After Covid-19 caused extraordinarily intrusive and expensive lockdowns, the so-called vaccine passports are increasingly seen as something that could get us out of them. Decision-makers and gatekeepers, including border guards and maître d's, are learning how to know who can safely engage with others. However, this solution has raised some questions. Some believe it's even discriminatory.

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James Waterson from Alberta, Canada, is one of them. However, Waterson recently decided to explore this topic deeper, so he made a tweet, saying: "Hello Vaxxed people. Honest question here (as I fully support your decision to get vaxxed), how do you feel when showing your vaxx passport knowing it excludes people? [sic]"

And the most amazing thing happened. I don't know, maybe it was the wording that he chose, but James managed to get Twitter together to have a civilized discussion. Well, at least for the most part. His question got plenty of answers, and we thought it would be a good idea to share them with you. After all, you're probably going to have this discussion with someone too.

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As Tim Dare, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Auckland, and Justine Kingsbury, a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Waikato, pointed out, the central concern is often that vaccine passports will cause or exacerbate inequality because access to a passport relies on access to vaccines, and access to vaccines has been unequal.

"Internationally, citizens of some countries are more likely to have access to vaccines – and so to vaccine passports – than citizens of other countries. And within countries, some individuals and groups are more likely to have access to vaccines than others," they wrote in The Conversation.

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"Firstly, the need to contain Covid-19 justifies the significant restrictions of important liberties in lockdowns," they said. "But to the extent that vaccines work, that justification doesn’t apply to someone who has been vaccinated. The justification for curtailing liberties has gone (or at least, given the possibility of breakthrough cases, been considerably weakened), so for the vaccinated, the curtailment should go too."

"Secondly, distinguishing between people on the basis of their [Covid-19] immunity may be discrimination, but it's not obvious it is unjustified discrimination. Whether someone is vaccinated or not is arguably legitimate grounds for discrimination. The unvaccinated (for whatever reason) pose a greater risk to others than the vaccinated. They are also more likely to suffer severe symptoms if they get Covid-19."

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"Thirdly, one reason to tolerate inequality is that sometimes it improves the position of the disadvantaged," Dare and Kingsbury added. "We might tolerate doctors' high incomes, for example, if the promise of a higher income led people to study medicine and we believed a good supply of doctors benefited the worst-off members of our community."

Vaccine passports might work the same way — they help get the economy going, so the government can support those still locked down. Plus, they're also an incentive to vaccinate, and high vaccination rates are good for everyone. Even the unvaccinated.

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