Would an “immunity passport” be more effective?

The vaccines are still in the early stages of being studied, but they’re thought to be highly effective. However, there are questions that remain. For example, it’s not clear if a vaccinated person who gets the virus can still possibly transmit it even if they don’t get sick or have obvious symptoms themselves.

As these considerations are still being analyzed, some developers look towards creating and improving antibody tests instead that travelers might easily use to prove their immunity (either after a vaccine or after recovering from Covid-19).

One such developer, John Huemoeller, CEO of AXIM Biotechnologies, has been working with his team on an “immunity passport,” which shows qualitative and quantitative measures of neutralizing antibodies in a patient.

For around $20, this could be used to test travelers right before a flight or trip.

“Neutralizing antibodies are the only thing that matter in a post-vaccine world,” he says. “We can see a world where you’ve had the vaccine, but you are going to get on the cruise ship eight months later…in 10 minutes I can tell you if you have antibodies [still].”

He sees the vaccine passport concept as more irresponsible than an immunity passport.

 

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