Prof opposes Covid vaccine passports but Department of Health is ‘not aware of plans’

QUB Emeritus Prof of Virology Bert Rima believes immunity or vaccine ‘passports’ - which are being discussed by government ministers in England and the Republic - could encourage people to be reckless.

In the last month English vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi said the UK government was “looking at the technology” for ‘immunity passports’.

It is speculated they could allow holders greater freedom to socialise, travel and attend workplaces.

Shortly afterwards, however, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove insisted there were no plans for a “vaccine passport”.

However, now the Spectator magazine has cited documents which it says show that last month the UK Department for Health was asking businesses to build a ‘minimum viable product’ for the ‘Covid certification / passport’ scheme.

Baroness Harding, head of NHS Test and Trace, also said at a recent event that her staff were researching how to combine test results and vaccine status in the official Covid app.

Her hope was that “in the future to be able to have a single record as a citizen of your test results and whether you’ve been vaccinated”.

Also this week, Irish Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said ‘vaccine certificates’ could evolve as more is known about the impact of the jab.

“If it were the case that there was a huge impact on trying to massively reduce transmissibility, then we can think about choosing vaccine certs in a particular way,” he said.

However, asked if it was aware of these ‘proposals’ and what its view on them was, the Stormont Department of Health appeared to answer a different question. Instead, it told the News Letter it was “not aware” of any “plans” on the matter.

However QUB Emeritus Prof of Virology, Bert Rima, said he was “quite aware” of the ongoing debate.

“Providing people with a certificate to say that they tested negative is absolutely bonkers because you can test negative today and be infected tomorrow,” he said. “Providing certificates of vaccination is another matter, which has been discussed. The major uncertainty is that we do not know how long the immunity lasts.”

It is necessary to vaccinate around 70% of the population to achieve herd immunity, he said, though he was clear that he was “not in favour” of vaccine passports.

If there is strong opposition to the vaccine, he said, a passport may become a necessary incentive later on.  

“But if you give them out now it may induce people to behave irresponsibly, because we do not yet know whether the vaccine prevents them from being able to transmit the virus to others”.

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