A restaurant has sparked a debate on social media after forcing customers to prove they are unvaccinated before they can be served.
Per NBC News, the controversy was provoked by a Pasadena-based Italian restaurant named Basilico's Pasta e Vino.
In a Facebook post on July 22, owner Tony Roman shared an image of a sign which he had posted on the front door of his establishment, which read: "Notice proof of being UNvaccinated required.
"We have a zero-tolerance for treasonous, anti-American stupidity. Thank you for pondering."
Roman wrote captioned his post: "HEY CITY OF PASADENA, TAKE THAT! More American counties, cities, and businesses doubling down on anti-American lockdown mandates?
"Well 'Basilico's Pasta e Vino' just tripled down: From day one, never complied, banned masks, and now ... requiring proof of being Un-vaccinated! @cityofpasadena. [sic]"
On social media, a number of people have since debated the restaurant's policy, with some defending it, while others have lambasted the establishment.
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One person wrote: "GOD BLESS. Thank you for being a fearless leader in the community. [sic]"
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A second added: "Thank you for your support of the American people and FREEDOM!! - from New York."
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While another added: "Wish more businesses had the guts to stand up for our rights."
Take a look at this interview with the owner in the video below:
In a later statement made to NBC News, Roman told the outlet: "We have never complied with any restrictions since, and when the tiny tyrants go on the attack with new mandates, we fire back launching new missiles of defiance.
"And with the new and aggressive push for mandatory vax policies, we couldn't resist, so we are sending a message of our own. Hopefully, most are smart enough to read between the lines.
"Otherwise, we will just sit back and have fun watching their heads explode over it."
Indeed, Roman appeared to double-down on his provocative stance in a later Facebook video, stating in it that his business has received hundreds of one-star hateful reviews from outraged members of the public.
He also testified that the restaurant's landlord threatened to evict them, that local and state government threatened to shut them down, and that he has received multiple death threats.
A parenting debate has captured the attention of the world. A new movement of "anti-vaxxers" are proclaiming that vaccinations are unnatural, unneeded or even dangerous. However, as the most important inoculations are administered during childhood, it is the offspring of anti-vaxxers who are most affected. As innocent children potentially fall victim to their parents' unusual views, the Italian government has taken drastic steps to ensure that contagious diseases aren't spread in schools.
Parents have been told not to bring their children to school if they aren't vaccinated. Pupils under the age of six will be turned away if the school isn't provided with sufficient evidence that their vaccinations are up to date. Parents risk being fined up to €500 ($565) if they flout these rules.
Intended to stem the spread of measles following a recent outbreak, the deadline was extended to 10 March. However, as this fell on a weekend, it was then extended to Monday. Officials believe that parents now have no excuses for not having had their children vaccinated. "Now everyone has had time to catch up," Health Minister Giulia Grillo told La Repubblica newspaper. Following delays, extensions and bureaucratic hold-ups, the rule is now simple. "No vaccine, no school," stated Ms Grillo who, in a single announcement last year, explained that she was pregnant and would vaccinate the baby.
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Nicknamed Lorenzin law after the former health minister who introduced it, the legislature dictates that pupils must be inoculated against a range of diseases including chickenpox, polio, measles, mumps, and rubella.
In Italy, however, there is a stark north-south divide, with less infrastructure in the south. The issue is therefore as much about educating the public and access to healthcare as it is about the anti-vaxx movement. But it seems that the issue is also as much about documentation as it is about vaccination.
On Monday, Italian authorities stated that the vaccination rate was now at around 95 per cent for children born in 2015. Of course, this hinges on which vaccinations one counts. Nonetheless, this figure is significant as it represents the point at which "herd immunity" kicks in. This is where enough of the at-risk population is vaccinated for the entire population to be safe from outbreaks.
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"When you get below a certain level of vaccination in the community, that's how you get outbreaks," explained Dr Anthony Fauci, director of America's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease to CBSN AM. "That's been scientifically proven year after year."
Yet the figure of 95 per cent makes clear that thousands of children have missed school this week, assuming that the new rules were upheld. Authorities have confirmed that around 5,000 children do not have their vaccine documentation up to date. In Bologna alone, approximately 300 pupils were suspended.
Children aged six to sixteen cannot be banned from schools but their parents will face fines if they haven't received the necessary inoculations. The Italian government has come in for harsh criticism due to the new rules.
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On Monday, Ms Grillo stated that Lorenzin law "is a law that, at the time of approval, we criticised for several reasons" before admitting that it would be changed to only included vaccinations deemed necessary based on scientific data. It is expected that measles will be included.
"Measles is not a trivial disease," Fauci warns, in relation to an outbreak in the US. "When measles was rampant before the vaccines were available, it was one of the most devastating diseases globally and in the United States. Prior to the 1960s when the vaccine was introduced there were a couple [of] million cases of measles and 400 to 500 deaths a year, thousands and thousands of hospitalizations and a thousand cases of encephalitis [inflammation of the brain]."
"There's a category called philosophical reasons not to get vaccinated and that particular category has been abused," he adds, in relation to laws around inoculations. "So I'm in favour of states or cities making regulations that require a more strict interpretation of the exemptions that one has to not get vaccinated."
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In the US, of course, the anti-vaxx movement is the trigger issue relating to immunisations. Many anti-vaxxers believe that inoculations may lead to autism - a notion derived from a long-discredited paper by Andrew Wakefield.
Whether for reasons of indifference, disagreement or lack of access, those who do not have their children vaccinated would be right to feel that they are under fire. Yet, in dealing with these issues, governments tread a very fine line between being protective and aggressive.
Facebook has banned anti-vax misinformation and will take down any posts saying vaccines cause autism.
This comes in the wake of social media platforms taking more responsibility for the spread of misinformation after Donald Trump's repeated unfounded claims of widespread electoral fraud saw him permanently banned from almost every platform including Twitter.
Now, as Covid-19 vaccines are being administered around the world, Facebook has taken steps to ban misinformation about them.
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Some of the false claims that people have already attempted to spread about the vaccine are that Covid-19 is a manmade disease, the vaccines aren't effective, and the general but widely spread false belief that vaccines are dangerous or cause autism.
Facebook issued a statement yesterday (February 8) explaining how it plans to remove false and misleading information from its platform.
It read: "Today, we are expanding our efforts to remove false claims on Facebook and Instagram about COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccines and vaccines in general during the pandemic. Since December, we've removed false claims about COVID-19 vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts."
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It continued: "Following consultations with leading health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), we are expanding the list of false claims we will remove to include additional debunked claims about the coronavirus and vaccines."
Facebook added that the new policy will be immediately enforced and will "help [them] continue to take aggressive action against misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines".
The statement explained: "We will begin enforcing this policy immediately, with a particular focus on Pages, groups and accounts that violate these rules, and we'll continue to expand our enforcement over the coming weeks. Groups, Pages and accounts on Facebook and Instagram that repeatedly share these debunked claims may be removed altogether."
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Facebook will be enforcing its policy in various ways, such as by promoting relevant, scientifically approved information about the virus on the platform if people search for information about Covid-19.
The social media website's decision will undoubtedly be approved by many as conspiracy theories about the virus are still causing much division around the world.
The anti-vaxxer movement has gained momentum over recent years, but, as some parents choose not to get their children vaccinated, it's the community as a whole that faces the consequences. With various outbreaks of measles in the US over the last few months, the debate has reached its peak, and some areas are looking to combat this problem in any way they can.
One suburb in New York has tried to fight it by implementing a new ban, hoping that by isolating the children who aren't vaccinated they can limit the spread of illness. The state has been struggling with an outbreak of measles recently, and as Reuters reported, Rockland County declared a state of emergency on Tuesday.
This county alone has faced 153 cases of measles, so is looking for a new solution to the problem. For the next 30 days, they are implementing a ban on allowing unvaccinated children to visit public spaces such as places of worship, shopping centres, and schools.
During this time, they will have to receive the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine in order to re-enter these places as usual. "We will not sit idly by while children in our community are at risk," County Executive Ed Day said in a statement. "This is a public health crisis, and it is time to sound the alarm."
In his full statement, he also went on to speak about the response they had received from those in the community who had not vaccinated their children, citing investigators being dismissed and ignored when trying to protect the health of the area:
"Our inspectors have begun to meet resistance from those they are trying to protect. They have been hung up on or told not to call again. They've been told, 'We're not discussing this, do not come back' when visiting the homes of infected individuals as part of their investigations.
"This type of response is unacceptable and irresponsible. It endangers the health and wellbeing of others and displays a shocking lack of responsibility and concern for others in our community.
"This is an opportunity for everyone in their community to do the right thing," he added. "We must do everything in our power to end this outbreak and protect the health of those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons and for the children too young to be vaccinated."
Rockland County, which is located around 11 miles north of Manhattan, has kept its playgrounds open to children who haven't been vaccinated. According to New York City's health department, they have seen 181 confirmed cases of measles in Brooklyn and Queens boroughs since October.
The disease has been found to have spread mostly from school-age children whose parents declined to get them vaccinations. Oft-cited reasons for this decision are religious beliefs, or concerns that the MMR vaccine could cause autism. A plethora of scientific studies have found no link between autism and vaccinations.
Jennifer Aniston has defended her decision to cut ties with her unvaccinated friends.
According to The Independent, the 52-year-old Friends actress spoke about how she has been forced to drop acquaintances who have professed a belief in conspiracy theories surrounding the Covid-19 vaccine.
In an interview with InStyle, Aniston stated: "There’s a large group of people who are anti-vaxxers or just don’t listen to the facts.
"It’s a real shame. I’ve just lost a few people in my weekly routine who have refused or did not disclose [whether or not they had been vaccinated]... A lot of people just don’t listen to the facts."
Aniston would later double down on her comments, taking to her Instagram Stories on Thursday (August 5) to comment on why she didn't want to be around unvaccinated people
Replying to a commenter, Aniston wrote in a caption addressed to her 37.7 million followers on the platform: "Because if you have the variant, you are still able to give it to me. I may get slightly sick but I will not be admitted to a hospital and or die.
"BUT I CAN give it to someone else who does not have the vaccine and whose health is compromised [...] and therefore I would put their lives at risk. THAT is why I worry. We have to care about more than just ourselves here."
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In a separate post, Aniston also spoke about her personal belief in the importance of wearing face coverings to curtail the spread of the virus.
Uploading a picture of herself wearing a mask, Aniston wrote in an accompanying caption: "I understand masks are inconvenient and uncomfortable.
"But don’t you feel that it’s worse that businesses are shutting down... jobs are being lost... health care workers are hitting absolute exhaustion. And so many lives have been taken by this virus because we aren’t doing enough."
She continued: "BUT still, there are many people in our country refusing to take the necessary steps to flatten the curve, and keep each other safe.
"People seem worried about their 'rights being taken away' by being asked to wear a mask. This simple and effective recommendation is being politicized at the expense of peoples’ lives. And it really shouldn’t be a debate."
A Canadian restaurant has sparked outrage on social media for telling staff they are expected to show up, and not call in sick despite COVID-19 being officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.
The note from a Tim Hortons restaurant in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, stated: “For team members who call in sick. I have scheduled you for a reason. Therefore, I expect you to show up. Your absence will be considered unexcused. It is expected that you will show up for your scheduled shifts."
The letter was shared to Reddit, where it was widely denounced for running contrary to advice proffered by WHO, who have told people around the globe to stay home if they can to halt the spread of the virus.
Watch as Italian neighbors sing to each other amid the coronavirus lockdown:
"Yeah, that should be a criminal offence in the midst of a pandemic," one Reddit user commented, while another corroborated "I personally think pandemic or not, you shouldn’t force sick people to work. Especially if they’re preparing food."
In a statement, Tim Hortons confirmed the note was not a hoax, and that it has since been removed from the restaurant in question. "This sign was unfortunately an isolated issue at one restaurant," a spokesperson told The Star.
"We have been in contact with the restaurant owner and they have removed the sign and have reiterated to their employees the policy, which is clear — team members should always stay home if they are sick," they continued.
"WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction.
We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic.
Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death."
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