Last week, when it was announced that crowds were to be, slowly, re-admitted to sporting events, the subject of vaccine passports reared its ugly head.
With the authorities desperate to keep the pandemic under control, it was never going to be a case of throwing the gates open and stadia being filled up immediately.
As has been the case in all areas affected by the pandemic, it will be a staged return.
A typical example of this being forthcoming Carabao Cup Final where it has been announced that Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur will be allocated 2,000 tickets for the game.
Now it does not sound a lot and I am not sure how many of those tickets will make their way down to the genuine supporters once corporate clients, players friends etc have been dealt with.
But it appears attendance will be subject to strict conditions with those lucky enough to get tickets having to provide proof of a negative test, from an approved source, being taken a minimum of 24 hours before the game.
Tickets are, also, not available to anyone under 18 years of age, a little puzzling as we are constantly being told that they are the least likely to be infected.
Those strict conditions, which I have only dabbled with, all seem to point towards the fact that it will be an age before football becomes the game, we all previously knew.
Therefore, it would not surprise me if, once more of the population are jabbed up, a vaccine passport will become a necessity.
Discussing the subject previously – the-vaccine-passport-conundrum – we ran a poll which asked the simple question:
Do You Agree With Vaccine Passports For Sporting Events?
The response showed that you believe it is inevitable with 76% going for the YES option with only 19% going for the NO option with the remaining 5% opting for UNDECIDED.
Personally, I would love a return to normality, but I have accepted that this pandemic will be ongoing and different variants of the COVID-19 virus could see the scenarios we have experienced over the last 12 months becoming the norm, for many years to come.
So, if Vaccine Passports are one of the prices we must to pay then so be it.
COYH’s
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Hi MH, re vaccine passports, personally I can’t see any other way to be honest. Although people are saying they are discrimatory & could cause a two tier system, what about people like me, a 66 year old asthmatic who nearly died in his 20’s from a severe attack of it that wouldn’t feel safe going to a football match or being too close to anyone else through fear of catching this awful disease. I know some people don’t or won’t have the jab for various reasons but I know there are many who feel the same as me & they will stay well clear of matches & pubs, shops etc till things are much safer, it’s not worth the risk so nothing will fully recover anyway unless this blanket approach to immunisation happens as far as I can see. Also like you have mentioned re variants, if a minority of the population continue to flout the rules mixing etc they may well spread dangerous variants which undermine vaccines then we may have to start all over again with updated versions to combat the new variants & be in a never ending cycle with this epidemic which is the last thing anybody wants whatever their view isn’t it.
My thoughts exactly, I’m 60 and a diabetic, although I would love to return to public events, I’m staying put until it gets a lot safer, I fully expect the R rate to increase now people are mixing. It is a vicious cycle, look after yourself mate.
Thanks for your kind words MH, you take care of yourself too.