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Novak Djokovic Seeking Special Permission to Enter U.S. Despite COVID Vaccine Mandates, His Brother Says
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic has applied for special permission to enter the United States in order to play in the Indian Wells and Miami Open, his brother Djordje revealed, despite an existing requirement for foreign air travelers entering the country to have taken a COVID vaccine. According to Reuters, the existing vaccine mandate is not expected to be lifted before both tournaments begin in March.
Djokovic, 35, has become arguably the most prominent athlete in the world to not take a COVID vaccine, sticking by his decision despite being deported from Australia before the 2022 Australian Open due to his vaccination status. Djokovic made his triumphant return to the Australian Open this year after the country’s strict vaccine mandates were discarded, winning the tournament for his 22nd Grand Slam title.
Presently, existing vaccine mandates for foreign air travelers to the U.S. are expected to be lifted in mid-April. But in Djokovic’s case, there has been hope that a resolution can be worked out, a sentiment that has been expressed all the way up to Indian Wells tournament director Tommy Haas.
Data Brokers Are Selling Long Lists of People With Depression and Anxiety
Looking for lists of people with depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD or OCD? No problem. There are lots of companies who would love to sell it to you. They can even include names, emails, home addresses, income, ethnicity and details about people’s children. It’s cheap too, with minimum purchases of just hundreds of dollars. One company offers records on the mental health of 10,000 people starting at $0.20, with a discount if you buy in bulk.
A new study published by Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy found nearly a dozen data brokers offering to sell mental health data at rock bottom prices, often with almost no vetting of the person trying to buy the data and minimal restrictions on how the information is used. Many implied they can provide identifiable details like names and contact information.
In the shadows of the internet, an ocean of data brokers scrapes up the information that many of us don’t even realize we’re leaving behind and repackage it for advertisers or anyone else who wants it. Many people assume there are laws that protect the most sensitive parts of our lives. That is not the case.
HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, does not protect your medical privacy. Its health data rules only apply to “covered entities,” which generally means doctors and healthcare providers, insurance companies and businesses who work with them directly.
New York Lets COVID Healthcare Mask Requirements Lapse
New York state officials said they would allow COVID-19-related masking requirements for staff and visitors in hospitals and other healthcare facilities to lapse on Sunday. Acting Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said that while the pandemic is not over, “we are moving to a transition.”
“As we do, and with safe and effective vaccines, treatments and more, we are able to lift the state’s masking requirement in healthcare settings,” McDonald said in a statement.
Health officials advised hospitals, nursing homes, treatment centers and other facilities to enact their own masking rules in accordance with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control.
NYC Mayor Says COVID Mandates May Need to Return, Blasts People Who Say ‘I Want to Do Whatever I Want’
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, during an interview with Caribbean Power Jam Radio’s “The Reset Show,” defended the rescinding of a COVID vaccine mandate for city workers and that there may be a time when mandates will be in place again.
Adams defended his decision to rescind the vaccine mandate because COVID was becoming normalized, adding that when employees said, “I want to do whatever I want,” it was not right.
Adams announced on Feb. 6 that the city would make COVID vaccines optional for current and prospective city workers, effective Feb. 10.
The announcement came as more than 96% of city workers were fully vaccinated against coronavirus. Despite the reversal, the approximately 1,780 former city workers who were terminated for not complying with the COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the past will not automatically get their jobs back but can reapply for positions in their former agencies.
COVID Vaccines Remain Optional at K-12 Schools. Will Colleges Keep Requiring Them?
College COVID-19 vaccine requirements are facing renewed scrutiny now that California has walked back plans to mandate the shots in K-12 schools and the state and federal governments are ending their pandemic states of emergency.
The University of California recently softened its vaccine booster requirement. But immunization mandates continue at public and private campuses across the country, prompting debate about whether they’re still worth the trouble. Students say that, in some cases, verification procedures tripped up class registration.
Andrew Noymer, associate professor of population health and disease prevention at UC-Irvine, said the mandates are harder to justify for vaccines that don’t stop the spread of the virus, especially for young healthy college students at low risk from COVID-19, which mostly afflicts the elderly.
Nationally, many colleges and universities have no COVID vaccine requirement, but they remain prevalent in states such as California, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts, said Jessica R. Barsotti, whose Newport Beach law firm is fighting them in court. A parent group called No College Mandates has a spreadsheet to track the status of mandates at colleges across the country.
COVID Emergency Winding Down, but Cook County Still Offering Incentives for Boosters
If you haven’t gotten the booster, time is running out to get it for free — as the Biden administration is planning to end the COVID-19 emergency declarations on May 11, and expects to run out of government-bought vaccines and treatments as soon as this summer and fall. But for now, you can still come to health centers around Cook County for vaccines — and the county is even still paying people to get the shot.
As CBS 2’s Jermont Terry reported Friday night, the idea of rolling up your sleeve for a vaccine card seems like a throwback to two years ago. But this week, the Cook County Department of Public Health announced it is paying people $100 to get the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster.
They quickly filled 1,500 appointments, and they’ll get $100 gift cards — which equates to $150,000 in tax dollars — to get folks boosted. The money comes from the American Rescue Plan Act. Yet the federal government is pulling back on COVID funds.
Ohio May Require Kids to Get Parental Consent to Use TikTok, Facebook, Other Social Media
The Columbus Dispatch reported:
Ohio could soon make it easier for parents to restrict their children’s access to TikTok, Snapchat and other apps.
Part of Gov. Mike DeWine’s two-year budget proposal would require social media companies to get parental consent before allowing kids under the age of 16 to use their platforms. They would be tasked with creating a splash page that verifies the user’s age and obtains the necessary consent from a parent or guardian.
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted said they must then send written confirmation to parents to ensure children aren’t circumventing the system. If parents don’t OK the terms of service, the companies would have to bar the kids from their apps.
“The verdict is in on this: Social media is addictive, it is harmful to brain development, creates a lot of social disorders and has been really harmful to our children in many ways,” Husted said. “It’s pretty universally accepted that this is not good for kids.”
Maryland Is the Latest State to Weigh Online Safety Rules for Kids
Legislators in Maryland are proposing digital safety standards for children mirroring the United Kingdom’s landmark rules, the latest state aiming to require tech companies to build tougher protections for kids in a nationwide push.
On Monday, Democratic state officials are holding an event rallying support for their newly unveiled Maryland Age-Appropriate Design Code Act. Like the U.K.’s own Age Appropriate Design Code, the measure would require digital services to prioritize the well-being and safety of kids when designing products and to vet them for risks they may pose to younger users.
Maryland is at least the sixth state to consider children’s online safety measures similar to the U.K. standards, which have emerged as a major model for U.S. legislators looking to boost guardrails for kids on the internet.
State policymakers in New Mexico, Oregon, New York and New Jersey have also introduced bills closely resembling the U.K.’s rules, while lawmakers in California last year became the first to pass a measure into law. The state bills arrive as efforts to pass children’s privacy and online safety standards have been bogged down by political divisions in Congress.
The AI Arms Race Is on. Are Regulators Ready?
The race among tech companies to roll out generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools is raising concerns about how mistakes in technology and blind spots in regulation could hasten the spread of misinformation, elevate biases in results and increase the harvesting and use of Americans’ personal data.
So far tech giants Microsoft and Google are leading the race in releasing new AI tools to the public, but smaller companies and startups are expected to make progress in the field.
Microsoft President Brad Smith has called 2023 an inflection point for AI, comparing it to 2007 for the smartphone or 1995 for the web — the years the new technologies exploded in popularity with the public.
Central Bank Digital Currency Tyranny Is Coming — How to Prepare
We’ve all heard stories about people who survived the Great Depression by hiding cash under their mattresses or burying it in their yards because they’d lost trust in banks. Imagine taking it a step further and taking money from the flawed banking system and putting it into the untrustworthy hands of the government. That’s what will happen when America embraces central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), as many other countries already have.
There will be no way of hiding the money you have because it will all be digital, and it will all be tracked and controlled by the U.S. government. And it’s looking more and more likely that America will have a CBDC sooner rather than later. A CBDC is essentially a digital form of currency centralizing all of a country’s citizens’ financial information in a digital database controlled by the government.
One nation in particular, China, has already embraced CBDCs. The digital yuan is being used by millions of Chinese citizens, giving the government the ability “to obtain vast amounts of public data and strengthen its surveillance state. CBDCs will give the Chinese government authority to turn off people’s money like a light switch.”
A September 2022 White House report states: “A United States central bank digital currency (CBDC) would be a digital form of the U.S. dollar. While the U.S. has not yet decided whether it will pursue a CBDC, the U.S. has been closely examining the implications of, and options for, issuing a CBDC.”
Google to Expand Misinformation ‘Prebunking’ in Europe
After seeing promising results in Eastern Europe, Google will initiate a new campaign in Germany that aims to make people more resilient to the corrosive effects of online misinformation.
The tech giant plans to release a series of short videos highlighting the techniques common to many misleading claims. The videos will appear as advertisements on platforms like Facebook, YouTube or TikTok in Germany. A similar campaign in India is also in the works.
It’s an approach called prebunking, which involves teaching people how to spot false claims before they encounter them. The strategy is gaining support among researchers and tech companies.
While belief in falsehoods and conspiracy theories isn’t new, the speed and reach of the internet have given them a heightened power. When catalyzed by algorithms, misleading claims can discourage people from getting vaccines, spread authoritarian propaganda, foment distrust in democratic institutions and spur violence.
