The United States works on the creation of vaccination passports against the coronavirus

The White House and several private companies of USA work to develop a vaccination passport standard that certifies that their carrier is immunized against the coronavirus covid-19, an initiative that is also being prepared by the European Union (EU), The Washington Post newspaper reported this Sunday.

The government of US President Joe Biden is evaluating initiatives by at least 17 companies to create digital vaccination certificates, according to official sources cited by the newspaper.

It is expected that the so-called “passports“Are free and available through applications for smart phones, which can display a scannable QR-type code, such as those used as a digital boarding pass in many airlines, explains the Post.

Americans without American cell phones will be able to print their certificates and carry them with them, according to the companies developing the products.

“We want to ensure that any solution on this issue is simple, free, open source, accessible to people both digitally and on paper, and designed from the ground up to protect people’s privacy.” White House covid-19 response coordinator Jeffrey Zients said at a news conference this month.

That mission involves overcoming many challenges, such as preventing passport forgery or hacking into the systems that contain them. In addition, the White House wants to avoid the impression that there is a government mandate that requires vaccination, something politically sensitive in the United States.

Last Monday, a coalition of the country’s main airlines and other travel associations asked in a letter to the White House to prepare by May 1 a plan to fully resume international travel to the United States.

That plan, they assured, should include principles for the development of health credentials such as vaccination certificates, with the aim of eliminating at some point vetoes such as the one that prohibits travel from most of Europe, which already lasts more than a year. .

On the other side of the Atlantic, the European Commission (EC) has opted to have its digital vaccination certificate ready for this summer, a goal shared by the airline sector, although it must first receive the approval of the EU member countries.

Those in the south, more dependent on tourism, support this initiative, but others such as France or Belgium fear that it will discriminate against those who have not been vaccinated, also taking into account that the rate of vaccination is lower than expected.