The Biden administration has said there will be no federal mandate to require a single vaccination credential, leaving the issue of whether to require evidence and how to police it to local governments and the private sector.
That has set up a patchwork of policy-making, with dozens of bills making their way through state legislatures across the country—mostly seeking to ban vaccination requirements—and governors taking opposing stands.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, has said his administration is discussing the creation of a standardized record for people to show they have been vaccinated. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has said government agencies, private businesses and institutions that received state funding can’t require people to show proof that they have been vaccinated against Covid-19.
In New York, Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo introduced Excelsior Pass, a program that allows people to prove their vaccination or Covid-19 status via smartphone app or printout. Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order last month prohibiting businesses from requiring patrons or employees to provide documentation certifying Covid-19 vaccination. Those who don’t follow the rules would no longer be eligible for grants or contracts funded by the state, according to the order.
Those in favor of vaccine passports say it is the safest and quickest way to reopen economies, while detractors say they would impinge on individual rights and delay economic recoveries. The debate has spilled over into social media posts, calling the passports everything from un-American to an entry point to a two-tier society that would discriminate against the unvaccinated.
Some foreign countries, airlines, entertainment venues and other entities are discussing systems in which proof of vaccination will be the new standard for resuming once-ordinary activities.
Big U.S. airlines are generally against requiring vaccines for domestic or international travel. But some airline executives have said vaccine passports could help streamline global travel and they mainly want federal guidelines to ensure that any Covid-19 health certifications will be valid around the world and that they protect customer privacy.
Speaking at a March 31 aviation industry conference, Boeing Co. Chief Executive David Calhoun said he was open to the idea of a health passport.
“Coming to grips with what that standard looks like and getting enough representative countries to sign up, I think that’s the challenge,” he said.
For cruise line workers and travelers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended vaccinations but hasn’t said they should be required. Norwegian Cruise Lines Holdings Ltd. said it would require passengers and crew to be fully vaccinated at least two weeks before boarding a ship. Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Group will also require vaccinations for certain sailings abroad.
“This is a situation where the government isn’t taking a clear stance, the public is deeply divided and businesses don’t know what to do,” said Erica DeWald, advocacy director at Vaccinate Your Family, which promotes vaccination education and policy.
Absent a digital standard, the current evidence of vaccination—the paper cards handed out at vaccination sites—could be easy to fake. The CDC has designed a version, which many locations use, but it isn’t required. State and local authorities and even individual sites are coming up with their own cards.
A consortium of 46 of the country’s state attorneys general is calling on eBay Inc., Twitter Inc. and Shopify Inc. to take action to remove users attempting to sell fake vaccination cards online. The cards, which were initially sold only on less accessible parts of the internet, have started showing up for sale on mainstream websites, potentially allowing unvaccinated people to pose as vaccinated.
“People who buy fake cards can have their own information added to the card or add it in themselves, so it appears they have been vaccinated when they have not,” the letter says. The consortium distributed screengrabs of various sellers offering vaccination cards online.
eBay, Shopify and Twitter all said they were taking measures to quickly block or remove vendors selling counterfeit cards.
So far, it is unclear how widespread the practice of vaccination verification will be.
Business Roundtable, a national association of chief executives, said its member companies are focused on the safety of their employees and customers and vaccine passports are a tool some members may deploy.
Dena Bravata, chief medical officer of Castlight Health, a healthcare navigation platform that works with dozens of Fortune 500 companies that are privately insured, said that in surveying clients, the vast majority outside the healthcare industry either have no plans to mandate vaccines or are undecided. Those that are requesting vaccination information are doing it largely on the honor system.
“We are not seeing mandatory vaccinations,” she said. “Employers aren’t using the word ‘passport.’”
Instead, she said, they are focused on providing information about the vaccine and incentives for those who are vaccinated, including extra paid time off. With many in the U.S. still hesitant to take the vaccine, many large employers don’t want to add one more element to scare them off, Dr. Bravata said.
Media intelligence firm Zignal Labs, which analyzes content across social media, broadcast, traditional and online media, said posts about vaccine passports have exploded in the past two weeks. The vaccine passport narrative first gained traction online in mid-February, the firm said, in response to a U.K.-based petition titled, “Do not rollout Covid-19 vaccine passports.” The term “vaccine passports” garnered 67,363 mentions during the week of Feb. 15.
By the week of March 29, “vaccine passports” had more than 1.6 million mentions, driven by the Florida executive order and tweets from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Donald Trump Jr. that opposed vaccine passports, according to Zignal Labs.
Legislation aimed at preventing employers from requiring vaccinations specifically mentions “vaccine passports” in seven states.
Bills in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa and Kentucky against requiring proof of inoculation have gained traction. In Utah, the state passed a bill that allows college students to claim a philosophical exemption to getting the Covid-19 vaccine. In Connecticut, a bill is under consideration that would remove all but medical exemptions for vaccination. In Arkansas, a bill is being considered that would bar people from being required to show proof of vaccination or proof of a negative Covid-19 test for entry, travel, education, employment or other services.
The Hazlitt Coalition, a network of 178 legislators from 37 states supported by the Libertarian-leaning Young Americans for Liberty, is behind 25 of those bills, saying that Covid-19 related documentation infringes on civil liberties.
“The idea of having to carry around your health papers to go to the grocery store is something out of an Orwell novel,” said the group’s interim President Sean Themea.
Meanwhile, outside the U.S., requirements are likely to differ from country to country, said Ronald Raether, partner and lead of the cybersecurity, information governance and privacy team at law firm Troutman Pepper. And with so many vaccinated individuals traveling, it opens up a marketplace for private developers, who could use that information not only to digitally store proof of vaccination, but also help consumers book hotels or offer discounts for their advertisers. Some airlines already have apps that request health information.
“There’s going to be different verification standards. It’s going to happen,” he said. “There’s too much economic pressure to jump start all of these struggling economies.”