ARCHIVE NUMBER 22
News Flash: Winter 2004
Implanted Chip Gets Approval
The Day We Hoped Would Never Come!
It's my habit to settle down at the weekend to a long read of the "Sunday Telegraph" which is a (UK) secular newspaper that reports on many topics of interest to Christians in today's world. (The paper is worth buying just for Christopher Booker's report on Europe!)
This morning I nearly spilled my coffee when I read the headline "Implanted medical record chips 'will save lives globally'" complete with a large picture of a group of people smiling beningnly over a child being implanted in the forearm.
Of course, I have been aware for a long while of the implantable chip. I have read many reports online, both by companies developing the chip and Christians objecting to it. But somehow, to wake up to see - in a trustworthy conservative newspaper - that we may all soon be implanted with a computer chip, is something that focuses the mind a little.
Here is the report that I read, and I want you particularly to notice the parts I have emphasised in bold type:
Implanted medical record chips 'will save lives globally'
By Michael Day, Health Correspondent
(Filed: 17/10/2004)
A revolutionary electronic device the size of a rice grain, which is implanted under a person's skin and holds the key to their medical records, will soon be saving lives around the world. Scientists say that the "VeriChip"will give doctors quick access to medical records, boosting their ability to help people suffering from conditions such as heart disease and diabetes.
Doctors will read the chips using a hand-held scanner to gain access to a patient's medical history on a centralised database, such as that being commissioned for the National Health Service. In emergencies, the chips could provide quick access to live-saving information on unconscious patients.
The influential US Food and Drugs Administration has given the go-ahead for the Verichip in America and one British firm has ordered 9,000 of them in anticipation of demand from hospitals here.
Sanjay Panchani, a director of Surge IT Solutions in north London, said: "Now that the FDA has given the go-ahead for the chips to be used, it's only a matter of time before they're approved and used over here. We're confident that the health sector will develop it." He plans to sell the chips for £150 each.
A spokesman for the Department of Health said that doctors could "probably" implant the chips in patients without the need for approval by the authorised body, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, as it did not regard the VeriChip as a medical device.
The chip is inserted under the skin of a person's upper arm in a 20-minute procedure costing £100. Each device has an identification number, which allows doctors to access individual patient information on centrally stored medical records. Don Mackechnie, the chairman of the British Medical Association's Accident and Emergency committee, and a consultant at the Rochdale Infirmary, said: "Such a device could prove very useful in a situation where we have an unconscious patient with an unknown medical history. It could reveal serious allergies to medicines, for example."
He said, however, that he had some concerns about the devices. "We would need to see how much it cost to buy the equipment needed to reed the devices," he said. "There's also the issue of privacy and who would be able to access the information and how. In other words, we need to see what the practicalities will be."
The VeriChip is made by Applied Digital Solutions, based in Florida. Scott Silverman, its chief executive, said that the FDA's approval of the device would boost its credibility. He said that patients implanted with chips stood to receive more effective medical care because doctors and other health workers would have access to patient records regardless of where they were.
So far, the devices have had some success as security devices. Earlier this year Mexico's attorney general, Rafael Macedo de la Concha, and scores of his colleagues received VeriChip implants that controlled their access to premises and documents. Since then, however, around 1,000 Mexicans have had implants that provide access to medical records. "I've believed all along that the medical application was best, followed by security and financial applications," Mr Silverman said. In order to get the ball rolling in the US, his company is providing free scanners, which cost £380, to 200 casualty units there.
Mr Panchani, of Surge IT, said the devices would also find use as tags in the Army and in prisons, and that potential applications were virtually limitless. "It could be used just like a passport, so people will have to carry nothing, no credit cards and no wallets. We feel there are countless possibilities with this product."
Earlier this month, Applied Digital signed a deal to supply VeriChips to distributors in Brazil, where kidnapping has become endemic. Government officials hope that the chips could be used to trackdown victims via satellite.
Some campaigners have warned, however, that there could be a more sinister side to the new technology. Barry Hugill, of the campaign group Liberty, said: "Quite obviously if you're going to have a chip stuck under your skin that is going to enable someone to monitor you, you need to be aware of the threat this might pose to your privacy."
Beth Green of the Privacy Rights Clearing House in San Diego, California, said the chips could be "creating the infrastructure for potential Government surveillance".
Discerning Christians will be aware of the prophecies in the New Testament [Revelation 13] that speak of a number being inserted "in" the hand or forehead, which will control all people on earth - apart from those who refuse to receive it, and thus make themselves a target for persecution on a massive scale. Since the writing of the New Testament there has been endless speculation about what the "mark of the beast" could possibly be, but in this endtime generation we are beginning to realise that the technology now exists to fulfill this prophecy - and, no more than a few years hence.
Did you notice, above, that a spokesman for SurgeIT suggested the uses of the chip are "limitless" and hinted at a replacement for passports, ID card, credit cards and even MONEY: "It could be used just like a passport, so people will have to carry nothing, no credit cards and no wallets. We feel there are countless possibilities with this product."
Why should a Surge-IT spokesman be quoted? Well, according to news reports, Surge-IT Solutions are now the UK distributor for this implantable chip:
Applied Digital (NASDAQ: ADSX), a provider of Security Through Innovation(TM), announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, VeriChip(TM) Corporation, has signed a Distribution Agreement with Surge IT Solutions of London, England. As part of this three-year exclusive distribution agreement, Surge IT has agreed to purchase a minimum of 9,000 chips and 110 scanners to maintain exclusive distribution rights for the United Kingdom. Surge IT Solutions, www.surge-it.com, intends to use the VeriChip technology for secure building access for government installations, educational facilities, and various identification applications.
This company, Surge IT Solutions, has secured rights to develop the chip commercially in the UK. (See this report) Applied Digital is the owner of a majority position in Digital Angel Corporation. For more information, visit the company's website at http://www.adsx.com.
CURIOUS SECRET CODE
One strange feature of the website of Digital Angel in the year 2000 was that, encoded into the source code that was only viewable off-screen (not on a web page), were the letters bbb, obviously and perhaps deliberately mimicking the numbers 666. Each time "Digital Angel" the trademark was mentioned on the page, it was enclosed on each side by three B's. In the page title (not seen onscreen by normal browsers) it was encoded thus: < TITLE >Welcome to ADS < b >< b >< b >Digital Angel</ b ></ b ></ b ></ TITLE > .
As website owners will know, in the header tags no HTML codes are allowable or readable, so this is not an attempt to make the word "bold" and even if it were, putting THREE letters b is not a code for "bold".
In short, this seems like a DELIBERATE attempt to place the letters bbb in an unreadable format in the header tags of the page. We can only speculate why this happened. Perhaps the website writer was just ignorant of the use of HTML tags. Yet, the result is still interesting, because either accidentally or deliberately Digital Angel has been identified with the biblical bbb or 666 code number.
As I said in my previous News Flash, the world is fast running down and heading for disaster. (It will be interesting to see what the global alliance of revival churches teaches about the implanted chip and the mark of the beast. My guess is they will pass it off as yet another crank scare and advise their members to ignore our warnings.)
STAY AWAKE! STAY ALERT!!
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© 2004 Tricia Tillin of Banner Ministries. All rights reserved. Cross+Word Website: http://www.banner.org.uk/ This document is the property of its author and is not to be displayed on other websites, redistributed, sold, reprinted, or reproduced in printed in any other format without permission. Websites may link to this article, if they provide proper title and author information. One copy may be downloaded, stored and/or printed for personal research. All spelling and phraseology is UK English.