Palantir’s Tiberius, Race, and the Public Health Panopticon

Operation Warp Speed, the “public-private partnership” created to produce and allocate COVID-19 vaccines to the American populace, is set to begin rolling out a mass-vaccination campaign in the coming weeks. With the expected approval of its first vaccine candidate just days away, the allocation and distribution aspects of Operation Warp Speed deserve scrutiny, particularly given the critical role one of the most controversial companies in the country will play in that endeavor.

Palantir Technologies, the company founded by Alex Karp, Peter Thiel, and a handful of their associates, has courted controversy for its supporting role in the US military occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its participation in the detention of “illegal” immigrants through their contracts with the Department of Homeland Security and in “predictive policing” law enforcement programs that disproportionately affect minority neighborhoods. Equally controversial, but perhaps lesser known, is Palantir’s long-standing and enduring ties to the CIA and intelligence community at large, which was intimately involved in the development of Palantir’s products that now run on the databases of governments and corporations around the world.

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‘No Vaccine, No Work’ – Employers Discuss Making COVID Immunity Mandatory For Workers

With hospitalizations surging to record levels and California once again heading into lockdown, millions of Americans would probably gladly take the vaccine just to feel a sense that the pandemic is “over”, even though the duration of that immunity is still not very well understood, and some “conspiracy-minded” skeptics have raised question about the headline efficacy numbers.

But as the US and UK prepare to start delivering the first jabs in a week, industries are jockeying to try and get their workers designated as “essential” so they can have faster access to the vaccine (for many, profits are ultimately on the line).

Even though many Americans believe it’s morally reprehensible to fire someone for refusing to take a vaccine, some companies and industry groups are planning to require workers to be vaccinated as a precondition for returning to work. Maybe they think taking such a public stand might help them secure supplies for their vaccines more quickly.

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Many Epidemiologists Want Social Distancing and Masks Forever—Even After the Vaccine

The New York Times asked700 epidemiologists to describe their COVID-19 habits, how their thinking has changed since the pandemic began, and when they think it will be safe for normal life to resume. Dismayingly, several answered that last question with a resounding never.

“I expect that wearing a mask will become part of my daily life, moving forward, even after a vaccine is deployed,” Amy Hobbs, a research associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told The Times.

Marilyn Tseng, an assistant professor at California Polytechnic State University, said life would never revert to the way it was, though the preventative measures currently practiced—masks and social distancing—will feel “normal” in time. Similarly, Vasily Vlassov, a professor at HSE University in Moscow, said life was perfectly normal now because this is the new normal.

Others disagreed. Michael Webster-Clark of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said he expected “further relaxation of most precautions by mid-to-late summer 2021″ following widespread availability of the vaccine. Some epidemiologists said their own risk aversion would decrease after they were vaccinated, but many said they would remain just as cautious until”80 percent or more” of the entire population had received the vaccine.

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Vaccination cards will be issued to everyone getting Covid-19 vaccine, health officials say

The Department of Defense released the first images of a Covid-19 vaccination record card and vaccination kits Wednesday.Vaccination cards will be used as the “simplest” way to keep track of Covid-19 shots, said Dr. Kelly Moore, associate director of the Immunization Action Coalition, which is supporting frontline workers who will administer Covid-19 vaccinations.

“Everyone will be issued a written card that they can put in their wallet that will tell them what they had and when their next dose is due,” Moore said. “Let’s do the simple, easy thing first. Everyone’s going to get that.”Vaccination clinics will also be reporting to their state immunization registries what vaccine was given, so that, for example, an entity could run a query if it didn’t know where a patient got a first dose.Moore said many places are planning to ask patients to voluntarily provide a cell phone number, so they can get a text message telling them when and where their next dose is scheduled to be administered.Every dose administered will be reported to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.The CDC did not immediately respond to CNN’s inquiry about whether such a database would include a record of everyone immunized.

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CBER Plans for Monitoring COVID-19Vaccine Safety and Effectiveness

FDA Safety Surveillance of COVID-19 Vaccines :
DRAFT Working list of possible adverse event outcomes
Subject to change
 Guillain-Barré syndrome
 Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis
 Transverse myelitis
 Encephalitis/myelitis/encephalomyelitis/
meningoencephalitis/meningitis/
encepholapathy
 Convulsions/seizures
 Stroke
 Narcolepsy and cataplexy
 Anaphylaxis
 Acute myocardial infarction
 Myocarditis/pericarditis
 Autoimmune disease
 Deaths
 Pregnancy and birth outcomes
 Other acute demyelinating diseases
 Non-anaphylactic allergic reactions
 Thrombocytopenia
 Disseminated intravascular coagulation
 Venous thromboembolism
 Arthritis and arthralgia/joint pain
 Kawasaki disease
 Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome
in Children
 Vaccine enhanced disease

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Vaccines Could Be Forced Upon People Under Current Law, Warns Pro-Trump Legislator in Florida

Anthony Sabatini, a GOP state representative from Florida, said he will file legislation to repeal a state law that could force people to get vaccinated during a public health emergency.

Sabatini warned Floridians that under the current law, Governor Ron DeSantis or any future governor of Florida could violate “personal liberties” by forcing people to quarantine or receive a vaccine.

“Right now in Florida, under the public health emergency statute chapter 381, they can literally take you, test you, quarantine you, but also force you to take a vaccine. They can restrain you and force you to do that,” he said. “The powers have not been used yet, but they’ve been on the books for over 25 years and it’s important that Floridians know that this power can’t be exercised by government, because it’s just too much an invasion of their personal liberties.”

Sabatini was referring to chapter 381.00315 of Florida state law, which gives significant powers to the State Public Health Officer in the event of a public emergency, which Florida has been operating under since the pandemic took hold in March.

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Brits who refuse COVID-19 vaccine may be denied entry to restaurants, bars

No coronavirus vaccine, no service?

Brits could soon be denied entry to restaurants, bars, movie theaters and sporting events if they refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine, a top official said Monday.

Nadhim Zahawi, the minister in charge of the UK’s vaccine rollout, said that information about whether people have received a coronavirus vaccine might become available on the phone app already used for contact tracing.

“But also I think you’d probably find that restaurants and bars and cinemas and other venues, sports venues, will probably also use that system as they’ve done with the app,” Zahawi told the BBC.

“The sort of pressure will come both ways: from service providers — who will say, ‘Look, demonstrate to us that you have been vaccinated’ — but also we will make the technology as easy and accessible as possible.”

When asked whether it will become nearly impossible to do anything without the shot,Zahawi said he believes that most businesses will want to adopt protocols that take into account a person’s vaccine status.

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US, UK Intel Agencies Declare Cyber War On Independent Media

In just the past week, the national-security states of the United States and United Kingdom have discreetly let it be known that the cyber tools and online tactics previously designed for use in the post-9/11 “war on terror” are now being repurposed for use against information sources promoting “vaccine hesitancy” and information related to Covid-19 that runs counter to their state narratives. 

A new cyber offensive was launched on Monday by the UK’s signal intelligence agency, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which seeks to target websites that publish content deemed to be “propaganda” that raises concerns regarding state-sponsored Covid-19 vaccine development and the multi-national pharmaceutical corporations involved. 

Similar efforts are underway in the United States, with the US military recently funding a CIA-backed firm—stuffed with former counterterrorism officials who were behind the occupation of Iraq and the rise of the so-called Islamic State—to develop an AI algorithm aimed specifically at new websites promoting “suspected” disinformation related to the Covid-19 crisis and the US military–led Covid-19 vaccination effort known as Operation Warp Speed.

Both countries are preparing to silence independent journalists who raise legitimate concerns over pharmaceutical industry corruption or the extreme secrecy surrounding state-sponsored Covid-19 vaccination efforts, now that Pfizer’s vaccine candidate is slated to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by month’s end. 

Pfizer’s history of being fined billions for illegal marketing and for bribing government officials to help them cover up an illegal drug trial that killed eleven children (among other crimes) has gone unmentioned by most mass media outlets, which instead have celebrated the apparently imminent approval of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine without questioning the company’s history or that the mRNA technology used in the vaccine has sped through normal safety trial protocols and has never been approved for human use. Also unmentioned is that the head of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Patrizia Cavazzoni, is the former Pfizer vice president for product safety who covered up the connection of one of its products to birth defects.

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