UK Equality Act allows opt out to vaccine passport requirement

There is a fascinating article in The Times today about the “shaky legal ground” of coronavirus vaccine passports. The Equality Act has a concept called “protected characteristics” such as religious beliefs, as legal ground for claiming discrimination. Here is a key paragraph:

‘Rob Coleridge, of the law firm Irwin Mitchell, said that one of the biggest pitfalls would be over disability because it includes mental impairment and medically recognised phobias. “The fact that someone hasn’t had a vaccination as a result of a phobia is a protected characteristic,” he said.’

This would appear to suggest that at least in the UK, someone with a medical phobia could sue an airline for discrimination if the airline insisted that the person possesses a vaccine passport in order to travel. I don’t know about anyone else on this site but I sure have a medical phobia about new unproven vaccines being injected in me more or less by de facto force. I wonder if other Western countries have similar legislation?

Source: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f85139b8-5a86-11eb-86f4-4fa0aa4e7fd3

I am all for the unspecified serious allergies that employers can’t ask about because of hippa.