Miss a day, miss a lot. Subscribe to The Defender's Top News of the Day. It's free.
22 States Ask Feds to Repeal COVID Vaccine Mandate for Healthcare Workers
Twenty-two state attorneys general are asking the Biden administration to end its “draconian vaccine mandate” for U.S. healthcare providers because it is causing critical shortages of healthcare workers and is justified with outdated data and science.
In a petition reviewed exclusively by Fox News Digital, 22 Republican state attorneys general, led by AG Austin Knudsen of Montana, demanded that the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) repeal the interim final rule, or IFR, that authorized the federal mandate in effect since November 2021.
In the nearly 40-page document, the state attorneys general laid out their case for repealing the mandate that covers Medicare and Medicaid providers and affects virtually all healthcare workers in the country. It affects 10.4 million workers at 76,000 healthcare facilities as well as home healthcare providers.
“No data at the time conclusively demonstrated that the vaccines would prevent infection and transmission,” the AGs said. They added that even fully vaccinated people contracted and transmitted COVID-19, a trend that has continued even with the introduction of a first-generation booster and the new, bivalent Omicron booster, they claim.
Science Journal Recognizes the Reality of COVID Censorship
Evolution News & Science Today reported:
Almost three years have passed since COVID-19 lockdowns and mandates upended our world. At first, the virus seemed to be an obscure, distant problem, posing little threat. Today, it’s hard to think of a world event more significant, talked about and politically controversial than the response to COVID.
Earlier this month, the peer-reviewed journal Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning, and Policy published an important article on COVID-related censorship and heterodoxy. Founded in 1962, Minerva is a well-established academic journal from Springer, one of the world’s top publishers of scientific journals. The article is an indication of just how mainstream concerns about censorship during the COVID era have become.
The authors are five researchers from universities and colleges in Israel and Australia. They interviewed a sample of leading medical professionals, doctors and scientists who questioned the prevailing COVID orthodoxy and were heavily reprimanded, censored or otherwise harassed and suppressed for their views.
Social media networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, with the government’s help, censored scientists, doctors and others for expressing dissent or even questioning the prevailing pandemic dogma. This still goes on. The researchers paid special attention to the way tech companies suppressed COVID heterodoxy under the guise of “fact-checking” and countering “misinformation.” As the pandemic progressed, it became harder and harder for medical professionals to openly express their views.
Montana Supreme Court Declines to Block Law Banning Vaccine Mandates in Most Workplaces
The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling to not block a state law prohibiting vaccine mandates in most workplaces. The state’s high court sided with a lower district court, which earlier ruled in favor of the law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of vaccination status.
The legislation applies to most businesses, government agencies and other workplaces. It excludes schools and long-term care facilities.
Montana’s Republican-dominated legislature last year passed a first-in-the-nation law making it illegal to discriminate based on a person’s vaccine status in providing services, access to public accommodations or employment. The law applies to all vaccinations.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott Issues Directive Outlawing COVID Vaccine Mandates
The Houston Chronicle reported:
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a press release Thursday announcing the outlawing of mandated COVID-19 vaccinations at state public schools. Abbott also announced the directive on Twitter Thursday, stating that “COVID vaccine mandates are PROHIBITED in Texas as part of school attendance.
“In Texas, we honor & defend the freedom of parents to choose what is best for the health of their families,” Abbott stated.
In a letter sent to TEA Commissioner Mike Morath, Abbott said that Texas law “overrides” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recent, non-binding recommendation that adds the COVID-19 vaccine to a list of scheduled immunizations for adults and kids in school, according to the announcement.
LA County Strongly Recommends Indoor Masking as COVID Cases, Hospitalizations Jump
Amid a sustained rise in coronavirus transmission, Los Angeles County is once again strongly recommending wearing a mask in indoor public spaces.
Specifically, the county now encourages individuals to wear a well-fitting, high-quality mask in public indoor spaces; when aboard public transit; in correctional and detention facilities; and in homeless and emergency shelters.
While still optional in those settings, masks remain mandatory in healthcare and congregate care facilities, as well as for those who have been exposed to COVID-19 during the last 10 days, according to county health officer Dr. Muntu Davis.
FBI Chief Wray: Can’t ‘Be Sure’ if Facebook Sending Agents User Info
FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday he can’t “be sure” whether Facebook is sending the bureau user information without official requests — after a recent report alleged the social media giant is flagging up information with a “partisan” slant.
House Judiciary Committee Republicans claimed earlier this month that the FBI receives “private user information from Facebook, but without the user’s consent or the legal process the FBI would otherwise need to independently pursue such user-related information.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked Wray during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing about the alleged partnership — named in the House report, based in part on whistleblower claims of pro-Democratic bias within the FBI, as “Operation Bronze Griffin.”
“Is Facebook or any other social media company supplying private messages or data on American users that is not compelled by the government or the FBI?” Paul asked Wray.
“I don’t believe so. But I can’t sit here and be sure of that as I sit here,” Wray said.
G20 Pushes Vaccine Passports for All Future International Travel
The G20 has issued a formal decree promoting vaccine passports as preparation for any future pandemic response in its final communique. Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, speaking on the matter on behalf of the G20 host country, had earlier in the summit called for a “digital health certificate” using WHO standards.
Sadikin advocated for what he dubbed a “digital health certificate,” which shows whether a person has been “vaccinated or tested properly” so that only then “you can move around.” A somewhat more vaguely-worded version of these recommendations was included in the official G20 leaders’ declaration, which calls for digital COVID-19 certificates or often simply called vaccine passports.
The section of the final communique, which is republished and available on the White House website, which deals with vaccines and the COVID-19 pandemic begins, “We recognize that the extensive COVID-19 immunization is a global public good and we will advance our effort to ensure timely, equitable and universal access to safe, affordable, quality and effective vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics (VTDs).”
Article 24 of the final G20 declaration begins, “The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the transformation of the digital ecosystem and digital economy.” And then leads to the following statement later in the section: “We acknowledge the importance to counter disinformation campaigns, cyber threats, online abuse and ensuring security in connectivity infrastructure.”
Meta Employees Were Reportedly Fired for Selling Account Information to Hackers
Meta reportedly fired more than a dozen security guards and other workers in the last year after internal investigations revealed they had been selling users’ information and login details to hackers. Some of those who received disciplinary actions were contractors who acquired information from users that were locked out or had trouble with their accounts.
The company utilizes a mechanism called “Oops” (Online Operations) to help users access or reset their accounts for Instagram or Facebook. The Wall Street Journal first reported that an internal probe found that some security guards were illegally accessing the accounts and providing the information to hackers for alleged bribes.
Oops is generally used as a last resort if users can’t reach someone from Meta by email or phone and are supposed to be used for employees, their family and friends. But as the number of employees rose, so did the number of requests that were filed. According to the WSJ, in 2017, Oops responded to about 22,000 recorded tasks which increased to 50,270 only three years later.
Toronto Transit Commission to Drop COVID Vaccine Mandate for Workers, Reinstate Terminated Employees
The Toronto Transit Commission says it’s ending its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirement for workers and offering to reinstate employees who were terminated as a result of the policy.
The transit agency says its vaccine mandate will be lifted on Nov. 27, though it is continuing to encourage employees to stay up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccinations.
The TTC says employees whose employment was terminated as a result of the policy will be invited to return to work. Previously-terminated employees will not be eligible for back pay but will maintain their seniority.
