Actually, most people do. But those that dont, get a card which can be verified with biometrics against a Federal database.
Honestly, the whole "vaccine passports can't work" arguments are starting to remind me of the stupid arguments against masks at Disney World, that I was hearing a year ago. "Disney can't mandate masks, people will just take them off! Disney can't mandate masks, there aren't enough masks for everyone! Disney can't mandate masks, because people won't be able to afford the masks!"
Now, I don't think we will do vaccine passports -- because it's a political firestorm. The far right will have their brains explode.
But there is absolutely no question that vaccine passports could and would work, if we have the willpower to use them.
Israel is the model, they are working there.
This isn't a "can't work because people will not like it", it's a "there are missing structural issues required, back when the vaccine is given". It's not the same.
In the Israel case, do they have a national health system with a national electronic medical record? That's the type of structural information that makes it a different problem. We don't have either of those in the US.
I'm getting a little tired of all the "X won't work in America" line of arguments for things that almost every other first world country (and more than a few developing nations) manage just fine.
We don't have a national health care system. In this case, it makes a difference. If the VA is administering vaccines to veterans, they would be updating the VA electronic record. It would be trivial then to create a vaccine passport for those veterans and know it's correct.
There will always be some people who game or fake any system. But it would likely be extremely rare and extremely difficult.
If all you need to fake is the CDC vaccine card being given out today, and someone will create an entry in the super secure vaccine passport system for you, it's trivial to fake. You're not trying to fake the complicated passport system, just get a fake row inserted.
We can only hope that the government comes up with something better than the cards that are currently handed out.
Those cards are not intended to be proof of the vaccine. If vaccine passports become necessary - and I hope they won't - an entirely new system will be devised.
I travel several times a year. I plan on using my CDC card that identifies me as getting two shots completed if I need to show proof of being vaccinated at the airport or other areas.
For now, the CDC card is as good as any for proof of vaccine, since it contains all the necessary information that would go into a medical vaccine record (date, place, manufacturer and lot number). We have told our patients, if they have it, to bring the card to their next outpatient appointment so that we can transcribe the information into their permanent medical record.
Those card are designed for a person to know their medical information. They're very good at that. They're not designed to prove to someone else that you're not lying about being vaccinated, they're very bad at that. When the goal is updating your own medical record, there isn't any reason to lie, it would actively hurt your medical care. But, when the goal is to get something special, the incentives are different.
Someone faking it to get the special thing doesn't hurt themselves at all. It's a community harm instead, hence the misalignment of incentives.
The tech sector is already hard at work devising the system. I suspect even if they are necessary, we won't have the political willpower to implement them.
It's not a technical problem. It's a validation of the source material issue.
Digital verification could be done for vaccinating relying on those who administered the shots to verify not those who got it .
To be truthful I think adding it to a real passport or whatever is far more complicated and not appropriate really.
That's exactly how it would need to be done. The validating group creating the passport needs a way to know that the passport they're creating is correct. Cross checking with the vaccine administrator would be the most robust. Having a document that can be validated would be next. The current CDC card isn't designed to be validated as proof.
Real passports do all those things, and are already used when traveling between countries. For travel that also requires a visa, it's probably almost nothing to add this. For travel that doesn't need the visa, it's definitely more overhead, but I would still expect it. It's going to be much longer until the entire world is at the same level.
So vaccine passports coming to New York possibly..
One week after Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center welcomed some fans back for the first time in a year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is upping the game. The governor announced a pilot program Tuesday to test the Excelsior Pass during events at the two arenas. Think of the pass like a “COVID...
www.nbcboston.com
I tried to google this, but I couldn't find any information on how someone get's one. Lots of marketing speak and comparisons to other tickets, but nothing on how someone would sign up or how they tell the system they've been vaccinated. This is the important part, and it's completely missing in every story. They just say stuff like "a person tells them they've been vaccinated", it's all very vague on the setup and focused on the use afterwards.
A ticket is easy, here's some money in exchange you get a ticket. They've validated with 100% accuracy that you gave them money. This isn't the same problem, even if the usage looks the same afterwards.
Those stories also say the event will still have all the mitigation elements. Which, if you're doing all of that, does it matter if only vaccinated people are there?
