[wutbrodo]

Not quite the same thing, but I had to head home early one night recently because my phone had died (which almost never happens to me) so I couldn't show vaccination-proof. I would guess that a person's phone dying while bar-hopping is much more common than dying while dining alone (since when dining with others, you can just look at their menus).

You're not wrong that this fundamentally excludes those who don't have (powered-up) smartphones. But it's not like restaurants and bars had the luxury of thinking through and choosing to have these effective new smartphone requirements: they adapted to Covid for their survival, and the odd case who got unlucky with a dead phone is just collateral damage.

[b112]

because my phone had died (which almost never happens to me) so I couldn't show vaccination-proof.

I'm in Canada, and we use QR codes, signed by the government, to show and validate status.

Mine is printed out, and in my pocket. No phone is required.

Thus, no one needs to avoid anything, phone or not.

[wutbrodo]

Well yes, the point of this subthread is not that it's impossible to do this well, but that bars/restaurants don't seem to care whether they're excluding the occasional unlucky customer. I'm in New York City and not a single person has scanned my vax QR code: they just see a vaguely official looking app with a name that matches my ID, or a physical vaccination card (conveniently sized to not fit in any wallets).

Also, in your case, is this a federal system or a state by state one? If the latter, this sounds way worse than what NY is doing; with my CA vaccination I couldn't get in anywhere.

[b112]

We have few provinces (10) in Canada, so it is easier than working and coordinating with all the states the US has.

The QR code is provincial, but it only requires minor changes to have one provincial app, look at other validation sources.

I agree that sadly, restaurants may find some metrics too high/annoying to deal with, and opt for a lost sale.