An Emerging Technology Following COVID-19
As we power through the Spring season COVID seems to be less and less of a concern for most US citizens as everyone seems to have this insatiable need to enjoy some of the warm weather. This paired with the release of not one but three reliable vaccines has set the climate for life after COVID — something we should all be looking forward to. However, any new rules or upcoming life style changes seem to be just as ambiguous as the start of Quarantine. As we begin to wander on this journey together many people have raised justifiable concerns over these changes in lifestyle with the biggest one to hit the news being the vaccine passport proposed by President Biden’s Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board.
How Does the Vaccine Passport Function?
The vaccine passport would work similarly to a ticket providing authentication that you’ve been vaccinated permitting you to enter a variety of areas. Some of the expected areas of use for the passport would be: Arenas, countries, restaurants, universities, and many more. Within the US it seems to be a choice made state by state as we’ve seen New York opt for an application since March known as Excelsior Pass. Developed by IBM, the application data from the state’s vaccine registry to determine whether or not a user is up to date on any necessary vaccinations.
Evidently, New York don’t seem to be the only one’s looking to enter this new emerging technology. Varying media sources have reported that The International Air Port Association, The World Economic Forum, The Commons Project Foundation, and IBM are all working on new emerging applications with varying uses. Based on these reports IBM’s seems to be the most advanced utilizing block chain technology would be able to pull data like test results, temperature checks, and vaccine status.
As expected one can see this emerging technology isn’t going away any time soon — if anything we’ll be seeing massive growth for applications like these over the next few months. How long they’ll stay who can say, but I could definitely see applications like these being on the forefront of a new view on how we interact and travel.
One can only begin to imagine the impact applications like these will have on society for other sicknesses and diseases unrelated to COVID. Applications like these could track outbreaks of diseases that aren’t too common and ensure they don’t spread. One such example that’s made a bit of a resurgence being the mumps. However it could also work for smaller diseases like the flu that we see often that effect many different areas. Emerging technology like this could effect how we interact with diseases permanently.
Concerns For a Developing Technology
While this technology seems to have a lot of potential there are many people who harbor concerns over their privacy and use of the data by the government. Some news outlets have gone as far as making comparisons to the Holocaust believing people are being discriminated against for choosing not to get vaccinated. While this is an extreme take at this technology, one can definitely understand the concerns others might have for an application like this.
One of the main arguments that people seem to have against the vaccine passports is just that they’re simply unnecessary. If the vaccine’s are as effective as they say they are — then there shouldn’t be any need for a vaccine passport. Since it should be assumed that the percentage of the population who doesn’t get vaccinated will be very small then there shouldn’t be any need to track vaccinations in the months to come. The effected population will be very small which should expel the need to track the vaccinations if we can assume 90%+ of the US citizens will be vaccinated.
It’s easy to see the flaws behind this argument — the vaccination doesn’t completely stop people from spreading COVID and is more important to lessen the blow when you do catch it. Additionally, it’s difficult to estimate the time span to get everyone vaccinated in the US and with a current percentage of 16.9% of the population being vaccinated it looks like we may be using these applications for a while. Regardless of how many people are vaccinated it’s common practice for people to provide proof of vaccination when traveling to different countries. Meaning that there’s a good chance we’ll see this regulated in airport for quite some time.
Another major concern made by people opposing the application is the schism it makes in society. Some people are still hesitant to get the vaccine questioning the validity of it and believe they’ll face social exclusion for being hesitant or refusing to get it. This could push them further from getting the vaccine when the government should be trying to create as much confidence in the vaccine as possible. It also restricts those who haven’t been able to get access to the vaccine from traveling or using public resources like gyms, movies, or other recreational activities.
I think these kinds of arguments hold some validity as applications like these can make some people feel like they’re standing out and there are those who may treat unvaccinated people as inferior. However I think that these are really extreme cases as the application is meant to persuade people into getting vaccinated. Since these passports won’t be mandated by the government at the moment it’s easy to see individual businesses barring individuals from entering based on whether or not they’ve been vaccinated. This could be troublesome in places where it’s not totally necessary such as pharmacies or stores. While were all waiting to get vaccinated this could cause issues for those of us who are still waiting to be vaccinated or made the decision to wait on the vaccine for other reasons. On the other hand these vaccine passports provide safe recreational activities where no one has to worry about spreading or catching COVID. This is meant to convince people to get the vaccine, push people who are questioning the validity of the vaccine into getting it while promising a return to the norm for those that do.
Finally the main argument you’ll often hear from people is that it’s encroaching on their rights and that its a matter of privacy and the government is using this opportunity to expand their power. An argument like this is completely unfounded and there’s been many records of situations like this in the past but the best we can do is keep the government accountable for their actions. Ensure that the application is being used as intended and find future applications for technology like this.
Our Future.
I’d like to think of this as the first step towards a brighter future leaving the pandemic. We’ve all learned much from the pandemic and I’m hoping we can put this knowledge towards building a brighter future so we never have to endure another pandemic like that. I’d like to see the application of these ideas in the future and build better practices against all sickness and disease not just new infectious ones. Think — people compared the deadliness of COVID to the Flu. Why should we be so inclined to stop at COVID — we should apply these ideas towards reemerging diseases and sicknesses like the mumps or the flu. Applications like these provides so much data to people and businesses that could generally just improve the health of society. Having data on what your vaccinated against could completely be helpful when traveling to areas where there’s a risk of catching certain disease. For instance travelers already may be required to provide proof of being vaccinated against yellow fever when traveling to certain parts of the world. The vaccine passport could be used similarly when traveling to certain parts of the world or even country where sickness or disease are much more prevalent.
On the other hand many people clearly have reservations over giving this much of their privacy away, or potentially being blocked from performing some activities because of their vaccination or health status. We are at a crossroads and only the future can tell whether this application will be used for better or worse.
