Digital vaccination certificate
What percentage of Germans would use it?
A smartphone with a digital European vaccination certificate for German citizens could make traveling easier.
© imago images / Michael Weber
An EU-wide valid digital vaccination certificate is intended to make cross-border travel easier. But would it also be used?
The dream of a summer vacation after the corona lockdown is slowly drawing closer for many. Cross-border travel in Europe could be made much easier with an EU-wide digital vaccination certificate. But how great is the interest of the people in Germany in such a document? Would you even use it? The answer is now provided by a survey by the Bitkom digital association.
According to this, 48 percent want to use the digital vaccination certificate. 15 percent do not want to do this even though they want to be vaccinated. Another 15 percent reject a vaccination. 21 percent of those surveyed state that they do not have a smartphone or tablet on which to show the certificate. Of those who have a smartphone and generally want to be vaccinated, even 75 percent say they want to use the digital vaccination certificate.
Criticism of the introduction of the digital vaccination certificate
But as well as the digital vaccination certificate is generally received, there is also criticism: According to the survey, 72 percent of all respondents are of the opinion that the digital vaccination certificate is too late. “The fears of many people who are now planning their summer vacation are justified,” says Bitkom President Achim Berg. “While vaccinations are already digitally recorded in France, Denmark and small Lithuania, we continue to put stickers on vaccination cards,” Berg continued.
Berg explains that people who have already been vaccinated should receive their digital vaccination certificate retrospectively via their family doctor, their vaccination center, in the pharmacy or by post, again shows that too little is being thought digitally. “It is completely incomprehensible why vaccinated people should not receive their certificate digitally – for example via an online portal where the certificate can be requested using the batch number, name, date of birth and vaccination date,” he suggests.
The representative survey by the digital association Bitkom was carried out among 1,005 people in Germany aged 16 and over from May 10 to 21.