Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
That's why I think having a stamp on your actual passport is such a great idea. If one page is dedicated to vaccinations, you can get a new stamp when you get ANY required vaccine/booster, including the DTP, malaria, or anything else that ever becomes mandatory in any country you wish to visit.
|
There are problems with the passport-based approach. Passports can be forgotten at home. I rarely (never) carry mine so what would I do if I was out and decided to go to a crowded concert or sports event or if I decided to hop on an Amtrak? Passports expire - would you trust the Govt to properly transfer all your vaccination stamps from the old document to the new one? And what if you have a lot? It would be difficult to find the particular stamp or there might not be enough pages to hold all the stamps. Passports are a good thought, but they have limits.
If this is something that needs to be done then let's use technology and do it right. A chip implanted under the skin could hold all that information with no problem. Medical personal could easily update the information when new vaccinations are given. Scanners installed at the entrances to trains or airports or sports stadiums could automatically read the chip for the required vaccinations and alarm when someone isn't safe. For smaller or temporary venues, a hand scanner could do the same thing. The technology likely exists, let's use it.
But technology fails sometimes too. The chips would need batteries which could run down or the chips could fail or perhaps the chip could even be removed or lost. Plus, there may be some low-tech countries that could not afford the chips and scanners. Maybe a better, more economical solution would be to tattoo a number on everyone's forearm and have a global database that holds the information. It would be easy to manually read the number, to enter it on forms, or even to have a scanner read it optically. A globally-unique ID should be possible and numerical tattoos have been around for a while. If carrying and presenting this information is that critical then let's do it right.