Ethical Attitudes toward COVID-19 Passports: Evidences from Spain.

Mario Arias-Oliva,Jorge Pelegrín-Borondo,Ala Ali Almahameed,Jorge De Andrés-Sánchez

doi:10.3390/ijerph182413098

Abstract

A so-called COVID-19 passport or Immunity passport (IP) has been proposed to facilitate the mobility of individuals while the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic persists. A COVID-19 passport can play a key role in the control of the pandemic, specifically in areas with a high density of population, and the help of smart city technology could be very useful to successfully implement IPs. This research studies the impact of ethical judgments on user attitudes toward using vaccine passports based on a Multidimensional Ethics Scale (MES) that contains five ethical constructs: moral equity, relativism, egoism, utilitarianism, and contractualism. Regression analysis shows that MES satisfactorily explains attitude (R2 = 87.82%, p < 0.001) and that a positive evaluation in moral equity, egoism and utilitarianism is significant (p < 0.001). The objective of the passport (variable leisure) shows a significant negative moderating effect on moral equity (coefficient = −0.147, p = 0.0302) and a positive one on relativism (coefficient = 0.158, p = 0.0287). Adjustment by means of fsQCA shows that five ethical constructs satisfactorily explain both favorable and unfavorable attitudes toward IPs. Solutions explaining acceptance attain an overall consistency (cons) = 0.871 and coverage (cov) = 0.980. In the case of resistance, we found that cons = 0.979 and cov = 0.775. However, that influence is asymmetrical. To have a positive attitude toward the passport, it is a sufficient condition to attain a positive evaluation on a single ethical factor. On the other hand, when explaining resistance, and with the exception of the recipe ~utilitarianism (cons = 0.911 and cov = 0.859), explanatory prime implications require the interaction of at least two variables. Likewise, the context in which the passport is required is significant to explain rejection.

Highlights

COVID-19 has transformed the way we work, interact and live
An immunity passport (IP), COVID-19 passport or Vaccine Passport has been proposed by different countries and international organizations to facilitate the mobility of individuals at the local and international levels or to grant access to different activities, such as leisure
People who have been vaccinated or have negative test results of the virus will be exempted from the restrictive measures that are imposed by governments [61]

Summary

Introduction

COVID-19 has transformed the way we work, interact and live. Based on the global statistics on COVID-19 and up to the beginning of October 2021, the number of infections reached more than 235 million, of which around 4.8 million deaths and 212 million cases of recovery from the disease have been recorded [1]. Our everyday life changed dramatically, especially during the peak of the infection weaves. At the very beginning of the pandemic, only traditional measures used for centuries were initially adopted to cope with the situation: social distancing. Maintaining a greater than usual physical distance or quarantines were used in the. 14th century in Venice during the Black Death [2]. Many countries used extreme measures, such as lockdowns, to avoid the spread of the pandemic, such as Spain, the UK, and

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Conclusion