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Almost 500 Service Members Discharged for Refusing COVID Vaccine
Almost 500 U.S. service members have been discharged so far for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. But that number is likely to climb as the various military branches continue the process of dealing with those who are refusing to get vaccinated against COVID-19, or have requested exemptions.
The Navy said on Tuesday that it has discharged 23 active-duty sailors for refusing the coronavirus vaccine. The Air Force, as of January 21, has discharged 111 active-duty airmen for refusing to get the shots.
As of January 20, the Marine Corps had discharged 334 Marines. The Army is the only service that has not yet initiated separations for active-duty personnel for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
But in a news release earlier this month, the Army said it had relieved six active-duty leaders, including two battalion commanders, from their positions for refusing the vaccine. The Army also said it had issued almost 3,000 general officer written reprimands to soldiers for vaccine refusal.
Vaccine Mandate to Kick in for First Wave of Health Workers
Healthcare workers in about half the states face a Thursday deadline to get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine under a Biden administration mandate that will be rolled out across the rest of the country in the coming weeks.
While the requirement is welcomed by some, others fear it will worsen already serious staff shortages if employees quit rather than comply.
The mandate ultimately will cover 10.4 million healthcare workers at 76,000 facilities.
It is taking effect first in jurisdictions that didn’t challenge the requirement in court. The states affected on Thursday are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, along with the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.
State Appeals Court Pauses Vaccination Mandate for Boston City Workforce
A judge with the Massachusetts Appeals Court has temporarily paused Boston’s vaccination mandate for its city workforce that was set to go into effect Monday.
In a Thursday order, the judge issued a temporary stay, pending review of a judicial decision made earlier this month that denied a request from three unions for a preliminary injunction.
That order is the latest turn in a clash that has pitted Mayor Michelle Wu’s new administration against municipal unions over her attempt to require the city’s 18,000-plus workers be vaccinated in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 and protect the public.
It comes a day after three public safety unions filed an appeal of a judge’s decision that rejected their push to block enforcement of the vaccination mandate, which does away with the option for city workers to get regular COVID tests in lieu of jabs.
Alaska, Texas Governors Sue Over National Guard Vaccine Rule
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in seeking to block the U.S. Department of Defense from mandating COVID-19 vaccines for National Guard members who are under state command. The Pentagon has required COVID-19 vaccination for all service members, including the National Guard and Reserve.
Attorneys for the two governors, in an amended lawsuit dated Tuesday, say that when National Guard members are serving the state, the federal government has no command authority. The lawsuit said the mandate is an unconstitutional overstepping of bounds.
The case dealing with Alaska and Texas guard members is an amended version of the challenge filed by Texas earlier this month.
South Carolina Bill Would Outlaw Asking About COVID Vaccination Status
Republican lawmakers in South Carolina have introduced a bill that would make it a criminal offense for anyone, including employers, to ask about a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status. The legislation, H. 4848, was introduced on Jan. 20.
“Any employee, officer, agent, or other representative of a public, nonprofit, or private entity who inquires about the COVID-19 vaccination status of any student, employee, member, or anyone else seeking admission on the entity’s premises is guilty of a misdemeanor,” the proposed bill states.
California Lawmaker Blasts ‘Unconscionable’ Potential Vaccine Mandate for All Students
A bill introduced earlier this week by a California senator requiring the state’s students to be immunized for COVID-19 despite objections from parents based on their personal beliefs has some conservative legislators pushing back in a big way.
Introduced by state Senator Richard Pan, a Democrat from Sacramento, “The Keep Schools Open and Safe Act” would not only prohibit families from claiming a personal belief exemption concerning California’s COVID-19 student vaccine requirement, but it would also add these vaccines to the state’s list of required inoculations for those attending K-12 schools.
“Now it is clear. The government doesn’t want your family to have a choice. Government is in control. Either get vaccinated or get kicked out of school,” tweeted California Assemblyman James Gallagher Monday.
“I am absolutely going to oppose removing COVID vaccine exemptions for school children. This is wrong and an unconscionable overreach into the family over a virus that poses very minimal threat to young children.”
Montana Republicans Seek Leniency on Vaccine Mandates
Montana’s governor and its two Republican members of Congress are asking the Biden administration to grant exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate to federally funded healthcare facilities where losing unvaccinated staff might jeopardize access to medical care.
Gov. Greg Gianforte, U.S. Sen. Steve Daines and U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale made the request Wednesday in a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
“Some Montana facilities cannot afford to lose another healthcare professional, especially when alternative measures can be implemented, such as masking and testing, to protect the safety and health of employees, patients and visitors from COVID-19,” they wrote.
Is a COVID Vaccine Mandate on the Way for Chicago Public Schools Students? ‘We Need to Keep Talking About This,’ Board of Ed Member Says
With just over a third of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students fully vaccinated against COVID-19, a member of the Chicago Board of Education said Wednesday she doesn’t “see a world in which we start school next year without a vaccine mandate.”
The discussion arose during Wednesday’s monthly board meeting after CPS’ chief health officer, Dr. Kenneth Fox, noted the challenge in persuading parents who are hesitant about the vaccine. Around 116,000 of the 330,000 students enrolled in CPS are fully vaccinated, while about 148,000 students have received at least one dose, according to the district.
Vaccine Mandate for Minor-League Baseball Players Scrapped as MLB Reverses Course
Major League Baseball will not require minor-league players to be vaccinated in the upcoming season, a reversal from plans originally reported by Yahoo Sports in October.
Since then, vaccine mandates have come under legal fire across the country.
The legal complications that have arisen around vaccine mandates were among many considerations for the league in changing course. MLB conferred with medical experts, outside counsel and the other sports leagues before issuing a memo Thursday.
England Lifts COVID Restrictions as Omicron Threat Recedes
Most coronavirus restrictions, including mandatory face masks, were lifted in England on Thursday after Britain’s government said its vaccine booster rollout successfully reduced serious illness and COVID-19 hospitalizations.
From Thursday, face coverings are no longer required by law anywhere in England, and a legal requirement for COVID-19 passes for entry into nightclubs and other large venues has been scrapped.
The government last week dropped its advice for people to work from home, as well as guidance for face coverings in classrooms. From next week, restrictions on the number of visitors to nursing homes will also be lifted.
YouTube Permanently Bans Fox News Host Dan Bongino for Posting COVID Misinformation
Google-owned YouTube said it had permanently banned prominent conservative media figure Don Bongino from its site after he repeatedly broke its rules on posting coronavirus misinformation.
Bongino had around 870,000 subscribers on YouTube but has over 2 million on Rumble, a video platform popular with right-wing figures who say Big Tech is censoring them. He had threatened to leave YouTube before the ban.
Bongino is one of a small handful of conservative figures who have been handed permanent suspensions from the big social media companies.
Investigating the Digital Wealth Gap Between Users and the Tech Giants in Control
Imagine social media as a giant factory where the foremen are billionaires. A handful of workers are getting a respectable living wage. Some are scraping together a living only if they hustle hard enough and tolerate a lot of uncertainty and risk. But by far the vast majority are simply working for free.
And OK, a factory is an imperfect analogy for the social media apps and sites we like to call “the attention economy,” because, in theory, we’re using them for fun, but that’s been getting less and less true for years, and it feels more like we’re just stuck with them.
Meanwhile, the companies own what we produce there: our data. And they make vast sums of money off that data by selling targeted ads and otherwise eroding our privacy. It’s becoming more apparent every day that this tradeoff isn’t working out for one of the parties involved.
FTC: U.S. Consumers Lost $770 Million in Social Media Scams in 2021, up 18x From 2017
A growing number of U.S. consumers are getting scammed on social media according to a new report by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which revealed that consumers lost $770 million to social media scams in 2021 — a figure that accounted for about one-fourth of all fraud losses for the year.
That number has also increased 18 times from the $42 million in social media fraud reported in 2017, the FTC said, as new types of scams involving cryptocurrency and online shopping became more popular.
This has also led to many younger consumers getting scammed, as now adults ages 18 to 39 reported fraud losses at a rate that’s 2.4 times higher than adults 40 and over. Scammers have clearly found that social media is one of the most profitable places to commit fraud.
