“On November 23, while the general public was busy preparing for Thanksgiving, the WA State Department of Health (DOH) issued a press release disclosing they had launched a Digital COVID-19 Verification system. Without any legislative oversight or approval, without any public comment period, the ‘DOH’s Office of Innovation and Technology, working closely with partners at MITRE, Microsoft, and the state of California, stood up WA Verify.‘ Microsoft needs no explanation for its ties to global interests, but MITRE is far less well known. MITRE is a supposed nonprofit claiming to work for “public interests” but it is deeply tied to U.S. military and intelligence agencies and individuals and runs on federal funding.“