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Fauci Says Vaccines Should Be Mandated Locally + More
Fauci Says Vaccines Should Be Mandated Locally Across the Country
White House Chief Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci said Sunday he supports COVID-19 vaccine mandates at the local level as more than 600,000 Americans have lost their lives over the course of the pandemic.
“There have been four million deaths worldwide. This is serious business. So, I am in favor of that,” Fauci told CNN’s Jake Tapper, referring to targeted local vaccine mandates.
Sharyl Attkisson: Big Tech Is Censoring Key Facts About COVID Vaccine Safety
Children’s Health Defense reported:
No matter how diligent your research, finding truthful information about the risks of COVID vaccines can be tricky, according to investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson.
During a recent segment of “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast,” Attkisson said information about the safety of COVID vaccines and other medicines is often “falsely portrayed by propagandists and pharmaceutical interests.”
COVID vaccines are being used on an “emergency basis,” said Attkisson, meaning they weren’t subjected to the same safety trials vaccines normally go through before hitting the market. “That’s why we’re learning things in real time as we go,” she said.
CDC Guidance Should Not Be Used to Mandate Masks for Kids Under 12. They’ve Suffered Enough.
USA Today via Yahoo!News reported:
All public health interventions have a public health cost, and masking our children –especially very young ones – against COVID is no exception. That’s why the new school reopening guidelines announced Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a big step in the right direction.
The agency says masks are unnecessary for fully vaccinated students, teachers and staff, as long as they can maintain 3 feet of distancing, and recommends continued indoor masking and distancing for those who are unvaccinated. I agree with this as long as it doesn’t lead to mask mandates for young children, who are not yet eligible for vaccines.
Google’s Been Recording You. Here’s the Easiest Way to Delete Your Voice History
People were understandably freaked out when reports surfaced in 2019 that Google and Amazon were giving human contractors access to audio clips from their customers’ Google Home (now Google Nest) and Echo devices. Google has since made a change, requiring you to opt in to having voice searches recorded in the first place — and opting in also allows for human review, though audio is anonymized.
If you don’t remember whether you opted in or not, or if you opted in and now regret it, it’s worth taking time to see what Google’s recorded about you. Even though Google changed its stance on recording voice searches, the rest of your Google ecosystem activity might still be getting saved for posterity, no opt-in required.
Amazon Has Won Permission to Monitor Your Sleep Using Radar
Amazon has won permission from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make a device that can monitor people’s sleep using radar, Bloomberg first reported.
The FCC approval document, published Friday, said Amazon’s description of its proposed device included “Radar Sensors to enable touchless control of device features and functions.”
It also said the device would be stationary, and Amazon “plans to use the radar’s capability of capturing motion in a three-dimensional space to enable contactless sleep tracing functionalities.”
Most of the U.S. Is Leaving Mask Policies Up to School Districts
With about a month until back to school begins in many K-12 districts, most states in the U.S. have no uniform plan to require masks, even as public health guidance still strongly recommends them for the unvaccinated.
Why it matters: Kids younger than 12 still haven’t been eligible for vaccination and, without mitigation efforts like masking, the fall could bring an uptick in the spread of COVID.
CNN Medical Analyst Suggests Life ‘Needs to Be Hard’ for Unvaccinated Americans
CNN medical contributor Dr. Leana Wen suggested Saturday that life needs to be “hard” for Americans who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine and individuals who refuse to get shots should perhaps face weekly testings.
“It needs to be hard for people to remain unvaccinated,” Wen, the former Planned Parenthood president, said. “Right now, it’s kind of the opposite.”
Unvaccinated people, she fretted, can at the moment go about their lives as normal without any consequence.
California to Require Masks in Schools, Despite New CDC Guidance
California plans to require masks for all students in the fall despite guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that says vaccinated students and teachers don’t need to wear them amid proper physical distancing.
State health officials said the requirement will allow for full-time in-person learning and for all students to be treated the same, whether they’re vaccinated or not.
Federal Bill Would Ban Vaccine Database in Response to Biden’s ‘Door-to-Door’ Pledge
The Highland County Press reported:
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has introduced a bill that would prohibit the federal government from creating and maintaining a federal database of every American who has received COVID-19 vaccines.
Cruz introduced the bill after White House officials announced a plan to use taxpayer dollars to pay individuals to go door-to-door in regions of the country where there are relatively low vaccination rates.
Lara Logan Says Americans’ Privacy ‘Sold Out’ to Big Tech: ‘No Such Thing as Fourth Amendment Anymore’
LARA LOGAN: “I mean, the depth and breadth to which we have given up all of our privacy is truly staggering. As a mother, I was particularly shocked and alarmed by how every single piece of information that they have about us … they create a pattern of life and they connect all the dots and they know everything that you do.
So if you’re pregnant, they can tell that by the changes in your habits and what you search online and they can you know, they can manipulate a child that has anxiety by constantly reinforcing the things that give that child anxiety and things like 23 and Me, you know, these companies that use your DNA to tell you all about your history, that they’re selling that information to people like insurers, medical insurers. And all the people that you don’t want to have that information are getting it, everything has a back door and the government literally is spying on us in every means possible.
Cell Phones and Cancer: New UC Berkeley Study Suggests Cell Phones Sharply Increase Tumor Risk
New UC Berkeley research draws a strong link between cell phone radiation and tumors, particularly in the brain.
Researchers took a comprehensive look at statistical findings from 46 different studies around the globe and found that the use of a cell phone for more than 1,000 hours, or about 17 minutes a day over a ten year period, increased the risk of tumors by 60 percent.
Researchers also pointed to findings that showed cell phone use for 10 or more years doubled the risk of brain tumors.
Trudeau Says Unvaccinated Tourists Won’t Be Welcome in Canada for ‘Quite a While’
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced its going to be “quite a while” before Canada will let in unvaccinated travellers, despite pressure from the travel industry.
“I can tell you right now that’s not going to happen for quite a while,” Mr Trudeau said at a press conference in British Columbia, asserting the need to protect the citizens of Canada.
Mr Trudeau continued, “We need to continue to ensure that the safety of Canadians, of all the sacrifices that so many people have made over the past many, many months, are not for nothing.”
Community College Withdraws Vaccine Mandate After 9 Days + More
Community College Withdraws Vaccine Mandate After Nine Days
A California community college may be the first higher education institution to withdraw a planned COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
By a 5 to 3 vote, the board of trustees of San Joaquin Delta College voted on July 6 “to remove the vaccine mandates.” The board opted to “instead implement full social distancing and mask mandates as well as an advisal to faculty, staff and students to get their vaccines.”
The vote came nine days after Delta College had voted for a vaccine mandate.
Public Health Researcher: Smartphones Emit Harmful Radiation — Here’s How to Reduce Your Risk
For more than a decade, Joel Moskowitz, a researcher in the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley and director of Berkeley’s Center for Family and Community Health, has been on a quest to prove that radiation from cellphones is unsafe. But, he said, most people don’t want to hear it.
“People are addicted to their smartphones,” said Moskowitz. “We use them for everything now, and, in many ways, we need them to function in our daily lives. I think the idea that they’re potentially harming our health is too much for some people.”
College Students Reject COVID Vaccine Mandates — By Voting With Their Dollars
The U.S. still has roughly 4,000 degree-granting postsecondary institutions, but the number has been shrinking for nearly a decade. Colleges acknowledge historically low birthrates — lower even than during the Great Depression — mean increasingly stiff competition for fewer students.
On the student side of the equation, academic advisors counsel their advisees to make their college decisions by figuring out “what’s important to them” and selecting schools that “align with those priorities.”
All Primary Health Employees Required to Get COVID Vaccine
Primary Health Medical Group announced Thursday that it is requiring all employees to get the COVID-19 vaccination, citing the safety of patients and other staff members.
Primary Health employees must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 no later than Sept. 9, 2021, the medical group says. Limited medical exemptions to the policy will be considered based on the FDA’s vaccine contraindications list, the CEO of Primary Health said, while religious exemptions “may be considered.”
36 States and D.C. Accuse Google of Violating Antitrust Laws in New Lawsuit
The number of legal challenges Google is facing continues to grow as a coalition of attorneys general from 36 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the search giant on Wednesday alleging the company is engaged in anti-competitive behavior and monopolizing the Play Store.
Google is currently facing three other federal antitrust lawsuits, including one from the Justice Department that alleges the company’s dominant search engine has allowed it to become a “monopoly gatekeeper” of the internet. But Wednesday’s lawsuit is the first to challenge Google’s new policy to force all app developers who want to use the Play Store to pay a 30% commission on sales. The new policy from Google will go into effect in September.
“To collect and maintain this extravagant commission, Google has employed anti-competitive tactics to diminish and disincentivize competition in Android app distribution,” the lawsuit claims.
Federal Speech Rulings May Embolden Healthcare Workers to Call Out Safety Issues
Karen Jo Young wrote a letter to her local newspaper criticizing executives at the hospital where she worked as an activities coordinator, arguing that their actions led to staffing shortages and other patient safety problems.
Hours after her letter was published in September 2017, officials at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth, Maine, fired her, citing a policy that no employee may give information to the news media without the direct involvement of the media office.
But a federal appellate court recently said Young’s firing violated the law and ordered that she be reinstated. The court’s decision could mean that hospitals and other employers will need to revise their policies barring workers from talking to the news media and posting on social media.
Clemson School Admins Used COVID Caps and Fake RSVPs to Suppress Turnout at Conservative Event
During the height of the pandemic, two college administrators from Clemson University used phony ticket reservations to suppress attendance at a conservative student event and bragged about it on Facebook.
The conservative group Turning Point USA’s local chapter hosted speakers Tomi Lahren, Brandon Tatum, and Graham Allen for an event on the South Carolina campus in April 2020.
The event was limited in capacity because of COVID-19, and people had to reserve tickets from a smaller pool in advance.
Clemson administrators Amy Burke and Sharetta Bufford bragged about using that limited capacity to stuff the admission box with phony reservations, the Young America’s Foundation revealed in late June.
Loyola Medicine to Mandate COVID Vaccine for Employees, Becoming One of the First Hospital Systems in Chicago to Require It
Loyola Medicine will require all of its employees and doctors to get COVID-19 vaccinations, the system announced Thursday, making it one of the first hospital systems in the Chicago area to make the vaccines mandatory.
The requirement will apply to those working at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park and MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn as well as Loyola’s other locations. That includes 9,523 employees and 500 affiliated community doctors.
19 Human Rights, Civil Liberties, and Youth Advocacy Organizations Demand That School Administrators Stop Using eProctoring
In June, Fight for the Future launched a scorecard detailing which universities plan to continue using harmful eProctoring apps like Proctorio, ProctorU, and Proctortrack, despite outcry from students and human rights organizations. Now, 19 organizations have published a letter calling on school administrators to ban the use of eProctoring.
Fight for the Future and 19 human rights, civil liberties, and youth advocacy organizations have published a letter calling on school administrators to ban eProctoring. The letter details serious concerns about eProctoring, including its invasive data collection, risk for academic harm, inefficacy at preventing academic dishonesty, and the potential to perpetuate racism and ableism. Signatories are calling for a complete ban on eProctoring technology in both university and K-12 settings.
Rand Paul Vows to Introduce Public Transportation Mask Mandate Repeal
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) vowed on Thursday to fight part of the public transportation mask mandate that requires passengers to wear face coverings when traveling on planes.
“When the Senate returns to session, I will be introducing an immediate repeal of the mask mandate on planes,” Paul wrote on Twitter. “Enough!”
He added, “Time to stop this farce and let people travel in peace!”
Oahu Eateries Can Now Operate at Full Capacity if They Ask for Vaccine Cards or Negative COVID Tests
Oahu restaurants and bars can now do away with social distancing if they ask their patrons for proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test.
Eateries that don’t must still keep a 6-foot distance between parties, limiting their capacity.
The surprise rule change took effect Thursday as part of Oahu’s move to Tier 5.
It wasn’t immediately clear, however, how many restaurants would jump at the chance to ask patrons for their vaccine cards or a COVID test.
CNN Political Analyst Says It’s Time to Make Vaccinations and Vaccine Passports Mandatory + More
CNN Political Analyst Says It’s Time to Make Vaccinations and Vaccine Passports Mandatory
CNN political analyst Julian Zelizer called on coronavirus vaccinations and vaccine passports to be made mandatory in the U.S., citing a concern for the Delta variant of the virus, as well as an increase in cases amongst the unvaccinated.
In a Wednesday column, Zelizer argued that Republicans and Democrats, including President Biden, were focusing too much on individual rights rather than “the good of the collective,” and declared that Americans shouldn’t view the vaccine “as an optional inoculation.”
“It is time to impose vaccine mandates and passports. The COVID-19 vaccines continue to perform extraordinarily well, but the rate of infection is worsening in unvaccinated populations. The Delta variant is offering a sobering reminder that the pandemic has faded in much of the country but certainly not ended,” Zelizer wrote.
Watch 1-Hour Version of Censored Interview With Inventor of mRNA Vaccine Technology
Children’s Health Defense reported:
In June, Dr. Bret Weinstein interviewed Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of mRNA vaccine technology, and Steve Kirsch, philanthropist and tech entrepreneur who has become a respected force in the quest to give voice to people who have been harmed by COVID vaccines.
The 3.5 hour “DarkHorse Podcast” interview was censored on YouTube and other major social media platforms. Five days after the DarkHorse podcast was published, Malone’s scientific accomplishments and contributions were scrubbed from Wikipedia.
Trinity Health Sets Employee Deadline to Prove COVID Vaccine Status or Face Termination
Trinity Health is mandating all employees to prove they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Sept. 21 or potentially lose their jobs, the Associated Press reported. Trinity is one of the country’s largest Catholic health care systems and one of the first hospital associations to require inoculation from employees.
All of the group’s 117,000 employees throughout 22 states, as well as contractors and anyone conducting business in a Trinity facility, have to meet the deadline. Exceptions to the requirement may be allowed for religious or health reasons, the Associated Press added.
American Airlines Flight Disrupted by Teens Who Refused to Wear Masks
Passengers aboard an American Airlines flight to the Bahamas spent an unexpected night in Charlotte, North Carolina, after unruly passengers refused to comply with a federal mask mandate.
The incident — which came during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year — is only the latest involving passengers refusing to comply with safety measures aboard planes during the pandemic.
Americans Will Need Masks Indoors as U.S. Heads for ‘Dangerous Fall’ With Surge in Delta COVID Cases
As the highly transmissible delta COVID variant continues to spread rapidly across the United States and elsewhere around the world, scientists and other health experts are warning that indoor mask mandates and other public health measures will likely make a return in the U.S. this fall.
The country, which just celebrated the Fourth of July with some of its first large gatherings in more than a year, is headed toward a “dangerous” fall season when delta is expected to cause another surge in new coronavirus cases, health experts say. Already the dominant variant in the U.S., delta will hit the states with the lowest vaccination rates the hardest — unless those states and businesses reintroduce mask rules, capacity limits and other public health measures that they’ve largely rolled back in recent months, experts say.
The Memo: Biden and Democrats Face Dilemma on Vaccine Mandates
Democrats including President Biden are grappling with what to do about the slowing pace of COVID-19 vaccinations.
The sharpest debate right now is centered on whether private businesses, federal workplaces and educational institutions should require proof of vaccination. If the White House encouraged such requirements, it would likely nudge some Americans who have not yet gotten vaccinated to do so.
But it would also open the president and his party up to accusations of overreach and nanny-statism on an issue that has become deeply partisan.
Psaki Encourages Private Companies to Use Vaccine Passports: ‘That’s an Innovative Step That They Will Take’
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday that the Biden administration will not mandate vaccine passports, but it will encourage private businesses to use them as they see fit.
“That’s not currently the role of the federal government,” Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One. “There are a number of private sector entities, universities, institutions that are starting to mandate, and that’s an innovative step that they will take and they should take. That’s not — and we’re not taking issue with that.”
Hospitals Pressure Employees to Get Vaccinated as COVID Variants Spread
The Wall Street Journal reported:
Some hospitals are starting to mandate workers get COVID-19 vaccines as new immunizations flag and variants of the virus spread nationwide, spurring pushback from employees.
More than a dozen hospital systems have announced in recent months they will require the shots, including major hospital systems in Missouri and Michigan, states where less than half the total population is fully vaccinated. St. Louis-based SSM Health said its workforce must have at least one dose by Sept. 1, with an earlier deadline for leadership. Two other St. Louis-area hospital systems set deadlines for September and August. Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System gave employees until early September to comply.
Spectators Barred From Tokyo Olympics Venues Amid Japan’s COVID State of Emergency
Fans were barred from the pandemic-postponed Tokyo Olympics that will open in two weeks, following a state of emergency issued on Thursday.
The ban was announced by the International Olympic Committee and Japanese organizers, reducing the games to a made-for-TV event.
Although widely expected, the move marked a sharp turnabout from just weeks earlier, when Olympic organizers said they aimed to hold the games with limited spectators.
Greene Compares Biden Vaccination Push to Nazis + More
Greene Compares Biden Vaccination Push to Nazis
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in a tweet on Tuesday compared a push by President Biden to ensure as many Americans are vaccinated against the coronavirus as possible to the people who helped Adolf Hitler rise to power in Nazi Germany.
“Biden pushing a vaccine that is NOT FDA approved shows COVID is a political tool used to control people,” Greene said.
“People have a choice, they don’t need your medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations,” she added.
Donald Trump Says He Is Suing Facebook, Google and Twitter for Alleged Censorship
Former President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he is filing suits against three of the country’s biggest tech companies: Facebook, Twitter and Google, as well as their CEOs.
Trump said he was serving as lead plaintiff in the class-action suits, claiming he has been wrongfully censored by the companies.
“We’re demanding an end to the shadow-banning, a stop to the silencing and a stop to the blacklisting, banishing and canceling that you know so well,” Trump said at a news conference at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf course.
Will the Military Make the COVID Vaccine Mandatory?
Nearly 70% of all military personnel have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, but a debate has begun to swirl about whether the Pentagon should make vaccinations mandatory for the ranks should the Food and Drug Administration formally approve the vaccine in the future.
While COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. military are taking place under the same emergency use authorization that has allowed vaccinations to take place in the general population, Pentagon officials have said publicly that they would consider whether to make the vaccinations mandatory, as is done with more than a dozen other vaccines, should the FDA formally approve the vaccine.
Colorado Parents Divided Over Plans for COVID Testing at Schools
Some Colorado students are just weeks away from returning to the classroom, and now the state has a plan to bring kids back and keep COVID out. The plan for COVID testing in schools is expected to cost more than $170 million.
Joanna Rosa Saenz has three kids enrolled in Denver Public Schools. She says the state’s new plan to provide free weekly testing for Colorado’s 900,000 students crosses the line.
“Why do they think they know what’s best for our children?” Saenz said. “To mesh medical with school, I think, is wrong.”
This Is Who’s Buying Your Social Media Data
When you share something on social media, you might have a bigger audience than you think.
There’s a general rule that if you’re not paying for something, you’re the product. Social networking sites and messenger services are free and very profitable (Facebook makes $86 billion a year in ad revenue), and it’s your data that’s for sale.
ClearVPN looked at who’s watching what you post: It analyzed the policies of social networking sites and messenger services regarding data collection, storing, and sharing.
CDC Fighting to Keep COVID Regulations in Place on Cruise Ships
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has appealed a federal judge’s order that downgraded the agency’s COVID-19 regulations on cruise ships to recommendations and effectively allowed the industry to restart in Florida.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) had brought the suit challenging the CDC.
The U.S. Says Humans Will Always Be in Control of AI Weapons. But the Age of Autonomous War is Already Here.
Picture a desert battlefield, scarred by years of warfare. A retreating army scrambles to escape as its enemy advances. Dozens of small drones, indistinguishable from the quadcopters used by hobbyists and filmmakers, come buzzing down from the sky, using cameras to scan the terrain and onboard computers to decide on their own what looks like a target. Suddenly they begin dive bombing trucks and individual soldiers, exploding on contact and causing even more panic and confusion.
This isn’t a science fiction imagining of what future wars might be like. It’s a real scene that played out last spring as soldiers loyal to the Libyan strongman Khalifa Hifter retreated from the Turkish-backed forces of the United Nations-recognized Libyan government. According to a U.N. group of weapons and legal experts appointed to document the conflict, drones that can operate without human control “hunted down” Hifter’s soldiers as they fled.