Singapore -Australia travel bubble will expose Singapore & Singaporeans to COVID infection out of Australia : Australia refuses to rectify problem of stale and compromised Australian vaccine passports

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

                  
                  A wedding in Singapore. the Qantas ad celebrating the vaccine passport may unfortunately be prescient of a                                        contagion even in Spore caused by an Australian travelling on a stale or forged vaccine passport

Executive Traveller and others reported:

Federal Tourism Minister Dan Tehan expects an Australia-Singapore travel bubble will open by December, marking the return of quarantine-free travel to one of Australia's most popular business and leisure destinations.

Speaking at a webinar hosted last night by MP for Wentworth Dave Sharma, Tehan said there was a commitment for a bubble with Singapore to be "ready to go by the end of the year."

This is the latest indication of travel confidence for the bustling Asian city-state, and comes as Qantas pencils in December 18 for the first regular Sydney-Singapore flight since March 2020, alongside a restart of flights to London and Los Angeles.

As previously reported, the Australian government plans to begin issuing ‘international Covid-19 vaccination certificates’ from October.

These would not only provide proof of vaccination but also allow mutual recognition of vaccines – considered essential to establishing international travel bubbles – as not all countries have approved or issued the same shots.

For example, while both Australia and Singapore approved vaccines from Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna, Singapore didn't roll out the AstraZeneca shot widely used in Australia, while Australia has not approved the SinoVac/CoronaVac jab issued in Singapore.

The vaccine passports or certificates will be an extension of what the Australian  Prime Minister Scott  intends for all Australians to have; a document carried on an iPhone that will provide details of when and with what vaccine the holder has been vaccinated.

However, the state-owned Australian Broadcasting Corporation has reported that the passport can be easily forged.   Another media outlet, News.com.au, has reported that a forged passport can be purchased on-line for AUD 270.

Additionally, even if the security issues are overcome, there is the problem of Australian passports falsely declaring the holder to be, in effect, carrying sufficient COVID antibodies. Israel, one of the highest vaccinated countries in the world, understood the problem clearly and issued passports (known in Israel as Green Pass) with a validity of just six months. Consequently Israel has allowed the Green Pass to be extended by just five months, but only if the holder gets boosters or meets other conditions. 

The Morrison Government has taken an entirely political approach to COVID management, including its vaccine passports.It has chosen to not let anything interfere with its passport roll-out. 

That approach can now affect Singapore and Singaporeans if and when seemingly safe arrivals from Australia are allowed  enter and roam freely. 

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