In the health office an employee shows the vaccination card with the registration for the flu vaccination just performed. The European Commission has confirmed its intention to digitize the World Health Organization (WHO) yellow vaccination card. Bernd Wüstneck/dpa Zentralbild/dpaThe European Commission has confirmed its intention to digitize the World Health Organization (WHO) yellow vaccination card.
This would be part of a WHO global digital health certification network based on EU digital vaccination records related to the Corona pandemic, say Commissioners for Justice, Didier Reynders, and Health, Stella Kyriakides.
In a letter to the German Christian Democrat politician Peter Liese they also explained that the envisaged solution will not be limited to vaccinations against Covid-19 or other individual diseases.
Brussels and the World Health Organization announced a partnership in the field of digital health in June. WHO is introducing the certification network “to strengthen global preparedness against growing health threats,” the Commission said when it launched the initiative.
To do this, WHO will have to adopt the system underpinning EU certificates for vaccination or cure, including its principles and technology. ‘So if a new health threat were to emerge, we will be able to respond more quickly,’ the commissioners wrote.
Liese thinks digitizing the vaccination card is the right thing to do: Everyone knows the situation of trying to find the yellow booklet, she said, but with a digital version “you always have it on your phone,” she said to dpa.
“Even for any other pandemics, an established infrastructure is a big plus, so we are prepared.”
When asked about possible data protection concerns, he said: ‘If our data protection standards become world-wide standards, it would be very welcome. The fact that WHO uses the EU system means that we have done Well”.
