I read this great piece of an article on science-po (Fr)(political sciences) blog, I felt that I wanted to translate it in english for you and add couple elements to the mix to foster further reflection
At the beginning of the crisis the WHO was hammering a simple message that the most successful nations in handling C19 crisis mastered (inc. Germany): "Test,Test,Test...". A simple and understandable message that was showing us that at every moment in this crisis the value of the C19 status information for everyone. Whether you had it or not is a matter of public health but could have soon have other implications...
“How Long Are People Immune to Covid19?” that’s the final point made by this VOX article (USA). But it is not what resonates most amongst citizens of the world. It’s the fear for their livelihood, everyone is facing deadlines and all the more the precarious ones, those with no job security or safety net.
As for now it is particularly blurry on how the lockdown exit strategy will take place. For fear of infection for frontline workers, and as not to be prosecuted for putting them at risk, employers could try to prefer to target who they put behind the shelf.
Those who are deemed vulnerable or having considerable risk factors; obesity, malnutrition, co-morbidities could be sidelined on the employment market when kids are back to school. In an unprecedented fashion young people could be favoured over trained worker in the employment market, something unheard of during a depression.
But there is a category of person with a potentially even lower risk, those who already had Covid and survived it. Even if it’s still unsure whether the immunity to it exists or if it lasts some employer could be willing to screen their employees to avoid any infection.
Imagine how easier it is to say that frontline employees are covid19 secure or even better that your business won't be disrupted by impromptu sick leave. Maybe coming with a higher salary? As any information, this Covid19 immunity will certainly have a pricetag. Passport would allow for a limited amount of fraud to take place, but amongst the workforce there might be a competition for:
- Getting access to tests, in order to check your status, by paying for it or trying to divert them out of the NHS services, undermining the efforts of our medical apparatus to fight the outbreak.
- Getting the Coronavirus, being willing to be infected, yes it happened before like with the yellow fever in New Orleans. Some might die but it is a risk they are willing to get to access a privileged status out of their difficult position. It is obviously very difficult to fathom a controlled scheme to voluntarily infect people from the ethic point of view.
Right now we are still trying to rein in the spread of the virus in the population to simply reduce the number of death (In a capitalist society each life lost has a cost for the nation). The Who even states that passports might increase the risk of continued transmission. Because we don’t know how “immune” former covid19+ people are and that if it exists it will take years to achieve immunity at a nation scale.
It will mean that we must fight any idea of a Covid19 immunity passport because It is a dangerous idea that endangers life of many people. It will also mean that this information has to remain private and could never be considered as a employment criteria, whether official or under the hood.
Otherwise it will have to be stopped and it might be a matter of creating a lawsuit risk against lawsuit risk precedent.
As for now we haven't witnessed any impact from the crisis that seem to use a C19 positive selection, neither have we witnessed any changes in the trend of recruitment. But we are still early in the management of the economic crisis and on the easing of lockdown measures.
Cover Picture - Wikimedia Commons
Update 19/01/2020 - Please don't introduce vaccination passports yet.
We are nearly one year on in the Covid crisis. One year since the first cases were acknowledged in Europe. The death-toll has been high and it seems that we are endlessly struggling, we have been living in a stasis for months and months. But there is a glimmer of hope over the horizon, the vaccines. So now newspapers are not talking so much about coronavirus passport but about vaccination passport. This is wrong and premature for a range of reasons.
Vaccines against coronavirus have been developed at a breakneck speed and are effective. It is a great success for science as a whole as well as for the regulators. They are being rolled out quite quickly in a number of countries with factories churning out millions of doses. Studies on vaccines show that they prevent Covid related symptoms/complications but it is not sure that they prevent the vaccinated to carry and spread it. That's great! Avoiding death and long-lasting impact on people is what we are all looking for. The second point is more worrying.
The access to the vaccine is phased, at risk population groups can access it first (Daily Mail 12/01/2021) and it will take months and months before everyone (willing to do so) in the UK is vaccinated (the same approach has been taken in most European countries). Years in France given the pace at which we vaccinate. Probably 21 million British will still have to be vaccinated by the autumn 2021 according to current projections. But in the world, the access to the vaccine is not equal between different countries. The developing world has less power, less money (and sometimes has been less affected by coronavirus than we have). The first jabs to fight the coronavirus will arrive much later in the year and the roll-out to the population will certainly take ages (and in the UK the access to the vaccine between backgrounds is not equal).
On the flipside we are still unsure of the duration of the immunity once people have had coronavirus (Edrige et al, 2020) but it might be short-lasting. And we don't know for sure the effect of vaccination on this population group. We also don't know how long the vaccine will be effectual, how often we will need to get the jab for Covid not to be bad on us (and I am not even considering new Covid types here).
So yes. We agree, this would be useful to stop shielding, to travel, to go out again meet people, date, go the cinema... I still think talking about vaccination passport is premature, inadequate. At least for them to be introduced it would be better to set a date when every single one of us, will have had the possibility to get the vaccine.
I am 25 years old my life has been on pause since the beginning of the pandemic I had to navigate as many hardships as everyone but I am far from settled. I don't own a home (let alone live in one with a garden), I have a precarious position... If a recession or inflation hits us hard I will be wiped away to my parents in weeks. I have been making some efforts, abiding by the rules, not so much for my sake but for the sake of others. What I fancied in my life has been mostly taken away. We are already about to deal with the consequences of a climate crisis, an economic crisis... Why should we once again sacrifice our life, our opportunities with these passports.
Two groups of population the have and the have-not will appear and a discrimination could be made between people. While there is a differentiated access to the vaccine, passport cannot be introduced. As a measure of fairness but also by respect. We also don't want those sure not to have symptoms to spread the virus and flare up cases and death, once again.
https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2021/01/12/covid-19-gouvernements-et-acteurs-du-tourisme-divises-sur-l-opportunite-d-un-passeport-vaccinal_6066030_3234.html
https://www.letelegramme.fr/france/instaurer-un-passeport-vaccinal-pour-prendre-l-avion-ou-aller-au-spectacle-l-idee-fait-debat-12-01-2021-12686858.php
https://www.cityam.com/uk-to-trial-covid-19-vaccine-passports-with-new-app/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9139923/Covid-UK-Britons-received-jab-offered-vaccine-passport-trial.html
Ressources in the literature:
COVID-19 Immunity Passport to Ease Travel Restrictions? Chen et al, 2020 - https://academic.oup.com/jtm/article/27/5/taaa085/5847845?login=true
Seasonal coronavirus protective immunity is short-lasting. Edridge et al, 2020 -https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1083-1?fbclid=IwAR1_yXe66j8D_PEUumpuFCXsARj6m0K7irZ54Orfmp1Gw3_BF3rtMXdRTbc
