UPDATE 6/10: WSDOT, in an email to the Washington Policy Center after this blog was originally published, WSDOT has indicated they are re-considering the rules they plan to enforce. The Washington Policy Center will request the new policies when available.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is requiring its employees to wear a ‘vaccination badge’ on their employee identification badge in a clear violation of personal medical privacy.

In response to a Washington Policy Center public records request, WSDOT has supplied their employee attestation form which details the requirements for employees to confirm in writing to WSDOT they have received a COVID-19 vaccine. The record of the attestation is then placed in the employee’s medical file and can be inspected by Labor and Industries (L&I), another state government agency, without the employee’s consent.

A sticker for the employee badge denoting the vaccination medical status is then issued to the employee.

There is no option for an employee to remove consent from their medical data being shared with other state agencies.

State officials should not be able to force state workers to provide vaccination status. State officials should certainly not make workers display a special badge or credential that advertises a person’s private medical information for all to see.

This new proposal is about as workable, and popular, as the state’s failed effort last year to make businesses collect sensitive personal contact tracing information. According to the Washington State Health Department website, hospitalizations do to COVID-19 are falling significantly and the deaths due to the virus are almost at zero and would indicate such measures by a state agency may not be necessary anyway.

The state’s L&I rules to create a Washington state vaccine passport with information collected and enforced by businesses is a clear overreach of state government and should be repealed immediately.

A copy of the form is below.