When entities like Apple got in the mix the process got smoother. If your doctor uses Epic, the Health app can usually create a SMART credential directly from your medical records instead of downloading a state app.
It is cool that different entities were able to self organize and deliver a valuable service. It sucks that the Federal government backed away from any leadership role. People in Florida who had to travel abroad often got re-vaccinated at Walmart or in another state, because the Governor wanted to own the libs or whatever.
This is a little out there, but this thread is old enough at this point. I would say that COVID was something that improved my outlook in the future. Some aspects of the political landscape seem frankly, pretty dark and depressing. As someone who had a unique vantage point on aspects of the pandemic, I have to say that I saw the best of us demonstrated.
I think that ultimately the difficult adjustment from a 1970s economy to the services economy of today has created unrest and dissatisfaction that has and will change the US for years to come.
It is weird that Walmart has the same standing as a state health department. But ultimately, technology and standards like SMART allow us to trust assertions made by Walmart. I personally have issues with that, but it’s reality. Verifiable credentials are imo probably going to be one of the more powerful tools out there for lots of consumer to government or consumer to business use cases.
Slight correction here - the health record is already in the SMART format, e.g. already a signed JWT enveloping a FHIR vaccination record.
The Health App is turning encoding this into a custom URL scheme and tossing that into a QR code.
The reverse also works - I can scan the QR code and import it as a vaccination record into the health app.
