A National Vaccine Pass Has Quietly Rolled Out – And Red States Are Getting On Board

To date, 21 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico offer accessibility to the SMART Health Card, a verifiable digital proof of vaccination developed through the Vaccination Credential Initiative, a global coalition of public and private stakeholders including Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle, the Mayo Clinic and other health and tech heavyweights.

Very soon, at least four more states will be rolling out access to SMART Health Cards.

"We've seen a notable uptick in states that have officially launched public portals where individuals can get verifiable vaccination credentials in the form of SMART Health Cards with a QR code," says Dr. Brian Anderson, co-founder of the VCI and chief digital health physician at MITRE. There is already an impressively widespread availability of SMART Health Cards in the U.S. More than 200 million Americans can now download, print or store their vaccination records as a QR code.

"The SMART Health Card is such an important development and the Vaccine Credential Initiative has been phenomenal in getting this out there," says Warren, noting that while Bindle recognizes several interoperable standards, the SMART Health Card has emerged as the most important.

In Africa, the SMART Health Card has rolled out in Kenya and Rwanda, just the first of 32 African countries in the "Smart Africa" alliance to adopt a digital-first approach to healthcare records.

The second argument for adopting a digital vaccine verification system is the one swaying red-state governors: Having digital access to personal health records empowers the individual.

Big red South Carolina expects to roll out a portal for SMART Health Cards by the end of March, reports Politico.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2022/02/24/national-vaccine-quietly-rolled-out/?sh=439867256be6