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Unvaccinated Father Loses Right to See 12-Year-Old Son After Judge Ruling
A judge in Canada has suspended a man’s right to see his 12-year-old son because he isn’t vaccinated against COVID.
The man had asked to extend his visiting time with his child over the holidays. But the child’s mother, who has custody, opposed the request saying she had recently discovered the father wasn’t vaccinated.
Judge Jean-Sébastien Vaillancourt ruled it wouldn’t be in the child’s best interests to have contact with their father considering the surge in COVID cases in the French-speaking province of Quebec.
Supreme Court Blocks Biden COVID Vaccine Mandate for Businesses, Allows Healthcare Worker Rule
The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its sweeping vaccine-or-test requirements for large private companies, but allowed similar requirements to stand for medical facilities that take Medicare or Medicaid payments.
The rulings came three days after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s emergency measure started to take effect.
That mandate required that workers at businesses with 100 or more employees must get vaccinated or submit a negative COVID test weekly to enter the workplace. It also required unvaccinated workers to wear masks indoors at work.
Surveillance Will Follow Us Into ‘the Metaverse,’ and Our Bodies Could Be Its New Data Source
Buzz around shared, 3-D virtual spaces that companies including Meta are pitching as the “metaverse” may only get louder from here.
Tech giants including Meta and Microsoft announced their own metaverse products in the past few months. Even Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates weighed in, saying he expects the metaverse to be part of our workplaces in the next three years.
Virtual reality (VR) headsets can collect more data about us than traditional screens, which gives companies more opportunities to take and share that data for profiling and advertising. They could also give employers more ways to monitor our behavior and even our minds.
There’s little stopping the government from getting its hands on body-related data from VR tech, and there’s little in place to protect us and our kids from unrestricted data gathering and psychological manipulation, say digital rights advocates and experts following the industry.
Higher-Grade Masks Beginning to Be Required in Public Places Across U.S.
With experts warning that cloth masks are insufficient to protect against the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of coronavirus, some counties, universities and museums around the United States have begun to require higher-grade masks indoors.
Salt Lake County in Utah, home to Salt Lake City, instituted a 30-day mask mandate last week that requires wearing respirator-grade masks like N95s, KN95s or KF94s in indoor public areas, and Los Angeles County is requiring businesses to provide employees working indoors with surgical masks, well-fitting medical grade masks or respirators like the KN95.
Colleges around the nation, including Cornell University, California Institute of Technology, University of Southern California and University of Arizona, have updated indoor mask guidelines, asking students to no longer wear cloth face masks and switch to surgical masks or higher-grade masks instead.
Army Has Relieved Six Active-Duty Commanders for Refusing COVID Vaccine
The Army has relieved six active-duty commanders, including two battalion commanders, and issued 2,994 general officer written reprimands to soldiers for refusing a COVID vaccine.
In a release Wednesday, the Army said the punishments were for refusing the lawful order by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The Army has not yet initiated separations for soldiers refusing the vaccine but expects further guidance later this month.
The Army has not granted any religious exemption requests but has received 2,128 requests. The Navy, Air Force and Marines also have not granted any religious exemption requests so far.
Judge Won’t Stop Boston Coronavirus Vaccine Mandate Ahead of Deadline
Mayor Michelle Wu’s worker vaccine mandate will move ahead, a judge ruled just days before enforcement is due to begin.
“I will not enjoin the enforcement of the policy as of January 15,” Suffolk Superior Judge Jeffrey Locke said following a Wednesday hearing. “I think the public health emergency now is of such a nature that it outweighs the competing claims of harm by the plaintiff.”
Locke heard from both sides in a lawsuit ahead of the Saturday deadline, when the city will begin to place workers on unpaid leave if they haven’t received at least one coronavirus vaccine.
Gaetz Bill Would Nullify COVID Vaccine Passport Mandate in D.C.
Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz proposed legislation Wednesday that nullifies a COVID-19 vaccine passport mandate in Washington, D.C.
Congressman Gaetz joined 19 original Republican co-sponsors in introducing a bill to block D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s enforcement of proof of vaccination.
Bowser ordered that all D.C. businesses and establishments enforce proof of vaccination for entry beginning Jan. 15.
Minneapolis, St. Paul to Require Vaccine Proof to Get Into Bars, Restaurants
Minneapolis and St. Paul will require customers to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter restaurants, bars and other entertainment venues, marking some of the most aggressive steps the Twin Cities have taken to curb the spread of the virus.
The new restrictions — which will apply to places where food or beverages are sold for on-site, indoor consumption — will go into effect for most businesses Jan. 19, though ticketed events will not be required to comply until Jan. 26.
Patrons can provide either proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken under medical supervision within the last 72 hours. Proof of booster shots is not required.
French Senate Approves Latest COVID Measures and Vaccine Pass
The French Senate approved on Thursday the government’s latest measures to tackle the COVID-19 virus, including a vaccine pass, which has encountered some opposition among the public after President Emmanuel Macron’s harsh criticism of the unvaccinated.
The Senate backed the COVID measures and legislation for a COVID vaccine pass by 249 in favour, versus 63 against. The legislation had already been approved earlier this month by France’s lower house of parliament.
Protesters Clash With Police Outside Bulgaria’s Parliament Over COVID Measures
About 3,000 protesters clashed with police while demonstrating against coronavirus restrictions outside the Bulgarian parliament building Wednesday, resulting in multiple injuries, Reuters reports.
Protesters called for the removal of a mandatory health pass that would limit customers at restaurants, cafes, shopping malls and gyms to those who are vaccinated, recovered or have tested negative for COVID-19.
Netherlands to Ease COVID Restrictions — Report
Coronavirus restrictions in the Netherlands will be eased from Saturday despite a wave of new infections due to the Omicron variant, Dutch media reported on Thursday.
Non-essential stores, hairdressers and gyms will be allowed to reopen for a limited number of customers, broadcasters NOS and RTL said, citing government sources. Students will be welcomed back to their colleges and universities.
Public places, except essential stores, have been shut since mid-December as hospitals struggled to deal with a wave of COVID-19 patients, caused by the Delta variant of the virus.
270 Angry Scientists Cite MSM ‘Fact Checks’ in Open Letter Urging Spotify to Censor Joe Rogan
Two weeks after Joe Rogan interviewed mRNA inventor Dr. Robert Malone on his Spotify podcast — which boasts 11 million viewers on average — an angry letter brigade of 270 doctors and scientists have written an open letter to Spotify to demand they censor Rogan and implement a COVID-19 “misinformation policy,” so that people, even highly trained virologist-immunologists such as Malone, can’t contradict ‘the science.’
And of course, just three of the signatories are immunologists, roughly 10% are nurses or nurse practitioners, and 33 are some type of ‘assistant’ (professor, nurse, lab, etc.). In short – hardly any of these people are qualified to refute Malone, which is probably why they link to ‘fact checks’ instead of compiling their own response on the merits of what Malone said.
Doctors Warn Online Appointments Are Leaking Sensitive Data
For many doctors and clinicians, being able to conduct consultations remotely has been a literal lifesaver. However, many of them are also clumsy and often compromise customer personal information during these sessions.
A new report from Kaspersky has found cybersecurity training doesn’t really work as intended for many medical professionals, with almost a third (30%) of healthcare providers experiencing incidents in which employees compromise sensitive data during online consultations, putting their customers at risk of identity theft.
For almost half of the respondents, this is due to clinicians not clearly understanding how patient data is protected.
