There should be a digital vaccination card on June 1st, but many points have not yet been regulated. What good will it do in the end?
Many older people aged 65 and over are frightened by the term “digital vaccination card”. For good reason: They often don't have smartphones at all. And yet it is the population group that has been vaccinated the most so far.
Do older citizens now also have to get smartphones? What does the digital vaccination card actually do? And are young people not allowed to travel without vaccination?
The EU is picking up the pace
The Vice President of the EU Commission Margaritis Schinas told the FAZ that the digital vaccination card should be used at the beginning of the summer, which starts on June 1st.
There are two reasons for this rush:
firstly, they want to give citizens prospects, secondly, they fear that the private sector will be faster and develop their own digital vaccination certificate.
The question of traveling
The digital vaccination certificate should be available by summer, the best time to travel. The underlying idea is therefore clear: the perspective for citizens should be to be able to travel unhindered again.
That sounds pretty good, but you quickly run into a problem:
Are only vaccinated people actually allowed to travel? Because then there would basically only be coffee trips, since so far only older citizens have been vaccinated on a large scale.
That is why the digital vaccination card should not only apply to vaccinations, but also to tests with approved PCR tests, rapid antigen tests and for people who have already had COVID-19 and are considered immune. But what should that look like?
Is it really enough to have already had COVID-19, which according to current knowledge results in lower immunity than a vaccination? Is proof from a doctor enough? How long ago does a test have to be? Will there be a Europe-wide uniform “proof of recovery” by June?
Which vaccines are recognized?
When it comes to the vaccines used, Europe is by no means uniform. In Hungary, for example, the Russian Sputnik V and Sinopharm from China are vaccinated. Are citizens from Hungary then considered unvaccinated in Germany and Austria, for example, and are not allowed to enter the country?
A sprint without running shoes
All of these questions should be clarified by the summer in order to issue a uniform Europe-wide vaccination standard that also makes such a digital vaccination card possible.
The only problem is that a proper legislative process in the EU usually takes at least a year. According to Schinas, there should be an accelerated procedure, but all EU states must also agree to this. Germany also insists that proof must be available not only digitally, but also analogously in the classic vaccination certificate.
Austria is rushing forward
According to Tourism Minister Elisabeth Köstinger, the legal basis for the first steps will be laid in the next few days to enable a digital vaccination card, which will then make this possible as early as April.
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz does not want to wait for implementation at the European level. According to Health Minister Rudolf Anschober, testing should be anchored as early as mid-April, allowing access options electronically (via QR code).
In a second step, from mid-June there will be proof of immunity for those who have recovered and been vaccinated - although it is still not clear how long you are really immune after a vaccination or recovery.
What will the vaccination certificate bring then?
The EU states also disagree about this. On the one hand, freedom of travel within the EU, which Austria and other holiday countries advocated. However, Germany is against it as long as few people still have a chance of receiving the protective vaccination.
On the other hand, stores will also use this in one way or another. Are you only allowed to go to certain stores with proof of a digital vaccination certificate? Will there also be shops for pandemic deniers like “entrance only for unvaccinated people”?
There must be regulations for this too in order to avoid further dividing society - and in just a very short space of time!
It is therefore certainly to be welcomed that a uniform EU regulation is being sought, but it remains to be seen whether the announcement of the digital vaccination card as a glimmer of hope for the people is not just a smokescreen.
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Sources: FAZ , OÖN
Article image: Glomex
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Notes:
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