As major companies roll out digital-health-passport technologies in response to COVID-19, one coalition of firms has already placed the medical data of American citizens at risk of access by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI) describes itself as a “coalition of public and private organizations committed to empowering individuals with access to verifiable clinical information” by creating “trustworthy and verifiable” vaccination records in both digital and paper formats. The aim of the coalition is to make all personal medical and health data compatible with digital wallets or a QR code.
VCI is led by the Mitre Corporation, which is based in McLean, Virginia — just minutes away from the CIA’s headquarters. Mitres’s primary work has been for government agencies such as the U.S, military, NATO, the Federal Aviation Authority, and the Centers for Disease Control.
VCI’s long list of 350 members includes everything from big corporations — including Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Walgreens, and Walmart — and the Mayo Clinic, to various universities and the states of Colorado, California, and New York.
Part of the SMART Health Card development by VCI expressly states that the member’s intentions are to “improve [the] privacy and security of patient information.”
Yet the ties that several of VCI’s constituent entities have to the CCP raise questions about how well the coalition will protect Americans’ privacy.
One member, for example, is The Commons Project. Three different board members and trustees of the organization operate businesses in China, making them vulnerable to the regime’s National Intelligence Law, which states:
“All organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with law, and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.”
The likes of Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft have all recently partnered with Beijing on tech endeavors, including tailored censorship and the creation of operating systems designed to limit Chinese citizens’ abilities to freely navigate the internet.
Members of the Joe Biden government already publicly back data-sharing with the Chinese government. But SMART Health Cards, developed by entities with ties to the CCP, could place the medical and personal data of American citizens in the hands of Chinese authorities.
Earlier this year, a leak of data held by the Chinese government revealed that Beijing held sensitive data on almost 700 Americans (some as young as three), including their full names, birth dates, and passport numbers.
The entities participating in VCI, from governments to tech firms to schools, together possess an immense amount of information, all of which could potentially be accessed by China if security is compromised.
Before resigning as New York governor over sexual assault allegations, Democrat Andrew Cuomo oversaw the deployment of the Excelsior Pass in his state.
Excelsior is based on the same SMART Health platform, and is already being used by American Airlines.
“Excelsior Pass has enabled New Yorkers to get back to the people and things they love, helping drive our economic recovery in the process,” Cuomo said in August.
As the media stokes fears about the Omicron variant, many governments around the world are implementing restrictive measures to compel their population to receive the vaccine.
Last month, Austria became the first EU member to announce it would require citizens to get Covid-19 shots. This came only days after it introduced a lockdown for the unvaccinated — a restriction that went farther than other EU member nations in singling out those who have not received the shot. Germany this month enforced the same targeted lockdown on its unvaccinated citizens and indicated support for mandatory vaccinations.
The potential for Chinese spying of Americans’ has also been enabled by the Pentagon. As The New American reported, the Defense Department earlier this year approved two Chinese-made “Government Edition” drones that had previously been banned over espionage concerns.
TNA’s Veronika Kyrylenko wrote:
The Department of Defense green-lighting controversial drones comes after escalating concerns at the federal level around the security of [Chinese drone manufacturer] DJI and Chinese drones more broadly.
DJI was added to the Commerce Department’s “entity list” — i.e., the list of bodies considered a “national security concern” — late last year, effectively blacklisting the company.
The virus began in China. Now COVID-19 policies are bringing us under greater watch by the CCP. Was the “pandemic” a play to put the United States under Beijing’s thumb?
