https://patch.com/illinois/across-il/s/hhnyh/could-illinois-become-leader-vaccine-passport-gold-rush
https://archive.is/pMQid
Could Illinois Become Leader In Vaccine Passport Gold Rush?
Gov. Pritzker supports the kind of vaccine passports U of I's for-profit company Shield T3 is poised to eventually add to its COVID-19 app.
CHICAGO — J.B. Pritzker this week became one of the nation's first governors to express unflinching support for vaccine passports, specifically a digital app that provides a person's coronavirus immunization status.
"I do like the idea, though, that everybody will have with them easily on their device — most people carry their devices with them — some way to show that they've been vaccinated," the governor said.
Pritzker's talking about the kind of technology that's quietly being developed by the University of Illinois' taxpayer-funded, for-profit COVID-19 company, Shield T3 LLC, which is currently hawking its coronavirus monitoring system — complete with rapid saliva tests, mobile laboratories and a smartphone app — nationwide.
Before getting elected governor, Pritzker's greatest private-sector success was using his inherited fortune to fund 1871 Chicago, which is now ranked as one of the world's top technology incubators.
Now, Pritzker is proudly throwing his support — and promising Illinois taxpayers will be Shield T3's "biggest customer" — behind the U of I health-and-technology startup angling to become a coronavirus-related business worth billions.