One expert believes the idea of a vaccine “passport” will be short lived, and he鈥檚 certainly not worried about it leading to any infringement on anybody’s rights.
Dr. Amesh Adalja is a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, who thinks that, even as more Americans become vaccinated against COVID-19, the topic of vaccine passports and how they could be used to exclude people from certain activities is overblown.
鈥淭he governments are not going to saying 鈥榶ou need to have a vaccine passport鈥� or anything like that,鈥� said Adalja.
鈥淵ou might see some businesses that say, ‘Well, if you鈥檙e vaccinated we鈥檙e not going to have you wear a mask or we鈥檙e going to have different capacity concerns,’ and I think that鈥檚 what you鈥檇 anticipate because the virus treats you differently if you鈥檙e vaccinated so other people can treat you differently.鈥�
He said it鈥檚 possible private businesses could do things like have certain sections set aside for those who are vaccinated in places like concert halls or stadiums. But as more people get vaccinated every day he thinks this sort of discussion will end up becoming moot before you know it.
鈥淚t just reflects the fact that the vaccines are highly valuable and that they do change your life,” Adalja said. “People should want to get them and people will treat you differently and better when you get the vaccine in terms of your risk of transmitting COVID to somebody else.”
Adalja went on to say that you might see businesses be a little more lax when they’re dealing with vaccinated people.
鈥淚f I were somebody planning an event and everybody could be vaccinated there, the mitigation measures I would put in place would be much less than if I knew that there were going to be unvaccinated people there,鈥� Adalja said.
He admits the one time you might need to use your vaccination card as a 鈥減assport鈥� would be if you鈥檙e traveling to another country — whether it鈥檚 become vaccination levels there might not be as high or they have restrictions involving testing and quarantines in place for people traveling from other places.
But Dr. Adalja is also dismissive of the idea that any domestic governments will be using it to track people. After all, vaccination databases have existed for a long time already.
鈥淭he state has always known,鈥� about vaccination records, whether it鈥檚 for COVID-19 or shots meant to prevent viruses like measles and mumps and even the flu.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all entered into a state immunization registry that most people in my field of infectious disease and public health have known have existed for a long time because we use those to understand vaccine coverage. I just think the general public had no idea this was occurring.”
He doesn’t think knowing who is and who isn’t vaccinated is a big deal, especially when it comes to tracking responses to infectious disease emergencies.
