Blog 34.5?? QRwellian

The wife said I should write a little ditty about the US-Phil travel experience. First of all, everything went fine. Check-in, TSA, customs, flight and disembarkation were all normal. Although prices everywhere was elevated. Plane tickets, porters, taxis, hotels and meals were all higher but after two plus years of dormancy we were happy to contribute to kickstarting someone/anyone’s life.

US to Phil travel required a negative antigen or rt-pcr test before boarding. Also, the Phil gov’t wanted a minimum health insurance policy with coverage of $35,000 to cover any possible covid hospitalization. The Phil was tired of paying for foreigners Covid treatment without reimbursement.

What would George Orwell think of QR code monitoring?

Our trip to the Phil required a large number of QR coding. A QR vaccination code for our US negative Covid test. A QR code for our One-Health Phil monitoring, a S-Pass QR for travel between provinces (not used), a Trace QR for travel into certain cities and finally a QR code for my local municipality showing where I have been. The Trace and local QR monitoring is really pushing the Orwellian thought. Although I support its use and could care less if they know I shop at Robinsons or eat at Jolly Bee.

I have two more weeks here and then I will need to produce another negative Covid test before returning to the USA. All is OK, what if I were building in Shanghai from March-May?