The vaccine Covid-19 “Passports” raises ethical concerns, logistical obstacles

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

Proponents of the plan say they will reopen battered economies, even when vaccines are still being rolled out, allowing people to enjoy leisure activities and go to work safely, knowing that they do no harm the others are not even at risk. It could also act as an incentive for people to receive the shot.

But the concept is potentially full of 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 receive priority. There are questions about the ethics of granting companies access to people’s health records.

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

Some health authorities are concerned that vaccine passports may give people a false sense of security. For example, it is unclear whether vaccines prevent people from becoming infected and spreading the disease and whether inoculations will be less effective through mutations in the virus. Scientists compete to get answers to these questions.

In the European Union, leaders agreed Thursday at a virtual summit to present an electronic vaccine certificate within three months that can work across the block. But there are still divisions for which a certificate could be used. Some, like Austria and Greece, want it to be a form of passport that allows vaccinated people to travel.

Others, such as France, Belgium and the Netherlands, are more skeptical. French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday evening that he does not want young people who will not be vaccinated for now to be discriminated against.

The World Health Organization has set up a working group to examine how best 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 aims to vaccinate all adults by the end of July. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a review of immunity certificates that should be completed before mid-June.

On Saturday evening, Israel began issuing so-called “green passports” that allow vaccinated people to enter gyms, concerts and hotels. Later, season tickets will be used in restaurants and bars, when they reopen in the coming weeks.

Officials have described green passports as important tools in their efforts to encourage vaccination of as much of the population as possible. To date, 50% of the population in Israel has received at least one vaccine.

Green passports can be found on the Ministry of Health website or in a mobile app and carry a bar code and a person’s identification number.

The project is not without controversy. While vaccination in Israel is not mandatory, parliament passed a law Wednesday that would allow the county health ministry to identify unvaccinated people to local authorities. Other measures may require frequent testing for those who are not vaccinated.

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

The Israeli public health union warned that sharing people’s vaccination status creates privacy issues. Other experts have raised questions about whether people’s personal information could be used to target it later with political advertising.

In the UK, where more than a third of the population has received at least one shot of the vaccine, the government is legally barred from forcing the British to get vaccinated. Initially, government ministers said they were against the vaccine passport. But in recent weeks, the government has changed its stain.

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

“It simply came to our notice then. We never thought about having something you have 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 avoid fears, it would turn those who reject vaccinations into second-class citizens, the government is exploring whether a certificate could also be granted if a person gives Covid-19 a negative.

Officials are exploring whether a vaccine or test certification can be displayed in an app 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. It took the UK government more than six months to build a Covid-19 tracking and monitoring application.

Meanwhile, the private sector can take matters into its own hands. British holiday operator Saga PLC said customers must prove they have received two vaccines before embarking on their cruises. International business machines Corp.

has 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 vaccination of employees. Shai Wininger, co-founder of New York-based insurance company Lemonade Inc.,

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

Large shopping malls Ltd.

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

Once 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 transmission they could confer, Jones said.

If vaccines keep infection rates under control, he asked, “Is it worth it?”

—Laurence Norman in Brussels contributed to this article.

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