Durham, NC – As more people around the world are being vaccinated against the coronavirus, the concept of a “vaccine passport” to prove a person’s immunity status when traveling or attending a major event is gaining ground in some places and causing controversy in others.
Airlines and the UK government are testing the digital records, while Republican governors in several US states have banned them, calling them a threat to personal freedom and privacy.
Nita Farahany, a law and philosophy professor at Duke University and founder and director of Duke Science & Society, said on Wednesday that the benefits of a vaccine passport far outweigh the risks.
“It’s not that we can’t demand vaccinations in certain contexts. We can and do it,” said Farahany. “The question is whether these passports are suitable for use by society across the board in many different environments, and I think the answer should be no at this point.”
Unlike the vaccines that most kids must receive before they can enroll in school, she said, the coronavirus vaccines aren’t widely available, nor are they formally approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – they’re all given under emergencies. . authorizations.
By making vaccination a prerequisite for being able to go to a restaurant or workplace or board an airplane, “ people are being called to study participants, ” she said, noting that Moderna is still collecting health information about her seven months after she died. participated in one of the vaccine clinical trials.
Vaccine passports also give people a false sense of security, she said, as health experts aren’t sure how easily immunized people can spread the virus to others, including children.
Another problem is equality, Farahany said. Many people in poorer areas have less access to vaccinations than others, she said, putting them at an economic disadvantage if certain activities required a vaccine passport.
“If we condition participation in society based on access to a vaccine,” she said, “I see a widening gap. Jobs lost during the pandemic now go to people who had access to the vaccine.”
Privacy issues also need to be addressed, Farahany said.
The concept of the vaccine passport started as the simple vaccination card that people received after their first injection, so that they could accurately plan their second dose, based on the vaccine they received. But because they were easy to forge, especially after people posted photos of their cards, with all identifying information, on social media, several technology companies said they could provide a digital document.
Transferring people’s vaccination status to private companies not bound by health standards could open the door for more biometric information to be transferred to these companies later, Farahady said.
“It’s not just about whether we have information that is stored and shared with others, it’s also the context in which we share [and] who has access to it, “she said.” In emergencies and in times of crisis are the times when we have given up most rights, and then we can never get them back. ‘