There's a lot of talk now about vaccine passports, an idea that airlines and others in the travel industry are throwing their support behind. Authorities in Europe could embrace the idea as early as this summer. Infectious diseases expert Patty Olinger, Executive Director of the Global Biorisk Advisory Council, joined Newell on the program Monday morning to discuss.
“Patty, whether it were COVID-19 or any other infectious disease, is a vaccine passport a good idea?” Newell asked.
“Well, it's a concept that is not new,” Olinger said. “For those who've traveled to say, Subsaharan Africa and other places around the world where they require the yellow fever vaccine, you had to carry a vaccine card with you Mine actually had all my vaccines on it. And when you go through customs, you have to show that card, and that was specific for those different countries. And I think what we're seeing, especially internationally, is that some countries are going to require that you show that you have been vaccinated or that you test negative. And we're starting to see that the passport nowadays is electronic. It is something that's easy that you can then show that you're ready to go into those countries and travel.”
“Obviously it begs the question - who will run this database?” Newell continued. “Who will maintain this database and who will have access to it?”
“Oh, absolutely,” Olinger agreed. “I think what we're seeing is that the big data management companies out there are starting to put together apps where you can upload your documents, and that you have control of those documents. And interestingly, I got vaccinated last week and I got my card and I was thinking, wow, this is what we saw in some of the projects that I've worked on in Africa and other countries where it'd be easy to lose or easy to forge. What we're also seeing here in the United States is that some trade shows require that you have what they call a passport, a vaccine passport, or a test passport where you can show that you've recently tested negative, or that you have had your vaccine.”
“But when you have a system like this, is that a legitimate fear? How far does this go?” Newell asked. “I mean take the flu season, for example... I think the last one where the data has been scrubbed there were about 62,000 deaths. Is that sufficient enough to say everybody's got to have a flu shot to come into the United States?”
“That's a really good question,” Olinger said. “What we're seeing with COVID-19 is that it's really opening up a lot of discussions and it's probably a good discussion to have. What type of information do we want to have available to our employers, to venues? Both are legitimate ethical questions. Talking about the flu vaccine, there are some professions that require that. There's a lot of healthcare organizations that require that of everybody, the doctors, the nurses, the support staff. Having something that we can use to monitor and manage our vaccination records just makes it easier to maintain those programs.”
Hear the entire interview in the audio player below.
