The U.S. Is Quietly Rolling Out A Vaccine Passport In Both Red And Blue States

While Americans are gripped with the endless drama and fear of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, many of them are not aware that a new Covid-19 vaccine passport is rapidly appearing all of the country.

According to a recent Forbes article, though the U.S. does not mandate a health passport or certificate, ‘a national standard has nevertheless emerged.’ The states (plus the District of Colombia and Puerto Rico) are offering what is called the SMART Health Card, allowing people to present their vaccination status and other health statistics at locations that may require proof of entry or service.

These cards have been developed by the Vaccination Credential Initiative (VCI), and funded and supported by heavyweights such as Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Oracle, Mayo Clinic, Salesforce, among others.

According to their website, all 50 states in some capacity are offering this card, along with other nations such as Canada, Israel, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United Arab of Emirates, Hong Kong, Kenya, and many others.

SMART Health Cards are paper or digital versions of your clinical information, such as vaccination history or test results. They allow you to keep a copy of your records on hand and easily share this information with others if you choose.

Some airports may ask to verify your clinical information, including vaccination status, for certain types of travel. You may also be asked to show your clinical information to register for school or at your workplace.

The SMART website explains

According to the Forbes report, over 200 million Americans now have access to the SMART card, which they can download, print or store their vaccination credentials as a QR code.

‘When the QR code is pulled up, only the individual’s name, date of birth and vaccination information is visible. No other medical information or personal data is shared. This code is also digitally signed to ensure that the card was issued from a verified location and to prevent forgery,’ says Forbes.

We’ve seen a notable uptick in states that have officially launched public portals where individuals can get verifiable vaccination credentials in the form of SMART Health Cards with a QR code.

Dr. Brian Anderson, co-founder of the VCI and chief digital health physician at MITRE.

The Forbes reports says there are three overall benefits to this card, the first being for domestic and foreign travel. Many venues and concerts, for example, require some form of proof of vaccination.

We believe it gives people peace of mind when the folks around them are unlikely to be contagious.

Gus Warren, CEO of Bindle, a health verification app that allows venues to check the vaccination status of patrons.

Bindle’s clientele continues to grow, already operating in states like California and New York, to more conservative-leaning states like Florida, Texas, Missouri, Georgia, Arkansas. ‘At the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., for example, there’s a Bindle lane that offers fastpass-like efficiency in scanning QR codes from a number of vaccine verification platforms used around the world,’ adds the Forbes article.

The SMART Health Card is such an important development and the Vaccine Credential Initiative has been phenomenal in getting this out there. Absolutely, it has become the standard across the U.S. and North America.

And at an international level, we are continuing to see intense interest in a coordinated international approach. And that has not diminished at all. I think quite the opposite.

Warren added, noting that even though Bindle offers a handful of interoperable standards, the SMART Health Card has come out on top as the most important.

The Forbes report lists the second benefit of this card, and that is noting how more Republican governors are open to utilizing the card, which, ‘Having digital access to personal health records empowers the individual,’ the outlet writes.

Forbes writes, ‘More than a dozen states have launched their own SMART Health Card-based portals. At least seven others — including Arizona, Mississippi and West Virginia — have turned to a third-party, MyIRMobile, to issue SMART Health Cards. Minnesota has chosen Docket, another third-party option.’ Large chain pharmacies and stores like Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Rite Aid, and Albertsons, can issue an ID; along with state governments at designated locations.

The report also notes that many of these red-leaning states are rolling out these passports “quietly, without any fanfare,” but states like South Carolina explicitly said they expect to rollout these cards by the end of March, per a report from Politico.

But states like South Carolina are quick to retort that these are not passports.

This isn’t a passport. This is essentially a Covid card that people get at their convenience because it’s their record.

South Carolina’s director of immunizations told Politico.

There’s always a question about who owns the data and the rights to access that data. But one thing is unchallengeable. And that is, I own a right to have my own data. And to have it in a form that I can present it conveniently for the kinds of things I want to do.

Former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt, a Republican who was the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the George W. Bush administration, stated a global summit on the cards; Utah being one of the first red states to accept the SMART card

Brian Anderson of VCI shared a similar sentiment:

The idea of being able to have trustworthy copies of your own health records is not a red or blue state issue. It is an individual empowerment of your own health data. What we’re going to see over the next month is a growing number of red states recognizing and appreciating the importance of empowering their individual citizens in their states.

In reality, when many Republican governors made a shew of banning vaccine passports in 2021, it was really, in many ways, just a formality and theater. Simply put: if these governors deem the SMART Health Card not a vaccine passport, then these cards can act as a major loophole to those laws.

Senate Considers Bill That Would Link Voter ID With Vaccine Passports

But the third reason for these cards, Forbes explicitly writes:

‘Lastly, having a vaccine verification system in place prepares the U.S. for the next coronavirus variant as well as the inevitability of a future pandemic.’

Even though the reported Omicron variant has been the major Covid concern, Forbes explains, but that will soon change according to Anderson.

But it’s going to be pi in a couple months, and it’s going to be the same situation. Yes, we’re going to get to an endemic phase of all of this, but that doesn’t change the need to continue to protect the citizens of a nation from highly transmissible and communicable diseases.

Vaccination verification will be increasingly important at an international level. And so if we want to enable all of our citizens from every state to be able to participate in the safe travel across international boundaries and to participate in international commerce, it’d be important for our government officials from every state to enable this.

We’re not going to have all 50 states leveraging this approach. But the vast majority of the vaccinated individuals in the US – over 200 million of them – already have the ability right now to go and get one of these credentials.

In other words, contrarian to South Carolina’s statements, it is indeed a form of a new health passport to participate in parts of society.

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

[8] He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor. [9] He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.

Psalms 10:8-9

How much you want to bet (please don’t) that when the bankers are done playing around with Russia and Ukraine, then a new super deadly variant shows up, “Pi” perhaps, and then the media pounds it down our throats that we need this to participate in society?

Moreover, today it’s just vaccination status. How long before it turns into social credit?

As I alluded to in this report, when Republican governors pretended to ban these passports, it is clear that was just purely show, and now these [non]-passports will be able to legally fly and be implemented. And if some governors decide to stop those from being used in the state, then it just translates to just more governmental entities taking away freedom from that angle.

Ultimately, all this is once again inching the masses closer and closer to the mark of the beast.

[16] And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: [17] And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. [18] Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Revelation 13:16-18

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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