COVID-19/DATA

European Union and at least are brazenly tracking citizens, highlighting the sudden increase in non-consensual state digital surveillance during the covid crisis. Here’s some of the moves that raise concerns:

“A pandemic is no excuse to collect extensive and unnecessary data. Access to health data shall be limited to those who need information to conduct treatment, research, and otherwise address the crisis. The information should be stored securely, in a separate database,” says the Access Now report. It adds that most data should be erased after the crisis is over. On the issue of surveillance, the report recommends “detailed in-person contact tracing” rather than use of mobile devices to safeguard privacy and improve accuracy. In case of geo-location tracking, data should be anonymised. The report also calls for strict safeguards against misuse of data by private companies. “When creating applications to respond to a public health crisis, private companies should not be able to monetise data derived from the use of their products. Additionally, there should be clear limitations on secondary uses or further processing of data.” Most state government apps in India are developed by private companies and many of them are without a privacy policy. Companies are also playing a leading role in the United States.

The biggest threat, however, is the sheer scale of privacy invasion that COVID-19 can trigger. Several countries have arbitrarily altered laws to gain coercive powers that will continue even after the health crisis is over. The episode might not only normalise the deployment of mass surveillance tools in countries that have so far rejected them, but also lead to the transition from “over the skin” to “under the skin” surveillance, warns author Yuval Noah Harari in an article published in the Financial Times. “Hitherto, when your finger touched the screen of your smartphone and clicked on a link, the government wanted to know what exactly your finger was clicking on. But with coronavirus, the focus of interest shifts. Now the government wants to know the temperature of your finger and the blood-pressure under its skin.”

WHILE MOST people are adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, companies makingdrugs,vaccinesanddiagnosticswill certainly end up making money from it. AccordingtotheWorldHealthOrganization,as manyas67vaccineswereinpreclinicalstage andthreevaccineswereinphase1clinicaltrials as of April 11. Similarly, an assessment by Founda-tionforInnovativeNewDiagnostics,a global non-profit that drives research on diagnostics,saysthat36molecularassaysthat use viral genes for diagnosis and 38 immunoassays which used antibodies for diagnosis are being developed. Data from CoronavirusTreatmentAccelerationProgram runbytheUSFoodandDrugAdministration

(USFDA) to support new therapies also shows that10drugsareinactivetrialsandanother15 are in planning stages.

Profit is at the centre of all these endeavours. The Wall Street is already monitoring biotech companies involved in making these products. According to Nasdaq, a global electronic marketplace for buying and trading securities, the company to invest in is Dynavax Technologies Corporation, a Californiabased firm that makes adjuvantschemicals which can make the vaccine more effective. This company has secured funding from Oslo-based nonprofit Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which has invested up to $29.2 million in the search for a COVID-19 vaccine. The organisation hopes to fund at

IT NEEDS TO BE SEEN THAT THE DRUGS AND VACCINES CAN BE MADE IN SUFFICIENT QUANTITIES AND ARE AFFORDABLE

least three vaccine candidates and estimates it would need an investment of US$2 billion to do so.

At present, most of the research on drugs, vaccines and diagnostics is being carried out by small biotech companies and universities. Many of these small companies are using novel techniques to develop the vaccines. For example, Bostonbased Moderna is working on a vaccine which is based on a spike protein of the coronavirus and has provided doses to the US' National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center for the phase I safety trials. These trials are likely to begin in April. However, NIAID director Anthony Fauci recently reported to US Senators that it would take at least a year and a half to have any vaccine ready for the market even if the trials are fast tracked. After successful trials, the vaccine would need to be manufactured in sufficient quantities. At this time, it is likely that the small companies would sell their knowhow to the big four pharma companies—GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi, Merck and Pfizer—which control 85 per cent of the global vaccine market. A spokesperson for GAVI, The Vaccine Alliance, a Geneva-based public–private global health organisation, told

(DTE) that it has taken steps to help strengthen the preparedness of health systems in lower-income countries. Under this, countries that qualify for GAVI support