Fact checked

Newspunch February 18, 2023 Baxter Dmitry News, US 14 Comments

East Palestine, Ohio rolled out a digital ID system just days before the disastrous train derailment that saw vast quantities of the highly carcinogenic vinyl chloride spilled, and then burned off into the atmosphere.

Reports of the uncanny timing follows news of another stunning “coincidence” connected to the events in East Palestine. The CDC edited the toxicology profile for vinyl chloride, massively increasing the lethal exposure level and removing information about how the chemical affects children, just 11 days before the disaster.

On Jan. 26, Lisbon, Ohio-based media outlet Morning Journal (archive) reported that East Palestine Fire Department was “hosting a sign up event” for a service called MyID targeting both East Palestine and nearby Unity Township.

The outlet quoted East Palestine Councilman Robert Runnion as stating, “MyID is a program that helps first responders aid victims more effectively and efficiently.”

The article added that MyID “touts itself” as a “comprehensive medical ID solution that provides an easy way to access, store and manage your health information.”

Morning Journal explained, “How it works is the company sells a variety of products like bracelets, tags, stickers and wallet cards that feature a QR code that can be scanned by medical personnel to get access to your online medical profile in a few short seconds.”

“The products allow first responders to scan the QR code quickly in the event of an emergency thereby removing any time delays in accessing important health information related to the person in need of help, or in the event that a person cannot communicate,” the outlet added.

But the plan had been months in the making, according to WKBN27 news, which ran something of an advertorial for the MyID rollout in East Palestine in October of 2022.

The lead paragraph of the article stated, “East Palestine is known as ‘The Place to Be.’ It’s way ahead of the curve on a program to provide better treatment for anyone in the event of an emergency. We learned how it works and how it could help everyone in East Palestine.”

Vision Times reports: A video of a television segment accompanying the article showed that the wearables sold by MyID not only included a scannable QR code, but were also RFID tap-enabled.

“Orders will start in January,” WKBN27 stated, adding, “The Fire Department has already collected $5,000 in donations to help.”

In a second Jan. 26 article published by WKBN27, EPFD Chief Keith Drabick stated, “We’re not doing this to gain anybody’s information, to try and steal anybody’s information. We’re doing this to help the public in medical emergencies.”

Drabick added, “Anybody that skeptical? Please come on down. Sit down, talk to us. We’ll be happy to show you everything that goes on with it. We’ll be happy to show you how secure it is.”

Darlene Chapman, also with the EPFD, told the outlet regarding the MyID signup event, “We want to bring people in to get signed up, to pick their device that they want, and just so we can see who all is interested in it.”

WKBN stated that the devices were not only ready to go, but would be free for the first 250 customers, “People who are ready can sign up and pick their device. It’s free. The village has $5,000 in donations to cover the first phase of 250 devices.”