South Dakota’s Noem Bans Vaccine Passports

South Dakota’s governor said on April 21 that she has taken executive action to ban the use of digital or paper documentation that enables people to show proof that they’ve been vaccinated against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19.

Epoch Times Photo
Vials of COVID-19 vaccine are seen in Bridgeport, Conn., on April 20, 2021. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)

Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, said the executive order she signed concerning so-called vaccine passports aligns with making sure South Dakotans are able to exercise their freedoms.

“Since the start of the COVID pandemic, we have provided the people of South Dakota with up-to-date science, facts, and data and then trusted them to exercise their personal responsibility to make the best decisions for themselves and their loved ones. We’ve resisted government mandates, and our state is stronger for it,” she said in a statement.

“I encourage all South Dakotans to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but we are not going to mandate any such activity. And we are not going to restrict South Dakotans’ exercise of their freedoms with un-American policies like vaccine passports. In our state, ‘Under God, the people rule.’ And that is how we will operate for as long as I am governor.”

Discussions are taking place on requiring such proof at various venues, which would be “discriminatory treatment” against people who haven’t gotten COVID-19 vaccines, Noem’s three-page order states.

“Any rationale for imposing public health restrictions that limit freedoms should be tailored to mitigate a verifiable, scientific risk,” it said. “Implementing a vaccine passport program could lead to unjustified, non-science-based restrictions on travel, speech, association, and other civil rights.”

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