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Why Are Preschoolers Subject to the Strictest COVID Rules in New York City?

The New Yorker reported:

One morning last week, I was walking my son to pre-kindergarten when we spotted one of his friends strolling toward us with his parents — ominously, away from school. A classmate had tested positive for COVID-19. In accordance with city protocols, the entire class was sent home to quarantine for at least five days.

Most parents remember these claustrophobic cycles from the first, locked-down spring of the pandemic. But most of them have long since moved on.

It was starting to feel like children under the age of five in New York City were the last people subject to strict pandemic mandates. On the day my son was sent home, at the Barclays Center (capacity: about seventeen thousand), the unvaccinated basketball player Kyrie Irving played his seventh home game since Mayor Eric Adams excused athletes and performers from the city’s vaccine mandate.

The era of COVID vigilance is over, it seems — that is, unless you are medically vulnerable or too young for kindergarten. In the New York City public-school system, only pre-K and 3-K students are still subject to “close-contact” restrictions: if they are exposed to COVID at school, they must quarantine even if they produce a negative test result. They are also the only remaining students who must wear masks in school — the mask mandate for older children ended on March 7.

Fate of Travel Mask Mandate in Limbo as CDC Decides Whether to Appeal

Ars Technica reported:

The Department of Justice late Tuesday announced that it disagrees with a Florida judge’s ruling that abruptly nixed the federal travel mask mandate. However, the department said it would not immediately seek an appeal or a stay that would keep the mandate in place while litigation continued.

Instead, the DOJ said that it is now up to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine if the mask mandate “remains necessary for the public’s health.” If the CDC determines that it is necessary, the DOJ will appeal the decision.

The CDC is reportedly undecided on the matter. On April 13, just before the mask mandate was set to expire, the CDC extended it for 15 days so it could assess the state of the pandemic and decide if the mandate was still necessary.

Federal Workers Can’t Sue Over Biden’s Vaccine Mandate, Appeals Court Says

Forbes reported:

Federal workers who want to challenge President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate should turn to the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), an agency created to protect the rights of federal employees, rather than going through the courts, a Virginia appeals court said.

In a unanimous decision, a 4th Circuit Court of Appeals three-judge panel ordered a lower court to dismiss a case lodged by Department of Defense employee Israel Rydie and Food and Drug Administration employee Elizabeth Fleming claiming that the vaccine mandate is unconstitutional.

The 1978 Civil Service Reform Act allows federal employees who have been disciplined to appeal to the MSPB, and strips courts of the jurisdiction to hear such cases, including Rydie and Fleming’s case, the panel said.

Milwaukee Schools Reinstate Mask Mandate Just One Day After It Was Dropped

CNN reported:

Just one day after mask-wearing was made optional in Milwaukee Public Schools, the district announced it will return to mandating masks as cases of COVID-19 in the city rise.

MPS initially announced March 24 that masks would become optional in its schools beginning April 18. But on Tuesday, a day after the new policy took effect, MPS informed families masks would again be mandatory, saying the decision was made “after determining a significant transmission of the virus within the city of Milwaukee.”

Philadelphia Keeps Indoor Mask Mandate in Place Despite Florida Judge Ruling Against CDC

CNBC reported:

Philadelphia health officials are keeping the city’s newly reinstated indoor mask mandate in place despite a federal judge’s ruling in Florida that struck down a federal requirement to wear face coverings on public transportation.

The city of brotherly love became the first major city in the U.S. on Monday to reinstate its COVID-19 mask mandate for indoor activities as the highly contagious Omicron BA.2 subvariant drives new COVID cases higher across the U.S.

“We are evaluating the implications of this latest ruling and will provide further clarity around masking on transit in Philadelphia when available. This ruling does not impact the city’s mask mandate for certain indoor places.” James Garrow, director of communications at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, said in an email to CNBC.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker Lifts State Transportation Mask Requirement After a Day of Shifting Mask Rules

Chicago Tribune reported:

Chicago travelers were left to navigate a patchwork of changing mask rules Tuesday after a federal judge voided a national mandate for planes, trains and buses and Gov. J.B. Pritzker revised Illinois requirements midday.

The day started with passengers required to wear masks on just some trains, and during only some parts of air travel. The Chicago Department of Aviation, which oversees Midway and O’Hare International airports, started the day saying it would still enforce mask rules, while major airlines had already largely dropped their requirements. Morning commuters on CTA and Metra needed to wear masks, but not riders on Amtrak or the South Shore commuter line to northern Indiana. Masks were optional in Ubers and Lyfts.

By the evening commute, the rules had changed.

Where You Still Need to Wear COVID Face Masks — and Where You Don’t Anymore

CNBC reported:

With no more federal COVID mask mandate on airplanes and other forms of public transportation, you might be wondering: Where in the U.S. am I still required to wear a face covering?

Most major U.S. airlines, along with Amtrack and ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft, quickly moved to make face coverings optional — though often still encouraged, per the CDC’s latest guidelines — for most people using their services. Some transit agencies have already dropped their mask requirements, too.

Others aren’t budging, joining a smattering of cities and states across the country maintaining mask mandates in places like restaurants, sporting arenas and public schools. Here are some of the country’s most notable places where you still have to wear a face covering — at least, for now.

Disney World Lifts Last Mask Requirement

Fox Business reported:

The last of the mask requirements have been lifted at Walt Disney World. Face coverings will be optional for visitors at all locations on the central Florida Disney property.

The rule change was posted Tuesday, according to the Disney website. Disney still recommends masks for guests who are not fully vaccinated in indoor locations and enclosed transportation, although they are no longer required.

Shanghai Allows 4 Million out of Homes as Virus Rules Ease

Associated Press reported:

Shanghai allowed 4 million more people out of their homes Wednesday as anti-virus controls that shut down China’s biggest city eased, while the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast of Chinese economic growth and warned the global flow of industrial goods might be disrupted.

A total of almost 12 million people in the city of 25 million are allowed to go outdoors following the first round of easing last week, health official Wu Ganyu said at a news conference. Wu said the virus was “under effective control” for the first time in some parts of the city.

Under the latest changes, more than 4 million people are included in areas where the status shifted from closed to controlled, said Wu. He said some are not allowed to leave their neighborhoods and large gatherings are prohibited.

DuckDuckGo’s Browsers and Extensions Now Protect Against AMP Tracking

The Verge reported:

Privacy-oriented search engine DuckDuckGo says it will “protect” against tracking by web pages with Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages framework (or AMP) enabled. “When you load or share a Google AMP page anywhere from DuckDuckGo apps (iOS/Android/Mac) or extensions (Firefox/Chrome), the original publisher’s webpage will be used in place of the Google AMP version,” the company said on Twitter. The technology allows Google to track users, DuckDuckGo notes, and forces publishers to use AMP by prioritizing those links in its search results.

AMP was originally introduced — or so Google said — as a way to make mobile web pages load faster. But developers and others eyed AMP with suspicion, and some took issue with how Google prioritized AMP pages in search results. Improvements to mobile websites since AMP’s introduction have made it somewhat less useful to publishers in recent years, and many (including The Verge parent company Vox Media) don’t use the framework at all.

‘Toxic and Obsessive’: Young People Bailing on Social Media

The Daily Wire reported:

There was a time when Facebook was for old people, Instagram and TikTok were for young people and Twitter was for, well, boring people.

But more and more young people are deciding that all of social media is a huge time suck, pointless — perhaps even detrimental — and bailing altogether.

“Zoomers are known for being glued to their phones, but some twenty-somethings are taking a stand against all-consuming apps such as TikTok and Instagram,” the New York Post reported. “Calling them ‘toxic’ and ‘obsessive,’ these young people say they’re regaining control of their time by stepping away from the scroll.”

Austin Whole Foods Unveils Pay-by-Palm Service for Grocery Shoppers

Fox Business reported:

Whole Foods shoppers in Austin, Texas, can now buy their groceries with nothing more than a swipe of the palm. The new Amazon One device is connected to a customer’s credit or debit card and can scan their unique palm signature in about a second.

The palm-reading service has raised privacy concerns among some officials. Last year, Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., sent a letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy about the company’s biometric data collection practices.

“Amazon’s expansion of biometric data collection through Amazon One raises serious questions about Amazon’s plans for this data and its respect for user privacy, including about how Amazon may use the data for advertising and tracking purposes,” the senators wrote.