Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed a bill called H.R. 550 that would facilitate the creation of a federal vaccination database.  The purpose would be to track the vaccination status of all U.S. citizens. 

To call this bill a danger to the personal freedoms of every citizen is an understatement.

The bill states that $400 million of taxpayer money will be used to "direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to take actions to improve data sharing and other aspects of immunization information systems.  These are confidential, population-based databases that maintain a record of vaccine administrations."

Specifically, HHS must:

• develop a strategy and plan to improve these systems, including systems supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC);
• designate data and technology standards for use in these systems; and
• award grants to health departments and other government agencies to improve their systems.

To sum it up, the bill provides sweeping powers to the CDC and compels public and private health care providers at state and local levels to share information with the central government.

Supporters of the bill have claimed that the information in the vaccine database will be used to send reminders to patients when they are due for a recommended vaccine.  However, there are many other actions that this information can facilitate.  Let's consider some hypothetical but plausible scenarios.

Perhaps the vaccine information can be shared with employers, urging them to stop payment for the unvaccinated?

Perhaps the vaccine information will be shared with airlines, railways, and taxi services to prevent the unvaccinated from traveling within their locality or the country?

Perhaps the information will be shared with passport authorities to prevent travel overseas?

Perhaps the information will be shared with law enforcement agencies to declare the unvaccinated criminals?  That is, the unvaccinated are carriers of the virus and can infect others, causing death, so the unvaccinated are almost the equivalent of murderers. 

Perhaps the unvaccinated will be fined in the form of taxes?

Perhaps the children of the unvaccinated won't be allowed in schools?

Perhaps they cancel your internet or phone or any other essential services if you are unvaccinated?

To sum it up, this is a tool that can and, indeed, will be used to force the vaccine upon citizens.

The clause of confidentiality, in this case, suggests that information may be restricted from public access.  But what about access to other government bodies such as the IRS, the Department of Defense, etc.?  Can you trust the government to protect your information from leaks and hacks?

The hypothetical scenarios may seem as if they emanated from an overworked, paranoid mind.  But if someone in 2018 had told you that you will be confined to your homes for months with masks and vaccines mandated, you would have laughed it off. Today that is a reality.  It has to be remembered: information once in the possession of the authorities will never be deleted or abandoned.

If recent history has taught us anything, it isn't a matter of if, but when, this information will be misused and eventually weaponized to hurt the citizen. 

Powers such as these are what authoritarians always dream of; hence, each and every Democrat voted in support of the bill.

A bill such as this should have been ridiculed, opposed, and kicked out of the House by Republicans.

Alas, nothing of a kind happened.

Not one, or two, or ten, or even twenty, but eighty Republicans voted for this bill.  This includes Kevin Owen McCarthy, who is the House minority leader.

With leaders such as these, the Republicans do not need enemies.

We are living in a viciously partisan atmosphere.

Once upon a time, the goal of the well-being of the nation was identical across parties.  The partisan divide occurred only in the method in which the goal could be accomplished.

Those days are over.

We now have a party that seeks authoritarianism and is marching toward it every day.  Its members call opponents domestic terrorists.  They propagate hoaxes when they lose elections, and they use crises such as the pandemic to encroach on personal freedoms.  While they are doing all this, they also facilitate the enrichment of their relatives and allies.

They are the Democrat Washington establishment.

Due to the vicious partisan bickering, it is often a tendency to focus solely on one's opponent.  But when you do that, you inadvertently neglect the behavior of your allies.

In current times, most Republicans are either bystanders or allies of the Democrats.

A helpless or treacherous ally is infinitely worse than an avowed adversary.  The adversary is doing what is expected.  He is against you; he wants to destroy you.  You are aware of it; hence, you are cautious.  But when the partner who has promised to fight all your battles, to serve and protect you, becomes indifferent, or sides with your adversary, it is an emergency.

These frauds may be adept wordsmiths.  They probably promise the world on the campaign trail.  They have angry exchanges with Democrats during public hearings on the Hill and go ballistic on Fox News.  But when it is all done, they vote against the interests of their people and obsequiously return to the feet of their masters — i.e., the Democrat Washington establishment.

As voters, it is time to judge Republicans solely by their actions and not by their empty words.

Each and every betrayer has to be replaced with brave, confident, and ideologically committed candidates.

Voting the same people back in will cause no change.  The Republicans may win the House and the Senate, but the Democrat Washington establishment will continue to be the masters.

The following is a list of Republicans who stabbed you in the back and voted for the Vaccine Database Bill.

Do look for your representative and make sure to vote them out!

Image: Flickr user Mao Tsé-Tung 毛澤東, CC BY 2.0.

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