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125 Indiana U. Health Employees Terminated After COVID Vaccine Mandate
Indiana University Health announced Thursday that 125 employees have been terminated after choosing not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
A spokesperson provided the following statement: “Indiana University Health has put the safety and well-being of patients and team members first by requiring employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Sept. 1. After a two-week unpaid suspension period ending Sept. 14, a total of 125 employees, the equivalent of 61 full time employees, chose not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and have left the organization.”
The hospital system has about 36,000 employees.
Biden’s Push to Combat COVID Disapproved by Over Half of Americans: Poll
Roughly half of all Americans disapprove of the push by President Biden to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for up to 100 million American workers, according to a new national poll.
And nearly half of those questioned in a Quinnipiac University survey released Wednesday say the president’s actions to combat the surge this summer in coronavirus pandemic cases due to the highly infectious delta variant go too far.
Cleveland Browns Launch Facial Recognition Ticket Entry: Here’s How It Works
The Cleveland Browns have launched a new free option for fans to enter games at FirstEnergy Stadium using facial recognition technology.
So how does it work?
“Fans can enroll and link their ticketing account to a selfie and come to the stadium and enter in with just their face,” says Brandon Covert, VP of Information and Technology for the Cleveland Browns.
A ‘Gene Silencing’ Injection Was Just Approved for Use in Humans
Interesting Engineering reported:
A new method is nearing a critical development threshold.
The United Kingdom’s NHS approved a new cholesterol-reducing shot that will be provided to 300,000 people throughout the next three years, according to a press release from the U.K. agency.
Crucially, this marks the first use for a novel new therapeutic called “gene silencing” to treat common illnesses.
Fauci Flip-Flop on Vaccine Mandate Hammered in New RNC Ad
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is releasing a new video hammering President Biden’s chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci for his flip-flops on vaccine mandates.
The ad, first obtained by Fox News, features several clips highlighting Fauci’s previous statements casting doubt on federal coronavirus vaccine mandates.
“There’s no secret that I feel that we should not have central [vaccine] mandates from the federal government,” Fauci said just last month while encouraging businesses to “seriously consider the idea of mandating vaccination in the enterprise for which they are responsible whether that’s a university or a place of business.”
Big Tech and Privacy: Apple Flirts With the ‘Dark Side’
Apple has built a reputation as the “least evil” Big Tech giant when it comes to privacy. All these companies — Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon — collect our data and essentially spy on us in a multitude of ways.
Apple, however, has cultivated a reputation as by far the least invasive of our mainstream technology options. Their recent dramatic reversal on this issue has caused an uproar. What is going on, and what should we do about it?
She Didn’t Give Me Any Other Option.’ Religious Exemption Requests Spark Vaccine Mandate Debates
As more employers and businesses require COVID vaccinations, we’re finding religious exemptions are becoming a contentious issue for some.
Metro Detroit is very religiously diverse. Generally, most institutional religions, Christian, Jewish and Islamic religions do not oppose vaccines.
Exemptions involve workplace settings, schools and businesses.
It’s Getting Harder for People to Believe That Facebook Is a Net Good for Society
At this point, it isn’t exactly surprising that social media platforms like Facebook can have negative effects on society. For years, journalists, politicians, social scientists — and even biologists and ecologists — have been raising concerns about the influence Facebook has on our collective well-being. And Facebook has always defended itself by insisting that it is a net good to society because of how it brings people together.
But a new series of reports from the Wall Street Journal, “The Facebook files,” provides damning evidence that Facebook has studied and long known that its products cause measurable, real-world harm — including on teenagers’ mental health — and then stifled that research while denying and downplaying that harm to the public. The revelations, which only strengthen the case that a growing chorus of lawmakers and regulators have been making for breaking up Facebook or otherwise severely limiting its power as a social media giant, could represent a turning point for the company.
Italy to Make All Workers Show Vaccine Passports
Italy is to become the first leading European country to make coronavirus vaccine passports compulsory for all state and private employees, with unvaccinated people to be suspended without pay until they obtain one.
Renato Brunetta, the public administration minister, said that the measures had “not been seen elsewhere in Europe” and put Italy on “the front line” against COVID-19.
Australian Police Use Facial Recognition to Make Sure You’re Home During COVID Quarantine
Australia’s two most populous states are trialling facial recognition software that lets police check people are home during COVID-19 quarantine, expanding trials that have sparked controversy to the vast majority of the country’s population.
Little-known tech firm Genvis said on a website for its software that New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, home to Sydney, Melbourne and more than half of Australia’s 25 million population, were trialling its facial recognition products. Genvis said the trials were being conducted on a voluntary basis.
