Would you Support Vaccine Passports?

Vaccine passports will most certainly be a thing for travelling abroad and opening up free movement, while the Coronavirus is with us, but do you think there is a place for them in everyday activities such as going to a restaurant, cinema, pub/bar, nightclub, theatre or concert?

Would that be a step too far and would even put establishments at risk of going bust, or do you think that is the right approach to secure a new normal that we will all have to get used to?

Origins of Vaccine Passports

The idea of a vaccine passport is no new thing but was only something you had to think about if you were planning a trip to a handful of countries, mostly in the third world.

Innoculations for diseases such as Malaria, Yellow Fever, Hepatitis, Typhoid Fever, Polio and a few other nasties that cause havoc to human health around the world, is commonplace if you are travelling to certain countries. Some countries may even refuse you a visa or legal entry without proof of vaccination - hence the term 'Vaccine Passport'.

Covid-19 Coronavirus has flipped the script

Now that we are fully in the clutches of the Coronavirus pandemic in every corner of the globe, vaccine passports may now be much more widely used and we could find ourselves having to get one to hop over the channel to France for a day trip.

A Negative Coronavirus will also be accepted

It's also important to remember that most of the plans for a vaccine passport also mention a negative test result for Coronavirus as a method to get that all-important stamp to gain entry as an option instead of a vaccine.

P&O Ferries are one of the first travel operators to announce that passengers will not be allowed to board any of their ships without proving they have had a vaccine for Covid-19.

In terms of travel, it's understandable to move in this direction, because we know that travel is how this virus has spread it's tentacles to every corner of the globe, but if it proves to be successful, we could see the system replicated for everyday activities too.

Restaurants, Pubs, Cinemas

The entertainment industry has been hit incredibly hard during this pandemic and as Boris Johnson said on several occasions, coming out of the last lockdown the country has endured must be 'irreversible'.

That is music to the ears of the entertainment industry but if this pandemic has taught us anything, it's that nothing is certain. For sure, bold statements like that will need the most rigorous efforts to ensure that promise comes true.

The vaccine rollout has been hugely successful, so that's a major move in the right direction, and if we're lucky, the vaccine along with natural immunity will get us to the critical 70-80% we need for herd immunity.

If all that isn't enough, then other measures may need to be implemented to ensure that life can carry on as normal as possible without any other major lockdowns or infringements of our civil liberties.

Logistics of vaccine passports

As we all know, the Uk has had one of the most successful rollouts of any vaccination programme in the world, but still, we've only just started vaccinating all over 50-year-olds, and it won't be until the end of July at the earliest before all adults are offered a vaccination.

How long do Covid-19 Vaccine's last?

To make things even more complex, we still don't know how long the different vaccines being administered actually provide immunity for, which makes it very difficult to give these so-called passports the credibility they need in order to make them such an integral part of our daily lives and movement.

Stay safe!