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Nearly One-Third of Healthcare Workers in U.S. Hospitals Are Still Not Vaccinated Against COVID, CDC Study Finds, as Vaccine Mandate Looms

Forbes reported:

Nearly one third of healthcare workers in U.S. hospitals are still not vaccinated against COVID-19, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as tensions escalate over a looming — and contested — nationwide mandate that officials worry will leave the sector with a shortage of critical workers.

Facilities, some of which have begun to fire workers not complying with mandates, are growing increasingly concerned the requirements will trigger staffing shortages.

The continued refusal of healthcare workers to get the jab has frustrated colleagues and officials, not least because most are already required to be vaccinated against a litany of other diseases in order to work.

Rupert Murdoch Slams Big Tech’s Censorship of Conservatives

New York Post reported:

Rupert Murdoch criticized Big Tech’s censorship of diverse views on Wednesday. In remarks to shareholders of News Corp., which owns the New York Post among other publishers, Murdoch attacked Facebook and Google for censoring conservatives.

“There is no doubt that Facebook employees try to silence conservative voices, and a quick Google News search on most contemporary topics often reveals a similar pattern of selectivity — or, to be blunt, censorship.”

The Post was gagged last year when Twitter shut down its account over a story about the business dealings of President Biden’s son, Hunter, and his efforts to monetize his family connections in China.

Biden’s COVID Vaccine Mandate Treats Our Heroes Like Felons. I’m Fighting to Stop It

Fox News reported:

No otherwise honorable member of the United States military should worry about losing their freedom while protecting ours.

Right now, thousands of our service members are not vaccinated. In fact, in Kansas, only 58% of our guardsmen and women are fully or partially vaccinated. Unfortunately, the policy out of the White House says that one size has to fit all and there are no exceptions to its mandate. It refuses to consider natural immunity even though we know natural immunity to COVID is the same as, if not more powerful than the vaccine.

The bottom line is, American heroes should not be treated as felons because of their personal medical choices. President Biden’s vaccine mandate is a slap in the face to so many American heroes who put their lives on the line each day to defend our freedoms and our American way of life.

Biden’s COVID Vaccine Mandate Is on Hold, but Here Are Companies Requiring Shots Anyway

Forbes reported:

While President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for employers with more than 100 employees is challenged in court, some companies are going ahead with vaccine requirements anyway — here are some of the businesses that have said their staffers must get the shot:

Major banking, tech, and media companies requiring all employees to be vaccinated in order to work from the office include American Express, Anthem, BlackRock, Citigroup, Deloitte, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Google, Lyft, Morgan Stanley, NBCUniversal, Salesforce and Uber, NBC News reports.

Germany Set to Tighten Rules for Unvaccinated as COVID Cases Rise

The Guardian reported:

Germany is paving the way for the introduction of tighter restrictions on people who have so far chosen not to be vaccinated against COVID-19, in an effort to control its highest infection levels since the pandemic began.

The state of Saxony  became the latest to introduce so-called 2G rules in all non-essential shops and facilities, meaning only people who can prove they have been vaccinated or have recovered from COVID will be allowed entry. 2G is a reference to the German words for vaccinated and recovered (geimpft and genesen).

Florida GOP Limits Vaccine Mandates, Flouting White House

Associated Press reported:

Florida Republicans approved a sweeping bill Wednesday to hobble coronavirus vaccine mandates in businesses, rejecting claims that they were sacrificing public health to hand Gov. Ron DeSantis a win in his fight against White House virus rules.

The most contentious measure would prevent private businesses from having vaccine mandates unless they allow workers to opt out for medical reasons, religious beliefs, immunity based on a previous infection, regular testing or an agreement to wear protective gear.

The measure also includes fines for businesses that fire a worker without allowing the exemptions. Additionally, it bars schools and governments in the state from having vaccine mandates and allows parents to sue schools with masking requirements. Another bill would block the public release of records regarding state investigations of vaccine policies in businesses.

We Know Better Than to Allow Facebook to Control the Metaverse

The Conversation reported:

Given Facebook’s handling — or mishandling — of their current social responsibilities, we should be cautious about how much control a single company should have over the potential metaverse.

We have an opportunity to be proactive regarding the construction of social worlds within virtual reality rather than the reactive state we find ourselves in regarding Meta’s current social products.

We should all be concerned about how Facebook could and will use the data collected within the metaverse.

COVID Lockdowns Saw Global Increase in Helpline Calls About Loneliness, Suicide: Report

Newsweek reported:

As countries around the world imposed strict COVID-19 lockdowns to offset rapid infections amid the pandemic, calls to global helplines from people experiencing loneliness and suicidal thinking or behavior increased.

An examination of 8 million calls made to helplines across 19 countries, published by Nature on Wednesday, illustrated the impact of the pandemic on mental health around the world. Swiss and German researchers who conducted the analysis looked into suicide-prevention and crisis counseling helplines in 14 European nations, the U.S., China, Hong Kong, Israel and Lebanon.

Thousands Turn Pro-Democracy Celebration Into Protests Against Coming COVID Restrictions

Newsweek reported:

Rallies commemorating the anti-communist Velvet Revolution of 1989 turned into protests against COVID-19 restrictions.

The Czech Republic and Slovakia both held rallies celebrating the anniversary of the revolution. However, both countries saw those rallies turn into protests against both countries’ new COVID-19 mandates.

Slovakia is expected to implement a three-week ban against unvaccinated people from nonessential places. Affected places around the country include gyms, pools and shopping malls. Mass public gatherings among unvaccinated people are also discouraged.

Dozens of Health Groups Urge Businesses to Voluntarily Adopt Biden’s Vaccine Rule

The Washington Post reported:

The American Medical Association and more than 60 other healthcare associations on Thursday called on employers to voluntarily implement President Biden’s contested vaccine-or-testing mandate, saying businesses had no time to waste ahead of the busy holiday season.

“We — physicians, nurses and advanced practice clinicians, health experts, and health care professional societies — fully support the requirement that workers at companies with over 100 workers be vaccinated or tested,” the organizations wrote in a joint statement.

Woman ‘Nauseated’ After Finding Apple Tracking Device Hidden Under Her License Plate

Newsweek reported:

A woman has claimed she discovered a tracking device had been attached to her car without her knowledge, as she filmed herself furiously searching the vehicle for it.

Kayla, who lives an hour and a half from Chicago, later shared a follow-up video claiming that she had spoken to the police and Apple and neither had been able to find the owner of the AirTag.

AirTags were unveiled by the tech giant in April, designed as a way to “easily locate the items that matter most.”