A Government investigation into the potential impact of a vaccine passport scheme has concluded that the measure would have a negative impact in halting the transmission of Covid. The report has put forward the unintended consequence of those unwilling to comply with the mandate attending more poorly ventilated venues instead of larger, more open space ones. In addition, the report dwells on the economic damage of such a policy, acknowledging that businesses would need to fork out more money into policing the entrance combined with a decrease in the number of customers. The Telegraph has the story.
The Telegraph has seen an internal analysis of the economic and social impact of Covid-19 certification, written by the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Across the 13 pages, marked “official sensitive” and dated from early September, are a series of concerns about how the policy would work and its knock-on implications.
One section of the impact assessment responds to whether the policy could have “any displacement effects to other types of venues not included for certification”.
The document reads: “There is potential displacement between live events venues and hospitality venues. A core concern in the sector is that certification could displace activity and business away from music venues to, say, pubs with music and late alcohol licences, etc. which could be counterintuitive and potentially counter-productive.”
It goes on to state: “Similarly, if certification displaces some fans from structured and well ventilated sports stadia, this could lead to them attending unstructured and poorly ventilated pubs instead, where they will have access to more alcohol than if there were in the stadia. Evidence from the Euros showed spikes in cases associated with pubs even when England were playing abroad.”
Worth reading in full.
