Washington Post: “Republicans are opening a new front in the pandemic culture wars, attacking efforts by the Biden administration to develop guidelines for covid-19 vaccination passports that businesses can use to determine who can safely participate in activities such as flights, concerts and indoor dining. The issue has received an increasing amount of attention from some of the party’s most extreme members and conservative media figures, but it has also been seized on by Republican leaders like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate. ‘We are not supporting doing any vaccine passports in the state of Florida,’ DeSantis said Monday. ‘It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society.’ Other Republicans have used more inflammatory rhetoric with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) calling the passport idea ‘Biden’s Mark of the Beast’ and some conservative activists comparing it to Nazi policies to track and exterminate Jews.”

“The hyper-charged rhetoric is directed at a nascent initiative between the Biden administration and private companies to develop a standard way for Americans to show they have received a coronavirus vaccine. The idea behind the passports or certificates is that it would be a way to ensure people could return to normal activities without risking further spread of a virus that has killed more than 550,000 Americans. Unlike some of the recent attacks from conservatives focused on cultural or economic issues that centered on children’s books and ‘Satan Shoes,’ this one focuses directly on the Biden administration and taps into a long-standing warning from the right: That a powerful federal government will try to control the population. The attacks also focus on an area that’s been a strength for Biden: His handling of the pandemic. Under Biden’s watch the vaccine distribution has significantly ramped up in the country and, according to federal survey data, reports of vaccine hesitancy are decreasing. Covid deaths have also plummeted from January highs, in part because larger portions of older Americans have been inoculated.”