HACKER Q&A
📣 SoSoRoCoCo

How would you design a proof-of-vaccination protocol?


In the USA, when you receive certain vaccinations, you are given a piece of paper to carry in your passport for countries that require proof of immunization (at least, that's how it was done in 2013, the last time I had a round of boosters).

Today, as people receive COVID vaccinations, we are faced with a world politically divided on all aspects of the virus: is it a hoax? do masks work? etc. Since we did a poor job convincing people to wear masks (at least in the USA), how do we handle people claiming they have been vaccinated?

This issue is probably merely weeks away: some unscrupulous souls might claim they have been vaccinated and refuse to obey distancing requirements. Some may even forge proof should the CDC or WTO decide to issue papers. Would police need to check them in a dispute? I haven't heard of a protocol, just a vague recommendation claiming we can start taking off our masks after herd immunity is achieved. (Which at 90% vaccination in the USA could take 2-3 years).

What aspects of 'proof-of-X' from our programming world could we deploy (soon!) to combat this coming battle?

  👤 mytailorisrich Accepted Answer ✓
Same as we do with passports: a central authority (national government) issues a proof that is hard to fake.

Frankly this is not the issue. The issue is that some people oppose what I have stated above as a matter of ideology, so if one think that proofs are necessary then the problem is political, not technical.

👤 BoorishBears
Why does this need to be some weird esoteric proof of X cryptocurrency blockchain thing?

This is a simple list, the problem can be solved with the simplest of datastores.

Someone gets the vaccine from an approved source, source enters the government id of the patient and the serial number of the dose into a webform. To check if person is vaccinated compare Id.

Most, if not all, pitfalls this has (requires ID to get vaccinated which not all people have, people can fake ids, unscrupulous provider could fake doses and resell) exist in meatspace, and not because of a lack of blockchain.

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This is a people problem just like mask wearing and social distancing are. It's the reason we've seen Dr. Fauci start increasing percent of immunization we need to see before we consider herd immunity having been achieved based on how willing people are to vaccinate https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-usa/fauci...

👤 mtmail
> In the USA, when you receive certain vaccinations, you are given a piece of paper

I hope I get a stamp in my "Yellow Card" booklet. If it's enough for yellow fever it's probably enough for COVID https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Certificate_of_V...

👤 wmf
some unscrupulous souls might claim they have been vaccinated and refuse to obey distancing requirements.

I'm skeptical that such people exist, but if this happens just arrest them. We should probably apply uniform policies to everyone, vaccinated or not, until herd immunity has been reached to avoid exactly these problems.

Politics aside, something like Google Trust Tokens provided with each dose could be interesting.

👤 nosmokewhereiam
Something you have, something you know, and something you are.
👤 jschveibinz
Unfortunately, this is why some level of social distancing and mask wearing is probably the only protocol that would make sense. What people do personally in terms of hygiene, vaccinations, etc. is private information and not something people are likely to want to have tattooed on their foreheads. Something like 50% of guys don’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom. I would like to know who they are, so I don’t get sick from them, but that’s not going to happen (e-coli infections can be life-threatening.) HIPPA protects medical information because it’s private. Anyway, life is dangerous. We have to take care of ourselves and assume that the other person is not compliant.