Remember IATA? Stands for the International Air Transport Association, and we've looked in on them before.
The IATA has developed, and is testing, a digital COVID Travel Pass A refresher:
The pass is an app that verifies a passenger has had the Covid-19 tests or vaccines required to enter a country. It also verifies they were administered by an approved authority.
The pass seems to be the most comprehensive entry in the "I can prove I've been vaccinated" initiative so far. Actually, it addresses the "I can prove I've been vaccinated or have recently tested negative" initiative - or, more importantly, the "I can prove I've been vaccinated, or have recently tested negative and can prove it with something better than a certificate this guy sold me ten minutes ago as I was walking through the airport," which is important, because those guys have been selling those certificates in airports.
The Digital COVID Travel Pass also makes it unnecessary for those who have been vaccinated to follow the quarantine rules of those countries they're flying from or to.
This will create a new world-ish effect on travel - both for vaccinated or tested travelers who now don't have to hole up in a hotel for two weeks, and on the airline industry, whose market will quickly expand to include anyone who's been fully vaccinated. Win-win. However, when a Travel Pass holder arrives at their destination city, they will emerge into the old world, where everyone is suspect, where masks must be worn, and where their IATA Travel Pass will probably mean nothing, because, of course, everyone on the ground is still arguing about how to standardize something this simple and essential.
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