Whether it’s called a vaccine passport or a vaccine smart card, the 401Health cellphone app, a COVID-19 vaccination verification tool, needs to remain optional, say local business community members.
“[If] you make it mandatory for every restaurant, that means for every coffee shop you’ll need a vaccine ‘bouncer,’ which creates a significant amount of staffing challenges,” said Sarah Bratko, senior vice president of advocacy for the Rhode Island Hospitality Association. “Anytime you start mandating things, it gets tricky.”
Chris Parisi, cofounder and director of the Rhode Island Small Business Coalition, agrees.
“If mandatory, we’d be just adding more processes and difficulties to businesses that are already dealing with labor constraints, the rising costs of inflation and the pandemic in general,” he said.
Rick Simone, Federal Hill Commerce Association executive director, says a need to ask for proof of vaccination “doesn’t really exist,” due to high vaccination rates in the state. No restaurant his group represents has expressed interest so far.
On the other hand, Bratko said, the 401Health app would be useful for organizations such as Trinity Repertory Company that voluntarily have vaccination requirements. Itwould offer them a government-trusted tool for verification without fees or data collection by private third parties. It’ll be more convenient and less susceptible to forgery, in comparison to handwritten government-issued cards, she said.
Kate Brant, Trinity’s marketing chief, says the Providence theater already uses the Bindle app to allow customers to share proof of vaccine, in addition to displaying cards or photos of them. But more-trusted options are welcome, she says.
“We’re not hearing negative feedback or seeing big, long lines, but we’re open to anything else that can be added to make it go even more smoothly,” Brant said.
Gov. Daniel J. McKee recently emphasized that it will be up to businesses whether they use the 401Health app when it launches in the coming weeks. He avoided calling it a “vaccine passport,” and his staffers said that word should be reserved for mandatory vaccination verification programs enacted in places such as New York City.
“Rather than a passport, it is a health smart card,” said Lexi Kriss, a spokesperson for the governor.
Some states enacted bans on any proof-of-vaccination requirements enforced by public entities, with some also preventing privately owned businesses from enacting vaccine mandates.
Meanwhile, places such as New York City and Los Angeles have fully embraced vaccine passports, mandating proof-of-vaccination measures for businesses and customers involved with indoor dining, gyms and live entertainment.
In lieu of a national standard, states such as Rhode Island and Massachusetts – which announced its own plans in late November – are launching apps with QR code scanning abilities, using open-source software called “SMART Health Cards.”
Dr. Brian Anderson, chief digital health physician at research nonprofit MITRE Corp. and co-lead of Vaccination Credential Initiative, a group behind the health card technology, says the cards are not “passports,” in the same way that paper-CDC cards are not passports. He calls them “verifiable vaccination credentials.”
“ ‘Passport’ implies an application process, fees to obtain and renew, records of travel, an expiration date, and review and issuance only by a federal government – none of which applies to our VCI effort to empower individuals with free, convenient and equitable access to digital copies of their own health records,” he said.
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.
