Universities Can’t Require Vaccines: Arizona Governor’s Executive Orders + More
Universities Can’t Require Vaccines: Arizona Governor’s Executive Orders
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order on Tuesday that prohibits public universities and community colleges from requiring students to get COVID-19 vaccines or show proof of vaccination to attend class.
“The vaccine works, and we encourage Arizonans to take it,” Ducey said in a statement. “But it is a choice and we need to keep it that way.”
Although the executive order means universities in Arizona can’t require students to wear masks or participate in mandatory COVID-19 testing, Ducey included an exemption for students working in health care settings, such as hospitals, nursing homes, group homes and medical facilities. Those facilities are allowed to require health screenings and proof of vaccination.
Why Parents at Indiana University Staged a Protest Against the School’s Vaccine Mandate
Hundreds of people gathered on Indiana University’s Bloomington campus June 10 to protest the school’s COVID19 vaccination requirement. In May, the university announced that students, faculty and staff who are not vaccinated will not be permitted on campus in the fall.
For two hours on a rainy afternoon, demonstrators listened to speakers including IU parent and vice chair of the Libertarian Party of Indiana Lucy Brenton and Ashley Grogg, founder of Hoosiers for Medical Liberty. Indiana state representative John Jacobs also spoke to the crowd.
The protest was organized by a newly-formed group called IU Family for Choice, Not Mandates, which has some 1,300 members. The group’s president, Ann Dorris, says members’ chief concern is the potential adverse health effects of the vaccine. “We are not anti-vaxxers,” she says. “We’re just against something that could potentially, long-term, have some very horrific side effects. There’s too many unknowns.” She also objects to the mandate itself: “What I would say to those that want this mandate is, ‘We respect your choice, now please respect ours.’”
China Isn’t the Issue. Big Tech Is.
We need to have a vigorous debate about what Americans might gain or lose if government officials succeed in forcing changes to technology services and companies as we know them.
One thing that’s standing in the way of such a debate is fearmongering by tech companies and their allies. They tend to decry anything that might alter how Big Tech operates as somehow helping China win the future. It’s an intellectually dishonest tactic and a distraction from important questions about our future. It bugs the heck out of me.
Investors Pressure Microsoft Over Surveillance Tech Policies
Windows Central via MSN reported:
Microsoft investors are pushing the company to evaluate if its actions align with its stated commitments to human rights and racial injustice. Three shareholder proposals were filed this week, and all focus on privacy and surveillance technology. The Hill reviewed and shared insights from each of the three proposals.
The first proposal was filed by Harrington Investments, a firm that focuses on social issues. It calls on Microsoft to “generally prohibit” sales of facial recognition technology. It also asks Microsoft to disclose any exceptions to the rule.
Previously, Microsoft said that it would not sell facial recognition technology to police departments until there are federal laws in place regulating the technology.
Nations Weigh Mandates and Incentives to Drive Up Vaccination Rates.
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed economic and social fault lines around the globe, but COVID-19 vaccines have made the divides even starker: While some poor countries are pleading for doses to save their people, a few rich ones are awash in shots and lacking takers.
A handful of U.S. states, for example, have tried incentives to get more people vaccinated. But in Moscow, as COVID hospitalizations surged this week, the city government took a harder line, mandating vaccinations for many workers in public-facing jobs.
Some other governments have also attempted to require vaccines. A province in Pakistan has said it will stop paying the salaries of civil servants who are not inoculated, starting next month. And Britain, which is seeing a surge attributed to the spread of the Delta variant of the virus, is weighing whether to make shots obligatory for all healthcare workers.
Three Quarters Of Floridians Disagree With Gov. DeSantis’ Cruise ‘Vaccine Passport’ Ban
Last month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that prohibits businesses across his state from asking anyone to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination. The legislation was passed without a carve-out for the cruise industry, which is an $8-billion economic juggernaut in the Sunshine State. Cruise lines could be fined $5,000 each time they require vaccination proof from a passenger.
DeSantis’ new law goes into effect on July 1, at the very time the U.S. cruise industry will be rebooting after a year-long dormancy due the COVID-19 pandemic. Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that cruises can begin sailing this summer from U.S. ports, but 98% of crew members and 95% of passengers on each ship must be fully vaccinated.
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