Dr. Naomi Wolf on Vaccine Passports: “People who have this data are going to run the world”

Dr. Naomi Wolf is issuing warnings to people about vaccine passports, digital apps that carry an individual’s medical information – and specifically their Covid19 vaccination status.

Many state and local governments have begun developing and implementing versions of apps that may potentially bar unvaccinated citizens from public venues or services.

Wolf, CEO of DailyClout, a tech company which make it easier to find and share legislation, says the danger of such applications lies in how easy it is to integrate a “social credit system” with such apps.

“Once this platform rolls out, any other functionality can be linked to it with no problem. What does that mean? It means that with a tweak of the backend…PayPal can be switched off and on depending on how machine reading assesses what you’ve been saying on social media,” Wolf says.

“So if you’ve been too conservative or too liberal, or you’ve used the word Trump too often or the words pro-choice too often or Sierra Club, machine reading will let PayPal know. PayPal will switch off or dial up your interest on a credit card and that’s the world you’re living in.”

Wolf says companies who control these apps – and more importantly the information it will yield – can amass immeasurable power.

“Microsoft and Salesforce have already been proposing versions of the vaccine passport because many tech companies are vying for this incredibly lucrative and immensely powerful contract. People who have this data are going to run the world. Everything will go through them. They’ll be more powerful than nations,” Wolf added.

A vaccine passport originally being rolled out in Orange County, California, was dialed back this week after intense backlash from residents. About 200 individuals showed up to speak at an Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday to voice their opposition to the proposal.

“You guys should be ashamed of yourselves for trying to do a passport, because not everyone has a great effect from [vaccines] and they know that, the vaccine manufacturers, that’s why they have liability protection for themselves…” OC resident, an artist who goes by the name An0maly, said at the meeting.

“Why is the government…essentially asking private/public companies to police their customers and providing these businesses the ability to deny the unvaccinated (or those without the means to own and maintain a smart phone) essential goods and services such as food and gas?” a 5th generation owner of a 100-year-old Orange County business told ITN.

“What is the government doing with all the data they are collecting? Why are they doing this draconian measure now that we know the demographic most affected by Covid and by the CDC’s own statistics has a 99.97% survival rate even when you are over 70? Why is the government so hell-bent on getting the entire population vaccinated when we now know that these new variants have a more adverse impact on those who have had the vaccine?” she added.

Good evening, #OC 🍊. Here are the top three #OCCOVID19 vaccination messages you need to know from @ochealth and @OCGovCA: pic.twitter.com/A8hh7ZnWoi

— OC Health Care Agency (@ochealth) April 9, 2021

The passport was billed as a way to allow residents to resume normal activities prohibited under the Covid19 lockdowns. Following the public outcry officials were forced to reverse course. Orange County Health Care Agency Director Clayton Chau said the county is no longer requiring a vaccine passport but is planning to offer a digital vaccination record for residents who request it.

Orange County officials awarded a $1.2 million contract last fall to tech company Composite for development of its “Othena” Covid app which tracks vaccinations in the County. That contract was awarded without ever appearing on Board of Supervisors’ public agendas.

ITN has reached out to Orange County’s auditor-controller to obtain a copy of the contract. We have also reached out to Composite to ask when precisely they were approached (or when it approached the OC government) for development of the app and to request copy of the contract from it as well. As of the time of this writing we have not received a response.