percysmith

One possibility I did moot with another Australian in Hong Kong wanting to go home is imposing a requirement to seek a visa/permit to exempt us from quarantine from our local Australian mission (in our case, Australian Consulate General Hong Kong) - notwithstanding we are Australian citizens and otherwise possess right to return (we can return, just have to serve 21 days at a state-operated quarantine facility).

To get quarantine exemption visa/permit, our consul will verify vaccination documents presented are to the accepted local format and/or verify with the local department of health if necessary. Of course the vaccine then taken has to meet Australian requirements (e.g. TGA approved).

This is like getting our vaccination papers (as opposed to our passports) "visaed" by our own consul. The practical effect will be, restrictions will be placed on travel like Hong Kongers had to endure in the 1980s, before visa exemptions became widely available to them.

This may create some unexpected and surprising scenarios for us in Hong Kong

China does not recognise rest of world vaccine, EU/AU/US does not recognise China's https://edition.cnn.com/travel/artic...hnk/index.html .
Hong Kong currently recognises both.

The more likely scenario is that we serve as vaccination hub for Chinese travellers heading to EU/AU/US. They come here on the strength of their Chinese vaccines, and take Biontech or AZ.
We are much closer to opening up to southbound travellers from China than those from the rest of the world.

The next stage is we then serve as Chinese vaccination hub for northbound travellers (those from rest of world heading into China).

As a resident, I'm not terrifically happy my clinics will be filled with visitors.
But it's a free port.
In anticipation of these scenarios I took my first dose today, while borders are still shut.

exp

So people would get a Western and a Chinese vaccine in HK in order to be able to travel in and out of mainland China?

Along with the reported anal swabs, what little interest I ever had in visiting the mainland just evaporated completely.

747FC

Big Tech is in the process of developing the architecture for digital passports:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-tec...hare_permalink

"A coalition that includes tech giants and healthcare providers is preparing to release global standards for mobile apps that verify whether someone has had a Covid-19 vaccine.

The Vaccination Credential Initiative standards will incorporate digitally-verified clinical data with a name and birth date that can be also displayed as machine-readable QR codes.

After the open-source standards are released next month, they can be integrated into mobile apps that people could use to verify they have been vaccinated to gain admission to offices, restaurants, bars, entertainment venues and other public places."

exp

We never managed a standard or come to any kind of agreement for digital health records, though doing so would probably save billions if not trillions a year in health care spending.

We never managed a new national ID standard after 9/11 or the many hacks which compromised the SSNs and other private data of millions of Americans.

So it would really be surprising if there was any kind of "standard" digital vaccine and test passport.

Instead, it's more likely there will be a patchwork of different things. One article I linked earlier said that govt. agencies may more likely to rely on third-parties such as pharmacies to come up with some proof of vaccination status because they have their own systems.

Even if there could be agreement on a standard, it would take years probably for all these different entities, both private and governmental, to become compatible for issuing systems.

Yes the Israelis are doing that for their green passport apps. But they probably had some kind of universal health data standard, probably because they had universal health care, where everyone is on the same system.

catocony

Israel is a small country with a small population. Be it pandemic response, airport security, etc, Israel is not a good global benchmark There aren't a whole lot of ways in and out of Israel so it's real easy to put up requirements that can't be ignored.

MDTyKe

Does anyone how how to correctly prove you're vaccinated? I have both shots, and my CDC card, but it looks incredibly ghetto.. and I'm kind of terrified of losing it too. I'd say after a few uses it'll be creased and will probably fall apart. I do have a CDC VAMS account which shows it too - but the "Vaccination Certificate" it prints out also looks like it has been made with MS Word.

It would be nice if, for domestically (at least in the US) I could get some kind of logo on my Driver's License.. Ya know, gold star kinda thing.

CodeAdam10

In the USA, I just wish we had come up with a more legitimate / verifiable system for those being vaccinated. The fact of the matter is that little hand-written "vaccine card" we all get can (and will be) easily forged and there will be absolutely no easy / simple verifiable way to the contrary.

MDTyKe

My vaccination is recorded in the CDC VAMS though, and I was given a VAMS ID. I can see no reason why that cannot be 'pinged' if I give the ID - kind of like how I have to provide my Trusted Traveler No to avail of Precheck benefits.

catocony

So you want hundreds of millions of people to go get new driver's licenses in a six month or so time period for one particular vaccination campaign? Plus, got get your Vaccination Gold Star, your only proof is your ghetto CDC card, right? If it's good enough for the DMV, it will be good enough for the airlines.

Again folks, just wait a few months until a significant portion of the US/Canada and Europe and Japan and the rest of the major countries have all been vaccinated. You won't need a proof of vaccination and/or negative COVID test since at that point simple economics will open the doors and jetways for us.

MDTyKe

I think if you re-read my statement, you'd realize I did not say that. I said it would be nice.

As I said, there is a VAMS ID; I can see no reason why CDC couldn't open that up (with permission) to have an API ping. Systems are already in place for this kind of thing. The DMV doesn't really accept documents you give them (other than proof of address) - they verify everything in "SAVE", and likewise lots of employers now do the same with e-Verify. I suspect by recording everything in VAMS this is the CDCs long-term plan?

i0wnj00

Wait and hope (or pray) that whoever has your vaccination record will invite you to add a digital pass onto your phone like which was done to me. I'm sure a digital certificate is being worked on, but with the many points of distribution for the vaccine and the issues of moving personal data between entities, I'm not entirely sure if this is feasbile.

Like you, I was wondering about the same thing but I just received a email saying a digital certificate with a QR code was created for me as my proof of vaccination. I added it to my digital wallet for my phone because quite frankly, its much better than the CDC card or the Yellow Card.

MDTyKe

Out of curiosity who sent you the email? Was it CDC, or the folks who gave you the vax?

i0wnj00

I received the email from https://healthvana.com/

Los Angeles County gave me the vaccine, but Healthvana sent me the email to download the digital certificate so I assume that there's some kind of collaboration between the two to manage the record keeping for the who was vaccinated in Los Angeles County.

The CDC? All I got was that white card from them, as a matter of fact they probably don't even know I got vaccinated. They're so far removed from the distribution of the vaccine.

I would carefully check the emails from when you signed up or got the results and see if you can find that a business is actually keeping your records and not any government agency. I'm going to bet most government agencies will outsource the collection of data to manage appointments for vaccinations as most governments really struggle with managing large amounts of data (i.e. unemployment claims) or don't have the budgets for such systems.

exp

at least take pictures of it with your phone.

or maybe a short video of you holding it up to the camera.

as backups.

MDTyKe

Oh interesting. I have an entire account with CDC; I've been emailed by them (to create the account), and I used their website to schedule my second vax after the first was done. Can you self-register at https://vams.cdc.gov and see your record?

I had assumed every vax was recorded by CDC - they've been sending me daily "check-in" surveys on symptoms etc too.