Could we see ‘immunity passports’ in Britain? Ministers are reportedly discussing them as a route out of lockdown. According to today’s Guardian, the UK tech firm Onfido is in discussion with ministers about creating a ‘digital certificate’ that would be issued to those who have already been infected with coronavirus – who are presumably more immune – so they could return to some resemblance of normal life, including heading back into work.
The technology needed to carry out such a scheme is reportedly in the ‘discovery stage’ and big questions linger as to whether British bureaucracy – which has struggled to source plastic PPE and has trailed other countries in Covid-testing for months now – would be able to assemble and carry out such an elaborate scheme in the near future.
The idea of a caste of the immunologically privileged raises questions about the UK’s strategy so far
But if such a system were to get up and running, it would raise a series of practical and ethical questions – not just about the civil liberty implications of digital certification, but about the philosophy behind the lockdown itself.
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