BackUS restaurant asks S Jaishankar to produce COVID-19 vaccine certificate, then this happens
S Jaishankar was asked at a US restaurant to produce his COVID-19 vaccination certificate.
PremiumForeign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar uploaded a video in which he discusses his trip to the US in 2021, when COVID-19 travel restrictions were still in place. He claims to have eaten at a restaurant with his American-born son. The eatery requested a copy of their COVID-19 vaccination record. While his son pulled a piece of paper from his wallet, the foreign minister showed them the certificate on his phone.
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"I looked at his paper and I asked myself, OK, this is where they are and this is…," said Jaishankar while referring to the digitised version of the certificate. He then goes on to speak about India’s COVID-19 portal CoWIN.
Jaishankar says in the video that the core idea behind having the CoWIN platform is to ensure everyone has their vaccine certificate on the phone itself. “Now, you must understand this is not the case with much of the world," he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has written a letter to all vaccinators lauding their efforts as India crossed the COVID-19 vaccination milestone of administering 200 crore doses to its citizens. According to official sources, Modi asserted that the coming generations will be proud of India's achievement in fulfilling its resolve at a time of crisis following the pandemic outbreak.
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The Joe Biden administration has refused to support a national vaccination verification app in the United States. In other words, Americans still rely on paper immunisation records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an analogue solution that can be easily lost or faked and needs to be checked by a human to ensure its veracity.
On the other hand, Americans who want a digital record of their vaccinations have more options than ever. A verifiable digital proof of vaccination known as the SMART Health Card has been gaining popularity because of a private-public partnership between technology and healthcare organisations dubbed the Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI).
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A QR code is generated by the SMART system and may be scanned with a smartphone or printed out on paper. Only the person's name, date of birth, and immunisation history are displayed when the code is looked up. In order to confirm that the card was issued from a legitimate source and to avoid fraud, this code is also digitally signed.
(With agency inputs)
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