Will Vaccination Passports Bring back Normal Life?

 

Do you wish you could attend a live music performance sometime soon?

If you have received a coronavirus vaccine¹ in some countries, you might be able to. It usually takes a ticket to gain entrance to a music performance. But in some countries right now, you need more than that. You need a "green passport" which proves that you have already received a vaccination².

Green passports are already being used in Israel, Greece and Cyprus. Those countries on the Mediterranean³ Sea are working together to open their economies and honor each other's green passports. Similar agreements are expected to be used in other nations to boost the number of foreign visitors.

Aviv Geffen recently played piano for 300 people in Tel Aviv, Israel. He called the event "a miracle." Geffen said: "It's really the only way forward at the moment." Yuli Edelstein is the Health Minister in Israel. He said people who choose not to get the vaccine will be "left behind."

People who came to Geffen's performance needed not only a ticket, but also proof of vaccination. Geffen said people will not be able to live their lives in the post-coronavirus world without receiving a vaccination. "We must take the vaccines⁴. We must," he said.

If some activities are only available to people who have received a vaccine shot, that could become a problem. Right now vaccines are mostly available in rich countries with good public health systems. Israel is a country like that. The small country has enough vaccine to treat all of its citizens over the age of 16. The government, however, has been criticized for being slow to provide vaccines to Palestinians who live in the territories partly occupied by Israel.

People who are observing the worldwide effort to provide vaccines say that rich countries will get "herd⁵ immunity⁶" sooner than poor countries. Lawrence Gostin is a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He is the director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating⁷ Center on National and Global Health Law. He called this problem "a moral crisis."

He wondered whether it is fair to let rich countries open up faster than poor countries. Poor countries might not reach herd immunity for a number of years. People in rich countries already have more than people in poor countries, he said.

In 2020 the WHO formed COVAX. Its goal was to get vaccines to poor countries at about the same time they were getting to rich countries. Recently Ghana, a country in West Africa, was the first to receive vaccines from COVAX. Vaccines are now going to an increasing number of countries through the program. About 80 percent of the 210 million doses of vaccine administered around the world so far have gone to rich countries. Drug companies in some of those countries developed the vaccines.

People who have already been vaccinated⁸ are excited to get back to some version of their old lives. Countries like Great Britain are studying the use of a "COVID status certification." Such a measure would permit people to go back to work or attend large gatherings⁹.

But Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed some concern. "We can't be discriminatory against people who, for whatever reason, can't have the vaccine," he said.

A vaccination passport program could possibly help businesses that depend on visitors from other countries. But there is a concern that one country may not accept another country's certification.

Andrew Bud runs a company called iProov that is working with the National Health Service in Britain. His company is testing an electronic vaccination passport technology.

He said, in time, technology problems can be solved.

But the more difficult problems will be "ethical¹⁰, social, political and legal." The question, he said, is "how to balance the fundamental rights of citizens...with the benefits to society."

Words in This Story

ticket - n. a piece of paper that allows you to see a show, participate in an event, travel on a vehicle, etc.

miracle - n. a very amazing or unusual event, thing, or achievement

herd immunity - n. when enough people in a community have either recovered from an infection or been vaccinated against it, so that others in the community are protected against infection

dose –n. the amount of a medicine or vaccine that is taken at one time

status –n. the official position of a person under the law

certification -–n. official approval to do something legally

ethical - adj. following accepted rules of behavior : morally right and good

benefits - n. a good or helpful result or effect

society - n. people in general thought of as living together in organized communities with shared laws, traditions, and values

1 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

2 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

3 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

4 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

5 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

6 immunity   

n.优惠；免除；豁免，豁免权

参考例句：

• The law gives public schools immunity from taxation.法律免除公立学校的纳税义务。
• He claims diplomatic immunity to avoid being arrested.他要求外交豁免以便避免被捕。

7 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。

8 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

9 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。

10 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。