HOW COMPULSORY COVID-19 VACCINES CERTIFICATE COULD DISRUPT THE GAINS ON THE PANDEMIC

As Covid-19 restrictions ease around the world, governments are rushing to produce d!igital and old-fashioned documents to confirm vaccination, permit traveling inside and outside borders and to enable entry to public places.

But right now, deciding which, when and where such documents must be issued, how they’re used or look and who controls them is triggering controversy among lawmakers, business leaders, law enforcement, ethicists and health officials.

Although the U.N’s World Committee on Tourism Ethics is recommending that “Covid-19 certificates for international travel must be free, universally available and non-discriminatory,” the world is far from a universal standard certificate for crossing borders or for entering restaurants.

The committee, an independent and impartial body of the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), concluded that “such certificates can be compatible with ethical tourism, though their use needs to be proportionate, measured and responsible.”

Pascal Lamy, Chair of the Committee said: “We hope that this recommendation will provide a global ethical framework that will aid the much-needed recovery of tourism.” The organization also recommended that “vaccines should not form part of vaccination holiday packages and must remain a global public good.”

On the other hand, as the Covid vaccine passports become a reality, the forgery of such documents does as well. Police departments in various countries are warning that fake coronavirus vaccine certificates already are becoming a growing problem. Police officials in Germany revealed that criminals had begun to sell illicit proof of Covid-19 vaccinations and that the problem looked set to linger.

The prices for vaccines allegedly range between $500 and $750 for doses of AstraZeneca, Sputnik, Sinopharm or Johnson & Johnson, while fake vaccination certificates are being sold for as little as $150.