Vaccine passports, hastily ushered in as a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic, are expected to become “widely available” during the first half of 2021. “Rest assured, the nerds are on it,” Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Linux Foundation, told CNN Business.
The Linux Foundation has partnered with IBM, the COVID-19 Credentials Initiative and CommonPass, a digital “health passport,” in order to develop vaccine credential apps that will be applicable globally.
If the initiative is successful, you’ll likely be required to pull up a vaccine certificate on your phone showing when and where you were vaccinated, along with which type of vaccine, in order to get on a plane or attend an indoor event, such as a concert, for starters.
“If we’re successful, you should be able to say: I’ve got a vaccine certificate on my phone that I got when I was vaccinated in one country, with a whole set of its own kind of health management practices … that I use to get on a plane to an entirely different country and then I presented in that new country a vaccination credential so I could go to that concert that was happening indoors for which attendance was limited to those who have demonstrated that they’ve had the vaccine,” Behlendorf said.2
The notion of having to present proof of a voluntary medical procedure in order to travel or attend public events is unprecedented in the U.S., but is being presented as a measure to protect public health. In reality, your freedom to go about your normal, daily life is being threatened, unless you consent to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. And this may only be the beginning.
What You Need to Know About CommonPass
The Commons Project and the World Economic Forum created the Common Trust Network, which developed the CommonPass app that’s intended to act as a health passport in the near future.
The app allows users to upload medical data such as a COVID-19 test result or proof of vaccination, which then generates a QR code that you will show to authorities as your health passport.3 The proposed common framework “for safe border reopening” around the world involves the following:
Read More: Smartphone Apps Under Development For Global Vaccine Passport
