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Study Shows Increase in Mandatory Flu Vaccinations for Hospital Staff
In just a few months, hospitals and health systems nationwide will start working to vaccinate as many staff as possible against the flu. And a new study suggests that more of those hospitals than ever before will require employees to get vaccinated or seek an exemption.
In all, the new study shows that 96% of the hospitals that serve America’s veterans, and 74% of hospitals serving the general public, now require staff to get vaccinated against influenza or seek an exemption.
Another 23% of non-Veterans Administration hospitals strongly encourage but don’t require flu vaccination. Whether or not they have a mandate, 81% of non-VA hospitals require unvaccinated workers to wear a mask around patients during flu season.
Published in JAMA Network Open, the study was done by a team from the University of Michigan and VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System that has surveyed hospitals on this topic since 2013.
Visualizing America’s Shift to a Cashless Society
A cashless society is one in which financial transactions are conducted primarily through digital means rather than physical cash, relying on technologies like credit cards and mobile payments.
While no country today has fully reached this concept, there are some (like China and South Korea) that have seen widespread adoption of mobile payment platforms and digital wallets.
To see whether the U.S. is also moving in this direction, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualized data from the Federal Reserve’s latest Diary of Consumer Payment Choice.
The key takeaway here is that the use of cash has fallen from 31% in 2016 to just 18% in 2022. It’s interesting to note that based on the Federal Reserve’s data, cash usage was already trending downwards before the pandemic, suggesting that the pandemic merely accelerated a trend that was already happening.
McCaughey: Time for the Truth About COVID Pandemic
A group of Dutch medical researchers is igniting a firestorm by calling for an investigation of the deaths caused by vaccine mandates and lockdowns imposed on the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. What’s wrong with that?
Everything, if you’re part of the global public health mafia and want to avoid questions about the mistakes you made and the lies you told. We all saw Dr. Anthony Fauci squirming when he was forced to admit to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee that the social distancing rules — like standing 6 feet apart — on which the lockdowns were based were pulled out of thin air.
The Dutch researchers want answers. They insist “every death needs to be acknowledged and accounted for,” including deaths caused by policy mistakes. The collateral damage from heavy-handed public health edicts. One conclusion is already crystal clear: Don’t entrust your life or health to the government.
The Dutch researchers’ stunning data show that for children the virus posed a minuscule 0.0003% risk of death, probably less risk than crossing the street to get to the playground.
U.S. Surgeon General Calls for Social Media Warning Labels to Protect Adolescents
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Monday called for a warning label to be added to social media apps as a reminder that those platforms have caused harm to young people, especially adolescents.
Murthy wrote in the New York Times on Monday that a warning label alone will not make social media safe for young people but that it can increase awareness and change behavior as shown in evidence from tobacco studies. The U.S. Congress would need to pass legislation requiring such a warning label.
For a long time, Murthy has been warning that social media can profoundly harm the mental health of youth, particularly adolescent girls. In an advisory last year, he called for safeguards from tech companies for children who are at critical stages of brain development.
A 2019 American Medical Association study showed that the risk of depression doubled for teenagers who were spending three hours a day on social media.
Leaked Documents Reveal Patient Safety Issues at Amazon’s One Medical
Since Amazon acquired the primary-care service One Medical, elderly patients have been routed to a call center — staffed partly by contractors with limited training — that failed on more than a dozen occasions to seek immediate attention for callers with urgent symptoms, according to internal documents seen by The Washington Post.
When one patient reported a “blood clot, pain and swelling,” call center staff scheduled an appointment rather than escalating the matter for medical evaluation, according to a note in an internal incident tracking spreadsheet dated Feb. 19.
Since Amazon formally acquired One Medical in February 2023 in a $3.9 billion deal, the company has alarmed patients and employees by eliminating free rides, shortening appointments and laying off staff. Now evidence of potentially life-threatening situations at the Tempe call center is raising fresh concern that Amazon’s frugal approach to health care may be imperiling patient safety.
Amazon-Powered AI Cameras Used to Detect Emotions of Unwitting UK Train Passengers
Thousands of people catching trains in the United Kingdom likely had their faces scanned by Amazon software as part of widespread artificial intelligence trials, new documents reveal. The image recognition system was used to predict travelers’ age, gender, and potential emotions — with the suggestion that the data could be used in advertising systems in the future.
During the past two years, eight train stations around the U.K. — including large stations such as London’s Euston and Waterloo, Manchester Piccadilly, and other smaller stations — have tested AI surveillance technology with CCTV cameras with the aim of alerting staff to safety incidents and potentially reducing certain types of crime.
The scope of the AI trials, elements of which have previously been reported, was revealed in a cache of documents obtained in response to a freedom of information request by civil liberties group Big Brother Watch. “The rollout and normalization of AI surveillance in these public spaces, without much consultation and conversation, is quite a concerning step,” says Jake Hurfurt, the head of research and investigations at the group.
Stanford’s Top Disinformation Research Group Collapses Under Pressure
The Stanford Internet Observatory, which published some of the most influential analyses of the spread of false information on social media during elections, has shed most of its staff and may shut down amid political and legal attacks that have cast a pall on efforts to study online misinformation.
Just three staffers remain at the Observatory, and they will either leave or find roles at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center, which is absorbing what remains of the program, according to eight people familiar with the developments, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
The collapse of the Observatory is the latest and largest in a series of setbacks for the community of researchers who try to detect propaganda and explain how false narratives are manufactured, gather momentum and become accepted by various groups.
It follows Harvard’s dismissal of misinformation expert Joan Donovan, who in a December whistleblower complaint alleged that the university’s close and lucrative ties with Facebook parent Meta led the university to clamp down on her work, which was highly critical of the social media giant’s practices.
Saudi Arabia Looking to China for a Lifeline for Its Futuristic City Could Mean Trouble for the U.S.
Saudi Arabia’s dreams of a futuristic city are turning into a financial nightmare, and one of its solutions could spell trouble for the U.S.
Neom’s planned features are eye-popping, to say the least. There’s the world’s longest infinity pool, a year-round ski resort, and a mixed-reality theme park. And The Line — a city built between two massive, mirrored skyscrapers — looks straight out of a sci-fi movie. But all these fancy things don’t come cheap. Some estimates for Neom have ballooned up to $1.5 trillion. And while the Kingdom was initially confident foreign investment would help foot the bill, that hasn’t been the case.
Now Saudi Arabia is turning to another country with economic headaches: China. The Kingdom hopes China will invest billions in the project, which could deepen ties between the two countries. That’s a troubling potential future for the U.S., Business Insider’s Tom Porter writes.
While Neom is being pitched as a “smart city” that collects data on residents, experts previously told BI it could really be part of a massive surveillance program powered by Chinese technology.
