Although such passports can help businesses quickly and safely start tourism and travel worldwide, its distribution can become a problem.
“There are ultimately 17 or 18 different people I know,” said Brian Anderson, chief digital physician at MITER, a federal funding firm in Bedford.
If the various passport systems are not compatible, Anderson added, “it will be an incredibly painful experience for consumers.” A sports fan, for example, needs one passport app to go to a baseball game, and another to eat in a restaurant.
Vaccination passports are known to world travelers who have yellow fever vaccination cards. In the United States, people who have received a COVID vaccine receive a similar paper card issued by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. But it is easy to forge and, unlike yellow fever cards, is not officially recognized by other countries.
In January, the Biden government ordered federal agencies to evaluate the idea of creating digital certificates for all vaccinated U.S. citizens, similar to IBM’s Digital Health Pass. This more robust approach incorporates a digital QR code linked to the person’s identity. In thousands of places where vaccines are provided, healthcare professionals will enter the information into a computer to generate the code. Patients would download an app with which they could scan the codes with their smartphone cameras and store the codes on the phones. Or they can receive a printed copy of the QR code.
MITER is part of a consortium working to solve the association challenge. Another member of the group, Jenny Wanger, director of programs at Linux Foundation Public Health, said they are aiming for a vaccine passport that works as seamlessly as a credit card.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a Visa or a Mastercard,” Wanger said. “You can still wipe your card and people know from which bank to withdraw the money.” Vaccination passport programs must be equally compatible, Wanger said.
But to fix this, diplomacy as well as technology are needed, because the countries of the world must agree to accept each other’s vaccination certificates. Otherwise, countries will have to negotiate special agreements with each other. Greece and Cyprus, for example, have agreed to accept Israel’s vaccine passport, but other countries have not. Only a global agreement can resolve the issue, and the World Health Organization has set up a working group to deal with it.
But should proof of vaccination be mandatory for global travel? The WHO says no and argues that vaccines can still spread the disease, even though they protect themselves. In addition, the agency is concerned that mandatory vaccine passports could prevent travel by millions of people from developing countries where it would take years for everyone to be vaccinated.
Meanwhile, civilian libertarians fear that vaccine passports could jeopardize our privacy. If people are expected to show up everywhere, governments can use it to track people’s movements. They also argue that the passports will create a dual society in which people who have not been vaccinated may not be able to travel, shop or find work.
“Vaccination passports are unproven, discriminatory, and will endanger New Yorkers,” said Albert Fox Cahn, executive director of the Project for supervision of surveillance technology.
Businesses must also decide if they need proof of vaccination. Some customers or employees may find such a question intrusive. In addition, many in the United States can never be vaccinated. In a recent poll by the Pew Research Center, 15 percent of respondents, U.S. citizens, said they would definitely not get the vaccine, while another 15 percent said they probably would not get it. That is 50 to 100 million people. It will not be easy to turn away so many potential customers or workers.
After all, there is a lot of corporate interest in claiming vaccine passports from employees. “Almost all of the companies we work with ask about it,” said Joan Harvey, president of healthcare solutions at Evernorth, a business unit of health insurer Cigna.
Some businesses may require all employees to show that they have been vaccinated, Harvey said. Others are considering a hybrid approach, with certificates only required for people who work close to others.
But some may be reluctant to require customers to show vaccine passports. The National Football League and Major League Baseball, for example, said individual teams will decide if they need it.
In Massachusetts, sports arenas have been cleared to allow attendance from March 23, unless an increase in COVID infections causes a change in plan. The Boston Red Sox and New England Patriots said there are currently no plans to require COVID passports at Fenway Park or Gillette Stadium. There are also no such plans at TD Garden, where the Boston Bruins and Celtics play.
Turns and events coming to Boston are likely to set their own rules, says Nate Little, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority.
“When an event comes to town and rents out one of our venues, they actually own it for the duration of the show and implement their own health and safety protocols,” Little said. “I would expect it to be the same going forward.”
The airline industry made the direct appeal to vaccine passports. Nicholas Calio, president of the Airlines for America trading group, testified before Congress last week that airline is eager to adopt a vaccine verification system.
“We think testable and vaccination data are critical to the return of the trip,” Calio said. Several U.S. airlines are already testing programs that will show a traveler’s vaccination status. They focus mainly on international flights, out of concern that some countries need proof of vaccination.
But Airlines for America, like the WHO, said the use of such passports by air travelers should be strictly voluntary.
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeTechLab.