April 2, 2021 – As the discussions about “vaccination passports” are getting faster and faster and more people around the world are taking their COVID-19 recordings, ethical issues come into focus.
Mark A. Hall, JD, of the Law and Medical Schools of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, and David M. Studdert, ScD, LLB, of the Law and Medical Schools of Stanford University in California set out some of the key ethical considerations in a perspective published online Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Israel is already issuing so-called “green passports”. Australia, Denmark and Sweden have all committed to adopting passports, and the United States, the UK government and the European Union are considering their own versions, the authors say.
Although the uses of the passports will be different, they all serve as evidence that the holder has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to safely reopen the economy.
Hall and Studdert point out that vaccine supplies are currently limited, making it morally questionable to grant privileges to people who have been fortunate enough to receive them.
Even if vaccines become more widely available, rates are likely to remain low among minorities and low-income people, which could lead to discrimination.
In addition, a passport system would essentially punish people with religious or philosophical objections to vaccination.
It would also punish people who just don’t want to be vaccinated, but the authors say: “[R]Forcing people who refuse vaccination to act on their refusal seems only fair, especially when such hesitation as a whole puts herd immunity out of reach. “
The series of competing arguments, the authors say, suggest that “it would be steep and extremely unlikely in the United States to rule vaccine passport policy”.
However, the arguments do not support the ban on any use of vaccine certification as some have suggested.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said this week that he would issue an executive order banning local governments and corporations from requesting the passports.
One area that has gained more clarity is the protection that vaccines provide, an argument for legitimacy. The authors point out that the data show that vaccination dramatically reduces the risk, particularly of serious illness and death.
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