Day: February 23, 2023

• February 3, 2023, a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio

• Five of the cars that derailed were carrying vinyl chloride, a flammable gas that can lead to life-threatening respiratory issues and an increased risk of cancer

• Other toxic chemicals on the derailed train cars include butyl acrylate, which can cause breathing difficulties, and ethylene glycol monobutyl, linked to chronic health effects, including liver toxicity

• Residents have reported fish, hens and roosters dying, along with persistent coughs, sore throats, burning eyes and a lingering odor in the air, even as officials claim there’s no risk

• Every day, about 12,000 rail cars transporting toxic chemicals travel through cities across the U.S.; another disaster is imminent, according to railroad workers, due to cutbacks in staffing, scheduling designed to maximize profits and lack of maintenance to cars, locomotives and tracks

February 3, 2023, a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, a town near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. In total, 38 rail cars derailed, and a massive fire that broke out damaged an additional 12 cars.

While no immediate fatalities or injuries were reported, the hazardous materials released from the cars — and concerns over a potential explosion — prompted evacuations from the area. Now residents are wondering if it’s really safe to return to their homes, or whether their long-term health, as well as their air, water and soil, has been permanently affected.

The train, operated by Norfolk Southern, included 20 cars carrying hazardous materials. Eleven of them derailed.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) published a list of the contents of the 11 cars, which included vinyl chloride.

A flammable gas carried on five of the cars, vinyl chloride is used to make hard plastic resin and is found in many consumer products, from credit cards and furniture to plastic PVC piping.

Inhaling vinyl chloride could lead to life-threatening respiratory issues.

When it breaks down in the air or burns, it can lead to the creation of hydrogen chloride, a respiratory irritant, and phosgene, which was used as a deadly poison gas in World War I.

It’s also carcinogenic. According to the National Cancer Institute, “Vinyl chloride exposure is associated with an increased risk of a rare form of liver cancer (hepatic angiosarcoma), as well as primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma), brain and lung cancers, lymphoma and leukemia.”

In addition to outdoor air contamination, if vinyl chloride contaminates a water supply, it can enter household air if that water is used for showering, cooking or laundry.

February 13, 2023, Congressman Jamaal Bowman tweeted:

“Nearly 1 million pounds of vinyl chloride were on this train. Now, the EPA has confirmed it’s entered the Ohio River basin which is home to 25 million people. This is one of the deadliest environmental emergencies in decades and no one is talking about it.”

Other toxic chemicals on the derailed train cars include:

• Butyl acrylate — This flammable liquid is dangerous if swallowed and can irritate the respiratory system, skin and eyes. It poses a “serious” health hazard and can cause breathing difficulties.

• Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether (2-butoxy ethanol) — This chemical, used in paint strippers and household cleaners, can cause “serious or irreversible” chronic health effects, including liver toxicity and damage to the eyes, skin, kidneys and blood.

• Ethylhexyl acrylate — This potential carcinogen is used to make plastics and protective coatings. Inhalation can lead to convulsions, shortness of breath and a buildup of fluid in the lungs.

• Isobutylene — This gas is used to make rubber for tires and inner tubes. It can cause dizziness and unconsciousness if inhaled, along with skin and eye irritation.

• Benzene — This carcinogen also causes genetic mutations. Exposure can lead to coma, irregular heartbeat and damage to blood cells. While the train wasn’t carrying benzene when it derailed, residues existed because two empty cars had previously carried the toxic chemical.

In a strange turn of events, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, released an updated toxicological profile for vinyl chloride in January 2023. The last time the profile was updated was in 2006 — 17 years ago.

One change observed so far significantly increased the level of exposure causing heart damage. Strange Sounds

revealed the 2006 version, archived via the Wayback Machine,

states, “At high concentrations (>30,000 ppm), vinyl chloride was been [sic] shown to sensitize the heart to epinephrine, resulting in cardiac arrhythmias in dogs.”

The 2023 version has a significantly higher limit, stating, “At high concentrations (>150,000 ppm), vinyl chloride was shown to sensitize the heart to epinephrine, resulting in cardiac arrhythmias in dogs.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recently modified its vinyl chloride webpage, removing sections titled, “How can vinyl chloride affect children?” and “Has the federal government made recommendations to protect human health?”

Reportedly, the section related to children included the following before it was removed:

“It has not been proven that vinyl chloride causes birth defects in humans, but studies in animals suggest that vinyl chloride might affect growth and development. Animal studies also suggest that infants and young children might be more susceptible than adults to vinyl chloride-induced cancer.”

Many are now questioning the curious timing of the updates. “I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but why did the CDC update their profile for vinyl chloride 11 DAYS before the train crash in Ohio?” James Bradley tweeted.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stopped monitoring the community’s outdoor air for phosgene and hydrogen chloride February 13, stating, “After the fire was extinguished on February 8, the threat of vinyl chloride fire producing phosgene and hydrogen chloride no longer exists.”

It continues to monitor for “other chemicals of concern,” however.

It’s also screening indoor air in homes nearby, and to date states it has “no detections of vinyl chloride or hydrogen chloride.” But even as officials claim it’s safe for residents to return to their homes, signs suggest otherwise.

Due to chemicals spilled from the train, an estimated 3,500 fish were killed in an area spanning 7.5 miles of streams, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Residents have also reported hens and roosters dying, along with persistent coughs, sore throats, burning eyes and a lingering odor in the air.

Residents have also reported soot on their homes and vehicles, and are expressing concerns over how to clean it since it could be contaminated.

After the derailment, crews conducted a controlled burn, igniting the vinyl chloride in an attempt to get rid of it. Andrew Whelton, a professor of environmental and ecological engineering at Purdue University, told NBC News this may have created more problems, including chemicals the EPA isn’t testing for.

“When they combusted the materials, they created other chemicals. The question is what did they create?” he said.

Meanwhile, February 10, the EPA stated in a letter to Norfolk Southern that hazardous materials “continue to be released to the air, surface soils, and surface waters.”

Lawsuits have begun to roll in from business owners and residents against Norfolk Southern. According to reporter Julie Grant, speaking with NPR, “They say the company was negligent, and one thing they want is the company to fund court-supervised medical screenings for serious illnesses that may be caused by exposure to those chemicals.”

In addition to air pollution, the water supply may also be tainted. Grant explained:

“The U.S. EPA said it did find some of the chemicals in nearby creeks and streams. State regulators confirm that fish have been killed, but they said the area’s drinking water is supplied by groundwater, so it would take longer for these chemicals to move underground if that were to happen.

Norfolk Southern released a remediation plan, which lists a number of ways it plans to continue to monitor and clean up the site, including installing wells to monitor the groundwater. That’s at the site. It’s also near the Ohio River, which is a major drinking water source. And at least one company that’s supplied by the river says it’s looking at an alternative water source in case that’s needed.”

In a video posted by Democracy Now!, Emily Wright, a resident of Columbiana County in Ohio, a few miles from the derailment, called the derailment a “chemically-driven environmental nightmare.”

Initially, she says only those within one mile of the derailment were evacuated, even as the train kept burning overnight and into the next day.

“They kept saying the same thing over and over again in the media and in the press conferences. ‘There’s no toxins in the air … don’t worry,'” she said. But about 48 hours after the derailment, she received an alert on her phone that another explosion had occurred and the fire was out of control.

At the time of the “controlled” burn, high wind gusts were forecasted. The resulting mushroom cloud was caught by winds, traveling over four to five counties in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In her home just a few miles away, Wright and her family experienced nausea, diarrhea and breathing difficulties.

They considered leaving, but then a shelter-in-place order was issued. At the same time, officials continued to state this was only out of an “abundance of caution,” and there were “no toxins in the air.” “From day one, we’ve been fed what wasn’t the truth,” Wright said.

While mainstream media have also downplayed the seriousness of the derailment, videos have spread on social media highlighting the potential disastrous effects

that could come from the approximately million pounds of toxic vinyl chloride that “spilled on the ground, boiled off into the air and then caught fire,” leading to hydrogen chloride as a byproduct. This then turns into hydrochloric acid in the atmosphere, with further unknown effects.

The East Palestine derailment serves as a wake-up call to potential disaster looming on U.S. railways. Speaking with The Guardian, Ron Kaminkow, an Amtrak locomotive engineer and secretary for the Railroad Workers United, said, “The Palestine wreck is the tip of the iceberg and a red flag. If something is not done, then it’s going to get worse, and the next derailment could be cataclysmic.”

Every day, about 12,000 rail cars transporting toxic chemicals travel through cities across the U.S. Annually, 4.5 million tons of hazardous materials are shipped by trains in the U.S.

The Guardian pointed out the potential for more deadly freight rail derailments is high:

“The latest accident comes after 47 people were killed in the town of Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in 2013 when a runaway train exploded. In February 2020, a crude oil train derailed and exploded outside Guernsey, Saskatchewan, and an ethanol train in Kentucky derailed and burst into flames a week later.

The Pittsburgh region alone has seen eight train derailments over the last five years, according to the public health advocacy group Rail Pollution Protection Pittsburgh (RPPP), and about 1,700 annually occur nationally. The causes of the Pittsburgh accidents highlight the myriad ways in which things can go wrong.

A crack in a track ignored by rail companies caused a 2018 derailment, while another train hit a dump truck at a crossing with inadequate safety equipment. A broken axle on a train car is thought to be the source of the East Palestine accident.”

Liquified natural gas (LNG) may pose a particularly significant concern. In 2020, the U.S. Department of Transportation approved rail transport of LNG with no extra safety precautions, even though an accident could be catastrophic. In a letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation opposing the rule change, environmental group Earth Justice wrote:

“The amount of energy contained in LNG is quite alarming. One gallon of LNG has 0.89975 therms of energy. One DOT‐113 tank car has a capacity of approximately 30,000 gallons, meaning that there would be approximately 27,000 therms worth of energy per tank car.

With this much LNG per tank car, it would only take 22 tank cars to hold the equivalent energy of the Hiroshima bomb.55 A unit train of 110 LNG tank cars would thus have five‐times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb.”

Speaking with Democracy Now!, Ross Grooters, a locomotive engineer and cochair of Railroad Workers United, stated:

“There are deep systemic problems with the freight railroads right now, and those need to be addressed for us to have some sort of normal response to events like this. Until we get at the root causes of the safety issues in the freight rail system in this country, it’s … going to occur again … it’s just a matter of when and where.”

Grooters blames corporate greed, including cutbacks to staffing, from companies making “obscene amounts of money,” and precision scheduled railroading, which he says is designed to maximize profits, not safety. “You’re cutting to the bone the amount of people doing the job. So you have fewer people doing a lot more work, faster.”

At the same time, cutbacks have been made on the maintenance of cars, locomotives and tracks, while trains are becoming increasingly long and heavy, raising the chances of derailment.

“Lastly, you have the railroads themselves,” Grooters says, “which are fighting any kind of regulation, whether it be train control systems that help manage the signal system or the lobbying efforts that we saw to kill electronic braking, which can make for safer operations and a quicker stop should a derailment like this occur.”

Norfolk Southern, in fact, has paid $70 million in safety violations since 2000, along with $21 million in environmental violations.

As it stands, an estimated 25 million Americans live on an oil train blast zone

and could potentially be killed if one of these “bomb trains” derails in their town.

Regarding the toxic Ohio train derailment, Julia Rock, investigative reporter with The Lever, explained, “This is the result of efforts by the railroad industry to ensure that they do not have to retrofit trains carrying hazardous materials and crude oil with safety features.”

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Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.

• Vitamin E is fat-soluble and comes in eight chemical forms; alpha-tocopherol is the most studied of them and according to the NIH, the only one that meets human requirements

• Vitamin E is a strong antioxidant that has photoprotective properties and helps prevent some cancers. A 2022 paper concludes vitamin E may help enhance cancer immunotherapy by reinvigorating dendritic cells critical to an immune response

• Maintaining optimal levels may help lower systolic blood pressure and diastolic pressure to a lesser degree. Vitamin E insufficiency is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events

• Vitamin E may help fertility, demonstrates neuroprotective properties and in combination with vitamin D, vitamin E helps lower symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS)

• While you won’t overdose on vitamin E-rich foods because it’s a fat-soluble vitamin and is stored in fat cells, you can overdose with supplements. This can trigger adverse side effects, including inhibition of platelet aggregation and bleeding

Researchers have discovered that vitamin E comes in eight different forms but only one appears to meet human requirements, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Some foods are a natural source of vitamin E, which is the name for this group of fat-soluble compounds. Each of the eight forms has some level of biological activity, but it’s alpha-tocopherol that scientists have found prevents the propagation of free radicals and which the body prefers to use.

Additionally, only alpha-tocopherol supplementation has been shown to reverse symptoms of a vitamin E deficiency.

There are four tocopherol isoforms and four tocotrienol isoforms. Alpha-tocopherol is incorporated into lipoproteins in the liver that are then transported throughout the body.

While this has been the primary chemical form studied, researchers have also found that some forms of tocotrienols have biological activity, although they have lower systemic bioavailability.

According to the NIH,

three national surveys showed most Americans may consume less than the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of vitamin E developed by the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB). The RDA for alpha-tocopherol, which is the only recommendation made by the FNB, is from 11 mg to 15 mg beginning at age 9 through senior years. The RDA for lactating women is 19 mg per day.

The FNB believes alpha-tocopherol intake in healthy adults is likely higher than the national surveys indicate, since frank deficiency is rare and overt symptoms are not usually found in healthy people. However, as you are likely aware, there is a significant difference between overt deficiency and insufficiency that increases your risk of health conditions. Research data has now linked vitamin E with several unique health benefits.

Understanding the importance of antioxidants began as scientists learned how free radical damage was involved in the early stages of atherosclerosis and that free radical damage may be involved in a host of other chronic health conditions.

Vitamin E plays a significant role as an antioxidant as it scavenges loose electrons and reduces cellular damage.

One of the benefits of lowering free radical damage is reducing skin damage after UV exposure. Vitamin E has been used in dermatology for more than 50 years and is added to cosmetic products.

Additionally, the presence of vitamin C can slow lipid oxidation by regenerating alpha-tocopherol from radicals found in cell membranes.

Vitamin E is a major lipid-soluble antioxidant, protecting against oxidative stress in the epidermis and dermal layers of the skin. Data show that it has strong photoprotective and antiaging properties that help to improve elasticity and structure of the epidermis and dermis. Topical application has been widely used, after which vitamin E accumulates in the cell membranes and extracellular lipid matrix, where it contributes to antioxidant defenses.

In April 2022, researchers from MD Anderson Cancer Center

published a paper in Cancer Discovery,

in which they discuss data that show vitamin E may enhance cancer immunotherapy through a pathway that reinvigorates dendritic cells.

Dendritic cells have been a focus in cancer immunotherapy as they are critical in the immune response. Several strategies have been developed to target these cells in the hope that a better understanding of their function may help improve cancer therapies.

The researchers found that an analysis of electronic health records showed patients who took vitamin E had significantly improved survival rates.

Recognizing that the impact of nutritional supplements in addition to immunotherapy is a relatively unexplored area, the researchers undertook an analysis of vitamin E and found that it blocks the activity of the SHP1 checkpoint, which in turn improves T cell ability to mount an antitumor immune response.

Another 2020 study,

looked at the benefits of using alpha-tocopherol in cancer prevention.

Researchers began with the understanding that those with a lower nutritional status had an increased risk of cancer and in some populations, supplementation had beneficial effects in lowering the risk. Other studies have focused on tocotrienol and the gamma and delta forms of tocopherols. While these three vitamin E compounds have a lower bioavailability, they appeared to have stronger cancer-preventive properties in animal models and cell lines.

High blood pressure is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. One 2002 triple-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial

evaluated the effects of vitamin E on blood pressure and heart rate in 70 individuals diagnosed with mild high blood pressure. At this time, the new blood pressure guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association had not yet been released.

While the 2002 study categorized the participants with mild high blood pressure, the new guidelines would categorize those same participants with Stage 2 hypertension. At the end of the study, the researchers found a 24% decrease in systolic blood pressure in patients receiving vitamin E and a 12.5% reduction in diastolic blood pressure.

The participants received 200 IU of vitamin E each day which the researchers concluded could be an effective long-term strategy to reduce blood pressure.

Another study in 2002 evaluated blood pressure in 15,317 men and women over age 20 and found that antioxidant vitamins could be important in the prevention of high blood pressure.

Interestingly, researchers in 2000 evaluated vitamin E supplementation in patients whose high blood pressure was controlled using medication. In this case, supplementation appeared to have no relevant effect.

This study was funded in part by the drug company Bayer Italia.

More recently, a 2019 meta-analysis

published in the Journal of Human Hypertension analyzed systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and mean arterial pressure in individuals who received vitamin E supplementation. A review of the qualifying studies showed no significant effect on mean arterial pressure or diastolic blood pressure but a reduction in systolic blood pressure.

Another 2020 paper

began with the premise that although randomized human trials have resulted in conflicting results with vitamin E supplementation, data show vitamin E deficiency is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events. These researchers suggest that the outcome of the human trials was significantly affected by the participants’ comorbidities, genetic variations, gender and age.

In a review of the literature, they found that patients diagnosed with a myocardial infarction frequently had lower plasma levels of vitamin E. They suggest that short-term treatment shows promising results and, thus, using acute rather than chronic supplementation may provide positive clinical outcomes.

Vitamin E contributes to even more health benefits. Millions of women are impacted by premenstrual syndrome (PMS), which was first described in 1931. In 2009,

researchers estimated 80% to 90% of women in their reproductive years suffer from symptoms, and up to 8% of those experience severe symptoms.

A 2016 study showed that supplementing with vitamin D and E had a significant effect on PMS symptoms and was “an effective and affordable treatment” for the condition.

This supports a 1983 double-blind, randomized dose-response study

of 75 women that suggested supplementation may be valuable for women with symptoms of severe PMS.

Vitamin E is essential for reproductive health in the rodent population,

most notably in the development of the placenta. A 2018 paper

acknowledges that while researchers know it is necessary for fertility, studies are lacking on how it affects female reproductive health.

Vitamin E has also demonstrated neuroprotective properties, notably in a study

of 30 patients with glaucoma whose progression slowed while taking oral alpha-tocopherol acetate and a 2014 paper

that clarified the use of vitamin E in Alzheimer’s disease, finding it delayed the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease. A 2005 animal model

demonstrated that alpha-tocotrienol acted on molecular checkpoints to protect against stroke-induced neurodegeneration.

Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin. The differences between water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins affect how the vitamins are absorbed and stored. Your body can excrete water-soluble vitamins when there is an excess of the vitamin. But fat-soluble vitamins are dissolved and stored in fat, which is how they travel through the small intestine and are distributed in the bloodstream. Because the vitamin is fat-soluble, it is best absorbed when you’re eating a fat-rich meal.

And, because it’s fat-soluble, your body stores any excess of the vitamin, which increases your risk of adverse side effects. According to the National Institutes of Health,

it’s highly unlikely that you will experience adverse effects from consuming vitamin E-rich foods. However, high doses of alpha-tocopherol supplements can trigger side effects. Some common side effects include:

• Diarrhea

• Weakness

• Blurred vision

• Nausea

• Fatigue

• Stomach cramps

• Headache

• Rash

• Inhibition of platelet aggregation and bleeding

Another challenge associated with taking vitamin E supplements is the lack of data indicating synthetic supplements are beneficial. A 2012 study

concluded that synthetic alpha-tocopherols found in vitamin E supplements had no discernible cancer protection but gamma- and delta-tocopherols found in food helped prevent colon, breast and prostate cancer.

Bear in mind that a supplement will not tell you it’s synthetic, so you have to know what to look for on the label.

• Synthetic alpha-tocopherol is typically listed with a “dl” (i.e., dl-alpha-tocopherol)

• Nonsynthetic or naturally derived is typically listed with a “d” (d-alpha-tocopherol). Note that when vitamin E is stabilized by adding either succinic acid or acetic acid, the chemical name changes from tocopherol to tocopheryl (as in d-alpha-tocopheryl succinate, for example)

Vitamin supplements are chemical additions to your body. As with other supplements, there is the potential that vitamin E supplements can interact with different types of medication.

Because vitamin E inhibits platelet aggregation, using it when you’re taking an anticoagulant or antiplatelet medication can increase the risk of bleeding. People taking antioxidant supplements, such as vitamin E, may find the supplement interferes with statin medications, specifically simvastatin (Zocor) or niacin.

Vitamin E is found in green leafy vegetables, nuts and some seeds. CNET lists foods that can help boost your vitamin E intake, including:

• Sunflower seeds

• Almonds

• Spinach

• Avocado

• Asparagus

• Mango

• Pumpkin

• Red bell pepper

• Tomato

• Hazelnuts

• Kiwi

Grass-fed butter is also a rich source of vitamin E in a highly absorbable form. Butter doesn’t have to be a guilty pleasure. When butter is consumed as a whole food from a grass-fed source it contains many of the nutrients that your body needs. Some of these include:

• Vitamins A, K2 and E

• Lecithin for cholesterol metabolism and nerve health

• Antioxidants

• Iodine in a highly absorbable form

Subscribe to Mercola Newsletter

Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.

• The Rockefeller Foundation’s white paper, “National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan” lays out a strategic framework that is clearly intended to become part of a permanent surveillance and social control structure that severely limits personal liberty and freedom of choice

• Contact-tracing apps are a significant part of this scheme, and the Rockefeller plan clearly states that “Whenever and wherever possible data should be open,” and that “privacy concerns must be set aside”

• The U.S. is rapidly adopting an artificial intelligence-driven mass surveillance system rivaling that of China, and legal and structural obstacles are being swept away under the guise of combating COVID-19

• Contact-tracing apps require you to keep your cellphone on your person throughout the day, giving thousands of third parties access to personal data

• Privacy protects people from interference, intervention and manipulation, and must be protected at all costs

ℹ️ From Dr. Joseph Mercola

Since COVID-19 first entered the scene, exchange of ideas has basically been outlawed. By sharing my views and those from various experts throughout the pandemic on COVID treatments and the experimental COVID jabs, I became a main target of the White House, the political establishment and the global cabal.

Propaganda and pervasive censorship have been deployed to seize control over every part of your life, including your health, finances and food supply. The major media are key players and have been instrumental in creating and fueling fear.

I am republishing this article in its original form so that you can see how the progression unfolded.

Originally published: May 15, 2020

Two days ago, I wrote about The Rockefeller Foundation’s plan to test, track and trace all Americans — ostensibly to prevent COVID-19 from overwhelming us as we’re again “allowed” to venture outside our front doors in limited capacity around the nation.

The Rockefeller Foundation’s April 21, 2020, white paper,

“National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan — Strategic Steps to Reopen Our Workplaces and Our Communities,” lays out a strategic framework that is clearly intended to become part of a permanent surveillance and social control structure that severely limits personal liberty and freedom of choice.

The Rockefeller plan calls for COVID-19 testing and tracing of 1 million Americans per week to start, incrementally ramping it up to 3 million and then 30 million per week (the “1-3-30 plan”) over the next six months until the entire population has been covered.

Test results would then be collected on a digital platform capable of tracking all tested individuals so that contact-tracing can be performed when someone tests positive.

Contact-tracing apps are a significant part of this scheme, and the white paper

clearly states that “Whenever and wherever possible data should be open,” and that “Some privacy concerns must be set aside for an infectious agent as virulent as Covid-19, allowing the infection status of most Americans to be accessed and validated in a few required settings and many voluntary ones.”

As noted in The Last American Vagabond’s article,

“Techno-Tyranny: How the U.S. National Security State Is Using Coronavirus to Fulfill an Orwellian Vision,” the U.S. is rapidly adopting an artificial intelligence-driven mass surveillance system rivaling that of China, and legal and structural obstacles are now being swept away “under the guise of combating the coronavirus crisis.”

Indeed, the Rockefeller plan doesn’t even try to hide its draconian overreach and intent to permanently alter life and society as we know it. In the first half of the 20th century, George Orwell wrote a dystopian novel, “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” in which the government controlled every aspect of a person’s life, including their very thoughts.

Today, scientists seem intent on turning Orwell’s nightmarish vision into reality, using the COVID-19 pandemic, national security and public health as their justification for doing so. Artificial intelligence — AI — is a key ingredient in this surveillance plot. Ironically, as noted by The Last American Vagabond:

“Last year, a U.S. government body dedicated to examining how artificial intelligence can ‘address the national security and defense needs of the United States’ discussed in detail the ‘structural’ changes that the American economy and society must undergo in order to ensure a technological advantage over China, according to a recent document

acquired through a FOIA request.

This document suggests that the U.S. follow China’s lead and even surpass them in many aspects related to AI-driven technologies, particularly their use of mass surveillance.

This perspective clearly clashes with the public rhetoric of prominent U.S. government officials and politicians on China, who have labeled the Chinese government’s technology investments and export of its surveillance systems and other technologies as a major ‘threat’ to Americans’ ‘way of life.’

”

The document

the article refers to was produced by the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI), a government organization created by the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2018.

Its purpose is “to consider the methods and means necessary to advance the development of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and associated technologies to comprehensively address the national security and defense needs of the United States,” and to ensure the U.S. maintains a technological advantage.

To that end, the NSCAI is pushing for an overhaul of the American way of life and economy in order to usher in a more comprehensive AI-driven surveillance apparatus.

It is important to understand that Google has the greatest AI team in the world. To boost its powerbase, in 2014 Google purchased Deep Mind, an AI company that employed some of the world’s leading AI experts at the time.

One of those top-notch scientists was David Silver, who led the team that created the program Alpha Go, which subsequently defeated the world champion of the abstract boardgame, Go.

Most recently, Silver won the 2019 Association for Computing Machinery award for breakthrough advances in computer game-playing.

Lex Fridman from MIT recently had a fascinating interview with Silver.

The reason I mention it is because this accomplishment is perceived by many as a great milestone. It established deep reinforcement learning as a strategy that will allow computers to rapidly outperform humans and rapidly implement advanced versions of the surveillance state.

So, not only does Google have the AI scientists, but they also have the largest computing platform in the world and a major lead in quantum computing, already establishing quantum supremacy late last year.

The DW News video above reviews the rollout of COVID-19 contact tracing apps in various parts of the world and their approaches to privacy concerns. Germany, at present, appears to be one of the nations that are most protective of their privacy rights. This makes perfect sense, considering its Nazi history.

Many Americans, on the other hand, do not have personal experience with the kind of human rights atrocities perpetuated in Nazi Germany, and fail to understand just how slippery the slope is.

Recent calls by American leaders to call police and snitch on their neighbors for failing to observe social distancing rules, for example, come straight from the authoritarian handbook, and there’s simply no excuse for not recognizing and interpreting it at face value.

Rights and liberties are never simply handed to us. Every single human right and freedom you currently enjoy has been fought and paid for in blood, and unless we refuse tyranny from the very get-go, we’ll eventually be forced to live under it or pay for our freedom with blood sacrifices yet again. We cannot afford to be naïve about where we’re headed.

A May 4, 2020, Forbes article

by Simon Chandler points out that while contact-tracing apps “may be cryptographically secure,” they still “threaten our privacy in broader and more insidious ways.”

“On the one hand, cybersecurity researchers have already argued

that suitably determined and malevolent bad actors could correlate infected people with other personal info using the API. On the other, the Google-Apple API and any app based on it carry two much more general and dangerous privacy risks,” Chandler writes.

What are some of these privacy risks? Well, for starters, contact-tracing apps require you to keep your cellphone on your person throughout the day, regardless of what you’re doing.

Aside from whatever concerns people may have about electromagnetic field exposure from their cellphone being on their body while turned on — which is no small concern in and of itself — your cellphone also tracks and shares countless other data that is unrelated to the COVID-19 app.

As noted by Chandler, “A Washington Post study

from last year discovered around 5,400 (mostly app-based) data trackers on an iPhone, all of which were sending data back to third-parties,” and “all of these companies have an interest in using that data to later influence and indirectly control your behavior …”

Chandler makes another very important point that many fail to remember when it comes to privacy:

“Privacy actually gains most of its importance and value because it protects people from interference and intervention. You may want to keep your fondness for, say, ballet dancing private from your neighbors, because of the risk that they might mock your pastime and make you feel ashamed about wanting to be a ballet dancer.

You worry that they will interfere — either directly or indirectly — with your ability to develop as a person according to your own awareness and conception of your best interests. Exactly the same thing goes for privacy in the context of smartphones and digital technology.

It’s not enough to avoid sharing your data with the ‘wrong’ people (as opposed to scores or hundreds of ‘legitimate’ third parties). You also need to avoid interference and intervention to have true privacy. And in encouraging people to have their smartphones with them all the time, coronavirus contact-tracing apps fail abjectly in this test.”

Contact tracing apps will also “normalize the concept of apps themselves directing and managing at scale how millions of people live and behave,” Chandler points out. The app will notify you whenever you’ve come in close proximity of someone who tests positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection. You’ll then be advised to self-isolate for a prescribed amount of time. As reported ty Chandler:

“This is a massive problem for anyone concerned about the future of privacy and personal freedoms in the Digital Age. It would be one thing if any contact-tracing app could guarantee that a user had definitely been infected with the coronavirus. But there’s a very strong likelihood that such apps will also send notifications to lots of people who haven’t been infected …

Coronavirus contact-tracing apps will end up requiring thousands (if not millions) of people to quarantine themselves at home unnecessarily. So, in most cases, rather than preventing coronavirus infections from spreading, the only thing such apps will achieve is desensitizing the general public to giving up another chunk of their privacy and personal freedom.”

In other words, over time, people will get used to the idea of having their day-to-day activities predicated on what an app tells them to do. A virtually guaranteed result of this habituation is the handing over of personal judgment and discernment to an AI. “In the process, they’ll suffer from the kind of outside interference with their behavior that privacy is meant to defend against,” Chandler says.

The tracking system The Rockefeller Foundation is calling for in the U.S. also demands access to other medical data. According to its “National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan”:

“This infection database must easily interoperate with doctor, hospital and insurance health records in an essential and urgent national program to finally rationalize the disparate and sometimes deliberately isolated electronic medical records systems across the country …

On March 9, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released two long-awaited final rules that would prohibit information blocking in health care and advance more seamless exchange of health care data. But publication in the Federal Register, necessary to activate the rules, has been inexplicably delayed. This delay must end.”

In other words, this plan is far more comprehensive than merely tracking COVID-19 cases. It’s designed to replace the current system of “disparate and sometimes deliberately isolated electronic medical records systems across the country.”

A small shred of hope still exists that enough Americans will see through this ruse. Oxford researchers estimate

that in in order for contact tracing apps to be effective, about 60% of any given population would need to participate.

According to a national poll

conducted by The Washington Post and the University of Maryland between April 21 and April 26, 2020, 3 in 5 Americans say they’re either unable or unwilling to allow silent surveillance by a cellphone app, even in the name of public health.

One in 6 said they didn’t have a smartphone. Even among Americans that have smartphones with the appropriate capabilities, about half said they would not participate.

According to The New York Times,

only 3% of residents in North Dakota had downloaded the state’s contact tracing app as of April 29, 2020. The app was announced and released April 7, 2020.

In Singapore, only 1 in 6 (20%) had downloaded the government’s contact tracing app by April 1, 2020,

while 30% of Norwegians downloaded their government’s app within the first week of its release, according to The New York Times.

In an effort to maintain some semblance of privacy protection, some nations, such as France, have decided to use “short-range Bluetooth ‘handshakes’ between devices” and keep the data on centralized servers, while others are opting to use GPS location data

and a variety of other systems. A May 5, 2020, article in TechCrunch describes the differences between some of them.

As reported by BBC News,

Cannes, France, is also trialing surveillance monitoring software on buses and outdoor markets to keep tabs on social distancing compliance. According to the software developer, this surveillance complies with EU data privacy laws by not storing or transmitting any images or identifying data.

Cannes Mayor David Lisnard told BBC: “This technology doesn’t identify people but just gives us mathematical analysis to meet people’s needs.” Still, if rules are breached, the AI will send an automatic alert to police and city authorities.

The World Health Organization, meanwhile, has noted that these types of apps still cannot replace old-fashioned disease surveillance and tracing measures. As reported by Reuters:

“As countries begin easing lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of the virus, many hope to contain new clusters of infection through systematic contact tracing, helped by mobile phone apps and other technology.

But [WHO’s top emergency expert Dr. Mike] Ryan said these did not make more traditional ‘boots-on-the-ground’ surveillance redundant. ‘We are very, very keen to stress that IT tools do not replace the basic public health workforce that is going to be needed to trace, test, isolate and quarantine,’ he said …”

Aside from the Rockefeller Foundation’s plan for the U.S., other nations are also proposing the rollout of various types of “health passports,” the oft-repeated refrain being that without digital health certificates, it simply won’t be safe to return to work and leisure.

May 5, 2020, TechCrunch reported

the rollout of a contact tracing app in the U.K., developed by the National Health Service. The first testing ground will be the Isle of Wight, which has a population of about 140,000. According to TechCrunch:

“The NHS COVID-19 app uses Bluetooth Low Energy handshakes to register proximity events (aka ‘contacts’) between smartphone users, with factors such as the duration of the ‘contact event’ and the distance between the devices feeding an NHS clinical algorithm that’s being designed to estimate infection risk and trigger notifications if a user subsequently experiences COVID-19 symptoms …

However there are major questions over how effective the tool will prove to be, especially given the government’s decision to ‘go it alone’ on the design of its digital contacts-tracing system — which raises some specific technical challenges linked to how modern smartphone platforms operate, as well as around international interoperability with other national apps targeting the same purpose.

In addition, the UK app allows users to self-report symptoms of COVID-19 — which could lead to many false alerts being generated. That in turn might trigger notification fatigue and/or encourage users to ignore alerts if the ratio of false alarms exceeds genuine alerts.”

What’s more, while the app initially only stores contact events on each individual’s device, once a user flags him or herself as having symptoms or testing positive, the contact data is uploaded to a central server that will store the data indefinitely, and from which it cannot be deleted.

This data may also be used for public health research, which again raises questions about privacy and the possibility of re-identification of individuals. May 4, 2020, The Guardian also reported on U.K. developments:

“Tech firms are in talks with ministers about creating health passports to help Britons return safely to work using coronavirus testing and facial recognition. Facial biometrics could be used to help provide a digital certificate – sometimes known as an immunity passport – proving which workers have had Covid-19 …

The UK-based firm Onfido, which specializes in verifying people’s identities using facial biometrics, has delivered detailed plans to the government and is involved in a number of conversations about what could be rolled out across the country …

Its proposals, which have reached pilot stages in other countries, could be executed within months … The firm could use antibody tests – proving whether someone has had the virus — or antigen tests, which show current infections.”

Why antigen testing is part of these kinds of “health passports” is a curious mystery, seeing how unreliable they are, not to mention the fact that testing for active infection is worthless unless you get retested on a regular basis. As I mentioned in my Rockefeller plan article, questions that have yet to be answered include:

• How often would you have to undergo testing? A negative test today may not be valid tomorrow, if you happen to come across someone who is infected between now and then. If regular retesting is not part of the plan, then the whole system is worthless as your infection status could change at any time.

• If you are in the vicinity of someone who tests positive in the near future and are told to quarantine for two weeks, will employers pay for that time off and guarantee you have a job to come back to afterward?

• What happens if you quarantine for two weeks but don’t get sick and test negative for antibodies, then go out and happen across yet another person who ends up testing positive shortly thereafter? Will you be forced into quarantine again? Where does it end? And when?

An April 27, 2020, article

by the Brookings Institute lays out some of the many problems inherent with contact tracing apps. It states, in part:

“We are concerned by this rising enthusiasm for automated technology as a centerpiece of infection control. Between us, we hold extensive expertise in technology, law and policy, and epidemiology. We have serious doubts that voluntary, anonymous contact tracing through smartphone apps … can free Americans of the terrible choice between staying home or risking exposure.

We worry that contact-tracing apps will serve as vehicles for abuse and disinformation, while providing a false sense of security … We have no doubts that the developers of contact-tracing apps and related technologies are well-intentioned. But we urge the developers of these systems to step up and acknowledge the limitations of those technologies before they are widely adopted.

Health agencies and policymakers should not over-rely on these apps and, regardless, should make clear rules to head off the threat to privacy, equity, and liberty by imposing appropriate safeguards …

Apps that notify participants of disclosure could, on the margins and in the right conditions, help direct testing resources to those at higher risk. Anything else strikes us as implausible at best, and dangerous at worst.”

The article goes on to highlight a number of risks, including the fact that contact tracing apps are imperfect proxies for exposure. They can easily trigger false positive alerts in situations where the possibility of transmission is extremely low, such as when the signal has traveled through a wall. People in different rooms are not at high risk of infection.

The apps also do not take into account the use of protective gear by the contacts. Also, the elderly, who might stand to gain the most protection from it, are the least likely to download the app. Even those who have the app may not always have the phone on them to catch all contacts, and people might not report symptoms and positive test results even if they get them.

“Even among true contact events, most will not lead to transmission,” Brookings says, citing research showing that despite having about a dozen close contacts each day, the average person who is infected will only transmit the virus to two or three others throughout the entire course of their infection. Brookings continues:

“Because most exposures flagged by the apps will not lead to infection, many users will be instructed to self-quarantine even when they have not been infected. A person may put up with this once or twice, but after a few false alarms and the ensuing inconvenience of protracted self-isolation, we expect many will start to disregard the warnings …

Ultimately, contact tracing is a public health intervention, not an individual health one. It can reduce the spread of disease through the population, but does not confer direct protection on any individual.

This creates incentive problems that need careful thought: What is in it for the user who will sometimes be instructed to miss work and avoid socializing, but does not derive immediate benefits from the system? …

And finally, the issue of malicious use is paramount — particularly given this current climate of disinformation, astroturfing, and political manipulation. Imagine an unscrupulous political operative who wanted to dampen voting participation in a given district, or a desperate business owner who wanted to stifle competition.

Either could falsely report incidences of coronavirus without much fear of repercussion. Trolls could sow chaos for the malicious pleasure of it. Protesters could trigger panic as a form of civil disobedience. A foreign intelligence operation could shut down an entire city by falsely reporting COVID-19 infections in every neighborhood. There are a great many vulnerabilities underlying this platform that have still yet to be explored.”

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