Thousands of Teachers, Students Walk Out of School in Protest of Vaccine Mandates + More
Walkout 2021: Teachers, Students Walk Out of School in Protest of Vaccine Mandates
Thousands of parents, students and teachers walked out of school and onto the California State Capitol lawn in Sacramento, all in protest of the state vaccine mandate.
A crowd of about two thousand from all across the state converged on the capitol Monday afternoon.
Southwest Drops Plan to Put Unvaccinated Staff on Unpaid Leave Starting in December
Southwest Airlines has scrapped a plan to put unvaccinated employees who have applied for but haven’t received a religious or medical exemption on unpaid leave starting by a federal deadline in December.
The company is giving employees until Nov. 24 to finish their vaccinations or apply for an exemption. It will continue paying them while the company reviews their requests, and said it will allow those who are rejected to continue working “as we coordinate with them on meeting the requirements (vaccine or valid accommodation).”
Businesses Face $700,000 Fine for Not Forcing Shots On Employees
Buried in the massive $3.5 trillion “reconciliation” bill is an unconstitutional vaccine enforcement mechanism that threatens to bankrupt businesses unless they force their employees to get a COVID-19 injection. If the measure is enacted into law, even employers that respect their employees’ rights to health freedom and informed consent would be left with an impossible decision — mandate COVID-19 jabs or essentially go out of business due to unbearable fines.
The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is to be in charge of enforcing the rule, which will affect more than 80 million U.S. workers.1 OSHA would also be able to enforce fines of up to $13,600 per violation of the rules — but the new measure tucked into the reconciliation bill raises the fines for noncompliance astronomically.
More Than a Third of Chicago Police Officers Defy City Vaccine Mandate
About 4,500 Chicago police officers didn’t report their vaccination status by October 15 as mandated by the city, officials said Monday.
That means roughly 35 percent of the city’s 12,770 officers could be placed on no-pay status in the foreseeable future.
The city required employees to be either vaccinated or test two times a week by October 15, and then report their status by that same deadline. Those who did not report their status risk being put on unpaid leave.
Washington State Head Football Coach Ousted After Refusing COVID Vaccine
Washington State University’s head football coach, Nick Rolovich, and four assistant coaches are losing their jobs because of not complying with the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the university’s athletics department said Monday.
In July, Rolovich said in a post on social media that he “elected not to receive a COVID-19 vaccine for reasons which will remain private.”
“While I have made my own decision,” Rolovich said then, “I respect that every individual — including our coaches, staff and student-athletes — can make his or her own decision regarding the COVID-19 vaccine.”
Treating Tech Giants as Nation-States
Tech companies are creating not just the products of the future, but also the future’s infrastructure and rules, global analyst Ian Bremmer writes in an article for Foreign Affairs.
Why it matters: That means “it is time to start thinking of the biggest technology companies as similar to states,” Bremmer argues.
These companies exercise a form of sovereignty over a rapidly expanding realm that extends beyond the reach of regulators: digital space,” he writes.
Swift and Thorough White House Review of Vaccine Mandate Is Critical
Last week, it was reported that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sent its regulation requiring employers with more than 100 employees to mandate vaccines for their workers to the White House for final review.
First, and most famously, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) will review the agency’s analysis of the underlying economic consequences of the regulation.
The vaccine mandate is classified as an “economically significant” regulation meaning that it will have an impact on the economy of more than $100 million, and OSHA is therefore required to estimate the costs and benefits of the regulation.
Feds Start Bio-Attack Readiness Test With Non-Toxic Gas Release in NYC Parks, Subways
The MTA says the Department of Homeland Security working alongside a team of researchers and city agencies will deploy a non-toxic gas on five separate days between Oct. 18 and 29 at about 120 locations across the city, including transit.
Most of the locations will be above ground, including some parks. A number of below-ground subway stations will also be included, though details on which ones weren’t known.
“The goal of these tests is to deliver actionable information to emergency preparedness planning authorities for potential wide-area release of dangerous chemicals or biological materials,” DHS Senior Official Kathryn Coulter Mitchell said in a statement.
NJ Hospital System Fires 118 Employees for Not Getting COVID Vaccine
One of New Jersey’s largest health systems has fired over 100 of its employees who refused to comply with its vaccination policy, the hospital network announced.
RWJBarnabas Health, which employs over 35,000 people in dozens of health facilities in the Garden State, axed 118 of its employees for refusing to get the jabs it says 99.7% of its employees received by the Oct. 15 deadline.
The Facebook Trap
Harvard Business Review reported:
Depending on who you ask, Facebook’s biggest problem might be almost anything. Critics have argued that it’s violating individual privacy or bullying small companies as a monopoly, damaging teens’ mental health or inciting violent insurrections — the list of possibilities goes on (and on).
But varied as these troubles may seem, they are actually all facets of one big, fundamental problem that is staring all of us — policymakers, general public, and Facebook’s own employees — right in the face.
Federal Judge Denies Last-Minute Bid to Block Oregon Vaccine Mandate
The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported:
A federal judge on Monday denied a last-minute bid by 42 state employees, healthcare providers and school staff to temporarily halt the state’s vaccination mandate.
U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon rejected their motion for a temporary restraining order, marking the first federal judge’s ruling after at least three state court decisions thwarted similar efforts to block the effort by Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Health Authority to force certain workers to get the vaccines or risk losing their jobs.
At least 10 vaccine mandate challenges have been filed in state and federal court since September.
Florida Student Torches Colleges’ ‘Draconian’ COVID Policies, Warns ‘Surveillance State Is Taking Root’
Campus Reform reporter Ophelie Jacobson sounded the alarm on COVID policies on college campuses around the nation, warning “the surveillance state is taking root.”
Jacobson appeared on “Fox & Friends First” on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing trend, reiterating the COVID-related policies are simply about control as opposed to safety.
“This is just the perfect example of how these policies have nothing to do with safety and everything to do with surveillance and control,” the University of Florida student explained.
Religious Exemptions Threaten to Undermine U.S. COVID Vaccine Mandates
This month, California became the first state to require Covid-19 vaccines for all schoolchildren but the provision came with a loophole: students will be granted religious exemptions.
California, which currently has the lowest coronavirus case rate in the US, has been issuing a series of sweeping mandates, requiring that healthcare workers, state employees, care workers and schoolteachers staff all get the vaccine. But in each case, Californians are able to ask for personal belief exemptions – and they are doing so in droves.
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