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https://www.togetherdeclaration.org/We the undersigned reject vaccine passports or any similar form of medical certification in the United Kingdom and invite you to add your voice to ours by signing this open letter.
Together, we represent more than 200 organisations, business groups, campaigners and professionals who have come together because we are gravely concerned about where the introduction of vaccine passports could lead.
In the UK, we enjoy many hard-won liberties and rights, all fought for and defended by our ancestors. These rights are not only fundamental to our understanding of democracy, they are rights we believe all humans should have.
Some of us are lucky enough to have been born with these rights, but others have experienced the perils of segregation, suppression, and surveillance first hand.
However with vaccine passports in the picture and digital IDs under consideration, some of our hard-won rights are now under serious threat.
We have already come together and made incredible sacrifices throughout the Covid-19 crisis. What began with ‘three weeks to flatten the curve’ turned into months of isolation with millions missing out on medical treatment, children deprived of education, businesses and livelihoods lost, families unable to visit elderly loved ones, and weddings, funerals, and social gatherings restricted or cancelled.
The glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel — ‘15 million jabs to freedom’ to protect the most vulnerable — soon faded as the goalposts kept on moving. When ‘freedom day’ finally arrived, the accompanying announcement of vaccine passports meant the prospect of returning to ‘normal' had once again slipped away.
We are human. We know this makes us seek safety above everything else. We seek it for ourselves, we seek to protect those we love, and we strive for a safe world for our children — and sometimes rules and restrictions can help us to feel safer.
But we also know life is about balance and catching ourselves when we go too far in response to our own fear.
Being ordered to produce medical certification at pubs, clubs, theatres, on public transport, at schools, universities, or anywhere else, is unwarranted and risks deepening the inequalities already present within our society.
Today it could be a vaccine passport to enter a pub, but what could it be tomorrow?
We can already see from where these measures have been introduced elsewhere in the world that they lead to many a free society would wish to avoid. Among the consequences are segregation, suppression and surveillance, being unable to dine together, long queues to enter venues, children barred from taking exams or socialising, and the nightmare scenario of being denied access to healthcare
We want a free, fair and open society for ourselves, our friends and our families. We want to eat, work, dance, and pray together. We want our children to be able to play, learn and grow together.
This is therefore the moment when we must catch ourselves, when we recognise we are going too far by requiring medical certification just to participate in normal life.
Now it is our turn to protect the freedoms our forebears sacrificed so much to protect — for ourselves, for our children and for our communities. Now is the time to say ‘no’ to any mandate requiring permission to participate in everyday life.
If you agree that now is the time to work together to help keep each other safe whilst also safeguarding our democracy and normality, then this is your opportunity to make your voice heard.
Please join us by signing below and let's send the message loud and clear: No Vaccine Passports Anywhere.
We can change this, together.
