[Spooky23]

You can do that by having consortiums of trusted parties. California, New York and Walmart were pioneers in this space for vaccination credentials. (SMART health cards)

If you lived in a crazy state like Florida, vaccinating at Walmart was the best way to get a credential for international travel. In the absence of federal action, countries like Israel recognized these credentials and airlines incorporated them into their ticketing workflow.

[chrisweekly]

I find it interesting that US states and a massive corporation are directly comparable entities (CA, NY, Walmart, MA) in this context.

[Spooky23]

Well states operate vaccine registries, but some states for political reasons chose to not really do a good job with them or not issue usable credentials beyond the CDC card. Also, rural states tended to rely more on larger entities like Walmart and pharmacies to deliver vaccinations — Walmart is often the most accessible place for healthcare, food, medicines, etc.

When entities like Apple got in the mix the process got smoother. If your doctor uses Epic, the Health app can usually create a SMART credential directly from your medical records instead of downloading a state app.

It is cool that different entities were able to self organize and deliver a valuable service. It sucks that the Federal government backed away from any leadership role. People in Florida who had to travel abroad often got re-vaccinated at Walmart or in another state, because the Governor wanted to own the libs or whatever.

[chrisweekly]

Ok sure, thanks. I was just sharing a simple observation that I found [a relevant verifiable fact] interesting. States and corporations aren't usually peers like that. I'd hoped it might trigger discussion of post-national society or Citizen's United or something else ~interesting and not just silent downvotes. Anyway, thanks for your response, it makes sense and was informative.

[Spooky23]

Not from me :) it’s a relevant point!

This is a little out there, but this thread is old enough at this point. I would say that COVID was something that improved my outlook in the future. Some aspects of the political landscape seem frankly, pretty dark and depressing. As someone who had a unique vantage point on aspects of the pandemic, I have to say that I saw the best of us demonstrated.

I think that ultimately the difficult adjustment from a 1970s economy to the services economy of today has created unrest and dissatisfaction that has and will change the US for years to come.

It is weird that Walmart has the same standing as a state health department. But ultimately, technology and standards like SMART allow us to trust assertions made by Walmart. I personally have issues with that, but it’s reality. Verifiable credentials are imo probably going to be one of the more powerful tools out there for lots of consumer to government or consumer to business use cases.

[dwaite]

> If your doctor uses Epic, the Health app can usually create a SMART credential directly from your medical records instead of downloading a state app.

Slight correction here - the health record is already in the SMART format, e.g. already a signed JWT enveloping a FHIR vaccination record.

The Health App is turning encoding this into a custom URL scheme and tossing that into a QR code.

The reverse also works - I can scan the QR code and import it as a vaccination record into the health app.

[ezfe]

Massachusetts also now issues SMART cards