In the News

International travel declined by around 90 percent after the pandemic hit — but those still crossing borders may have begun to encounter a novel concept: “covid-19 passports”.

On June 6, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change published a paper entitled, Less Risk More Freedom. It emphasizes the need for a global interoperable system of health passes that are secure and privacy protecting and that enables individuals to provide proof of their COVID vaccination or test status. The paper offers recommendations for both travel and domestic settings, and focuses on how digital health passes can make it easier for people to safely access a variety of settings.

Startups, governments and nonprofits are racing to create so-called “vaccine passports,” or digital health passes aimed at helping people travel and safely move around in public. WSJ explains what it would take to get a global digital health pass system off the ground.