Covid vaccine passport: Dodgy 'adult entertainment' clubs may not abide by the rules – Vladimir McTavish

This week, I have received a number of texts claiming to be from the NHS advising me to apply for my “Covid Pass”. Obviously a scam.

Will clubs that are money-laundering fronts for criminals abide by the Covid passport rules? (Picture: Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP via Getty Images)

I personally think that vaccine passports are a good idea, and not just because Alex Cole-Hamilton is opposed to them. Although, in fairness, that would be a valid enough reason.

Representatives of the night-time economy have been very vocal in their opposition to the plan.

However It only seems sensible that if people are crammed cheek-by-jowl onto a dancefloor they should have some kind of protection, not only for themselves but for everybody else with whom they are likely to come into contact.

The chances are, they will take a taxi home afterwards. Taxi drivers on night shift have a difficult and stressful enough job and many have fallen victim to the virus already.

It is not only nightclubs where the regulations will apply. Vaccine certification will also be required for “adult entertainment”, in other words strip clubs and lap-dancing bars. It is really important that the dancers in these places are protected. It’s bad enough that women are expected to take their clothes off in rooms that are likely to have no central heating once everyone’s gas supplies are turned off.

I am not sure what the Covid regulations are in these establishments but I am guessing they are similar to pubs and restaurants. Dancers will presumably have to wear face masks when they are standing up, except when they are dancing, although you can probably pay extra to go into a private room where the dancer will take off her face mask.

It’s an open secret that large parts of the “night-time economy”, in particular “adult entertainment”, are fronts for shadier businesses to launder money. I suspect that in a number of the dodgier nightclubs, you may not be required to show a vaccine passport to gain entry.

Not only that, once inside the doors, you may find some guy who will be able to sell you a forged vaccine passport. Probably from the same guy who has been sending those scam texts.