No, the federal government isn’t requiring COVID-19 vaccine passports to go to the movies

A recent Facebook post accuses the Biden administration of hypocrisy, suggesting that the federal government is more lenient with people who illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border than with Americans who won’t get a COVID-19 vaccine. 

"COVID passports to visit the movies but not actual passports to cross the southern border?" the post says. "That’s the federal government for you." 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

The federal government does not require "COVID passports" to go to the movies. 

In April, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded to a reporter’s question about "a federally organized vaccine passport of some kind." 

"Does the president see that maybe as some kind of tool that could be used, or would he lean more on the side of people who have raised objections over privacy and so on?" the reporter said. 

Psaki said, "The government is not now nor will be supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential. There will be no federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential." 

Featured Fact-check

Liberty Counsel

stated on May 1, 2020 in a blog post

Under the mayor’s COVID-19 order, Kansas City “churchgoers must register with the government.”

Jeff Zients, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator, echoed the message later that month. 

"The government is not now nor will we be supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential," Zients said.

Some states and cities have required so-called vaccine passports — evidence that a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19 — to access certain places and businesses. In New York City, for example, movie theaters among other establishments must verify that staff and patrons are vaccinated against COVID-19. Other states, meanwhile, have banned such passports. 

But the federal government is not requiring people to flash proof that they were vaccinated. We rate claims that it is False.