A Chinese expert from the World Health Organization (WHO) Ethics and Covid-19 Working Group warned on Tuesday that it is too early for Europe to issue vaccine passports.
Allowing vaccinated travelers to move unconditionally would bring about huge risks, expert says. There is a lack of scientific evidence and a sufficient vaccination rate to support the move at the moment, Lei Ruipeng says.
Lei’s remarks came as a digital green certificate system became operational in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece.
The certificate records whether people have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Travelers holding the certificate are allowed to move freely.
The European Commission is planning to launch the system in all 27 European Union countries as of July 1. It is also in talks
As early as April, an official from the European Commission had told media that they were eyeing to allow Americans given vaccines approved by the European.
There have been reports of people who got infected despite being vaccinated. It is still unclear whether reinfection would lead to human-to-human transmission, she said.
Lei warns of potential discrimination against those who have not been vaccinated or have no travel certificates.
In April, WHO spokesman Margaret Harris said, We are not certain at this stage that the vaccine prevents transmission.
WHO’s reluctance doesn’t imply that a vaccine passport itself is wrong, observers said.
To promote the vaccine passport properly, Lei suggested WHO takes the lead. The WHO can establish a science and ethics expert committee on the issue and regularly review and discuss scientific and ethical standards for the vaccine passports, she said.

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