Immunity Passports Are Sensible. But Are They Ethical?
An "immunity passport" sounds totally logical. If you know who is immune to COVID-19, you know who can safely travel, dine indoors, visit the gym or return to the office. Vaccinated people can resume (mostly) normal life, businesses regain customers and the economy rebounds. A perfect solution, right?
Maybe, maybe not. In her latest piece, TIME's Aryn Baker explores the pros and cons of immunity passports, and finds that there's quite a bit of disagreement. While Israel is already using a version of an immunity passport and the European Union is considering doing the same, many data privacy and human rights advocates have serious concerns.
Unlike an actual passport, an immunity passport would likely function through an app. Airline reps, ticket-takers or even restaurant hosts could scan a QR code generated by the app (or printed, for those without smartphones) and get confirmation that you've been vaccinated against COVID-19. This would allow the business to know that all of its customers are protected against the virus, making it safer for them to fly, go on a cruise, et cetera.
But that opens the doors for inequality, as Aryn writes. Vaccines are still not widely available in many areas, nor are they mandatory—so the idea of requiring them for travel or other activities doesn't sit well with many people and organizations, including the World Health Organization. A few months ago, I interviewed philosophy professor Nick Evans, who put it like this: "An immunity passport constitutes a regulation on someone's freedom of movement or freedom of association." Evans also noted that immunity passports can create "perverse incentives"—meaning, extra motivation to skip the vaccine line or lie about immunity status. And given that—at least here in the U.S.—white Americans are being vaccinated faster than other groups, it could lead to problematic racial and socioeconomic disparities.
Not everyone is so worried about that. Many people feel the economic and societal benefits of immunity passports are worth it. "Some element of unfairness is the price we will have to pay for a kind of partial reopening," a policy expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations told Aryn.
The entire pandemic has been marked by "some element of unfairness"—in vaccine rollout, in the ability to stay home and avoid the virus, in accessibility of testing and adequate medical care. The question is whether vaccine passports are useful enough to justify adding them to that list.
Almost 110 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this morning, of which 82.5 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. Approximately 16.3% of the overall U.S. population has received at least one dose, and about 8.4% of Americans have gotten both doses.
Italy yesterday blocked a shipment of about 250,000 Italian-made AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine doses from being shipped to Australia, becoming the first European Union country to use a new rule permitting such a move. Italy and other European countries have been struggling to distribute vaccines, while Australia has virtually eliminated COVID-19—but the decision is still drawing concerns about vaccine nationalism and hoarding.
The COVID-19 vaccine made by India's Bharat Biotech is about 81% effective, the company announced this week (while adding that the result has not yet been peer-reviewed). That's especially good news since millions of people in India have already received the vaccine—even before it was proven safe and effective—as part of the country's push to vaccinate its approximately 1.3 billion-person population.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
The Global Situation
More than 115.6 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 2.5 million people have died. On March 4, there were 452,311 new cases and 9,743 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here is every country with over 2 million confirmed cases:
COVID-19 cases are creeping back up across continental Europe, rising 9% last week, when countries there reported more than 1 million new diagnoses. The World Health Organization urged countries on the continent to go "back to basics" with measures like quarantines and masking, and cautioned them not to rely solely on vaccination campaigns. Vaccine rollout has been particularly slow in Europe; just 7% of people in the European Union's 27 member nations have gotten a shot—not nearly enough to dramatically reduce the spread of COVID-19.
A government website in India mistakenly exposed the COVID-19 test results of potentially millions of people in West Bengal, TechCrunch reports. After getting tested, each person received a text message with what was supposed to be a unique link to see their results. But because of a security flaw, people could easily change a number in their browser bar and see someone else's test results—as well as that person's full name, address, and other identifying information.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. recorded more than 28.8 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. More than 520,000 people have died. On March 4, there were 67,164 new cases and 1,903 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
U.S. President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package could be approved by the Senate as early as this weekend, after lawmakers voted yesterday to begin debate on the bill. If the Senate passes the bill, Democrats will try to get it on Biden's desk by March 14, so he can sign it before current programs (like one that provides extra unemployment benefits) expire. The package would extend that benefit and send direct cash payments to most Americans, among other provisions.
There's more evidence that New York governor Andrew Cuomo purposely withheld data about COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes, according to the New York Times. In June, some of the governor's top aides reportedly re-wrote a paper from state health officials, removing a tally of how many nursing home residents had died by that point; the figure was more than 9,000. In a statement, the governor's office said the data was not included because the Department of Health could not confirm it had been fully verified.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is walking back his earlier comments about Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine after it was widely reported that he had refused a shipment of about 6,000 doses of the vaccine, apparently because shots made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are more effective at preventing symptomatic disease. Duggan today said Detroit will receive Johnson & Johnson's shots in its next vaccine allocation, and added that the city will open a new vaccine center just to administer the single-dose shots, which are highly effective at preventing severe disease and death.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of March 5, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
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WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
A Timeless Missing of Movies
Over the course of this past year, TIME's history expert Olivia Waxman has documented many ways our current experience mirrors the 1918 flu pandemic. The latest? A deep desire to return to movie theaters. Read more here.
Masks Work and Restaurants Are Risky
New data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention further prove what health experts have been saying for months: mask mandates are effective, and reopening restaurants too soon may lead to spikes in cases and deaths. Read more here.
Seniors Don't Know How to Get Vaccine Appointments
Some people who are eligible for the vaccine, like elderly adults, don't know how to get it, the Associated Press reports. One woman from Oregon told the AP she's been waiting for someone to contact her about getting vaccinated—not realizing she'd have to find a dose herself. Read more here.
Falling In Love with the Microwave
For some home cooks, the pandemic has been a time of ambitious experimentation, filled with homemade bread, DIY pickles and multi-course meals. For the New Yorker's Helen Rosner, it has been the opposite: a time to embrace the humble microwave. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Jamie Ducharme and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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