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Amazon ‘Suicide Kits’ Have Led to Teen Deaths, According to New Lawsuit
Lawyers, who are representing parents suing Amazon for selling “suicide kits” to teenagers who died by suicide, say they have reached a “breaking point.”
Amazon lawyers have allegedly told parents that the online retailer had a right to sell these so-called “suicide kits.” The kits are described in the lawsuit as bundled items that Amazon suggests buyers purchase together, including a potentially lethal chemical called sodium nitrite, a scale to measure a lethal dose, a drug to prevent vomiting, and a book with instructions on how to use the chemical to attempt suicide. The online retailer’s lawyers also allegedly said that it would be “unfair and inhumane” to hold Amazon liable for the teens’ deaths.
One of the parents’ lawyers, Carrie Goldberg, took to Twitter yesterday, alleging that Amazon’s corporate ties with news outlets like CBS are effectively working to silence media attention for their lawsuit, while more lives likely remain at risk.
“For months, we avoided press attention to this case,” Goldberg, founder of C.A. Goldberg, PLLC, told Ars in a statement. “But we have reached a breaking point of too many people dying, of medical providers not knowing what is happening or that a treatment protocol exists, and of press spiking stories about it — presumably because of corporate ties to Amazon.”
I Tried to Keep My Pregnancy Secret
When I became pregnant, my partner and I, like many expectant individuals, opted not to tell our friends until after the first trimester. But I had an additional goal: for my friends to learn of my pregnancy before advertisers did. I’m a health-privacy scholar, so I know that pregnant individuals are of particular interest to retailers because their purchasing habits change during pregnancy and after birth.
Companies are eager to send targeted ads and capture a new customer base. In an attempt to avoid this spamming and, frankly, to see if it was possible, I endeavored to hide my private health status from the advertising ecosystem.
Yet, because of the lack of data privacy in the U.S., the day finally came when I lost my battle to keep my reproductive information private. I was sitting on my couch scrolling through social media when I saw it: an advertisement for diapers. It appeared the same week that we lost the pregnancy.
Who knows how it happened. Did I forget the VPN one time when searching online? Did that time I used my credit card to buy ginger chews and tea tip them off? I’ll never know. What I do know is that our country’s abysmal privacy framework is failing to protect private reproductive-health information. Instead, the choice to protect one’s privacy in the U.S. is, theoretically, up to the individual.
However, given the complexities of user agreements, many individuals are unaware of how their data are being shared. For others, a loss of privacy doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. Their data are the price they are willing to pay for free services, cool apps or lower-cost goods. Individuals who don’t want to make that trade are told to just not use the product.
Twitter Blocks — and Then Restores — COVID Vaccination Post From Florida’s Surgeon General
Twitter blocked — and then restored — a post from Florida Surgeon General Joe Ladapo that was promoting an analysis claiming a high incidence of cardiac-related deaths among men who take the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
Ladapo, who posted the tweet Friday, had also recommended men aged 18-39 should not receive the mRNA vaccine. Ladapo is an outspoken skeptic of COVID-19 vaccines who has questioned both the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine despite consensus within the medical community that the vaccines help protect against the virus and can lessen severe symptoms.
Twitter restored the post on Sunday morning.
“This is an unacceptable and Orwellian move for narrative over fact,” said Bryan Griffin, the governor’s press secretary, in a tweet. In a follow-up tweet later Sunday after Twitter restored the post, he thanked people for bringing attention to it.
Enforcement of District’s Routine Vaccination Mandate Begins Tuesday
School leaders in DC have been told to start enforcing a rule today that requires children to have all their routine vaccinations, a long-held but historically neglected mandate that could keep children out of school.
Tuesday marks the deadline for prekindergarten through fifth-grade students to have all their routine shots for illnesses including measles, polio and whooping cough.
Children who remain out of compliance could be excluded from school — though the Office of the State Superintendent of Education has instructed schools to grant a two-week grace period to students with upcoming doctor’s appointments and for families who are waiting to have their documentation processed.
Sixth through 12th grade students will need to be vaccinated by Nov. 4 before facing the same consequences. The order applies to students in public, charter, private and parochial schools.
DC students age 12 and older will have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 3.
St. Paul Drops COVID Vaccine Requirement for City Employees
After a monthslong legal battle with three unions, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter said there will no longer be a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for city employees.
The policy, which was considered especially strict, has not been enforced. Unlike other public employers in Minnesota, St. Paul did not want to give city workers the option to test regularly if they chose not to get the vaccine.
Unions challenged the mayor’s mandate in Ramsey County District Court, and a judge sided with them in June, saying state labor laws require the city to negotiate the matter with the unions or seek interest arbitration.
In July, the city appealed that ruling. On Monday, the city dropped its appeal.
INL Announces It’s Dropping Its COVID Vaccination Requirement
After roughly a year since the Idaho National Laboratory set in place a COVID-19 vaccine requirement as a condition of employment, the mandate has been lifted. The announcement was sent in an emailed message dated Oct. 6, 2022. It was addressed to all INL employees by INL Director John Wagner.
Wagner believes the vaccine requirement was the correct decision to enforce but notes “today, our circumstances are much different.” He points out that at the INL, in local communities, across Idaho and around the nation, COVID-19 is “far less of a threat than it was a year ago.”
John Bess is a former distinguished researcher in nuclear science and technology at the INL who also represented the United States as chairman for international benchmark projects with an organization in France. Last fall, he told EastIdahoNews.com he was being terminated from the INL after the INL twice denied his religious exemption from getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
Bess told EastIdahoNews.com this week that even though the INL dropped its vaccine requirement, it “doesn’t change the fact they discriminated against their employee’s beliefs. It doesn’t change the truth of the matter, which is that they mistreated, persecuted and terminated so many employees, coerced others to forego their freedoms and beliefs and strong-armed many into early retirement.”
First Lady Jill Biden to Promote COVID Vaccines in Nashville
First Lady Jill Biden will be visiting Nashville this week to encourage the community to get their updated COVID-19 vaccine.
The White House announced the First Lady is scheduled to arrive at the Nashville International Airport at 10:30 a.m. this Wednesday. Upon arrival, she will visit a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic at St. James Missionary Baptist Church.
School Closures Return to China as COVID Cases Rise in Shanghai
China is looking back toward school closures and other lockdown measures as new COVID-19 outbreaks emerge in Shanghai and other megacities.
Chinese citizens have chaffed under strict lockdown measures throughout the pandemic, with tens of millions still under stringent measures in early September. Shanghai, Shenzen and other major cities are increasing mandatory testing in addition to closing entertainment venues and schools, Reuters reported Tuesday.
Shanghai is requiring all 16 of its districts to undergo mandatory testing twice a week until Nov. 10. The city has 25 million residents.
PayPal Backtracks on Fining Users for ‘Misinformation,’ Calls It an ‘Error’
PayPal has walked back a policy it published that would have fined users of its financial services $2,500 for spreading “misinformation.” After much backlash against the platform for attempts to police speech and after the company trended on Twitter from all of the people deleting their accounts, PayPal claims that the policy was published in “error.”
PayPal’s backtrack followed statements from PayPal’s founding COO David Sacks, telling people to get their money out of PayPal “right now.” Former PayPal president David Marcus also spoke out against PayPal. “It’s hard for me to openly criticize a company I used to love and gave so much to. But @PayPal’s new AUP goes against everything I believe in,” Marcus tweeted. “A private company now gets to decide to take your money if you say something they disagree with. Insanity.”
The Acceptable Use policy that PayPal published, expected to come into effect on Nov. 3, 2022, said that a violation of the “Acceptable Use Policy constitutes a violation of the PayPal User Agreement and may subject you to damages, including liquidated damages of $2,500.00 U.S. dollars per violation.”
While PayPal has walked back its policy of fining people for sharing “misinformation,” it’s not yet clear whether PayPal will still consider closing accounts for the same.
