I should write on this. It is related to criminal stigma. In the Brunnemier PRinceton seminar just now,Larry Summers was skeptical that they would work well. I need to look back at the recorded video— he’s saying all kinds of unique, original, well-phrased things.
Anyway, a few notes:
1. There should be several official categories, with different colored covers, for immunity passports. I should describe the exact format and practicl details because those are important and usually incompetently arranged because nobody thinks hard about them and they’re done by low-level bureaucrats.
2. The system should be heavily decentralized. Government should NOT issue them. The regulation should be mostly ex post not ex ante. Don’t make people submit their info to the HHS Dept in Washington by certified mail and mail hem back a chip-inserted document two months later, except the picture they sent was 1×1.5 instead of 1×1 so you make them do it over and it ends up taking 6 months. Instead, tell people what the document should look like and what evidence they must have, and tell them to get the document however they can— homemade, or use the businesses that will immediately spring up. Tell them also that if they do it wrong, they will be fined $100 for hte first offense, $1,000 for hte second, and given 10 lashes each time to help them remember, and if they’re a business doing fake passports it’s a felony and they go to federal prison for 2 years.
3. THe official categories will be for the kind of tests you’ve gotten. Low level would be a single mail-in test antibody test. Middle would be a recent in-person test. High would be a weekly test done at a certified hospital.