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A group of health and technology groups are working together to make a digital COVID-19 vaccination passport. This will let businesses, airlines, and countries check to see if someone has gotten the vaccine.
The Vaccination Credential Initiative, which was announced on Thursday, is making technology to verify vaccinations in case some governments require proof of shots to enter the country.
The group hopes that the technology will let people “show their health status so they can safely return to travel, work, school, and life while protecting the privacy of their data.”
The Financial Times said that the Commons Project’s international digital document that proves a person has tested negative for COVID-19 is being used by the initiative. Members of the initiative include Microsoft, Oracle, and the U.S. non-profit Mayo Clinic.
Tech coalition to create digital vaccination
The technology from the Commons Project, which was made in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation, is being used by three of the biggest airline alliances.
Paul Meyer, the head of The Commons Project, told the Times that the coalition is in talks with several governments about making a program that would require negative tests or proof of vaccination to enter.
“The goal of the Vaccination Credential Initiative is to give people digital access to their vaccination records so they can use tools like CommonPass to go back to travel, work, school, and life safely while keeping their data private,” Meyer said in a release.
He said that people who have been vaccinated are currently given a piece of paper as proof, but that the coalition could use electronic medical records to make a digital certificate.
The technology will have to let patients keep their information safe while giving them control over who can see it through a digital wallet or a QR code.
According to the Times, the Vaccination Credential Initiative thinks that some businesses, like event planners and universities, will ask their customers, students, and workers to show proof of vaccination.
Mike Sicilia, the executive vice president of Oracle’s Global Business Units, said in a statement that the passport “needs to be as easy as online banking.”
“We are committed to working together with the technology and medical communities as well as governments around the world to make sure people have safe access to this information where and when they need it,” he said.
The project is also changing because new strains of COVID-19 are showing up all over the world. For example, the United Kingdom is seeing the spread of a strain that is thought to be more contagious.
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