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Vaccine Researcher Dr. Robert Malone Reinstated on Twitter After Being Banned Over COVID Misinformation Policy
Twitter on Monday unsuspended the account of Dr. Robert Malone, who was previously kicked off the platform for his posts on coronavirus vaccines.
Malone, an mRNA vaccine researcher, was removed from Twitter nearly a year ago for apparently violating the social media site’s policy on COVID-19 misinformation. He had repeatedly made claims regarding the effectiveness of the vaccines.
Around the same time as his Twitter ban, Malone’s appearance on Joe Rogan‘s podcast was censored by YouTube. In the interview with Rogan, Malone discussed vaccines and the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What the media doesn’t understand is that you can’t suppress information,” he told host Laura Ingraham in January. “It’ll find a way to be free.”
We’ve Failed to Learn From Past Pandemics. Our Posterity Deserves Better
A headline from a Santa Barbara newspaper blared: “Mask is the Chief Ally of the [‘Disease’] Physicians Declare.” The subtitle ran: “Average person doesn’t know how to take care of a mask and it becomes a veritable bacteria incubator.” This wasn’t the work of some dissident group of “fringe epidemiologists” in 2020; it was published on November 16, 1918, as the Spanish Flu swept across the country.
The basic fact is that our current crop of “public health” experts, led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, has failed to learn the lessons of past pandemics. COVID-era lockdowns, mandates and other draconian mitigation measures fundamentally destroyed trust in our public health institutions. Historic accounts from 100 years ago convey a cautionary tale, warning against these excessive measures — but our so-called “experts” ignored them. We cannot afford to let the COVID era pass into history without uncovering what transpired and determining who should be held accountable. Our children deserve a maskless future.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has again issued guidance recommending universal masking. But universal mask mandates and other ultra-strict pandemic interventions have been tried before. As many scientific studies will attest: They failed then, as they did now. The forgotten history of stringent interventions is something we should have remembered at the onset of COVID.
U.K. Government Asked Twitter and Facebook to ‘Tweak’ Algorithms During COVID
Former United Kingdom Health Secretary Matt Hancock, self-styled as an official who was at the forefront of Britain’s battle against COVID, didn’t seem to feel like he had done enough in 2020 and 2021, so he felt compelled to milk the pandemic cow by writing a book about that “battle.”
But he wasn’t laboring alone, since he had a co-author, Isabel Oakeshott, who reports say is actually opposed to Hancock’s policies and is a lockdown skeptic.
And now, Oakeshott, who had access to official records and Hancock’s notes exchanged with “all the key players in Britain’s COVID-19 story” — as the book’s blurb states — has penned her own “story,” an article based on the collaboration published by the Spectator, whose content draws from the material used for the book.
Oakeshott writes about the “key lessons” that include revelations about the details of U.K.’s vaccine and mask policies, but also the mechanisms to deal with dissenters, particularly online.
Mexican State Brings Back Mask Mandate as COVID Numbers Rise
A northern Mexican state reintroduced the obligatory use of face masks in closed public spaces, officials said on Monday, in a bid to reduce rising COVID-19 infections, as well as the spread of other respiratory diseases.
The health minister of Nuevo Leon state, home to Mexico’s third-biggest city Monterrey, highlighted the updated guidelines in a news conference and said that the measure will go into effect immediately.
Giving Your Child a Screen May Hinder Emotional Regulation, Study Says. Here’s What to Do Instead
Researchers looked at 422 parent and caregiver responses to assess how likely they were to utilize devices for distraction and how dysregulated their 3- to 5-year-old child’s behavior was over a six-month period, according to the study published Monday in the JAMA Pediatrics.
Frequently using digital devices to distract from unpleasant and disruptive behavior like tantrums was associated with more emotional dysregulation in kids — particularly boys and children who were already struggling with emotional regulation, according to the study.
The study lines up with the current recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the World Health Organization that children ages 2 to 5 should have very limited screen time, said Dr. Joyce Harrison, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.
Instead of distraction, Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and associate professor of behavioral sciences at the University of Michigan Medical School, recommends taking tantrums and emotional dysregulation as opportunities to teach children how to identify and respond to emotions in helpful ways.
Ex-NYT Columnist Swipes Media Downplaying Twitter Files: ‘Less Interesting’ Facebook Leaks Made Front Pages
Former New York Times media columnist Ben Smith took a swipe at the lack of coverage Elon Musk‘s “Twitter Files” have been receiving from the legacy press.
“Of course, the ‘Twitter files’ are a story,” Smith wrote in his newsletter on Sunday. “Elon Musk’s selective release of internal correspondence has shed some light on how Twitter clamped down on voices it deemed extreme and misleading, mostly on the right and far right. Less interesting leaks from Facebook made front pages for years.”
Ever since Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss began reporting on the “Twitter Files,” several members of the legacy media including from NBC News, CNN and The Washington Post have attempted to dismiss the findings as “nothing burgers.”
The three broadcast networks have virtually given zero coverage to each of the installments of the “Twitter Files” with CBS offering roughly 30 seconds about the first installment with ignoring the rest like ABC and NBC. CNN and MSNBC, meanwhile, have put less emphasis on the revelations from the tech giant and kept their ire on its new owner, Elon Musk.
Washington Regulator Aims for More Control of Microsoft and Meta
Lina Khan’s Federal Trade Commission has two headline-making cases underway right now: Its trial against Meta in a California courtroom, and a new suit to block a Microsoft megadeal.
But Khan’s long game appears to be even bigger. She wants to win unprecedented powers to review and potentially block any future deals by two of tech’s most acquisitive companies.
Buried in court filings for both cases — a lawsuit to block Microsoft’s takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard, and a trial against Meta’s takeover of Within, maker of the virtual reality fitness app Supernatural — Khan’s push for new authorities shows how much more aggressive the agency is under her watch.
If the FTC can score a victory in either proceeding — though there’s likely a long way to go before either reaches that point — Khan and her team would do more than just block these deals, they’d be arming themselves with broad investigative authority over future acquisitions at Meta and Microsoft. For two tech giants that have built some of their most successful enterprises around buying companies, it would be a radically new regulatory process compared to how they’ve done business in the past.
Musk’s Twitter Dissolves Trust and Safety Council That Advised Platform’s Content
Twitter, under the leadership of Elon Musk, dissolved an outside advisory council minutes before a scheduled meeting, according to reports.
The Trust and Safety Council comprised nearly 100 independent civil, human rights and other organizations that the company formed in 2016 to address hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other problems on the platform.
“Our work to make Twitter a safe, informative place will be moving faster and more aggressively than ever before and we will continue to welcome your ideas going forward about how to achieve this goal,” said an email provided to The Associated Press. It was signed “Twitter.”
‘Effective Immediately’: Utah Bans TikTok From State Devices
Utah Republican Governor Spencer Cox issued an executive order on Monday that bans TikTok from all state-owned devices, citing “security threats by China and China-based entities.”
“China’s access to data collected by TikTok presents a threat to our cybersecurity,” Cox said. “As a result, we’ve deleted our TikTok account and ordered the same on all state-owned devices. We must protect Utahns and make sure that the people of Utah can trust the state’s security systems.”
The decision adds Utah to a growing list of Republican-led states to recently enact similar policies. On Thursday, Oklahoma Republican Governor Kevin Stitt issued his executive order to ban TikTok from state devices. On Wednesday, Texas became the largest state to ban the app, with Republican Governor Greg Abbott denouncing TikTok.
HR Platform Sequoia Says Hackers Accessed Customer SSNs and COVID Data
Benefits and payroll management company Sequoia says hackers accessed sensitive customer information, including their Social Security numbers and COVID-19 test results.
According to Wired, which first broke the news of Sequoia’s breach last week, the incident impacted customers of Sequoia One, a professional employer organization (or PEO) that provides outsourced human resources and payroll services. The service is popular with U.S.-based startups and says it works with more than 500 venture-backed companies.
Now, in a data breach notice filed with the California attorney general’s office, Sequoia said it became aware that an “unauthorized party may have accessed a cloud storage system that contained personal information” over a two-week period between September 22 and October 6.
This breached cloud system stored an array of sensitive personal data, including names, home addresses, dates of birth, gender, marital status and employment status. It also included Social Security numbers, their salary wage related to benefits, government identity cards and COVID-19 test results and vaccine cards.
