Vaccine passports

[Kaz]

Oh Jo, how strange! Still, at least it's sorted

Ally, it certainly is

Cruiser, I'm sure the paper version will be just as good

[TheOstrich]

Ossie, I did and gave up...but needed my passport for ID to get into the football so thought I might as well sort out the NHS app, out of curiosity, while it was to hand.

I logged in with the log in details I’d used before giving up and my vaccination details were there! I didn’t need to do the photo faff.
Can’t work that one out.

Has anyone installed it yet? I finally managed it, apparently I had the wrong App before, I was trying to install the Patient Access one by mistake, instead of the NHS one Anyway, when Chris came on Friday he showed me the right one. I typed NHS into the search on my App Store in my phone, and up it came. Following the instructions I got as far as uploading the photo of my passport as photo ID, but then you also have to take a photo of yourself there and then, as verification. It kept saying they didn't match enough so I had to do the alternative method, which was upload a video of myself, full face on, reading out the number they flashed up on the screen I then got a message saying they would email me once they'd verified it, which could take a week

No, it's still demanding ID here, Jo .....

Anyway, just like Kaz, I've now managed to upload a document photo successfully - and then the face photo (rather than the video option) at about the fifth attempt - and now need to wait for an email.

It really is a bit of a palaver ....

EDIT: I got the email saying it was successful almost immediately!
I can now see details of my jabs; I'll explore it further later .....

[meriad]

Hmm, I just looked for the NHS email which I've received but now it's telling me it needs to connect to my GP and when I click on that "I'm sorry we are having technical difficulties at the moment".

I had to call the GP yesterday because I still haven't had notification about my 2nd vaccination and when I called the booking line today they said that for some reason my details aren't being fed through properly. I'm becoming no end frustrated as I'm fairly certain I've been missed for a few health checks that I should have had come certain ages? I've now also requested the log in details for patient access so between the two hopefully it'll show something.

Well, I tried the NHS app again this morning and managed to connect so that at least is up and running.
I also called the booking line again and my details still aren't showing me as being in the area, so hopefully come midday today when their supervisor arrives, they can click some button and then I'll get a call to book me in. I'm going to lose my rag if I have to call again tomorrow because it really should be a simple matter of confirming with my GP. I need to collect paperwork from the GP in a bit so I'll mention it to them as well.

sigh.....

[Kaz]

Ossie, a real palaver, but I'm glad you got there in the end

Oh Ria, what a PITA!

[cromwell]

Question.
If there is no Covid 19 any more, then is there any need for an internal vaccine passport in the UK?

Also, do we think that vaccine passports will be kept when there is no need for a vaccine any more?

[TheOstrich]

Those are long-term questions, Crommers, and the answer has to be "who knows?" You'd think in theory no, but I can see Covid popping up around us for years yet, and once folk have got used to proving their Covid status, it could become part of life. Shops, pubs and supermarkets, no, but cinemas, museums, libraries?

Personally, I'm a bit more concerned about the short-term, which is why I've been attempting to download the App.

For example, Jo had to display Covid status to get into Manchester United yesterday. I'm wondering if I'm going to need to display my Covid status to get into Yeovil Town, should I want to. Or some of the more "jobsworth" local teams like Sherborne Town next season, especially if we are still going to have this maximum crowd at 25% of capacity rule.

I sincerely hope none of us are going to have to continuously jump hoops to live our lives, but your guess is as good as mine where we'll finish up with this Government.

[meriad]

I think the passports will be in place until such a time that the covid19 vaccination has successfully been included in the annual flu vaccination and there are none of the surges that are currently being experienced. As it is - there are quite a few annual deaths due to 'regular' flu and provided those numbers don't increase disproportionately purely because of Covid19 then I think the need for a passport will fade away. Some countries however may always have more cases / be more at risk and maybe if you want to go to one then it'll be a case of needing a Covid19 vaccination as part of travel vaccinations for those areas for the travellers that aren't in the flu vaccination groups (ie us older folk )

But for now - given just how hard Covid has hit worldwide, I think the passports are needed just to speed up life returning to normal

that's just my thinking

[TheOstrich]

To add to Crommers' list of pertinent questions:

How long can we foresee all the "Trace and Trace" paraphernalia going on for - especially given the odd variant / mutation popping up? Until Covid is eradicated? Forever?

[cromwell]

I have ittle doubt that the powers that be would like both the passport and the track and trace be around forever.
It seems to me that politics in this country is not so much about the democratic representation of the people so much as about controllng the oiks. (ie, thee and me).

An interesting precedent is the wartime ID card. It was introduced because there was a national emergency on; with the fear of nazi spies being parachuted into the UK there was an obvious need to be able to prove that you were who you said you were.

But the use of the ID card was carried on after the war. The police were routinely stopping motorists and asking for their ID cards, until a gentleman by the name of Harry Willcock (born in 1896 in Alverthorpe, Wakefield - you tell 'em, Harry!), refused to produce his ID card when stopped by the police.

The case went all the way to the High Court. In essence the High Court found that the card had been issued in an emergency, but now that the emergency (WW2) was over, there was no justification for the card.
"This Act was passed for security purposes; it was never passed for the purposes for which it is now apparently being used. To use Acts of Parliament passed for particular purposes in wartime when the war is a thing of the past—except for the technicality that a state of war exists—tends to turn law-abiding subjects into lawbreakers, which is a most undesirable state of affairs".

So. No emergency - no ID card.
Logically it should follow (judicial precedent and all that) that no Covid = no covid passport.

But what if you can keep the "emergency" rolling on forever?

What if "zero covid" can't be achieved (and logically it can't), but the government knowingly pursue that policy anyway? If that happens yes, you'll be carrying your covid passport forever.

[JoM]

Just bringing this to the top again.

I downloaded the code for the vaccine passport to my phone a couple of days before we went to the Leeds match in August (11th Aug, the only home game we’ve had so far). It was then decided that there wouldn’t be checks.
This weekend there will be spot checks so I double checked earlier that it was as it should be and there was a note on it saying that the code expired yesterday, so it seems that even if you download the passport to your device, the supplied code expires after a month so perhaps something to bear in mind if you need to use this.