https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ne....ws/2020/12/12/vaccin
Juliet Samuel 12 December 2020 • 60am
We’re only a few jabs into a mass vaccination programme and already there’s a debate raging over the possibility of “vaccine passports”. The airline Qantas has declared that its passengers will need proof of vaccination to fly and two British ministers have mooted the idea over the last week.
At the same time, the Government has stressed that we don’t yet have a key piece of information. Do the vaccines simply prevent disease resulting from the virus or do any of them stop a human from carrying and transmitting the virus?
The answer must surely inform the vaccine strategy. If none of the vaccines do prevent transmission, but only prevent disease, then the whole notion of “vaccine passports” makes no sense. Being vaccinated might protect you, but it doesn’t protect the people around you. A vaccinated social care worker who can’t get ill but can carry the virus from one care home to another still presents a risk to the elderly in her care.
If, however, a vaccine does stop you carrying the virus, then we need to ask whether we’re comfortable with the soft coercion of vaccine certificates. No one complains about needing a yellow fever certificate to travel to many countries. On the other hand, displaying one in order to visit your local pub would feel a bit Stasi.
Ultimately, the answer may be in between. It may turn out that one or other of the jabs does prevent transmission, but another doesn’t. It may be that a vaccine makes you less likely to spread the virus, but not incapable of it. Until we know for sure, however, it’s best to leave the task of devising a “vaccine passport” regime to science fiction writers.
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