claim_id
stringlengths 1
234
| claim
stringlengths 14
491
| explanation
stringlengths 1
4.18k
| label
stringclasses 5
values | subjects
stringlengths 0
223
| main_text
stringlengths 18
41.7k
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
9195
|
Laparoscopic anti-reflux operation for GERD linked to fewer postoperative complications
|
A new study by the American College of Surgeons, a professional organization, compared records for 75,000 patients who underwent surgery for GERD, or gastrointestinal esophageal reflux disease. The study looked at two different surgical procedures and found the less invasive one seemed equally effective, but kept patients in the hospital a shorter time with fewer complications. The news release did a good job of discussing surgical alternatives and costs, which were estimated to be $9,000 lower for the less invasive laparoscopic procedure. The release would have been better had it spelled out some of the study limitations, the key one being that a retrospective, observational review of hospital records — as this study was — isn’t capable of supporting the cause and effect statements sprinkled throughout the release. Millions of Americans complain of occasional heartburn, sometimes called a burning sensation in the throat from food coming back up from the stomach. But some estimates are that about 20 percent of US adults fit the definition of GERD, which means they suffer symptoms at least every week. If patients consider a surgical fix, this study shows that a less-invasive procedure could reduce their complications and shorten their hospital stay. It’s hard to pin down stats on GERD prevalence. A 2014 review of 16 epidemiological studies of GERD prevalence published in the journal Gut suggest GERD prevalence ranges from “18.1%-27.8% in North America, 8.8%-25.9% in Europe, 2.5%-7.8% in East Asia, 8.7%-33.1% in the Middle East, 11.6% in Australia and 23.0% in South America.”
|
true
|
GERD,laparoscopic surgery
|
The story focused on costs, including information about the relative cost comparison between what are called “open” surgeries and those done laparoscopically (with a thin flexible tube.) The release summarized how minimally invasive techniques reduced the length of hospital stay and complication rates for patients. “Researchers also found that, on average, the minimally invasive approach reduced length of hospital stay by approximately two days, and open operations were more than $9,000 more expensive than minimally invasive procedures. The researchers also found that laparoscopic procedures were better for patients in terms of fewer complications. Laparoscopic anti-reflux operations were less likely to result in postoperative blood clots, wound complications, surgical site infection, esophageal perforation (which can be life threatening), bleeding, cardiac failure, and death.” We rate this, but just barely, for citing cost differences between the two types of surgery and the average reduction in the number of days a patient must remain hospitalized. We do wish the release had delved more into the specifics of reduced complications. How common were the surgical complications in each surgical method? The release names complications associated with both types of surgery for GERD, while stating that patients undergoing laparoscopic procedures encountered fewer of them: “postoperative blood clots, wound complications, surgical site infection, esophageal perforation (which can be life threatening), bleeding, cardiac failure, and death.” The news release gave details about how the study examined records of about 75,000 patients from 1,000 hospitals to compare outcomes in the records for open vs. the minimally invasive laparoscopic surgeries. That’s all to the good. However, the news release didn’t mention any of the study’s limitations. The key one is that this is a retrospective, observational review of records that isn’t capable of supporting cause and effect statements such as the minimally invasive approach “reduced length of hospital stay by approximately two days.” Nor should this kind of evidence be used as the basis for statements such as laparoscopic procedures “were better for patients” and “should be the standard of care.” Patients receiving open vs. laparascopic procedures could differ in unknown ways, which is why the superiority of one approach over the other should ideally be established by a prospective, randomized controlled trial. There were other limitations outlined in the journal article that were not mentioned in the release. Because the NIS database doesn’t link to hospital records, researchers weren’t able to track and measure outcomes “including complications, readmission, and mortality, occurring after the initial hospital discharge.” The researchers were also unable to determine which open surgeries were “re-dos” of previous surgeries. The potential for errors in coding which procedures were used was also cited as a possible limitation. There was no disease mongering. The release also provided useful context on the prevalence of GERD and further specified that smaller group of patients, from the many heartburn suffers, might be candidates for the surgery. Well done. The release does not list any funding source for the research and the published study notes that authors had “nothing to disclose.” We’ll rate this not applicable since this is an examination of existing data, and there may have been no additional outside funding. The news release does a good job here. It compares different surgical methods and it also names alternatives for treating GERD such as medications and changes in the diet. It also states which group of patients the surgery is aimed at: “Anti-reflux surgery should be considered in patients who do not achieve complete control of their symptoms [regurgitation or cough] with medications; who do not want to take medications for the rest of their lives; or who experience complications of medical therapy.” It’s clear from the release that both methods of surgery have been widely available nationally and the outcomes of 75,000 surgeries were tracked by the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database. The release also notes that “urban academic or teaching hospitals” perform laparoscopic anti-reflux surgery more often than “open” procedures, 54.4 percent versus 45.6 percent. And it recommends that anti-reflux surgery should be performed laparoscopically in specialized centers. The news release was not about a novel procedure and made no claim of novelty. However, this isn’t the first study to examine laparoscopic vs. open surgery. For example, the British Journal of Surgery published results of a randomized trial of the two methods and the Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology published research on long-term outcomes following laparoscopic and open procedures for GERD. We did not observe any unjustifiable language.
|
42092
|
CDC Caught Flying Diseased Caravan Migrants Into U.S. for Medical Treatment
|
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not flying sick migrants from the caravan into the country, as a story that originated on a self-proclaimed “alt-news” website claims.
|
false
|
immigration,
|
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not flying sick migrants from the caravan into the country, as a story that originated on a self-proclaimed “alt-news” website claims.A viral story shared on social media falsely purports that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is “flying diseased caravan migrants into U.S. for medical treatment.”The story on the website Right of the Right claims that “a plane registered to the Center for Disease Control landed in San Diego to pick up diseased migrants at the border to fly them to Georgia where they will receive medical care paid for by the U.S. taxpayers.” The CDC rejected that account.“No such operation has taken place,” Benjamin Haynes, a spokesman with the agency’s Infectious Disease Media Team, told us in an email.Thousands of immigrants part of the so-called caravan — many from Central America and seeking asylum — are currently in Tijuana, Mexico, near the U.S. border.The story accurately refers to a specific flight that did indeed travel from San Diego, California, to Fort Benning, Georgia, on Nov. 27, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.com. But Federal Aviation Administration records show the aircraft, a small jet, is not “registered to the Center for Disease Control” — but to the Georgia-based Phoenix Air Group.The pilot of that flight, Randy Davis — who is also senior vice president and general counsel at Phoenix Air — told FactCheck.org in a phone interview that the trip was a routine military transport mission. He flew a serviceman from Marine Corps Air Station Miramar to Fort Benning.“That’s part of a government contract to move wounded warriors,” he said. “We do this every day.”Phoenix Air does also have the capability to transport individuals with infectious diseases — a service the company provided to the government during the Ebola outbreak in 2014.But Davis said Phoenix Air does not have a current contract with the CDC. Also, he added, the photo used in the story — seen in a 2014 Washington Times story about the transportation of Ebola patients — shows one of Phoenix Air’s large Gulfstream aircrafts, not the Learjet used in the flight last week.The false story largely republished a portion of a post on a self-proclaimed “alt news” website called rense.com. The post has all the makings of a conspiracy theory, telling, for example, of a “classified program” in which the “government has been flying in dangerously ill illegals into the US for s (sic) long time…most especially from Africa.” The Right of the Right story garnered thousands of shares on Facebook.Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on the social media network.“CDC Caught Flying Diseased Caravan Migrants Into U.S. for Medical Treatment.” Right of the Right. 28 Nov 2018.Davis, Randy. Senior vice president and general counsel, Phoenix Air Group. Phone interview with FactCheck.org. 30 Nov 2018.FAA Registry | N-Number Inquiry. Federal Aviation Administration. Accessed 30 Nov 2018.Ford, Dana. “Ebola Air? Inside the plane that flies Ebola patients.” CNN. 18 Mar 2015.Haynes, Benjamin. Spokesman, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Email sent to FactCheck.org. 30 Nov 2018.“N71PG Live Flight Tracking and History.” FlightAware.com. Accessed 30 Nov 2018.
|
35433
|
A photograph shows one petri dish that was coughed on by a person not wearing a mask and another petri dish coughed on by the same person wearing a mask.
|
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told us:
|
true
|
Science, COVID-19
|
In May 2020, a photograph started to circulate on social media supposedly showing a petri dish that was coughed on by a person not wearing a mask and a petri dish coughed on by the same person wearing a mask: As the Twitter user noted, this image reportedly was taken by lab technician Katie Corley and shared to her public Facebook page. Corley’s original post was shared on May 6 along with a message to the “conspiracy theorists” who were refusing to wear masks during the COVID-19 pandemic: Visual experiment for you conspiracy theorists: I coughed on two petri dishes, one while wearing a mask and one not. Shocking! The one on the left with no growth is the one I used a mask for! The one on the right where I didn’t wear a mask is full of bacteria. So yeah, maybe cloth masks don’t give you much protection, but they protect the people around you. Maybe wear one if you insist it’s your constitutional right to eat at Chili’s. We note that many social media users who encountered this photograph made some incorrect assumptions about what it showed. For example, many people seemed to think that the petri dish on the right showed SARS-CoV-2, the strain of coronavirus at the center of the current pandemic, and that this photograph demonstrated just how effective masks were at stopping the spread of COVID-19. This photograph, however, simply shows “normal oral flora.” In an edit to her post, Corley explained that the petri dish on the right contained “normal oral flora,” such as staph species, neisseria species, and corynebacterium. Corley also noted that viruses are much smaller than the bacterium shown in the petri dish, but noted that this small experiment demonstrated how masks can lessen droplet spread that can carry viruses. Corley added: There’s been a lot of questions regarding this experiment, so here’s some answers: 1. I used a cloth mask I made myself with disposable lab coat material. 2. I used blood agar. 3. The plate on the right looks “old” or “stale” because of the growth. Some of the organisms on this plate are alpha hemolytic, meaning they partially hemolyze blood. The agar itself is made with 5% sheep’s blood, so when it’s partially hemolyzed, it turns a dark green color. 4. As for the growth, it’s mostly viridans strep, staph species (not staph aureus), neisseria species, and corynebacterium. Pretty normal oral flora. 5. I realize that viruses are 1,000 times smaller than bacteria. The point of the masks is to prevent droplet spread, which carry bacteria as well as viruses. Corley, of course, was not the first person to notice how face masks lessened droplet transmission. Similar images showing bacteria from a person’s cough growing in a petri dish can also be seen in this article from the Microbiology Society. Rich Davis, the Clinical Microbiology Lab Directory at Providence Sacred Heart, posted a series of images of a similar demonstration: What does a mask do? Blocks respiratory droplets coming from your mouth and throat. Two simple demos: First, I sneezed, sang, talked & coughed toward an agar culture plate with or without a mask. Bacteria colonies show where droplets landed. A mask blocks virtually all of them. pic.twitter.com/ETUD9DFmgU — Rich Davis, PhD, D(ABMM), MLS 🦠🔬🧫 (@richdavisphd) June 26, 2020 Davis, like Corley, emphasized that this was not an experiment showing the efficacy of masks against the spread of COVID-19. Rather, it was a simple demonstration to show how masks lessened the spread of respiratory droplets, which can carry the disease. The British children’s television show “Operation Ouch!” also took a look at how much bacteria gets disseminated when a person coughs. While that episode did not include masks, it did compare a petri dish that was coughed on by a man with no mouth covering and a petri dish that was coughed on by a man who covered his mouth with an elbow. Here’s how the petri dish looked after it was coughed on by the man who covered his mouth (left) and the petri dish coughed on by the man who didn’t (right). As you can see, the results from “Operation Ouch!” are very similar to the results seen in Corley’s post: Here’s the clip from “Operation Ouch!” (The cough experiment starts around the 50-second mark): A 2005 study published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology noted that more than 700 bacterial species have been detected in the oral cavity. Covering your mouth when you cough (either with an elbow or a mask) can reduce droplet transmission and lessen the spread of potentially harmful germs. Professor Lindsay Grayson, director of infectious diseases at Melbourne’s Austin Hospital, said as much during a presentation at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy in San Francisco in 2009 concerning research on the effectiveness of masks in slowing the spread of influenza. The New York Times reported: “If you’re wearing a mask to prevent yourself from catching it, they’re not so effective,” said Dr. M. Lindsay Grayson, professor of medicine at the University of Melbourne and one of the study’s co-authors. “But if you’re sick with the flu and coughing and sputtering, those masks do prevent you from spraying those bugs everywhere.” The researchers asked nine study subjects with documented cases of influenza type A or B to test two different types of masks — the standard, disposable surgical masks and a more costly, respirator-style mask. The flu patients coughed into a petri dish while wearing both types of mask as well as without the mask. The dish was then tested for the presence of flu virus. When either type of mask was worn, no virus was detected on the petri dish. But how effective are masks in preventing the spread of COVID-19? While the exact efficacy of masks on the spread of COVID-19 is still undetermined, health officials do recommend that people wear masks in public because these face coverings can prevent droplet transmission.
|
4617
|
Stricter liquor rules give Lithuanians a severe hangover.
|
One of the heaviest drinking nations in the world is facing a severe hangover.
|
true
|
AP Top News, Health, Legislation, Lithuania, Europe, Vilnius
|
Lithuania’s new liquor law has increased the legal drinking age from 18 to 20, banned alcohol advertising, and drastically curtailed opening hours for liquor stores. The law, in effect since Jan. 1, has stirred major controversy in this Baltic nation of 2.9 million people. According to the World Health Organization, Lithuanians’ per-capita alcohol consumption jumped more than 22 percent in a decade — from 14.9 liters (15.7 quarts) of pure alcohol annually in 2006 to 18.2 liters (19.2 quarts) in 2016. Authorities felt drastic measures were needed. “We had to do something about it,” said Health Minister Aurelijus Veryga, the main proponent of the new legislation. (Alcoholism) “makes Lithuania unattractive to foreign investments and tourism.” “Especially shocking are surveys showing that a third of our 15- and 16-year-olds consume alcohol regularly,” Veryga noted. With 36 per 100,000 people, Lithuania has the highest suicide rate in Europe, and suicide rates among alcoholics are consistently high, according to a study conducted by health specialists at Vilnius University. “These were hard decisions,” Veryga said, noting that opponents of the new law were trying “to make fools” of its supporters, including him. Veryga became minister in late 2016 when his party — Union of Farmers and Greens Union — claimed most seats at the national elections. The party has pushed ahead with several conservative law changes in family policy, despite public protests and disagreements with coalition partners. On a mural covering a wall of a popular Vilnius restaurant, Veryga is depicted as a Taliban fighter holding an AK-47 machine gun under the heading “the party is over,” reflecting concerns that Lithuania is entering a dark era of radical bans and restrictions. Some columnists suggested Lithuania should start censoring classic literature describing the consumption of spirits, while members of the opposition have already filed amendments seeking to repeal the harshest aspects of the law. Even the country’s president, Dalia Grybauskaite, has called for amendments. “It reminds me of the Middle Ages and it causes huge international harm to Lithuania’s image and reputation abroad,” Grybauskaite said, speaking about pages having to be torn out of foreign magazines. Publishers have rushed to remove — or cover with red stickers — liquor ads from foreign publications distributed in the country to avoid fines of 30,000 euros ($37,480) per ad. Analysts point out that the new laws are being pushed through without any dialogue, disregarding unwanted side-effects, international practices or even common sense. “Their political program is a collection of random ideas wrapped in Messianism and shrouded in hypocrisy,” said Zilvinas Silenas, president of the Lithuania Free Market Institute, a Vilnius-based think tank. “But they are very consistently prohibitionist about regulating personal choice and lifestyle.” “The party has no identity except for a crusade against what people put in their mouths,” Silenas added. Restaurants have also been affected. Wine bottles are no longer allowed to be displayed after 8 p.m. as its labels are considered advertising and patrons have a choice of buying wine by the glass or having it served in a decanter. “This is just ridiculous,” said Arunas Starkus, study director at the Sommelier School of Lithuania, calling the new rules “simply irrational and naive.” “It takes decades to change people’s customs and it has to be done by changing the culture, not by implementing restrictions and penalties,” Starkus said. Underage drinkers are still welcome at many downtown bars, with owners highly skeptical about the new regulations. “Of course, we let in everybody, even those who are under 20,” said Raminta Ruibyte, manager of a popular Vilnius bar. “We can offer them non-alcoholic beverages.” Minister Veryga, for his part, was unmoved. “Nobody will solve these problems for us,” Veryga said. “We must ... help the new generation grow up not thinking that alcohol is the main factor that unites and keeps our society together.”
|
5437
|
Indonesian police arrest hundreds linked to forest fires.
|
Indonesian police said Thursday they have arrested 230 people suspected of starting some of the fires that are spreading health-damaging haze across a large part of Southeast Asia.
|
true
|
Malaysia, General News, Indonesia, Singapore, Asia, Environment, Arrests, Asia Pacific, Thailand, Southeast Asia
|
Among those arrested are three men who were caught Monday while trying to clear land to plant crops in Tesso Nilo National Park, which is home to about 140 endangered wild elephants, said Dedi Prasetyo, the national police spokesman. Those arrested could be prosecuted under an environmental protection law that provides for a maximum 10-year prison sentence for setting fires to clear land. Indonesia’s fires are an annual problem that strains relations with neighboring countries. The smoke from the fires has blanketed parts of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand in a noxious haze. Poor visibility caused by smoke has caused delays of flights at several airports in Indonesia and Malaysia and prompted authorities to shut thousands of schools in some parts of the two countries, affecting more than 1.5 million students in Malaysia alone. Malaysian authorities have been conducting cloud seeding operations in an attempt to clear the haze and are considering passage of a law that would penalize Malaysian plantation companies that start fires abroad. Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin said Thursday that a more lasting regional solution is needed. Singapore, directly across the Strait of Malacca from Indonesia’s Riau province on the island of Sumatra, experienced air pollution levels ranging between moderate and unhealthy levels on Thursday. Elevated levels of PM2.5, tiny airborne particulates, caused Singaporean authorities to issue health advisories to limit outdoor activities, especially among the elderly, pregnant women and children. PM2.5 particulates are small enough to be sucked deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, and can cause respiratory problems and over time may raise the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancers. Thailand’s southernmost provinces, which are north of Malaysia halfway up the Malay Peninsula, were blanketed with haze from Indonesian fires on Thursday. Thai authorities said the level of air pollution has risen since Sept. 5, reaching a dangerous level in the last few days. The Air Pollution Research Station of Prince of Songkhla University urged residents of the affected areas to refrain from outdoor activities and not leave home without wearing masks. Health officials in Yala province have been giving out free masks to people on the streets while urging motorists to exercise caution when driving on highways because of poor visibility. “We face the problem every year between July and September, the worst was in 2015,” said Kaneungnit Srisamai of the government’s environment quality monitoring center. “We have seen less smoke in the last four years, but this year we may be facing it again due to a reduction in rainfall.” In addition to the arrests, Indonesian authorities have also sealed off land owned by at least 49 plantation companies in the past week for investigation after fires were found there. The Indonesian Disaster Mitigation Agency detected 4,319 hotspots across the country on Thursday. It said 99% of the hotspots were caused by deliberately set fires. The agency said 44 helicopters had dropped more than 270 million liters (71.3 million gallons) of water and 163 tons of salt for cloud seeding as part of the firefighting efforts. Indonesian authorities have deployed more than 29,000 people to fight the fires, which have razed more than 328,700 hectares (812,000 acres) of land across the nation, with more than half in the provinces of Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan. Indonesia’s annual dry season fires were particularly disastrous in 2015, burning 2.6 million hectares (10,000 square miles) of land. The World Bank estimated the fires cost Indonesia $16 billion, and a Harvard and Columbia study estimated the haze hastened 100,000 deaths in the region. ___ Associated Press writers Busaba Sivasomboon and Grant Peck in Bangkok and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.
|
10792
|
FDA finds increase in suicide symptoms for patients using seizure medications
|
The focus of this story is recently published data showing a slight increase in the absolute risk of suicide and suicidal symptoms in patients treated with certain anti-seizure medications compared with placebo. The story appropriately provides context for this new information–and educates the health consumer in the process by presenting this data in both relative and absolute terms. However, the story could have been improved by giving info on how often these medications are prescribed and/or how common the illnesses are. The story is well-balanced. A range of clinicians, caregivers and pharmaceutical spokespeople are interviewed. Regarding the latter, the story notes that findings from pharma-sponsored research were either more positive, or similar to that of the FDA’s review. The interviews in this story provide context for the increased risk of suicidality, and help patients weigh the risks and benefits of taking these medications. The focus of the story is a potential harm of anti-seizure medication, namely, an increased risk of suicidal thoughts or behaviors. The story does not note other, less serious harms of these drugs. These can include weight gain, mental confusion and an upset stomach. The story notes only newer pharmacological treatments. No other treatments are discussed. The story might have been enhanced by giving more info on alternative treatments along with their pros/cons. While cost is not the focus of the story, it is important information, especially for epileptic and bipolar patients who often take medications for life. The drugs under discussion are fairly expensive drugs (approximately. $150-200/month for newer drugs); however, there are older, less expensive medications that might work as well for some people.
|
true
|
The story does not mention the average cost of these drugs. This is important information, especially for epileptic and bipolar patients who often take medications for most of their life. The drugs under discussion are fairly expensive drugs (approximately. $150-200/month for the newer drugs). There are older, and less expensive medications that might work as well for some people. The story mentions cons of not treating epilepsy with anti-seizure meds. You want to be able to balance the benefits against the potential harms. The story does not note the number needed to treat to prevent a seizure, or similar consumer-friendly data. This information would be useful in light of the FDA review, especially for patients considering stopping these drugs, and for patients thinking about the the long-term benefits. The focus of the story is a potential harm of treatment, namely, an increased risk of suicidal thoughts or behaviors. The story notes the risks are greater for epileptics than for those taking the same medications for psychiatric conditions or for chronic pain. The story does not note other, less serious harms of these drugs, which can include weight gain, mental confusion and an upset stomach. Discussion of other side effects would be useful information if patients are considering the full risks and benefits of taking this class of medication over the long-term. The story does an excellent job describing the FDA review and explaining both the relative and absolute data. This helps the consumer make a more informed decision when weights the benefits and risks of certain anti-seizure medications. The story does not engage in disease-mongering. The story would have been improved by giving info on how often these medications are prescribed AND/OR how common the illnesses are. The story does a good job citing a range of clinicians, patients and pharmaceutical spokespeople. Regarding the latter, the story notes that findings from pharma-sponsored research were either more positive, or similar to that of the FDA’s review. The interviews in this story provide context for the new information; however, Dr. Nierenberg makes a blanket statement about the risks not outweighing the benefits. For some of these drugs, the benefit in bipolar disorder has not been shown.We are not told if Dr. Nierenberg or Dr. Harden receive pharmaceutical funding. The story notes some pharmacological treatments available for patients with epilepsy. No other treatments are discussed. The story might have been enhanced by giving more info on alternative treatments along with some pros/cons. Other available drug treaments include: phenobarbital, phenytoin, carbamazepine, valproate, gabapentin, lamotrigine, topiramate, levetriacetam, oxcarbazepine, zonisamide, felbamate. The story notes some pharmacological treatments available for epilepsy. The story notes these same medications may also be used to treat chronic pain, mood disorders and headaches. The risks of suicidality are not as great in non-epileptics. The focus is recently published data (http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01786.html) showing a slight increase in the absolute risk of suicide and suicidal symptoms in patients treated with certain anti-seizure medications compared with placebo. The story appropriately provides context for this new information (and educates the health consumer in the process) by presenting this data in both relative and absolute terms, as well as citing a range of sources to provide clinical context. There is independent reporting and no evidence that information in this story is taken directly from a press release.
|
|
22573
|
"The government will ""go out and buy my breast pump for my babies."
|
Michele Bachmann says the government will buy you a breast pump for your baby.
|
false
|
National, Health Care, Women, Taxes, Michele Bachmann,
|
"The Democrats are at it again, said Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.: Trying to get the government to solve all our problems. ""I’ve given birth to five babies, and I’ve breast-fed every single one of these babies,"" Bachmann said on The Laura Ingraham Show. ""To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump for my babies? You want to talk about the nanny state? I think you just got a new definition of the nanny state."" We decided to fact-check Bachmann’s catchy sound bite after seeing it repeated in the media this week. Bachmann’s comments were prompted by a decision from the Internal Revenue Service to change the way it classifies breast pumps and related supplies. Previously, the IRS said breast pumps were not medical expenses because they were related to nutrition. And nutrition -- i.e., food -- is not a medical expense. On Feb. 10, the IRS announced it had reconsidered, and that it had decided breast pumps are in fact used for medical care. Like obstetric care, breast pumps ""are for the purpose of affecting a structure or function of the body of the lactating woman,"" the IRS said in its ruling. So does this mean free breast pumps for mom? Hardly. Formally, it means that breast pumps can be treated like other medical expenses that are tax deductible. Keep in mind, the hurdle for directly deducting medical expenses is quite high: The out-of-pocket expenses have to exceed 7.5 percent of your adjusted income before you can begin deducting them. More commonly, it means people can now buy breast pumps using money from flexible health spending accounts. Many employers offer these accounts, which allow workers to save part of their paychecks tax-fee to a personal account that can be used only for health care costs. Because the money isn’t taxed, people are able to set aside more for health expenses than they would otherwise. The accounts have restrictions, though. There’s a limit to how much can go to the accounts, currently $2,500. People have to save all their receipts and submit them to an administrator in most cases. And if there’s money in the account at the end of the year, the employer gets to keep it. Because of the use-it-or-lose-it provision, people tend to use these accounts for predictable health expenses, not emergencies. In addition to the IRS announcement, breastfeeding has been in the news because First Lady Michelle Obama said recently that she hoped to promote breast-feeding through her ""Let’s Move"" campaign to prevent childhood obesity. Obama said that studies have linked breast-feeding to lower obesity rates. Radio host Laura Ingraham, who asked Bachmann about breast pumps, questioned Obama’s motivation for the ""Let’s Move"" campaign, and speculated that the First Lady might intend to run for office later. Bachmann, though, said she doubted that Obama was motivated by self-interest. ""I think honestly she is really committed to the far left agenda, more than anything else,"" Bachmann said. We should note that Ingraham was accurate in explaining that breast pumps were being newly classified as a medical expense, and hence tax deductible. Bachmann, though, described the decision incorrectly when she said, ""To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump for my babies? You want to talk about the nanny state? I think you just got a new definition of the nanny state."" Those remarks have been widely reported. It’s a catchy sound bite, but like a lot of sound bites, it’s not so accurate. The government will not buy you a breast pump. Rather, it will now allow you to treat money you spend on the pumps as a deductible medical expense. Bachmann's statement suggests a large government program to purchase and provide the devices when in fact the government is actually treating them as tax-deductible, like countless other things."
|
33717
|
The charred remains of a scuba diver were discovered in a tree after a forest fire.
|
Sightings: Look for mention of this urban legend early in the 1999 film Magnolia. Also, the 1997 Mordecai Richler novel Barney’s Version and the 1989 Peter Mayle novel A Year in Provence make use of the legend. An episode of CBS’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (“Scuba Doobie-Doo,” original air date 25 October 2001) was based on this legend.
|
false
|
Horrors, freakish fatalities, scuba
|
The tragic tale of the unfortunately scooped diver has been with us at least since 1987: Example: [Collected on the Internet, 1996] Fire Authorities in California found a corpse in a burnt out section of forest whilst assessing the damage done by a forest fire. The deceased male was dressed in a full wetsuit, complete with a dive tank, flippers and face mask. A post mortem examination revealed that the person died not from burns but from massive internal injuries. Dental records provided a positive identification. Investigators then set about determining how a fully clad diver ended up in the middle of a forest fire. It was revealed that, on the day of the fire, the person went for a diving trip off the coast — some 20 kilometers away from the forest.The firefighters, seeking to control the fire as quickly as possible, called in a fleet of helicopters with very large buckets. The buckets were dropped into the ocean for rapid filling, then flown to the forest fire and emptied. You guessed it. One minute our diver was making like Flipper in the Pacific, the next he was doing a breaststroke in a fire bucket 300m in the air. Apparently, he extinguished exactly 1.78m (5’10”) of the fire. Told at various times as having happened in California or France, to date there’s not been so much as one charred scuba diver recovered from the aftermath of a forest fire in either location. (You’ll also sometimes hear of a fisherman found in a tree, still determinedly clutching his fishing pole even in his extra-crispy state of final repose. None of them has been found, either.) Which is not too surprising — the technology governing both bucket- and scoop-style water bombers rules out anyone being taken up with a load of water. The intake of the largest helibucket is a one-foot ring. Although 10,000 gallons of water can be carried in the largest “bambi bucket,” it all gets in there through that one-foot opening, an aperture far too minuscule for even a small person to be pulled through, let alone a typical-sized man dressed in scuba gear. Bombardier water bombers typically have two intakes, but both are 4 inches by 10 inches, far too small to get a diver through. Further, these intakes are protected by grilles. Helitankers (choppers bearing a fixed tank) suck up water through a hose known as a “donkey dick.” The opening to this hose is only a couple of inches in diameter. Though it’s impossible to be scooped or sucked up into a water bomber, there has been at least one injury to a swimmer resulting from coming too near to one while it was in the process of reloading. In 1998, a swimmer in Corsica was caught in eddies caused by a Canadair and thrown against a landing stage. She suffered a bruised leg. It’s been suggested the legend’s origin lies in a collection of “how did this person die?” puzzles, this particular one presented as “The charred body of a scuba diver was found high in a tree after a forest fire — how did he get there?” Hypothetical stories have a way of being later remembered as real occurrences, and that likely could have happened here. (Visit the Ronald Opus page for an example of this sort of transmutation.) I think the appeal of this legend lies in a combination of a few factors: Scuba divers are repeatedly asked about this tall tale. Their ongoing annoyance with this question — How many times can one say “No, it never happened” without losing patience? — inspired one to invent the tongue-in-cheek sport of “Fire Diving”. Those unfamiliar with the pastime will want to visit his Fire Diving page.
|
11250
|
Coconuts are busting out all over
|
This story seems to want to be many things. It wants to explain the rising number of products with coconut-related ingredients being sold to customers. It wants to describe the potential money to be made from these products. And it wants to tell readers whether these products actually have any health benefits. It does none of these things particularly well, but it is the least effective when it comes to the health claims. If coconuts truly are becoming a major source of sales in the so-called natural health foods sector — and this story does not convince us that they are — then readers deserve a careful analysis of the evidence supporting their benefits. As with pomegranate juice and acai berries, both of which are mentioned in this story, “miracle foods” are often more marketing than anything else. This story, unfortunately, helps the coconut product companies get away with a lot of free marketing and nary a single tough question.
|
false
|
The Denver Post
|
For a story that attempts to wow readers with unsupported claims from third hand sources about the big money to be made in coconuts, this story is very light on any cost information for consumers. The story says, for example, that while the coconut water market sits at “$100 million annually right now,” one company alone will do “$100 million in sales or more in sales” next year. But there is not a single price provided for any specific products nor any mention of how these prices compare to other foods and beverages that contain similar nutritional value. For all the claims being made in this story, not a single benefit is quantified. The story attempted to do one thing helpful for readers. It provided a comparison, of sorts, of different coconut parts. It says, for example, that ” One tablespoon of coconut oil contains 120 calories and 14 grams of fat, 12.5 grams of which is saturated. A tablespoon of butter, by comparison, contains 102 calories and 11.5 grams of fat; 7.3 of those grams are saturated.” But it provides no context about what this means. We read this and assumed that we should avoid all coconut oil products and stick with butter, but the story hypes coconut oil and coconut milk so much that readers are likely to miss this nuance. One quote in the story refers to calories, but the matter of high-calorie food of any sort, including coconut oil, contributing to obesity is not explained. It is not clear from this story that there is any evidence to evaluate about coconut products, but we presume that coconuts or coconut derivatives have been studied. The story also spends considerable space talking about electrolytes, fat, cholesterol without quantifying the benefits (or harms) of any of them or analyzing the claims being made in any meaningful way. For example, in discussing coconut oil, it starts out by saying that it has received “mixed reviews” and quotes a Denver dietitian who says that coconut oil contains saturated fat that “clogs your arteries and is not good for heart health.” We’re not sure she is the best source on heart health, but this is good information nonetheless. Then the story muddies the waters, though, by saying that coconut oil fats are composed of “medium-chain fatty acids” that are “more healthy” and that they are “high in lauric acid, which many believe acts as an antimicrobial, helping prevent viruses, fungi and parasites.” By comparing well established, proven medical evidence on cholesterol to spurious, unfounded claims about what “many believe” the story provides readers no hierarchy of evidence. Marketing and true science slosh around in this story like a mug full of coconut milk. The story portrays average consumers as somehow suffering from deficiencies which need a “coconut cure.” It quoted a publisher of a trade publication saying, “In the past couple of years a couple of brands have figured out the right angle — electrolytes and hydration.” But there was no discussion of whether electrolytes and hydration are issues that the average American needs to worry about – and “treat” – regularly. The story quotes a lot of people. Unfortunately, most of them are connected to the sales or marketing of coconut products in some way. Daniel Fabricant, vice president for government and scientific affairs at the Natural Products Association, a trade association in Washington says coconut products have everything a healthy consumer would want. “It’s a holistic approach.” “It’s an effective drink for rehydration that doesn’t bring in the added sugars and the additives,” says Dani Little, dietitian for a Whole Foods Market in Boulder. Also quoted are: John Craven, the founder of Bevnet.com, a trade publication for the beverage industry. Arthur Gallego, a spokesman for the New York-based Vita Coco; Laura Sauls, a spokeswoman for Hermosa Beach, Calif.-based Zico and Kevin Conrad, a sales executive with GoFast, a Denver energy drink that now includes a version containing coconut-water concentrate.That leaves just Jessica Crandall, a Denver dietitian who is president of the Colorado Dietetic Association. The closest we get to any medical sources is Crandall saying that she “was meeting with a cardiologist recently, and he said he doesn’t advise (coconut oil) for any clients.” Note the use of the word “clients.” Everyone is being sold coconut oil or not sold something in this story. The last word goes to a Whole Foods executive. “It’s healthy — and simple, too. That’s one of the attractions, said Tom Rich, who is in charge of grocery operations for Whole Foods Rocky Mountain region. “It’s something you don’t have to figure out,” he said. “People know what it is and where it grows. It’s simple all the way around.” “ The only comparisons we saw in this story were between coconut oil and butter. That was one line in a box that ran with the story and not enough to provide any meaningful comparisons to existing alternatives. Overall, readers are not given the information they would need to make informed comparisons between coconut-based products and other foods and drinks. The sheer volume of people within the retail food industry who seem excited about this trend makes us believe that a lot of stores are following this fad, which means coconut products are widely available. The story doesn’t make it clear how novel coconut products are or whether they offer any benefits not offered by a regular, balanced diet or why. There is certainly nothing new about coconuts. The story does not explain whether there is any new information that provides a rationale for increased attention to coconuts or whether the attention is fueled entirely by marketing. The story does not rely on a news release. But we wouldn’t be surprised if future news releases and other marketing efforts won’t be spawned by such coverage.
|
40244
|
Faith Hoemspine is a 5-year-old who is fighting a losing battle with cancer. She’s in the Shriner’s hospital in Cincinnati and wants to receive the most get well cards anyone has ever received.
|
Five-year-old Faith Hoemspine has cancer and wants all the greeting cards she can get
|
false
|
Medical, Pleas
|
This eRumor has several variations and all of them are wrong. Most of the eRumors list her name as Faith Hoemspine. The actual spelling of her name is Hoenstine. Some of the eRumors say she is 5-years-old. Some say she is 9-years-old. She was actually a 15-year-old high school student when her medical crisis began in May of 2000. The eRumors say she had cancer, but she’s never suffered from cancer. She has become one of few people who has survived a kind of bacterial infection that resulted in the amputation of both of her legs at the knees, her left arm above the elbow, her fingers and most of her thumb on her right hand. The eRumors say she wants get well cards, Christmas cards, or business cards but she’s never made a request for any kind of cards. The Shriners Burns Hospital in Cincinnati says Faith was treated there because her doctors wanted her to benefit from the hospital’s experience with skin grafts but that the large volume of phone calls and mail for Faith has been a drain on resources. The Cincinnati Inquirer published an update on her condition in December of 2001 that said the family has gotten as many as 50,000 letters a month. Despite her ordeal, Faith is described as having a good attitude and pursuing her education. Comments
|
9531
|
Ingredient in magic mushrooms is shown to ease anxiety and depression in cancer patients in one dose
|
The story focuses on two recent studies that find a single application of the hallucinogen psilocybin is effective at providing meaningful relief to cancer patients suffering from severe depression or anxiety. The studies were published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, and can be found here and here. In some ways, the story is thorough, addressing potential side effects and conflicts of interest very well. The story discusses the potential benefits in depth, which is good, but fails to quantify those benefits — which is problematic. The story also does a good job of placing the work in context, highlighting the increasing profile of research into the use of hallucinogens as therapeutic tools for mental health problems. However, the story would have been even stronger if it had discussed the existing literature on the use of psilocybin to address anxiety in cancer patients. We also reviewed two news releases related to the research: Depression and other mental health struggles are common and significant among people with cancer, especially terminal cancer. This makes it especially important for reporters to write responsibly about studies like those discussed in this story. You want to give readers enough information to help them make informed decisions. You don’t want to raise false hopes, or sensationalize the work. Overall, this story does a nice job of handling a delicate subject well.
|
true
|
hallucinogens,mental health,psilocybin
|
Given that this is an illegal substance banned by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, cost as a therapeutic would be difficult to ascertain. We liked that the story took pains to explain that approval of this drug faces many hurdles. This is a tough one. While the story tells us what percentage of patients benefited from treatment, it does not, in fact, quantify the extent of those benefits–which is precisely what this category is designed to assess. However, the story does do a good–and thorough–job of describing the benefits in qualitative terms. That said, if the story had only chosen one or two examples of changes in the standardized measures of depression or anxiety, this would have received an enthusiastic “Satisfactory” rating. One strong word of caution though: The story cites one source as saying that psilocybin may one day be used to treat a wide range of mental health issues ranging from drug addiction to obsessive-compulsive disorder. The story offers no evidence to support these claims, which were made by a source associated with an organization that exists specifically to promote research on hallucinogens. Substantial claims require substantial evidence. The story would have been much stronger if it had eliminated the unsubstantiated remarks from the source — particularly since they had no bearing on the subject of the story. The story addresses this issue thoroughly. Well done. The story does a good job of both describing the design of the studies and explaining why the study design is relevant. For example, the story notes: “But both [studies] were considered to be double-blind placebo trials — the gold-standard of medical research in which subjects are left to guess whether they have gotten the active study drug or an inactive lookalike.” This is the sort of thing we like to see. However, we did want to note that in the NYU study, researchers did state in the limitations section that there was “limited blinding” — how did that possibly affect the outcomes? No disease mongering here. However, the story should have been more cautious about claims of benefit for conditions ranging far beyond the scope of the research at hand, which focused on mental health problems among people with advanced cancer. The story clearly states who funded the studies, and what that organization’s long-term goals are. Further, the story clearly identified individuals quoted in the story who have ties to the studies or the funding organization. Lastly, the story incorporates input from an independent expert. However, the story would have been stronger if there had been a skeptical take on the research, which saw in some other coverage, such as this New York Times piece. The story does not address other treatment options for anxiety or depression, such as talk therapy or other pharmaceutical interventions. The story does a good job here. For example, the story notes: “[F]inding drugs like psilocybin effective is by no means the final hurdle to their widespread availability. None are currently in production, and no for-profit pharmaceutical company would likely invest millions of dollars to bring to market a pill intended effectively for one-time use.” Well done. This is a close call. The story does do a good job of placing the work in context in regard to overall research involving hallucinogens. That’s enough to earn it a “Satisfactory” rating. However, the story doesn’t mention any of the work done in the past 10 years on the use of psilocybin specifically to address anxiety in cancer patients, such as this 2007 study, this one from 2011, or this one from 2013. Are the results from the two new studies consistent with these earlier findings? Do they differ in a meaningful way? That would be good to know. The story does not appear to rely on a news release.
|
10842
|
Three tests may foil artery-disease deaths
|
"This story reports on a recent recommendation about vascular screening by the Society for Vascular Surgery. These are tests to screen completely asymptomatic people with some cardiovascular risk factors in order to detect vascular disease. While the surgeons offer interventions for these conditions, the jury is out on the various cut-offs for where and in whom surgical intervention is of proven benefit, but the story is not clear on this issue. The story failed to adequately explain the risks and benefits of such screening, or the risks associated with the surgical intervention that might follow. The story also never mentioned that the vascular surgeons' screening recommendations are not in agreement with those published by the United States Preventive Services Task Force at http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/cps3dix.htm. The story failed to provide background about the evidence supporting the screening recommendations being made. It failed to provide comment from an independent source. And the information provided on the single scientific study mentioned misrepresented the published results of that study. (The story said the study involved only individuals 75 and older but only 21% of the patients were 75 or older and whether the difference in strokes was different between the treatment groups in this age group was described as ""still uncertain"".)"
|
false
|
"The story provided a price range (free to $1000) for the trio of tests mentioned. The story confuses the potential benefit of treatment for advanced vascular disease with the potential benefit of screening for these conditions. The story says ""Three simple tests that can potentially save thousands of lives from strokes, aneurysms or other arterial problems…. "", but failed to explain the basis of this claim. There was no mention of potential harms of screening or of possible subsequent treatment. It is important to consider the rate of false-positive results, which are times when the test indicates there is a problem but there actually isn't any. For patients without symptoms, with good medical care, the annual risk of stroke is 2%. However with surgery, there is a 3% risk of stroke when very experienced surgeons perform the procedure; operative complications have been estimated to be 1 or 2% higher in the hands of less skilled surgeons (Lancet (2004)363:1486). What this means to a patient is that there is a temporary increased risk of stroke for those that opt for the procedure. Further, many of the screening tests are frequently inconclusive and a second, more invasive test, such as angiography, will be required as follow-up. The presentation of evidence in this story was problematic. The Society for Vascular Surgery has endorsed the use of three tests to screen for vascular disease, in individuals who are at risk for these conditions. But the story doesn't tell us the precise data on which the recommendations are based. Were there multiple studies contributing to the body of knowledge about the value of these three tests? (While the story goes into laudable detail about the evidence supporting one of the recommendations of the surgeon's group, the specifics about the study were incorrectly reported. The story said the study involved only individuals 75 and older but only 21% of the patients were 75 or older and whether the difference in strokes was different between the treatment groups in this age group was described as ""still uncertain"".) The story could also have mentioned how this group's recommendations differ from those of the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). This group recommends aortic aneurymsm screening only for men between the ages of 65-75 who have smoked. They also recommend against routine screening for peripheral artery disease screening, which would be the ""ankle-brachial"" test mentioned in the story. USPSTF is currently revising its recommendations about the carotid artery screen. The story included information provided by the chief of vascular surgery at the University of Maryland where the carotid artery screening program found 13% of apparently healthy people over the age of 65 were found to have significant blockages of these vessels. Presentation of this information in this context does not appear to be disease mongering. The only two sources quoted are both vascular surgeons, represented by the professional group that published the new screening recommendations. It would have been easy and important for the story to include the perspectives of some who do not share this enthusiasm for screening. The story did not do an adequate job of explaining the risks and benefits of screening and so it was not possible to discern from this piece the risk and benefits associated with not being screened – which is the obvious alternative. The story stated that getting ""accurate tests at a reasonable price can be a complex endeavor,"" provided a website where an individual could find information about screening programs, and provided the name of a commercial organization that does screening. While the story did mention that there was variations in results among various laboratories, it did not provide insight on how to assess the quality of the screening examinations available through various organizations. The story didn't explain how new these tests were, but one can infer from the story that they have been in use for some time. The story also didn't establish the real novelty of the story line: that this group of vascular surgeons has published recommendations that run counter to those of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. There is no evidence that the story relied solely or largely on a news release."
|
|
20950
|
If Congress does not pass the renewal of the payroll tax cut before the end of the year, nearly 160 million working families will see their taxes go up by roughly $1,000.
|
E-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc funded a “holistic health education” camp as part of efforts to market directly to school-aged children, members of a U.S. congressional panel said on Thursday, citing internal company documents.
|
mixture
|
Jobs, Taxes, Texas, Charlie Gonzalez,
|
Democrats on a subcommittee of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform released a cache of internal Juul emails and other documents that committee staff described as early attempts to “enter schools and convey its messaging directly to teenage children.” Juul’s use of social media influencers to promote its vaping devices in the years after it launched in 2015 also came under scrutiny. James Monsees, Juul’s co-founder and chief product officer, told the committee that the company’s target audience from the beginning has been adult cigarette smokers. Among efforts cited in the Juul documents released were a $134,000 payment to set up a five-week “holistic health education” summer camp at a Maryland charter school, recruiting children from third through 12th grades, and offering $10,000 to schools using the company’s “youth prevention and education” programs for students, including those caught using e-cigarette products. “You don’t think that sounds strange at all?” Representative Katie Hill, a Democrat, asked Juul’s chief administrative officer, Ashley Gould. “All of these educational efforts were intended to keep youth from using the product,” Gould responded. When Juul realized how the school involvement could be perceived as negative, “we stopped the program,” she said. In a statement after the hearing, Juul said the $134,000 donation was to “facilitate already-existing community outreach and youth-prevention programs,” and said the company “did not have any direct interaction with the students.” Several committee members said Juul’s initiatives appeared similar to past efforts by the tobacco industry to reach young people under the guise of smoking prevention programs. Gould said Juul, which is 35 percent owned by Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc (MO.N), halted its program last year once it became aware of the tobacco industry’s past moves. Caleb Mintz, 17, a New York city high school student, testified at a separate hearing on Wednesday that a Juul representative came to his school as part of an educational program on mental health and addiction last year. He said in an interview Thursday that students received “mixed messages” about the product, being told it was safe but not to buy it. Mintz said after the hearing that the Juul presentation seemed to be “playing to the side of teens as rebellious. When a teen is told not to do something, they’re more likely to do it.” Members of the committee also quizzed Gould and Monsees over the use of social media influencers to promote Juul’s vaping devices. Company executives early on agreed that “younger consumers age 25 to 34 was going to be the target of our initial campaign,” Monsees said. “They would be more receptive to new technology solutions,” such as the Juul device. Amid an enormous uptick in teenage use of e-cigarettes in 2018 — a 78% increase among high school students from 2017 to 2018, according to federal data — Juul said it ended all social media advertising last fall. Juul also pulled many flavored nicotine pods, except mint, menthol and tobacco, from retail stores, which Monsees said represented more than half of the company’s sales at that time.
|
36193
|
A video proves that a Starbucks Venti cup (20 ounces) is suspiciously similar in volume to a Starbucks Grande cup (12 ounces.)
|
Starbucks 20-Ounce Venti vs. 12-Ounce Grande Video Experiment
|
unproven
|
Fact Checks, Viral Content
|
On August 11 2019 the Facebook page Mercadotecnia Total shared the following video (translated title: “Effective Marketing: Venti vs Large @ Starbucks”):That iteration racked up more than five million views in just one month, and a copy shared by a user on August 29 2019 received a further 2.6 million views as of September 12 2019. Together, the clips had been viewed nearly eight million times. The first video, presumably the original, was shared by a Spanish-language marketing page.In both clips, an individual in a black shirt is holding what appears to be a Grande (cold) Starbucks cup filled with water. They slowly pour the contents of the Grande cup into a Venti (cold) cup. The original video’s description did not state that the respective sizes were 20 ounces for Venti and 12 ounces for Grande, but the second did. A pinned comment by the second sharer on his video urged viewers to avoid Starbucks in favor of independent coffee shops.Of first note is a claim made in the title-like portion of the second iteration of the video: that Starbucks Grande cups contain 12 ounces, and Venti cups contain 20 ounces. As presented, the difference was eight ounces, or one cup in American fluid ounces measurements.According to Starbucks, a Grande both cold and iced contains 16 ounces, and a Venti (cold) contains 24 ounces. The purported difference of eight ounces was accurate, but the overall sizes were not. (A hot Venti is 20 ounces; roughly translated, “venti” means “twenty” in Italian. )Another aspect of the clip observed by many commenters was that the Grande cup was filled to the absolute top, in a manner several deemed completely unlike the actual serving practices of Starbucks baristas. As presented, even putting a lid on the cup may have caused spillage. Ice was not factored into the “experiment.”On September 4 2019, a thread about the viral Grande vs. Venti video appeared on Reddit’s r/Starbucks, a subreddit for Starbucks’ employees (called “partners” in the chain’s parlance). Titled “First video went viral on FB. As a partner, I thought it might be faked. Second video was filmed at work today. Can’t believe everything you see on the internet I guess,” the post featured an excerpt from the first video and an attempt to replicate its results behind the Starbucks counter:First video went viral on FB. As a partner, I thought it might be faked. Second video was filmed at work today. Can’t believe everything you see on the internet I guess. from starbucksCups shown in the second half of the video (the attempt to replicate) featured a slightly different Starbucks logo — another indication that the first video may have been filmed outside the United States. Multiple baristas on the same subreddit reported that sizes for Starbucks cups differ in Europe:European Starbucks from starbucksAccording to additional comments, not all Starbucks sizes in Europe were different, with one notable exception. The Venti cup (20 ounces hot and 24 cold in the US) was 20 ounces for both hot and cold in the UK and Europe:UK worker here. All sizes are the same as the US (8/12/16/20oz) with the exception of the venti iced which is 20oz, just like the hot venti.Assuming that the original Spanish-language marketing firm video was contrasting two Starbucks cups from outside the United States, the difference would be four ounces, not eight. Moreover, the Grande cup tapered significantly less from bottom to top; the size of the Venti was narrow at the bottom and much wider at the top. With those details in mind, a difference of four ounces and not eight in a dramatically flared cup seems slightly less compelling.Going back to the original video’s contents, the top comment on the thread contrasting the clip with an attempt to replicate it indicated that the first video might be slightly misleading. Of the person in the video, the Starbucks employee claims:He pushes against the cup with his inner thumb knuckle in the first video. It’s super apparent at 12 seconds.It is impossible to say with certainty if that observation was correct, but on a second review of the video we took note of the portion cited. And it does seem that the pourer is indenting the cup with his thumb, creating a slight bend in the otherwise straight side of the cup (emphasis ours):A separate commenter said:It looks like a cup from another country. I was in mexico and their venti is the same as the one in the video and it’s about 16ozAnother stray observation is that both the original sharer (a marketing firm) and the second (a Facebook meme-centric profile) seemed to have interests in producing viral content. Starbucks is popular worldwide, and a suggestion of perfidy was content almost certain to go viral. Therefore, “proving” Starbucks’ drinks were not what they appeared to be is almost guaranteed likes, shares, and engagement incentivized by Facebook.Starbucks has been previously accused by customers of under-filling drinks. In a response to a 2016 lawsuit, representatives for the chain explained that the overall composition of Starbucks drinks was subject to myriad factors and facets of various preparation. A customer’s requests with respect to ice (or no ice), foam, extra shots of espresso, and other modifications made the number of variables quite high:“Hand-prepared beverages increase the likelihood of variations, as disclosed in the nutritional section of our website,” the statement said. “Customers often tell us how they want their beverage prepared (e.g. with room, extra foam), therefore beverage volumes are largely collaborative. If a customer is unhappy with their beverage preparation then we are happy to remake it to their satisfaction.”Starbucks described the volume of any given drink “largely collaborative” based on those requests. Coverage of the suit’s merits invariably made mention of the fact that Starbucks’ practices in selling iced or hot beverages was under the oversight of “federal and state” agencies. Shorting customers with misleading cup size would open the chain up to a “range of federal and state violations, including fraud, false advertising and negligent misrepresentation.”In August 2019, Starbucks addressed the viral video, explaining:This video was not produced by Starbucks and is not representative of the approach our highly skilled baristas take to prepare and serve handcrafted beverages for our customers. Starbucks offers beverage sizes and guidelines, which are regularly communicated to our store partners, to ensure a consistent customer experience.In short, two separate viral Facebook posts of the same video purportedly demonstrated a misleadingly small difference between a 12 ounce Grande drink and a 20 ounce Venti drink, a supposed difference of eight ounces. The original video (and its copy) appeared to have been produced outside the United States, where a Venti drink is 20 ounces (not 24 as in the United States). And Grande drinks are actually 16 ounces, not 12, making the actual difference four ounces, not eight. In addition, the Grande cup is filled to capacity (unlike how Grande drinks are served), and in a questionable portion the pourer seemed to be squeezing the Venti cup to further exacerbate the supposed differences. Finally, modifications such as ice, foam, and extra shots (or room for milk) all affect the final fill level of any Starbucks drink.
|
10466
|
Panel calls for vaccine for adult smokers
|
This report on an advisory panel recommendation that all adult smokers be vaccinated for pneumococcal disease is competently done, and accurate as far as it goes. But it doesn’t go far enough. The report correctly describes the actions of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). It adequately cites dissension among panel members about the value of immunizing smokers under 40. It usefully reports the general limitations on the vaccine’s effectiveness. But it ignores the core question the panel’s recommendation raises: How effective will the recommendation be in preventing serious or fatal pneumococcal disease in the targeted population? How much money will be spent to save a life? That consideration is often the driver of a public health recommendation. Certainly it’s been considered by the panel members. But it’s not raised here. The story also reports statistics linking flu to pneumonia to death–without indicating that such links are very unlikely to apply to the targeted population.
|
mixture
|
"The story reports per-dose price: $30 per dose for the most common form of the vaccine. It might have been useful to do the math: If 50 percent of adult smokers got the recommended vaccine, it would cost about half a billion dollars annually. The report leaves the most fundamental questions unanswered: How vulnerable is the targeted population–adult smokers under 65 who have not been diagnosed with asthma or other chronic respiratory diseases–to pneumococcal disease, and especially to potentially deadly forms? And how good is the evidence that the current vaccine can reduce incidence? This is a situation where the reporter should have sought the ""number needed to treat"" data: How many adult smokers would have to be vaccinated in order to prevent serious cases of the disease or death? Further, the report cites the often-published statistic that pneumonia is linked to many of the 36,000. But this link exists almost exclusively in an elderly and immunocompromised population–not among otherwise healthy smokers under 65. The report should have explicitly called out the minor risks of vaccination, and of the uNPRoven safety for women who are pregnant or who may become pregant. Mentioning such risks is always important when dealing with a recommendation for a large population. Given the fact that the report is about an advisory panel recommendation–not publication of new research–the reporter is not required to discuss the evidence underlying the statement. But see the note below under ""Quantification of Benefits of Treatment."" This exposes a serious flaw in failing to explore the underlying evidence. The story for the most part avoids exaggerating the risk of pneumococcal disease and the efficacy of the vaccine in preventing it. Yet the story cites the often reported annual statistics linking flu, pneumonia and death. These statistics apply mostly to an elderly and immunocompromised population. The vaccine is already recommended for this population. The use of this statistic without questioning its applicability to the population in question falsely supports the case for the recommendation. The story quotes a CDC epidemiologist and a physician representing a college health group who is skeptical of the recommendation. That’s borderline sufficient for discussion of a new population-wide vaccine recommendation. We wish AP had sought commentary from an independent specialist in smoking-related disease and/or in pneumonia and other pneumococcal diseases. As a matter of course, the story should have mentioned other ways adult smokers can reduce the risk of pneumococcal disease, especially in younger smokers where the wisdom of vaccination is questioned by some panel members. The story implies correctly that pneumococcal vaccine is widely available. The story correctly parses the facts that this is the first vaccine recommendation aimed at smokers, yet the treatment is currently in wide use. The CDC has not issued a press release about the advisory committee’s recommendation."
|
|
10368
|
Foot wrap offers alternative to medication for patients with restless legs syndrome
|
This news release about a foot wrap device to treat symptoms of restless leg syndrome tries to portray study results as newer, more novel and more distinctive than they really are. While the study was just published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, the results were submitted to the FDA more than five years ago and the key findings have been used to market the device that was cleared for sale in 2013. Besides omitting the history of the study, the release promotes this foot wrap as if it were the only alternative to drug treatment, when there are other devices also on the market, as well as recommendations for massage, hot baths, lifestyle changes and other ways people can try to control bothersome leg movements. The release would have been stronger had it noted that the device is already on the market, and at what cost. More details on the trial results, including limitations, as found in the published study, would also have been useful. Restless leg syndrome (RLS) is a common but poorly understood neurological condition that leads to discomfort in the lower legs. For most individuals, the symptoms are mild and mainly impact sleep. For those with more severe symptoms, the discomfort in the legs can also be bothersome during the day. More than nine million people in the US may be dealing with moderate to severe RLS. Several times that many have milder symptoms or similar conditions they may confuse for RLS. That means that many millions of people may be misled by a news release that misstates the novelty of a foot wrap device and the study being used to promote it. The potential for confusion is demonstrated by the number of news organizations that apparently believed these study results are new, when they’ve been circulating for years and used in product marketing since at least early 2015.
|
false
|
Association/Society news release
|
The release does not mention that this foot wrap sells for $350 per pair. This may be less expensive than the cost of medicines used to treat RLS, something that could have been pointed out as a favorable thing. The release reports summaries of two types of measures of restless leg syndrome. However, the release would have been better if, in addition to the numerical results for the two scales, it had offered some definition of what the numbers mean in more common terms, such as how many nights per week people lost a lot of sleep because of leg movements. Or, since this treatment is focused on improving sleep, one could have focused on the number of nights with uninterrupted sleep. And as noted below, the release offers a comparison only to one type of drug, without any reference to numerous alternatives. The release reports the number of participants who had problems including “pain (1), pins and needles sensation (2), irritability (3), spasm (1) and warm feet (1).” Although the release calls the study a “pilot” and reports that it was an 8-week open label test involving just 30 people, and that the comparison to drug treatment used a statistical method for comparing this new trial with published reports of earlier trials done by drug companies, overall the release soft-pedals these limitations and fails to mention others. For instance, the release does not mention that originally 47 people were enrolled, with 11 being dropped for various reasons before being given the foot wrap and then six more dropping out during the trial. The study used a method of accounting for drop outs known as “last observation carried forward.” which means that they filled in the empty data points with the same report as the last one received before a patient dropped out. This method can indicate greater efficacy than assuming that an intervention produces no benefit after a person drops out. The release could have more clearly pointed out that there was no placebo control or blinding. The release includes a quote from one of the researchers claiming that with this device “we are able to create a response in the brain that relaxes the muscles activated during RLS.” when actually there was nothing in this study that reveals anything about how the foot wrap might work. It would have been better for the release to stick to the language used in the journal article, in which the researchers proposed their ideas about how the device might affect nerve signals, without claiming this study supports any particular proposed mechanism. The release quotes the National Institute [sic] of Health as saying more than nine million people in the US experience moderate to severe restless leg symptoms similar to those of the participants in this trial. However, it would have been helpful for the release to also point out that the NIH says 70 to 80 percent of people with RLS have a milder form, and that people who report leg movements during sleep have different conditions, such as “periodic limb movement of sleep” (PLMS). We will give the release credit for clearly noting that one of the authors works with the Lake Erie Research Institute, which developed the foot wrap, and that she is receiving compensation for her research work. The release also points out that further disclosure details are listed in the journal article. However, the release could have also specifically mentioned that the additional disclosure information includes the fact that the institute receives royalties from the company that bought the rights to the foot wrap. While at first glance it appears that the trial and the release are a comparison with the existing alternative of drug treatment, the release makes no reference to lifestyle changes, massage, hot or cold packs, hot baths, compression sleeves or an FDA-approved vibrating pad (brand name Relaxis), which has gone through far more extensive testing than this foot wrap. Since the main point of the release is to promote an alternative to drug treatment of RLS, failing to mention the FDA-approved vibration device is a serious omission. Oddly, the release does not say that this foot wrap was cleared for sale by the FDA in 2013 and is already on the market (brand name restiffic). As noted above, the release does not mention compression sleeves or other similar devices. Nor does the release mention that data from this “new” study was submitted to the FDA more than five years ago and has been widely used to market the restiffic device. The release doesn’t use sensationalist language. But it’s still a problem that the release presents this foot wrap as if it were the first and only non-drug treatment for RLS and thus offers something entirely new to patients.
|
37580
|
Artist Pablo Picasso died in 1973.
|
‘Picasso Died in 1973, Surprising the Internet Every Year’
|
true
|
Fact Checks, Viral Content
|
On March 1 2020, a Facebook user shared a Twitter screenshot about Pablo Picasso having died in 1973, which appeared somewhat in the style of “I was today years old when I learned” memes. On Facebook, the post racked up 40,000 shares and counting within 48 hours. On Twitter, the original February 28 2020 tweet was even more popular:Picasso died in 1973… no one fucking talk to be i thought this man lived in 1500— ells| wrens bitch (@stanscaps) February 28, 2020It read:Picasso died in 1973… no one fucking talk to be i thought this man lived in 1500Although 1973 was not even fifty years before 2020, the claim seemed to resonate wherever it was shared. In fact, a number of “today I learned” and similar Reddit subreddit posts expressed nearly identical sentiments over the years:TIL That Pablo Picasso died in 1973 – for some reason I thought he was alive a really long time ago. from todayilearnedTIL Pablo Picasso lived until 1973, long enough to have a colour photograph taken of him. from todayilearnedTIL Pablo Picasso died in 1973! from todayilearnedCommenters in those threads replied with sentiments similar to the one in the tweet — that they had believed that Picasso was of a far earlier era:I’m ashamed to admit that before reading this factoid on here a couple days ago I would’ve placed his death sometime in the late 19th/early 20th century. I excitedly announced to my wife that “Picasso just died in 1973!” and she called me an idiot. But whatever, she thinks the expression “play it by ear” is play it by year, and sometimes modifies it like “we’ll play it by month.”One of the TIL posts had a title indicating Picasso “lived until 1973, long enough to have a colour photograph taken of him.” A top comment accepted the poster’s point, but pointed out that color photography itself was not very new in 1973:Color photography was around way before 1973, but i see your point, most people don’t realize he lived that far into more modern times.Had to add this bit of info;1973 – Fairchild Semiconductor releases the first large image forming CCD chip: 100 rows and 100 columns of pixels.So in theory Pablo could have had a digital photograph taken of him.In threads like that, comments edged uncomfortably close to unspoken questions about what life was like in the 1970s. And a popular post on r/tumblr again demonstrated disbelief at hearing Picasso died in 1973, also indicating that post on Tumblr had a lot of engagement (due to Tumblr users all apparently believing that the artist wasn’t around during the 20th century):picasso died in 1973? from tumblrAlthough the original Tumblr post was inaccessible, it lived on in reblogs, and read:finding out picasso died in 1973 feels like the fakest thing ive ever heard. everyone talks about him like he lived in a cave with nothing but a torch and paint he made from berries or bear shit or somethin but nah this dude probably sat down watchin looney tunes thinkin “damn i should draw some dude with a nose on his forehead thatd be dope” i feel so lied toOther users shared where they were when they learned Picasso was a relatively modern artist, describing the moment as some “Mandela effect type shit”:This is really like some Mandela effect type shit because I thought the exact same thing until I was watching a show from the 90s and one of the characters claimed to have met Picasso and I was so dumbfounded until I looked him up and realized he lived in the 1900s— bruno (@itsbrunoleon) February 29, 2020Barstool Sports even reported Picasso’s 1973 death as new news in December 2018. Once again, the existence of archival images in color or video of Picasso proved mind-blowing to the author:1973! 1973! 1973! Not 1328. Not 1439. Not 1573. Not 1612. 1973! 1973 was like a couple days ago. Pablo and I missed each other by a mere 16 years. I thought we missed each other by 1,600. If you had walked up to me 45 minutes ago and asked, “Hey what year do you think Pablo Picasso died?” I would’ve guessed something like 1654. Just a complete and total shot in the dark but I know for a fact he died hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Him and Shakespeare surely drank tea together. Nope. 1973. So you’re saying Pablo Picasso was alive at the same time as my parents? Get the fuck outta here. The Godfather came out in 1972. So you’re telling me Pablo Picasso probably saw The Godfather? Pablo saw us walk on the moon! My brain hurts. I’m still not even sure I believe what Google says (despite checking no less than 50 times). […]Not only that but there’s VIDEO OF HIM PAINTINGNot only did Picasso die in 1973, outlets like the New York Times and New York Daily News had accessible obituaries for the artist on their respective sites:PARIS, April 8 [1973] — Pablo Picasso, 91, the most influential and prolific painter of the 20th century, died today at his country home at Mougins on the French Riviera, overlooking the rust-colored hills and the blue Mediterranean which had become his spiritual home.He died of pulmonary edema, an accumulation of water in the lungs. Although he had had several bouts with flu during the winter, his death came as a surprise to his wife, Jacqueline, and to the few friends who had visited him recently, still hard at work in his immense, cluttered atelier.One element of the repeated rediscovery of this fact was ongoing confusion about the era in which Pablo Picasso had lived and died. Commenters routinely stated they believed Picasso was notable several centuries prior, not unlike other relativity of historical events facts which had previously gone viral.It was extremely common for commenters to concur with the misperception, and then chide themselves for being “stupid” or “uneducated.” But art history isn’t something to which most people outside art school are often exposed, and a simple online search suggested that cognitive grouping of well-known names in art might be why readers repeatedly surprised one another with Picasso’s death date.We searched on Google for “who were the greatest painters of all time?”; Google automatically sorts a header to the top of results. Picasso was ranked third by Google, but the ordered list and its range of notability seemed to show where the idea Picasso was from an earlier era might have arisen.Leonardo da Vinci and Vincent Van Gogh were first and second, dying in 1519 and 1890 respectively. Picasso was third, followed by Rembrandt (1669) and Michelangelo (1564):In the next six spots were Monet (1926), Vermeer (1675), Caravaggio (1610), Raphael (1520), Salvador Dali (1989), and Cezanne (1906):Finally, there was Velazquez (1660), Jackson Pollock (1956), Rubens (1640), Klimt (1918), Renoir (1919), and Matisse (1954):When we averaged the first row of dates, it came out to about 1723. Adding the second row brought the average up to 1750, and the inclusions of the 20th century painters of the third row (Pollock, Klimt, Renoir, and Matisse) only brought that average up to 1780. So many of the most well-known artists were from broadly-recognized periods like the early and late Renaissance — if a list cites da Vinci (1590) and Michaelangelo (1564) alongside Picasso (1973), it was probably natural for people to assume that Picasso came after the Renaissance, but not long after.It was fairly easy to verify that Pablo Picasso indeed died in 1973, but that didn’t really seem to be the interesting information revealed in the referenced posts over the years. More interesting to people was how so many users were mistaken about Picasso’s era — which seemed likely down to human tendency to group similar items. It also raises profound questions about groupings and how this very human tendency is exploited in the age of weaponized digital disinformation — questions to which we are only beginning to answer.
|
17789
|
Wendy Davis opposes any limits on abortion.
|
"Texas Right to Life said, ""Wendy Davis opposes any limits on abortion."" Although Davis has spoken and voted against certain abortion limits, her campaign statement and her stated support for the Roe v. Wade decision indicate she opposes late-term abortions except in extreme circumstances. The group did not provide, and we did not find, evidence of Davis opposing ""any limits on abortion."""
|
false
|
Abortion, Texas, Texas Right to Life,
|
"The day state Sen. Wendy Davis announced her run for governor, Texas Right to Life announced it would air a radio ad calling her an ""abortion zealot."" Audio that the anti-abortion group released Oct. 3, 2013, of its ad said, ""Wendy Davis opposes any limits on abortion."" That’s a clear-cut statement, which the group also had on its website. An Oct. 3, 2013, entry on the site said that Davis’s ""views are so fanatical that she opposes any safeguards for the unborn at any stage of pregnancy, up to and including the final weeks before birth… (Davis) thoroughly aired her abortion views during her 11-hour filibuster in June in her failed attempt to block the new Pro-Life law from passing."" A spokeswoman for the group, Melissa Conway, told us by phone that her group could not immediately provide backup information. Davis, a Fort Worth Democrat, was indelibly linked to abortion issues by her June 25, 2013, filibuster, which made headlines worldwide and briefly helped derail changes in law intended to restrict abortions. Campaign spokesman Bo Delp told us by email it’s incorrect to say Davis opposes any limits. ""Like most Texans, Sen. Davis opposes late-term abortions except when the life or health of the mother is endangered, in cases of rape or incest or in the case of severe and irreversible fetal abnormalities,"" Delp said. Delp’s response fits with an Oct. 5, 2013, news story in the Austin American-Statesman saying that Davis, while addressing the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2013, was asked, ""Could you discuss what legal limits on abortion you do support?"" She replied, ""You know, the Supreme Court has made that decision. And it’s one of the protected liberties under our Constitution. And I respect the constitutional protections that are in place today."" The Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark decision in Roe v Wade struck down a Texas law that banned all abortions except those performed to save the mother’s life. The justices ruled then that states can’t restrict or ban abortions in the first trimester (roughly three months or the first 12 weeks of the pregnancy). Their ruling said, though, that states can make laws governing abortions in the second trimester if the laws are ""reasonably related"" to the woman’s health. After the point at which fetuses attain ""viability,"" meaning they can survive outside the womb, states can limit or ban abortions unless the woman’s life is in danger, the court held. So in her response in Washington, Davis signaled that she both accepts letting states limit abortions after the first trimester and limit or ban abortions after fetuses are viable, unless the mother’s life is at risk. Elected to the Senate in 2008, Davis voted in 2009 and 2011 against state legislation requiring women to get sonograms before having an abortion. The measure passed into law in 2011 requires doctors performing abortions to provide a sonogram 24 hours before the abortion and describe what the image shows, including the fetus' size, body features and internal organs. Her 2013 filibuster delayed, but didn’t prevent the Republican-majority Legislature from approving restrictions that will soon begin taking effect. Starting Oct. 29, 2013, the law bans abortions after the 20th week post-fertilization, except when the woman’s life is endangered or in cases of severe fetal abnormality; requires abortion doctors to gain admitting privileges in a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic; and beefs up regulations on the dispensing of abortion-inducing drugs. Starting Sept. 1, 2014, the law requires that all abortion clinics meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers. In its October news story, the Statesman quoted a Davis adviser as saying that Davis would not have picked a fight over the 20-week provision by itself. However, she indicated in the early part of her filibuster that she was opposed to that provision on medical grounds. ""From our medical community, we’ve heard the concern that this interferes with the practice of medicine,"" Davis said, according to CounterPath Press’ transcript of the filibuster. ""As important, we know that concerns have been raised that this ban interferes with a woman’s health care decision before she and her doctor may have important health information about her own health and the health of the pregnancy."" Repeatedly during the filibuster, Davis said that a major reason she opposed the legislation was that in her view, its provisions were not intended to make women safer but to make sure fewer abortions were performed. ""I think that the state of Texas has already established a fine standard of care,"" she said. Our ruling Texas Right to Life said, ""Wendy Davis opposes any limits on abortion."" Although Davis has spoken and voted against certain abortion limits, her campaign statement and her stated support for the Roe v. Wade decision indicate she opposes late-term abortions except in extreme circumstances. The group did not provide, and we did not find, evidence of Davis opposing ""any limits on abortion.""s . – The statement is not accurate."
|
22210
|
We are the most generous in New England and New England is known for its generosity toward its welfare recipients.
|
R.I. Tea Party founder says Rhode Island is the most generous state in New England when it comes to welfare
|
mixture
|
Rhode Island, Poverty, State Budget, Taxes, Colleen Conley,
|
"In the ongoing debate over how and where to cut the state budget, social services -- particularly welfare -- are popular targets. After all, social service spending costs residents nearly $1.1 billion a year and makes up nearly 40 percent of the general revenue budget. So when Colleen Conley, founder and president of the Rhode Island Tea Party said on WHJJ's Helen Glover Show on April 13 that welfare recipients in Rhode Island are treated to the ""most generous"" benefits in New England, that caught our attention. Conley made the comment following an appearance by state Rep. Brian Newberry, a North Smithfield Republican, who said that the state's health and human services budget has increased by 73 percent since 2002. Conley moved to the welfare issue after criticizing Gov. Chafee's assertion that he wasn't hearing any viable alternatives to his proposal to raise taxes. ""If he would sit down and meet with us we could give him 10 HUGE concrete ideas that could spread the difficulty, the pain, around a little bit,"" Conley commented. ""But as Brian was saying, health and human services -- huge in this state. If we brought it in line with just the other New England states it would save millions and millions of dollars. That is just one component right there. We are the most generous in New England and New England is known for its generosity toward its welfare recipients."" When we contacted Conley, she said her source was a study by the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council. Do welfare recipients really have it that good in Rhode Island? We decided to check. The simple answer: When it comes to how folks commonly define welfare -- cash assistance to poor people -- they don’t. The RIPEC report, released in 2010 using data from 2008, doesn't have a state-by-state comparison of cash payments. Instead, it examines them by two different measures. And both show we’re far from the most generous in New England. First, to gauge how we compare with other states, it divided the amount spent on cash assistance by the Rhode Island population. The cash assistance program cost each resident, on average, $53. Rhode Island ranked fifth out of the six New England states. Only residents of New Hampshire spent less -- $44 per capita. Second, to compare how much Rhode Islanders could afford to pay, RIPEC divided the amount spent on cash assistance by the amount of personal income Rhode Island residents had that year. By that measure, the state spent $1.30 per $1,000 of personal income and Rhode Island ranked third in New England, behind Maine ($4.08 per $1,000) and Vermont ($2.63 per $1,000). And how do we compare in actual dollars paid to recipients? The RIPEC report didn’t have those figures, but the liberal Poverty Institute did. Rhode Island is fifth in New England, with payments of $554 per month for a family of three. Only Maine pays less - $485 per month. Rhode Island’s hasn't increased its welfare payments in more than 20 years, said Rachel Flum, a Poverty Institute policy analyst. Up to this point, Conley's ""most generous in New England"" assessment doesn’t hold up. When we questioned her, Conley directed us to the welfare ""vendor payments"" section of the RIPEC report, noting, as RIPEC did, that ""per capita vendor payments almost tripled in Rhode Island, growing by 178.9 percent between FY 1998 and FY 2008."" When we asked Conley what the payments were and how those payments might be cut back to bring us in line with everyone else, she said it's up to the state to look into that. ""I'm not a policy wonk nor do I head a 501c3 think tank,"" she added. So what is a vendor payment? We went to RIPEC. ""Those are not welfare recipients. Let's be very clear,"" said Ashley Denault, RIPEC's research director. They represent payments to doctors, nursing homes and organizations that charge the state for health- or mental health-related services for the poor. Vendor payments soak up a whopping 88 percent of public welfare expenditures, according to RIPEC's ranking. The state paid $1,785 per capita to vendors in 2008, more than any other state in the United States. Massachusetts ranked second at $1,667. ""The rapid increase in vendor payments is not just a Rhode Island issue,"" she said. ""It's the medical inflation rate, which has been very high over the last decade. You can't look at it and say Rhode Island is a welfare magnet, or we have tons of people on Medicaid."" ""It could be we could have more people who qualify for these programs. It could be wider eligibility. It could be we're not providing services in the most efficient manner. It could be how we set our reimbursement rate, which might be out of line with the rest of the country,"" Denault said. She said Chafee's budget includes proposals to try to bring these costs into line, including changes in nursing home reimbursements expected to save $6.1 million in the coming fiscal year and outpatient hospital reimbursements that could save $2.7 million. To sum up, Conley is right when she asserts that Rhode Island’s overall social services spending -- and particularly the amount paid to vendors for health services -- ranks high, both in New England and nationally. But when she said Rhode Island is the ""most generous in New England . . . toward its welfare recipients,"" that invoked the image of single mothers receiving the biggest welfare checks in New England. That's simply not true, no matter how you measure it. She may not have intended to give that impression, but her words clearly conveyed that. So we’ll split the difference and give her a ."
|
10544
|
Accutane Linked Heart, Liver Woes
|
Sanofi SA said on Monday it would end its research efforts in diabetes and cardiovascular diseases as part of a revamp that will narrow the number of its business units in the hope of bolstering growth and profit.
|
true
|
The French drugmaker, whose pipeline has disappointed investors in recent years, poached new chief executive Paul Hudson from Swiss pharma group Novartis in September to revitalize the company. Its move to ditch diabetes research - announced alongside cost savings targets - marks a major turning point for a firm whose products dominated the insulin market for nearly two decades, before it was hit by patent losses and a drop in sales. “We recognize it is getting more difficult to get breakthrough innovation and that we have to be efficient and move our resources to areas of opportunity, as tough a choice as that is,” Hudson told reporters. The firm is bulking up elsewhere, as in the lucrative field of cancer drugs. It announced a deal to buy U.S. biotechnology firm Synthorx for about $2.5 billion earlier on Monday. Sanofi, which is due to further detail strategic plans to investors on Tuesday in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said it was targeting new cost savings of 2 billion euros ($2.20 billion) by 2022, by tightening spending and shaking up its supply chain. It also aims for a core operating margin of 30% by then, up from 25.8% last year. The group emphasized the potential for its eczema treatment Dupixent, recently approved in other therapeutic areas such as asthma, with an aim to expand sales to more than 10 billion euros. Revenue for the drug, developed with U.S. partner Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc, was up 268% in 2018, reaching 788 million euros. Sanofi, currently organized around five global business units, said it would rejig these around three pillars: specialty care, which includes oncology and rare diseases, as well as vaccines and general medicines. Its consumer healthcare unit - known for over-the-counter products such as paracetamol Doliprane, erectile dysfunction drug Cialis and influenza treatment Tamiflu - will be considered as a standalone business, Sanofi said. It would have its own operational dynamic, the firm added, though it did not clarify what this meant in the longer term. Sources told Reuters last month that Sanofi was considering a joint venture or an outright sale among options for the division. “Our objective for the consumer healthcare business is to unlock value and entrepreneurial energy by growing faster than the market over mid-term,” Hudson said.
|
|
26209
|
“For the World Health Organization, the international entity whose sole responsibility it is to alert the world of global pandemics like this, to miss this, is a huge problem.”
|
A Jan. 14 tweet saying that Chinese authorities found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus led a Pennsylvania congressman to accuse the World Health Organization of failing to alert people about the pandemic. Later in January, the WHO announced that in fact there was evidence of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus and declared the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern. Experts say the WHO was slow to designate the coronavirus a pandemic and that the organization should have been more skeptical of information it received from China before it sent that tweet but that accusing the WHO of missing the pandemic altogether goes too far.
|
false
|
National, Coronavirus, Pennsylvania, Brian Fitzpatrick,
|
"Speaking on the ""Fox Across America"" radio show, U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick accused global health officials of failing earlier this year to warn the world about the coming coronavirus pandemic. ""For the World Health Organization, the international entity whose sole responsibility it is to alert the world of global pandemics, to miss this, is a huge problem,"" Fitzpatrick, a Republican, told radio host Jimmy Failla. We wondered whether Fitzpatrick’s stinging criticism was fair and what exactly the WHO told the public about the coronavirus in the pandemic’s earliest days. Fitzpatrick was referring to a Jan. 14 tweet from the WHO, which stated that ""preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China."" A timeline of events on the WHO’s website about its actions on Jan. 14 offers a different account of what the organization told the public that day, indicating deeper concern than what was reflected in the tweet. The timeline states that on that date, a WHO official noted in a press briefing that there ""may have been"" limited human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus between family members and that there was ""a risk of a possible outbreak."" Nearly a week later, according to the timeline, WHO investigators visited Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus originated, and learned that there was evidence of human-to-human transmission, a major development that contradicted the Chinese government claims cited in the organization’s Jan. 14 tweet. Another week after that, the WHO’s director-general declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a ""public health emergency of international concern,"" a rare designation meant to convey the extraordinary and serious nature of an unfolding health crisis. On March 11, the WHO gave the coronavirus another ominous designation – global pandemic. Will Kiley, a spokesman for Fitzpatrick, said the two-month delay between the Jan. 14 tweet and the pandemic declaration justifies the congressman’s criticism, especially given evidence the virus had spread beyond China as early as Jan. 20. The Jan. 14 tweet accurately reflects what Chinese officials told the WHO at the time – that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission. But the group should have questioned the accuracy of China’s claim before issuing the tweet, said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. He and other infectious-disease experts did. ""We didn’t believe them,"" Adalja said. ""It was clear to many who looked at the data that this virus wasn’t containable."" A PolitiFact story on the WHO’s response to the pandemic written after President Donald Trump announced the United States would halt its financial support for the group found no credible evidence of human-to-human transmission prior to mid-January. ""There were questions, but no solid confirmation,"" Boston University global health researcher Davidson Hamer told PolitiFact in April. But by Jan. 20, there had already been 200 cases, three deaths and three countries impacted, Adalja noted in a Jan. 20 blog post on the coronavirus, citing a paper published a day earlier by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. It was not until Jan. 22 that the WHO acknowledged for the first time that there had been human-to-human transmission. Adalja added that the WHO was slow to declare the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern, and very slow issuing the pandemic declaration. Still, he said, accusing the WHO of missing the pandemic altogether goes too far. ""When it comes to these declarations, there’s a lot of politics and diplomacy at play,"" Adalja said. Michael LeVasseur, an epidemiologist at Drexel University, also said he does not think the WHO missed the pandemic. ""I don’t think anything was missed,"" LeVasseur said. ""Missed implies that they weren’t involved very early on, which they were."" Fitzpatrick also claimed that alerting the world to global pandemics is the WHO’s ""sole responsibility."" But the group actually has a much broader mission to promote public health in parts of the world with limited access to health care. During a conservative talk radio interview, Fitzpatrick accused the WHO of missing the pandemic, citing a Jan. 14 tweet in which the organization reported Chinese assurances that there was no human-to-human transmission of the virus. Experts argue that the WHO was slow to acknowledge human-to-human transmission, declare the coronavirus a ""public health emergency of international concern,"" and label it a pandemic. But the agency was actively gathering and disseminating information about the virus in the weeks prior to the official pandemic declaration, and it’s possible to interpret public statements made during this time as cautious, not reckless. Saying the WHO missed the pandemic altogether goes too far. Also, Fitzpatrick’s claim doesn’t acknowledge the WHO’s work promoting public health. For these reasons."
|
2988
|
Aviation experts puzzled after airliner dumps fuel over city.
|
Some aviation experts said Wednesday that they were puzzled after the crew of a commercial airliner decided to dump fuel at low altitude during an emergency landing, causing a vapor to fall on schoolyards and neighborhoods east of Los Angeles International Airport.
|
true
|
Los Angeles, Health, General News, Business, AP Top News, Travel, U.S. News
|
“No one is going to dump fuel where these guys did it over populated areas and schools. It’s a pretty outrageous thing,” said Ross Aimer, CEO of Aero Consulting Experts and a retired United Airlines pilot. “They should have gone over the ocean or landed heavyweight.” Delta Air Lines said Flight 89 to Shanghai had an engine problem after takeoff Tuesday and needed to quickly return. The Boeing 777-200 landed safely after circling back over Los Angeles while dumping fuel to reach a safe landing weight, the airline said in a statement. Los Angeles County firefighters were called to schools where nearly 60 children and adults were examined for minor skin and lung irritations, but none required hospitalization. Fire Inspector Sky Cornell also said monitoring showed the vapor wasn’t flammable. When a plane is forced to turn back after takeoff, the weight of a full load of fuel carries a risk of damaging the jet during landing. That can be costly for airlines to fix. And even if there isn’t damage, airlines try to avoid overweight landings because they are required to inspect planes, which puts them out of service. When turning back with a full fuel load, pilots have three choices, according to John Cox, a safety consultant and former airline pilot: burn the fuel, which can take hours, dump it or land overweight. In case of a fire, he said, pilots will dump as much fuel as quickly as they can and land. A less dangerous situation tends to lead to using up or dumping fuel. According to recorded radio communications, air traffic control asked the Delta crew if they wanted to return to LAX immediately or linger over the ocean “to hold and burn fuel.” “We’re going to go ahead,” the pilot or co-pilot responded. “We’ve got it back under control. ... We’re not critical.” “OK, so you don’t need to hold or dump fuel or anything like that?” the controller asked. “Ah, negative,” was the response. But the plane did dump fuel as it headed back. The Delta crew reported a compressor stall in the engine “but they got the engine back under control ... they were not in an immediate threat condition, and they started out over water,” Cox said. “Why they continued to dump fuel at low altitude when they weren’t in a fuel-dumping area, and didn’t advise ATC (air traffic control) that they were dumping fuel — those are questions this crew is going to have to answer.” The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating, citing procedures that “call for fuel to be dumped over designated unpopulated areas, typically at higher altitudes so the fuel atomizes and disperses before it reaches the ground.” Scott Martin, a propulsion expert at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said a stall puts more pressure on the compressor, and the Delta pilots might have assumed the worst — that they could soon face an engine failure that could cause parts to break off and become shrapnel capable of piercing the fuselage, fuel tanks or hydraulic lines. That might also explain why they were flying at such low altitude — to avoid putting more stress on the troubled engine, he said. “They may have decided, ‘We don’t have time to fly higher and dump the fuel, we need to get the fuel off now and get back down to the runway,’” Martin said. A Delta official spoke at a press conference with school officials Wednesday but offered no further insight into the fuel dumping. “I know that there are a lot of questions about the process that was followed and those kinds of things,” said Dana Debel, Delta’s managing director of government affairs. “There is an ongoing investigation that was opened immediately after the flight landed back.” Little is known about the health effects of exposure to kerosene-type jet fuel, according to the federal Health and Human Services Department. Studies using military personnel suggest it can affect the nervous system, but that research involved people who work around jet fuel all the time. Rats that were fed kerosene showed no increase in tumors, the agency said in a 2017 summary. The Los Angeles County Public Health Department said students that were exposed to the fuel vapor were sent home with instructions on how to clean themselves with soap and water and to thoroughly wash their clothes and to discard them if the odor remained. “Some exposed individuals have experienced mild symptoms such as skin irritation and upper respiratory irritation such as cough,” the department said in a statement. “These symptoms are generally expected to improve on their own.” Delta sent cleaning crews to work with Los Angeles Unified School District crews to clean outside areas of the campuses and all reopened Wednesday. __ Condon reported from New York City. Associated Press reporters David Koenig in Dallas and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
|
16569
|
"Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein ""gave hundreds of thousands of campaign cash to control Crist’s appointments of key state judges."
|
"The Republican Party of Florida ad said that Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein ""gave hundreds of thousands of campaign cash to control Crist’s appointments of key state judges."" Rothstein and his firm spent huge sums donating to the Republican Party of Florida back when Crist was a Republican, and they also gave directly to Crist’s campaigns. Crist appointed Rothstein to serve on a commission that recommended appeals judges, but in his official capacity he was only one of nine votes. Rothstein boasted in court testimony that in exchange for donations he was able to dictate judicial appointments. But nobody who served with Rothstein remembered him as a strong advocate. It is certainly possible that Rothstein and Crist discussed judicial appointments. We may never have a full accounting of what the two men said to each other. But to say that Rothstein controlled the appointments seems to be an overstatement that lacks evidence."
|
mixture
|
Campaign Finance, Ethics, Florida, Republican Party of Florida,
|
"Florida’s famous Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein now lives in a federal prison, but Republicans hope that he can help smear the reputation of former Gov. Charlie Crist. Back when Crist was a Republican, Rothstein and his Fort Lauderdale law firm donated generously to Crist and the Republican Party of Florida, as well as several other politicians. In 2010, Rothstein was convicted in a $1.4 billion Ponzi scheme and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Rothstein’s testimony in a related case provided fodder now being used by Republicans to attack Crist in a TV ad. ""Convicted swindler Scott Rothstein bought expensive things with stolen money. He even bought a governor,"" says the narrator. ""Rothstein boasted about contributing huge sums of money to the campaign of then Gov. Charlie Crist and the influence it gave him over judicial appointments. Now cooperating with prosecutors, Scott Rothstein admits he gave hundreds of thousands of campaign cash to control Crist’s appointments of key state judges."" Florida newspapers have extensively covered Rothstein’s case over the years. We wanted to know if the facts matched up with the ad’s brief description. To do that, we reviewed everything we could find on the case and conducted new interviews of people who had dealings with Rothstein on judicial appointments. What we found doesn’t reflect well on Crist, who took Rothstein’s money and placed him on a key commission that recommended judges. But we also failed to find hard evidence that Rothstein actually controlled Crist’s judicial appointments as the ad claims. Those who served on a judicial nominating commission with him painted a portrait of someone who was all style but not much substance. Rothstein craved access to politicians More than 20 people were convicted as part of the scheme Rothstein ran, and it had all the markings of a great novel: investors losing millions of dollars, tales of mafia connections and prostitutes, as well as glitzy parties. Rothstein first founded his law firm with Stuart Rosenfeldt in 2002, which became Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler in 2005. He drove luxury cars, lived in a waterfront home with a gold toilet and had a stake in the former Versace mansion in South Beach. He befriended politicians and held fundraisers for them, posing for photos which he framed on his law firm walls. He wanted connections to power at all levels: He invested in the county sheriff’s race, held fundraisers for Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid and supported Crist’s campaigns for governor in 2006 and U.S. Senate in 2010. It all came crashing down in early November 2009, when federal authorities revealed they were investigating his scheme of selling bogus legal settlements. Rothstein briefly fled to Morocco before he returned to face charges and the demise of his 70-lawyer firm. The Republicans’ ad focuses on Rothstein’s connection with Crist and the governor’s judicial appointments. The ad relies on Rothstein’s February 2014 testimony in a related case that led to the conviction of a law firm employee for her role in bilking investors. In August 2008, Crist appointed Rothstein to the Judicial Nominating Commission for the Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach. The JNC is a nine-member panel that recommends applicants for the governor to appoint. Rothstein testified that he told Crist the names of lawyers to appoint to the Broward County bench. Here is part of Rothstein’s testimony: Question: ""You were able to convince the Governor to appoint you to the Judicial Nominating Committee?"" Rothstein: ""Yes, sir. I was able to convince the governor to do a lot of things."" Question: ""Well, what other things were you able to convince him to do?"" Rothstein: ""I was able to convince him to appoint people to judicial positions."" Question: ""So there are sitting judges right now that are sitting as judges because of your influence over the governor?"" Rothstein: ""Yes, sir."" Rothstein testified that while he was on the JNC, he gave additional input to Crist about judicial appointments. Rothstein: ""Based upon conversations that I had with Gov. Crist and with his chief of staff and general counsel, my job in my position on the nominating commission was to be the governor's voice on the commission. In other words, he had his preferences as to who he wanted to see get the appointments. And I would, in my role on the commission, push these particular candidates as hard as I possibly could on the governor's behalf."" Question: ""So in essence, are you telling us that you were basically thwarting the efforts of the commission?"" Rothstein: ""In certain ways. Yes, absolutely. I had significant influence with the governor on judicial appointments to the circuit bench in Broward County. It was quid pro quo between the governor and I."" When asked how he chose candidates to recommend to Crist, Rothstein replied: ""Someone who is going to favor our law firm."" During his testimony Rothstein said that he expected Crist to ""do certain things in exchange for large political contributions."" When asked if he put that in writing, he replied: ""Some of them I did. I wrote them to one of his assistants."" But during his testimony Rothstein didn’t name any particular judges that he supposedly told Crist to appoint. What others on the JNC said Rothstein said he pushed as hard as possible on the JNC to get the nominees he wanted. To see if that was the case, we turned to meeting minutes and attempted to contact every member of the JNC who served with Rothstein. Members vote by secret ballot and then forward a handful of names to the governor, who makes the final pick. The current chair of the JNC, lawyer Debra Jenks, emailed us copies of the minutes which showed Rothstein attended at least two meetings and missed at least two other meetings. (The JNC, however, doesn’t record minutes for every meeting, including when they vote on nominees.) The brief minutes aren’t verbatim records, though. They indicate who was present, procedures and information about upcoming meetings. JNC members were assigned based on a rotating blind assignment list to investigate judicial applicants. At his first meeting in October 2008, Rothstein was assigned to investigate two: one was Spencer Levine, who would later get appointed by Crist, and Palm Beach Judge Elizabeth Maass. Crist appointed four judges to the Fourth District’s Court of Appeal during Rothstein’s tenure. Three were previously county or circuit judges: Cory Ciklin, Jorge Labarga and Jonathan Gerber. (Labarga served a single day, and then Crist appointed him to the Florida Supreme Court. This year he became the first Cuban-American chief justice.) The remaining appointment was Levine, who had worked a variety of government jobs including at the Florida attorney general’s office, a sheriff’s office and most recently as chief operating officer at the North Broward Hospital District. Levine had connections to Rothstein, according to a newspaper article. But what we read isn’t proof that Rothstein was the reason Crist appointed Levine. The Broward New Times reported that Rothstein’s law firm met with Levine about representing the hospital district in September 2008. The article indicated that the district had an agreement with Rothstein’s firm, but a spokeswoman for the district said that there is no record of the firm doing actual work for the district. Levine said he knew Rothstein and had attended Republican fundraisers with him. But he also said they were basically acquaintances. ""He claimed to never socialize with Rothstein alone. He said he was ‘insulted’ by the idea that he helped Rothstein's firm get work at the district as a way to curry favor for his judicial appointment,"" the New Times wrote. PolitiFact Florida interviewed six members who served on the JNC with Rothstein, including Democrats and Republicans, many of whom had donated to Crist. The members said they didn’t see Rothstein do anything to taint the process or even particularly push hard for specific nominees. David Ackerman said that the JNC followed the procedures carefully ""to assure checks and balances and to prevent any suggestion of the kind that has been claimed by Mr. Rothstein."" Another member, Gordon James, said, ""I didn’t find him to have any special influence other than he was on it. He was just incidental. He was there -- he attended."" Some members said they wondered at the time why Rothstein was named to the JNC. Rothstein wasn’t known for courthouse victories but simply for his recent wealth. A couple members recalled Rothstein mentioning Crist, though not in the context of selecting judges. Gerald Richman said he recalled at one meeting Rothstein said he might be able to talk to Crist’s office. Richman couldn’t recall the exact nature of the procedural issue but said it might have related to how many names they should forward to Crist’s office when they had more than one vacancy to fill. Rothstein ""never said anything about any particular candidate -- he didn’t seem to be overly Democratic or Republican,"" Richman said. Greg Barnhart recalled Rothstein showing up with a driver in a fancy car and wearing breast pocket hankies that stood out 4 or 5 inches. ""He was almost a caricature of somebody trying to be a big shot. I do remember we did not take him seriously, but we tried to be polite,"" Barnhart said. Donald Beuttenmuller said he recalled Rothstein talking about Crist with respect to fundraisers, but not about judicial appointments. ""You would think they were bosom buddies, but he talked that way about everything.....That Rothstein had a big ego -- that was clear. That’s about all I can say. There was nothing that he talked about that he wasn’t superior at in his own mind. But all this later stuff, it did not happen at the JNC."" Rothstein’s donations to Crist and state GOP In addition to the four judges that Crist appointed related to Rothstein’s JNC, Crist also appointed about nine Broward judges between 2007 and Rothstein’s downfall in November 2009. The timing of some of the Broward appointments occurred around the same time as some of Rothstein’s donations to the Republican Party of Florida. We can see why the timing after the scandal broke raised questions about whether there was a link, but we found no evidence to prove that Rothstein made the donations because Crist promised to appoint certain judges at his request. For example, Rothstein's law firm gave $52,000 to the state GOP on July 28, 2008, the same day that Crist appointed Jay Hurley to the Broward bench. A day later Rothstein's firm donated another $25,000 to the party. But Hurley, a former prosecutor, already had a connection to Crist unrelated to Rothstein: They were members of the same fraternity at Florida State University, though Hurley told the Sun-Sentinel that they weren’t there at the same time. ""The governor didn't invite me to his wedding. I don't know him that well. ... I stand on my resume,"" Hurley said. (Hurley lost a judicial race and later sought an appointment about six times before Crist appointed him, the Sun-Sentinel wrote.) Hurley told the Tampa Bay Times in 2006 about giving Crist a $500 contribution: ""You kind of feel obligated, but in a good way. He's a member of the fraternity. There's a lot of camaraderie there."" When he ran for election in 2009, Hurley got a $500 donation from a lawyer at Rothstein’s firm. Hurley was one of several judges Crist appointed to the Broward bench. In January 2009, Crist appointed Carlos Rodriguez, who had worked as a public defender and in private practice, and General Magistrate Barbara McCarthy to the Broward bench. Two days earlier Rothstein and his firm gave about $100,000 to the RPOF. At the time, the lack of the diversity of Broward’s judges received frequent media attention and Crist was urged to appoint a minority. Rodriguez was a native of Cuba and a former public defender. McCarthy was a former social worker and special-needs teacher and had worked as a general magistrate. McCarthy had connections to Rothstein’s law firm but we didn’t find proof that Rothstein’s influence led Crist to appoint her to the bench. She was married to long-time Broward Judge Arthur Birken -- his son Shawn Birken worked for Rothstein’s firm but was among employees not charged with any wrongdoing. In 2009 as she faced an election, McCarthy’s first campaign treasurer was Rothstein law partner Stuart Rosenfeldt. After the scandal broke, she replaced Rosenfeldt and returned donations from him and a few other Rothstein lawyers. Rosenfeldt later pled guilty for his role, which included illegal campaign donations. Rothstein gave big bucks to Crist and his Republican Party News reports at the time put Rothstein-related political donations between $2 million and $3 million including more than $500,000 in donations to the state Republican party and $200,000 to the Florida Democratic Party. The donations helped fuel Crist’s campaigns and his party, but we found no documented proof that Crist agreed to follow Rothstein’s personal advice on which judges to appoint in exchange for those donations. Rothstein and others associated with his firm gave Crist about $81,000 for his U.S. Senate race in 2010, according to media reports at the time. Rothstein threw fundraisers for Crist, and for the governor’s 52nd birthday in 2008, he donated $52,000 to have his name prominently displayed on Crist’s birthday cake. As Crist gave a speech, Rothstein was talking loudly. ""Scott, if you want the mic, it's going to cost you another $100,000!"" Crist joked. After Rothstein faced charges, several politicians and political groups gave at least a portion of the money back, including Crist from his Senate bid. (Donations related to some earlier races had long since been spent.) Crist’s response We asked a Crist campaign spokesman whether Rothstein and Crist discussed judicial appointments. ""Charlie Crist made his own decisions about appointing judges,"" Crist campaign spokesman Brendan Gilfillan said. ""When the JNCs submitted a list, he selected judges based on their resume, their experience, and their understanding of the law. Period."" When Crist was asked by a reporter about the ad attacking him for his Rothstein connection, Crist didn’t address the specific allegations but simply dismissed it as ""desperate."" Crist counterpunched in his own ad attacking his likely opponent Republican Gov. Rick Scott. ""Now,"" the Crist ad says of Scott, ""he's teamed up with a felon convicted of running a Ponzi scheme to smear Charlie Crist with false attacks."" There is no evidence Scott and Rothstein have ""teamed up"" -- that’s simply a reference to the Republicans using the Rothstein scandal to attack Crist. In February, former state Sen. Dan Gelber who is supporting Crist’s campaign characterized Rothstein as the ""Hannibal Lecter of liars."" ""He's the most-accomplished liar in South Florida history, which is an incredible feat if you consider all of the scamsters around here,"" said Gelber, an attorney who successfully defended a client from what he said were false Rothstein claims in another case. Our ruling The Republican Party of Florida ad said that Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein ""gave hundreds of thousands of campaign cash to control Crist’s appointments of key state judges."" Rothstein and his firm spent huge sums donating to the Republican Party of Florida back when Crist was a Republican, and they also gave directly to Crist’s campaigns. Crist appointed Rothstein to serve on a commission that recommended appeals judges, but in his official capacity he was only one of nine votes. Rothstein boasted in court testimony that in exchange for donations he was able to dictate judicial appointments. But nobody who served with Rothstein remembered him as a strong advocate. It is certainly possible that Rothstein and Crist discussed judicial appointments. We may never have a full accounting of what the two men said to each other. But to say that Rothstein controlled the appointments seems to be an overstatement that lacks evidence."
|
3808
|
In taking on high drug prices, Trump faces a complex nemesis.
|
Before taking office, President Donald Trump railed against the pharmaceutical industry and accused it of “getting away with murder.”
|
true
|
AP Top News, Health, Politics, North America, Prescription drug costs, Prescription drugs, Prices, Donald Trump
|
The populist rhetoric appears to be giving way to a more nuanced strategy focused on making the pharmaceutical market more open and competitive, with the aim of lowering costs for consumers. It’s an approach that could avoid a direct confrontation with the powerful pharmaceutical lobby, but it could also underwhelm Americans seeking relief from escalating prescription costs. On Friday, Trump is scheduled to give his first speech on an overarching plan to lower drug prices. Administration officials previewing the speech Thursday touted it as the most comprehensive plan to tackle prescription drug costs that any president has ever proposed, but offered few specifics. Officials said the plan would increase competition, create incentives for drugmakers to lower initial prices and slash federal rules that make it harder for private insurers to negotiate lower prices. The result would be lower pharmacy costs for patients — a key Trump campaign promise. The plan will not include giving the federal Medicare program power to directly negotiate prices with drugmakers, they noted. Trump campaigned on the idea, which is vigorously opposed by the pharmaceutical industry. Public outrage over drug costs has been growing for years, because Americans are being squeezed in a number of ways: New medicines for cancer and other life-threatening diseases often launch with prices exceeding $100,000 per year. Drugs for common ailments like diabetes and asthma routinely see price hikes around 10 percent annually. Meanwhile some companies have been buying up once-cheap older drugs and hiking prices by 1,000 percent or more. Since entering the White House, Trump has backed away from reforms directly targeting drugmakers and staffed his administration with appointees who have deep ties to the industry, including his health secretary, Alex Azar, a former top executive at Eli Lilly. Still, administration officials ratcheted up the rhetoric ahead of Trump’s speech. Azar promised bold action. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb — another Trump appointee with industry connections — hinted at a plan to “dismantle” the convoluted system of discounts and rebates between drugmakers and health care middlemen. On Thursday, administration officials also vowed to address foreign governments that rely on U.S. medicines but pay drastically lower prices due to government controls. The U.S. accounts for 70 percent of the world’s brand-name drug profits, according to a White House report released earlier this year. Here are some of the drivers of U.S. prescription drug prices, proposals for reducing the costs and what’s at stake: LACK OF REGULATION Drugmakers generally can charge as much as the market will bear because the U.S. government doesn’t regulate medicine prices, unlike most other countries. Medicare is the largest purchaser of prescription drugs in the nation, covering 60 million seniors and Americans with disabilities, but it is barred by law from directly negotiating lower prices with drugmakers. Democrats have long favored giving Medicare that power, but Republicans traditionally oppose the idea. The powerful pharmaceutical lobby has repeatedly fended off proposals that could lower prices, such as Medicare negotiations or importing drugs from countries that regulate pricing. With no direct government price regulation, the primary check on prices comes from buyers in bulk — such as insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers, which handle prescription coverage for insurers, employers and other big clients. But because there are so many players in the fragmented system, the discounts achieved in the U.S. are generally far more modest than those in other countries. The result is that the U.S. spends more on medicines than any other nation. In 2015, the U.S. spent $1,162 per person on pharmaceuticals, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That compares with $756 for Canada and $497 for the United Kingdom, both of which have government measures to control drug prices. LACK OF TRANSPARENCY The U.S. system for pricing drugs is notoriously complex, so much that the “real” price for most medicines isn’t clear. Critics contend that this lack of transparency limits competition and drives prices higher. Pharmaceutical companies often launch their drugs with high initial prices. But they argue list prices are merely a starting point for negotiations because they give substantial rebates and discounts to pharmacy benefit managers. Those price concessions are almost never disclosed and it’s unclear what portion actually flows back to consumers. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and others say the lack of transparency in the current system creates perverse incentives in which drugmakers and other health care companies benefit from rising prices — at the expense of patients. Trump officials have suggested requiring Medicare pharmacy benefit managers to share rebate payments with patients. Another proposal would do away with rebates altogether to encourage more upfront discounts in Medicare. But the benefit managers and insurers say that they use rebates to lower health care premiums overall and that doing away with them would drive up costs. PATENTS AND ANTI-COMPETITIVE TACTICS Patents last longer in the U.S. than most countries, typically giving companies a dozen years of competition-free marketing after a drug launches. Most drugmakers increase their prices annually during this monopoly period, and until recently double-digit price hikes were the norm. Drugmakers also have developed a number of techniques to block competitors from launching lower-cost generic drugs. Companies often tweak drug formulations to extend their patents. In other cases, companies directly pay would-be competitors to stay off the market in so-called “pay-to-delay” deals. Gottlieb has promised a crackdown on some of these techniques used to “game the system.” He’s highlighted a practice in which drugmakers use tightly controlled distribution systems to prevent rival manufacturers from purchasing their drug. This effectively blocks the development of generic versions because generic drugmakers must test their products against the original medicine before they can win FDA approval. PUBLIC PERCEPTION A majority of Americans say bringing down prescription drug prices should be a “top priority” for Trump and Congress, according to recent polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation. And experts who study drug pricing say it’s encouraging that the discussion around the issue has moved from outrage to sophisticated reforms. But some warn there is no guarantee that unraveling the current pricing-setting bureaucracy will lead to lower prices, because it all starts with drugmakers’ prices. “Until we get closer to policy solutions that address the ability of drug manufacturers to set whatever price they want and increase prices year after year we may only be scratching the surface of this problem,” said Juliette Cubanski, a health care expert with the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. Dan Mendelson, a health care consultant, said: “If they don’t address the cost that patients see at the pharmacy counter it’s not going to be seen as responsive.” ___ AP Health Writer Tom Murphy contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
|
26428
|
“Even President Trump’s own EPA has admitted that this rule (on air pollutants) threatens to cause serious health problems including brain damage and death and to inflict billions of dollars of economic damage on our struggling economy.”
|
Trump’s EPA changed how it evaluates the benefits and costs of regulating air pollutants from power plants fired by coal and oil. An EPA science advisory board raised issues with the EPA’s approach and recommended doing a new assessment, but that recommendation wasn’t binding. Advisory board members are considered special government employees, but they do not speak for the EPA as a whole.
|
mixture
|
Environment, Public Health, Nancy Pelosi,
|
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed that as Americans grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump’s administration has weakened public health protections. ""While tens of thousands of Americans are dying from the coronavirus pandemic, the president is yet again seeking to unleash toxic pollution and dirty air into our communities,"" Pelosi said April 16. ""Even President Trump’s own EPA has admitted that this rule threatens to cause serious health problems including brain damage and death and to inflict billions of dollars of economic damage on our struggling economy."" Pelosi referenced an April 16 decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to change how it evaluates the benefits and costs of regulating hazardous air pollutants from power plants fired by coal and oil. The agency concluded that the economic benefits of reducing mercury emissions under an Obama-era rule do not outweigh the costs to the power plants of complying with the rules. PolitiFact looked into Pelosi’s claim that even Trump’s EPA said the new rule would be bad for public health and cost billions of dollars. The facts are more nuanced than Pelosi said. The main pollutant at issue is mercury due to its impact on public health. When mercury released into the air by power plants reaches bodies of water, it is converted by micro-organisms into methylmercury, a highly toxic substance that builds up in fish. The most common way people are exposed to mercury is by eating fish contaminated with methylmercury. Some fish have higher levels of mercury that, when consumed, can be harmful to an unborn child, a young child’s developing nervous system, the elderly, people with underlying health conditions, and people who eat a lot of fish. The EPA regulates emissions of air toxics from coal- and oil-fired power plants under the Clean Air Act. The Obama administration added Mercury and Air Toxic Standards that set federal air pollution limits for power plants, seeking to reduce emissions of mercury and other toxic air pollutants. The Obama administration estimated that the standards would prevent, annually, up to 11,000 premature deaths, more than 100,000 asthma attacks, about 4,700 heart attacks, reduce hospital and emergency room visits, and hundreds of thousands of days missed from work due to illness. It projected that the compliance cost to the power plant industry would be about $9.6 billion a year, while the financial value of air quality improvements could range from $37 billion to $90 billion annually. The benefits calculation under the Obama administration included ""co-benefits,"" which occur when regulation compliance also reduces a pollutant that is not the rule’s primary target. The vast majority of the financial benefits came from a reduction of particulate matter, which can lead to serious health problems. The direct quantified benefit of reducing mercury alone — the intended target — was up to $6 million a year. The Trump administration reviewed analyses done by the Obama administration and decided to take ""co-benefits"" out of the equation. Ultimately, it said that the financial benefits of the Obama rule totaled $4 million to $6 million annually (when accounting for reduction of mercury alone), while the annual cost of compliance was $7.4 billion to $9.6 billion. As a result, the EPA under Trump said it ""determined that it is not ‘appropriate and necessary’ to regulate hazardous air pollutant emissions from power plants under section 112 of the Clean Air Act."" The rule limiting emission of mercury and air toxics remained in place. The objection Pelosi is talking about stems from a report by the EPA’s Science Advisory Board. The board is an independent committee that advises the EPA administrator on the information that is used to develop the agency’s rules. Board members serve as special government employees, but their views do not reflect the views of the EPA, an agency spokesperson told us. On April 9, the board advised the EPA to do a new assessment on mercury’s impact. It said that the assessment from Trump’s EPA was not all-encompassing and did not take into consideration prior board recommendations. The report was logged before the agency announced the final rule. The board said it was a departure from the norm for the EPA to ""categorically"" exclude co-benefits. The move went against both the EPA’s guidance on economic analysis and recommendations of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. The EPA reviewed links between methylmercury and brain damage, but the board said the agency should do a new risk assessment that also accounted for mercury’s impact on cardiovascular health. The EPA’s assessment on exposure to methylmercury excluded commercial fish — such as fish purchased at restaurants or supermarkets, even though it accounts for 90% of the fish consumed by Americans, the report said. ""For this or any future regulation, the EPA should prepare a new exposure estimate that accounts for total exposure,"" the report said. Michael Honeycutt, chair of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board, said the board did have concerns with how the EPA did its analysis, but it’s difficult to definitively confirm whether the EPA's new rule would lead to serious health problems, death and billions of dollars of expense. ""The EPA would need to re-do a risk assessment and take into account our recommendations,"" said Honeycutt, who also is director of the Toxicology Division of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Other experts said Pelosi was right to infer that the EPA’s change would be detrimental to public health and cost billions annually. ""The report does not use those precise words, but it is reasonable to infer that the SAB believes that the new rule is ill advised,"" said Patrick Parenteau, a law professor and senior counsel in the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic at Vermont Law School. He said it was also reasonable to infer that the rule would increase the risk of diseases and that the total benefits of reducing pollutants would ""more than offset the costs of pollution controls."" The practical effect of the new procedure is unclear, he said, because it likely will be challenged in court or a new administration may repeal it. Pelosi said, ""Even President Trump’s own EPA has admitted that this rule (on air pollutants) threatens to cause serious health problems including brain damage and death and to inflict billions of dollars of economic damage on our struggling economy."" Trump did not overrule his own EPA, the agency rather did not adhere to recommendations from a science advisory board. The advisory board told the EPA it had concerns with how the agency did a risk assessment and said it should do a new one. The chair of the advisory board said that in the absence of a new assessment, it was difficult to say definitively whether the rule would have the impact Pelosi said. Other experts say that while the report did not outright say what Pelosi stated, it was accurate to infer that the rule changes could pose serious health risks for Americans."
|
11573
|
Prostate cancer being overtreated, study shows
|
The story describes a study which quantifies the number of men who might be overtreated with surgery or radiation for prostate cancer. The story does a nice job of describing the natural history of prostate cancer, that is, that many prostate cancers are slow-growing and that many men don’t need treatment, which can have troublesome side effects. The article could have been more clear about the study design and exactly how many men were estimated to have been “overtreated.” Viewers are provided information about how many men were candidates for watchful waiting and could easily assume that any man who did not choose this approach was overtreated. Yet the actual study reports 10% of men were “overtreated.” The story also strangely reports an anecdotal story of one man who presumably chose watchful waiting. Yet this man also took a course of hormone therapy, which has multiple bothersome side effects related to depletion of nearly all a man’s testosterone (side effects like loss of sex drive). It’s confusing why this example was chosen, when this isn’t normally considered an option for men with low-risk prostate cancer.
|
true
|
No costs of treatment–any treatment–are described. The study measured how many men with low-risk prostate cancer (who would be appropriate candidates for watchful waiting) had either surgery or radiation. While the aim of the study was to quantify and report an estimated figure for “overtreatment,” the story doesn’t really describe that. Viewers could think that all men reported in the story as having low-risk prostate cancer and who were treated with surgery or radiation were overtreated (half of 25,000 men), when the actual study reports 10% of men were overtreated. Major harms of surgery or radiation are provided–incontinence and sexual problems. On the flip side, the article also points out that some cancers can be life-threatening (a risk of watchful waiting, although not explicitly stated here is that a man could miss a chance to “cure” his cancer). The story explains that researchers collected records of men who had prostate cancer, so an astute viewer could potentially figure out that this was a cohort study (retrospective). It could be clearer. The story describes the natural history of prostate cancer, and specifically, the fact that it is usually slow-growing and that many men may never need treatment, which is true. However, the anecdotal story, which presumably is a shining example of a watchful waiting perspective, is troublesome. This man reports being bothered by the thought of side effects and yet reports having hormone therapy, which itself has many side effects (including loss of sex drive) and it isn’t clear from the story whether this was even indicated for his cancer (so, he could be substituting one harmful treatment for another). The story quotes an expert not related to the research to confirm that prostate cancer is often unnecessary to treat. The story describes four treatment options–surgery, radiation, hormone therapy, and watchful waiting. However, in the example given, a man who chose not to have surgery or radiation opted for hormone therapy, which can also have significant side effects that weren’t discussed. This isn’t a good example of a “watchful waiting” strategy. The story mentions 4 treatment options: surgery, radiation, hormonal therapy and watchful waiting. It states that many men choose either surgery or radiation, implying these treatments are widely available and it also relates an anecdotal story of one man choosing some form of watchful waiting, implying this approach is also available (although the man’s story, and specifically, the addition of hormone treatment to watchful waiting isn’t the traditional view of this approach). The option of watchful waiting, while historically less commonly pursued than other more active treatments, is not new, which the article implies. There’s no evidence the story relied solely on a news release.
|
|
16650
|
"Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. advised citizens to ""point that barrel center mass and pull the trigger"" because ""911 is not our best option."
|
"A Greater Wisconsin Committee ad said Sheriff David Clarke advised citizens to ""point that barrel center mass and pull the trigger"" because ""911 is not our best option."" Clarke did just that in an interview, and made similar comments in an earlier radio spot and in comments to PolitiFact Wisconsin."
|
true
|
Criminal Justice, Legal Issues, Crime, Guns, Wisconsin, Greater Wisconsin Committee,
|
"A new TV ad by a liberal group uses Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr.’s own words to suggest he’s encouraging gun violence by discouraging use of the 911 emergency response system. ""I don’t dial 911,"" Clarke says in a clip featured in the ad. ""I will afterwards, to say ‘Come get this dead guy out of my house, he’s bleeding out and he’s messing up my carpet.’"" The ad ends with another excerpt from that interview: ""Point that barrel (at) center mass and pull the trigger."" At the top of the spot, a narrator says: ""Emergency responders. They risk their lives every day to help save ours. But Sheriff David Clarke says 911 is not our best option."" Does the new ad, paid for by the union-backed Greater Wisconsin Committee, accurately reflect Clarke’s views? Specifically, has Clarke advised citizens to ""point that barrel center mass and pull the trigger"" because ""911 is not our best option?"" A familiar controversy Clarke faces Milwaukee Police lieutenant Chris Moews in the Democratic primary for sheriff on Aug. 12, 2014. The new ad resurrects a controversy that began in January 2013 when Clarke’s office paid for a radio announcement in which he said: ""With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option. You can beg for mercy from a violent criminal, hide under the bed, or you can fight back. But are you prepared?"" That prompted a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story with this online headline: ""Sheriff David Clarke’s radio ad says 911 not best option, urges residents to take firearms classes."" After Clarke’s radio spot, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett criticized him, saying if there’s an emergency, ""I want people to call 911"" but Sheriff Clarke is ""discouraging people from calling 911, it’s just wrong."" About six weeks later, Clarke sat for a long interview with Project Veritas, a conservative group. that posted it online. The snippets of Clarke speaking in the Greater Wisconsin ad are from this interview. In that interview, Clarke said that Barrett had ""contorted"" the message in his radio spot by suggesting that he was advising that nobody call 911. The sheriff explained that it’s up to individual citizens to decide for themselves what they will do when confronted with possible harm. At the same time, Clarke made it clear not only what he personally would do, but what he would advise as the best course of action for citizens. He spoke in the context of potentially immediate danger, an example being an intruder breaking into your home. Twice he said the ""advice"" he would give people was based on what he himself would do: ""Use cover, because you don’t know if that clown trying to break into your house is armed. Know who and what your target is. Point that barrel center mass and pull the trigger."" He does not mention calling 911 in that sequence. Then he concludes: ""You see, the thing is 911 in that situation is not going to help you and that’s why I said it’s not your best option."" So the ad, notably, gets the ""not your best option"" context right. The other Clarke quote in the Greater Wisconsin Committee ad is from a section of the Project Veritas interview in which Clarke talks more about what he personally would do in that situation. Clarke tells the interviewer that a sign hangs on his own home picturing the head of a Rottweiler and a semiautomatic handgun with the message: ""We don’t dial 911."" ""I don’t call 911,"" Clarke explained. ""I will afterwards, to say ‘Come get this dead guy out of my house, he’s bleeding out and he’s messing up my carpet. And that’s not to sound, you know … that’s just the reality. I’m not going to fool around with that. But that’s the mindset I have but I’ve been a cop for 35 years, so I live with that every day and it becomes second nature..."" The sheriff, at that point in the interview, shifts back to what he’d like law abiding residents to consider doing. Government shouldn’t tell them what to do, he said. ""I trust them to make those decisions as to what to do,"" Clarke said. ""If they want to blow a whistle, fine, I don’t tell them not to."" But he made clear that he feels the best option is not waiting around for the police, or hiding under the bed, or running away. ""I don’t think that’s going to be very effective in some of these situations,"" Clarke said. ""So I want people to think about what’s going to be effective. If you want to run out of your house, fine, I’m not running out of my house unless it’s on fire. That’s my house, and I’m not running from it to give the bad guy carte blanche."" Ad vs. reality So how does the Greater Wisconsin ad compare to Clarke’s statements? The ad, despite the length limitations, gets Clarke’s message right and places it in the context -- using Clarke’s own words -- of a home invasion situation. Neither Clarke nor the ad is saying the sheriff suggests that calling 911 is never a good idea. (Clarke, in the interview, at one point seems to suggest he wants average citizens to call 911 if they can -- but then take matters into their own hands rather than wait for police to arrive). The other Clarke quote in the ad -- ""point the barrel center mass and pull the trigger"" -- is in fact Clarke’s advice to citizens. He says a 911 call isn’t always possible and by itself isn’t effective because of long wait times for police. When we asked Clarke to respond to the ad, he said he stands behind what he said to Project Veritas and did not intend to watch the Greater Wisconsin ad. Clarke said he suspected the ad twisted his remarks, but he couldn’t recall the specific context of his comments in the interview cited in the ad, and he offered no specific criticisms. ""My position is clear,"" Clarke said. Our rating A Greater Wisconsin Committee ad said Sheriff David Clarke advised citizens to ""point that barrel center mass and pull the trigger"" because ""911 is not our best option."" Clarke did just that in an interview, and made similar comments in an earlier radio spot and in comments to PolitiFact Wisconsin."
|
11146
|
A Touch of Massage Therapy: Reiki Used for Cancer Patients
|
We give the online version of this column credit for being merely descriptive in its headline: “Reiki used for cancer patients.” Yes. This method of light massage is indeed being used for cancer patients. But there isn’t much evidence to support it. The story tries to make this point clear, but the point is muddied by some of the more exuberant language in the piece. By referring to it as “a form of healing” and talking about how parts of the body are “treated” by “therapists,” the story legitimizes what is actually an uNPRoven form of massage that at times does not even involve contact between the massage therapist and the patient. Cancer patients often are in extreme pain and can feel deep depression about their condition. Stories about alternative therapies to relieve anxiety or pain need to present real evidence with a more clear focus on the weight of the evidence or lack thereof.
|
true
|
Wall Street Journal
|
We give the story high marks here for at least addressing the costs at a couple of centers. It says, “At Memorial Sloan-Kettering, treatment for inpatients is available at no extra charge; outpatients pay $90 to $110 a session. At Norris Cotton, trained volunteers administer treatments free of charge—often while patients are at the hospital receiving intravenous chemotherapy treatments. Insurance typically doesn’t pay for Reiki.” That last sentence is crucial. The reporter might have asked an insurance company for what other sorts of pain relief or anxiety relief treatments insurance does cover and why Reiki didn’t meet the same bar. Another mixed bag. But if we gave a barely satisfactory grade on “evidence,” we must balance the scale here and render this unsatisfactory. Why? One of the selling points of Reiki is how harmless it may be (lack of efficacy notwithstanding). The story could have addressed what might be the greater harm in people choosing Reiki for therapeutic benefit and forgoing other, proven treatment methods. We’ll again give the column the benefit of the doubt. This is a mixed bag. The first reference to the evidence in this story is misleading. It says, “Several studies suggest a benefit to patients, but scientists say more large, rigorous studies are needed.” In fact, as the story goes on later to explain, there is no evidence that Reiki itself has any therapuetic value beyond the simple person-to-person contact that is a necessary part of the experience. But since the story explains that the studies cited have size limitations or produced results that were not statistically significant or were not focused on Reiki – and because one independent expert says one theory is “absurd,” we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt. In the future, we suggest that the evidence not be presented to readers in between enthusastic comments such as “How it works is a mystery, but we see anecdotally the amount of delight” it brings patients.” Our heads were spinning at the “on-again, off-again, yes it does, no it doesn’t” nature of the column. No disease mongering of cancer or of side effects of chemotherapy. The story quoted many experts. Most, however, were used to at least hint at the idea that Reiki has some benefit. We do appreciate some of the candor, though. “Barrie Cassileth, chief of the Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, calls the energy theory ‘absurd’ but says light-touch therapy can have a ‘great relaxing effect’ on cancer patients ‘who are constantly poked, prodded and given needles. '” The column does not compare Reiki to any other alternatives. It mentions one study that looked at other massage techniques, but doesn’t explain how/if those approaches differ from Reiki. “A 2004 study of 1,290 cancer patients at Memorial Sloan-Kettering found a light-touch massage, standard Swedish massage and foot massage all helped symptoms including pain, depression anxiety, nausea and fatigue; the study didn’t have a control group.” The premise of the story is that this is a treatment that is “increasingly being used.” The story says, “Reiki, a therapy in which hands are placed lightly on the body or just above it, is increasingly being used to reduce cancer-related fatigue, anxiety, nausea and pain.” The story never goes on to prove that this is a method that is increasingly being used. All we are given are a few examples of treatment centers that do offer Reiki and then this: “Other centers don’t offer Reiki, citing insufficient evidence. “There isn’t a good evidence base for its utility in cancer care as of yet,” says Lorenzo Cohen, a professor in the departments of general oncology and behavioral science at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.” Readers across the country may be left wondering just how widespread this practice is. The story explains that Reiki originated in Japan in the early 1900s. The story did not rely on a news release.
|
3970
|
Seoul: North Korea confirms African swine fever outbreak.
|
South Korea said Friday that it is scrambling to prevent the spread of the highly contagious African swine fever on its pig industry after North Korea confirmed an outbreak at a farm near its border with China.
|
true
|
Seoul, Health, South Korea, General News, North Korea, Animal health, China, Asia, Asia Pacific, Agriculture
|
South Korea’s agriculture ministry said North Korea reported to the World Organization for Animal Health that 77 of the 99 pigs at a farm in Jagang province died of the disease and another 22 pigs were culled. The outbreak in North Korea comes after the disease in past months ravaged farms in China, where more than a million pigs have been reportedly culled, and also spread to Vietnam, Cambodia and Mongolia. The disease is harmless to humans but for pigs is fatal and highly contagious, and there is no known cure or vaccine. North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Friday published three different articles detailing the spread of the African swine fever across Asia, but none of them mentioned that the disease has reached the North. Oh Soon-min, director of quarantine policies at South Korea’s agriculture ministry, said quarantine measures and blood tests will be stepped up in some 350 pig farms near the inter-Korean border. Fences and traps will also be installed near the farms to prevent the pigs from contacting wild boars that roam in and out of North Korea. “While North Korea’s Jagang province, where the outbreak of the African swine fever was confirmed, is near the border between North Korea and China, we do believe this is a serious situation as there is a possibility that the disease can spread toward the South,” Oh said. He said the South Korean government believes the North raises about 2.6 million pigs in 14 government-run or cooperative farms. The South hopes to discuss the issue with North Korea at an inter-Korean liaison office and find ways to help the North fight the spread, said Eugene Lee, a spokeswoman from Seoul’s Unification Ministry, which deals with inter-Korean affairs. The outbreak comes as the North has significantly slowed its engagement with South Korea following the collapse of a February summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump. Lee said the South had told the North “several times” that it could help in case of African swine fever outbreak, but did not confirm how North Korean officials responded.
|
9322
|
3-Drug Therapy Might Be Cystic Fibrosis 'Breakthrough'
|
This story reports on two trials that showed adding adding one of two new drugs to standard therapy possibly improved short-term lung function in cystic fibrosis patients who fall into two common categories of gene mutations. The story wisely included the high cost of some of these compounds, known as CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) modulators. However, the story did not give enough data to help readers make sense of the scope of the benefits. And while it did contain some caveats about the quality of evidence, those cautions were drowned out by numerous optimistic–and speculative–statements about how the drug will perform in future trials. Cystic fibrosis is genetic disease affecting about 80,000 people worldwide that leads to early death due to progressive lung disease. In recent years CFTR modulators have been developed to target the mutations themselves by correcting the malfunctioning CFTR protein, which regulates the flow of water and chloride in and out of cells lining the lungs and other organs. But there are many types of mutations that cause cystic fibrosis, and medications developed thus far have been effective only with certain ones. More widely effective CFTR modulators could greatly improve and dramatically extend the lives of people with cystic fibrosis. But that remains to be seen. As a result, journalists need to proceed very carefully in reporting about studies that test a small number of patients, measure a limited number of outcomes, and cover a short treatment period–especially when these drugs cost could more than a quarter of a million dollars per year.
|
mixture
|
cystic fibrosis
|
The story brought up the “real-world issue of price” if the drugs are approved. It reported that the company that makes them — Vertex Pharmaceuticals — markets the combination of two other CFTR modulators — tezacaftor and ivacaftor — for a list price of $292,000 a year. Additional cost comes from the continued need for hospitalization on a regular basis, at least for some patients. Treating these patients may well cost millions over the course of a decade. The story said the patients’ performance on a pulmonary function test called FEV1 rose by “as much as 13 percentage points, on average.” That’s not enough information. What was the average starting number? And how did the control groups do in comparison? We’re not told. Also, FEV1 is a surrogate marker and we don’t know how it translates into real-world benefits on infection rates, hospitalizations, quality of life and lifespan. That should have been pointed out. The story reported: “So far, the treatments appear safe. Most side effects in the four-week trials were ‘mild to moderate,’ the researchers said, and included cough, headache and increased sputum.” The story should also have said that three patients in the VX-445 trial discontinued treatment, due to severe adverse events including intestinal blockages intestines and temporary worsening of lung function. Another three had to temporarily stop treatment due to signs of liver damage, muscle weakness and constipation. Considering the small size of the trial overall, these numbers are important. This was a tough call, but on balance we believe the story didn’t sufficiently caution readers about the quality of evidence. On the plus side, it described the findings as “preliminary” and the trial as “short-term,” lasting four weeks. It mentioned outstanding questions such as whether the improved lung function can be sustained over longer periods, and whether the therapy can achieve other meaningful outcomes such as reducing episodes of diminished lung function or helping with weight gain. It also quoted researcher Steven Rowe, MD, saying these drugs are “not a cure” and that important questions remain, including how well they work for younger patients. But those cautions might easily be overlooked due to the prominent hype. That included quoted phrases such as “game-changing” and “breakthrough,” as well as researchers expressing speculative optimism that the results “will hold up” in larger, longer-term trials. In addition, we think that the small size of these trials should have been emphasized. It’s a stretch to conclude a four-week study of just 239 patients, not all of whom received the therapies being tested, amounts to a breakthrough that will help nearly every cystic fibrosis patient. The story didn’t engage in disease-mongering. It said more than 30,000 people have cystic fibrosis in the U.S., and most have the genetic mutations targeted by these compounds. We also appreciated the genetic descriptions. The story reported that Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is developing both experimental drugs. However, it didn’t report the full extent of the conflicts of interest involved in these trials. A majority of the study authors — including one quoted in the story, Steven Rose, MD — reported receiving grants, personal fees, and other compensation from Vertex Pharmaceuticals during the trial period, according to disclosures filed with the journal. In addition, one of the authors is a Vertex employee who holds a relevant patent. In addition, we think that the story would have benefited greatly from more independent sources to weigh in on the bold claims being made. The story mentions existing therapies to target the genetic mutations of cystic fibrosis patients. There are other approaches under study such as such gene editing and stem cell replacement, but those have a ways to go scientifically. It’s clear that these drugs are not on the market. The story gives a little bit of background on the other drugs, and how the drugs in this trial are novel. The story did not appear to rely on a news release.
|
7331
|
Coronavirus pandemic disrupts Appalachian Trail dreams.
|
When Alexandra Eagle first mentioned plans to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alongside her new husband, her sister told her they’d either be divorced in five months or married forever.
|
true
|
AP Top News, Hiking, Health, Outdoor recreation, Lifestyle, Pandemics, Travel, General News, Virus Outbreak, U.S. News
|
Eagle, 33, and Jonathan Hall, 36, had just moved out of their Brooklyn apartment when they married on March 2, the third anniversary of the blind date that brought them together. They had talked about the Appalachian Trail in their first conversation and, when it came time to plan a honeymoon, they decided to make the hike. “This was going to be an epic adventure,” Eagle told The Associated Press. The couple spent a year researching, training and saving before setting off on the 2,190-mile (3,525-kilometer) journey seven days after their wedding. They knew about the new coronavirus spreading across the globe but considered themselves lucky to be trading Brooklyn for a tent on the trail, especially as New York fell under restrictions to prevent to the virus’s spread. “We always figured that being out on the trail and seeing a dozen people a day was a fine position to be in,” Hall said. As the pandemic grows, hikers face the difficult decision to postpone their dreams or ignore warnings and forge ahead. Like virtually every other entity in the U.S., the Appalachian Trail Conservancy began issuing COVID-19 safety guidance in March. But social distancing and hand-washing suggestions soon shifted to urging all hikers to leave the trail immediately. Shelters and privies were shut down, and volunteer programs were halted. On Wednesday, the conservancy and 29 other trail-maintaining clubs asked federal officials to close the trail until the end of the month. Though more than 3,000 “thru-hikers” set out to traverse the length of the trail each year, only about 25% successfully make the hike from Georgia to Maine, which typically takes about six months. Eagle and Hall never considered any scenario but finishing. They picked up speed as they moved into the Great Smoky Mountains along the Tennessee-North Carolina border. They woke to sunrise on Clingmans Dome — the trail’s highest point — a view that seemed to sum up exactly what they’d hoped for from their newlywed adventure. At the same time, families across the U.S. braced for lockdowns as COVID-19 spread through cities and towns claiming more lives. Days would pass before Eagle and Hall had enough cellphone service to see just how dire the crisis had become. Fellow thru-hiker Kimberly Selvage was 30 minutes from Hot Springs, North Carolina, when she called a local hostel to confirm her reservation. “He was like, ‘Ma’am, I think you’ve been in the woods too long; the whole world is shutting down,’” she said. That wasn’t exactly the type of solitude Selvage had in mind when she quit her job, rented out her house in Las Vegas and started her hike on Feb. 26. Selvage, 51, said she thrives by herself and set out to hike the trail alone, so when whispers of closures and restrictions started to spread, she wasn’t too concerned and pressed on. With her two kids in college and her parents gone, the Appalachian Trail was home for the time being, and it’s where she believed she was safest. Leaving it would mean a cross-country drive exposing her to far more people than she encounters while hiking, she said. But as more trails closed and communities issued shelter-in-place orders, Selvage decided to throw in the towel for the time being after hiking 470 miles (755 kilometers). “The closures and general virus fear was changing the vibe of my hike,” said Selvage, who started the hike, in part, to experience the culture of trail towns. “I chose to pause to get the full experience when it was less controversial.” Selvage rented an SUV and drove back home to Las Vegas. She slept in the back of the car. Now, she’s renting out a room in a friend’s house until the all-clear is given to hike again. “I still think I was safer on the trail,” Selvage said. For Eagle and Hall, deciding to stay or go was brutal. The couple debated day after day as they hiked over rocks and waterfalls. They hadn’t yet come to terms with their choice when they loaded their backpacks into the trunk of a rental car in Tennessee. “Even right now, I don’t know if we’re doing the right thing,” Eagle said through tears. Their decision came down to the small chance that they might catch and spread the virus, something Eagle said she couldn’t live with. Most people with COVID-19 experience mild to moderate symptoms, but for others it can cause more severe illness or death. For now, they’ll stay with her parents in Louisiana, which has more than 12,000 confirmed cases. “Is that better? That’s hard to say,” she said. They’ll try to stay in shape while they wait for the all-clear. Hall joked about looking into a treadmill sale he saw online. But as the timeline becomes grimmer with each passing day, he thinks they might be saying goodbye to the AT for good. His wife disagrees and sees them starting again in a few months. Until then, she’s trying to keep her disappointment in perspective. “I’m just trying to focus in on the fact that we are in such a better position than most of the world,” she said. ___ Follow Sarah Blake Morgan at www.twitter.com/StorytellerSBM ___ Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.
|
26057
|
“Of course I will always protect those with preexisting conditions. Always.”
|
McSally has opposed the Affordable Care Act, the national law that serves as the basis for preventing health plans from discriminating against people with preexisting medical conditions. Her stance hasn’t changed. Her campaign pointed to a Republican bill she supports. But its mechanism for maintaining the ACA protection lacks the comprehensive framework that would make it effective, experts said.
|
false
|
Arizona, Health Check, Martha McSally,
|
"Trailing Democratic challenger Mark Kelly in one of the country’s most hotly contested Senate races, Arizona Sen. Martha McSally is seeking to tie herself to an issue with across-the-aisle appeal: insurance protections for people with preexisting health conditions. ""Of course I will always protect those with preexisting conditions. Always,"" the Republican said in a TV ad released June 22. The ad comes in response to criticisms by Kelly, who has highlighted McSally’s votes to undo the Affordable Care Act. That, he argued, would leave Americans with medical conditions vulnerable to higher-priced insurance. The Arizona Senate race has attracted national attention and is considered a toss-up, though Kelly is leading in many polls. McSally’s attempt to present herself as a supporter of protecting people with preexisting conditions — a major component of the 2010 health law — is part of a larger pattern in which vulnerable Republican incumbents stake out positions advocating for this protection while also maintaining the GOP’s strong stance against the ACA. McSally, who was appointed by the governor to take over John McCain’s Senate seat in 2019, used similar messaging in her failed 2018 bid for the state’s other Senate position. And President Donald Trump echoed the declaration at a June 23 rally in Phoenix, saying McSally — along with the rest of the Republican Party — ""will always protect people with preexisting conditions."" With that in mind, we decided to take a closer look. We contacted McSally’s campaign, which cited her support of a different piece of legislation, the Protect Act. But independent experts told us that legislation doesn’t satisfy the standard she sets out. Only one national law makes sure people with preexisting medical conditions don’t face discrimination or higher prices from insurers. It’s the Affordable Care Act. Both as a member of the House of Representatives and as a senator, McSally has supported efforts to undo the health law — voting in 2015 to repeal it and in 2017 to replace it with the Republican-backed American Health Care Act, which would have permitted insurers to charge higher premiums for people with complicated medical histories. ""Anyone who voted for that bill was voting to take away the ACA’s preexisting condition protections,"" said Jonathan Oberlander, a health policy professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. ""Sen. McSally is trying to erase history for electoral purposes."" Especially as COVID-19 cases climb, health care— and, in particular, the ACA — has emerged as a flashpoint in the Arizona election, said Dr. Daniel Derksen, a professor of public health, medicine and nursing at the University of Arizona. ""Martha McSally has in her actions, in her votes, been pretty consistent about cutting back benefits and trying to repeal the ACA without any clear plan in mind that would protect people who gained insurance through the ACA,"" Derksen added. ""Her words on preexisting condition protections don’t align with any votes I’ve seen."" McSally’s campaign argued that the ACA is just one strategy, and a flawed one at that. Dylan Lefler, her campaign manager, instead pointed to her support of the Republican-backed Protect Act as evidence to back up her promise. Specifically, it ostensibly bans insurance plans from ""impos[ing] any preexisting condition exclusion with respect to … coverage,"" per the bill text. The problem, though, is that simply banning that exclusion isn’t enough, because the law also has to make sure the health insurance plans that cover pre-existing conditions remain affordable. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), does nothing to provide subsidies or cost-sharing mechanisms -- meaning people both with and without pre-existing conditions wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford those plans. Without that framework, the act remains a ""meaningless promise,"" argued Linda Blumberg, a fellow at the Urban Institute, a social policy think tank. And it has other holes: for instance, permitting insurers to charge women more than men. ""No six-page bill is ever the way of achieving something,"" said Thomas Miller, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. ""This is a check-the-box effort to try to say, ‘We’re [moving] in that direction.’"" It’s not just legislation. There’s also Texas v. Azar, a pending case in which a group of Republican attorneys general are arguing the Supreme Court should strike the entire health law, including its preexisting condition protections. The Trump administration has sided with the Republican states. McSally has consistently declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying she doesn’t want to weigh in on ""a judicial proceeding."" In reporting this fact check, we asked where she stood on the case. The campaign didn’t specifically answer, but pointed to her general disapproval of the ACA. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats have called on the administration to reverse its stance. That context makes McSally’s silence especially relevant, said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown University. ""When given the opportunity, she has declined to oppose this lawsuit, which would essentially eliminate the protections that exist,"" Corlette said. So — big picture? McSally’s record in Washington hasn’t been one of preserving or building on preexisting condition protections. In her new TV ad, McSally claims she will ""always protect those with preexisting conditions."" But nothing in her voting record, which tracks closely with the Republican repeal-and-replace philosophy, supports this claim. And she has continually declined opportunities to oppose a pending legal threat to the ACA, including its provisions related to preexisting conditions, by a group of GOP governors and supported by the Trump administration. Meanwhile, the legislation her campaign cited to justify her stance falls short in terms of meaningfully protecting Americans with preexisting medical conditions. McSally has not in the past or present taken actions that back up her statement."
|
28120
|
Star football player Brian Banks was convicted of raping a woman who confessed on Facebook that she fabricated her accusation -- after he served six years in prison.
|
What's true: Banks was convicted of rape in 2002 and served five years in prison as part of a plea agreement before his accuser recanted and he was set free. What's false: Banks served five years and two months in prison, not six years. The woman involved in the case did not recant on Facebook, but she did attempt to contact Banks through the social media web site.
|
true
|
Politics, sexual assault
|
Southern California football player Brian Banks was a rising star in 2002 when his career was abruptly derailed by a rape charge that sent him to prison. Banks entered into a plea agreement after a former high school classmate of his told a grueling story about Banks’ having dragged her into a stairwell and raped her — an accusation which she recanted years later: Banks still doesn’t know her reasoning for selling him down the river when she knew they never had sex and there was no DNA trace on her underwear. Maybe it was the $1.5 million she collected from the Long Beach school system, claiming it was an unsafe environment (the city is trying to recoup $2.6 million from her now). Banks thinks maybe Gibson was afraid her older sister, who went to the same high school, would find out she made out with him and tell her mother. Or that he would brag to friends. Maybe she thought he would just be suspended. He doesn’t think she was trying to put him in jail. He also thinks perhaps a school security guard saw her leaving the stairwell with him, asked what she was doing and if she wanted to do it. “Oh well, then he raped you,” Banks surmises the guard said. “We don’t really know what the truth really is as to why she lied,” Banks says. “I never really got a clear reason.” The ordeal garnered national attention (and became the subject of a feature film), but a meme circulating online misrepresents several details of the rare circumstances surrounding his wrongful imprisonment for a purported sexual assault: It is true that Banks was considered a strong football prospect as a student at Long Beach Polytechnic High School before he was arrested and charged in 2002 for allegedly raping a classmate, Wanetta Gibson. Banks was convicted after taking a plea agreement calling for him to serve five years in prison and another five in probation, as well as registering as a sex offender. However, there are discrepancies between his case and the story promoted by the meme; for instance, Gibson did not “confess on Facebook” that she fabricated the allegation. However, she did use the social media platform to contact Banks in 2011. The two met face-to-face with a private investigator present, at which point she admitted to fabricating the accusation against him. Banks — who had by that point already served five years and two months in prison, rather than the “six years” listed in the meme — enlisted the aid of an advocacy group, the California Innocence Project. CIP managing attorney Michael A. Semanchik told us via e-mail that for five months, the group collected evidence, included statements from both Gibson and her friends demonstrating that her allegations had been invented. Semanchik added that Gibson subsequently admitted in person to prosecutors that she had lied, leading to the charges against Banks being dismissed in March 2012. Banks’ status as a sex offender was also rescinded. He went on to play professional football in the United Football League and National Football League before going on to work for the NFL itself. He has also been a visible supporter of the California Innocence Project. In June 2013, Gibson was ordered by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to repay the $1.5 million settlement awarded to her from a separate lawsuit against the Long Beach Unified School District, as well as an additional $1.1 million in fees. Gibson had sued the district claiming that it was unsafe for her as a result of being attacked by Banks. While Gibson fabricated her account of being assaulted, research shows that such instances are rare; a 2012 report by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) found that while false reports make up between 2 and 10 percent of total rape reports, 63 percent of sexual assaults are not reported to authorities. NSVRC spokesperson Laura Palumbo told us this can create more issues for those who have been sexually assaulted: The prevalence of false reporting of sexual violence is low, yet still when survivors come forward, many face scrutiny or encounter barriers. When the rare case of a false report is misrepresented as a common occurrence, this creates additional barriers for victims coming forward. Misconceptions about false reporting rates have direct, negative consequences and can contribute to why many victims don’t report sexual assaults. Banks himself has voiced support for sexual assault survivors. In June 2016 he criticized the fact that Stanford University student Brock Turner only received a six-month sentence for rape: I would say it’s a case of privilege. It seems like the judge based his decision on lifestyle. He’s lived such a good life and has never experienced anything serious in his life that would prepare him for prison. He was sheltered so much he wouldn’t be able to survive prison. What about the kid who has nothing, he struggles to eat, struggles to get a fair education? What about the kid who has no choice who he is born to and has drug-addicted parents or a non-parent household? Where is the consideration for them when they commit a crime? In December 2017, he said that assault survivors seeking justice “should have the opportunity to do so.” He also said that had the statue of limitations not expired for Gibson’s perjury, he would have pressed charges against her: Part of my life was taken away because of her. But more importantly, you have to go after people like this because a person such as herself makes it harder for a woman who is raped to come forward confidently and share their story and hope something is done about what happened to them. They should be able to expect to be believed. Banks appeared on the Oxygen network in January 2018 as a co-host for the true crime show Final Appeal. He also co-produced a movie based on his case, slated for release in 2018.
|
26117
|
In a very real sense, (Oklahoma has) flattened the curve. ... The number of cases in Oklahoma — it's declined precipitously.
|
Oklahoma’s daily caseload has risen consistently in June, and to levels higher than at any point in the pandemic.
|
false
|
Public Health, Coronavirus, Mike Pence,
|
"President Donald Trump is receiving criticism for his decision to restart in-person, indoor rallies with an event in Tulsa on June 20. During a White House roundtable on June 15, Vice President Mike Pence defended Trump’s decision by praising Oklahoma’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. At a discussion of issues affecting older Americans, Pence said, ""The president and I have both spoken to (Oklahoma) Gov. Kevin Stitt in the last several days and even earlier today. And Oklahoma has really been in the forefront of our efforts to slow the spread. And in a very real sense, they've flattened the curve. And today, their hospital capacity is abundant. The number of cases in Oklahoma — it's declined precipitously, and we feel very confident going forward with the rally this coming weekend."" However, Pence’s remarks represent an unduly optimistic reading of Oklahoma’s actual coronavirus data. (The Trump campaign and the White House did not respond to inquiries.) The state opened some businesses on April 24 and others on May 1. We looked at the raw data for Oklahoma from the Covid Tracking Project. The following chart shows both the daily number of new, confirmed cases in Oklahoma and the seven-day rolling average, which smooths out day-to-day variations in the data. (For instance, weekends often show artificially low totals because offices are closed.) The strongest evidence for Pence’s characterization comes in the early part of the period. From early March to early April, the daily case count skyrocketed, but then it eased and remained more or less in check through the end of May. This fits the pattern of ""flattening the curve,"" a term that gained currency early in the pandemic to describe a hoped-for phenomenon by which Americans would stay at home to stop the virus’ spread, thus keeping new infections from overwhelming the hospital system. However, Pence overstated the case. First, it’s incorrect to say that infections in Oklahoma ""declined precipitously."" As the chart shows, it was, at best, a modest decline between early April and the end of May. It could be more accurately described as a plateau. Second, any ""flattening the curve"" period is old news. Over the most recent week, the number of new cases has increased every day and produced a spike beyond anything previously seen in Oklahoma. The seven-day rolling average for new infections is now more than double where it stood at the end of May, just before the spike began. ""It looks from the data that the number of cases is on the rise, and rising quite steeply,"" said Nicole Gatto, associate professor in the School of Community and Global Health at Claremont Graduate University. Tara C. Smith, a professor of epidemiology at Kent State University, agreed. ""The seven-day average doesn't look great for the most recent part of June,"" Smith said. ""They had slowed new cases for a while, but the trend now seems to be reversing."" Equally important, the recent spike does not appear to be traceable to a big surge in testing. Here’s a chart of the seven-day rolling average of daily tests in Oklahoma: The number of tests conducted has generally risen over time. But the number of tests actually fell during the period when the number of new infections was spiking. Pence said, ""In a very real sense, (Oklahoma has) flattened the curve. ... The number of cases in Oklahoma — it's declined precipitously."" This observation is outdated and inaccurate. In June, Oklahoma’s daily caseload has risen consistently, and to levels higher than at any point in the pandemic."
|
5279
|
Duchess of Cambridge pool-playing skills deemed ‘dreadful’.
|
The Duchess of Cambridge has shown off her pool-playing skills — though one teenager was not impressed.
|
true
|
Kate Middleton, Queen Elizabeth II, Entertainment, Mental health, Health
|
Visiting a mental health center for children in South Wales on Wednesday, the former Kate Middleton spent time talking to children and teens with mental health issues before picking up a pool cue. Kate, who wore a burgundy suit paired with knee-high boots, impressed in the style stakes — but her pool skills left much to be desired. Craig Davies, a 15-year-old teenager at the center, described her pool playing as “dreadful.” The duchess became royal patron of children’s charity Action for Children in December when Queen Elizabeth II passed on some of her responsibilities due to her advancing age.
|
6485
|
Caregiver of Indian girl found dead in Texas wants answers.
|
A toddler whose body was recently found in a drain in suburban Dallas was cheerful, healthy and eating well a year ago when she met her new parents, according to the manager of the Indian orphanage from where Sherin Mathews was adopted.
|
true
|
Mother Teresa, Dallas, Health, Orphans, India, North America, Asia Pacific, U.S. News, Texas
|
Babita Kumari said she wants to know what happened to the 3-year-old girl, whose father has been jailed after telling police that Sherin had choked to death while drinking milk in the middle of the night. Wesley Mathews has told police Sherin needed a special diet involving meals at odd hours because she was malnourished. Those claims puzzle Kumari, who managed the Mother Teresa Orphanage and Children’s Home in the city of Nalanda in eastern India’s Bihar state, where the girl had lived since infancy. “Look at the photos of the child. Does she look malnourished?” Kumari said during a Thursday evening phone interview with The Associated Press. “I have so many questions about what happened to her,” Kumari said. The girl, then named Saraswati, after the Hindu goddess of wisdom, was a happy, cheerful child who made everyone smile at the orphanage. “We loved her laughter,” Kumari said. “She was a smart child.” Wesley Mathews reported his daughter missing Oct. 7, and Sherin’s body was found by cadaver dogs in a culvert under a road in Richardson, Texas, on Sunday. Mathews has been charged with felony injury of a child in Sherin’s death and is being held on $1 million bond. A cause of death hasn’t been determined and autopsy results haven’t been released. Mathews’ attorney, Rafael De La Garza, hasn’t responded to messages seeking comment left Thursday and Friday. Mitch Nolte, an attorney representing the girl’s mother, Sini Mathews, issued a statement this week saying his client won’t submit to further police questioning. He said she wasn’t involved in Sherin’s death or the removal of her body, and requested privacy to mourn her child. Wesley Mathews told police his daughter had developmental disabilities and was malnourished. He described a special diet regimen in which she had to eat whenever she was awake in order to gain weight. According to an arrest affidavit filed by Richardson police, Mathews said he had been trying to get the girl to drink milk in the garage of their home. “Eventually the 3-year-old girl began to drink the milk. Wesley Mathews then physically assisted the 3-year-old girl in drinking the milk,” according to the affidavit. Mathews told police that Sherin choked and coughed and eventually he felt no pulse and believed the child had died. Investigators wrote that he “then admitted to removing the body from the home.” The affidavit does not say whether Mathews administered any medical aid to his daughter. The child was already eating solid food and drinking milk from a cup when she left the orphanage, Kumari remembers. She said Sherin squinted in one eye, but otherwise had nothing wrong with her when Wesley and Sini Mathews adopted her in June 2016. “Why did they have to make her eat or drink anything at that hour? Why was he forcing her?” Kumari asked. “If someone is forcing a drink into the mouth of someone who is crying and sobbing, then even an adult can choke.” India’s foreign minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted Friday that she has asked the Ministry of Women and Child Development, which oversees adoptions, to thoroughly investigate Sherin’s adoption. Swaraj said passports for children adopted from India will now only be issued with the ministry’s approval. Sherin was sent to the orphanage in Nalanda by child welfare authorities when she was only a few months old. It has since shut down. Kumari said that was due to missing paperwork and that the orphanage plans to challenge the shutdown. Adoption is relatively rare in India, even though hundreds of thousands of children are at risk or living in government-run or -mandated centers. Religion and caste remain important social indicators, so it’s not often considered an option by Indian families. The government has tried to promote the idea and it mandates prospective parents to register as a way to prevent trafficking and reduce cumbersome paperwork. Between April 2016 to March this year, 3,210 children were adopted within India and just 578 Indian children were adopted from outside the country. Kumari said the Mathews’ raised no red flags at the orphanage when they adopted Sherin. After their first visit to see the girl, they called regularly from the United States. “They wanted to hear her voice over the phone. They seemed to love her. The follow up reports from America were also good.” A spokeswoman for Holt International, a U.S. adoption agency that facilitates several hundred foreign adoptions each year, said the agency by law cannot discuss specific adoptions or confirm whether it facilitated an adoption for the Mathews. She said the agency follows all national and international guidelines and requirements for adoptions, which are very specific for each country. According to the U.S. State Department, India requires quarterly post-placement reports in the first year a child is adopted and then two reports a year for the second year. Holt International’s website said the agency complies with those requirements but also does a one-month post-placement report. “I will always want to know what happened to this child. What was the real reason she passed away,” Kumari said. “If we had known this would happen to her, we would never have sent her.” ___ Associated Press reporter Claudia Lauer in Dallas contributed to this story. ___ Sign up for the AP’s weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv
|
2372
|
Maker of Four Loko flavored malt liquor accepts marketing limits.
|
The maker of Four Loko has agreed with 20 U.S. state attorneys general and the city of San Francisco to a series of reforms to resolve allegations that it improperly marketed flavored malt beverages to young people and encouraged alcohol abuse.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Phusion Projects LLC, which is based in Chicago, agreed not to sell caffeinated alcoholic drinks, agreed not to promote binge drinking or other misuses of alcohol, and accepted marketing limits designed to keep people under 21 from buying alcoholic products. Among these limits are a ban on promoting flavored malt beverages on school or college property except at licensed retailers, and not using models or actors under age 25 or who appear to be under age 21 in its advertising. Phusion also agreed to pay $400,000 to the regulators as part of the settlement. The danger of mixing caffeine and alcohol was spotlighted in 2010 when some college students were hospitalized for alcohol poisoning after drinking alcoholic energy drinks. Phusion that year removed the caffeine and other stimulants from beverages, including Four Loko, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned the company and rivals that “blackout in a can” drinks combining alcohol and caffeine were unsafe. “Alcoholic energy drinks are dangerous - especially for the teenagers and young adults they target,” New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in a statement. “Today’s agreement ensures that one company will no longer market a dangerous product to youth.” In the settlement, Phusion denied the regulators’ allegations and that it violated any laws, including state laws governing consumer protection and trade practices. “We consider this agreement a practical way to move forward and an opportunity to highlight our continued commitment to ensuring that our products are consumed safely and responsibly only by adults 21 and over,” President Jim Sloan said in a statement. “Phusion continues to believe, however, as do many people throughout the world, that the combination of alcohol and caffeine can be consumed safely and responsibly.”
|
3727
|
German doctor fined again over abortion advertising ban.
|
A German doctor has been convicted for the second time of violating a ban on advertising abortions in a case that has become a rallying point for opponents of the law.
|
true
|
State courts, Constitutions, Angela Merkel, Europe, General News, Abortion, Health, Germany, Courts, Frankfurt
|
News agency dpa reported Thursday that Kristina Haenel was fined 2,500 euros ($2,775) by the state court in the central city of Giessen. Alongside the fine, it made clear that it wasn’t convinced the law is in line with Germany’s constitution. In 2017, Haenel was fined 6,000 euros after stating on her website that she carried out abortions. That violated a German law that bans “advertising” the procedure, and which carries a fine or a prison sentence of up to two years. In July, a Frankfurt court overturned that conviction and ordered a retrial after the government loosened the rules on the issue. Under a compromise reached earlier this year, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition left the ban on advertising abortions formally in place but allowed doctors and hospitals for the first time to say on their websites that they perform abortions. They were not, however, allowed to give more detailed information. Haenel, who has argued that the change doesn’t go far enough and still amounts to “state censorship,” plans to appeal the latest ruling. The change in the law on advertising didn’t affect Germany’s law on abortion itself. The procedure is allowed in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy on condition that a woman undergoes counselling at least three days beforehand.
|
7975
|
European labs to receive control material to spot false negative coronavirus tests.
|
Laboratories across Europe can now access control material to enable them to avoid mistakenly telling people they are free of the coronavirus when in fact they are infected, the European Commission said on Wednesday.
|
true
|
Health News
|
The material was developed by the Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Italy to fill a gap in the market. A German biotech company has now made enough to spot false negative results in up to 60 million coronavirus tests. “This is a major achievement by our researchers, which will be crucial for our exit strategy when the time comes to start lifting social distancing measures,” European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakidou said in a statement. A survey published in mid-February of laboratories in European Union countries and others such as Britain, Iceland and Norway showed that the greatest challenge for implementing tests was the lack of such control material. The EU executive said 3,000 samples were now ready to be dispatched to testing laboratories in the European Union, as well as Britain, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. One sample tube is enough to check up to 20,000 tests. A positive control is a key part of a test and seen more commonly in pregnancy test kits. The control is designed always to produce a positive result to show that the test is working. It can then catch out a test that produces a false negative result for someone infected by the virus. The charge per sample is 20 euros ($21.87), plus shipping costs, and currently limited to one per laboratory per month. The new material is a synthetic, non-infectious part of the virus and based on the part that has remained stable after the virus has mutated. The Joint Research Centre is the Commission’s science service, with research sites in five countries. ($1 = 0.9146 euros)
|
7200
|
Jimmy Carter: To beat Trump, Dems cannot scare off moderates.
|
Former President Jimmy Carter sees little hope for the U.S. to change its human rights and environmental policies as long as Donald Trump is in the White House, but he has a warning for his fellow Democrats looking to oust the current administration: Don’t go too far to the left.
|
true
|
Health care reform, Universal health care, North America, Environment, Immigration, Elections, Politics, Atlanta, Donald Trump, Jimmy Carter, Presidential elections
|
“Independents need to know they can invest their vote in the Democratic Party,” Carter said Tuesday during his annual report at his post-presidential center and library in Atlanta, where he offered caution about the political consequences should Democrats “move to a very liberal program, like universal health care.” That’s delicate — and, Carter admitted, even contradictory — advice coming from the 93-year-old former president, and it underscores the complicated political calculations for Democrats as they prepare for the November midterms and look ahead to the 2020 presidential election. “Rosie and I voted for Bernie Sanders in the past,” Carter noted. He was referring to his wife, Rosalynn, and their support for the Vermont senator, an independent who identifies as a democratic socialist, over establishment favorite Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. At another point, he pointed to California’s environmental policies — limits on carbon emissions, stiffer fuel-efficiency standards — as the model for combating climate change. Still, Carter stressed, Democrats nationally must “appeal to independents” who are souring on the current administration. Trump’s job approval rating, according to Gallup, has dipped to 40 percent, mostly because of declining support among independents. Carter alluded to arguments from self-identified progressives that Democrats will sacrifice votes on the left if they don’t embrace the liberal base: “I don’t think any Democrat is going to vote against a Democratic nominee,” and he insisted that he’s not asking the left to sacrifice its goals, only to see that winning elections is necessary to accomplish any of them. There is some historical irony in Carter’s analysis. He came to the White House in 1976 from the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, and he clashed with party liberals, drawing a spirited primary challenge in 1980 from Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy. Carter prevailed, but he was wounded, abandoned by Kennedy’s most liberal supporters and unable to win over independents who helped deliver a landslide for Republican Ronald Reagan. Carter’s latest handicapping comes near the conclusion of a midterm primary season that has seen Democratic primary voters move the party to the left. In some states and districts, that means nominating full-throated advocates of single-payer health care, a $15 minimum wage and abolishing or at least overhauling the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. In other races, it means nominees who back more cautious moves to the left, such as background checks before certain gun purchases, a “public option” health insurance plan to compete alongside private insurance policies, step raises for the minimum wage and an immigration overhaul that offers legal status to some immigrants in the country illegally. Carter did not delve into those distinctions, instead offering a sweeping condemnation of his latest successor to remind Democrats of the stakes. He denounced the administration’s latest environmental policy proposal to make it easier for energy companies to release methane gas that contributes to climate change. He singled out Trump’s policy of separating immigrant families at the border, including those seeking asylum. “America is inherently committed to human rights, and I think in the future we will let that prevail,” Carter said, “but for the next two years, I can’t predict the imprisoned children are going to be any better off — unfortunately.” Carter has previously criticized Trump for his repeated falsehoods, and he’s chided Trump for his hardline support for Israel over Palestinians. Yet Carter has found common ground with Trump on other foreign policy fronts, and did so again Tuesday. While avoiding any mention of the special counsel’s investigation into whether Trump’s presidential campaign coordinated with Russia in the 2016 U.S. election, Carter said he has engaged for years with Russian President Vladimir Putin concerning the ongoing Syrian civil war. “I have his email address,” Carter said, adding that he and Putin share the same Russian river as their favorite spot for salmon fishing. That friendship, Carter said, means when Russia and other nations hold multilateral talks about the Syrian conflict, “Quite often they invite the Carter Center. ... They do not invite the U.S. government.” Carter also praised Trump for meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Carter repeated his frustrations with the last Democratic president, Barack Obama, for not engaging more directly with the insular Asian nation. Carter said he’s not sure Trump has made real progress yet with North Korea, but he endorsed calls for the U.S. to formally declare an end to the Korean War and normalize relations with Pyongyang. “Let them be part of the community of nations,” he said. “I think that would be enough in itself to bring an end to the nuclear program in North Korea.” ___ Follow Barrow on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP
|
16806
|
13 percent of Americans, the lowest ever, are without health care.
|
Uninsured rate lowest ever, Donny Deutsch claims
|
mixture
|
Health Care, Polls and Public Opinion, Public Health, PunditFact, Donny Deutsch,
|
"Morning Joe guest host Donny Deutsch, discussing House Speaker John Boehner’s refusal to vote on immigration reform, called out the GOP for being wrong about, well, just about everything. ""Once again the party of no,"" Deutsch said on July 1, 2014. ""The country’s will was for immigration reform, they're against it. Minimum wage, we want to raise it for everybody, another populist point of view. They don't want to do it. By the way, 13 percent of Americans, the lowest ever, are without health care. Everything is going in the right direction."" While there are several things we could fact-check from Deutsch’s comments, we were most interested in his claim that 13 percent of Americans are currently uninsured -- the lowest that figure has ever been. The poll numbers Neither Deutsch nor his press agent responded to our interview requests. But it’s likely that Deutsch is referring to a Gallup poll on the rate of uninsured Americans. The poll found that in April and May of this year, 13.4 percent of Americans were without health insurance, holding steady since open enrollment for coverage ended March 31. This is indeed the lowest rate of uninsured Americans since the poll began five years ago, besting 2008’s 14.4 percent and dropping from 2013’s peak of 18 percent. The problem is, Gallup doesn’t have numbers before 2008 -- which means there’s no way to know if it’s the lowest rate ever as Deutsch claimed. Other surveys, including from the government, also attempt to measure the percentage of Americans without health insurance. According to those surveys, the percentage of Americans without health insurance has been lower than the 13.4 percent cited by Gallup: 2001: 13.1 percent (Department of Health and Human Services National Health Survey) 2000: 13.1 percent (Census Population Survey), 13.3 percent (National Health Survey) 1999: 12.2 percent (National Health Survey) 1998: 13.3 percent (National Health Survey) 1988: 13.4 percent (Population Survey) 1987: 12.9 percent (Population Survey) 1980: 12 percent (Health and Human Services Medical Expenditure Panel Survey) 1978: 12 percent (Medical Expenditure Panel Survey) While the percentages suggest the current uninsured rate is hardly the ""lowest ever"" reported, it should be noted that it is ill-advised to compare across the polls because of the differences in methodology and timing. Gallup surveys adult Americans multiple times a year about their health insurance at the time of the survey. Gallup analyst Jeff Jones confirmed that the exact question asked was simply ""do you have health insurance""? Census data, which hasn’t caught up to Obamacare implementation, includes Americans of all ages, though both broadly define ""uninsured"" as lacking insurance at any time of the year. The Health and Human Services surveys only consider nonelderly adults (under 65), includes those with only noncomprehensive plans as ""uninsured"" (i.e. dental or vision, coverage for accidents or specific diseases), and differentiates between uninsured any time in the year, for the first part of the year, and the full year. And to make matters more complicated, the Census Bureau is changing the way it collects information on the uninsured. That means new Census Bureau data will not be comparable to old Census Bureau data. In short, year-to-year data comparisons may be a moot point so let’s look at the bigger picture. Historical trends First off, insurance coverage, let alone coverage figures, simply doesn’t go all the way back to the all-elusive ""ever."" In fact, it didn’t really exist before the 1920s. The closest thing offered was ""sickness"" insurance, which paid a worker even if he/she had to take a day off due to illness -- essentially paid sick leave. According to political economist John Murray, about a third of the industrial workforce was enrolled in these sickness funds in the 1920s. In 1929, the first insurance plan in America covered 21 days of hospitalization and was offered to Dallas teachers by Baylor University for an annual fee of $6 (about $82 today). This plan, named Blue Cross, became popular during the Great Depression. In 1940, less than 1 in 10 Americans had the plan, said economic historian Melissa Thomasson. The next two decades saw an expansion of employer-sponsored plans, incentivized by Internal Revenue Bureau Code 1954’s tax subsidy, according to Thomasson. This accounts for the employer-sponsored coverage system we all know and love today. ""Most plans were employer based and always have been because insurance companies then and now figured that only sick people would want health insurance and the plans would not be sound. This is a problem called adverse selection,"" said Thomasson. By 1959, about two-thirds of Americans were insured, according to the Department of Health and Human Services National Health Survey, though historical rates of coverage for the elderly were low. ""Insurers could not figure out how to cover people who made lots of claims and retirees often lost their employer-provided insurance when they retired. So Medicare would have resulted in large increases in coverage,"" Murray said. With the creation of social safety net programs in 1965 -- Medicare for the elderly (over 65) and Medicaid for the poor -- more than 80 percent were insured by 1968. That same year, 96 percent of the elderly were insured, more than double that of a decade earlier. Health and Human Services data show a decline in the percentage of uninsured nonelderly Americans from 1959 to 1980. Then, the rates began to climb, level off in the 90s, and then rise substantially circa the Great Recession. Again, this is because it all ties back to the employment-sponsored system of insurance, experts say. The higher the employment ratio is, the higher the insurance rate. But Medicaid and the recent trend of employers not offering coverage complicates this relationship. ""Unemployment doesn’t come with health insurance, unless one is poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. The 1990s was a decade of high and rising employment, and that boosted insurance coverage,"" said Brookings Institution senior fellow Henry Aaron. ""During the 2000s the employment population ratio fell and employers continued to move gradually away from offering coverage. So, both trends were negative."" As a result, all the polls we looked at indicated that post-Great Recession uninsured rates hovered above 14 percent. And though the unemployment rate has fallen in the 2010s, the employment ratio has not. Martha Heberlein, research manager at Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, and Aaron both cite Congressional Budget Office projections of the uninsured rate leveling off in the next few years at 8 to 9 percent. Obamacare won’t be universal technically because of undocumented aliens, those excused from the mandate, and those who remain uninsured and pay a fine. Heberlein adds that the rate could decline even further if more states adopt Medicaid expansion. ""I think that the key point is not whether the insurance percentage is or is not at an all-time low today. The key points are that the Affordable Care Act reversed an upward trend and has done so emphatically and if the projections of the Congressional Budget Office are even approximately correct, the percentage will come down still more,"" Aaron said. The ruling Deutsch claimed that 13 percent of Americans, the lowest ever, are without health care. His statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details. Yes, it is the lowest that Gallup has reported in its five-year poll, though other equally valid surveys show lower rates before 2008. Nonetheless, experts agree that more Americans are insured than there were in the past couple of years. Whether that’s the lowest ever is hard to say."
|
1967
|
Twig tea, anyone? Study says labels often mislead.
|
Herbal teas often contain unlisted extra ingredients such as weeds, ferns or bits of tree, according to a study by New York high school students that could help tighten labeling rules.
|
true
|
Environment
|
Tea is brewed in a traditional Japanese tea pot in Otsuchi March 15, 2011. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj “A third of the herbal teas had things in them that are not on the label,” Mark Stoeckle, of the Rockefeller University who helped oversee the project, told Reuters by telephone. The students collected dozens of teas and herbal teas and found extra ingredients in some including ferns, grass, parsley, other weeds and even traces of an ornamental tree, Taiwanese cheesewood, they said. “For me, the most surprising ingredient was the annual bluegrass,” said Catherine Gamble, 18, of Trinity School. “It seems kind of outrageous to have it in a tea.” “I think nothing was outright poisonous...but things like camomile (found in some samples) have been known to cause allergic reactions to people. To have those in tea and unlabelled could be dangerous,” she told Reuters. The students said that three of 70 tea products tested and 21 of 60 herbal products contained rogue ingredients not on the labels. The tea study, using $5,000 equipment for genetic testing and a technique known as DNA barcoding, could help regulators tighten labeling rules for teabags and make manufacturers improve what they put in the brews, they said. Testing can be done for about $15 a sample and takes about 24 hours. The teas and infusions were from 33 manufacturers in 17 nations, according to the findings, published on Thursday in Nature’s online journal Scientific Reports. “It’s a mystery why ingredients are unlisted,” said Grace Young, 15. “It might just be a weed picked up during harvesting or the residue of a plant used in one product gets passed to the next product in a processing facility.” Stoeckle said extra ingredients such as camomile or parsley might be added deliberately to provide flavor or color. Or manufacturers may seek to sell full-looking tea bags and so pad them with filler. “This is something that manufacturers and regulators could use,” Stoeckle said of the DNA technique for tea. Importers, for instance, could double check if a shipment of dried leaves is really tea. For Reuters latest environment blogs, click on: blogs.reuters.com/environment/
|
20878
|
Chris Abele Says Milwaukee County buses are no less safe now than a year or two ago.
|
Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele says county buses are no less safe now than a year or two ago
|
false
|
Crime, Transportation, Wisconsin, Chris Abele,
|
"A spate of diametrically opposed claims about safety on Milwaukee County buses is the latest product of the increasingly bitter battle between Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. and County Executive Chris Abele. The sheriff, whose agency helps police buses, released videos of student fights to dramatize that, as he put it, ""a ride on a Milwaukee county bus has become a frightening experience."" The bad news aboard or around buses in December 2011 included a fight culminating in an attack against a mother who was with a 2-year-old child, an assault against a driver, a road-rage episode and stunning footage of beatings of students. Taking a somewhat longer view, Abele told reporters there is no disturbing new trend. ""I think he’s misrepresenting the facts,"" Abele told CBS 58 TV reporter. ""If the sheriff has given you the impression that transit is less safe than it was a year ago or the year before that, then he’s giving the wrong impression."" We’ll focus on that two-year time period, but also peek at how Clarke can say incidents on buses have spiked five years in a row since 2006, while Abele cites a big drop comparing 2011 to 2006. This dispute escalated to the point that Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn stepped in to have his officers patrol buses, which prompted Clarke and Flynn to hammer at each other. Both Clarke and Abele referred to data on ""incidents"" when we asked. But Clarke couldn’t show us numbers to back up his assertion of a five-year rise. Abele did produce transit system figures, but his claim of a drop comparing 2011 to 2006 is misleading because he compared the present to a high point. In any event, the ""incidents"" figures are highly diluted. They include many hundreds of problems so minor -- sleeping on the bus, for example -- that neither law enforcement nor the transit system’s private security force was called in to deal with them. So let’s stick to more serious incidents -- and Abele’s statement about the last two years. We’ll look at violence, lawbreaking and other security problems that required intervention by law enforcement or G4S, the private security company formerly known as Wackenhut. Here’s our analysis of figures provided by the Milwaukee County Transit System (2011 figures are through Dec. 20). Law enforcement responses: This is arguably the most important measurement, and the trend line goes up -- though in roller-coaster fashion around 600 responses per year. Police were called in 12 percent more often in 2010 than in 2009, but those cases were on pace to fall about 5 percent in 2011 compared to 2010. So, buses were less safe this year than in 2009, but more safe this year than in 2010. But if you look at the last two years mentioned by Abele, and compare the responses from the previous two years, they are up slightly, about 4 percent. All responses: Counting all instances when police and/or private security was needed, incidents went up the last two years. This year, compared to 2009, they are up more than 13 percent. Those are the broad numbers for police and private security responses. But there are hundreds of non-criminal episodes such as fare disputes included, though, so let’s take a closer look at the violent incidents. Assaults and verbal altercations against passengers: Security was called -- and law enforcement sometimes dispatched -- in 150 such cases in 2011, up from 139 in 2010 and 106 in 2009. That’s two years in a row of increases, though it moderated in 2011, according to a report MCTS ran for us. Assaults against drivers: This counts drivers struck by a person, but mainly by objects or fluids (such as spittle). There were 29 such incidents in 2009, 24 in 2010 and 25 this year. It’s fallen off more compared to 35 in 2008. There were six drivers struck by individuals in 2011, though not all of these cases were serious enough to warrant medical attention. Non-violent lawbreaking: We only have two years of data here. It was virtually unchanged at nearly 900 incidents per year, this category includes threats, weapons incidents, off-bus fights and disorderly conduct, vandalism and profane/drunken behavior. The number represents how many time private security -- and police in some cases -- were called in. Those are the numbers. A transit spokeswoman sees no red flags in the fluctuations and mixed trends. ""There’s not an increase in crime, there’s an increase in attention,"" said Jacqueline Janz of MCTS. The numbers are a bit of a mixed bag, but show lawbreaking and violence is a consistent, if relatively uncommon, phenomenon on county buses that -- MCTS officials are quick to point out -- provide 44 million passenger trips a year on 411 buses, most without incident. Broadly speaking, it’s happening less now than five years ago, but more than it was two years ago, based on total responses by police and security. The Abele statement we are checking referred to the last two years. Assaults on drivers are notably down over two to three years. But looking at the broadest measure of serious problems (altercations among passengers), the history shows a significant increase two years in a row. That’s the time frame Abele referred to, and we think Clarke’s critique focuses mainly on these kind of serious incidents. To be sure, there’s no dramatic swing up, as Clarke’s rhetoric implied. And the picture improves when the longer view is taken, though as we noted that’s selectively taking a high point as the starting point. But Abele’s claim about buses being no less safe than a year or two ago flies in the face of the passenger altercation stats. Plus, Abele makes use of overly broad ""incident"" numbers that are highly misleading as a measure of crime. There’s enough counter evidence -- the declining number of bus drivers struck -- to give Abele’s claim an element of truth. But it also gives a wrong impression. That is our definition of ."
|
24102
|
With this reform, every insured American gets valuable consumer protections, and every uninsured American can become insured.
|
Young children should not spend more than an hour a day watching television and videos or playing computer games and infants less than one year old should not be exposed to electronic screens at all, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.
|
true
|
Health Care, Texas, Lloyd Doggett,
|
The United Nations agency, issuing its first such guidelines, said under-fives should also be physically active and get adequate sleep to help develop good lifelong habits and prevent obesity and other diseases in later life. “What we are cautioning on is over-use of those electronic screen times with young children,” WHO expert Dr. Fiona Bull told a news briefing. In its guidelines to member states, the WHO said children between one and four years old should spend at least three hours in a variety of physical activities spread throughout the day. Infants under one should interact in floor-based play and avoid all screens, it said. Being inactive is fueling a rise in the numbers of obese or overweight people worldwide, the WHO said. Excessive weight can lead to premature death from heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and some forms of cancer. “Preventing these deaths needs to start in very early life,” Bull said. One in three adults today are overweight or obese, and one in four adults does not do enough physical activity, she said. “In this age group of under 5s, it is currently 40 million children around the world (who) are overweight. Of that (figure) 50 percent are in Africa and the southeast Asia region,” Bull said. That translates into 5.9 percent of children globally. Early childhood is a period of rapid physical and cognitive development during which habits are formed and family lifestyle routines are adaptable, said the WHO guidelines, drawn from evidence in hundreds of studies, many from Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United States. “Sedentary behaviors, whether riding motorized transport rather than walking or cycling, sitting at a desk in school, watching TV or playing inactive screen-based games are increasingly prevalent and associated with poor health outcomes,” the WHO said. Chronic insufficient sleep in children has been associated with increased excessive fat accumulation as measured by body mass index (BMI), it said. Shorter sleep duration has been associated with more TV viewing and time spent playing computer games, it added.
|
8003
|
Facing shortages, India bets on China for swift ramp-up of protective health gear: sources.
|
India will buy ventilators and masks from China to help it deal with the coronavirus, a government official said on Tuesday, even though some countries in Europe had complained about the quality of the equipment.
|
true
|
Health News
|
"India has recorded 1,251 cases of the coronavirus, with 32 deaths, but health experts say the country of 1.3 billion people could see a major surge in cases that could overwhelm its weak public health system. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government said it was trying to procure medical gear, including masks and body coveralls, both from domestic firms and from countries like South Korea and China, to meet shortages. “China, definitely we are going to buy ... Because scaling up our domestic production will take time,” said a top Indian policy official aware of the plan, who declined to be identified due to sensitivity of the discussions. The Netherlands has recalled thousands of masks imported from China because of quality issues, while Spain has complained about defective imported test kits supplied by a Chinese manufacturer, media have reported. China’s foreign ministry said several countries had raised doubts about the quality of products imported from China, and acknowledged that there might be some problems. ""A large number of Chinese manufacturers are working around the clock to help other countries save lives. Our sincerity and assistance is real. If problems occur in this process, the Chinese side will talk to relevant departments,"" China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news conference on Monday. (bit.ly/2Jr5Mb9) A second source with direct knowledge of Indian government plans said Chinese manufacturers had shown keen interest in supplying protective health gear to India, lodging queries with Indian diplomatic missions in Shanghai and Beijing. China was emerging as a favorite possible supplier at this stage as new virus infections were slowing there and its factories were being pushed to reopen, the second source said. India needs at least 38 million masks and 6.2 million pieces of personal protective equipment as it confronts the spread of coronavirus, according to a report by its investment agency seen by Reuters. But Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) an influential Hindu nationalist group close to Modi’s party, said India should look at domestic alternatives because of widespread concern over the quality of China’s equipment. “I don’t think we need Chinese support of any kind for our healthcare ... Even if Indian firms produce at a higher cost, it doesn’t matter,” Ashwani Mahajan, a national co-convenor of the SJM, told Reuters."
|
10020
|
Got High Blood Pressure? Kiwi Fruit May Help
|
To its credit, the story included some excellent balancing quotes from independent sources. However, there was no discussion of the fact that the blood pressure drop was small and the participants had pre-hypertension, not hypertension. The story does not make this distinction or provide information about it, though it is readily available. This is some of what we get in the flood of stories based on some of the countless papers presented at a huge conference such as the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions. Woloshin and Schwartz of Dartmouth and the VA have written about “Media Coverage of Scientific Meetings: Too Much Too Soon?” Excerpt: “Although they are preliminary and have undergone only limited peer review, research abstracts at scientific meetings may receive prominent attention in the news media.” If it’s preliminary, and if the story advises readers to be cautious about eating the amount of kiwis consumed by subjects in the study, then why – of all the research presented at the AHA meeting – is this newsworthy?
|
mixture
|
health food claims,HealthDay
|
Not applicable. No discussion of costs. Shoppers probably have a ballpark idea. The story quantified the benefits but didn’t put them in any meaningful perspective. What difference does it make to lower systolic blood pressure by 3.6 points? Is this truly newsworthy? Enough to raise the question in the story, “So is kiwi the new ‘wonder’ fruit?” There’s an odd cautionary quote that even 3 kiwis a day “doesn’t sound like moderation and I would caution against eating that much.” But the story never explains why. Is there a harm? This point was just left hanging unexplained. Here’s some of the explanation that could have been given. Kiwi is rich in potassium, which may be one of the ways it helps lower blood pressure. People with kidney disease or other metabolic disorders predisposing them to high potassium could get into trouble with high intake of the fruit (theoretically). See Medlineplus for information about potassium-rich diets. The story never commented on the clinical significance of a 3.6 point drop in the subjects’ systolic blood pressure. Is that meaningful? If you accept that a BP of 128/85 is mildly elevated (which some may not), then a 3.6 point drop in the systolic still doesn’t bring it under the stated “ideal” of 120/80. And, while the story said the subjects didn’t change anything else in their diets, what else might have accounted for the drop? What is the strength of the evidence for lutein (the hypothesized responsible agent in kiwis) lowering blood pressure? The story dropped the ball on this criterion. We’re going to rule this one unsatisfactory because this was a study of pre-hypertension – a set of blood pressure readings that not all are convinced merits treatment. The story should have made that distinction. Several independent sources were quoted. We’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt because it at least mentioned the DASH diet, which is the main dietary intervention recommended in primary care for prehypertension and mild hypertension. The DASH diet is only a little more efficacious than the reported kiwi intervention. (for nonhypertensive patients, the DASH diet lowers the systolic BP 7.1 mm Hg). The story noted that kiwis “are not easy to find” We’re not given any context about past research looking at kiwis or lutein for blood pressure. We’re also not sure why lutein was highlighted as the potential active agent, instead of potassium, for which there is solidl understanding of how it lowers blood pressure. Why was the study design set up as apples versus kiwis? No explanation given. Is this based on a research track record? It does not appear that the story relied on a news release.
|
3236
|
As California thins forests to limit fire risk, some resist.
|
Buzzing chainsaws are interrupted by the frequent crash of breaking branches as crews fell towering trees and clear tangled brush in the densely forested Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco.
|
true
|
Mountains, Climate change, General News, Trees, Controlled burns, Fires, California, Science, U.S. News, Shrubs
|
Their goal: To protect communities such as Redwood Estates, where giant redwoods loom over the houses of tech workers who live in the wooded community just 20 miles from the heart of Silicon Valley. With California’s increasingly warm, dry and overgrown landscape, wildfire has become a perpetual danger. Among the most important tools the state has against fires is to mimic their effects: thinning trees and brush by hand to reduce the amount of vegetation that would become fuel in a fire, and using controlled burns to keep undergrowth and shrub lands in check. State lawmakers committed more than $200 million annually to fire prevention efforts and Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spend even more, motivated by infernos such as one last year that killed 85 people in Paradise, California, some who died in their cars while trying to flee. Yet officials say efforts to make areas such as this road corridor in Northern California more fire safe are undercut by property owners who refuse to let fire crews work on their property. Offered the choice between clearing vegetation-choked areas or retaining greenery that acts as a shield against the din of the nearby highway, a small minority opted for privacy over safety or said they’d do the work themselves. That means patches of low-lying shrubs and some thickets of trees will remain when the job wraps up next year. As a result, future fires will retain potential avenues to spread into residential areas and threaten people and property. “It’s a chink in the armor,” said Ed Orre, division chief with Cal Fire, the state’s firefighting and fire prevention agency. “If that property catches fire, then you get a chain-reaction, domino effect... It compromises the effectiveness of the entire project.” Climate change and decades of lax land management practices put the U.S. West on a collision course with out-of-control wildfires, and authorities are now rushing to limit the potential damage from blazes that threaten year-round. Since 1970, the amount of land burned each year in California has increased five-fold. Across the 11 western states, acreage burned annually has doubled since 1984. Over the past three years, fires have killed 149 people and destroyed almost 25,000 homes across the state. California is now nearly 3 degrees (1.67 degrees Celsius) warmer than in 1990 due to climate change, with hotter temperatures during the Golden State’s long dry season removing moisture from plants and soils, said Park Williams, a climate scientist at Columbia University. “I see the recent wildfires as a tidal wave — it’s going to be very hard to stop that,” Williams said. Rapid residential development in recent decades boosted populations in high-risk areas. Almost 2 million homes are in flammable areas in western states, said Jennifer Balch, a fire expert at the University of Colorado. Some common but non-native plants — including eucalyptus trees, cheatgrass and pernicious shrubs such as French and Scotch broom — burn more readily than native species. Although it’s not feasible to manually thin all the forests and shrub land in California, targeted efforts to remove flammable vegetation in areas of high human activity can effectively reduce the chance of major fires. “If we’re going to do field treatment, we have to do it where it matters most — where people live and work,” Balch said. The changes in climate and development are on display Redwood Estates, which was conceived in the 1920s as a vacation community, an escape from the city where families could weekend in small cabins in the Santa Cruz Mountains. A promotional film from the community’s early days reveals that much of the surroundings were once bare of trees, due to logging and the use of the land for ranching and vineyards. Today those same views are largely blocked by thick stands of redwoods, oak and eucalyptus. Many of the community’s original cabins are gone, replaced by larger single-family homes that in some cases push right up to the property line. That leaves little space between houses and the forest, meaning embers could easily leap from house to house in a fire. Much of the surrounding land is also private, and real estate development grew unchecked for much of the past century. The area has a long history of large wildfires, yet the land on which Redwood Estates sits has not burned since the 1800s, said Jeff Bates, a lifelong resident of and manager for the local homeowners association. Route 17, which gets about 80,000 vehicles daily and is flanked by hundreds of homes, is the only direct way into or out of the area. Given the highway’s high traffic volume and frequent backups, a quick escape from an approaching fire is unlikely. Bates said a county emergency official told him that in the event of a major fire, “You folks are on your own.” “They won’t be able to get here — and we won’t be able to leave,” Bates said. While lightning strikes can start wildfires, today more than 95% in California are started by people — mostly accidentally. Fires are sparked by downed power lines, campfires, mechanical equipment such as chainsaws, and even hot vehicle exhaust pipes touching dry grass. Managing the risk of wildfires isn’t only the job of firefighters, say experts. The most important prevention strategy is education — teaching people about what starts accidental fires, and how to minimize them. They recommend avoiding highly flammable materials for roofs and decks, and not planting fire-prone non-native species. Yet these steps won’t entirely keep the flames away. “California is in the fire sweet spot,” said Williams, the climate scientist. “Some big fires are probably inevitable.” ___ Larson reported from Washington, D.C. ___ Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter: @MatthewBrownAP, and Larson on Twitter: @larsonchristina ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
|
28149
|
Crystal Griner, the officer who saved Steve Scalise, is a lesbian (and the congressman is anti-gay rights).
|
What's true: Griner is married to a woman, and Scalise has not supported marriage equality measures during his political career. What's false: Griner was not simply a responding officer, but rather a part of Scalise's security detail.
|
true
|
Politics Sexuality, capitol police, crystal griner, david bailey
|
On 15 June 2017, a post circulate claiming via social media asserting that police officer Crystal Griner (who had been wounded during the shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise one day earlier) was a lesbian, and she risked her life to save a man who was opposed to her own marriage: The post maintained that Griner (a lesbian) saved Scalise (an opponent of LGBT rights), and ended with a “that’s right, haters” message. Although elements of the post are accurate, on the whole it left out a lot of context and a complex backstory involving Griner, Bailey, their jobs, and the shooting incident. It is true that Griner is married to another woman, an incidental detail reported by gay publication Washington Blade: Capitol Police Officer Crystal Griner — a lesbian in a same-sex marriage — was among those wounded during a shooting this week in the Virginia suburbs and received a visit from President Trump during his trip to the hospital to see the victims. Griner was among the five people shooter James T. Hodgkinson wounded during an incident at the Republican congressional baseball practice. On the House floor, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) praised her as one of the officers who saved lives during the shooting where House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was badly wounded. According to CBS News, Griner and Special Agent David Bailey rushed Hodgkinson despite their own wounds. After being shot in the ankle, she was taken to MedStar Washington Hospital Center for recovery. Furthermore, both Griner and Bailey are black, and in the days after the shooting a quote attributed to Scalise describing himself as “David Duke without the baggage” re-entered the news cycle. Although that quote, too, was often presented in a facile manner, Scalise had come under fire for his purported links to white supremacist groups: [Scalise has] admitted to giving a speech to white supremacists. In 2002, Scalise spoke to the European Unity and Rights Organization, a group led by Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the KKK. “He told me he was like David Duke without the baggage,” Stephanie Grace, a long-time political reporter, told The New York Times in 2014 of her first meeting with Scalise. “I think he meant he supported the same policy ideas as David Duke, but he wasn’t David Duke, that he didn’t have the same feelings about certain people as David Duke did.” While Scalise admitted to the speech, he later claimed he didn’t know their cause was white supremacy. Griner and Bailey were rightly hailed for averting what could have been a massacre, nut the pair were not merely responding officers acting in a moment of spontaneity; they were specifically assigned to protect Scalise as part of his security detail: A mass shooting during a congressional baseball practice could have been a full-blown “massacre,” Congress members say. Instead, two special agents put their lives on the line, potentially saving dozens of others. Capitol Police officers Crystal Griner and David Bailey are special agents on Rep. Steve Scalise’s security detail. Scalise was standing near second base in an Alexandria, Virginia park when the bullets began flying from behind the third base dugout, striking Scalise. While Scalise dragged himself to safety, Griner and Bailey lept into action. In an extended firefight, the two agents took down shooter James Hodgkinson while battling through injuries of their own. Both were taken to the hospital after the gunfight, and are recovering from their injuries, officials say … Most congress members do not have their own security details. But high-ranking officials like Scalise, the House Majority Whip, are assigned security teams. Had Scalise not been present at the early-morning practice, neither Griner and Bailey would have been on the scene to intervene: If Scalise hadn’t attended with his security detail, lawmakers said, many of their colleagues likely would have been slaughtered by Hodgkinson. “Our lives were saved by the Capitol Police. Had they not been there I think it would have been a massacre,” Sen. Rand Paul said on CNN after the shooting. “The field, I mean, was basically a killing field.” But the Capitol Police officers weren’t the only ones credited with saving lives during the shootout. Despite Rep. Scalise’s reported proximity to white supremacists during his political career (Scalise clarified that he disavowed any such ideology in 2014), friends said Bailey was devoted to his duty of protecting Scalise: “[Bailey] definitely takes his job very seriously. He works really hard and is committed to keeping the Whip safe and to serving,” [friend Danielle] Carpenter told The Daily Beast. “He is a leader in all ways. He is one of the best guys I’ve ever met—is kind to everyone and always makes sure that everyone feels safe and taken care of. Dave is really proud of his Brazilian and Jamaican heritage and you can tell he would do anything for family. He considers Congressman Scalise and his family as his own, so it is no surprise that he would make any sacrifice necessary to keep Whip Scalise safe.”
|
11336
|
Pacemaker-like device combined with defibrillator reduces deaths in mild heart failure by 29%
|
Strong point: use of the number needed to treat or NNT. Weaker point: seemed to be more boosterish, less balanced than competing Wall Street Journal story. Because defibrillators are a significant investment, stories like this also need to provide readers the context of how much additional benefit individuals and society as a whole would reap from increased use of these expensive devices. This story provided the crucial “number needed to treat” calculation, giving readers a good metric for how to weigh the device’s benefits, but it also fell short in other areas.
|
mixture
|
Devices,Los Angeles Times
|
The story provides this great detail when discussing costs: “Fourteen patients had to be treated with the $35,000 device to prevent one death.” More context around costs and a better explanation of the $40 billion price tag attached to heart failure would have been welcome. By using the NNT, as mentioned above, and providing some other figures, the story did an adequate job quantifying the benefits. The story says that “Complications were about twice as common with the combination device, primarily because connecting the leads to the ventricles takes longer and requires a higher skill level. The extra leads also increase the possibility of infections.” We would have liked to have seen the actual numbers, which were provided in the Wall Street Journal piece. We also think that, instead of attributing the reason for the complications, as the Journal did, to the study’s lead author, the story gives unqualified legitimacy to the basis for the harms. Without any hard numbers and without the proper sourcing, we think the handling of harms here falls short. The story did not evaluate the quality of the evidence as thoroughly as the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ, for example, gave readers both the relative reduction and the absolute reduction in deaths. This story did provide one improvement over the Journal story, something we rarely see: the number needed to treat (NNT). The story says “Fourteen patients had to be treated with the $35,000 device to prevent one death.” Unfortunately, the story also included a lot of unchallenged statements, saying that the study “gives us reason for renewed enthusiasm about heart failure treatment” and that it “supports the idea that doing this works.” Maybe. Readers of the Journal article may have a different takeaway. In the Wall Street Journal story, the lead says that the device “can significantly improve the chance for survival among the tens of thousands of heart-failure patients with only mild symptoms.” That’s a reasonable and cautious statement. The LA Times story, by contrast, goes a little over the top, to our minds, saying, “The report is the second one indicating that such combination devices, which are about the size of a cellphone, can save the lives of many of the 6 million Americans with heart failure, and many surgeons are already using them for that purpose. About 70% of heart failure patients have the milder form of the disease for which the new study was conducted. The condition requires frequent hospitalizations and costs the U.S. healthcare system an estimated $40 billion per year, according to the American Heart Assn.” By frontloading the story with that framing, the story is selling this device to the readers as a way to save millions of lives, instead of carefully walking readers through the evidence, as the Journal does. The story does quote outside sources, but we wish that the story had taken the same care in bringing in some outside perspective on the cost-benefit question as the Wall Stteet Journal did. Both stories contained elements of boosterism, but this story did not have the balance that the Journal story did. The story did not adequately explain this approach as compared to other approaches to reduce adverse effects in people with mild heart failure, the population of interest. One would read this story and leave with the mistaken impression that literally millions of Americans have just one choice: get this expensive surgery or risk dying. The story explains that the device studied is in clinical trials for the targeted patient population and that a similar device is on the market. ” Last year, U.S. researchers reported that a combination device manufactured by Boston Scientific reduced the death rate by 29% for patients with moderate heart failure in a study of about 1,800 patients. In September, the Food and Drug Administration gave the company approval to market the device for this indication.” We would have liked to have seen some estimate of how many people have these devices implanted every year. The story makes it clear that there are multiple companies pursing a similar device and that one is already on the market. The story did not rely on a news release.
|
361
|
Roche sues U.S. executives in fight over diabetes test strips.
|
Roche is seeking damages and compensation in a U.S. lawsuit against former executives of a Utah-based company, the Swiss drugmaker’s latest case targeting what it calls fraudulent schemes involving its diabetes test strips.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Roche has filed several lawsuits in U.S. federal court in which it alleges individuals and companies obtained low-priced diabetes test strips meant for mail-order customers, only to re-direct them for sale via pharmacies where higher prices allowed them to profit from the difference. “Defendants caused Roche to wrongfully pay over $87 million in rebates and to lose a similar amount of sales of retail strips,” according to Roche’s complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New Jersey on Tuesday against more than a dozen defendants including Jeffrey C. Smith, chief executive at Utah’s Alliance Medical Holdings until 2017. In Utah, where Alliance Medical filed for bankruptcy protection in 2017 after a raid by federal agents seeking evidence of potential healthcare fraud, Roche contends Smith and others from 2011 to 2017 sought fraudulent reimbursements for 1.84 million 50-count boxes of Roche diabetes test strips. Smith did not immediately return phone calls and e-mails seeking comment. For America’s 30 million people with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and prick their fingers daily, blood glucose test strips help keep their glucose levels in check, preventing blindness, heart disease or death. These plastic strips are costly, running to $160 for boxes of 100 and creating incentives for a “grey market” away from formal retail channels that strip makers contend is vulnerable to fraud and safety concerns. In a separate U.S. lawsuit in Michigan, Roche alleges executives at another medical supply companies used a similar test-strip flipping scheme to cheat it out of $84 million. (This story has been refiled to switch order of third, fourth paragraphs to provide full first reference to defendant)
|
9635
|
Magic mushroom ingredient may ease severe depression, study suggests
|
This is a story about a small study of the use of psilocybin—the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms”—among 12 people suffering from treatment-resistant depression. Given that this was a “proof of principle” study–designed only to explore whether the intervention is safe–the real story here is not that the chemical seems to have made people feel better, but that its use produced no significant safety concerns in those 12 participants. Determining how effective a drug is must await controlled clinical trials, so a decision about whether psilocybin “works” is years away. The story does contain cautionary comments by the researchers about the early nature of this effort, but headlines and starting paragraphs like the ones employed here seem to have already made the jump to possible treatment for severe depression. That, in turn, could send scores of desperate folks to their doctors’ offices, in vain. Journalists are probably not the only ones to jump the gun here. It appears that this small study generated not only a news release but also a press briefing in London, a staging effort that seems disproportionate to the modest nature of the study itself. New treatments for depression would be welcome. However this story does not characterize the severity of depression for the subjects in the tiny trial, nor the prior treatments they were given by physicians.
|
mixture
|
depression,mental health,psilocybin
|
Costs are not broached in this story. The story signals an early phase of research with phrases like “pilot study,” but this is overshadowed by the headline and the lead sentences, which create an expectation of benefit. Even at a very high level, for example, the story could have told us whether this is something that could be patented and commercialized by a drug company. The price tag for such a treatment would likely be much greater than if the compound were in the public domain. The story does offer some specific information about the outcomes of treatment for the 12 individuals in the study. Ideally it would have explained how those outcomes were actually measured–how did researchers measure what “some decrease” in symptoms meant? The same with “positive response.” Potential risks of using hallucinogenic drugs, including anxiety and paranoia, are mentioned. The story also could have mentioned that inducing hallucinosis can result in other self-harm and is potentially much more dangerous. The story does provide some details about the study design. Yet, the story leaves out some important limitations (which were noted in the news release), such as: We also felt the story minimized that this was a trial to study safety–not efficacy. Treatment-resistant depression is truly a serious condition. Although the funder was mentioned in the press release, that information was not included in the story. There also was no outside commentary. The text is clear that there are few alternatives if antidepressants and therapy don’t work. The story would have been stronger if it had mentioned atypical antidepressants and electroconvulsive therapy as alternatives. There are some small hints (it was called a “pilot study”), and one of the researchers warns readers to avoid “picking their own magic mushrooms,” but the story offers no other availability information. This sort of treatment under the supervision of a physician would not occur until after FDA approval for this specific indication, which would take many years. There are no claims to novelty in the story. The story would have provided more useful context if it had discussed the larger body of research on this drug, and what makes this trial unique. (For example, it has been studied for OCD, anxiety in cancer patients and alcohol dependency.) While the story did not include outside voices, it did include unique quotes from the researchers that weren’t in the news release, and this is enough to rate Satisfactory.
|
7797
|
Doctors warn of demand for 'vaginal seeding' despite thin evidence.
|
British doctors say more parents are requesting so-called “vaginal seeding”, when a swab from the mother’s vagina is wiped into a newborn’s mouth after caesarean-section birth, despite a lack of evidence for its medical benefits.
|
true
|
Health News
|
The practice, also known as microbirthing, involves wiping the swab over the baby’s mouth, eyes, face and skin to bring it into contact with bacteria from the birth canal. The hope is this may boost their gut bacteria, and reduce risk of conditions such as allergies or obesity, experts explained in a report in the BMJ British Medical Journal - yet scientific evidence to support it is severely lacking. “Demand for this process has increased among women attending hospitals in the UK – but this has outstripped professional awareness and guidance,” said Aubrey Cunnington, an honorary consultant in paediatric infectious diseases at Imperial College London, who co-wrote the BMJ report. “There is simply no evidence to suggest it has benefits - and it may carry potential risks.” Some studies suggest that babies born by C-section have a different microbiome - the collection of millions of bacteria living in the gut - to those born vaginally. Around one in four babies in Britain are born via caesarean section, according to the BMJ report, co-written by Cunningham and five other doctors. Research also shows that C-section babies have slightly increased risk of developing conditions such as obesity, allergies and autoimmune diseases later in life. Cunnington said a theory has developed that this may be because the bacteria the baby is exposed to in the birth canal during a vaginal birth colonise the baby’s gut, so exposing those who miss out on it might help protect them. “People have made a leap of logic that gut bacteria must be the link between caesarean section and risk of these diseases,” Cunningham said. “But we just don’t know this for sure - or whether we can even influence this by transferring bacteria on a swab from mum to baby.” He added that while there is no evidence of benefits from “vaginal seeding”, the practice has potential risks such as transferring harmful bacteria to the baby. “Doctors, nurses, midwives and parents need to be aware they are doing something with a potential risk that currently doesn’t have any evidence of benefit,” Cunnington said. He added that evidence-based interventions, such as encouraging breast feeding and avoiding unnecessary antibiotics, could be “more important to a baby’s gut bacteria than worrying about transferring vaginal fluid on a swab”.
|
31714
|
Lady Gaga's halftime performance at the 2017 Super Bowl took the form of a Satanic ritual.
|
Some observers claimed they saw elements of a 'Satanic ritual' in Lady Gaga's halftime performance at the 2017 Super Bowl. Do they even know what a Satanic ritual looks like?
|
false
|
Entertainment, lady gaga, satanic ritual, satanism
|
Easily the most-watched annual sporting event in the United States, the Super Bowl has grown, from its inception as a championship football game in 1967, into an all-day, nationwide entertainment extravaganza. Today’s Super Bowl viewer is as likely to tune in for a glimpse of the most expensive TV advertising on Earth, or to catch the glitzy halftime show featuring top entertainers of the day, as to follow the game itself. The roster of pop stars headlining the Super Bowl has included the likes of Beyonce, Paul McCartney, Katy Perry, Bruce Springsteen, and Madonna. Some of the shows have attained legendary status. When Michael Jackson was booked in 1993, his three-song set garnered higher ratings than the first half of the football game. Eleven years later, when his sister, Janet Jackson, performed a duet with Justin Timberlake between halves of Super Bowl XXXVIII, her breast was exposed on live television, earning the CBS network an FCC fine for indecency and introducing the euphemism “wardrobe malfunction” to the English lexicon. When the flamboyant, outspoken Lady Gaga was hired to perform at the 2017 Super Bowl not long after President Donald Trump was inaugurated, there was speculation that she might use her stage time to make a political statement. Gaga, who supported Hillary Clinton in the election and has made many a public statement in support of LGBTQ rights and against bullying, once described Trump as “one of the most notorious bullies we’ve ever seen.” For less coherent reasons, it was also speculated that Gaga was planning to conduct some sort of grotesque Satanic ritual at halftime. Conspiracy theorist and Trump enthusiast Alex Jones issued a video in which he worked himself into a lather detailing alleged connections between Lady Gaga, the “pizzagate” scandal, “spirit cooking,” meat suits, Satanic rituals, and “the rise of the robots”: … now we hear about Lady Gaga, who admittedly was part of the whole pizzagate situation, with the spirit cooking lady, the Aleister Crowley events, she admits she has someone sleep in her room at night because she believes a demon’s going to attack her. Whether you believe in demons or not, when she wears meat suits and does all these rituals, and Madonna does it, too, the organizers of the Super Bowl are deciding to defile America and break our will by having us bow down to this. And she’s reportedly going to be on top of the Super Bowl (they’re saying she may cancel doing this), on top of the stadium, ruling over everyone with drones everywhere surveilling them in a big swarm, to just condition them that “I am the goddess of Satan ruling over you with the rise of the robots,” in a ritual of lesser magic. By way of clarification (to the extent that’s even possible), the “pizzagate situation” Jones refers to is a thoroughly discredited conspiracy theory (which Jones and his followers nevertheless cling to) holding that former First Lady, U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton runs a child sex ring out of a Washington, D.C. pizzeria. “Spirit Cooking” refers to a conceptual art project by performance artist Marina Abramovic which has been misrepresented by Jones and others as an actual “Satanic” or “occult” ritual in which leaders of the Democratic Party, most notably former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, supposedly participated. The only piece of evidence allegedly implicating Lady Gaga in these supposed “scandals” is a viral image people say shows her attending a “spirit cooking ritual” led by Abramovic: However, the photograph depicts no such event. It was taken at the 20th Annual Watermill Center Summer Benefit, an art auction supporting residency programs at the renowned arts facility located near Southampton, New York. Along with more than 1,000 other attendees, including many well-known artists and celebrities, Gaga and Abramovic were both guests at the 27 July 2013 event, which, although its stated theme was “Devil’s Heaven” and it featured purposely shocking avant-garde installations such as the one seen above, had no connection with Abramovic’s “Spirit Cooking” oeuvre. Based on her own statements and actions, Gaga’s spiritual inclinations might best be described as eclectic, inclusive, or, least charitably, confused. Born and raised a Catholic, she says that although she has had disagreements with the Church she is “very religious,” believes in Jesus, and prays. But she also finds religion “bogus,” she says, in the sense that most, if not all religions, historically, have persecuted minorities. “I dream of and envision a future where we have a more peaceful religion, or a more peaceful world, a more peaceful state of mind for the younger generation,” Gaga told Larry King in a 2010 television interview. She has also promoted the teachings of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader, and studied meditation with celebrity spiritualist Deepak Chopra, whom she reportedly sought out for counsel after experiencing dreams of being “haunted” by the devil. Dreaming that one is being chased by devils is not the same as worshiping Satan, we submit, despite what rumor-mongers like Alex Jones would have us believe. Nevertheless, in a classic instance of confirmation bias (defined as the tendency to interpret new evidence as proof of what one already believes), Lady Gaga’s actual halftime show, which Variety described as unprovocative and “overall a little weak,” was condemned by more excitable observers as a “Satanic performance” replete with “ritualistic Illuminati references” such as “pentagrams lining the stage, flames, black clothing, and 666 hand symbols over the eyes.” Others source claimed Gaga’s show contained allusions to 9/11, Freemasonry, and the biblical story of the fall of Lucifer: A 6 February 2017 Facebook post shared by close to 60,000 people elaborated on the “fall of Lucifer” theme, claiming “We just saw Satan’s fall in theatric [sic] form”: Let me get this straight: So Gaga is standing above all. On the highest point, above all creation in that stadium. Can’t get any higher. Stars are lighting up behind her and as the stars are illuminating in the sky she sings about “god” and this nation is made for “you and me”… THEN … She falls from the highest point, from the stars, to the second high point… with the first words out of her mouth being, “I’m on the Edge of Glory”… Does any of that sound familiar? What scene was just played out? Anyone… Here Let me help… “How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations! For you have said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also on the mount of the congregation, in the recesses of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.” Notice… Nations. stars. Above the congregation (above the stadium of people)… fell from grace (she fell and is on the edge of Glory)… While we are all hypnotized by the light, glamor, sound we are singing and children are hearing… “I want your love, you vertical stick” and lyrics like…. “I’m beautiful in my way ‘Cause God makes no mistakes; I’m on the right track baby I was born this way. No matter gay, straight, or bi Lesbian, transgendered life I’m on the right track baby I was born this way” Complete blasphemy of Gods creation, defaming and devaluing the Holyness of the father And who does that? Lucifer. He twist the words of God ALWAYS and makes himself look good and God bad. Did the Lord not tell us “For even Lucifer disguises himself as an angel of light” -2 Corinthians 11:14 Lucifer is the god of this world. He creates all the time reminders about his presence and control over you very frequently. Because most don’t know Gods word they do not recognize it. Lady Gaga is not a Christian. She practices many satanic things and because of that her thoughts and ideas come from the fallen kingdom … not the Lord’s. We just saw Satan’s fall in theatric form and the entire world clapped and for him and his blasphemy… READ THE BOOK AND OPEN YOUR KINGDOM EYES. As is obvious from the examples above, anyone can represent themselves as an expert on “Satanism” and accuse others of practicing it, but that doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about. If you shed such preconceived notions before watching Gaga’s actual performance, which opens with her perched on the roof of Houston’s NRG Stadium in an acrobatic harness, belting out refrains from “God Bless America” and “This Land Is Your Land” until she leaps (not falls) to the stage below, you’ll wonder how anyone could seriously interpret it as a re-enactment of Lucifer being tossed out of heaven. And those allegedly Satanic “flashing pentagrams” adorning the stage? They make much more thematic sense interpreted as five-pointed stars from the American flag. Alex Jones’ version of “Satanism,” if you recall, was Lady Gaga peering down from the top of the stadium, surrounded by flying drones, as if to say, “I am the goddess of Satan ruling over you with the rise of the robots.” For what it’s worth, we scoured both the old and new testaments of the Bible for references to Satanic robots, and came up empty-handed. So, what was the meaning of Gaga’s halftime performance? During preparation for the event, she expressed the hope that it would have a unifying effect on the country. When asked at a press conference a few days before the Super Bowl if she still hoped to do that, and whether she would be making any other kind of statements, she said: Well, I don’t know if I will succeed in unifying America. You’ll have to ask America when it’s over. But the only statements that I’ll be making during the halftime show are the ones that I’ve been consistently making throughout my career. I believe in a passion for inclusion. I believe in the spirit of equality, and the spirit of this country as one of love and compassion and kindness. So my performance will have both those philosophies. … Essentially, that kid that couldn’t get a seat at the cool kids table and that kid who was kicked out of the house because his mom and dad didn’t accept him for who he was? That kid is going to have the stage for 13 minutes. And I’m excited to give it to them.” Here, courtesy of the National Football League, is Lady Gaga’s full Super Bowl LI halftime performance:
|
27912
|
Chick-fil-A has donated money to organizations that oppose same-sex marriage.
|
As we have stated, the Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect — regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators.
|
true
|
Politics Sexuality, chick-fil-a, same sex marriage
|
Chick-fil-A is a Georgia-based fast food restaurant chain specializing in chicken entrées that opened its first outlet in suburban Atlanta in 1967 and has since grown to encompass over 1,600 restaurants in 39 states. The operations of the chain reflect the religious values of Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer S. Truett Cathy, whose biography notes that he has “built his life and business based on hard work, humility and biblical principles” and that “based on these principles, all of Chick-fil-A’s restaurants operate with a ‘Closed-on-Sunday’ policy, without exception.” Chick-fil-A has been the subject of political controversy due to its WinShape Foundation, a charitable endeavor founded by S. Truett Cathy and his wife, Jeanette, which critics contend has evidenced a bias in the Chick-fil-A company by donating millions of dollars to groups with anti-gay agendas: Let’s all eat at Chick-Fil-A this week. Now the Socialists (AKA Obama Democrats) have targeted Chick-Fil-A, a Southern based company with the below resume. I think, I’ll have a Chick-Fil-A sandwich tomorrow. Chick-fil-A is an American success story. Founded by Georgian entrepreneur Truett Cathy in 1946, the family-owned chicken-sandwich chain is one of the country’s largest fast-food businesses. It employs some 50,000 workers across the country at 1,500 outlets in nearly 40 states and the District of Columbia … The company generates more than $2 billion in revenue and serves millions of happy customers with trademark Southern hospitality. So, what’s the problem? Well, Chick-fil-A is run by devout Christians who believe in strong marriages, devoted families, and the highest standards of character for their workers. The restaurant chain’s official corporate mission is to “glorify God” and “enrich the lives of everyone we touch.” The company’s community-service initiatives, funded through its WinShape Foundation, support foster-care, scholarship, summer-camp, and marriage-enrichment programs. On Sunday, all Chick-fil-A stores close so workers can spend the day at worship and rest. Over the past month, several progressive-activist blogs have waged an ugly war against Chick-fil-A. The company’s alleged atrocity: One of its independent outlets in Pennsylvania donated some sandwiches and brownies to a marriage seminar run by the Pennsylvania Family Institute, which happens to oppose same-sex marriage. In the name of tolerance, the anti-Chick-fil-A hawks sneered at the company’s main product as “Jesus Chicken,” derided its no-Sunday-work policy, and attacked its operators as “anti-gay.” Petition drives on websites are demanding the company change and disavow their standards. Facebook users dutifully organized witch hunts against the company on college campuses. Progressive groups are gloating over Chick-fil-A’s public-relations troubles. This is not because they care about winning hearts and minds over gay rights or marriage policy, but because their core objective is to marginalize political opponents and chill Christian philanthropy and activism. The fearsome “muscle flexing” is being done by the hysterical bullies trying to drive them off of college grounds and out of their neighborhoods in the name of “human rights.” Clearly the Christian business man who lives what he believes deserves our support….Thank God that some people are strong enough to stand up for what they believe even in the face of assault and ridicule from those who have no integrity….Let’s all eat at Chick-fil-A. — Let’s all eat Chick-Fil-A! Truet Cathy founded a wonderful company who hires teenagers and pays their way to college. Not only that, it is delicious. These people are undermining American strongholds in order to weaken us for the enemy within and the enemy without! Please pass this on if you believe companies with Christian principles have a right to freely conduct business in the U.S. As a result, Chick-fil-A has recently faced opposition from students at ten U.S. universities, including New York University (NYU), who have circulated petitions to oppose the opening of new Chick-fil-A franchises on their campuses and lobbied for the removal of existing restaurants. The company has maintained that neither they nor the organizations they donate to through WinShape has an “anti-gay” agenda: The student senate at Northeastern University, in Boston, voted to end negotiations to bring fast-food chain Chick-fil-A to campus after students protested over the company’s affiliation with several Christian organizations the students say have an “anti-gay” agenda.The Atlanta-based company, dogged for months by accusations of homophobia, insists it is “not anti-anybody” but instead simply wants to “graciously serve great food and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.” Company president Dan Cathy insists Chick-fil-A is not a Christian company, just one founded on biblical principles. But thanks in part to the company’s affiliation with pro-family groups, its frequent presence at large religious rallies and the praise music reverberating from speakers in its restaurants, both fans and detractors often refer to it as one of the country’s most overtly Christian businesses. Through the WinShape Foundation, started by company founders Truett and Jeannette Cathy, Chick-fil-A donates to several Christian organizations, including The Marriage & Family Legacy Fund, The Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the National Christian Foundation. According to its statement, Chick-fil-A has given the groups $1,714,199. None of the organizations the company supports has an “anti-gay” agenda, although as Christian groups, they do uphold and support heterosexual marriage, Donald A. Perry, the company’s vice president of corporate public relations, said in his statement. “I want to assure you that the historical intent of our Foundation and corporate giving have been toward compassion, principally by serving youth and families,” he said. The company gives millions of dollars every year toward education. Chick-fil-A president and chief operating officer Dan Cathy’s July 2012 interview with the Baptist Press generated even more controversy over the issue, with critics maintaining he had virtually acknowledged the company supports an anti-gay marriage agenda: Chick-fil-A is “very much supportive of the family,” according to Dan Cathy, president of the popular fast food chain. That is, “the biblical definition of the family unit,” he said. And that doesn’t include Adam and Steve, suggests Cathy, whose father S. Truett Cathy founded the Atlanta-based company. In a new interview with Baptist Press, Cathy puts on the record what critics say his company’s actions have indicated for years. “Well, guilty as charged,” he said in the interview when asked about Chick-fil-A’s backing of families led by a man and a woman. The controversy took flight in mid-July after Cathy gave an interview to the Biblical Recorder, on online journal for Baptists in North Carolina. In the July 2 story — picked up by the Baptist Press on July 16 — Cathy affirmed that his company backs the traditional family unit. “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit,” Cathy said. “We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that.” “I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say ‘we know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage’ and I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to define what marriage is about,” Cathy also said during an appearance on the Ken Coleman talk show. Proponents of same-sex marriage spread Cathy’s comments, eventually creating a firestorm of criticism on social media, including assertions that his comments and position were bigoted and hateful. The public reaction to Cathy’s remarks prompted Chick-fil-A to issue the following statement: The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect — regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena. This controversy prompted readers to ask us about a number of related ancillary issues detailed below: Chick-fil-A had recently joined forces with the Jim Henson Company to offer five customizable puppet toys from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in children’s meals.But after the Atlanta-based family-owned business made headlines when its president, Dan Cathy, told the Baptist Press recently that the company was “guilty as charged” when it came to not supporting marriage equality and standing by biblical family values, the Henson Company decided to end the partnership. The Jim Henson Company announced it would no longer partner with Chick-fil-A in the wake of the fast food company’s acknowledged support of anti-gay organizations. Now, however, Chick-fil-A officials are reportedly telling franchise customers that the kids’ meal toys which were produced as part of the now-severed collaboration have been recalled due to safety issues.Chick-Fil-A spokeswoman Tiffany Greenway [said] that the company had decided to recall the Muppets toys nationwide “for the protection of our customers.” She said it was a decision completely separate from the Jim Henson Company’s announcement. Mayor Thomas M. Menino is vowing to block Chick-fil-A from bringing its Southern-fried fast-food empire to Boston — possibly to a popular tourist spot just steps from the Freedom Trail — after the family-owned firm’s president suggested gay marriage is “inviting God’s judgment on our nation.””Chick-fil-A doesn’t belong in Boston. You can’t have a business in the city of Boston that discriminates against a population. We’re an open city, we’re a city that’s at the forefront of inclusion,” Menino [said]. “That’s the Freedom Trail. That’s where it all started right here. And we’re not going to have a company, Chick-fil-A or whatever the hell the name is, on our Freedom Trail.” As part of its recent efforts to publicly align itself with fundamentalist Christian values, the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain announced the debut of its new Queer-Hatin’ Cordon Bleu sandwich that would be on sale in all of the company’s 1,600 restaurants.In a press conference to reporters, company representatives said the homophobic new sandwich will include the national fast food chain’s trademark fried chicken filet wrapped in a piece of specially-smoked No Homo ham that would be topped with a slice of Swiss cheese and lathered in a creamy new Thousand Island-based Fag Punching sauce. Responding to Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy’s recent controversial admission of the company’s donations to antigay groups, a statement from competing fast food chain Wendy’s let consumers know that it has long supported same-sex couples and only harbors strong objections to interracial marriage.”It’s important that Wendy’s customers know our restaurant proudly stands by the right of all Americans to marry whomever they choose, so long as it isn’t someone of a different race,” said spokeswoman Jenna Knox, adding that while Wendy’s has always backed pro-gay legislation, it found miscegenation “an abominable offense to God’s will.” “Just like our founder Dave Thomas, we dream of living in an America where two loving people of the same sex can freely wed, provided of course that both people are also of the same race, and that no black, Asian, Latin American, or other non-European heritage is allowed to de-purify the white racial bloodline.” Following the Wendy’s statement, executives from Jack in the Box confirmed that they too had always supported gay rights and the Holocaust never happened. Some readers asked, “Did Chick-fil-A really spend millions lobbying Congress not to condemn Uganda’s ‘Kill the Gays’ bill”? We found no evidence that Chick-fil-A itself spent money (let alone millions) lobbying Congress to prevent that body from issuing a condemnation of a controversial Ugandan legislative bill which carried the death penalty for some homosexual acts. Some sources reported that the Family Research Council (FRC), one of the organizations to which Chick-fil-A donates through its WinShape corporate charity foundation, filed a report stating that it had spent $25,000 lobbying Congress against H.R. 1064, a resolution seeking to “express the sense of the House of Representatives” that Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill “threatens the protection of fundamental human rights.” However, the FRC said that although they did perform lobbying activities regarding H.R. 1064, they did not support the Uganda bill or the death penalty for homosexuality, and their lobbying efforts were not aimed at killing the Congressional resolution but rather at changing its language “to remove sweeping and inaccurate assertions that homosexual conduct is internationally recognized as a fundamental human right.” In September 2012, the Civil Rights Agenda group reported that Chick-fil-A had pledged not to fund groups that oppose gay marriage: Chick-fil-A has pledged to stop giving money to anti-gay groups and to back off political and social debates after an executive’s comments landed the fast-food chain smack in the middle of the gay marriage debate.The Civil Rights Agenda, which dubs itself the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy group in Illinois, said Chick-fil-A agreed in meetings to stop donating to groups such as Focus on the Family and the National Organization for Marriage. Such groups oppose same-sex marriage. Chick-fil-A said that its nonprofit arm, the WinShape Foundation, “is now taking a much closer look at the organizations it considers helping, and in that process will remain true to its stated philosophy of not supporting organizations with political agendas[. ]” Shortly afterwards, Chick-fil-A issued an ambiguous statement about whether it had in fact made any such pledge: For many months now, Chick-fil-A’s corporate giving has been mischaracterized, and while our sincere intent has been to remain out of this political and social debate, events from Chicago have once again resulted in questions around our giving. For that reason, we want to provide some context and clarity around who we are, what we believe and our priorities in relation to corporate giving.A part of our corporate commitment is to be responsible stewards of all that God has entrusted to us. Because of this commitment, Chick-fil-A’s giving heritage is focused on programs that educate youth, strengthen families and enrich marriages, and support communities. We will continue to focus our giving in those areas. Our intent is not to support political or social agendas.
|
5667
|
European Medicines Agency recommends licensing Ebola vaccine.
|
The European Medicines Agency has recommended that the world’s first Ebola vaccine be approved, after it was administered to hundreds of thousands of people in Africa.
|
true
|
Health, General News, Africa, Science, Europe, Ebola virus
|
The agency on Friday described licensing the vaccine as “an important step toward relieving the burden of this deadly disease.” The Ebola vaccine was originally developed in Canada and is now marketed by Merck as Ervebo. More than 270,000 people in Africa have received it as officials try to stop Congo’s ongoing outbreak. A second vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson, which is not yet licensed, will soon be used in parts of Congo where Ebola is not actively spreading. Also Friday, the World Health Organization is convening a meeting to consider whether the epidemic in Congo should still be designated a global emergency.
|
11056
|
Drug Extends Prostate Cancer Survival
|
The data were reported inaccurately. There was no discussion of cost or of potential harms – two huge oversights. There was no meaningful comparison with other approaches. And the story appeared to rely largely (perhaps solely) on a news release. Better luck next time. This isn’t a good example of how to report on data presented at conferences about new drugs that are still in development. You need to read the full review below to understand all of what’s missing here.
|
false
|
"No mention of costs. The competing Wall Street Journal story, by comparison, reported: ""Cost could be a factor. The three-treatment Provenge regimen has been controversial partly because of the $93,000 cost. Dendreon has said treatment costs are comparable with chemotherapy if total costs of care are taken into account."" WebMD reports the data incorrectly–it’s median survival, not average survival. This implies that 50% of the patients had more than a 4-month survival, but the story (assuming that investigators provided data, which they might not have) should then provide the upper range of survival times (e.g., 11 months) to quantify ""better."" They could also report that X% survived for 6 months, Y% for 12 months, etc. (though the latter may be 0). This story seemed determined to put this study in the best possible light, reporting that ""The treatment gave patients with metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer only an extra four months of life. But there’s more hope than that from the study…"" What does that mean? There was no discussion of harms of hormone therapy – harms that may include osteoporosis, fractures, diabetes and heart disease. This is a significant oversight. We do appreciate WebMD’s boilerplate language that ""This study was presented at a medical conference. The findings should be considered preliminary as they have not yet undergone the ""peer review"" process, in which outside experts scrutinize the data prior to publication in a medical journal."" In a 264-word story, no space was given to any meaningful discussion of the condition itself, so we rule this Not Applicable in this case. There is no independent voice or perspective in the piece. There was no meaningful comparison with other approaches. One last time, let’s look at how the competing Wall Street Journal story tried to give such context: ""When you have drugs that act in different ways and each is giving some measurable benefit, that is significant progress in a field where new agents have come along very rarely in the past,"" says Steve K. Clinton, director of prostate and genitourinary oncology at Ohio State University’s James Cancer Hospital and Research Institute, Columbus. Dr. Clinton wasn’t involved in the current study and doesn’t have consulting relationships with the companies. That’s an example of the kind of context – the kind of comparison – we look for in such stories. The reader is given no information about whether this drug is available now, or, if not, what stage of research it is in. There’s a hint – in the line that Johnson & Johnson is ""developing"" the drug but news organizations shouldn’t play guessing games with readers on the topic of the availability of prostate cancer drugs – or any topic. The competing Wall Street Journal story, by contrast, reported: ""Johnson & Johnson plans to file for new-drug approval in the U.S. and Europe by year-end, raising prospects that the drug could be on the market next year."" There’s no doubt about availability when you read that. (Although one could doubt the prediction of when it could be on the market.) The story didn’t provide any meaningful context about possible novelty of this approach. Again, let’s turn to the competing Wall Street Journal story for comparison. It reported: ""Androgen hormones, particularly testosterone, fuel prostate tumors. Conventional hormone therapy blocks androgens produced by the testes. Abiraterone appears to target androgens also produced elsewhere, even by the tumors themselves, said Dr. de Bono, who presented the study in Milan."" This story only told us that ""It appears that abiraterone is able to shut down androgen production not only in the testes, but also from the adrenal gland and from within prostate tumors themselves."" But that statement stands in isolation without any comparison to existing hormonal approaches. Given that the one quote in the story is attributed to a news release (at least they admitted that), and that there is no independent perspective in the piece, it appears that the story did rely solely or largely on a news release."
|
|
36470
|
"The last line of an October 1886 Statue of Liberty dedication speech read: ""There is room in America and brotherhood for all who will support our institutions and aid in our development. But those who come to disturb our peace and dethrone our laws are aliens and enemies forever."
|
‘There is Room in America and Brotherhood for All’ Statue of Liberty Dedication Speech
|
mixture
|
Disinformation, Fact Checks
|
On March 3 2019, Texas politician Sid Miller shared “An important reminder!”, a meme (archived here) purportedly providing the last line in a Statue of Liberty dedication speech from October 1886:Atop a bronze Statue of Liberty, the meme’s text stated:The last line in the speech at the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty, October 28, 1886At the bottom, the purported speech’s final portion read:“There is room in America and brotherhood for all who will support our institutions and aid in our development. But those who come to disturb our peace and dethrone our laws are aliens and enemies forever.”The meme provided a very specific date, narrowing the field of possibilities from what may have been a number of Statue of Liberty speeches given in or around 1886. New York’s Statue of Liberty arrived in the United States in 1885, making the date plausible. And according to the New York Times, the Statue of Liberty was unveiled on October 28 1886, and United States President Grover Cleveland did speak to a crowd of attendees to mark the occasion.A search (archived here) for the phrase “There is room in America and brotherhood” returned a not-very-promising 17 results, mostly linking to pages published in 2018 or later. If a speech was given with that line, it was not a widely documented part of recorded history. Nevertheless, it was possible that some variation on the phrase was part of Cleveland’s remarks or other official remarks given on that day.The quote did appear in a January 2019 blog post, published less than two months before Miller shared the meme. In that post (which bore the rather ahistorical headline “Socialist Democrats and their Illegal Alien Brethren”) the author wrote:On a print from 1886 of the Statue of Liberty someone wrote, “There is room in America and brotherhood for all who will support our institutions and aid in our development. But those who come to disturb our peace and dethrone our laws are aliens and enemies forever.”That explanation for the quote also appeared in a January 2019 forum post referencing the same blogger. Before that, the phrase appeared in a November 2018 Facebook post in the meme’s format above, as well as in the comments of a Reddit The_Donald post featuring a nativist cartoon, purportedly from the 1920s, in February 2017.Cleveland’s words, which did not demonstrate a nativist tone, may have eluded preservation in their entirety; however, a pamphlet from the inauguration event that included his speech can be viewed and read here:The people of the United States accept with gratitude from their brethren of the French Republic the grand and completed work of art we here inaugurate. This token of the affection and consideration of the people of France demonstrates the kinship of republics, and conveys to us the assurance that in our efforts to commend to mankind the excellence of a government resting upon popular will, we still have beyond the American continent a steadfast ally.We are not here today to bow before the representation of a fierce and warlike god, filled with wrath and vengeance, but we joyously contemplate instead our own deity keeping watch and ward before the open gates of America, and greater than all that have been celebrated in ancient song. Instead of grasping in her hand thunderbolts of terror and of death, she holds aloft the light which illumines the way to man’s enfranchisement. We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected. Willing votaries will constantly keep alive its fires, and these shall gleam upon the shores of our sister republic in the East. Reflected thence, and joined with answering rays, a stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man’s oppression, until liberty enlightens the world.The website Ephemeral New York described the day’s events as a “comedy of errors,” and other sites provided a summary of the day.Collected comments attributed to U.S. senator and railroad baron Chauncey M. Depew on that date were scanned and published to the internet [PDF] by archivists at Columbia University:Through the Obelisk, so strangely recalling to us of yesterday the past of twenty centuries, a forgotten monarch says, “I am the Great King, the Conqueror, the Chastiser of Nations,” and except as a monument of antiquity it conveys no meaning and touches no chord of human sympathy. But, for unnumbered centuries to come, as Liberty levels up the people to higher standards and a broader life, this statue will grow in the admiration and affections of mankind.When [Benjamin] Franklin drew the lightning from the clouds, he little dreamed that in the evolution of science his discovery would illuminate the torch of Liberty for France and America. The rays from this beacon, lighting this gateway to the continent, will welcome the poor and the persecuted with the hope and promise of homes and citizenship. It will teach them that there is room and brotherhood for all who will support our institutions and aid in our development; but that those who come to disturb our peace and dethrone our laws are aliens and enemies forever.I devoutly believe that from the unseen and the unknown, two great souls have come to participate in this celebration. The faith in which they died fulfilled, the cause for which they battled triumphant, the people they loved in the full enjoyment of the rights for which they labored and fought and suffered, the spirit voices of Washington and Lafayette join in the glad acclaim of France and the United States to Liberty Enlightening the World[. ]Depew’s remarks were likely in part reference to an ugly event that took place earlier that year, known as the Haymarket Riot or the Haymarket Affair. What began as a labor rights movement incidentally involving many German immigrants eventually escalated to “widespread hysteria directed against immigrants” after an unknown person detonated an explosive device during a labor demonstration. Shootings then broke out, leading to civilian casualties:On May 3 [1886] one person was killed and several injured as police intervened to protect strikebreakers and intimidate strikers during a union action at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company that was part of a national campaign to secure an eight-hour workday. To protest police brutality, anarchist labour leaders called a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square. That gathering was pronounced peaceful by Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison, who attended as an observer. After Harrison and most of the demonstrators departed, a contingent of police arrived and demanded that the crowd disperse. At that point a bomb was thrown by an individual never positively identified, and police responded with random gunfire. Seven police officers were killed and 60 others wounded before the violence ended; civilian casualties have been estimated at four to eight dead and 30 to 40 injured.The Haymarket Riot created widespread hysteria directed against immigrants and labour leaders. Amid the panic, August Spies and seven other anarchists were convicted of murder on the grounds that they had conspired with or aided an unknown assailant. Many of the so-called “Chicago Eight,” however, were not even present at the May 4 [1886] event, and their alleged involvement was never proved. Nevertheless, Spies and three other defendants were hanged on Nov. 11, 1887, while another defendant committed suicide.Miller’s meme appeared to claim that “the last lines of the Statue of Liberty dedication speech” cautioned there existed “room in America and brotherhood for all who will support our institutions and aid in our development,” adding that “those who come to disturb our peace and dethrone our laws are aliens and enemies forever.” The meme did not specify who specifically said this, phrasing it to make it sound as though it was an official part of a presidential speech, rather than one of many speakers at the inauguration ceremony who were decidedly not U.S. President Grover Cleveland.Instead, that phrase was part of a far larger speech by one of many speakers that day, railroad attorney and aspiring politician Chauncey Depew, and it appeared to address simmering nativist sentiment following the Haymarket Affair. The portion directly preceding that excerpt (“rays from this beacon, lighting this gateway to the continent, will welcome the poor and the persecuted with the hope and promise of homes and citizenship”) was left out, masking the spirit in which the lines were delivered. Depew was one of many speakers that day along with U.S. President Grover Cleveland, and the entirety of their remarks painted a very different picture from the misleading meme, which appears to have been culled from or at least influenced by any number of white supremacist websites.
|
9795
|
Mammograms Can Save Lives of Women in Their 40s: Study
|
Although the article presents some interesting new findings regarding mammogram for women in their 40s, the article lacks a strong critical analysis to point out the weaknesses with the current study. Since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force published their revised recommendations in November of 2009, many women between the ages of 40-49 have continued to be confused about what the evidence shows and what they should do. News organizations that continue to report each new study on one side of the debate or the other should try to dedicate a considerable chunk of the story to an info-graphic or fact box to guide shared decision-making.
|
true
|
breast cancer,mammography
|
No discussion of costs regarding mammograms. Stories should not assume that every woman in the 40s who chooses to get a mammogram will have this covered by their insurance. We’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt for presenting lots of numbers – in contrast with the WebMD story that included NONE. However, more critical analysis would have been appreciated. The story did discuss why mammography in younger women is not always beneficial and described several of the harms that the US Preventive Services Task Force discussed. The article never pointed out that this was NOT a randomized controlled trial. The article also should have discussed: No disease mongering. The article did interview the chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). In allowing Dr. Virginia Moyer of the USPSTF to talk about the need for women “to make their own decision,” the story at least implies that declining screening is a choice. It could have been far more overt, but we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt that the alternative choice was at least implied. Not applicable. Availability of mammograms is not in question although access to care is dependent upon many factors including distance to facility with instrument, insurance coverage, etc. The story at least acknowledged some past studies in the ongoing debate about “the best age to start routine mammograms and the best screening interval.” It appears that the story did not rely solely on a news release.
|
2895
|
Fad diets can work, but experts find no magic slimming bullet.
|
Resolutions to lose weight are often made in January yet almost as frequently abandoned as heavy hopefuls find diets that demand fasting, virtually no carbs or liquid food shakes notoriously hard to stick to.
|
true
|
Health News
|
But even “fad” diets can lead to a slimmer, lighter New Year for those whose resolve remains robust, according to doctors and nutritionists analysing them. Gathering for a London conference to review evidence behind popular weight loss diets - at just the time of year when slimming ideas are in peak demand - specialists concluded that food fads such as the hunter-gatherer “Paleo” plan or the 5:2 diet can deliver. But it’s hard work. “If it was easy, our species would have died out years ago. As humans we have a default to eat,” said Gary Frost, a professor and chair of nutrition and dietetics at Imperial College London. The results of that default are looming large in a global “wave of obesity”, he said. According to the World Health Organisation, worldwide obesity - defined as having a body mass index of more than 30 - has nearly doubled since 1980. The latest global figure is that in 2008, more than 1.4 billion adults were overweight. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost 36 percent of American adults are obese and almost 70 percent are either obese or overweight. In Britain, a government health study predicts 60 percent of men, 50 percent of women and 25 percent of children will be obese by 2050. Against this background, experts say the search for effective diets must always take account of how easy it is for people to understand and follow, and how likely they are to abide by its restrictions. Michelle Harvie, a research dietician from the Genesis Prevention Centre at Britain’s University Hospital of South Manchester, said that on this front, fasting diets - sometimes called intermittent diets - can be successful. “Energy restriction is difficult to maintain over the long term and people tend to find it easier to follow a diet with intermittent energy restriction,” she said. She said that while a regular weight loss plan might require the dieter to take in 25 percent fewer calories, intermittent diets may suggest two days of a 75 percent calorie cut interspersed with five days of normal healthy eating. But the key to these diets - such as the 5:2 diet in which followers eat as little as 400 calories on two “fasting” days per week - is that dieters won’t succeed if they “pig out” and eat whatever they want on non-fasting days. Harvie’s research shows those who succeed in losing weigh on these diets find the fasting days lead them to also have a lower food intake on normal days - leading to lower calorie intake overall. Mark Berry, head of plant biology and biochemistry at the consumer company Unilever’s research and development unit, says there are also positive signs in data from studies of “Palaeolithic” or stone-age diets - plans designed to mimic the diet of pre-agricultural hunter-gatherers of that era. A sign of its current popularity is that “Paleo diet” was one of the most “Googled” terms of 2013. The idea is based around foods that can be hunted, fished or foraged for - meat, seafood, eggs, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables. Berry said his research showed little impact on glucose response in the body in people eating a Palaeolithic diet, but did find a significant impact on hormones that signal satiety and tell the brain the eater is full. Alexandra Johnstone of the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, who has been looking into high protein and low carbohydrate diets such as the Atkins diet, said these also had a significant impact on fullness feelings - giving them the potential to help dieters control appetite and lose weight. “The high satiety effects of increased protein in the diet seems to be a contributing factor to the success of high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets,” she said. Johnstone cited data showing the amount of weight lost on high-protein diets is around double that lost on a comparable low-fat diet at the six-month mark. But there is little difference in weight loss after one year, as dieters often lose momentum and their resolve to slim down fades. “There’s no magic bullet,” she said. Judy Buttriss, head of the British Nutrition Foundation, said the evidence for popular diets was clearly nuanced. While there are several that can be used as tools for effective weight loss and maintenance, she said “there’s currently no evidence that one is any better than another in the long term”.
|
14809
|
Mike Morell testified and told Congress that the reason Obama has not bombed ISIS' oil fields is they're concerned about global warming.
|
"Cruz said, ""Mike Morell testified and told Congress that the reason Obama has not bombed ISIS' oil fields is they're concerned about global warming."" We found no instances of Morell testifying before Congress on this point. He did talk about Obama’s ISIS strategy on PBS, but Cruz misquotes what he said. Morell said U.S. military forces spared oil tankers and wells — not ""oil fields"" — in order to avoid ""environmental damage."" Preserving the environment for the local population is quite different from global warming, which no officials have brought up as a deterrent from bombing ISIS. The U.S. military has been striking oil assets but it has limited those strikes out of concern for civilian casualties, destroying the oil infrastructure and doing damage to the local environment. If climate change was the Obama administration’s top priority, experts said, it would make more sense to bomb the oil fields."
|
false
|
National, Climate Change, Energy, Foreign Policy, Terrorism, Ted Cruz,
|
"Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz tore into President Barack Obama’s strategy against ISIS in an NPR interview. Cruz, who vowed to ""utterly destroy ISIS"" and ""carpet bomb them into oblivion,"" said Obama is not serious about defeating the jihadists. The Texas senator brought up Obama’s former CIA deputy director, Mike Morell, to show how Obama has prioritized a green agenda instead. ""Mike Morell testified and told Congress that the reason Obama has not bombed ISIS' oil fields is they're concerned about global warming,"" Cruz said on Dec. 8’s Morning Edition. ""This is nonsense."" Is it true that Morell said the Obama administration refused to strike ISIS’ oil assets because of fears that emissions from oil fires will contribute to global warming, the term for increased temperatures believed to be linked to human activity? Not exactly. Cruz gets several details wrong, starting with what Morell said and where he said it. His overall point is misleading and, in the words of one expert, ""completely nonsensical."" Bombs and black gold We’ll start with an overview of ISIS’ oil assets and what’s been bombed. ISIS has hijacked the bulk of Syria’s oil, which has become a major cash cow for the terrorist group’s operations. (Other prominent sources of revenue include taxation and extortion, sales of looted property, bank robberies, kidnapping ransoms and state-run businesses.) With about a half-dozen oil fields under its control, ISIS churns out an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 barrels per day and makes $1.5 million to $2 million daily from oil sales. U.S. and coalition military forces have been trying to get at this revenue source by periodically targeting oil assets for over a year. From the start of the operation against ISIS in August 2014 to Nov. 13, 2015, airstrikes have damaged or destroyed 260 oil infrastructure targets, according to the Defense Department. These strikes were initially aimed at easy targets like mobile refineries and storage depots, and not entirely successful, a Pentagon official admitted. So attacks were ramped up to focus on more sensitive targets like tanker trucks and wellheads. In October 2015, the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS launched a second campaign specifically aimed to cut two-thirds of the terrorists’ oil revenue. By Dec. 1, military forces had destroyed wells, processing facilities and nearly 400 ISIS oil trucks, according to Defense Secretary Ash Carter. ""We've seen the U.S. get a lot more creative and aggressive with its target list,"" said Matthew Reed, vice president of Foreign Reports, a Washington-based consultant firm specializing in Middle East oil politics. ""It has had to overcome a learning curve. It's still learning what to hit and where."" Misquoting Morell? Did a top CIA official admit that these attacks were limited because of climate change concerns? The Cruz campaign didn't get back to us. Our search of congressional transcripts did not turn up any instance of Morell giving congressional testimony on this point. Cruz could be thinking of comments by Morell on PBS’ Charlie Rose on Nov. 23. Here’s what Morell said: Morell: ""So prior to Paris, there seemed to be a judgment — I don’t sit in the Sit. Room (sic) anymore — but there seemed to have been a judgment that, look, we don't want to destroy these oil tankers because that's infrastructure that's going to be necessary to support the people when ISIS isn't there anymore. ""And it's going to create environmental damage. And we didn't go after oil wells — actually hitting oil wells that ISIS controls because we didn't want to do environmental damage and we didn’t want to destroy that infrastructure."" Rose: ""So we’re hitting oil on trucks."" Morell: ""So now we're hitting oil on trucks. And maybe you get to the point where you say we also have to hit oil wells. So those are the kind of tough decisions you have to make."" Cruz flubs Morell’s comments in a few ways. First, Morell was talking about oil tankers and wells under ISIS’ control, not ""oil fields."" That term can refer to the underground reservoirs of petroleum or the broader oil infrastructure sitting atop (i.e. refineries, tanks and other collection and transportation equipment). As we noted, military forces have been hitting some oil assets. Second, Morell made no mention of global warming. Instead, he said the oil tankers and wells were spared out of concern for ""environmental damage."" Based on previous comments by Pentagon officials and experts we talked to, Morell was more likely referring to oil spills and destroying the local environment. That’s a far cry from climate change. Limitations and concerns The attacks on ISIS oil have been limited by many concerns. But based on statements by Pentagon officials and experts, the list doesn’t include global warming. The first attacks, for example, were aimed at damaging, not completely destroying, mobile refineries and other equipment in order to keep the infrastructure intact for an ISIS-less future, not out of environmental concerns. ""We'd like to preserve the flexibility for those refineries to still contribute to a stable economy in what we hope will be a stable country when the Assad regime is not in control anymore,"" a Pentagon spokesperson told reporters in September 2014, adding that the attacks may have actually caused some oil fires. Oil wells and tanker trucks were initially off limits in order to avoid civilian casualties, according to news reports. Even when these became fair game in October 2015, permanent destruction still wasn’t the goal. ""We have to be cognizant that there will be a time after the war -- the war will end,"" another Pentagon spokesperson said in November 2015. ""So we don't want to completely and utterly destroy these facilities to where they’re irreparable."" Experts told us this policy is humanitarian and tactical. Injuring or killing civilians or crippling the economy would be counterproductive to the goal of isolating the enemy from the local population, said Ben Bahney, an analyst at the RAND Corporation, a global policy think tank. ""The Pentagon doesn't care about ISIS' carbon footprint,"" Reed of Foreign Reports said. ""They do care about how airstrikes impact locals who are trapped inside ISIS territory. Because the potential for environmental and humanitarian disaster is so high, the U.S. uses precision strikes."" That’s precisely why bombing the physical oil fields themselves would be a ""terrible idea,"" said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The ecological fallout, health hazards and permanently weakened economy would impact local people. ""If it were just global warming, we would obviously bomb them,"" he said. ""If you’re worried about climate change, you should be stopping oil production period. If you bomb the well heads, you prevent the oil from being extracted so that would actually help reduce emissions,"" Bahney said. ""Cruz’s claim is completely nonsensical."" The Cruz campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Our ruling Cruz said, ""Mike Morell testified and told Congress that the reason Obama has not bombed ISIS' oil fields is they're concerned about global warming."" We found no instances of Morell testifying before Congress on this point. He did talk about Obama’s ISIS strategy on PBS, but Cruz misquotes what he said. Morell said U.S. military forces spared oil tankers and wells — not ""oil fields"" — in order to avoid ""environmental damage."" Preserving the environment for the local population is quite different from global warming, which no officials have brought up as a deterrent from bombing ISIS. The U.S. military has been striking oil assets but it has limited those strikes out of concern for civilian casualties, destroying the oil infrastructure and doing damage to the local environment. If climate change was the Obama administration’s top priority, experts said, it would make more sense to bomb the oil fields."
|
5538
|
Britain’s young royals promote conversation on mental health.
|
Britain’s Prince William, his wife, Kate, and his brother Prince Harry are spearheading a campaign to encourage people to talk openly about mental health issues.
|
true
|
Tony Blair, Mental health, Health, Alastair Campbell, Prince Harry, Celebrities, Prince William, Europe
|
The young royals released 10 films Thursday as part of their “Heads Together” campaign to change the national conversation about mental health. The videos feature celebrities and members of the public talking about the breakthrough conversations that helped them come to terms with their mental health problems. The former England cricket captain Andrew Flintoff and former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, are among those featured speaking about their experiences with anxiety or depression. The royals said they hope the stigma surrounding mental health problems can be lifted. They urged people to talk more openly about these issues. “When you realize that mental health problems affect your friends, neighbors, children and spouses, the walls of judgment and prejudice around these issues begin to fall,” they said in a statement. Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, said public awareness campaigns are more powerful when the celebrities promoting them have personal experience with the issue being highlighted. “Princes William and Harry speak from their experience of loss and sorrow” she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. The support of the young royals is important in raising awareness about mental health, she added. William and Harry’s mother, Princess Diana, was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997, when the princes were 15 and 12 years old. The films can be viewed on the Heads Together website and YouTube page and are promoted on Facebook, Twitter and Google.
|
33987
|
People have died laughing.
|
Yet even if there may have been an occasional death from guffawing, it’s still possible merriment is far more healthy than harmful (at least for the ones who survive). Some studies assert laughing produces beneficial effects on physical health, including decreasing the secretion of serum cortisol (a stress hormone) and boosting the blood levels of immunoglobulin A, an antibody that fights bacterial and viral infections in the upper respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. However, not everyone in the scientific community has jumped on this bandwagon: in a study reported upon in 2002 in Current Directions in Psychological Science (“Is Laughter the Best Medicine? Humor, Laughter, and Physical Health) researchers reported that the connection between humor and wellness was “less conclusive than commonly believed” and that “future research in this area needs to be more theoretically driven and methodologically rigorous.”
|
true
|
Horrors, freakish fatalities
|
In recent decades, laughter has been touted as a possible cure for many ills, including cancer and heart trouble. But could mirth also be deadly, making the phrase “I just about died laughing” as much about accuracy as it is hyperbole? On 24 March 1975, 50-year-old bricklayer Alex Mitchell of King’s Lynn in Norfolk, England, kicked the bucket while roaring with laughter at one of his favorite television shows, the comedy program The Goodies. The skit that precipitated Mitchell’s fatal fit of glee involved a kilted Scotsman’s flailing away with his bagpipe at a vicious black pudding intent upon attacking him. Mitchell was unable to stop laughing, and after twenty-five minutes of uproar gave one last “tremendous belly laugh, slumped on the settee, and died,” said his widow, who witnessed his passing. While Mitchell had expired from heart failure, what felled him was not a classic heart attack, but rather the result of an unusual inheritable heart rhythm disorder that routinely takes the lives of even apparently robust 20-somethings. Mitchell had Long QT syndrome, an affliction in which the heart is prone to experiencing long pauses between heart beats, especially after instances of excitement or exertion. After such an incident, the heart resets itself after a few beats, but in some cases (such as this) the person is not so fortunate. An odder account of a “dying laughing” incident was reported in Bangkok in 2003: An ice cream truck driver in Thailand died while laughing in his sleep. Damnoen Saen-um, 52, laughed for about two minutes yesterday and then stopped breathing, The Nation newspaper reported. Damnoen’s wife tried to wake him up but he kept laughing. An autopsy suggested that he might have had a heart attack. “I have never seen a case like this. But it is possible that a person could have heart seizure while laughing or crying too hard in their sleep,” said Dr Somchai Chakrabhand, deputy director-general of the Mental Health Department. On the anecdotal side, Schott’s Original Miscellany attributes the death of Burmese king Nandabayin in 1599 to his having “laughed to death when informed, by a visiting Italian merchant, that Venice was a free state without a king.” And on the fictional front, one version of the demise of Pecos Bill, the legendary cowboy hero of American folklore, has him dying from laughter after an encounter with a Boston dude: When Bill was gettin’ on in years, a Boston man came down to New Mexico for a visit. He fancied himself a bit of a cowboy. Got himself one of them mail-order suits, don’t ya know. The ones with the lizard skin boots, a shiny brass belt buckle, a new pair of blue jeans and a huge ten gallon hat with not a speck of dust on it. Well, when Pecos Bill saw him trying to swagger into a bar, he jest lay down on the sidewalk and laughed himself to death! Not enough information was given in the (real) cases cited above to know whether laughter was a coincidental, contributory, or causal element of the deaths, but linguistically we’ve been tossing about “dying laughing” expressions for centuries; the Oxford English Dictionary records a use of this phrase as far back as 1596 (“Went they not quickly, I should die with laughing”). We also employ similar phrases to indicate intense feelings of humiliation (“I almost died of embarrassment”), and in a more generic sense we use ‘dying’ to indicate great longing (“I’m just dying to see you”) or excellence (“It’s to die for”). It therefore comes as a bit of a shocker to realize that there might be at least a smidgen of truth buried deep beneath all this overblown emoting.
|
6668
|
Metaphorical Washington ‘swamp’ overrun by actual vermin.
|
Andre Pittman and Gregory Cornes are on a mission to rid Washington of opportunistic vermin.
|
true
|
AP Top News, Rats, Health, Politics, North America, U.S. News
|
But their target isn’t corrupt officials or shady political fixers; it’s Rattus Norvegicus, the common Norway Rat. The nation’s capital is facing a spiraling rat infestation, fueled by mild winters and a human population boom. Washington’s government is struggling to keep pace, with the pest control department fielding a record number of calls. On one recent day, Pittman and Cornes, both veteran Health Department employees, are working within sight of the Capitol, shoveling dry ice pellets into suspected rat burrow entrances. On another, they’re summoned about six blocks north of the White House, at 16th Street and M, where residents have complained of an outbreak. “Rats adapt to everything. They can be like geniuses,” Pittman said. On the grounds of a church, Cornes and Pittman poke around, expertly spotting telltale holes and matted dirt trails that signal rat burrows. Cornes uses an instrument like an extra-long Super Soaker to inject poison into the hole, while Pittman watches to see if the white powder puffs up from other holes and then shovels dirt to block those exits. At the office building next door, the crew receives a hearty welcome from the security guard. “The rats would scurry over employees’ feet as they left the building after sunset,” says the guard, who asked that his name not be published so as not to embarrass his employer. “We finally moved all garbage cans away from the door because that’s where they would feed and party.” Cornes assures him, “We’re winning.” The numbers don’t exactly back up Cornes’ confidence. The pest control company Orkin ranks Washington as America’s fourth “Rattiest City,” based on the number of new service calls per year. That’s up one spot from the previous year and just behind Los Angeles and New York; Chicago has been ranked No. 1 for four consecutive years. While Washington doesn’t boast New York’s famous subway monsters, anecdotal evidence is piling up that the rodents are on the march. In September, a viral video showed security camera footage of a rat pulling a fire alarm , forcing the evacuation of an apartment building. Back on M Street, Cornes and Pittman discover a network of burrows in a large planter box in front of an office building. They inject poison, causing bushes to shake with fleeing rodents. A baby rat suddenly emerges from the ground and flees around the corner. Gerard Brown, head of Washington’s rodent control department, says a string of gentle winters has enabled the rodents to breed constantly. The harsh winters don’t necessarily kill off the rats. Most Norway rats live only about eight months, and they stay warm by burrowing underground or chewing their way into basements. But an extended freeze would choke off their food supply, which limits the rodents’ prodigious breeding. A mature female rat can give birth to one litter per month, with an average of 10 babies per litter. Washington is also in the midst of a gentrification-fueled economic and population boom. The district’s population just passed 700,000 — more than Vermont and Wyoming. Brown said the number of restaurants, bars and coffee shops has increased 25 percent in two years. “More people with more money means more restaurants, which means more garbage, which means more rat food,” Brown said. In several ways, Washington is perfectly suited for the critters. It is filled with green space, from the National Mall to the many signature traffic circles; Dupont Circle is apparently a hot spot. Rats also covet the waterfront, and part of Washington’s gentrification boom has focused on the Navy Yards or the new Wharf Marina — presenting the ultimate rodent attraction of a flourishing waterfront restaurant scene. This isn’t even Washington’s first war on rats. Former Mayor Anthony Williams referenced rat problems in his inauguration speech in 1999. Back in 1967, a rat gnawing on power station wires knocked out electricity for about a third of Washington for nearly an hour. This time, Mayor Muriel Bowser has allocated an extra $900,000 to boost rodent control efforts and increase staffing. The government is also offering financial assistance and incentives for restaurants to buy minitrash compactors that fit in urban alleyways and limit the rats’ access to food. At the site near the White House, Pittman and Cornes find the real problem around the back of the office building: a collection of uncovered garbage and compost containers, plus a giant pile of discarded file cabinets — all surrounded by black pellets. “See all these droppings? All this stuff has got to go,” Pittman tells the building manager. He could write up a $500 health code violation ($1,000 for a repeat offender) but instead Pittman tells him: “I’ll give you two weeks to get this cleaned up. Then we’ll be back.” As urban rodentologist Robert Corrigan puts it, “80 percent of any rat control campaign is actually refuse management.” Corrigan has consulted with Washington and other cities on rodent problems and runs free “rat academies” in Washington for both city workers and residents. Corrigan recommends a radical solution that would be logistically difficult for most major cities: picking up most trash at night. “The usual early morning pickup plays right into the hands of the rats, which are active all night long,” he said. Multiple city officials said this would be almost impossible to implement due to staffing issues and late-night noise concerns. Corrigan, not a fan of amateurs handling poisons, says the dry ice method, which suffocates the rodents in their burrows, is safe for homeowners to use. He also recommends that residents spray trash bins with a mix of water and 10 percent bleach. Beyond that, the only real solution is the hardest part of the equation — controlling human behavior. “You’re only as good as your neighbor,” he said. “You can have 10 beautiful houses in a row and if number 11 is a slob, everybody suffers.” ___ Follow Khalil on Twitter at: www.Twitter.com/Ashrafkhalil
|
5737
|
4 hepatitis A cases found in Denver; vaccinations stepped up.
|
Denver public health officials say four homeless people have been diagnosed with hepatitis A this year, so the city is stepping up free vaccinations.
|
true
|
Immunizations, Health, General News, Hepatitis, Denver, Bills, Public health
|
KDVR-TV reported Monday that three of the cases were diagnosed within the past three weeks. Denver Public Health executive director Dr. Bill Burman says his agency will set up vaccine clinics almost every day in day shelters, syringe access programs, Civic Center Park and other places where people at risk of contracting the disease are found. Hepatitis A can be spread through sharing of drugs and equipment, fecal-oral contamination or intimate contact with a person who has the disease. Health officials say the disease can be prevented with a vaccine that’s been a part of standard childhood immunizations for more than a decade. ___ Information from: KDVR-TV, http://www.kdvr.com
|
27115
|
In April 2019, when the U.S. House of Representatives voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, the NRA opposed the move due to the addition of amendments that would lower the criminal threshold required to bar someone from buying a gun.
|
(10) who has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of stalking.
|
true
|
Politics
|
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a series of laws affecting multiple areas of the Federal Code, was first signed into law in 1994. The act provided federal funds for services offered to survivors of domestic and sexual violence, created the Office on Violence Against Women within the Justice Department, enhanced the training of law enforcement officers in the area of sexual and domestic violence, and strengthened penalties for certain sexual crimes (including requiring perpetrators of sexual violence to pay restitution to their victims). VAWA has been reauthorized several times since 1994, often with adjustments or modifications. In December 2018, authorization for the Violence Against Women Act lapsed during negotiations over ending a federal government shutdown, as reported by Washington Post at the time: The Violence Against Women Act expired at midnight as the government shut down and temporarily cut off funding for programs that help victims of sexual assault, domestic abuse and stalking. The blow to the landmark 1994 law came after multiple short-term extensions. The act was due to expire on Sept. 30 and on Dec. 7 but received a last-minute reprieve each time. Its programs are funded under the Justice Department, which is affected by the shutdown. VAWA was briefly reauthorized on a temporary basis as part of a continuing resolution passed on 25 January 2019, but it lapsed once again three weeks later. In April 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation to reauthorize the act with modifications that, among other things, lowered the criminal threshold for barring the purchase of firearms by closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole” and restricting the sale of guns to individuals convicted of stalking, as described by NPR: The most controversial [modifications to VAWA] are new provisions to lower the criminal threshold to bar someone from buying a gun to include misdemeanor convictions of domestic abuse or stalking charges. Current law applies to felony convictions. It would also close the so-called “boyfriend loophole” to expand existing firearm prohibitions to include dating partners convicted of abuse or stalking charges. The National Rifle Association (NRA) opposed these putative changes (which we have displayed in full below this fact check) and as a result called on lawmakers to oppose reauthorization of VAWA as proposed in a House bill: The NRA called for a “no” vote and notified Capitol Hill offices this week that the organization was “scoring” how lawmakers vote on the bill to measure future ratings and endorsements in elections … NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said the group supports the underlying VAWA law, just not the new gun restrictions. “The gun control lobby and anti-gun politicians are intentionally politicizing the Violence Against Women Act as a smokescreen to push their gun control agenda,” she told NPR. Gun rights activists say the new provisions are too low of a threshold to deny someone a constitutional right for the rest of their life. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, in a speech delivered on the floor of the House, highlighted a National Coalition Against Domestic Violence statistic showing that presence of a gun increased the risk of homicide in a domestic violence situations by 500%: According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, on average, nearly 20 people every minute, 20 people every minute, are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. That is a tragedy and a crisis. One-in-four women experience severe intimate partner physical violence, and one-in-seven have been stalked by an intimate partner to the point at which she felt very fearful, or believed that she or someone close to her would be harmed or killed. The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation increases the risk – hear me – increases the risk of homicide by 500%. That is why we aim to close gun loopholes by expanding the definition of intimate partners to include dating or former dating partners. It is also why this bill has language preventing anybody convicted of a misdemeanor crime of stalking from obtaining a gun. On 4 April 2019, the House passed the inclusion of the gun purchase amendments to VAWA in the face of the NRA’s opposition, as reported by the New York Times: The House … rebuffed a furious lobbying campaign by the National Rifle Association and approved a revamped Violence Against Women Act that would expand law enforcement’s ability to restrict gun purchases by convicted domestic abusers. The legislation passed easily, 263-158, but the divided vote came on what was once a broadly bipartisan measure first passed in 1994. In recent years, partisan rancor over efforts to expand the protections of the legislation have clouded efforts to renew it, and this year, the divide came over gun control. This legislation headed to the Senate, where, the Times reported, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein and Republican Senator Joni Ernst would lead an effort to pass their version of VAWA’s reintroduction. Section 921(a) of title 18, United States Code (Existing text, Deleted text, Added text): (32) The term “intimate partner” means, with respect to a person, the spouse of the person, a former spouse of the person, an individual who is a parent of a child of the person, and an individual who cohabitates or has cohabited with the person. (A) means, with respect to a person, the spouse of the person, a former spouse of the person, an individual who is a parent of a child of the person, and an individual who cohabitates or has cohabited with the person; and (B) includes— (i) a dating partner or former dating partner (as defined in section 2266); and (ii) any other person similarly situated to a spouse who is protected by the domestic or family violence laws of the State or tribal jurisdiction in which the injury occurred or where the victim resides.”; (33) (A) Except as provided in subparagraph (C), the term “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” means an offense that— (i) is a misdemeanor under Federal, State, municipal, and or Tribal law; and (ii) has, as an element, the use or attempted use of physical force, or the threatened use of a deadly weapon, committed by a current or former spouse, intimate partner, parent, or guardian of the victim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabiting with or has cohabited with the victim as a spouse, intimate partner, parent, or guardian, or by a person similarly situated to a spouse, parent, or guardian of the victim. (34) (A) the term ‘misdemeanor crime of stalking’ means an offense that— (i) is a misdemeanor crime of stalking under Federal, State, Tribal, or municipal law; and (ii) is a course of harassment, intimidation, or surveillance of another person that— (I) places that person in reasonable fear of material harm to the health or safety of— (aa) that person; (bb) an immediate family member (as defined in section 115) of that person; (cc) a household member of that person; or (dd) a spouse or intimate partner of that person; or (II) causes, attempts to cause, or would reasonably be expected to cause emotional distress to a person described in item (aa), (bb), (cc), or (dd) of subclause (I). (B) A person shall not be considered to have been convicted of such an offense for purposes of this chapter, unless— (i) the person was represented by counsel in the case, or knowingly and intelligently waived the right to counsel in the case; and (ii) in the case of a prosecution for an offense described in this paragraph for which a person was entitled to a jury trial in the jurisdiction in which the case was tried, either— (I) the case was tried by a jury; or (II) the person knowingly and intelligently waived the right to have the case tried by a jury, by guilty plea or otherwise. (C) A person shall not be considered to have been convicted of such an offense for purposes of this chapter if the conviction has been expunged or set aside, or is an offense for which the person has been pardoned or has had civil rights restored (if the law of the applicable jurisdiction provides for the loss of civil rights under such an offense) unless the pardon, expungement, or restoration of civil rights expressly provides that the person may not ship, transport, possess, or receive firearms.”. Section 922 of title 18, United States Code (Existing text, Deleted text, Added text) (1) (d) It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or otherwise dispose of any firearm or ammunition to any person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that such person— (8) is subject to a court order that restrains such person from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner of such person or child of such intimate partner or person, or engaging in other conduct that would place an intimate partner in reasonable fear of bodily injury to the partner or child, except that this paragraph shall only apply to a court order that— (A) was issued after a hearing of which such person received actual notice, and at which such person had the opportunity to participate; and (B) (i) includes a finding that such person represents a credible threat to the physical safety of such intimate partner or child; or (ii) by its terms explicitly prohibits the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against such intimate partner or child that would reasonably be expected to cause bodily injury; or described in subsection (g)(8); (9) has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. ; or (10) who has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of stalking.” […] (g) It shall be unlawful for any person — […] (8) who is subject to a court order that— (A) was issued after a hearing of which such person received actual notice, and at which such person had an opportunity to participate; (B) restrains such person from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner of such person or child of such intimate partner or person, or engaging in other conduct that would place an intimate partner in reasonable fear of bodily injury to the partner or child; and (C) (i) includes a finding that such person represents a credible threat to the physical safety of such intimate partner or child; or (ii) by its terms explicitly prohibits the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against such intimate partner or child that would reasonably be expected to cause bodily injury; or (9) who has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence,to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition; or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce. (8) who is subject to a court order— (A) that was issued— (i) after a hearing of which such person received actual notice, and at which such person had an opportunity to participate; or (ii) in the case of an ex parte order, relative to which notice and opportunity to be heard are provided— (I) within the time required by State, tribal, or territorial law; and (II) in any event within a reasonable time after the order is issued, sufficient to protect the due process rights of the person; (B) that restrains such person from— (i) harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner of such person or child of such intimate partner or person, or engaging in other conduct that would place an intimate partner in reasonable fear of bodily injury to the partner or child; or (ii) intimidating or dissuading a witness from testifying in court; and (C) that— (i) includes a finding that such person represents a credible threat to the physical safety of such individual described in subparagraph (B); or (ii) by its terms explicitly prohibits the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against such individual described in subparagraph (B) that would reasonably be expected to cause bodily injury; (9) who has been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition; or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce. ; or
|
29375
|
"President Trump lifted sanctions against Russia as a ""gift"" to Putin."
|
"What's true: The United States Treasury announced an adjustment on sanctions against the FSB that would allow technology goods to be imported to Russian consumers. What's false: The move was a routine update to the Obama administration's sanctions meant to ease the effects on American companies, not a ""gift"" to Putin."
|
false
|
Politics, russia, Treasury Department, trump administration
|
On 2 February 2017, a public notification of an OFAC general license published by the United States Treasury Department noting that sanctions against the Russian security agency Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti would be tweaked to ease the burden on U.S. tech companies selling goods inside Russia caused some (including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi) to sound the alarm that President Donald Trump had “eased” sanctions against Russia. Some appeared to assume the move was a sign that favor curried by Russian President Vladimir Putin with the new U.S. president had paid off. Pelosi released a statement that reads: U.S. intelligence agencies have thoroughly detailed the Russian security services’ brazen assault on American democracy in support of candidate Donald Trump. Less than two weeks after walking into the White House, President Trump lifts sanctions on the Russian Security Service. Vladimir Putin’s thugs meddle with an American election, and President Trump gives them a thank you present. That statement and others similar to it are not based in fact, according to foreign affairs and trade experts. The Treasury authorization reads: Requesting, receiving, utilizing, paying for, or dealing in licenses, permits, certifications, or notifications issued or registered by the Federal Security Service (a.k.a. Federalnaya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti) (a.k.a. FSB) for the importation, distribution, or use of information technology products in the Russian Federation, provided that (i) the exportation, reexportation, or provision of any goods or technology that are subject to the Export Administration Regulations, 15 CFR parts 730 through 774, is licensed or otherwise authorized by the Department of Commerce and (ii) the payment of any fees to the Federal Security Service for such licenses, permits, certifications, or notifications does not exceed $5,000 in any calendar year; Note to paragraph (a)(l): Except for the limited purposes described in paragraph (a)(l), this paragraph does not authorize the exportation, reexportation, or provision of goods or technology to or on behalf of the Federal Security Service. While President Trump’s friendly overtures toward Putin and reports that Russian hacking had influenced the presidential election had raised fears about foreign intervention in the latter part of 2016, the recent activity by the U.S Treasury Department was only a tweak to allow American companies to continue commerce in Russia unharmed, not a sign of nefarious activity. Doug Jacobson, an attorney with Jacobson Burton Kelley PLLC, a Washington, DC-based law firm that advises companies on international trade law, explained that it is meant to allow American companies “to obtain licenses and approvals from FSB to import certain software and IT equipment containing encryption into Russia” — but it does not mean they are now allowed to sell directly to the FSB nor does it represent a lifting or easing of sanctions: When the government takes an action such as adding a party like the FSB to these very restrictive lists, banks have to block their funds. Then [U.S.-based] industry figures out, ‘This could impact us, because we have to deal with the FSB to import U.S. goods into Russia’ … They are not the target of the restrictions — it’s to penalize FSB, not U.S. companies. This doesn’t allow sales to the FSB, that’s still prohibited. It removes this impediment that would restrict U.S. companies from transporting products to otherwise unsanctioned parties in Russia… This was no gift to Putin. Ankit Panda, a foreign affairs analyst who edits at The Diplomat, told us the move was a routine update to the sanctions that was planned by Trump’s predecessor, President Barack Obama, in response to U.S. industry concerns raised after sanctions were put in place in retribution for hacking: It’s a limited $5,000 sanctions relief ceiling that allows the United States to pay the FSB for certain export licenses for American products into Russia. It’s a technical form of relief that was planned under the Obama administration. The fear generated by the announcement, he said, was a “signal-noise” problem created by the current political environment, although the Treasury action was “something that’s quite normal that’s getting blown out of proportion given the poor timing/optics of ‘sanctions relief’ for Russia.” He noted that the hysteria was a result of anxiety hanging over from the 2016 election, coupled with recent news of a friendly phone call between presidents Trump and Putin and a spike in military violence between Russia and Ukraine. The Russian government pounced on the opportunity to further misinformation and politicize the routine Treasury move, with Russian government-owned media boasting: By easing sanctions against Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Washington paves the way to setting up an anti-terrorism coalition, member of the State Duma, former director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Nikolai Kovalyov told TASS. “This shows that actual joint work on establishing an anti-terrorism coalition is about to begin,” Kovalyov said. “This is the first step on the way leading to cooperation in the war on terror.” “Without easing these sanctions it would have been impossible to take the next step,” the lawmaker said. “These practical actions indicate that US President Donald Trump has been consistent,” he stressed. As Reuters reported, this is a misrepresentation, and the Treasury action was more on behalf of U.S. business interests than anything else: Sanctions experts and former Obama administration officials stressed the exceptions do not signal a broader shift in Russia policy. They said the license was designed to fix an unintended consequence caused by December’s sanctioning of the FSB… Beyond its intelligence function, the FSB also regulates the importation of software and hardware that contains cryptography. Companies need FSB approval even to import broadly available commercial products such as cell phones and printers if they contain encryption. Harrell said tech companies had complained. “I don’t think when they sanctioned FSB they were intending to complicate the sale of cell phones and tablets,” Harrell said. Sam Cutler, a senior analyst at Horizon Client Access, told us that the misplaced outrage is not helping with sober discussion of a weighty and complicated issue: [A] productive discussion of U.S. sanctions policy requires that we ensure the public debate accurately reflects the law as written. Preemptive and misplaced outrage not only is counterproductive, it negatively impacts Treasury’s ability to make future necessary regulatory changes for fear that they will be misinterpreted. There are valid reasons to be concerned about the new administration’s intentions vis-a-vis Russia sanctions, but this is not one of them. We have not yet received a response from the U.S. Treasury Department or from Pelosi.
|
9384
|
Marijuana legalization could help offset opioid epidemic, studies find
|
Health professionals—from doctors to policy experts—are exploring strategies for controlling the opioid crisis gripping the U.S. Advocates for legalizing marijuana for medical or recreational purposes have suggested that increased access to marijuana could curb opioid use. The two studies published in JAMA Internal Medicine discussed in this CNN article found that state legalization of medical marijuana was associated with a decrease in opioid prescriptions. But before it presented the data, the article led readers to believe the study findings “suggest that there is merit” in “using medical marijuana to help Americans struggling with opioid addiction,”—which is beyond what the studies could possibly show. The article took another misstep when it stated that the researchers analyzed opioid prescriptions to “evaluate whether medical marijuana could function as an effective and safe alternative to opioids.” The data the researchers looked at could not answer that question. These were not clinical trials comparing pain relief from marijuana with pain relief from opioids in patients who would typically be prescribed opioids. They were analyses of data on opioid prescriptions in Medicaid and Medicare databases. The researchers detail the limitations of their studies, as does a commentary published along with them. But only one limitation made it into the article: the caveat that the results may not be generalizable to the entire U.S. population because they only used data on patients enrolled in Medicare and Medicare Part D. The biggest limitation goes unmentioned: There was no way to know if anyone was actually choosing to use marijuana instead of opioids. The article addressed two hot button topics: opioid addiction and the legalization of marijuana. Ninety people in the U.S. die each day from an opioid overdose, and families and friends of individuals struggling with opioid addiction are searching for ways to help their loved ones. It’s easy to find anecdotal stories online from people who say marijuana helped curb their withdrawal symptoms, but whether marijuana helps people overcome opioid addiction or can be used instead of opioids to ease pain cannot be answered in studies such as these.
|
mixture
|
medical marijuana,opioids
|
The article did not mention how much it costs to use marijuana to treat pain or whether medical marijuana is covered by private health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. The article quantified the findings this way: The researchers found that states that allow the use of cannabis for medical purposes had 2.21 million fewer daily doses of opioids prescribed per year under Medicare Part D, compared with those states without medical cannabis laws. Opioid prescriptions under Medicaid also dropped by 5.88% in states with medical cannabis laws compared with states without such laws, according to the studies. It could have also mentioned that the study that looked at Medicaid data did not see reductions in opioid prescriptions in all states with medical marijuana laws. Below, in evidence quality, we address a related concern: Does the story do enough to clarify that these findings aren’t proof that marijuana legalization reduces opioid use? The article didn’t explain that marijuana can be addictive and has side effects. These include an increased heart rate, which can increase the risk of a heart attack, especially in older people with heart problems. In some people, long-term use can cause intense nausea and vomiting. In addition, high doses of marijuana can cause psychosis, delusions or hallucinations. When smoked, marijuana can cause breathing problems and increase a person’s risk of developing a lung infection. The story did not discuss important limitations to the evidence. Chiefly, that the research wasn’t designed to prove that easing access to marijuana causes a drop in opioid abuse (or prescriptions). It only detected a pattern. And as the associated JAMA editorial points out, this pattern may not actually have anything to do with easier marijuana access: … there are a multitude of other factors that may affect the association between medical cannabis and opioids in a given state and that are known to be associated with regional variation in opioid prescribing that were not adjusted for such as racial composition, educational attainment, prevalence of disease, disability, and suicide rates. It is widely acknowledged that the country is in the midst of an opioid epidemic. In 2016, there were more than 63,600 drug overdose deaths in the United States. The story quoted the lead authors of each of the studies. It also quoted the independent co-author of the invited commentary. Another source was Melissa Moore, New York deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance. The article did not mention that the Drug Policy Alliance advocates for legalizing and regulating marijuana. There is one brief paragraph in the article that described “some skeptics” who “argue that medical marijuana could actually worsen the opioid epidemic” but no one is quoted. The article did not mention any other policies being studied for reducing opioid prescriptions, overdoses or deaths. The article included information about the number of states that have legalized certain types of marijuana use. The story explained that marijuana has been shown to be effective in treating chronic pain, and noted that more research is needed on its medical benefits. The story did not appear to be based on a news release.
|
26561
|
“Queen Elizabeth tests positive for COVID-19.”
|
There are no credible reports Queen Elizabeth II tested positive for COVID-19. Buckingham Palace recently said she remains in good health.
|
false
|
Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Bloggers,
|
"Prince Charles tested positive for COVID-19, but there is no indication that his mother, the queen, did, too. A March 28 post on a website called Gossip Blend claims otherwise. ""Earlier today it was rumoured that Queen Elizabeth II tested positive for the novel coronavirus while many UK media outlets have kept silent,"" the post says. ""In a new press release, the Buckingham Palace has confirmed that the Queen of the United Kingdom has indeed tested positive."" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) So far, the news out of Buckingham Palace is good. On March 27, a palace spokesman said the 93-year-old British monarch remains in good health. She was then at Windsor Castle with her husband, 98-year-old Prince Philip and ""a small number of staff,"" Reuters reported. And as for Prince Charles, he announced on April 1 that he experienced mild symptoms and is ""on the other side"" of his illness."
|
8141
|
Swedish PM tells Swedes to take responsibility in national address on coronavirus.
|
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven in a rare live television address to the nation on Sunday evening called on all Swedes to play their part in stopping the spread of the coronavirus.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Sweden on Sunday had 1,906 confirmed cases of the respiratory disease - or 17 per 100,000 citizens - and 21 deaths. “We all now have great individual responsibility,” Lofven said. “There will be a few decisive moments in life when you must make sacrifices, not only for your own sake but also to take responsibility for those around you, for your fellow humans and for our country. That moment is now. That day has come.” The number of patients in intensive care has risen steeply in Stockholm over the past days and healthcare officials have voiced concerns over staff shortages and said there was a risk of an imminent shortage of some protective gear for staff. “Everyone must do their part and it goes also for you who are above 70 or part of another risk group. I understand it’s frustrating to have to confine your life, your social interactions,” said Lofven, a Social Democrat. “But it is right now necessary - for your own health of course but also to protect others and allow for the health services to cope with the situation.” Sweden has closed high schools and universities and banned public gatherings of more than 500 people, and authorities recommended that people above 70 limit their contact with others. “I want you to be prepared that more invasive decisions may come, at times with short notice and at times measures that disrupt everyday life even more,” Lofven said. Across the world, more than 305,000 are confirmed infected by the virus and more than 13,000 have died.
|
29605
|
Castoreum, a secretion produced by beavers, is commonly used as a food additive.
|
Castoreum does still have a significant market even today, but almost exclusively for the use of the perfume industry, not the food industry.
|
false
|
Food, beavers, castoreum, food additives
|
Castoreum (or castor, not to be confused with the oil of a castor bean) is a yellowish-brown, unctuous substance with a strong, penetrating odor which beavers secrete from castor sacs located in skin cavities between the pelvis and the base of the tail and spray when scent-marking their territory. (The location of the beaver’s castor sacs means that castoreum also often includes a mixture of anal gland secretions and urine as well.) Due to the beaver’s typical diet of leaves and bark, castoreum doesn’t “stink” as other similar animal secretions do, but rather has a musky, vanilla scent described at the perfume site Fragrantica as a “sharp spreading tar-like note that reminds one of the odor of birch tar or Russian leather” that when diluted in alcohol picks up “more pleasant, musky and fruity nuances.” Because of its scent properties castoreum has long been employed in the perfume-making industry, and processed forms of castoreum have also been used as food additives, in the latter case primarily as enhancers of vanilla, strawberry and raspberry flavorings found in products such as iced tea, ice cream, gelatin, candy, fruit-flavored drinks, and yogurt. However, the publicity afforded castoreum in recent years via alarmist food activists and “Did you know?” social media posts is vastly overblown: Another reason we may want to forgo artificial ‘foods’ … Have you ever wondered where artificial raspberry, vanilla or strawberry flavor comes from? These are the dried perineal glands of the beaver. They contain castoreum — a food additive usually listed as ‘natural flavoring’ in the ingredient list. Castoreum is the exudate from the castor sacs of the mature North American Beaver, it is a yellowish secretion in combination with the beaver’s urine, used during scent marking of territory. In the USA, castoreum as a food additive is considered by the FDA to be generally recognized as safe, often referenced simply as a “natural flavoring” in products’ lists of ingredients. The use of castoreum in common food products today is exceedingly rare, in large part because collecting the substance is difficult (and therefore expensive): Getting a beaver to produce castoreum for purposes of food processing is tough. Foodies bent on acquiring some of the sticky stuff have to anesthetize the animal and then “milk” its nether regions. “You can milk the anal glands so you can extract the fluid,” [Joanne] Crawford [a wildlife ecologist at Southern Illinois University] said. “You can squirt [castoreum] out. It’s pretty gross.” Due to such unpleasantness for both parties, castoreum consumption is rather small. According to Fernelli’s Handbook of Flavor Ingredients, total annual national consumption of castoreum, castoreum extract, and castoreum liquid combined is only about 292 pounds, which works out to an average of less than a millionth of a pound per person in the U.S. Compare that figure with the approximately 20 million pounds of vanilla naturally harvested from real vanilla beans every year. Depending upon as scarce a substance as castoreum to flavor the ice cream and candy found on store shelves would create nationwide shortages of those items and drive up their prices beyond the reach of all but the wealthiest consumers. In 2011, the Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) queried five companies that produce vanilla flavorings about whether they used any castoreum in their products, and all five replied that they did not: All five unanimously stated that castoreum is not used today in any form of vanilla sold for human food use. One company, in business for ninety years, informed The VRG that they have never used castoreum in their products. “At one time,” we were told by a senior level employee at this company, “to the best of my knowledge, it was used to make fragrance and still may be.” A major ingredients supplier told us this about some of their vanilla flavorings: “[Castoreum] is not a common raw material that is used and we don’t use it, so I can safely say that our natural vanilla flavors do not contain any animal juices. All vanilla extracts are free of it, too, wherever you go.” Castoreum as a food additive is classified by the Food and Drug Administration as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS), and therefore food manufacturers don’t always have to include castoreum in their ingredients lists and may instead refer to it as “natural flavoring.” However yucky that may seem, according to a 2007 safety assessment published the International Journal of Toxicology, consumption of castoreum poses no health risk to humans: Acute toxicity studies in animals indicate that castoreum extract is nontoxic by both oral and dermal routes of administration and is not irritating or phototoxic to skin. Skin sensitization has not been observed in human subject tests. A long historical use of castoreum extract as a flavoring and fragrance ingredient has resulted in no reports of human adverse reactions. On the basis of this information, low-level, long-term exposure to castoreum extract does not pose a health risk. The objective of this review is to evaluate the safety-in-use of castoreum extract as a food ingredient.
|
11545
|
New Study Shows Ketamine May Regenerate Brain Cells, Relieving Depression with Lasting Benefit
|
This news release cites findings from a physician’s “real world experience” in using the anesthesia drug ketamine for the treatment of depression, and promotes the Neuro-Luminence Ketamine Infusion Centers, which the study author Dr. Theodore Henderson, co-founded. Acknowledged in the release as “controversial” and in direct opposition to the recommendations of the American Psychiatric Association, the use of ketamine can improve depression symptoms with six infusions or less, according to the release. The news release is thin on the kinds of facts we look for to support assertions about a drug’s safety and efficacy. It doesn’t address cost, benefit data or harms. It touts the putative benefits of a treatment that has not been approved by federal health authorities as either safe or effective, and it offers little evidence to support its use. It makes no mention of randomized trials in terms of real data–the only way one can tell if a treatment is really of benefit. Depression affects some 350 million people globally, according to the World Health Organization, and represents the leading cause of disability. Although effective treatments exist for depression, they do not always work. A new weapon in the armamentarium of health professionals might reduce the impact of depression, which can lead to suicide. Standard anti-depressant medication and therapy generally take a month or more to help, and it would be great to have something with a quicker onset on action as ketamine purportedly has.
|
false
|
Independent research center news release,mental health
|
The news release makes no mention of the cost of the infusions, nor does it say whether insurance pays for them. Given that they are not approved as safe and effective by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), any cost would likely be borne by the patient. The only person cited in the release, Dr. Theodore Henderson, is co-founder of Neuro-Luminance Ketamine Infusion Centers. The center’s website states that infusions start at $745 each, with discounted rates available for multiple-infusion packages. Claimed benefits are not quantified in the release. The only number we are provided comes from this statement: “Patients in the study complete the Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptoms (QIDS-SR), among other scales, and 80% showed persistent positive response to the ketamine infusions treatments.” How many patients? The study says 100, but the news release says nothing. How long did the “persistent” response last? We never find out. The news release does say that the study included more than “three years of clinical experience,” but does not say how long the improvements were seen. The release relies almost exclusively on the professional experience of the study author to make its case. Referring to Henderson, “his clinical experience shows ketamine can invoke long-lasting effects often with less than six infusions.” The most intriguing possibility suggested is this: “Another conclusion Dr. Henderson highlights is ketamine infusions can relieve refractory depression symptoms persistently, perhaps for years.” Alas, that statement, too, is not followed by supporting data, nor are they apparent in the study itself. We aren’t even told how depression is diagnosed. Without a randomized trial (and this study is a retrospective look at past studies, not a randomized controlled trial) no definitive conclusions can be drawn. No mention is made of possible side effects in the news release, other than to challenge the broader psychiatric community’s belief that ketamine is addictive. The author is quoted saying, “Our patients get better after a few infusions and from there treatments can be discontinued.” In contrast to the release, the study did point out some side effects, which should have been included in the PR release. It states, “The most common side effects in doses used for depression treatment include: dizziness, nausea, and a slight sense of dissociation. The side effects clear generally within 15-30 minutes after the infusion.” We found this release read more like an ad than a rigorous study synopsis. Retrospective studies combined with individual experiences are not considered among the most persuasive in terms of scientific evidence. Henderson himself appears to be aware of that. The news release states,”While controversial in academic settings, Dr. Henderson said his direct experience supports a different strategy for multiple infusion treatment regimens and his clinical experience shows ketamine can invoke long-lasting effects often with less than six infusions.” The study itself is largely anecdotal. In a section on abuse potential, he writes, “Now, while the multiple of ‘anecdote’ is not ‘data,’ our clinical experience is that patients undergoing our protocols do not become addicted to ketamine and the ‘slippery slope’ from treating depression to creating a ketamine addiction is not so precipitous …” In addition, one of the few numbers that is cited in the news release appears to be wrong: “Citing over 60 published scientific research studies, the new research article also reviews the molecular mechanisms by which ketamine invokes a robust activation of the brain’s own repair mechanisms.” The study contains 56 references. The release doesn’t define depression or give any sense of its prevalence or impact. So while it doesn’t disease-monger, we’re hesitant to give the release credit here. We’ll call it Not Applicable. The news release notes that Henderson is co-founder of a center that uses the treatment but the release does not point out for readers the potential conflict of interest. The study even states “none” in regard to conflict-of-interest which seems implausible. The news release does not tell us about the treatments that are approved for depression, nor does it say what percentage of people suffering from depression fail to find relief from them. Other than to note that the author of the study is co-founder of an unspecified number of ketamine infusion centers, the news release does not address where to access the treatment. The news release attempts to give readers a sense of what’s new here, even if we disagree with its characterization of the importance of that news. It suggests that the study provides useful new information about the clinical experience with ketamine. “The wealth of clinical experience from treating hundreds of patients with ketamine has supplanted the preliminary data that emerged from the initial open-label and small double-blinded studies,” says Henderson. The release does not engage in the use of unjustifiable language by calling the treatment a “cure” or “breakthrough.”
|
5831
|
Fewer babies born with syphilis in Louisiana, more across US.
|
The number of babies born with syphilis in Louisiana fell 22% last year, while national numbers rose 40%.
|
true
|
Chlamydia, Health, General News, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Louisiana
|
A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows 46 fewer cases of congenital syphilis in Louisiana last year, down 13 from 2017. Nationally, more than 1,300 babies were born with the disease, up from 935 a year earlier. Congenital syphilis can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, infant death and severe lifelong physical and neurological problems. The rate of that disease was one of three areas where Louisiana’s rankings improved a bit compared with other states as the nation’s combined cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia reached an all-time high. Louisiana is still among the top 10 in all four rankings: congenital syphilis, the most infectious stages of syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea. But state health officials say the drops show prevention work is paying off. Medicaid expansion, education programs, and individual reviews of each case of congenital syphilis, with an eye to identifying what factors led to each, have helped bring that case total down, said Dr. Alexander Billioux, assistant secretary for the Office of Public Health The state’s congenital syphilis numbers have alternated increasing and decreasing for the past five years. Two programs started this year — home treatment for pregnant women with syphilis and their partners, and doctors getting the form of penicillin used to treat syphilis — should help the drop in cases continue, Billioux said. Both programs were designed in response to the case reviews, he said. Chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis are the most commonly reported sexually transmitted diseases. There were 1.76 million cases of chlamydia reported to the CDC in 2018, up 50,000; 583,400 of gonorrhea, up 28,000; and 115,000 of all stages of syphilis, up nearly 13,400. The CDC figures show that Louisiana had 1,500 more chlamydia cases in 2018 than in 2017, with fairly stable numbers for gonorrhea and the most infectious stages of syphilis, called primary and secondary syphilis. Chlamydia cases increased about 4.4%. Gonorrhea cases were up 26, or 0.2% and those of the most infectious stages of syphilis down 10, or about 1.5%. “I would say when it comes to syphilis, we are seeing a decrease — a modest decrease. But if you look at a modest downturn while others are going up, it’s a tremendous win,” Billioux said. The last time Louisiana had congenital syphilis numbers this low was 2014. The totals were 54 in 2015 and 48 in 2016. In 2017, Louisiana led the nation in its rate of congenital syphilis cases, with 93.4 cases for every 100,000 live births. This year’s rate of 72.8 per 100,000 live births brought it down to No. 3. Its rates for primary and secondary syphilis, the most infectious stages, dropped Louisiana’s ranking from No. 3 to No. 7 in that category, and the case rates for gonorrhea brought that ranking down from third to fifth. Its chlamydia rate remained the nation’s second-highest.
|
2484
|
It's all about the roll when choosing running shoes.
|
Fitness experts have long advised clients choosing a running shoe to forget fashion and consider the roll or pronation - the way the foot leans inward upon impact.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Analyzing the roll of the foot remains standard practice among fitness and medical professionals in the belief it will lead to a better shoe fit and fewer injuries. “When it comes to shoe choice, the amount of pronation control is extremely important,” said Dr. Jane Andersen, a podiatrist in private practice in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “Some people need more than others. It can cause a lot of problems if you have the wrong one.” Anderson, a runner herself and past president of the American Association for Women Podiatrists, said the No. 1 cause of the overuse injuries she sees, from stress fractures to tendonitis to Plantar fasciitis (heel pain), is shoes that are worn out or the wrong fit. There are three basic levels of control for standard running shoes: neutral, stability and motion control. “Neutral is generally good for a high-arch foot; it doesn’t provide extra control for pronation,” she said. “The stability shoe works for people who need more support; motion control is for the super flat-footed.” At Jack Rabbit Sports store in New York City, clients’ arches are observed before they hit the treadmill for runs that are videotaped for slow-motion analysis. “The basic premise is that most people land on their heel (and) overpronate or underpronate,” said Johanna Bjorken, the store’s merchandise director. “This causes running injuries and shoes can address this. This has been the model.” Bjorken said neutral shoes account for 60 to 63 percent of the running shoes sold in her store; 30 to 35 percent are stability shoes. The mobility category is very small and usually follows on doctor’s advice. “Some rolling in is natural, normal and beneficial,” she explained. “Compared to 20 years ago, running shoes are really much more flexible, lightweight and well designed to work with movements of running.” American Council on Exercise spokesperson, Dr. Mark Kelly, a runner for 35 years, is a self-described underpronator who believes in heeding an individual’s “biomechanical tendencies.” “Get a certified trainer to look at the biomechanics of how you’re running,” Kelly said. “How are you turning your foot? Are you a forefoot striker, midfoot striker, heel striker, or extreme heel striker?” Connecticut-based exercise physiologist Tom Holland, author of “The Marathon Method,” thinks many of the common running-related injuries, such as runner’s knee, shin splints and hip issues are related to and exacerbated by improper footwear. “Once you find a shoe that works for you, stick with it,” he said. Nevertheless, a recent Danish study cast doubt on whether shoes that control pronation do actually cut down on injury. But the scientists said more work is needed to determine if highly pronated feet face a higher risk of injury than neutral feet.
|
18797
|
Joyce Beatty Says each year approximately 30,000 people in the United States die as a result of gunfire, and about 80,000 people are wounded.
|
Rep. Joyce Beatty says about 30,000 people die from gunfire each year in the U.S.
|
true
|
Ohio, Guns, Joyce Beatty,
|
"The pre-Christmas slaughter of 20 elementary school children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school has renewed public debate over how to prevent future mass killings with guns. On Jan. 14, members of the Congressional Black Caucus, now chaired by Warrensville Heights Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge, weighed in on that question by delivering a series of speeches on the House of Representatives floor that decried a U.S. ""culture of violence."" Newly elected Columbus Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty used the opportunity to deliver her first oration on the House of Representatives floor. In it, she lamented that ""mass killings have gone from being an extremely rare occurrence to a common occurrence,"" and suggested the U.S re-examine its funding for mental health services, place adequate controls on ammunition and ""ensure proper and tighter access to firearms."" ""According to Harvard Health Policy Review, each year approximately 30,000 people in the United States die as a result of gunfire, and about 80,000 people are wounded,"" the former Ohio state legislator noted, applauding President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for ""proactively taking the necessary steps to address this critical issue."" We wondered whether Beatty’s statistics were accurate, so we decided to track them down. We soon found an article in the Fall 2001 issue of Harvard Health Policy Review, titled The Costs and Benefits of Reducing Gun Violence, that begins with the exact wording used by Beatty - ""Each year, approximately 30,000 people in the United States die as a result of gunfire and about 80,000 are wounded."" But the date of that article gave us pause. The numbers it cited were more than a decade old. We wanted to find more recent numbers. We turned to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics to verify the information. The latest available version of its data says there were 31,672 firearms deaths in the United States during 2010, a ratio of 10.3 deaths per 100,000 people. That number is a bit higher than the number Harvard Health Policy Review cited in 2001, although it is certainly in the ballpark. The second set of CDC data we examined tracks non-fatal gun injuries. By the CDC’s reckoning, there were 73,883 non-fatal firearm injuries in 2011, a rate of 23.7 injuries per 100,000 people. That number is a bit lower than the number Beatty cited from the Harvard Health Policy Review, although it isn’t too far off. If the number of non fatal injuries from BB or pellet guns were added into the mix, the number of injuries from 2011 would exceed Harvard’s estimate of 80,000 yearly wounds from gunfire. According to CDC, 16,451 people in the United States were hurt by pellet guns - about 5.3 incidents per 100,000 people. Beatty accurately represented the statistics printed in Harvard Health Policy Review, even though its tally was more than a decade old. More recent data indicates those numbers haven’t changed much over the years."
|
6438
|
Ex-day care worker charged in death of 6-month-old.
|
A former Vermont daycare provider was arrested Monday on suspicion of manslaughter and child cruelty charges in the death of a 6-month-old girl she was caring for in her Rutland home in January.
|
true
|
Vermont, Arrests, Health, Vermont State Police, Antihistamines, Rutland
|
The arrest of Stacey Vaillancourt, 53, came after the final autopsy report on the body of Harper Briar, who was found unresponsive Jan. 24, determined the girl had high concentrations of diphenhydramine in her body, Vermont State Police said. The drug is the active sedating ingredient in over-the-counter antihistamines, police said. The autopsy report noted that diphenhydramine is not to be used on infants except if a doctor orders it. There was no such order for the infant, Vermont State Police said. “The state is alleging that the defendant sedated an otherwise beautiful, happy, healthy 6-month-old to the point where that baby could not lift her head and died,” said Rutland County State’s Attorney Rosemary Kennedy. “From the state’s perspective that is about as serious a charge that we see in Vermont.” Vaillancourt’s lawyer entered not guilty pleas as about 40 relatives and supporters of the baby’s family sat in the courtroom wearing pink “Justice for Harper Rose” T-shirts. According to a police affidavit, the infant was found unresponsive on the third day that Vaillancourt had been caring for her. Vaillancourt’s son told police that he and his fiance had become sick the night before and could not help her with the children that day, according to the affidavit. A phone message was left with Vaillancourt’s lawyer after hours seeking comment. Her lawyer Robert McClallen told the judge she has ties to the community, including family, owns a home with her mother, ran a daycare for 25 years, has a different job now and had recently undergone bankruptcy proceedings. The state had sought $50,000 bail and a condition that she not have contact with children under the age of 5. The judge set bail at $25,000 in the form of an unsecured appearance bond and the condition that she not have contact with children under the age of 5, except for her grandchild under the supervision of one of the child’s parents. __ This story has been corrected by removing reference to Vaillancourt’s lawyer not commenting.
|
41065
|
Suicide is the cause of death for around 3,000 people per day
|
Suicide is the cause of death for around 2,000 people per day.
|
false
|
online
|
26,383 people die of cancer each day. 24,641 die of heart disease every day. This is an underestimate for all cardiovascular disease deaths, but close to the daily figure of those who die from coronary heart disease specifically. 4,300 people die of diabetes every day. Suicide is the cause of death for around 3,000 people per day Suicide is the cause of death for around 2,000 people per day. Mosquitoes kill 2,740 people every day. This appears to be an overestimate. Mosquitoes are responsible for no more than around 700,000 deaths per year, or 1,900 a day. Humans kill 1,300 fellow humans every day. Snakes kill 137 people every day This is an underestimate. Snakes kill around 378 people per day. Claim 1 of 8
|
11253
|
Confusion surrounds B12 deficiency
|
This is a story about testing for a deficiency in vitamin B12, which can cause serious problems. It can occur in individuals who are unable to absorb B12 from food (i.e. people with gastritis, people using medication to treat heartburn over a long period, or those who have had gastric bypass surgery) or those who do not consume any B12 in their diet (i.e. vegetarians). For a number of reasons, B12 deficiency is more common in the elderly. Levels of B12 can be determined using either blood or urine tests. Adequate B12 levels can usually be maintained through the diet or daily multivitamin use. B12 deficiency requires medical intervention and will involve either larger oral doses or injections of B12. However – while true B12 deficiency should be treated, there is not an unrecognized epidemic of B12 deficiency occurring. Many people with low B12 levels are healthy. While this article serves to remind people to be mindful about vitamin B12, its tone sounds an alarm that, for most, is unwarranted. In so doing, it is a classic case of journalistic disease-mongering. It hypes a vitamin deficiency as a state of disease. Most people who see a primary care physician with complaints such as those described would be diagnosed by a complete blood count (CBS) test as having vitamin B12 deficiency, followed by specific testing for B12 deficiency. The story singles out one testing facility and offers a phone number and website for that facility. It touts a newly-published book. The headline of the story was “Confusion surrounds B12 deficiency.” We’re not sure much of that confusion was cleared up by this story.
|
false
|
Costs to assess B12 status are provided ($35 for blood test, $90-$200 for urine) as well as a web site where one can order a urine assessment of B12 without a prescription. However, no mention was made of the inexpensive and routine blood count (“CBC”) which can help screen for this vitamin deficiency. (A note of caution: The story also provides contact information for a commercial establishment for testing. How was this establishment chosen? Are their costs representative?) Costs for shots ($1.25) and pills ($1/month) are provided along with the caveat that insurance coverage for these varies Different approaches to treatment (oral vs. injectable) are not compared. Statements such as “Some experts say that shots are the best way to treat those who are deficient, at least initially” provide no quantitative information. No harms associated with increasing intake of B12 are mentioned. The Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences has not established a Tolerable Upper Intake Level for this vitamin because Vitamin B12 has a very low potential for toxicity. No mention was made that self treatment initiated though self requested testing for B12 deficiency could result in inadequate treatment in the case of an individual who was B12 deficient and attempted to self treat with an over-the-counter vitamin preparation. While several experts in the B vitamins are quoted they did not comment specifically on whether most people with vague symptoms should be screened for this problem. There is an absence of evidence informing the content of this article. The book “Could it be B12? An Epidemic of Misdiagnoses” (price and publisher included in the article) appears to be the genesis for this story. Its content does not appear to be peer reviewed and the review suggests sensationalized accounts of undiagnosed B12 deficiency. This article provides a strong sense that undiagnosed vitamin B12 deficiency is at the root of the problem for those with non-specific medical complaints. Notwithstanding that B12 deficiency can be a problem, especially for those with certain medical conditions or treatments, and while mentioning that “nine out of 10 people with low B12 levels are actually healthy and don’t need intervention”, the overall tone of this article is alarmist. In addition, there is no frame of reference for what it takes to become vitamin B12 deficient such as the time someone would need to eat a vegan diet in order to become deficient. There is no reference to peer reviewed sources of information on this topic nor any mention of research studies supporting the contentions presented. While vitamin B12 deficiency can be a serious medical problem, there is a lack of documentation for the claims made in this article. The treatment options of “shots or pills” are inadequately dealt with in this article in terms of why one might choose one over the other, or specific reasons why one would be the mode of treatment required (i.e. for individuals with a complete absence of intrinisic factor, injected B12 would be needed). Two options for testing are provided, though without support for the contention that the blood test is inaccurate up to 50% of the time or estimates of sensitivity and specificity of the urine assay. A list of food sources of vitamin B12 is provided in the article; however, though mention is made of pills or shots as a means of treating B12 deficiency, it is not clear that a physician’s prescription is required for the shots and that the pills typically available over-the-counter are not sufficient for the treatment of B12 deficiency. The article provides the historical context for vitamin B12 deficiency and treatment. Neither diagnosis nor treatments are novel. We can’t judge whether the article relied solely or largely on a news release. We can say that the story gave free publicity to the testing laboratory and to promoters for the book touted in the article.
|
|
37596
|
78 percent of women reconsider having an abortion after seeing an ultrasound of their pregnancy.
|
Do 78 Percent of Women Considering Abortion ‘Choose Life’ After Seeing an Ultrasound?
|
false
|
Disinformation, Fact Checks
|
A September 2019 claim by the anti-abortion group “March For Life” was exposed to online scrutiny in February 2020.The group claimed at the time that “78 percent of women considering abortion choose life after seeing an ultrasound of their babies.” It mentioned — but did not link to — NIFLA, the acronym for another advocacy group, the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates. The latter group is a network of “pregnancy centers.”The statistic was taken from a 2015 press release that was covered in anti-abortion blogs:Four-hundred and ten (410) of NIFLA’s medical membership (less than one-half) reported providing 75,318 ultrasound confirmations of pregnancy in 2013 on patients identified as either abortion-minded or abortion-vulnerable. Of these abortion at risk patients, 58,634 chose to carry to term, indicating that 78 percent of those mothers who saw an ultrasound image of their unborn child before deciding about abortion chose life.A post rebuking the group’s claim on Twitter was shared more than 7,000 times and highlighted more than 30,000 times on the platform.“Only 1.6 percent who viewed their ultrasound ultimately decided to continue their pregnancy in a peer reviewed study of 6,619 people,” the user wrote. Their source was a 2014 study published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology using data drawn from 15,575 visits to a Planned Parenthood center in Los Angeles in 2011. According to the study:Patients opted to view the ultrasound image 42.5 percent of the time. Nearly all pregnancies (98.8 percent) were terminated: 98.4 percent of pregnancies among women who viewed their ultrasound images and 99.0 percent of pregnancies among the patients who did not. Among women with high decision certainty, viewing was not associated with deciding to continue the pregnancy. Viewing was significantly associated with deciding to continue the pregnancy only among the 7.4 percent of women who reported medium or low decision certainty about having an abortion (adjusted odds ratio 3.21, 95 percent confidence interval 1.18–8.73).NIFLA drew national attention in June 2018, when the Supreme Court ruled that a California law mandating that “pregnancy centers” post notices telling clients that contraception and abortion programs are available either free or for a low cost through public programs violated the centers’ First Amendment rights.But a March 2018 report published in the journal of ethics for the American Medical Association (AMA) in March 2018 warned health providers to beware of centers’ “propagation of misinformation”:These centers might tell women they have “plenty of time” to get an abortion, they could delay access to abortion, which could lead to women missing the gestational age cut-off for abortion in a given state; expose women to more involved and slightly riskier procedures at higher gestational ages; or cause women to miss the opportunity for abortion altogether. [Also], false or misleading information about contraception, condoms, and abortion could lead to unnecessary anxiety or failure to use measures that protect against sexually transmitted infections.Because the numbers from peer-reviewed studies back up the second assertion and we were unable to find any supporting the first.
|
25988
|
“The spot where they are ‘getting a sample’ for the COVID-19 test is called your Blood-Brain Barrier.”
|
The swabs used for COVID-19 tests collect samples from the nasopharynx. Doctors say the swabs do not go anywhere near the blood-brain barrier. There is also no evidence that getting a COVID-19 test could cause anything more serious than temporary irritation.
|
false
|
Health Care, Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, Facebook posts,
|
"With 3 million coronavirus cases in the U.S. and counting, tests for COVID-19 are as important as ever. However, the nasal swab tests that determine if a person is actively infected with the virus have become the target of online misinformation. Social media users are circulating a post that claims the nasal swab tests are unsafe. ""The spot where they are ‘getting a sample’ for the COVID-19 test is called your Blood-Brain Barrier,"" the post reads. The post also claims a person could experience a number of other medical complications and conditions after receiving a COVID-19 test if the test compromised the blood-brain barrier. These symptoms include, the post alleges, ""autism, ADD, ADHD, heart disease, autoimmune disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, stroke, liver damage,"" and many more. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) There is no evidence to support these claims, and the Associated Press debunked a similar one. One of the most common COVID-19 tests requires a swab reach ""deep inside a person's nose and throat to extract sputum — the gunk that gets ejected through coughing, sneezing, spitting, and even singing,"" Business Insider reports. ""They have to go deep into the nose, and it’s called the nasopharynx,"" said Dr. Sandro Cinti, a University of Michigan professor who specializes in infectious diseases. Typically, a 6-inch nasopharyngeal swab is inserted ""into the cavity between the nose and mouth … for 15 seconds"" and rotated many times, according to UC Davis Health in California. Once one side of the nose is swabbed, the other side will be swabbed as well. Cinti explained that cells have to be collected to test for the coronavirus. ""They have to go back there with a swab in order to get adequate cells because viruses live in cells,"" he said. ""So they go back there, and then they have to turn the swab a few times for about 15 seconds, which sounds fast but it’s a lot of time when they’re doing it in your nose."" An article from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center warns that the test can be uncomfortable and create ""a lot of very odd sensations."" This includes making a person tear up or potentially triggering a gag reflex. Getting a COVID-19 nasal test would not cause any serious medical complications. It could cause ""temporary irritation,"" Cinti said. There is no evidence the swab used to test for COVID-19 could compromise the blood-brain barrier. ""It is uncomfortable,"" said Cinti. ""But it doesn’t go anywhere near the blood brain barrier."" The term blood-brain barrier actually refers to ""unique properties"" found in the blood vessels that supply blood to the central nervous system, according to an article from the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The blood-brain barrier’s purpose is to prevent pathogens and toxins in the bloodstream from reaching the brain, while also allowing vital nutrients through. Endothelial cells line the interior of blood vessels throughout the body, but ""in the capillaries that form the blood–brain barrier, endothelial cells are wedged extremely close to each other, forming so-called tight junctions,"" according to the Queensland Brain Institute. It is primarily these tightly-packed endothelial cells within the brain’s blood vessels that make up the blood-brain barrier. It is simply not possible for the nasopharyngeal swabs used in COVID-19 tests to compromise the blood-brain barrier. ""The swab ""would have to go through layers of muscle and fascia, as well as the base of the skull, which is a thick bone, in order to get anywhere near the blood-brain barrier, and I would say that it is not possible,"" Dr. Morgan Katz, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, told the Associated Press. A social media post claimed, ""The spot where they are ‘getting a sample’ for the Covid-19 test is called your Blood-Brain Barrier."" It also went on to claim that after getting a test, a person could develop a number of medical conditions. The nasal swab COVID-19 tests collect samples from the cavity between the nose and mouth, not the blood-brain barrier. It would not be possible for the 6-inch nasopharyngeal swabs used in COVID-19 tests to compromise the blood-brain barrier, which refers to the tightly packed cells inside the blood vessels of the brain."
|
35295
|
"U.S. President Donald Trump said ""hundreds"" of governors are calling him amid the COVID-19 coronavorus pandemic."
|
“So we could give you hundreds of clips like that from governors — including Democratic or ‘Democrat,’ as I call them, governors, which is actually the correct term. We could give you hundreds of clips just like that,” Trump said. “But we could have given you — you saw the statements. We have hundreds of statements. Hundreds of statements, including from Democrats and Democrat governors.”
|
false
|
Politics, COVID-19
|
As state leaders and the federal government developed plans for how the country would ease restrictions on social distancing amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly highlighted in public statements how often — and under what pretense — his administration spoke with governors over the phone. The calls, as he described them at a press briefing on April 20, helped establish “our unified effort to defeat the virus.” But as his references to the calls grew in March and April, so too did a rumor on social media about how the president framed his communications with governors. By mid-April 2020, hundreds of thousands of Twitter users had liked a tweet reading: “Trump said that ‘HUNDREDS of Governors are calling him.’ We only have 50. Think about that. Take all the time you need.” Additionally, numerous Facebook users contacted Snopes to ask about a similar claim on that platform, inquiries that included the following screenshot and a link to a Facebook status that has since been deleted: To determine the truth of the claim we studied transcriptions of Trump’s public statements in the weeks leading to the viral posting. Between March 1 and April 21, the commander in chief made dozens of public appearances, including press briefings, FOX News interviews and other events. And during those appearances, he made reference to the country’s “governors” hundreds of times, a Snopes analysis found. For example, on March 26, he told conservative political commentator Sean Hannity: “We had a call today where almost every governor, just about — I would say all 50, just about, and it was like a love fest.” Then, on March 30, he said in a call on the network’s show “Fox and Friends”: “I get on calls, and I get on a lot of the governor calls where we’ll have all 50 governors plus where we have some territories also, but we have 50 governors, and I’ll tell you what, if you could listen to those calls, you’d never hear a complaint.” Besides the TV media appearances, the president highlighted his communications with state leaders during White House press conferences designed to brief the nation on the federal government’s response to the pandemic. During his remarks on April 13, for instance, Trump played a video featuring FOX News clips and apparent statements from “bipartisan governors” acknowledging the “president’s support”, and then Trump said:
|
16243
|
"We have spent $350 million to deal with sea-level rise"" in the Miami area and ""hundreds of millions of dollars to deal with coral reefs."
|
"Scott said during the CNN debate, ""We have spent $350 million to deal with sea-level rise"" in the Miami area and ""hundreds of millions dollars to deal with coral reefs."" The state has spent $100 million to help the Keys upgrade to a sewer system, which should improve water quality -- a benefit for coral reefs. Scott omits that it was under Crist that the Legislature passed a law paving the way for the money, and he's wrong to claim it's ""hundreds of millions."" Scott’s office also pointed to a list of projects including flood mitigation, flood maps and beach protection -- and throws in the $100 million for the sewer project -- to make his claim about $350 million to deal with sea-level rise. While these include worthy projects, experts say they aren't directly related to addressing future sea-level rise. They’re typical projects for Florida, not new measures to address climate change."
|
false
|
Climate Change, Water, Florida, Rick Scott,
|
"Gov. Rick Scott has drawn criticism from environmentalists for denying in 2011 that man contributes to climate change and now dodging questions with the reply of ""I’m not a scientist."" The topic arose during the Oct. 21 CNN debate when moderator Jake Tapper asked Gov. Rick Scott why he was ""reluctant to believe the overwhelming majority of scientists who say that man contributes to climate change."" Instead of answering the question directly, Scott claimed that he had already taken action to protect the environment, including addressing sea-level rise. ""We have spent $350 million to deal with sea-level rise down in the Keys, or down in the Miami area. We spent hundreds of millions of dollars to deal with coral reefs,"" he said. Scott made a similar claim in the debate at Broward College on Oct. 15. Scott’s claim, particularly about investing in projects to combat sea-level rise, stood out for us. Under Scott, has the state spent $350 million to deal with sea-level rise in the Miami area and hundreds of millions to protect coral reefs? Did Scott invest hundreds of millions to help coral reefs? We asked a Scott campaign spokeswoman to provide details about the spending for both projects. As for the coral reefs, Jackie Schutz told PolitiFact that the state had ""$100 million spent on protecting the Keys."" The money stemmed from a mandate by the state for the Keys to upgrade from cesspits and septic tanks to a modern sewer system. Improving water quality can help coral reefs. In 1999 when Jeb Bush was governor, the state required that the Keys comply with wastewater standards that would necessitate modern sewer by 2010. That deadline would later be extended to 2015. To meet that goal, when Charlie Crist, was governor the Legislature approved a bill in 2008 that allowed bonding of $50 million a year for four years for the wastewater program. The bill stated that ""beginning July 1, 2010, the Legislature shall analyze the ratio of the state's debt to projected revenues prior to the authorization to issue any bonds under this section."" No money was actually doled out during the Crist administration, which coincided with the recession. Scott took over as governor in 2011. The first year that the state doled out money was in 2012. But the next year Scott, along with legislative leaders, decided not to issue bonds due to concerns about the state’s debt capacity, according to an article in the Florida Keys Keynoter. In 2014, the state doled out the second $50 million. In August 2014, Scott’s campaign released a ""Let’s Keep Florida Beautiful Plan,"" which included a promise to invest another $100 million in the Keys wastewater project. So how does the sewer system relate to coral reefs? Centralized wastewater treatment prevents nutrients and other pollutants from entering nearshore waters, said Chris Bergh of The Nature Conservancy in the Keys. Wastewater treatment kills bacteria from human waste that can cause coral disease. ""It was a great boon to the Keys environment and residents, but it will not affect sea-level rise in any but the most tangential ways,"" Bergh said. Sea-level rise money A spokesman for Scott’s office, John Tupps, sent us a list of what he said amounted to over $350 million ""to address flood mitigation and sea-level rise."" The projects were administered by various state agencies and included the following, in addition to the $100 million for sewer in the Keys: • $21 million for FEMA flood map modernization; • $122 beach protection projects; • $5 million for the coastal zone management program; • $80 million for flood mitigation in Florida in coastal communities; • $25 million for the Keys wastewater revolving loan program projects. The first thing we will point out is to get to $350 million Scott counted $100 million to install a sewer system in the Keys even though the point of that project wasn’t to deal with sea-level rise. We asked environmental experts if these additional projects should be considered as steps toward combating sea-level rise. They told us that while these projects have their merits, they aren’t long-term solutions to sea-level rise. For example, better flood maps help identify properties that are vulnerable under today’s conditions to flooding, but they don’t deal with future sea-level rise, Bergh said. These are typical beach maintenance and flooding-related projects. Scott hasn’t taken steps that scientists say would address future sea-level rise such as reducing coal-fired power plants. Florida State University oceanography professor Jeff Chanton said that if the beach protection projects refer to pumping sand onto the beach, that is an ""ineffective short-term temporary fix."" Chanton was one of the scientists who met with Scott this summer and urged him to take action on climate change. The scientists showed Scott how two feet of sea-level rise -- projected by 2048 -- will swallow much of Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. They called on Scott to reduce or eliminate coal-fired power plants; wean the state off carbon-emitting natural gas and oil-fired power; and develop more alternative energy options. The scientists noted that sea-level rise has already caused flooding in Miami Beach at high tide. We also sought out several government officials in Broward and Miami-Dade counties as well as the cities of Miami and Miami Beach to see if they had received state money to combat sea-level rise. No one could pinpoint a specific project. ""I have no idea what he's talking about. It's the first I've heard of it,"" said Monroe County Commissioner Heather Carruthers, who serves on the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact, in an interview with the Florida Keys Keynoter. Our ruling Scott said during the CNN debate, ""We have spent $350 million to deal with sea-level rise"" in the Miami area and ""hundreds of millions dollars to deal with coral reefs."" The state has spent $100 million to help the Keys upgrade to a sewer system, which should improve water quality -- a benefit for coral reefs. Scott omits that it was under Crist that the Legislature passed a law paving the way for the money, and he's wrong to claim it's ""hundreds of millions."" Scott’s office also pointed to a list of projects including flood mitigation, flood maps and beach protection -- and throws in the $100 million for the sewer project -- to make his claim about $350 million to deal with sea-level rise. While these include worthy projects, experts say they aren't directly related to addressing future sea-level rise. They’re typical projects for Florida, not new measures to address climate change."
|
11010
|
Experimental TB Test Called Fast and Accurate
|
"This was a one-sided and potentially misleading story about a rapid new diagnostic test for tuberculosis (TB). The study discussed in the article assessed how accurate the new test was, but it couldn’t tell us whether the test improves treatment or leads to better health outcomes for TB patients. So when the story speculates in the headline that the new test has the ""potential to greatly improve treatment"" of TB, we think this gets things off to a shaky start. The story could have recovered by also telling us why the new test might not lead to better treatment of TB. Apart from an incomplete discussion of the cost of the new test, however, this issue was not explored. As a result of this and other shortcomings, this story tilts much too far toward optimism in an area where huge challenges remain to be addressed. Obtaining an accurate TB diagnosis can take weeks using laboratory cultures, and this delay is one of many factors that has made it difficult for us to contain the spread of this disease worldwide. A new diagnostic test that could give accurate results at the point of care would represent a critically important new tool in this fight. That’s what makes it all the more important to accurately describe both advances and setbacks in TB research."
|
mixture
|
"This story does more than pay lip service to cost, flagging it as the key to making this test available in the developing world. It notes the price tag of the diagnostic machine itself and says that the $63 cost per test may be discounted by more than half in developing world countries. It fails however to compare the cost of the new test with the existing TB test. Even more important, it fails to explain that a $20 or $30 expense, which might sound modest to U.S. readers, would actually represent a huge cost burden in many developing world countries, where annual per capita health care expenditures are sometimes less than $30. A close call, but since the story made a good-faith effort to address this issue, we’ll award a satisfactory with deficiencies noted. This story reported on and emphasized the speed and accuracy of the new test, noting its advantage in this regard over conventional TB testing. It also mentioned the test’s ability to detect TB that is resistant to rifampin — a drug commonly used to treat the condition. Nevertheless, the story never attempted to quantify the real-world implications of the research from a data-oriented perspective. Some questions we feel the story should have attempted to answer, in quantitative terms, include: We also think the story should had paid a bit more attention to the issue of simultaneous infection with tuberculosis and HIV–something the new test could potentially help with. Tuberculosis in patients with HIV is harder to detect using current techniques, which usually involve evaluation of lung sputum under a microscope (called a ""smear test""). The resulting misdiagnoses and treatment delays can be especially harmful for HIV patients given their compromised immune status. TB progresses more rapidly and is more deadly in HIV-infected individuals compared with non-infected individuals. The new test appears to be effective at diagnosing TB even in patients who had a negative ""smear test"" — a group that would include many HIV-positive individuals. A comment about this potential benefit would have been appropriate. Although the new test apparently does a very good job of ruling out individuals who don’t have TB, the study reported that 5 out of 609 patients without TB received a false-positive TB diagnosis. These individuals may be subjected to additional tests and treatments that have the potential to cause harm. The story didn’t mention this. The story calls the new study ""a potentially significant advance"" and ""a very important discovery"" — praise which appears justified — but it didn’t do enough to balance this enthusiasm with discussion of limitations. It calls the test’s expense its ""one potential drawback,"" but a thorough evaluation could have dug up a number of other issues that merited coverage. Two key examples: This story may be a bit misleading when it states that one third of world’s population is infected with TB. This figure includes individuals with latent or inactive TB, which is not the disease diagnosed with the new test. However, we don’t feel the story overall crossed the line into disease-mongering. Although we wish it featured a comment from someone willing to look a bit more critically at the findings, the story did include an interview with an expert not affiliated with the study, thus meeting the minimum standard for the criterion. As far as we can tell, there were no conflicts of interest that weren’t identified. The story notes that current testing for tuberculosis (TB) involves looking at respiratory mucus under a microscope. However, it didn’t mention the fact that there are several other rapid nucleic acid tests for diagnosing TB that are similar to the test covered in the story. These alternative tests are not as simple to conduct and can’t be deployed on a wide scale with very high accuracy. Nevertheless, making mention of these tests would have added some of the context that we felt was generally lacking in this story. The story states the new test is available in Europe and will soon be submitted for FDA approval in the U.S. But this information doesn’t tell readers when or if the test will be available in the developing world, where need for it is greatest. In developing countries, which often have rudimentary health care systems, deployment of this test may be hampered by any number of systemic barriers. Cost is certainly one important issue. but so are management expertise and human resources and availability of reliable electricity. The importance of these issues is demonstrated in our experience with malaria and HIV, where fast and accurate tests are available but significant segments of the population do not have access to them. The story doesn’t do enough to provide this context. We don’t think the story oversold the novelty of this new TB test, which by all accounts does represent a noteworthy advance over current methods. However, we feel the story could have mentioned that there quite a few companies working on similar tests. Although the story does quote from a news release, it appropriately notes the source of the information. And since it includes an interview with an independent expert, we can be sure the story wasn’t based entirely on a release."
|
|
10252
|
FDA approves first drug to treat hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson’s disease
|
This news release from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announces the agency’s recent approval of a new drug marketed as Nuplazid (pimavanserin) for the treatment of hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD). The release leaves several crucial questions unanswered. We’re not told how much the drug will cost or how significant is the improvement offered by Nuplazid over placebo. A recent article in Stat that summarized an FDA panel’s recommendation to approve the drug, which the FDA followed, found that “In the pivotal trial behind Acadia’s marketing application, Nuplazid showed only modest improvements over placebo, and was tested in a way that makes it difficult to compare against other treatments.” A public memo from the FDA on Nuplazid seems to suggest for about every two patients who are expected to benefit greatly from Nuplazid, another patient will suffer a significant side effect. The release provides very little quantitative information but spends a great deal of time explaining the many symptoms of PD. About 40 to 50 percent of PD patients experience some form of psychosis, ranging from mild hallucinations to severe paranoid delusions. Medications used to treat PD tremors are considered the top risk factor for developing psychosis. Other risk factors are advanced age and severity of the disease as well as cognitive decline. Because PD patients are at risk of developing new side effects with the addition of new drugs, any news of an improved anti-psychotic with fewer side effects would be welcome news. It’s unclear what the newly approved drug Nuplazid, supposedly developed specifically for PD psychosis, has over existing generic drugs used to reduce or manage psychotic symptoms.
|
mixture
|
Government agency news release
|
The news release makes no mention of Nuplazid’s cost. An online search for the anticipated cost of the drug revealed only that market analysts predict the drug will reach blockbuster status — meaning it will have sales of at least $1 billion. The drug will no doubt be much costlier than competing generic anti-psychotics. The release doesn’t quantify any benefits. We’re only told that, compared to a placebo, Nuplazid decreases the frequency and/or severity of hallucinations and delusions. But we aren’t given any actual numbers on how significant this improvement is. There is no information given about the significance of the results. The release notes that Nuplazid has a “Boxed Warning alerting health care professionals about an increased risk of death associated with the use of these drugs to treat older people with dementia-related psychosis.” Other harms observed in the very brief (6-week) trial are swelling due to the accumulation of excessive fluid in the tissue, nausea and confusion. The release would have been stronger had it given us an idea of how common or rare these side effects are. The release states that Nuplazid’s effectiveness was demonstrated in a six-week clinical trial of 199 participants. “Nuplazid was shown to be superior to placebo in decreasing the frequency and/or severity of hallucinations and delusions without worsening the primary motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease,” according to the release. The small study size and brief length of the trial are concerns that the release could have called attention to. The FDA has approved many drugs that underwent far more extensive clinical trials that were later pulled from the market due to adverse events. We already noted above under benefits that the release provides little in the way of quantification of the trial results. We are also disappointed that the release didn’t reference where the trial was published in a peer-reviewed journal so that people who wanted to could do an individual assessment of the study results. The news release doesn’t engage in disease mongering. The release reports that 50,000 new cases of PD are diagnosed each year and that hallucinations or delusions are said to occur in as many as 50 percent of patients with PD at some point during their illness. That’s useful context. The news release tells us Nuplazid is marketed and funded by Acadia Pharmaceuticals. The only alternative mentioned in the news release is the placebo used for comparison in the clinical trial. What about other treatment methods? According to patient advocacy groups, other government websites and review articles, there are numerous alternatives in use for treating PD-related hallucinations and delusions. Among them, according to the University of Florida College of Medicine: The news release is reporting FDA’s recent approval of Nuplazid so it’s understood the drug isn’t available now. Ideally, for patients’ sake, the news release would have mentioned the company’s announced roll-out plans. According to a company news release, the firm intends to launch the drug in June 2016. The news release states that this is the “first drug approved to treat hallucinations and delusions associated with psychosis experienced by some people with Parkinson’s disease.” There is no evidence of unjustifiable language in the news release.
|
3126
|
23 states widen challenge to Trump administration car rules.
|
California on Friday broadened its effort to block the Trump administration from ending its authority to set greenhouse gas emission and fuel economy standards for cars and trucks.
|
true
|
District of Columbia, General News, Politics, Environment, California, U.S. News, Lawsuits, Economy
|
It was joined by 22 states, the District of Columbia and two cities in suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, building on a similar lawsuit it filed in September a day after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration withdrew California’s waiver. The latest lawsuit challenges the EPA’s attempt to revoke part of a waiver it granted California in 2013 permitting the state to impose its greenhouse gas and zero emission vehicle standards. It asks the court to rule that California’s rules are protected under the federal Clean Air Act. The coming court battle will help mold a major aspect of the nation’s climate policy because 13 other states and the District of Columbia have adopted California’s standards. Federal law generally sets the rules for how much vehicles can pollute. But California has been allowed to impose tougher rules since the 1970s because it has the most cars and problems meeting air quality standards. The EPA said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation, but Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said in September that the stricter rules were making vehicles more expensive and less safe because consumers had difficulty buying newer, safer vehicles. “California’s Clean Car Standards are achievable. They not only work, many other states around the country have chosen to adopt them,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fellow Democrat, said Republican President Donald Trump “continues to weaponize federal agencies in his war against public health and clean air.” He noted several major automakers this year voluntarily agreed to the state’s regulations despite the effort the roll them back. The filing also asks the court to review NHTSA’s September decision. Joining California in the lawsuit are attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia; as well as the cities of Los Angeles and New York. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring criticized the administration for not only rolling back federal climate change efforts, but “threatening states’ rights to implement their own efforts to reduce carbon emissions and encourage clean car jobs and technology.” ___ This story has been corrected to reflect that 22 states and the District of Columbia have joined California’s suit, not 23 states.
|
40399
|
This eRumor includes a series of pictures of what is says is the hand of a man who was bitten by a brown recluse spider. It also claims that the brown recluse is the most dangerous spider in the U.S.
|
Pictures of a victim of brown reclusive spider bite
|
unproven
|
Insects, Warnings
|
We’ve not found the source of these particular pictures, but they are consistent with what other victims claim to have experienced from having been bitten by a brown recluse spider. CLICK HERE for a site that has hundreds of stories from, and pictures of, alleged brown reclusive bites. Brown recluse spiders are primarily found in the Southern United States and portions of the Midwest. According to the Department of Entomology at the University of California at Riverside, bites from the brown recluse spider are relatively rare and most people who are bitten do not develop nasty symptoms. The pictures of reported spider bites commonly show a “slow healing necrotic lesion.” Experts warn, however, that not every case of gruesome pictures may be from a reclusive spider bite. There has been a lot of publicity, especially on the Internet, about the effects of the bite of the brown reclusive spider but doctors caution that an injury should not be classed as a spider bite unless the spider has been seen doing the biting. In Canada, for example, there have been several cases reported of brown reclusive spider bites even though there are no brown reclusive spiders that live that far north. Robert G. Bennett and Richard S.Vetter are professional entomologists. In an article in Canadian Family Physician magazine in August, 2004, they said that 80 percent of spider-bite diagnoses are in error and that when someone gets a necrotic lesion, it is easy to think it might be from a spider. In reality, according the article, many of the wounds are from other kinds of infections and could even be the result of cancer, which would be important to diagnose correctly. Updated 3/31/06 Comments
|
12431
|
Nearly $2 billion in cash was flown over to Iran, money that the Obama administration has admitted is being used for terrorists and to support further activities there.
|
Handel said the Obama administration admitted that nearly $2 billion flown to Iran is being used to fund terrorism and various supporting activities. She is more specific than the record supports. One way or another, the United States transferred $1.7 billion owed to Iran. As for what the administration admitted, Kerry said it was likely that some portion of any money Iran received would go to its top security organization and some of that money would end up advancing terrorism. Beyond that general statement, details are lacking.
|
mixture
|
Georgia, Foreign Policy, Nuclear, Terrorism, Karen Handel,
|
"All politics might be local but foreign policy dominated the open of the televised debate in the Georgia congressional race between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican Karen Handel. Asked about Iran and the Barack Obama-era deal that was designed to put the brakes on its nuclear program, Handel said, ""Nearly $2 billion in cash was flown over to Iran, money that the Obama administration has admitted is being used for terrorists and to support further activities there."" We decided to fact-check Handel’s claim. The Iran deal focused on reducing Iran’s stockpiles of nuclear-grade material, but a key provision unlocked Iranian assets that had been frozen for decades. How much money was there is a matter of debate. The U.S. Treasury Department estimated the value of Iran’s foreign currency reserves at $100 billion. An article in Foreign Policy magazine cited $120 billion. The Institute of International Finance, a trade association representing banks, insurance companies and other financial entities worldwide, ran its own numbers and settled on $100 billion. Handel’s staff pointed to a March 17, 2016, letter from the U.S. State Department saying Iran had received about $1.7 billion as part of the nuclear agreement. The money was legally due to Iran. The country had paid America for military equipment in 1979, but then the Iranian revolution came and the hardware was never delivered. In August 2016, many news organizations reported the delivery of $400 million of that $1.7 billion in cash. As part of that exchange, an unmarked cargo plane delivered the money after American officials were certain that three Americans held in Iran were on their way home. It is not known how the remaining $1.3 billion made its way to Iran. Given the isolation of Iran’s banking system, it is possible that the payment was made in cash and flown to Iran, but neither we nor Handel’s staff could point to any report that said that definitely took place. The idea that the Obama administration admitted that the money is being spent on terrorists comes from something then-Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview. Kerry told CNBC’s Squawk Box in January 2016 that Iran could spend the unfrozen assets however it wanted. ""I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps) or of other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists,"" Kerry said. ""To some degree, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that every component of that can be prevented."" The IRGC, as Iran’s premier security institution, fields an army, navy and air force and ""presides over a vast power structure with influence over almost every aspect of Iranian life,"" according to the Council on Foreign Relations think tank. In 2007, the U.S. Treasury Department designated the IRGC’s elite Quds Force a terrorist supporter for aiding the Taliban and other terrorist organizations. So, Kerry was saying some of the money ultimately would end up with organizations involved in terrorism. That’s not quite the same as saying all of the money would go for terrorists and activities to support terrorism as Handel said. Iran has many needs, including rebuilding aging infrastructure. Kerry did tell reporters the same day, according to the Associated Press, that he understands the IRGC is ""already complaining that they are not getting the money."" Handel said the Obama administration admitted that nearly $2 billion flown to Iran is being used to fund terrorism and various supporting activities. She is more specific than the record supports. One way or another, the United States transferred $1.7 billion owed to Iran. As for what the administration admitted, Kerry said it was likely that some portion of any money Iran received would go to its top security organization and some of that money would end up advancing terrorism. Beyond that general statement, details are lacking."
|
26801
|
“Corona virus: Florida man arrested for robbery using cough as a weapon.”
|
This screenshot of “breaking news” is originally from a satirical news site. If you look closely, you’ll see a news generator watermark in the top right corner, meaning the image was created.
|
false
|
Florida, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
|
"The most recent piece of misinformation being spread about the coronavirus disease 2019, also called COVID-19, is that it can be used as a unique robbery weapon. A Facebook post uploaded on Feb. 26, 2020, includes a screenshot of a news story with the headline: ""Corona virus: Florida man arrested for robbery using cough as a weapon."" The live news alert’s background photo is a man of Asian descent with the quote ""if you call the police I will cough"" in front of him. This post was flagged by Facebook as part of efforts to combat false news and information on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) This a screenshot from a satirical news website and the news format of the image is from a breaking news generator that anyone can use. The website that generated this image says it is a satirical news website and has a link for readers to submit their own satirical news stories. It posted the ""live news"" image on Feb. 23, 2020. This breaking news image was made on breakyourownnews.com. The font and formatting of this screenshot are identical to the breaking news generator. There is also a breakyourownnews.com watermark in the top right corner of the image. The image of an Asian man to symbolize a robber using coronavirus feeds into stereotypes about who has the illness. According to the CDC’s COVID-19 FAQ page, ""fear and anxiety can lead to social stigma, for example, towards Chinese or other Asian Americans."" The CDC said that this ""hurts everyone by creating more fear or anger towards ordinary people instead of the disease that is causing the problem."" The CDC’s advice: ""Communicating the facts that viruses do not target specific racial or ethnic groups and how COVID-19 actually spreads."" The CDC also includes a breakdown of all the ways COVID-19 can be spread on their website. This screenshot of ""breaking news"" is fake. It was originally from a satirical news site and has an obvious news generator watermark in the top right corner. It then got spun around the internet in a way that would fool people."
|
34199
|
Intravenous drug users commonly clean their needles by sticking them into rolls of toilet paper in public bathrooms.
|
What's false: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Drug Abuse both said they are not aware of it being a common practice for intravenous drug users to clean needles by stabbing them into rolls of toilet paper. What's undetermined: Whether a photograph shows a roll of toilet paper that was used to clean a needle is unknown.
|
unproven
|
Medical
|
In March 2019, a number of social media users encountered a piece of text warning them to be extra cautious in public bathrooms because intravenous drug users purportedly were known to clean their needles by sticking them into rolls of toilet paper: I took a HAZWOP class about 6 months ago and ever since then I always look at the toilet paper roll in a porta potty or public restroom before deciding to do my business. The instructor warned us about intravenous drug users cleaning their needles by stabbing the dirty needle into the roll of toilet paper to clean the blood off of the tip. This photograph and text was originally shared by Facebook user Gavin Aubert. The post racked up hundreds of thousands of shares, but was ultimately deleted after it attracted bots that flooded the comments section with spammy links. We managed to get in contact with Aubert’s wife, who told us that her husband truly wrote the text, and that the photograph had been taken at a KFC in Federal Way, Washington. While Aubert may be relaying something he actually heard during a HAZWOPER class — Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response is a set of guidelines set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) — that does not mean that this practice is widespread. A spokesperson for OSHA told us that the organization had not heard of this practice. We received a similar response from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The Institute told us that concerned citizens should check with their local public health departments for more information, but, generally speaking, the organization had no evidence that drug users were cleaning needles by stabbing them into toilet paper rolls in public bathrooms. A spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Health said that they were also unaware of any reports of drug users cleaning needles by sticking them into toilet paper rolls: We have never heard of this. This practice seems extremely unlikely because the tip of the needle could break off if one tried to stab it through a toilet paper roll. I’m not sure why someone would risk that if what they wanted was to use the same needle for another shot. Logically it would be much easier to wipe off the tip with some toilet paper rather than stabbing it through the roll. Here is the info on how someone would properly clean a needle/syringe. That said, the best public health practice endorsed by CDC and the US Public Health Service is to use a new sterile needle/syringe for every injection. We reached out to the Federal Way Police Department but did not hear back by press time. As noted by the Washington Health Department, the method described in this viral Facebook post is not effective in cleaning a needle. Health officials also say drug users should never share needles as it puts them at risk of getting or transmitting disease such as hepatitis or HIV. HarmReduction.org also recommends against re-using needles in general: The only to definite way to avoid disease transmission of this sort is to never share needles, syringes, or other injection equipment. It is therefore extremely important for every injector to have his or her own set of works, and an ample supply of needles and syringes so that they never have to share or re-use their own—but especially others’—injection equipment. Cleaning needles and syringes is a complicated process that, even if done according to the best scientific advice currently available, is not a 100% fool-proof method of avoiding harmful bacteria, viruses, and other blood-borne pathogens. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that drug users can reduce the risk of HIV by cleaning their needles in bleach, but this method still does not completely eliminate the risk. The CDC suggests that drug users find a local syringe service program (SSP) to obtain free sterile needles: The best way to reduce the risk of getting or transmitting HIV through injection drug use is to stop injecting drugs. Talk with a counselor, doctor, or other health care provider about substance use disorder treatment, including medication-assisted treatment. To find a treatment center near you, check out the locator tools on Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) or www.hiv.gov, or call 1-800-662-HELP (4357). If you continue injecting drugs, never share needles or works. Many communities have syringe services programs (SSPs) where you can get free sterile needles and syringes and safely dispose of used ones. They can also refer you to substance use disorder treatment and help you get tested for HIV and hepatitis. Contact your local health department or North American Syringe Exchange Network (NASEN) to find an SSP. Also, some pharmacies may sell needles without a prescription. Other things you can do to lower your risk of getting or transmitting HIV, if you continue to inject drugs, include: Cleaning used needles with bleach. This may reduce the risk of HIV but doesn’t eliminate it. In short, rumors about intravenous drug users cleaning their needles by stabbing them into rolls of toilet paper in public bathrooms were based on a single, unverified Facebook post. As of this writing, we have not encountered any evidence to suggest that this practice is widespread.
|
4563
|
Vegetarians gaining ground in carnivorous Argentina.
|
A fight is on over the Argentine identity, pitting a growing number of vegetarians and vegans against meat-eaters in a country known for its abundant beef, gaucho cowboys and sacred “asado” barbecues.
|
true
|
AP Top News, Animals, International News, South America, General News, Buenos Aires, Latin America, Caribbean, Health, Vegetarianism, Argentina
|
The weekend “asados” bring together families and friends and are a source of national pride in this South American country, which traditionally battles neighboring Uruguay for world leader in per-capita beef consumption. But this carnivorousness is being threatened by rising support for vegetarianism and veganism among Argentines, particularly the young and millennials, and growing militancy by activists. A recent private online questionnaire found that six of every 10 Argentines are disposed to stop eating beef, a figure that alarmed ranchers who are already struggling through an economic crisis. The cultural divide came to a head several weeks ago when anti-animal cruelty activists interrupted an exhibition of the Buenos Aires Rural Society and were met by ranchers, some dressed in traditional gaucho outfits, who charged at them on horses with whips. The younger generations “have grown up amid the debate over abortion in Congress; inclusion, gender equality ... These collective questions have started to gain weight in decisions about the purchase of foods,” said Adrián Bifaretti, head of marketing at the Institute for the Promotion of Beef and author of the online survey and focus group that found a widespread readiness to give up beef. Bifaretti said the findings are based on doing a survey of 1,100 people every two months in a poll with a margin of error of three percentage points. A July report by Argentina’s Chamber of Commerce for Beef and its Derivatives said Argentines are consuming on average 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of beef a year, what it called the lowest level in the history of this country, where cattle brought by the Spanish centuries ago thrived on vast prairies knows as pampas. “This concern about cruelty and the slaughter is here and is going to be felt,” Bifaretti said, adding that trends seen in other parts of the world are arriving in Argentina. “It is starting to be a challenge.” Much of the anti-beef activism comes from vegans. Lying on the grass, Melisa Lobo stroked the snout of Apollo, a weeks-old black calf about the size of a Labrador dog. Nearby, goats, sheep, chickens and ducks roamed and socialized at “Wild Sanctuary,” two hectares (nearly five acres) of land an hour from Buenos Aires. “In the sanctuary, animals live out their entire lives,” said Lobo, a 28-year-old vegan, who calls each of the 300 animals in the sanctuary by name, except for the chickens “because they are all very similar.” While a plump sheep named Bruno suspiciously approached the visitors interviewing Lobo, a goat tried to get the attention of the humans by displaying its horns. “A person who is in contact with a dog or a cat knows that the animal feels, knows that they like to be pampered, knows when they are hungry, thirsty, cold or what hurts when they get hurt,” Lobo said. “But people not so close to them don’t know or don’t want to know that they are sentient beings.” Veganism, a current that emerged in London during World War II, is based on a diet free of animal products, unlike vegetarians who accept the intake of milk or eggs. Vegans also reject all forms of animal exploitation, whether as labor, or for clothing, cosmetics, transportation, sports or scientific experimentation. “You receive meat on your plate and you don’t think about how it got there,” Lobo said. “I always liked my meat rare and I never imagined that the blood was fluid from the animal’s muscle.” There is no official figure in Argentina, but Bifaretti’s institute estimates vegans and vegetarians represent 7% to 8% of the population. When it is not yet dawn in Buenos Aires’s Mataderos neighborhood, the white uniforms of workers in the refrigerated meat lockers are already stained red from the beef arriving from the nearby slaughterhouses. The district supplies much of the meat for the traditional “asados” that are consumed in restaurants and homes in Argentina’s capital. “Thank God, in Argentina and in these neighborhoods people still eat the asado on weekends but in the future it could get a bit complicated,” said Diego Salvo, who runs The Best Butcher Shop, acknowledging the new trends against meat. Beef is so deeply ingrained in Argentina’s culture that vegan chefs need great ingenuity to adapt typical dishes to their menus. At La Reverde, the first vegan grill in Buenos Aires,, the house specialty resembles the country’s “bife de chorizo,” a popular cut of boneless beef cooked on a grill. But it is really a “seitan steak,” that is made from wheat gluten and ingredients including beet puree and spices that help create a similar tone to beef. “I don’t love eating animals,” said Melissa Aruj, a 25-year-old after she finished a seitan cut accompanied by fries. “Without a doubt, I estimate that in 10 to 15 years a large part (of the population) will be vegetarian.” “I don’t know if they will be vegan,” she added. The change will be “little by little.” To some activists, just eating vegan is not enough. They have stepped up their actions into militancy. A group of young people from the animal liberation group Voicot gathered on a recent Saturday to protest at the entrance to a slaughterhouse in Buenos Aires. “It makes me very sad. Words are not enough for me to apologize to the animals because they have miserable lives. They are born with a date to die,” said one protester, Jazmín Romero, tears in her eyes. She wore a black shirt proclaiming: “We are the species threatening to destroy everything.” On the other side of the divide, many Argentines see eating beef as part of their history and culture. “We aren’t talking about killing the animal for sport. The animal is being transformed into food,” said Bifaretti. “It has been like this throughout the history of humanity.”
|
9981
|
Study: ADHD Diet Helps Reduce Symptoms
|
Within the body of the story, some nuggets of solid health information can be found, but they can’t outshine all the cheerleading for a diet that may prove, upon much needed further study, to be bad for kids. ADHD affects, by most estimates, 1 out of every 20 kids, and researchers are not certain what causes it or what aggravates it. As the HealthDay story on the same topic pointed out, there is controversy among researchers and clinicians about whether to put children on restrictive diets. Most parents would prefer not to treat their children with medications if possible, so dietary therapies that work are of great interest. This is one of only a few studies to take a randomized, controlled trial approach to studying dietary effects on ADHD, and, according to the Lancet, it is the largest trial to date. That makes the findings important, but, as experts in the field note in these stories, the findings demand more questions than they answer. The headline and first quote in this story suggests that children should be put on this diet immediately when, clearly, the amount of evidence supporting the diet is still too weak to justify a radical change in treatment.
|
false
|
Diet studies,WebMD
|
This story doesn’t mention specific costs, although it at least makes a passing reference to expense: “It can be time consuming and more expensive than other diets, experts say.” The story explains that if parents are to embark on this diet, they will need to have their kids monitored by “experts” or by “a primary care doctor and, if possible, a dietician.” If so, that would make this diet extremely expensive and would require significant out-of-pocket spending given that insurance companies are not currently paying parents to see their doctor for ADHD-related diet monitoring. The story provided the benefits in both relative and absolute terms, allowing readers to see that the numbers are actually quite small. The story explained: “In the ADHD diet group, 41 of 50 children finished the first phase. In that group of 41 children, 32, or 78%, responded favorably by having fewer symptoms. Overall, 32 of 50, or 64%, responded favorably.” The story didn’t mention that there were no adverse effects found from the study. We think that was worth mentioning given some of the understandable concerns raised by putting young children on any sort of restrictive diet. We do appreciate, too, that this story at least mentioned in passing concerns about malnutrition. This story paled in comparison to HealthDay in evaluating the quality of the evidence. It provided less information about the study design and it presented less in the way of context. For example, the HealthDay story says “that clinical practice shouldn’t be changed based on the results of one study.” But the WebMD story says in the first sentence “Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) should be offered a special ADHD diet to see if eliminating certain foods might reduce their symptoms, Dutch researchers say.” This story does present the actual estimated prevalence of ADHD, saying, “ADHD affects about 3% to 7% of U.S. school-aged children, according to the American Psychiatric Association, but other sources put the figures higher.” This fact is lost, though, in all the boosterism in the rest of the story. The third paragraph says, “”I am of the opinion that every child deserves this diagnostic intervention,’ researcher Lidy Pelsser, PhD, of the ADHD Research Centre in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, tells WebMD.” Later, the story says that the study “is more applicable to the population as a whole.” This confusing language might lead parents to believe that if their child starts showing any signs of being hyperactive that they should put them on a restrictive diet. The story quotes one outside expert and one expert who wrote an accompanying editorial. Eugene Arnold, MD, professor emeritus of psychiatry at Ohio State University’s Nisonger Center, Columbus, says “There is a risk of malnutrition if you don’t pay attention to the balance of nutrients.” But he also gives the impression that the diet is worth trying, even based on the limited evidence of efficacy. “If there is no improvement in two to five weeks, forget it,” he says. Jaswinder Ghuman, MD, associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Arizona, who wrote a commentary, says, “It is very difficult to carry out,” and added, these are interesting findings and it does present an alternative treatment option for the children.” Taken together, these comments tend to underscore the idea that people should try this diet, a very different take away from the HealthDay story, which said high up “the evidence isn’t yet conclusive.” The story mentioned other therapies in passing. “Besides dietary restriction, medication and behavior therapy are used to treat children with ADHD.” But, given that existing therapies have been around for decades, we think the story does not meet our bar, which requires “some assessment of their relative performance.” Both the HealthDay story and the WebMD story described the diet in broad strokes, allowing readers, especially parents, to understand the basic components. There are two problem with both stories, though. First, they did not say anything about food preparation. Is serving a child fried chicken the same as grilled? Are french fries as good as a baked potato? The other key point is that a dietician has to “tailor” the diet for each child. If there were no experienced dietician available, that would be problematic. Still, we thought enough detail was presented to warrant a satisfactory rating. We would like to give this story a passing grade on the question of novelty, but the way the information is presented only amplifies the cheerleading effect of the rest of the story. The story provides important context by saying, “While previous studies have found a link between foods and ADHD symptoms, the researchers say the studies were typically small or only included children known to have a tendency to allergies.” If the story had then gone on to quote the Lancet piece and say that all previous studies combined only included 188 children while this one study covered 100 kids, that would have been strong evidence for the study’s novelty. Instead, it says, “Their study is more applicable to the population as a whole.” The story didn’t rely on a news release.
|
7384
|
EU: Possible virus drug approval ‘before the summer’.
|
The European Medicines Agency predicted that there could be licensed drugs to treat the new coronavirus in the next few months and that a vaccine might even be approved in early 2021, in a “best-case scenario.”
|
true
|
Understanding the Outbreak, International News, Clinical trials, Health, Business, Racing for a Remedy, Virus Outbreak, Europe, General News
|
Dr. Marco Cavaleri, who heads the European regulator’s vaccines department, told a media briefing on Thursday that approving medicines to treat COVID-19 might be possible “before the summer,” citing ongoing clinical trials. Recent early results for the drug remdesivir suggested it could help patients recover from the coronavirus faster, although longer-term data is still needed to confirm any benefit. Although it typically takes years to develop a vaccine, Cavaleri said that if some of the shots already being tested prove to be effective, they could be licensed as early as the beginning of next year. Cavaleri cautioned, however, that many experimental vaccines never make it to the end and that there are often delays. “But we can see the possibility that if everything goes as planned, vaccines could be approved a year from now,” he said. More than 140 heads of states and health experts, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz issued an appeal Thursday calling on all countries to unite behind a “people’s vaccine” against COVID-19, to ensure any effective treatments and vaccines be available globally to anyone who needs them, for free. At the moment, there are about a dozen vaccine candidates being tested in China, Britain, Germany and the U.S. The World Health Organization has estimated it could take about 12 to 18 months for an effective vaccine to be found. While some experts have proposed dropping the requirement for large-scale advanced clinical trials altogether, Cavaleri said that wasn’t currently being considered. “Our current thinking is all vaccines under development should undergo large phase 3 trials to establish what is the level of protection,” he said. But he acknowledged that could change if the situation worsened. “Things may evolve as the pandemic will evolve and we will see if we need to do something else,” Cavaleri said. Some officials have warned that a vaccine might never be found; previous attempts to develop a vaccine against related coronaviruses like SARS and MERS have all failed. But Cavleri was optimistic an immunization against COVID-19 would eventually be discovered, as there are various technologies being tried globally. “I think it’s a bit early to say, but we have good reason to be sufficiently optimistic that at the end of the day, some vaccines will make it,” he said. ___ Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
|
35203
|
People with Type-A blood are more susceptible to COVID-19.
|
Tara Moriarty, an expert in infectious diseases and immunopathology with the University of Toronto, told us by email that the study provides “an interesting observation that may have an impact on how we identify those most at risk of disease, but until it has been fully peer-reviewed and confirmed/disconfirmed by additional studies, we cannot yet say if blood type affects susceptibility to COVID-19 infection.”
|
unproven
|
Medical
|
On March 11, 2020, researchers in China released a preliminary draft of a study that collected data on the ABO blood types of 2,173 patients with lab-verified cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease from two hospitals in Wuhan and one in Shenzhen. The researchers compared the distribution of blood types in the infected patients to the distribution of blood types of uninfected people (as a control group) from Wuhan City and Shenzhen City. The team analyzed the data in an effort to answer two questions. First, if infection from COVID-19 appeared disproportionately high or low in any blood group; and second, if instances of death from COVID-19 had any relationship to blood type. The researchers found that: These results, which the authors cautioned should not be used to guide clinical practice, came with several caveats. First, this study is a draft of a research paper that has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in any journal. Second, the study is limited in both sample size and geographic scope. Speaking to the South China Morning Post, Gao Yingdai, a Tianjin-based researcher not involved in the study, said that while a 2,000-person sample is not necessarily small, it is dwarfed by the number of cases globally.
|
2659
|
Crowded, stretched world awaits 7 billionth baby.
|
The world’s 7 billionth person will be born into a population more aware than ever of the challenges of sustaining life on a crowded planet but no closer to a consensus about what to do about it.
|
true
|
Health News
|
"Newly born babies rest inside a ward at a hospital on the occasion of ""World Population Day"" in the northern Indian city Lucknow in this file picture taken July 11, 2009. REUTERS/Pawan Kumar/Files To some demographers the milestone foreshadows turbulent times ahead: nations grappling with rapid urbanization, environmental degradation and skyrocketing demand for healthcare, education, resources and jobs. To others, a shrinking population, not overpopulation, could be the longer-term challenge as fertility rates drop and a shrinking workforce is pushed to support social safety for an aging populace. “There are parts of the world where the population is shrinking and in those parts of the world, they are worried about productivity, about being able to maintain a critical mass of people,” Babatunde Osotimehin, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, told Reuters. “Then there are parts of the world where the population is growing rapidly. Many of these countries face challenges in terms of migration, poverty, food security, water management and climate change and we need to call attention to it.” The United Nations says the world’s seven billionth baby will be born on October 31. No-one knows what circumstances the baby will be born into, but India’s Uttar Pradesh — a sugarcane-producing state with a population that combines that of Britain, France and Germany, in a country expected to overtake China as the world’s most populous by 2030 — provides a snapshot of the challenges it could face. Pinky Pawar, 25, is due to give birth in Uttar Pradesh at the end of the month and is hoping her firstborn will not join the estimated 3 billion people living on less than $2 a day, with little hope of an education or a job. “I want my child to be successful in life, so I must do my best to make this possible,” she said, her hands over her swollen belly as she sat outside her mud and brick home in Sunhaida village. In Sunhaida, poverty, illiteracy and social prejudice mark a life dominated by the struggle for survival that mirrors millions of others across the world. With the number of people on earth more than doubling over the last half-century, resources are under more strain than ever before. First among the short-term worries is how to provide basic necessities for the additional 2-3 billion people expected to be added in the next 50 years. Water usage is set to increase by 50 percent between 2007 and 2025 in developing nations and 18 percent in developed ones, with much of the increased use in the poorest countries as rising rural populations move to towns and cities. “The problem is that 97.5 percent of it (water) is salty and ... of the 2.5 percent that’s fresh, two-thirds of that is frozen,” says Rob Renner, executive director of the Colorado-based Water Research Foundation. “So there’s not a lot of fresh water to deal with in the world.” Nutritious food is in short supply in many parts of the globe. The World Bank says 925 million people are hungry today, partly due to rising food prices since 1995, a succession of economic crises and the lack of access to modern farming techniques and products for poor farmers. To feed the two billion more mouths predicted by 2050, food production will have to increase by 70 percent, the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization says. But just as research, development and expansion of agricultural programs are critical, the public dollars pledged to this effort remain a pittance of what is needed, and are in fact in danger of sharp decline, experts say. “We have to raise productivity,” Robert Thompson, who serves on the International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council and is former director of rural development for the World Bank. “I think we can do it all if we invest enough in research. But at the moment we aren’t.” Climate change could be the greatest impediment to meeting the food target as rising temperatures and droughts dry out farmlands which are then inundated by intense floods and storms. The way climate change has been handled offers a window on how tricky it is to tackle global, long-term problems, however. While it’s clear what needs to be done, U.N. climate talks have largely stalled. “There is a reason why these negotiations are relatively slow,” said Wendel Trio, director of Climate Action Network Europe, referring to the economic downturn and arguments between rich and poor nations over carbon cuts. “But if you compare it to the urgency and the fact that many governments clearly understand the urgency, it is a failure of governments that they can’t move forward.” Experts say demographic imbalances will also place serious strains on towns and cities across the world as mostly middle-class blue-collar migrants move from poorer rural areas to richer urban centers. China’s capital Beijing — with its almost 20 million inhabitants — is now the world’s 13th most populous city, its population almost doubling over the last decade, reflecting a trend mirrored worldwide, particularly in developing nations. Cities in Africa, Asia and South America are bursting at the seams from migrants seeking better jobs or as farmers flee droughts, floods and other environmental disasters. In 1950, about 730 million people lived in cities. By 2009, it was nearly 3.5 billion and in four decades it will be 6.3 billion, the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs said in a March 2010 report. That explosive growth stretches limited resources and infrastructure and places megacities on a collision course with a predicted increase in extreme flooding, storms and rising sea levels from climate change, U.N. Habitat says. Experts say the lack of coordinated planning is exacerbating the problem. “Any kind of plan for decentralizing the population requires a series of policies that work together,” said Wang Jianguo, a senior project officer on urbanization at the Asian Development Bank’s Beijing office. “If you only have a population policy without an employment policy, without an industry development policy, education, medical policy, it won’t work.” One important policy tool to manage a growing population is to give women access to family planning, experts say, adding that 215 million women worldwide want it but do not get it. Access to education is also important as it motivates women to reduce their fertility and improve their children’s health. A lack of such education has meant that while the overall populations continue to rise in countries such as China and India, the number of women is falling because of a preference for boys leading to deliberate abortions of female babies. The world is also seeing a demographic anomaly: a declining population in some richer countries has led to an imbalance between the working population and retirees who need expensive social safety nets. The global fertility rate — the number of children born per couple — is around 2.5, but in richer countries this number has already nosedived. And while exact predictions vary, most suggest the global population will peak at around 9 billion around 2070 and then start to fall, perhaps very fast. “We thought that overpopulation was going to force humanity to expand outward to the stars,” says Jack Goldstone, professor of social science and a leading demographics expert at Washington’s George Mason University. “That doesn’t look like the problem at all. And the policy framework isn’t set up at all to handle these longer-term issues.”"
|
8107
|
French coronavirus death toll tops 1,000, lockdown likely to be extended.
|
France became the fifth country to report more than 1,000 deaths from coronavirus on Tuesday and a government body dealing with the outbreak suggested the national lockdown imposed last week for an initial 15 days should last at least six weeks.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Health Minister Olivier Veran told a briefing he could not determine at this stage when the lockdown would end. If the government were to follow the scientific council’s advice, France would remain at a virtual standstill until April 28. A statement by the council, which advises President Emmanuel Macron on the coronavirus crisis, also said the lockdown was the only really efficient strategy at the moment and “needs to be strictly implemented”. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Monday the widespread lockdown in France could last several more weeks and his government was tightening restrictions on daily life even further. Veran also said France would heed World Health Organization recommendations to increase coronavirus testing. Health agency chief Jerome Salomon said later France would soon be able to conduct 10,000 tests a day. Salomon reported 240 new deaths from coronavirus on Tuesday for a total of 1,100, an increase of 28% that made France the fifth nation to cross the 1,000-fatalities threshold after - China, Italy, Iran and Spain. This tally only accounts for people who died in public hospitals, whereas several retirement homes have been reporting deaths in the double digits. Salomon said health authorities would soon be able to tabulate data coming from retirement homes, which will likely trigger a more dramatic increase in registered fatalities. He said the total number of infections in France had risen to 22,300, a 12% jump in 24 hours. Salomon added that 2,516 people were in a serious condition requiring life support, up by 21% from Monday, and that 8,000 hospital beds were now equipped with ventilators.
|
9544
|
Balloon-in-a-pill helped obese patients lose weight
|
Credit: FDA safety materials on Obalon This story about a balloon swallowed by people with obesity to help them diet and lose weight is more informative than the associated conference news release we also reviewed. The overall tone of the story balances the positive spin from a researcher with skeptical comments from independent sources. It alerts readers that this sort of medical conference presentation does not go through the peer review process that major journals use. However, the story should have noted that the research was sponsored by the company that makes the device. It could have done a better job pointing out that the main difference between this device and other intragastric balloons already on the market is that this one doesn’t require patients to be sedated during placement. The story also didn’t point out that this type of device could cause life-threatening complications, and that the fact none were reported in this trial could be because fewer than 200 participants received the balloons. Patients want help comparing treatment options. Rather than highlighting results of a trial that merely compared this new weight loss balloon to a placebo, this story could have made more clear that there is no evidence yet that this device is any better or worse than similar products already on the market. It also could have helped readers by explaining that these results need to be weighed against intensive behavioral weight loss programs (like the LookAHEAD trial, where one-year outcomes were better than balloon).
|
true
|
gastric balloon,weight loss
|
While the story notes that the U.S. price of the Obalon intragastric balloon has yet to be announced, the story could have reported that the device and related care typically cost $2,500 to $4,000 in Europe, where it has been available for almost three years. Costs are also likely markedly higher than working with a behavioral team. The story quantified benefits by stating: Obese patients who swallowed balloon capsules that helped them eat less lost an average of 15 pounds, roughly two times more weight than patients who just dieted and exercised, researchers report. and: People treated with the balloons lost an average of 7 percent of their weight, compared to less than 4 percent for those who received the sham device, the researchers found. Six months after the balloons were removed, nearly 90 percent maintained the weight loss they achieved during treatment, Pryor said. In addition to reporting the weight loss results announced by researchers and that, unlike other balloons, this device doesn’t require patients to be sedated during placement, the story adds important context by including comments from independent sources who are skeptical that many patients will maintain their lower weight long after the device is removed. The story mentions these harms: As for side effects, one patient had a bleeding stomach ulcer while taking high doses of pain pills after a knee replacement. Most patients (91 percent) suffered from stomach cramps and nausea, which nearly 100 percent said were mild or moderate. The story would have been stronger if it had warned readers that a study that puts a device in only a couple of hundred people may miss problems that could appear after the device is placed in hundreds of thousands or even millions of patients. The documentation that the manufacturer will give patients lists several serious, even life-threatening, potential side effects, including intestinal and airway blockages. These potential risks should have been noted. The story reports the key features of the trial. It also notes that, “Research presented at meetings is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.” The story would have been stronger if it clearly reported that the trial does not provide any evidence about whether the Obalon device is any better or worse than other options, because it did not compare it to similar balloons or to other weight loss interventions, other than the lifestyle counseling offered to all study participants. The researcher quoted in the story notes that this device could be an option for people who are leery of surgery. Independent sources quoted in the story predict a small role for such devices. One of the strongest aspects of this story is the ample use of independent sources to provide context and point out limitations of the device. However, this criterion demands that sponsors of research be identified, and this story does not tell readers that the trial was sponsored by Obalon Therapeutics. The story includes discussion of weight loss surgery and lifestyle interventions. It includes a quote noting that the Obalon device does not require patients to be sedated during insertion, which implies there are other similar balloon devices, though the story would have been better if it specifically noted that there are already two very similar devices available in the U.S. as well as other balloon devices that are for sale in other countries. It also could have pointed out that these results don’t appear more effective than an intensive behavioral program. The story reports that the Obalon balloon was approved by the FDA in September and will be available in January 2017. As noted above, the story reports that the Obalon device does not require patients to be sedated during insertion, which appears to be the main difference between this device and other similar balloons. It would have been better if it had more clearly informed readers that there are other intragastric balloon devices already on the market. The story notes that these study results also were presented back in May. The story includes several quotes from independent sources, as well as important details that were not included in a news release from the organizers of the the medical meeting where these results were presented. (We also reviewed the news release.)
|
33325
|
Doctors have performed the first successful human head transplant.
|
Dr. Canavero’s plans for effecting a human head transplant on a live patient are still in the future; no such transplant has been undertaken (successfully or otherwise) in the meanwhile. The article about the South African transplant was a just a hoax from the News Examiner, a fake news site.
|
false
|
Media Matters, head transplant, Not Necessarily The News, south africa
|
Coincident with thenm-current news that Italian physician Dr. Sergio Canavero had lined up a volunteer subject for his planned attempt at undertaking the first human head transplant, the News Examiner web site published an article reporting that such a procedure had just taken place at the Charlotte Maxexe Johannesburg Academic Hospital in South Africa: A 36-year-old man has undergone the world’s first successful head transplant. The ground-breaking operation took a team of surgeons nineteen hours to complete and has allowed the patient to be cancer-free.Paul Horner, who was diagnosed with bone cancer five years ago, was on the verge of death when he was approved for the controversial and possibly deadly operation. Doctor Tom Downey, who was part of the South African team who carried out the operation, told CNN he is thrilled about the results. “It’s a massive breakthrough,” Downey said. “We’ve proved that it can be done — we can give someone a brand new body that is just as good, or better, than their previous one. The success of this operation leads to infinite possibilities.”
|
32502
|
Mike Pence said that if abortion were allowed in cases of rape, then women would try to get raped in order to have abortions.
|
Newslo and its companion sites most commonly publish articles containing one paragraph of straightforward news and a balance of false information. Prior efforts from the outlets included reports Chris Christie said a female version of Viagra would lead to increased “lesbianism” (and voted down a gender pay parity bill for Biblical reasons), an Alabama politician proposed saliva-based “hunger tests” for food stamp recipients, Ted Cruz said the death of Antonin Scalia was suspiciously timed, and Pat Robertson claimed David Bowie was still alive after his death.
|
false
|
Junk News, abortion, mike pence, newslo
|
On 17 July 2016, the web site Newslo reported that Indiana governor Mike Pence, the newly-announced running mate of GOP candidate Donald Trump, had said allowing rape victims to have abortions would lead to women trying to get raped in order to have abortions: The Republican war on women continues unabated. The same week that conservatives argued in the Supreme Court that employers should be able to stop their employees from getting contraception outside of the company health plan, Indiana joined the ranks of states like Texas and Florida in passing a draconian law that purports to protect women, while in fact, endangering their health by making safe abortion much harder to get. And Gov. Mike Pence recently signed it. The bill is stuffed with as many asinine restrictions on abortion with an eye towards making abortion as miserable and humiliating an experience as possible, and ideally something women can’t get legally at all. … Pence also tried to offer his opinion on what would have happened had he allowed rape victims to still have abortion. “First and foremost, because this is such a sensitive topic, let me just say that I sympathize with rape victims not just in America, but around the world. I can only imagine what it must be like to experience such trauma,” he said. “However, that does not justify murder, not even that justifies murdering a baby, not in my book. Because what would happen? We’d then have an epidemic of women claiming to have been raped just so they could have an abortion. And that has to be stopped at all cost.” Donald Trump’s new running mate also said, “Basically, if I’d have said no on the bill, that would be just like giving out get-pregnant-without-fear cards, because at the end of the day, women could have unprotected sex without worrying about what they’d do in the event of pregnancy. And you know, it’s not supposed to be like that … And it gets worse — when you get an abortion, you get several days off of work and whatnot to recover. And there are a lot of crazy people out there. What if women would go out and get raped on purpose just so they could get off work? I mean, Indiana’s economy is struggling as it is, and having thousands of women absent from their jobs would be horrific for the state, I’m telling you. I made the right call and that will be confirmed in the long run,” Pence concluded. As with all content on Newslo (and its sister sites Religionlo and Politicalo), the item used a fact-based introduction to lead into counterfactual information. Pence did sign anti-abortion legislation in May 2016 but like all content published by that trio of fake news sites, the article included a “show facts” or “hide facts” button (all content displayed by default in “hide facts” mode): While the facts of the first paragraph were broadly true (as Pence had signed an abortion bill a few months prior), the remainder of the piece was embellished or entirely fabricated. Pence never said that women would attempt to get raped in order to have an abortion, to obtain days off work or for other reasons.
|
6366
|
Vaccinations offered amid hepatitis worries in Franklin Co.
|
Health officials in eastern Missouri’s Franklin County plan mass hepatitis A vaccinations Friday and Saturday after another outbreak of the contagious liver infection.
|
true
|
Michael Brown, Health, Washington, Hepatitis
|
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that an employee at a Bob Evans restaurant in Washington was infected. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services says it is “uncommon” for restaurant patrons to catch hepatitis A from a sick food handler, but urged precautionary vaccinations for those who ate at the restaurant between Aug. 3 and Monday. The health department advised patrons to monitor their health for 50 days after exposure and watch for symptoms that may include yellowing of the skin or eyes, abdominal pain, nausea or diarrhea. The case marked the third time since June that a Franklin County diagnosis prompted a public warning. ___ Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
|
10114
|
Muscle Relaxant May Ease Fibromyalgia Pain
|
The strong criticism of an independent source should have been front and center, with the promotional statements of the drug company president and researcher pushed lower down. The story includes many of the details we want to see in stories about medical research, and the independent source provided a powerful counterweight to the drug company president, but the overall presentation makes the trial results to be far more conclusive than they actually appear to be. After many decades, the fibromyalgia syndrome is still somewhat of a mystery. The cause of the syndrome is not known and the available treatments are a bit less than desirable. In addition to the pain and increased sensitivity to pain, many sufferers have poor sleep. Cyclobenzaprine has been studied at higher doses with some improvement in pain and sleep but that improvement comes at a high cost in terms of side effects. A trial looking at lower doses aimed at improving sleep makes sense. However a trial with a total of 36 patients and limited success is of questionable value to the reader.
|
mixture
|
WebMD
|
The reporter did ask about cost, and since the research is at such an early stage, it may be reasonable to accept the company president’s reply that he cannot estimate the cost. Since the drug is available for other uses, it would have been informative to include a range of prices for the pills already on the market for other conditions. For example, 5 mg tablets of generic cyclobenzaprine are listed as costing just $4 for 30 tablets at walmart.com. However, a new brand name formulation with a new FDA approved use may be sold at a different price than the available generics. We think that this easily identified information should have been included to provide readers with a benchmark. While the story is accurate in reporting that researchers saw signs of improved sleep and reduced pain in the small number of fibromyalgia patients in this trial, the relative attention given to the self-promoting claims of the drug company president as compared to the dismissive comments of the independent source leave readers with an unbalanced view. If the independent expert says he is “not impressed with the findings” and that the new drug dose “is not going to change things substantially,” it’s hard to see how a headline, sub-head, and lead paragraphs all devoted to grand claims about the benefits of the drug can give readers a fair view of the potential benefits. The story does report that some participants had headaches, dry mouth and drowsiness, and that this drug sometimes makes people drowsy during the day. However, since there were only 18 participants who took the active ingredient, the story would have been better if it had alerted readers that much larger numbers of patients would need to be studied in order to quantify the likelihood of less common adverse events. The story does call the experiment “a small study” in the lead paragraph and later reports that the trial included only 18 participants in each of the placebo and active treatment arms. Readers are also given some of the specific results of the trial. However, readers are likely to get an inflated sense of the quality of the evidence. The headline, sub-head and prominently-placed comments of the drug company president/researcher all proclaim seemingly conclusive findings, while the limitations of the work and the need for further research is buried deep in the story. The story reports a commonly-used estimate of the number of people who are diagnosed as having fibromyalgia. It does not include any statements that could be seen as encouraging the potential use of this drug in a wider population. The story does report that the researcher quoted is the president of the company hoping to market this pill, and that the company funded the study. The story also quotes an independent source. But as noted above, the overall presentation is out of balance, because the boosterism of the company president is given top billing, while the skeptical comments of the independent source are almost entirely relegated to an addendum at the bottom of the story. This story does report that this pill has not been compared to other treatments for fibromyalgia. But it fails to put this approach of attempting to improve sleep into context with treatments that directly address the pain and other major symptoms of fibromyalgia. Also, as mentioned above, the story does not tell readers that some of the same researchers (and others) have previously reported the results of larger studies of other drugs intended to improve the sleep of people with fibromyalgia. Nor does this story mention any of the common (non-drug) steps people with fibromyalgia can take to improve their sleep. The story makes clear that while this drug is available as a muscle relaxant, the dose used in this fibromyalgia trial is not available. The story also reports that the drug is not approved for treatment of fibromyalgia, but it is being prescribed “off-label” by some doctors. Near the bottom of the story, the researcher and company president predicts the low-dose version of the drug could be available for fibromyalgia treatment by 2015. It is hard to see what support there is for such a prediction, given the preliminary nature of this small trial. The story does report that this drug is already used as a muscle relaxant and that the relatively novel approach is the investigation into the relationship of sleep quality to fibromyalgia symptoms. However, it would have been helpful to also report that some of these same researchers and other have already published the results of larger trials testing drugs that may improve the sleep of people with fibromyalgia. The story does not appear to rely on a news release.
|
29681
|
St. Patrick led the genocide of a contingent of Twa 'pygmies' from Central Africa, who were the original inhabitants of Ireland.
|
We also put the theory to Dáibhí Ó’Cróinín, professor of history at the National University of Ireland in Galway, and the author of a history of early medieval Ireland. His emailed response was unequivocal: “Complete nonsense,” he wrote.
|
false
|
History
|
In the summer of 2019, we received renewed inquiries from readers about an unusual interpretation of the legacy of St. Patrick, one that claimed the patron saint of Ireland was responsible for the genocide of an African tribe who were purportedly the original inhabitants of that island. The theory has given rise to many memes and social media posts that in recent years have been shared widely, especially around March 17, the feast day of St. Patrick. The memes are often accompanied by images that appear to show white men posing with African pygmies. A typical version of the meme claims: “The Twa pygmies of Ireland, the original inhabitants. The source of [the] leprechaun legend. When you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day that’s the celebration of their genocide.” The theory was neatly summarized by the author and speaker B.F. Nkrumah in a widely shared Facebook video in March 2018: The theory is not backed by any historical evidence, and as a set of factual claims, it can be dismissed. One prominent historian told Snopes it was, simply, “complete nonsense.” The origins of the “Twa” theory of Irish prehistory are not entirely clear. However, it appears to be informed by what is sometimes referred to as “Afrocentrism,” an approach to historical study that emphasizes the role and achievements of African people in the evolution of Western civilization. The theory also seems to be influenced by euhemerism, an unusual strand of pseudohistory that was particularly popular in the 19th century. The Twa (or “Batwa”) are a people indigenous to the Great Lakes region of Central Africa. They are sometimes referred to as Twa pygmies, an anthropological term denoting their relatively short stature. Although some exact details are lacking about the life of St. Patrick, it is generally accepted among historians that he lived in the 5th Century A.D., grew up in Roman-occupied Britain (probably in Wales or the West coast of England), was kidnapped as a boy and taken to the island of Ireland as a slave for six years, then returned to Britain. He trained as a Christian cleric and went back to Ireland as a missionary. One of the legends attached to Patrick in the centuries following his death was that he banished the snakes from Ireland. This is not based in fact. No fossil records have shown that snakes were ever indigenous to the island of Ireland, and the myth was likely a metaphor for the Christianization (and decline in paganism) for which Patrick and other early Irish saints are credited. The earliest archaeological evidence of human habitation on the island of Ireland dates to between 10,640 and 10,860 B.C. No evidence exists to show that Twa pygmies settled the island at any point in history, beyond which it makes little sense to imagine that a traditional hunter-forager people that emerged from landlocked Central Africa would have had the geographical awareness or technical knowledge to construct and sail ships thousands of miles northwest. We found several iterations of the Twa theory of Irish prehistory. One version, published in 2007 by the website of the Amen Ankh community in Kansas City, Missouri, offered the following outline: Indigo melaninated people are the original “Snake Headed” people of Ireland. We are the ones who were driven off (and/or slaughtered,) in the name of a Catholic “saint” named Patrick, who ironically wore the symbols of Ptah and Ausar. Our Black Ancestors of the east knew about the powers of all of the indigenous Herbs, Roots, and plants like Clover and Thistle. We are the first mound builders and healers all over the planet. This shines a new reference on the 1st REAL “Europeans.” The Twa/Khoisan were known as elves, midgets, or pygmy (a slur on small people of African Descent) who have a history pre-dating the Greco Roman Judeo timeline history of Adam and Eve by more 200,000 years. The Ancient Twa people were nomadic, They journeyed and migrated all continents and island over the planet, spreading to Northern Ireland, Germany and the rest of Europe, and the Asian continent, and had settled in these western lands, prior to any of the influences of the Romans or later, the Roman Catholic Church. They had a cultural, technological, and philosophical impact, and influenced the establishments of societies, known as Pagans or Druids. One of the cultural influences the Druids/Twa had was the fact that they were known for their hair, who many grew into locks that looked like snakes. Much later, the Heru Loc, worn to one side of the temple, was represented in the fez or head covering that also depicted the Kemet symbols known is a Uraeus or cobra raised to strike, which is the same snake image you see worn as a Menes, by the Queens and Kings of ancient Kemet (Egypt/Nubia Ka Ma Ta). In many African cultures, the serpent is not a symbol of evil but one of eternal life, regeneration, power, protection, and wisdom. The Snake also represented the Kundalini awakening vortex found in the chakra energy traveling up our spines and the helix of our DNA. Much of this account is simply incoherent, and the only would-be evidence put forward for the claim that St. Patrick engaged in genocide against the Twa is that the knotted hairstyle of Twa and ethnic Bantu peoples bears something of a resemblance to snakes. This is a quintessential example of pseudohistory — starting off with the requirement of proving that Twa pygmies were the original inhabitants not only of Ireland but of the whole European continent, and then retrospectively finding any available connections (even tentative symbolic links), including links to a different cultural tradition to the Central African Twa pygmies, that of ancient Egypt. This is not even to mention the unexplained and inexplicable introduction of Hindu concepts (Kundalini and chakra) into the theory. Another good example of this incoherence can be found in the same blog post’s explanation of how the purported etymology of the word “leprechaun” establishes a link between African pygmies and the island of Ireland: “The word ‘leprechaun’ can be taken from several sources. Breaking down the syllables and removing the vowels, you can reveal the earliest Twa/Nubian/Kemetic origins: le-pr-rah ka-hn. Le (Leo/lion/king), Pr (House/temple), Re/ra-rah (Sun/Leo/lion), Ka (an attendant spirit supposedly dwelling as a vital force in a man or statue, the spiritual part of an individual believed by ancient Egyptians to survive the body after death). ‘Kahn’ is a title for a sovereign or military ruler or chief.” This is not how etymology actually works. For one thing, the purported etymological components of the word are supposed to amount to some meaning. That meaning is never provided in this case — are we to conclude that “leprechaun,” based on its Egyptian linguistic roots, means “Lion spirit in a king’s house”? Or “Sun ruler of the lion’s spirit temple”? The explanation fails woefully, even on its own terms. Moreover, this etymological analysis begins with the imposition of an unacceptable and arbitrary linguistic rule (“removing the vowels”), which the analysis itself promptly violates by including multiple vowels. Once again, the supposed origins of the word “leprechaun” are claimed to reside in ancient Egypt, not in the culture and linguistic history of the sub-Saharan Twa peoples. So even if this etymological breakdown was accurate or logical, it would establish a linguistic link between Egypt and Ireland, not the Central African Twa pygmies and Ireland. What implications would this have for the core claim that the Twa were the original settlers and inhabitants of Ireland? This type of goalpost-shifting and cherrypicking is typical of much pseudohistory, including Afrocentrist pseudohistory. In her book “Not Out of Africa,” the classical scholar Mary Lefkowitz described the Afrocentrist push to claim for the ancient Egyptians major intellectual innovations which belonged, in fact, to the ancient Greeks: “Afrocentrism is not simply an alternative interpretation of history, offered on the basis of complex data or ambiguities in the evidence: there is simply no reason to deprive the Greeks of the credit for their own achievements. The basic facts are clear enough, at least to dispassionate observers. In effect, Afrocentrists are demanding that ordinary historical methodology be discarded in favor of a system of their own choosing. This system allows them to ignore chronology and facts if they are inconvenient for their purposes. In other words, their historical methodology allows them to alter the course of history to meet their own specific needs.” In reality, the word “leprechaun” is ultimately derived, relatively straightforwardly, from two roots: the Old Irish “lú” (“small”) and “chorpán” (“body,” from the Latin “corpus”). As well as elements of Afrocentrist pseudohistory, the theory also shows signs of having been indirectly influenced by a relatively obscure pseudohistorical movement that was particularly popular in the 19th century. Euhemerism was an approach to folklore and mythology that sought to explain popular fairy tales and myths as being ultimately grounded in historical fact. It constituted an unusual combination of rationalism (elves and fairies were not supernatural beings) with pseudohistory (the stories around them originated in an actual, historical race of pygmies that occupied parts of Europe thousands of years ago). At least two recent accounts of the Twa theory of Irish prehistory cited a euhemerist text from 1911, “Riddles of Prehistoric Times,” a book written by James H. Anderson, a retired attorney from Iowa. Anderson posited a broader theory of early pygmy races being the first settlers of several parts of the world, including Ireland: “The first inhabitants of southern Europe, northern Africa, Arabia, France and the British Islands were a race of small men, who did not average in height more than about 4 feet 5 inches. They were of slight build, with dark complexion. They were cave-dwellers emanations [sic] from Lemuria [a fictional land mass in the Indian Ocean, similar to the mythical island of Atlantis] … They were an African people, and there appears evidence that they sometimes practiced cannibalism. “It is said that the first people in Ireland were the Formatians. They were a dark, stunted race, utterly savage, using rough, unwrought stone implements. So far as can be learned, they did not know the use of fire. It is said they came from Africa on ships.” Several points discredit this account and therefore any theory or historical claims based on it. Firstly, the reference to Lemuria as an actual, historical inhabited place (as opposed to a mythical land mass) is a red flag, as are Anderson’s similar references to Atlantis elsewhere in the book. Moreover, Anderson refers to the “Formatians” as the first inhabitants of Ireland. We found no reference in any other historical accounts to such people, and the author probably intended to refer to the “Fomorians,” who were a race of supernatural, villainous, sea-faring giants in Irish mythology. They did not exist in history. Later in the book, Anderson described the “Formorians” (a misspelling) in the following way: “The ancient Irish historians tell of Ireland being settled before the flood by Formorians [sic] led by the Lady, Banblia or Kesair, her maiden name being h’Erni or Berba … The Formorians [sic] were said to be descended from Noah; they lived by piracy. Their chief god was Baal, Bel, from whom Belfast was named, the god of the Sun …” In reality, the place name “Belfast” (the capital city of present-day Northern Ireland) is derived from two Irish words: “Béal” (meaning mouth) and “feirste” (a form of the word “fearsaid,” meaning “sand-bank ford”). The river mouth in question is that of the famous River Lagan, on whose banks Belfast is located. Those types of basic and glaring factual errors are scattered throughout Anderson’s book, which also repeatedly presents mythological places and figures as having actually existed in history. Present-day versions of the Afrocentrist theory of Irish prehistory, and St. Patrick’s genocide of the Twa pygmies, in particular, actually undermine their own credibility by citing accounts such as Anderson’s as supportive evidence. Several versions of the theory also cite the work of an influential euhemerist, the Scottish folklorist David MacRitchie. In particular, multiple present-day iterations of the “African pygmy” theory of Irish prehistory refer to passages from MacRitchie’s two-volume 1884 book “Ancient and Modern Britons,” in which he laid out the theory of a race of pygmies who populated Ireland, Britain and parts of Scandinavia during the Stone Age. That theory has been discredited by the fact that no archaeological discoveries have ever substantiated it. In one instance, MacRitchie attempted to draw inferences from the etymology of certain Irish phrases, writing: “That the wild tribes of Ireland were black men is hinted by the fact that a ‘wild Irishman’ is in Gaelic a ‘black Irishman’ (“Dubh Eireannach”). However, the use of the word “dubh” in the Irish language is complicated. Literally, it means “black” or “dark,” but it has various somewhat poetic and figurative meanings when used as a modifier and prefix, such as in the phrase “Dubh Eireannach.” In support of his etymological proposition, MacRitchie cited an 1825 Irish dictionary published by the Scottish lexicographer Robert Archibald Armstrong. That document lists dozens of compound words using “dubh” as a prefix, with widely varying meanings, for example: “dubh-cheist” (literally “black/dark question”) for “puzzle”; “dubh-fhocal” (literally “black/dark word”) for “riddle” or “parable”; and “dubh-bhuille” (literally “black/dark blow”) for a “fatal blow.” It would clearly be a mistake, then, to interpret a given use of the word “dubh” as literally meaning “black or dark in physical appearance,” as opposed to having some other metaphorical sense. The very source used by MacRitchie himself establishes that much, and therefore undermines his etymological argument, as cited by many proponents of the present-day “Twa pygmy” theory of Irish prehistory. Moreover, even if the phrase “Dubh Eireannach” was intended to literally mean “an Irishman dark in appearance,” it’s important to remember that racial spectrums vary between cultures, and what might have been regarded as dark complexion in Stone Age Ireland would have been described very differently indeed by an inhabitant of Africa at that time. The “African pygmy” theory of Irish prehistory, and in particular the theory of St. Patrick’s genocide of the Twa people, represent a fascinating, if confused and at times incoherent, jumble of various long-discredited strands of pseudohistory and euhemerized versions of Irish, Bantu, Egyptian and other mythologies. Kairn Klieman, an associate professor of history at the University of Houston and author of a history of the Batwa pygmies of Central Africa, dismissed the theory as a “mish-mash of ideas,” but said it was an interesting attempt to understand the ways in which various geographically separated cultures developed similar ideas about “little people,” in particular conferring on them magical and supernatural powers. Writing by email, she told us the theory explores “real similarities that exist in terms of myths about small people associated with the earth (sprites, leprechauns, mythical pygmies, mythical batwa). These myths existed since Egyptian times and there is a long intellectual history of how they came, in Western minds, to be associated with primordial humans. When the Europeans met Batwa, they unloaded all of this myth onto them.” However, Klieman added that: “The idea that ‘pygmies’ or small dark people inhabited the world in ancient days is a 19th century trope that builds on the ancient myth of the pygmy in the western world.”
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.