Mask Mandate for U.S. Public Transportation Struck Down by Federal Judge
On Apr. 18, 2022, U.S. District Court Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in the Middle District of Florida struck down the Biden administration’s mask mandate for people traveling on U.S. public transportation, including planes, trains and buses.1 After the ruling, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) confirmed that it will no longer enforce the mask mandate […]
College Student Expelled for Refusing COVID Booster After Previous Severe Reactions
A student at Union College was unenrolled and forced to leave the campus in upstate New York after she refused to take a COVID-19 booster shot. The pre-med biology and Spanish language student suffered severe adverse reactions after receiving the first series of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID shots in the fall.1 Sophomore Ellie Puentes is a first-generation […]
CDC Used Cell Phone Data to Track Americans During Lockdowns and COVID Vaccination Campaigns
The cell phones of tens of millions of Americans were tracked by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials, who used location data to ensure compliance with COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccination campaigns according to Vice, which was able to obtain internal documents through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).1 The CDC used the […]
Public Trust in the CDC Waning
Since the start of the pandemic, the public’s trust in U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has waned. It is now widely accepted that the agency has lost a significant amount of credibility.1 An NBC News poll conducted in January 2022 showed that only 44 percent of Americans trust the CDC while 43 […]
COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Federal Workers Reinstated by Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
On Apr. 7, 2022, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, Louisiana ruled that the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all Federal workers must be reinstated. The 2-1 ruling reversed a lower court order blocking the vaccine mandate for federal workers. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Carl Stewart ordered the lower […]
Cleveland Clinic Denies Boy Kidney Transplant Because He Didn’t Get COVID Shot
As of October 2021, the Cleveland Clinic will not permit patients who have not gotten COVID-19 vaccine to undergo lifesaving organ transplants, either as a recipient or a living donor. The clinic’s reasoning is that the recipient, who receives immunosuppressant drugs post-transplant, could be at high risk of contracting SARS-Cov-2. The unvaccinated will not be […]