Human liberties started to be infringed upon in a more terrible way. The authoritarian concept of a “national vaccine pass” comes to mind. Even several “red” states are on board with the concept. A vaccine pass limits your entry to a venue or event based on your vaccination status (COVID or otherwise).
The states that have already implemented the SMART® Health vaccine pass program as of March 29th are mentioned below (source):
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has contracted Deutsche Telekom subsidiary T-Systems to develop a global vaccine passport system, with plans to link every person on the planet to a QR code digital ID. This begs the question: Who elected them?https://t.co/tULLYi9gwH
— James Melville (@JamesMelville) April 11, 2022
Of course, as other states consider implementing the SMART Health Card to gain entry to restaurants, concerts, and other activities, this list is certain to grow.
The SMART Health Card isn’t federal (yet), but it’s backed by a number of major corporations.
SMART Health is supported by large companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, and the Mayo Clinic, despite the fact that the US government has yet to deploy a federal version.
Aside from the notion that state governments are outsourcing authoritarian tactics to commercial enterprises to avoid constitutional issues… With significant businesses on board, the SMART Health Card initiative may be able to secure the funding it requires to run successfully.
It crosses the line into fascism when a government (state or federal) joins up with corporations to adopt creepy policies like these “for the greater good.”
I will give you the FaceBook “fact checkers” and Twitter censorship as examples, followed up by Google’s recent roll-out of their bots that check any Google Docs for “hate” speech.
This vaccine pass program has already been implemented in 21 states (including a handful of “red” states), and there is an alarming lack of concern for privacy.
According to a Forbes article:
“There is already an impressively widespread availability of SMART Health Cards in the U.S. More than 200 million Americans can now download, print or store their vaccination records as a QR code. When the QR code is pulled up, only the individual’s name, date of birth and vaccination information is visible.”
Aside from the fact that most people are uncomfortable with publicizing their immunization status, there is the possibility of an even creepier concern…
The SMART Health Card data is housed in a private database that might be hacked at any time, exposing millions of sensitive medical details.
And unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve already heard of at least one major database getting hacked. (Past examples have included: Equifax, T-Mobile, even the WA State Auditor, among many others.)
The SMART Health Card database is unlikely to be any safer than any other. So, if the program is implemented in your state, let the buyer beware. The good news is that it isn’t used by the majority of the world (yet).
But it certainly seems “reasonable”; I am sure that there is no way it could be easily abused in the near future.
