The danger of vaccine passports for education

In one sense vaccines are the perfect example of the ‘greater good’. Every citizen bears a tiny risk to protect not just their own health but that of society as a whole. By contrast, I can think of few graver threats to that greater good than the introduction of vaccine passports.

Until recently the accepted view in Westminster seemed to have been that vaccine passports of any kind were discriminatory. Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, was told by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs committee last month that ‘Covid-status certification system would, by its very nature, be discriminatory.’

This all changed last week with the announcement that passports might, after all, be needed for nightclubs and large events. And then on Sunday evening, it was reported that the Prime Minister had suggested vaccine passports could be introduced as a condition to university life – meaning students would have to show a vaccine pass to attend lectures or live in their halls of residence.