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Signs alert travelers to the presence of temperature testing during COVID-19 pandemic in the arrivals at Charles de Gaulle Airport. | IMF\/Flickr<\/p><\/div>\n
The European Union is set to recognize a standard for vaccine passports in a what is being pitched as a move to reignite travel within the bloc.<\/p>\n
While admitting that the use of such passports at the moment would be \u201cpremature\u201d due to low vaccination rates amongst total populations, the EU says that plans to implement a bloc wide standard will likely be picked up in the near future.<\/p>\n
EU commission vice-president\u00a0Margaritis Schinas\u00a0told the\u00a0Daily Mail<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>it was \u201cperfectly imaginable that this can open avenues for other use, including facilitating travel.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel that now this is the time for these vaccine certificates to be recognized across the European Union, and even beyond the European Union,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n EU Health Commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, is claiming that the bloc is in \u201cactive discussion\u201d about how to implement the idea.<\/p>\n It isn\u2019t hard to image the EU setting a standard for mandatory vaccine passports as numerous European countries have already committed to issuing such a document to its citizens for the purpose of travel.<\/p>\n Spain<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Poland<\/a>\u00a0are the latest countries to announce that vaccine passports\/certificates will be issued to those who receive the COVID-19 vaccination.<\/p>\n The United Kingdom is currently trialing\u00a0a similar document<\/a>\u00a0in select areas of Britain.<\/p>\n The\u00a0London Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0reporting<\/a>\u00a0last week that biometrics firm iProov and cybersecurity firm Mvine have developed a vaccine passport which will be optionally provided as a smart phone app for Brits vaccinated against COVID-19.<\/p>\n Denmark<\/a>,\u00a0Israel<\/a>,\u00a0Russia<\/a>, and the\u00a0Canadian Province of Ontario<\/a>\u00a0have also either announced a vaccine passport or that they are exploring the idea.<\/p>\n Airlines have also been\u00a0very vocal about issuing a vaccine passport<\/a>\u00a0for travelers.\u00a0In fact,\u00a0<\/a>Singapore Airlines in December became first major carrier to introduce a digital health certificate<\/a>\u00a0to verify passengers\u2019 testing history and vaccination status.<\/p>\n London doctor Richard Dawood, who is cited by the\u00a0Daily Telegraph<\/em>\u00a0as a \u201cleading travel health expert\u201d,\u00a0says that vaccine passports are now \u201cultimately unavoidable.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cRegardless of how any of us feel about the idea of \u2018vaccine passports\u2019 for travel, they will ultimately be unavoidable,\u201d Dawood said, adding:<\/p>\n \u201cOnce countries begin insisting on proof of Covid immunity from arriving travelers, there will be little option but to embrace the challenge.<\/p>\n We all long for travel to return to normal. But entry requirements will remain as long as countries feel insecure, perhaps until most people have been vaccinated worldwide. Social distancing, sanitisers, face masks on flights, delays, red tape, and last-minute changes of plan, will stay a fact of travel until then.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The implementation of such passports is running at full speed despite the World Health Organization stating earlier in the month that they\u00a0oppose the use of \u2018proof of vaccination documents\u2019 \u201cfor the time being\u201c<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are still too many fundamental unknowns in terms of the effectiveness of vaccines in reducing (virus) transmission and vaccines are still only available in limited quantities,\u201d the WHO said.<\/p>\n The the standardization of such a document has some worried that the plan is bound to create a social divide between those who are willing to take the jab and those who are not.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom an ethical point of view vaccine passports are completely unacceptable. You\u2019re going to create a two-tier system and history shows that when you create division within society it leads to civil unrest. It\u2019s vaccine apartheid,\u201d Dr Clare Wenham, assistant professor of global health policy at the London School of Economics,\u00a0warned in\u00a0The Telegraph<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n