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by Whitney Webb
\nThe Last American Vagabond<\/p>\n
On April 7,\u00a0Politico<\/i>\u00a0reported<\/span><\/a>\u00a0that the President\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner was spearheading an all-private sector taskforce that aims to build a \u201cnational coronavirus surveillance system\u201d in order to \u201cgive the government a near real-time view of where patients are seeking treatment and for what.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n This proposed nationwide network, according to that report, would be used to better inform government decision-making regarding which parts of the United States may \u201csafely relax social-distancing rules\u201d and those that may not.\u00a0Politico\u00a0<\/i>treaded lightly in its discussion of such a system\u2019s likely effects on civil liberties, but did note that some critics have compared this proposed system \u201cto the Patriot act enacted after the 9\/11 attacks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n According to\u00a0Politico<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>, three companies collectively sent out a memo on March 22 to three administration officials \u2013 Jared Kushner, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Alex Azar. The memo was \u201cwidely circulated\u201d throughout the administration relative to other submitted proposals. Those companies \u2013 Collective Medical, PatientPing and Juvare \u2013 asserted in the memo that they could collectively \u201csupply the government with information on where and how many patients are seeking care across 80 percent of the U.S. \u2018in short order.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Two of those companies, Collective Medical Technologies and PatientPing, declined to comment on the memo\u00a0<\/i>and its contents. A representative from Juvare, however, stated that the company has \u201cspoken with officials across several federal agencies including FEMA, HHS and the CDC about its various emergency preparedness and data tools.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Though the article downplayed the privacy concerns such a system would create, it failed to note the direct and troubling ties of these three companies, not only to Silicon Valley giants with dubious records\u00a0regarding data privacy<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0coordination with U.S. intelligence agencies<\/span><\/a>, but also ties to controversial simulations that took place last year and seemingly predicted the current coronavirus crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n Utah-based Collective Medical Technologies is currently the nation\u2019s largest \u201chealthcare collaboration network\u201d and was recently\u00a0described by<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Forbes<\/i><\/span>\u00a0as having \u201cconquered emergency rooms on a bootstrap.\u201d Its current CEO, Chris Klomp, worked at the Mitt Romney-founded Bain Capital, whose alumni also include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and current CEO of Google\u2019s YouTube Susan Wojicki.<\/span><\/p>\n One of Collective Medical\u2019s largest investors is the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, which poured $47.5 million into the company in 2017. Kleiner Perkins,\u00a0an early investor<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in both Google and Amazon, counts\u00a0former Secretary of State Colin Powell<\/span><\/a>\u00a0among its \u201cstrategic advisors\u201d and has managed\u00a0a $200 million \u201cpandemic and biodefense fund\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0since 2006 that has been\u00a0coordinated in part<\/span><\/a>\u00a0with the World Health Organization. That same year, Dr. Thomas Monmath, former chief of the Fort Detrick bioweapon lab\u2019s Virology Division and former senior science advisor to the CIA,\u00a0also joined Kleiner Perkins<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to help \u201cadvance innovation\u201d in relation to this specific fund. Dr. Monmath is also\u00a0<\/span>a former executive<\/span>\u00a0at an Emergent Biosolutions subsidiary.<\/span><\/p>\n Kleiner Perkin\u2019s pandemic fund has heavily invested in companies that compose the Emergent Biosolutions-run Alliance for Biosecurity, such as\u00a0BioCryst Pharmaceuticals<\/span><\/a>, as well as\u00a0NovaVax<\/span><\/a>, which recently entered into a major partnership with Emergent Biosolutions to produce a coronavirus vaccine. Emergent Biosolutions, one of the most scandal ridden vaccine companies in the country with deep ties to the U.S. government and the Pentagon, is the subject of an investigation\u00a0recently published by<\/span><\/a>\u00a0The Last American Vagabond<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n Boston-based PatientPing is another company in this private sector triad lobbying to form a new national \u201chealth\u201d surveillance system in the name of combatting the coronavirus epidemic. Founded by Jay Desai and David Berkowicz, PatientPing is a technology company focused on information-sharing in order to create a \u201chealthcare collaboration network.\u201d The company\u2019s\u00a0first lead investor<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was Google Ventures, often referred to in press releases and media reports simply as \u201cGV.\u201d Dr. Krishna Yeshwant of Google Ventures sits on\u00a0PatientPing\u2019s board<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and he\u00a0also led<\/span><\/a>\u00a0GV\u2019s investment in Editas Medicine, the CRISPR gene-editing start-up\u00a0backed by<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Bill Gates and his former scientific advisor Boris Nikolic.<\/span><\/p>\n As its name suggests, GV is the venture capital arm of Google and\u00a0over a third of its investments<\/span><\/a>\u00a0are in the \u201clife sciences.\u201d It\u00a0frequently co-invests<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in companies\u00a0with In-Q-Tel<\/span><\/a>, the CIA\u2019s venture capital firm. The cooperation is hardly surprising if one is aware of\u00a0Google\u2019s history<\/span><\/a>, as the technology behemoth was a beneficiary of In-Q-Tel funding in its early days.<\/span><\/p>\n Google\u2019s use (or rather misuse<\/span><\/a>) of private data is well-known and they have recently been in the news in relation to the coronavirus after giving the government\u00a0broad access to the private location data<\/span><\/a>\u00a0of Android smartphone users to allegedly help track the virus\u2019 spread. GV\u2019s association with In-Q-Tel and their interest in a company like PatientPing is notable given that In-Q-Tel, particularly In-Q-Tel\u2019s\u00a0current Executive Vice President<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Tara O\u2019Toole, has long promoted mass surveillance programs that utilize healthcare IT services just like those offered by PatientPing and Collective Medical Technologies. O\u2019Toole is a key and recurrent figure in\u00a0The Last American Vagabond<\/i>\u2019s\u00a0\u201cEngineering Contagion\u201d series<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n PatientPing\u2019s\u00a0other lead investor<\/span><\/a>\u00a0is the venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz. Andreesen Horowitz is\u00a0advised by former Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers<\/span><\/a>, an associate of pedophile and intelligence asset\u00a0Jeffery Epstein<\/span><\/a>\u00a0as well as billionaire\u00a0Bill Gates<\/span><\/a>. This same venture capital firm is also\u00a0one of the lead investors in Toka<\/span><\/a>, an Israeli intelligence-linked \u201cstart-up\u201d founded by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who was also a close associate of Jeffrey Epstein. Toka describes its product portfolio as \u201cempower[ing] governments, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies to enhance Homeland Security with groundbreaking cyber-intelligence and operational capabilities\u201d by allowing government\u2019s covert access to consumer electronic devices. Two members of Andreesen Horowitz, Jeff Jordan and Vijay Pande, sit on\u00a0PatientPing\u2019s board<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The last of the three companies poised to build a national coronavirus surveillance system is the emergency management software company Juvare. One of their key products is called EMTrack, which \u2013\u00a0according to Juvare\u2019s website<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 provides its clients the ability to track \u201cpatients, people, pets and populations throughout any kind of event.\u201d Its software, in general,\u00a0relies heavily on<\/span><\/a>\u00a0Google-made or owned software<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Juvare boasts that its products have been used by the government to\u00a0coordinate responses<\/span><\/a>\u00a0to mass shootings, such as the Las Vegas and\u00a0Pulse Nightclub shootings<\/span><\/a>, and past pandemic scares such as Swine Flu (H1N1), Bird Flu, Ebola and SARS. Juvare\u2019s software products are used by\u00a080% of state public health agencies<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0over 50 different U.S. federal agencies<\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 including the FBI, the State Department and Homeland Security. It is also a contractor for\u00a0the U.S. military<\/span><\/a>. In Mid-March, it released a \u201cfree\u201d software add-on for existing clients in government\u00a0to track<\/span><\/a>\u00a0coronavirus cases including \u201cpresumptive cases\u201d as well as the number of those under \u201cmandatory and voluntary\u201d quarantines.<\/span><\/p>\n Juvare was\u00a0a notable private sector participant<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the series of \u201cCrimson Contagion\u201d simulations that were conducted last year by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Crimson Contagion, overseen and designed by HHS Assistance Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Robert Kadlec (also\u00a0a key player<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in the \u201cEngineering Contagion\u201d series), simulated the U.S. government\u2019s response to a massive viral pandemic four times between last January and August. Those simulations involved both large and small-scale exercises that brought together 19 different federal agencies, 12 states and several private companies. One focus of those simulations, which preceded the coronavirus crisis by a matter of months, was the use of the surveillance in order to better enforce \u201csocial distancing\u201d among Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n Though these private companies \u2013\u00a0as noted by\u00a0Politico<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 are now offering their services of \u201csurveillance\u201d to the U.S. government \u201cfor free,\u201d it is difficult to believe that their offer is altruistic in nature given their ties to companies and organizations that have long lobbied for or actively participated in mass surveillance for years, long before the current coronavirus came to dominate headlines and the public consciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n Much like the Patriot Act after 9\/11, the current pandemic crisis is being used to expand mass surveillance programs, programs that are unlikely to end after the pandemic fades. To the contrary, if history is any indicator, such sweeping new surveillance systems will instead be further expanded.<\/span><\/p>\n It is also worth pointing out the significance of Jared Kushner\u2019s involvement in leading this effort, as his wife Ivanka Trump \u2013 the President\u2019s daughter \u2013 was one of the leading proponents of a controversial program last year called\u00a0the Health Advanced Research Projects Agency (HARPA)<\/span><\/a>. HARPA seeks to create a new government \u201chealth\u201d agency aimed at stopping mass shootings before they occur. This agency\u2019s main program,\u00a0called \u201cSafe Home\u201d<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(Stopping Aberrant Fatal Events by Helping Overcome Mental Extremes), aims to develop an artificial intelligence-based system that would analyze data harvested from consumer electronic devices as well as information provided by health-care providers to identify those who\u00a0might<\/i>\u00a0threaten others.<\/span><\/p>\n Though HARPA ultimately failed to gain traction, a similarly Orwellian mass surveillance system is now being promoted in its place, with coronavirus now replacing mass shootings as the official justification. The superficial re-branding of this new, far-reaching mass surveillance system aims to justify its imposition by framing it as a solution to whatever is currently inspiring the most fear among Americans, with the hope that something sticks. These transparent attempts to gain public consent for further expansion of unconstitutional surveillance strongly suggests that such a system is aimed at expanding authoritarianism and further reducing American civil liberties and has little to do with protecting \u201cpublic health\u201d and assisting the country\u2019s response to coronavirus.<\/span><\/p>\nCollective Medical Technologies<\/span><\/h3>\n
PatientPing<\/span><\/h3>\n
Juvare<\/span><\/h3>\n
Here to help?<\/span><\/h3>\n