It looks like vaccine passports may be a requirement in the near future.
Major tech companies are working to create smartphone apps that would allow users to upload their vaccine and COVID-19 information. According to CNN, experts say this may be a requirement soon for travel and to enter spaces like movie theaters and concerts.
Although coronavirus vaccines are being rolled out across the United States, there are still questions regarding the vaccine’s impact. Many companies are already working on apps to help control the spread.
Dr. Julie Parsonnet said to CNN Business, “We still don’t know if vaccinated people can transmit infection or not.” She added, “Until that is clarified, we won’t know whether ‘passports’ will be effective.”
But the lack of clarity hasn’t stopped companies like IBM from developing a smartphone app to track who has or who has not been vaccinated.
Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Linux Foundation, a tech company helping public health officials beat COVID-19, said, “If we’re successful, you should be able to say: I’ve got a vaccine certificate on my phone that I got when I was vaccinated in one country.”
He said, “With a whole set of its own kind of health management practices…that I use to get on a plane to an entirely different country and then I presented in that new country a vaccination credential so I could go to that concert that was happening indoors for which attendance was limited to those who have demonstrated that they’ve had the vaccine.”
IBM created an app called Digital Health Pass, which can be stored in your Google wallet and provide information like your vaccine status, temperature, and other health-related information to gain entry to an establishment that requires it.
Vaccine passports could be available as early as the first half of 2021.
