Lee Jae-woo
Professor of Department of Industrial Security, Chung-Ang University
A vaccine passport means a COVID-19 vaccination certificate. The document certifies that individuals who possess it have a significantly lower risk of getting COVID-19 in the future as they have been vaccinated against it. The vaccine passport contains: the type of vaccine given, the date of inoculation, the results of PCR checkup after the inoculation, and whether it is completely cured or has antibodies. Many countries have been discussing allowing people with the vaccine passport to travel more freely.
The simple way to embody the vaccine passport is to print it out on a paper. However, this kind of paper certificate is vulnerable to infringement of personal data and has a possibility of forgery and falsification. Introduction of a smartphone vaccine passport using digital technology can be considered to improve this. By applying blockchain technology, the possibility of forgery and falsification of a certificate can be blocked, and the protection of personal information, such as name, gender, address, and passport number, can be strengthened by selective display. The blockchain directly operated by Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) can identify the authenticity of inoculation, using only personal public key information without exposing personal information.
However, the COVID-19 infection possibility still exists even if vaccinated because no vaccine has shown to have a 100% prevention effect. The excessive trust on a vaccine passport may cause confusion in disinfection policies. As social activities excessively increase due to the introduction of a vaccine passport, it leads to inconvenience in epidemic prevention activities. We should also consider the possibility of social discrimination against pregnant women, teenagers, and children who cannot get vaccinated.
On the other hand, some claim that the introduction of vaccine passports can greatly help invigorate the domestic economy. Amid the unprecedentedly prolonged COVID-19 crisis, the introduction of vaccine passports may be necessary to achieve both goals of economy and epidemic prevention together. It is not clear how many years it will take to come to fully end the COVID-19 crisis. Citizens getting out of their economic difficulties is as important as COVID-19 prevention. For this reason, the government is pushing for support policies such as alleviating the business hour limit for small business owners within the permissible range of epidemic prevention capabilities. Vaccine passports should also be introduced in line with this stance within the permissible range of epidemic prevention capabilities, and it is time to start social discussions on it.
Internationally as well, discussions on mutual recognition and standardization of vaccine passports are necessary. A similar example is a ‘travel bubble.’ A travel bubble is a way to allow free travel by exempting self-quarantine upon entry between countries with excellent prevention of the epidemic. Singapore and Taiwan currently have a travel bubble agreement. The Korean government has also been negotiating the travel bubble with other countries with excellent containment of the virus. Since each country has different vaccines approved, they should discuss the mutual recognition of vaccine passports for commonly approved vaccines at these consultations. In addition, the way of embodying digital vaccine passports is different in each country. Therefore, standardization work should also be prepared for this. If the vaccine passport is introduced in Korea, it is also be possible for Korea to lead the international standardization work of digital vaccine passports.
Given the current low vaccination rate in Korea, it is difficult to introduce the vaccine passport immediately. Early adoption of vaccine passports can lead to neglect of prevention of epidemics at a time when vaccination rates are low. However, social discussions can begin now: At what vaccine rate should the vaccine passport be introduced? How to handle social discrimination due to vaccine passports? These discussions should start now so that social consensus can be reached in time. It is also hoped that young people in Korea lead the development of digital vaccine passport technology in these issues, and lead constructive discussions on the introduction of vaccine passports.