COVID passports are our only ticket to a return to normal life
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Finally free to travel, I dusted off my bags and packed plenty of face masks and hand sanitizers. With my vaccination certificate, or “COVID passport,” in hand I boarded a train in the UK for a trip to France.
Despite the need now to present more documentation than a traditional passport at the customs and immigration desks — the sworn letter indicating I am coronavirus-free and my vaccine certificate were given a cursory glance — and the effects of Brexit, I was able to travel and now here I am, ready to enjoy my first vacation in nearly 18 months.
The world will never be the same as it was before the pandemic, it seems. The vaccine is our best weapon in the battle to protect ourselves from the worst effects of the virus. But is the requirement to provide proof of vaccination before being allowed to travel the terrible infringement on our civil liberties that some people, who continue to resist the potentially lifesaving jabs, claim it to be?
Like everyone else, I value my privacy and freedoms and strive to protect them. But in the case of the coronavirus, and the absence of a cure guaranteed to protect against its deadliest effects, I am happy to present my vaccine passport, comply with advice or mandates to wear a mask indoors and outdoors, maintain high levels of hygiene and limit my socializing to smaller groups of people. Instead I stay in touch with my wider circle of family and friends through social media, video calls or, preferably, outdoor meetings.
As I sat in my favorite cafe in the center of Paris after having my “pass sanitaire,” the French name for proof of vaccination status, checked by the unusually friendly waiter, I was deafened by the noise from a passing group protesting against vaccine passports.
A few people in the cafe rolled their eyes in response to the crowd and the commotion, others pretended to sink deeper into their conversations or the books they were reading. Clearly many in France agree with President Emmanuel Macron who considers vaccinations, and by extension vaccination passports, essential if we are to be able to carry on with routine activities such as sipping a coffee in a cafe or traveling on a train, and as the key to emerging from the pandemic and avoiding further lockdowns and the resultant social and economic hardships.
The protest groups are a combustible mix that includes those on the far-right, yellow-vest anti-inequality activists, and civil liberties campaigners who believe that the policy of requiring a vaccine passport encroaches on basic freedoms valued not only by the French but by people all over the world.
The French passport includes information about whether a person has been fully vaccinated, had a recent COVID-19 test or recovered from the disease. The bill authorizing its use, which was passed by the nation’s Constitutional Council, also includes mandatory vaccinations for health workers by mid-September.
The protests in France coincide with soaring numbers of new infections driven by the highly contagious delta variant, which a health practitioner sipping his coffee next to me explained can be passed on in as little as 15 seconds, a lot quicker and easier than earlier variants of the virus.
Despite the protests, polls in France, and elsewhere in the world, indicate growing acceptance of the vaccine.
Mohamed Chebaro
Despite the protests, polls in France, and elsewhere in the world, indicate growing acceptance of the vaccine — and the passport that comes with it, which will probably be required increasingly often in day-to-day life.
In a recent survey in France, more than 72 percent of people said they consider the vaccine the only way forward and 57 percent said they do not mind having a “pass sanitaire.” According to government figures, 58 percent of the population is now fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases have been rising in the country, and Hong Kong this week became the latest country to reclassify France as a high-risk destination. The UK only recently declassified it for travelers, like me, who are fully vaccinated. Therefore to travel to the country I needed only my vaccine passport and proof of a pre-travel negative PCR test. I will need to have another test two days after I return to the UK, but I will avoid the requirement to self isolate that was in place until Aug. 8.
In short, vaccine passports look to be the least bad option in the international fight against COVID-19 and to avoid any further damage to the global economy — despite the protests by conspiracy theorists on social media, and occasionally on the streets, who continue to play down the severity of the virus and refuse to accept the vaccine in what they see as a defense of freedom.
I would ask the demonstrators in France, and elsewhere, will not carrying a vaccine pass save us a return to total confinement? Were those people I saw today protesting against the vaccine passport the same people who protested against, and refused to comply with, lockdowns and mask mandates, all in the name of preserving liberties?
Some even go so far in their rejection of vaccines to suggest that substances have been added to them so that people can be controlled by powerful groups such as governments or tech giants — or even martians.
To those who oppose a requirement for proof of vaccination I say that, like you, I am not comfortable with needing vaccine passports and pre-travel tests, or electronic or printed proof of coronavirus-free status that is required for travel or other activities.
But is it not too late now to talk about privacy and liberty in a world in which most of us carry a constantly connected and tracked gadget of some kind? Carrying a vaccine passport is not any more harmful or intrusive than the mobile phones we take everywhere and on which we store or share every detail, big or small, of our lives, regardless of who potentially has access to our data.
Whether the French, who are known for their resistance to anything new, like it or not, the vaccine passport is here to stay. To some, it seems to be an assault on personal liberty, in the same way the Brits would oppose the need to carry a national ID card or, worse, a vaccine pass they have to show every time they visit a pub, go to the cinema or shop at a mall.
But if we are to avoid further lockdowns, more economic downturns and prolonged social isolation, the vaccine passport is the best available option, even with the possible infringement on our civil liberties that arguably accompanies it. It is not as if “Big Brother” is not already watching our every move anyway, in our increasingly connected digital world.
• Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist with more than 25 years’ experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy. He is also a media consultant and trainer.
