Introducing subcutaneous vaccine passports

Medical information can be stored under the skin with the help of microneedles.

The vaccination certificate of the future will get under your skin according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A colour pattern with the vaccination dose is injected into the skin and not visible to the naked eye. The colour contains quantum dots, which are crystals no larger than a few nanometers. These then send near-infrared signals that will be picked up by a reading instrument and they remain active for years.

Kevin McHugh explained that the technique enabled the rapid inspection of vaccination history.

The invisible form of the vaccination card is primarily intended for regions where vaccination cards are easily lost and the equipment needed by authorities to read the information encapsulated in the arm is not expensive. There are already smartphones with a built-in infrared camera that come standard.

“Because many people do not make sure to get a booster vaccination in time, 1,5 million people could die in these regions every year, said former MIT graduate student McHugh. Years ago, McHugh and other MIT researchers set out to develop a method to create a “safe replacement” for paper vaccination records.

“In many third world countries, getting vaccinated regularly is a real challenge,” says Ana Jaklenec from MIT. “Because there is a lack of data on when children were vaccinated against which disease.” So far, the innovative process has only been tested in animal experiments. The researchers vaccinated rats against polio. At the same time, they gave them the color code.

https://freewestmedia.com/2021/11/15/introducing-subcutaneous-vaccine-passports/