Thousands Gather at Freedom Rally in New York City to Oppose Vaccine Passport + More
Thousands Gather at ‘Freedom Rally’ in New York City to Oppose Vaccine Passport
Thousands gathered near Central Park in Manhattan on Saturday to express their discontent with the vaccine mandates and passport requirements implemented in the city by Mayor Bill de Blasio this month.
New York City started enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate Monday, with de Blasio warning that “there’ll be consequences” for those who do not follow the rules.
The mandate requires establishments to put up certain signage and verify customers’ COVID-19 vaccine proof, such as vaccination cards issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), New York City vaccination records, other official immunization records, the NYC COVID Safe App, or the Excelsior Pass.
D.C. Mandates Coronavirus Vaccines for Public and Private School Staff and Child-Care Workers With No Testing Option
The Washington Post via MSN reported:
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said Monday that all D.C. teachers and school staff and early child-care workers must be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Nov. 1, eliminating a testing option for these professionals who regularly interact with children who are often too young to be vaccinated.
The vaccine mandate was expanded to include workers at charter and private schools and day cares, who were not covered by a requirement announced by Bowser last month that included a test-out option.
U.S. to Ease Travel Restrictions for Foreign Visitors Who Are Vaccinated Against COVID
The U.S. will ease travel restrictions for international visitors who are vaccinated against COVID-19 in November, including those from the U.K. and EU, the White House said Monday.
Noncitizens visiting the United States will have to show proof of vaccination and a negative COVID test taken within three days of departure, said Jeff Zients, who is leading the nation’s COVID response efforts for the White House.
The changes will take effect in early November, which the airline industry expects will spur holiday bookings.
A COVID Pass Takes France by Storm
With the exception of weekend protesters, France has wholeheartedly embraced a new law, passed in July, that requires every adult to present a “pass sanitaire” before entering places like restaurants, cafés, museums, theaters and sports stadiums.
While President Joe Biden has told businesses they must enforce vaccine mandates, French President Emmanuel Macron has successfully instituted vaccine passports for the whole nation.
Over 500 LAFD Firefighters File Court Papers Challenging City’s COVID Vaccine Mandate
Court papers have been filed on behalf of hundreds of Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters who want a judge to set aside the city’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement.
The still-unofficial Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit was brought on behalf of 529 firefighters who are members of the nonprofit Firefighters4Freedom Foundation. They seek a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction prohibiting the city from demanding that firefighters receive a COVID-19 shot as a condition of continued employment.
NYC Restaurants Hire Security as Customers Resist Vaccine Mandate
If eating out at New York City restaurants wasn’t already different enough during the COVID-19 pandemic, some businesses are going through another change: beefed-up security.
With Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Key to NYC Pass” vaccine mandate in effect, restaurant staff are now required to ask customers 12-years-of-age and older for proof of vaccination if they want to dine-in.
Some restaurants are adding or considering hiring security guards to protect staff as they carry out this new task.
Vaccine Mandate for 18,000 Boston Workers Rolls Out Monday
Roughly 18,000 city workers will have to submit proof of full vaccination against coronavirus or start weekly testing starting Monday, according to a new city policy. “Our purpose is to protect our employees and the public, and our work is rooted in public health guidance and based on data and science,” Acting Boston Mayor Kim Janey said in a statement.
The vaccine mandate will be rolled out in three phases with employees who serve “high priority residents” including public school students, and work in city services like day care, the library and the Council on Aging must comply starting Monday.
Public-facing on-site city contractors and volunteers including public safety, parks and parking must comply by Oct. 4.
The Dark Side of Apple’s New Child Safety Features
In early August, Apple announced some new child safety features, slated to arrive in the upcoming updates to iOS, macOS and iPadOS. The first change is that the Messages app warns minors (and their parents) of sexually explicit images and gives parents the option to be alerted if a child views or sends such an image.
The second involves Siri and Search being tweaked to intervene when someone makes queries related to Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) .
The last, and most major, introduces automatic on-device matching of photos (stored inside iCloud Photos) against a database of known CSAM content. If the system discovers enough flagged pictures, a report will be sent to a moderator for evaluation. If the moderator confirms the assessment, Apple will decrypt the photos and share them with the relevant authorities.
Turkey Uses Facial Recognition to Spy on Millions, Secretly Investigates Unsuspecting Citizens
The government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has apparently added a new weapon to its law enforcement arsenal that helps the repressive regime investigate millions of unsuspecting people on bogus criminal allegations.
Facial recognition software has become a tool for authoritarian control by the Erdoğan government, according to police documents recently obtained by Nordic Monitor. The use of the software, selectively employed in the US and other Western countries to track and identify terrorists, was deployed by the Erdoğan government to track critics, opponents and dissidents.
The move resembles China’s efforts to spy on millions using a variety of software including facial recognition to track the movements of its citizens.
Rep. Buck Compares Big Tech to Big Tobacco After Revealing Report on Instagram’s Negative Impact on Teens
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., compared Big Tech to Big Tobacco following a report showing Facebook is aware of Instagram’s negative impact on teenagers’ mental health.
Buck made the comparison in a tweet on Saturday writing, “Big Tech is the new Big Tobacco. They are harming our kids for profit.”
Speaking on “Fox News Live” on Sunday, Buck explained the comparison, arguing that young people were lured in without “appropriate warnings” and that the tech giant ignored data.
The post Thousands Gather at Freedom Rally in New York City to Oppose Vaccine Passport + More appeared first on Children's Health Defense.
© 20 Sep 2021 Children’s Health Defense, Inc. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of Children’s Health Defense, Inc. Want to learn more from Children’s Health Defense? Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Children’s Health Defense. Your donation will help to support us in our efforts.
