U.S Government To Develop Guidelines For A Vaccine Passport

President Joe Biden’s administration maintains that vaccine passports should be developed by the private sector. During a briefing on Tuesday 30th March 2021, White House Senior Advisor for COVID Response, Andy Slavitt, disclosed that while the government intends to establish guidelines for the private sector, it would not be involved in the actual development of a vaccine passport.

Across the world, governments in several countries are working to implement a vaccine for their citizens. However, in the United States, the Biden Administration does not share the same view. According to the government, the private sector should be tasked with the responsibility.

Speaking about the development of the vaccine passports, During a COVID-19 Response Team briefing, Andy Slavitt stated that:

“We recognize this is a tricky and important subject, but the core here is that Americans, like people around the world who are vaccinated, will want to be able to demonstrate that vaccination in various forms. This is gonna hit all parts of society, so, naturally, the government is involved, but unlike other parts of the world, the government here is not viewing its role as the place to create a passport, nor a place to hold the data of citizens. We view this as something that the private sector is doing and will do. What’s important to us, and we’re leading an interagency process right now to go through these details, are that important criteria to be met with these credentials.”

In terms of what the government expects to see from the vaccine passports, Mr Slavitt outlined the following:

• Equitable access: Ensuring that people could use a vaccine passport regardless of their access to technology.
• Privacy: Storing health information is a sensitive topic, and companies need to handle people’s data ethically so they are assured that their information is safe, secure, and is not shared without authorization.
• Free of cost: The government wants to see a free vaccine passport
• Multilingual: The United States is a multilingual country. The government wants such passports to be available in multiple languages to cover every demographic.