As we approach the first anniversary of stay-at-home orders in the United States, the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine has begun, albeit in a rather messy fashion. In the US to date, more than 49 million people have received at least one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, and more than 24 million have also received their second dose, according to the CDC. Despite promises of uniform and widespread vaccine distribution by the Trump administration in the fall of last year, the vast majority of vaccines have only been administered under the direction of President Biden’s COVID-19 Task Force. And the stories of people jumping the line, political favoritism, and wealthy people playing with the system continue to contaminate the process across the country.
However, soon, with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on the way, anyone who wants to get vaccinated will (in theory) be able to get it, if their job and other circumstances allow. This, in turn, has led technocrats to recommend the use of vaccine passport apps to allow for the safe reopening of public spaces for this summer. This is not the first time application-based solutions have been recommended during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact tracing apps first hit the digital market in the summer of last year, however they have struggled to settle in part due to issues related to privacy and surveillance – issues shared by passport apps from vaccines.
However, concerns about privacy rights are not a luxury that everyone can afford, including racial and ethnic minorities, socioeconomically disadvantaged immigrants and refugees, and the formerly incarcerated, all of whom have historically been over-watched by the government. . Regardless of the myriad of assurances from the tech giants, the adoption of vaccine applications will continue to find doubt among underserved communities where people have been routinely forced to give up their right to privacy, often to qualify for assistance from the government or in the name of public safety. Ignoring this “poverty of privacy rights” means ignoring a sizeable subset of the population that is less willing to give up their remaining privacy, less trust in institutional authorities, and less likely to receive equitable medical care. to get the vaccine the first time. site.
Equity in vaccine distribution is a major obstacle to achieving herd immunity, an obstacle even for those who are already eligible. Low-income communities, communities of color, and immigrants are so far among those least likely to have received the vaccine, yet they have been most likely not only to become ill with COVID-19 but also to die from cause of it. Adequate access to health care remains a barrier, and the ability to schedule and show up for a vaccination appointment continues to depend on Internet access, flexibility from employers, and reliable transportation.
Furthermore, the vaccine question that exists in subsets of these communities stems from both a long history of systemic discrimination and abuse by medical institutions, such as the US Public Health Service Syphilis Study in Tuskegee. and the forced sterilization of Black, Latina and Indian women across the country, and the continuing disparities in the quality of care for minority groups in health care settings today. Anti-vaccine disinformation campaigns have also specifically targeted these communities, further aggravating the situation.
In response to such hesitation, it could be argued that uptake may improve if people are unable to participate in indoor activities, such as going to the supermarket or the movies, without a vaccine passport application in hand. And such an argument would be unprecedented. For example, SB-277 in California prohibited personal exemptions from immunization requirements to enter public and private schools after the 2015 Disneyland measles outbreak. And under immigration law, the Department of Homeland Security requires that those who enter to the US for the first time or foreign nationals applying for residency must be vaccinated as recommended by the Department of Health and Human Services. Immunization “cards” required for business travel have also been around for quite some time, and the evolution toward developing an “electronic vaccination certificate” system for travel after a pandemic is not surprising. Although vaccinated individuals currently receive a paper COVID-19 vaccine registration issued by the CDC, there are already plans in the private sector to attempt a national application for immunization status.
However, although the public may support Some form of vaccination verification to allow safer participation in indoor activities, a recent Brookings survey noted concerns that apps have a greater potential for privacy and civil liberties violations than paper cards, particularly because the US law does little to protect against discrimination based on immunity tests. Furthermore, these applications would not only face challenges in terms of various application mechanisms, for example entering a school in front of a grocery store, but also the aforementioned hesitation, regarding both vaccines. Y app adoption: still a major hurdle to overcome. Countering misinformation and mistrust of vaccines in public health authorities, as well as ensuring privacy protection, will be a constant battle. Furthermore, even those who want You may not be able to use a vaccine passport app due to limited access to smartphones.
Ultimately, relying solely on vaccine passport applications to reopen society will primarily result in privileged communities returning to normal. These apps can be useful in very limited circumstances, such as commercial air travel, but these efforts are essentially trivial to the more urgent consideration of vaccinating the general public fairly. The focus should remain on addressing the underlying concerns of underserved communities by enhancing government engagement with community leaders to promote vaccine accessibility and acceptance and provide alternatives to sign up for vaccine appointments for those who do not have a smartphone or Internet access (such as landlines and mail programming).
Focusing on vaccine passport applications as a miracle solution to getting back to normal is a mistake as long as the implementation of a fair vaccine remains out of reach and marginalized communities continue to be left behind.