To paraphrase Spike Jones, "den v heil, v heil right in der Donald's face"
Carl Jarvis
On 6/26/20, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Mass-Tracking COVI-PASS Immunity Passports Slated to Roll Out in 15
Countries
COVI-PASS will determine whether you can go to a restaurant, if you need a
medical test, or are due for a talking-to by authorities in a post-COVID
world. Consent is voluntary, but enforcement will be compulsory.
by Raul Diego
June 26th, 2020
By Raul Diego
Through the magic of Internet meme culture, most Millennials will be
familiar with the famous opening scene of the 1942 film, "Casablanca,"
where
two policemen stop a civilian in the "old Moorish section" of Nazi-occupied
French Morocco and ask him for his "papers." The subject is taken away at
once after failing to produce the required documents. The cinematic
exchange
has been used ever since as a popular reference to the ever-encroaching
hand
of the state, which is now on the verge of attaining a level of control
over
people's movements that puts the crude Nazi methods to shame.
A British cybersecurity company, in partnership with several tech firms, is
rolling out the COVI-PASS in 15 countries across the world; a "digital
health passport" that will contain your COVID-19 test history and other
"relevant health information." According to the company website, the
passport's objective is "to safely return to work" and resume "social
interactions" by providing authorities with "up-to-date and authenticated
health information."
These objectives mirror those that Bill Gates has been promoting since the
start of the COVID-19 lockdown. In an essay written by Gates in April, the
software geek-cum-philanthropist lays out his support for the draconian
measures taken in response to the virus and, like an old-timey mob boss,
suggests the solutions to this deliberately imposed problem. Ironically,
Gates begins to make his case for the adoption of mass tracking and
surveillance technology in the U.S. by saying that "For now, the United
States can follow Germany's example"; He then touts the advantages of the
"voluntary adoption of digital tools" so we can "remember where [we] have
been" and can "choose to share it with whoever comes to interview you about
your contacts."
COVI-Pass APP
COVI-Pass promises to work as digital health passport, allowing users
deemed
uninfected to attend public gatherings among other privileges
Gates goes on to predict that the ability to attend public events in the
near future will depend on the discovery of an effective treatment. But he
remains pessimistic that any such cure will be good enough in the short
term
to make people "feel safe to go out again." These warnings by the
multi-billionaire dovetail perfectly with the stated purposes of the
aforementioned COVI-PASS, whose development is also being carried out in
partnership with Redstrike Group - a sports marketing consultancy firm that
is working with England's Premier League and their Project Restart to parse
ticket sales and only make them available to people who have tested
negative
for the virus.
VST Enterprises goes viral
VST Enterprises Ltd (VSTE) is led by 31-year old entrepreneur, Louis-James
Davis, who very recently stepped down from a "science & technology
ambassadorship" in the African nation of Zimbabwe to focus on the company's
role in the UN's SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Collaboratory
initiative, comprising a series of "cyber technology projects across all
193
member states of the United Nations."
These will use the same proprietary VCode and VPlatform technologies
underpinning the COVI-PASS that will reportedly tackle issues such as
illegal mining and counterfeiting. This "third generation" barcode
technology overcomes the limitations of older "second generation" versions
like QR-codes, according to Davis. "Data and sensitive information scanned
or stored in either a QR code and barcode can be hacked and are inherently
insecure," Davis claims, "leaving data and personal details to be
compromised." These, and other flaws of the prevailing "proximity apps"
were
exploited by VST Enterprises to position itself to land large government
and
private sector contracts.
By all measures, the strategy has proven wildly successful and VST now
enjoys strong favor in the highest circles of the UK government as
evidenced
by the ringing endorsement of former Prime Minister Theresa May,
prominently
displayed on the COVI-PASS website. More practically, VST now has a direct
partnership with the UK government and has secured contracts to deploy its
technology in 15 countries, including Italy, Portugal, France, India, the
US, Canada, Sweden, Spain, South Africa, Mexico, United Arab Emirates and
the Netherlands.
In May, VST signed a deal with international digital health technology firm
and owner of COVI-PASS, Circle Pass Enterprises (CPE) to integrate VST's
VCode into the biometric RFID-enabled "passports" which can be accessed via
mobile phone or a key fob will flash colored lights to denote if an
individual has tested negative, positive or is to be denied entry to public
locations. Awarded the 'Seal of Excellence' by the EU, VCodeR technology
will ensure that all of our most sensitive personal and health information
can be accessed by authorities at a distance, dispensing with messy and
potentially dangerous face-to-face encounters with police or other
enforcement personnel.
Infusing the narrative
So far, the concerns over the digital health passport's threat to freedom
and privacy have been lukewarm at best and it seems as if the world has
already accepted that full-fledged population control methods such as these
will simply be a fact of life. While the coronavirus pandemic has certainly
done much to bring the public over to this way of thinking, the campaign to
normalize this sort of Orwellian power-grab has been ongoing for many years
and Bill Gates - who many media outlets have whitewashed out of stories
related to these measures - has been at the forefront of its promotion.
The Innovation for Uptake, Scale and Equity in Immunisation (INFUSE)
project
was launched in Davos, Switzerland in 2016. The program was developed by an
organization funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation called GAVI (The
Vaccine Alliance), which has been calling for a digital health ID for
children along with partners in the broader !D2020 initiative like the
Rockefeller Foundation and Microsoft.
In a recent interview, the deputy director of the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, Hassan Damluji, derided the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic was
in any way subsiding and even warned that, far from receding, the pandemic
was "deep into wave three." His remarks were specifically targeted to the
very regions he oversees for the foundation, which include the Middle East
and parts of Asia, which he stressed would be the focus of the next wave.
Damluji was "most recently involved in a five-year fundraising cycle for
GAVI," an effort led by Saudi Arabia, whose investment he praised as a
powerful "signal [that] others had an obligation to follow."
Gates concludes his editorial with a comparison to World War II, stating
that said conflict was a "defining moment of our parents' generation" as
the
COVID-19 pandemic is to ours, implying that the changes taking place now
are
akin to the Allied forces' defeat of the Third Reich. Except, of course,
that immunity passports or digital health certificates sound exactly like
what Hitler wished for the most. After all, wasn't the idea of a superior
race based on considerations of superior health and vitality over the
ostensibly sick and unfit? Hard to argue against the idea that a universal
health passport is nothing less than the ultimate fulfillment of that
dystopian nightmare.