Debate intensifies on vaccine passports
As governments mull health certificates to reopen borders and allow overseas travelers, experts sound note of caution
International travel health certificates to show that a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19 are being rolled out or discussed by many governments around the world to help restart economies and crossborder travel.
The ideas seem practical, but some experts have voiced concerns about the programs, citing potential risks such as discrimination, theft of health information or fraud.
On March 8, China officially kicked off a mini program, backed by the social media app WeChat, which enables subscribers to obtain a Chinese version of an international travel health certificate, allowing people-topeople exchanges to resume in a safe and orderly way.
While protecting personal privacy, the certificate will help achieve mutual recognition of information such as COVID-19 nucleic acid testing and vaccination.
China is willing to discuss mutual recognition of vaccination, and how it would work, with other countries, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a news conference on March 7 on the sidelines of the ongoing session of the National People’s Congress, the nation’s top legislature.
In Europe, Iceland in late January became the first country in the 26-member Schengen Area, a passport-free zone, to issue vaccine certificates.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the 27-member European Union hope to adopt a proposal for its vaccine “passport”, known as a Green Digital Certificate, at a meeting of member states on March 17.
“Exactly how it will then be used by member states in order to improve freedom of movement still needs to be defined,” Eric Mamer, chief spokesman for the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, said on March 8.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has joined some tourism-dependent countries in pushing for vaccination certificates. “Those who are vaccinated should have full freedom,” he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that for now, treating vaccinated travelers preferentially “isn’t on the agenda, given the low vaccination coverage at this point”. But she indicated openness to such certificates later this year.
The French government also was cautious, with some officials worrying about a resurgence of new cases with such certificates.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has indicated that vaccine certificates are “under consideration”.
The US government has not decided whether it will approve vaccine certificates for US citizens. But President Joe Biden has issued an executive order asking multiple government agencies to “assess the feasibility” of linking coronavirus shots to international vaccination certificates and producing digital versions of them.
Mike Ryan, executive director of the Health Emergencies Programme of the World Health Organization, said on March 8 that the use of certification of vaccination as a requirement for travel is not advised at the present time because vaccination is not available around the world, especially on an equitable basis. He noted that there are also people who for whatever reasons cannot be vaccinated or do not wish to be vaccinated.
Civil liberties groups have said people who do not want to get the vaccine due to religious or cultural reasons could be blocked from some aspects of daily life, while a digital-based app could penalize those who do not have a smartphone.
“I foresee vaccine passports being used as a way to further disenfranchise people,” said Alexis Hancock, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit digital rights group.
Jane Lee, a trust and safety architect at cybersecurity company Sift, said: “I can pretty much 100 percent guarantee that fraud is going to occur.”
Despite the moves to develop some type of proof of vaccination against COVID-19, the WHO warned in January that it is not known how effective the vaccines are against transmission, which could mean that those who get vaccinated could still pass the coronavirus to others. And people who have already had the virus may in the future have different vaccine requirements.