treat proposals on imposing vaccine passports in the country with caution. They are of the view that such restrictions would only trigger hostility to future vaccine campaigns, thereby hampering plans to curb the spread of the virus. A recent study conducted by market research company YouGov showed that vaccine passports enjoy substantial support of the public in Europe. Nevertheless, some experts say this should not be the top priority in government efforts to bringing down Coronavirus infections.
“They [vaccine passports] are a way of encouraging people to have jabs and to bring down COVID-19 transmission rates,” Professor Mark Woolhouse of Edinburgh University said. “However, it takes time to vaccinate millions of people, and a further two weeks before a person becomes fully protected. So if the priority is to bring down transmission rates as quickly as possible, I wouldn’t reach first for vaccine passports. I would reach first for things like negative-test passports.”
These view were reaffirmed by Dr Raghib Ali, from the University of Cambridge, who said mandatory vaccines may not be a good idea. “The key thing with vaccination is to maintain the trust of people. If you remove consent from people to take a medication or a vaccine, that would be lost,” he the Observer.
