Are Vaccine Passports the Ticket Back to Normal?

After months and months of staying put, people are itching to travel. According to recent Google Trends, searches in the U.S. for “resort” and “hotel” are at five and 10-year highs, respectively. While the CDC recommends delaying travel until fully vaccinated, the number of vaccinated people grows each day, as does demand for a return to normalcy.     On today’s Brainstorm, Michal Lev-Ram and Brian O’Keefe examine how technology can help us start moving safely again, even as the pandemic continues.   The tech raising eyebrows the most in this arena may be the digital vaccine credential, or “vaccine passport." The technology allows you to carry proof of vaccination around on your phone. Some feel this is an invasion of privacy while others simply don't trust the tech industry to protect their data. Fortune’s David Z. Morris digs into the controversy surrounding “vaccine passports.”   Joel White, the Executive Director of the Health Innovation Alliance, explains why not all credentials are created equal. And Eric Piscini, IBM's VP of Emerging Business Networks, discusses the Excelsior Pass, New York’s first-in-the-nation digital vaccine credential app; he shares how blockchain helps keep user data safe. Also in the episode, Catherine Powell, Global Head of Hosting for Airbnb, who details what travelers will likely be looking for come summer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices