With just days to go before Safe Access Oahu – Hawaii’s first vaccine requirement for business patrons – goes into effect, Hawaii SMART Health Card makes its debut today. The system promises to make showing proof of vaccination easier while also verifying authenticity.
Hawaii SMART Health Card
Announced by Governor David Ige on Wednesday, Hawaii SMART Health Card is a digital vaccine passport. Developed by the State of Hawaii Office of Enterprise Technology, the program is open only to those vaccinated in Hawaii. The reason for this is that the system will check the state vaccine database to ensure authenticity. That said, the state warns that those vaccinated by the Department of Defense, the Department of Veteran Affairs, and certain other federal vaccine programs can’t participate because those agencies don’t feed data into the state system.
Much like Hawaii Safe Travels, those that are verified will receive a QR code. In fact, the program is part of the Hawaii Safe Travels website – not a separate system. So, why not just use the Safe Travels system as is? Who knows. At any rate, this QR code can then be presented to businesses in counties with vaccine mandates in place.
As far as how things work on the business side of things, all businesses need to do is view the patron’s proof of vaccination QR code. Should businesses want to further verify a patron’s vaccination status, they can use the SMART Health Card Verifier by The Commons Project. And, yup, the Commons Project is the same organization behind CommonPass… So, why not just use CommonPass?
Final Thoughts
Will Hawaii SMART Health Card make a big difference? Most definitely not. In fact, I’m not sure why our officials sought to go this route in the first place. Other similar programs like CLEAR Health Pass already exist. What’s more, I’m not sure why the City & County of Honolulu or Maui County don’t allow the use of CLEAR Health Pass or CommonPass for their vaccine requirements. After all, you can use both to show proof of vaccination in Hawaii Safe Travels. But, whatever – it’s completely voluntary. If you want to use your physical vaccine card, a picture of it, or even Hawaii Safe Travels, go right ahead. What a mess.