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Austria to Put Millions of Unvaccinated People in COVID Lockdown + More
Austria to Put Millions of Unvaccinated People in COVID Lockdown
Austria is to introduce a lockdown for unvaccinated people in two of Europe’s worst-hit coronavirus regions from Monday and could extend it across the country, the chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, has said.
Millions of people not fully vaccinated against COVID in the regions of Upper Austria and Salzburg will be allowed to leave their homes only for reasons considered essential to life, such as going to work, grocery shopping or visiting the doctor, Schallenberg said — measures believed to be unprecedented in Europe.
“Unvaccinated people will only be allowed to leave their flats to go to work, for food shopping or when they need to stretch their legs,” he said.
Hundreds Gather Near Golden Gate Bridge to Protest Vaccine Mandates, Evening Commute Grinds to Halt
Five people are injured after a car crash on the Golden Gate Bridge during an anti-vaccine mandate rally that caused major traffic delays Thursday night, the CHP says. Two California Highway Patrol officers and three Golden Gate personnel are among the injured, a spokesperson said.
Hundreds of protesters gathered around 3 p.m., not far from the toll plaza at the Golden Gate Bridge welcome center. ABC7 News Reporter Cornell Barnard talked to some of the protesters. “I’m advocating for choice in this issue, I don’t want people to be forced to put anything in their bodies,” said Black Lives Matter advocate Hawk Newsome.
CHP moved in Thursday evening to stop the protesters from getting on the bridge, closing down at least one lane of northbound traffic.
Aussie Health Chief Says People Who Don’t Get Vaccinated Will Be ‘Miserable’ and ‘Lonely’ for Life
The Queensland president of the Australian Medical Association said during a television appearance that people still refusing to get the vaccine will be “miserable” and “lonely” for the rest of their lives.
“Oh, they’re crazy not to get vaccinated, life will be miserable without getting vaccinated,” said Dr. Chris Perry.
“You won’t be able to hide, you won’t be able to get a doctor to sign off that you got an exclusion because there’s quite a set rules on that and doctors will be audited, every one of their exclusions will be looked at very carefully,” he added, before threatening doctors with fines and termination.
Judge Overrules Texas Governor’s Ban on Mask Mandates in Schools
A federal judge overruled Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates in schools, clearing the path for districts to issue their own rules.
Judge Lee Yeakel of U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled the governor’s order violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, a landmark 1990 federal law that includes protections for students with special needs. In his ruling, Yeakel said the executive order put children with disabilities at risk.
COVID Vaccine Mandates Get Attention in Pennsylvania Legislature as Lehigh Valley Hospital Doctor Speaks Out
The issue of whether Pennsylvanians should be mandated to get the COVID-19 vaccine continues to percolate in the state Legislature, fueled by concerns of people like Dr. Chaminie Wheeler.
The pediatric hospitalist recently lost access to work inside St. Luke’s University Health Network — where she supervised a newborn nursery and taught medical students — because she spoke out against such mandates.
“It is not right for my employer to tell me what I need to do with my own body,” said Wheeler, who said she lost her hospital system access a few hours after the airing of a television interview in which she spoke out against mandates.
Last 3 Florida School Districts Drop Student Mask Mandates
The last three school districts in Florida that required at least some students to wear masks are dropping their mandates for student facial coverings.
Starting Friday, grade school students in Miami-Dade schools can opt-out of wearing a mask if they have their parents’ permission. Masks already had been optional for high-school and some middle-school students.
Many Latin American Travelers Shut Out From Visiting U.S. by New Vaccine Policy
As soon as COVID-19 vaccines became available for her age group in Guatemala, Ilse Samoyoa lined up with hundreds of other people for 9 hours to get her shot. Samoyoa, 56, never imagined that the Sputnik vaccine she got in June would eventually bar her from traveling to the U.S.
For Samoyoa and others who had been traveling back and forth throughout the pandemic from Latin America, where there was no travel ban, the shift in policy the U.S. announced this week left them out. Many countries in the region have bought millions of doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and others that still haven’t been approved by the WHO.
Facial Recognition Marches Forward, No Matter What Facebook Says
Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. said on Nov. 2 it was shuttering the facial recognition system it used to automatically identify people in images posted to its social network. The company is working to repair a public image crisis — there’s a reason it’s not called Facebook anymore — and facial recognition has become an increasingly toxic concept in many circles.
About 20 U.S. cities have passed legislation limiting use of the technology in various ways. But privacy advocates are calling for further restrictions on the technology, which they say is ripe for abuse by private companies as well as governments. Even some applications that seem innocuous or convenient could end up being problematic, according to critics.
YouTube Hides Dislike Count on Videos to Reduce ‘Attacking Behavior’
Video sharing platform YouTube announced on Wednesday that they will be removing the public dislike count across all content, an effort to foster “respectful interactions between viewers and creators,” the company wrote in a blog post.
The dislike button will not disappear altogether — users can still dislike a video so that YouTube’s algorithm can better target their desired content. Video creators will also be able to see the amount of dislikes on any given video through the YouTube Creator Studio, but those counts will no longer be available for public consumption.
Maine’s Vaccine Mandate Won’t Include Dental Workers
Maine’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare providers will not include dental workers or emergency medical service personnel.
The state released the final version of the rules this week. Lots of EMS workers remain covered by another mandate from the Maine Board of Emergency Medical Services.
The mandate applies to workers at hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient surgery centers and other health facilities, the Portland Press Herald reported.
Vaccine Mandates Are Spreading. Italy Shows What to Expect.
Italy last month took a groundbreaking step for a Western democracy: Requiring the nation’s workers — public and private — to get government-issued health passes. The move amounted to a grand experiment to persuade the unvaccinated, who could keep receiving a paycheck only by getting inoculated or undergoing regular testing.
The emerging lesson seems to be that a forceful policy can indeed reap a payoff — at least, a modest one. Many minds won’t change, but some might. For the price of some resistance, a country can vaccinate a sliver of its population that otherwise would have stayed out of reach.
Gen Z Is Behaving Recklessly Online — and Will Live to Regret It
Members of Generation Z, the cohort of people born in the first decade of the 21st century, care about digital privacy, but their desire for online fame and popularity is greater, a new study from ExpressVPN suggests.
The survey found that Generation Z isn’t trusting of the social media platforms they frequent, expressing concern that platforms may be using their images for facial recognition (67%) and wariness about oversharing personal information (66%).
They also typically use at least one privacy and security setting on their social media accounts, such as two-factor authentication (64%) and disabling contact syncing (50%).
Matthew McConaughey Doesn’t Support a COVID Vaccine Mandate for Kids Yet + More
Matthew McConaughey Says He Doesn’t Support a COVID Vaccine Mandate for Kids Yet
Matthew McConaughey doesn’t support a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for kids just yet.
McConaughey — who is fully vaccinated — explained that he isn’t anti-vaccine but wants “to find out more information” before supporting any requirements that young children get the shot.
For the time being, he said he won’t be vaccinating his young children: “Right now, I’m not vaccinating [my young children], I’ll tell you that.”
States Challenge Biden’s Vaccine Mandate for Health Workers
A coalition of 10 states sued the federal government on Wednesday to try to block a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for healthcare workers, marking a new front in the resistance by Republican-led states to the pandemic policies of President Joe Biden’s administration.
The lawsuit filed in a federal court in Missouri contends that the vaccine requirement threatens the jobs of millions of healthcare workers and could “exacerbate an alarming shortage” in healthcare fields, particularly in rural areas where some health workers have been hesitant to get the shots.
Federal Judge Declines to Block Vaccine Mandate for Feds
Government Executive reported:
A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday opted not to block the Biden administration’s mandate that all federal employees and contractors be vaccinated against COVID-19, concluding that the 20 federal workers and military service members who brought the case have failed to meet any of the circumstances that allow for the issuance of an injunction.
In a 41-page decision, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote that the group, composed of 18 civilian employees and two members of the U.S. Marine Corps, did not prove that it was likely to prevail in the case, brought the case prematurely, and any potential personal injury did not outweigh the government’s interest in curbing the spread of COVID-19 in the federal workforce.
12K NYC Workers Seek Exemption From COVID Vaccine Mandate: Mayor
Scores of New York City municipal workers sought religious or medical exemptions to a coronavirus vaccine mandate that requires them to get a jab or lose paychecks.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that 12,400 “reasonable accommodation” requests by employees will be reviewed by city officials.
He said 400 so far have been granted. Employees whose requests are denied will once again face the choice to get vaccinated or go without pay.
Biden Team Won’t Admit It, but the COVID Pandemic Is Over
The Washington Times reported:
The Biden administration has justified its new COVID-19 vaccination mandate as an “emergency power.” But just where is the emergency?
If we’re facing such grave danger from the COVID-19 pandemic, then why did it take the Biden administration two months to draft its Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) ruling on private businesses that employ more than 100 people?
If there’s such a medical emergency, why did the Biden administration delay its mandate implementation date nearly a month from Dec. 8 to Jan. 4, conveniently after the holidays to minimize workforce disruptions?
Get a COVID Vaccine for Ages 5 to 11? You Could Win a Scholarship to SUNY, CUNY
New York’s will raffle off 50 full scholarships to any New York public college or university for children aged 5 to 11 as part of the state’s push to get more kids vaccinated, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday.
The announcement came as Hochul noted New York was receiving more than 700,000 pediatric doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine, with plans to soon obtain more doses for the entire 1.5 million New Yorkers in the age group.
The “vaccinate, educate, graduate” vaccine incentive scholarship is part of a five-week public outreach campaign, running through Dec. 19, Hochul said. It will award the scholarships to any campuses within the State University of New York or City University of New York systems.
3 LAPD Employees Face Firing After Refusing COVID Vaccines or Testing, While Thousands of Others Agree to Plan
Los Angeles Daily News reported:
The Los Angeles Police Department has placed on leave at least three employees who refused to either get vaccinated against COVID-19 or follow the city’s requirement to get tested weekly.
L.A. city employees have until December to get fully vaccinated. Under plans hashed out with the city’s unions, those employees with legitimate medical or religious reasons for not getting vaccinated are still required to get tested weekly. And they have to pay for the tests.
Moore said 2,239 LAPD employees had sought such exemptions, which are still subject to review and approval by city administrators. Some might have since chosen to get vaccinated.
Retail and Trucking Trade Groups Sue Biden Administration to Overturn Vaccine Mandate
National industry groups representing retail, truckers and independent businesses sued the Biden administration on Wednesday over its vaccine and testing requirements for private companies, claiming they would cause “irreparable harm.”
The National Retail Federation, the National Federation of Independent Business and the American Trucking Associations, told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in their lawsuit that businesses would lose employees, incur “unrecoverable compliance costs” and face deteriorating conditions in “already fragile supply chains and labor markets” due to the requirements.
New Study Reports Massive Pro-Censorship Efforts From Broadcast News Networks
A new study from the Media Research Center released on Tuesday, show broadcast news networks favored stories about censorship when compared to the issue of free speech.
The report followed several recent instances of major tech platforms such as Facebook, Google, and YouTube limiting and censoring information regarding millions of COVID-19-related posts. Most notably, YouTube announced in September that the company would step up in efforts to limit and ban videos that spread “misinformation” regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.
Landmark Places 21 Unvaccinated Employees On Leave, Each of Them With Religious Exemptions
Landmark Medical Center has placed 21 unvaccinated employees on leave, one week after receiving a violation notice from the state health department.
Spokeswoman Carolyn Kyle told the Globe the Woonsocket-based hospital had placed the unvaccinated workers who each had “religious accommodations” on administrative leave, which brought the hospital into “full compliance” with the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
“Currently, there are numerous cases already filed and working their way through the federal courts that will ultimately address the issue of whether religious accommodations to COVID-19 vaccine mandates are required,” Kyle wrote in an emailed statement.
Adams County Adopts Ordinance That Makes Compliance With Federal Vaccine Mandates Illegal
Adams County Commissioners unanimously passed a local ordinance on Monday that makes following federal vaccine mandates illegal. This is the first county in Idaho to pass a mandate of this nature.
The ordinance is in response to President Joe Biden‘s vaccine mandate, which requires all federal contractors and employers with more than 100 employees to require vaccination against COVID-19 or weekly testing. That mandate was paused by a federal court over the weekend and is pending review of the mandate’s possible statutory and constitutional issues.
During a county commissioner meeting in October, Chief Financial Officer Mary Ann Domeck said the health center could lose its Medicare and Medicaid status, which would mean the center could provide services, but would not be paid for them.
Top UK Court Blocks Legal Action Against Google Over Internet Tracking
A 3 billion-pound legal action against Google over claims it secretly tracked the internet activity of millions of iPhone users has been blocked by the UK supreme court.
Legal experts said the decision meant the “floodgates” remained closed to class actions on data privacy in England and Wales, although the ruling noted digital technology’s ability to cause “mass harm” to people.
Richard Lloyd, a former director of the consumer group Which?, wanted to bring a US-style class action lawsuit against the search engine on behalf of about 4.4 million people in England and Wales. He claimed Google illegally misused the data of millions of iPhone users by tracking and collating their internet usage on their handsets’ Safari browser in 2011 and 2012, even when users were assured they would be opted out of such tracking by default.
Health Department Looks Into Vaccine Mandate Compliance
Two dozen home care agencies, walk-in clinics, treatment and urgent care centers in Rhode Island are under investigation for potential violations of the state’s healthcare worker COVID-19 vaccination mandate, state public health officials said Tuesday.
Also, two facilities are considered non-compliant and facing fines and restrictions on the admission of new patients because they still had unvaccinated employees on the job on Oct. 31, The Providence Journal reported.
Care Homes in England Set to Lose 50,000 Staff as COVID Vaccine Becomes Mandatory
Tens of thousands of care home residents face losing vital support as unvaccinated carers clock off for the last time before double jabs become mandatory.
About 50,000 care home staff who have not had two doses in England will not be allowed to work from Thursday. Analysis by the Guardian suggests that on current staff/resident ratios without other measures to tackle the problem, the care of about 30,000 people could be affected.
11,000 Boeing Employees Have Asked for Exemption From COVID Vaccine Mandate + More
11,000 Boeing Employees Have Asked for Exemption From COVID Vaccine Mandate
About 11,000 Boeing Co. employees have asked to be exempted from COVID-19 vaccines the planemaker has mandated, according to a person briefed on the matter, a sign of backlash among some rank-and-file workers to the Biden administration’s rules for government contractors.
Nearly 9% of the company’s U.S. workforce are balking at the policy, stirring up strife at a time when Boeing is working to turn around its finances, resolve quality lapses and starting to lay the groundwork for contract talks with its largest union. Reuters reported the extent of the pushback to the policy earlier.
White House Tells Businesses to Proceed With Vaccine Mandate Despite Court-Ordered Pause
The White House on Monday said businesses should move forward with President Joe Biden’s vaccine and testing requirements for private businesses, despite a federal appeals court ordering a temporary halt to the rules.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, considered one of the most conservative appellate courts in the country, halted the requirements Saturday pending review, writing that “the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate.”
In its response Monday evening, the Biden administration asked the court to lift the pause, dismissing the states’ and companies’ claims of harm as “premature” given that the deadlines for vaccination and testing are not until January.
Northfield Hospital Sued Over Vaccine Mandate
A group of 20 medical professionals has sued the city-owned hospital here, alleging they were fired without just cause after refusing to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court, claims that Northfield Hospital and Clinics failed to accommodate “or even to attempt to accommodate” their religious beliefs and serious health conditions.
The plaintiffs include a doctor, 10 registered nurses and other medical staff including paramedics and occupational therapists. Nearly all of them were terminated on Oct. 31 after refusing to be vaccinated.
U.S. Judge Upholds United Airlines’ COVID Vaccine Mandate for Employees
A U.S. federal judge on Monday ruled United Airlines Holdings Inc (UAL.O) can impose a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on its employees that only provides unpaid leave for workers who are exempted for medical or religious reasons.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth, Texas, rejected arguments by employees that the airline was improperly putting them in an “impossible position” by forcing them to choose a vaccine or unpaid leave.
The ruling comes as U.S. employers are gearing up to comply with rules issued by the Biden Administration that require companies with at least 100 employees to get their workers vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to regular testing. read more
COVID Mandate: More Chicago Police Department Employees Comply With Reporting Requirement, Vaccination Rate Drops
More Chicago Police Department (CPD) employees have recorded their vaccination status on the city’s online portal but the response rate remains dismal, according to figures released by the city Monday.
The police department’s response rate climbed to 77.9%, which is up more than 4 percentage points from last week. The department remains the only agency to not be at least 80% in compliance.
The vaccination rate among CPD employees has steadily declined as more workers report their status. The department’s vaccination rate was 77.6% as of Monday, down from 83.8% on Oct. 18.
Thousands Protest in New Zealand Against COVID Rules
New Zealand beefed up security measures at its parliament on Tuesday as thousands of people gathered to protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and government lockdowns aimed at controlling the pandemic.
While the demonstration was peaceful, many people were seen holding signs and placards with messages like “Freedom” and “Kiwis are not lab rats” and shouting slogans as they demanded the government roll back compulsory vaccination and lift restrictions.
Controversial Figures Like Bari Weiss Are Launching a University They Say Will Pursue ‘Truth’ and Combat ‘Censorship’ From Top Universities
A group of controversial figures is launching a new college in Austin, Texas, that describes itself as being “dedicated to the fearless pursuit of truth.” Several of the founders have said they faced “cancel culture” for their controversial opinions.
The University of Austin will be “a liberal arts university committed to freedom of inquiry, freedom of conscience, and civil discourse,” according to the website, which claims that “others have abandoned this core mission of the university.”
The EU Is Proposing Blatant Mass Surveillance of Email and Chat Messages
A German member of the European Parliament is warning against EU plans to adopt new, wide-ranging mass surveillance rules that he says would seriously jeopardize citizens’ right to privacy by forcing tech companies to give access to encrypted messages to the authorities.
And that is what the laws now in the works in Brussels — that are supposed to replace temporary rules adopted in July — are designed to do, by ordering messaging and video chat providers like WhatsApp and Skype to put tech in place that would provide access to people’s private communications and, thanks to an automated system, monitor chats in real-time and report suspicious content.
Health Worker Vaccine Mandate Expected to Withstand Challenges
The Biden administration’s mandate that healthcare workers at facilities paid by Medicare and Medicare get a COVID-19 vaccination is likely to hold up against future court challenges, putting it on firmer ground than the vaccine-or-test rule for large companies that has already been halted, legal observers said.
The two rules released Nov. 4 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration represent a significant flex of federal muscle, testing the liberties and limits of the agencies.
The Biden administration is using the sweeping vaccine mandates to corner the unvaccinated into getting the jab. About 17 million healthcare workers fighting the pandemic from the front lines are covered by the rule, which is aimed at helping to keep staff and patients safe in an industry not immune to vaccine hesitancy.
The AP Interview: Facebook Whistleblower Fears the Metaverse
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen warned Tuesday that the “metaverse,” the all-encompassing virtual reality world at the heart of the social media giant’s growth strategy, will be addictive and rob people of yet more personal information while giving the embattled company another monopoly online.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Haugen said her former employer rushed to trumpet the metaverse recently because of the intense pressure it is facing after she revealed deep-seated problems at the company, in disclosures that have energized legislative and regulatory efforts around the world to crack down on Big Tech.
Richmond School Leaders Reverse Course on Vaccine Mandate Disciplinary Action
Monday night, the Richmond School Board voted to halt disciplinary action against school employees who don’t comply with their vaccine mandate — which required most employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct.1.
Originally, those who did not get vaccinated and did not have a medical or religious exemption faced discipline up to and including loss of employment.
But thanks in part to an overwhelming number of vacancies that already plagued the district, they’ve reversed course.
Thousands of Federal Workers Seek Religious Exemptions to Avoid Shots + More
Nearing Monday Coronavirus Vaccine Deadline, Thousands of Federal Workers Seek Religious Exemptions to Avoid Shots
With a Monday deadline looming, high percentages of federal workers are reporting they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus. But tens of thousands of holdouts have requested exemptions on religious grounds, complicating President Biden’s sweeping mandate to get the country’s largest employer back to normal operations.
Federal agencies have yet to act on the requests piling into managers’ inboxes from vaccine resisters seeking accommodations that would allow them to continue their jobs unvaccinated rather than face the possibility of being fired as the administration has threatened.
The number of religious objectors ranges from a little more than 60 people at the Education Department to many thousands among the 38,000-strong workforce at the Bureau of Prisons, according to federal employee union officials.
Federal Court Blocks Biden Administration’s Vaccination Mandate
A federal court in Louisiana has blocked the Biden administration‘s mandate that millions of workers get vaccinated against COVID-19 or be tested weekly, ruling in a suit filed by several states, companies and conservative religious groups.
“Because the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate, the Mandate is hereby STAYED pending further action by this court,” a panel of judges for the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Saturday.
The states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Utah are among the plaintiffs. More than two dozen states have filed multiple legal challenges in federal court against the Biden administration’s vaccinate-or-test mandate for private businesses, arguing that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn’t have the authority to issue the requirements.
NYC Kicks Off Huge Kids’ COVID Vaccine Drive — With New Paid Leave Option for Parents
New York City public schools kick off a series of in-school vaccination drives Monday, creating pop-ups in more than 1,000 buildings that serve students aged 5 to 11 as part of a week-long effort to dose the newly eligible with Pfizer’s shot.
More than 16,700 New York City kids age 5 to 11 have gotten inoculated against COVID since the CDC recommended the lower-dose shots be administered to younger children last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.
Parents can already take their kids to get the Pfizer shot at city-run vaccine sites, where their kids are eligible for $100 incentives, pharmacies and private providers. Appointments are recommended but not required. Walk-ins are accepted.
Vaccine Proof Required as Strict Mandate Takes Effect in LA
Los Angeles is among a growing number of cities across the U.S., including San Francisco and New York City, requiring people show proof of vaccination to enter various types of businesses and venues. But rules in the nation’s second-most-populous city, called SafePassLA, apply to more types of businesses and other indoor locations including museums and convention centers.
While the order took effect Monday, city officials say they won’t start enforcing it until Nov. 29 to give businesses time to adjust. A first offense will bring a warning but subsequent ones could produce fines running from $1,000 to $5,000.
Hundreds of Thousands to Go On Four-Day Nationwide Strike Over Vaccine Mandates: Organizer
A nationwide strike against vaccine mandates will take place from Nov. 8 to Nov. 11, according to the main organizer for the walkout, Leigh Dundas, a human rights attorney and public speaker.
The event will kick off in Los Angeles on Monday. The locations of the marches have not yet been disclosed.
The walkouts involve people from various industries such as trucking and telecom. Air and rail transport workers are not federally allowed to go on strike due to a law passed in 1926 named the Railway Labor Act, but some plan to protest anonymously.
Anti-Vaccine Mandate Rally: LA City Employees Say They’re Ready to Lose Their Job Over Requirement
Hundreds of anti-vaccine mandate activists gathered in downtown Los Angeles’ Grand Park on Monday morning to protest against requirements enacted by the city and other government entities.
The demonstration, dubbed the March for Freedom rally, was being held on the same day that city’s proof of full COVID-19 vaccination mandate, one of the strictest in the U.S., went into effect.
Organizers said the event would be attended by “local firefighters, law enforcement, parents, local Latino and African-American community leaders and others who are being threatened by the vaccine mandate.”
Authors and Their ‘Progressive’ Book Publisher Sue Sen. Elizabeth Warren Over Free Speech
A progressive publishing company and the authors of a book critical of the U.S. government’s response to the coronavirus emergency have sued Sen. Elizabeth Warren for allegedly attempting to pressure Amazon.com into yanking their title, The Truth About COVID-19: Exposing the Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, and the New Normal.
Joining Chelsea Green Publishing and authors Dr. Joseph Mercola, an osteopath, and Ronnie Cummins in the suit against Warren is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known vaccine critic who wrote the forward to the book.
The lawsuit is based on a lengthy letter Warren wrote to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy accusing the company he runs of “peddling misinformation” by labeling the book a “best-seller” and allowing it to be at the top of results when consumers search for information about COVID-19.
Railroads Fight With Unions in Court Over Vaccine Mandates
Another major railroad has gone to court to determine whether it has the authority to require all its employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
BNSF railroad filed a lawsuit Sunday against its major unions over its mandate. It joins Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, which both filed similar lawsuits against the unions last month. The unions, which have filed some of their own lawsuits in response, argue that the railroads should have negotiated with them before imposing their mandates.
The unions didn’t immediately respond in court to BNSF’s lawsuit Monday, but in the other lawsuits, they have argued the railroads were violating the terms of their contract by requiring vaccines and by offering bonuses to workers if they do get vaccinated. Both Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern are offering employees $300 if they get the shots.
Is the Pandemic School Surveillance State Here to Stay?
GoGuardian is a software company that makes, essentially, spyware: software that helps teachers and schools block and monitor what kids are doing online. When a student is using a school-issued Chromebook that has GoGuardian on it, the teacher can see just about everything they’re doing.
These technologies have been embraced by teachers and state Departments of Education alike, but students are less enthralled with having their online lives constantly surveilled.
Vaccine Mandates Inflame the Culture Wars
The brewing culture war over vaccine mandates now threatens to boil over after the Biden administration set a January deadline for all employers with more than 100 employees to require shots or regular testing.
Driving the news: Lawsuits from 15 GOP-led states rolled in mere hours after the administration last week laid out Jan. 4 as the deadline for vaccine mandates at employers with more than 100 workers.
The big picture: A recent Axios-Ipsos poll found six in 10 employed Americans agreed their employer should require COVID vaccinations. But they do not agree on what should happen for those who don’t comply. Support for firing employees was low, at 14%.
Families Reunited at JFK Airport for 1st Time in Nearly 2 Years, As International Travel Resumes to U.S.
International travel to the U.S. resumed Monday for tourists, as historic restrictions were lifted for those who are fully vaccinated.
For more than 20 months, a travel ban has prevented visitors from 33 countries from coming to the United States, but that changed Monday.
Airlines have to check to make sure international travelers are fully vaccinated with vaccines approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization, not just those approved in the U.S. Children under 18 are exempt from this rule. Land borders with Mexico and Canada are once again open for fully vaccinated tourists, and border security will be spot checking documentation.
‘Stop the Coercion:’ DeSantis Has New Plan to Beat Biden’s COVID Mandates
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a series of bills on Monday that would neuter the new federal COVID-19 vaccine requirements and hefty employer fines rolled out by the Biden administration.
“No cop, no firefighter and no nurse should be losing their jobs because of these jabs,” DeSantis said. “We have got to stand up for people and protect their jobs and protect their livelihoods.”
The bills will be filed Monday in the House and Senate, and they will be taken up in a special legislative session that DeSantis has scheduled to start on Nov. 15.
The Race to $3 Trillion: Big Tech Keeps Getting Bigger
The trillion-dollar market cap club is starting to get crowded. Microsoft (MSFT) is now worth a smidge more than Apple (AAPL), making the Satya Nadella-led cloud software giant the world’s most valuable company. Both companies are worth about $2.5 trillion.
Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL) is worth just a touch less than $2 trillion, while Amazon (AMZN)is valued at $1.7 trillion. And don’t forget (as if we could) Tesla (TSLA): Elon Musk’s electric car giant recently passed the $1 trillion mark and has since surged to a market cap of about $1.25 trillion.
These five companies are now collectively worth almost $10 trillion. That’s nearly a quarter of the combined $41.8 trillion market cap of the entire S&P 500.