An erstwhile adviser to former President Bill Clinton has sounded the alarm on vaccine passports. According to journalist and book author Naomi Wolf, mandatory Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine passports would mark the "end of human liberty in the West." The former presidential adviser's comments came amid a proposal by Biden administration officials to make such documents compulsory for Americans.
Speaking to Fox News on March 28, Wolf said the vaccine passport is "so much more" than its intended purpose.
"It has the power to turn off … or to turn in your life, to let you engage in society or be marginalized," she explained. Wolf continued that the vaccine passport is all about people's data, and Americans will be forced to be part of the system – whether they like it or not – when the passports are implemented.
The former adviser cited the case of Israel, which implemented its "green pass" vaccination passport program amid COVID-19 immunizations in the country. She then remarked that the country had turned into a "two-tiered society" where activists face ostracization and continued surveillance.
"It is the end of civil society, and they are trying to roll it out around the world," Wolf warned.
Furthermore, she elaborated on the extent of the vaccine passport's capabilities. According to Wolf, the idea of vaccine passports sounds fine for those unaware of its true extent. "What people have to understand is that any other functionality can be loaded onto the platform with no problem at all," she continued.
Wolf gave the ability to merge vaccine passport data with digital payment systems as an example. She said that such data can be merged with PayPal accounts and digital currencies. According to the former presidential adviser, Bill Gates's Microsoft "is already talking about merging it with payment plans." (Related: No vaccine, no job: Eugenicist Bill Gates demands “digital certificates” to prove coronavirus vaccination status.)
Vaccine passports compared to Chinese social credit system
The White House quickly addressed the claims with regard to vaccine passports.
During a March 29 press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration did not see a need to make vaccine passports compulsory. Instead of a mandate, the press secretary told reporters that the federal government would "provide guidance" through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We expect … that a determination or development of a vaccine passport … will be driven by the private sector. Ours will be more focused on guidelines that can be used as a basis," Psaki remarked.
White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients seconded Psaki's comments. The Biden administration's coronavirus czar said the government is working to coordinate with other agencies for this purpose.
"Our role is to help ensure that any [vaccine passport] solutions … should be simple, free, open-source, accessible to people both digitally and on paper, and designed from the start to protect people's privacy," he remarked.
As of writing, New York is the only U.S. state to make use of a vaccine passport. The state's Excelsior Pass is pegged for widespread use in large-scale sporting venues such as Madison Square Garden and Times Union Center. It was initially tested in late February during a basketball game featuring the Brooklyn Nets, held at the Barclays Center.
Despite assurances from the White House, Wolf ultimately slammed vaccine passport proposals both at the state and federal level. She compared these plans to the social credit system and mass surveillance done by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
"How does [the CCP] keep a billion people under the thumb of a totalitarian regime? [It] can find any dissident within five minutes, and that can happen here [in the U.S.] literally within months," she commented. (Related: U.S. colleges now creating coronavirus "surveillance" system that mirrors one developed by Communist China.)
Wolf is not alone in her condemnation of vaccine passports. The head of the de Beaumont Foundation also expressed skepticism over the concept of these documents. The foundation's president and CEO Brian Castrucci warned: "If [the vaccine passport] became a government mandate, it would go down a dark road very quickly."
The head of the Maryland-based public health group continued: "[The vaccine passport] becomes a credential. It becomes a 'needing your papers' if you will. That could be dangerous – and it could turn off people."
Visit PrivacyWatch.news to read more articles about COVID-19 vaccine passports threatening people's privacy.
Sources include:
Please contact us for more information.