DISCRIMINATION and what constitutes it has been the subject of new and raging debates of late. Among them is the contentious issue of so-called vaccine or immunity passports that might allow us to engage again in international travel in the age of Covid-19.

A universal document to show proof of vaccination would be the ideal way to re-open travel to the masses some argue, and doubtless many of us would agree.

“Frankly, I’d have it tattooed on my forehead if it meant being able to get back on the road,” quipped a friend of mine the other day, after I brought up some of the ethical, privacy and equality issues that have surfaced in the debate.

Tattoo aside, personally I found it difficult to take exception to most of the arguments he presented. As someone whose profession as a foreign correspondent has meant spending most of their working life travelling and who has a vaccination certificate tucked inside my passport confirming jags against every conceivable disease or affliction, one more on the list wouldn’t seem to matter that much.

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Many of us, myself included, believe anyway that there is a near-inevitability of the need in future for some proof of vaccination document to be able to travel.

Denmark, Cyprus, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Hungary, Portugal, Slovakia, Estonia and the Czech Republic are already among the countries currently issuing or asking for Covid-19 vaccine certificates. That, however, does not and should not make them inevitable, argue some concerned over serious questions about their impact on human rights and data protection. Others again will likely shrug of such concerns as an overreaction. But it’s just not that simple.

Only when you delve into the ethical and other implications involved do you begin to fully realise how much more complex the provision of a global standard document is.

For its part, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it is opposed “for the time being” to the introduction of vaccine certificates as a condition for allowing international travellers entry into other countries. That said, it is working flat out to produce a set of global standards and a template is certain to follow.

Meantime, it’s been left to human rights groups to flag up the myriad issues at stake here. At the risk of omitting some of these concerns given just how many there are, let me just pose a few questions that some of us might not have considered.

To begin with what of those either unwilling or unable, to be vaccinated, should they be prevented from freedom of movement? There might for example be medical reasons why people can’t have a vaccination. What too of those who cannot get hold of the vaccine or who live in countries which cannot afford to vaccinate its population as quickly as wealthier or more developed nations, should they simply be put on indefinite hold against travel until they are immunised?

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As civil rights group Liberty summed it up the other day, we all want out of this pandemic as soon as possible “but this must not be at the expense of our rights or freedoms, or by pushing people who are already on the fringes of society into ever more precarious positions”.

In other words, any form of vaccine passport or certificate could result in a two-tier society, where some can access freedom to travel while others are prevented.

Also, given the likelihood that any vaccine passport would be biometric, there is the question of how can a universal system ensure that travellers personal information and health data remained secure? Is it not the introduction of an ID card system by the back door?

THE more cynical among us of course might simply argue “tough luck” and that it has always been thus, even if such an argument doesn’t make it right.

The more realist among us too might say that those complaining about invasions of our privacy are most probably doing so on a computer or mobile device using Twitter, Facebook or Google – and so the whole issue of privacy is a moot point given that the personal information not already known about us as individuals could be written on the back of a postage stamp. But again, that doesn’t make it right.

And as if such ethical and privacy considerations were not enough things to consider, there are actually clinical ones too. Much has been made for example of the comparison between a vaccine passport and the current yellow fever certificate that is mandatory for entry into some countries.

I’m no medical expert, but I do know from experience that the efficacy and duration of protection from a yellow fever vaccination are pretty well understood and established. The same cannot be said for the Covid-19 vaccination about which various questions remain open including the degree to which natural infection or vaccination reduces risk of transmission.

All these debates over discrimination, privacy and equality over vaccine passports have not of course stopped the private sector from already moving to fill the demand.

As the Financial Times recently reported, health and technology groups have already been working in collaboration to create a digital vaccination passport in the expectation that governments, airlines and other businesses will require proof people have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

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Dubbed the Vaccination Credential Initiative, a coalition of organisations including Microsoft, Oracle and the US healthcare non-profit Mayo Clinic, has been undertaking work to establish standards to verify whether a person has had their shot and prevent people falsely claiming to be protected against the disease. Each country, it’s said, will be able to set its own rule such as deciding which vaccines it will accept.

The new set-up’s administrators, it’s also said, will be responsible for keeping the data secure, while we as individuals will have our own record in a digital wallet so we can ostensibly control who we share it with. I stress ostensibly because in these days of information technology and shared data who, really, can be sure?

Will all of this prevent me personally from accepting having a vaccine passport if offered or required to allow me to travel internationally, you might well ask?

The short answer is, no. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t be keeping a wary eye on the terms and conditions under which it would be run out.