Health Status Proof – Time to Step Up

Writing in the introduction to Reconnaissance International’s white paper ‘Vaccination Certificates and Immunity Passports – Health Status Proof’ ¹ in May 2021, I wrote that ‘standardisation and interoperability (the long-hand for ‘passport’) is inevitable to navigate the thousands of bilateral arrangements that are already emerging between border controls and travellers, airlines and passengers, employers and employees, educators and students, venue managers and guests, and medical professionals and patients’.

Six months later, after the EU and China both successfully introduced their versions of health status certification and the US walked back from federal vaccination certificates, we are in the throes of another COVID-19 variant that is forcing governments to again restrict travel between countries.

As concerns continue to swirl around whether immunity status passports are potentially discriminatory, non-inclusive and threaten citizens privacy, evidence is beginning to mount that the EU’s Green Pass helped its tourism sector during the summer and that an impending deadline for enforcement of health status proof accelerates take up of vaccinations – particularly amongst the young.