Cities are casting out heretics (i.e., those who haven’t accepted a non-FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine). See “San Francisco to require vaccine proof at indoor venues” (AP):
Worried that the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus could derail San Francisco’s economic rebound, Mayor London Breed announced Thursday that the city will require proof of full vaccination at indoor restaurants, bars, gyms and entertainment venues to help keep businesses open.
“This is to protect kids, is to protect those who can’t get vaccinated, is to make sure that we don’t go backwards, is to make sure that I never have to get up in front of you and say, ‘I’m sorry, I know we just reopened and now the city is closed again because we are seeing too many people die,’ ” Breed said.
The mandate will be more stringent than the one announced by New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio last week. San Francisco will require proof of full COVID-19 vaccination for all customers and staff, while New York mandated proof of at least one dose for indoor activities.
Loyal readers will recall that, earlier in coronapanic, I advocated for RFID chips in the necks of anyone who lives in or visits the U.S. This would enable quarantine-enforcement and contact-tracing via door frame scanners. See RFID chips in the necks of college students and #Science proves that I was right (about the need for RFID chips in humans for COVID-19 surveillance), for example. Combined with a central health care database, as in the UK or Israel, it would be possible to confine heretics and infidels to their homes via simple computer programming.
The government has had 1.5 years to plan, but apparently that wasn’t sufficient to develop a durable proof of vaccination card that would fit in a wallet. And, in any case, if an event has thousands of people coming through the doors, how would checking all of these cards be practical? Consider that someone who got injected in a foreign country might be coming through and will be presenting a card in a language that the people at the door can’t read. Also, shouldn’t those checking for heretics be sure to match the name of the vaccination record and the name on a photo ID? How does that work given that (1) IDs are not required for vaccination, and (2) the undocumented may not have ID documents, but are still entitled to full participation in U.S. civic life.
Separately, woudn’t it be fun to build the door scanner that would check the RFID chip, look up vaccine status in the national database, and light up a huge red blinking “HERETIC” sign while sounding submarine movie buzzers and alarms?
[The above should not be read as an opinion on the vaccine requirement policies. I mean only to question how the requirements can be enforced, as a practical matter, without automation and, therefore, some quick way to scan a human and determine vaccine status.]
Related:
- On the subject of adult politicians, such as Mayor Breed, saying that they’re acting to protect children… “Deaths from COVID ‘incredibly rare’ among children” (Nature, July 2021): A comprehensive analysis of hospital admissions and reported deaths across England suggests that COVID-19 carries a lower risk of dying or requiring intensive care among children and young people than was previously thought. In a series of preprints published on medRxiv, a team of researchers picked through all hospital admissions and deaths reported for people younger than 18 in England. The studies found that COVID-19 caused 25 deaths in that age group between March 2020 and February 2021. About half of those deaths were in individuals with an underlying complex disability with high health-care needs, such as tube feeding or assistance with breathing. [For comparison, about 50 children, 16 and under, die annually from traffic accidents in the UK (source) because the nation has not adopted my speed limit idea.]
The really interesting question is WHY they are pushing the jabs so hard? This is already way beyond of what one could expect from your normal pharma-driven fear mongering and chicanery. And no matter how you slice it, the severity of this non-pandemic (by 2019 definiton of the term) doesn’t warrant it, either.
So far I see the folliwing options (not necessarily mutually exclusive) as for the elite’s motivations:
1. They are terminally stupid and/or insane.
2. This is a major distraction and/or coverup for something truly unspeakable they did.
3. This is a major conspiracy to steal political power and/or massive amiunt of wealth from “us the people”.
All of that would be more plausible if it were confined to single country or political bloc. But this insanity is world-wide which seems to favor #1.
> The really interesting question is WHY they are
> pushing the jabs so hard?
Yes, the crucial question. “They” have gone to great lengths to close off all other options, particularly early treatment, and exaggerate the modest dangers of covid to the moon.
One theory is that “they” know the vaccines’ side effects will become worse (they’re already plenty bad). Absent a substantial control group, pervasive sickness can be blamed on variants or something. But if millions of unvaxxed are doing fine while the vaxxed fill the hospital beds, that could be a news-management challenge.
What’s coming up? ADE, blood clots and heart attacks, dementia, infertility? All of them? Maybe none of them – but then why are they so anxious to liquidate the unvaxxed as a class? It is a puzzle.
I quibble with one aspect of your point 3. It isn’t stealing if “us the people” agree to give up what’s being taken. When the authorities say “Screw your freedom” most people comply willingly.
@Lord, Arnold Schwarzenegger is 1000% right and I support his message 1000% with a very slight modification. Here is my slightly modified version of his message:
“Screw your freedom” and stay in school. “There is a virus here — it kills people,” Schwarzenegger said. “And the only way we prevent it is get educated, get books, to do reading, doing your homework all the time, and not just to think about ‘well my freedom is being kind of disturbed here.’ No, screw your freedom. Because with freedom comes obligations and responsibilities. You cannot just say, ‘I have the right to X, Y, and Z.’ When you affect other people then it gets serious.”
I know, I know, readers of this blog have seen me post over and over how America got its priority wrong. How we take #CovidPanic so seriously, how *everyone* must sacrifice and how we are in it together, but yet they are OK with generations after generations getting dumber and dumber.
I have thought lot about this question as well. The best explanation I can think of is that the underlying structural long term debt fundamentals are similar to the 1930s and the virus was seen by the people at the the top of the first world as an opportunity that could warrant the use of emergency powers and unlimited money printing. We are currently in a financial situation / wealth stratification / opportunity vacuum that cannot be fixed with the current rules / laws. Last time the first world was in this situation, we went to war to reset the economic system. I think the people at the very top hope to guide the world through the underlying long term economic problem without too much violence as long as they are given the undemocratic tools to do so. I think they also hope to do by resetting financial expectations of the masses more so than actually resetting the economy. This is also the sort of thing climate change was supposed to allow, but just was moving fast enough. The scary thing to me is that if you truly believe that your actions might avoid a confilct on the scale of one that killed 50 odd million people back when the population was less than a third of what it is now, what is your allowable body count metric for success? When taken with the abdication of review of these emergency measures by the judicial branch, it seems that the theme going forward is that a persistent emergency is needed to authorize non democratic powers that allow the fine grained top down control that the top views as necessary to avoid war (and maintain the rough current wealth distribution). I’d love to hear anyones ideas regarding this as the actions of the last year are wildly out of character to prior threats.
Well, it could also be a stealth communist revolution in the West, prepared first by Soviets (see Bezmenov’s video) and now taken over by the Chinese. The non-pandemic is used to first enable massive electoral fraud in US now followed by with rapid introduction of social controls and propaganda. The communists hope that their control of government institutions and media will make armed resistance ineffective. I think they are wrong, and US is in for a bloodbath resulting in physical extermination of communists (aka democrats). At least 10% of population is angry to the point of just waiting for the first spark to start shooting. These things are like phase transitions…
So maybe the Davos crowd see the virus as climate change on steroids and a way to transition to a new static economy (as above). The Chinese see it as the final phase of Bezemenovian? social engineering, and the Democrats see it as a immediate fix to Trump, failing pension funds and shoring up the demographics of the voting base. This truly is a novel virus! I truly wonder what percent of the US that will be immune from the intense conformity campaign. I like your phase transition anaolgy by the way.
This post suggestion, even if joking, and Wes reply is an example of statist thinking with complete absence of personal cognition and individualism, probably result if getting As and Bs in marxist “social” “studies” and technocracy without actual engineering advances. Luckily such ideas always break when they meet reality
Unluckily, they are a major mess when they break. And it’s not that clear cut. The Soviet Union lasted 70 years or so, pretty good for a total failure.
@Mario, and how the mess of breaking of Soviet Union affected you or anyone negatively?
Most of the negative effects existed only in fake news aka NYT and WaPo.
Truth is that Soviet Union was broken all of its 70 years of existence already.
Those relatively well to-do who engaged in black market and other not legal under socialism activities suffered in the last years of Gorbachev from huge inflation, before USSR broke.
Some people probably did not see much improvements but majority is innumerably better off now, even if some bitch about their youth gone. Automobile ownership in Russia is up over order of magnitude comparing with Soviet times. And so is post-Soviet tourism. Modern
American communists are pretty vicious, more vicious than Lenin and Stalin because they know to what disaster they are driving their prosperous societies vs Lenin and Stalin did not know all consequences of their actions and old Russia was poor tsardom, maybe somewhat better then USSR but not by that much.
RFID chips are too complicated. How about just making the un-vaxed wear a good old fashioned Yellow badge?
Will the Ph.D.s be the first to volunteer to get the RFID chips (well, after they get over their vaccine hesitancy) ???? I guess I’m fair game! I don’t have a Ph.D. (long story!) but I didn’t hesitate and got my shots back in March. What’s up with all the big-brained Alpha Pluses? If they knew the vaccines were safe and effective, why isn’t the number in the following chart close to 0% instead of highest overall?
https://unherd.com/thepost/the-most-vaccine-hesitant-education-group-of-all-phds/
Vaccination card? Foreign languages? Hah! For once Europe is more technologically advanced. There’s the “European digital covid certificate” (DCC). It can be issued by all EU countries, plus the UK, Iceland, Switzerland, Norway, plus the five microstates (Vatican, Monaco, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Andorra). It contains a digitally signed vaccination certificate presented as a QR-code. There’s a central EU vault where the signing keys are kept (about 200 keys for the 36 states). Then the fitness studio or restaurant employee may check your QR-code with an app that accesses the database of public keys/certificates. The certificate is a data structure, it’s not in human language. The app checks, besides the validity of the digital signature, if the vaccines are among those accepted by the EU (sorry Russians, Hungarians, Serbians with Sputnik V), checks the number of doses and the time elapsed since the last dose. The DCC cannot be forged (because of the digital signature) but I heard that people “in the system” may issue valid certificates without vaccinating.
What frustrates me is that this technology was available for decades and we were unable/unwilling to harness it for better purposes (paperless government, digital administration, digital contracts etc). Not even at national level. And now, all of the sudden, we can do it, 36 countries synchronize and put the system in place in less than 3 months. Just to remind you: we do not have uniform electricity sockets in Europe, and I’m not talking about the UK, that always kept looked upon the Continent with suspition, but I’m talking about a German plug not fitting in an Italian socket.
“cannot be forged (because of the digital signature)” I think now all computer and network security professionals should resign due to EU advances making their jobs redundant.
In real live tangible piece of paper is harder to forge then fleeting bits in shared memory.
Network and security professional’s job descriptions include forging digital signatures?
No, but since EU digital certificates can protect 100% the only logical conclusion is that when all computer processor, memory and network bit manipulations will use EU digital certificates all computer and network related threats will be gone and only System Administrators will be needed to install new EU certificates. Such a progress from TLS and SSL certificates!
Is this an ad? You are describing a dystopia that benefits some incompetent IT companies with close government ties.
There were multiple security holes in the German digital vaccination “certificate”, which have been exploited in great numbers. As a response, issuing these certificates in pharmacies has been stopped.
Paperless government is NOT an improvement, unless you are a fan of totalitarian (and dysfunctional) systems. This will be used for tracking other things. Thanks to the Corona plague, citizens already have been trained like dogs to scan QR codes before entering stores.
Not that it matters, as Apple has recently revealed, “your” iPhone belongs to them and they will scan any content and report you (have fun with false positives).
I didn’t want to praise the system, apparently my bitterness at the situation didn’t come through. I also didn’t claim some European technological superiority, it was only sarcasm: when it comes to implementing a surveillance state, they’re quick to use the available technology, but when using it for something more useful they drag their feet.
Here are some details regarding the security holes that you’ve mentioned: https://www.dw.com/en/security-flaws-uncovered-in-eu-vaccination-passport/a-58129016 The only thing that, in my opinion, is professionally careless from the IT department’s side, is that the German app does not verify the digital signature. Maybe also that certificates cannot be revoked. However, I’ve used the app of the government of Luxembourg (covidcheck.lu) and it checks the signatures. The rest of the mentioned flaws are human. And of course if you compromise the access credentials to the system generating the certificates you will generate valid but fictitious certificates.
When I said that the certificates cannot be forged I meant that you cannot just get a valid certificate (let’s say a test certificate valid 24-48 hours) and change its testing time in order to extend its validity. Or you cannot get someone else’s vaccination certificate and put your name instead. You could only break into the system that issues them, but this cannot be done by everybody as forging a paper vaccination certificate would.
I repeat: I am not praising the system, I agree with you that it’s a dystopia, and it’s not in the future, it is happening already in Europe.
Mayor Breed’s words are certainly filled with emotional flourishes, but a look at SF’s numbers show that exactly 0 people have died so far in the month of August, along with 9 in July, and 5 in June. Is the goal “zero covid cases” and “zero deaths”? Is that goal reasonable? Or achievable (especially with vaccines that cannot prevent 100% of cases from occurring)? 73% of covid deaths have occurred in the 70+ population in SF, and 3% of all deaths had no underlying conditions (16.9% had one or more, 51.5% are “unknown”). There will be people for whom the vaccine can only do so much due to their age or other health conditions, so surely we must expect some number of deaths will still occur from covid, even in a highly vaccinated population, no? It’s interesting she says this will make this safer for children, because bars and gyms don’t allow kids in them. Are we protecting the parents of kids? Maybe parents who are scared of “bringing home covid” should make their own choices about where they go and spend their time? I also just received an email from SF Jazz earlier today letting me know due to this new mandate, kids are no longer welcome to see shows in the venue, and won’t be, until there is a vaccine ready for them. Are we making the world “safer” for kids by doing this, or just more limiting? And it’s unclear how vaccine mandates to go to the theater or a club or restaurant will benefit the city’s very depressed economy … does this encourage tourists or business conferences to come, or discourage them? (I live in SF, the city is in rough shape and my belief is that for economic vitality to return, it needs badly to just “go back to normal”.)
In answer to the original question, probably a digital record and QR code:
https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov
Since you brought it up in this unusual (for you) disclaimer. What are your opinions on vaccine requirement policies?
[The above should not be read as an opinion on the vaccine requirement policies. I mean only to question how the requirements can be enforced, as a practical matter, without automation and, therefore, some quick way to scan a human and determine vaccine status.]
TS: Great question and one to which I have not devoted a lot of thought yet. Given that the vaccines we currently have don’t prevent infection and spreading, I don’t understand how a vaccine requirement could make a difference in overall plague level in a city. And if the goal is to help the benighted unvaccinated folks avoid getting sick, I don’t see how it helps either. If excluded from restaurants and theaters, they’ll get whatever they were going to get a few days or weeks later.
Indeed, how would vaccine requirements help?
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/coronavirus-delta-variant-is-50-percent-more-infectious-israeli-top-official-says-1.10068650
Vaccines are at most 40% effective against {Delta, …, Omega} variants. You can still get infected and spread Covid miasma (you can also still lose your sense of smell BTW).
#Science lags about 6 months behind reason. Wait until next spring and the above heresy will be mainstream (the discovery will be credited to Mx. Biden of course).
Phil…the goal of the vaccines is to keep people alive and out of the hospital (but you know that), which according to the numbers everywhere is exactly what’s happening. Is it perfect?…no, nothing is.
But I know I’m wasting my time here posting that. You’ll post a link to India, Israel, Sweden, etc…and then conflate that with an analogy to a war, or people wearing a mask in a museum, or whatever. Don’t go through the effort. I get it. I just don’t agree.
Jim: that sounds like a laudable goal. But how does keeping the wicked (unvaccinated) out of restaurants help accomplish that goal? Won’t the wicked get COVID somewhere else and die anyway?
Jim’s opinion about vaccine usefulness matches whatever is the mantra of the moment. Just less then a month ago it was about “vaccines prevent coronavirus infections”. According to old Soviet joke: “Shifted believes but according with Communist Party positions”
It’s not my “opinion”, it’s a fact. The amount of breakthrough cases on the whole are within the 94.5-95% effective rate of the mrna vaccines. And it’s also a fact that the vast majority of people hospitalized or dead are unvaccinated. Do have something that disproves this?
Phil…you’re right. It’s basically a free for all now. I think the restrictions are just there to push the truly undecided into getting their shots (like a dog).
Like I said before, I hear nothing but criticism here for masks and vaccines…but I see zero in the way of suggestions to lessen Covid’s impact.
“And it’s also a fact that the vast majority of people hospitalized or dead are unvaccinated. Do have something that disproves this?”
Alas, US CV statistical data are rather suspect at the moment (e.g. “instead of the 28,317 new cases that the CDC said Florida logged on Sunday, the actual number was 15,319, — https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/coronavirus/2021/08/10/florida-accuses-cdc-inflating-covid-numbers-cdc-changes-tally/5558411001/).
According to the recent Israeli data, “Of the 5,755 new cases reported Tuesday, 43.0% were unvaccinated, compared to 55.4% who were fully vaccinated, and 1.6% who had received one dose of the vaccine. Those figures are similar to the rates reported a day earlier, when 44.3% of new cases were among the unvaccinated, compared to 54.0% among the fully vaccinated and 1.7% among the partially vaccinated. … Among seriously ill patients, 35% are not vaccinated, compared to 61% who are fully vaccinated and 3% who received one dose of the vaccine. One percent of seriously ill patients did not have a listed vaccination status.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/311554
Of course if you adjust for overall vaccinated percentage in Israel, you’ll get 3x chance to get seriously ill for unvaccinated (if you were infected) which is still a far cry from your 95% claim. Perhaps, closer to 60-70% based on the above data.
Ivan…I was referring to cases in the USA. But your point is well taken. It’s apparent the vaccine has lost some of it’s effectiveness. Since Israel was first to vaccinate the most, they provide a good model.
Even more of a reason to get vaccinated.
Won’t “Bones” just scan them with a tricorder?
Someday, maybe. I love that.
My guess is the rfid type tags are already in the vaccine. If so they wouldn’t admit until they are certain they have vaxxed everyone possible. People are going to be pissed when they realize they now carry a digital concentration camp tattoo.
Unbelievable.
GB, are you using your vaccine to pay road tolls?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-frequency_identification
Vaccines may have molecular markers but no RF ids – guaranteed.
Sounds like fraudulent VAX ID cards would be easy to fabricate. Oh, and I got my annual flu shot today at CVS for no cost and was in and out in less than 5 minutes.
Yes, QR code generator is pat of several standard libraries. And there is no role of universal ID that can be used as master key in large and open United states really.