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Universities Can’t Require Vaccines: Arizona Governor’s Executive Orders + More
Universities Can’t Require Vaccines: Arizona Governor’s Executive Orders
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order on Tuesday that prohibits public universities and community colleges from requiring students to get COVID-19 vaccines or show proof of vaccination to attend class.
“The vaccine works, and we encourage Arizonans to take it,” Ducey said in a statement. “But it is a choice and we need to keep it that way.”
Although the executive order means universities in Arizona can’t require students to wear masks or participate in mandatory COVID-19 testing, Ducey included an exemption for students working in health care settings, such as hospitals, nursing homes, group homes and medical facilities. Those facilities are allowed to require health screenings and proof of vaccination.
U.S. COVID Vaccine Policy Threatens Civil Liberties of Millions of Unvaccinated People Who Have Natural Immunity
I write here as a physician, immunologist and a verifiable Biden supporter in the 2020 presidential election — but now increasingly shocked by the administration’s mindless and totalitarian willingness to permit the creation of a new American underclass.
Let me explain with as much clarity as I can muster.
Why Parents at Indiana University Staged a Protest Against the School’s Vaccine Mandate
Hundreds of people gathered on Indiana University’s Bloomington campus June 10 to protest the school’s COVID19 vaccination requirement. In May, the university announced that students, faculty and staff who are not vaccinated will not be permitted on campus in the fall.
For two hours on a rainy afternoon, demonstrators listened to speakers including IU parent and vice chair of the Libertarian Party of Indiana Lucy Brenton and Ashley Grogg, founder of Hoosiers for Medical Liberty. Indiana state representative John Jacobs also spoke to the crowd.
The protest was organized by a newly-formed group called IU Family for Choice, Not Mandates, which has some 1,300 members. The group’s president, Ann Dorris, says members’ chief concern is the potential adverse health effects of the vaccine. “We are not anti-vaxxers,” she says. “We’re just against something that could potentially, long-term, have some very horrific side effects. There’s too many unknowns.” She also objects to the mandate itself: “What I would say to those that want this mandate is, ‘We respect your choice, now please respect ours.’”
China Isn’t the Issue. Big Tech Is.
We need to have a vigorous debate about what Americans might gain or lose if government officials succeed in forcing changes to technology services and companies as we know them.
One thing that’s standing in the way of such a debate is fearmongering by tech companies and their allies. They tend to decry anything that might alter how Big Tech operates as somehow helping China win the future. It’s an intellectually dishonest tactic and a distraction from important questions about our future. It bugs the heck out of me.
Investors Pressure Microsoft Over Surveillance Tech Policies
Windows Central via MSN reported:
Microsoft investors are pushing the company to evaluate if its actions align with its stated commitments to human rights and racial injustice. Three shareholder proposals were filed this week, and all focus on privacy and surveillance technology. The Hill reviewed and shared insights from each of the three proposals.
The first proposal was filed by Harrington Investments, a firm that focuses on social issues. It calls on Microsoft to “generally prohibit” sales of facial recognition technology. It also asks Microsoft to disclose any exceptions to the rule.
Previously, Microsoft said that it would not sell facial recognition technology to police departments until there are federal laws in place regulating the technology.
Nations Weigh Mandates and Incentives to Drive Up Vaccination Rates.
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed economic and social fault lines around the globe, but COVID-19 vaccines have made the divides even starker: While some poor countries are pleading for doses to save their people, a few rich ones are awash in shots and lacking takers.
A handful of U.S. states, for example, have tried incentives to get more people vaccinated. But in Moscow, as COVID hospitalizations surged this week, the city government took a harder line, mandating vaccinations for many workers in public-facing jobs.
Some other governments have also attempted to require vaccines. A province in Pakistan has said it will stop paying the salaries of civil servants who are not inoculated, starting next month. And Britain, which is seeing a surge attributed to the spread of the Delta variant of the virus, is weighing whether to make shots obligatory for all healthcare workers.
Three Quarters Of Floridians Disagree With Gov. DeSantis’ Cruise ‘Vaccine Passport’ Ban
Last month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that prohibits businesses across his state from asking anyone to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination. The legislation was passed without a carve-out for the cruise industry, which is an $8-billion economic juggernaut in the Sunshine State. Cruise lines could be fined $5,000 each time they require vaccination proof from a passenger.
DeSantis’ new law goes into effect on July 1, at the very time the U.S. cruise industry will be rebooting after a year-long dormancy due the COVID-19 pandemic. Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that cruises can begin sailing this summer from U.S. ports, but 98% of crew members and 95% of passengers on each ship must be fully vaccinated.
New York, California Lift Most COVID Restrictions + More
New York, California Lift Most COVID-19 Restrictions as Vaccination Rates Top 70%
California and New York, two states that imposed strict COVID-19 measures throughout the pandemic and were among the hardest hit, lifted most restrictions on Tuesday to much fanfare.
In California, the most populous state and the first to implement a stay-at-home order, that meant the end of a county-level, color-coded system that guided capacity limits and other mitigation measures. Venues, restaurants and bars can now operate at 100% capacity, indoors and out.
EU Approves COVID Passport: Here’s How It Works — and Why the U.S. Doesn’t Have One
The European Commission on June 14 formally signed legislation to create the EU Digital COVID Certificate. The regulation will take effect July 1 and expire in 12 months.
Member States are required to start issuing the first certificates within six weeks of the July 1 start date, if they haven’t done so by then.
During the official signing ceremony, three main EU institutions — Parliament, the Council and the Commission — signed the regulation to show their support, asserting the certificate is “a symbol of what Europe stands for.”
Thanks to Pandemic, “Climate Lockdowns” Are Now on the Horizon
If and when the powers-that-be decide to move on from their pandemic narrative, lockdowns won’t be going anywhere. Instead it looks like they’ll be rebranded as “climate lockdowns,” and either enforced or simply held threateningly over the public’s head.
At least, according to an article written by an employee of the WHO, and published by a mega-corporate think-tank.
Next Up for AI: Learning How to Read Your Lips
A patient sits in a hospital bed, a bandage covering his neck with a small opening for the tracheostomy tube that supplies him with oxygen.
Because of his recent surgery, the man featured in this marketing video can’t vocalize. So a doctor holds up a smartphone and records the patient as he mouths a short phrase. An app called SRAVI analyzes the lip movements and in about two seconds returns its interpretation — ”I need suction.”
It seems like a simple interaction, and in some respects, SRAVI (Speech Recognition App for the Voice Impaired) is still pretty simplistic. It can only recognize a few dozen phrases, and it does that with about 90% accuracy. But the app, which is made by the Irish startup Liopa, represents a massive breakthrough in the field of visual speech recognition (VSR), which involves training AI to read lips without any audio input. It will likely be the first lip-reading AI app available for public purchase.
15 States Are Moving to Curb Public Health Agency Powers Following Lockdown Carnage
Mike Fratantuono grew up in a restaurant. Literally.
For decades, Sunset Restaurant in Glen Burnie, Maryland, was the family business. Over the years, he’d done seemingly every job imaginable: busboy, bartender, and butcher; prep cook and plumber; handyman and manager.
Fratantuono says that’s what made it so hard to watch the family’s legacy become a COVID casualty in 2020.
Fratantuono is just one of the countless business owners across America who saw their dreams vanish before their eyes in the wake of government lockdowns that crushed their businesses. Now, in the wake of the pandemic, states across the country are advancing legislation to curb the powers of public health departments following one of the most destructive and contentious years in American history.
Tiny Injectable Chips Use Ultrasound to Monitor Your Body … From the Inside
Engineers at Columbia University in New York City have created a tiny ‘chip as a system’ device powered by ultrasound that can be injected into the body to monitor health.
We spoke to Ken Shepherd, Lau Professor of Electrical Engineering, to find out more.
No Jab, No Phone: Unvaccinated to Have Sim Cards Blocked, Pakistan’s Punjab Govt Says
Punjab’s provincial government is turning to coercive measures to increase participation in its COVID-19 vaccination program, after unveiling plans to disable the SIM cards of people who decline to get jabbed.
The extreme decision was made during a meeting of high-ranking civil and military officials chaired by Punjab Health Minister Yasmin Rashid.
Rashid said that the policy would disable SIM cards belonging to those who fail to get vaccinated “beyond a certain time.”
Amazon Blames Social Media for Struggle With Fake Reviews
Amazon has blamed social media companies for its failure to remove fake reviews from its website, arguing that “bad actors” turn to social networks to buy and sell fake product reviews outside the reach of its own technology.
The company says it removed more than 200m suspected fake reviews before they were seen by customers in 2020 alone, but nonetheless has faced continued criticism for the enormous scale of fake and misleading reviews that make it on to its store.
The Latest: France Eases Masks Outdoors, Ends Nightly Curfew
France is easing mandatory mask-wearing outdoors and will halt an eight-month nightly coronavirus curfew on Sunday.
The announcement by French Prime Minister Jean Castex comes as France reports about 3,900 daily virus cases on average, down from 35,000 in the March-April peak.
Biden Names Leading Critic of Big Tech as FTC Head
President Joe Biden on Tuesday installed an energetic critic of Big Tech as a top federal regulator at a time when the industry is under intense pressure from Congress, regulators and state attorneys general.
The selection of legal scholar Lina Khan to head the Federal Trade Commission is seen as signaling a tough stance toward tech giants Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple. Khan was sworn in as FTC chair just hours after the Senate confirmed her as one of five members of the commission on a 69-28 vote.
The Latest Vaccine Discounts, Freebies and Incentives
A shot at savings … and riches.
More Americans are getting their COVID-19 vaccinations every day, hopefully bringing us closer to the pandemic’s end. And while that should be incentive enough to get the shot, some companies and states are starting to sweeten the deal with freebies, discounts, and even million-dollar lotteries. Heck, Verizon is offering a 10% discount to all vaccinated customers.
Here are some other places where flashing your vaccine card might get you more than a thumbs-up.
University Vaccine Mandates Violate Medical Ethics + More
University Vaccine Mandates Violate Medical Ethics
The Wall Street Journal reported:
Some 450 U.S. colleges and universities — including our institutions — have announced policies mandating that all students be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before the fall semester, with some requiring vaccination now for the summer term. Schools have for decades required vaccination against infectious diseases, but these mandates are unprecedented—and unethical. Never before have colleges insisted that students or employees receive an experimental vaccine as a condition of attendance or employment.
Even soldiers, whose rights are constrained when they join the service, aren’t being compelled to take a Covid vaccine. In a case involving a vaccine against anthrax, a federal district judge held in 2004 that “the United States cannot demand that members of the armed forces also serve as guinea pigs for experimental drugs” absent informed consent or a presidential waiver of service members’ legal protections. The following year the judge held that an emergency-use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration was insufficient to meet the legal test.
U.S. College COVID Vaccine Mandates Don’t Consider Immunity or Pregnancy, and May Run Foul of the Law
For Joshua Hauser, a junior at the University of California Berkeley, the requirement to get a COVID-19 vaccine before fall semester is like getting a plum campus housing assignment. “People are really excited about getting the vaccine on campus,” he says. “It will help us feel safe at school.” And he’s hopeful it will mean a return to normal. “On Zoom, that’s all we talk about — we just wish we were together in person.”
Beginning in late March, some U.S. colleges and universities began issuing requirements for students to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 if they want to return to campus this autumn. Some policies include faculty and staff. What began as a handful of colleges soon turned into dozens by mid April, and to date, some 350 institutions have issued such policies — even though all three COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S. remain under emergency use authorization (EUA) status, and not approved.
IKEA Fined €1.1M by French Court for Spying on Staff
The home furnishings group Ikea has been ordered to pay €1.1m (£861,000) in fines and damages by a French court after being found guilty of spying on staff.
Two former Ikea France executives were also convicted and fined over an elaborate scheme to gather information on hundreds of employees, job applicants and even customers over several years, using private detectives and police sources.
The group’s former chief Jean-Louis Baillot was handed a suspended two-year prison term and ordered to pay €50,000.
Foo Fighters to Allow Vaccinated Fans Only at Madison Square Garden Concert
The Foo Fighters will be performing at Madison Square Garden on June 20, but the concert will be for vaccinated fans only.
The event is the first concert at the venue in over 15 months, due to“The Garden is ready to rock,” James Dolan, executive chairman and CEO of MSG Entertainment, said in a statement. “We’ve been waiting for this moment for 15 months and are excited to finally welcome a packed house of roaring, fully-vaccinated Foo Fighters fans to Madison Square Garden.”
Tickets for the vaccinated-only event will be $50 to $119.
YouTube Censors Teachers For Choice Protest
New York Teachers for Choice reported:
YouTube has struck down the full video of the TEACHERS FOR CHOICE (TfC) protest on June 12, 2021 in front of United Federation of Teachers (UFT) headquarters. It got pulled down in less than 48 hours!
The protest featured 11-year-old Jenna Miller who was kicked out of school on June 8th for refusing to wear a mask in school as well as many New York Teachers speaking out against forced COVID vaccination, forced in-school COVID testing, vaccine passports and the masking of 4-year-old children.
Tech Giants Have to Hand Over Your Data When Federal Investigators Ask. Here’s Why.
When the Trump administration’s Justice Department sought to ferret out leakers, it turned to the tech giants where so much of our digital life is stashed.
Apple and Microsoft disclosed last week that the agency secretly subpoenaed account data from members of Congress and aides to crackdown on leaks during the Trump administration. That followed recent disclosures to media organizations including The Washington Post and the New York Times that the Trump Justice Department had secretly sought reporters’ phone and email records in an effort to identify the sources of leaks.
That information — which email addresses and phone numbers we use and when we use them — can be crucial to piecing together a leak in a probe.
COVID Vaccine ‘Passports’ in the U.S.: Here’s What We’re Getting and Why
Los Angeles Times via Yahoo!News reported:
The European Union is about to launch a digital pass system that will let residents prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19, recovered from the disease or recently tested negative for the virus, allowing them to travel freely among all 27 member nations.
For months, Israelis used a similar digital pass system, showing their vaccination status to enter restaurants, gyms and other venues. Australia has rolled out a digital proof of vaccination certificate, and Japan plans to issue one as soon as this summer.
But don’t expect the United States to go that way.
What Are the Roadblocks to a ‘Vaccine Passport’?
With all American adults now eligible for COVID-19 vaccines and businesses and international borders reopening, a fierce debate has kicked off across the United States over whether a digital health certificate (often and somewhat misleadingly called a “vaccine passport”) should be required to prove immunization status.
Currently, Americans are issued a white paper card as evidence of their COVID-19 shots, but these can easily be forged, and online scammers are already selling false and stolen vaccine cards.
While the federal government has said it will not introduce digital vaccine passports by federal mandate, a growing number of businesses — from cruise lines to sports venues — say they will require proof of vaccinations for entry or services. Hundreds of digital health pass initiatives are scrambling to launch apps that provide a verified electronic record of immunizations and negative coronavirus test results to streamline the process.
How the Tech Giants Work for the Security State + More
How the Tech Giants Work for the Security State
The United States proudly believes in its uniqueness as the one nation in this corrupt world that remains dedicated to the freedom of its citizens. That belief is part of the nation’s founding myth. Americans see their nation as representing an ideal, a model for all other nations to emulate. They continue to believe that their government is committed to their own unassailable freedom, even after the increasingly visible stranglehold over all of its institutions by the military-industrial complex, a process already well underway when President Dwight Eisenhower denounced it 60 years ago.
The takeover has been confirmed by numerous events, including a series of costly and futile wars in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Despite the obvious lessons of recent history, Washington’s political class consistently demonstrates its inability to oppose policies that lead to more failed wars or to rein in an ever-expanding military budget. It would be more accurate to call the USA the UCA, the United Complex of America. Militarism in body and spirit defines its unity.
Gov. Newsom: A Vaccination Verification System Is Coming ‘Very Shortly’
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported:
Trying to stay away from the phrase “vaccine passport,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday that California is on the cusp of releasing an electronic system that will allow businesses to confirm that their customers have received their shots.
During a news conference held at Vista Community Clinic, after completing the second of three vaccine lottery drawings, the governor said that such a system is very much in the works when asked about verification language included in the state’s latest masking guidance released Wednesday.
Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook Targeted by New Pack of Antitrust Bills
U.S. lawmakers unveiled a wide-ranging antitrust agenda Friday, aiming to rein in the competitive power of giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google with five bipartisan bills that would represent the most meaningful refashioning of antitrust laws in decades. The result of more than a year investigating competition in the digital marketplace, the bills target what lawmakers call the “unregulated power wielded” by Big Tech.
The bills are aimed at the four tech titans, which collectively influence almost every aspect of online life, as well as the broader industry. If eventually passed into law, the bills would make it easier for the government to break up dominant companies, prevent them from snuffing out competition through preemptive acquisitions and crimp them from wielding different businesses with conflicts of interest.
#EyesOnAmazon: Campaign Fights Amazon’s Push for World ‘Dominated by Total Corporate Surveillance’
To mark the one year anniversary of Amazon‘s extended temporary moratorium on sales of its controversial Rekognition facial identification software to law enforcement agencies, more than 20 advocacy groups and more than 10,000 supporters last week launched Protest Amazon, a digital demonstration that’s part of the #EyesOnAmazon week of action.
Led by the digital rights group Fight for the Future, Protest Amazon is joined by Color of Change, Demand Progress, Free Press, MPower Change, Public Citizen, Presente.org, RootsAction and other organizations demanding Amazon permanently divest from what campaign organizers call “racist surveillance tech” and “police state” surveillance. The campaign is also calling on the company to end its complicity in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations.
Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Brought by Texas Healthcare Workers Forced to Get COVID Vaccine or Lose Jobs
A federal judge in Texas on Saturday dismissed a lawsuit by healthcare workers who accused their employer of “unlawfully forcing its employees” to receive the COVID vaccine.
Jennifer Bridges and 116 other plaintiffs said Houston Methodist Hospital is forcing employees to get COVID vaccines that are “experimental and dangerous.” Firing employees for refusing the vaccine is “wrongful termination,” the plaintiffs said.
The hospital last week suspended nearly 200 employees who refused the vaccine.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes ruled Texas law only protects employees from being fired if they are asked to commit an illegal act that carries criminal penalties. According to the judge’s ruling, “receiving a COVID-19 vaccination is not an illegal act, and it carries no criminal penalties.”
YouTube Suspends Sen. Johnson for COVID-19 ‘Misinformation’
Sen. Ron Johnson was suspended Friday from uploading videos to YouTube for one week, after the company said he violated its COVID-19 “medical misinformation policies.”
The Wisconsin Republican’s removal stems from statements he made during a June 3 Milwaukee Press Club event, which were posted to YouTube. He criticized the Trump and Biden administrations for “not only ignoring but working against robust research (on) the use of cheap, generic drugs to be repurposed for early treatment of COVID,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
WhatsApp Boss Decries Attacks on Encryption as Orwellian
Government attacks on WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption are akin to demands that an Orwellian telescreen be installed in every living room, the app’s head has said as it launches a major advertising campaign in defence of privacy.
Will Cathcart told the Guardian in an interview that the abstract nature of digital communications can obscure huge violations of personal freedom.
“Imagine there was a proposal from the government to put a video camera in every living room in a country hooked up to the internet, so the government can turn it on when they’re investigating a crime,” he said.
Amazon Faces Privacy Backlash Over New Sidewalk Technology
Amazon launched new technology called Sidewalk that connects supported devices together with your neighbors using a small part of your internet connection. But it has led to questions concerning consumer privacy. Meg Oliver reports.
Amazon Fails to Quash Investigation Into Its Indian Selling Practices
The Indian competition commission is to relaunch an investigation into Amazon’s selling practices, which will examine the company’s £1bn-a-year joint venture with UK chancellor Rishi Sunak’s billionaire father-in-law.
The investigation, originally announced in January 2020, will proceed after an Indian court on Friday dismissed pleas by Amazon and its rival – the Walmart-owned Flipkart – to quash its investigation into the business practices of the huge U.S. retailers.
One of the largest sellers on Amazon.in is a company called Cloudtail, a £1bn revenue business that is 76% controlled by Sunak’s wealthy in-laws, the Murthy family. The remaining quarter of Cloudtail is owned by Amazon.
Vaccine Passports: Why Europe Loves Them and the U.S. Loathes Them
Christian Science Monitor reported:
Back in 1992, Yiannis Klouvas converted an old cinema into the Blue Lagoon restaurant, which garnered a strong reputation for live music. There is no music now. The business, like so many others on the Greek island of Rhodes, is struggling due to the pandemic’s restrictions on travel.
“If we see a tourist on the street these days,” he says, “we take a photo to remember them.”
Mr. Klouvas is now banking on the EU Digital COVID Certificate, also known as the “green passport,” to save the summer. Starting July 1, all EU member states will accept the certificates as proof of COVID-19 vaccination, a recent negative test, or recovery from the disease. The plan got a resounding yes at the European Parliament on June 9. All EU member states, Liechtenstein, and Norway will implement the passport.