If you plan to go to a concert sponsored by Ticketmaster in 2021, you will likely have to present evidence to prove you have been vaccinated for COVID-19 or show you’ve tested negative for the virus.
After learning drug manufacturer Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine has a 90% efficacy rate, Ticketmaster began working on a system to mandate customers provide papers to show they have been immunized, according to a report from Billboard:
As part of that preparation, Ticketmaster has been working on a framework for post-pandemic fan safety that uses smart phones to verify fans’ vaccination status or whether they’ve tested negative for the coronavirus within a 24- to 72-hour window.
Many details of the plan, which is still in development phase, will rely on three separate components — the Ticketmaster digital ticket app, third party health information companies like CLEAR Health Pass or IBM’s Digital Health Pass and testing and vaccine distribution providers like Labcorp and the CVS Minute Clinic.
According to Billboard, it would work like this: After buying concert tickets, customers would need to provide medical paperwork verifying they have been vaccinated within a 12-month period or test negative for COVID-19 within 24 to 72 hours before the concert (the length of that window would be determined by local government authorities). Once concertgoers have been tested, they will then instruct the lab to send the results to their smart-phone accessible “health pass,” which would then share the personal data with Ticketmaster, which would, in turn, issue the concert tickets, so long as the COVID-19 test results are negative.
So far, it should be noted, the Food and Drug Administration has not yet authorized any third-party companies to provide real-time vaccination results. Ticketmaster President Mark Yovich, however, believes it’s just a matter of time.
“We’re already seeing many third-party health care providers prepare to handle the vetting — whether that is getting a vaccine, taking a test, or other methods of review and approval — which could then be linked via a digital ticket so everyone entering the event is verified,” he told Billboard. “Ticketmaster’s goal is to provide enough flexibility and options that venues and fans have multiple paths to return to events, and is working to create integrations to our API and leading digital ticketing technology as we will look to tap into the top solutions based on what’s green-lit by officials and desired by clients.”
Ticketmaster is the gatekeeper for most sporting events and concert venues in the United States.