Why expert does not favour digital Covid passports
A PAPER form of a vaccine passport would be better than an app, according to Trinity College computer science Professor Stephen Farrell.
Earlier this week, the European Commission announced its intent to develop a ‘Digital Green Pass’ allowing for vaccinated people to travel and move more quickly.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted on Monday that ‘the Digital Green Pass should facilitate Europeans’ lives. The aim is to gradually enable them to move safely in the European Union or abroad for work or tourism’.
She said the plan would be rolled out later this month.
While there are many issues circulating around whether travel should really be considered in the absence of research showcasing the effectiveness of the vaccines impact on transmission, the logistics of how a vaccine passport would actually work are also being considered. Prof. Farrell told the Irish Mail on Sunday that while a vaccine app could be developed, his preference would be for a paper document. He said: ‘Paper or a static PDF seem like they’d be fine to me, and they’ll need to support those as not everyone has a (powered up, online) phone. ‘Nor will every border crossing point have a reader that works for all possible countries all the time. An app can be developed for anything but that doesn’t make it a good idea. A badly written app could allow government to monitor where and when the app is used, which could be on entry to bars/restaurants. I hope they don’t make such mistakes.’