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Your Health Data Might Be for Sale + More
Your Health Data Might Be for Sale
The leak of the draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade has prompted numerous stories about the privacy of health data. For instance, Vice reported that data broker SafeGraph was collecting and selling the GPS locations of people who visited abortion clinics — in many cases, likely without their knowledge. There have also been numerous concerns raised about period tracking apps and other technologies that could enable surveillance of and even violence against those seeking medical care.
Most Americans assume that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, and other health privacy laws prevent entities like their doctor from sharing sensitive personal information — and that’s true. Healthcare providers are covered under HIPAA’s privacy rules.
But companies outside the narrow scope of HIPAA, from data brokers to period tracking apps, can legally sell Americans’ health-related information, and they do, from a list of your surgical procedures to your mental health conditions.
Wearable Trackers Could Spot COVID Early
U.S. News & World Report reported:
Could your smartwatch know you have a COVID infection before you do? It might be possible one day. New research suggests that wearable activity trackers that monitor the changes in your skin temperature, heart and breathing rates, combined with artificial intelligence, could be used to identify an infection days before the symptoms start.
The findings were based on a tracker called the Ava bracelet, which is a regulated and commercially available fertility tracker that monitors breathing rate, heart rate, heart rate variability, wrist skin temperature, blood flow and sleep quantity and quality.
Researchers wanted to see if monitoring physiological changes could help develop a machine-learning algorithm to detect COVID in people who could be spreading the infection days before they know they have the virus.
For this study, published June 22 in BMJ Open, the team drew 1,163 people from the study between March 2020 and April 2021.
NJ Colleges Would Be Required to Mandate COVID Vaccine Under New Bill
Many New Jersey colleges and universities put a COVID-19 vaccine requirement in place for students and employees during the pandemic.
Now one lawmaker — who’s also a doctor — is joining a push to make the coronavirus vaccine a legal requirement for all university and college students and employees to attend in-person classes and events.
Under the measure introduced in the Assembly Monday (A4334), higher education institutions would be barred from enrolling students to attend in-person classes or employing people for non-remote work if they have not received the COVID-19 vaccine, beginning in the 2022-2023 academic year.
The legislation, sponsored by Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Burlington), would add the coronavirus vaccine to the list of inoculations students must receive to attend classes in person.
New Orleans Grill Becomes First Business Allowed by Court to Recover Damages for COVID Lockdown Losses
Oceana Grill, a popular seafood restaurant in New Orleans, has achieved a first-of-its-kind victory in its long-running legal battle to receive payouts from insurer Lloyd’s of London for loss of revenues during its COVID-19 shutdown beginning on March 20, 2020.
On June 15, a Louisiana state court reversed an earlier decision and ruled in favor of the claim for damages brought by the company owning Oceana Grill, Cajun Conti LLC.
The June 15 decision is highly significant for businesses that seek compensation for often massive and crippling losses of revenues suffered when they were forced to curtail their operations or cease altogether as COVID-19 swept the country in the early months of 2020.
But the June 15 ruling does not mean that all such businesses will now be able to pursue claims that insurers and courts had previously refused to entertain. Rather, it is likely to benefit the minority of businesses whose insurance policies do not contain exclusions for the contamination of buildings and food, said John Houghtaling, a name partner of the Metairie, Louisiana-based law firm Gauthier Murphy & Houghtaling, which represented Cajun Conti in the litigation.
‘I See the Impact on Our Readiness’: Matt Gaetz Pushes to Reinstate Service Members Dismissed Over the COVID Vaccine
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) plans to introduce an amendment Wednesday reinstating armed service members who were dismissed for refusing the COVID vaccine.
When the House Armed Services Committee marks up the National Defense Authorization Act, Gaetz will introduce an amendment protecting armed service members who refuse to get the COVID vaccine, reinstating members who were dismissed over their refusal at the same rank and grade, and providing back pay and benefits to the members who were dismissed.
“I see the impact on our readiness from these mandates,” he said during a Tuesday afternoon phone interview with The Daily Wire. “We are hundreds of pilots short in the Air Force and we’ve lost a number of pilots as a consequence of these mandates.”
As of late May, the Army had discharged at least 742 active-duty soldiers for refusing to get vaccinated, Military.com reported, noting that the number had more than doubled since the previous month. Many of the service members who submitted religious exemption requests got back blanket form-letter rejections, the congressman said.
Broadway Theaters Drop Their Mask Mandate Starting in July
In another sign that the world of entertainment is returning to pre-pandemic normal, Broadway theaters will no longer demand audiences wear masks starting in July.
The Broadway League announced Tuesday that mask-wearing will be optional next month onward, a further loosening of restrictions. In May, most Broadway theaters lifted the requirement that audience members provide proof of vaccination to enter venues.
The latest policy will “be evaluated on a monthly basis as we continue to monitor the science,” according to a statement by the League, which represents Broadway producers. It also said that “audience members are still encouraged to wear masks in theaters.” Producers have long complained that ticket sales may be depressed due to the mask ban.
Defense Chief to Review Canadian Armed Forces COVID Vaccine Mandate
Defense chief Gen. Wayne Eyre is reviewing the Canadian military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which remains in effect even though a similar requirement for most other federal employees has been suspended.
Eyre first ordered all troops vaccinated against COVID-19 in October, saying the requirement was intended to protect the Armed Forces and “demonstrate leadership” as the Liberal government adopted vaccine mandates across the federal public service.
Yet while the majority of federal mandates were lifted Monday, including for civilians working in the Department of National Defence and members of the RCMP, the requirement still applies to those serving in military uniform.
Those who refused to comply with the order were warned they could face disciplinary proceedings, including their forced removal from the military. That stood in contrast with non-military employees, who were allowed to go on leave without pay and have since been cleared to return to work now that the requirement has been lifted.
New Draft Rules Portend More Internet Censorship in China
China’s Internet regulator has released a new set of draft rules that, if implemented, would impose stricter censorship of comments posted to social media platforms, MIT Technology Review reports.
Tighter restrictions could close off what few spaces remain for Chinese people to speak their minds online.
Comments and videos posted to social media platforms have become one of the only ways Chinese people living through COVID lockdowns can communicate their desperation for food and medical care with each other and the outside world.
The Chinese government has already created one of the toughest Internet censorship regimes in the world, enforced in large part by content reviewers employed by social media companies to police posts.
Facebook Oversight Board Says Company Should Be Much More Transparent
More than a year after its creation, the Facebook Oversight Board argued in the first of what are to be annual reports that the social media company should be far more transparent about how it decides which posts and accounts to leave up and which to take down.
The board, an international panel of human rights advocates, politicians and academics that oversees Facebook’s thorniest content moderation decisions, said the company had made some progress in implementing the board’s policy recommendations but needed to share more information about content removal systems.
The group took aim at the opaque nature of the company’s strikes system, which gives users who break the platform’s content guidelines a specific number of passes and a tiered system of punishments before their accounts are suspended.
After EU Child Safety Complaints, TikTok Tweaks Ad Disclosures but Profiling Concerns Remain
A long-running EU engagement with TikTok — initiated following a series of complaints about child safety and consumer protection complaints filed back in February 2021 — has ended, for now, with the video-sharing platform offering a series of commitments to improve user reporting and disclosure requirements around ads/sponsored content; and also to boost transparency around its digital coins and virtual gifts.
However European consumer organization, BEUC — which originated the complaint — has warned that “significant concerns” remain over how TikTok operates its platform which raises questions over the decision, at the EU level, to accept TikTok’s commitments and monitor implementation — rather than take tougher enforcement action.
“We are particularly worried that the profiling and targeting of children with personalized advertising will not be stopped by TikTok. This is in contradiction with the five principles on advertising towards children adopted by the data protection and consumer protection authorities last week,” said BEUC’s deputy director-general, Ursula Pachl, in a statement.
Microsoft Limits Access to Facial Recognition Tool in AI Ethics Overhaul
Microsoft is overhauling its artificial intelligence ethics policies and will no longer let companies use its technology to do things such as to infer emotion, gender or age using facial recognition technology, the company has said.
As part of its new “responsible AI standard,” Microsoft says it intends to keep “people and their goals at the center of system-design decisions.” The high-level principles will lead to real changes in practice, the company says, with some features being tweaked and others withdrawn from sale.
Microsoft’s Azure Face service, for instance, is a facial recognition tool that is used by companies such as Uber as part of their identity verification processes. Now, any company that wants to use the service’s facial recognition features will need to actively apply for use, including those that have already built it into their products, to prove they are matching Microsoft’s AI ethics standards and that the features benefit the end-user and society.
NYC Making Push to Get Fired Workers Vaccinated, Rehired + More
NYC Making Push to Get Fired Workers Vaccinated, Rehired
New York City is making a push to give city workers fired earlier this year for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine a chance to get their old jobs back — if they get fully vaccinated.
In February, Mayor Eric Adams fired more than 1,400 workers who failed to comply with the vaccine mandate put in place by his predecessor, Bill de Blasio.
Just short of 600 unvaccinated non-Department of Education workers are receiving a letter with details, and DOE employees are expected to receive a letter later in the summer, a city spokesperson said, adding that 97% of workers are vaccinated and that the goal has always been “vaccination rather than termination.”
The mandate required vaccinations as a workplace safety rule. In March, Adams was the target of criticism for exempting athletes and performers not based in New York City from the city’s vaccine mandate, while keeping the rule in place for private and public workers.
Smartphone Apps Promised to Help Combat the Pandemic. How Well Did They Work?
When the pandemic hit, tech giants like Apple and Google as well as upstart technology companies marched out new tools aimed at curbing the crisis. Now, more than two years into the pandemic, we are getting a clearer answer to a crucial question: Did they work?
A new review paper, published Monday in Nature Biotechnology, explores the wide range of apps rolled out to combat the pandemic by monitoring cases, tracking the virus’ spread, keeping tabs on symptoms and more. Some of those apps brought clear benefits, while others fell short. They also sparked a bevy of questions about the role of technology in healthcare, including how best to preserve patient privacy.
Your Google Chrome Extensions Could Be Used to Secretly Track You Online
Web browser extensions could be used as a means of identifying users and tracking them across the web, new research suggests. Online tracking has been the bane of the internet from the earliest days, but over the last few years, people have become increasingly unwilling to put up with invasions of privacy.
While some people claim tracking is necessary to provide personalized ads, and thus keep internet services free, others shiver at the thought of companies keeping tabs on what they do online.
Ever since Google announced it would be killing third-party cookies, stakeholders have been looking for viable alternatives. “Fingerprinting” people based on the various characteristics of the device they use emerged as one of the options. Those characteristics include factors like display resolution, fonts, GPU performance, installed apps and more.
Success Academy to Lift Student COVID Vaccine Mandate
New York City’s largest charter school network, Success Academy, is doing away with its pandemic protocols for students, The Post has learned.
Beginning in the fall, the network’s roughly 20,000 students will no longer have to be vaccinated or take weekly COVID-19 tests and will be able to participate in most clubs regardless of their inoculation status.
The announcement came after more than 1,000 parents and guardians engaged in a months-long campaign of writing letters and signing petitions against the mandates, organizers said.
Two-thirds of the students, called “scholars,” are already at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19, according to school data. But those who were not had to sit on the sidelines at some after-school activities.
Officials Said Weighing Indoor Mask Mandate, Offering COVID Shots for Youngest Kids
With coronavirus infection rates rising, health officials are reportedly set to discuss a return to indoor masking and the possibility of authorizing COVID-19 vaccines for infants and preschoolers.
Israel officially lifted the indoor mask mandate on April 24, scrapping one of the few remaining coronavirus restrictions that were still in place more than two years into the pandemic.
According to an unnamed Health Ministry official cited by the Kan public broadcaster on Sunday, a return to the measure will be examined and a decision will be made next week.
Additionally, officials will also consider authorizing COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest children after U.S. regulators on Friday gave their approval for the first shots for infants and preschoolers.
Arbitrator Strikes Down Stellantis COVID Vaccine Mandate
A COVID-19 vaccine mandate for Canadian Stellantis employees that was fought by some Unifor locals has been struck down by an arbitrator in a decision made after “careful review and not without considerable personal reservation.”
Arbitrator Marilyn Nairn sided with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Canada, the Stellantis subsidiary, in concluding that the two-dose COVID-19 vaccine policy was reasonable at the outset, and continued to be reasonable.
But following a review of the evidence surrounding waning immunity and the effect of the Omicron variant, she concluded there was a “negligible difference” in the risk of transmission between receiving two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and remaining unvaccinated, and therefore the policy was no longer reasonable.
Under her decision, the policy will no longer be in effect as of June 25.
Macau Hotel Locked Down After COVID Cases, 700 People to Be Quarantined — Media
A hotel and casino resort in the world’s biggest gambling hub of Macau was locked down by authorities with 700 people inside on Tuesday due to a coronavirus infection outbreak on the property, local broadcaster TDM reported.
The lockdown comes as the Chinese special administrative region carries out two-day mass testing of its more than 600,000 population after dozens of locally transmitted coronavirus cases were discovered over the weekend.
Footage obtained by the broadcaster and industry publications showed police officers in protective gear sealing the complex to prevent people from entering or leaving. Government officials were also preparing COVID-19 tests for the hundreds of people inside.
Health Minister Flags Changes to International Vaccine Passports
The Sydney Morning Herald reported:
Australians traveling to parts of Europe must still verify their vaccination status with local authorities before they can soak up the full range of attractions, but the app used by locals does not recognize Australian COVID-19 Digital Certificates.
As industry warns red tape is hindering international travel, Health Minister Mark Butler will meet with his G20 counterparts on Monday to discuss potential solutions, including ways to “reduce the impediments for travelers as they cross borders”.
A pilot project to test ways for their countries to recognize each other’s vaccine certificates will be on the agenda as leaders work to get trade and travel “back to normal” across the G20, which includes Australia, Brazil, Canada, the United States and the European Union.
While an International COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate generated through MyGov is enough to gain entry to most European countries, laws that exclude unvaccinated people from restaurants, bars and other venues are widespread.
Big Banker Brother: Deutsche Bank Eavesdropping on Employees With Surveillance App
According to the Financial Times, Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest lender, has started requiring certain bankers to download and install the mobile surveillance app Movius, which allows compliance staff to monitor calls, text messages and WhatsApp conversations, according to people familiar with the matter.
Movius has partnerships with various telecoms, such as Spring, Telstra, Telefónica and Blackberry, and was used by several financial institutions during the pandemic in order to monitor employees working from home, particularly those in heavily regulated roles such as trading.
Though this isn’t the first time Deutsche Bank has made headlines for surveilling employees, the German lender joins the likes of JPMorgan Chase, UBS, Julius Baer, Jeffries and Cantor Fitzgerald in the use of Movius in recent years — and comes as banks are expanding their use of monitoring software amid government crackdowns on banks’ record-keeping practices and general compliance.
Both the U.S. Government and the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority, as well as BaFin in Germany, have demanded that banks explain how they monitor their staffs’ personal communications.
Soon, Humanity Won’t Be Alone in the Universe
Well, the long wait is almost over. Even if humanity has been alone in this galaxy, till now, we won’t be for very much longer. For better or worse, we’re about to meet artificial intelligence — or AI — in one form or another. Though, alas, the encounter will be murky, vague and fraught with opportunities for error.
One trend worries ethicist Giada Pistilli, a growing willingness to make claims based on subjective impression instead of scientific rigor and proof. When it comes to artificial intelligence, expert testimony will be countered by many calling those experts “enslavers of sentient beings.” In fact, what matters most will not be some purported “AI Awakening.” It will be our own reactions, arising out of both culture and human nature.
California Lawmaker Scraps Plan for Preteen Vaccine Consent + More
California Lawmaker Scraps Plan for Preteen Vaccine Consent
California lawmakers on Thursday amended a bill that would have let preteens be vaccinated against a range of health conditions without their parents’ consent, instead raising the proposed minimum age to 15, which would still be among the youngest in the U.S.
Currently, minors aged 12 to 17 in California cannot be vaccinated without permission from their parents or guardians, except for vaccinations to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. California state law already allows people 12 and older to consent to the Hepatitis B and Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines.
The bill that cleared the state Senate last month on a 21-8 vote would have allowed those aged 12 and up to receive any vaccine that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including against the coronavirus, even if their parents objected. It would have been the youngest age of consent in any state.
New Kamala Harris Task Force Looks a Lot Like the Disinformation Governance Board
Vice President Kamala Harris announced the launch of a new White House task force on Thursday, aimed at addressing “online harassment and abuse” — and critics have raised concerns that in practice, it could be the Disinformation Governance Board under another name.
The task force, according to Thursday’s announcement, plans to address all online harassment and disinformation but will also focus specifically on the disproportionate online harassment faced by women and girls and people within the LGBTQ community.
But as one reporter noted during Thursday’s White House press briefing, several of the task force’s objectives appeared to be very similar to those of the recently-scrapped Disinformation Governance Board.
Data Tracking Technology Used During Pandemic at Risk of Abuse, Privacy Expert Warns
The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to tech-based surveillance, opening up opportunities for the government and corporations to harvest citizens’ data under the radar, says a technology policy director.
The comment comes after media reports in Australia in early June revealed the state government of Victoria — known for spending the longest number of days in lockdown globally — had been using a data agency, which was initially set up to inform pandemic decision-making, to monitor Victorians’ everyday activities beyond COVID-19.
In late May, Human Rights Watch found that 89% of educational technologies (EdTech) used for remote learning exploited their access to children by harvesting their personal, location or learning data. Many of these apps and websites are endorsed by the Australian government, such as Zoom, Minecraft Education and Microsoft Teams, which remained in place after COVID-19.
Pfizer Stock-Owning Judges Play Musical Chairs in New York City Vaccine Mandate Lawsuits
What do you do when you can’t find a judge who doesn’t own Pfizer stock? Keep looking. Then look again — and again.
Such was plaintiffs’ plight this week in two consolidated federal lawsuits taking aim at the New York City Department of Education’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Since Monday, two judges have come and gone, thanks to their financial ties to pandemic vaccine companies. Meanwhile, a third has vowed to stick around, arguing her investments in Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson are out-of-date.
The stock-owning saga kicked off Monday when U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni in New York’s Southern District recused (PDF) herself from the lawsuits. The move followed the plaintiffs’ efforts last Thursday to disqualify Caproni after discovering she held up to $100,000 in Pfizer stock in 2020.
Japanese Children Allowed to Talk Again Over Lunch as COVID Cases Fall
After two years of eating in near-monastic silence, children in Japan have been given permission to chat to their classmates over lunch, as COVID cases in the country continue to fall.
Throughout the pandemic, primary and middle school classrooms have reverberated to the sound of cutlery meeting crockery and, in some cases, piped music, but the young diners have been silenced as part of efforts to prevent the spread of the virus.
In many schools, children have been told not to eat while facing each other and to refrain from talking to their classmates. Instead, they must observe mokushoku — or silent eating.
But with COVID-19 cases falling across the country, some schools have abandoned the code of silence, amid concern that it is affecting the social and educational development of children as young as six.
German Health Minister Pushes Fourth COVID Shot Ahead of Autumn Wave
There will not be another attempt to make COVID-19 vaccinations compulsory, said German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, while making the case for more people to get a second booster shot.
Anyone who is often in contact with others and wants to protect themselves and others should consider a fourth shot, regardless of age, said Lauterbach. Some 80% of Germany’s over-60s have not had their fourth COVID-19 shot, he added.
Victoria Pressed to Scrap Two-Jab COVID Vaccine Mandate Amid Worker Shortage
The Victorian government is facing pressure from epidemiologists and industry groups to scrap its two-vaccine mandate, despite an expert suggesting Australia is on track to have more than 15,000 COVID deaths this year.
Epidemiologists Catherine Bennett and Nancy Baxter told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry on Thursday that the two-dose vaccine mandate for most industries was no longer necessary.
While some industry groups have called for the two-dose mandate to be abolished to help ease the skilled workers shortage, the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) said the decision was up to health officials.
Belinda Clarke, chief executive of the Restaurant and Catering Association, said “now is the time to move on” from the double-dose vaccine mandate requirement. “Other states have already taken this step with no demonstrable downsides,” she told Guardian Australia.
China Defends ‘Zero-COVID’ After U.S. Envoy Warns of Costs
China on Friday defended its tough “zero-COVID” policy after the U.S. ambassador said it was causing serious damage to the global economy and foreign business sentiment.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the Chinese economy is recovering from the effects of the pandemic and “facts prove” the policy mandating lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing is “suitable for China’s national conditions and has stood the test of history.”
Ambassador Nicholas Burns said on Thursday that the “zero-COVID” policy has “had a major impact” on business sentiment, singling out as especially damaging a two-month lockdown in Shanghai, China’s largest city and key financial hub.
Critics say the policy is disrupting global supply chains and hurting employment and consumption in China. The U.N.’s World Health Organization has called it unsustainable. China denounced the remarks as irresponsible.
FTC Recommends Congress Use ‘Great Caution’ in Promoting AI to Address Online Harm
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommended Congress proceed with caution in promoting artificial intelligence (AI) tools to combat online harm in a report the commissioners voted to publish Thursday.
The report concluded that “great caution is needed in either mandating the use of or over-relying on these tools even for the important purpose of reducing harms,” according to a summary delivered by FTC staff attorney Michael Atleson at Thursday’s commission meeting.
While continued innovation in this area and research is important, Congress should not be promoting the use of these tools and focus instead on putting guardrails on their use,” he said.
Tech companies need to be more transparent about and accountable for the use and impact of AI tools to figure out what the guardrails should be, he said.
Cops Will Be Able to Scan Your Fingerprints With a Phone
So-called contactless fingerprinting technology uses your phone’s camera and image processing algorithms to capture people’s fingerprints. Hold your hand in front of the camera lens and the software can identify and record all the lines and swirls on your fingertips. The technology, which has been in development for years, is ready to be more widely used in the real world. This includes use by police — a move that worries civil liberty and privacy groups.
Contactless fingerprints are just one part of a rapidly expanding biometrics industry, which sells ways to gather and process the data created by our bodies. Biometrics can include face recognition, the way you walk, the patterns of veins in your wrist, and the way you sound.
Among other things, the technologies are being used to replace passwords and help with proving your identity when opening a new bank account. Biometrics is a big business, with some estimates saying the market could be worth $127 billion by 2030.
Despite the increase in biometric technology, it can prove controversial. Theft or spoofing of fingerprints and other biometric information can lead to fraud and identity theft. Some lawmakers in Europe are pushing for bans on the use of biometric technology to identify people in public spaces — saying such surveillance technology could be “the end of anonymity.”
Fed up With Endless Cookie Consent Boxes? The U.K. Plans to Kill Them Off
Britain wants an end to the barrage of cookie consent pop-ups.
The government says new data reforms will heavily reduce the number of banners that appear on websites asking people to consent to cookies. The plans are part of a broader package of reforms from the U.K. seeking to diverge from EU data protection rules.
Cookies are small files created each time you visit a new website. They store information about your browsing habits and preferences. Some are practically harmless, helping sites function correctly.
Others, like the ones used by advertisers to track your browsing habits, have led to concerns over privacy. Google is actually planning to ditch third-party cookies used for advertising and replace them with a privacy-preserving alternative.
Facebook Is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information From Hospital Websites + More
Facebook Is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information From Hospital Websites
A tracking tool installed on many hospitals’ websites has been collecting patients’ sensitive health information — including details about their medical conditions, prescriptions and doctor’s appointments — and sending it to Facebook.
The Markup tested the websites of Newsweek’s top 100 hospitals in America. On 33 of them, we found the tracker, called the Meta Pixel, sending Facebook a packet of data whenever a person clicked a button to schedule a doctor’s appointment. The data is connected to an IP address — an identifier that’s like a computer’s mailing address and can generally be linked to a specific individual or household — creating an intimate receipt of the appointment request for Facebook.
Former regulators, health data security experts and privacy advocates who reviewed The Markup’s findings said the hospitals in question may have violated the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The law prohibits covered entities like hospitals from sharing personally identifiable health information with third parties like Facebook, except when an individual has expressly consented in advance or under certain contracts.
St. Louis Teachers Sue Over School District Vaccine Mandate
St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported:
More than 20 teachers and staff members from St. Louis Public Schools have sued the district’s leaders for suspending or firing them for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
The St. Louis School Board adopted a vaccine mandate last fall for all staff unless they had a medical or religious exemption. The 22 employees suing the district were denied religious exemptions and placed on unpaid leave or fired last October, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court.
All but two of the staff members were granted the vaccine exemptions in January and allowed to return to their jobs. The group, which includes teachers, substitutes, aides, safety officers, a social worker and a custodian, is asking for three months of back pay along with other damages. The lawsuit also asks the court to find the SLPS vaccine mandate unconstitutional.
California Officials Push to Rein in Medical Disinformation — Bill Under Debate May Be Tough to Enforce; Some Say It Restricts Innovation
Frustrated that California has so many physicians spreading false or misleading information about COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, state officials are pushing a bill that would give its licensing agencies specific authority to take disciplinary action.
This type of misinformation would be defined as unprofessional conduct in the bill, which states that “some of the most dangerous propagators of inaccurate information regarding the COVID-19 vaccines are licensed healthcare professionals.”
However, the bill apparently does not cover disinformation stated “on the airwaves or in social media” that a person who is not the clinician’s patient decides to follow, said Eserick “TJ” Watkins, a non-physician member of the Medical Board of California. That provision was edited out of an earlier version of the bill. Furthermore, the bill states that in deciding a case against a doctor, the board “shall consider whether the licensee departed from the applicable standard of care and whether the misinformation or disinformation resulted in harm to patient health.”
If it becomes law, the legislation would further empower the agency to take action against certain physicians, even as at least 14 other states have gone in the opposite direction, considering or passing legislation prohibiting disciplinary actions against doctors who spread misinformation or allowing them to prescribe off-label medications that have failed to show benefit for COVID-19, such as ivermectin.
DeSantis Administration Targets Bucs Over Employee Vaccine Requirement
Officials with Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration took to Twitter this week to voice their frustration at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ vaccination requirement for new employees, with Florida’s Department of Health Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern calling a specific job listing illegal.
A Bucs hiring announcement for an in-season video production intern stipulates: “All new hires are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and provide verification of vaccination prior to the commencement of employment. Fully vaccinated means at least two weeks after the final dose of the J&J, Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.”
“This is against Florida law,” Redfern tweeted. Florida law allows private employers to mandate vaccines, so long as they provide individual exemptions allowing an employee to “opt-out” based on one of five carveouts. The carveouts are for those who have medical reasons like pregnancy, those who have already been infected with COVID-19, those who have religious objections, those who agree to periodic testing and those who agree to wearing personal protective equipment.
COVID: Hong Kong to Allow Bosses to Fire Unvaxxed Staff, Quarantine Orders Will Be Proof of Sick Leave
Hong Kong Free Press reported:
Hong Kong lawmakers have passed a bill to allow employers to sack workers who refuse to receive a COVID-19 vaccination without a reasonable excuse, while employees who were ordered to undergo quarantine can now enjoy sick leave.
Members of the Legislative Council (LegCo) approved changes to the Employment Ordinance on Wednesday, which will now state that it is a “valid reason” for an employer to dismiss a worker — or change the terms of the employment contract — if they refuse to present proof of vaccination. A failure to comply with a legitimate vaccination request would be deemed as “incapable of performing work” under the new legislation.
The approved amendment also enables employees who are absent from work owing to their compliance with COVID-19 rules to claim sickness days. People who are subject to a quarantine order, overnight lockdown order or compulsory testing notice are also included.
Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Google and Others Agree to New EU Rules to Fight Disinformation
Tech companies operating some of the world’s biggest online platforms — including Facebook-owner Meta, Microsoft, Google, Twitter, Twitch and TikTok — have signed up to a new EU rulebook for tackling online disinformation.
These firms and others will have to make greater efforts to halt the spread of fake news and propaganda on their platforms, as well as share more granular data on their work with EU member states. Announcing the new “Code of Practice on disinformation,” the European Commission said that the guidelines had been shaped particularly by “lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis and Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.”
The code itself contains 44 specific “commitments” for companies that target an array of potential harms from disinformation.
Many U.S. tech firms like Facebook and Twitter have already adopted similar initiatives following pressure from politicians and regulators, but the EU claims its new code of practice will allow for greater oversight of these operations and stronger enforcement.
Beware the FCC’s New Big Tech Enrichment Plan
Is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considering taking action to undermine conservative talk radio in a way that would make Facebook and Google‘s digital monopolies grow even bigger?
The concern arises from a decade-old proposal, called zonecasting, which has sat on the FCC’s desk since the Obama administration. The Democrat-led FCC now appears ready to formally decide on it later this year, and free speech advocates should pray the commission rejects this misguided proposal.
Zonecasting is one of those proposals that may sound good from a soundbite perspective. Those who often get too caught up in theory (such as the unpragmatic “free trade at all costs” extremists who repeatedly struck President Donald Trump‘s ire) may think it is a great idea. But the side effects of zonecasting would be catastrophic, especially for the First Amendment.
It’s Time to Burn Medical Consent Forms
Health data’s potential can be vertigo-inducing, with seemingly limitless insights available to be mined from data sets old and new. The risks, too, can turn the stomach: faulty and biased algorithms; the erosion of privacy; data-driven exploitation. How to explain this to a patient or a potential research subject? Where to even begin?
Apparently, with paperwork. The consent form has traditionally served as a front door to a research project — a summary of what the research is, what participation entails and what the risks are. All of that information is collected and organized in service of a single purpose: getting a reader to agree to participate. It remains a constant in health research, even as an emerging ecosystem of health research asks people to comprehend more than ever.
This new ecosystem asks more of participants. The risks a person may face from research are no longer confined to a fixed study period: data can be retained and reused in ways that may be unknown at a study’s onset. Data communities may create risks even for those who decline to join, upending the basic bargain of health research and informed consent.
Yet the law hasn’t caught up — health research protections in the United States are woefully out of date — and efforts at reforming the consent form have yielded mixed results.