White House Wants COVID Vaccine Passports to be Secure, Private, and Free

According to the White House, the Federal Government should not be responsible for verifying that people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or not. They want the process of verifying the vaccine passports to be free, secure, and private. 

Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser at the White House for COVID-19 related issues said that it is not the duty of the government to hold data and verify the passports.

However, America does need to verify that the vaccine passports are reliable and people have been vaccinated but it is not the role of the government to provide such certification.

“It should be private. The data should be secure. Access to it should be free. It should be available both digitally and in paper and in multiple languages. And it should be open source,” said Andy. 

As more and more people are getting vaccinated from around the world, the need to verify the proof of vaccination is inevitable to resume the normal lifestyle. Especially for people who will be travelling internationally. 

Some countries, like Israel, have already created a green card as proof that people are vaccinated. Other countries are still pondering on how to develop a system for proof of vaccination for entry. WHO (World Health Organization) is also considering the idea of certification. 

People are already provided with records that hold their vaccination records but a more long-lasting and official solution is still required to make things easier. It is harder for people to keep track of their paper documents and even harder for facilities like airports, to verify those documents manually.

The development of vaccine passports would provide proof that the person has been vaccinated against coronavirus. However, the need to verify the vaccine passports is still a question. Governments are not responsible for ensuring the authenticity of the vaccine and this responsibility lies in the private sector to make the vaccine passports more secure. 

The private companies are already offering an automated solution to verify the authenticity of the COVID test result for travellers. New travel restrictions require the authentic PCR-test report before the passenger is allowed to onboard the plane. It has given a push to fraudsters to start selling fake COVID-19 test reports. To curb such crimes, private companies are offering solutions like Digital COVID Pass, which detects QR code manipulation and verify the information.

Now with the development of vaccine passports, the private sector can share the government’s burden in making them secure.