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Lawmakers Investigate How COVID Orthodoxy Dissenters Were Treated at FDA + More
Lawmakers Investigate How COVID Orthodoxy Dissenters Were Treated at FDA
U.S. House Republicans launched an investigation Wednesday into how scientists at the Food and Drug Administration who disagreed with COVID-19 guidance were treated. Federal watchdogs have recently released information showing that details around how experts in the Biden administration who disagree with things like COVID guidance are treated, and how their dissent is handled or considered, are unclear.
Republican leadership on the Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf requesting details on those questions. In their letter, the lawmakers want more clear and transparent documentation on how scientific dissenters and their thoughts are handled within the FDA.
Ongoing research and published evidence since the COVID pandemic began have brought into question the safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccine. Lockdown policy in particular has come under scrutiny as evidence suggests it came at a high economic cost with little slowing of the pandemic.
Other official COVID-related guidance has been almost entirely debunked. As The Center Square previously reported, a report from the George Mason University’s Mercatus Center that evaluated Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC, showed that city-wide vaccine mandates did nothing to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Top U.S. Healthcare Firm Reveals Data Breach Affected Millions of Patients
Healthcare tech firm HealthEC has confirmed it suffered a data breach in the summer of 2023 during which it lost sensitive data belonging to 4.5 million people, customers of its clients.
In a report filed with Maine’s Attorney General’s office, the company said the attack happened between July 14 and July 23 last year, and that hackers stole names and other personal identifiers.
However, BleepingComputer reports that the attackers stole people’s names, postal addresses, birth dates, Social Security Numbers, Taxpayer Identification Numbers, medical record numbers, medical information (diagnosis, diagnosis code, mental/physical condition, prescription information, and provider’s name and location), health insurance information (beneficiary number, subscriber number, Medicaid/Medicare identification), and billing and claims information (patient account number, patient identification number, and treatment cost information), citing a notification published by a victim.
As the data was stolen from HealthEC’s clients, multiple firms were affected by the incident. Some of the firms listed in the notice are Corewell Health, HonorHealth, Beaumont ACO, State of Tennessee — Division of TennCare, the University Medical Center of Princeton Physicians’ Organization, and the Alliance for Integrated Care of New York.
Mask Mandates Return at Some U.S. Hospitals as COVID, Flu Jump
Hospitals in at least four U.S. states have reinstated mask mandates amid a rise in cases of COVID, seasonal flu and other respiratory illness.
Healthcare facilities in New York, California, Illinois and Massachusetts have made masks mandatory among patients and providers.
New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan told WABC TV on Wednesday that mask mandates had resumed at all 11 of the city’s public hospitals, 30 health centers and five long-term care facilities.
‘A Real Achilles’ Heel’: Medical Devices Could Be Hacked Next, Officials Fear
Amid growing cybersecurity threats to healthcare facilities, federal officials and health systems are turning their attention to potential vulnerabilities hiding in plain sight in hospital rooms, imaging centers and even patients’ homes: medical devices.
Why it matters: Hackers have especially targeted health systems for their valuable troves of patient data and in some cases have temporarily knocked systems offline, disrupting patient care. But there are also a range of medical devices — such as MRIs, ventilators and pacemakers — that are potential targets, particularly when it comes to aging devices with outdated software.
Driving the news: A government watchdog late last month called for the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees medical devices, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to improve coordination on cybersecurity of medical devices — a recommendation both agencies agreed with.
The big picture: While the threat to devices has so far been largely theoretical, Toby Gouker, an executive at privacy and security firm First Health Advisory, predicted they will increasingly become the targets as health systems get better at shutting down hackers’ attempts to seize health records.
TikTok Aims to Grow Its TikTok Shop U.S. Business Tenfold to $17.5 Billion in 2024, Report Claims
TikTok is looking to grow the size of its TikTok Shop U.S. business tenfold to as much as $17.5 billion this year, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The report indicates that the 2024 merchandise volume goal was recently discussed internally within the company, and could be amended as the year progresses.
With this goal, TikTok would not only be looking to take on Amazon but also fellow Chinese-owned companies Temu and Shein, both of which have become popular in the U.S. But TikTok has something the other two companies don’t, which is an extremely popular social media network that could leverage viral videos to reach buyers.
As Bloomberg previously reported, TikTok was on track to amass around $20 billion in global gross merchandise value last year. A majority of the sales were seen in Southeast Asia. TikTok is now interested in bringing that success to the U.S. In addition, the report says the company is planning to launch TikTok Shop in Latin America in the coming months.
Why Is TikTok Parent ByteDance Moving Into Biology, Chemistry and Drug Discovery?
ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, appears to be ramping up work in fields well beyond the bounds of social media: Biology, chemistry, natural sciences and pharmaceuticals.
The Beijing-based tech giant is recruiting American talent in computational biology, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics and physics for its “AI for Drug Design” and “AI for Science” teams, according to LinkedIn posts reviewed by Forbes. ByteDance appears to be hiring for at least 17 of these positions across New York, California and Washington state—taking a swing at local rivals like Meta, Google and Amazon, where similar work is already underway. (Others leading these efforts at ByteDance appear to be based in Chicago, Boston and Beijing, according to LinkedIn.)
Staffers across the board will “co-create a future” with ByteDance, the listings say. What, exactly, that future is to be isn’t clear. It is also unclear how drug discovery or development, and other science-focused efforts, fit into ByteDance’s sprawling repertoire of social media sensations like TikTok and its Chinese counterpart Douyin.
ByteDance declined to comment on what its objectives are, how large the AI for Drug Design and Science teams are today and who it may have already hired. But a head of AI for drug design and science started at the company this past summer, per LinkedIn — an expert who is also running UCLA’s General Artificial Intelligence Lab — and the team has already released research on protein design and drug design, and an open-source tool combining structural biology with AI.
Google Just Disabled Cookies for 30 Million Chrome Users. Here’s How to Tell If You’re One of Them.
Today marks the first of many upcoming moments of silence in Google’s years-long plan to kill cookies. As of this morning, the Chrome web browser disabled cookies for 1% of its users, about 30 million people. By the end of the year, cookies will be gone in Chrome forever — sort of.
For privacy advocates, cookies are the original sin of the internet. Throughout most of the web’s history, cookies were one of the primary ways that tech companies tracked your behavior online. For targeted ads and many other kinds of tracking, websites rely on cookies made by other companies (such as Google).
These are known as “third-party cookies,” and they’re built into the internet’s infrastructure. They’re everywhere. If you visited Gizmodo without an ad blocker or some other kind of tracking protection, we might have given you some cookies ourselves. Sorry.
Back in 2019, years of bad news about Google, Facebook, and other tech companies’ privacy malpractices got so loud that Silicon Valley had to address it. Google, which makes the vast majority of its money tracking you and showing you ads online, announced that it was embarking on a project to get rid of third-party cookies in Chrome. Something like 60% of internet users are on Chrome, so Google getting rid of the technology will essentially kill cookies forever.
Your Health Information Was Hacked. What Now?
The New York Times via The Seattle Times reported:
Your health data is exceptionally valuable — and exceptionally vulnerable. That has been made clear in a string of recent breaches that have exposed sensitive medical information, including a hack at the genetic testing company 23andMe; a ransomware attack in November that affected emergency rooms and delayed medical procedures at hospitals in several states; and a cyberattack on a medical transcription company that stole the health data of 9 million people.
Such large breaches are increasingly common: In the first 10 months of 2023, more than 88 million individuals — one-fourth of Americans — had their medical data exposed, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS.
And that number does not include episodes involving companies that may have access to your health data but that aren’t governed by the patient privacy law known as HIPAA, which requires breaches to be reported to the federal government.
For people whose information is leaked, a breach can violate patient privacy and put them at risk of identity theft, insurance fraud or discrimination if, for example, their treatment for a stigmatized condition such as addiction or AIDS is made public, said Dr. Eduardo Iturrate, health information technology safety officer and senior director for enterprise data and analytics at NYU Langone Health.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Launches First Phone Service Satellites
SpaceX launched a rocket on Tuesday carrying the first set of Starlink satellites that can beam signals directly to smartphones from space.
Elon Musk’s space business struck a deal in August 2022 with wireless carriers to provide phone users in “dead zones” with network access via its Starlink satellites.
One of the carriers, T-Mobile US, confirmed that the satellites, carried on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, were in low-Earth orbit this morning.
SpaceX plans to “rapidly” scale up the project, according to Sara Spangelo, senior director of satellite engineering at SpaceX. “The launch of these first direct-to-cell satellites is an exciting milestone for SpaceX to demonstrate our technology,” she said.
COVID Subcommittee Chair Says ‘Honesty Is Nonnegotiable’ in Upcoming Fauci Interview + More
COVID Subcommittee Chair Says ‘Honesty Is Nonnegotiable’ in Upcoming Fauci Interview
Former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci will once again face questions on the origins of COVID-19, vaccine mandates and how to prevent something like the COVID-19 pandemic from happening again in his upcoming closed-door congressional interview, according to the chair of the committee leading the investigation.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic announced in November that Fauci had agreed to a 2-day transcribed interview on Jan. 8 and 9. He will also testify in front of the panel later this year, with the date still to be determined.
Subcommittee Chair Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) told The Hill this interview will serve as an “after-action review” of the federal government’s actions during the public health emergency for COVID-19.
“I think Dr. Fauci’s testimony is really a crucial component of the work we’re trying to do as it relates to the origins of COVID, the effects of mandates for vaccination, gain-of-function type research, scientific censorship in areas where it looks like it occurred.”
The former government researcher will take part in two 7-hour interviews during the two days he speaks with the subcommittee. Two of his personal lawyers and two government lawyers will also be present during the interview.
Meet ‘Link History,’ Facebook’s New Way to Track the Websites You Visit
Facebook recently rolled out a new “Link History” setting that creates a special repository of all the links you click on in the Facebook mobile app.
Users can opt out, but Link History is turned on by default, and the data is used for targeted ads. As lawmakers introduce tech regulations and Apple and Google beef up privacy restrictions, Meta is doubling down and searching for new ways to preserve its data harvesting empire.
The company pitches Link History as a useful tool for consumers “with your browsing activity saved in one place,” rather than another way to keep tabs on your behavior. With the new setting you’ll “never lose a link again,” Facebook says in a pop-up encouraging users to consent to the new tracking method. The company goes on to mention that “When you allow link history, we may use your information to improve your ads across Meta technologies.”
This is a privacy improvement in some ways, but the setting raises more questions than it answers. Meta has always kept track of the links you click on, and this is the first time users have had any visibility or control over this corner of the company’s internet spying apparatus. In other words, Meta is just asking users for permission for a category of tracking that it’s been using for over a decade. Beyond that, there are a number of ways this setting might give users an illusion of privacy that Meta isn’t offering.
23andMe Tells Victims It’s Their Fault That Their Data Was Breached
Facing more than 30 lawsuits from victims of its massive data breach, 23andMe is now deflecting the blame to the victims themselves in an attempt to absolve itself from any responsibility, according to a letter sent to a group of victims seen by TechCrunch.
“Rather than acknowledge its role in this data security disaster, 23andMe has apparently decided to leave its customers out to dry while downplaying the seriousness of these events,” Hassan Zavareei, one of the lawyers representing the victims who received the letter from 23andMe, told TechCrunch in an email.
In December, 23andMe admitted that hackers had stolen the genetic and ancestry data of 6.9 million users, nearly half of all its customers.
The data breach started with hackers accessing only around 14,000 user accounts. The hackers broke into this first set of victims by brute-forcing accounts with passwords that were known to be associated with the targeted customers, a technique known as credential stuffing.
From these 14,000 initial victims, however, the hackers were able to then access the personal data of the other 6.9 million victims because they had opted-in to 23andMe’s DNA Relatives feature. This optional feature allows customers to automatically share some of their data with people who are considered their relatives on the platform.
Media Outlets Are Already Calling for Online 2024 Election Censorship
The page has only just been turned on 2023 and already the narrative that much policing of online speech will be vital for 2024, an election year, has already stirred.
The legacy media outlet The Guardian, in its piece about Kate Starbird, has already complained that there may be less censorship ahead of the 2024 elections, and claimed that Rep. Jim Jordan’s committee’s reports on Big Tech-government censorship collusion are based on “outlandish claims.” This is ignoring the fact that an injunction was successfully placed on the Biden administration for its censorship pressure on Big Tech, a case that will be ruled on by The Supreme Court this year.
In an era where the policing of online speech is increasingly contentious, Kate Starbird’s role in combating what she terms election misinformation has placed her squarely in the midst of a heated debate. As a leading figure at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, Starbird has actively engaged in documenting what she and her team perceive as misinformation during the 2020 elections, particularly focusing on claims of voter fraud.
Jim Jordan, chair of the House judiciary committee, has emerged as a key figure in opposing what he views as the overreach of these researchers. He has focused on investigating groups and individuals involved in counteracting misinformation, especially in the context of elections and COVID-19. Central to the controversy is the practice of working with government entities and flagging content to social media platforms, which some argue leads to undue censorship and violates First Amendment rights.
Former Employee Sues City of Norfolk Over COVID Vaccine Policy, Claims ‘Religious Discrimination’
A former Norfolk city employee is suing the city for what her attorney calls “religious discrimination.” In a lawsuit newly obtained by 13News Now, Anna Anderson claims she was fired from her position with the city in 2021 because she opted out of getting a COVID-19 vaccine and claims she was unable to be tested for the virus once a week.
Anderson, who worked in the City of Norfolk’s Department of Human Services since 2008, says she wants back pay, front pay, damages and her job back.
According to the lawsuit filed in Nov. 2023, Anderson said she told the appropriate supervisors via email she was having a difficult time finding a healthcare provider who could administer weekly health screenings, asking if there were any alternative accommodations, including social distancing, wearing a mask or teleworking.
Anderson claims she never received a response from the city and was placed on administrative leave the same day she sent the email, Oct. 12. The lawsuit says she was ultimately fired on Nov. 18 for not submitting weekly tests.
Montana Appealing Ruling That Blocked State From Barring TikTok Use
Montana said on Tuesday it was appealing a decision by a U.S. judge in November to block Montana’s first-of-its-kind state ban on the use of short-video sharing app TikTok.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen filed a notice that the state is appealing the ruling to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Montana’s ban had been set to take effect Jan. 1 but U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy on Nov. 30 issued a preliminary injunction to block the ban on the Chinese-owned app, saying Montana’s law “violates the Constitution in more ways than one” and “oversteps state power.”
TikTok users in Montana also had filed suit last year to block the ban approved by the state legislature that cited concerns about the personal data of Montana users and potential Chinese spying.
Colorado Governor Says Responsibility of Social Media Restrictions ‘Belongs With Parents, Not the Government’
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) suggested in a Sunday interview he would not back state-imposed restrictions on children’s social media use, saying that responsibility, instead, should lie with the parents.
“I think the responsibility belongs with parents, not the government,” Polis said when asked in an interview on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” whether he would be open to more restrictions on social media in his state.
The interview, given jointly with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R), was part of an NBC special called “America’s Mental Health Crisis.” As respective chair and vice chair of the National Governors Association (NGA), Cox and Polis have launched a “Disagree Better” campaign, giving interviews and talks that stress the importance of civic unity and healthy debate.
“I certainly agree with the diagnosis that Governor Cox did, and I have some sympathy for that approach. But I do think at the end of the day, the government can’t parent kids. It’s really up to the responsibility of parents to step up. And I think it’s, in many ways, an educational effort for outreach to parents,” Polis said.
Britain’s Got Some of Europe’s Toughest Surveillance Laws. Now It Wants More
The U.K. already has some of the most far-reaching surveillance laws in the democratic world. Now it’s rushing to beef them up even further — and tech firms are spooked. Britain’s government wants to build on its landmark Investigatory Powers Act, a controversial piece of legislation dubbed the “snooper’s charter” by critics when introduced back in 2016.
That law — introduced in the wake of whistleblower Edward Snowden’s revelations of mass state surveillance — attempted to introduce more accountability into the U.K. intelligence agencies’ sprawling snooping regime by formalizing wide-ranging powers to intercept emails, texts, web history and more.
Now new legislation is triggering a fresh outcry among both industry execs and privacy campaigners — who say it could hobble efforts to protect user privacy.
“Using this power, the government could prevent the implementation of new end-to-end encryption, or stop developers from patching vulnerabilities in code that the government or their partners would like to exploit,” Meredith Whittaker, president of secure messaging app Signal, told POLITICO when the bill was first unveiled.
Bill Maher Spars With Seth MacFarlane Over COVID Vax Mandates: ‘Djokovic Didn’t Need It’ + More
Bill Maher Spars With Seth MacFarlane Over COVID Vax Mandates: ‘Djokovic Didn’t Need It’
Comedian and HBO host Bill Maher got into a bit of a verbal sparring match with “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane over the COVID-19 vaccines and mandates, arguing that the United States had failed to recognize the value of natural immunity.
The discussion came about during the latest episode of Maher’s podcast, “Club Random,” and Maher posited that pushing the vaccine on everyone — even those who had already contracted the virus — was “powerful stupid.”
MacFarlane pushed back, saying that vaccination reduced the risk of hospitalization and death.
“But that’s assuming that all people are alike,” Maher said. “And that is one of the giant fallacies in your way of thinking, we are not all alike.” He went on to argue that it was the wrong decision for the vaccine to be pushed on everyone — even those who were not considered high-risk.
“[Novak] Djokovic didn’t need it. Aaron Rodgers didn’t need it,” Maher continued over MacFarlane’s objections. “You completely want to shut your eyes to the fact that there are repercussions to all medical interventions including a vaccine!”
Google Settles $5 Billion Consumer Privacy Lawsuit
Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL.O) has agreed to settle a lawsuit claiming it secretly tracked the internet use of millions of people who thought they were doing their browsing privately.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, put a scheduled Feb. 5, 2024 trial in the proposed class action on hold on Thursday, after lawyers for Google and for consumers said they had reached a preliminary settlement. The lawsuit had sought at least $5 billion. Settlement terms were not disclosed, but the lawyers said they have agreed to a binding term sheet through mediation, and expected to present a formal settlement for court approval by Feb. 24, 2024.
The plaintiffs alleged that Google’s analytics, cookies and apps let the Alphabet unit track their activity even when they set Google’s Chrome browser to “Incognito” mode and other browsers to “private” browsing mode. In August, Rogers rejected Google’s bid to dismiss the lawsuit.
Filed in 2020, the lawsuit covered “millions” of Google users since June 1, 2016, and sought at least $5,000 in damages per user for violations of federal wire-tapping and California privacy laws.
COVID Map Shows States With Highest Cases as Hospital Mask Mandates Return
Areas across the U.S. are experiencing a rise in COVID-19 infections, with some hospital authorities recommending mask mandates once again. A map using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows where the worst-affected areas in the country are, with the Midwest and Northeast showing notable case numbers.
The flu season, when respiratory illnesses including COVID-19 rise in the winter, has led to some hospitals in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and Washington D.C. bringing in mask mandates.
Major Massachusetts care system Mass General Brigham said masks would be in place for all healthcare staff in direct contact with patients until the COVID-19 rate fell sufficiently.
MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington D.C. staff are required to wear masks at work, The Hill reported, along with NYC Health + Hospitals.
Social Media ‘Absolutely’ Causing Increases in Anxiety and Depression, Utah Governor Says
Rates of loneliness, anxiety and depression have shot up across America, and social media is “absolutely” one of the causes, Gov. Spencer Cox (R-Utah) says.
“I think it’s obvious to anyone who spends any time on social media or has kids — I have four kids. I’ve seen what’s happened to them as they’ve spent time on social media, and their friends, that this is absolutely causing these terrible increases, these hockey stick-like increases that we are seeing in anxiety, depression, and self-harm amongst our youth,” Cox, the chair of National Governors Association, said during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that aired Sunday.
Legislation that Utah enacted earlier this year that would require social media users to verify their age in order to access their accounts — putting restrictions on when and how users under 18 could access social media sites — is currently facing legal challenges from a trade group that represents Meta, TikTok and X. First Amendment advocates have also argued the law, which is to go into effect in 2024, infringes on free speech rights.
Cox told NBC’s Kristen Welker he is not impressed by arguments made against Utah’s law. “They know this is harming our kids,” Cox said of big tech companies. “They’re covering it up. They’re doing everything possible to take advantage of our kids for their own gain. And we’re not going to stand for that. And so we’re still pushing forward.”
States Looking to 2024 to Pass Revised Kids’ Online Safety Bills
A group of state legislators and children’s safety advocates are planning a renewed campaign to import British digital safeguards for kids into the United States as they look to ward off legal challenges from the tech industry.
After California passed a landmark online safety law in 2021 — styled after child protection rules in the United Kingdom — lawmakers in several other states, including Maryland and Minnesota, introduced their versions.
The law, known as the California Age-Appropriate Design Code, requires digital services to “prioritize” the well-being of children when developing products and vet those tools for potential risks before rolling them out.
California’s legislature passed the measure unanimously, a sign of the growing political consensus over ways social media platforms and other sites may expose children to harmful content and manipulate them through product features.
But the campaign was dealt a major blow in September when a federal judge temporarily blocked the law and said it probably does “not pass constitutional muster.” That case, which is still pending, could ultimately decide the fate of similar bills nationwide.
Mortgage Company Data Breach Exposes More Than a Million Americans
More than 1 million Americans have been exposed after mortgage company LoanCare suffered a data breach last month. According to a filing from the Maine Attorney General, the breach occurred on November 19 and was discovered on December 13.
In total, 1.3 million consumers across the country had their information exposed because of hacking in the system that targeted names and Social Security numbers. Addresses and loan numbers could have been exposed, as well.
While it’s unclear what caused the data breach, the company confirmed in its filing that an unauthorized party gained access and took data from its systems.
Hackers who now have access to your Social Security number can easily open new credit accounts and loans as well as potentially drain your existing financial accounts or even get medical services under your insurance.
ChatGPT Misdiagnosed Most Pediatric Cases — Older Version of the Chatbot Was Wrong in 83% of Kids’ Clinical Scenarios
A large language model (LLM)-based chatbot gave the wrong diagnosis for the majority of pediatric cases, researchers found.
ChatGPT version 3.5 reached an incorrect diagnosis in 83 out of 100 pediatric case challenges. Among the incorrect diagnoses, 72 were actually incorrect and 11 were clinically related to the correct diagnosis but too broad to be considered correct, reported Joseph Barile, BA, of Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York, and colleagues in JAMA Pediatrics.
For example, ChatGPT got it wrong in a case of rash and arthralgias in a teenager with autism. The physician diagnosis was “scurvy,” and the chatbot diagnosis was “immune thrombocytopenic purpura.”
An example of an instance in which the chatbot diagnosis was determined to not fully capture the diagnosis was in the case of a draining papule on the lateral neck of an infant. The physician diagnosis was “branchio-oto-renal syndrome,” and the chatbot diagnosis was “branchial cleft cyst.”
Facial Recognition Could Replace Passports at U.K. Airport E-Gates
It has happened to the best of us. The last-minute racking of brains on arrival in the U.K. to try to remember where the passports were packed, followed by the panicked fumbling all the way to the bottom of every compartment of every bag.
That may all be in the past though, should plans reportedly proposed by the government’s borders agency go ahead, with the need to present the document on arrival in the U.K. being replaced by facial recognition technology.
Phil Douglas, the director general of Border Force, said he had been “really impressed” by e-gate schemes in Australia and Dubai.
According to the Times, trials are expected to begin at airports this year, with a procurement process for the hardware needed to introduce the system across the country due to follow if it succeeds.
The Times reported that biometric details of British and Irish travelers were already held after being obtained in the passport application process.
DOD to Study Whether COVID Vaccine Helped or Hurt Troops + More
DOD to Study Whether COVID Vaccine Helped or Hurt Troops
Lawmakers want military researchers to determine whether the COVID-19 vaccine caused more harm than good for service members.
Included in the annual defense authorization bill passed by Congress earlier this month is language calling for “a study to assess and evaluate any health conditions and adverse events arising in service members on active duty one year after receiving the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.” Researchers will be required to report their findings back to lawmakers in December 2024.
The vaccine has been a target of conservative lawmakers for years. In the fiscal 2023 defense authorization bill, lawmakers repealed the Defense Department’s mandate for all troops to receive the vaccine. This year’s bill also contains a host of provisions related to the potential reenlistment of individuals kicked out of the ranks for refusing the shots.
But the research mandate — inserted by Republican House members during debate on the legislation — takes that further, again calling into question the safety of the vaccine. The study will look at “any health condition developed after receiving such first dose, regardless of whether the condition is attributable to the receipt of such first dose,” and “an accounting of adverse events including hyperimmune response” linked to the vaccine.
House Republicans had also pushed for language prohibiting military leaders from mandating masks to prevent the spread of future COVID-19 outbreaks, but that language was dropped in final deliberations over the bill.
Google Experiments With ‘Faster and More Adaptable’ Censorship of ‘Harmful’ Content Ahead of 2024 U.S. Elections
In the run-up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Big Tech engaged in unprecedented levels of election censorship, most notably by censoring the New York Post’s bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story just a few weeks before voters went to the polls.
And with the 2024 U.S. presidential election less than a year away, both Google and its video-sharing platform, YouTube, have confirmed that they plan to censor content they deem to be “harmful” in the run-up to the election.
In its announcement, Google noted that it already censors content that it deems to be “manipulated media” or “hate and harassment” — two broad, subjective terms that have been used by tech giants to justify mass censorship.
However, ahead of 2024, the tech giant has started using large language models (LLMs) to experiment with “building faster and more adaptable” censorship systems that will allow it to “take action even more quickly when new threats emerge.”
The Campaign by U.S. States to Curb Social Media Will Be Tested in 2024
U.S. states are testing a series of new legal ploys and laws designed to erode social media‘s reach, creating a prime battleground for the tech industry in 2024.
Attorneys general and lawmakers from states across the U.S. spent much of 2023 trying to pressure outfits like TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram with outright bans, legislation regulating their content, or lawsuits alleging the companies violated state consumer protection laws.
States passed at least 65 new tech laws this year targeting child safety, data privacy, artificial intelligence, and content moderation, according to a new report from the University of North Carolina’s Center on Technology Policy.
The aggressive campaigns by states raise some tricky questions that could be tested before the Supreme Court and numerous other legal forums in 2024. Should tech firms be allowed to decide what they allow on their platforms without government interference? And can material potentially harmful to children be restricted without also restricting free speech?
The Obscure Google Deal That Defines America’s Broken Privacy Protections
Before Google’s disastrous social network Google+ came the less remembered Google Buzz. Launched in 2010, Buzz survived less than two years. But its mishandling of people’s personal data motivated the first in a series of legal settlements that, though imperfect, are to this day the closest the U.S. has come to establishing extensive rules for protecting privacy online.
When users set up a Buzz account, Google automatically created a friend network made up of people they email, horrifying some people by exposing private email addresses and secret relationships. Washington regulators felt compelled to act, but Google had not broken any national privacy law — the U.S. didn’t have one.
The Federal Trade Commission improvised. In 2011 Google reached a 20-year legal settlement dubbed a consent decree with the agency for allegedly misleading users with its policies and settings. The decree created a sweeping privacy standard for just one tech company, requiring Google through 2031 to maintain a “comprehensive privacy program” and allow external assessments of its practices. The next year, the FTC signed Facebook onto a near-identical consent decree, settling allegations that the company now known as Meta had broken its own privacy promises to users.
WIRED interviews with 20 current and former employees of Meta and Google who worked on privacy initiatives show that internal reviews forced by consent decrees have sometimes blocked unnecessary harvesting and access of users’ data. But current and former privacy workers, from low-level staff to top executives, increasingly view the agreements as outdated and inadequate. Their hope is that U.S. lawmakers engineer a solution that helps authorities keep pace with advances in technology and constrain the behavior of far more companies.
Artificial Intelligence Is Already in Use at HHS
As Washington scrambles to regulate artificial intelligence in healthcare, the Department of Health and Human Services already uses the technology in its day-to-day work — and expects AI to play a larger role over the next several years.
HHS is one of the top agencies using AI — fourth only to NASA and the Departments of Commerce and Energy — according to a recent Government Accountability Office report which looked at implemented or planned AI uses reported by the department.
Within HHS, the FDA uses AI to power its customer services chatbot and HIV.gov uses it to make Instagram videos and graphics about HIV prevention and write job descriptions. Other agencies are considering AI: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said it supports a National Institute of Mental Health study on using the technology to improve the quality of the 988 suicide crisis line, but added it would not use AI to replace counselors who answer calls.
Surveillance Technology Is Advancing at Pace — With What Consequences?
The U.K. is not Russia. For all that the many civil liberty campaigners will complain, as is their role, the independence of the judiciary remains strong. The laws relating to freedom of association, expression and right to privacy are well defended in parliament and outside.
But the technology, the means by which the state might insert itself into our lives, is developing apace. The checks and balances are not. The Guardian has revealed that the government is legislating, without fanfare, to allow the police and the National Crime Agency to run facial recognition searches across the U.K.’s driving license records. When the police have an image, they will be able to identify the person, it is hoped, through the photographic images the state holds for the purposes of ensuring that the roads are safe.
There are those who say that none of this is anything to worry about for those who have done nothing wrong. This summer, the government abolished the office of the biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner, an independent watchdog.
The last holder of that role, Fraser Sampson, told the Guardian that this was the argument that frustrated him more than any other. The computer will say you are there, at the perimeter of a crime or perhaps at the heart of it, and at times there will be scant opportunity or even motive to argue back. Think of the speeding cameras and the notices that few contest.
COVID, RSV and Flu Cases Spike as UPMC Reinstates Mask Wearing to Slow Spread
UPMC has reinstated its mask mandate.
The chief medical officer at UPMC told KDKA-TV that in the last six to eight weeks, more and more people are being treated for respiratory illnesses.
The health system is asking everyone to mask up to slow the spread.
Boston Hospital Reinstates Masking Policy Amid Uptick in Respiratory Illnesses in the Area
A major Boston hospital has reinstated its masking policy for staff and patients due to higher rates of respiratory illness in the area.
The adjustment to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s face mask policy took effect on Monday and will continue for the “foreseeable future,” according to a post on the hospital’s website.
Mask-wearing policies were first rolled to slow the spread of COVID-19 during the 2020 pandemic.