Refusing to Wear Mask During COVID Pandemic Does Not Fall Under Freedom of Speech, Appeals Court Rules; A Pandemic Treaty Will Double Down On All the Bad Ideas From COVID-19, and other C-Virus related stories
Refusing to wear mask during COVID pandemic does not fall under freedom of speech, appeals court rules:
The court said the refusal to wear a mask during a public health emergency did not constitute free speech
A federal appeals court ruled that New Jersey residents refusing to wear face masks at school board meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic is not protected speech under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a ruling Monday in two related cases in which lawsuits were brought against officials in Freehold and Cranford, New Jersey. The lawsuits were filed by George Falcone and Gwyneth Murray-Nolan.
The lawsuits centered around claims that the plaintiffs faced retaliation by school boards because they refused to wear masks during public meetings. The court sent one of the cases back to a lower court for consideration but said in the other case that the plaintiff failed to show she was retaliated against.
The court said the refusal to wear a mask during a public health emergency did not constitute free speech protected by the First Amendment.
“A question shadowing suits such as these is whether there is a First Amendment right to refuse to wear a protective mask as required by valid health and safety orders put in place during a recognized public health emergency,” the court said. “Like all courts to address this issue, we conclude there is not.” —>READ MORE HERE
Roger Bate: A pandemic treaty will double down on all the bad ideas from COVID-19:
The World Health Organization got a lot wrong on COVID-19
When 194 countries meet in May for the annual World Health Assembly, the World Health Organization (WHO) intends to push health ministers to sign a pandemic treaty. Granting the WHO this power risks spurring a new pandemic.
The WHO got a lot of policies wrong on COVID, many of which would effectively be codified in the new treaty. The agency pushed lockdowns and vaccine and mask mandates and promised vaccines would prevent transmission. It consistently failed to show interest in key issues like COVID’s origin or how Sweden achieved such remarkable outcomes — notably half the U.S. death rate — without these draconian measures. And it foolishly believed China would be transparent with its data and control the virus.
It’s now widely known the Chinese government destroyed evidence that could explain the origins of the virus or exonerate it on charges of mishandling or releasing a lab-enhanced virus. Yet the WHO takes no account of this fact and is quite comfortable with censorship enforced by the regime. Perhaps it’s because the agency’s leader, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, comes from an authoritarian state and, while health minister of Ethiopia, he called three cholera outbreaks (2006, 2009, 2011) “acute watery diarrhea” in an effort to avoid scrutiny.
Imagine a plane crashed and the Federal Aviation Administration was not interested in the reason for the crash. Given that most new viruses come from China, and genetic-level research encouraging new pathogens is rife in China, we’re likely to see history repeat itself unless the WHO exercises stronger leadership in holding the country to account.
In the treaty text, the WHO claims to want transparency and to stop health misinformation. Yet clamping down on free speech, in addition to being unconstitutional, may prevent flows of new and more accurate information. Taiwan first alerted the world to the threat coming out of Wuhan, yet the WHO backed Beijing’s claim that COVID might have come from imported frozen food. ––>READ MORE HERE
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