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Biden’s COVID Vaccine Rule for Federal Contractors Was Valid, U.S. Court Rules
President Joe Biden had the power to require employees of federal contractors to receive COVID-19 vaccinations, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Wednesday, throwing out a judge’s ruling that had blocked the mandate in Arizona.
A panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the 2021 mandate that applied to millions of workers nationwide fell under the broad powers granted by the Federal Procurement Act, which enables the president to adopt rules that promote economy and efficiency in federal contracting.
The court reversed a federal judge in Phoenix who blocked the mandate in Arizona last year. The judge had said allowing the vaccine requirement would grant the president “a breathtaking amount of authority.”
The decision creates a split with three other appeals courts that have said Biden, a Democrat, likely exceeded his authority and blocked the vaccine mandate in 13 Republican-led states.
Department of Homeland Security’s COVID Censorship Problem
In 2002, Congress established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in response to the 9/11 attacks to centralize and consolidate homeland security efforts to prevent terrorist attacks. In the 20 years since its creation, DHS has departed from its original mission and used its expansive authority and funding to impede on the rights of American citizens.
What should terrify every American is that the full extent of DHS’s abuse of its power against its own citizens is still largely unknown. The public is only recently learning the degree to which the Department’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was employed to surveil and censor American citizens’ social media for what it concluded to be “misinformation” and “disinformation.”
What was the result? Statements about COVID-19 that are now supported by evidence were flagged as disinformation. Statements including my own, that our government once labeled as “disinformation,” such as the efficacy of masks, naturally acquired immunity and the origins of COVID-19, are now supported by evidence.
In 2021, DHS even put out a video encouraging people “to report their own family members to Facebook for ‘disinformation’ if they challenge U.S. government narratives on COVID-19.” In reality, the most significant source of disinformation during the pandemic, with the most influence and greatest impact on people’s lives, was the U.S. government.
Judge: Mississippi Must Give Religious Exemption on Vaccines
Mississippi must join most other states in allowing religious exemptions from vaccinations that children are required to receive so they can attend school, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden handed down the decision Monday in a lawsuit filed last year by several parents who say their religious beliefs have led them to keep their children unvaccinated and out of Mississippi schools. According to the lawsuit, some of the plaintiffs are homeschooling their children, while others have family or work connections in Mississippi but live in other states that allow religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations.
Ozerden set a July 15 deadline for the Mississippi State Department of Health to allow religious exemptions. The state already allows people to apply for medical exemptions for a series of five vaccinations that are required for children to enroll in public or private schools. The immunizations are against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis; polio; hepatitis; measles, mumps and rubella; and chickenpox. Mississippi does not require COVID-19 vaccinations.
The only states without religious or personal belief exemptions for school immunization requirements are California, Connecticut, Maine, Mississippi, New York and West Virginia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Employer COVID Vax Mandates: Still Legal, but for How Long?
While the clamor for vaccine mandates has subsided, many employers remain committed to having their employees fully up to date with their COVID-19 boosters. But will they be able to enforce such a policy? The answer is: It depends.
Employer authority to implement mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies never derived from federal or state public health emergency declarations, so the lifting of those declarations do not directly impact an employer’s ability to require vaccination. However, employers should remain mindful of individual state laws.
Generally speaking, private employers can continue to require COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of employment, except in states that have placed restrictions on employer vaccine mandates. Certain state bans allow healthcare employers to continue to require vaccination.
Still, other states require vaccination in limited circumstances, such as healthcare settings. Many states have outlawed public sector mandates altogether.
Oversight Board Urges Meta to Keep COVID Rules in Place, for Now
Meta’s oversight board is recommending that the social media giant “maintain” its current policies against COVID-19 misinformation as long as global health authorities deem it an international health emergency, according to an advisory opinion released Thursday.
But the board is also urging the Facebook and Instagram parent company to revisit which misleading claims it will remove going forward and to open that debate to a broader audience.
It marks the first time the group has directly weighed in on Meta’s rules governing pandemic-related content, which sparked heated debate in Washington over whether platforms were doing too much or too little to police harmful posts.
The board called on the company to launch a “transparent and inclusive review” of the list of 80 misleading or false claims it takes action against.
Alex Berenson Says Lawsuit Against Biden, Pfizer Could Reveal Internal Communications About COVID Vaccine
Journalist Alex Berenson believes his First Amendment rights were violated when he was banned from Twitter for expressing concerns about the COVID vaccine, and a lawsuit against President Biden, White House officials and Pfizer honchos who allegedly pushed for his removal could expose their internal communications about the polarizing jab.
“People may remember that in 2021, the White House was very, very vocal publicly about, you know, quote-unquote, disinformation. Anybody who raised questions about the vaccines, they were trying to get social media companies to take action broadly against them,” Berenson told Fox News Digital.
“What I didn’t know until last year [was] that they had specifically targeted me,” he continued. “So, this lawsuit basically aims to hold these people accountable for what they did for violating my First Amendment rights.”
Berenson believes his lawsuit might be the only opportunity for Americans to learn the truth about internal communications between vaccine makers and government officials. Did Pfizer executives express concern about the effectiveness of the jab? Did the White House look the other way? These questions can potentially be answered if Berenson’s suit reaches the discovery phase.
Because of this, Berenson assumes the White House and Pfizer will first try to get the suit dismissed. “They don’t want me to be able to do the same kind of discovery that I did with Twitter,” he said. “I have to believe that they’re not going to want that information to be public.”
Billionaire Li Ka-Shing Backs Biocomputing Startup That Takes On AI With Lab-Grown Brain Cells
Cortical Labs, an Australian startup developing a new type of artificial intelligence that combines lab-grown human brain cells with computer chips, has raised $10 million in a funding round led by Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm of Hong Kong’s richest person, Li Ka-shing.
Blackbird Ventures, Australia’s leading venture capital fund, has also taken part in the financing round, Cortical Labs said in a statement on Wednesday. Other investors include In-Q-Tel, the venture capital arm of the Central Intelligence Agency, as well as U.S.-based LifeX Ventures and Australia-headquartered Radar Ventures, among others.
“The possibilities that a hybridized AI meets synthetic biology model can unlock are limitless, accelerating the possibilities of digital AI in a more powerful and more sustainable way,” Hon Weng Chong, founder and CEO of Cortical Labs, said in the statement. “Our technology will shape and drive the next frontier of AI.”
The startup said pharmaceutical companies are likely to be the first to adopt its biological computer chips for use in the testing of new drugs and therapies. However, such innovation might also raise ethical concerns, including whether it can develop consciousness.
George Santos Unveils MINAJ Act to Limit Vaccine Mandates
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) is giving a nod to Nicki Minaj’s famous COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, appearing to name a new bill after the rapper.
The “Medical Information Nuanced Accountability Judgement Act,” or MINAJ Act, H.R. 2631, introduced Tuesday by Santos, would prohibit the federal government from imposing “any mandate requiring an individual to receive a vaccine that has not been authorized for marketing for at least ten years unless a public health emergency is declared.”
In 2021, Minaj made headlines and was widely mocked after sharing on social media that her cousin’s account of his friend’s vaccination played a part in her decision not to receive a shot to protect herself against the coronavirus.
“I urge my colleagues to join me in this mission to block tyrannical and draconian measures from being utilized by the Federal Government,” Santos said.
How Facebook Users Can Apply for a Share of $725 Million Settlement
Five years after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, millions of Facebook users may be able to get money back from the social media company for their troubles.
Facebook, which is owned by Meta, reached a $725 million class-action settlement this week over claims it shared users’ data without their consent. Millions of people can fill out a claim form to get a slice of the settlement amount.
If you are a current or former Facebook user, here’s how to get started. Anyone who used Facebook between May 24, 2007, and Dec. 22, 2022, can submit a claim, even if you no longer have a Facebook account. Political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica was accused of improperly using a quiz app on the social media site to access the personal data of 87 million Facebook users without their consent.
The biggest payout from the settlement will go to legal fees for the lawyers behind it. They can claim up to 25% of the $725 million, or a little over $180 million. There are eight named plaintiffs in the case, and they could receive up to $15,000 each. The rest of the pool will be divided up between affected Facebook users.
Screen Time and Suicide: There Is a Connection, and We All Need to Be Concerned
The Dallas Morning News reported:
The rise of technology has brought many benefits, including improved communication, enhanced learning and entertainment. However, as we increasingly rely on screens in our daily lives, there is growing concern about the impact of screen time on mental health, particularly among children and adolescents. Recent studies have shown that excessive screen time is linked to an increase in suicidality, among other negative consequences.
A 2023 study published in Preventive Medicine found that there is a clear correlation between screen time and suicidality among young people. The study determined that each additional hour of daily screen time was associated with a 9% increase in the odds of suicidal behavior. This follows a recent rise in suicide ideation, which was observed in a 2020 study by Ivey-Stephenson and others. Likewise, an article of Michael A. Lindsey and others stated that suicide attempts among high school students increased from 6.3% in 2009 to 7.9% in 2019.
The link between screen time and suicidality is concerning, and parents and caregivers should take steps to set consistent limits on screen time, establish parental controls on devices, and have open and honest conversations with young people about the dangers of excessive screen time. By taking these steps, we can help their kids develop healthy habits around screen time and ensure their mental health and well-being.
The Rise of AI Will Only Make Big Tech More Powerful, NYU Researchers Warn
AI is expensive. The data models that underpin the whole affair are intensive to develop, requiring sophisticated and powerful calculations to be made useful.
The good news is that the tools, resources, and raw computing power to build those data models are readily available to pretty much anybody — leading to the recent explosion in AI tools, from OpenAI‘s famed ChatGPT to Runway‘s text to video editor.
The bad news, say some advocacy groups, is that the boom is just contributing to the power and influence of the relatively few companies with the infrastructure and capabilities to support those intensive AI applications. Just about every AI tool you can think of relies on clouds like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud, or some combination of the three.
In practical terms, it means that even the AI startups competing with those Big Tech giants are, in a very real way, simultaneously contributing to their respective bottom lines. And the more those startups use those major cloud platforms, the more they pay to their much larger competitors.
This dynamic shows that the rise of AI will only make Big Tech more powerful and entrenched in several industries, even as worries about their potential for monopolistic practices peak.
