$999 Problems, But a Discount If Covid-19 Vaccination Proof Isn’t One

The band Teenage Bottlerocket performing in Hamburg, Germany in 2015. Photo by Frank Schwichtenberg, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Leave it to a Florida concert promoter to find an end around to a Ron DeSantis executive order and Florida law banning businesses from requiring Covid-19 vaccination proof while getting publicity and making a profit all at the same time.

This spring, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued an executive order forbidding businesses from making their patrons prove that they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. He also signed into law a bill to give the ban more teeth, threatening violators with fines in the thousands of dollars.

One Florida concert promoter thinks he has a workaround: offer $18 tickets to anyone who is vaccinated and charge $999.99 for everyone else.

“I’m not denying entry to anyone,” said Paul Williams. “I’m just offering a discount.”

The governor’s office says the unorthodox pricing violates Florida’s rules: “Charging higher ticket prices for individuals who do not furnish proof of vaccination unfairly discriminates against people who have enumerated rights under Florida law,” said Christina Pushaw, press secretary for the governor’s office, in an email to The Washington Post.

Williams said he figured his tactics were safe — the executive order carries limited penalties, and the new law does not go into effect until shortly after his small punk rock event planned for June 26 in St. Petersburg. But he said he was unprepared for the vitriol that followed: The anti-vaccination Facebook messages, the sudden spam calls, the misspelled email that warned the band their next show could be their “last” and said: “You’re fans are going to kill you.”

“I didn’t know that caring about my community would make me Hitler,” he said in an interview Saturday, declining to give his age out of concern for his privacy. He said he and the band are flagging the threatening email to law enforcement.

The backlash around a modest event for a couple hundred people underscores the deep divisions over what the United States’ return to normal should look like amid lingering resistance to vaccination. As the rate of shots slow, public health officials have warned that the country may not reach the oft-repeated goal of “herd immunity” against a virus that has killed nearly 600,000 people in the United States and slowed the economy. But some states including Florida have sought to limit businesses’ ability to check vaccinations after a year of coronavirus restrictions becoming politicized.

Asked Saturday whether he regrets the pricing move — which brought national news coverage — Williams said: “We’re still sticking to our guns.”

A few of the “discount” tickets were left as of Saturday afternoon, he said; headliner Teenage Bottlerocket’s website listed the St. Petersburg show as having sold out. None of the “standard” price tickets had sold.

Williams said attendees must present photo ID and a coronavirus vaccination card the day of the concert to enter at the lower price, which was reported by Creative Loafing: Tampa Bay.

There are a few crossing streams here. While in general any incentive to get folks vaccinated is a net good, we probably shouldn’t rule out that this is excellent publicity for a rather modest and low-profile event. After all, they are called “concert promoters” for a reason, folks. But as Michael was talking about in this week’s Thursday Throughput, we still need to hash out and examine a lot of what was, and was not, done during the past 18 months of Covid-19 crisis because the lessons are not only not learned yet, but we also aren’t even sure the right questions to be asking in some cases. The rush of folks who spent the pandemic demanding the government not interfere with businesses and the folks who spent the pandemic demanding government interfere with businesses switching sides as if between sets of a volleyball game ought to be all sorts of fun on the interwebs for a while.

While some of this will be legislated, and no doubt sorted out in court cases, on the practical level — and like it or not — who is and is not vaccinated among the general public among the general public is going to mostly be a matter of the honor system except in instances the government can enforce it. Social media will howl about things like HIPAA and Nurnberg Codes in regard to vaccinations without knowing what either of those things really are or how they work. Most folks will continue along the lines of their Covid-19 priors that by now are well-worn ruts they have no intention of getting out of. And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past…until the next trending social media trend lets us have the same argument again, but different this time because reasons, tomorrow. I’ll revert to my previous statement about mask mandates and apply the same principle here. And if you can’t do that, at least be creative about it like Florida concert promoter who managed to get their latest local gig by a band you had never heard of on the national news.