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Wisconsin Republicans Block Meningitis Vaccine Requirement for Students
The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature on Wednesday voted to stop Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ administration from requiring seventh graders to be vaccinated against meningitis.
The state Senate and Assembly, with all Republicans in support and Democrats against, voted to block the proposal. There is no current meningitis vaccination requirement for Wisconsin students.
The Legislature’s vote also makes it easier for parents to get an exemption from a chicken pox vaccine requirement that is in place for all K-6 students. Evers’ administration wanted to require parents seeking a chicken pox vaccination exemption to provide proof that their child has previously been infected.
Families could still seek waivers from the meningitis vaccination and chickenpox proof requirements for medical, religious or philosophical reasons, just as they can for other vaccinations.
Google Cloud and Mayo Clinic Set to Disrupt Healthcare With Generative AI
Google Cloud is partnering with the Mayo Clinic to transform traditional healthcare by using generative AI, Google Cloud announced on Wednesday.
The collaboration will begin with Google Cloud’s Enterprise Search in Generative AI App Builder to improve the efficiency of clinical workflows, making it easier for clinicians and researchers to find information while helping improve patient outcomes.
“Mayo Clinic is a world leader in leveraging AI for good, and they are a critical partner as we identify responsible ways to bring this transformative technology to healthcare,” he added.
Also on Wednesday, Google Cloud announced the app builder is ready to support HIPAA compliance.
Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen Warns of Algorithmic Dangers
On one level, Frances Haugen’s new book, “The Power of One: How I Found the Strength to Tell the Truth and Why I Blew the Whistle on Facebook,” is as basic as the title makes it sound. In 2021, Haugen, who had worked at Facebook for two years, took 22,000 pages of documents from inside the company, leaking information that led to a string of devastating stories about the company’s inner workings and a number of congressional and parliamentary hearings.
“Facebook knew its platforms were causing harm,” Haugen writes. (The company has since been renamed Meta, but Haugen sticks with Facebook throughout.) “Its stock price continued to soar because nobody else knew.” Profits were contingent on “no one knowing how large the gap between Facebook’s and Instagram’s public narratives and the truth had grown.”
When the Wall Street Journal’s Jeff Horwitz began to break the stories that Haugen helped him document, the most damning one concerned Facebook’s horrifyingly disingenuous response to a congressional inquiry asking if the company had any research showing that its products were dangerous to teens.
Facebook said it wasn’t aware of any consensus indicating how much screen time was too much. What Facebook did have was a pile of research showing that kids were being harmed by its products. Allow a clever company a convenient deflection, and you get something awfully close to a lie.
Dropped, Revised or in Effect: Where COVID Vaccine Rules Stand at Systems Now
Becker’s Hospital Review reported:
As HHS finalizes the end of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees of CMS-certified healthcare facilities, hospitals and health systems have varied approaches to their own rules.
The federal mandate was initially enacted in November 2021. Hospitals and health systems subsequently continued to roll out requirements for their workers, with some firing workers for noncompliance.
In early May, HHS announced it would drop the federal COVID-19 vaccine rule, and the Biden administration recently issued an 82-page final rule formalizing the mandate’s end.
The new final rule moves to treat COVID-19, from an oversight standpoint, more like the flu. In the new final rule, the federal government notes that hospitals and health systems may still instate their own COVID-19 vaccination requirements for workers, consistent with other federal, state and local laws.
New Texas Law Bans COVID Mask, Vaccine and Shutdown Mandates, but Some Republicans Want More
Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020, Gov. Greg Abbott has faced nagging scrutiny from fellow Republicans over his response, from ordering business closures early on to managing vaccine mandates later.
This year, Abbott sought to quiet his critics once and for all by asking lawmakers to prioritize legislation to “end COVID restrictions forever.” He also asked for limits on his power to respond to a pandemic without legislative input. He got his way only partly.
On Friday, Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 29, which prohibits local governments from requiring COVID-related masks, vaccines or business shutdowns. But some Republicans say it does not go far enough because it does not cover private entities.
State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, said he voted for SB 29, calling it “fine” but questioning how much it really matters. He pushed for a more sweeping ban on vaccine mandates during the regular session.
ChatGPT Shows One Dangerous Flaw When Responding to Health Crisis Questions, Study Finds
People are turning to ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot from OpenAI, for everything from meal plans to medical information — but experts say it falls short in some areas, including its responses to appeals for help with health crises.
A study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open found that when the large language model was asked for help with public health issues — such as addiction, domestic violence, sexual assault and suicidal tendencies — ChatGPT failed to provide referrals to the appropriate resources.
Led by John W. Ayers, Ph.D., from the Qualcomm Institute, a nonprofit research organization within the University of California San Diego, the study team asked ChatGPT 23 public health questions belonging to four categories: addiction, interpersonal violence, mental health and physical health.
Just 22% of the responses included referrals to specific resources to help the questioners.
EU Official to Confront Zuckerberg After Damning Report on Company’s Handling of Child Sexual Abuse Material
A top European Union official plans to confront Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in an in-person meeting over reports this week that the company has failed to prevent the spread of child sexual abuse material on its platform.
Thierry Breton, a European commissioner who has led the charge on regulating digital platforms, will visit Meta’s California headquarters on June 23 and plans to raise the matter with Zuckerberg personally, he tweeted Thursday.
“#Meta’s voluntary code on child protection seems not to work,” Breton said. “Mark Zuckerberg must now explain & take immediate action.”
Breton added that Meta will be subject to the European Union’s sweeping content moderation law — known as the Digital Services Act — by the end of the summer and that violations could carry “heavy sanctions.” The law permits fines equaling up to 6% of a company’s global revenue.
Cardiologist Calls on Australia’s Medical Regulator to Suspend COVID Vaccine Mandates
Dr. Aseem Malhotra, Britain’s high-profile cardiologist and previous supporter of mRNA COVID vaccines, has called on Australia’s medical regulator to suspend COVID vaccine mandates, saying the evidence against their use has been “overwhelming.”
This comes as the secretary of the Australian Federal Department of Health, Professor Brendan Murphy, called the continuation of COVID vaccine mandates in Australia unjustified.
