Federal Judge Rejects Bid to Block Indiana University Vaccine Mandate + More
Federal Judge Rejects Bid to Block Indiana University Vaccine Mandate
A federal judge on Sunday night denied an attempt to block Indiana University from requiring that students and college employees be vaccinated against the coronavirus in order to be on campus.
Eight students filed a lawsuit last month challenging the vaccination mandate, arguing it violates the 14th Amendment, as well as state law. Their filing comes as vaccination rates stagnate among conservatives and in Republican-leaning areas throughout the country, and as college-age Americans notch the lowest vaccination rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tech Firm’s Spyware Targeted Phones of Journalists, Activists on ‘Massive Scale’
NSO Group, a private Israeli firm that sells surveillance technology to governments worldwide, insists that its Pegasus spyware is used only to “investigate terrorism and crime.” Leaked data, however, reveals that the company’s hacking tool “has been used to facilitate human rights violations around the world on a massive scale.”
That’s according to an investigative report published Sunday by the Pegasus Project, a media consortium of more than 80 journalists from 17 news outlets in 10 countries. The collaborative endeavor was coordinated by Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based media nonprofit, with technical assistance from Amnesty International, which conducted “cutting-edge forensic tests” on smartphones to identify traces of the military-grade spyware.
Alabama Public Schools Cannot Require Proof of COVID Vaccine
School administrators around the Valley are keeping their eyes on the increase in COVID-19 cases as the start of the school year nears. And as of now, many districts plan to make masks optional.
A Madison City Schools mom of four says she is a little uneasy. Her two eldest children are vaccinated, but she’s sending two kids back to the classroom who have not had the chance to get the COVID-19 vaccine yet.
”I was really hoping that they could get the vaccine approved for kids under 12 before they started school. I’m a little disappointed and a little sad about that,” Tracy Abney said. Tracy Abney is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. So are her 15 and 16-year-olds.
The Technology 202: Facebook Isn’t Sharing How Many Americans Viewed Vaccine Misinformation
The Washington Post via MSN reported:
Facebook’s back-and-forth with the Biden administration got ugly over the weekend.
The social network scrambled to respond to the president’s striking accusation that the company is “killing people” for allowing the spread of misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. Shortly after President Biden’s comments to reporters, Facebook spokeswoman Dani Lever said the company wouldn’t respond to accusations that weren’t “supported by the facts.”
White House Turns Up Heat on Big Tech’s COVID ‘Disinformation Dozen’
The White House turned up the pressure on Silicon Valley to get a handle on vaccine misinformation Thursday, specifically singling out 12 people, one group dubbed the “disinformation dozen,” saying they were responsible for a great deal of misinformation about COVID-19.
“There’s about 12 people who are producing 65% of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.
That statistic is from the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) which identified in a report published in March about a dozen people it said were super-spreaders of anti-vaccine misinformation. The CCDH had at the time called on Facebook and Twitter to shut down all pages run by those people.
GOP Congressman Says Military Will Lose Members if COVID Vaccine Is Required
The U.S. military is keeping the door open to requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for service members, but Representative Thomas Massie thinks a shift in the military’s policy could prompt people to leave the armed forces.
An estimated 70 percent of America’s active duty service members are vaccinated against COVID-19, the minimum threshold needed for herd immunity. Officials are unlikely to put a mandate in place until the vaccine receives full FDA approval, and they’re still in the mindset of strongly encouraging service members to get vaccinated.
YouTube Removes Video of Suburban School Board Meeting Because It Could Spread COVID Misinformation
YouTube removed a video of a suburban Chicago school board’s meeting because the social media platform determined it could spread misinformation about COVID-19. But the video’s disappearance was short-lived.
After YouTube took down the video of a Tuesday Johnsburg School District 12 Board meeting, the video was restored on Friday.
In restoring the video, YouTube cited an exemption to its policies regarding when videos should be removed.
Federal Appeals Court Ruling Will Allow CDC to Enforce COVID Rules on Cruise Ships
A federal court has temporarily blocked a lower court’s ruling and will allow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to continue to implement safety protocols on the cruise industry.
The ruling, issued late Saturday, stays a June ruling by US District Judge Steven Merryday from the middle district of Florida. He ruled then that the CDC’s conditional sailing order on the cruise industry “likely constitutes an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power to CDC,” as CNN reported at the time. Merryday deemed that Florida is likely to succeed in the case.
Facebook Refutes Biden Claim That It Is ‘Killing People’ With Vaccine Misinformation
Facebook on Saturday refuted remarks made by President Joe Biden that social media platforms are “killing people” by allowing coronavirus vaccine misinformation on their services and argued that vaccine acceptance among its users has actually risen in the U.S.
In a blog post, Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, pointed to data suggesting that vaccine hesitancy among U.S. users has declined by 50%, and 85% of users said they have been or would like to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
“These and other facts tell a very different story to the one promoted by the administration in recent days,” Rosen wrote.
I Believe the Real Purpose of Masks Is Social Control — It’s Time to Turn Down the Fear Dial, Writes Graham Brady, Chairman of the Tory 1922 Committee
On August 23, 1973, an attempted bank raid at Stockholm’s Norrmalmstorg Square went badly wrong. Four hostages were taken and the drama ended only five days later when tear gas forced the robbers to surrender.The hold-up would doubtless have been forgotten but for the odd reaction of the hostages, who formed a close bond with their jailers.
And it was the events of those few days that gave their name to something now commonly described as Stockholm Syndrome. This phenomenon has often been identified in the half-century since Norrmalmstorg Square. But it has been remarkable to see it exhibited by whole swathes of the British public over the past year.
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