Will Hawaii adopt a vaccination passport program?
 

There has been quite a bit of buzz on this topic in the media:

CDC guidance for vaccinated travelers puts new urgency on state’s ‘vaccine passport’ plans (hawaiinewsnow.com)
Hawaii considering vaccine passports for inter-island travel (usatoday.com)
Maui County looks into vaccine passport program | News, Sports, Jobs - Maui News

...etc.

My wife and I received our first doses of Pfizer this week, and as a result we are anxious to be able to ditch the high stress 72-hour tests and just be able to show proof of vaccination come May. Most of what I have read seems to indicate that the state is going to start with the CDC cards, and might move to an electronic passport program.

When do folks think this is going to happen?

Have you read any of the discussions here? The Governor has stated CDC guidance will impact the policies going forward. I suspect today's announcements of the CDC will have significant impact, pushing the Governor to a decision point and we should see some new directions from Hawaii very soon. I expect those who have completed vaccination be free to enter Hawaii without test requirements..the Governor and Lt Governor have certainly hinted at this. The previous discussions would seem to predict this would happen.

hmmm.... Hawaii hasn't exactly been quick, logical or decisive through this whole process. I'd be very surprised if anything was happening, "very soon" but I hope I'm wrong.

The "passport" issue is less of an issue for those vaccinated in the US. While the CDC card may not meet the most stringent cyber security standards :( it is what exists and CDC Guidance can hardly ignore it.

The question will be whether Hawaii relaxes / reduces testing and quarantine requirements for those who can produce proof of vaccination. Uglier issues for those vaccinated overseas with vaccines not approved or subject to EUA in the US (yet). But, that is largely a federal issue in the first place as those entering from overseas, including US nationals, would need to be exempted from the test requirement imposed by CDC Order.

It’s not a clear cut decision as vaccinated individuals can still be carriers and infect unvaccinated population as the vaccine’s approval criteria was how well it protected against “serious complications leading to death/hospitalization” not “not catching COVID.”

Essentially part of the equation is how is the current scheme working out from health and tourism/economic perspective and how will switching to no test and accept vaccine card change that?

Any so called “vaccine passport” or whatever you want to call it will co-exist alongside the current 72 hour testing program. If Hawaii were to shift to only accept vaccinated travelers and remove the option to get a negative COVID test taken 72 hours prior, that would only hurt tourism on the island as many travelers going to Hawaii are families with kids and there is currently no vaccine approved that kids under 16 can currently get, so families just wouldn’t travel there.

This continues to be a red herring. All of the very recent analysis conducted by the CDC themselves says it would be highly unlikely. Even if there is an amazingly small possibility of this happening, it should not be a deterrent to getting things back to 100% normalcy. The argument of "We can't let a single person die from COVID" doesn't hold water anymore. Remember how we tried this with airline terrorism and we still have completely unreasonable restrictions 21 years later?

I would be fine with not having kids traveling to Hawaii, but that's just me ;)

In Governor Ige's remarks yesterday, he discussed the status of vaccine passport systems, suggesting they won't be ready to state residents for interisland travel until maybe July and at some date well beyond that for mainland travelers. But he did say the state is locked-up with CLEAR and CommonPass to pursue those possibilities, building on the pre-travel COVID testing data they're testing now with them.

My United frequent flyer account covers my CLEAR membership, but I wonder what kind of resistance people will have, especially state residents, to paying for a subscription to these services just to authenticate their vaccine. I know many who won't do CLEAR purely for privacy reasons too...and I suspect to force people onto these platforms to hop around the islands is setting the stage for another battle.

No disagreement no such thing as 100% before getting back to normal; just different approaches. Vaccinate cards don’t seem to serve any benefits over testing for allowing travelers in. Skip the vaccine cards. Continue testing until Hawaii target vaccinated rates (whatever it is) are achieved.

Disappointed to see that July timeframe for inter island. I’m coming in May and visiting Oahu and Big Island. I don’t mind get tested twice but the $125 per test going rate in Honolulu is excessive. That’s five hundred bucks for my family of four which will seriously eat into our overall vacation budget. How about getting these test prices down to $50 or less if they can’t make them free.

I’d recommend traveling to the Big Island first and Oahu last since Oahu is the only island that doesn’t require a pre-arrival test/quarantine for inter-island travel. This is exactly what I’m doing for my trip next month.

We'll be going Oahu-Kauai-Hawaii-Maui in August. Hoping that the situation changes (for the better) by then. We'll be fully-vaccinated, and am OK with pre-travel testing, just don't want to have to mess with any additional testing (cost and hassle) while there.

If things don't change, we may end up dropping Kauai, staying longer on Oahu.

yes I’ve considered that. Problem is our lodgings are already locked in the other way including a Turo car rental on Big Island.

At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if herd immunity was achieved before they figure out the vaccine passport. By the fall, it wouldn't be shocking if they eliminated the quarantine program. Especially if most elderly are vaccinated here and vaccine-escaping variants don't take root.

August is a very long time from now. Far too soon to be anything more than monitoring the conditions.