I walked into a prominent restaurant in New York City the other day and was asked for proof of vaccination. The young restaurant professional quickly glanced at a vaccine card — which could have been fake, real, old, out of date, for another person — and gave me a friendly nod. My associate soon joined me and jokingly said, “I told them my card was fake, but they just laughed!”
The experience stuck with me long past the meal. We could have been anyone. Using any card.
Years ago, while working at 45 Broadway, I saw the Occupy New York protest movement one day, heading toward the tip of Manhattan. Unbeknownst to them, filming for a Spiderman Movie was happening along their route. There were about 60 actors dressed as NYC police. As the Occupy marchers encountered the movie set, the “police” headed toward the marchers out of curiosity, prompting marchers to panic over fear of being arrested. As you can imagine, chaos ensued.
I bring up this comparison, because clearly restaurant workers are not medical professionals any more than actors dressed as police can make an arrest. The point here is that, going through the motions without authenticity isn’t really accomplishing anything.
While well-intentioned, the idea of implementing an ineffective system designed to keep people safe, can actually create chaos and lead to unnecessary sickness and even death. There are more well-thought-out ways to ensure that the people entering a restaurant, airplane or stadium, are indeed safe and COVID-free.
The practical combination of vaccination and testing works to safeguard the general population when done by professionals Implementing a program that tracks vaccinations, administers testing and provides a medical review of past and present COVID, requires the expertise of a healthcare company operating under HIPAA guidelines. If you do that, you can provide restaurants, hotels, and retail establishments a much more reliable tool with which to protect themselves and their customers.
It is unreasonable to expect untrained employees at restaurants, hotels or corporate offices to have the expertise to handle that situation on their own.
When I present PROVEN, my company’s solution to safe entry in public spaces, I usually offer a situation and ask how the audience would react. Its very simple: You are a hotel employee working at the front desk, a customer comes to check in… they are coughing, sweating, complaining about aches and pains. A temperature reading shows normal, because they are loaded with aspirin, and they have a test certificate that says they are negative for COVID….
Is it fair for that employee to have to make a judgement call on whether they should give that customer a room? What about a greeter at a restaurant… a teen, working part-time after school? Or how about a flight attendant? Do they start a battle or let the cougher on the plane? Would you want to sit next to that person for the next 3 hours?
We created PROVEN to help the business community and avoid another national shutdown. PROVEN knows there are ways we can all exist together during a pandemic safely and harmoniously. Our philosophy is that it’s better to find a way to live with something than to hide under a rock until it goes away. And COVID is not the last pandemic we will face as a country and planet. We need to find solutions that allow the world to keep turning. Building a better system to keep the economy going, and our lives intact is what we are all about … throughout COVID and beyond.
Our goal — my personal goal – is to keep all of us safe.
I want all of you to be able to dine in your favorite restaurant with complete confidence that those at the table next to you are safe. And for them to know that you are safe. There are simpler, more secure way to make that happen than a flimsy, faded vaccine card that may or may not even belong to the person handing it over.
The PROVEN way utilizes speedy technology, healthcare expertise, current results, medical privacy and the ability to carry all of your medical information safely, securely on your phone. Best of all, EVERYONE can be PROVEN. Vaccinated or not.
Check out PROVEN at www.provenpass.com and let me know what you think. Help us build a better tomorrow. Together.
-Peter Gallic, President, PROVEN
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