The World Health Organization (WHO) does not currently support the use of ‘vaccine passports’ for travel, an agency official said on Tuesday.
Mike Ryan, the executive director of the WHO’s emergency program, said he was concerned that such a requirement could exacerbate vaccine problems.
He told reporters that the WHO supports vaccination certificates as a way to provide a health record for people who have been vaccinated, but the issue takes a different consideration when certificates are used to attend work, school or travel.
Ryan said until more countries have equal access to vaccines, it is not ethical to need a travel vaccine.
“We already have a major problem of vaccine inequality in the world. The introduction of pre-travel vaccination certification requirements could bring in another layer of such inequality,” Ryan told a news conference. “If you do not have access to vaccine in a country, you will be isolated as a country as vaccine passports kick in.”
Ryan also noted that there are still questions about whether vaccines can prevent the coronavirus from being transmitted.
He said the agency’s working groups were continuing to discuss the matter, and the recommendation could be reviewed again.
Ryan’s comments contradict the comments made by a WTO spokesman earlier on Tuesday. According to Reuters, Margaret Harris, spokesperson for the WHO, also said that the agency does not support vaccine passports for travel.
“We as WHO say at this stage that we do not want to see the vaccination passport as a requirement for entry or exit, because at this stage we are not sure that the vaccine will prevent the transmission,” she said. according to Reuters.
“There are all the other questions except the issue of discrimination of people who for some reason are unable to take the vaccine.”
The discussion of vaccine passports in the US has put the Conservatives under pressure over concerns about possible government overruns that will discriminate against Americans who choose not to be vaccinated and infringe on their privacy rights.
The White House maintained that it would delay private enterprises if they wanted to implement some kind of vaccine passport system.