The use of ‘immunity passports’ is being pondered by various countries and organizations around the world to ease movement restrictions and lockdowns set to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The risk-free certificates will be issued on recovered patients that would allow them to travel and return to work as they have an assurance that they are protected from reinfection, AFP reported.
The proposed immunity passports will be provided to individuals that will qualify based on antibody testing. Then, they will receive digital certificates displayed through smartphone boarding passes or a paper.
“If this situation lasts 6 months or 9 months, or if there is a second wave, you can assume people will want to leave their homes,” the chief executive of digital identity startup Onfido Husayn Kassai said.
“There needs to be some mechanism to verify a person’s immunity. The immunity passport, if it works effectively, is more likely to help people comply with staying at home.”
Chile is leading the notion which has started to issue immunity passports on patients who recovered from COVID-19.
The idea of immunity passports is also being eyed by British-based startup Bizagi, which has developed ‘CoronaPass’ to screen employees while French startup Socios is developing immunity pass for sporting events.
However, some organizations and health experts are skeptical of the certificates, citing concerns on the accuracy of antibody test as well as how long can antibodies offer protection against the disease.
Cases of reinfection cast doubt on the effectiveness of immunity passes. Mutation, as well as new strains of the virus, can also pose threat to recovery efforts.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, “there is currently no evidence that people who have recovered from Covid-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second infection.”
Privacy Issues
Some feared that the immunity certificates will stir stigma and discrimination as your information will be displayed on a device.
While the idea is not entirely new, the risk on data privacy especially on how the medical data will be handled and protected remains a concern.
Kassai addressed this through QR codes that allow an individual to control their data.
On the other hand, it may also lead to an increase in transmission and exacerbate economic woes.
“The longer the restrictions continue, the more likely it is, I would think, that people may consider risking their own health if they see a potential way out of lockdowns,” Jules Polonetsky, chief executive of the Future of Privacy Forum, told AFP.
“If people want to go back to work there are huge incentives for cheating or figuring out how to share a code or get one of these certificates so they can work,” he added.
READ MORE: Chile to issue world’s first ‘immunity passports’ for COVID-19 recoveries
