[AugustaChronicle] Gov. Brian Kemp says public agencies in Georgia can't require people to prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19, a step his administration says ultimately means no agency can require anyone to receive the vaccination.The Republican governor issued an executive order May 25 banning vaccine passports and saying state immunization records can't be shared with any private company aiming to create such a record.
“While I continue to urge all Georgians to get vaccinated so we continue our momentum in putting the COVID-19 pandemic in the rearview, vaccination is a personal decision between each citizen and a medical professional — not state government,” Kemp said in a statement.
Kemp is running for reelection in 2022 and has been taking steps to shore up support among Republican voters still restive over claims that Kemp didn’t do enough to overturn Biden’s victory in Georgia. A number of Republican-led states have moved to ban vaccine passports, even though they are not in widespread use in the U.S.
Kemp earlier sent a letter to the state Board of Education urging members to ban public schools from certain teachings about race.
The order on May 25 also says no vaccine passport can be required for entry into Georgia, a move that could block any airline or bus line from using them.
It's unclear how far the rules go. Hall said he wasn't sure if the move would ban prisons, mental hospitals or juvenile justice facilities from asking whether inmates or patients had been vaccinated. The state must provide medical care for residents of such facilities.
It also wasn't immediately clear if the order bans the state Department of Public Health from including an entry for COVID-19 vaccines on the standard immunization record that pediatricians provide to parents enrolling children in child care or school.
Kemp did say that public employers could make different rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated employees, but must take the worker's word for whether they have received shots protecting against COVID-19, and couldn't require any proof.
Unlike many of Kemp's other orders related to COVID-19, it's permanent and doesn't expire when the health care state of emergency that provides sweeping powers to Kemp runs out.
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