Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate • Hacker News Board

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#31

Post by traspler » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 12:10 PM UTC

jollybean wrote: post #24

mensetmanusman wrote: post #13

From the G7 agenda reporting: “ Last Friday morning, during an interview on Good Morning America, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Biden administration was taking “a very close look” at the possibility of vaccine passports for travel into and out of the United States. However by Friday afternoon the Department of Homeland Security was clarifying Mayorkas’ statement. The DHS says there won’…

British Colombia is wary of them on the basis of inequity, which is not unreasonable, that said, they may be doing something for international travel. The Swiss thing looks kinda complicated, and likely hard for other countries to participate. Easy Solution: issue a passport insert + seal. Go to the hospital/clinic, show your passport, they give you a seal, a stamp, a number, and a signature. The number can be typed…

It‘s basically a PKI and this design was chosen with the explicit goal to participate in the EU Green Pass project with the goal that all EU members can participate in the same system.

When the the system stands the only bureaucracy will be for an issuer to get a cert from the authority or for an authority to be included in the root.

All the things you describe with the seal and number and system to validate is just as much if not more bureaucracy and is not that far off from the proposed solution.

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#32

Post by zhdc1 » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 12:18 PM UTC

m_st wrote: post #17

mensetmanusman wrote: post #13

From the G7 agenda reporting: “ Last Friday morning, during an interview on Good Morning America, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Biden administration was taking “a very close look” at the possibility of vaccine passports for travel into and out of the United States. However by Friday afternoon the Department of Homeland Security was clarifying Mayorkas’ statement. The DHS says there won’…

We Swiss people are also quite suspicious with this kind of documentation (Google Fichenaffäre / secret files scandal for reasons). To my understanding you will get this Covid certificate either through vaccination, after having had Covid-19 or after a negative test. So it's not like a central vaccine database or so. (Note that we had such a database called "Elektronischer Impfausweis" but it had to be taken down aft…

Americans are far more distrustful.

The idea of registering with your local municipality is downright alien in the United States. At best, you're required to eventually update your drivers license when you switch states, which (depending on the state) is the equivalent of "maybe" updating your license and vehicle registration whenever you eventually get around to it.

Compare that against moving between, say, Switzerland and Poland (or any other combination of Schengen member countries).

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#33

Post by CaptainZapp » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 12:20 PM UTC

zhdc1 wrote: post #32

m_st wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We Swiss people are also quite suspicious with this kind of documentation (Google Fichenaffäre / secret files scandal for reasons). To my understanding you will get this Covid certificate either through vaccination, after having had Covid-19 or after a negative test. So it's not like a central vaccine database or so. (Note that we had such a database called "Elektronischer Impfausweis" but it had to be taken down aft…

Americans are far more distrustful. The idea of registering with your local municipality is downright alien in the United States. At best, you're required to eventually update your drivers license when you switch states, which (depending on the state) is the equivalent of "maybe" updating your license and vehicle registration whenever you eventually get around to it. Compare that against moving between, say, Switzerl…

You actually get heavily fined when you move to Switzerland and use your foreign license for more than a year.

Exchanging it is a small formality in most cases, but you need to do it.

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#34

Post by Mediterraneo10 » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 12:22 PM UTC

CaptainZapp wrote: post #21

mensetmanusman wrote: post #13

From the G7 agenda reporting: “ Last Friday morning, during an interview on Good Morning America, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Biden administration was taking “a very close look” at the possibility of vaccine passports for travel into and out of the United States. However by Friday afternoon the Department of Homeland Security was clarifying Mayorkas’ statement. The DHS says there won’…

> If more states ban covid-passports, I wonder if the EU would rather not have tourists than allow visitations. That's certainly a possibility if safety really is a concern. But I'd wager that the average American anti Covid fanatic (the sort: Masks are fascism! It's like what the nazis did with the jews!) is not really the kind of person travelling the world. I don't think that others, who want to travel the world r…

There are people in the travel community who oppose restrictions, sometimes hyperbolically so. For the last year, travel forums have been full of posts by people who intentionally chose destinations because not only would those country let them in, but mask-wearing and distancing wasn't really enforced there.

With regard to need to prove vaccination, note that the WHO yellow-fever certificate was originally good for 10 years, and recently the WHO announced that it should be good for life. COVID passports are rather different in that they are passed on a QR code, so your certificate could be deemed invalid by your country’s authorities at any time. If you are traveling when that happens, they you might suddenly have to search for whatever new booster vaccine is required for onward travel, which might be a challenge if you are in the developing world.

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#35

Post by endgame » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 12:26 PM UTC

burundi_coffee wrote: post #15

imrehg wrote: post #7

The inoculation certificate validity is currently 180 days since the last jab (looking at the slide deck in the repo). That seems super short. Will people really need 2 courses of jabs each year (that is 4 jabs with most current vaccines)?

No. The federal council has stated in multiple press conferences that the 6 month period is solely because we only have good data about vaccine protection for this time period. Studies are still ongoing and if it turns out the vaccine protects people well after this period, it will be adjusted. The 6 monthsbare just preliminary.

Pardon my French, but that's a completely ass-backwards approach from the council. If we later find that the vaccines need boosters, so be it, maybe that's justification for an additional restriction. There's an argument against this (of the "give them an inch and they'll take a mile" variety[1]), but what's proposed is taking a mile and promising to maybe sometime walk some of it back at some point. How far? In response to whose data? The ongoing debate around the "lab leak" hypothesis should have you asking questions about how information is collected and decisions made, _particularly_ at the science/public policy boundary.

[1]: https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2021/04/09/covid-4-9-another-va... - Scroll down to/Ctrl-F for: "Or, you could raise the more generalized version of this objection. Also from the comments:"

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#36

Post by lucideer » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 12:26 PM UTC

CaptainZapp wrote: post #21

mensetmanusman wrote: post #13

From the G7 agenda reporting: “ Last Friday morning, during an interview on Good Morning America, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Biden administration was taking “a very close look” at the possibility of vaccine passports for travel into and out of the United States. However by Friday afternoon the Department of Homeland Security was clarifying Mayorkas’ statement. The DHS says there won’…

> If more states ban covid-passports, I wonder if the EU would rather not have tourists than allow visitations. That's certainly a possibility if safety really is a concern. But I'd wager that the average American anti Covid fanatic (the sort: Masks are fascism! It's like what the nazis did with the jews!) is not really the kind of person travelling the world. I don't think that others, who want to travel the world r…

> I'd wager that the average American anti Covid fanatic (the sort: Masks are fascism! It's like what the nazis did with the jews!) is not really the kind of person travelling the world.

I think this may vary by destination. I have no data (not sure if such data exists) but, anecdotally, living in Ireland, I get the impression that many do travel here at least.

It may be that different destinations hold different draws (& I'm told the Irish-American community has diverged significantly in political leanings compared to Ireland/Europe)

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#37

Post by CaptainZapp » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 12:28 PM UTC

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #34

CaptainZapp wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If more states ban covid-passports, I wonder if the EU would rather not have tourists than allow visitations. That's certainly a possibility if safety really is a concern. But I'd wager that the average American anti Covid fanatic (the sort: Masks are fascism! It's like what the nazis did with the jews!) is not really the kind of person travelling the world. I don't think that others, who want to travel the world r…

There are people in the travel community who oppose restrictions, sometimes hyperbolically so. For the last year, travel forums have been full of posts by people who intentionally chose destinations because not only would those country let them in, but mask-wearing and distancing wasn't really enforced there. With regard to need to prove vaccination, note that the WHO yellow-fever certificate was originally good for…

I have my Covid shots entered into the WHO yellow vaccination passport and assume that's good enough for the time being until a specific "QR code passport" is released.

edited to add: Why should a civilized country just revoke certification once you're fully vaccinated?

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#38

Post by Mediterraneo10 » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 12:29 PM UTC

tick_tock_tick wrote: post #2

Seems complex for something that probably never going to see any real use.

You do have a point there. The EU is pitching COVID certificates as a way to restore travel in the bloc, but I can’t imagine they will be used in places other than airports/bus stations/train stations.

The issue is that maintaining roadblocks along Schengen borders has incurred costs that countries don’t like to deal with long-term, and even with the roadblocks there have been a lot of gaps. I spent last summer cycling across Europe. I was fortunate in that all borders on my route were open, but I met a load of other cyclists who had crossed various Schengen borders illegally, because no one was checking traffic along some minor road through the fields.

So, for people with their own transportation, you might manage an entire European summer holiday without anyone ever checking your COVID certificate.

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#39

Post by swiley » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 12:31 PM UTC

CaptainZapp wrote: post #33

zhdc1 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Americans are far more distrustful. The idea of registering with your local municipality is downright alien in the United States. At best, you're required to eventually update your drivers license when you switch states, which (depending on the state) is the equivalent of "maybe" updating your license and vehicle registration whenever you eventually get around to it. Compare that against moving between, say, Switzerl…

You actually get heavily fined when you move to Switzerland and use your foreign license for more than a year. Exchanging it is a small formality in most cases, but you need to do it.

Doesn't that creep you out at least a little bit?

Re: Swiss Covid Certificate – Technical documentation of the swiss Covid certificate

#40

Post by Mediterraneo10 » Tue, Jun 01, 2021, 12:32 PM UTC

CaptainZapp wrote: post #37

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are people in the travel community who oppose restrictions, sometimes hyperbolically so. For the last year, travel forums have been full of posts by people who intentionally chose destinations because not only would those country let them in, but mask-wearing and distancing wasn't really enforced there. With regard to need to prove vaccination, note that the WHO yellow-fever certificate was originally good for…

I have my Covid shots entered into the WHO yellow vaccination passport and assume that's good enough for the time being until a specific "QR code passport" is released. edited to add: Why should a civilized country just revoke certification once you're fully vaccinated?

When the new apps and digital certificates were announced, being able to revoke certification at any time was touted as one of their major advantages over traditional vaccine certificates. This way, if a new variant arises that preexisting vaccines don’t protect against, or if a state wants to enforce annual booster shots, they can just invalidate older certificates by updating the database entry to which the QR code points.