Image from Uber.com.
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Uber is an innovative transportation company that has taken off in recent years offering the public an alternative to taxis. By creating an account and downloading their app, one can hail private Uber drivers by letting the system know your location.
But did you know that Uber is getting into the healthcare field as well? With their vast network knowing your identity and location, how else might they use that information?
Investigative reporter Jefferey Jaxen reports how Uber is now being used to deliver flu shots to people’s homes. Is Uber getting into the vaccine business as a precursor to capitalizing on mandatory vaccines being proposed around the nation?
UberHealth Data Mining Away Medical Ethics With Flu Shots
by Jefferey Jaxen
Health Impact News
A quick search of words “UBER Flu” reveals a laundry list of headlines and stories filled with puns and clever wordplay. This is because the ride-sharing company UBER has recently wrapped up its second phase/year of a pilot program aimed at delivering flu shots to individual’s doorsteps. Last year the program was tested in three cities and this year it was expanded to 35 communities around the United States. The formula was simple, for one day, UberHealth delivered wellness packs to the doorstep of individuals requesting them via Uber’s app. The wellness packs include a water bottle, tissues, hand sanitizer, a lollipop, and Uber tote and are $10 each. The Uber user then has the option to receive a flu vaccine for themselves and up to 10 people, administered by a registered nurse at no additional charge compliments of Passport Health.
In a normal environment, the UberHealth program is an innovative solution through a collaboration of data gathering companies, smartphones, traveling nurses, and pharmaceutical houses all benefiting the greater good and increasing herd immunity. In reality, UberHealth is a socially uncomfortable medical data mining initiative set against the backdrop of a nation rapidly losing medical choice and medical ethics.
Health Innovation Lost
UberHealth’s creator and brainchild is John Brownstein, PhD who serves as the Chief Innovative Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). According to BCH’s website, Brownstein and his “big data analytics” team are supported by a multi-million dollar budget from grants by the Gates Foundation, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Defense, Google and others.
“Convenience and delivery method are both key components of many people’s decision of whether or not to get a flu shot,” states the Uber press release.
Apparently with endless bytes of big data at their fingertips, Uber, Epidemico, Brownstein and team overlooked the questionable safety and effectiveness of the flu shot. The shot’s performance has been absolutely dismal over the past years offering only 19 percent effectivness in the U.S. according to the CDC. Canadian efforts haven’t faired any better as their country’s flu shot initiative offered no protection according to British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.
Did Uber take into consideration that according to the Department of Justice, the flu vaccine remains the most dangerous shot based on injury and deaths compensated by the U.S. government? In the spirit of innovation, perhaps the question Uber, Passport Health, Epidemico, Brownstein and team should be asking is, do we really need better ways to deliver inferior products?
Can Ethics be Data Mined?
Currently in the United States, medical ethics has become the phantom of a once noble and just idea being further buried under layers of corporate profits and political agendas. With mandatory vaccination laws being considered, corporations leveraging to take advantage of such unjust laws are further chipping away at the very foundations the medical community was built on.
Unlike an actual doctor’s office or clinic, the drive-by Uber nurses create a gaping disconnect displaying a complete absence in the continuity of care. The continuity of care is supposed to be concerned with quality of medical care over time. The American Medical Association (AMA) adopted Opinion 10.01 which states that “The patient has the right to continuity of health care.”
Even store clinics are required to adhere to basic continuity of care standards as outlined in the AMA’s Policy H.160.921 which states “health clinics must establish protocols for ensuring continuity of care with practicing physicians within the local community.”
Did UberHealth ensure the proper continuity of care with practicing physicians within the 35 local communities being tested? Without clear continuity of care in place, who will the UberHealth patient turn to for information after the shot is administered? In the future, will UBER offer discounted rates for patients that need rides to the hospital after suffering adverse reactions from their UberHealth flu shot?
Getting Ready for Mandatory Vaccine Laws?
As mandatory vaccination laws are introduced and signed into law, data mining companies are rushing for position to innovate away remaining barriers between vaccines and your body. Immunization Information Systems (IIS) wait armed and ready to pounce into action at a politician’s pen stroke as they continue to track children’s vaccine statuses.
The California Department of Education’s legal division has given advice to seek court orders for vaccine refusers in 2016. The federal government’s stated goals in less than five years is to vaccinate 80 to 90 percent of the public in all major vaccination categories. It appears the race has begun to find which public facing companies are best positioned to capitalize on a potential mandatory vaccination push.
The United States health care system lays hopelessly dormant under an overarching umbrella of pharmaceutical monopolies, data mining companies, and a captured political process; this is perhaps the real reason the U.S. health care system is ranked last among developed countries. As companies pile into the “vaccine sector” looking for profits, it is important to understand the boycott always remains a viable option to keep unethical profit seekers in check.