What Is Stakeholder Capitalism + COVAX + Big Tech + WHO + UN

What is stakeholder capitalism & how does big tech, COVAX, WHO, and UN play a role in coordinating to expand globalism. 

76 countries, including Japan, Germany and Norway, have now signed up to the COVAX scheme.  The COVAX initiative aims to “accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world”. That, again, sounds wonderful, especially given the staggering inequalities in vaccination levels between rich and developing countries.

But why is the World Health Organization (WHO), which is part of the UN, not calling the shots? “Countries together, through multilateral agencies like the WHO, were supposed to make decisions about global health issues, with maybe some technical support by others,” says Sulakshana Nandi from NGO People's Health Movement, which has recently brought out a Policy Brief on COVAX.

Big Pharma investment opportunities

COVAX was set up as a multi-stakeholder group by two other multi-stakeholder groups, GAVI (the Vaccine Alliance) and CEPI (the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), in partnership with the WHO. Both GAVI and CEPI have strong ties with the World Economic Forum (which was one of the founders of CEPI) as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and both are also connected to companies like Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson through manufacturer partnerships (GAVI) or as 'supporters' (CEPI). Even though COVAX is funded predominantly by governments, it is these corporate-centered coalitions that are overseeing its roll-out.

The contrast between the multi-stakeholder approach and a 'classic' multilateral one came to the surface when South Africa and India proposed the so-called TRIPS waiver at the end of last year. They requested a temporary lifting of intellectual property rules on all COVID-19 technologies in order to boost the manufacturing and distribution of vaccines and other essential medical products in mainly developing countries. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a speech that he backed the proposal. “But GAVI, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – even Bill Gates himself – and Big Pharma opposed this proposal very strongly,” said Nandi. “It's more important for them to protect their interests and market mechanisms than to protect universal health or protect people from COVID.” The WHO was approached for comment but has not replied.

Again, there is a stark choice between a human rights-led approach carried out by the UN and a profit-led approach carried out by multistakeholder bodies representing the interests of corporations. In the case of COVAX – which is failing to meet its modest aim of vaccinating 20% of the populations of low- and middle-income countries – the former has won out.

Something fishy really is going on in the realm of global governance. If you value your right to public health, to privacy, to access healthy food or to democratic representation, be wary of the words 'stakeholder capitalism’ when they pop up at the next Davos summit.

Big tech governing big tech

Another landmark in the development of stakeholder capitalism can be found in the Big Tech sector. As a part of his 2020 Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, the UN Secretary-General called for the formation of a new ‘strategic and empowered multi-stakeholder high-level body’. Again it's not easy to find a list of stakeholders but after some digging a long list of ‘roundtable participants’ for the roadmap includes Facebook, Google, Microsoft and the WEF.

Although the functions laid out for this new body are quite vague, civil society organizations fear it will come down to Big Tech creating a global body to govern itself. This risks institutionalizing these companies' resistance against effective regulation both globally and nationally and increasing their power over governments and multilateral organizations. If the body comes to fruition, it could be a decisive victory in the ongoing war GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft) is waging with governments over tax evasion, antitrust rules, and their ever-expanding power over society.

More than 170 civil society groups worldwide have signed another open letter to the secretary-general of the UN – this time to prevent the digital governance body from forming. The secretary-general was approached for comment but had not replied at the time of publication.  Here is the full article. 

Stakeholder Capitalism by McKinsey 

The McKinsey Global Institute concluded that those with a long-term view—something that is essential to stakeholder capitalism—outperformed the rest in earnings, revenue, investment, and job growth. Other McKinsey research found that companies with strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) norms recorded higher performance and credit ratings; other research has found that such companies perform better during crises.

In China, This Coronavirus App Pretty Much Controls Your Life

In China, This Coronavirus App Pretty Much Controls Your Life

The scale of your COVID-19 exposure based on where you have been

This Coronavirus App Tells You To Quarantine and Restricts Your Movement Regardless of Your Symptoms  

Democrats in The United States want to hire 100,000 contact tracers with the help of Apple iOS to do contact tracing.   Here is their plan to control your life and restrict your freedoms. 

To manage COVID-19 epidemics going forward, communities in the United States need: (1) ready access to rapid diagnostic tests for all symptomatic cases or those with reasonable suspicion of COVID-19 exposure; (2) widespread serological testing to understand underlying rates of infection and identify those who have developed immunity and could potentially return to work or school without fear of becoming infected; and (3) the ability to trace all contacts of reported cases. In order to trace all contacts, safely isolate the sick, and quarantine those exposed, we estimate that our public health workforce needs to add approximately 100,000 (paid or volunteer) contact tracers to assist with this large-scale effort. This workforce could be strategically deployed to areas of greatest need and managed through state and local public health agencies that are on the front lines of COVID-19 response. To do this, we also estimate that Congress will need to appropriate approximately $3.6 billion in emergency funding to state and territorial health departments.

This plan outlines a vision for how to accomplish this goal, including ways that case identification and contact tracing capabilities can be greatly expanded; actions that the federal, state, and local governments and other organizations must take to stand up these capabilities as quickly as possible; and resources that will be needed to accomplish comprehensive case finding and contact tracing.

A national effort to scale up and expand local, state, and territorial case investigation and management is necessary before US communities can begin to return to “normal.” If we can find nearly every case, and trace the contacts of each case, it will be possible, in time, to relax the bluntest approaches: the extreme social distancing measures, such as stay at home orders, and realize the commensurate social and economic benefits.

This document sets forth a call to action that specifies what is needed to enable the United States to massively scale up its ability to identify COVID-19 cases in every community and trace contacts of every case in support of national recovery from COVID-19. In this document, we aim to aid public health officials and decision-makers at all levels of government—local, state, territorial, tribal, and federal—in expanding the capabilities and capacities necessary to undertake the case-based interventions that will greatly reduce transmission of COVID-19 and enable the country to gradually lift social distancing measures and movement restrictions, even before a vaccine is widely available. 

While technology-heavy methods used by Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea may be difficult to replicate in the US context because of privacy protections, New Zealand and Iceland’s approach could be achievable with a large enough contact tracing workforce. The United States could possibly roll out a mobile contact tracing application that could capture contacts and record their self-reported symptoms. Following the Iceland and Singapore models, with user permission, an app could also record and store user location for contact tracing and tracking purposes. In addition, a national electronic platform for contact tracing could be developed and potentially synced with existing electronic health records. 

Democrats in The United States want to hire 100,000 contact tracers with the help of Apple iOS to do contact tracing.  This simple innocent iOS14 app will turn into something far different in the future. 

In order to relax community mitigation efforts and other measures to reduce COVID-19 transmission, it is essential to rapidly test all symptomatic cases of COVID-19, identify and isolate all positive cases, and conduct contact tracing for all close contacts of each and every case. This level of case-based intervention will help enable a lessening of social distancing measures, but it can be accomplished only by massively scaling up the local and state public health workforce—on the order of 100,000 newly engaged workers—to assist with the enormous and unprecedented task of contact investigation and containment on this scale.

In parallel with helping the United States to shift from population-level interventions to more precise case-based interventions, this initiative could provide an income to many who have lost their earnings as a result of the pandemic. Strategic management, training, and support for this workforce will be necessary, and technology must be explored as a force multiplier. Federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local governments each have a role to play to successfully advance this ambitious expansion of existing local, state, and territorial public health capabilities.

Now is the time for Congress, the administration, and the country to come together to adequately fund and implement contact tracing at this required scale. The goal of adding at least 100,000 new contact tracers in the United States and managing their work, while challenging, is achievable with appropriate financial support and a collective commitment. Read the full document.

AAPL Plunges After iPhone Sales Miss, China Revenues Plummet, Lack Of Forecast.  Now that Apple is losing revenue in China you know they are going to start following China's lead and I suspect they are going to use Government services and contact tracing has their next revenue opportunity. 

Contact Tracing Legitimate or a Scam?

You’ve probably been hearing a lot about contact tracing. It’s the process of identifying people who have come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, instructing them to quarantine and monitoring their symptoms daily.

If you’re contacted about possible exposure to the coronavirus, make sure it’s legit. Scammers are masquerading as contact tracers, and it’s smart to verify calls or texts before giving out any information.

 A tracer’s job is to help contain the pandemic by reaching out to people who may be spreading the coronavirus. You could be called because your test was positive. Or perhaps someone who tested positive named you as someone they’d been in contact with, and now you need to be tested.

Scammers read the news, too, and are trying to capitalize on tracing campaigns. They’ve even made calls appear to come from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And yet actual tracers can’t do their work if we won’t pick up the phone.

Contact tracers are usually hired by a state’s department of public health. They work with an infected person to get the names and phone numbers for everyone that infected person came in close contact with while the possibly infectious. Those names and phone numbers are often kept in an online system. People who had contact with someone infected with COVID-19 may first get a text message from the health department, telling them they’ll get a call from a specific number. The tracer who calls will not ask for personal information, like a Social Security number. At the end of the call, some states ask if the contact would like to enroll in a text message program, which sends daily health and safety reminders until the 14-day quarantine ends. But tracers won’t ask you for money or information like your Social Security, bank account, or credit card number. Anyone who does is a scammer.