As the U.S. tries to get more of a handle on coronavirus and more people are getting their “Fauchi Ouchie,” more people are traveling. Right now that travel is mainly domestic, since the vast majority of other countries are still not open to foreign visitors. However widespread international travel will hopefully be in our grasp more sooner than later.
Digital Health Passports, or Vaccine Passports, are big in the news right now. As I’ve read newspapers from other countries, it’s more a matter of “the decision has been made and we’re going to use them; it’s just a matter of the planning.” In the U.S., we’re just getting to a place of, “Should we have/require them or not?”
For what it’s worth, despite talking points about “freedom of movement and assembly” and “widening the social divide,” a study was just done and 91% of those surveyed say they would be comfortable with a “vaccine passport” style app.
The study was commissioned by German travel technology firm Amadeus, and conducted by Censuswide, an international market research consultancy headquartered in London. They researched the opinions of 9,055 travelers in France, Spain, Germany, India, UAE, Russia, Singapore, U.K. and U.S.
The study found that 91% of travelers felt comfortable with the idea of using a digital health passport for future trips. However there was one caveat that 93% of travelers had some concerns about how their health data for travel would be stored. Some of those concerns included:
- Security risks with personal information being hacked (38%)
- Privacy concerns regarding what health information would need to be shared (35%)
- Lack of transparency and control over where the data would be shared (30%)
Some other interesting data that came from the data:
- 74% of travelers surveyed would be willing to store their travel health data electronically if it enabled them to pass through the airport faster, with fewer face-to-face interactions
- 72% of travelers surveyed would be willing to store their travel health data electronically if it enabled them to travel to more destinations
- 68% of travelers agreed they would be more likely to share their health data if the airlines they most frequently travel with offered a way to store their travel health data
- 62% of travelers would be more likely to use an app to store their health data if a travel company partnered with a trusted healthcare company
More survey results can be found on Amadeus’ web site.
The U.S. government is currently, what’s the word, “wishy washy” about vaccine passports. They’re not sure if they want them all the time, some of the time, or what. If they do want them, they don’t want to be in charge of them – but they’re still mulling who should. And, of course, a few states have already put bans on vaccine passports, at least for state matters.
I suspect that, at least for a while, digital health passports are going to be the way to eventually travel between countries. It’s a good thing that 91% of us are OK with them.
Feature Photo: Jernej Furman / flickr
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
2 comments
This all sounds somewhat OK if you ignore HIPAA, privacy and certain freedoms but you can already travel to many countries without a digital health passport. I suspect some countries will move toward vaccine passport requirements but many places have been open to some travel for months. Besides all that at what cost? How much will it cost to get such a passport for individuals. We already see people screaming “racism” over voter ID laws how will they feel about requiring this additional requirement to travel? Personally I would be willing to prove I’ve been vaccinated if I don’t have to also do covid testing.
HIPAA & its related privacy laws wouldn’t be involved – that’s only applicable to healthcare workers and insurance companies. HIPAA protects you in that your doctor couldn’t tell Delta that you got your vaccine. You would be showing the proof of what you did/got, which is fine and not a HIPAA violation (I used to work in health care – trust me on this).
As for cost etc., the government is giving the vaccines for free, maybe they would pick up the charge for the vaccine passport as well. If we each have to pick up the cost and it’s just an app, how much could that be? A few bucks? If you can afford to travel by plane, you can also probably afford a one-time (or even annual) $5 for an app that allows you to do so ;-).
But we’re not up to that yet so it doesn’t make sense to speculate.