Thursday, April 8, 2021

"Woke" companies may become worse than the Biden administration

 

We've all seen how "woke" companies and corporations have bent the knee to progressive left-wing ideologies, and are actively working to promote them.  The antics of Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies before and after last November's election are too well-known to require comment.  Last week saw Coca-Cola and other big companies bend the knee to progressive pressure and condemn a new Georgia voting law that is more genuinely democratic and pro-free-election than many others in this country.  However, the corporations didn't care about that - only about the politically correct talking points they were spoon-fed by their political masters.

Now, as Phil at Bustednuckles notes, it looks like private companies may be fiercer promoters and adopters of COVID-19 "vaccine passports" than the government itself.  He quotes a news article.


The White House said Tuesday that the Biden administration will not support a system requiring Americans to carry so-called COVID-19 “vaccine passports,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.

. . .

“Let me be very clear on this. I know there’s been lots of questions,” Psaki said during the press briefing Tuesday. “The government is not now, nor will we be, supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential.”

Psaki went on to say that “there will be no federal vaccinations database and no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.”

“As these tools are being considered by the private and non-private sectors, our interest is very simple from the federal government,” Psaki continued.

. . .

“I doubt that the federal government will be the main mover of a vaccine passport concept,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, who also serves as President Biden’s chief medical adviser, told the Politico Dispatch podcast on Monday.


There's more at the link.

This is yet another example of a Chinese-style "social credit system" being introduced willy-nilly in the USA.  The government won't have to formally build such a system if its private sector lackeys are prepared to do so on its behalf.  If you're noted as refusing a COVID-19 vaccination - or owning a gun, or smoking, or expressing the "wrong" political opinions, or whatever - you'll get a black mark against you in one or more databases.  The government can (and does) buy access to those databases on a commercial basis.  It doesn't have to spy on us - it simply uses our lack of digital privacy against us.  What's more, it won't have to exert unconstitutional or illegal pressures against dissenters if its corporate allies are willing to do so on its behalf.  Matt Bracken goes so far as to call this a "digital gulag".  Go read his article for yourself.  If you value your constitutional rights, it's chilling.

If your opinions and actions make you ineligible for a home mortgage, or vehicle finance, or travel on an airline . . . what are you going to do about it?  You can't sue the government for violating your rights, because it isn't doing so;  and you can't sue a private corporation for violating your constitutional rights, because those rights bind the government, not private entities.  It'll be the same with a COVID-19 "vaccine passport".  If you can't fly, or take the train, without one, and if hotels won't allow you to stay without one, you're effectively being coerced into getting one whether you like it or not.

Naomi Wolf points out:


Vaccine passports sound like a fine thing if you don’t know what those platforms can do. I’m CEO of a tech company, I understand what this platform does. It’s not about the vaccine, it’s not about the virus, it’s about data. And once this rolls out you don’t have a choice about being part of the system. What people have to understand is that any other functionality can be loaded onto that platform with no problem at all.

They’re trying to roll it out around the world. It is so much more than a vaccine pass. I can’t stress this enough. It has the power to turn off your life. Or turn on your life. To let you engage in civil society or be marginalized. It’s catastrophic. It cannot be allowed to continue.

And what that means is it can be merged with your PayPal account, with your digital currency. Microsoft is already talking about merging it with payment plans. Your networks can be sucked up. It geo locates you everywhere you go. Your credit history can be included. All of your medical history can be included.


Again, more at the link.

I'm not anti-vaccine.  If I know for sure that a vaccine is safe and effective, I'll be first in line to get it.  However, in the case of COVID-19 vaccines (which aren't vaccines at all, as far as I can tell, but gene therapies) they are not yet fully tested and have produced some nasty side-effects, including fatal ones.  I don't yet trust them - and their manufacturers can't be sued if anything goes wrong, because they've been granted immunity against such lawsuits.  The entire responsibility for the consequences has been dumped on our shoulders.

Take note.  Big Brother now has lots of smaller private sector siblings, and they're all ganging up on us.  Talk about a dysfunctional family!

Peter


14 comments:

Eric Wilner said...

The tech companies having long since learned that they're above antitrust laws, they'll no doubt assume that they're above medical-record privacy laws too. And they'll surely be right.
The "passport" is really a certificate of submission. The big push for 107% "voluntary" compliance with a vaccination drive - look like wartime propaganda efforts, at all? - will morph into other demands for compliance certificates. Flu vaccine, CRT struggle session, whatever the flavor of the month is. Have all the current stickers on your passport (and on its centrally-stored digital counterpart), or lose your standing as a loyal subject.

Tractorguy said...

Please see: https://www.statnews.com/2021/02/23/federal-law-prohibits-employers-and-others-from-requiring-vaccination-with-a-covid-19-vaccine-distributed-under-an-eua/

Dragon Lady said...

I trust the J&J Vaccine - it's the standard type, and a one-shot deal - but I've also had COVID at least once, and no one has been able to explain to me how natural immunity is less effective than vaccine-induced immunity, and until they do, I'm not taking a day off to drive around North Florida tracking down that shot.

TechieDude said...

The problem here is one of scale and compliance.

Social tracking works in China because they have a culture that would support it. By and large, we don't.

So what will happen is the marketplace for things such as mortgages will shrivel up. Do you really think an industry that gave mortgages to nobs whether or not they could pay are going to demur if a potential sucker has a bad social score?

What happens when they start doing this to other-than-honkies?

I'm a believer that Newton's laws apply to many other things than physics. In this case, with every action is an equal and opposite reaction.

The gubmint and these companies are on a rocket to create the mother of all black markets. People will simply shift around them or not apply whatsover outside blue cities.

Maniac said...

When Naomi Wolf is the sane one in the room, well...

jen said...

More wokeness, this time from United:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9440799/United-seeks-build-diverse-pipeline-pilots.html

United implementing quotas based on genitalia and elevated melanin levels, as opposed to, you know, competency...SMH

Night driver said...

For the record, the J&J/J vax is a traditional vax, uses inactivated virus as its effective part.
IIRC AZ has a slightly different approach to the mRNA approach used by most others so it is not SPECIFICALLY a traditional vax.

But caution is advised in ALL of this area of study and effort.


Night Driver

Greg said...

After years of the threat that the slightest HIPAA violation would result in immediate termination of my job (if I used the computer to look up MY OWN lab work without documented permission from the ordering physician), the threat from big tech and big data is effectively nullifying HIPAA. This proposed "vaccine" card has nothing to do with a viral pandemic, and everything to do with an agenda of nullifying the Constitution.
What I commented at Phil's post is pertinent here as well:
I have made a number of blog comments to the effect that I am not “resistant” or “hesitant” to take the jab. No, I’m way over in the “NO WAY IN BLOODY HELL!!!!” side of opinion. That said, I have to reassure the discussion that I am NOT anti-vax. I have had many. I still sport the smallpox scar on my shoulder from that one, and I’m old enough to remember the sugar cube for polio. Of my own volition, I’ve had Hep A, Hep B, shingles, the long used DPT, probably others I can’t remember at the moment, and I’ve even had a number of years of the annual flu vax (when it was a freebie at work), though I’ve since become quite skeptical of the flu vax.
I have no desire to be part of Bill Gates depopulation experiments, and if you want references, I’ve read dozens of articles by highly credentialed (I know, I know) people to understand that this hoopla is very much experimental. It’s been known for decades that Trump is something of a germophobe, and had to work hard to learn to shake hands as a political animal. TPTB used that to weaponize a panic and he’s been trying for over a year to dig himself out from under that mess.
The mRNA experiments are NOT vaccines as the word is usually defined, and if you want to leave yourself susceptible to a cytokine storm the next time you encounter a coronavirus (of any flavor), go ahead with the experiment. Keep in mind that surviving a cytokine storm will require dexamethasone, probably in a hospital setting.
For me, I would very much like to back shelf a supply of Hydroxychloroquine. Since I can’t get it except through a black market that I’ve no idea how to connect with, I have substituted standard quinine supplements, along with Ivermectin from a vet supply source. As a preventative, I rigorously work to keep my immune system in the best shape possible. Good diet, exercise, sunshine, and vitamins D, C, cal-mg-zn, etc. are a daily routine.

riverrider said...

ALL of the vacs have had significant side effects on the order of 10x the normal rate and that's ignoring the cdc's own estimate of 10% of averse effects get reported as such. ALL are experimental. NONE have long term studies. NONE published their animal studies, only one even did those required studies. WHEN they ask for my "passport" i will hand them a pocket constitution that i carry at all times. on the back is written "BFYTW".

Sam L. said...

I have my vaccination card, and carry it in my pocket...waiting for my first opportunity to take it out with my left hand, raise my right arm up at 45 degrees, and say, "Hier ist mein papier, Herr/Frau OBERST!"

7916 said...

Keep in mind that even the JnJ vax uses a retrovirus to accomplish its gene therapy.

Next, the VaxPass is why you need to build out-of-mainstream networks, including food sources, payment methods, etc. Prepare to discard everything that has been made easy for you. It's easy for more reasons than one. Get real world, and don't bother with the modern tech world. If you're outside that system, you don't play in it or try to oppose it, you're not a threat, and their systems are not a threat to you.

tweell said...

For informational purposes only, one might search for the standard CDC form used and download it. One might get some card stock to print with. One might also search for pics of filled out vaccine cards, just to see what it looks like.

Ben Yalow said...

I'm not going to address the political questions being raised. But I do want to try to correct some misinformation about the science underlying the vaccines.

They aren't gene therapies. What the Pfizer/Moderna ones contain is mRNA, which is what the body uses to take the DNA information about manufacturing proteins and passing it on to the cell components that actually make the protein. And the have the cells manufacture the protein for the "spike" piece of the virus, which is relatively stable across all the variants. So the cells make spike protein, and the immune system learn what that looks like -- so that when the real virus shows up, the immune system knows about it and kills the virus.

The mRNA does not change the body's normal DNA, which is what gene therapies do. So it's not "gene therapy".

The J&J vaccine uses a different mechanism to trigger the immune reaction (the RNA is incorporated into a known benign virus), but it's also not a gene therapy.

And these have been some of the most extensively tested vaccines, both in the US and around the world. The phase III tests for the mRNA vaccines have been tested with about ten times as many people as normal phase III tests, with clear safety, and effectiveness.

And countries like Israel, which is mostly Pfizer, has more than half their population fully vaccinated (115 doses administered per 100 people -- remember it takes two doses with the Pfizer) are seeing very few adverse reactions, and a huge drop in hospitalizations/deaths. So it's been effectively tested in millions -- and it's safe and works.

There are some immediate adverse reactions due to allergies to some of the components of the vaccine. But those show up very fast -- minutes after the injection -- and are generally easily treated.

So the vaccines are safe and effective. Which is why I got vaccinated as soon as I was eligible. Like many people, after the second Pfizer injection, I had a mild fever, headache, and tiredness. But that's the way a working immune system behaves when it's trying to combat an antigen, so it's a sign that you've got immunity (although people can get immunity without those symptoms) -- and it generally goes away in a few days.

Note -- I'm not a doctor, and this isn't medical advice. But the scientific papers are being constantly published, so we can see what's likely to be true.

Gromit said...

Woke companies ARE the Biden administration.