European Union Officially Announces Vaccine Passport Scheme, UK May Join [Archive] - Debate Policy

jimnyc

03-01-2021, 05:26 PM

And so it begins.

All that information at their fingertips so as to provide for safe travel in the future? And then what? How easily will it be integrated into other facets of society? Shopping? Groceries? Hospitals? Doctors, dentists? What about enclosed places like restaurants and bars? Many things being discussed. And will it ever reach these shores? Don't blink!

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COVID-1984: European Union Officially Announces Vaccine Passport Scheme, UK May Join

The European Union will introduce legislation to introduce a vaccine passport this month, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday.

In a statement released on social media, von der Leyen said that the vaccine passport will provide proof that a person has been vaccinated, results of tests for those who couldn’t get a vaccine yet, and information related to a successful recovery from the Chinese virus.

The vaccine passport has been dubbed the “Digital Green Pass”, presumably after the Israeli scheme of the same name. Greece, which has been one of the main proponents of the scheme, already signed a ‘trial run‘ of a Green Pass system with Israel last month.

The EU Commission president claimed that the vaccine passport “will respect data protection, security [and] privacy,” adding: “the Digital Green Pass should facilitate Europeans‘ lives.”

“The aim is to gradually enable them to move safely in the European Union or abroad – for work or tourism,” von der Leyen wrote.

The introduction of a vaccine passport was signalled last week by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who claimed that “everyone agreed that we need a digital vaccination certificate,” following a virtual EU coronavirus summit on Thursday.

Merkel said that such a system could be put in place before the summer holiday season, but cautioned that a vaccine passport should not “mean that only those who have a vaccination passport are allowed to travel.”

The move to introduce the legislation has apparently caught some within the bloc off guard, however, with Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sophie Wilmès writing: “For Belgium, there is no question of linking vaccination to the freedom of movement around Europe.

“Respect for the principle of non-discrimination is more fundamental than ever since vaccination is not compulsory and access to the vaccine is not yet generalized.”

https://i.imgur.com/VXr3WmK.png

Rest - https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/03/01/coronavirus-vaccine-passports-to-be-introduced-in-european-union/

jimnyc

03-02-2021, 01:52 PM

Just a matter of time until that's us. There are already places you can't go without an up-to-the-minute test or both vaccine shots. Assisted living for sure. Here anyway. Next they'll likely hit places most people cant avoid. People who don't get the vaccine will be shunned and/or turned away.

Fall in line or you're f*cked.

It's already changed here in the fact that you need "papers" in order to travel domestically, in the name of safety for all. Do you want to return to normal? Then this simple step is the ticket to freedom. :rolleyes: And don't worry, it's only big tech that's gonna do the job. Other and/or all vaccinations on there? What other medical information then?

I was pointing out all of the thing that are being planned already and others being looked into within the UK and European Union. But channels are in operation here as well.

And a QR code on any app may be great to keep prying eyes away, but also will keep us from knowing WTF is in there?

Here's a little reading:

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Tech giants want to help you prove you’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19

Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle, and electronic health record companies Epic and Cerner are all getting behind a single standard for vaccine certification.

Before people can return to work, school, or travel, they may soon have to prove that they’ve been vaccinated for COVID-19. In order to both coordinate and track vaccination, a coalition of tech companies have come together to design an open-source standard for vaccination records that makes them portable between healthcare providers and certifies a person’s COVID-19 vaccination history.

The Vaccine Credential Initiative is made up of tech companies Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle; healthcare providers Evernorth and the Mayo Clinic; and nonprofits Mitre, CARIN Alliance, Change Healthcare, Safe Health, and the Commons Project. It also includes Epic and Cerner, which make electronic records software used by more than 50% of the U.S. healthcare market, ensuring the standard will have broad reach. The Commons Project also works with the World Economic Forum, which has agreed to introduce the standard to participants in its global Common Trust Network as well as airline partners.

“Traditionally, there wasn’t a real need to ensure traceability and immutability in health information,” says Paul Meyer, CEO of the Commons Project, which launched a health passport last year to help travelers prove they’d tested negative for COVID-19 before traveling. This week, Los Angeles County announced that students will have to get COVID-19 vaccinations once they’re available to them before returning to campus.

The new rules are likely to spur a black market for falsified immunization certification as it has already for fake test results. “All of a sudden there’s now a potential incentive to falsify the records,” Meyer says. A common vaccination record could make it harder to fake certification.

The VCI’s vaccination standard performs two tasks. It allows healthcare providers to easily share vaccination information, such as what vaccine they’ve received and whether they’ve received one dose or two. On the patient side, the standard acts as a verification badge. Patient information is rendered into a QR code that protects people’s actual medical data while indicating whether or not they’ve been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The verification uses FHIR, or Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources, a global health data format that is meant to increase sharing or interoperability. (Apple uses this same framework to pull a person’s medical record data into its Health app.)

Rest - https://www.fastcompany.com/90594097/how-to-prove-you-have-received-covid-19-vaccinaton

Hey, doc? How will I prove I got the COVID-19 vaccine? Where will I need proof?

The COVID-19 vaccination card looks almost vintage: A rudimentary, wallet-sized ticket of sorts, with some handwritten information and dates of inoculation. It's also a reminder to get your second dose.

But its existence has stirred a lot of discussion about how this proof of vaccination might be used for other COVID-19 pandemic purposes.

We asked regional medical experts about the card and what you'll need to do with it.

Here's who we asked:

M. Sara Rosenthal, Ph.D., professor and director of the University of Kentucky's Program for Bioethics.
Dr. Robert Frenck, principal investigator of the National Institutes of Health-sponsored Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit and director of Gamble Vaccine Research Center. He's leading the COVID-19 vaccine trials at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
Sharona Hoffman, a health law professor and co-director of the Law-Medicine Center, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Dr. Carl Fichtenbaum a University of Cincinnati College of Medicine professor in the division of Infectious Diseases.

Question: What is the point of having a COVID-19 vaccination card?

Rosenthal: A COVID-19 vaccination card is proof of vaccination and serves the purpose of being an “immunity passport” – what many in the fields of medicine, public health and bioethics believe would be a critical document that would enable the vaccinated public to return to normal activities, and enable the economy to re-open.

Frenck: I have not heard of people talking about a specific COVID-19 vaccination card. However, my guess is that it would be used like any other vaccination card; prove that you have been immunized and thus should be at very low risk of getting the infection. Although I don’t know the last time it was enforced, you can be asked to show proof of yellow fever vaccination when you return to the U.S. from a yellow fever zone.

Hoffman: The COVID-19 card simply reminds people that they need to get the second dose and tell them on what date they should obtain it. It is different from what is being called an “immunity passport.”

Fichtenbaum: To provide documentation of vaccination since it may not go in their medical record. Patients need documentation of their vaccines for everything.

Q: Should we all be carrying these cards once vaccinated?

Rosenthal: In my opinion, absolutely! And it may become the norm in the future for other infectious diseases that are seen as a public health threat. Pre-COVID, many schools and other extracurricular activities for children required parents to provide proof of vaccination for their children. It’s not a new concept.

Frenck: The only reason I could see to carry the cards is if you would be excluded from somewhere or something if you could not demonstrate that you were vaccinated. At least at the present, it is not mandatory to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Hoffman: It will probably be a good idea to carry proof that you’ve been vaccinated. Presumably, some employers and places of business (including airlines) will ask for proof of vaccination once vaccines are widely available to the public.

Fichtenbaum: I don’t think this is necessary at this time. It may be in the future that individuals may need to provide proof of vaccination to their health care provider or others, for example, employers.

Q: Do we also need to have a digital version of our individual cards?

Rosenthal: I can’t address the delivery system of such cards, but it is certainly plausible that we may develop “proof of vaccination” apps that would not just be for COVID-19, but a range of infectious diseases, including childhood vaccines, which would help parents enroll their children in a variety of activities.

Frenck: I definitely think you would want to have the card be digital as that way the information could be backed up and reprinted if the card was lost. The digital vaccine card would be a great thing to do for all vaccines, just like the military did.

Hoffman: Digital proof will also be a good idea. That will make it unnecessary to carry a card around and worry about losing it.

Fichtenbaum: It is always handy to be able to show people your health information without having to look for it. A picture of your card might suffice for most.

Q: What do you think about the value of showing proof-of-vaccination?

Rosenthal: In the same way that most businesses now require masks in order to operate during COVID-19, post-COVID, you may not be allowed to patronize various businesses without your immunity passport. A reopening of the economy and a return to normalcy will depend on community protection from COVID-19.

Frenck: I see proof of vaccination being used by children to attend school. Unless COVID vaccines were made mandatory, I am trying to think how a COVID vaccine card would be helpful. I don’t think any business would require that right now, because they’re having so much pushback right now.

Hoffman: We don’t know yet exactly what the value will be. In part it might depend on how easy it is to create “fake proof.” But if the proof-of-vaccination is reliable, it will probably enable you to enter venues and engage in activities that would otherwise not be available to you. In addition, some employers may require employees to be vaccinated in order to keep their jobs.

Fichtenbaum: At present, there is very limited value. I think it is an important thing for an individual’s own health information like documenting all other vaccinations.

Rest - https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2021/01/12/hey-doc-need-proof-got-covid-19-vaccine/6579412002/

Coming Soon: The ‘Vaccine Passport’

In the near future, travel may require digital documentation showing that passengers have been vaccinated or tested for the coronavirus. Answers to your questions.

Among governments and those in the travel industry, a new term has entered the vocabulary: vaccine passport.

One of President Biden’s executive orders aimed at curbing the pandemic asks government agencies to “assess the feasibility” of linking coronavirus vaccine certificates with other vaccination documents, and producing digital versions of them.

Denmark’s government said on Wednesday that in the next three to four months, it will roll out a digital passport that will allow citizens to show they have been vaccinated.

It isn’t just governments that are suggesting vaccine passports. In a few weeks, Etihad Airways and Emirates will start using a digital travel pass, developed by the International Air Transport Association, to help passengers manage their travel plans and provide airlines and governments documentation that they have been vaccinated or tested for Covid-19.

The challenge right now is creating a document or app that is accepted around the world, that protects privacy and is accessible to people regardless of their wealth or access to smartphones.

Here’s what we know about the current status of digital vaccine passports.

What is a vaccine pass or passport?
A vaccination pass or passport is documentation proving that you have been vaccinated against Covid-19. Some versions will also allow people to show that they have tested negative for the virus, and therefore can more easily travel. The versions being worked on now by airlines, industry groups, nonprofits and technology companies will be something you can pull up on your mobile phone as an app or part of your digital wallet.

“It’s about trying to digitize a process that happens now and make it into something that allows for more harmony and ease, making it easier for people to travel between countries without having to pull out different papers for different countries and different documents at different checkpoints,” said Nick Careen, senior vice president for airport, passenger, cargo and security at I.A.T.A. Mr. Careen has been leading I.A.T.A.’s travel pass initiative.

I.A.T.A. is one of several organizations that have been working on digital solutions to streamline the travel credentialing process for years; during the pandemic, these groups have focused on including vaccination status. The idea is that if you have all the pertinent information on your phone, a significant amount of time will be saved.

Rest - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/travel/coronavirus-vaccine-passports.html