A tech company unveiled a new health app Thursday, saying it’ll help employers bring back their workers to the office safely by verifying their COVID-19 vaccination status.
Proxy, a company that sells identity technologies, says the app will let workers verify their health status before entering the office — and without sharing personal health information, Axios reported.
The new app, and others like it, could signal how employers could enforce COVID-19 vaccination requirements without relying on the honor system or hand-checking CDC vaccine cards, Axios noted.
The app works after the person downloads the app on their smartphone, upload photos of their vaccine cards and government-issued identification, and then taps their phone to an iPad that would be at the lobby or entrance to a business office.
"People want to get back to normal, they want to get their businesses back to normal, but they also don’t want to be increasing the risks to their employees," Denis Mars, Proxy's co-founder and CEO, told the news outlet.
"Every HR person or every person who’s responsible for an office is asking themselves, how do we do this safely and responsibly?"
Mars told Axios that Proxy Health is the first vaccine verification app targeted specifically to businesses, "at least from this perspective of a privacy-first approach."
Most employers aren't requiring or planning to require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before coming back to the office — with only 10% saying they plan or are considering requiring proof of a vaccine as a condition of employment, while 23% are planning or considering requiring their workers to get vaccinated before returning to the worksite, a survey by insurance company Willis Towers Watson showed.
Some businesses are trying other approaches, like giving vaccinated employees certain workplace privileges that fall short of mandates, the Wall Street Journal reported.
At Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., vaccinated employees have started to return to the company’s Springfield, Massachusetts, headquarters to attend in-person meetings on a case-by-case basis and can remove their masks, CEO Roger Crandall told the Journal. The company plans to open some offices on a voluntary basis for fully vaccinated staff later this month. A broader-scale return is planned for the fall.
Executives debated asking people to upload proof of vaccinations, Crandall told the news outlet, but decided against it, feeling that employees could be trusted to operate within health guidelines and company policies.
“We treat people like grown ups,” he said.
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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