Everyone is going to be issued a digital health or vaccine passport. If you allow them to vaccinate you and test you regularly, you will be given more personal freedoms.
A government contract has been awarded to create a Covid-19 negative test result certification app. This is not a vaccine passport.
Several posts on Facebook have pointed to a government contract to create a “Covid-19 Certification/passport” as evidence that the government is introducing passports that will grant greater personal freedoms to those who have received a Covid-19 vaccine.
There’s no evidence this is true.
The Department of Health and Social Care has awarded a contract to a company to develop a “negative Covid-19 test certification minimum viable product.”
The contract is to create technology that will allow people to prove they have recently tested negative for Covid-19, rather than their vaccine status.
In a supplementary document, DHSC says it wants the supplier to create something to “allow trials to take place to enable members of the public to show negative COVID Test status evidence electronically as soon as possible.”
This is to “enable workplaces, educational centres, health and social care services and places of business to open to members of the public who have tested negative for COVID-19 within a specified timeframe in addition to other criteria.”
There is no mention of vaccine status being recorded as part of this technology.
We asked DHSC if they had any plans to introduce such a vaccine passport, and it told us: “We have no plans to introduce immunity passports following this vaccination programme.”
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as partly false because although the government has awarded a contract to develop a Covid-19 status app, there are currently no plans to introduce vaccine passports.
You’ve probably seen a surge in misleading and unsubstantiated medical advice since the Covid-19 outbreak. If followed, it can put lives at serious risk. We need your help to protect us all from false and harmful information.
We’ve seen people claiming to be health professionals, family members, and even the government – offering dangerous tips like drinking warm water or gargling to prevent infection. Neither of these will work.
The longer claims like these go unchecked, the more they are repeated and believed. It can put people’s health at serious risk, when our services are already under pressure.
Today, you have the opportunity to help save lives. Good information about Covid-19 could be the difference between someone taking the right precautions to protect themselves and their families, or not. Could you help protect us all from false and harmful information today?
Bad information ruins lives. It promotes hate, damages people’s health, and hurts democracy. You deserve better.