It’s no secret that the COVID vaccine rollout has been a logistical nightmare around the world. Okay Israel, we know you have it sussed. But for the rest of us, what’s the answer?
Information Technology!
Yes, you read that right. Part of the solution to our current public health nightmare is IT, not biology (or the humanities). IT spearheaded by, among others, a coalition of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
That coalition has developed a digitally encrypted vaccination card that works with or without online apps to streamline the Covid-19 inoculation process.
The enhanced vaccination cards would include QR codes carrying information necessary for each stage of a person’s vaccination process. Health care providers could simply scan the cards to check the patient’s vaccination status. To make things even simpler, the MIT QR codes would be placed on a sticker that is attached to the standard CDC vaccination card already being used.
The MIT team believes their vaccination card could speed things up by eliminating the paperwork needed to check on vaccination eligibility and status at pharmacies and clinics. Instead of doing paperwork, health care workers could spend their time getting the vaccine into peoples’ arms.
MIT professor Sanjay Sarma commented, “The beauty of this is you let the logistics people do the logistics, and you let the issuing authority give you your coupon independently, and each can do it in a decoupled way.”
Other digital aids to vaccine administration are being developed by Microsoft, Oracle, and the Linux Foundation Public Health, which includes corporate members such as Cisco, IBM, and Tencent.
The CDC has yet to adopt any of these proposals. But given the daunting task of accounting for the vaccinations of 300 million Americans, the federal government would be wise to work with any of the tech coalitions looking to help with the vaccination process.