I feel like this could happen in two ways:
- People who have had early vaccines are allowed to do things in their own country that others are not
- People from COUNTRIES that haven't had a wide vaccine rollout are going to be discriminated against on the global stage (Oh you're from X country you can't come in)
(I also think we're already seeing "vaccination geopolitics" starting but that's another topic)
#2 is much more effective and wide-spanning than Trump's "Muslim ban" and it is already working. Didn't WHO project that countries in the Global South would only get vaccines in 2022 if that? And then it will turn out that their vaccines aren't good enough for some countries anyway (Israel, for example, does not recognize Covishield, Indian-produced AstraZeneca, as a legit vaccine with all the travel restriction consequences)
edit: apropos, an article on vaccine passports from today
1 is already kinda tacitly happening, but it's going to get much worse as we shift from Pandemic to an Endemic where we're all reliant on the Big Pharma to provide us with booster shots; It seems unlikely that our government (in the US at least) will foot the bill for vaccines long term, leading towards a society that ensures a steady stream of variants thanks to anti-vaxxers and front line, unvaccinated workers with shitty (or nonexistent) health care.
This scenario is terrifying to me as we read more about long term complications like neurological and pulmonary issues.
I'm not sure about #1, at least not in most western countries, cause they have shown they don't really care about protection.
#2 though, will definitely be another racist covid scare in the near future.
Yeah I thought it wouldn't happen much in the west too, but one of the top news stories in the UK today is about how pubs might only let you in if you've had a vaccine.
