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Health and tech giants including Microsoft and Oracle to create vaccination passports

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Major tech companies and health organizations team up to create standards for digital vaccination passports, therefore allowing people to prove their immunity against COVID-19.

The organization, named The Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI), is incorporated collectively by Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, Cerner, Epic Systems, and the Mayo Clinic. The VCI said it was formulating tech standards that help people to validate their vaccination and to keep a record of their immunization. The organization also said people without smartphones could receive QR codes with the information.

The digital passports owned by people who received the shot could be useful for boarding airplanes, going to work, school, grocery stores, live concerts, and sporting events. “The goal of the Vaccination Credential Initiative is to empower individuals with digital access to their vaccination records so they can use tools like CommonPass to safely return to travel, work, school, and life while protecting their data privacy,” said Paul Meyer, the CEO of the Commons Project Foundation, a nonprofit in Geneva.

Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Lufthansa, and JetBlue announced in December that they would start accepting CommonPass, a digital health pass as proof of a negative test result.

As for now, there is no prevailing public system for people to obtain their immunization status records. The UK government has planned to conduct a trial run for a health-passport system, developed by iProov, a biometrics firm, and Mvine, a cybersecurity group, according to a report by The Telegraph.

ARTICLE: LIDIYA SHILU 

SCIENCE/HEALTH EDITOR: KYLE SMITH

PHOTO CREDITS: THE INDEPENDENT

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