{"id":234492,"date":"2023-05-01T12:01:30","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T11:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=234492"},"modified":"2023-05-01T14:30:29","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T13:30:29","slug":"from-vaccine-passports-to-digital-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2023\/05\/from-vaccine-passports-to-digital-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"From \u201cVaccine Passports\u201d to Digital Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to Follow the Digital Identity Debate<\/em><\/h3>\n
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Vaccine passports in Bordeaux, France (August 2021)<\/p><\/div>\n

April 2023 – <\/em>Already in March 2020, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, a major sponsor of the WHO, CEPI and the ID2020 Alliance, announced <\/a>both a global covid mass vaccination campaign for \u201cseven billion people\u201d and the introduction of \u201cdigital vaccination certificates\u201d as \u201cthe only way to end the pandemic\u201d.<\/p>\n

If the SARS-2 virus had been a systemic respiratory virus like SARS-1, this strategy might have worked. But SARS-2 is a non-systemic<\/a> respiratory virus that easily jumps from throat to throat. Because of this, vaccines couldn\u2019t stop transmission and vaccination certificates had to fail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, governments around the world invested billions<\/a> to set up a global digital vaccine passport infrastructure in record time. It is possible that they intended to keep this infrastructure in place and to later convert it seamlessly into a digital biometric ID and payment infrastructure.<\/p>\n

This didn\u2019t work out, but it is important to remember that in 2021 and early 2022, millions of \u201cunvaccinated\u201d people really were excluded<\/a> from travel, work, education, and leisure activities. It was likely the darkest time in the Western world since the end of the Second World War.<\/p>\n

While millions of people protested<\/a> against this insanity, the strongest political resistance came neither from \u201cno-lockdown\u201d Sweden<\/a>, nor from \u201cmultipolar\u201d Russia<\/a>, nor from \u201cdirect democratic\u201d Switzerland<\/a> \u2013 all of which implemented \u201cvaccine passports\u201d \u2013, but from some US states<\/a> like Florida.<\/p>\n

Then again, the United States still requires<\/a> \u201cproof of vaccination\u201d from international travelers.<\/p>\n

Indeed, despite the obvious failure of \u201cvaccine passports\u201d, the technological and legal framework has remained in place and several governments have announced<\/a> their intention to build upon<\/a> this supposed \u201csuccess story\u201d in various ongoing and upcoming digital identity projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the impressive side of this pandemic\u201d, one EU Commission official recently stated<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While digital identity and payment systems are unlikely to offer important advantages to citizens, they will greatly enhance population surveillance and population control, and may later be turned into a Chinese-style<\/a> \u201csocial credit system\u201d or switched to RFID-based<\/a> microchip technology.<\/p>\n

For an ongoing, independent analysis of these topics, see e.g. the following websites:<\/p>\n