Category Archives: Immunity Passport

Europe to set a vaccine passport standard

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Vaccine passports may dictate future of stepping out - The Economic Times

Europe seems poised to set the global standard for vaccine passports, now that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has signaled that vaccinated Americans will be allowed to travel to the continent this summer.

Why it matters: Opening up travel to vaccinated Americans will bring new urgency to creating some kind of trusted means for people to prove they’ve been vaccinated, Axios’ Felix Salmon reports.

The big picture: There will probably never be a single credential that most people use to prove they’ve been vaccinated, for every purpose.

  • But the EU’s system will help set a standard for a proof of vaccination that’s both easily accessible and difficult to forge.
  • The U.S. is being closely consulted on the European passport, so any future American system will likely use similar protocols.

Details: Informal mechanisms like simply asking someone whether they’re had a shot can suffice in many situations. A system for international travel will likely be far more stringent. And there’s a wide middle, too.

  • Other activities that don’t need the same rigorous standards as international travel could rely on the CDC’s vaccination cards; options like a printed QR code, similar to what’s been proposed by PathCheck; or a digital QR code, like the ones created by CommonPass or the Vaccine Credential Initiative.

The bottom line: The world of vaccine passports is almost certainly going to end up as a mishmash of different credentials for different activities, rather than a single credential used by everybody for everything.

No COVID-19 vaccine, no normal life, UK minister suggests

Posted on by • Posted in Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Coronavirus, Crisis, Crisis Management, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Immunity Passport, National Strategy, Pandemic, Public Health, Public Opinion, Public Perception, Public Safety, Public Trust, Scientists, Social Distancing, Superspreader, Superspreader Event, Superspreader Facilities, Superspreading Events, Vaccine • Leave a comment

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-britain-vaccines/no-covid-19-vaccine-no-normal-life-uk-minister-suggests-idUSKBN28A24R?fbclid=IwAR2V5IfikBf64K7KvQwr3kr5CLwQv-4DJ-H2eXTNScN6VLhh3BPNbS-C0Tc

No COVID-19 Vaccine, No Normal Life, UK Minister Suggests | World News | US News

People who refuse a vaccine for COVID-19 could find normal life curtailed as restaurants, bars, cinemas and sports venues could block entry to those who don’t have proof they are inoculated, Britain’s new vaccine minister said on Monday.

Several major COVID-19 vaccines have been announced in recent weeks, raising hopes that the world could soon return to some semblance of normality after the coronavirus killed 1.46 million people and wiped out a chunk of the global economy.

The British minister responsible for the vaccine rollout, Nadhim Zahawi, said getting vaccinated should be voluntary but that Google, Facebook and Twitter should do more to fact-check opposing views of vaccines.

Asked by the BBC if there would be an immunity passport, Zahawi said a person’s COVID-19 vaccine status might be included in a phone app that would inform local doctors of a person’s status.

“But also I think you’d probably find that restaurants and bars and cinemas and other venues, sports venues, will probably also use that system as they’ve done with the app,” Zahawi told the BBC.

“The sort of pressure will come both ways: from service providers – who will say ‘look, demonstrate to us that you have been vaccinated’ – but also we will make the technology as easy and accessible as possible.”

Health authorities in many countries have become increasingly concerned in recent years by the growth of anti-vaccine groups, which are especially active on social media.

Asked if it would become virtually impossible to do anything without the vaccine, Zahawi said: “I think people have to make a decision but I think you’ll probably find many service providers will want to engage in this in the way they did with the app.”

Zahawi declined to give any specific date on a vaccine rollout as none have yet been approved for public use.

The message, he said, should be that a vaccine is good for the community and the country.