Monthly Archives: March 2021

MBWs Stat Of The Week is a series in which we show why a single data point deserves the attention of the global music industry. Stat Of the Week is supported by Cinq Music Group, a technology-driven record label, distribution, and rights management company.

Cast your mind back to the first half of 2020. Beleaguered (as we all were) by scary and depressing daily news about the pandemic, the global recorded music industry began to doubt the security of its own near-term future.

With retail stores closing and income from performance royalties being hit by the shuttering of bars and restaurants, reports began to emerge suggesting that record labels should brace themselves for a mini-crash.

Such fears were worsened in Q2, when the release schedule of the major music groups grew noticeably thin. (Case in point: The recorded music division of Universal Music Group the worlds biggest record company saw its quarterly revenues fall 4.5% YoY in Q2 on an organic basis.)

Better news, however, was just around the corner. Midia Research has today published its estimate of what the global recorded music industry including majors, indies, and DIY artists generated across the course of 2020 in wholesale/trade revenues.

Midias figures suggest that the recorded music business saw revenues of $23.1 billion in the year. That was up 7% on 2019, and represented a $1.5 billion monetary increase year-on-year.

It would take a hard-hearted industry commentator to complain about any growth in 2020, but that $1.5 billion / +7% annual uplift, notes Midia, was smaller than the $2.1 billion growth seen in 2019 (+11% YoY).

Midia notes: Although the [worldwide] recorded music business experienced a dip in the earlier months of the pandemic, the remainder of the year saw industry revenue rebound.

That rebound, notes Midia, saw the global recorded music businesss quarterly revenues bounce up 15% YoY in Q4 2020, suggesting a strong 2021 may lie ahead if that momentum continues.

Interestingly, global annual recorded music streaming revenues actually grew faster on a monetary basis in 2020 than they did in 2019.

Midias numbers suggest that total (recorded music trade) streaming revenues grew by $2.3bn (+19.6%) to $14.2bn in 2020.

In the prior year, the research company notes, annual streaming growth weighed in at the slightly lower figure of $2.2bn.

Universal and Sonys recorded music operations both saw annual growth in 2020, with Warners equivalent number staying flat on 2019.

Midias numbers suggest that combined, the three major music companies lost a little global market share in the 12 months, falling from 66.5% in 2019 to 65.5% in 2020.

Notes Midia: While this shift is part of a long-term market dynamic, most of the dip was down to WMG reporting flat revenues for the year.

Another factor here was one of the biggest industry stories of 2020: The continued growth of the DIY artist sector.

DIY artists uploading their music via the likes of TuneCore, DistroKid and SoundCloud generated $1.2 billion globally last year, says Midia.

This artists direct sector saw a 34.1% growth in annual revenues in 2020, according to the companys numbers, and broke the billion dollar mark for the first time.

Artists direct grew their collective market share by more than a whole point to 5.1%, says Midia.

Midias MD, Mark Mulligan, said: The recordings business managed to deliver a strong performance due solely to the growth of streaming. Streaming has been the engine room since the recorded music business returned to growth, but the fall in performance and sync revenues due to the pandemic highlighted just how overly dependent the global music business has become on streaming.

With lots of private equity money now pouring into creator tools companies like Native Instruments, expect this space to hot up even further in 2021. The recorded music business is changing, and it is changing fast.

Cinq Music Groups repertoire has won Grammy awards, dozens of Gold and Platinum RIAA certifications, and numerous No.1 chart positions on a variety of Billboard charts. Its repertoire includes heavyweights such as Bad Bunny, Janet Jackson, Daddy Yankee, T.I., Sean Kingston, Anuel, and hundreds more.Music Business Worldwide

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The global record industry grew by $1.5bn in 2020, despite the pandemic - Music Business Worldwide

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EASY-TO-USE FREE APP CREATES COMMUNITY COMFORT ZONES AS PEOPLE GET BACK TO LIVING AGAIN

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SafeFun a revolutionary new consumer-facing app developed by a team led by Houston-based software and hospitality entrepreneur Carson Hager was born out of a desire to help everyone, everywhere, once again gather together following a year defined by fear, isolation and loss due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210317005702/en/

Programmed to be effortlessly and intuitively navigated, users register and download the app to secure a complimentary, password protected SafeFun account before uploading their test results or vaccination records. Download SafeFun from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Photo courtesy of Michael Anthony.

The socially-focused digital health passport which is completely free to use in its launch phase powers a game-changing app that allows users to voluntarily and easily share COVID-19 test results and vaccine records with everyone in their social network from friends and family to co-workers and first dates. The community-focused document wallet combines industry expertise with technology, data science and ease to provide comfort knowing the people around you have either undergone a recently validated negative Covid test or have received an approved vaccination.

Programmed to be effortlessly and intuitively navigated, users register and download the app to secure a complimentary, password protected SafeFun account before uploading their test results or vaccination records. SafeFun, in turn, extracts those results from the document, instantly analyzes and validates it with hundreds of known testing and vaccination record formats from around the world, then summarizes and adds the users most current health records into their digital health wallet so they can be displayed on the SafeFun Passport.

The internationally compliant app not only offers On Demand access to records anywhere in the world at any time, it also provides visual cues that help users immediately identify when they and the people in their sharing network are up to date on tests and vaccinations. SafeFun is your passport to begin sharing memorable moments and enjoying life again, said SafeFun founder Carson Hager. In addition to encouraging responsibility, it opens up a world of opportunities to comfortably reengage in person with friends, family and co-workers or to display for entry at designated SafeFun programming and events.

Hager, who made a name for himself in the tech world in 1996 as the founder of Cynergy Systems, was uniquely qualified to develop and launch the COVID-era digital tool in record time following two decades of creating enterprise and consumer-facing software applications for companies servicing the healthcare, manufacturing, financial services and government market industries.

By 2008, the privately held Cynergy headquartered in Washington D.C had sprouted U.S. field offices from Boston to San Diego along with European operations in London and Asia Pacific operations in Taipei, Taiwan and Sydney, Australia. In 2014, Hager sold the company to the U.S. advisory firm KPMG and soon traded in developing software programs in the cloud for opening watering holes on the grid. Under a newly formed umbrella organization The Hospitable Viking he launched a trio of bars in his native Houston that ultimately led to the idea for SafeFun.

As the severity of the then-called Corona Virus began to take root, Hager realized that the only way he would get customers back into not only his - but everyones - establishments would be if he could somehow make people feel comfortable, and that would only happen if they could confidently demonstrate to others around them that they were at low or no risk. In the flash of a lightbulb moment, SafeFun was born.

Dusting off his programmers hat, Hager and team immediately began working around the clock to develop an intelligent system that could import any number of PDF health records from anywhere that could quickly identity and validate them by incorporating the data into an aggregated digital health wallet for users. The resulting SafeFun platform runs on the Microsoft Azure cloud and includes native mobile applications for iOS and Android as well as a full web version for those users who do not own smartphones.

We tried to think of everything that would prevent someone from having the option to utilize the technology, so we did our best to ensure that SafeFun would be accessible to everyone, everywhere, who are in need of some serious comfort right about now.

SafeFun supports molecular/diagnostic, antibody and antigen results from hundreds of testing centers around the globe, including national testing providers like Walgreens, CVS, Walmart/eTrueNorth and Curative as well as local and regional testing centers in every major market. The app ranks molecular testing as the gold standard in determining a true negative diagnosis for COVID-19 and grants a 48-hour window from the time of testing to determine strong or weak comfort levels to account for the possibility of contracting COVID-19 after taking a test.

If the app doesnt currently support a testing center, users can simply upload the result so that SafeFun can validate the testing center and add it to their system within 24 hours. We are not epidemiologists, emphasized Hager. We rely on the experts at the CDC, FDA, NIH and others to provide conservative guidelines around safety and use them in our algorithms to provide comfort. Ultimately, it is the users not the app that decides what they are comfortable with and what they are not.

The platform also comes with follower and following categories that will be familiar to anyone using popular social media channels. Once downloaded, users can search contacts and request friends who then have the option of approving requests so they can monitor and determine who theyre comfortable gathering with in their vetted social network. Imagine returning to a time when a couple can plan on inviting all and not just a handful of their family and friends to their wedding and feeling confident enough to book a honeymoon with non-refundable reservations, Hager said. Thats the kind of hope were trying to instill.

In addition to weddings, birthdays, graduations, holidays and social gatherings of all kinds, Hager sees SafeFun credentials being embraced by SafeFun-designated venues as people look to transition back into a life worth living comfortably and confidently. The app is available to all ages, but parents must set-up their childs account in order to be activated.

About SafeFun

Developed by software veteran and hospitality entrepreneur Carson Hager, SafeFun was born out of a desire to help everyone get back to living with a full consumer-facing digital health passport that allows users to voluntarily share their COVID-19 test results and vaccine records with friends, family and coworkers. The community-focused social app combines industry expertise with technology, data science and ease with a mission to provide peace of mind that the people around you have had a recent negative COVID-19 test or vaccine. SafeFun aims to greatly reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19 by utilizing conservative safety guidelines set by the CDC, FDA, NIH and others in its algorithms to provide safe spaces for just about anywhere else a crowd might gather. For more information, please visit https://safefun.com.

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SafeFun Digital Health App Allows Users to Share Vetted Test Results and Vaccination Status to Instill Comfort and Confidence in a Post-Covid World -...

How much would your favourite movie change if it starred another actor? A recent trend on social media involves editing clips of movies with actors who originally do not star in them. The most recent one I watched was of comedian/actor Jim Carrey in the horror film, The Shining. I was confused by what I saw at first, for I knew that he wasnt originally in the movie, and yet, the actors facial movements and expressions seemed absolutely real, sans any obvious editing. It was only later that I found out that such videos are made using an Artificial Intelligence technology known as deepfake.

Its a form of AI technology used to create videos or images of fake events. The process works by uploading numerous still images of one person, and video footage of another person. By morphing the formers face with the latters, expressions and movements can be matched.

In a survey conducted by a cybersecurity platform, it was found that the number of deepfake videos are growing exponentially. The report suggests that such images/videos are doubling every six months, and they might not always be used for good. In September 2019, 15,000 deepfake videos were found online, and 96% of them had pornographic content.

In India, a video featuring a political party leader criticising another went viral on WhatsApp before the Delhi Assembly election in February. But after further speculation on the matter, the video was found to be made using deepfake software.

From amateur media enthusiasts to researchers, pornographic producers, and political parties, everyone is making content using deepfake technology. However, there are very few tools to identify such videos, and there are no strategies in place to prevent the circulation of such content.

Keeping in mind the rampant misinformation stemming from deepfakes, four students of Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur have come up with a solution that uses AI to identify manipulated videos, pictures, or audio.

After months of research and development, we have developed AI and computational neural networks to detect deepfakes with 96% accuracy, says Atharva Peshkar, a 3rd-year student of B.Tech Artificial Intelligence. Peskhar worked along with three other students on this project Rishita Mishra (3rd year, Electronics and Telecommunication), Yash Moharir (3rd-year Computer Science) and Atharva Khedkar (2nd year, BTech AI) and they named themselves Team Detectd.

In August 2020, the team began research on the kind of solutions that were already available. After speaking with a few cybersecurity experts, it was clear that there are advanced technologies to identify deepfake images, but not videos. The images are identified using softwares that pick up any distortion between the images background and foreground. This distortion can be anything; uneven shapes, lines, or facial features.

So, we took it as a challenge to work on a model which can analyse any form of media (video, image or audio) and accurately predict whether they are fake. For this, we used the method of Spatial and Temporal Data analysis. This identifies small changes in a video by conducting a frame-by-frame analysis, says Atharva Khedkar, adding that the method is considered to be accurate because it has a memory of previous frames.

After a few months of developing the machine learning model, the team tested a few real-life fake videos to test the accuracy. It did not cross the 50% mark, because we could not access enough data sets (videos) to expand our machine learning model, says Peshkar.

To perfect the system, Peshkar says he started reading research papers to understand other methods that are being used to process and analyse videos. By using some existing methods with the new model we have innovated, we were able to process videos effectively. After we started seeing results, we started using data sets provided on a website named Kaggle, to analyse fake videos and images, he says.

To date, the team has accurately processed over 7,000 videos with 96% accuracy. They are also partnering with Cyber Forensic Technologies (CFT), Nagpur to deploy their technology and help the organisation investigate cybercrimes. But we are still developing the model, making changes, and updating the system to achieve 100% accuracy, says Atharva Peshkar.

In January, Team Detectd enrolled in the Microsoft Imagine World Cup and submitted their research paper. They were selected as one of the four teams from India to participate in the World Cup. The team selected as the winner of the World Cup will also get a mentorship opportunity under Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Edited by Divya Sethu

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Nagpur Students Innovate AI-Based Technology; Help Identify Deepfakes With Over 90% Accuracy - The Better India

SINGAPORE - Imagine you had about $800 left in your start-up's account and pay day was coming up for the staff.

Faced with this stark truth in August 2018, Mr Ender Jiang did what no one expected - he started busking at Hougang MRT station near his home.

The founder of media technology start-up Hiverlab is quick to add that, at the time, money from a project was on the way and he did have some savings. "But I still wanted to challenge myself and see how much I could push myself to respond to such a scenario," he says.

He took himself off the company payroll and busked with his harmonica twice a week for about a month, taking in "dozens of dollars every day", which boosted his morale. At the time, his company had three full-timers, including himself, and four interns.

"It's not about the result, it's also about the process," he says of the experience. "Since I'm very confident in having this resolve, I believe that any future challenge won't be an issue for me as well."

It looks like Mr Jiang, 37, will not have much time for busking for the time being, as Hiverlab is projecting to double its revenue when its financial year ends in July.

Its staff numbers have more than doubled from about 10 pre-Covid-19 to 28 now, and the company is expanding into another unit at its Toa Payoh headquarters. It has also gone regional, opening an office in Vietnam last year. Branches in India and Indonesia are in the works.

Hiverlab's products help businesses transform digitally using immersive technologies such as virtual reality (where users enter virtual environments) and augmented reality (where digital content is superimposed on the real world, like in the Pokemon Go app).

It has been a hard slog for Mr Jiang, a permanent resident originally from Tianjin, China. He came to Singapore in 2009 to work in a creative agency and set up Hiverlab five years later.

For the first three years or so, "the industry didn't really exist", he says. "People were also questioning whether there's any value in this technology."

Still, his team never lost faith and gradually built an impressive portfolio of big-name clients across 14 industries as diverse as banking and retail, as well as culture and religion. Its efforts have also been recognised by tech giants, and it has been accepted into the Microsoft Mixed Reality Partner Program and Facebook's Independent Software Vendor Program for Oculus, a virtual reality platform.

As the pandemic disrupted normal routines and accelerated digital transformation across all aspects of life, it also changed his company's direction as he "realised the importance and urgency of making technology very accessible to the user".

"Before Covid-19, people saw a lot of entertainment-driven movement in immersive tech. But during Covid-19, we felt we needed to help industries build valuable applications for business operations, communications and training," he says.

With these needs in mind, Hiverlab launched three products last year.

RealityCast allows users to create augmented-reality webinars; CloudExpo helps them build experiences online, such as a virtual showroom for products; and TheHub is a remote collaboration tool for workplaces that uses immersive technology. The new offerings have been well received, with several multinationals signing multi-year contracts, he says.

One of its notable projects last year was creating a personalised experience for the Singapore Management University's graduation ceremony, where graduates created avatars by uploading selfies and watched themselves "go onstage" to receive their certificates, among other immersive experiences.

More exciting innovations are on the cards, including one in the logistics industry that uses data "to help the business to grow, maintain and even expand, so (it) becomes an essential part of the business. So this is something we feel is really a great achievement".

Hiverlab gradually built an impressive portfolio of big-name clients across 14 industries as diverse as banking and retail, as well as culture and religion. ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

Certainly, Hiverlab seems well placed to play a bigger role in the immersive technology sector, which is projected to have a market value of US$209.2 billion (S$280 billion) by next year, according to the Infocomm Media Development Authority.

Even as he races to help companies transform digitally, Mr Jiang revels in finding new uses for technology in his personal life. He built a Covid-19 map of Singapore as a data visualisation project to share with friends last year.

Fatherhood has also spurred him to learn along with his children, from shooting a 3D documentary chronicling the development milestones of his sons, aged five and one, to designing a machine learning platform that encourages his elder son Edision to write Chinese characters correctly.

"I feel I'm growing my skills and, meanwhile, he's also growing his cognitive capability, so it is really a multi-beneficial journey," says Mr Jiang, who is married to a post-doctoral research fellow at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research.

"All these things I learnt are being applied to how we operate a company. So it's really a great benefit. I didn't feel any stress, I didn't feel any challenge because it's a fun part of my life."

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Prospering in the pandemic: Start-up boss once busked to feed himself - The Straits Times

Passengers line up at the American Airlines counter in Ronald Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, but as the promise of a brighter future moves from improbable to possible thanks to coronavirus vaccinations, a new question is emerging: Should countries and the private sector embrace the idea of a digital vaccine passport for travel, working and dining? Though proving you're vaccinated to travel isn't a new concept (some countries have required yellow fevervaccines for years), doing so for COVID-19 would be on a far grander scale than ever before.

Advocates say such passports would hasten the return of a "normal" world with travel, sporting events and dancing in packed nightclubs. Skeptics, however, predict they could result in discrimination and fraud, encourage risky behavior when the coronavirus is still raging, and be a privacy minefield. And the logistical challenges in implementing them are immense.

But some places, most notably the European Union, are pushing ahead with vaccine passport plans. As the debate continues, here's what we know, including which countries may be the first to use a passport as proof you got a coronavirus vaccine.

Keep track of the coronavirus pandemic.

They don't fully exist quite yet -- Iceland, though,has announced vaccinated visitors can skip testing and quarantine requirements -- a vaccine passport would be a form of documentation (likely digital) that would allow you to prove to border officials or another gatekeeper that you've been vaccinated against COVID-19.

The idea behind a vaccine passport is that it would allow a person to resume activities that are now restricted because of the coronavirus pandemic. Regaining the ability to travel freely is getting the most attention in the debate, but that's not the only proposed benefit. Advocates say they also could let you eat inside a restaurant, enjoy a cocktail in a bar, see a movie, go to the gym and attend concerts, sporting events, theater performances and other events that would put you in close proximity with a lot of other people. Schools could require it, and employers may mandate it for employees hoping to reenter the office.

Despite its name, the vaccine passport wouldn't be like the little booklet passport you present to immigration officials when you cross an international border. Rather, the concept is for a digital passport that's part of a mobile app. The app could also allow you to check entry requirements for a country (possibly after uploading your itinerary) and hold the status of your last COVID test and possibly other health information. Some are pushing for a paper version, and while paper vaccination passports for other diseases do exist, a digital version will likely win out (more on that later).

How the app would show your vaccination status is unclear as multiple apps are in development (see next section). A scannable barcode is a likely option.

How the app would verify your vaccination is another outstanding question. Perhaps you could take a photo of a paper vaccination certificate, but that method opens the door to possible forgery. A better option would be for vaccinated people to receive a digital record, but that would require vaccination sites to keep standardized records and make the data available to passport developers.

The IATA is developing its Travel Pass for its member airlines.

Currently a few businesses and organizations are working to create passports. Here's a partial list.

One is the International Air Transport Association, a trade group based in Montreal, Canada, that represents 290 airlines worldwide. The IATA is developing an app called Travel Pass that would let users upload documentation that proves vaccination status. It also would let passengers check health entry requirements for countries they plan to visit and find COVID testing centers either before they leave on a trip or when why arrive. Eventually, the Travel Pass also could incorporate biometric information like a thumbprint or facial recognition to prove a person's identity.

The IATA says 12 airlines including Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways and the parent company of British Airways arecurrently testing Travel Pass. The app should be released later in March, and the organization says airlines would have the option of integrating the data into their own apps.

IBM is developing a Digital Health Pass that would "enable organizations to verify health credentials for employees, customers and visitors entering their site based on criteria specified by the organization."

Clear, the registered traveler program that allows you to speed through security at US airports, is pushing the Health Pass feature in its app, as well. It recently partnered with The Commons Project Foundation to collect and manage vaccination records. The Commons Project Foundation working with the World Economic Forum also has its own app, CommonPass, which has signed on United Airlines, Cathay Pacific and JetBlue as initial partners. CommonPass also could link with the iOS and Android health apps.

Other possible apps include the AOKpass, Passport for COVID and Corona Pass.

Now playing: Watch this: When will I get my COVID-19 vaccine?

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It could be. One potential problem could be countries and airlines accepting only some apps, forcing travelers to upload their vaccination records multiple times. But we'll have to see how that plays out.

That's unclear at this moment, and it's something that could get messy if some countries decide to exclude a certain vaccine if they haven't approved it. The European Union has already said as such, which I'll discuss below.

Not yet, at least on a cross-border basis. But Israel, which is leading the world in vaccination rates, has launched a "green passport" that gives holders access to places like gyms, theaters, hotels, concerts and synagogues.

It's a broad coalition with much of the push now coming from Europe. Denmark and Swedenhave both said they will develop vaccine passports for travel, and Estonia is working with the World Health Organization on a solution. Popular tourist destinations like Greece, Spain and Cyprus are on board, as well.

On March 1, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted that the EU would present a legislative proposal this month for a Digital Green Pass that would include proof that a person has been vaccinated. Two weeks later on March 17, the European Commission released a proposal for resuming free travel within the bloc for vaccinated EU citizens and residents. There will likely be some restrictions -- currently, the EU hasn't approved Russia's Sputnik V and China's Sinopharm vaccines for use, and vaccinated people from other countries would still be barred from entry. The Green Pass could be ready by June.

Outside of the EU, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said his government is reviewing their use. China also is advocating for vaccine passports as are other tourism-dependent countries like Thailand and Aruba.

The US has yet to take a clear stance. On Jan. 21 as part of an executive order aimed at curbing the pandemic, President Joe Biden directed his cabinet to assess the feasibility of linking COVID-19 vaccination to the current International Certificates of Vaccination or Prophylaxis used by the World Health Organization (more on that later). The US alreadyrequires a negative COVID testfor international travelers.

But in a briefing on March 9, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the private sector would likely drive any use of passports in the country. "There are lots of ideas that will come from the private sector and nonprofits," she said. "We welcome those. But our focus from the federal government is on getting more people vaccinated, and that's where we feel we can use our resources best."

Even with the EU's push some member countries like France and Germany aren't so eager. And around the world, the idea has yet to gain traction in developing countries with less access to the vaccine or with economies not dependent on tourism.

Though the WHO is exploring how a vaccine passport might work, in a statement on Feb. 5 it said, "At the present time, it is WHO's position that national authorities and conveyance operators should not introduce requirements of proof of COVID-19 vaccination for international travel as a condition for departure or entry, given that there are still critical unknowns regarding the efficacy of vaccination in reducing transmission." The WHO gives more reasons for its stance, which are included below.

Qantas said it will require international passengers to be vaccinated.

Very much so. Airlines, led by the IATA, cruise lines and others in the travel and hospitality industry are big supporters. Qantas, for example, will require visitors to Australia to have a vaccine to fly. Australian borders remain closed at the moment, but given the country's strict quarantine policy and success in suppressing the pandemic, it's not surprising.

There is a big incentive for airlines to endorse the idea of a vaccine passport. Keep in mind that airlines are responsible for ensuring passengers have the correct documentation to fly to any country before they board a flight. In a sense, that makes an airline check-in desk the equivalent of a border crossing. And if an airline happens to fly someone to a country they can't enter because they're not vaccinated, the carrier is responsible for flying them back home at its own expense.

Cruise lines are motivated to support the use of passports given that cruise ships like the Diamond Princess were large COVID hotspots when the pandemic began and less recently for other diseases like norovirus.

Advocates say there are a few reasons. They could:

The problem, though, is that these reasons aren't perfectly in line. So, which will be the priority? That's something we'll have to decide.

There are a few critical ones here, as well.

The WHO Yellow Card lists a bearer's vaccination status.

A vaccination as a requirement to enter a country is not a new concept. The affected diseases include not just yellow fever, but also meningitis and polio. Travelers can record their shots and prove their status with the WHO's International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (also called a Carte Jaune or Yellow Card), which is a vaccination passport.

But COVID-19 is different because it's happening on a vastly wider scale than something like yellow fever. Only a handful of countries, all in equatorial Africa, require a yellow fever vaccination for all travelers. And a set of other countries, like China, Australia, South Africa and Colombia only require it if you're arriving from a country with a yellow fever risk (the WHO has a comprehensive list of vaccination requirements by country).

Advocates say there are a few reasons to go digital. Paper passports would be more subject to forgery, and they'd be more difficult to replace if lost, stolen or damaged. And it's likely that border officials would be able to check digital passports quicker than they would paper certificates. That would help at busy international airports where multiple flights with hundreds of people each can arrive within minutes of each other.

There's no set timetable yet for the introduction or adoption of any kind of vaccine passport. But once a major country starts requiring one and there's some consensus on how it would work, we'll likely see some quick traction.

No. Social distancing and mask wearing are still absolutely essential for fighting the spread of the virus and protecting the health of you and others. And they'll remain that way for many months.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

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Vaccine passports: How they could be used to give COVID-19 travel the green light - CNET