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New Rule Mandating Meningitis Vaccine for Wisconsin Students to Take Effect, After Yearlong Suspension
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported:
A new rule requiring students in middle and high school to get vaccinated against meningitis will go into effect next school year, after a year-long suspension of the rule expired this spring, according to state health officials.
The new requirement for students to get the vaccine against meningitis was one of several changes to the state’s vaccination requirements for children in childcare and K-12 schools made by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration early last year.
But that and other changes were blocked in March of last year when the Republican-controlled Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules voted to temporarily suspend parts of the new rule, citing concerns that the changes were excessive, unnecessary and burdensome to parents.
On top of existing vaccine requirements for school-age children, the new rule mandates the vaccine against meningitis, a disease affecting the brain and spinal cord, for students entering seventh grade and a booster dose for eligible students entering 12th grade, according to DHS. It also requires parents to show proof from a doctor or other health care provider that their child was infected with chickenpox before obtaining a waiver from the state’s chickenpox vaccine requirement.
Previously, Wisconsin recommended but did not require school-age children to get a vaccine for meningitis protection, and parents only had to give their word their child had had chickenpox.
Years Later, Fury Still Burns Hot Over COVID Restrictions — and Even Politicians Who Opposed Them Are Feeling the Heat
The pandemic may be waning and restrictions in the rear-view mirror, but this week the long arm of COVID politics flexed the grip it still has on Alberta, with Danielle Smith, arguably the country’s most vaccine-skeptical premier, trying to distance herself from a town hall questioning the safety of shots for children.
The problem? The event — which promises to ask how to “help Albertans put a stop to COVID shots that kill children” — is being hosted by a local branch of her own United Conservative Party, boosted by the party president and promises a post-event mixer where attendees can bump elbows with MLAs.
The event, titled “An Injection of Truth,” will be held in Calgary on June 17 and offers an “all-star” lineup including Dr. William Makis, who continues to push the debunked idea that the deaths of many Canadian doctors are linked to COVID-19 vaccines, and University of Guelph veterinary professor Dr. Byram Bridle, who sued the university over what he claims was unfair treatment because of his vaccine-critical views.
Not on the ticket however, is Smith, who said in a statement that she is “not involved in this event” and does “not plan to attend.” LaGrange will continue to work with public health experts to review the evidence on all vaccines, she added. But Smith, who flew to Arizona in the early days of the vaccine roll out to get a non-mRNA shot and infamously called the unvaccinated “the most discriminated group that I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime,” added that “it is important to note that the COVID-19 vaccine for children is not mandatory.”
Meta, Google Leading Nearly $1 Million Lobbying Fight to Kill NY Online Child Safety Bills
Google and Meta are spearheading a fierce push to kill New York legislation aimed at protecting children online — and the controversial lobbying battle is poised to surpass $1 million in spending, The Post has learned.
A group of Big Tech firms, advocacy groups and companies from other sectors have spent $823,235 lobbying Albany lawmakers through mid-March as two high-profile bills — the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act and the New York Child Data Protection Act — advance toward votes, according to recent public disclosures. “This is an astonishing amount of money to be spent to kill two reasonable bills,” said one longtime Albany insider who requested anonymity to discuss the lobbying push.
The SAFE Act would crack down on addictive recommendation algorithms used by social media apps by requiring them to provide default chronological feeds for users 18 or younger unless they receive parental consent. It would also allow parents to impose time limits on social media use and in-app notifications.
The Child Data Protection Act would block apps from collecting or selling the personal or location data from users under 18 unless they consent. Kids under 13 would need a parent’s consent.
Digital ID Laws Pass in Australian Parliament as Government Allocates Millions for Online Digital ID Implementation
The Australian Digital ID Law (Digital ID Bill 2024), which already passed the Senate, was adopted by Australia’s House of Representatives in an 87-56 vote.
Australia is joining the EU and several countries who seek to get rid of people’s physical IDs and replace them with digital schemes that pool the most sensitive personal information into massive, centralized databases.
This is considered by opponents as a security and privacy catastrophe in the making, with many purely political (ab)uses possible down the road.
In Australia, the goal is to get government services, health insurance, taxes, etc, all linked. And to do this, the governments will spend just shy of $197 million to launch the scheme.
U.S. to Deploy More Than $50 Million to Shield Private Hospitals From Cyberattacks
The U.S. government is seeking to play a more active role in protecting the private healthcare sector from a deluge of cyberattacks that have disrupted patient care and left providers unpaid.
U.S. health officials unveiled on Monday a new program to create tools that defend internet-connected hospital equipment from cyberattacks that could take them offline or leave them incapacitated. The effort could shore up protections for imaging devices used to detect cancer or assist with surgeries, EKGs that monitor heartbeats and systems that allow doctors to prescribe drugs to patients.
COVID Inquiry Investigating Impact on Children and Young People
The U.K. COVID Inquiry has opened its investigation into the impact of the pandemic on children and young people. Areas it will focus on include how children’s education, development, mental health and use of social media were affected.
When the draft terms of the COVID inquiry — which covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — were published in March 2022, there was criticism that they failed to even mention the impact on children and young people.
But after a public consultation, the pandemic’s effect on the health, wellbeing and education of children was included. The inquiry began in 2022 and public hearings started in 2023, chaired by former High Court judge Baroness Heather Hallett.
“The pandemic affected children and young people in many different ways; they lost loved ones, academic opportunities, years of social development and interaction with family and friends,” Baroness Hallett said.
World’s First Major Law for Artificial Intelligence Gets Final EU Green Light
European Union member states on Tuesday gave final agreement to the world’s first major law for regulating artificial intelligence, as institutions around the world race to introduce curbs for the technology.
The EU Council said it had approved the AI Act — a groundbreaking piece of regulatory law that sets comprehensive rules surrounding artificial intelligence technology. The AI Act applies a risk-based approach to artificial intelligence, meaning that different applications of the technology are treated differently, depending on the perceived threats they pose to society.
The law prohibits applications of AI that are considered “unacceptable” in terms of their risk level. Such applications feature so-called “social scoring” systems that rank citizens based on aggregation and analysis of their data, predictive policing and emotional recognition in the workplace and schools.
Matthew Holman, a partner at law firm Cripps, said the rules will have major implications for any person or entity developing, creating, using or reselling AI in the EU — with U.S. tech firms firmly in the spotlight.
