As coronavirus vaccines are starting to roll out here and abroad, many dreams to travel, go on vacation, and spend holidays again. But to do those, you may need an additional requirement aside from the vaccine, which is a vaccine passport application.
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Now, several technological companies and groups are developing smartphone apps that can allow users to create digital credentials by uploading their Covid-19 tests and vaccinations details in an acceptable and verifiable manner to enter public places and events and other countries.
An initiative by Geneva-based nonprofit org, The Commons Project and the World Economic Forum, the Common Trust Network, has partnered with several airline companies for a vaccine passport support, including Cathay Pacific, JetBlue, Lufthansa, Swiss Airlines, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic, and hundreds of health systems across the United States and the government of Aruba.
The group created the CommonPass app, which allows users to upload medical data such as a Covid-19 test result or, sooner or later, proof of vaccination by an accredited hospital or medical professional. It works like a vaccine passport that generates a health certificate or a QR code pass shown to authorities without exposing sensitive information. For travels based on a traveler's itinerary, the app lists health pass requirements at the points of departure and arrival.
The Commons Project, chief marketing and communications officer, Thomas Crampton said, "You can be tested every time you cross a border. You cannot be vaccinated every time you cross a border," to CNN Business. He stressed the need for a "digital yellow card, a simple and easily transferable set of credentials, referring to the generally issued as proof of vaccination paper document.
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IBM and other large tech firms are also getting in on the vaccine passport act. IBM developed Digital Health Pass, which allows establishments and venues to customize indicators they would require for entry from temperature checks, coronavirus tests, and vaccination records. These health credentials are then stored in a mobile wallet and serves as vaccine passports.
Still, vaccine passport developers may now have to face other challenges, ranging from privacy matters instead of the varied effects of different vaccines to address the challenge of returning to normalcy after vaccines are widely distributed. Nonetheless, the most persistent challenge may be dodging the disorderly implementation and mixed success of tech's previous attempt to address the public health crisis, which is contact tracing apps.
Early on in the pandemic, both giant tech Apple and Google set aside their smartphone enmity to mutually develop a vaccine passport-like Bluetooth-based notification app which tells if the user had been exposed to Covid-19. Many countries and state governments globally also established and used their apps.
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Linux Foundation Public Health Jenny Wanger said, "I think where exposure notification ran into some challenges was more of the piecemeal implementation choices, lack of federal leadership ... where each state had to go it alone and so each state had to figure it out independently." They lead the exposure notification initiatives. Linux Foundation is a tech-focused organization that helps public health authorities worldwide combat Covid-19.
The Linux Foundation also partnered with Covid-19 Credentials Initiative to encourage better coordination this time. They connected to more than 300 people representing dozens of organizations across five continents and are also working with IBM and CommonPass to support the set of universal standards for developing vaccine passport credential appt.
