Health experts are very concerned

LONDON – Public health officials and civil liberty organizations are urging policymakers to oppose calls for vaccination passports for the coronavirus, at a time when many countries are assessing whether to introduce digital passes.

The US, the UK and the European Union are considering, among other things, introducing a digital passport with which citizens can prove that they have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

The certificate system could be used for travel abroad, as well as to grant access to locations such as restaurants and bars.

A digital passport is believed to help spur an economic recovery as countries prepare to ease public health measures in the coming weeks. The ailing aviation industry, which was hit particularly hard by the spread of the virus last year, is one of those calling on governments to pass legislation supporting Covid vaccine passports.

However, doctors and rights groups are very concerned.

Dr. Deepti Gurdasani, a clinical epidemiologist at Queen Mary University of London, told CNBC over the phone that vaccine passports could be inadvertently used to give vacationers “false guarantees.”

“I can see that they could be useful in the longer term, but I am concerned that they are currently being considered when I think the scientific evidence does not support them. And there are many ethical concerns about them that I think they are legit, ‘Gurdasani said Thursday.

Among those scientific concerns, Gurdasani said it is clear that the protection offered by coronavirus vaccines is “very far” from complete and “we know very little about the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing infection or even asymptomatic disease against different variants found in different countries. circulate. “

In addition, most countries do not have sufficient access to vaccines to immunize their populations, and Gurdasani warned that a certification system similar to vaccine passports would “further” discriminate against those populations.

President Joe Biden outlined a 200-page national coronavirus pandemic strategy on his first full day in office last month. The plan included a guideline for multiple government agencies to “assess the feasibility” of linking Covid shots to international vaccination certificates and producing digital versions thereof.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also ordered a review of vaccine passports, while the European Council meets on Thursday to discuss the next steps of the EU’s rollout and relocation of vaccines across the 27-country bloc.

The International Air Travel Association, which represents some 290 airlines from around the world, has seen an increasing number of airlines sign up for the so-called IATA Travel Pass. The initiative aims to help passengers manage their travel plans and provide airlines and governments with proof that they have been vaccinated or tested against Covid-19.

In a letter spotted by EURACTIV, IATA reportedly called on EU leaders meeting Thursday to approve vaccine passports and agree “on the critical role of secure digital solutions, such as the IATA Travel Pass. ” IATA was not immediately available to respond when CNBC reached out on Thursday.

The World Health Organization is currently not keen on vaccine passports. In a statement published Jan. 28, WHO officials said that governments “should not currently introduce requirements of proof of vaccination or immunity for international travel as a condition of entry.”

The United Nations Health Agency added, “There are still critical uncertainties about the effectiveness of vaccination in reducing transmission and the limited availability of vaccines.”

A report published last month by the Economist Intelligence Unit predicted that most of the adult population of advanced economies would be vaccinated by the middle of next year. In contrast, for many middle-income countries, this timeline runs until the beginning of 2023 and even until 2024 for some low-income countries.

It underscores the wide gap between high and low income countries when it comes to access to vaccines.

“These so-called passports claim they would allow those who can prove they have immunity to the coronavirus to return to normal life. That begs the question, what happens to everyone else?” Liberty, the largest civil liberties organization in the UK, said in a press release earlier this month.

“Numerous suggestions for immunity passports have been circulated. Some suggest their use would be limited to international travel – others are less specific. Meanwhile, a variety of technologies have been introduced, from QR codes to apps or even physical maps,” the statement continued. .

“One thing that every suggestion has missed is that it is impossible to have immunity passports that do not result in human rights violations.”

Big Brother Watch, a UK-based rights and democracy group, has also warned against the use of vaccine passports, citing, among other things, the implications for privacy and free movement.

In a report published on February 14 by the Science in Emergencies Tasking: Covid-19 (SET-C) group of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences, university professors outlined 12 issues that must be met to issue a vaccine passport.

These include: meeting the differences between vaccines in their effectiveness and changes in efficacy against emerging Covid variants, being internationally standardized, being safe for personal data, meeting legal standards and meeting ethical standards.

“Understanding what a vaccine passport can be used for is a fundamental question – is it literally a passport to allow for international travel or can it be used domestically to give holders more freedom?” Professor Melinda Mills, director of the Leverhulme Center for Demographic Science at the University of Oxford, said in the report.

“We need a broader discussion of multiple aspects of a vaccine passport, from the science of immunity to data privacy, technical challenges and the ethics and legality of how it can be used,” said Mills.