You shall not pass: standardising vaccine passports
The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
4.5 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 25 October 2021
⏱️ 20 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Covid certificates are a global mess, with countries operating a patchwork of incompatible systems. We look at why it’s so difficult to standardise digital health passes. When the results of Uzbekistan’s elections are published today, the only surprise will be the margin of victory for Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the country’s autocratic leader since 2016. The question is how far he can take his agenda of economic and political reform. And Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), a way of representing ownership of digital media, have taken the art world by storm. Why The Economist is getting in the game.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist. I'm your host, Shashankyoshi, |
| 0:09.0 | filling in for Jason Palmer. Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events |
| 0:14.4 | shaping your world. The preliminary results of Uzbekistan's |
| 0:19.7 | elections are due today, but don't hold your breath. Shafkat Mzeoyev, the country's |
| 0:25.0 | dictator since 2016 is going to win. The question is how far he can take the |
| 0:30.6 | economic and political reforms he's begun over the last five years. And if you've |
| 0:36.2 | ever wanted to own a piece of the economist, here's your chance. Non-fungible |
| 0:40.9 | tokens or NFTs have taken the art world by storm over the past year. We |
| 0:46.2 | explain why later today we're selling one of our covers as an NFT. Get your |
| 0:51.2 | bids ready. But first, in the EU it's the digital COVID certificate. In China it's |
| 1:05.9 | the vaccination passport. In India it's called Co-wind. A smorgasbord of |
| 1:11.8 | digital health passes have emerged as governments struggle to contain the |
| 1:14.9 | spread of COVID-19. They can certify your vaccination record, a recent |
| 1:19.8 | recovery from COVID or a negative test result. We propose subject to |
| 1:24.1 | parliamentary agreement that vaccination certification should be introduced |
| 1:28.1 | later this month. We made a commitment to ensure that there is a national |
| 1:32.0 | standard for a proof of vaccination certificate. That's why Kimnet has agreed |
| 1:36.4 | to the use of vaccine certificates. It's a way to help give more |
| 1:40.0 | certainty and ensure greater safety. In countries such as Israel, vaccine |
| 1:44.2 | passports have an expiry date. They'll be rescinded if holders don't get a |
| 1:47.7 | booster shot. But the proliferation of passes presents a compatibility |
| 1:52.2 | problem and the COVID pass that gets you into a restaurant might not get you |
... |
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