Dear Editor,

We tend to be a nation equipped with only the ability of hindsight. Our Government and the Ministry of Health need to make a strident effort to ensure this statement doesn’t apply to the COVID-19 vaccine passport initiative.

With the United Kingdom scrutinising the vaccine programmes of the Caribbean, a written card will not do much to inspire the confidence of the international community when they try to identify who has been vaccinated.

At each vaccine centre, the officers collected a lot of information that can be used to fashion an electronic database from which each vaccinated person can be assigned a proper card verifying vaccination.

This card should be equipped with a unique QR code that can be used to verify the vaccination status of the individual, as well as encapsulate the data in such a way that it is not easily accessed by external actors with mal-intentions.

Such an initiative does two things for our vaccination programme. Firstly, it eliminates the ease of creating fake vaccination cards and secondly, it allows for verification that a person has been vaccinated by an external/independent organisation. Both reasons, together, protect the integrity of our vaccination programme.

Shortly, I predict all the powerful nations will begin to scrutinise how smaller nations, like ours, verify the vaccination status of our population, and countries found wanting will be subject to further scrutiny and regulation.

On February 13, 2021, an article I wrote was published in The Gleaner which insisted that the Government’s proposed sensitisation campaign spending was necessary. Due to pressure from various parts of society, the Government abandoned that plan and, in hindsight, we came to realise that was the wrong move as we allowed the anti-vax sentiment to spread in the absence of the critical facts needed to convince citizens to take the vaccines.

I implore the COVID-19 response team to not ignore foresight, let us not make the same mistake here, let us improve the integrity of our vaccination verification method by implementing a proper digital component that can be verified easily.

Adrean Gentles

gentlesadrean123@gmail.com