By September 1, it’s projected that almost 950,000 Americans and 45,000 Canadians will have died from COVID-19, despite the rollout of vaccines that will lower the rate of transmissibility, sickness, and death. Yet some of the same people who continue to downplay COVID’s seriousness (comparing it to just a “bad flu”), claim that COVID fatalities are inflated because of other underlying health problems; the so called “co-morbidities.” In other words, grandma may have had COVID, but it was really the hangnail that killed her.

They challenge lockdowns designed to slow down transmissibility. They do their “research” on Google, YouTube, Tik-Tok, and Facebook proving the claim that social media has become a “dystopian hellscape where random goofballs speak confidently and authoritatively about topics they know nothing about.”

Despite the unimaginable death toll in India, (and what COVID could have looked like without masks and lockdowns) these covidiots still rebel at mandatory masks in private businesses, and are often fired a day after their “anti-masker temper tantrum” appears on YouTube.

Some of them deliberately have superspreader parties in their condos, disrupt rush hour traffic, and have forced ferries and aircraft to turn around. “We don’t need vaccines” many claim, while enjoying life without polio, tetanus, smallpox, diphtheria, and a host of other diseases they didn’t catch because of… vaccines. “We don’t know what’s in them,” they say, after eating McNuggets and hot dogs much of their lives.  Without any reliable evidence, they claim Ivermectin (a treatment for parasitic worms in horses and humans) treats COVID better than vaccines. Yet, we are all “Sheeple” because we follow the directives of Dr. Bonnie Henry and other health professionals.

The newest wedge issue is the potential for vaccine passports. As far as international travel is concerned, those who object to them have obviously never travelled internationally or obtained a real passport. Many countries in Africa still require vaccination certificates for yellow fever. So, if you don’t want to go to Mozambique because you have to be inoculated for yellow fever, then don’t go there. It’s your choice.

But what if a domestic business requires proof of vaccination before it will let a customer eat at their restaurant or shop in their store? Can they? Should they?

Well, if somebody chooses not to be vaccinated, that’s their choice, isn’t it? It’s a free country. They can choose not to be vaccinated and roll the dice with Darwin and live with the consequences. Or not.

But because it’s a free country, and refusing to serve those who refuse to be vaccinated isn’t discrimination under the Human Rights Code, why shouldn’t a private business, like a bar, restaurant, or shop, have the right to insist on the production of a vaccine passport and refuse entry to those who don’t? No shirt. No shoes. No Shot. No Service.

Although the governor of Florida has banned private businesses from requiring proof of vaccination from patrons, the better answer is to let individual businesses make the decision to require vaccine passports, or not. Those businesses that require them may get more business. And those that don’t may also get more business (or patrons will avoid them like the plague, so to speak). The market will decide.

But there are always devils in the detail. Should you deny service to immuno-compromised persons who can’t receive a vaccine? Can you deny access to a public institution, like a university, school, or government office, to a citizen who refuses to produce a vaccine passport? Will there be a cottage industry in fake vaccine passports? Can you fire an employee who refuses to be vaccinated? Will other provinces emulate Florida and allow a business to refuse service to those without shirts and shoes, but not shots?

This will keep lawyers busy for some time.