Thread by @StefSimanowitz

1/. This diagram shows how the US & UK govts appear to have a joint/parallel #COVID19 strategy, giving military-backed data-mining company, #Palantir, access to heath data on a mass scale

Palantir, founded by right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel, has links with #CambridgeAnalytica

2/. According to #CambridgeAnalytica whistleblower, @chrisinsilico, in 2015 he was tasked by Steve Bannon to build a psychological warfare tool designed to use big data & social media to drive open cracks in societies & hollow out democracies.

It worked!

3/. Thiel not only backed Trump in 2016, but Palantir employees reportedly worked with #CambridgeAnalytica, harvesting Facebook data ahead of the elections

At the start of 2017, Trump appointed three Palantir employees, to key roles in his administration.

4/. In early 2017:

Palantir's Kevin Harrington, became Dep Assistant to the President for stategic planning

Michael Kratsios, Palanitr's chief of staff, became WH deputy chief technology officer

Justin Mikolay, moved from #Palantir to Special Assistant to the defense secretary

5/. In 1996, Carl Sagan warned:

“We’ve arranged a society based on science & technology, in which nobody understands anything about science and technology. And this combustible mixture of ignorance & power, sooner or later, is going to blow up in our faces.”

That time is now.

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1310605419694493697

6/. The Mercers, who funded #CambridgeAnalytica & Breitbart, are funding a right-wing social media site, Parler

Bannon was chair of Breitbart & VP of Cambridge Analytica which together helped make Brexit happen & - with help of Palantir - won it for Trump

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1327718240622170113

7/. In Sept, the govt quietly launched #GenomeUK, putting genomics at the heart of govt policy for the next decade.

Genome research has HUGE potential social & cost benefits, not just in medicine.

In the right hands, it is vital.

But scrutiny is needed.

https://twitter.com/StefSimanowitz/status/1313196125948649474

8/. "The UK offers companies...active life sciences & increasingly expanding access to rich longitudinal data from the NHS’s 65 million patients."
Dept of Trade/NHS "Invitation to Invest"

You can opt out but this option isn't available not during #COVID19 nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-…

9/. Few people are aware that, since the 30 September, the NHS may be sharing your data “for research purposes”

You can opt out, but the NHS will still share your anonymous data - from which you can be identified - & you CANNOT opt out if there is an “overriding public interest”

10/. The NHS says it won’t sell your data, but this invitation to invest from the Dept of Trade talks about the “commercial benefits” & “offers companies facilitated introductions patients across the full spectrum of primary, secondary & specialist care.”
directory-cms-public.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Inve…

11/. “We have a duty to do more especially with data that the govt itself holds which can be used & shared for the benefit of society."

Govt's data strategy spells out what the PM hinted at in his #GreenwichSpeech & explains the centrality of #GenomeUK.
gov.uk/government/pub…

12/. The govt site says “NHS Digital will never sell your data”

But could others have a right to sell it?

The UK has a single healthcare system making large-scale research easier & the UK offers investors a “streamlined” regulatory system which can “maximise speed of approvals"

13/. On 3 Feb, the PM made the #GreenwichSpeech

He says that #COVID19 could trigger responses “that go beyond what is medically rational” causing “unnecessary economic damage” & suggests the UK could take advantage of the pandemic to become a “supercharged” free trade superman

14/. Does the #GreenwichSpeech hint that late lockdown & other ‘failures’ were actually part of a deliberate #Herdimmunity strategy?

Does it also offer a glimpse of the bigger vision - set out in Cummings’ blogs - of how the govt wants to harness genomics to transform the world?