants to serve their customers in a different way by allowing them to remove their masks if they’re fully vaccinated, or have their staff be able to remove their mask if they’re fully vaccinated, they need to institute a system where individuals can share their vaccination status.”
Oregon had issued an outdoor mask mandate for public places, despite common sense and abundant data showing that people do not transmit respiratory illnesses like COVID-19 outdoors.
Despite this slight relaxation, Oregon’s mask mandate largely remains in force.
The state mandates masks on public transportation, in schools—even though young children have a near-zero chance of contracting or transmitting COVID-19—hospitals and doctor’s offices, homeless shelters, jails and prisons, and nursing homes.
