Antibodies as Currency: COVID-19’s Golden Passport

• Published in: Journal of bioethical inquiry Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 687 - 689
• Main Author: Bramstedt, Katrina A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Singapore 01.12.2020
• Subjects: Antibodies, Viral - blood; Bioethics; COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 - epidemiology; COVID-19 - immunology; Emigration and Immigration; Employment - ethics; Ethics; Health aspects; Humans; Identity theft; Immunity; Medical Law; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Pandemics - ethics; Pandemics - prevention & control; SARS-CoV-2 - immunology; Social aspects; Social Class; Symposium COVID-19 Pandemic: 5. Bioethical Debates; Symposium: COVID-19; Theory of Medicine/Bioethics; Travel; Travel - ethics; Viral antibodies; COVID-19; Ethics; Identity theft; Antibody; Health law; Pandemic; Travel medicine; Public health
• ISSN: 1176-7529; 1872-4353; 1872-4353
• DOI: 10.1007/s11673-020-09996-5

Due to COVID-19, the fragile economy, travel restrictions, and generalized anxieties, the concept of antibodies as a “declaration of immunity” or “passport” is sweeping the world. Numerous scientific and ethical issues confound the concept of an antibody passport; nonetheless, antibodies can be seen as a potential currency to allow movement of people and resuscitation of global economics. Just as financial currency can be forged, so too is the potential for fraudulent antibody passports. This paper explores matters of science, ethics, and identity theft, as well as the problems of bias and discrimination that could promulgate a world of pandemic “golden passports.”