The Los Angeles Unified School District has partnered with tech giant Microsoft to introduce a COVID-19 “Daily Pass” app which requires students as young as 13 to complete daily in-app health checks in order to gain access to the school.
Students that pass the health checks will be given a scannable QR code “entrance ticket” which gives them access to the school for the day as long as they have a negative test result for COVID-19, show no symptoms, and have a temperature of under 100 degrees. Even after obtaining this entrance ticket and being granted access to the school, students will still be required to wear masks and social distance.
In addition to requiring students to complete daily health checks, the Daily Pass will also encourage students to schedule weekly COVID-19 tests, get a vaccine when it’s available, and store any external test results in the app.
Not only does the system force students in the Los Angeles Unified School District to use this COVID-19 Daily Pass system to gain access to schools but anonymous data from the app will also be used by several Los Angeles Unified research and health care collaborators (Anthem Blue Cross, Cedars Sinai, Healthnet, Stanford University, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), The Johns Hopkins University) to “provide insights for strategies to create the safest possible school environment.”
The explainer video promoting the app positions it as a solution for kids who are scared of getting sick and opens with a fearful cartoon kid character, Racquel Ramirez, telling her mom: “Mom, I’m scared about going back to school. I don’t wanna get sick and I don’t wanna get you and Dad sick.”
The COVID-19 Daily Pass is then introduced as a solution for “safely going back to school” and Ramirez is shown happily scanning her QR code entrance ticket to gain entry to the school.
The conclusion of the explainer video shows Ramirez finishing her first day back at school with the COVID-19 Daily Pass and telling her Dad: “Dad, I have to admit, I was scared at first but then I felt so safe. It was so good to be back. Thanks for keeping me safe. I love you so much.”
The scene plays out with Ramirez’s QR code entrance ticket visible at all times and finishes by zooming in on this QR code.
The introduction of this COVID-19 “Daily Pass” app follows similar coronavirus passport systems being introduced around the world where citizens are blocked from entering certain premises or accessing certain services unless they have their digital pass.
The European Union (EU) is planning to introduce digital “green pass” vaccine certificates this month, the UK is looking increasingly likely to adopt a digital immunity passport system, and several tech giants have joined a digital vaccine passport coalition in anticipation of governments, airlines, and other businesses embracing the technology.
