7REMARKS Bloomberg Businessweek December 21, 2020
○ Airlinesandotherindustriesare
experimentingwithdigitalequivalents
of immunity certificates
It’s mid-2021, and people arrive at the airport, or line up to
attend a concert, or a baseball game. They pull out their
phones and tap an app that shows whether they’ve had a
coronavirus vaccine, or perhaps a test, and breeze through
the gates.
That’s the brave new world businesses are contemplating
as humanity embarks on the biggest mass-vaccination pro-
gram in history. On Dec. 2, the U.K. became the first country
to approve the Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE vaccine, followed
by the U.S., Canada, and others. Yet even with the end of the
pandemic in sight, governments and corporations will have
to negotiate some unprecedented logistical, technological,
and legal challenges in the months ahead.
Until late spring, doses will be in short supply, which
means the immediate future will be defined by the haves
and the have-nots: people emboldened to leave home with
their vaccine- or disease-induced immunity and those who
are still waiting in line for a shot in the arm. There’s increas-
ing talk about using so-called immunity passports to get econ-
omies moving again. With no time to waste, governments in
the U.S. and the U.K. are moving ahead with decidedly low-
tech solutions such as paper vaccination cards.
Nadhim Zahawi, the U.K.’s minister for vaccine deploy-
ment, sparked an outcry in late November when he said that
restaurants, bars, cinemas, and sports venues could ask peo-
ple to demonstrate proof of vaccination before entering. That
raised the specter of a two-tiered society, forcing Zahawi to
walk back the idea.
Alan Joyce, the chief executive officer of Qantas Airways
Ltd., ignited a global debate about immunity passports last
month when he said proof of vaccination would be a condi-
tion for travelers entering or leaving Australia on its planes.
He’s discussed the idea with other airlines, and it’s likely to
become a preboarding requirement around the world, he
said during a TV appearance.
For now, there’s no international system for verifying
that someone has had a jab. The World Health Organization
is working on an e-vaccination certificate. But this will take
time because of myriad issues to sort out. Here’s one: If
countries require vaccination for entry—the likely scenario
for any future travel—what happens when a Russian citizen
lands in London claiming to have been inoculated with the
Sputnik V vaccine, which hasn’t been approved in the U.K.?
There are further reasons to proceed with caution.
Scientists still don’t know how long the leading vaccines
provide protection, or if they stop transmission of the virus.
The front-runners are highly effective at preventing disease,
but it’s unclear whether vaccinated individuals might still be
infectious. “Vaccination may protect the individual but not
their contacts,” says Emily Hyle, an infectious-disease physi-
cian at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “We need
more information before using vaccination status to change
guidance about masking and social distancing.”
The yellow fever vaccine is the only immunization required
for travel to certain countries under the WHO’s International
Health Regulations, a rule familiar to hardened travelers who
end up accumulating a collection of the tattered yellow vac-
cination booklets. The WHO would have to modify its rules
for a Covid-19 vaccine—a long, fraught process that would
involve all 194 members.
Governments are banking on enough people being eager
to get a shot so they can confidently resume their daily lives,
enabling them to sidestep the need for mandates. “All of us
who work in public health would rather avoid mandatory vac-
cination,” Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s emergencies pro-
gram, said at a briefing in Geneva this month. “We’re much
better served to present people with the data, with the ben-
efits, and let people make up their own minds.”
Tom Frieden, the former head of the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control, has argued that immunity certificates will
inevitably be developed despite the hurdles. While there’s a
precedent for schools to require certain vaccinations, there
could be legal challenges if states or businesses do so, says
Allison Hoffman, a law professor and expert on health pol-
icy at the University of Pennsylvania. Mandatory vaccination
could be challenged in court as a violation of religious liberty
and anti-discrimination protections.
“It’s really uncharted territory,” she says. “Private busi-
nesses can put restrictions generally on participation. Dress
code for entering a gym or a restaurant, for instance: no shirt,
no shoes, no service. There’s an even more compelling jus-
tification if there’s a public-health reason for their limits.”
In the absence of government guidelines, businesses deci-
mated by the pandemic are exploring how to use vaccinesThe Covid Escape Pass
○ By Stephanie Baker and Tara Patel