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Thousands of College Students Petition Against Booster Mandates + More
Thousands of College Students Are Petitioning Against Three Universities’ Booster Mandates
Three prominent universities are experiencing pushback from some students as a result of COVID-19 vaccine booster mandates.
Students at Stanford University, George Mason University and Cornell University have begun petitioning against the mandate. All three universities are requiring that students receive a booster shot before returning to campus.
Despite the majority of the student populations already being vaccinated, the petitions and letters claim that it should be up to the students to determine what is best for their health.
“It is unethical and immoral to exploit the vulnerability of students, who would lose so much by exercising their right of refusal, to take a medical treatment without their voluntary, informed consent,” George Mason law student Robert Fellner wrote on his Change.org petition.
Marines’ Claim of Granting 2 Religious COVID Vaccine Exemptions Leads to More Questions
The U.S. Marine Corps has approved its first two religious exemptions to President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, but some Marines aren’t considering it a win for religious freedom just yet.
The Marines have received 3,350 requests for religious exemptions to the mandatory vaccine as of Thursday, and 3,212 have been denied. At least 351 Marines have been discharged so far for refusing the vaccine, the Marine Corps said Monday, and hundreds more face the same fate.
Several Marines who spoke with Fox News Digital said they believe they are on the receiving end of a “blanket” denial of religious exemptions to the vaccine, with their applications being rejected without consideration. Eight separate letters of denial provided to Fox News Digital were nearly identical, citing readiness as the primary reason for rejection.
Rwanda Forcibly Vaccinating People Against COVID, Victims Say
Although Rwanda says it will not mandate people to take COVID-19 vaccines, some residents — especially in rural areas — say officials have been forcing Rwandans to take the jabs.
Currently, more than 49% of almost 13 million Rwandans have been double-jabbed, and more than 61% have had at least one vaccine administered.
But some Rwandans say this number is only possible because of force by local leaders and police. DW spoke to some people who said they had been forced to receive vaccinations. For fear of possible consequences, they either chose to remain anonymous or DW decided to leave their names out of the report.
Starbucks Nixes Vaccine Mandate After Supreme Court Ruling
Starbucks is no longer requiring its U.S. workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, reversing a policy it announced earlier this month.
In a memo sent Tuesday to employees, the Seattle coffee giant said it was responding to last week’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Starbucks’ reversal is among the most high-profile corporate actions in response to the Supreme Court ruling. Many other big companies, including Target, have been mum on their plans.
Here’s Why a Leaked Letter From Carhartt’s CEO Sparked an Online Debate on Vaccine Mandates
American workwear brand Carhartt found itself in the crossfire of the culture wars after a letter from the CEO informing employees the company will continue to mandate coronavirus vaccinations leaked online, drawing both support and ire.
Carhartt confirmed to Forbes that the letter was an internal message CEO Mark Valade sent Friday informing employees that a recent U.S. Supreme Court move to temporarily block President Joe Biden’s workplace vaccine mandate while a legal challenge against it proceeds will not change Carhartt’s mandatory vaccine program.
The brand’s name was trending on Twitter on Tuesday morning, as some users expressed support for the mandate while others announced they would boycott the company’s products.
Florida Health Official Put on Leave After Encouraging Staff to Get COVID Vaccine
A health official who helped lead Florida’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been put on administrative leave as state officials investigate whether he tried to compel employees to get vaccinated.
The state health agency is conducting an inquiry into Raul Pino, director of the Florida department of health in Orange county, to “determine if any laws were broken in this case”, the state department of health press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, said in an email.
Sources told WFTV that Pino was placed on administrative leave after he emailed staff members at the Orange county department of health regarding COVID-19 vaccination rates on Jan. 4.
A Restaurant That Was Temporarily Closed After Accepting Customers’ Dog Pictures Instead of COVID Vaccination Proof Has Reopened
A restaurant in Canada, which was temporarily closed after accepting customers’ dog pictures instead of COVID-19 vaccination proof, has reopened, The Calgary Head first reported.
On Friday, Alberta Health Services (AHS) ordered The Granary Kitchen, a Red Deer restaurant, to close its doors after complaints that staff were allowing guests to enter with a photo of a dog in place of QR codes showing their vaccination status.
China’s Mandatory Olympics App Raises Privacy and Censorship Concerns, Watchdog Group Warns
An app that China is using to track attendees at the Beijing Olympics next month has raised concerns from a cybersecurity watchdog about “a simple but devastating flaw” that it says poses privacy concerns.
The Citizen Lab, based at the University of Toronto, said in an extensive report by research associate Jeffrey Knockel that the mandatory MY2022 app fails to validate some SSL certificates, which could leave open information to being intercepted by a malicious host, as reported by The Canadian Press.
Those who attend the Olympics, including athletes and journalists, are required to download the app and upload their health and vaccination information to track potential outbreaks of COVID-19. The report warns that sensitive data even unrelated to medical information could leak given the flaws in the app, which was built by the Beijing Organizing Committee.
“The worst case scenario is that someone is intercepting all the traffic and recording all the passport details, all the medical details,” Knockel warned.
UK Lifts COVID Restrictions, Says Omicron Wave ‘Has Peaked’
Face masks will no longer be mandatory in public places and schools in England and COVID-19 passports will be dropped for large events as infections level off in large parts of the country, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday.
Johnson told lawmakers that the restrictions were being eased because government scientists believed it was likely that the surge of infections prompted by the highly contagious Omicron variant “has now peaked nationally.”
The government will no longer advise people to work from home and beginning next Thursday mandatory COVID-19 passes will not be required to gain entry to large-scale events. Compulsory face masks will be scrapped in classrooms starting Thursday as well, and from next week they will not be legally required anywhere in England.
Greece Imposes Rolling Fines to Push COVID Vaccinations in Older People
Greece has begun imposing recurring fines on those over the age of 60 who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 to try to boost inoculation in the most vulnerable age group even as infection rates from the fast-spreading Omicron variant are slowing.
The announcement of a monthly 100 euro ($113.36) fine in November for people over 60 who failed to get vaccinated or book a vaccination appointment by Jan. 16 has helped increase the take-up rate to more than 90% of that age group, health officials have said.
For the remaining 10%, a fine of 50 euros will be collected through tax authorities for January that will rise to 100 euros for each month from February onwards to help fund state hospitals.
ProtonMail Wants to Stop You Being Tracked Online via Email
Privacy-oriented email provider ProtonMail has introduced a new feature that looks to prevent advertisers from tracking users reading their emails.
The ‘enhanced tracking protection’ blocks tracking pixels commonly found in newsletters and promotional emails, and hides the users’ IP addresses from third parties, keeping their location private.
Tracking pixels, the company explains, obtain plenty of user data, including when the email was opened, how many times it was opened, which devices were used to read the contents of the email, as well as the reader’s IP address.
Big Tech Critics Launch New Project
A collection of critics of Big Tech companies on Tuesday launched the Tech Oversight Project, a new group focused on pushing regulation through Congress.
The group is being funded primarily by the Omidyar Network, the philanthropic network of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, and the Economic Security Project, a nonprofit led by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes. Both former tech executives have been critical of the current iteration of Big Tech and have pushed for greater regulation.
“We are at a watershed moment with bipartisan support to finally break up the Big Tech monopolies that hurt consumers and small businesses,” Sacha Haworth, the group’s executive director, said in a statement.
The Inventor of the World Wide Web Says His Creation Has Been Abused for Too Long
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has called for a tighter focus on addressing the imbalance of power on the web.
“Right now, people’s data is being used for inappropriate purposes by large companies, in order to understand and manipulate them. Another problem is that all my private data is stored by online platforms and stuck in silos, so I can’t really use it. We have a lack of empowerment of the individual,” he said.
Vaccine Mandate Critic Faces Child Neglect Charges Over Ivermectin + More
COVID Vaccine Mandate Critic Faces Child Neglect Charges Over Ivermectin
New Hampshire Union Leader reported:
A leading opponent of COVID-19 vaccine mandates said the state’s child protection agency is trying to take custody of the youngest of his four children because he gave him ivermectin to treat the virus.
Former state Rep. J.R. Hoell, R-Dunbarton, said two police officers and staff with the Division of Children Youth and Families showed up at his door Dec. 9 with an order seeking custody of Hoell’s children.
The order has since been limited to Hoell’s 13-year-old son.
This came hours after Hoell said he had told a nurse practitioner that when his entire family got COVID-19 in mid-November, he gave them a treatment regimen that included ivermectin, a medication neither the state of New Hampshire nor the Centers for Disease Control recommends for treatment of the virus.
JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon Doesn’t Care What the Supreme Court Says About COVID Vaccines
The U.S. Supreme Court may have ruled against employer vaccine mandates, but that hardly matters to Jamie Dimon and other Wall Street chiefs, who are standing firmly in favor of requiring staff to get the life-saving jabs.
“To go to the office, you have to be vaxxed, and if you aren’t going to get vaxxed, you won’t be able to work in that office,” Dimon, CEO, told CNBC last week. The institution he leads, JPMorgan Chase JPM -3.9%, is the largest American bank by assets and has nine offices, including its headquarters, in New York, where Dimon said 97% of the staff is vaccinated. “We’re not going to pay you to not work in the office…We want people to get vaxxed.”
The country’s biggest banks have long been loath to take political stands out of fear of alienating customers, investors and even some executives. But when it comes to vaccinations, which are generally favored by Democrats and denounced by many Republicans, Wall Street has taken a staunch position.
Companies Face a Tangle of State Policies Following Supreme Court Ruling Against Federal Vaccine Mandate
Companies have been grappling with the decision of whether to require COVID-19 vaccines for employees for over a year. Last week’s Supreme Court decision to block a federal mandate that would require businesses with 100 or more employees to make workers get the shot or weekly tests, leaves companies to figure out a solution on their own.
The Supreme Court’s decision now means “companies have to take it upon themselves to have safe practices in the workplace,” because the federal government is not allowed to mandate it, says Los Angeles-based employment and civil rights trial attorney V. James DeSimone.
Blocking the federal vaccine mandate for businesses now puts companies at the mercy of conflicting state policies as they look to protect workers from the surging omicron variant.
As of Jan. 12, 14 states prohibit any sort of COVID-19 vaccine mandate to be in place, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Supreme Court Rejects Bid to Block Mask Mandate on Airplanes
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request to block a federal mask mandate for air travel.
The emergency application was filed by a father on behalf of himself and his 4-year-old autistic son, both of whom claim to be medically incapable of wearing masks for extended periods.
Their request was filed to Justice Neil Gorsuch, who handles emergency applications arising in several Western states, and he referred the matter to the full court. The justices denied the request without comment or noted dissent.
Doctor Accused of Spreading COVID Misinformation Sues Houston Methodist
A Houston doctor, who was in the spotlight late last year after being suspended by Houston Methodist Hospital for spreading information related to COVID-19 they called “harmful to the community,” has responded with a lawsuit.
Dr. Mary Bowden, an ear, nose and throat specialist, who runs a private practice in River Oaks, announced the suit on Monday morning.
In the lawsuit, she’s asking for data from Methodist detailing the effects of the vaccines and financial reports. Dr. Bowden had tweeted that “Vaccine mandates are wrong” and shared about her battle to give her patients Ivermectin, a controversial drug hailed as a treatment for COVID-19 by some.
Hundreds of Virginia Schools Rebel Against Glenn Youngkin, Refuse to Lift Mask Mandate
School districts responsible for hundreds of Virginia schools have indicated they will continue with mask mandates despite a new executive order from Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Youngkin, a Republican, issued an order on Saturday that effectively allows parents to exempt their children from mask requirements imposed by schools, one of his first acts as governor.
Several school districts in the state said they would continue to impose mask requirements on students and staff despite Youngkin’s order, which is set to take effect from Jan. 24.
Apple Will Now Require Employees to Submit Proof of COVID Booster Shot
Apple now requires store and corporate employees to get a COVID-19 booster shot, the company announced in an internal email seen by The Verge.
Once an employee is eligible to get a booster shot, they will have four weeks to comply, otherwise, they will need to take frequent tests to enter a retail store, partner store, or Apple office starting on Feb. 15.
Apple will require unvaccinated employees — or those who haven’t yet submitted proof of vaccination — to provide negative COVID-19 rapid antigen tests before entering the workplace beginning on Jan. 24, although it’s unclear whether this applies to both corporate and retail employees.
Europe Kicks off Some of the World’s Most Sweeping Vaccine Mandates and Fines
Older people not vaccinated against COVID-19 face monthly fines in Greece as of Monday, the latest in a string of targeted restrictions as governments across Europe turn up the heat on vaccine holdouts in an effort to relieve pressure on struggling healthcare systems and combat record levels of coronavirus infections.
The barrage of strict policies targeting the unvaccinated across Europe come as the region stares down one of its worst outbreaks since the pandemic began.
Sweden Scraps Demand for Negative COVID Test to Enter Country
Travelers to Sweden will no longer be required to show a negative COVID test before entering the country, the government said on Tuesday.
Sweden introduced rules for a recent negative COVID test on Dec. 28 last year in a bid to slow the spread of the more contagious Omicron variant. Since then, Sweden has repeatedly set new daily case records with Omicron now the totally dominant variant.
Returning Travelers Made to Hand Over Phones and Passcodes to Australian Border Force
A man who was forced to hand over his phone and passcode to Australian Border Force after returning to Sydney from holiday has labeled the tactic “an absolute gross violation of privacy”, as tech advocates call for transparency and stronger privacy protections for people’s devices as they enter the country.
Software developer James and his partner returned from a 10-day holiday in Fiji earlier this month and were stopped by border force officials at Sydney airport. They were taken aside, and after emptying their suitcases, an official asked them to write their phone passcodes on a piece of paper, before taking their phones into another room.
“We weren’t informed why they wanted to look at the phones. We were told nothing,” he told Guardian Australia. James said he has no idea what officials looked at, whether a copy of any of the data was made, where it would be stored and who would have access to it.
Flight Attendants Arrested in Hong Kong for Breaking COVID Rules
Hong Kong police have arrested two flight attendants for allegedly breaking COVID-19 rules after they were reportedly linked to a local outbreak of the Omicron variant.
The flight attendants, who are said to have worked for Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific air carrier, face a fine and six months in jail if convicted, Bloomberg reported.
The statement from Hong Kong police said “they had conducted unnecessary activities” on Dec. 25 and 27, while they were supposed to be under home quarantine after returning to the city, according to Agence France-Presse.
“They both subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 Omicron variant, and have been discharged from hospital upon completion of treatment,” it added.
Meta Wants to Track Your Eye Movements and Facial Expressions as You Roam the Metaverse, Patents Suggest
Meta appears to be developing technology to track people’s eye movements and facial expressions while they roam the metaverse, according to patents unearthed by the Financial Times.
The metaverse refers to a future vision of the internet which people primarily access through immersive technologies including virtual and augmented reality, which require special headsets.
In a recent interview, Meta global affairs chief Nick Clegg told the FT that metaverse eye-tracking data could help advertisers “understand whether people engage with an advertisement or not.”
The FT said it found a patent detailing how sensors inside a headset would track a user’s facial expressions to “adapt media content” for them.
Safari and iOS Users: Your Browsing Activity Is Being Leaked in Real-Time
For the past four months, Apple’s iOS and iPadOS devices and Safari browser have violated one of the Internet’s most sacrosanct security policies. The violation results from a bug that leaks user identities and browsing activity in real-time.
The same-origin policy is a foundational security mechanism that forbids documents, scripts or other content loaded from one origin — meaning the protocol, domain name and port of a given webpage or app — from interacting with resources from other origins.
Without this policy, malicious sites — say, badguy.example.com — could access login credentials for Google or another trusted site when it’s open in a different browser window or tab.
Microsoft Buys Game Maker Activision Blizzard for About $70 Billion
Microsoft is paying the enormous sum of nearly $70 billion for Activision Blizzard, the maker of Candy Crush and Call of Duty, a deal that would immediately make it a larger video-game company than Nintendo while raising questions about the deal’s possible anti-competitive effects.
The all-cash $68.7 billion deal will turn Microsoft, maker of the Xbox gaming system, into one of the world’s largest video-game companies. It will also help it compete with tech rivals such as Meta, formerly Facebook, in creating immersive virtual worlds for both work and play.
Marines Grant First Religious Exemptions in Military for COVID Vaccine Mandate + More
Marines Grant First Religious Exemptions in Military for COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate
The Marine Corps granted two religious exemptions to the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, making it the first and only military branch to grant religious exceptions since the requirement went into effect in August.
In its weekly COVID-19 update, the Marine Corps said it had received 3,350 requests for religious exemptions and had processed 3,212 of them. But for the first time, the Marine Corps said it had granted two of the requests. The service offered no additional information about why these specific requests had been granted.
Each of the services has received several thousand requests for religious exemptions to the military’s vaccine mandate. But until this week, none of those requests have been granted, though the services still have many requests to process.
Facebook Sued for Billions Over Harvesting People’s Data
Facebook is facing a class action lawsuit which could see its parent company Meta paying $3.1 billion to its UK users for harvesting their data.
The lawsuit was filed against Meta on Thursday with the U.K.’s Competition Appeal Tribunal in London, TechCrunch reported.
The lawsuit claims Facebook, which was recently renamed Meta, should pay its 44 million British users’ compensation for taking all their personal and private data between 2015 and 2019. Facebook has yet to respond to the lawsuit.
Despite SCOTUS Ruling, Citigroup Stands by Friday Vaccination Deadline
Despite Thursday’s momentous Supreme Court ruling blocking the enforcement of a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for businesses with 100 or more employees, Wall Street giant Citigroup nevertheless intends to move forward with its plans to terminate employees who fail to meet Friday’s vaccination deadline, FOX Business has confirmed.
Citi, one of the largest financial services firms in the world, originally made its vaccination requirement announcement in October, before reiterating the stance in a memo to company employees this month.
Those unvaccinated by Friday’s deadline will be placed on unpaid leave and fired at the end of the month, unless they are granted other accommodations, according to earlier reports.
National Digital Vaccine Card Aims to Ease Proof of Vaccination Requirements
Whether they realize it or not, about 200 million people in the United States now likely have access to a COVID-19 digital vaccine card.
The digital pass known as the SMART Health Card is voluntary and minimal by design to protect personal information. It has a person’s name, date of birth and the dates and brands of vaccination doses, all contained within a type of scannable bar code known as a QR code.
And after a relatively quiet start, it has built momentum in recent months as more states and companies have signed on, making it something of a de facto national digital vaccine card.
Zuckerberg and Google CEO Approved Deal to Carve Up Ad Market, States Allege in Court
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai personally approved a secret deal that gave the social network a leg up in the search giant’s online advertising auctions, attorneys for Texas and other states alleged in newly unsealed court filings.
The 2018 deal gave Facebook possibly unlawful advantages when the social network used Google’s advertising exchange, according to allegations by Texas, 14 other states and Puerto Rico in the latest version of their federal antitrust suit against Google.
Supreme Court Blocking Biden OSHA Vaccine Mandate a ‘Win’ for Freedom: Florida AG
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody reacted to the Supreme Court blocking President Biden‘s federal worker vaccine mandate on “Mornings with Maria” Friday, calling the decision “a win” for not only freedom but employees and employers alike.
Ashley Moody: The court said this was like taking a blunt instrument and trying to enact health care policy on a wide-scale basis, using the excuse that you’re trying to protect a workplace …
This was a win, not just for freedom …
This was a win for the millions of employees that were desperately trying to hold on to their health care autonomy, and for the employers that were going to be faced, really, with another tax, billions in compliance cost. So we are praising the Supreme Court’s decision as to that mandate. It was spot on.
Amazon Worker Received Daily Texts About Losing Paid Time Off While Sick With COVID-19
Illinois Amazon warehouse worker Drew Duzinskas told NBC he tested positive for COVID-19 over the holidays. He said he notified Amazon, but that for days afterwards he received automated texts from the company telling him his balance of paid time off was going down because he was missing shifts.
“They have a self-service kind of HR system,” Duzinskas told NBC, adding, “That seems to be their goal — to kind of take the human out of human resources.”
Biden Administration Institutionalizes Religious Discrimination
A tiny administrative agency in the District of Columbia announced a new policy Tuesday that will likely serve as a model for a whole-of-government push to assemble lists of Americans who object on religious grounds to a COVID-19 vaccine.
The Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia — a federal independent entity that assists officers in the District of Columbia courts in formulating release recommendations and providing supervision and services to defendants awaiting trial — announced a new records system that will store the names and “personal religious information” of all employees who make “religious accommodation requests for religious exception from the federally mandated vaccination requirement.”
Moderna and Novavax Extend Losses After Supreme Court Strikes Down Biden’s Vaccine Mandate for Private Employers
Novavax and Moderna shares were under pressure Friday after the Supreme Court struck down a vaccine mandate for private companies.
Shares of Novavax and Moderna each dropped Friday, with stock in the COVID-19 vaccine makers stretching losses into a second session after the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-testing mandate for certain private companies was blocked by the Supreme Court.
Australia Cancels Djokovic Visa a Second time, Tennis Star Faces Possible Deportation
Novak Djokovic faces possible deportation from Australia after the country’s immigration minister canceled the unvaccinated tennis star’s visa for a second time on Friday, citing public health.
The decision is the latest twist in a saga that has drawn global headlines and become a flashpoint in the debate over Covid-19 vaccination mandates. It could end the Serb’s bid for a record 21st major title at the Australian Open tournament, which starts Monday.
Djokovic’s lawyers moved swiftly to apply for an injunction that would prevent him from being forced to leave the country. The Australian government ordered that he return to immigration detention at 8 a.m. local time on Saturday (4 p.m. ET Friday), though with permission to meet his lawyers at their offices.
Unvaccinated Father Loses Right to See 12-Year-Old Son After Judge Ruling + More
Unvaccinated Father Loses Right to See 12-Year-Old Son After Judge Ruling
A judge in Canada has suspended a man’s right to see his 12-year-old son because he isn’t vaccinated against COVID.
The man had asked to extend his visiting time with his child over the holidays. But the child’s mother, who has custody, opposed the request saying she had recently discovered the father wasn’t vaccinated.
Judge Jean-Sébastien Vaillancourt ruled it wouldn’t be in the child’s best interests to have contact with their father considering the surge in COVID cases in the French-speaking province of Quebec.
Supreme Court Blocks Biden COVID Vaccine Mandate for Businesses, Allows Healthcare Worker Rule
The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its sweeping vaccine-or-test requirements for large private companies, but allowed similar requirements to stand for medical facilities that take Medicare or Medicaid payments.
The rulings came three days after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s emergency measure started to take effect.
That mandate required that workers at businesses with 100 or more employees must get vaccinated or submit a negative COVID test weekly to enter the workplace. It also required unvaccinated workers to wear masks indoors at work.
Surveillance Will Follow Us Into ‘the Metaverse,’ and Our Bodies Could Be Its New Data Source
Buzz around shared, 3-D virtual spaces that companies including Meta are pitching as the “metaverse” may only get louder from here.
Tech giants including Meta and Microsoft announced their own metaverse products in the past few months. Even Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates weighed in, saying he expects the metaverse to be part of our workplaces in the next three years.
Virtual reality (VR) headsets can collect more data about us than traditional screens, which gives companies more opportunities to take and share that data for profiling and advertising. They could also give employers more ways to monitor our behavior and even our minds.
There’s little stopping the government from getting its hands on body-related data from VR tech, and there’s little in place to protect us and our kids from unrestricted data gathering and psychological manipulation, say digital rights advocates and experts following the industry.
Higher-Grade Masks Beginning to Be Required in Public Places Across U.S.
With experts warning that cloth masks are insufficient to protect against the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus, some counties, universities and museums around the United States have begun to require higher-grade masks indoors.
Salt Lake County in Utah, home to Salt Lake City, instituted a 30-day mask mandate last week that requires wearing respirator-grade masks like N95s, KN95s or KF94s in indoor public areas, and Los Angeles County is requiring businesses to provide employees working indoors with surgical masks, well-fitting medical grade masks or respirators like the KN95.
Colleges around the nation, including Cornell University, California Institute of Technology, University of Southern California and University of Arizona, have updated indoor mask guidelines, asking students to no longer wear cloth face masks and switch to surgical masks or higher-grade masks instead.
Army Has Relieved Six Active-Duty Commanders for Refusing COVID Vaccine
The Army has relieved six active-duty commanders, including two battalion commanders, and issued 2,994 general officer written reprimands to soldiers for refusing a COVID vaccine.
In a release Wednesday, the Army said the punishments were for refusing the lawful order by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The Army has not yet initiated separations for soldiers refusing the vaccine but expects further guidance later this month.
The Army has not granted any religious exemption requests but has received 2,128 requests. The Navy, Air Force and Marines also have not granted any religious exemption requests so far.
Judge Won’t Stop Boston Coronavirus Vaccine Mandate Ahead of Deadline
Mayor Michelle Wu’s worker vaccine mandate will move ahead, a judge ruled just days before enforcement is due to begin.
“I will not enjoin the enforcement of the policy as of January 15,” Suffolk Superior Judge Jeffrey Locke said following a Wednesday hearing. “I think the public health emergency now is of such a nature that it outweighs the competing claims of harm by the plaintiff.”
Locke heard from both sides in a lawsuit ahead of the Saturday deadline, when the city will begin to place workers on unpaid leave if they haven’t received at least one coronavirus vaccine.
Gaetz Bill Would Nullify COVID Vaccine Passport Mandate in D.C.
Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz proposed legislation Wednesday that nullifies a COVID-19 vaccine passport mandate in Washington, D.C.
Congressman Gaetz joined 19 original Republican co-sponsors in introducing a bill to block D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s enforcement of proof of vaccination.
Bowser ordered that all D.C. businesses and establishments enforce proof of vaccination for entry beginning Jan. 15.
Minneapolis, St. Paul to Require Vaccine Proof to Get Into Bars, Restaurants
Minneapolis and St. Paul will require customers to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter restaurants, bars and other entertainment venues, marking some of the most aggressive steps the Twin Cities have taken to curb the spread of the virus.
The new restrictions — which will apply to places where food or beverages are sold for on-site, indoor consumption — will go into effect for most businesses Jan. 19, though ticketed events will not be required to comply until Jan. 26.
Patrons can provide either proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken under medical supervision within the last 72 hours. Proof of booster shots is not required.
French Senate Approves Latest COVID Measures and Vaccine Pass
The French Senate approved on Thursday the government’s latest measures to tackle the COVID-19 virus, including a vaccine pass, which has encountered some opposition among the public after President Emmanuel Macron’s harsh criticism of the unvaccinated.
The Senate backed the COVID measures and legislation for a COVID vaccine pass by 249 in favour, versus 63 against. The legislation had already been approved earlier this month by France’s lower house of parliament.
Protesters Clash With Police Outside Bulgaria’s Parliament Over COVID Measures
About 3,000 protesters clashed with police while demonstrating against coronavirus restrictions outside the Bulgarian parliament building Wednesday, resulting in multiple injuries, Reuters reports.
Protesters called for the removal of a mandatory health pass that would limit customers at restaurants, cafes, shopping malls and gyms to those who are vaccinated, recovered or have tested negative for COVID-19.
Netherlands to Ease COVID Restrictions — Report
Coronavirus restrictions in the Netherlands will be eased from Saturday despite a wave of new infections due to the Omicron variant, Dutch media reported on Thursday.
Non-essential stores, hairdressers and gyms will be allowed to reopen for a limited number of customers, broadcasters NOS and RTL said, citing government sources. Students will be welcomed back to their colleges and universities.
Public places, except essential stores, have been shut since mid-December as hospitals struggled to deal with a wave of COVID-19 patients, caused by the Delta variant of the virus.
270 Angry Scientists Cite MSM ‘Fact Checks’ in Open Letter Urging Spotify to Censor Joe Rogan
Two weeks after Joe Rogan interviewed mRNA inventor Dr. Robert Malone on his Spotify podcast — which boasts 11 million viewers on average — an angry letter brigade of 270 doctors and scientists have written an open letter to Spotify to demand they censor Rogan and implement a COVID-19 “misinformation policy,” so that people, even highly trained virologist-immunologists such as Malone, can’t contradict ‘the science.’
And of course, just three of the signatories are immunologists, roughly 10% are nurses or nurse practitioners, and 33 are some type of ‘assistant’ (professor, nurse, lab, etc.). In short – hardly any of these people are qualified to refute Malone, which is probably why they link to ‘fact checks’ instead of compiling their own response on the merits of what Malone said.
Doctors Warn Online Appointments Are Leaking Sensitive Data
For many doctors and clinicians, being able to conduct consultations remotely has been a literal lifesaver. However, many of them are also clumsy and often compromise customer personal information during these sessions.
A new report from Kaspersky has found cybersecurity training doesn’t really work as intended for many medical professionals, with almost a third (30%) of healthcare providers experiencing incidents in which employees compromise sensitive data during online consultations, putting their customers at risk of identity theft.
For almost half of the respondents, this is due to clinicians not clearly understanding how patient data is protected.