by Catherine Smith
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang proposed the idea of a downloadable barcode program for people’s phones to prove if they have been vaccinated for the coronavirus.
Tough to have mass gatherings like concerts or ballgames without either mass adoption of the vaccine or a means of signaling.
— Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) December 18, 2020
“Is there a way for someone to easily show that they have been vaccinated – like a barcode they can download on their phone? There ought to be,” Yang wrote on Twitter.
“Tough to have mass gatherings like concerts or ballgames without either mass adoption of the vaccine or a means of signaling,” he continued.
The tech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate whose campaign was noted for its ‘happy-go-lucky and tech-friendly” nature, told Yahoo Finance Live in November he would eagerly accept a role in Biden’s Cabinet.
He also wants to run for office again.
“We all know if I ran again, it would be a lot more fun than the first time. Because the first time, you know, I was kind of climbing out of anonymity. The second time, you know, we’d have a blast from day one. I would 100% run for office again,” Yang told Yahoo Finance.
“You know, not sure which office, but the problems again are getting bigger now, not smaller. And I’m happy to say I feel like my ability to help has also gotten bigger. I’m just going to keep on helping until some of these problems actually get better.”
Other progressives are floating another type of verification scheme.
Wisconsin’s WISN reported Anit Mukherjee of the Center for Global Development said “some sort of technology is needed to verify whether [people] have had the vaccine” and is “almost a certainty for a return to normal.”
“There would be gatekeepers, as I call them, at different places, be it at your workplace or your office when you go in, or a stadium to watch the (Milwaukee) Bucks play,” Mukherjee said. “They would require some form of assurance that you have been vaccinated.”
He argued such a mandate is needed “for the greater public good.”
“We need to think of how we approach this in a very careful manner, but also understanding that this is the future,” Mukherjee told the news station. “There will be other pandemics and we need to be prepared.”
He said he developed such a scheme when he worked in India’s Department of Finance and could be imposed in America “in a matter of months.”
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Catherine Smith reports for American Greatness.
