CV #25(F): Ottawa Launching Vaccine Passports At Instigation Of WHO-IHR, 7th Meeting

This is a sequel to the last article. Vaccine passports are coming to Canada, but where did the order come from?

On June 4, 2021, the World Health Organization handed down instructions on proceeding with vaccine passports. On June 7, (yesterday), the Federal Government posted an invitation to bid on the creation of a biometric tracking system, which would most likely include a form of vaccine passport.

For some context of the situation: (a) the International Health Regulations are legally binding; (b) the 2005 Quarantine Act came from WHO; (c) WHO manages the “pandemic”; and (d) PHAC was created in 2004 at the instigation of the WHO.

Now, about the report itself:

Given this recommendation from the IHR Emergency Committee meeting, the Smart Vaccination Certificate Secretariat has expanded the scope of the initiative to develop guidance that includes SARS-CoV-2 testing and COVID-19 recovery status. Accordingly, the Smart Vaccination Certificate specification will be renamed as the “Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates (DDCC)” specification. The resulting guidance will be published in a series of three separate documents, which will guide Member States on how to digitally document COVID-19 vaccination status, SARS-CoV-2 test results, and COVID-19 recovery status. These guidance documents will include critical components such as the minimum datasets, expected functionality of digital systems, and preferred terminology code systems. They will also include a section on national digital architecture, recognizing that Member States are still expected to decide how they want to implement these systems. The DDCC specifications will include an HL7 FHIR Implementation Guide (IG), including example software implementations.

This page from the IHR Emergency Committee lays out in broad strokes what shall be contained in these vaccine passports. However, the implementation will be left to individual countries.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister announced new “privileges” for people who have taken the “vaccine”. See 15:00 in video. Keep in mind, these are experimental, not approved by Health Canada, and manufacturers are exempt from liability.

Rebel News published a portion of Manitoba’s “top doctor” saying that the Province is introducing their own version of the vaccine passport. Nothing nefarious, he claimed. It was just in case it was needed. Now, why did Brent Roussin say there was no specified purpose?

These guidance documents will make no reference to the specific circumstances under which these certificates should be used. Such guidance will be made available in separate guidance documents published by WHO (e.g. DG temporary recommendations to States Parties after IHR Emergency Committees; WHO’s interim guidance documents on considerations for the implementation of public health and social measures; WHO’s interim guidance documents on considerations for a risk-based approach to international travel in the context of COVID-19; etc.).

It could be because all parties were INSTRUCTED to say that there was no specific purpose for these vaccine certificates. That’s what it sounds like. Countries were instructed to develop these “digital systems” but not specify what they were to be used for.

Additionally, in line with the change in scope, WHO DDCC specifications will not include a section on global architecture for a Global Health Trust Framework. At point in this time, WHO does not intend to implement a Global Health Trust Framework to store the digital public keys of members states, to facilitate the validation and verification of digitally signed COVID-19 certificates (e.g., vaccination certificates, SARS-CoV-2 test certificates, and COVID-19 recovery status certificates) across borders.

WHO states that it does not intend to establish a global system to track vaccination status, for now. The key words are “at this point in time”. That could very easily change later. And no, this isn’t just something they are pondering.

WHO is soliciting proposals for experts to inform the definition of specifications and standards related to interoperability, governance, and design for a personal digital vaccination certificate, in preparation for COVID-19 vaccine availability. Please follow instructions, detailed below, to nominate experts, by 17:00 CET on December 14, 2020.

Furthermore, as detailed in the International Health Regulations (2005), WHO has the mandate to coordinate among member states to provide a public health response to the international spread of diseases. Currently, yellow fever is the only disease expressly listed in the International Health Regulations for which countries can require proof of vaccination from travellers as a condition of entry into a country. WHO has a mandate to take a coordinating role to ensure that member states are equipped and ready for the anticipated global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. For effective implementation of COVID-19 vaccines, global coordination of relevant data management principles and processes is needed to account for and facilitate coherent implementation of transmission prevention and control by all member states.

The Smart Vaccination Certificate consortium will bring together experts to focus on defining specifications and standards for a digital vaccination certificate that would serve current and future requirements, toward the dual purpose of (1) facilitating monitoring of national COVID-19 vaccination programs as well as (2) supporting cross-border uses architected for a potential future in which the COVID-19 vaccine would be included in an updated version of the International Health Regulations.

Late last year, WHO put out an offer for bids on establishing digital vaccine certificates. WHO also admits that vaccination will be included in the next edition of the International Health Regulations, which again, are legally binding.

In April 2021, WHO released a paper opening discussing the pros and cons of mandatory vaccination. In March, 23 countries agreed in principle with establishing a global order to address outbreaks in the future.

Remember last Spring, when the idea of mandatory vaccines and vaccine passports were dismissed as crazy conspiracy theories?

(1) https://www.who.int/news/item/04-06-2021-revised-scope-and-direction-for-the-smart-vaccination-certificate-and-who-s-role-in-the-global-health-trust-framework
(2) https://www.who.int/news/item/19-04-2021-statement-on-the-seventh-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-pandemic
(3) https://www.who.int/news/item/30-10-2020-statement-on-the-fifth-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-pandemic
(4) https://www.who.int/news-room/articles-detail/world-health-organization-open-call-for-nomination-of-experts-to-contribute-to-the-smart-vaccination-certificate-technical-specifications-and-standards-application-deadline-14-december-2020
(5) https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/340841/WHO-2019-nCoV-Policy-brief-Mandatory-vaccination-2021.1-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
(6) https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/op-ed—covid-19-shows-why-united-action-is-needed-for-more-robust-international-health-architecture
(7) https://canucklaw.ca/cv-62-who-legally-binding-international-health-regulations-ihr/
(8) https://canucklaw.ca/cv-62b-canadas-actions-were-dictated-by-whos-legally-binding-international-health-regulations/
(9) https://canucklaw.ca/cv-62c-the-2005-quarantine-act-bill-c-12-was-actually-written-by-who/
(10) https://canucklaw.ca/cv-62f-international-or-global-treaty-for-pandemic-preparedness-and-response-proposed/
(11) https://canucklaw.ca/cv-62g-public-health-agency-of-canada-created-as-branch-of-who-bill-c-12-phac-act/