Global vaccine database?

In most democracies, regional and national governments still operate relatively close to the people they represent. Lawmakers often live among their constituents. At the very least, they receive constant feedback and instruction from them.

With a global infrastructure of the type Tony Blair supports, national governments would be called upon to cede significant power to an international lawmaking body, which would not be as directly accountable to the people.

The power of self-appointed elites would grow. The power of the people - measured by the weight of a single vote - would shrink.

(This may or may not be the intention of WEF aficionados, but it would be the outcome.)

Erosion of trust

Studies have shown that for much of the past decade, levels of public confidence in governments have been on the slide, at least in the developed world. 

So have levels of trust in other foundational institutions - such as media, banking, policing, big business and some religious groups.

Quite how advocating a global database infrastructure would reduce public unease regarding government overreach is beyond me. 

Social discord

For governments, reliance on databases is a good servant but a poor master. 

A reliance on spreadsheets - no matter how sophisticated they are - would produce in politicians a false sense of perspective when it comes to issues of social inequality. 

Databases record only raw statistics. Statistics are, as someone aptly put it, human lives with the tears wiped away. No spreadsheet can fully reflect the depth of pain or loss experienced by an individual, family or community faced with traumatic events. 

Governments cannot rely on databases to tell the whole story when it comes to social injustices or the denial of opportunities to one group by another.

Discrimination

A global vaccine database would likely create new examples of discrimination against non-vaccinated (or under-vaccinated) individuals, families, or interest groups.