Janet Poliakoff explains why some form of passport could help older people like her, while Frank Jackson points out the fallacy in discussions on individual and collective rights
I understand that many people will not want to have to show some sort of Covid passport (Covid-status certificate scheme could be unlawful discrimination, says EHRC, 14 April). But as an older person with some medical risk, I am not keen to take the gamble of being near people who do not have such a passport. There must be many like me who will avoid places where such people will be whenever possible, which means that those businesses will lose our custom and we will lose our freedom to go out safely.
Surely the best thing is to have a compromise, whereby each business could have a different policy at different times. For example, perhaps a shop could have a passport-only hour at the start of the day, while a pub, restaurant or cinema could have a passport-only evening once or twice a week. That would give me the freedom to go out safely and also help businesses, while also giving freedom to those without passports.
Janet Poliakoff
Nottingham
This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
