Vaccine Card Needed

From the DW:

“COVID-19: WHO races to develop vaccination card”

As countries start to develop their own vaccination passports, the WHO is racing to develop a framework for coronavirus vaccination certificates that can be used worldwide to ensure standards are met. When Integrity Mchechesi visited a bus terminal in Zimbabwe's capital city, Harare, people were calling out, asking if anyone needed a negative COVID-19 test certificate. Such falisified COVID-19 test certificates can be bought for as little as $10 (€8.20), roughly $50 less than an actual COVID test, in Harare, said Mchechesi, a doctor and co-founder of Vaxiglobal, a health-tech start-up focused on immunization verification in Zimbabwe.  When the vaccine is rolled out in Zimbabwe, Mchechesi worries counterfeit vaccination certificates will also appear on the market. Zimbabwe is one of a number of countries working on digital solutions to verify who has been vaccinated. Countries like Denmark, Spain and Greece have supported the idea of COVID-19 vaccination passports, and the WHO is working on an international digital vaccination card that will provide a framework with standards for countries to adhere to. At the bus terminals in Harare, Mchechesi was researching falsified vaccination certificates. In a survey of yellow fever vaccination certificates, Vaxiglobal found that more than 80% of those used at some bus terminals in Harare were falsified.  "We thought that [was] really concerning," said Mchechesi. "It's not like there is any policing that's done, it's actually sold freely."

Focus turns to COVID-19 Now Vaxiglobal has shifted its attention to verifying COVID-19 test certificates. The organization is working with the Zimbabwean health ministry to digitize COVID-19 test results to combat the sale of counterfeit certificates. Healthcare workers enter the results of people's COVID-19 PCR tests into a decentralized database on Vaxiglobal's platform. When they upload the results, a unique QR code is generated for each result and is attached to a certificate that can be printed or stored in Vaxiglobal's app. Border authorities can then instantly verify the certificate. "You can imagine, someone can actually be COVID-19 positive and they don't get their test, they just bought that COVID-19 certificate and the border officials assume that the person is COVID negative — that's how cases are being transmitted internationally," said Mchechesi. The number of fake COVID-19 test certificates hasn't been that high because there is some regulation and citizens are concerned for their health, but the fake certificates are still readily available, said Mchechesi. "You can imagine people are obviously tempted to go for that because it's cheaper." Mchechesi said a COVID-19 PCR test costs between $45 and $60 in Zimbabwe, a country where 34% of the population lived under the extreme poverty line of $1.90 a day in 2019, according to the World Bank. Zimbabwe has not started rolling out COVID-19 vaccines. When it does, Vaxiglobal plans to apply the same technology to verify vaccination certificates. Travelers have to present their yellow fever vaccination certificate upon entry into certain countries

Setting a standard for vaccination documentation Currently, yellow fever is the only disease specified in the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Health Regulations (IHR), which require proof of vaccination for entry to some countries. The yellow fever vaccination certificate is also the only proof of vaccination certified under the IHR. But, "It is a paper card, easy to falsify, anybody can produce that card with a stamp [and] say 'I got a vaccine,'" Bernardo Mariano, WHO's director of digital health innovation, told DW. "We know that every time there is some sort of rule or regulation put in place, some people will try to break it, create false information — or a vaccination certificates." The IHR provide a legal framework that defines countries' rights and obligations when handling public health crises and emergencies that have the potential to cross borders. Vaccination against COVID-19 is not part of the IHR yet, but a country can make a unilateral decision. Some countries already require a negative COVID-19 test to enter, and the next evolution of that will be requiring proof of vaccination, said Mariano.

WHO open to cooperation with private innovators For a COVID-19 vaccination certificate to become compulsory for travel the world over, it would have to be part of the IHR, and that process would take a long time, Mariano said. But there are other avenues. One such initiative is the CommonPass, a digital framework for verifying COVID-19 tests and vaccination certificates. Some airlines have already been rolling out the app to passengers on select flights. A number of organizations approached the WHO with their own individual solutions, and the WHO's role is to set the standard for certificates, Mariano told DW. "We believe that the discussion is going on now, and there are a number of companies developing and innovating in this space," he said. "And we want to be in the discussion to set standards early on."

^ I believe there needs to be an internationally-recognized Covid-19 Vaccination Card. There should be an online version, but also a physical card that can be used around the world. I don’t know how the online and card versions can be made to stop them from being counterfeited. ^

https://www.dw.com/en/covid-19-who-races-to-develop-vaccination-card/a-56352930