Letter to Honorable Henry McMaster, Governor of South Carolina - Rep. Mace Joins Gov. McMaster in Opposition to Vaccine Passports

Letter

Dear Governor McMaster,

We write you today with grave concerns regarding the potential mandate of so-called "vaccine
passports" in the nation and possibly in our state. Today we ask that you do everything in your
power under the law to prohibit "vaccine passports" from being required to enter, enjoy, and
move about our beautiful state.

The use of "vaccine passports" to restrict commerce is a threat to both personal liberty and
medical privacy. We are committed to fighting this violation at the federal level, and we urge
you to do the same by working with Attorney General Wilson at the state level.

Just as, under your leadership, South Carolina held the line and recognized that the government
had no authority to force churches to close during the pandemic, we now ask that South Carolina
continue to lead by example by preventing the mandate of a "vaccine passport" to restrict South
Carolinians from being able to engage in normal, everyday activities.

We believe the mandate of a "vaccine passport" to engage in commerce constitutes a violation of
the privacy of our citizens, and specifically a likely violation of the federal HIPAA law.
Perversely, we believe the privacy concerns of a "vaccine passport" could create more
polarization around the COVID-19 vaccine rather than encouraging its use, impeding efforts to
achieve herd immunity and prolonging the pandemic.

South Carolina has an opportunity to lead the way in understanding how to manage the pandemic
while keeping our economy open and protecting the liberties of our people. As we see it,
"vaccine passports" are a terrible approach to managing this pandemic or the economy, and
instead will violate the rights of our citizens. We urge you to fight against this with every tool of
state government, including preventing state agencies from cooperating or coordinating with the
federal government on the use of potential "vaccine passports."

Thank you for your continued leadership of our state.
Sincerely,