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Judge Reinstates Fired Roswell Park Nurse Who Refused Vaccine: A ‘Victim’ of COVID Excesses
A judge has reinstated a Roswell Park Comprehensive Care Center nurse who was fired for refusing to be vaccinated for COVID-19, and in so doing cast a disapproving look at how public officials handled the pandemic.
An arbitrator’s January decision upholding Wendy Cooper’s firing was “irrational, violative of public policy and contrary to the interests of justice,” State Supreme Court Justice Emilio Colaiacovo ruled. The judge directed Roswell Park to negotiate over her retroactive pay and benefits.
Colaiacovo called the issue before him narrow: Did the arbitrator rationally decide Cooper’s case? But his written decision offered a wider criticism of how some public officials overstepped their bounds while others ceded their powers to others amid the pandemic.
Roswell Park declined to comment but confirmed it will appeal Colaiacovo’s decision.
Nearly 36,800 healthcare employees in New York — about 3.5% of the state’s healthcare workforce — lost their jobs, resigned, retired or were furloughed due to being unvaccinated against COVID-19, according to data released by the state in late April 2022, the most recent figures available. That included several hundred, if not thousands, of employees across Western New York.
School Districts in Kentucky, Texas Cancel Classes Amid ‘Surge’ of Illnesses Including COVID
Just weeks into the new school year, districts in multiple states are canceling in-person classes for several weeks due to respiratory viruses, including COVID-19, among students and staff.
Two school districts in Kentucky — Lee County School District and Magoffin County Schools — said they were closing due to “widespread illness.”
In Texas, Runge Independent School District — located in Karnes County, 50 miles southeast of San Antonio — told parents in a letter that it would be closing from Aug. 22 through Aug. 29 and canceling all extracurricular activities due to COVID cases, according to ABC affiliate KSAT.
The district did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. On the district’s website, the COVID tracker shows 10 active cases in Runge ISD as of Aug. 21, all among staff.
Citing Rising COVID Cases, These U.S. Hospital Systems Have Now Reinstated Mask Mandates
Amid rising COVID cases and hospitalizations throughout the country, several hospital systems or hospitals have reinstated mask-wearing requirements for patients and staff, as reported by Becker’s Hospital Review.
These announcements come as COVID-related hospitalizations have risen 21.6% in the most recent week and deaths have risen 21.4%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The numbers, however, are still far below the levels that were seen during the pandemic.
As of Aug. 25, the following hospitals and health systems are now requiring masks, as confirmed by Fox News Digital. United Health Services in New York reinstated masking policies at its facilities on Aug. 23.
Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center, California, has reinstated the mask mandate amid a rise in positive COVID tests as of Aug. 22. Auburn Community Hospital, New York, is again requiring masks — just one month after ending the mandate, as reported on Aug. 19. As of Aug. 17, University Hospital in Syracuse, NY, has reinstated its masking requirement.
In April 2023, a group of healthcare epidemiologists and infectious diseases experts from across the country published a paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine, in which they called for an end to universal masking in hospitals and other healthcare settings.
After COVID, Tennessee Kindergarten Vaccination Rates Are Dropping Fast. What to Know
A new report from the Tennessee Department of Health shows that the state’s Kindergartner vaccination rates continued to plummet last year, helped by sharply rising rates of religious exemptions that coincided with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Davidson County, home to Nashville, had a vaccination rate of 92.5% last year — below the state goal rate of 95%. Thirty-two schools in Davidson County had rates below 90%, which experts say is a rate that could lead to breakthrough diseases, such as measles.
The statewide rate for public school students was 93.5%, the lowest rate in at least five years, according to the report. In 2020, the statewide average was 95.4%. Private school student rates increased slightly from 89.4% to 91.1%.
Religious exemptions from required immunizations in Tennessee jumped from 1.8% in 2020 to 3% in 2022. Again, this is the highest rate in at least five years, according to the Department of Health.
AI Could Choke on Its Own Exhaust as It Fills the Web
The internet is beginning to fill up with more and more content generated by artificial intelligence rather than human beings, posing weird new dangers both to human society and to the AI programs themselves.
What’s happening: Experts estimate that AI-generated content could account for as much as 90% of information on the internet in a few years’ time, as ChatGPT, Dall-E and similar programs spill torrents of verbiage and images into online spaces.
That’s happening in a world that hasn’t yet figured out how to reliably label AI-generated output and differentiate it from human-created content.
The danger to human society is the now-familiar problem of information overload and degradation.
AI Humanoid Pilot Might be Able to Solve Pilot Shortage
Our readers know there’s yet to be a quick solution to the U.S. pilot shortage, which may linger until 2032. Current data shows a staggering 17,000-pilot gap. This shortfall can be attributed to several factors: Early retirements spurred by the pandemic, the unyielding retirement age of 65, a dwindling number of pilots from the military, and the unappealing prospect for civilians to embark on a pilot career.
Airlines can only train 1,500 to 1,800 pilots a year. The deficit has triggered all sorts of flight disruptions, with the latest from American Airlines. However, South Korean researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) developed “Pibot,” a life-sized humanoid robot that can fly planes and understand complex flight controls.
While it’s clear a robo-pilot is not something the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration would clear anytime soon — it might catch the agency’s attention amid the worst pilot shortage ever.
U.S. airlines have been quietly lobbying Congress to allow them to use just one pilot in the cockpit instead of two. But with an increasing number of pilot deaths — some even in mid-air — one has to wonder: Is the FAA open to considering a mix between human and robot pilots in the cockpit?
China Won’t Require COVID Tests for Incoming Travelers in a Milestone in Its Reopening
China will no longer require a negative COVID-19 test result for incoming travelers starting Wednesday, a milestone in its reopening to the rest of the world after a three-year isolation that began with the country’s borders closing in March 2020.
China in January ended quarantine requirements for its own citizens traveling from abroad, and over the past few months has gradually expanded the list of countries that Chinese people can travel to and increased the number of international flights.
Beijing ended its tough domestic “zero-COVID” policy only in December, after years of draconian curbs that at times included full-city lockdowns and lengthy quarantines for people who were infected.
