Vaccine Passport

The Ohio House voted mostly along party lines to approve a Republican bill on vaccine mandates, vaccine exemptions and vaccine passports, after previous votes on a similar bill stalled. And how the bill got to the floor and its future beyond it are raising questions.

A bill allowing businesses and schools to require COVID vaccines that's set for a full vote in the Ohio House also guarantees broad exemptions for employees and students.

Last month, several Central Ohio businesses and music venues began making customers provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccine in order to eat, drink or attend concerts. And as weeks have passed by, they spoke about how that’s been for business.

Members of an Ohio House committee briefly returned from summer break Tuesday to hear public comment on a bill to ban vaccine mandates.

That's when a vaccine for plague was invented — and authorities began to consider requiring proof of vaccination before visiting pilgrimage sites in India. The debate has raged ever since.

These digital credentials could return us to normal life more quickly, but they have stirred controversy in some quarters.

A Republican state lawmaker has proposed a bill to ban Ohio from mandating so-called “vaccine passports” that would that provide proof of a COVID vaccination, even though there are no plans to institute them.