Leaked emails and a surprise CDC appointment hint at a stealthy plan to let AI run America’s health surveillance — and nobody voted for it.
What if the next time you visit a doctor, an algorithm decides your fate before you even sit down? Over the last three hours, a trio of viral posts has exposed a web of emails, appointments, and policies that could hand the keys to America’s public-health kingdom to Peter Thiel’s data-mining empire. Grab a coffee — this rabbit hole runs deep.
The Email That Started It All
At 9:17 a.m. today, investigative reporter Harrison H. Smith dropped a thread that lit the internet on fire. He claims to have seen emails from Jeffrey Epstein to former Israeli PM Ehud Barak, sketching out a global AI surveillance grid built by Palantir. The alleged blueprint? Track every cough, flight, and credit-card swipe in real time. Critics scream dystopia; supporters whisper national security. Either way, the documents suggest the plan has been simmering since at least 2019. If true, the quiet part just got shouted: AI replacing humans isn’t science fiction — it’s a PowerPoint deck.
A Surprising Appointment
Minutes later, Jason Bassler pointed out that Jim O’Neill — a longtime Thiel lieutenant — was just named CDC Director. Same guy who once argued the FDA should let dying patients try unapproved drugs. Same guy who sat on Palantir’s board. Suddenly the CDC’s 11,000 employees and oceans of health data are under new management. Imagine your medical records living next door to battlefield-grade analytics. Privacy advocates are sweating bullets. Tech optimists are popping champagne. The rest of us are left asking: who asked for this?
Doctors Ring the Alarm
ER physician Craig Spencer didn’t mince words. In a thread that rocketed past 50,000 likes, he warned Trump’s incoming AI Action Plan could bake bias into medicine for a generation. Think algorithms trained on skewed data deciding who gets a ventilator. Spencer’s fear? Human oversight gets replaced by code that has never held a stethoscope. The post linked to an Atlantic piece dissecting how AI hallucinations in diagnostics could kill. One reply summed it up: “Silicon Valley is betting its chips on our heartbeats.”
Markets Cheer, Workers Jeer
While headlines swirl, Wall Street is already placing bets. Trader Gareth Soloway noted Alibaba’s new AI chip undercuts U.S. giants on price and versatility. Cheaper chips mean faster rollout of AI replacing humans in call centers, radiology labs, and even pharmacy counters. Bulls call it democratization. Bears see pink slips by the thousands. Either way, margins are shrinking and competition is exploding. The race isn’t just about who builds the smartest AI — it’s about who owns the data feeding it.
What Happens Next
So where does that leave the rest of us? First, watch the confirmation hearings for O’Neill; every question about Palantir is a referendum on AI replacing humans in public health. Second, demand transparency: if your hospital partners with Thiel-backed tech, ask to see the code. Third, back organizations pushing for algorithmic accountability. The future doesn’t have to be a Black Mirror episode — but only if we show up to write a better script. Ready to raise your voice? Start by sharing this story.
