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Immunity Jealousy Is Coming
If immunity = freedom, that’s likely to induce envy
In an effort to stop the spread of Covid-19, the Chinese government earlier this year instituted an app-based smartphone program that continues to govern the movement of many of its citizens.
Each person’s phone displays a colored QR code. A green code means that a person is permitted to take public transportation and move about with few restrictions. A yellow code means that a person must stay at home, while a red code mandates a two-week quarantine. “Green code, travel freely. Red or yellow, report immediately,” read government notices and posters advertising the app, according to reporting from the New York Times.
Although Chinese officials have been tight-lipped about the app’s design, it’s ostensibly based on location and travel-history data, as well as self-reported symptoms and health information. Russia is now using a similar program in some of its major cities. European officials have discussed a less-restrictive app that could track Covid-19 infections and alert those who are at risk of exposure. And, despite privacy concerns, similar tech-based “contact tracing” proposals have been floated in the U.S. for the last two months.
No one knows what the future will bring. Just six months ago, the idea that nearly every U.S. state would issue stay-at-home directives and mandate business closures would have seemed unthinkable. While it may seem unlikely today, it’s possible that the continued threat of Covid-19 will lead to the implementation of what some are calling “smart quarantine” programs based on risk stratifications — a system somewhat like the color-coded QR app deployed in China.
In such a system, those who have already contracted the virus could be granted freedoms denied to people at high risk who have not yet had Covid-19. Even if things never go that far, improved antibody testing will probably soon show that a lot of people who never experienced serious symptoms have already had Covid-19, and so are likely protected from it.
In either scenario, immunity jealousy is probably going to be a thing. And experts say it could make an already difficult situation a lot worse.
