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Here’s Why COVID Measures Like Masking and New Ones Like Safety Goggles Could Return if a Bird Flu Pandemic Is Declared
An ongoing bird flu outbreak among U.S. dairy cows has led to three confirmed human cases in dairy workers, and although there aren’t any confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission, experts warn safety measures like masks, vaccines and safety goggles will be needed if a pandemic is declared due to the virus’s deadly nature.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Forbes it’s monitoring human and animal exposure to H5N1 bird flu and watching the situation carefully, though “the current public health risk is low.”
The virus may spread from animals to humans through airborne transmission and through contact with infected surfaces, Dr. Jessica Justman, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at Columbia University, told Forbes, though the exact transmission process isn’t fully understood.
Experts have cautioned that if a bird flu pandemic is declared, safety measures will need to be put in place to mitigate the spread. Dr. Donal Bisanzio, a senior epidemiologist with the nonprofit research institute RTI International, told Forbes methods like masking and social distancing should be the first implemented. “Those are all the kinds of interventions we need to put in place to buy time for the vaccine,” Bisanzio said.
Justman told Forbes new methods like protective eyewear may be effective safety measures, especially among farm workers who have daily contact with potentially infectious animals.
Supreme Court Rules on Challenge to Biden Admin’s Effort to Influence Social Media
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of the Biden administration in a challenge to its alleged coordination with social media companies, saying that the states who sued the administration lacked standing.
The case, Murthy v. Missouri, stems from a lawsuit brought by state attorneys general from Missouri and Louisiana that accused high-ranking government officials of working with giant social media companies “under the guise of combating misinformation” that ultimately led to censoring speech on topics that included Hunter Biden’s laptop, COVID-19 origins and the efficacy of face masks.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for the majority, said the plaintiffs lacked standing to bring their challenge. “This Court’s standing doctrine prevents us from “exercis[ing such] general legal oversight” of the other branches of Government. We therefore reverse the judgment of the Fifth Circuit and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion,” she said.
The vote was 6-3, with Justice Samuel Alito dissenting, joined by Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.
GOP Senators Invoke Statute to Force HHS Answers on COVID Origins: ‘Full-Fledged Cover-Up’
Republican senators are invoking a statute to force Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra to provide answers to several outstanding inquiries about COVID-19‘s origins and vaccine safety.
“We write regarding the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) complete disregard for transparency, Congressional oversight, and the public’s right to know,” wrote Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., in a letter on Tuesday also signed by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan.
The lawmakers announced they were invoking a federal statute which requires executive agencies to “submit any information requested of it relating to any matter within the jurisdiction of the committee” when prompted by five members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC).
Eleven specific outstanding requests are highlighted by Johnson, which he noted HHS should prioritize. Each relates to either the origins of the COVID-19 virus or the safety of its vaccines. The outstanding requests date back as far as 2020. Responses to the prioritized requests are expected by the senators from Becerra by July 12.
Julian Assange Returns Home as Free Man to Australia, After Plea Deal With U.S.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has landed back home in Australia, a free man for the first time in 12 years, after a U.S. judge signed off on his unexpected plea deal on Wednesday morning.
Cheers erupted from supporters gathered at Canberra Airport in the Australian capital as Assange disembarked the aircraft. He waved to the crowds as he walked across the tarmac.
Earlier Wednesday, Assange walked out of the courtroom in Saipan, on the Northern Mariana Islands, a remote U.S. Pacific territory, raising one hand to a gaggle of the world’s press before departing by car for the airport to journey on to Australia. Speaking outside the court, Assange’s U.S. lawyer Barry Pollack said he had “suffered tremendously in his fight for free speech and freedom of the press.”
“The prosecution of Julian Assange is unprecedented in the 100 years of the Espionage Act,” Pollack told reporters. “Mr. Assange revealed truthful, newsworthy information … We firmly believe that Mr. Assange never should have been charged under the Espionage Act and engaged in (an) exercise that journalists engage in every day.”
‘It’s Not Enough:’ Experts Question Whether Social Media Warning Labels Can Protect Teens
The surgeon general’s call for warning labels on social media platforms has largely been met with ambivalence as experts tout the idea as a step in the right direction but question the effectiveness of labels without more concrete action.
In an op-ed in The New York Times last week, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for warning labels on platforms advising users that social media is associated with significant mental health risks for teens.
These tobaccolike warning labels would remind parents and teens that social media “has not been proved safe,” Murthy said.
Murthy acknowledged the limitations of his proposed warning labels in last week’s op-ed, noting that additional measures by policymakers, platforms and the public “remain the priority.”
“To be clear, a warning label would not, on its own, make social media safe for young people,” he wrote.
Mastercard to Expand Digital Biometric ID and ‘Behavioral Biometrics’
When it comes to privacy and overall security of some of people’s most sensitive (financial, but also, “behavioral”) biometric data, massive global banks and payment processors, and burgeoning biometric surveillance was always going to be that perfect “match made in hell.”
And that reality is gradually taking shape. Not only is biometric tech and its ubiquitousness increasing (still in most countries without proper legal protections or proper “disclosure” of how and why it is being) — but behemoths like Mastercard and Visa are realizing they have access to massive amounts of highly monetizable people’s data.
The nature of the personal information that the likes of Mastercard get with every transaction you make is not only the number but also the location, the content of a purchase … and then behavioral patterns start emerging. But it doesn’t stop there.
Meanwhile, the goal (often, but not always) openly talked about is the lucrative business of “sharing” that data for targeted advertising. But in a possible future Orwellian society — it really would be very useful to the surveillance state in so many different ways.
Ed Helms’s Podcast Explores a Washington Post Scoop That Rocked America
When Ed Helms received a book from his aunt as a Christmas gift in 2014, it didn’t just sit on his shelf. The actor, writer and comedian was captivated by the book, “The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI,” by former Washington Post reporter Betty Medsger, who was friends with Helms’s aunt.
That moment, a heist in Media, Pa., on the night of March 8, 1971, was executed by eight members of the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI — a group of antiwar activists who stole documents from an FBI building. The documents revealed the extent of the FBI’s surveillance on citizens and exposed COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program) to Americans.
More than half a century after the heist, the revelations of the FBI’s surveillance of Americans remain relevant, Helms said. In April, Congress reauthorized the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which grants U.S. spy agencies the ability to collect, without a warrant, the communications of noncitizens abroad who are suspected of threatening national security. Helms also cited the rise of artificial intelligence and how Big Tech sites collect data to market to users, regardless of whether they want their information sold.
“We wouldn’t know about COINTELPRO if not for this burglary,” Helms said. “To the extent that there is oversight of our surveillance institutions, a lot of it can be traced back to this moment.”
New Hampshire Sues TikTok, Saying Platform Hurts Kids’ Mental Health
New Hampshire is the latest state to sue TikTok, saying that the social media platform is intentionally designed to get kids addicted, which seriously harms their mental health.
“All the evidence shows that the longer kids spend on these platforms, the more risk there is to their mental health. We want to have more effective parental controls, because right now, parents don’t really have a good ability to limit their kids’ exposure to these platforms. They don’t have a good ability to turn the platforms on and off, to turn access to the platforms on and off,” said New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella.
The complaint also alleges that TikTok lied to parents about the safety of the platform and knowingly promoted ineffective safety measures. The state also says TikTok collected personal data from users younger than 13 without parental consent.
