Vaccine Passports May Accelerate Global Travel
International travel has been one of the hardest hit sectors since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic a year ago. The global health crisis, economic lockdowns, and closed borders have resulted in nearly $1 trillion in lost revenues and a decline of 75 percent in international arrivals in 2020, according to the World Tourism Organization.
As vaccine rollouts accelerate across the globe, several governments and industries are proposing vaccine passports in digital or paper formats that would enable future cross-border travel. The European Union (EU) is proposing a version that would ease restrictions on mobility within the bloc. Its Digital Green Certificate will be proof that an individual has been vaccinated against COVID-19, received a negative test result, or recovered from COVID-19. It will be available in digital or paper format and include a QR code to ensure its security and authenticity. EU officials are hoping to implement this method within the next three months, to take advantage of the summer travel season.
Israel, which leads the world in vaccinate rates per capita, has launched its Green Pass program to allow fully vaccinated citizens to enter domestic events and places. A few other countries, including Iceland, Greece, Croatia, Thailand, and Belize, are welcoming foreign visitors who can show proof of their immunization. The U.K. will soon test a vaccine passport as well. China says it will also prioritize visas for travelers who are vaccinated with a Chinese-developed vaccine.
The Biden administration states that the United States will not create a federal vaccine passport and will oppose efforts by other countries to require Americans to carry such credentials. The U.S. is not creating a federal database of vaccinated citizens. The government has not yet said when foreign travelers with or without vaccine passports will be able to enter the United States. Individual states are able to set their own rules though. New York State was the first to create a digital vaccine “passport” — Excelsior Pass — in partnership with IBM. The governors of Florida and Texas have signed executive orders banning vaccine passports and the legislation is being debated in several states.
Airlines for America, the trade group for major U.S. carriers, says it opposes making proof of vaccination mandatory for air travel, but would like travelers to have a standardized way of showing their status in order to build confidence in the airline system.
The International Air Transport Association, a global airline standard setting body, has created a mobile travel pass for passengers to verify their COVID-19 tests and vaccinations. It says governments need to have accurate information on passengers’ health status in order to re-open borders and airlines to help people travel safely again. More than 20 airlines around the world are piloting the initiative.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has weighed in. The WHO is concerned that passports could encourage vaccine nationalism if countries that have vaccines prioritize their own populations over making doses available to other countries. It says vaccine passports could also expand inequity between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Vaccine passports could lead to disputes between nations if governments refuse to let foreign travelers with passports enter their countries and could result in reciprocal restrictions. There are also concerns that the health data in any digital passport could be targeted by cyber criminals, or that the app or documentation could be counterfeited. Fake vaccination cards are already available for purchase on the internet.
The challenge for travelers is that there will be no international standard and it is unlikely enough that countries can reach a consensus on a common approach in the near term. There is a model to emulate in the yellow-card International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis created by the WHO decades ago to prove a traveler has been vaccinated against cholera, yellow fever, and smallpox.
In the meantime, international travelers will have to monitor and navigate for themselves among the different rules in places across different geographies, as well as track a myriad of entry, quarantines, and other health and safety procedures required to cross the world’s borders.
Edited by Okina Tran
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