SAN DIEGO (KSWB) — How do you know if the people around you have been vaccinated? A new wearable device aims to show you, and some in San Diego are already buying in.
“If we had something where you can say, ‘Hey, I support the vaccine effort, I’ve been vaccinated, I’m safe to be around,’ then that would help us as we start to open back up,” Dr. Toshof Bernton, the man behind the idea for the new accessory, told NewsNation affiliate KSWB.
His bracelet, the Immunaband, runs about $20 and stores vaccine records on it so people don’t have to haul around their vaccine cards. Once purchased, the customer sends in a copy of their vaccine card and the company loads the record to its encrypted website. The bracelet then comes in the mail with a QR code on it. If someone wants to verify the wearer’s vaccine records, they pull out their cell phone, snap a picture of the QR code and see the record.
“Lets say somebody stole it,” Dr. Bernton adds. “They can get to the website, but unless they know your pin, they can’t get to your card.”
Dr. Bernton sold his first bracelet about three weeks ago, and thousands of them have gone out the door since then. In fact, he said one customer sent him a photo from a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden in New York. The policy at MSG reads:
“Guests can now enter with proof of a negative antigen COVID-19 test or full vaccination.”
Dr. Bernton said the fan told him he was allowed in with the bracelet after an employee at the gate pulled up the website through the QR code.
Additionally, he says a lot of companies in the travel and hospitality industry are buying the bracelets for their employees, including a restaurant owner in Los Angeles.
“It’s a little too much,” said one San Diego woman who FOX 5 interviewed on the streets of Little Italy Wednesday. “Sometimes you go to a restaurant and you don’t even know the waiter’s name. I don’t need to know their medical history like that.”
Others thought the idea sounded helpful.
“I think that’s actually pretty good because a lot of people have doubts about going to certain areas,” Keshaun Slaughter, who was also out in Little Italy Wednesday, said.
You can learn more on the ImmunaBand website.
