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Mom Says Son Vaccinated in Exchange for Pizza at Los Angeles Unified School District Without Her Consent

NBC Los Angeles reported:

Maribel Duarte says her 13-year-old son, a student at the Barack Obama Global Prep Academy in South Los Angeles, brought home a vaccine card after having accepted the COVID-19 vaccine at school.

She says he said yes when someone offered it in exchange for pizza. “The lady that gave him the shot and signed the paper told my son, ‘Please don’t say anything. I don’t want to get in trouble.'”

Duarte says she’s not against the vaccine. She’s vaccinated herself, but it’s different with her son. “He has problems with asthma and allergy problems,” Duarte said.

Jennifer Kennedy an attorney who is following closely the two cases against the LAUSD over the vaccine mandate currently making their way through court, said the problem is that kids in California can’t consent to vaccination. “The LAUSD does not have the power to add a vaccine to the California school schedule,” she said.

34,000 L.A. Unified Students Have Not Complied With Vaccine Mandate, Signaling Problems Ahead

Los Angeles Times reported:

About 34,000 students have not yet complied with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the Los Angeles Unified School District — and there’s no longer enough time for students who have not gotten their first shot to be fully vaccinated by the Jan. 10 start of the second semester, portending significant disruption to their education as they will be barred from campus.

The high number of students who will not be able to meet the full inoculation deadline is likely to force difficult decisions on leaders of the second-largest U.S. school system, which has enacted among the strictest vaccine mandates in the nation.

Students who are not fully vaccinated — or exempt — will be forced into the district’s independent study program or will have to leave the Los Angeles public school system. The L.A. school system is one of the few in the nation with a student vaccine mandate — and also among a small number with an employee vaccine mandate.

Senate Expected to Vote to Overturn Biden Vaccine Mandate for Businesses as Soon as Wednesday

CNN Politics reported:

Republicans in the Senate are expected to win a vote — as soon as Wednesday — to overturn President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees.

Two Democrats — Senators Jon Tester of Montana and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — have said they back the GOP effort, which is being led by Indiana Sen. Mike Braun, and it needs just a simple majority of 51 votes to be approved by the chamber.

Thousands of Service Members Miss COVID Vaccination Deadlines

NBC News reported:

Thousands of active-duty service members have failed to comply with the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, raising the prospect that they will be forced to leave their positions or the military altogether.

The vaccination deadline for active-duty members of the armed services has passed for the Air Force, Navy and the Marine Corps. The Army’s deadline is Dec. 15.

Despite the Pentagon’s vaccine mandate, approximately 27,000 members of the Marines, Air Force, Space Force and the Navy are still considered unvaccinated. About 19,000 of the Army’s soldiers have yet to start the protocol with only a week left before that branch’s deadline.

New COVID Fears Are Reviving Governments’ Worst Instincts

Newsweek reported:

For a while there, it looked like we were on the COVID exit ramp. Now it seems we’re likely to exhaust the Greek alphabet labeling variants that ripple outward from the coronavirus nucleus, keeping us awash in concerns over how to react to each new strain.

The Omicron variant has yet to fully introduce itself. Our understanding of its transmissibility and severity remains sketchy at best. But that hasn’t kept it from leading daily newscasts that fill our ears with nervous speculation and fill the minds of global leaders with fresh incentives to shut down people’s lives in response.

Europe is buzzing with various lockdown plans, focused mostly on the unvaccinated. Austria has already penned in its unvaccinated citizens. Germany is on track to follow suit, with vaccination mandates to follow. Greece has already announced mandates for anyone 60 or over, beginning next month.

Los Angeles Unified School District School Board Fires Nearly 500 Unvaccinated Employees

KTVU FOX 2 reported:

The Los Angeles Unified School District school board has voted unanimously to fire nearly 500 workers who did not follow a district mandate to get vaccinated.

The district required all workers to get their first dose by the middle of October and be fully vaccinated by Nov. 15., though it did make exemptions for medical or religious reasons.

The LA school district is not saying how many of the workers are teachers. They did add that people who decide to get vaccinated will be eligible to be rehired.

NYC Vaccine Mandate Blocked by Judge in Blow to Bill De Blasio

Newsweek reported:

Mayor Bill de Blasio‘s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for New York City employees, including the NYPD, has been blocked by a Manhattan court.

On Tuesday, Judge Frank P. Nervo in the Supreme Court of New York gave notice that the mandate was suspended, pending a hearing scheduled for Dec. 14.

On Oct. 20, de Blasio imposed the order that required all city employees to have at least their first shot by Oct. 29, or face being suspended without pay. It affected roughly 160,000 employees and was met with much opposition. Police and firefighter union leaders warned that the rule would lead to staff shortages.

Phoenix Pauses COVID Vaccine Mandate for City Workers

Associated Press reported:

Phoenix paused implementation Tuesday of a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the 14,000 workers in the nation’s fifth largest city, just hours after a federal judge temporarily blocked President Joe Biden’s administration from enforcing a mandate for those employed by federal contractors.

The pause was announced shortly before a planned afternoon hearing to discuss the city’s plan to get all city employees inoculated against the virus by Jan. 18. It was the latest standoff around the country over federal guidelines for the vaccines that have been challenged by more than a dozen lawsuits nationwide.

Unvaccinated Austrians to Remain in Lockdown, Have Limits on Why They Can Leave Home

Newsweek reported:

Austrians vaccinated against COVID-19 and those who have recently recovered from the virus will no longer be subject to a national lockdown come Sunday, Chancellor Karl Nehammer announced Wednesday. However, the lockdown will remain in place for the unvaccinated as the nation seeks to combat one of the lowest vaccination rates in Western Europe.

The country has seen pushback from tens of thousands of residents who staged protests in recent weeks against the lockdown and a vaccine mandate set to take effect in the coming months.

The current lockdown, which began Nov. 22, permits people to leave their homes only for certain reasons like grocery shopping, going to medical appointments and exercising. Parents were asked to keep their children at home, but schools and day care centers did not close doors just in case they were needed.

Poland to Require Vaccine Shots for Teachers, Medics, Police

Associated Press reported:

Poland is introducing mandatory vaccinations by Mar. 1 for teachers, medical workers, and uniformed security workers like police, the military, firefighters and security guards.

Health Minister Adam Niedzielski said Tuesday that after Mar. 1, vaccination will be a condition for jobs in these sectors. He said amid a continuing high level of daily new infections of some 23,000, Poland was following in the footsteps of Germany and Austria in requiring vaccine jabs for these three professional groups.

Parents of the Social Media Generation Are Not OK

CNN Business reported:

Last September, just a few weeks into the school year, Sabine Polak got a call from the guidance counselor. Her 14-year-old daughter was struggling with depression and had contemplated suicide.

After taking her to a crisis center, which banned phone use for anyone checking in, Polak learned from her daughter that the pressures of social media were driving her increased anxiety.

Polak is among a generation of parents who did not spend their childhoods with social media apps and are now struggling to understand and navigate the potential harms that social media can have on their kids’ mental health as they grow up.

The Metaverse Could Let Silicon Valley Track Your Facial Expressions, Blood Pressure and Your Breathing Rates — Showing Exactly Why Our Internet Laws Need Updating

Business Insider reported:

The metaverse is supposedly coming, which means it may need the same thing (some say) as social media: regulation. That’s especially pressing since problems created by social media will likely be amplified in this futuristic virtual landscape — and could drum up issues that are even more monumental if left unchecked.

Without clear policies in this new space, you won’t be able to tell the difference because content that’s authentic and what’s paid placement injected into your field of view, Louis Rosenberg — a 30-year veteran of AR development and the CEO of Unanimous AI — told Insider.

The metaverse, not unlike today’s internet, will likely be controlled by a handful of powerful corporations, chiefly Google, Facebook, Apple, and the like. You’ll be either wearing AR glasses as you walk around the real world or headsets that will entirely immerse you in the metaverse while you sit comfortably on the couch.

Verizon Might Collect Your Browsing Data Even if You Previously Opted Out

Engadget reported:

The changes Verizon has made to its Selects program also changed at least some subscribers’ privacy settings. Verizon (Engadget’s former parent company) collected users’ location, web browsing and mobile application usage data to send them marketing messages or offers under Selects, though subscribers could opt out if they wanted to.

As Ars Technica notes, the carrier recently replaced its Selects program with the Verizon Custom Experience Plus and Custom Experience programs. And that’s all well and good, except users have been receiving emails to tell them that they’d been automatically enrolled.

In the email, Verizon stated that they will be included in the programs, which means their data will be collected, even if they previously opted out of participating in Selects. Custom Experience only collects browsing and app usage history, while the Plus version also collects location information and data about the numbers that users call and call them.

The Case Against Big Tech

Vox reported:

Big Tech has become Too Big. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are facing very real threats to their considerable power over our everyday lives from all sides: lawsuits, federal and state legislation, international action, and a public that is increasingly distrustful of these companies and eager for more regulation and enforcement.

Over the last several years, these companies have become bigger and more powerful, and their business decisions have had more impact on our daily lives and society, from the things we buy and where we buy them to the news and opinions we see on social media.