Supreme Court Ends Unvaccinated Canadian Woman’s Fight for Organ Transplant
The legal battle waged by a Canadian woman who refused to get the COVID vaccine required for organ transplant recipients came to an end after the Supreme Court of Canada decided against hearing her appeal.
On Thursday, the high court announced it would decline to hear Alberta woman Sheila Annette Lewis’ case challenging the Alberta Health Services, an Alberta hospital and six doctors who removed her from a priority organ transplant waiting list because she was unwilling to get the shot. The doctors, hospital, city of the transplant program and organ that Lewis needs have not been released as the case is subject to a publication ban.
She refused to get the vaccine, saying it violated her conscience, and was moved to the bottom of the list last November. In an affidavit that she “ought to have the choice about what goes into [her] body” and that requiring her to be vaccinated would violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Her efforts were unsuccessful at both the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench, which said the Charter did not apply to clinical treatment decisions, and the Alberta Court of Appeal, which upheld the lower court’s decision. Lewis sought to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, which dismissed the case on Thursday.
Louisiana Law Would Require Parental Permission to Use Social Media
Kids and teens under 18 years old in Louisiana may soon need their parents’ permission to sign up for online accounts, including for social media, gaming and more, under a newly passed bill in the state.
The measure, which still needs to be signed by the state’s governor to take effect, follows a trend of laws in conservative states such as Utah and Arkansas that seek to limit adolescents’ unrestricted access to social media. Liberal states such as California as well as some Democratic lawmakers in Congress have also been working on new regulations to protect kids from some of the harmful effects of social media.
The unanimous vote in both chambers of the Louisiana state legislature underscores the popularity of legislation aimed at protecting kids from online harms.
If Children’s Privacy Bills Are Going to Make Surveillance Worse Maybe We Should Just Ban Smartphones Altogether
What kids are experiencing today on social media is unlike anything prior generations have had to contend with. The influence of social media on youth mental health is shaped by many complex factors, including, but not limited to, the number of time children and adolescents spend on platforms, the type of content they consume or are otherwise exposed to, the activities and interactions social media affords, and the degree to which it disrupts activities that are essential for health like sleep and physical activity.
According to the Surgeon General’s advisory note, over 95% of teens have access to smartphones, exposing them to a digital world saturated with potentially harmful content.
We’ve reached a point at which tech companies are no longer capable of denying the negative impact they’re having on our children. This isn’t one study, it’s multiple studies over time. Two weeks ago the United States Surgeon General, Vivek Murth, joined in with an official Advisory Note representing the dangers at hand.
The problem with most of the laws being proposed is that even with the best intentions they’ve mostly increased surveillance and they’re making it a legal requirement to profile children. I’ve been in the room for the drafting of a couple of these bills and I can safely say that nobody in the room wants to make the situation worse but creating a bill that is 1) meaningful enough to make an impact and 2) is simple enough for other legislators to understand and support is no small task.
Why We Should Ban Smartphones in Schools
On Tuesday, Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt published “Get Phones Out of Schools Now” for the Atlantic, cross-posted from his “After Babel” Substack. If you haven’t made up your mind about the advisability of young people taking smartphones to school, Haidt’s careful, well-documented argument will likely move you into the “do not allow” camp.
Comparing today with just four years ago, Haidt writes, “The case for phone-free schools is much stronger now.” Evidence has lately become clear that phones are addling young minds and that there is a causal link between their use and skyrocketing mental health issues among the young. (As if that weren’t enough to make you want to grab children’s phones away from them, the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday published a horrifying article, “Instagram Connects Vast Pedophile Network.”)
Haidt succinctly summarizes his findings: “So the time is right for parents and educators to ask: Should we make the school day phone-free? Would that reduce rates of depression, anxiety, and self-harm? Would it improve educational outcomes? I believe that the answer to all of these questions is yes.”
Commonplace but feckless school rules about not using phones during class aren’t sufficient (and are ignored anyway). He’s talking about barring students from physically possessing a phone at school anywhere, anytime. Phones should be essentially locked up in the morning and returned at the end of the school day, Haidt says.
Banks’ Growing Reliance on Chatbots to Handle Customer Service Tasks Worries Consumer Watchdog
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has warned about banks’ growing use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to handle routine customer service requests.
The CFPB is worried that banks or loan-servicing companies may cut back on human customer service employees and push increasing routine tasks to AI.
“To reduce costs, many financial institutions are integrating artificial intelligence technologies to steer people toward chatbots,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra.
“Chatbots can also raise certain privacy and security risks. When chatbots are poorly designed, or when customers are unable to get support, there can be widespread harm and customer trust can be significantly undermined.”
Maine Considers Ending COVID Vaccine Mandate for Health Workers
The administration of Gov. Janet Mills is conducting a review that could lead to the state following the federal government and other Democratic-led states in ending a controversial COVID vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.
Roughly half of the states instituted vaccine mandates at some point during the pandemic, but Gov. Janet Mills put Maine’s 2021 requirement among the most rigid ones by allowing no testing alternative for workers who did not want to be vaccinated. Conservatives here rallied in opposition to it, turning the mandate into a wedge issue with the Democratic governor.
Maine still has not announced its plans, but the Mills administration is conducting “a review of the evidence base” for the rule and will consider proposing changes afterward, though there is no timeline for any changes, said Jackie Farwell, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services.
New York State Dept. of Health Clarifies COVID Vaccine Mandate Repeal Process
The New York State Department of Health released new information about the process of repealing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.
The department announced it had begun the process of repealing the mandate on May 24. On Thursday, it said the next step would be a 60-day public comment period. That would be followed by consideration and approval from the Public Health and Planning Council.
The department said it would not cite healthcare facilities for new violations of the mandate during the repeal process.
Dutch Ask TikTok for Access to Data as EU Scrutinizes Big Tech
The Dutch government asked ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok to allow researchers access to the functioning of the social media platform in a bid to protect users online.
Dutch Minister for Digitalization Alexandra van Huffelen made the request at a meeting with TikTok Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew in Singapore, she said in a tweet on Thursday.
Dutch researchers will use the access to analyze how TikTok’s algorithm functions, the minister’s spokesman, Thomas van Oortmerssen, said by phone.
