February 25, 2021
Iceland became 1st European nation to implement vaccine certificates or passports in January and beginning this week, Israel plans to issue government certificates verifying that the holder has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
As more countries look to adopt digital COVID-19 vaccine passports, some tech experts say the certificates should be developed using a "privacy-preserving approach."
"There's a lot of us who have deep concerns about issues of equity and privacy.”
Civil liberties organisations are alarmed about the project. “Vaccine passports would create the backbone of an oppressive digital ID system and could easily lead to a health apartheid that’s incompatible with a free and democratic country,” says Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch.
“Digital IDs would lead to sensitive records spanning medical, work, travel, and biometric data about each and every one of us being held at the fingertips of authorities and state bureaucrats.
“This dangerous plan would normalise identity checks, increase state control over law-abiding citizens and create a honeypot for cybercriminals.”
Despite worries, immunity passes could lead to a new class of vaccinated “elites”. They argue that it is unfair to continue to force restrictions on people once they are fully vaccinated.
How would a digital passport work?
A digital vaccine passport could live on a person's smartphone, perhaps sitting in a digital wallet as opposed to being hosted on a remote server. A person could then present their passport when crossing borders or boarding a flight, for example.
Industry experts suspect other businesses such as concert venues or movie theatres may eventually require customers to show their vaccine passports as well, to prevent the spread of the disease. Paper versions of the passports would also need to be made available for individuals who don't have access to a smartphone.
Alison Thompson, a bioethicist and associate professor at the University of Toronto, says that even though vaccine passports may seem inevitable, society should still be having a "serious" conversation about their implementation.
"Really what we're talking about here is allowing people with passports rights and privileges that won't be available to the people who don't have a vaccine passport," she told Galloway.
"And given that there are huge inequities in access to vaccines globally, and even within Canada, you know, this raises all kinds of concerns about whether this is going to be fair — not just whether it'll be confidential information."
“Some countries, clearly, are going to be wanting to insist that people coming into their country have evidence of a vaccination — just as people have insisted in the past that you have evidence you are vaccinated against yellow fever or other diseases.” European governments have been split about whether to endorse a system of vaccine passports, but the travel, tourist and hospitality sectors are desperate to get business going again and say they can’t afford another lost summer.
But critics say the result will be to divide people, and countries, between vaccine haves and vaccine have-nots, affecting the developing and poor nations much more than rich ones. Some experts estimate that most African nations are unlikely to see mass vaccination programs until 2023 or even 2024.
Germany’s ethics council, an independent government-funded body, has urged that no special conditions be accorded to the inoculated. It has said much is still unknown about whether vaccinated people can still spread the virus, and that introducing privileges for the vaccinated could prompt civil unrest with the have-nots feeling they are being elbowed aside.
At a World Health Organization press briefing in Copenhagen on December 4, Dr Catherine Smallwood, Senior Emergency Officer at WHO Europe, reaffirmed the body's current guidance on "immunity passports".
"We do not recommend immunity passports, nor do we recommend testing as a means to prevent transmission across borders," she said. "What we do recommend is that countries look at the data on transmission both within their countries and beyond their borders and adjust their travel guidance to people accordingly".
The WHO, paradoxically, signed an agreement with Estonia in October to collaborate on the development of a digital vaccination certificate - or a "smart yellow card" in a nod to yellow fever vaccine paper certificates of old. The idea behind it is to strengthen the case for vaccines, ensure equitable access to them and ultimately end pandemic restrictions through active acquired immunity.
To give you an example, imagine that public authorities would require everyone to routinely display their health status - for example, COVID-19 test results or vaccination records - to access public and private spaces, such as restaurants, churches or public transport. Based on their health status, some people could move freely – that would be the case of those who would have tested negative for COVID-19 or would have been vaccinated.
By contrast, others would not be allowed to travel and to access specific places, including churches, sports venues, and other areas of assembly. Arguably, such measures could preserve the freedoms of those who do not have the disease or have been vaccinated. However, if some people cannot access or afford COVID-19 tests or vaccines, they will not be able to prove their health status, and thus their freedoms will be de facto restricted.
When it comes to the sharing of personal health records with third parties, the issue of data protection is also of huge importance to the ethical debate. Even if individuals consent to have their health data collected for the purposes of using a digital health passport, providers will still need to build data protection into the design of these technologies by default.
That’s it for now. Let’s hear what you have to say.
Ronco 😊
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