The vaccine passport debate could further complicate what Castrucci said was the “most urgent goal”: getting everyone vaccinated. For more than a week, the concept has come under intense scrutiny on some of Fox News’ most popular programs and from politicos and pundits on the right.

Conservatives have criticized such passports, as they did earlier government restrictions, like lockdowns and mask mandates, as potential government overreach and a violation of patient privacy — a point the American Civil Liberties Union has echoed…

Bauer said that the backlash over vaccine passports — which would include people’s vaccination records — is in line with long-standing skepticism over government-run identification systems and that it is partly attributable to the word “passport.”

“‘Passport,’ you think about it in terms of limitations to movement,” he said. “Part of the conservative or backlash to the shutdowns and masking orders and whatever has been about inhibiting their freedom of movement or freedom to go out and go to a bar or go to a sports game or whatever they want to do.”