Flashing red lights: the global implications of COVID-19 vaccination passports

### Summary As COVID-19 vaccination roll-outs are progressing in wealthy parts of the world, several countries are implementing or investigating COVID-19 vaccination passports that restrict access to restaurants, sports events or universities to those who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. While these discussions focus on domestic implementation, we must assume that, once introduced, vaccination passports will be applied to international travel. We argue that the global health community must participate in the debate about such schemes with an eye to equity and highlight their global implications. We emphasise two concerns. First, vaccination passports attached to international travel before equitable access to vaccines has been established will exacerbate global inequalities by effectively excluding from travel the millions of citizens of poor countries who are suffering from the health impact and the social and economic fallout of the pandemic, with little prospect of gaining access to vaccines any time soon. Such inequalities are rooted in a long history of colonialism and exploitation; global restrictions based on vaccination status will amplify these historic injustices. Second, such schemes will undermine global solidarity, increasing the risk that the pandemic is seen as a local issue rather than a genuinely global problem. Vaccination passports raise many ethical issues. Arguments for restrictions on people’s freedoms, such as lockdowns or quarantines, lose their traction when individuals have been fully vaccinated and therefore—as increasing evidence …