It sounds so simple: a travel document detailing a person’s history of COVID-19 infection, testing and vaccination, that is accepted across the European Union.
It is shaping up to be anything but.
The EU plans to develop what it is calling a “digital green certificate” to facilitate travel across member states. The document will show whether and when a person has received a COVID-19 vaccine, been tested for the virus or been infected with it. Policymakers in Brussels want the documents to be ready by June.
Brussels’ urgency stems from the growing sense that European economies just cannot afford to spend a second consecutive summer in effective deep-freeze. EU leaders hope that a COVID travel document will allow countries to relax border restrictions and create pathways for public activities to gradually resume.
The green pass idea is being championed by private industry and several countries are moving ahead with implementing their own certification systems, without waiting for the EU to do so.
Locally, the government has made it clear that it is in favour of the certification system: Malta was one of the first EU countries to propose the idea.
The push is understandable. Governments must do whatever they can to bring economies roaring back to life and allow people to circulate freely once again. Keeping entire societies socially distanced and in interminable lockdowns is no solution at all.
But political leaders, eager as they are to return to normal, must be careful not to dismiss the many concerns raised about the digital green certificate plan.
Scientific concerns must be at the top of that list: we still do not know with certainty whether vaccinated people can transmit the virus, or how long immunity lasts following vaccination. Without that information, and in societies where many people have yet to be vaccinated, it is hard to make the case that vaccination is proof that a person does not pose a threat to others around them.
There are also ethical concerns that must be carefully considered.
Vaccination is not obligatory, and although the science proving its effectiveness is overwhelming, governments must be careful not to create two-tiered societies in which a personal health choice leads to a loss of individual rights and liberties. That holds especially true for people for whom not enough vaccine data is available to make an informed decision, such as pregnant women.
The EU proposal seeks to assuage such concerns by allowing people to present evidence of a recent negative COVID-19 test, instead of vaccination, using the digital green certificate.
Signs of potential vaccine ‘discrimination’ are already appearing, however. The Malta Employers Association has argued that employers should have a right to know who among their workers is vaccinated and who is not.
The push for so-called green certificates is also of concern to the hundreds of millions of people who live in the developing world, where access to COVID-19 tests is limited and vaccination still a far-off prospect. They risk being the true losers of this system, should it become a new global standard.
All these are valid concerns that must be kept in mind by policymakers. They should not be used to discard the idea of digital green certificates altogether, however.
The pandemic has led to countless dilemmas concerning the balance between individual freedoms and collective safety. This proposal represents another such hurdle, and hurdles are there to be overcome.
If we are to learn to live with the virus, then we must find ways of keeping it in check while restoring a degree of normality to society. Green digital certificates will certainly be no panacea, but we must not allow perfect to be the enemy of good.