The UK government’s advocacy of vaccine passports in England appears to be driven by a desire to reduce the risk of transmission of Covid-19. This is to be achieved by restricting international travel, as well as domestic attendance at certain specific events and venues, to those thought less likely to pass on the coronavirus to others. These passports are thus being issued to those who have either been fully vaccinated, recovered from past and proven infection, or have had a recent negative test result for active infection. This concept of vaccine-authorised travel is by no means new. For example, yellow fever vaccination certificates have been required for decades for travellers from endemic areas where there is an increased risk of infection.
Just as the summer holiday season gets underway, vaccine passports are becoming the focus of heated discussion and debate in England. According to the government’s proposals, vaccine passports, confirming full vaccination, will become compulsory in England from the end of September 2021, for those aged 18 and above intending to attend certain high-risk and crowded venues (nightclubs) or mass gatherings, including music concerts and festivals, and sporting events, such as Premier League football matches. It is anticipated that, by that date, all 18-year-olds and above in the nation will have had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated.
The rules governing international travel are confusing enough at present, and also liable to change at short notice, depending on circumstances. They coexist with other restrictions on domestic activity, in which citizens’ individual rights and personal choices, combined with concerns over digital privacy, clash with government-mandated actions intended for the collective good that accompanies herd immunity. Some even fear a “two-tier” society, in which people who are not vaccinated, for whatever reason, are treated as second-class citizens. Notwithstanding these concerns, various countries have chosen to release digital or paper vaccination certificates, or QR codes within apps, that are by no means readily accepted outside their boundaries.
England’s vaccine passport, the so-called NHS Covid Pass, was introduced on 17 May 2021, to allow the sharing of holders’ vaccination details or test results with others who presumably need to know. It can be obtained by either downloading the NHS App or by using the online NHS Covid Pass service, via an NHS login, to generate a unique barcode. A paper alternative is also available, to confirm vaccination status alone. For international travel, you have to allow at least two weeks after the second dose of a double-dose vaccine or one dose of the single-dose Janssen vaccine. Alternatively, you either need a negative PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test or rapid lateral flow test within 48 hours, or a positive PCR test within the preceding six months.
Unlike standard national passports, there is no level playing field when it comes to vaccine passports, which do not readily transfer across borders. Any individual country’s infection rates, access to genomic sequencing, prevalence of variants of concern, and vaccination rates all determine how other nations judge whether it is safe for their citizens to travel there. Based on such considerations, the UK government introduced a traffic light system from 17 May 2021 onwards, based on categorising red, amber, and green countries, a list to which Amber Plus was more recently added.
The UK’s closest neighbour, the EU, has chosen to go its own way. The NHS Covid Pass is only accepted by some EU countries, such as Greece and Spain, but not by others. In its place, the EU has developed its own certification system. The EU Digital Covid Certificate, in either digital or paper format, comes in one of three self-explanatory forms: vaccination passport, a test certificate, or a recovery certificate, recently recovered. This scheme has been rolled out since 1 June, gradually including all its twenty-seven members, along with Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. Further afield there are many different initiatives, not all in favour of vaccine certification. One big player on the global stage, the US, thus has rejected the option of mandatory, federal, Covid vaccination passports.
The disjointed manner in which vaccination certificates have been introduced across the world once again draws attention to the fragmented and uncoordinated global response to Covid-19. There are concerns that it may prove difficult to enforce any restrictions based upon certification status in liberal democracies, judging by the many instances of public non-compliance with lockdown measures thus far. In any case, the efficacies of available vaccines vary, especially against emerging variants, and well-documented and high-profile instances of Covid-19 have been reported in fully vaccinated people. The duration and effectiveness of protective antibody-mediated immunity after previous infection remain unclear, and reinfections with Covid-19 do happen . To add to the confusion, readily available lateral flow tests for active infection have been shown to be inaccurate on occasion. Nonetheless, based on our current understanding, vaccine passports can be considered to reduce, but by no means abolish, the risk of transmission of Covid-19. For those intending to travel abroad or to attend high-risk mass events, it remains important to keep vigilant and to stay abreast of government advice, as and when it appears.
Ashis Banerjee