Abstract:Travel restrictions have become a common disease control measure during the 2019 Coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19). Measures have ranged from quarantines when entering a country to outright travel bans. Yet more widespread travel restrictions in the form of country vaccine entry requirements have been in place for a long time for another diseaseyellow fever. We track the historical underpinnings and policy developments that have led to stringent vaccine entry requirements today. We also discuss the polit… Show more
“…The former accounts for the publications made in the quest to understand the needed preventive resources for both travelers and practitioners during the pandemic ( Chiodini, 2020 ). While the latter accounts for some UK-based researchers trying to understand the transmission of COVID-19 by evaluating the lessons learned from the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship ( Sawano et al, 2020 ; Schwedhelm et al, 2020 ; Vanderslott & Marks, 2020 ; Xu, Peng, Wang, & Yang., 2020 ). Fig.…”
“…The former accounts for the publications made in the quest to understand the needed preventive resources for both travelers and practitioners during the pandemic ( Chiodini, 2020 ). While the latter accounts for some UK-based researchers trying to understand the transmission of COVID-19 by evaluating the lessons learned from the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship ( Sawano et al, 2020 ; Schwedhelm et al, 2020 ; Vanderslott & Marks, 2020 ; Xu, Peng, Wang, & Yang., 2020 ). Fig.…”
“…The strict requirement of a vaccine passport can make it disadvantageous for many sections of society. The implementation of the vaccine passport programs should be equitable, not excessively restrictive, and should respect human rights (Vanderslott and Marks, 2021; Phelan, 2020). It should be only used for facilitating fast lane travel without additional testing and mandatory quarantine.…”
Section: Literature Reviewmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…In blockchain, transactions are recorded with an immutable cryptographic signature called a hash. Blockchain technology has distinct advantages, as it provides decentralization, accessibility, immutability and irreversibility (Vanderslott and Marks, 2021). It has many use cases in COVID-19 management such as the design of distribution system, privacy-preserving framework for social distancing and multidrone monitoring for COVID-19-appropriate behavior are to name a few (Ramirez Lopez and Beltrán Álvarez, 2020; Choudhury et al , 2021; Alsamhi et al , 2021).…”
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the applications of blockchain in vaccine passport solution. The world is facing an unprecedented situation because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many countries have witnessed sporadic lockdown and travel restrictions and it has marred trade and tourism. As the mass vaccination has started the life is slowly and steadily returning to true normal. Various countries are issuing vaccination passports to manage the immunization information and validate it. To realize vaccine-passport’s true potential, security and privacy concerns should be being taken care of. There is a need for studies to evaluate the emerging technology for the vaccine passport.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods to achieve its objective. This study uses a systematic literature review to analyze the potential of blockchain for vaccine passports. The case study of three different types of organizations implementing blockchain for vaccine passports was analyzed and results were presented. Last but not least, focus group discussion and search of secondary literature was to done to identify scientific, ethical and legal challenges associated with the use of vaccine passports. The method used for calculating the importance score of these challenges was analytical hierarchy process.
Findings
This study concludes that blockchain-based solutions are very suitable for vaccine passports and addresses the concern related to interoperability, privacy and security. The case study approach was used to elaborate the use of blockchain in three different options available for the vaccine. Last but not least, this study identifies the challenges faced by vaccine passport programs and suggests measures to overcome them. This study concludes that the ethical challenges associated with vaccine passports are more important and should be preferentially treated.
Research limitations/implications
This study is timely and will be he lpful for policymakers in designing the vaccine passport programs. It gives valuable insight to decision-makers evaluating technologies for the development of vaccine passport programs. This study identifies nine challenges to be tackled to making a vaccine passport program successful.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is not able to find out a review on the use of blockchain technology for vaccine passports, and this study attempts to fill this gap. This study further discusses the cases of organizations that have implemented blockchain technology for vaccine passport programs.
“…International traffic, which is defined as “the movement of persons, baggage, cargo, containers, conveyances, goods or postal parcels across an international border, including international trade” in International Health Regulation [ 1 ], has been at the heart of the debate on global health regulations and the weighting of quarantine measures and sanitary measures with the aim of prevention and control of imported infectious diseases for several centuries [ 2 , 3 ]. In line with historical frameworks, International Health Regulation states “The purpose and scope of these regulations are to prevent, protect against, control and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks, and which avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade” [ 1 , 4 ]; based on this spirit, interference with international traffic has rarely been introduced in the context of global health.…”
Aiming to identify the potentially reduced malaria cases by stagnation of international traffic after the COVID-19 pandemic, a longitudinal analysis of malaria cases as well as entries of Japanese and foreigners was conducted using data from 5 April 1999 to 30 September 2021 in Japan. Multivariable risk ratios were calculated with the Poison regression model as a predictive model of malaria cases by the number of entries for Japanese and foreigners. A generalized regression model was used to examine an association of time trend with entries for Japanese and foreigners using data before 2019, to estimate the potentially reduced number of entries after 2020. The potentially reduced number of malaria cases was estimated by the potentially reduced number of entries for Japanese and foreigners after 2020 using a multivariable Poison regression model. The multivariable risk ratio (95% confidence intervals) of malaria case numbers per 100,000 persons increment of entries per day was 3.41 (1.50–7.77) for Japanese and 1.47 (0.92–2.35) for foreigners. During 2020, a potential reduction of 28 (95% confidence limit: 22–34) malaria cases was estimated, which accounted for 58% (52–63%) of malaria cases in Japan. These finding suggest that the stagnation of international traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the number of malaria cases in Japan. This model may be helpful for countries without indigenous malaria to predict future trends of imported malaria cases.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
