EU Chief Wrongly Raised Apple Risk in Push for Vaccine Passports

The European Commission is backing away from claims that Apple Inc. is talking to the World Health Organization about developing vaccine passports, an argument that its president, Ursula von der Leyen, had used to encourage governments to take matters into their own hands.

After a five-hour video call with the European Union’s 27 leaders on Thursday, von der Leyen told reporters that it was “important to have a European solution” to establish certificates to enable countries to reopen to travel because “Google and Apple are already offering solutions to the World Health Organization.”

Within hours, a spokesperson from the...