The Coronavirus Vaccine Could Be the Ultimate Gateway Drug
Airlines and other industries are experimenting with digital equivalents of immunity certificates.
Photo Illustration: 731; Photos: Alamy; Getty Images
It’s mid-2021, and people arrive at the airport, or line up to attend a concert or a baseball game. They pull out their phones and tap an app that shows whether they’ve had a coronavirus vaccine, or perhaps a test, and breeze through the gates.
That’s the brave new world businesses are contemplating as humanity embarks on the biggest mass-vaccination program in history. On Dec. 2 the U.K. became the first country to approve the Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE vaccine, followed by the U.S., Canada, and others. Yet even with the end of the pandemic in sight, governments and corporations will have to negotiate some unprecedented logistical, technological, and legal challenges in the months ahead.