Microsoft, Oracle and and other tech giants team up Covid-19 vaccine ‘passports’

Clare Duffy from cnn said that New York (CNN Business)With coronavirus vaccines now rolling out across the United States, businesses and schools are considering how, and what it will take, to safely resume in-person operations.

Some of the country’s biggest tech firms and health care organizations have joined together to help facilitate that return to “normal.” The group, called the Vaccine Credential Initiative, wants to ensure that everyone has access to a secure, digital record of their Covid-19 vaccination — like a digital vaccine passport — that can be stored in people’s smartphones. The records could be used for everything from airline travel to entering concert venues.
The coalition comprises a broad range of health care and tech leaders including Microsoft (MSFT), Salesforce (CRM), Oracle (ORCL), Cerner (CERN), Cigna’s (CI) Evernorth, health care software firm Epic and the Mayo Clinic, among others.

The announcement Thursday comes amid a rocky start to the Covid-19 vaccine rollout. Of the 30.6 million doses of vaccines that have been distributed to US hospitals, health centers and pharmacies, only about 10.6 million people had received at least their first dose as of Friday morning, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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