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COVID Vaccine Passport
16 months ago there was an idea of a ‘digital certificate’ as a means of confirmation of inoculation. Shortly after that announcement, the title was then changed to ‘’vaccine passport’. This change of title started to have questions thrown around in regards to the current situation of flights being halted around the world. Soon after, many countries who managed to contain the virus were ‘worried’ in case the virus would come back to the country. That is when many countries started announcing that in order to re-open the country would be with a successful vaccination program and to have a vaccine passport in action. Today the vaccine passport is all the latest buzz with many for and against the idea, with many countries who have adopted the idea.
The apps securely store information about your health such as:
COVID-19 vaccinations
COVID-19 test results
Onsite screening results for fever and other COVID-19 symptoms
If you don’t have a smartphone, you may be able to print out a paper vaccine passport from an app’s website that saves your information as a QR code. These codes, which look similar to a square barcode, are not readable by humans. This means that your printed vaccine passport probably gives you better privacy protection than carrying your vaccine card.
https://www.goodrx.com/blog/covid-vaccine-passports/
At the moment in many countries that have not adopted the the vaccine passport as an official means to allow or not allow specific parties, many large companies have taken control and have made the decision to say yes or no to the vaccine passport to enter their business or venue, which gives them the advantage of not having to wear a mask or social distance.
EUROPE
The European COVID-19 travel certificate has been created by the European Union in a bid to restore the freedom of travel, which has been put at a halt for over a year now, since the pandemic erupted all over the block. Through the certificate, the Commission intends to remove travel restrictions as entry bans, quarantine obligation, and testing. The EU Commission has encouraged the Member States to remove the entry restrictions imposed on the freedom of movement since mid-March 2020, for those that hold such a document, starting from July 1, though the members have the option to remove those restrictions earlier, as many already have.
Negotiations between the European Union and the U.S. to recognise each other’s vaccination passes are struggling to make headway due to the absence of a federal certification system in America. EU ambassadors were told at a meeting on Thursday that the European Commission is, however, in an advanced stage of talks with the U.K., and in contact with Japan, Australia and Canada. Discussions with Ottawa were described as promising and officials are hoping that the EU’s Covid certificates will be recognised in September when Canada is due to reopen travel to vaccinated non-U.S. travelers, the memo says.
Even though England hasn’t officially confirmed anything (yet) the main question being asked is the full introduction of what might be called domestic vaccine passports: from the end of September, people in England will have to prove they have had both Covid doses to enter nightclubs, as well as for what are described as “other venues where large crowds gather”.
England has its own problems at the moment with this whole “Pingdemic”
https://www.the-sun.com/news/3308004/coronavirus-uk-news-covid-corona-pingdemic-food-supply-latest/
AMERICA
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/which-states-have-banned-vaccine-passports
The Biden administration has made it clear it will not be the role of the federal government to issue vaccine passports or to collect and store individuals’ vaccination data at the federal level, but the government is taking on a coordination role and working with many of the international and domestic vaccine passport initiatives being developed by other parties. For example, President Biden issued an Executive Order directing the State Department to work with the World Health Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the International Air Transport Association, foreign governments and others to establish international travel standards. Further, the order directs the Secretaries of the State Department, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Homeland Security, in coordination with relevant international organizations, to assess the feasibility of linking vaccination status with digital certificates for international travel. On the domestic side, the Administration is working with a number of privately-led vaccine passport initiatives already underway, to develop guidelines and address issues such as accessibility, privacy, and other access barriers. There are at least 17 such U.S.-based initiatives involving companies and institutions including Microsoft, IBM, MasterCard, the Mayo Clinic, and MIT. So far, these efforts remain in the development stage and none of these organizations has yet launched a vaccine passport for widespread use in the U.S. In the absence of a widely used vaccine passport system, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “vaccination report card”, which is issued to each vaccinated individual, is being used as proof of vaccination in many cases for access to some activities and facilities. However, these cards can be falsified and lack a digital counterpart, upping the stakes on the need to develop standards and implement security measures.
Newsom: It wasn’t until the third time the governor was asked about vaccine passports that he acknowledged the state’s digital vaccination card system, which he continued to stress was not a vaccine passport — even if it can be converted into one at a later date. “We do not have vaccine passports; we do have digitized vaccine cards which millions of Californians have availed themselves to,” he said. “But we distinguished that from any passports or mandates as it relates to that. We subscribe to a point of view that local businesses can make determinations for themselves on what’s appropriate or not.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has been quite firm in his stance that the province will not be providing a vaccine certificate for its residents.
“I never believed in proof,” Ford said. “We aren’t doing it.”
“Getting across the border, that’s up to the federal government. We aren’t going to have a split society.”
‘Life would be much easier if it could just be mandate’
In terms of domestic proof of vaccination for employment or to allow people to access different businesses and services, Hota believes there is a short-term benefit to mandating vaccination in certain settings to encourage people to get vaccinated, adding that it could be done if all possible steps are taken to allow for access to vaccines.
https://news.yahoo.com/covid19-vaccine-passport-mandatory-vaccination-canada-ontario-181402109.html
Other USA News
Fox Corp. implementing its own version of a vaccine passport-
Eric Clapton fans react after musician says he refuses to play venues that require vaccine passports
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has sued to upend Florida’s ban on requiring vaccine passports before passengers can travel safely amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
ASIA
Taiwan and the Thai government have approved the adoption of vaccine passports, becoming the latest country to join China, South Korea and Japan, among others, in using digital health certificates to track users’ vaccination and coronavirus test history for international travel. According to the plan, residents who have completed their vaccinations will receive documents for overseas travel from Thailand’s Health Ministry.
AFRICA
The head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday described COVID-19 vaccine passports as “inappropriate” while poor countries lag behind others in acquiring the shots. Vaccine passports are documents that show that travelers have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or recently tested negative for the virus. Technology companies and travel-related trade groups in some wealthy countries are developing and testing out passports to encourage travel.
AUSTRALIA
Australians who have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine can now prove their inoculation status with a digital passport for the first time, it has been announced. The official certificate – unveiled by the federal government – has a coat-of-arms hologram and includes the holder’s name, date of birth and a green validity tick. In April, it was reported that the national cabinet ‘welcomed’ the introduction of a new COVID-19 digital vaccination certificate, which will be made available through the Medicare app or myGov.
Covid-19 vaccines could be administered at your local Bunnings under a suggestion raised at talks between the federal government and business leaders. Vaccination details of Australians, enabling the eventual return of international travel. The government is aiming to have it available for iPhone and Android users by December this year.
As well as providing real-time access to Covid-related information, the app will also store immunisation data against other diseases, including yellow fever, as well as allergy alerts and organ donation status, Executive Traveller reports. The app should be able to plug into external systems, which could make it possible for interaction with health databases overseas. That would be useful when Australians seek to enter other countries when international travel resumes.
https://www.traveldailymedia.com/australias-vaccine-passport-could-be-on-phones-by-december/
Former liberal bencher now turned independent ‘conspiracy theorist’ Craig Kelly has put forward a bill to dismiss any covid vaccine passport on 21/06/21, let’s see how it will turn out.