as some provinces mull over the idea of vaccine passports, canada’s privacy commissioners have cautioned that, while the benefits could be significant — more personal liberties, fewer restrictions on gatherings — requiring someone to disclose personal health information is an encroachment on civil liberties that shouldn’t be taken lightly.
but what about less formal relationships? when, if ever, is it appropriate to ask whether someone has been vaccinated? and should those who have chosen for non-medical reasons to opt out of covid shots have a moral duty to tell others, if the situation might justify them knowing?
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much of the tension is based on evidence that getting vaccinated not only dramatically protects people from getting seriously sick with covid , but the assumption, supported by emerging data, that it lowers the chance they can spread the virus to others.
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the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention guidelines state that fully vaccinated people can visit with the unvaccinated, but having unvaccinated members within a group is raising messy tensions. advice columnists are being asked whether a spouse has grounds to refuse to host his wife’s anti-vaxx sister and husband. “based on the sheer volume of questions similar to yours, it has become increasingly obvious to me that many people are using the vaccination question as a way to finally stop spending time with people they don’t like,” the chicago tribune’s amy dickinson recently wrote. health information is personal information. “there’s no question about that and it’s really up to an individual what’s disclosed and what’s not,” bowman said.
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