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House Republicans Target Biden Administration on COVID Vaccine Mandates
A GOP-led House subcommittee is demanding answers about how President Biden’s controversial COVID-19 vaccine mandates came to be.
The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic sent letters Tuesday to the Office of Personnel Management and the Departments of Defense, Labor, and Health and Human Services demanding documentation showing how the requirements originated and evolved.
“The Biden Administration disregarded medical freedom, patient-physician relationships, and clear scientific standards to force a novel vaccine on millions of Americans without sufficient evidence to support their policies,” subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) told The Post.
Requested information includes material informing the decisions behind the mandates, internal communications about the vaccine, draft versions of the requirements, data about its implementation, and more. The panel is demanding that information by Aug. 15.
New Orleans’ Facial Recognition Systems Led to Exactly Zero Arrests in Nine Months
Police in New Orleans have been using facial recognition for the better part of a year, but the tech hasn’t had much of an impact on the city’s violent crime crisis. NOLA’s recently published quarterly public safety review, compiled by city consultant Datalytics, shows that during a nine-month period — between October 1, 2022, and July 1, 2023 — there were “no arrests of an individual matched by facial recognition.”
In other words: face recording has helped cops catch zero crooks. The data to back up that unfortunate assessment comes from the NOPD itself.
Facial recognition, which uses sophisticated cameras to scan people’s faces and compare their attributes to those of known criminal offenders, has been hailed by law enforcement as an essential tool for catching violent criminals. But questions remain about the technology’s accuracy and effectiveness, and privacy advocates have broadly decried the tool for its dystopian impact on society.
Amazon Bets Big on Virtual Care, Unveils Nationwide Telehealth Service Through Its Website, Mobile App
Amazon Clinic is expanding to all 50 states, including nationwide telehealth services to offer access to clinicians through its website and mobile app.
The online retail giant unveiled Amazon Clinic back in November as a virtual medical clinic to provide care for 35 common health concerns like urinary tract infections, pink eye, and acid reflux. Launched as a message-based virtual consultation service, Amazon Clinic connects consumers with licensed clinicians who can diagnose, treat and prescribe medication for a range of common health and lifestyle conditions.
The service was available in 34 states and has now been expanded nationwide and to Washington, DC, along with the addition of video visits with providers on Amazon.com and the mobile app, the company announced in a blog post on Tuesday.
Amazon Clinic is currently cash pay and does not yet accept insurance, the company said.
FBI Ordered to Find Out Which Agency Disobeyed White House in Secret Deal, Finds Out It Was Itself
Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that an unknown federal agency had breached official White House policy and used secretive methods to conduct a business deal with the NSO Group, a blacklisted spyware vendor known for selling powerful surveillance tools.
The agency in question not only brazenly disobeyed the government’s official policy, but also used a front company to facilitate the deal, suggesting that it knew what was happening was not exactly kosher.
After the Times’ story was published, the FBI was ordered by the Biden administration to investigate. Now, several months later, the bureau’s investigation is complete, and it turns out that the agency that disobeyed the White House and purchased the creepy NSO tool was … the FBI.
Yes, the New York Times now reports that the bureau has admitted that it was the mystery agency at the center of the controversy several months back. However, America’s top law enforcement agency is also trying to explain away its involvement, claiming that it was somehow duped into the deal without any knowledge of what was going on.
Former Upstate Hospital Worker Who Refused COVID Shot Sues NY to Reverse Firing
An Upstate hospital attendant who refused in 2021 to get a COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds spent two years fighting to keep his job. Oleg Sidorchuk, 37, of Van Buren, lost that fight, and his job, in April.
Then in May, the state dropped its vaccination mandate for workers at all hospitals. Upstate University Hospital has since allowed the hiring of non-vaccinated workers, a spokesman said.
Now Sidorchuk’s union, the Civil Service Employees Association, is suing Upstate on his behalf. The union filed a lawsuit last week seeking to have a state Supreme Court Justice overturn his firing and award him back pay for the two years he was suspended without pay.
More Than 100 Colleges Are Still Enforcing Vaccine Mandates: Report
More than 100 colleges and universities are still enforcing COVID vaccine mandates for students — some three years out from the start of the pandemic.
A report from No College Mandates lists 104 colleges and universities still requiring COVID vaccinations, including Harvard University, Johns Hopkins, Rutgers University, DePauw University, Sarah Lawrence College, University of Pittsburgh and San Diego State University.
According to COVID policies outlined on some of these schools’ websites, staff and faculty are sometimes required to be vaccinated, too, The Daily Wire has reviewed. Additionally, some of the schools permit religious or medical exemptions.
No College Mandates brands itself as a group of “concerned parents, doctors, nurses, professors, students and other college stakeholders working towards the common goal of ending COVID-19 vaccine mandates.” The site has additionally compiled a list of more than 1,200 schools with details on specific COVID vaccine policies.
Some colleges and universities have only recently discontinued their vaccine requirements. For example, 64 New York state schools, all part of the SUNY system, dropped the COVID vaccine mandate in April of this year.
Shots Fired: Twitter Explores Lawsuit Against Pro-Censorship Operatives
Twitter parent company X Corp is exploring a lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a U.K.-based dark money nonprofit run by a far-left British Labour Party operative named Imran Ahmed.
Earlier this month journalist Paul Thacker dropped a Twitter files exposé via The Disinformation Chronicle in which we learn that pre-Musk Twitter employees took action against several conservative accounts after the CCDH released a report alleging that just 12 accounts produced the majority of anti-vaccine disinformation on social media.
Facebook, meanwhile, rejected the report, saying in a statement that “There isn’t any evidence to support this claim.” A similar lack of evidence underpins a July 20 letter from “X” attorneys to CCDH and its CEO, Ahmed, which it accused of targeting Twitter with multiple unfounded accusations in an attempt to hurt the company financially.
Meta Is Reportedly Preparing to Release AI-Powered Chatbots With Different Personas
Meta is gearing up to roll out AI-powered chatbots with different personas as early as next month, according to a new report from the Financial Times. The chatbots are designed to have humanlike conversations with users on Meta’s social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
The Financial Times notes that in addition to boosting engagement, the chatbots also have the potential to collect new amounts of data on users, which could help Meta better target users with relevant content and ads. Given this possibility, the chatbots are likely to raise privacy concerns.
Pandemic Set Back Social and Emotional Growth of Children in England, Study Finds
Half of all children suffered a setback to their emotional and social development during the first year of the pandemic, with younger siblings more likely to have been negatively affected than their older brothers and sisters, according to a survey of parents.
Children from all economic backgrounds in England were affected, the research found, though those aged four to seven were significantly more likely to have suffered a deterioration in their skills than 12- to 15-year-olds.
Youngsters whose parents’ employment changed as a result of the pandemic, including those who were furloughed, were also far more likely to see their social and emotional skills worsen, the report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said.
This latest study looks instead at the impact of parents’ experiences in the labor market on their children’s social and emotional development and finds that children from wealthier as well as poorer families have seen their social and emotional development adversely affected.
Meta Says It Will Offer Europeans a Free Choice to Deny Tracking
Meta is bowing to legal inevitability in the European Union: It’s just announced it will finally comply with regional privacy regulations by giving users a free choice to deny its behavioral advertising.
The tech giant is subject to an ongoing regulatory procedure over the legal basis it claims to run microtargeted ads which had been expected to conclude around the middle of this month. But in an update to a blog post today it announced its “intention” to switch to a consent-based legal basis for targeted advertising.
Its blog post does not include a date for when it expects to make this change — with the company offering nothing more specific than a vague reference to “the months ahead” — but of course, the exact compliance timeline is not in Meta’s gift; it will be up to EU regulators to decide.