KEY POINTS

• Bitcoin surged to an all-time high of more than $50,000 on Tuesday.
• Large firms like Tesla, Mastercard and BNY Mellon have shown support for cryptocurrencies.
• Many crypto investors believe the current bull run is different to a late 2017 bubble.

MORE… CNBC. 😉

A coalition of health and technology organizations are working to develop a digital COVID-19 vaccination passport to allow businesses, airlines and countries to check if people have received the vaccine.

The Vaccination Credential Initiative, announced on Thursday, is formulating technology to confirm vaccinations in the likelihood that some governments will mandate people provide proof of their shots in order to enter the nation.

The organization hopes the technology will allow people to “demonstrate their health status to safely return to travel, work, school and life while protecting their data privacy.”

The initiative, which includes members like Microsoft, Oracle and U.S. nonprofit Mayo Clinic, is using the work from member Commons Project’s international digital document that verifies a person has tested negative for COVID-19, the Financial Times reported.

The Commons Project’s technology, created in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation, is being utilized by three major airline alliances. 

The coalition is reportedly in discussions with several governments to create a program requiring either negative tests or proof of vaccination to enter, Paul Meyer, the chief executive of The Commons Project, told the Times.

“The goal of the Vaccination Credential Initiative is to empower individuals with digital access to their vaccination records so they can use tools like CommonPass to safely return to travel, work, school, and life, while protecting their data privacy,” Meyer said in a release.

The people who have vaccinated are currently receiving a piece of paper confirming their vaccination he said, but the coalition could develop a digital certificate using electronic medical records.

The technology will need to allow patients to keep their data secure while being available in a digital wallet or a physical QR code for them to regulate who sees the information.

The Vaccination Credential Initiative expects certain businesses such as event planners and universities will require their consumers, students and workers to provide proof of vaccination, according to the Times.

Source: The Hill

“An illusion it will be, so large, so vast it will escape their perception.

Source: LA TIMES

Once COVID-19 vaccines are available to children, Los Angeles students will have to be immunized before they can return to campus, Supt. Austin Beutner said Monday.

Beutner however, did not suggest that campuses remain closed until then. Instead, he said, the state should set standards for reopening all schools, clearly justify the directives, and then require campuses to open when the standards are achieved.

A COVID-19 vaccine requirement would be “no different than students who are vaccinated for measles or mumps,” Beutner said in a pre-recorded briefing. He also compared students, staff and others getting a COVID-19 vaccine to those who “are tested for tuberculosis before they come on campus. That’s the best way we know to keep all on a campus safe.”

But a vaccine will not be in the arms of students for some time. The two vaccines that have received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration so far were tested almost exclusively in adults. The clinical trial of the shot made by Pfizer and BioNTech included 153 16- and 17-year-olds, and some of the experts who reviewed the data for the FDA said there weren’t enough teens to determine whether the vaccine is safe for that age group, let alone for younger children.

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