São Paulo City Hall requires vaccination for restaurants and shopping centers, paving the way for a two-tier society
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After months of mandatory masks, isolation measures, and lockdowns, the São Paulo city hall, copy-pasting big cities like New York, San Francisco, Paris, and others, now wants to go a big step further.
São Paulo Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MBD) announced Monday, May 23, that the city would require a “Covid-19 vaccination pass” for restaurant entry, shopping malls, and other establishments in the capital São Paulo. The document will be issued by an app.
The mayor explained that the Municipal Health Secretariat developed the application and will have a QR code. There, the institution will read the data and determine who has been vaccinated and who has not.
The device is still in the testing phase, which should be completed next Friday, August 27. There is no date for implementing the rule nor any indication of the fine for facilities caught with unvaccinated individuals.
Read also: Original promise of Covid vaccines cannot be kept – when do we start talking about it?
“The main concept is that facilities can only admit people who have the vaccine. This is the passport. If the facility employs people without vaccines, which is found by the health inspectorate, they will be fined. So they don’t have to pay a fine, we will provide a mechanism for them to determine who has the vaccine,” Nunes said at a press conference Monday morning.
TWO-TIER SOCIETY
Many fear that this measure could lead to a two-class society: the “vaccinated”, who can move freely, and an underclass of the “unvaccinated”, who are denied access to many things.
However, the citizens of São Paulo were not asked whether they want such a rift in society, which will divide families and friends and inevitably lead to more tensions.
In more and more countries, employers large and small, decide unilaterally that employees must be vaccinated or are no longer allowed to work. This also applies to state employees. This trend is also spreading in Brazil. São Paulo decided a few weeks ago that state employees must be vaccinated.
Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets across France for the fifth straight week to demonstrate against the government’s coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine passport mandate.
INFORMATION WAR ON COVID VACCINES
Ricardo Nunes’ decision comes at a time when the information war over Covid vaccines is gaining momentum, and the narratives about whether they really protect or, on the contrary, harm people are increasingly controversial.
On the one hand, there are vaccine advocates who believe the original promises of the authorities that vaccination is safe and essential for survival.
On the other hand, recent studies have shown that mRNA vaccines lead to a decrease in the body’s own immune defenses and possible unintended consequences, which is exactly the opposite of the original promise of covid vaccines.
The New York Times recently ran an article entitled, “Israel, Once the Model for Beating Covid, Faces New Surge of Infections.”
The article claims that Covid vaccines given to 2.5 billion people around the world no longer work very well and that the people who took those vaccines are now the ones getting sick and dying.
If it turns out that Covid vaccines are indeed not only failing to deliver the desired results but, on the contrary, are harmful, City Hall is likely to face a flood of lawsuits.
The introduction of a Covid Passport is ultimately nothing else than coercing people who do not want to be vaccinated to get the shot anyway. Otherwise, they will no longer be able to participate in society.
NEW YORK CITY MAYOR SUED BY BUSINESS OWNERS OF VACCINE MANDATE
Given the new set of information, a group of restaurant owners and five small businesses filed a lawsuit Tuesday, August 17, against New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio over the city’s vaccine mandate targeting “certain establishments.” The lawsuit was filed in Richmond County (Staten Island) Supreme Court.
“This vaccine mandate is arbitrary and capricious because it targets certain establishments but not others,” wrote the plaintiffs, led by a group called the Independent Restaurant Owners Association Rescue.
Staten Island Judo Jujitsu Dojo owner Joseph Cannizzo said the executive order is a “death sentence” to small businesses. According to the lawsuit, the mandate will “severely impact” the owners’ businesses, life savings, and livelihood.
Some business owners have raised concerns about the mandate being discriminatory and un-American, leading to the rollout of fake vaccine cards and restaurant staff having to bear the brunt of potential customers’ outrage over the new rule.
Other restaurant owners have expressed concerns about some of their workers quitting if required to be vaccinated. Art Depole, who co-owns a Mooyah Burgers, Fries and Shakes franchise with his brother Nick in midtown Manhattan, said that some of his employees were not planning to get vaccinated. In a tight labor market, replacing those workers can be a huge challenge.
De Blasio’s controversial “Key to NYC” scheme officially kicked off recently, separating the vaccinated and the unvaccinated in day-to-day life for the first time in a U.S. city. The cities of New Orleans and San Francisco have since followed suit with similar mandates.
Prominent Republicans like New York Rep. Nicole Malliotakis and City Council member Joe Borelli are backing the business owners’ lawsuit.
Malliotakis announced the lawsuit at a press conference earlier this month. She was joined by attorneys Louis Gelormino and Mark Fonte. Also present were Cannizzo and Charlie Cassara, who owns two gyms on Long Island and heads the U.S. Fitness Coalition.
FOLLOW UP
The São Paulo city government has backed down from the decision to force bars, restaurants, and shopping centers to require a vaccination passport for customers to visit their establishments. The city’s health secretary, Edson Aparecido, said suddenly it was only a “recommendation”.
“The mayor [Ricardo Nunes] has announced that events in the capital will require the passport, the creation of which we will provide. Games, fairs, congresses, etc. The rest is a recommendation,” Aparecido told the newspaper Agora late Monday afternoon (23).
More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated AI newsroom. Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief. The Rio Times also runs Ask Rio Times, which answers from 100,000+ of our own articles, the daily Latin America Power Map, and prediction-market odds on elections and markets.. How we use AI · Report an error
Living in or visiting São Paulo? See this month's events and our São Paulo city guide with rents, safety and upcoming concerts.
Brazil runoff, Sunday, October 25: Brazil runoff date. Latest: Brazil runoff polls, Flávio 51%, Lula 49%.