Vacid-19 ‘Passports’ raise ethical issues and logistical obstacles

In Israel, a vaccine passport was launched last week, allowing vaccinees to go to hotels and gyms. Saudi Arabia now issues an application-based health passport for vaccinees, while the Icelandic government is distributing vaccine passports to facilitate travel abroad. Last month, President Biden issued executive orders asking government agencies to assess the feasibility of creating digital Covid-19 vaccination certificates.

Proponents of the plans say they will allow struggling economies to reopen, even though vaccines are still being launched, allowing people to enjoy leisure activities and work safely, knowing that they are not harming others or at risk. It can also serve as an incentive for people to take the photo.

But the concept is potentially fraught with pitfalls. It could discriminate against minority communities, which are less likely to accept vaccines, according to national surveys, or young people, who are less likely to have priority in receiving them. There are doubts about the ethics of granting companies access to people’s health records.

“What is behind all this is, what are you going to use this for?” said Melinda Mills, director of the University of Oxford’s Leverhulme Center for Demographic Sciences. “Is it for international travel? Is it to get a job? Is it to buy milk? “

Some health officials fear that vaccine passports may give people a false sense of security. For example, it is not clear whether vaccines prevent people from being infected and spreading the disease and whether inoculations will become less effective due to mutations in the virus. Scientists are chasing answers to these questions.

In the European Union, leaders agreed to a virtual summit on Thursday to present an electronic vaccine certificate within three months that can operate across the bloc. But there are still divisions as to what a certificate can be used for. Some, like Austria and Greece, want it to be a form of passport that allows travel for those who have been vaccinated.

Others, including France, Belgium and the Netherlands, are more skeptical. French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday night that he does not want young people, who will not receive vaccines for the time being, to be discriminated against.

The World Health Organization created a working group to analyze the best way to create a digital vaccination certificate.

Israel and the United Kingdom, two major countries with advanced vaccination programs, are at the forefront of the debate. The UK plans to have vaccinated all adults by the end of July. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a review of immunity certificates to be completed before mid-June.

Israel on Saturday night began issuing so-called “green passports” that allow vaccinated people to enter gyms, shows and hotels. Subsequently, the passes will be used in restaurants and bars, when they will reopen in the coming weeks.

The authorities described green passports as important tools in their efforts to encourage as much of the population as possible to be vaccinated. So far, 50% of Israel’s population has received at least one vaccine injection.

Green passports are found on the Ministry of Health’s website or in a mobile application and carry a barcode and a person’s identification number.

The project is controversial. Although vaccination in Israel is not mandatory, parliament passed a law on Wednesday that would allow the county health ministry to identify unvaccinated people to local authorities. Other measures may require frequent testing for those who have not been vaccinated.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said he was considering proposing legislation that would allow employers to prevent unvaccinated workers from coming to work, although those decisions are not final.

Israel’s public health union has warned that sharing people’s vaccination status raises privacy concerns. Other experts raised questions about whether people’s personal information could be used to later target them for political propaganda.

In the United Kingdom, where more than a third of the population has received at least one injection of the vaccine, the government is legally prevented from forcing the British to be vaccinated. Initially, government ministers said they were against vaccine passports. But in recent weeks, the government has changed course.

Johnson said people are likely to need proof of vaccination to travel abroad, just as some countries require a certificate of immunization against yellow fever. But whether the government should require certificates of access to leisure activities is unclear, he said.

“We haven’t had things like that before. We never thought of having something to show to go to a pub or theater, ”he said this week. “There are deep and complex issues that we need to explore.”

To circumvent fears that this would turn those who refuse vaccination into second-class citizens, the government is exploring whether a certificate could also be awarded if a person turns negative to Covid-19.

Authorities are exploring whether a vaccine or test certificate can be displayed in an application developed by the country’s National Health Service. This could take a long time to implement, said Elliot Jones, a researcher at the Ada Lovelace Institute, a British research foundation. The UK government took more than six months to build a Covid-19 tracking and tracking application.

In the meantime, the private sector can solve the problem on its own. British vacation operator Saga PLC said customers must prove they received two vaccines before boarding their cruise ships. International Business Machines Corp.

developed a digital health pass that allows people to share health records with employers or other companies.

In Israel, some business leaders say they will require employees to be vaccinated. Shai Wininger, co-founder of Lemonade insurer, based in New York Inc.,

wrote on Facebook that you will only meet face to face with vaccinated people.

Large shopping centers Ltd.

, which operates shopping malls in Israel, said this month that it will not allow unvaccinated workers, suppliers and guests to access its administration offices from March.

Since the majority of a country’s population is inoculated, the question is whether the social and economic costs of vaccine passports are worth the potentially small reduction in the transmission they can confer, said Mr. Jones.

If vaccinations are keeping infection rates under control, he asked, “Is it really worth it for all this hassle?”

—Laurence Norman in Brussels contributed to this article.

Write to Max Colchester at [email protected] and Felicia Schwartz at [email protected]