Company creates microchip to embed in people's arms to prove vaccination status

Innovative or invasive? A Swedish start-up company has created scannable digital implants that to place in people’s arms that display one's Covid-19 vaccination status.

The microchip is meant to be implanted into the skin so that a person’s Covid vaccine passport status pops up when scanned.

The invention is created by the tech firm Dsruptive Subdermals. The microchips are made of a pre-programmed scannable implant 2 millimeters by 16 millimeters in size.

“I have a chip implant in my arm, and I have programmed the chip so that I have my Covid passport on the chip, and the reason is that I always want to have it accessible,” Hannes Sjoblad, managing director of Dsruptive Subdermals, told the AFP.

Speaking to AFP, Sjoblad demonstrated how the device worked when scanned with his phone. Essentially, a PDF appears that shows all the details of his EU Digital Covid Certificate, which is more or less the equivalent to the United States’ own version of the vaccine card. It indicates that one is immunized against Covid-19, or can show that the person has tested negative for the virus.

The implant costs 100 euros.

"This means it is always accessible for me or for anyone else, really, who wants to read me. For example, if I go to the movies or go to a shopping center, then people will be able to check my status even if I don't have my phone," Sjoblad said.

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Moreover, for those wary of the device, Sjoblad made it clear to media that the implants are not tracking devices, and are only in use when they are scanned.

"If you understand how these implants work, they don't have a battery. They cannot transmit a signal by themselves. So they are basically passive. They sit there asleep," Sjoblad explained, adding: "They can never tell your location, they're only activated when you touch them with your smartphone, so this means they cannot be used for tracking anyone's location."

This is not the first time the Swedish company has experimented with microchips.

Dsruptive Subdermals also created a chip implant that can measure body temperature in people.

So...would you get this microchip? According to social media, many are against doing so.