Dr. Scott Gottlieb said Monday that Americans who have digital access to their Covid vaccination status would be helpful in navigating the coronavirus pandemic in the coming months.
In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the former Food and Drug Administration commissioner sought to minimize privacy concerns at the center of opposition to verification requirements.
“The whole discussion about vaccine passports has been full of concerns about whether or not it will be used to limit people’s access to things they would otherwise do,” said Gottlieb, a board member. of Pfizer, which makes it one of three Covid vaccines authorized for emergency use in the United States. “The use of this information is likely to allow access to things that would otherwise be restricted.”
Gottlieb pointed to visits to nursing homes or hospitals in the fall, when he said he expects to see an increase in coronavirus cases again. Last winter, “nursing homes banned visitors. Hospitals have banned visitors, “he said. “You could see a situation where these institutions could allow people to visit if they can prove they were vaccinated.”
Information on Covid vaccines administered is entered into the same system used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor pediatric vaccinations, Gottlieb said. “The problem with the system is that it was never really designed to be accessible to consumers, so consumers now have no way of getting information to prove they’ve been vaccinated.”
Paper cards from CDCs that I currently receive when I receive Covid photos are unlikely to cut them, he said. “They’re available on eBay right now … so people won’t accept the cards as proof of vaccination.”
Therefore, digital documentation of the condition of the Covid vaccine should be available to Americans, he said. “How they choose to use it depends on them,” said Gottlieb, who was head of the FDA from 2017 to 2019 in the Trump administration.
Efforts to develop digital records of the Covid vaccine are ongoing, including a high-profile group supported by Microsoft and the Mayo Clinic known as the Vaccination Credential Initiative. The coalition said earlier this month that it hopes to make available the technology it is developing in May.
IBM is working with the state of New York on a digital health permit that uses blockchain technology to verify the accreditation of a person’s test or vaccine. Walmart, which takes photos in its stores, recently backed applications for vaccine certificates.
The debate over so-called vaccine passports has become controversial, as some critics raise concerns about civil liberties. In Florida, for example, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order this month preventing businesses from asking someone to show they received a Covid vaccine as a precondition for service.
Last week, the Biden administration ruled out federal vaccine passports. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday: “There will be no federal immunization database and no federal mandate to require everyone to obtain a single immunization accreditation.”
Gottlieb said, “under certain limited circumstances,” he anticipates that people must prove that they have been immunized against Covid. “So I think people need to think about it differently,” he added. “At this time, as consumers, we do not have this information and we should do so.”
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and is a board member of Pfizer, the Tempus genetic testing start-up, medical technology company Aetion Inc. and the biotechnology company Illumina. He is also co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings‘ and Royal Caribbean“The panel with healthy sails”. The Associated Press contributed to this report.