Durham, NC, United States As more people worldwide are vaccinated against coronavirus, the concept of a “vaccine passport” to demonstrate someone’s vaccinated status when traveling or attending a major event is causing controversy in some places.
Airline and the British government are testing the digital documents, while Republican governors in several US states have banned them, calling them a threat to personal freedom and privacy.
Nita Farahany, a professor of law and philosophy at Duke University and founding director of Duke Science & Society, said Wednesday that the benefits of a vaccine passport far outweigh the risks.
“It’s not like we can not need vaccinations in certain contexts. We can and we do,” Farahany said. “The question is whether these passports are suitable for use by society in many different institutions, and I think the answer at the moment should be no.”
Contrary to the vaccines that most children have to get before enrolling in school, she said the coronavirus vaccines are not widely available, nor have any of them been formally approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. all are administered under emergencies. authorizations.
To make vaccination a condition of being able to go to a restaurant or workplace or get a plane on board, it is a duty person to be a research participant, ” she said, noting that Moderna still has health information about her collected seven months after she underwent one of the vaccine clinical trials.
Vaccination passports also give people a false sense of security, she said, as health experts are not sure how easily people who have been immunized can spread the virus to others, including children.
Another problem is equity, Farahany said. Many people in poorer areas have less access to vaccinations than others, she said, which harms them economically if a vaccine passport is required for certain activities.
“If we condition participation in society on the basis of access to a vaccine,” she said, “I see a bigger gap. Jobs lost during the pandemic now go to people who had access to the vaccine. “
Attention should also be paid to privacy issues, Farahany said.
The concept for vaccine passports started when the simple vaccination cards were given to people after their first shot so that they could plan their second dose accurately based on what vaccine they had received. But because it was easily falsified, especially after people posted photos of their cards with all the identifying information on social media, various technology companies said they could provide a digital document.
If people’s vaccination status is transferred to private companies that are not bound by health and privacy standards, it could later open the door to pass on more biometric information to these companies, Farahady said.
“It’s not just whether we have information that is stored and shared with others. It’s the context in which we share [and] who has access to it, “she said. In case of emergency and in times of crisis, these are the times we have given up the most rights, and then we can never get it back. “