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Booster Mandates Begin, Even to Attend the Opera + More
Booster Mandates Begin
Businesses, employers and universities are taking the data into their own hands and requiring booster coronavirus shots.
Booster requirements are steadily rolling out across the country, even though the federal definition of “fully vaccinated” hasn’t yet changed from two shots of Moderna or Pfizer and one of J&J.
Americans are split on what they think the definition of fully vaccinated is, according to Harris polling provided exclusively to Axios. 49% of adults said that “fully vaccinated” means two shots of Pfizer or Moderna or one shot of J&J, and 51% said that “fully vaccinated” now includes a booster.
When asked by a reporter yesterday about changing the official definition of fully vaccinated, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky didn’t give any hints about when that may happen.
Metropolitan Opera Requiring Audience Members to Have COVID Booster to Attend Performances
The Metropolitan Opera in New York City will require all audience and staff members have a COVID-19 booster shot starting on Jan. 17.
The opera house clarified that those not yet eligible for a booster shot “will be able to continue to enter provided they are two weeks past their second dose in a two-dose vaccine series or two weeks after receiving a single-dose vaccine.”
Although booster shots have not yet been approved for children, fully vaccinated kids ages 5 to 11 will continue to be allowed into the Met two weeks after their second vaccine dosage.
Those who are not vaccinated but are able to provide negative test results will not be able to enter the opera.
YouTube Censors Bombshell Joe Rogan Interview With Cardiologist Peter McCullough
In a move that will come as a shock to absolutely no one, YouTube is censoring clips of Joe Rogan’s interview with cardiologist Peter McCullough wherein the doctor laid out how early treatment of COVID is being actively suppressed by governments and big-pharma in favour of a blind pursuit to vaccinate everyone.
Texas-based McCullough urged that treatments including ivermectin and monoclonal antibodies are being sidelined in order to “create acceptance for, and then promote, mass vaccination.”
During the three hour long exchange, McCullough also spoke at length about vaccine side effects, including myocarditis in young people. McCullough tweeted out a link to a YouTube video of the interview, which has since been pulled down.
Texas Gov. Abbott Refuses Pentagon Vaccine Mandate: ‘Have Only President Biden to Blame’
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott informed the Pentagon that he will not impose the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the Texas National Guard.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Aug. 25 directed all military branches to ensure service members receive the vaccine as numbers surged over the summer. Each branch of the military observed a different deadline, with the Air Force and Navy required to comply by Nov. 2 and Nov. 28, respectively.
As Fox reported Wednesday, five state governors called on the Pentagon to rescind the vaccine mandate for National Guard members, but Abbott on Thursday sent a letter to Secretary Austin clearly stating he will not enforce the mandate on his state’s service members.
Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Will Decimate Our Military
President Biden is threatening to discharge every member of the military who expresses a religious exemption or nothing more than a cautionary reluctance to immediately obey his sweeping vaccine mandate. This would be as unnecessary as it is unjustified.
As many as 50,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are on the brink of being dismissed from service for disagreeing with the Biden mandate or seeking a religious exemption. Some have informed me that instead of being thrown out, they will quit the duty they love, give up the mission they have trained for, and separate from their brothers in arms whose lives they swore to protect — and who swore to protect theirs.
Think about the myriad Biden vaccine mandates on private sector employees, healthcare professionals, the federal workforce and its contractors. All were challenged successfully by a union, a lobby, a business interest, even attorneys general from more than a dozen states. All were stayed, delayed or halted.
Only the military vaccine mandate remains unchanged, barreling toward its devastating toll.
Army Has Over 3,800 Refuse to Get COVID Vaccine, Could Be Removed From Military Next Month
More than 3,800 members of the Army have refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine by this week’s deadline, setting them up for a potential ouster from the military beginning in January.
Six soldiers resisting the mandate were fired from leadership roles and more than 2,700 others have already been issued written reprimands, according to Army data.
The Army, the largest U.S. military service, also reported the lowest number of members requesting religious exemptions. While 1,700 Army soldiers applied for exemptions, about 4,700 in the Air Force, 3,000 in the Marine Corps and 2,700 in the Navy made the requests, according to recent data from the services. No religious exemptions have been authorized yet.
Five Governors Call on Pentagon to Rescind COVID Vaccine Mandate for National Guard Members
Five Republican governors have sent a letter to the Pentagon asking the Department of Defense to remove its coronavirus vaccine mandate on National Guard members.
The letter was signed by Governor Mark Gordon of Wyoming, Governor Mike Dunleavy of Alaska, Governor Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi, and Governor Pete Ricketts of Nebraska.
National Guard members answer to the governor of their respective state unless activated for federal servers which has put governors at odds with the Biden administration regarding his vaccine mandate for members of the military.
NYC Shares Details, Exceptions for Private-Sector Vax Mandate; State COVID Rates Soar
City Hall released comprehensive guidelines Wednesday on the looming private-sector vaccine mandate set to take effect later this month, a strictest-in-the-nation order Mayor Bill de Blasio has called a preemptive strike against the triple COVID threat posed by Omicron‘s emergence, Delta‘s severity and the holiday season.
Starting Dec. 27, all private-sector workers who have not filed for reasonable accommodations must provide proof of full vaccination or at least one dose to their employers. If an employee is not fully vaccinated, the individual must submit the date by which proof of the second dose will be provided. That date must be within 45 days of the date they submitted proof of their first dose, according to the city.
All employers will keep a record of each worker’s proof and the exemption requests and should be prepared to make their records available for inspection.
New California Rules End Distinction for Vaccinated Workers
Workplace regulators are poised on Thursday to extend California’s coronavirus pandemic regulations into next year with some revisions that business groups say could worsen the labor shortage.
The main change to the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board’s revised temporary rule is that it would erase current distinctions between vaccinated and unvaccinated employees.
Both would be barred from the workplace if they come in close contact with someone with the virus. “Treating vaccinated and unvaccinated people similarly really denies the scientific value of the vaccine and disincentivizes vaccination,” said Rob Moutrie, a policy advocate at the California Chamber of Commerce.
Factbox: Countries Making COVID Vaccines Mandatory
Governments have been making COVID-19 shots mandatory for health workers and other high-risk groups, pushed by a sharp upturn in infections caused by the Delta variant and a slowdown in vaccinations as well as the new Omicron variant.
A growing number of countries are also making shots compulsory for public servants and other workers.
Here are some countries’ vaccine mandates, listed according to categories of people affected:
Thousands Protest COVID Rules as New Zealand Marks 90% Vaccine Rates
Thousands marched in New Zealand’s capital Wellington on Thursday to protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and lockdowns, as the country reached the 90% fully vaccinated milestone.
New Zealand’s tough lockdown and vaccination drives have helped keep coronavirus infections and related deaths low, but it has also drawn criticism from some calling for more freedoms and an end to mandatory vaccine requirements.
The government has mandated vaccinations for teachers, workers in the health and disability sectors, police and other public service sectors.
South Korea Bans Gatherings of 5 or More People Amid Virus Surge
South Korea will prohibit private social gatherings of five or more people nationwide and force restaurants to close at 9 p.m., rolling out the country’s toughest coronavirus restrictions yet as hospitals grapple with the deadliest month of the pandemic.
Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said Thursday that the new measures will be enforced for at least 16 days after taking effect on Saturday, saying there’s an urgent need to bring the country to a “standstill” with the delta-driven surge overwhelming stretched hospitals and exhausted medical workers.
Schools in the densely populated capital Seoul and nearby metropolitan areas, where the virus has hit hardest, will also go back to remote learning after fully reopening in November.
Ad Exchange OpenX Slapped With FTC Fine for Collecting Location Data on Children
OpenX, an advertising tech company, will pay $2 million to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to settle allegations that the company violated federal children’s privacy law.
In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the FTC alleges that OpenX violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from children under 13 without obtaining parental content.
The California-based company is also accused of knowingly collecting information from hundreds of apps marketed for children, toddlers and for preschool learning, before passing this data — including granular location data, IP addresses and unique device identifiers — to third parties that used the data for targeted advertising.
9 Movies That Warn You to Steer Clear of Zuckerberg’s Metaverse
Mark Zuckerberg is all about the metaverse these days. By metaverse we mean a hypothetical future version of the internet that functions as a persistent, three-dimensional virtual world enabled by technology like VR and AR headsets.
One may notice that virtually all fictional versions of the metaverse are kind of dystopian — either imagining it as a form of escape from a crumbling physical reality ravaged by unchecked capitalism or an entry to a dangerous new one, privy to manipulation and new forms of control by powerful mega-corporations, malicious hackers, and demonic artificial intelligence.
These nine old movies (we’re defining “old” as released prior to the turn of the millennium) are a flashing warning sign to steer clear of Facebook’s forthcoming Metaverse.
No Jab, No Job: Google Will Fire Unvaccinated Employees + More
No Jab, No Job: Google Will Fire Unvaccinated Employees
Google is giving employees until Jan. 18 to prove that they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19 or apply for an exemption, according to a report from CNBC.
News of the requirement broke late Tuesday, but Google employees have been aware of the policy since Dec. 3, when an internal memo alerted them to the deadline. If employees don’t upload proof of vaccination by then, they’ll be placed on paid administrative leave for 30 days and unpaid personal leave for six months after that. If they still haven’t shown proof of vaccination after seven months, they’ll be fired.
“We expect that almost all roles at Google in the U.S. will fall within the scope of the executive order,” the memo said. “Anyone entering a Google building must be fully vaccinated or have an approved accommodation that allows them to work or come onsite. Frequent testing is not a valid alternative to vaccination.”
Court Revives U.S. COVID Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare in 26 States
A U.S. federal appeals court on Wednesday revived in 26 states a Biden administration COVID-19 mandate requiring millions of U.S. healthcare workers to get vaccinated if they work in federally funded facilities.
In a rare win for President Joe Biden’s pandemic strategy, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that a lower court only had the authority to block the mandate in the 14 states that had sued. The appeals court ruled that the lower court was wrong to impose a nationwide injunction. read more
The rule initially required more than 2 million unvaccinated healthcare workers be vaccinated by Dec. 6. It was blocked before the deadline and remains temporarily blocked in 24 states — the 14 states involved in the case reviewed by the New Orleans appeals court and 10 states where the mandate was blocked by a Nov. 29 ruling from a federal judge in St. Louis. read more
U.S. Passenger Railroad Amtrak Suspends Vaccine Mandate for Employees
U.S. passenger railroad Amtrak said on Tuesday it will temporarily suspend a vaccine mandate for employees and now no longer expects to be forced to cut some service in January.
In a memo seen by Reuters, Amtrak Chief Executive Bill Flynn said the railroad would allow employees who were not vaccinated to get tested.
Currently, fewer than 500 active Amtrak employees are not in compliance. Last week, the railroad told Congress it anticipated “proactively needing to temporarily reduce some train frequencies across our network” because of the mandate.
Colleges Go Back to Drawing Board — Again — to Fight COVID
Facing rising infections and a new COVID-19 variant, colleges across the U.S. have once again been thwarted in seeking a move to normalcy and are starting to require booster shots, extend mask mandates, limit social gatherings and, in some cases, revert to online classes.
The threat of the Omicron variant comes as a gut punch to schools that were hoping to relax safety measures this spring. Now, many are telling students to prepare for another term of masking, testing and, if cases get bad, limits around social life.
Hundreds of colleges already require COVID-19 vaccines, and some say boosters are an obvious next step.
Navy Starts Kicking Out Sailors for Refusing the COVID Vaccine as Republicans Rage Over Mandate
The Navy has begun kicking out sailors who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but won’t slap dishonorable discharges on anyone for their decision to ignore a direct order.
Overall, 5,731 active-duty sailors remain unvaccinated, and at this point, Navy officials say they believe most of those will likely continue to refuse the order, weeks after the Nov. 28 deadline for full vaccination.
“If a sailor gets their shot, we will honor that and make every effort to retain them,” Rear Adm. James Waters, the Navy’s director of military personnel plans and policy, told reporters. “On the other hand, those who continue to refuse the vaccine will be required to leave the Navy.”
L.A. School Board Delays Enforcement of Student Vaccine Mandate as Thousands Remain Non-Compliant
The Los Angeles school board agreed Tuesday to delay enforcement of its student COVID-19 vaccine mandate from Jan. 10 to fall 2022, citing concerns over disrupting learning and the monumental task of transferring tens of thousands of students into independent study.
The decision came after interim Supt. Megan K. Reilly laid out a plan Friday to push back the deadline because the district was confronted with the reality that about 28,000 students had not complied and under the rules would be barred from in-person schooling and enrolled in independent study.
The board also voted to expand the student vaccination mandate to charter schools that are authorized by the district.
Quarter of NY Counties Refuse to ‘Become Mask Police’ Despite Hochul Mandate
County officials statewide opposed to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s mask mandate called it “silly,” “misguided” and “unenforceable” on Tuesday — with one rejecting it as “Gestapo tactics” and another saying “we’re not going to become the mask police.”
Since Hochul announced her order on Friday, leaders in 13 Republican-controlled counties have publicly refused to force businesses that don’t require vaccination for admittance to make workers, customers and visitors wear masks.
The defiant counties — along with Nassau County, where incoming Republican County Executive-elect Bruce Blakeman has said he’ll defy the mandate — account for nearly one-quarter of all the state’s territories, not including the five boroughs of New York City.
U.S. Appeals Court Declines to Block United Airlines Vaccine Mandate
A divided U.S. appeals court has rebuffed a request by six employees to block United Airlines (UAL.O) from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for workers that imposes unpaid leave on those who are granted religious or medical exceptions.
A panel of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 on Monday night to reject the emergency request for an injunction blocking the mandate while the employees appeal a November ruling by a federal judge in favor of the airline.
The case is one of many legal battles over vaccine requirements imposed by companies and governments.
Louisiana’s John Bel Edwards Adds COVID Vaccine to School Requirements, Despite Objections
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Tuesday the COVID vaccine will be added to the immunization schedule for schools and colleges in the state, overriding a previous 13-2 vote against the decision.
Edwards, a Democrat, sent a letter to the House Health and Welfare Committee on Tuesday to inform them of his decision, stating eligible students will be required to be vaccinated in time for the 2022-23 school year or file for an exemption.
Under the current plan, only students who the vaccine has been fully approved for by the Food and Drug Administration will be required to be vaccinated. The current age threshold is 16. However, if the FDA does expand the approvals to a wider age range, Louisiana’s requirements could change.
Tony Blair Calls for New ‘Digital ID’ so People Can Prove Their Coronavirus ‘Disease Status’ Alongside Test and Trace Programs
People will need a new form of ‘digital ID’ so they can prove their ‘disease status’ as the world moves out of lockdown, Tony Blair has said.
The former Prime Minister said that only if people can show easily whether they are clear of coronavirus will industries like international travel be able to restart. Speaking at the virtual CogX technology conference, Mr Blair said that such a system would operate alongside track and trace programs as the economy reopens.
“You can create a digital ID today that is much more easily protected so you can deal with a lot of the privacy and surveillance issues that worry people,” he said on Tuesday. “It is a natural evolution of the way that we are going to use technology in any event to transact daily life and this COVID crisis gives an additional reason for doing that.”
UK Government Wins COVID Pass Vote; 98 Voted Against It
Behind a heavy oak door in Parliament, Prime Minister Boris Johnson implored Conservative lawmakers to back him by voting for new restrictions to help slow the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
The lawmakers cheered Johnson — yet almost 100 defied him, voting in the House of Commons against requiring vaccine passports for nightclubs and other crowded venues. The rebellion didn’t defeat the measure, which was approved with opposition support and took effect Wednesday. But it could have big implications for Johnson’s political future and for Britain’s pandemic response.
Tuesday’s rebellion by 98 Conservative lawmakers on vaccine certificates was by far the biggest of Johnson’s premiership. More than 60 Tory legislators also voted against mandating vaccinations for all healthcare workers.
Norway Bans Serving of Alcohol in Bid to Halt Omicron Outbreak
Norway will ban the serving of alcohol in bars and restaurants, impose stricter rules in schools and speed up vaccination as part of new efforts to curb the outbreak of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the government said on Monday.
“For many, this will feel like a lockdown, if not of society then of their lives and of their livelihoods,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told a news conference.
Poland Limits How Many Unvaccinated People Can Be Inside Restaurants, Theaters at One Time
Following a surge in COVID-19 cases, Poland put into effect a number of measures restricting capacities at public venues, especially for the unvaccinated.
Whereas previously places like restaurants, hotels, theaters and sports stadiums could have up to 50% of their capacity be made up of unvaccinated people, the new regulations have now cut this down to 30%.
The new restrictions also shut down nightclubs and discos, though they allow for them to be open for New Year’s celebrations with a 100-person cap. Public transportation capacity will also be limited to 75%.
Big Tech Doesn’t Always Make It Easy to Use the Apps You Want. Here’s How to Take Back Control.
Let’s say you’re on your phone, trying desperately to declutter your inbox and you tap on a link in one of your emails. What happens next? Your Web browser opens and directs you to whatever page you wanted to see in the first place. It’s the kind of interaction that’s so mundane, you probably don’t think about it very much. But maybe you should.
If you’re concerned about being tracked across the Internet, for example, you might want a browser like Brave or Firefox to open links on your Android phone instead of Chrome.
These companies are exerting a degree of control over the way we use their products, and to that, we say, “No thanks.” Apple and Microsoft eventually eased up on both of those issues, but changing the default apps can still take some work on our part. Here’s how to do it for the phones, tablets and computers you rely on every day.
Apple’s Controversial CSAM Photo Detection Feature May Be Toast
Months after a bungled announcement of a controversial new feature designed to scan iPhones for potential child sexual abuse material (CSAM), Apple has covertly wiped any mention of the plan from the Child Safety page on its website.
The on-device CSAM detection feature stood out among the other planned additions as a particular concern, with security researchers, policy groups, and regular-old Apple customers alike balking at the plan’s potential to erode privacy.
Critics had argued that giving Apple the ability to trawl users’ private data was problematic for a number of reasons, both in terms of its ability to misidentify CSAM (would a photo of your child in the bathtub land you on an FBI watchlist?) and its potential to open up the door to a dangerous surveillance precedent.
Meta Expands Bug Bounty Program to Reward Discoveries of Scraped Data
Meta is expanding its bug bounty program to reward researchers who report data scraping. The change will allow researchers to report both bugs that could enable scraping activity, as well as previously scraped data that has already been published online.
Data scraping is different than other “malicious” activity Meta tracks as it uses automated tools to mass-collect personal information from users’ profiles, such as email addresses, phone numbers, profile photos and other details.
Even though users often willingly share this information on their public Facebook profiles, scrapers can expose these details more widely, such as publishing the information in searchable databases. In April, the personal information of more than 500 million Facebook users was published on a forum.
Appeals Court Refuses to Put Biden’s Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers Back Into Effect + More
Appeals Court Refuses to Put Biden’s Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers Back Into Effect
A federal appeals court upheld Monday a district court order that blocked the White House’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers — which paused the order in only 10 states and not nationwide — the latest in a string of recent setbacks President Joe Biden’s vaccine orders have faced in court.
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the Biden administration’s request to lift a lower court’s injunction that blocked the mandate, which requires vaccinations for healthcare workers in facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid, while the case is being appealed.
The order applies only to Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, and is distinct from a separate court order from a federal judge in Louisiana that blocked the mandate nationwide.
NFL Requiring Coaches, Team Staff to Get COVID Boosters
The NFL is requiring coaches, front-office staff and team personnel to receive a COVID-19 booster by Dec. 27.
The league’s requirement extends to all Tier 1 and Tier 2 individuals who have previously received the vaccine. Though players are in the Tier 1 designation along with coaches and trainers, the mandate doesn’t apply to players because discussions with the NFL Players Association are ongoing.
The league says anyone who is not currently subject to the requirement for boosters will be required to obtain the booster within 14 days of becoming eligible.
Air Force Discharges 27 for Refusal to Get COVID Vaccine
The Air Force has discharged 27 people for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, making them what officials believe are the first service members to be removed for disobeying the mandate to get the shots.
The Air Force gave its forces until Nov. 2 to get the vaccine, and thousands have either refused or sought an exemption. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said Monday that these are the first airmen to be administratively discharged for reasons involving the vaccine.
Kroger Ending Some COVID Benefits for Unvaccinated Staff
Kroger, the country’s biggest traditional grocery chain, is ending some benefits for unvaccinated workers as big employers attempt to compel more of their workforce to become vaccinated with cases of COVID-19 again rising.
Unvaccinated workers will no longer be eligible to receive up to two-weeks paid emergency leave if they become infected, a company spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. That policy was put into place last year when vaccines were unavailable.
The Cincinnati company also confirmed changes in benefits first reported by The Wall Street Journal for non-union or management. Unvaccinated workers in that category will pay a monthly $50 surcharge for their company health plan.
Pennsylvania Senate Approves Bill Prohibiting COVID Vaccine Mandate for K-12 Students
Pennsylvania Capital-Star reported:
Returning to Harrisburg on Monday for the last session week of the year, Republicans in the Pennsylvania state Senate approved legislation prohibiting a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for K-12 students.
The bill, authored by Sen. Michele Brooks, R-Mercer, passed the upper chamber in a 28-21 vote along party lines. The legislation, which saw pushback from legislative Democrats, would prohibit schools from requiring kids to get a coronavirus vaccine to attend classes.
Philadelphia to Require Proof of Vaccine or Negative COVID Test at Public Indoor Spaces
Philadelphians will soon be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a recent negative test in order to enter indoor bars, sporting events, restaurants and other venues, officials announced Monday.
Both customers and employees will be subject to the requirement starting Jan. 3, but the option for a negative test is only temporary. For the first two weeks, people will be able to show a negative test from the last 24 hours in order to enter, but proof of full vaccination for all will be mandated starting Jan. 17.
California to Reinstitute Statewide Mask Mandate Amid Rise in COVID Cases
California will impose a statewide mask mandate in all indoor public spaces as COVID-19 case rates soar, the state’s senior government health official said on Monday as precautions ramp up against the Omicron variant.
The mandate, which will take effect on Wednesday and last a month, is one of several measures the most-populous U.S. state is taking.
California is also tightening testing requirements for unvaccinated people who want to attend large events such as music festivals and professional ball games where more than 1,000 people are in attendance.
Veteran Actor Fired for Refusing COVID Vaccine Sues ABC
A veteran actor is suing ABC for religious discrimination after he was fired from America’s longest-running soap opera for refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19
Ingo Rademacher, 50, who starred as Jasper Jacks on General Hospital for 25 years before his dismissal last month, has accused the Disney-owned American Broadcasting Company (ABC) of refusing to accept his exemption request for “sincerely held religious objections to the COVID-19 shots.”
Rademacher is represented by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — the son of assassinated US Senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former US president John F. Kennedy — along with attorneys John W. Howard and Scott J. Street. The actor’s lawsuit claims ABC “subjected him to half an hour of cross-examination about his religious beliefs and then denied his exemption request, without explanation.”
Ghana to Fine Airlines $3,500 for Unvaccinated Passengers
Ghana will fine airlines $3,500 for each passenger who arrives in the West African country without being fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the latest measure taken by the country with some of the strictest restrictions in the region
Airlines also will be penalized the same amount for passengers who did not fill out a health declaration form before boarding their flight to Kotoka International Airport, the state-owned Ghana Airport Company announced Monday.
While Ghanaians who fly in without meeting the requirement will be allowed to enter the country and undergo a 14-day quarantine, foreigners may be refused entry, the airport authority announced.
Elon Musk Says He and His Family Are Vaccinated but That Mandates for the Masses Are an ‘Erosion of Freedom’
After downplaying the coronavirus and expressing skepticism about vaccines, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said that he and his eligible children have gotten the COVID-19 jab.
He doesn’t think the government should enforce vaccine mandates, however. The unvaccinated are “taking a risk, but people do risky things all the time,” he said. “I believe we’ve got to watch out for the erosion of freedom in America.”
Musk has made it clear before he’s no fan of big government imposing restrictions on people and businesses in the name of fighting the pandemic. When California forced nonessential businesses to close, Musk fought publicly with officials and eventually reopened Tesla’s California factory in defiance of their rules.
5G Now Means Some Flights Won’t Be Able to Land When Pilots Can’t See the Runway
Verizon and AT&T are hoping new swaths of C-band cellular radio spectrum will help make the 5G hype closer to reality, but the big mid-band 5G rollout may have a side effect. Airplanes rely on radio altimeters to tell how high they are above the ground to safely land when pilots can’t see, and the FAA is now instructing 6,834 of them to not do that at certain airports because of 5G interference.
The FAA ruled that thousands of U.S. planes (and some helicopters) won’t be able to use many of the guided and automatic landing systems that are designed to work in poor visibility conditions, if they’re landing at an airport where there’s deemed to be enough interference that their altimeters aren’t reliable.
That likely means flight delays: “These limitations could prevent dispatch of flights to certain locations with low visibility, and could also result in flight diversions,” reads a portion of the FAA’s written explanation.
It’s not yet clear which specific airports might restrict low visibility flight, but you can imagine that they’d likely be in the same places where the carriers are deploying mid-band 5G — with a few exceptions, they’re the United States’ most-populated cities.
Algorithms That Detect Cancer Can Be Fooled by Hacked Images
Artificial intelligence programs that check medical images for evidence of cancer can be duped by hacks and cyberattacks, according to a new study. Researchers demonstrated that a computer program could add or remove evidence of cancer from mammograms, and those changes fooled both an AI tool and human radiologists.
That could lead to an incorrect diagnosis. An AI program helping to screen mammograms might say a scan is healthy when there are actually signs of cancer or incorrectly say that a patient does have cancer when they’re actually cancer free.
Such hacks are not known to have happened in the real world yet, but the new study adds to a growing body of research suggesting healthcare organizations need to be prepared for them.
Twitter’s New Privacy Policy Was Abused in Predictable Ways, Experts Say
In late November, Twitter rolled out a new privacy policy it said was aimed at preventing the misuse of media to harass, intimidate or reveal the identities of individuals — but, within days, accusations circulated that some users were abusing the new policy to remove legitimate media.
Under the policy, which was announced on Nov. 30, Twitter users could ask the company to remove photos and videos of themselves posted to the platform without their permission.
“It was completely predictable,” said David Greene, civil liberties director and senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The policy was too broad and too imprecise, so it was very quickly abused, he said, adding, “I don’t think anyone was really surprised. Only surprised by how fast.”
What Is Web3 and Why Should You Care?
In recent months, you may have come across a phrase growing in popularity: Web3. You might be wondering what it is, what it will mean for the future, and how exactly the third-generation internet differs from the first two.
Let’s cut to the chase: For Web3 evangelists, it’s a revolution; for skeptics, it’s an overhyped house of cards that doesn’t stand up too much scrutiny.
Part of the reason that there’s such a heated debate going on about Web3 — and cryptocurrencies, and NFTs, or non-fungible tokens — right now is that it’s very early days.
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Religious Challenge to New York Vaccine Mandate + More
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Religious Challenge to New York Vaccine Mandate
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected challenges brought by a group of Christian doctors and nurses and an organization that promotes vaccine skepticism to New York’s refusal to allow religious exemptions to the state’s mandate that healthcare workers be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Acting in two cases, the justices denied emergency requests for an injunction requiring the state to permit religious exemptions while litigation over the mandate‘s legality continues in lower courts. Conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said they would have granted the injunction.
The Supreme Court previously rejected other challenges to vaccine mandates including one focusing upon Maine’s lack of a religious exemption for healthcare workers.
Why Some Hospitals Are Dropping Vaccine Mandates for Healthcare Workers
International Business Times reported:
Hospitals across the U.S. are doing away with their vaccine mandates as a result of a persistent shortage of healthcare workers, according to a report Monday in The Wall Street Journal.
Hospital chains and nonprofit hospitals are dropping the mandate in a bid to hold on to staff members who range from nurses to sanitation workers. Medical professionals are reporting high rates of burnout and frustration with shortages of the necessary equipment to do their jobs.
“It’s been a mass exodus, and a lot of people in the healthcare industry are willing to go and shop around,” employee-benefits lawyer Wade Symons told the Journal.
Vaccine mandates only added to the flight of healthcare workers as a number of them refused to comply.
Vaccine Holdouts in U.S. Military Approach 40,000 Even as Omicron Variant Fuels Call for Boosters
The number of active-duty U.S. military personnel declining to be vaccinated against the coronavirus by their prescribed deadlines is as high as 40,000, with new Army data showing that, days ahead of its cutoff, 3% of soldiers either have rejected President Biden’s mandate or sought a long-shot exemption.
Military leaders have few options to address the dissent other than to hope that, as waiver requests are denied, more troops will choose to fall in line. The alternative, the Pentagon has said, is to purge the ranks of those failing to meet requirements, though some of those roughly 40,000 service members opting out had already planned to leave the military.
The numbers are unlikely to change much before Wednesday, when the Army’s deadline arrives and all 1.3 million active-duty personnel are expected either to be fully vaccinated or have an exemption in hand.
Bill De Blasio Avoids Saying Whether NYC Companies Should Fire Unvaccinated Staff
Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio refused to answer a question from CNN‘s Jake Tapper about whether New York City businesses would fire unvaccinated staff during the winter holiday season.
The mayor was being interviewed with the Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, and the two lawmakers debated over whether vaccine mandates were necessary to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
De Blasio has mandated that all unvaccinated private-sector workers in New York City get vaccinated by Dec. 27. Such a strict policy regarding vaccine mandates has not yet been seen elsewhere in the United States.
Connecticut Will Have Proof-of-Vaccination Cellphone App
Connecticut residents soon will be able to show their vaccination status using a cellphone app, though whether it’s required will be up to businesses, restaurants and other establishments.
Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont announced Friday the app will be available by the end of the year. Lamont hasn’t followed the example of Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has reinstituted a statewide mask mandate beginning Monday.
Lamont said the cellphone app will give restaurants and stores the tools they need to determine what restrictions to put in place, if any. The digital passport, which Lamont said he prefers to call a digital health card since the term passport has become politicized, will use a QR code and will be tied into the state’s vaccination database.
More Missouri Health Departments Stop COVID Services After Threats From AG Eric Schmitt
Over a half-dozen more Missouri health departments stop COVID services after Attorney General Eric Schmitt threatened legal action if they were to continue.
At least six health departments issued statements Thursday night saying they would halt all COVID-related work, including case investigations, contact tracing, quarantine directives and public announcement of the number of cases and deaths.
Schmitt, a Republican who is running for the U.S. Senate, sent letters this week to local health officials and school districts threatening legal action if they didn’t obey a ruling made the previous month by Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green that banned COVID regulations and health orders from local health departments, according to The Associated Press.
Pennslyvania Supreme Court Strikes Down School Mask Mandate Imposed by Wolf Administration
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported:
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Friday struck down the school mask mandate imposed by the administration of Gov. Tom Wolf, affirming a lower court ruling that said state health officials lacked the authority to set the blanket requirement for students across the state.
The ruling removed a previous order that allowed the mask mandate to remain in place while the Wolf administration appealed the Commonwealth Court ruling from last month. The Supreme Court justices did not issue an opinion on the case, but promised one would be coming.
Mass Protest in Vienna Against Austria’s Controversial COVID Restrictions
Tens of thousands of people rallied in Vienna on Saturday in protest against restrictions introduced to halt the spread of coronavirus in Austria, including mandatory COVID-19 vaccines and home confinement orders for the unvaccinated.
Around 1,400 police officers were on duty to oversee the protest, which attracted an estimated 44,000 people, and followed a similar demonstration in the Austrian capital last week. read more
Thousands Protest in Prague Against COVID Vaccine Mandate
Several thousand people marched through the Czech capital on Sunday, protesting a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for certain groups including people age 60 and over.
The protesters, chanting “Freedom!” alleged their constitutional rights are being violated. They said they weren’t against voluntary vaccination but opposed a vaccine mandate.
The outgoing government released an order this week, making vaccination mandatory for the 60 and over age group, as well as medical personnel, police officers, firefighters and medical students.
Russia Backing Away From COVID Restrictions That Sparked Outrage
Russian authorities have backed away from imposing COVID-19 restrictions that have sparked outrage in a country that has a low vaccination rate, The Associated Press reported.
Duma State speaker Vyacheslav Volodin confirmed on Monday the withdrawal of the proposed bill setting out the restrictions, which was excepted go through its first reading on Thursday. If passed, the bill would have restricted access to domestic and international flights and trains for residents who are fully vaccinated, recently recovered from the virus and who are medically exempt from vaccination.
This comes as residents in different regions of the country have started staging protests against the proposed restrictions and have launched online petitions against them, the AP reported.
South Korea to Test Artificial Intelligence-Powered Facial Recognition to Track COVID Cases
South Korea will soon roll out a pilot project to use artificial intelligence, facial recognition and thousands of CCTV cameras to track the movement of people infected with the coronavirus, despite concerns about the invasion of privacy.
The system uses AI algorithms and facial recognition technology to analyze footage gathered by more than 10,820 CCTV cameras and track an infected person’s movements, anyone they had close contact with, and whether they were wearing a mask.
Governments around the world have turned to new technologies and expanded legal powers to try to stem the tide of COVID-19 infections. China, Russia, India, Poland and Japan as well as several U.S. states are among the governments to have rolled out or at least experimented with facial recognition systems for tracking COVID-19 patients, according to a March report by Columbia Law School in New York.
Watchdog Says Federal Anti-Terror Unit Investigated Journalists
A special Customs and Border Protection unit used sensitive government databases intended to track terrorists to investigate as many as 20 U.S.-based journalists, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press reporter, according to a federal watchdog.
Yahoo News, which published an extensive report on the investigation, also found that the unit, the Counter Network Division, queried records of congressional staffers and perhaps members of Congress.
Jeffrey Rambo, an agent who acknowledged running checks on journalists in 2017, told federal investigators the practice is routine.
Facebook Exec Says ‘People,’ Not Platform, to Blame for Vaccine Misinformation
Facebook executive Andrew Bosworth said in an interview aired Sunday that the burden of misinformation spreading on the social media platform fell on individual users.
Bosworth told Axios it was undemocratic for a social platform to attempt to control people’s speech, even in cases when it might be harmful.
“I don’t believe that the answer is ‘I will deny these people the information they seek, and I will enforce my will upon them.’ That can’t be the right answer. That cannot be the democratic answer,” Bosworth said, noting “the onus is and should be, in any meaningful democracy, on the individual.”
‘They Were Spying On Us’: Amazon, Walmart, Use Surveillance Technology to Bust Unions
Workplace surveillance, already widespread in the U.S., has become even more prevalent during the pandemic as employers try to enforce public health measures and monitor remote workers.
According to research by Gartner, a market research firm, 60% of large employers use workplace monitoring tools, twice as many as before the pandemic. Coworker.org, a labor research nonprofit, recently compiled a database of over 550 of these commercially available products, which it dubs “little tech,” and published a study outlining potential harms and noting the industry’s general lack of regulation.
Technology-enabled surveillance — from keycard tagging and email monitoring to social media tracking and worker profiling — often introduced in the name of safety and productivity can have a chilling effect on organizing and allow companies to sidestep labor law.
Members of Congress Publicly Blast Facebook but Quietly Invest Their Savings in the Social-Media Giant
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Facebook shameful and irresponsible. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon suggested prison time for the tech giant’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. Rep. Ro Khanna of California said Facebook should be broken up.
But despite their tough talk toward the social-media behemoth, all three of those Democratic lawmakers or their spouses stood to gain financially from Facebook.
They were among at least 31 lawmakers in the House and Senate — 18 Democrats and 13 Republicans — whose families held investments in the tech company during 2020, according to an Insider investigation of lawmakers’ most recent financial disclosures.
Twitter Will Now Ban Users That Repeatedly Claim Vaccinated People Can Spread COVID
Twitter has quietly updated its “COVID-19 misleading information policy” to impose new sanctions on tweets about vaccines, PCR tests and health authorities. These sanctions include removing and labeling tweets. Both types of sanctions also result in Twitter users accruing strikes on their accounts, which can lead to a permanent suspension.
One of the most notable changes to this “COVID-19 misleading information policy” we noticed is related to claims about whether vaccinated people can spread the coronavirus. The policy now states that Twitter will label tweets with “corrective information” and give users a strike if they:
Claim that “the vaccines will cause you to be sick, spread the virus or would be more harmful than getting COVID-19” and post what Twitter describes as “false or misleading claims that people who have received the vaccine can spread or shed the virus (or symptoms, or immunity) to unvaccinated people.”