I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Friday, April 9th.

We'll talk again today about so-called vaccine passports because I think it's a really important clash of perceived rights

right now. The right to go where you want without having to take a substance into your body

or divulging a medical record versus the right to know if the people you're sharing the air

with in a public place like a theater or a wedding hall or a school building

is a COVID risk to you and others. We talked on yesterday's show about Texas Governor

Greg Abbott banning state-mandated vaccine passports there. Florida's governor is even

banning private businesses from requiring proof of vaccination status. Here's Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Florida's W-I-N-K-T-V last Friday.

The idea that you should have to show that to be able to participate in normal activity,

like going to a football game or a movie theater or any of that,

certainly for government to force you.

That's something that's not acceptable. But so far, the Florida and Texas policies are in the minority. Rutgers,

a state university in New Jersey, of course, will require proof of vaccination for students

who want to return to campus in the fall, an increasing number of private colleges

are also announcing the same requirement. Cornell, Brown, Northeastern, Notre Dame are among

those listed by CNN. Interestingly, they report that St. Edwards College in Texas and Nova

Southeastern in Florida are the only two so far to say all faculty and staff will need to show vaccine proof as well as students.

Interesting that they're in the two states where the governors are digging in against it, Florida and Texas.

In the two states, I should say in New York, some music, theater, and sports venues are now requiring proof of a vaccine or recent negative COVID test in order to get inside.

So you can go all over the map and find policies that are all over the map.

And some people on the left and racial equity advocates have reservations to, not just the Ron DeSantis

of the world. So who's getting our rights right? With me now is Dr. Lena Wend, former Baltimore

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