- [Announcer] Flight to New York, JFK.
- [Narrator] Giulio Castagnara is flying to New York
and before he can board his flight,
he has to prove that he's COVID free.
- [Giulio] You download your app on your phone
and it has all your information.
- [Narrator] This is AOKpass,
a digital health passport that verifies
whether someone has tested negative
for the coronavirus or gotten inoculated.
It's also known as a vaccine passport
and meant to be easier to use
and more reliable than paper immunization cards.
- Medical results often are not even printed
in a way that it's easy to interpret.
Our system can verify health records.
- [Narrator] Since the pandemic
has devastated the travel industry,
airports in Rome, Paris and Singapore,
as well as airlines like JetBlue and United
are experimenting with similar apps.
They will compete for a slice of the global market
for travel health services and certifications,
which AOKpass estimates is worth nearly $20 billion.
Travel industry experts say this type
of digital health certificate
could be a game changer, not just for tourism
but live events and schools.
So here's how digital health passports work.
Travelers who weren't able to take a COVID-19 test
before departure at this airport in Rome
can get swabbed at a testing site set up by the airport.
While waiting for the result,
passengers can download the AOKpass app
and input their personal information
like their birthday and email address.
Within 30 minutes, the result is available.
If the traveler tests negative,
the app creates a unique QR code that serves as proof.
- The doctor's scanning like the QR code
that says that you're negative and you're good to go.
(announcement dinging)
- [Narrator] At the airport in Rome,
it has to be scanned at check in and boarding.
- I think this is the only way really right now
to travel like safely
without risking contracting COVID.
- [Narrator] Some but not all airlines and governments
require proof of a negative test
before a passenger is allowed
to board a flight or enter a country.
While testing and vaccinations reduce the risk
of spreading the virus, they don't eliminate it.
In the setting of COVID-19,
health information is beginning to be used
in a transactional sense, much more than before.
- [Narrator] Chester Drum is a doctor
at the National University Hospital in Singapore
and co-founded AOKpass.
He expects that in order for people
to return to pre-pandemic life,
they'll have to show proof of their health status.
- Let me show you part of my medical record
to get on an airplane.
Let me show you that I've had a vaccination procedure
in order to go to an event, for example.
- [Narrator] This has also meant forgeries.
For instance, last November, seven people in Paris
were arrested and charged
with selling fake COVID-19 test results
that cost as much as $360.
Drum says the app fights counterfeiting
using blockchain technology
so that the test result and vaccination certificates
are unique and linked to only one individual.
- The remarkable thing about blockchain
is once it's entered, you can't chain it.
- [Narrator] While blockchain-backed apps
may prevent fakes, there could be data leaks.
- They pose a variety of essential questions
for the production of data privacy and human rights.
- [Narrator] Ana Beduschi is a researcher
who studies the ethical implication
of digital health data.
- Policymakers should require
digital health password providers
to adopt appropriate technical
and organizational measures to address
potential data privacy invasive situations practically.
- [Narrator] Public health researchers
have found that some people in India
and Indonesia who tested positive
and had their results disclosed
were verbally attacked or socially excluded.
In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
recommend that community leaders and public health officials
maintained the confidentiality of test results
to avoid social stigma.
AOKpass says it encrypts all personal health information
and tries to keep to a minimum the data it collects
on its users.
The company also said it does not monetize data
but has signed contracts with airports and airlines
to develop and test the system.
After nearly 10 months of testing,
AOKpass is scheduled to launch in all major Italian
and French airports by the end of February.
It will have to compete with other companies developing
a similar tool.
United and JetBlue are preparing to use an app developed
by the World Economic Forum called the CommonPass,
while IBM is creating
a digital health pass using blockchain.
Drum says figuring out the technical parts
of the digital health passport were relatively easy,
compared with making sure the app would be used
along each step of the travel process.
- What's hard is the coordinated process,
starting with a laboratory in a different country,
creating a foreign medical record,
boarding an airline,
another highly regulated industry
and then crossing an immigration gantry,
which itself is regulated
by the rules and regulations of a country different
than where you got your health test.
- When Castagnara arrived in New York
for a layover on his way to Dallas,
he says airline staff didn't ask to see proof
of his health status.
The Rome Airport Authority said they're educating travelers
about the app and plan to reach out to airlines.
Despite the patchy use of the app,
Castagnara says the digital health passport
is a game changer.
- [Giulio] Last time I traveled to the States
was March of 2020, right before the pandemic hit,
so I mean, it's nice to travel again.