gr8pirate

My CDC card looks like it could be forged by an amateur in five minutes. I won’t hold my breath that other countries will accept it as proof.

i0wnj00

Here's my take on a stack of paper sheets. Paper sheets are easily crumpled, damaged, lost, take time to thumb through if you have multiple sheets of paper, and given enough time, you forget about it and your backpack becomes a trash can. If the papers are in a folder, then you would have to pull that folder out. In the context of what we are talking about, also applies to the CDC cards and yellow WHO cards, even worse because they are small in size and can get easily get lost or disappear into some dark corner of your backpack. There have been times when I freaked out because I needed my boarding pass, but couldn't easily find it because it slipped further into my backpack even though I remembered I placed it in a particular compartment (along with other things inside like charging cables, AC adapter, sweater and maybe emergency clothing etc.).

I really don't want my important documents (in paper format) crumpled, damaged, or slipping into some void into my backpack when they must be presented for inspection.

Smartphone apps more convenient for me because it resides in my phone. I can place it in my pocket or hide in somewhere inside my backpack to deter causal pickpocketing and it won't get crumpled, lost, damaged or disappear into some random void to become trash. If my smartphone is my pocket, I'm assured my boarding pass and vaccination record is in my pocket. The information on the digital boarding pass is going to be the same as a paper boarding pass.

The disadvantage of smartphone apps is that I have seen way too many people try to load up their boarding pass before the document checker, 1 person isn't so bad, but when 3, 4, 5, 6, etc... are trying to do the same thing, it causes a mess of people standing around trying to do it while blocking the line. I get around this potential issue by taking a screenshot of the boarding pass, opening up the Photos app is more reliable than relying on wifi or cellular connection. The other disadvantage of smartphone apps is that some people literally fill their smartphones with apps. I'm amazed how cluttered their display is with apps and folders and for me, this is the digital equivalent to having to have stacks of paper sheets that they have to thumb through.

percysmith

I have a “stack of paper sheets” already in the form of ICAO 9303 passport. Even pre-pandemic, I can’t think of an international border I can cross without one (on two of my pre-pandemic trips, I have to carry both of my passports).

If it’d make things easier, I’m happy to carry another “stack of paper sheets” in the form of an ICAO 9303 carte juane. I frequently cross borders with multiple sets of documentation (
eg to return back to HK from anywhere on my Aus passport I need my HKID, to travel to China I need my HRP even if I entered that country on some other national passport. I frequently then need my IDP (and HK Driving Permit and subsequently HKID) to prove I can rent a car.

Fortunately my legal name is consistent among all sets of documents I’ve been issued, but I am still dependent on some photo cross check across my multiple sets of documentation.

I currently have local government documentation that I have been vaccinated (I have first dose, we currently have a halt on second doses due to “bottling” but unconfirmed reports suggest the vaccinations will resume), but I don’t think it will be accepted internationally (for starters, it’s a mere printout). They can be taken as extracts of the government’s register, but the security on the document is rather poor. Unless “my” government provides a way to verify the printouts, I don’t anticipate cross-border acceptance.

GUWonder

No way to know what they will say at this point, but if it's good enough for Iceland then maybe eventually it will also be more than sufficient for Sweden too.

Sweden has accepted US vaccination records for some purposes before, and I would guess that it wasn't anything very novel or super-fancy that was required for that acceptance.

vanillabean

Of course! Thanks for connecting the dots. I didn’t at the time think of the recent emails from Icelandair.

https://www.icelandair.com/blog/iceland-is-open-faq/

Barciur

I might be missing the obvious, but where does it say that Iceland accepts an American CDC card?

eerickson7

‘Vaccine passports’ are on the way, but developing them won’t be easy

https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...orts-for-work/

GUWonder

People working passport control at KEF have been accepting the white COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card from the CDC since the first US visitors came over to KEF with them this month right after Iceland opened up to vaccinated visitors. That is even when the patient number field has been left blank. They've been flying in on Icelandair.

percysmith

I think this is largely due to pax stepping off a plane from the US. I don’t expect people stepping off planes from India or China Or where I am to be afforded the same courtesy.

vanillabean

I don’t think there are any from there.

boerne

So the WHO yellow cards are hand written with the vaccine lot, date, and initials of vaccinator, and we have had ours accepted everywhere we presented them, including Tanzania. There, our friends from Kaiser in SoCal presented their State of California vaccine documentation print out instead of a yellow card and immediately got accosted for $5000 USD because it was not a WHO yellow card. The CDC white cards are virtually the same as the yellow, with the lot number, date, initials, and your name. You can be certain there will be some border officer criminal who won't accept it. So be prepared.

percysmith

We do - it's a printout (this one is for Coronavac, but we get records for taking Biontech/Comrinaty too).

https://newsstatic.rthk.hk/images/mf...0226100858.jpg

exp

Yeah too many competing standards but I would think the federal govt can facilitate problems of kitting the different systems together. Plus it's the feds who would have a say in lifting travel restrictions for people wanting to come to the US and negotiate agreements so that Americans can travel to certain places. Reciprocity is a big thing with the EU, for instance.

I thought the bit about the Republican focus groups was interesting. Some vaccine resistant Republicans say they may take the vaccine if it lets them travel or access to certain places and activities they otherwise would be barred from. But others said that having the federal govt. involved would be the surest way for them to reject vaccines.


We'll have to see if other universities require vaccination like Rutgers. Or big employers want their employees to be vaccinated before coming back to the office. On the one hand, it may be difficult for them to require employees to get vaccinated, on something that hasn't been formally approved -- but no doubt it will be, after over 100 million have been given these vaccines already.

But OTOH, what kind of hassles and liability would they face if employees got infected on their premises? Even if there was no liability to worry about, what would it do to productivity and morale to have big outbreaks at the office, resulting in lost work days, probably some expensive quarantines and sanitizing of the premises repeatedly.

So if employers and some businesses show interest in having as many vaccinated people as possible on their premises, there's going to be a need for some kind of standard in vaccine certificates -- if they don't want to call them vaccine passports.

percysmith

The Federal Government itself can be a major standards setter - e.g. whatever it sets, our Government here will blindly follow (or at least, make sure our own passport incorporates).

GUWonder

So apparently +/- a day or two around March 25th, Iceland changed course and put a stop on its having been open to vaccinated visitors from the US, so it can better figure out what to do until it announces something for April.

Iceland's start to accepting CDC cards from US visitors didn't last long before they stopped it.

Lesson: last week's "immunity passport" may not be tomorrow's.