Source: Cedars-Sinai employees to picket over COVID-19 safety violations – San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Manipulated photos, false statements, state propaganda and deepfake videos are all part of the war between Russia and Ukraine. We debunk some examples and show how to see through the deception. Source: Fact check: Fake news thrives amid Russia-Ukraine war | Europe | News and current affairs from around the continent | DW | 17.04.2022

For those who have a regular health provider, you can ask for a prescription. The U.S. government also has set up “test-to-treat” sites, which are meant to allow people to get tested and free anti-COVID pills at the same location, such as a pharmacy or clinic, as long as staff can either conduct a coronavirus test or evaluate an at-home test result and have on-site healthcare providers who can assess the patient. Source: If you get the coronavirus, how do you get anti-COVID drugs? – Los Angeles Times

Source: Avian Flu Diary: Taiwan Local Daily Cases Nearly Triple In A Week

Source: Former MSNBC Analyst Malcolm Nance Now Fighting In Ukraine

The Biden administration will be soon doing away with Trump-era policies that gave medical workers such as doctors and others power to refuse to provide services that conflict with their religious or moral beliefs, Politico reports. Former President Trump announced the rule in 2008, but it was never implemented.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer struck the rule down in November 2019; his ruling stated it “would upend the legal status quo” and potentially jeopardize billions of dollars in federal health care funds.” If the rule had gone forward, doctors, nurses, medical students, and pharmacists could refuse to provide abortions, contraception, gender-affirming care, HIV and STD services, vasectomies, or any procedure they object to.

This is on the heels of many GOP-led states enacting restrictions on reproductive rights and transgender care. The Department of Health and Human Services could propose the change as soon as the end of the month. Currently, the step is under review at the Office of Management and Budget.

Source: Biden Administration Moves To Roll Back ‘Conscience’ Rule For Health Care Workers

The Biden Administration said on Thursday that it will make changes to how it administers some federal student loan repayments, a move that it says means at least 40,000 borrowers will have their debt canceled and millions more will be eligible to have their debts relieved three years earlier than expected.

The moves have the potential to have a major financial impact on Black borrowers, in particular, because students of color are more likely to finance college degrees and in turn, that debt becomes one of many factors that contributes to a persistent wealth gap in the United States.

Source: 40,000 Student Loans Could Be Immediately Canceled

We need not just to end the H-2A temporary worker program, but to force Congress to allow people who to come to the U.S. to work as farmworkers to receive permanent residence visas, without being chained to growers or other corporations.

Instead of 317,000 visas of exploitation, we need visas that will allow migrants to live and work freely, with the same rights all other workers have, or should have. Migrants coming to work shouldn’t be held captive, in isolated barracks behind fences, but should be part of the farmworker communities already here…

Source: Viewpoint: Abolish the H-2A Program! | Labor Notes