Things To Come: Mass Vaccinations And 'Digital Certificates' ?

Bill Gates Calls for a “Digital Certificate” to Identify Who Received COVID-19 Vaccine

The Vigilant Citizen

For years, Bill Gates has been at the forefront of research regarding global pandemics and mass vaccination campaigns. In the past decade, Gates went on record several times stating that the world was not ready for a global pandemic.

In October 2019 (only a few months before the apparition of COVID-19) the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (in cooperation with the World Economic Forum) hosted Event 201, a 3.5-hour table-top simulation of a global pandemic.

Oddly enough, this simulation was about a novel coronavirus that would kill millions. About eight weeks later, an actual novel coronavirus spurred in China. This lead to some people wondering if this exercise actually predicted the spread of COVID-19. In response to these questions, a statement was posted on the Event 201 website.

On March 13th, about a day after COVID-19 began shutting down the entire Western world, Bill Gates stepped down from the public board of Microsoft to “dedicate more time to philanthropic priorities including global health and development, education, and climate change”. As the pandemic spread across the world, Gates became an outspoken and authoritative figure on the pandemic crisis, appearing all over mass media to share his views and recommendations.

On March 18th, Bill Gates took part in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit titled I’m Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. AMA about COVID-19. where he answered questions about the pandemic. In one of his answers, Gates referred to a “digital certificate” to keep track of who got vaccinated.

A Reddit user named RemoteControlledUser asked this question:

What changes are we going to have to make to how businesses operate to maintain our economy while providing social distancing?

Bill Gates’ answer:

The question of which businesses should keep going is tricky. Certainly food supply and the health system. We still need water, electricity and the internet. Supply chains for critical things need to be maintained. Countries are still figuring out what to keep running.

Eventually we will have some digital certificates to show who has recovered or been tested recently or when we have a vaccine who has received it.

This concept of a “digital certificate” to store medical information (including vaccines received) and to grant access to rights or services was not a mere suggestion. It is part of a massive project that is propelled by a powerful group called ID2020 which is backed by the United Nations, the Rockefeller Foundation and … Bill Gates’ Microsoft

ID2020 Summit, May 2016.

Simply put, ID2020 is looking to create a digital identification system that would store a wealth of personal information and that would go beyond the limits of national governments. The official website of ID2020 states that a global digital identity is necessary to keep track of refugees and ID-less people in developing countries. Of course, people in developed countries would be ID-ed as well. The website states:

We Need to Get Digital ID Right

Unfortunately, current models of digital ID do not meet everyone’s needs. They are generally archaic, insecure, lacking adequate privacy protection, and for over a billion people worldwide, unavailable.

Everyone should have access to a digital ID that enables them to prove who they are across institutional and international borders and across time, while giving them control over how their personal information is collected, used, and shared.

In an article published by ID2020 in 2018, vaccines are the perfect way to introduce digital identity to the world – especially infants. Appropriately titled Immunization: an entry point for digital identity, the article states:

Because immunization is conducted in infancy, providing children with a digital child health card would give them a unique, portable digital identity early in life. And as children grow, their digital child health card can be used to access secondary services, such as primary school, or ease the process of obtaining alternative credentials. Effectively the child health card becomes the first step in establishing a legal, broadly recognized identity.

In short, according to ID2020, vaccinations are the perfect opportunity to introduce a digital ID that would store the medical history of each individual. This identity would also be used to grant access to basic rights and services.

ID2020 is already testing the introduction of digital IDs in Bangladesh. On August 2019, ID2020 published a “Request for information” article stating:

A2i and its partners Gavi and ID2020 are committed to jointly researching and implementing a unique ID for infants through digitisation of vaccination processes in Bangladesh.

The program will provide infants and children with a portable, biometrically-linked digital ID either at the point of birth registration or at the time of their immunizations...

An image describing the application of a quantum dot tattoo on the skin through vaccination from Science Translational Medicine, December 2019.

Quantum Dot Tattoo

In December 2019, a group of researchers at the MIT published a study in Science Translational Medicine about the use of quantum dot tattoos to identify who people who received a vaccine.

An article in Futurism titled An Invisible Quantum Dot ‘Tattoo’ Could Be Used to ID Vaccinated Kids reviewed this study:

For the people overseeing nationwide vaccination initiatives in developing countries, keeping track of who had which vaccination and when can be a tough task.

But researchers from MIT might have a solution: they’ve created an ink that can be safely embedded in the skin alongside the vaccine itself, and it’s only visible using a special smartphone camera app and filter.

In other words, they’ve found a covert way to embed the record of a vaccination directly in a patient’s skin rather than documenting it electronically or on paper – and their low-risk tracking system could greatly simplify the process of maintaining accurate vaccine records, especially on a larger scale.

The article states that this study was the result of a direct request from Bill Gates.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded the team’s research, which was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine on Wednesday.

According to a Scientific American story, the project came about following a direct request from Microsoft founder Bill Gates himself, who has been personally involved in efforts to eradicate polio and measles through vaccinations.

In Conclusion

While answering a question about conducting business in the era of social distancing, Bill Gates replied that “digital certificates” will be used to determine who had COVID-19, who recovered from it, who was recently tested for it and who received the vaccine. This short (and unexpected answer) opened a gigantic pandora box of what could be in store in the near future: 

The inevitable mass vaccination campaign to eradicate COVID-19 would be the perfect opportunity to introduce a worldwide digital ID. 

This system would store a wealth of information about each individual (including vaccination history) and would be used to grant access to rights and services. Although Gates did not go into specifics, “digital certificates” could be linked to biometrics or a quantum dot tattoo.