Vaccination Passport: Ticket to Freedom?

In March 2021, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidelines allowing social gatherings amongst vaccinated people and starting to easy restrictions. With vaccines available to every adult in the US as of April 19th, 2021, a new problem surfaced: how will vaccinated people prove their status? 

Vaccine cards are the only proof of vaccination right now. It is unlikely they will become the official vaccination passport since it is easy to lose, fake, or misplace it. While the US government stated that it will not oblige its citizens to take vaccines or will be issuing vaccination passports it is up to businesses, educational intuitions, and others to come up with solutions to keep serving their communities. Iceland and Belize are already asking tourists for vaccine cards and US universities are saying they will require proof of a Covid-19 vaccination from students and staff before returning to campus. 

How to create reliable Vaccination Passports? 

A growing number of tech companies, universities, non-profits, and other organizations are in the race to develop a digital system for vaccination verification. Currently, vaccination passports are not widely used but they will likely become the norm. The Vaccine Credential Initiative (VCI) works with more than 300 organizations, including Microsoft, the Mayo Clinic, Cerner, Epic, and the Commons Project to set a global standard for digital vaccination passports.

Digital passport systems provide a vivid advantage to augment our new way of life – a guaranteed proof of vaccination that is always available and cannot be lost the way a physical card can be. A digital vaccine passport that works as proof of vaccination and is always available has multiple challenges to be addressed before becoming part of our lives.

Vaccination Passports: The Challenges Ahead  

The first and arguably most important challenge in the development and implementation of a digital passport is the fact that there exists no universal system for their development. While we are fortunate to be living in a world where many institutions and companies are utilizing their resources to bring about a solution, inaccessibility and inequality can be born from that very fact. Having multiple systems of digital passports will make it harder to implement them on a global level – especially when related to travel. Additionally, accessibility remains an issue that we cannot ignore. In many parts of the world, owning a smartphone remains a challenge. Hence, relying on smartphones and internet-based solutions can bring about inequality.

Furthermore, the reliance of normal activities within an economy on vaccine passports may encourage countries to vaccinate their own rather than contribute to a global effort, in order to secure one’s economy at first. In turn, this can bring about an increased division between wealthy and poor countries in terms of vaccine accessibility. Two other issues relating to the development of digital passports include vaccine hesitancy and privacy concerns. Mandating vaccination by the government, and tracking those who received it, may play a psychological factor to increase vaccine hesitancy among the population. Research in public health and vaccination has repeatedly demonstrated that people are more hesitant to receive a vaccine when it is mandated by the government.

Finally, digital solutions for vaccine certificates must consider that they may be the target of cybercriminals and must be cautious about including confidential health information. As with other healthcare technologies, app security is thus an important aspect that needs to be addressed in order to protect the privacy of the users. Ensuring security as well as app usability and cross-platform interoperability will encourage adoption from both individuals and institutional users.

 A Promising Solution  

Herd immunity is a buzzword that has been circulating for a while. For many, it seems like the magical solution upon which the pandemic ends. However, scientists and experts realize the situation with a highly infectious disease, such as COVID-19, is far more complex. Even after a certain threshold of the population is vaccinated and has adequate immunity, people will be traveling from all over the world. With that, different strains of the disease may be carried and introduced to different places. Such complexity constitutes a strong call for the development of vaccination certificates that are always available. While there are many challenges in hand with the current development of digital passports, it is undoubtedly a promising solution considering the advantage it offers.

Global vaccination certificates have been used before. For decades, the International Certificate of Vaccination allows travel to and from countries with yellow fever and cholera outbreaks. While herd immunity seems the natural solution to the end of the pandemic, scientists and experts realize the situation is far more complex, especially with the new variants. Even after a certain percentage of the population is fully vaccinated, worldwide travel than 20 airlines are experimenting with vaccine passports, including the IATA’s Travel Pass and the CommonPass. 

Health Passports with Aztute Public Health Solution

Aztute has taken a broader view of the vaccination passport. We offer our subscribers the ability to securely access and edit electronic “health passports” for specific individuals (employees, students, customers, etc.) including testing and vaccination records. These passports will be issued by public health and/or healthcare authorities for the general population and exposed via a mobile phone app.

This solution will allow for safer return to the “new normal” after vaccination, including to schools, workplaces and travel engagements. Importantly, these electronic health passports will not only securely provide and attest the individuals’ COVID-19 vaccination status but will also allow for status updates by scanning of official paper-based records (e.g., vaccination cards).

The public health platform will also issue automated reminders for vaccination appointments and establish an effective patient-provider communication for other relevant health alerts as well as HIPAA-compliant instant messaging. QR-activated online records will be available for “storefronts”, such as schools and public places. 

Find out if your organization qualifies and take advantage of our free trial.  

Sources: 

White House sees no federal mandate for COVID-19 vaccine verification - Reuters, 29th of March 2021.

WHO does not back vaccination passports for now - spokeswoman - Reuters, 6th of April 2021.

Dror, Amiel A., et al. "Vaccine hesitancy: the next challenge in the fight against COVID-19." European journal of epidemiology 35.8 (2020): 775-779. 

Murphy, Jamie, et al. "Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom." Nature communications 12.1 (2021): 1-15. 

Dye, Christopher, and Melinda C. Mills. "COVID-19 vaccination passports." (2021): 1184-1184. 

Phelan, Alexandra L. "COVID-19 immunity passports and vaccination certificates: scientific, equitable, and legal challenges." The Lancet 395.10237 (2020): 1595-1598. 

Vaccine passport apps are about to be everywhere. It could get complicated - CNN Business, April 13, 2021.