COVID-19 Info Hub: Policy, Procedure, and Tech Details

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which unfolded in the 'algorithmic age', contact tracing apps and digital vaccine passports emerged as widely deployed technologies with the hope of accelerating contact tracing efforts. The COVID-19 Data Explorer, a cloud-based platform, has been instrumental in supporting the discovery and exploration of policies and practices related to these technologies across the world.

The COVID-19 Data Explorer offers a comprehensive view of the technological variations in contact tracing apps across countries, as well as the timelines of the emergence and implementation of digital vaccine passports. It investigates a cross-section of 34 countries from six continents, aiming for regional representation.

The platform provides information on countries' approaches to technology, policy, and practice related to contact tracing apps and digital vaccine passports. It delves into how these approaches have evolved over time and the public response to their rapid deployment. The COVID-19 Data Explorer offers a view by country, exploring timelines and types of vaccine passports and contact tracing apps per nation.

The synthesis report accompanying the COVID-19 Data Explorer, titled "Lessons from the App Store", analyses the deployment of contact tracing apps and digital vaccine passports under four themes: Effectiveness, Public Legitimacy, Inequalities, and Governance, Regulation, and Accountability.

Questions were raised about the efficacy, informed consent, public legitimacy, privacy, surveillance, proportionality, and the role of technology in public health management. Public legitimacy was key to the success of digital vaccine passports, but they caused public backlash around privacy, fairness, and effectiveness.

Vaccine passport requirements to access public spaces and travel were resisted in nearly half of the countries in the sample. Hundreds of new data-driven technologies were developed to address the pandemic, and the COVID-19 Data Explorer offers a valuable resource for understanding their deployment and impact.

The COVID-19 Data Explorer's Contact tracing apps and Digital vaccine passports sections focus on the technological variations and timelines of these technologies across countries, respectively. The platform supports COVID-19 data integration and research broadly, with no particular country limitations mentioned.

The COVID-19 Data Explorer is a collaboration with the research design company, Hetco Design. It is a valuable tool for researchers, policymakers, and the general public seeking to understand the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of technology and public health management.