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Pilots Warn Vaccine Mandate Could Cause Holiday Travel Chaos
The unions representing American and Southwest airlines pilots are asking lawmakers and the White House for an exemption or an alternative to the federal mandate requiring companies with more than 100 people to get vaccinated, according to ABC News.
Roughly 30% of American Airlines pilots are not vaccinated, according to the Allied Pilots Association, the union representing American’s 14,000 pilots. Southwest’s pilot union could not say how many of its members were unvaccinated.
Hundreds of Hospital Staffers Fired or Suspended for Refusing COVID Vaccine Mandate
Hundreds of healthcare workers across the country are being fired or suspended in droves for not complying with COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
President Joe Biden announced earlier this month a vaccine mandate for health care facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, impacting some 17 million healthcare workers in the nation.
States including New York, California, Rhode Island and Connecticut also set vaccine mandates for health care workers that take effect this week.
AT&T to Require Vaccines for 90,000 of Its Union Workers
AT&T has become one of the largest employers in the U.S. to mandate vaccines for a significant number of frontline workers.
The telecom company said Wednesday that its employees in the Communications Workers of America union will be required to be fully vaccinated by Feb. 1, “unless they get an approved job accommodation.”
Facebook Exec Defends Policies Toward Teens on Instagram
Facing outrage over its handling of internal research on harm to teens from Instagram, a Facebook executive is telling Congress that the company is working to protect young people on its platforms. And she disputes the way a recent newspaper story describes what the research shows. “We have put in place multiple protections to create safe and age-appropriate experiences for people between the ages of 13 and 17,” Antigone Davis, Facebook’s head of global safety, said in written testimony Thursday for a Senate Commerce subcommittee.
The revelations in a report by The Wall Street Journal, based on internal research leaked by a whistleblower at Facebook, have set off a wave of anger from lawmakers, critics of Big Tech, child-development experts and parents. The outcry prompted Facebook to put on hold its work on a kids’ version of Instagram, which the company says is meant mainly for tweens aged 10 to 12. But it’s just a pause.
Plan to Fast-Track Exemptions to COVID Vaccine Mandates Stalls
The bill, HB435, allows students and employees to opt out of getting the COVID-19 vaccine, even if it’s required at school or work.
The measure was voted out of committee Tuesday evening after one hearing and was set for a full House vote Wednesday. But House Speaker Bob Cupp (R-Lima) says members want to explore a few more issues.
U.S. Troops Go to Court Seeking Vaccine Exemption for Those Who’ve Had COVID
Two U.S. service members who have recovered from COVID-19 are asking a federal judge to put an immediate stop to the Defense Department’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccine order.
Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Robert and Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Hollie Mulvihill filed a suit Aug. 17 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado seeking an exception to the order for military members who have recovered from the illness.
University of Colorado Faces COVID Religious Exemption Suit
A pediatrician and a medical student at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus are challenging denials of their requests for religious exemptions from the school’s COVID vaccination mandate, arguing in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that administrators are judging the “veracity” of personal religious beliefs in violation of the First Amendment.
The lawsuit argues that the medical school is arbitrarily granting religious exemptions to its vaccine requirement for all staff and students. It contends the university is approving requests that are based on organized religious beliefs that oppose vaccinations, while subjecting requests based on personal religious beliefs to “intrusive religious inquisition to test the veracity of students’ and employees’ asserted religious beliefs.”
Military Leaders Saw Pandemic as Unique Opportunity to Test Propaganda Techniques on Canadians, Forces Report Says
Canadian military leaders saw the pandemic as a unique opportunity to test out propaganda techniques on an unsuspecting public, a newly released Canadian Forces report concludes.
The plan devised by the Canadian Joint Operations Command, also known as CJOC, relied on propaganda techniques similar to those employed during the Afghanistan war. The campaign called for “shaping” and “exploiting” information. CJOC claimed the information operations scheme was needed to head off civil disobedience by Canadians during the coronavirus pandemic and to bolster government messages about the pandemic.
Nurses, Doctor Challenge RI Vaccine Mandate in Court. Here Are Their Arguments.
The Providence Journal reported:
The impassioned debate over the state’s mandate that healthcare workers get the COVID vaccine or face the consequences hit federal court Wednesday, with four medical professionals challenging the regulation based on its failure to provide exemptions on religious grounds.
Joseph S. Larisa Jr. argued in a virtual hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy that the mandate violated four anonymous healthcare workers’ Constitutional rights by prohibiting their employers from considering exempting them from being inoculated based on their “sincerely held religious beliefs.”
Assistant Attorney General Michael W. Field countered that there is nothing in the mandate that prevents employers from considering exemptions based on religious beliefs, as required by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In fact, he said, that is precisely what they should do.
Los Alamos National Laboratory Workers Sue Over Vaccine Mandate
Santa Fe New Mexican reported:
Los Alamos National Laboratory has been on the forefront of vaccine research during the coronavirus pandemic, but three dozen employees don’t feel that gives the lab the authority to compel them to get inoculated and are suing to block the vaccine mandate.
The employees are challenging an order the lab’s primary contractor, Triad National Security LLC, imposed in August requiring all eligible workers to be immunized or else face possible firing.
They contend the order infringes on their rights and, in some cases, threatens to exacerbate medical problems.
