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40 Million Americans’ Health Data Is Stolen or Exposed Each Year + More
40 Million Americans’ Health Data Is Stolen or Exposed Each Year. See if Your Provider Has Been Breached.
More than 40 million Americans’ medical records have been stolen or exposed so far this year because of security vulnerabilities in electronic healthcare systems, a USA TODAY analysis of Health and Human Services data found.
And the problem is steadily worsening. From 2010 to 2014, the first five years that data was collected, close to 50 million people had their medical data stolen. In the following five years, that number quadrupled. And health privacy breaches have continued to grow on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Federal law strictly prohibits medical institutions — hospitals, insurance companies and outpatient clinics — from sharing patient information, and requires that companies take steps to shield sensitive data from prying eyes.
More vulnerabilities have emerged as healthcare providers shift their records online and fail to protect legacy systems. Hacking accounts for about half of all security breaches, while about one-third are caused by employee errors, such as lost computers or accidental disclosures, our analysis shows.
Appeals Court Says Air Force ‘Wrongly Relied’ on Broad Formula to Deny Religious Objections to Vax Mandate
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld an injunction protecting unvaccinated Air Force service members from being punished or involuntarily terminated from the military due to religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The ruling is part of an ongoing class action lawsuit in the 6th Circuit aimed at granting relief to over 10,000 unvaccinated active duty, reserve and National Guard Air Force and Space Force members who submitted a religious exemption to the Pentagon’s vaccine mandate and were denied or are awaiting a decision. A circuit court decision had previously ordered the Air Force to halt “disciplinary or separation measures” taken against the class while the lawsuit continues.
The appeals court said in its Tuesday opinion that the Air Force “wrongly relied on its ‘broadly formulated’ reasons for the vaccine mandate to deny specific exemptions to the Plaintiffs, especially since it has granted secular exemptions to their colleagues.”
In addition, the court said the Air Force has an unlawful “‘uniform’ practice of denying religious exemptions to anyone who wants to remain in the service.”
TikTok’s Viral Challenges Keep Luring Young Kids to Their Deaths
The game had a name: the blackout challenge. Kids around the world were choking themselves with household items until they blacked out, filming the adrenaline rush they got regaining consciousness and then posting the videos on social media. It’s a modern incarnation of choking dares that have been around for decades, only now they’re being delivered to children by powerful social media algorithms and reaching those too young to fully grasp the risk.
The blackout challenge has been linked to the deaths of at least 15 kids age 12 or younger in the past 18 months, according to data Businessweek compiled from news reports, court records and interviews with family members. At least five children aged 13 and 14 also died in that time. Headlines in the wake of the deaths frequently singled out TikTok, but police departments denied Freedom of Information Act requests to see incident reports that might help prove which platform was involved if any.
Ex-Employees Sue Medline Industries After Being Fired Over COVID Vaccination Rule
Several former employees are now suing Medline Industries after they were fired for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccination.
Medline is based in north suburban Northfield. It ships medical supplies around the world and is now the subject of a civil rights lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court.
The former employees claim the company violated Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Doctors Who Are Accused of Spreading ‘Misleading Information’ Could Be Jailed Under New British Columbia Law
During the pandemic, several doctors in the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) hit the headlines for opposing COVID measures. State-sanctioned medical authorities responded by warning physicians that if they “put the public at risk with misinformation,” they may face investigations and regulatory action.
Now, just 18 months later, these threats from medical authorities have evolved into a sweeping piece of legislation that includes two-year jail sentences for doctors who are deemed to be spreading certain types of “false or misleading information.”
The new legislation, Bill 36 — Health Professions and Occupations Act (HPOA), was approved by the legislature last Thursday and immediately received Royal Assent. A Cabinet order will determine when it comes into force.
Western University to Drop Its Vaccine Mandate, Masks Still Required on Campus
Western University has announced it will no longer require staff, students or visitors to be vaccinated against COVID-19, but masks will continue to be mandatory in classrooms on campus.
In a statement, Western said it consulted with its medical experts and London’s public health officials before making the move.
Western re-affirmed its vaccine and mask mandate in September, saying it would review its vaccination policy after the fall semester. Those living in residences needed a booster dose and were given a two-week grace period.
‘Surveillance and Control’: Vivek Ramaswamy and Tucker Carlson Discuss China-Inspired Push for a ‘Central Bank Digital Currency’
Strive Asset Management executive chairman Vivek Ramaswamy balked at the possibility of a “central bank digital currency” in the United States during an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
The entrepreneur rejected the notion that a digital dollar managed by the Federal Reserve would be beneficial for the economy, asserting that the project would instead open citizens to government censorship and surveillance.
Ramaswamy also dismissed the idea that adopting such a currency system would render the United States more competitive with China, which has launched a digital yuan and is encouraging residents to pivot toward the new medium of exchange.
“That’s a good path to get us to be more like China,” Ramaswamy said, “which is not a good way for the U.S. to go in terms of being a surveillance state, and actually it’s exactly for that reason that if you think about it, the U.S. could actually have a stronger dollar if it does not jump onto the CBDC bandwagon because people might want to actually hold a currency that doesn’t allow them to be the subject of surveillance and control.”
South Dakota’s Kristi Noem Bans the Use of TikTok on Government Devices, Says China Uses the Platform to ‘Manipulate’ Americans
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem banned the use of TikTok on government devices on Tuesday, saying China uses the social media platform to manipulate Americans.
“The Chinese Communist Party uses information that it gathers on TikTok to manipulate the American people, and they gather data off the devices that access the platform,” she added.
The order, which Noem signed on Tuesday, takes effect immediately. It is unclear how many South Dakota state employees were actively using TikTok on government-owned devices.
U.S. officials have, for years, raised security concerns about TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Earlier this year Buzzfeed reported that ByteDance had repeatedly accessed non-public data about U.S. TikTok users.
DeSantis Slams Apple for Allegedly Threatening to Remove Twitter, Catering to Chinese Communist Party
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday criticized Apple for allegedly threatening to remove Twitter from its App store while reportedly preventing Chinese protesters from fully using its AirDrop feature.
DeSantis’ comments, made during a press conference in Duval County, came a day after Elon Musk alleged that Apple had “mostly” stopped advertising on Twitter and had threatened to “withhold” the social media platform from the app store.
DeSantis said that congressional action might be warranted if Apple followed through on its alleged threat against Twitter after Musk reinstated previously suspended accounts.
“That would be a huge, huge mistake, and it would be a really raw exercise of monopolistic power that I think would merit a response from the United States Congress,” he said. “Don’t be a vassal of the [Chinese Communist Party] on one hand and then use your corporate power in the United States on the other to suffocate Americans and try to suppress their right to express themselves.”
New South Wales to Withdraw or Refund Over 33,000 COVID Fines
The New South Wales government in Australia has been forced to cancel more than $30 million (€19.5 million) in fines for breaches of COVID-era public health orders after conceding they were too vague.
On Tuesday, Revenue NSW announced it had canceled some 33,000 COVID-era fines, about half the total number issued by police for breaches of the public health orders during pandemic restrictions in 2020 and 2021.
Fines that had already been paid would be refunded, the spokesperson said. “A total of 33,121 fines will be withdrawn, which is around half of the total number of 62,138 COVID-19 related fines issued.”
One of the two test cases was a $3,000 fine issued to plaintiff Teal Els for “unlawfully participating in an outdoor public gathering.”
Two Chinese Cities Ease COVID Curbs After Protests Spread
The giant Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Chongqing announced an easing of COVID curbs on Wednesday, a day after demonstrators in southern Guangzhou clashed with police amid a string of protests against the world’s toughest coronavirus restrictions.
The demonstrations, which spread over the weekend to Shanghai, Beijing and elsewhere, have become a show of public defiance unprecedented since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.
The southwestern city of Chongqing will allow close contacts of people with COVID-19, who fulfill certain conditions, to quarantine at home, a city official said.
Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, also announced an easing of curbs, but with record numbers of cases nationwide, there seems little prospect of a major U-turn in the “zero-COVID” policy that Xi has said is saving lives and has proclaimed as one of his political achievements.
China Plans to Boost Vaccinations Among Seniors as Harsh Zero-COVID Strategy Triggers Protests
China’s National Health Commission on Tuesday unveiled plans to improve COVID-19 vaccination rates among the elderly — a cohort that remains highly vulnerable to the virus due to very low uptake of vaccines — as it faces growing calls from experts to rethink its zero-COVID strategy and its narrow focus on harsh lockdowns and repeated mass testing.
In its plan, China’s National Health Commission said it intends to reach out to the elderly by setting up vaccination centers at nursing homes, elderly activity centers and other venues frequented by senior citizens.
Elderly people who refuse vaccination will have to provide a reason and officials will be required to keep a record of it.
The public health body has also ordered local officials to tap into various databases such as the ones keeping track of social security, medical insurance, and resident health records to effectively target seniors for vaccinations.
Senate Intel Chair on TikTok: ‘If I Had Young Kids, I Wouldn’t Want Them on TikTok’ + More
Senate Intel Chair on TikTok: ‘If I Had Young Kids, I Wouldn’t Want Them on TikTok’
TikTok has become enormously popular with teens and young adults globally, and one U.S. senator is sounding the alarm on the security risks that the Chinese-operated app poses to the general public.
“My kids are now in their early 30s and late 20s, so I can’t completely regulate what they’re doing,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) recently said on Yahoo Finance Live. “But if I had young kids, I wouldn’t want them on TikTok.”
Warner, a former technology and telecommunications executive who is currently the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, added that TikTok is “literally like a communications network” for the Chinese Communist Party. Because China’s laws require a company to make its first allegiance to the Party rather than shareholders or customers, he explained, the Party has the ability to effectively adjust content.
“TikTok is at a level even greater than Facebook was at its peak, absorbing enormous amounts of information about any user, literally down to the keystrokes to your eye movements,” Warner said. “Not only the information in your posting but all kinds of things that are happening in the background. And a whole lot of that information, no matter what they say, because the code is being written in Beijing, is ending up somewhere in China.”
Elon Musk Says He Plans to Publish ‘the Twitter Files’ About Free-Speech Suppression on the Social-Media Platform
Elon Musk has teased the release of what he described as “the Twitter Files” about “free-speech suppression” by the social-media platform. Twitter’s new owner tweeted on Monday: “The Twitter Files on free-speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened …”
Musk’s “Twitter files” tweet on Monday night came amid a longer tirade specifically against Apple. Musk, a self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutist” claimed the tech giant has “mostly stopped” advertising on Twitter. He also alleged that Apple threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store without telling the company why.
Musk ended the string of tweets on Monday by claiming his self-declared “war” with Apple was “a battle for the future of civilization.” He added: “If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead.”
Twitter Stops Policing COVID Misinformation Under CEO Elon Musk and Reportedly Restores 62,000 Suspended Accounts
In a recent update to its website, Twitter said that effective Nov. 23, it is no longer enforcing its COVID-19 misleading information policy. It means the company will no longer prioritize removing or tagging misleading health information related to COVID-19.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has been a vocal critic of how health officials reacted to the coronavirus pandemic. He said during the company’s first-quarter 2020 earnings call that the stay-at-home orders were “forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights.” He also said on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast in 2020 that the mortality rate of COVID-19 was much lower than health officials estimated.
The change comes as technology newsletter Platformer says employees are scrambling to restore more than 62,000 suspended accounts. That figure could include some of the more than 11,000 accounts that were suspended for violating the company’s COVID-19 misinformation rules.
Google and YouTube Are Investing to Fight Misinformation
Misinformation is continuously in the spotlight, as its rise has prompted social media giants to take significant action against all forms of fake news.
Today, Google and YouTube are the latest to make a move against misinformation, announcing a $13.2 million grant to the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), a part of nonprofit media institute Poynter. The grant will fund the formation of the Global Fact Check Fund, to support a network of 135 fact-checking organizations, operating from 65 countries in over 80 languages. The money will go towards scaling existing operations and launch new initiatives to elevate information and reduce misinformation.
The fund will open in 2023. This is Google and YouTube’s single largest grant toward fact-checking to date. Since 2018, the Google News initiative has invested close to $75 million in projects and partnerships with the intention of strengthening media literacy and fighting fake news.
You’re Not Wrong — Websites Have Way More Trackers Now
The average website has 48 trackers monitoring every visitor’s every move and compiling sensitive data, shocking new research has claimed. The findings from NordVPN also suggest that with so many trackers, websites are putting their visitors at plenty of risk of identity theft.
Using three different tracker blockers (Brave, Privacy Badger, and uBlock Origin), analysts for the company measured the number of trackers (cookies or tracking pixels) present across the 100 most popular websites in 25 countries around the world, as according to SimilarWeb.
Social media websites seem to be the worst of the bunch, with the average site containing 160 trackers. Health websites take up second place, with 46 trackers on average. Digital media sites are fitted with 28 trackers on average.
Recognizable third parties were found to own most of these trackers. Almost a third (30%) belong to Google, 11% to Facebook and 7% to Adobe, with the data often being used for marketing purposes.
Hackers Release Millions of Twitter IDs and User Info for Free
Twitter’s API once held such an easily exploitable flaw that hackers managed to grab 5.4 million user details. Now, according to reports and mentions from users in hacker forums, there are several million more points of user data floating around on the internet.
BleepingComputer reported Monday that the 5.4 million user records containing passwords, phone numbers, emails and more may have been just the tip of the iceberg for a much larger breach in company data.
The data had been originally jacked from Twitter using a flaw in the platform’s application programming interface (API), but is now being shared openly online.
As summarized at the start of this year by HackerOne, hackers found there was a way to allow anyone to get the Twitter ID of a user by submitting their phone number or email to the system, even if the user had turned off that option in their account.
HHS Moves to Overhaul Privacy Rules for Substance Abuse Patients
The federal health department is trying to harmonize privacy protections covering the records of patients being treated for substance use disorder. Why it matters: Syncing the landmark 1996 privacy law HIPAA with tougher standards Congress passed in the CARES Act more than two years ago could prevent instances in which providers unknowingly prescribe opioids as treatment for someone with a history of addiction.
Catch up quick: The Department of Health and Human Services on Monday put forward a rule aimed at aligning privacy protections known as 42 CFR Part 2 with HIPAA — a change behavioral health advocates have said it a critical step to confronting the opioid crisis.
Details: To facilitate information sharing between providers, HHS on Monday proposed requiring one-time patient consent for disclosure of treatment and allowing HIPAA-covered entities to access those records.
The HHS rule would also give patients the right to know where and when their information was disclosed and to request restrictions on what providers are allowed to know. It would further prohibit courts from using Part 2 records against the patient in civil or criminal proceedings.
Clinics Across Massachusetts Offering $75 Gift Cards for COVID Vaccines and Boosters
Clinics across Massachusetts are offering $75 gift cards through the end of the year, or while supplies last, as an incentive for people in the state to get vaccinated and boosted.
The Department of Public Health’s “Get Boosted” website lists nearly 250 locations where vaccines will be offered in the coming weeks. The clinics are in 20 “Vaccine Equity Initiative” communities, plus communities of color and areas with low booster rates.
The gift card is available to all Massachusetts residents, including children, who are getting a COVID vaccine dose. No ID or health insurance is required to get the vaccine. Some clinics may encourage pre-registration, but an appointment is not required.
Data shows least 92% of Massachusetts residents have had at least one COVID shot, but only 61% have received a booster dose as of Nov. 21. About half of residents over the age of 65 have received a second booster, and that percentage is much lower for younger populations.
Alberta Not Proceeding With Premier Smith’s Bill to Protect COVID Unvaccinated
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is reversing a promise to enshrine human rights protections for the COVID-19 unvaccinated in law this fall. Instead, Smith said she is phoning up organizations with vaccine mandates to urge them to change their minds, tying it to government funding if need be.
Smith is also asking Albertans to call her government to report on those imposing vaccine mandates. “The Arctic Winter Games wanted $1.2 million from us to support their effort and they were discriminating against the athletes, telling them they had to be vaccinated.
“So we asked them if they would reconsider their vaccination policy in the light of new evidence and they did. And I was pleased to see that.”
Smith said she heard an Alberta film production has a similar policy for its hairdressers, so she has directed a cabinet minister to call the company to urge it to reconsider.
Dating Apps and Telegram: How China Protesters Are Defying Authorities
Opponents of China’s anti-COVID measures are resorting to dating apps and social media platforms blocked on the mainland to evade censors, spread the word about their defiance and strategy, in a high-tech game of cat and mouse with police.
Videos, images and accounts of the opposition to China’s tough COVID-19 curbs have poured onto China’s tightly censored cyberspace since weekend protests, with activists saving them to platforms abroad before the censors delete them, social media users say.
Protesters came out in several Chinese cities for three days from Friday in a show of civil disobedience unprecedented since President Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago.
U.K. Minister Defends U-Turn Over Removing Harmful Online Content
The U.K. culture secretary, Michelle Donelan, has defended removing a provision in the online safety bill to regulate “legal but harmful” online material, after the father of teenager Molly Russell said it was a “watering down” of the bill.
Ministers have scrapped the provision after MPs raised free speech concerns. It would have included offensive content that does not constitute a criminal offence, but instead Donelan said platforms would be required to enforce their terms and conditions.
If those terms explicitly prohibit content that falls below the threshold of criminality — such as some forms of abuse — Ofcom will then have the power to ensure they police them adequately.
The bill, which returns to parliament on Dec. 5 after being paused in July, also contains new provisions on protecting children. Overall, the legislation imposes a duty of care on tech firms to shield children from harmful content.
Pfizer CEO Found Guilty of ‘Misleading’ Vaccine Statements + More
Pfizer CEO, Who Said Online ‘Misinformation’ Is Criminal, Is Found Guilty of ‘Misleading’ Vaccine Statements
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, last year at the Atlantic Council, called people who spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation “criminals,” in his calls for censorship of misinformation online. However, this year, Dr. Bourla is himself found responsible by the U.K.’s pharmaceutical regulator for making “misleading” statements about the vaccination of children.
Last December, in an interview with the BBC, Dr. Bourla said that “there is no doubt in my mind that the benefits, completely, are in favor of” vaccinating children between the ages of five and 11. He continued to say that “COVID in schools is thriving.”
After the interview was published, the parent campaign group UsForThem filed a complaint with the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA). The complaint accused Dr. Bourla of making “disgracefully misleading” comments about vaccinating children and that the comments were “extremely promotional in nature,” and that he violated several clauses of the code of practice by the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).
The Telegraph reported Pfizer appealed against the findings of the panel and strongly disagreed with UsForThem’s claims that the CEO violated the code of practice. An appeal board upheld that Dr. Bourla misled the public, made claims that were unbalanced and made unsubstantiated claims.
AI Experts Are Increasingly Afraid of What They’re Creating
In 2018 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Google CEO Sundar Pichai had something to say: “AI is probably the most important thing humanity has ever worked on. I think of it as something more profound than electricity or fire.” Pichai’s comment was met with a healthy dose of skepticism. But nearly five years later, it’s looking more and more prescient.
Of course, handing over huge sectors of our society to black-box algorithms that we barely understand creates a lot of problems, which has already begun to help spark a regulatory response around the current challenges of AI discrimination and bias. But given the speed of development in the field, it’s long past time to move beyond a reactive mode, one where we only address AI’s downsides once they’re clear and present. We can’t only think about today’s systems, but where the entire enterprise is headed.
The systems we’re designing are increasingly powerful and increasingly general, with many tech companies explicitly naming their target as artificial general intelligence (AGI) — systems that can do everything a human can do.
But creating something smarter than us, which may have the ability to deceive and mislead us — and then just hoping it doesn’t want to hurt us — is a terrible plan. We need to design systems whose internals we understand and whose goals we are able to shape to be safe ones. However, we currently don’t understand the systems we’re building well enough to know if we’ve designed them safely before it’s too late.
Meta Fined $276 Million Over Facebook Data Leak Involving More Than 533 Million Users
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission hit Meta with a €265 million fine (about $276 million USD) after an April 2021 data leak exposed the information of more than 533 million users. The DPC started the investigation shortly after news of the leak broke and involved an examination into whether Facebook complied with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws.
This marks the third fine the DPC imposed on Meta this year. In March, the DPC fined Meta $18.6 million USD for bad record-keeping in relation to a series of 2018 data breaches that exposed the information of up to 30 million Facebook users. The European regulator also slapped Meta with a $402 million fine in September following an investigation into Instagram’s handling of teenagers’ data.
Meta has been fined nearly $700 million by the DPC in 2022 — and that doesn’t include the $267 million fine WhatsApp incurred for violating Europe’s data privacy laws last year.
Fauci Defended Lockdowns During Deposition, Said China Was the Inspiration: Lawyer
A top U.S. health official who publicly backed lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic defended his position during a deposition on Nov. 23, according to people who were present for the questioning. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, also said the inspiration for the lockdowns was communist-run China, one of the people said.
Fauci sat for the seven-hour deposition in Bethesda, Maryland, where the headquarters for the institute’s parent agency is located. He was forced to answer questions under oath on orders from a federal judge who is set to decide whether the government should be blocked from pressuring Big Tech firms into censoring posts and users.
While Fauci often could not recall actions he took during the pandemic, he did talk about his role in advocating for lockdowns. Fauci said that Dr. Clifford Lane, a deputy director at the NIAID, reported back to him after Lane went to China soon in early 2020, a few months after the first cases of COVID-19 were detected in Wuhan.
Lane reported China appeared to be controlling the COVID-19 virus through harsh lockdowns, and Fauci soon decided the United States needed to emulate China, at least to an extent, according to Jenin Younes, one of the lawyers present for the deposition.
“The question of human rights didn’t factor in” to Fauci’s mindset, according to Younes, a lawyer with the New Civil Liberties Alliance who is representing some of the plaintiffs in the case.
Kids Online Safety Act May Harm Minors, Civil Society Groups Warn Lawmakers
Dozens of civil society groups urged lawmakers in a letter Monday against passing a bill that aims to protect children from online harm, warning the bill itself could actually pose further danger to kids and teens.
The bipartisan bill, led by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., would establish responsibilities for sites that are likely to be accessed by kids to act in the best interest of users who are 16 or younger. That means the platforms would be responsible for mitigating the risk of physical or emotional harm to young users, including through the promotion of self-harm or suicide, encouragement of addictive behavior, enabling of online bullying or predatory marketing.
“Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) risks subjecting teens who are experiencing domestic violence and parental abuse to additional forms of digital surveillance and control that could prevent these vulnerable youth from reaching out for help or support,” the groups wrote. “And by creating strong incentives to filter and enable parental control over the content minors can access, KOSA could also jeopardize young people’s access to end-to-end encrypted technologies, which they depend on to access resources related to mental health and to keep their data safe from bad actors.”
The groups also fear that the bill would incentivize sites to collect even more information about children to verify their ages and place further restrictions on minors’ accounts. The groups called the goals of the legislation “laudable,” but said KOSA would ultimately fall flat in its aims to protect children.
Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal of UC Irvine Professor’s COVID Vaccination Challenge
The Orange County Register reported:
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week upheld the dismissal of a federal lawsuit brought by a former UC Irvine professor who lost his job after refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccination.
Dr. Aaron Kheriaty — a former professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the UC Irvine School of Medicine and former director of the medical ethics program at UCI Health — argued that he already has a “natural immunity” to the coronavirus and alleged that the university’s policy violated his constitutional rights.
But a panel of appellate judges in a written opinion released on Wednesday found that there is no “fundamental right” to be free from a vaccine mandate at a workplace, and upheld a district court judge’s earlier decision to throw out the lawsuit.
Blank Sheets of Paper Become Symbol of Defiance in China Protests
Chinese protesters have turned to blank sheets of paper to express their anger over COVID-19 restrictions in a rare, widespread outpouring of public dissent that has gone beyond social media to some of China’s streets and top universities.
Images and videos circulated online showed students at universities in cities including Nanjing and Beijing holding up blank sheets of paper in silent protest, a tactic used in part to evade censorship or arrest.
The latest wave of anger was triggered by an apartment fire that killed 10 people on Thursday in Urumqi, a far western city where some people had been locked down for as long as 100 days, fueling speculation that COVID lockdown measures may have impeded residents’ escape.
BBC Says Reporter Arrested, Beaten at Shanghai COVID Protest
The BBC said Sunday that one of its reporters was arrested and beaten by Chinese authorities while covering protests in Shanghai over COVID-19 restrictions.
China is seeing rare outpourings of public frustration in recent days in response to strict COVID lockdowns meant to curb the spread of the virus.
In a statement on Sunday, the BBC said journalist Ed Lawrence was kicked and handcuffed for hours after being arrested while covering demonstrations in the country’s economic hub.
Uganda’s President Extends Ebola Epicenter’s Quarantine for 21 Days
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has extended a quarantine placed on two districts that are the epicenter of the country’s Ebola outbreak by 21 days, adding that his government’s response to the disease was succeeding.
Movement into and out of Mubende and Kassanda districts in central Uganda will be restricted up to Dec. 17, the presidency said late on Saturday. It was originally imposed for 21 days on Oct. 15, then extended for the same period on Nov. 5.
The extension was “to further sustain the gains in control of Ebola that we have made, and to protect the rest of the country from continued exposure.”
DC Public Schools Requiring Negative COVID Tests After Thanksgiving + More
DC Public Schools Requiring Negative COVID Tests After Thanksgiving
Students and staff in DC public schools must test negative for the coronavirus before returning to school after Thanksgiving break, district officials said.
The school system’s “test-to-return” policy is one that has been used throughout the pandemic. Students were also required to show proof of a negative coronavirus test before the first day of school in August and after a two-week winter break last school year.
Students will be expected to take their tests at home on Sunday and upload their results online. Schools will also accept photos or copies of students’ results if they don’t have internet access at home.
The district’s approach sets it apart from other school systems in the region, which have dropped test-to-return policies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped recommending routine screening in schools but said campuses could consider testing for large events, “high-risk activities” — such as contact sports or theater — and returns after holiday breaks.
Ice Cube Says He Lost a $9 Million Acting Role Because He Refused to Get Vaccinated for COVID
Ice Cube revealed that he lost a $9 million movie role recently because he refused to get vaccinated.
In October 2021, The Hollywood Reporter revealed the “Friday” star exited the project after declining to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the trade, the entire cast was required to get vaccinated before the winter shoot in Hawaii. THR reported that Cube was walking away from a $9 million payday. At the time Cube did not comment on the report.
Later on the podcast, Cube clarified that he didn’t turn down the role, he didn’t get it because he refused the shot.
San Diego Unified’s COVID Vaccine Mandate Gets Struck Down in Court — Again
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported:
An appeals court ruled Tuesday against San Diego Unified’s COVID-19 student vaccine mandate, which has been on pause for the past half year. The Fourth District Court of Appeal agreed with a lower court’s ruling from last December that school districts cannot impose their own vaccine requirements on students and that only the state can require a vaccine for school attendance.
“This is a great win for children and the rule of law and ensures consistency statewide,” said Lee Andelin, attorney for Let Them Choose, an offshoot of Let Them Breathe that sued San Diego Unified over its student COVID-19 vaccine mandate last year.
San Diego Unified is examining the appeals court ruling and “will consider its next steps,” district spokesperson Mike Murad said in an email.
The appeals court rejected San Diego Unified’s several defenses of its student vaccine mandate, including that the mandate is in line with the district’s responsibility to keep students safe and healthy, that school districts can create programs to “meet local needs” and that the district’s vaccine mandate is not actually a mandate because it allows students to do at-home independent study if they don’t want to get vaccinated.
Missouri, Louisiana AGs Set to Depose Dr. Fauci in Social Media Censorship Lawsuit
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is expected to depose Dr. Anthony Fauci Wednesday, as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the Biden administration.
Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry allege information related to COVID-19, election integrity and other topics were censored on social media platforms, under the guise of combating “misinformation.”
The attorneys general claim they have received discovery “showing that the federal government and the Biden Administration have worked with social media companies to censor speech on topics like COVID-19 and other issues.”
Fauci is among a number of high-ranking officials targeted in the lawsuit. Last week, a judge in Virginia rejected former White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s attempt to quash a subpoena in the case. It was transferred back to Louisiana.
Elon Musk’s Twitter Risks Big Fines From U.S. Regulators
If the president of the United States offered you $500 in free gasoline, would you take it? That’s the question Barack Obama’s Twitter followers had to ask themselves in 2009 when his was one of several high-profile accounts taken over by an attacker who got a Twitter employee’s corporate login.
For privacy failures revealed by that hack, Twitter was forced in 2011 into a consent decree that gives the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) 20 years of oversight of its security practices. Earlier this year, the clock was reset and Twitter was fined $150 million because it was found to have misused the phone numbers of more than 140 million users. U.S. government lawyers labeled Twitter “a recidivist that engaged in unlawful conduct even after law enforcement action.”
That background means Elon Musk’s recent takeover of Twitter made him the owner of a company that will be under the eye of the U.S. government’s antitrust and consumer protection agency until 2042. His sweeping layoffs of employees and contractors, in addition to the resignations of top privacy and compliance executives, have prompted some security experts to warn the platform is at increased risk of worst-case security breaches.
The FTC this month said in a statement it is “tracking recent developments at Twitter with deep concern,” and seven Democratic members of the U.S. Senate called on the agency to investigate Twitter late last week. Failure to comply with the consent decree can carry hundreds of millions of dollars in fines or additional federal court complaints and consent orders.
Japanese Pupils Want End to COVID Ban on Lunchtime Chatter
Most children in Japan long for a return to the days when they could chat with their classmates over lunch — a pleasure they have been denied during the coronavirus pandemic.
After well over two years of eating in near silence to prevent the spread of the airborne virus, schoolchildren say they want their classrooms to reverberate to more than the sound of cutlery and crockery at lunchtime.
While two other COVID-19 measures — a ban on foreign tourists and restrictions on eating out — have been lifted, many preschool, primary and middle-school children are still required to stay quiet when they eat.
A recent survey found that 90% of children said they wanted the ban on chatting to end. The survey, conducted by a mother whose daughter had been told by teachers to “look straight ahead and eat in silence,” said the measure had outlived its usefulness.
Huge Foxconn iPhone Plant in China Rocked by Fresh Worker Unrest
Hundreds of workers joined protests at Foxconn’s (2317.TW) flagship iPhone plant in China, with some men smashing surveillance cameras and windows, footage uploaded on social media showed.
The rare scenes of open dissent in China mark an escalation of unrest at the massive factory in Zhengzhou city that has come to symbolize a dangerous build-up in frustration with the country’s ultra-harsh COVID rules as well as inept handling of the situation by the world’s largest contract manufacturer.