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NYC to Face Lawsuit Over Mask Mandate for School Kids Under 5
New York City should drop the mask mandate for school children age 5 and under, says a group of local parents.
They plan to file a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court to overturn the mandate on Monday, the day mask rules will be dropped for all students older than 5. The rules will remain in effect for youngsters who are not eligible for COVID vaccines.
“For many of us, this is something we find harmful for our children. We want to have the choice whether to do it or not.” The group of about a dozen parents from throughout the five boroughs plans to argue that the city has to pass a law to enforce the mandate.
At a Friday press conference, Mayor Adams defended the decision to keep the mask mandate for kids 5 and under in place.
Tech Trojan Horse: How the Senate Is Poised to Codify Censorship of Social Media
In the name of “reforming” the internet and bringing tech monopolies to heel, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has penned a “Nudge Act” that would expand corporate censorship and speech controls.
The act, however, is less of a nudge and more of a shove toward approved content and choices.
The Act is a masterpiece of doublespeak. It refers to developing “content-agnostic interventions” that would ultimately be enforced by a commission. That sounds great; after all, many of us have called for years for a return to content neutrality on social media where sites function more as communication platforms, similar to telephone companies. However, that is clearly not the intent of the bill’s sponsors, who see it as a weapon against “misinformation.”
New Jersey Will End Omicron Public Health Emergency, NYC to Lift Indoor Vaccine Mandate
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday said large-scale mitigation measures are no longer needed to fight COVID, lifting a public health emergency order that was declared in response to the Omicron variant.
The public health emergency officially ends on Monday when the Garden State will lift its mask mandate for public schools, the last mitigation measure it had in place to combat COVID.
Across the Hudson River, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced he will lift the mask mandate for public schools effective Monday as well as the vaccination requirement for indoor dining, gyms and entertainment venues.
Schools will still screen students to make sure they stay home if they have symptoms, and masks are still required for events with children under 5 years old because they are not eligible for vaccination yet.
Broadway to Maintain COVID Vaccine and Mask Mandate Through April
Broadway will maintain its mask and vaccine policies through April despite Mayor Eric Adams rolling back many COVID-19 mandates starting Monday.
Broadway shows returned to New York in September after being shuttered for nearly 2 years due to the pandemic.
Several shows also faced shutdowns and cancellations due to a spike in cases linked to the Omicron variant in January.
‘People’s Convoy’ Congested Beltway to Protest Pandemic Restrictions, Plans to Return Monday
An armada of drivers calling themselves the “People’s Convoy” circled the Beltway for more than 4 hours Sunday to protest pandemic restrictions, and it plans to do so again on Monday.
Organizers said their goal is to be a “huge pain.” On Sunday, the disruption they caused was fairly minimal. Though the convoy of hundreds of trucks, cars and SUVs started out in a deliberately slow-moving formation that stretched roughly 30 miles, it became diluted after merging with normal Beltway traffic.
Convoy organizer Brian Brase has repeatedly said the People’s Convoy will not enter the District. Brase has said the group wants an end to the national emergency declaration in response to the coronavirus, first issued by President Donald Trump in March 2020 and later extended by President Biden, and for Congress to hold hearings investigating the government response to the pandemic.
Demonstrators Rally Against Washington State COVID Mandates
Opponents of restrictions intended to curb the spread of COVID-19 rallied at the state Capitol on Saturday, calling on attendees to remain politically active in hopes of electing more conservative lawmakers.
The Washington State Patrol estimated that about 700 people showed up for the demonstration, called “Government Resistance Impedes Tyranny,” The Seattle Times reported. Some local semi-truck drivers and other vehicles participated in a convoy to attend the protest.
Boston’s Indoor Mask Mandate for Businesses Is Lifted
A city order that required people to wear face coverings in indoor public spaces in Boston, including restaurants, shops, museums and entertainment venues, was lifted Saturday.
Boston follows New York, Los Angeles and other major U.S. cities that are relaxing pandemic restrictions as officials push for more normalcy after two grueling years of the pandemic.
Thousands of Canadians Join Coast-to-Coast ‘Freedom Chain’ to Defend Freedom
Canadians in different parts of the country gathered together at various rallies on Mar. 5 to uphold freedom in an event dubbed the “Freedom Chain.”
Participants rendezvoused along the Trans-Canada Highway, which spans 7,476 km, in an effort to reach across the entirety of the country starting from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Chris Vee, who took part in the Freedom Chain in Vancouver, said he was there to fight for Canadians’ freedoms in the face of COVID-19 policies. Melanie, another Vancouver participant who only gave her first name, said she was protesting against the COVID-19 mandates and defending the freedom of all Canadians.
“I care about freedom for all Canadians,” she told The Epoch Times. “In British Columbia,… [the government] has not lifted the mandates for anyone in this province yet, and as an unvaccinated person, it’s really hard for me to find work, to feed my family, and…to live my life.”
Belgium Scraps Almost All COVID Measures as Crisis Eases
Belgium began easing most COVID-19 restrictions Monday in the biggest move to relax measures since the onset of the crisis some two years ago.
Gone are the coronavirus passports that allows entry into bars, restaurants, theater and cinemas as well as capacity limits. Facemasks, long the symbol of the pandemic, will no longer be mandatory except on public transport and in the healthcare sector.
The government announced last week that the nation of 11 million will go from code orange — the second-toughest for virus measures — to code yellow as of Monday.
Netflix, China-Based TikTok Join Google, Apple, Other Companies Cutting Ties With Russia
An increasing number of private companies are severing their ties to Russia as Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine escalates and Western countries impose economic sanctions.
On Sunday, China-based TikTok said it was suspending livestreaming in Russia amid the country’s new “fake news” law that’s aimed at silencing dissent and limiting information about its invasion of Ukraine.
And Netflix announced it was shutting its operations in Russia, making it one of the largest media companies to pull out of the market following the attack on Ukraine.
Alternatives to Facebook: Taking the ‘Big’ Out of ‘Big Tech’
Social media platforms appear to have entered a permanent state of crisis. In what has become a series of legal woes, Meta‘s Facebook has agreed to pay $90 million to settle a privacy lawsuit over user tracking. This comes in the wake of Frances Haugen — a former Facebook employee — shedding light on the platform’s inability to prevent the spread of harmful content at the global level in documents released last fall.
For Big Tech, money talks louder than moral conscience. Mainstream social media companies have little incentive to transform their platforms into ones that would better protect their users if they fear that this will diminish profit. What is more, the spread of harmful content on Twitter and Facebook is not caused by negligence or lack of good will, but by the very infrastructure of these platforms.
What would it look and feel like to engage with friends and family online without the influence of algorithms designed to manipulate us?
The Real Reason Russia Is Blocking Facebook
Russia’s Internet censorship agency announced on Friday that it plans to block access to Facebook throughout the country, joining a small handful of the world’s most repressive regimes in cutting off its citizens from the world’s largest social network. In an Orwellian twist, the agency, called Roskomnadzor, said it made the move to uphold the free flow of information, blaming Facebook for restrictions it has placed on Russian state media outlets in recent days.
Of course, blocking Facebook isn’t really about upholding free speech for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has spent years eroding press and online freedoms and arresting protesters.
But contrary to what Western observers might assume, it also isn’t really about restricting Russians’ access to social media — at least, not directly. It’s an act of intimidation aimed at bringing other social networks to heel.
