Many people believe that governments around the world are exploiting the COVID-19 pandemic in order to keep citizens under tight control. Now, there might actually be real evidence of global businesses going to extreme lengths to keep people from traveling around the world.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced Monday that it’s “in the final development phase” of a “digital passport” mobile app that would receive COVID-19 test and vaccination certificates.
Why it matters: Per a statement from Nick Careen, IATA’s senior vice president of airport, passenger, cargo and security, the app would “get people traveling again safely,” as the airline industry seeks to recover from the pandemic.
“In the immediate term, that means giving governments confidence that systematic COVID-19 testing can work as a replacement for quarantine requirements,” Careen said. “And that will eventually develop into a vaccine program.”
Driving the news: IATA’s announcement comes after three coronavirus vaccine candidates Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and the University of Oxford-AstraZeneca, this month reported efficacy rates of 90% or more.
A large portion of the world’s population has already made it known that they do not trust the upcoming coronavirus vaccines and will refuse to receive one but under these new rules, those people will become second class citizens, unable to do everyday things like travel by air all because their personal choices go against what their government requires of them.
