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Are Covid Passports the Future?

Despite globalisation and the integration of economises like never before it is still the case that we live in a world divided across so many lines. Nationality, wealth, class, race and religion just to name a few that are the dominant factors in what freedoms we have or the chances of being able to easily provide for our families.
Covid and the new era of geopolitics that have followed the pandemic is generally accepted to be an accelerated evolution of existing trends rather than a revolution, and the potential for new divisions to be created as a by-product of Covid passports is a policy decision worthy of serious interrogation at a moral as well as practical level.
The dilemma is one that countries who are more progressed along their vaccination programme have the luxury of making. The policy is currently headline news in the UK whilst in neighbouring France the spread of new more infectious variants is forcing new lockdowns. In Syria, a country where war has gutted an effective ability to monitor the virus, primary schools have been closed indefinitely, whilst in nearby Saudi Arabia authorities said Monday that only people immunised against COVID-19 will be allowed to perform the year-round Umrah pilgrimage, starting from the holy month of Ramadan.
The most obvious starting point around passports proving that people have had a Covid vaccine is how it will allow residents of richer countries a freedom denied to citizens from poorer countries for potentially years to come. In many a sense it shines a light on how any opportunity for a global response to a global crisis was rejected in a more traditional every country for themselves race to protect their own populations.
Yet Covid passports will have domestic implications as well as international ones, with the global ones surely requiring some form of international agreement as to what would constitute satisfactory proof of protection. Could having had an AstraZeneca vaccine allow travel to the USA for example where the vaccine has yet to be approved by American regulators? Would individuals have had to have had two shots of a vaccine or one? What about those who for pre-existing health reasons are unable to have a vaccine?
Add to these fundamental questions an assessment of the state of Covid variants. For example, the huge risk to the UK of variants coming from Brazil that may render certain vaccines ineffective and therefore necessitate stricter travel restrictions regardless of whether that Brazilian resident has been vaccinated and the mind starts to boggle as to how this would work. Suddenly images of huge queues at embassies for Covid visas or airports full of people who’ve been turned back from flying spring to mind. Chaos is indeed a real possibility.
In the UK discussions around Covid passports are far more focused on the immediate domestic implications. Whilst having a vaccine is not compulsory it seems likely to be the case that having proof of vaccination will be needed to access concerts, sporting events and potentially the cinema and even restaurants. Now that over half of the British adult population has been vaccinated you can already observe a change in people’s behaviour in tandem with the unlocking of restrictions in the country. People have started to wear the stickers you receive upon having a vaccine out and about. Already something quite intimate, the state of your own immune system, is now being worn quite literally as a badge of pride and presumably a means of reassuring people around them.
The UK is planning to update a Covid app that was primarily designed to help contact tracing, turning it into a ticket to entertainment that will be denied those who don’t have it. Israel already has such a system with its “Green Book” leading some people to march in protest against the scheme, calling it tyrannical and saying it creates a privileged “vaccinated class” of people in a new two-tier society.
Yet the scale of opposition to the concept is generally small. The promise of a return to normality and an escape from the grinding isolation and restrictions of lockdowns are so appealing that it would appear that most are willing to accept this new proof of identity for domestic freedoms. At a global level the more onerous burdens of proof, perhaps both of a vaccine and recent testing, may suddenly make travel far more expensive that it has ever been and change the nature of modern tourism.
James Denselow
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BENEFIT Sponsors BuildHer...
- April 23, 2025
BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
BENEFIT’s Chief Executive Mr. Abdulwahed AlJanahi, commented: “Our support for this educational hackathon reflects our long-term strategic vision to nurture the talents of emerging national youth and empower the next generation of accomplished female leaders in technology. By fostering creativity and innovation, we aim to contribute meaningfully to Bahrain’s comprehensive development goals and align with the aspirations outlined in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030—an ambition in which BENEFIT plays a central role.”
Professor Riyadh Yousif Hamzah, President of the Royal University for Women, commented: “This initiative reflects our commitment to advancing women in STEM fields. We're cultivating a generation of creative, solution-driven female leaders who will drive national development. Our partnership with BENEFIT exemplifies the powerful synergy between academia and private sector in supporting educational innovation.”
Hanan Abdulla Hasan, Senior Manager, PR & Communication at BENEFIT, said: “We are honoured to collaborate with RUW in supporting this remarkable technology-focused event. It highlights our commitment to social responsibility, and our ongoing efforts to enhance the digital and innovation capabilities of young Bahraini women and foster their ability to harness technological tools in the service of a smarter, more sustainable future.”
For his part, Dr. Humam ElAgha, Acting Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at the University, said: “BuildHer CityHack 2025 embodies our hands-on approach to education. By tackling real-world problems through creative thinking and sustainable solutions, we're preparing women to thrive in the knowledge economy – a cornerstone of the University's vision.”
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