Democrat President Joe Biden’s newly appointed COVID-19 coordinator wants “vaccine passports” to become an essential part of life in America, despite the pandemic now easing off.
Biden’s new White House adviser, Dr. Ashish Jha, has vigorously pushed for “vaccine passports.”
He also advocates for other hardline measures including mandated vaccines for air travel.
However, despite pushing for tougher Covid restrictions, Dr. Jha was among those on the Left who defended radical Black Lives Matter protests during the pandemic as “essential.”
Dr. Jha, who has praised Anthony Fauci as his personal “role model,” is replacing Jeff Zients and his deputy Natalie Quillian next month.
He is currently the Dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health.
A frequent guest on mainstream media programming, Jha routinely uses his platform to demand the introduction of vaccine mandates and vaccine passports in America.
While most of the country has been returning to normal life in recent months, Jha insisted in an interview last month that “we are not anywhere near the end of this pandemic”
In an April 28th, 2021 op-ed for The Economist, Dr. Jha outlined his “case for vaccine certificates to beat COVID-19.”
“Vaccine certificates are needed so everyone’s full participation in society can be restored,” he summarized while insisting criticism that the policy represents an “infringement on personal freedom” as “nonsense.”
“As countries administer covid-19 vaccines, having a vaccine certificate—a simple, reliable, and secure way to determine who is inoculated—will be critical to making work, school, restaurants, houses of worship, and other places safe for everyone,” he reiterates before pointing to programs in New York, Hawaii, and Israel as models to emulate:
“The state of New York has rolled out a smartphone app that verifies a person’s vaccination status or recent negative test result, allowing admission to public events like baseball games.
“Hawaii plans to pilot a programme exempting those who can show proof of vaccination from mandatory quarantine requirements. Israel, which has already rolled out a ‘green pass’ system, plans to open the programme to international travelers who can show proof of vaccination.”
Dr. Jha has also spoken at events – including “A National Strategy For Digital Health” – sponsored by Mitre Corp, which is spearheading efforts to normalize digital health passports for Americans seeking to travel, enter businesses, or attend school.
Similarly, Dr. Jha called for a “vaccine mandate for air travel” in a Twitter thread from October 3rd, 2021.
“Its time for vaccine mandate for air travel Lack of one is becoming an issue[.] So here’s my story from last night that confirmed why we need it,” he said.
“Basically, we can’t expect mitigation measures to be enforced well enough to prevent transmission on airplanes forever,” he asserted before sharing a story about sitting next to a woman “whose mask barely covered her mouth” on a plane.
Dr. Jha has also participated in one-on-one interviews with Anthony Fauci, as noted by The National Pulse.
During the interview, he praised the controversial National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director as a “role model”:
“Thank you for being a role model, and I think a lot of us in public health look up to you as the person who has always used science and the scientific process as the benchmark by which we guide ourselves, and there is nobody who embodies that better than you do, Tony.
“So I want to say on a personal level, thank you for that.”
During the interview, he also revealed when asked about COVID-19 vaccines he will “always essentially try to channel my inner Tony Fauci, as I think all public health people do, and try to think what would Tony say about this” when answering the questions.
Despite Dr. Jha’s hardline approach to COVID-19 restrictions, he appeared to endorse the Black Lives Matter protests occurring throughout 2020 in an oped-for the Guardian, “Why Protests Aren’t As Dangerous For Spreading Coronavirus As You Might Think.”
In the article, Dr. Jha claimed:
“Anti-racism demonstrations are the perfect scapegoat for a rise in Covid-19 cases, but science suggests their risks can be mitigated… it is also clear that there is a serious risk and grave public health cost to not addressing systemic racism against black people in America.”
“If we are to confront systemic racism, such mass demonstrations seem ‘essential,’ to use our new pandemic lexicon,” he argued.
Dr. Jha replaces Jeff Zients, the latest Biden admin official to leave the government.
