PA Counties locked down

[ImminentDanger]

New Jersey school district restarts COVID-19 mask mandate
by Jeremiah Poff - December 21, 2022
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/p...chool-district

A New Jersey school district is once again requiring face masks in all its schools, citing an increase in coronavirus cases.

Passaic County School District in northern New Jersey announced that masks would be required in all school buildings, effective Wednesday morning due to high levels of coronavirus transmission in the community.

The restored mandate says that students, faculty, and staff will be required to wear masks until Passaic County falls to "moderate" levels of COVID-19 transmission. The county is currently at "high" transmission.

Passaic County is not the only school district to reinstate a mask mandate in recent days.

Last week, Philadelphia schools announced that masks would be required for the first 10 days of school following the conclusion of winter break.

The vast majority of school districts eliminated their mask mandates in February and March 2022, but a handful of places have resisted removing them.

In recent weeks, major cities such as Los Angeles and New York City have encouraged the public to wear masks indoors and have flirted with reinstating mask mandates.

They're still at it. Proving that, despite no scientific confirmation of effectiveness, they are still making mandates for everyone, irrespective of people's susceptibility. WE ARE IN CHARGE and you will obey!

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[ImminentDanger]

Appeals Court Upholds Injunction on Biden Vaccine Mandate
By Michael Katz - Wednesday, 21 December 2022
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/bi...21/id/1101480/

The Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors and subcontractors was delivered another blow Monday when a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court injunction on the policy.

The panel voted 2-1 to uphold the injunction that applies only to plaintiffs Indiana, Louisiana and Mississippi. Judges Don Willett and Kurt Engelhardt, Donald Trump appointees, voted in the majority. James Graves Jr., appointed by Barack Obama, dissented.

In August, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower-court injunction on the mandate involving seven states * Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia * and federal contracts and subcontracts with members of the Associated Builders and Contractors.

President Joe Biden issued an executive order in September 2021 requiring federal contractors to include a clause requiring contractors, any subcontractors and all employees to be vaccinated against the virus. Indiana, Louisiana and Mississippi filed suit seeking an injunction; and in December 2021, Senior Judge Dee Drell of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana complied.

In Monday*s 43-page ruling, the majority on the appeals panel wrote, "The president asks this court to ratify an exercise of proprietary authority that would permit him to unilaterally impose a health care decision on one-fifth of all employees in the United States. We decline to do so."

The government argued the president had broad authority to issue the mandate through the federal Procurement Act. But the court determined Biden's use of the act to claim executive power to impose the mandate on individual employees of federal contractors is "truly unprecedented." And because Congress had not acted on a vaccine mandate, the court ruled Biden was exceeding his power.

"Today, we are asked, where Congress has not authorized the issuance of this mandate, whether the president may nonetheless exercise this power. We hold that he may not," the court ruled.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican, said he was pleased with the ruling.

"Hoosiers and all Americans should have the liberty to make their own decisions on whether to get vaccinated," Rokita said. "That includes individuals who happen to work as federal contractors. No one should have to fear losing their jobs just because they opt against getting a shot."

In an email to Newsmax, Michelle Williams, chief of staff to Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, a Republican, said: "We are pleased that the court agreed that absent congressional authorization the president has no authority to exercise this massive power over one-fifth of the American workforce. President Biden's vaccine mandates are an affront to foundational American principles, and we will continue to fight them."

The Biden administration has not tried to enforce the mandate because of the litigation. It is not known whether the administration will appeal the ruling.

Always remember that USSC Justice Roberts imposed a healthcare mandate on ALL OF AMERICA when his twisted mind approved the constitutionality of Obamacare!

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[ImminentDanger]

'Twitter Files' Release: How Platform Rigged COVID Debate
By Charlie McCarthy - 26 December 2022
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/tw...26/id/1101921/

Twitter helped manipulate the COVID-19 debate by relenting to government pressure and censoring content related to the virus, according to the latest "Twitter Files" release.

Reporter David Zweig on Monday morning took to Twitter to post about COVID-19-related actions by the social media platform before billionaire Elon Musk assumed control.

"The United States government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to elevate certain content and suppress other content about Covid-19," Zweig tweeted.

The reporter cited numerous examples, including how Twitter suspended journalist Alex Berenson hours after President Joe Biden, in the summer of 2021, said social media companies were "killing people" for allowing vaccine misinformation.

"Berenson sued (and then settled with) Twitter. In the legal process Twitter was compelled to release certain internal communications, which showed direct White House pressure on the company to take action on Berenson," Zweig tweeted.

A recent summary of meetings with the White House by Lauren Culbertson, Twitter's head of U.S. public policy, said the Biden team "was 'very angry' that Twitter had not been more aggressive in deplatforming multiple accounts. They wanted Twitter to do more," Zweig tweeted.

"In my review of internal files, I found countless instances of tweets labeled as 'misleading' or taken down entirely, sometimes triggering account suspensions, simply because they veered from CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] guidance or differed from establishment views," Zweig tweeted.

Zweig said Twitter "did suppress views -- many from doctors and scientific experts -- that conflicted with the official positions of the White House. As a result, legitimate findings and questions that would have expanded the public debate went missing."

That included some experts' opinions, despite being in line with vaccine policies in numerous other countries, being labeled "false information" because they differed from the CDC guidelines.

Zweig said that internal files he viewed showed that both the Trump and Biden administrations pressed Twitter executives and other social media platforms to moderate pandemic content.

"At the onset of the pandemic, according to meeting notes, the Trump admin was especially concerned about panic buying," Zweig tweeted. "They came looking for 'help from the tech companies to combat misinformation' about 'runs on grocery stores.' But * there were runs on grocery stores."

Zweig said there were three serious problems with Twitter's COVID-19 content oversight:
.. Much of the content moderation was conducted by bots.
.. Non-expert contractors, in places such as the Philippines, also moderated content.
.. The buck stopped with higher level employees, exhibiting individual and collective bias.

Zweig referenced one incident in which Jim Baker, at the time Twitter's deputy general counsel, asked why then-President Donald Trump telling people to not be afraid of COVID-19 wasn't a violation of the platform's misinformation policy.

"Yoel Roth, Twitter's former head of trust & safety, had to explain that optimism wasn't misinformation," Zweig tweeted.

Zweig's 40 posts on Monday morning concluded with an obvious question.

"What might this pandemic and its aftermath have looked like if there had been a more open debate on Twitter and other social media platforms -- not to mention the mainstream press -- about the origins of Covid, about lockdowns, about the true risks of Covid in kids, and much more?" Zweig tweeted.

Whenever there's a circumstance that allows for government control of THE PEOPLE, eventually, the government will use that opportunity to do just that!
Small government creates less of those circumstances.

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[ImminentDanger]

Holidays didn't lead to feared bump in flu cases, CDC says
By Mike Stobbe - AP - January 13, 2023
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...-flu-cases-cd/

NEW YORK — New U.S. government data suggests holiday gatherings didn't spark surges in respiratory diseases.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday reported that visits to doctors' offices for the flu-like illnesses fell for the sixth straight week. Reports of RSV, a common cause of cold-like symptoms that can be serious for infants and the elderly, are also down.

When flu and RSV surged in the fall, causing overloads at pediatric emergency rooms, some doctors feared that winter might bring a " tripledemic " of flu, RSV and COVID-19. And they worried holiday gatherings might be the spark.

But it didn't happen, apparently.

"Right now, everything continues to decline," said the CDC's Lynnette Brammer, who leads the government agency's tracking of flu in the United States.

RSV hospitalizations have been going down since November, and flu hospitalizations are down, too.

Of course, the situation is uneven across the country, and some places have more illnesses than others. But some doctors say patient traffic is easing.

"It has really eased up, considerably," said Dr. Ethan Wiener, a pediatric ER doctor at the Hassenfeld Children's Hospital at NYU Langone in New York City.

Dr. Jason Newland, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at St. Louis Children's Hospital in Missouri, said "it has slowed down, tremendously,"

Newland said he wasn't surprised that flu and RSV continued to trend down in recent weeks, but added: "The question is what was COVID going to do?"

COVID-19 hospitalizations rose through December, including during the week after Christmas. One set of CDC data appears to show they started trending down after New Year's, although an agency spokeswoman noted that another count indicates an uptick as of last week. Because of reporting lags it may be a few weeks until CDC can be sure COVID-19 hospitalizations have really started dropping, she said.

Newland said there was an increase in COVID-19 traffic at St. Louis Children's in December. But he noted the situation was nothing like it was a year ago, when the then-new omicron variant was causing the largest national surge of COVID-19 hospitalizations since the pandemic began.

"That was the worst," he said.

The fall RSV and flu surge was felt most acutely at health care centers for children. Wiener said the pediatric emergency department traffic at Hassenfeld was 50% above normal levels in October, November and December - "the highest volumes ever" for that time of year, he said.

The RSV and flu surges likely faded because so many members of the vulnerable population were infected "and it just kind of burnt itself out," he said.

It makes sense that respiratory infections could rebound amid holiday travel and gatherings, and it's not exactly clear why that didn't happen, Brammer said.

That said, flu season isn't over. Thirty-six states are still reporting high or very high levels of flu activity, and it's always possible that a second wave of illnesses is still ahead, experts said.

If widespread masking mandates had been put in place, THAT would have been given credit for what (as shown now) would have been the case without them.

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[ImminentDanger]

Gov. Hochul Weighing Options After N.Y. Court Blocks Last Vax Mandate
By Luca Cacciatore | Wednesday, 25 January 2023 04:32 PM EST
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/ne...25/id/1105918/

New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering all potential avenues after a state judge struck down the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for healthcare workers earlier this month.

In an interview with NBC's WHEC-TV 10, the governor said all options were on the table regarding litigation and that the state has invested "$20 billion to bring back the healthcare system" to alleviate staffing shortages.

Healthcare staffing is "a problem, but I don't think the answer is to have someone who comes in who is sick, be exposed to someone who can give them coronavirus, give them COVID-19," Hochul stated.

"I think everybody who goes into a healthcare facility or nursing home should have the assurance ... that we have taken all steps to protect the public health, and that includes making sure that those who come in contact with them at their time of most vulnerability ... will not pass on the virus," she added.

Hochul's comments arrive after New York Supreme Court Justice Gerard Neri ruled on Jan. 13 that the state's vaccine requirement was now "null, void, and of no effect," citing concerns with the governor's scope of authority.

"Respondents are clearly prohibited from mandating any vaccination outside of those specifically authorized by the Legislature," Neri wrote. "The sections cited by Respondents provide nothing more than general grants of power. Reading those sections in the manner urged by Respondents would render Public Health Law §§206, 613, 2164, and 2165 meaningless."

Shortly after the decision, the New York State Department of Health stressed to The Associated Press that the mandate was effective at protecting individuals most at-risk for severe symptoms and their caregivers.

"The requirement is a critical public health tool," the agency said. "The State Health Department strongly disagrees with the judge's decision and is exploring its options."

The relentless effort by the liberal left, to CONTROL THE PEOPLE, will never end... They want a Nanny State in charge of your life from womb to tomb...

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[ImminentDanger]

Judge halts California's COVID misinformation law
By Sean Salai - The Washington Times - Thursday, January 26, 2023
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...nformation-la/

A federal judge has temporarily halted California's new misinformation law that restricts the advice doctors can give patients about COVID-19.

U.S. District Senior Judge William B. Shubb of the Eastern District of California granted a preliminary injunction against the law on Wednesday, responding to a lawsuit brought by five doctors.

The law empowers the Medical Board of California to discipline physicians who disseminate misinformation at odds with the "contemporary scientific consensus" about COVID.

The plaintiffs successfully showed the impossibility of enforcing the "unconstitutionally vague" statute because the language has no settled legal meaning or "objective standards" to guide application, Judge Shubb wrote. His ruling bars officials from enforcing the law while the case goes to court.

"Moreover * because COVID-19 is such a new and evolving area of scientific study, it may be hard to determine which scientific conclusions are *false' at a given point in time," wrote Judge Shubb, a President George H.W. Bush appointee.

The offices of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, both Democrats named as defendants in the lawsuit, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

In a signing statement appended to the law on Sept. 30, Mr. Newsom acknowledged it could have a "chilling effect" on free speech. But he said lawmakers had carefully drafted it to deal with abuses and entrusted its interpretation to the Medical Board of California.

The law, he wrote, "is narrowly tailored to apply only to those egregious instances in which a licensee is acting with malicious intent or clearly deviating from the required standard of care while interacting directly with a patient under their care."

The statute provides that it "shall constitute unprofessional conduct for a physician and surgeon to disseminate misinformation or disinformation related to COVID-19, including false or misleading information regarding the nature and risks of the virus, its prevention and treatment; and the development, safety, and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines."

The law, A.B. 2098, authorizes the Medical Board of California to sanction and revoke the licenses of doctors it deems to be in violation.

At least three different groups of doctors have filed federal lawsuits challenging the statute.

Judge Shubb's ruling applies to a complaint that Drs. Tracy Hoeg, Ram Duriseti, Aaron Kheriaty, Pete Mazolewski and Azadeh Khatibi filed on Nov. 1. The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a legal group that advocates for constitutional freedoms, is representing them.

In testimony appended to the complaint, Dr. Hoeg said the law may interfere with physicians' "duty to give accurate information to our patients" as new COVID-19 variants emerge, as has happened several times since the coronavirus first emerged in China in late 2019.

In a tweet on Wednesday night, Dr. Kheriaty welcomed Judge Shubb's decision to let the suit proceed.

"The ruling bodes well for our case," Dr. Kheriaty wrote. "It indicates that our arguments that this law is unconstitutional have strong pre-trial facial plausibility. Not to get ahead of ourselves, of course, or try to predict the final outcome of the case, but this is a very positive development."

(Bolding mine)

As always, "contemporary scientific consensus" is a fleeting condition, which makes it a theory, NOT A FACT!

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[bogey1]

Seems like something north korea would do.

[JenniferG]

Seems like something north korea would do.

They have learned their lessons on authoritarianism well from the Kim Sung Il and his progeny and apply those lessons in every place possible.

[bogey1]

Not pa but a good watch. Both parties need to go. Both are scumbag pig tyrants.

[streaker69]

There was a Hoss' near me, there's also a diner. One defied the orders, one didn't. Guess which one is still here and which one is going to become a daycare center