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When your actual passport – the one and only, for most people – a super serious piece of document issued by an actual government, based on hard facts like your nationality, place of birth, or long-term place of residence, is no longer enough to allow you to cross borders – what’s happening?
Usually, it’s because there’s a war. Any “boost” will help for sure – that sounds silly, but some people, and it’s no joke, will rely on a US supermarket chain to “boost their credentials” in this area.
Apparently, in the US, the serious business of administering the rushed-to-market Covid vaccines is also being done in Walmart and Sam’s Club stores. But that’s not all folks – now these retail establishments will be allowed to issue Covid “passports” of their own, verifying that the person with their app on their smartphone is eligible to board a plane out of Dodge – or if they must stay, enter school premises.
From the look of it, it’s bad news: Walmart is joining the likes of Microsoft, Salesforce, Oracle, and the Mayo Clinic to become “a verified verifier” of Covid-free people.
Jack Hadfield joins with Tom Pappert to discuss his new project and the insight he’s learned following this covered up illegal immigration nightmare in Europe.
It seems like a whole industry is growing around these “Covid passports” now. What they’re counting on is that millions will want that summer vacation, and will sign on to whatever’s on offer, whether it ends up working or not.
And there’s reason to worry. Four months into the first Covid vaccines being administered, countries and regions are getting freshly locked down with an increase in the daily numbers of coronavirus cases.