The paranoid whack jobs of Orange County are at it again. This time, they're protesting so-called "vaccine passports," which is basically a picture of your vaccine documentation. But the sons and daughters of the old "black helicopter" crowd freaked out, claiming the local government would use them to track people and allow vaccinate residents to get special treatment. (Only 38% of the county's residents are fully vaccinated, so rewarding people who get vaccinated with expanded access makes sense to me!) Via the L.A. Times:
The proposal for the pilot program included issuing a QR code to vaccine recipients who registered for appointments through the county’s Othena app. County officials stressed that digital vaccination records would provide an alternative to the paper cards issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which can be easily lost or destroyed.
Many residents were not convinced.
By noon, at least 580 people had queued up to offer public comment during the county meeting, including some from Los Angeles. Each was given 30 seconds to speak, and the overwhelming majority used the opportunity to urge county officials to reject the passport. Some also declared the pandemic a hoax.
“I will not be bullied, coerced, harassed in any way, shape or form ... into participating into a massive human experiment in order to fit in,” said one woman, who did not provide her name.
Oh noes! Those poor, poor snowflakes of Orange County! They are so persecuted by... science? Common sense?
Several speakers at the meeting Tuesday compared vaccines to “gene therapy” and said the proposed passport was akin to the yellow stars Nazis ordered Jews to wear as a means of identification.
“This is nothing but gaslighting,” one woman said. “The digital passport, the vaccine and the Othena app are the yellow stars segregating us, which is truly the ultimate goal.... You’re not going to brand us with a bar code like we are cattle. The Nazis looked like they were winning too for a little while.”
Orange County residents sound downright delusional, probably from watching Fox News, listening to wingnut talk radio, and Facebook anti-vaxxer groups. That's why a convenience offered by local government sounds, to them, like an existential threat. That's why mild incentives for good behavior set them off.
Well, the snowflakes win, at least for the time being:
