Quick Hits
*** An interagency process is underway to create some guidelines for privacy, security and access for the technology supporting private-sector "vaccine passports" to identifying individuals who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19. But a government-run system is not in the cards, top officials said.
Andy Slavitt, the White House senior advisor for COVID response, said at a briefing that, "the government here is not viewing its role as the place to create a passport, nor a place to hold the data of citizens." He added: "We view this as something that the private sector is doing and will do."
The government will have a role, Slavitt explained, in working out the details of any passport system.
"Privacy of the information, security of the information and a marketplace of solutions are all things that are part of what we believe in, as for the ability for people to access this free and in multiple languages," Slavitt said at a White House briefing.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said she didn't have a timeline for the release of any guidelines, which she characterized as "recommendations." Psaki said there would be no "centralized, universal federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential," and said that the government would be encouraging "an open marketplace with a variety of private sector companies and non-profit coalitions developing solutions."
"We want to drive the market toward meeting public interest goals," Psaki said. "So we'll leverage our resources to ensure that all vaccination credential systems meet key standards, whether that's universal accessibility, affordability, availability both digitally and on paper."
*** The White House extended a cybersecurity national emergency first declared on April 1, 2015. The order, signed by President Joe Biden, states that "significant malicious cyber-enabled activities continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States."