Europe leading the way with a Digital COVID Certificate

Holly Stearnes 

Let’s go back to the, to Europe. They’re talking about implementing a kind of digital COVID certificate, if you will. Talk to us about that and I mean, get what will it mean for people and businesses?

Bill Lang 

Yeah look, it’s I believe it’s a fantastic initiative. So what’s happening over there is populations are getting vaccinated at various rates in various European Union or EU countries, you know, 20, plus more of those countries. But now when you go and get vaccinated, or if you’ve had COVID, or you’ve had a positive test, or we’ve had to test, I should say, you get a digital certificate on your smartphone. And what that basically says is like, tick, your vaccinated, you’ve had a test recently, you know, came up negative, or you’ve had COVID in the past, which means you’ve got the thing called antibodies, which means you’re less likely to get it again, it’s a bit like being vaccinated.

So in terms of you can go to certain places by showing that certificate, so you’re going to be able to travel freely between the countries, go to tourist attractions, do those sorts of things. So we’re seeing a very informed and use of technology with respect to these and yet here in Australia, we’ve got every state’s got its own colour codes, its own rules, its own sort of, you know, travel permit system. It’s just absolute chaos. And this is another area, where can we see some leadership to get these things sorted out, because even though the four phase plan has been laid out, ultimately, the premiers of the states will do whatever they want to do when they say they do it based on the CHO, who runs the show.

Holly Stearnes 

And even when it does come to those Chief Health Officers, they’ve all got different, different opinions on things as well. We’ve seen that recently with the vaccinations and the Astra Zeneca and that kind of thing, just creating more confusion, and as you said, a bit of a bit of a mess. Now, do you think something like these COVID certificates is something that we will see other countries adopt?

Bill Lang 

I think it’s just a matter of time, I think, you know, Europe is out front on this. Now there’s a version of it in the US. So you know, recently there were a couple of concerts in New York City, and you had to demonstrate that you were vaccinated to be able to attend. So if people went to Madison Square Garden, they were fully vaccinated, so they’re less likely to catch, it less likely to give it, if they actually get it, it’s less likely to be serious, if they end up in hospital and less likely to die. Like there’s just upside for that. But over there, say, you know, no vaccination, no going to that event. And so the people that I know in the events industry, many small businesses and events like we need something like that. Otherwise, it’s just going to go straight to lockdowns and everything gets closed down.

Holly Stearnes 

Yeah, and businesses can’t survive, right?

Bill Lang 

So they’re not surviving. They’re not surviving.