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West Virginia Gov. Justice Vetoes Bill That Would Have Loosened School Vaccine Policies
Republican Gov. Jim Justice on Wednesday broke with West Virginia’s GOP-majority Legislature to veto a bill that would have loosened one of the country’s strictest school vaccination policies.
West Virginia is only one of a handful of states in the U.S. that offers only medical exemptions to vaccine requirements. The bill would have allowed some students who don’t attend traditional public institutions or participate in group extracurriculars like sports to be exempt from vaccinations typically required for children starting daycare or school.
Justice, who is running for Democrat U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s seat, received immense pressure to reject the bill from healthcare leaders, educators and parents. He refused to answer whether or not he planned to sign it before Wednesday’s veto, saying he needed time to think through the decision.
The veto came on the last day before a key deadline that would have allowed the bill to go into law without Justice’s signature.
AMA President Advocates for Stricter Censorship of Health ‘Misinformation,’ Urges Platforms to Follow YouTube’s Strict Speech Policy
The American Medical Association (AMA) President Jesse Ehrenfeld is arguing in favor of more censorship, supposedly targeting those “spreading misinformation.”
Ehrenfeld is happy with how Google/YouTube is doing that, via the controversial “medical misinformation” policy which he says “landed a solid punch” (against suspected medical information, not free speech, according to him). And, Ehrenfeld is urging other platforms to adopt similar rules.
YouTube mandates that its users must strictly adhere to whatever local health authorities or the World Health Organization say about health-related matters.
In a blog post of his own, Ehrenfeld now writes that U.S. federal officials, including the surgeon general, have an obligation to “actively counter voices” that are deemed to be deliberately spreading misinformation about (COVID) vaccines and other issues.
4 Canadian School Boards Sue Snapchat, TikTok and Meta for Disrupting Students’ Education
Four of the largest school boards in the Canadian province of Ontario said Thursday they launched lawsuits against TikTok, Meta and SnapChat alleging the social media platforms are disrupting student learning.
The lawsuits claim platforms like Facebook and Instagram are “designed for compulsive use, have rewired the way children think, behave, and learn” and teachers have been left to manage the fallout. Rachel Chernos, a trustee for the Toronto District School Board, said teachers and parents are noticing social withdrawal, anxiety, attention problems, cyberbullying and mental health issues.
“These companies have knowingly created programs that are addictive that are aimed and marketed at young people and it is causing significant harm and we just can’t stand by any longer and not speak up about it,” she said.
They are seeking damages in excess of $4 billion Canadian (US$2.9 billion) for disruption to student learning and the education system.
Military Chaplains Appeal to Supreme Court Over COVID Policies That Forced Out Religious Objectors
A group of military chaplains is urging the Supreme Court to stop the Department of Defense from enforcing policies that it says punish those who filed religious objections to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The Supreme Court is currently considering the chaplains’ appeal of a Fourth Circuit decision to dismiss the case. While awaiting the ruling, the chaplains argue that “interim relief is necessary” to protect both the Court’s jurisdiction and the chaplains “from continuing irreparable harm, career destruction and/or discharge,” according to the petition.
“Without interim relief to protect their chaplaincies, many Chaplains will have been forced out of the Armed Services before the merits of this case return to this Court after remand,” the filing states. “To preserve this Court’s future jurisdiction over the permanent resolution of the Chaplains’ challenge, the Court should issue interim relief now to ensure that DOD cannot play out the clock as a means to evade review of its unlawful Mandate.”
The petition alleges that the DOD has not removed “adverse personnel actions” — unfavorable measures such as poor fitness reports that may affect promotions and result in other consequences — from the chaplains’ files. The petition contends that the adverse personnel actions occurred due to the chaplains’ religious accommodation requests (RAR).
The chaplains took up the lawsuit “when it became obvious DOD was denying all RARs, using that process to purge those who believed in following their faith-formed conscience by requesting RARs,” the court document states.
Fauci: When Confronted With Misinformation, Stick to the Science — Former NIAID Director Advises Public Health Students on Navigating Politically Charged Topics
While public health professionals don’t get formal training on how to operate in highly politically charged and divisive environments, the best thing to do is stick to the facts, evidence, and data, Anthony Fauci, MD, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told an audience of health policy graduate students on Wednesday.
He acknowledged that this can be challenging in the context of an evolving pandemic. As new information appeared, for instance, recommendations would change. But it’s not an easy task to get the wider public to understand the scientific process, he said.
“What happens is that when scientists … change their recommendations, it can sometimes — understandably, but inappropriately — be interpreted as flip-flopping,” Fauci said. “And when your audience thinks you’re flip-flopping, they then start to lose confidence in science, when actually it’s just the opposite. It’s the science that’s self-correcting as new information comes along.”
Yet that provides an opportunity for misinformation to take hold. He noted that we have recently seen a “normalization of untruths,” where complete fabrications can get amplified via social media.
The counter to that, he said, is to “spread as much correct information as you possibly can.” At the same time, he acknowledged that those who spread misinformation are “a very energetic group” that seems to have the time, energy, and resources to “outgun” public health officials.
NSW May End Its COVID Vaccine Mandate for Health Workers. That Doesn’t Mean It Was a Bad Idea in the First Place
Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organizations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the first to need two doses to keep their jobs.
State and territory governments subsequently implemented employment and public space mandates which required people to show proof of vaccination to enter hospitality venues and events. A constellation of private companies also required vaccines for their workers or patrons.
Mandate removal may have just as much of an influence on people’s future attitudes and behavior as mandate imposition. As New South Wales considers removing its COVID vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, it’s pertinent to explore how to abolish a vaccine mandate in the right way.
Queensland and Western Australia removed their COVID vaccine requirements for health workers in 2023, and this week NSW announced it’s considering doing the same.
U.S. Requiring New AI Safeguards for Government Use, Transparency
The White House said Thursday it is requiring federal agencies using artificial intelligence to adopt “concrete safeguards” by Dec. 1 to protect Americans’ rights and ensure safety as the government expands AI use in a wide range of applications.
The Office of Management and Budget issued a directive to federal agencies to monitor, assess and test AI’s impacts “on the public, mitigate the risks of algorithmic discrimination, and provide the public with transparency into how the government uses AI.” Agencies must also conduct risk assessments and set operational and governance metrics.
The White House said agencies “will be required to implement concrete safeguards when using AI in a way that could impact Americans’ rights or safety” including detailed public disclosures so the public knows how and when artificial intelligence is being used by the government.
The White House on Thursday said new safeguards will ensure air travelers can opt-out of Transportation Security Administration facial recognition use without delay in screening. When AI is used in federal healthcare to support diagnostics decisions a human must oversee “the process to verify the tools’ results.”
Amazon’s Palm-Scanning Service Now Lets You Sign Up From Your Phone
Amazon now lets you sign up for its palm recognition service directly from your phone. It’s launching a new Amazon One app on iOS and Android you can use to take a photo of your palm and set up your account, allowing you to start scanning your palm at locations that support the verification tech.
Amazon One uses generative AI to analyze your palm vein structure to create a “unique numerical, vector representation” of your palm that it recognizes when you scan your hand in-store. On mobile, Amazon says it uses AI to match the photo from a phone’s camera to the “near-infrared imagery” from an Amazon One device.
Although the technology has raised some privacy concerns, Amazon says that the palm images uploaded within the app are “encrypted and sent to a secure Amazon One domain” in the Amazon Web Service cloud. It also says the app “includes additional layers of spoof detection,” adding that you can’t save or download the palm images to your phone.
That still might not be enough to convince some users (myself included) to hand over their, well, hands, for the sake of convenience. Because, unlike a password, you can’t get a new palm print.
