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CDC Eases COVID Vaccination Rule on International Travelers as Expiration Looms
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention moved Thursday to formally loosen its COVID-19 vaccination requirement on foreign visitors, which will now allow some to board flights into the U.S. with only a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna.
“Because some traveler vaccine records might not specify whether recent Moderna or Pfizer doses received were bivalent, CDC will consider anybody with a record of a single dose of Moderna or Pfizer vaccine issued on or after August 16, 2022, to meet the requirements,” the agency said in updates published Thursday to its website.
The change comes after the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration decided earlier this month to simplify the COVID-19 vaccine schedule, allowing for most unvaccinated Americans to skip the original two “monovalent” mRNA shots many got early in the pandemic.
Multiple travel industry officials have said that the requirement on foreign visitors, which has resulted in a handful of high-profile spats over unvaccinated athletes and celebrities being denied entry into the country, is widely expected to be allowed to expire. Many countries have already long since eased or ended their vaccination requirements on travelers.
Washington Passes Law Requiring Consent Before Companies Collect Health Data
A new Washington state law will require companies to receive a user’s explicit consent before they can collect, share or sell their health data. Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed the My Health, My Data bill into law on Thursday, giving users the right to withdraw consent at any time and have their data deleted.
The law should help shield users’ health data from the companies and organizations not included under the HIPAA Privacy Rule, which prevents certain medical providers from disclosing “individually identifiable” health information without consent. The HIPAA Privacy Rule doesn’t cover many of the health apps and sites that collect medical data, allowing them to freely collect and sell this information to advertisers.
Under Washington’s new law, which comes into effect in March 2024, medical apps and sites must ask a user for permission to collect their health data in a nondeceptive manner that “openly communicates a consumer’s freely given, informed, opt-in, voluntary, specific, and unambiguous written consent.”
The site and apps must also disclose what kind of data they plan to collect and if they plan to sell it. Additionally, the bill will block medical providers from using geofencing to collect location information about the patients that visit the facility.
6 Key Moments From House Republicans’ Hearing on Warrant-Free FISA Surveillance
Members of the House Judiciary Committee kicked off what could be months of fiery debates over one of the U.S.’s most controversial warrantless surveillance programs this week. In the hearing Thursday titled, “FIX FISA,” lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle voiced concerns over the scale of U.S. citizen data “routinely collected” under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Civil liberties groups are pressuring lawmakers to let the controversial program die when it comes up for a reauthorization vote at the end of the year.
Though some of the lawmakers on the Hosue committee appeared surprised or even outraged over the prospect of U.S. citizen data being sucked up during foreign surveillance operations, the experts clarified that the seeming loophole is actually a core foundation of Section 702. “Incidental collection” is a “recognized feature” of the program, Sharon Bradford Franklin, U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board Chair, told lawmakers.
Franklin said the real threat to civil liberties in the case comes not necessarily from the collection of the data, but from the ease with which intelligence agencies like the FBI can search for American names in the database of communications.
Another Lockdown Authoritarian Tries to Weasel Out of Responsibility for Role During Pandemic
Another lockdown fanatic is attempting to rewrite history. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (which coordinated with the DOJ to label concerned parents domestic terrorists), claimed this week in front of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, that her organization “spent every day from February trying to get schools open,” adding “We knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools.”
Except, as Twitter users quickly noted, Weingarten is misrepresenting her prior positions — having called attempts to reopen schools in the fall of 2020 “reckless, callous and cruel.” What’s more, her union pushed aggressively for closures at the local level, while areas with high union influence remained closed much longer.
Other lockdown all-stars, Anthony Fauci and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, have also claimed they didn’t force anyone to do anything.
We also learned from the more recent Twitter files, Fauci lied under oath about his role during the pandemic — claiming he had ‘nothing to do with Twitter’ and other social media platforms, while he had actually taken over the White House’s Twitter account for COVID response.
Social Media Particularly Damaging to Mental Health of Gen Zers, Says Study
New data on the impact of social media use on mental health across the world shows just how damaging it is to Gen Zers.
The study, conducted by the McKinsey Health Institute, reported: “Gen Zers, on average, are more likely than other generations to cite negative feelings about social media.”
It found one in four Gen Z members — those born in the late 1990s and early 2000s — connect spending a lot of time on these platforms with poorer mental health.
About 42,000 respondents in 26 countries across continents were surveyed about the four dimensions of health: mental, physical, social and spiritual. Gen Zers ranked worst across all of these categories.
AI-Powered Mental Health Diagnostic Tool Could Be the First of Its Kind to Predict, Treat Depression
As the world of artificial intelligence blooms, some players in the healthcare industry are looking to make a major difference in public health. HMNC Brain Health — a Munich, Germany-based health tech company — is one of those. It’s attempting to use novel AI-powered technologies to address mental health issues.
The company has developed what’s described as a “precision psychiatry” diagnostic tool that uses artificial intelligence to predict, diagnose and even treat depression.
While the technology is still in development, HMNC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Hans Eriksson told Fox News Digital that the tool could be the first of its kind in generative AI.
Fed Faults Silicon Valley Bank Execs, Itself in Bank Failure
Silicon Valley Bank failed due to a combination of extremely poor bank management, weakened regulations and lax government supervision, the Federal Reserve said Friday, in a highly-anticipated review of how the central bank failed to properly supervise the bank before it collapsed early last month.
The report, authored by Federal Reserve staff and Michael Barr, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, takes a critical look at what the Fed missed as Silicon Valley Bank grew quickly in size in the years leading up to its collapse. The report also points out underlying cultural issues at the Fed, where supervisors were unwilling to be hard on bank management when they saw growing problems.
The report also looks at the role social media and technology played in the bank’s last days. While the bank’s management was poor and ultimately that was the reason the bank failed, the report also notes that social media caused a bank run that happened in just hours, compared to days for earlier bank runs like those seen in 2008.
Japan to Lift COVID Border Controls Before Holiday Week
Japan will lift most of its coronavirus border controls, including a requirement that entrants show proof of three vaccinations or a pre-departure negative test, beginning Saturday as the country’s Golden Week holiday season begins and a large influx of foreign tourists is expected.
All entrants with symptoms will still be required to take COVID-19 tests after arriving until May 8, and those who test positive will be placed in designated quarantine facilities, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters. After May 9, testing of those with symptoms will be voluntary.
Japan will also drop a special measure subjecting visitors from mainland China to random testing upon arrival that was implemented in late December when infections surged there, he said.
The government had originally planned to implement the changes on May 8, when it will downgrade the official status of the coronavirus to a common infectious disease like seasonal influenza, but decided to speed them up for the holiday season beginning Saturday.
