Big Brother News Watch
California to Mandate Vaccines and/or Testing for Teachers + More
California to Mandate Vaccines and/or Testing for Teachers
California Gov. Gavin Newsom will announce Wednesday that teachers and other school employees must either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to regular testing.
Under a new order that Newsom will unveil Wednesday, California will become the first state in the nation to implement such a requirement, which will be effective in mid-October, sources told CNN.
The health order will closely mirror a similar mandate that all California healthcare workers become vaccinated.
Conflict of Interest: Reuters ‘Fact Checks’ COVID-Related Social Media Posts, But Fails to Disclose Ties to Pfizer, World Economic Forum
From the onset of the pandemic, social media giants, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, have flagged COVID-related posts the social media giants deem “false or misleading.”
That’s not news — most social media users are aware of the practice, especially amid recent headlines citing increased pressure from Congress and the White House to aggressively crack down on “vaccine misinformation.”
But here’s a less-publicized fact some social media users — and consumers of online news — may not know: Reuters, owned by the $40 billion international multimedia company, Thomson Reuters Corporation, is also in the business of “fact checking” social media posts.
Reuters publishes its fact-checking commentary online in a format designed to resemble new stories, which turn up in online searches.
Biden Meets With United Airlines CEO, Others on COVID Vaccine Efforts
President Joe Biden is meeting on Wednesday with the chief executives of United Airlines and Kaiser Permanente to find ways to boost U.S. COVID-19 vaccination rates, the White House said.
In addition to United Airlines’ Scott Kirby, the meeting includes Kaiser Permanente Chief Executive Gregory Adams, Howard University President Wayne Frederick and a South Carolina business owner who adopted a vaccinate-or-get-tested requirement for her workers, an administration official said.
Pentagon Releases Religious Exemption Guidelines for Bypassing Mandatory Vaccine
The Pentagon on Tuesday released guidelines for how service members could request a religious exemption in lieu of getting the coronavirus vaccine.
By mid-September, all active-duty forces in the military will be required to get shots in their arms to counter the coronavirus as cases continue to once again increase nationwide.
“There is a religious exemption possibility for any mandatory vaccine, and there’s a process that we go through to counsel the individual both from a medical and from a command perspective about using a religious exemption,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Tuesday.
American, Delta and Southwest Airlines Won’t Make Workers Get COVID Vax
Three of America’s most popular airlines — American, Delta, and Southwest — will not institute a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for their employees as the controversy over whether to require workers to get jabbed roils businesses across the country.
CNN reported Tuesday that Southwest CEO Gary Kelly wrote in an internal memo that he would “continue to strongly encourage” employees to get vaccinated, but would not make it a requirement.
“Obviously, I am very concerned about the latest Delta variant, and the effect on the health and safety of our employees and our operation, but nothing has changed,” Kelly wrote.
Governor Newsom’s ‘State of Emergency’ Challenged in California Supreme Court
Orange County Board of Education and Children’s Health Defense (CHD) on Tuesday filed a petition for writ of mandate in the California Supreme Court asking the court to declare an immediate end to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s declared state of emergency.
A writ of mandate is a court order to a government agency, including another court, to follow the law by correcting its prior actions or ceasing illegal acts.
“This petition is not about masks, vaccines or any other specific policy issue,” said Scott J. Street, attorney for the Orange County Board of Education.
Apple’s About-Face Just Opened the Surveillance Floodgates
In recent years, Apple has sought to brand itself as a strong defender of user privacy, boasting that it doesn’t need to monetize your personal data—since their business model is based on selling pricy hardware—and admirably fighting off government pressure to weaken or break strong encryption on its devices.
That’s why it’s so alarming to see the Cupertino‐based tech giant has decided that a shockingly misguided surveillance apparatus will soon be built right into the company’s widely‐ used operating systems.
Novartis, Pfizer and Gilead Roll Out COVID-19 Vaccination Rules as Delta Makes Case for Mandates
For many drugmakers, several of whom led the charge on the therapeutics and vaccines taking aim at the pandemic, vaccination requirements are becoming the norm. Meanwhile, a number of biotechs have been able to forego mandates altogether because their smaller size means their workforces are already fully vaccinated.
Over the past few days, Fierce Pharma asked a range of biopharmas big and small about their evolving vaccination policies. While some companies have already gone public with their plans, others are deliberating how to approach the issue. Here’s how several companies are handling it.
Fauci: Teachers Should Be Required to Get COVID Vaccines + More
Teachers Should Be Required to Get COVID Vaccines, Fauci Says
Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said state and local governments should require teachers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
As back-to-school season approaches and the delta variant surges across the U.S., Fauci acknowledged that his position might anger some people who’ve resisted vaccine mandates for teachers.
“Yeah I’m going to upset some people on this, but I think we should,” he said Tuesday in an interview with MSNBC. “This is very serious business. You would wish that people would see why it’s so important to get vaccinated.”
Companies Now Deducting $50 From Unvaccinated Workers’ Monthly Paychecks: Consultancy Firm
Employers are beginning to tack on a special surcharge of $20 to $50 a month to their unvaccinated workers, according to one of the nation’s largest health benefits consultancies.
To date, employers have offered gift cards, a day off from work, cash and other financial incentives to convince their workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
But the carrot approach is about to be joined by a stick that could cost employees up to $50 a month, according to Mercer, the large employee benefits consultancy that works with thousands of employers around the world.
‘Unconscionable’: Trump Surgeon General Slams States Banning Mask Mandates In Schools
Dr. Jerome Adams, the U.S. Surgeon General under former President Trump, on Tuesday joined the growing chorus of public health officials criticizing Republican-led states that have enacted bans prohibiting school districts from imposing their own mask mandates, even as some — including Florida and Texas — battle surges in COVID-19 hospitalizations including among children.
Fake COVID-19 Vaccine Cards Online Worry College Officials
The Associated Press reported:
As the delta variant of the coronavirus sweeps across the United States, a growing number of colleges and universities are requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for students to attend in-person classes. But the new mandate has opened the door for those opposed to getting the vaccine to cheat the system, according to interviews with students, education and law enforcement officials.
Across the internet, a cottage industry has sprung up to accommodate people who say they won’t get vaccinated for either personal or religious reasons.
An Instagram account with the username “vaccinationcards” sells laminated COVID-19 vaccination cards for $25 each. A user on the encrypted messaging app, Telegram, offers “COVID-19 Vaccine Cards Certificates,” for as much as $200 apiece.
Apple Wants To Check Your Phone for Child Abuse Images — What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Privacy. That’s (no longer) iPhone.
Apple, which has spent big bucks on ad campaigns boasting about how much it values its users privacy, is about to start poking through all your text messages and photos. Don’t worry, the tech company has assured everyone, the prying is for purely benevolent purposes. On Thursday Apple announced a new set of “protection for children” features that will look through U.S. iPhones for images of child abuse.
One of these features is a tool called neuralMatch, which will scan photo libraries to see if they contain anything that matches a database of known child abuse imagery. Another feature, which parents can enable or disable, scans iMessage images sent or received by accounts that belong to a minor. It will then notify the parents when a child receives sexually explicit imagery.
With Liberty and Privacy for Some: Widening Inequality on the Digital Frontier
Apple’s leaders announced their plans for the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) update in 2020. In short, iOS users can refuse an app’s ability to track their activity on other apps and websites. The ATT update has led to a sweeping three-quarters of iOS users opting out of cross-app tracking.
With less data available to advertisers looking to develop individual profiles for targeted advertising, targeted ads for iOS users look less effective and appealing to ad agencies. As a result, new findings show that advertisers are spending one-third less in advertising spending on iOS devices.
Fauci: Expect ‘A Flood’ of Vaccine Mandates After Full FDA Approval + More
Dr. Anthony Fauci: Expect ‘A Flood’ of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates After Full FDA Approval
As soon as the Food and Drug Administration issues a full approval for a COVID-19 vaccine, there will be “a flood” of vaccine mandates at businesses and schools across the nation, Dr. Anthony Fauci told USA TODAY’s Editorial Board on Friday.
Mandates aren’t going to happen at the federal level, but vaccine approval will embolden many groups, he predicted.
“Organizations, enterprises, universities, colleges that have been reluctant to mandate at the local level will feel much more confident,” he said.
“They can say: ‘If you want to come to this college or this university, you’ve got to get vaccinated. If you want to work in this plant, you have to get vaccinated. If you want to work in this enterprise, you’ve got to get vaccinated. If you want to work in this hospital, you’ve got to get vaccinated.'”
Pentagon Announces COVID-19 Vaccines Will Be Mandatory for Troops by Mid-September
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a memo Monday requiring members of the military to receive a COVID-19 vaccination by September 15. “I have every confidence that Service leadership and your commanders will implement this new vaccination program with professionalism, skill, and compassion,” Austin said in the memo.
Austin also said he will seek the president’s approval to make the vaccine mandatory either by mid-September or immediately upon the FDA’s formal authorization, whichever comes first. Vaccines in the military are voluntary when under emergency use authorization by the FDA. The president has the authority to waive the rule and make the vaccine a requirement for personnel.
In a statement, President Biden said “strongly” supported Austin’s decision.
160 San Francisco Sheriffs’ Deputies Threaten to Resign Due to Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccine
San Francisco officials recently announced that all city employees will have to be vaccinated or face possible termination.
There are about 35,000 city employees. Religious exemptions or medical reasons may let some bypass the mandate, but those who refuse the shot and have no exemption will encounter consequences that could result in termination, reported the San Francisco Chronicle.
The San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association published a statement on Facebook, saying they always supported safety measures against the virus but the issue at hand is that about 160 of their Sheriffs don’t want to take the vaccine due to their beliefs.
California Bill Would Limit Protests at Vaccination Sites. Does It Violate the First Amendment?
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A proposal sailing through the California legislature that aims to stop people from getting harassed outside of vaccination sites is raising alarms among some First Amendment experts.
If it becomes law, SB 742 would make it punishable by up to six months in jail and/or a maximum fine of $1,000 to intimidate, threaten, harass or prevent people from getting a COVID-19 — or any other — vaccine on their way to a vaccination site.
The measure was introduced after protesters briefly shut down a mass vaccination clinic at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium in January. Now that mass vaccination clinics have mostly folded up, lawmakers worry that vaccination sites with less security than Dodger Stadium — like pharmacies and mobile clinics in parks or fast-food parking lots — are vulnerable.
Big Tech Call Center Workers Face Pressure to Accept Home Surveillance
Colombia-based call center workers who provide outsourced customer service to some of the nation’s largest companies are being pressured to sign a contract that lets their employer install cameras in their homes to monitor work performance, an NBC News investigation has found.
Six workers based in Colombia for Teleperformance, one of the world’s largest call center companies, which counts Apple, Amazon and Uber among its clients, said that they are concerned about the new contract, first issued in March. The contract allows monitoring by AI-powered cameras in workers’ homes, voice analytics and storage of data collected from the worker’s family members, including minors. Teleperformance employs more than 380,000 workers globally, including 39,000 workers in Colombia.
Education Secretary: ‘We’re Clearly at a Fork in the Road’ in Opening Schools Safely
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Sunday that the country is at a “fork in the road” when it comes to opening schools amid a resurgent coronavirus wave.
“We’re clearly at a fork in the road in this country,” Cardona said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “You’re either going to help students be in school in-person and be safe, or the decisions you make will hurt students. While I understand the argument around not wanting to wear masks because we’re we’re fatigued, without question student safety and staff safety come first.”
Mask mandates for teachers and students has become a contentious issue across the country, particularly in Texas and Florida where Govs. Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis have adamantly opposed some COVID-19 measures.
Hundreds Rally at Michigan Capitol Against Vaccine Mandates
The Associated Press reported:
Hundreds of people gathered outside the Michigan State Capitol on Friday to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Carrying signs with slogans such as “Jab or Job? Wrong!” and “Let me call my shots,” the demonstrators heard speakers criticize government officials and and urge their audience to contact elected representatives to express their opposition.
“We’re here today to fight for individuals’ rights to choose — that’s all — in the employment area, in the student area, in the schools, in the universities . . . or wherever else it is mandated,” said Ron Armstrong, president for Stand Up Michigan, one of the organizers of the rally.
Juhi Chawla Reveals 5G Case Judgement Left Her Feeling ‘Hurt and Confused’
At the beginning of the video, Chawla can be heard addressing the Supreme Court’s dismissal of her lawsuit related to the implementation of 5G mobile technology in India in June. Chawla said that with the lawsuit she only intended to know if it is safe for children, pregnant women, unborn children, elderly people and every type of living organism who could be in danger because of the technology. “It was about time,” she captioned her post. The 5G lawsuit was filed by the actor on May 31.
Stressing on the fact that she isn’t against technological advancement but the authorities should first certify it to be safe, Chawla presented data to back her argument. She spoke in detail about how she approached different organisations and parliamentary committees about the issue and also mentioned how her fight against installation of cellular towers began. Claiming that silence has its own deafening sound, she said she decided to open up about the issue.
The actor went on to say that it took her eleven years to discover the details about EMF radiation, its health effects and the glaring ignorance of certain authorities in this regard.
Official Calls for Unvaccinated to Be Put On ‘No-Fly List’ + More
Former Obama Official Calls for Unvaccinated to Be Put On ‘No-Fly List’
A former Obama administration official is calling for a federal “no-fly list” for Americans who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“The White House has rejected a nationwide vaccine mandate — a sweeping suggestion that the Biden administration could not easily enact if it wanted to — but a no-fly list for unvaccinated adults is an obvious step that the federal government should take,” former Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security Juliette Kayyem wrote in an op-ed for The Atlantic this week.
The Panic Pandemic: How Media Fearmongering Led to ‘Unprecedented’ Censorship of Scientific Research
Now that we’re more than a year into the pandemic, it’s crystal clear that the panic that ensued was unnecessary and the draconian measures put into place for public health were unwarranted and harmful.
John Tierney, a former reporter for The New York Times, looked back over the pandemic, providing a timeline of the media-induced viral panic that led to censorship and suppression of scientific research on an unprecedented scale.
In his article for City Journal, where he is a contributing editor, he explained that the “moral panic that swept the nation’s guiding institutions” during the pandemic was far more catastrophic than the viral pandemic itself.
Quitting a Job Due to Vaccine Requirements? You Won’t Be Eligible for Unemployment
Unfortunately, the Delta variant is throwing a wrench in the works. With COVID-19 cases soaring once again, employers need to take steps to protect their employees if they’re going to require them to show up to an actual workplace. And to that end, many are requiring that employees get a COVID-19 vaccine before coming back to work.
At first glance, that may seem like an infringement on individual rights. But actually, companies do have the right to mandate vaccines. And if you refuse to get one and are decide to quit your job or are terminated because of that, you may be in for a financial shock, because you won’t be eligible for unemployment benefits.
Vaccine Passport Plan in NYC Renews Online Privacy Debate
The New York Times via The Seattle Times reported:
Vaccine passports, which show proof of vaccination, often in electronic form such as an app, are the bedrock of de Blasio’s plan. For months, these records — also known as health passes or digital health certificates — have been under discussion around the world as a tool to allow vaccinated people, who are less at risk from the virus, to gather safely. New York will be the first U.S. city to include these passes in a vaccine mandate, potentially setting off similar actions elsewhere.
But the mainstreaming of these credentials could also usher in an era of increased digital surveillance, privacy researchers said. That’s because vaccine passes may enable location tracking, even as there are few rules about how people’s digital vaccine data should be stored and how it can be shared. While existing privacy laws limit the sharing of information among medical providers, there is no such rule for when people upload their own data onto an app.
Move Over, Space. Tech Billionaires Have a New Utopian Boondoggle: The ‘Metaverse’
Look at all of our tech billionaires trying to leave the world to evade responsibility for their malevolent influence on it. Anything to avoid being confronted by the workers they exploit or the victims of the ethnic and religious clashes facilitated by their platforms. Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are flinging themselves into space; Elon Musk is burrowing into the earth; now Mark Zuckerberg is retreating into a virtual “metaverse”.
What is a metaverse, you ask? Well, late last year a former Facebook data scientist, Sophie Zhang, accused the company of having known about – and failed to prevent – attempts by heads of state and other political actors in Honduras, India, Azerbaijan, and elsewhere to manipulate and mislead their populations, leading to political instability, the harassment of activists, and possibly preventable deaths. Instead of immediately addressing these issues, Zuckerberg decided to try to rebrand his platform – currently awash with tyrants and conspiracy theorists and pictures of your adorable baby niece who you have never met because your sister read some things on Facebook that led her to believe that COVID is a hoax and that vaccinated people like you are carrying a tracking device in your arm – into an idea pulled from a 30-year-old science fiction novel.
Phoenix School District Says Suit Over Mask Mandate Is Moot
The Associated Press reported:
A Phoenix school district wants a judge to dismiss a lawsuit over its mask mandate, which could be a test case for other districts, arguing a state law banning such policy isn’t in effect yet.
A preliminary hearing was held Wednesday in the case of Douglas Hester, a biology teacher who sued the Phoenix Union High School District. Hester is asking a Maricopa County Superior Court judge to grant a temporary restraining order on the mandate, calling it unlawful.
Jeff Bezos Helped the Washington Post ‘Take Advantage of the Gift the Internet Had to Offer’: Marty Baron
ANDY SERWER: Kind of following up on that, some people have speculated that he [Bezos] bought the paper to wield influence. And you said over the years that he never meddled with editorial. So what was your sense of why he owned the paper? And what is he getting out of it, then?
MARTY BARON: Well, you know, I mean this might sound a bit naive, but I don’t think it is — and that is, first of all, I think he actually did believe in the mission of the press. I think he does, even though he’s the target of it. I still think he believes that the press serves a very important role in American democracy and he actually believes in American democracy. And secondly, as I indicated before, he thought that, you know, there was a real opportunity, a business opportunity here.
I think that he is not a person who, you know, necessarily wants to buy a sports team, run a sports team, but his sport is really business, as best I can tell — and space. And so here was an opportunity, it was a unique property, one that you couldn’t find elsewhere in the country — I mean, you know, the only other national or international publications were, essentially, the “New York Times” and the “Wall Street Journal.”
Global Internet of Things (Iot) Analytics Market to Reach US$81.8 Billion by the Year 2027
The Internet of Things (IoT) Analytics market in the U.S. is estimated at US$4.7 Billion in the year 2020. The country currently accounts for a 29.94% share in the global market. China, the world second largest economy, is forecast to reach an estimated market size of US$14.2 Billion in the year 2027 trailing a CAGR of 26.1% through 2027.
Among the other noteworthy geographic markets are Japan and Canada, each forecast to grow at 23.9% and 23.1% respectively over the 2020-2027 period. Within Europe, Germany is forecast to grow at approximately 18.9% CAGR while Rest of European market (as defined in the study) will reach US$14.2 Billion by the year 2027.
Why Tyson’s Employee Vaccine Requirement Stands Out
Companies are starting to require vaccines for corporate workers because they are eager to reopen their offices and believe that mandating COVID-19 shots will allay many white-collar workers’ safety concerns about returning, said Brian Kropp, chief of HR research at Gartner, a research and advisory firm to companies. Gartner works with 15,000 corporate human resource officials and surveys and consults with them on issues facing their businesses, including vaccines …
Employers have not implemented similar mandates for hourly workers because they worry some will quit rather than get vaccinated at a moment when it’s challenging to hire workers, he said.
“There’s a real tension given how tight the labor market is. If you make [vaccines] a condition of employment, that might limit your access to talent,” he said.
