Life in post-pandemic world?
Vaccination ‘passports’ seen as keys to opening society, but they could also add to divide
TEL AVIV, Israel — Violet light bathed the club stage as 300 people, masked and socially distanced, erupted in gentle applause. For the first time since the pandemic began, Israeli musician Aviv Geffen stepped to his electric piano and began to play for an audience seated in front of him.
“A miracle is happening here tonight,” Geffen told the crowd.
Still, the reanimating experience last week above a shopping mall north of Tel Aviv was not accessible to everyone. Only people displaying a “green passport” that proved they had been vaccinated or had recovered from COVID-19 could get in.
The highly controlled concert offered a glimpse of a future that many are longing for after months of COVID-19 restrictions. Governments say getting vaccinated and having proper documentation will smooth the way to travel, entertainment and other social gatherings in a post-pandemic world.
But it also raises the prospect of further dividing the world along the lines of wealth and vaccine access, creating ethical and logistical issues that have alarmed decision-makers around the world.
Other governments are watching Israel churn through the world’s fastest vaccination program and grapple with the ethics of using the shots as diplomatic currency and power.
Inside Israel, green passports or badges obtained through an app is the coin of the realm. The country recently reached agreements with Greece and Cyprus to recognize each other’s green badges, and more such tourism-boosting accords are expected.
Anyone unwilling or unable to get
the jabs that confer immunity will be “left behind,” said Health Minister Yuli Edelstein.
“It’s really the only way forward at the moment,” Geffen said in an interview.
The checks at the club’s doors, which admitted only those who could prove they are fully vaccinated, allowed at least a semblance of normality.
“People can’t live their lives in the new world without them,” he said. “We must take the vaccines. We must.”
The vaccine is not available to everyone in the world, whether due to supply
or cost. And some people don’t want it, for religious or other reasons. In Israel, a country of 9.3 million people, only about half the adult population has received the required two doses.
But most countries don’t have enough vaccine, highlighting the fraught ethical landscape of who can get it and how to lift the burden of COVID-19.
“The core human rights principle is equity and nondiscrimination,” said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University professor and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global
Health Law.
“There’s a huge moral crisis in equity globally because in high income countries like Israel or the United States or the EU countries, we’re likely to get to herd immunity by the end of this year,” he said. “But for many low-income countries, most people won’t be vaccinated for many years. Do we really want to give priority to people who already have so many privileges?”
It’s a question dogging the international community as wealthier countries begin to gain traction against the coronavirus and some of its variants.