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Americans Might Need A Vaccine Passport For International Travel

Americans Might Need A Vaccine Passport For International TravelGradually, the coronavirus vaccine is becoming more readily available and, due to this, leaders in travel, politics and tech are talking more about vaccine passports. The digital passports would consist of documentation that proves a traveler has received the coronavirus vaccination, or has recently had a negative COVID-19 rest result. While vaccine passports won’t be federally mandated in the US, Americans could find they do need one when traveling internationally.

About vaccine passports

At the moment, unless they are planning to take a cruise, most travelers are not required to be fully vaccinated. However, according to Forbes, this could change once more people receive the vaccine. If nothing else, a vaccine passport would allow travelers visiting many destinations to skip quarantine, or pre-arrival diagnostic COVID-19 testing.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its guidelines on Friday to state that fully vaccinated people can travel safely within the US, without the need for a COVID-19 test or self-quarantine.

President Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told the Politico Dispatch podcast that vaccine passports will not be federally mandated in the US. However, for those travelers wishing to journey internationally in the coming months, it is likely vaccine passports will become essential.

As reported by the Washington Post, digital vaccine passports will likely resemble airline boarding passes and will have a scannable code for travelers to pull up on their smartphone, or print out ahead of traveling. In some cases, travelers may be able to simply use the vaccination record card they receive after having the vaccination.

State officials in Hawaii are considering issuing vaccination passports for residents who travel in and out of Hawaii or across the islands. However, while an app is currently being developed, Hawaii Lt. Gov. Josh Green says officials at the airport could at present check vaccination record cards to ensure they are legitimate.

Even though the vaccination passport may not be required for domestic travel, the Washington Post reports that the Biden administration is working on developing a vaccine passport program. This passport would be used by people to prove they have been vaccinated before entering crowded venues like theaters, restaurants, or cruise ships.

Americans Might Need A Vaccine Passport For International Travel

Other countries working on vaccination passports

The EU is currently working on a similar vaccination passport and hopes to have it up and running by June this year, in time for the peak summer season. Meanwhile, Israel has already developed a digital passport app dubbed a “green passport.” This is issued by the Israeli government to locals who have been fully vaccinated.

Certain other countries already require proof of vaccination against other diseases from people entering the country. Some travelers already use a paper International Certificate of Vaccination to proof their status.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) and CLEAR have developed digital health passport apps to accommodate the increasing desire to open up travel, in the form of the IATA Travel Pass and the CLEAR Health Pass. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is also developing a Smart Vaccination Certificate to provide guidelines and standards for digital vaccine passports.

The need to standardize vaccination requirements

At present governments and airlines still need to standardize vaccination requirements and the methods people can use to prove they are safe to travel. Some leaders in the travel industry have already raised concerns that mandatory vaccinations are discriminatory.

However, Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center recently spoke about vaccine passports. He said if they are “done right and done equitably,” this can be a way to help the world get back to normal more quickly.

He told Insider, “It can make all the things we love to do safer: travel, going to a sporting event, getting back to work.”

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