Vaccination passports, a (necessary) evil?
November 4, 2021 — HANNAH RICHTER & JORDY NIJENHUIS
With yet another spike in COVID-19 cases, and hospitals becoming overwhelmed once more, new measures are being implemented across the world. A popular approach, implemented by many countries to flatten the curve, again, are vaccination passports. They come in a multitude of names: Covid QR code, Health Pass, Green Pass, Coronapass, the list goes on. But whilst these passports are used heavily when travelling from one country to another, their use within each country differs. In some, access to bars and restaurants are limited unless you can present your vaccination passport. In others, they are needed in order to gain access to the workplace. Some countries don’t even use them at all once you pass the border. With not everyone choosing to get vaccinated, this new measure poses some important ethical questions:
Do we want to live in a society where we treat the unvaccinated differently?
Is it acceptable to almost force people into taking vaccines through vaccination passports?
How can we protect our vulnerable people and our health services, without increasing polarisation between the vaccinated and unvaccinated?
How can we ensure safety without the government regulating every aspect of our social and professional lives, and taking away our civil liberties?
Countries have different approaches when it comes to these concerns. In most places, vaccination passports are available to those who have been vaccinated, recently recovered from COVID-19, or have a negative test. In Germany, they refer to this as the ‘3Gs’: ‘Geimpft, Genesen oder Getestet’, meaning ‘vaccinated, recovered or tested’. By including ‘tested’ within the passport, it allows those who are not vaccinated to still engage in societal activities where the passport is required. In the Netherlands, however, the possibility to remove the ‘tested’ passport has not yet been ruled out.
Despite Italy not making vaccinations mandatory, by requiring their ‘Green Pass’ in workplaces, they have made it incredibly difficult for the unvaccinated to get by. Italian MEP Nicola Procaccini believes the measure to be ‘unfair’ as it puts Italian people ‘in a situation where vaccination is almost compulsory.’ Without it, they find themselves ‘rejected from society’.
In England, the government spent the summer discussing future plans for vaccination passports to be needed to enter nightclubs and large events, but then U-turned on their decision at the last minute. The foreign secretary even admitted this was just a ploy to convince more people to book their vaccination appointments.
“But perhaps it’s not as bad as it may sound. After facing a vaccine mandate, the New York Police Department Union warned that 10,000 cops could quit. But, as it turned out, only 34 were put on unpaid leave.”
In April, the US government announced they will not introduce vaccination passports in order to protect citizens' privacy and rights. But still, in the coming months, the USA could be facing a stricter vaccine mandate, requiring businesses to ensure their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19. The mandate applies to bigger businesses only and will cover about two-thirds of the workforce, effectively creating a vaccination passport without labeling it as such. These mandates have, unsurprisingly, become a heavily polarised debate, with both sides taking it to the extreme. But perhaps it’s not as bad as it may sound. After facing a vaccine mandate, the New York Police Department Union warned that 10,000 cops could quit. But, as it turned out, only 34 were put on unpaid leave.
In countries with lower vaccination rates, like Romania and Bulgaria, where the rate is well below 40%, the issue of vaccination passports is still being discussed. In Romania, they are cracking down to increase vaccination rates: they have enforced a vaccination passport scheme in which holders must show their passport to leave their house at night time. This measure seems to be working, as 80,000 Romanians received a first dose of the vaccine the day before the passport got implemented, a stratospheric increase compared to the daily average of just 4,000 in a month before.
“Without the use of force, the country managed to persuade close to 40 percent of the population who were unsure about the vaccines.”
Maybe we have to look at Portugal for answers. The country has just abandoned their vaccine task force after reaching a vaccination rate of over 98% amongst eligible people. Without the use of force, the country managed to persuade close to 40 percent of the population who were unsure about the vaccines. The part of the population who is still doubting is down to only 2.2 percent now. According to Vice Admiral Henrique Gouveia e Melo, the coordinator of the COVID-19 vaccination plan task force, this was possible by keeping politics out of the vaccination rollout. His approach was to treat it as a military operation, and to frame it as a war against an invisible enemy. With this militaristic messaging, and aggressive method to countering disinformation, he managed to take away almost any doubt in the vaccine.
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