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Here Is What a Global COVID-19 Vaccine Passport Could Look Like — And How It Would Be Used
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has published a guidance document on introducing a digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate – known as a Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates: Vaccination Status (DDCC:VS).
A digital vaccination certificate – which documents a person’s current vaccination status to protect against COVID-19 – can be used for continuity of care or as proof of vaccination for purposes other than healthcare, the health body said.
“A vaccination certificate can be purely digital – stored in a smartphone application or on a cloud-based server – and replace the need for a paper card, or it can be a digital representation of the traditional paper-based record,” the WHO said.
Lack of a Vaccine Mandate Becomes Competitive Advantage in Hospital Staffing Wars
In the rural northeastern corner of Missouri, Scotland County Hospital has been so low on staff that it sometimes had to turn away patients amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.
The national COVID staffing crunch means CEO Dr. Randy Tobler has hired more travel nurses to fill the gaps. And the prices are steep — what he called “crazy” rates of $200 an hour or more, which Tobler said his small rural hospital cannot afford.
A little over 60% of his staff is fully vaccinated. Even as COVID cases rise, though, a vaccine mandate is out of the question.
LA Teachers Call for Mandatory Student Vaccinations, Stricter Quarantines
A Los Angeles teachers union is calling for eligible students to be required to receive the coronavirus vaccine, as well as stricter quarantine guidelines from the school district.
According to a document labeled “Counterproposal #2” dated Aug. 26, United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) asked for students to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no later than 12 weeks after they become eligible, subject to medical and religious exemptions.
Such a requirement would not be a first for California, as Culver City has mandated students to be vaccinated against the coronavirus by Nov. 19.
U.S. Education Department Investigates 5 States Over Mask Mandate Bans
The New York Times via MSN reported:
The Education Department has initiated investigations into five states whose prohibitions on universal mask mandates in schools may run afoul of civil rights laws protecting students with disabilities, federal officials announced Monday.
The department’s civil rights head wrote to state education leaders in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah, notifying them that the department’s Office for Civil Rights would determine whether the prohibitions are restricting access for students who are protected under federal law from discrimination based on their disabilities, and are entitled to a free appropriate public education.
The investigations make good on the Biden administration’s promise to use the federal government’s muscle — including civil rights investigations and legal action — to intervene in states where governors and other policymakers have come out against mask mandates in public schools. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone in schools wear masks, regardless of vaccination status.
‘Big Tech’ Censorship of Religion is Real and Deserves an Effective Response, Critics Say
National Catholic Register reported:
The power of major internet companies like Facebook, Amazon, YouTube, and Twitter over public life is a particular threat to religious groups that focus on controversial issues like abortion, marriage, and sexuality, several commentators said at a roundtable last week. These groups should prepare for the possibility of censorship and organize effective countermeasures, they said.
“You might not know the hour nor the day you will be censored,” Joshua D. Holdenreid, vice president and executive director of the California-based Napa Legal Institute, said at a roundtable on internet censorship.
Google Dragnets Harvested Phone Data Across 13 Kenosha Protest Arsons
After the 2020 Kenosha, Wisconsin riots, federal investigators demanded Google provide data on all phones located across at least 13 arson sites, court documents have revealed.
Such orders, also known as Google “geofence” or “reverse location” warrants, ask the tech giant to provide information on devices using its location-based services (whether that’s Google Maps or another app) within a certain boundary across a given timespan. Basic information is provided to the police on the devices, such as anonymous phone identifiers and locations at the time of an event, but the police then ask Google to provide names and addresses of those users it believes are viable suspects.
