Are there now too many digital passports?

The multitude of digital health passports is causing much confusion for medical tourists and destinations. With various governments using different systems, Ian Youngman considers the uncertainty around how universally accepted such a passport will be.

 As COVID-19 vaccination programmes roll out around the world, policy makers and the private sector are developing vaccine passports.

Many countries do or will require proof of vaccination status. The European Union is behind a “Digital Green Certificate” to enable people to show they have been vaccinated, had a negative test, or have recovered from the virus in order to travel across its 27 member countries.

The UK is planning to use its existing National Health Service (NHS) track and trace app as a health passport for British people to travel abroad.

There are no plans to implement a nationwide health passport in the USA amid fierce opposition to the idea; but Hawaii and New York State have launched passport programmes that enable vaccinated people to skip quarantine for inter-state travel.

Most proposed certificates are digital. For example, the CommonPass from non-profit The Commons Project Foundation, saves the user’s test results onto their mobile device, along with any other necessary health screening information. The pass then generates a QR code that can be printed or scanned by airline staff to confirm the passenger’s health status.

In India, the health ministry has said that everyone who has been vaccinated will get a QR code-based electronic certificate, but at present it is paper based.

China has implemented an app-based health code system that uses travel and medical data to give people a colour-based rating, showing how likely it is that they have COVID-19 and whether they should self-isolate.

Many companies have also seen massive potential here with Microsoft’s CoronaPass, IBM’s Digital Health Pass, VaxAtlas and SafeFun among the many initiatives catering to different sectors.

With so many different types of digital passport available, there will need to be consensus from venues, businesses and airports on how they work and whether they are accepted.

Research by McAfee found a growing black market for fake COVID-19 test results and vaccination certificates.

Enforcing vaccine certification via an app would exclude people who do not own a smartphone. It would also exclude pregnant women, who are currently ineligible for vaccination in many parts of the world, and would therefore be unable to participate in vaccination programmes.

There are many concerns over data privacy, with a fear that vaccination information could be linked to other personal data that could then be subject to abuse.