LONDON (Reuters) – Governments and developers around the world are investigating the possible use of “vaccine passports” as a way to reopen the economy by identifying those protected from the coronavirus.
However, those developing the technologies say such tools have consequences, such as potentially excluding entire groups from social participation, and urge lawmakers to think seriously about how they are used.
The travel and entertainment industries, struggling to make a profit while enforcing social distance regimes, are particularly interested in a way to quickly check who is protected.
Among those developing passports are biometrics company iProov and cybersecurity company Mvine, who have built a vaccine pass that is now being tested within the UK National Health Service following funding from the UK government.
iProov founder and CEO Andrew Bud believes such vaccine passports should really only contain two pieces of information.
“One of them is, has this person been vaccinated? And the other is, what does this person look like? “
You just need to associate a face with a vaccination status, you don’t need to know a person’s identity, he added.
Confirming customers’ vaccination status could help the nighttime economy, which employs some 420,000 people in the northern England city of Manchester, experts say.
“We need to see how we can get back to normal,” said Sacha Lord, an industry consultant and co-founder of the city’s Parklife music festival.
While there have been experiments with concerts and events of a social distance in the past year, they have not been financially viable, he said.
“A performance is not a performance or a festival is not a festival unless you are shoulder to shoulder with your friends.
‘I don’t think we should force people to enter vaccine passports. It should be a choice. But if you don’t have that passport, we will give you another option upon entry, ”he added, suggesting the use of coronavirus tests with rapid results.
Bud said vaccine certificates were rolled out in some countries, and in the United States, some private sector health cards were used to admit customers to sporting events.
“I think vaccine certificates raise enormous social and political problems. Our job is to provide the technology base to enable vaccine passports and certificates… It is not up to us to judge whether they are a good idea or not, ”he said.
Potential problems could arise around discrimination, privilege and exclusion of the younger generation who would be last in line to be vaccinated, he said, adding that he believed the government was carefully considering this.
Reporting by Natalie Thomas; Written by Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Mike Collett-White