Vaccine passports must not be our new normal
Immunity passes have gained appeal, but they’re discriminatory and based on unproven notions of safety. Market forces could make them inevitable. If so, we mustn’t let them last
It is an old lament that uneven globalization has worsened global inequality. Capital was largely freed to move across borders while most people faced visa barriers erected long ago, allowing big money to be made off labour-cost arbitrage rather than need-fulfilment ingenuity. As if a world of haves and have-nots was not bad enough, a post-covid global order could soon cleave the jabbed apart from jabbed-nots. For this, blame the idea of a ‘vaccine passport’. It has caught such wind lately that it looks almost inevitable that covid vaccination certificates will become a must for us to board an international flight or get past immigration turnstiles upon arrival. As envisaged, a national passport and valid visa will not suffice. Every traveller will need a digital or paper document with authorized details of one’s immunity status. Such a system, its proponents reckon, will reassure co-travellers of their safety at one level and entire populations at another. Yet, it smacks of discrimination that rests on the assumption of others being exposed to danger by unjabbed individuals. It also raises qualms over dystopic extensions of the concept’s operating logic.
Immunity passports are gaining popularity. Israel, which has already inoculated a large fraction of its citizens, recently launched a certification system for access to public spots such as malls and restaurants. Later this month, the European Commission is expected to unveil a draft law for an EU-wide vaccine passport called the Digital Green Pass. While the details might differ from one place to another, such schemes seem loosely modelled on an apparatus that China set up last year and was duly criticized for. Beijing had begun to colour-code people on the basis of the contagion risk they were adjudged to carry. Today, it is not just governments that are moving in this broad direction, covid passes are enticing private businesses as well. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is reportedly working on an online platform for airlines to verify the immunity status of air passengers. While the anxiety that underlies such proposals is understandable, the concept deserves a rethink. For one, in a world of rigid restrictions on the movement of people, this would serve as yet another barrier. With vaccination programmes moving at a highly uneven pace across the planet, such a no-go might disprivilege many of those who already face the slammed doors of racial prejudice. What’s more, it has not yet been established that vaccinated folks are much less likely to infect others, even if they themselves do not fall ill. A few studies have suggested that their presence is less infectious than that of the unjabbed, but conclusive evidence on this is still awaited. In any case, an insistence on covid passes would go against an elementary principle of justice. A jab is a matter of choice, after all, and it is unfair to bar those who refuse one or cannot be vaccinated because of, say, an allergy.
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While democracies must necessarily pay attention to equal rights, market forces could still overwhelm objections and push us to accept the idea of covid passports. Given the impact of covid fears on the hospitality and travel sectors, hotels and air-carriers may find no better way to attract custom than to signal safety via these labels. The IATA plan is an indication of what’s in the air. Even without concerted action, competition for customers would make it de rigueur as a literal ‘hygiene factor’ across industries. Should this happen, the least we can hope for is a sunset clause on the idea. Let it not settle in as the new normal.
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