Ed Perkins on Travel: Will IATA's new travel pass get you going again?

IATA, the International Air Transport Association, is developing a digital "Travel Pass" data system that it hopes will serve as the standard "health pass" for international air travelers. The basic idea is simple: a computer system collects your personal ID information, the results of your most recent vaccinations and tests, current information on how well those vaccinations and tests are performing, and current entry requirements for most countries. Then, when you want to travel, the computer's algorithm will combine all the inputs and display whether or not you're "good to go" on any individual trip. Specifically, this project is designed to make it easy for travelers posing no health hazard to start flying all around the world even before the pandemic is completely controlled. And, at least for now, the good-to-go result will be based primarily on data on your COVID-19 situation: some combination of your most recent test results and its validity and your COVID vaccine and its known efficacy. The system design implies that it will continuously update data from the various laboratories and governmental health institutions involved with COVID-19.