Info slide: A digital vaccine passport is an official document to indicate the completion of COVID-19 vaccines. The data to verify this passport will be collected from the national health data from the states and the individual holding the vaccine. Current plans see that the passport will be required for international (and in some cases, domestic) travel, as well as, in some cases, involvement in public life such as education, business, and governance.
GRAND FINALE MOTION: THO the implementation of digital vaccine passports
Key Clashes:
1. The trade-off of access vs. safety
2. The trade-off of personal choice vs. the greater good
Clash 1 Gov:
1. Most people are unable to access the vaccine – why?
● Commercialization and patenting of vaccines by developed states and large medical companies
● Failure of alternatives e.g. COVAX since they depend on vaccine donations from the same developed states who hoard them
● Inability for most developing states to manufacture their own vaccines due to lack of infrastructure, equipment, research funding, economic hit from COVID, debts, etc.
● Inability to complete vaccine dosage – even when states get vaccines for their population, the they run out before the second dose can be given months later, thus delays in the process due to the above problems
● Selective hand-outs: even in states that have access, certain communities or those who do not have relevant networks to get the vaccines are excluded – e.g. black community in the USA
2. How does this lack of access impact society?
● Travel: trade systems and medical care are negatively impacted – how?
? Interstate and intrastate travel is needed to transport goods between locations – thus these passports would either 1. Hinder the regularity of transporting goods as those who are assigned to drive the vehicles would all need to get vaccinated, or 2. Companies would have to significantly reduce their travel staff to only those who have the passports, making layoffs more likely or companies having to train the staff who have the passports to do different roles in the business
? Access to medical care: especially in developing countries, pre-COVID, individuals would seek special medical treatment from abroad due to the lack of specialized personnel or infrastructure in their area. Post-COVID, the strain on the medical sector has greatly worsened, thus now more than ever, access to treatment abroad has become critical for serious illnesses – this passport would put the population in need of such care as heavy risk if they do not possess the passport
● The functionality of society will become hindered – why?
? Class divide is worsened – restricted access to educational and business institutions would mean lack of work for the majority of the population in developing countries – why? - online work is only accessible to those who can afford good digital devices, stable internet connection, stable power sources or those who can afford to pay for access to public cyber café resources, thus the majority depend on physical mobility to work or learn – those without the passport would have to stay at home and continue to miss school or be out of a job, thus the class divide gap worsens
? Long term- these disadvantaged individuals would have to depend on loans or resort to crime such as theft to get by, thus even when society recovers from the pandemic, they would be at a worse position of debt repayment with their job wages, risk becoming school dropouts to help the family earn money in other ways, or have criminal records preventing them from access to the working world
Clash 1 Opp:
1. What is state obligation?
● Protect society to ensure long-term sustainability – how will digital passports do this?
? Open international access: countries around the world have restricted access to their nations due to the risk of COVID – this passport will ensure a secure avenue of interstate relations that allows more secure trade, accepting of immigrants, and movement of individuals which beings benefit to each nation because 1. Assurance of no further risk to their own populations, 2. Encouragement of movement due to no necessity to quarantine new travelers for 14 days (e.g. in Kenya) when they enter the country: Impact = better avenue for development and restoring stability to the economy
2. Alternatives to promote access:
● Open up manufacturing: If all countries are to implement these passports, mandate vaccine developers and manufacturers to remove vaccine patents to promote world-wide manufacturing and access by licensed medical companies only
● Distribution: funding the military who have the logistical capability to distribute the vaccines at scale, and donating or selling (with a long-term payment plan) to states who do not have the capacity to manufacture vaccines
● Communication: states and IGO’s must boost awareness via all forms of media about the importance of vaccines as well as full information on the limitations via the digital passport for those who do not get vaccinated
Clash 2 Gov:
1. The importance of autonomous choice:
● People should still have the option of no opt into the vaccine without having their lives damaged – why?
? Personal belief or demographic – religion, culture, or upbringing may influence one’s personal choice to take the vaccine or not, state must respect this and give freedom; young children or expecting mothers should also have the option to opt out if they believe it poses further threat to them
? Risk – since COVID is a new virus, the vaccines that have come out have been seen to have side effects such as blood clots. Individuals who may be more medically prone to risk and want to wait for a few years to observe if improvements to the vaccine can be made should be allowed to do so for their own safety without being restricted to the outside world
Clash 2 Opp:
1. State is legitimate in trading off personal choice for the greater good – why?
● Medical sector:
? Risk of unvaccinated people to catch the virus is vastly greater, thus long-term, the medical sector especially in developing states will continue to be strained and will fail to serve those who have other medical concerns because of the urgency and uncertainty of COVID-19
? Long-term research into new variants: COVID-19 has been seen to produce new variants the longer it stays, and those variants would need new vaccines or adjustments to existing vaccines – this would require funding more medical research, testing, etc. Which means the personal choice of people not to get vaccinated would lead to a risk that would require the full involvement of the medical sector to solve, states get into more debt to try funding this, etc.
● Society:
? Those who get vaccinated would bare future risk – why? - due to the uncertainty of new variants and how the affect us, they may cause another wave of COVID whereby the current vaccine could be useless in guarding against the new variants: state has an obligation to protect everyone against this long-term damage and risk, thus is justified in overriding personal choice
● State:
? State has a long history of restricting mobility and access to protect the greater good: e.g. people require a Yellow Fever card before entering a country, etc. Thus state is justified in doing this especially with a virus that is completely new to the world
? State has an obligation to incentivize societal action by preventing access to important things – the digital vaccine passport will encourage people to get vaccinated because of the heavy opportunity cost
