BY March 29, 2021
Former Clinton adviser Naomi Wolf said that mandatory COVID-19 vaccine passports that have been proposed in recent days would be the “end of human liberty in the West if this plan unfolds as planned.”
“‘Vaccine passport’ sounds like a fine thing if you don’t understand what those platforms can do. I’m [the] CEO of a tech company, I understand what this platform does,” Wolf, who’s also an author, told Fox News on March 28. “It is not about the vaccine, it’s not about the virus, it’s about your data. 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.”
Wolf said such data can be “merged with your Paypal account, with your digital currency,” adding that “Microsoft is already talking about merging it with payment plans.”
Wolf noted that it happened in Israel, “and six months later, we’re hearing from activists that it’s a two-tiered society and that basically, activists are ostracized and surveilled continually. It is the end of civil society, and they are trying to roll it out around the world.”
“It is absolutely so much more than a vaccine pass, it is—I can not stress enough that it has the power to turn off your life, or to turn on your life, to let you engage in society or be marginalized.”
Going a step further, Wolf likened such plans to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surveillance of its population and promotion of a “social credit score.”
A handout image shows the Excelsior Pass, a platform that lets New Yorkers present proof of COVID-19 vaccination at events. (Office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo)
“How does [the CCP] keep a billion people under the thumb of a totalitarian regime?” she asked. “The CCP can find any dissident within five minutes, and that can happen here literally within months.”
Wolf referred to reports about Biden administration officials proposing the idea. The Washington Post and CNN—citing anonymous, unconfirmed sources— have suggested that the administration is working toward developing a national vaccine passport standard. New York state has proposed its own “Excelsior Pass” that would be used in large-scale venues such as Madison Square Garden. The plan has been lambasted by civil liberties groups and proponents.
On March 29, White House press secretary Jen Psaki addressed the claims, saying the administration doesn’t see a federal mandate for vaccine passports.
“We believe it will be driven by the private sector,” she told reporters.
In other countries, such passports have already been created. Israel set one up in February to grant people access to gyms and hotels, Iceland now uses a passport to allow foreign travel, and Saudi Arabia has an app-based passport for people who are inoculated.
“The thing underpinning all of this is, what are you going to use it for?” said Melinda Mills, director of the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science at the University of Oxford, according to the Wall Street Journal. “Is it for international travel? Is it for getting a job? Is it for buying milk?”
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@ Sebastien Zorn:
If you flew into Canada without having to show a passport you must be an American citizen and you must have arrived in Canada prior to June 1, 2009. Up until that date Americans and Canadians could fly into each others country with only a driver’s license. Since that date passports are required.
Yes times have changed. If you were to fly into Canada today from a foreign country, including the US) you are required to take a Covid test upon arrival and, with very few exceptions, (proof of having taken both doses of Coviid vaccines not being one) stay in a government authorized hotel awaiting the results,- 3 days. Upon entering Canada you must present proof of having reserved and pre-paid (about $3,000) for the accommodation.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Preventing cheating must be racist!
Only a President with impeccable Conservative credentials, Nixon, could withdraw from Vietnam and make detente with both the Soviet Union and China. Only PMs with impeccable hawkish credentials, Begin, Rabin, Sharon, could give away big pieces of Israel to the Arabs and “evacuate them,” i.e., make judenrein. Could it be that it will take a Black Lives Matter dominated presidency to bring back Jim Crow. Are we seeing the beginning of the era of “Vaccine Apartheid?” Just coined that, myself.
@ Joe S:
My, how times have changed. In the late ’90s, I visited Toronto for the weekend on a budget Brazilian airline. The lit up overhead sign said, “No smoking over North America.” In Toronto they didn’t ask to see my passport.
So, we start with mostly just whites allowed to enter sports, food and entertainment venues. Will “people of color” have to go around the back to get takeout? What’s next? Water fountains?
And then De Blasio implicitly slams white by suggesting it’s a racist disparity despite the fact that it’s based on choice.
The app already exists but the Exelsior Pass will be launched April 2.
The ironic thing is that the Excelsior Pass may really be racist. There so much mistrust among poor Blacks and Latinos that it’s mostly middle and upper class whites getting the vaccine, despite the fact that the government made it available in those communities first.
But requiring state-issued ID to vote is racist.
For years when travelling abroad I have carried my “Immunization Record”, which lists all my vaccinations, with me. Some countries require proof of vaccination before you can visit some parts. For example, when we were in Brazil we had to prove vaccination against Yellow Fever before being able to travel in the Amazon region.