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8889
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FDA says contaminant in some Baxter heparin.
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U.S. regulators on Wednesday said they identified a contaminant in the key ingredient in Baxter International’s recalled blood thinning drug heparin amid 15 more reports of deaths in patents treated with some version of the drug.
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true
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Health News
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The contaminant, a large complex molecule chemically similar to heparin, was detected in samples from a Chinese and a U.S. plant, both owned by Baxter’s supplier, Wisconsin-based Scientific Protein Laboratories LLC (SPL). “At this point we don’t know how the heparin-like compound got into the active pharmaceutical ingredient,” Food and Drug Administration Deputy Commissioner Janet Woodcock told reporters on a conference call. “We don’t yet have a direct causal link between the contaminant and the adverse events.” Nineteen deaths have been reported in patients taking a version of heparin that appear related to the drug, though it is unknown if all of those patients were on Baxter’s heparin or another product. The other major U.S. heparin supplier, APP Pharmaceuticals Inc, ramped up production to avoid a drug shortage after Baxter recalled most of its heparin products last week. Tests on APP’s heparin have not turned up any contamination, Woodcock said. The FDA’s foreign inspection process has been criticized for years as inadequate and those complaints were stoked when FDA officials acknowledged recently the agency never inspected the Chinese plant in question because of confusion over the company’s Chinese name. FDA has not yet sifted through the 785 total adverse event reports in heparin patients to determine which are drug-related, Woodcock said. She cautioned that increased attention to the problem has led to an influx of side-effect reporting and that may not be related to the drug. Heparin is derived from pig intestines and is used in dialysis and heart procedures, among other surgeries, to avoid blood clots. Last week, the FDA said it found “objectionable conditions” at the plant. Facility owner Scientific Protein Labs in a statement said the contaminant theory is “speculation at this point” and that it is working with the FDA to determine the cause of the problems. FDA officials also don’t know whether the contaminant was added intentionally or if it occurred as part of a natural biological process. “We still don’t know whether this inadvertently got into the supply or whether it was actually added” deliberately, Woodcock said. Severe reactions such as anaphylaxis and low blood pressure are signs of dangerous allergic reactions related to heparin use. Earlier on Wednesday, Baxter, which has recalled most of its heparin blood thinning products, said it narrowed down possibilities for the root causes. Baxter ruled out its Cherry Hill, New Jersey, facility, where the drug is manufactured in a later step in the process, as a source of the problem.
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38943
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The FDA has approved tranquilizing darts for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
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FDA Approves Tranquilizing Darts for Children
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false
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Health / Medical
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The FDA hasn’t approved tranquilizer darts for children with ADHD. The rumor started with the fake news website World News Daily Report, and it quickly went viral on social media sites. The false report claimed that the FDA had approved “anesthetic dart guns” designed to calm children with ADHD: “The new product is capable of putting a child to sleep in less than 4 seconds and reportedly has no serious long-term effects on the health of children. These new tools specifically created to assist parents with children suffering from ADHD, have a practical range of approximately 10 to 12 feet (3 to 4 meters) and their effect is meant to last for a period of 4 to 6 hours per injection. The manufacturer advises, however, not to use the gun more than 1 to 2 times daily on the same child in order to prevent the development of a physical addiction to the product.” The story was shared more than 15,000 times on Twitter. Readers who believed that the FDA had actually approved the tranquilizer gun for children argued about whether or not it was a good idea. The report angered most people: “Maybe patents need to learn how to deal with their children and not just drug the child. What does this teach a child. Be good or mommy will shoot you. Come on seriously?” But other people defended the so-called child tranquilizer gun: “I think you may be misinformed might I suggest you do the following. 1. Google ADHD symptoms. 2. Consider this as an alternative by a concerned parent that is trying to cope with having a child that has ADHD instead of a punishment. 3. (most importantly) Babysit a child with ADHD for one day and consider they deal with that every day and night as well as the average stresses of life.” However, people on both sides of the debate apparently didn’t read World News Daily Report’s disclaimer, which states that the website “assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content”. Comments
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7588
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Nebraska colleges try new ways to help students seeking.
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College is presented in movie and myth as a rollicking time of high jinks and happiness.
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true
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Stress, Anxiety, Mental health, Health, Financial markets, Nebraska, Depression, Omaha
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In reality, it can be a challenging transition for many students, a time of vulnerability and stress. Mental health counseling services in colleges and universities across the nation assist more and more students each year, especially with anxiety and depression, the Omaha World-Herald reported. The cause isn’t clear, though mental health experts point to several possibilities. Perhaps the stigma of counseling has declined or the tidal wave of social media is unsettling. Maybe students have lower anxiety tolerance because of parental coddling. But schools are adjusting with new strategies to help students reduce anxiety, deal with mental illnesses and improve their quality of life. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln soon will roll out a program called Big Red Resilience, in which 20 or 25 students will receive training to assist classmates in need. Two UNL staffers, Connie Boehm and Myrianna Bakou, will launch Big Red Resilience and oversee it. Boehm, who spent 21 years as director of wellness at Ohio State before coming to UNL as director of student resilience, said Big Red Resilience isn’t counseling, it’s coaching. Resilience is the ability to snap back after hardship and defeat. It’s required when students receive disappointing grades, experience breakups, are extremely homesick or run into financial problems. Bakou, a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in counseling psychology, is excited to see the program in action. Among other things, she will develop workshops on perfectionism, healthy relationships, medication use and other topics. Bakou received counseling herself as a UNL undergraduate. Having come to the United States from the small African nation of Togo, she carried her parents’ high hopes with her. After doing well in high school, she wrestled with a boggling calculus class in her first semester. It felt like failure when she dropped the course. Counseling helped her understand her compulsion to seek perfection. Counseling enabled her to accept that the human experience comes with defeat. “I know how to come back from it,” she said. Programs to assist students come in all shapes. At Creighton University, a student support service is called Cocoa. Cocoa is Creighton psychologist Michael Kelley’s chocolate Labrador retriever. If students wish, Cocoa will sit in on their counseling sessions and permit rubs and pats as the student and therapist talk. Kelley said he doesn’t claim that Cocoa provides genuine psychological therapy. But her presence makes the counseling center less foreboding. And Kelley regularly takes her across campus so the general student population benefits from her presence. She’s a fine, furry ambassador for the counseling center. Cocoa, a trained therapy dog, is calm in crowds. Loud noises don’t bother her. Even if toddlers lie on her or yank on her fur, she’s unperturbed. One afternoon last month she loped along next to Kelley. They walked into the campus bookstore. Saige Steffensmeier, a sophomore from Beemer, Nebraska, immediately knelt and put her hands on Cocoa. Steffensmeier has seen Cocoa and Kelley on campus before, and the dog reminds her of her own pup, Louie, back home. Kelley said many of Creighton’s students aren’t used to struggling in class. Life has a way of throwing curveballs. “If we had one word that we could give our kids, it would be resilience,” Kelley said. “Because life is mean.” Two national reports generally confirm that a higher percentage of college students are feeling troubled. And a higher percentage now are seeking help for the two most common concerns — anxiety and depression. The Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State, which receives information from close to 150 college counseling services, said anxiety was the main reason students sought help. About 24 percent of those using counseling services sought help for anxiety in 2016-17, up from about 18 percent in 2013-14. The report said about 18 percent sought help for depression, up from 15 percent in 2013-14. The prevalence of “threat-to-self” episodes “increased for the seventh year in a row among students seeking treatment,” the 2017 report said. A survey of dozens of campuses and thousands of students found rising cases of emotional difficulty from 2008 to 2017. That survey, reported by the American College Health Association, found that anxiety, depression and attempted suicides in the general student population increased during that period. Sixty-one percent had felt “overwhelming anxiety” sometime within the previous 12 months in the fall 2017 study, up from 49 percent in fall 2008. The percentage who felt “so depressed that it was difficult to function” any time in the previous 12 months rose from 30.6 percent to 39.3 percent. And those who said they had attempted suicide in the preceding 12 months went from 1.3 percent in 2008 to 1.9 percent in 2017. Lisa Adams, past president of the American College Counseling Association, said she suspects there are several reasons for greater demand for student counseling services. Adams, director of counseling at the University of West Georgia, said usage at her school has gone up 52 percent in two years. Young people today have more information about mental health, and the stigma of mental difficulty isn’t as great, she said. She doesn’t rule out the notion that parenting changes may have shielded many kids from stress and failure. Some students “seem to experience a bit of anxiety and not know what to do with it,” Adams said. She also said that over the past 20 years, good medications have enabled students to manage symptoms from a broad range of mental illnesses that would have prevented college attendance before. They can do well, she said, with the proper support and medication. Charlene Patterson, University of Nebraska at Omaha counseling center director, said technology and social media have made it tougher to glide through the day. “You’ve just created a faster-paced world for them,” Patterson said. “They’re barraged with constant inquiry, constant response to all kinds of issues.” Patterson and Boehm said they don’t think college students fail the resilience test. “I don’t think they’re softer by any means,” Boehm said. Many colleges in the region have devised new ways, large and small, to combat the mental health problem. UNO therapist Jaisy Kumar holds Tea with Jaisy once a week for international students seeking support and camaraderie. The sessions last an hour to 90 minutes, and tea and snacks are part of the attraction. Kumar started it last year. Hastings College has just made its “transition specialist” a full-time job. That specialist can help a student acquire an emotional support animal, and refer a student to counseling or academic help. Nebraska Wesleyan offers Wellness for P-Wolves, an occasional lunch-hour forum on mental health topics. Iowa State’s College of Veterinary Medicine has its own on-site counseling, workshops and biofeedback equipment to gauge stress. Doane University two years ago joined about 450 colleges and high schools with Active Minds chapters. Active Minds is a student-led organization that educates students about mental illness and encourages support and counseling. Connie Boehm at UNL said other universities such as Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, UCLA and Wisconsin have started resilience programs. Boehm and Bakou will coach struggling students in the fall while the student coaches train and prepare. Student coaches will step in during the spring, working one-on-one with students in 45-minute sessions to focus on strengths, and to connect them to counseling, academic or financial help. The student coaches will let their fellow students know that there are peers on campus who care and are there to help them bounce back. That, Boehm said, is what resilience is all about. ___ Information from: Omaha World-Herald, http://www.omaha.com
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1511
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Panda in French zoo expecting twins, Chinese experts on hand to help.
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A giant panda in France’s Beauval zoo is expected to give birth to twins in the next few days under the watchful eye of two Chinese birthing specialists, the zoo said on Tuesday.
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true
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Environment
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“We’re expecting twins,” said Delphine Debord, the zoo’s communications director. “An ultrasound today confirmed it.” Huan Huan and her partner Yuan Zi came to France on loan from China in 2012, their arrival hailed as a sign of warming diplomatic ties between Paris and Beijing. While an adult female panda can weigh up to 125 kilograms (275 pounds), a baby panda weighs barely 120 grams (4 ounces) at birth. A team of 15 people, including two Chinese carers, vets and an animal behavior specialist will be on hand to assist the delicate birth at the zoo near the city of Tours. The newborns will be placed in an incubator. “In the wild, a panda mom doesn’t raise two babies,” Debord said. “They will be handed to Huan Huan one after the other for feeding.” Huan Huan and Yuan Zi, whose names translate as “Joy” and “Podgy” respectively, are due to stay in France until 2022 before being returned to China. Their offspring will stay in France until the age of two or three.
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6477
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Juvenile bald eagle found on ground to be released Tuesday.
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A young bald eagle found soaked and stumping along a street in the Louisiana neighborhood where it hatched will be released Tuesday in the same area. The bird’s parents have nested for a couple of years in a tall live oak in a subdivision back yard in Metairie, a New Orleans suburb.
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true
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Wildlife, Health, Metairie, Bald eagles, Veterinary medicine, Eagles, Louisiana, Birds
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A neighborhood resident brought the mottled brown eaglet to the Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine’s Wildlife Hospital on May 11, after making sure it needed help. Another neighbor has been collecting money for its care and posting health updates outside her home. “Our Eagle is doing well and is flying. ... Thanks to all who donated to her recovery. YEA!” read a handwritten message on a paper grocery bag set over a signpost. The first flights of bald eagles often leave the bird stranded on the ground, but their parents generally keep feeding them until they fly again, according to the Journey North citizen science center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. However, this bird and its sibling began flying in late April. They’d made regular flights to and from other trees and light poles in the neighborhood before a neighbor saw this one walking in the street the evening of May 10, said Susan Miron, whose driveway faces the nest. A driver spotted the eaglet, stopped traffic and shooed the bird to a yard, she said. Coastal consultant and photographer P.J. Hahn, who has been photographing the birds since the parents began building the nest, said he was called for advice when the eaglet was still in the street. “Everyone was afraid to touch it” because of federal laws protecting raptors, Hahn recalled Friday. “I said, ‘Look. Somebody’s going to run over it. We’ve got to get it out of the street.’” He also called the veterinary school, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and others, but it was Friday night and nobody was in. To protect the pedestrian bird from dogs, they put it in a pet transportation crate overnight. When they let it out the next morning, it barely managed to flap to a fence and off again. Then it stayed on the ground, Hahn said. Its nestmate stayed in a tree above the grounded eaglet, calling out loudly, he said. After another round of fruitless calls he tried the veterinarian who treats his cats. The vet got him in touch with the wildlife hospital. Hahn said he had another commitment, and his veterinarian had to convince the woman who eventually took the bird to Baton Rouge that she wouldn’t face prosecution for getting the bird to the wildlife hospital. Veterinarians didn’t find any broken or injured bones, so they think the bird had a muscle injury, veterinary school spokeswoman Ginger Guttner said in a news release Friday. The birds are clumsy when learning to fly, Hahn said. “They fly into a tree and hit it hard. ... I’m sure it probably bruised its shoulder.” The Wildlife Hospital treats about 2,000 wild animals a year and doesn’t charge the Good Samaritans who bring them in. Miron printed flyers asking for donations and put them in the sort of covered box used to hold flyers for houses put up for sale. Next to the box is a big yellow arrow with the words “HELP EAGLE” on it. Some $300 was collected.
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27298
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In June 2018, members of the United Methodist Church brought church charges, including child abuse, against Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
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We asked the Department of Justice for Sessions’s response to these criticisms, as well as the complaint letter signed by 640 of his fellow UMC members and the charges brought against him, but we did not receive a response in time for publication.
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true
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Politics, immigration, jeff sessions, methodists
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In the summer of 2018, the “zero-tolerance” immigration policy implemented by the administration of President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions had far-reaching political and social consequences. The policy — which has caused thousands of migrant parents to be separated from their children, often in uncertain and difficult circumstances — has prompted intense scrutiny and criticism, including from religious leaders up to Pope Francis. This religious opposition stepped up in June 2018, when Sessions invoked a biblical verse to justify the policy, Romans 13: 1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. On 19 June, reports emerged that members of the United Methodist Church (to which Sessions belongs) had initiated quasi-judicial proceedings against him, including charges of child abuse: More than 600 clergy and lay members of the United Methodist Church have signed a letter bringing church charges against fellow member Attorney General Jeff Sessions for the zero tolerance immigration policy that has resulted in the separation of undocumented children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. The formal accusation, issued on Monday, charges Sessions with numerous violations of the denomination’s Book of Discipline, including child abuse, immorality, racial discrimination and, for his citation of Romans 13 to defend the policy, the dissemination of doctrines contrary to the standards of the UMC. These reports are accurate. On 18 June 2018, some 640 United Methodist Church members and leaders signed their names to an open letter addressed to Rev. Sterling Boykin, a pastor at Sessions’s home church in Mobile, Alabama, and Rev. Tracy Wines, a pastor at the Arlington, Virginia UMC congregation where Sessions regularly attends. The letter read: We write to you, Mr. Sessions’ pastors…in the hopes that you will, as members of our connectional system, dig deeply into Mr. Sessions’ advocacy and actions that have led to harm against thousands of vulnerable humans. The signatories, led by Rev. David Wright, a UMC pastor from Washington state, wrote that they hoped to avoid a trial against Sessions in the church’s courts system, preferring instead a less formal “reconciling process.” Nonetheless, the group leveled four separate charges against the United States Attorney General: Under UMC rules, any member can bring a complaint against any other member based on their conduct, or an alleged violation of the church’s Book of Discipline. Typically, efforts are made to de-escalate grievances via mediation by church leaders and measures such as “supervision” or “just resolution.” However, occasionally complaints can reach the UMC’s Judicial Council, and pastors can be suspended or removed from their positions. In 2005, the Judicial Council caused controversy by handing down a series of rulings which excluded the LGBTQ community from participation in the church. The council defrocked a Philadelphia-based UMC minister on the grounds that she had publicly declared herself a lesbian and openly carried out a relationship with another woman, and it upheld the right of a pastor in South Hill, Virginia to prevent an openly gay man from joining his congregation. According to Rev. William Lawrence, a theologian, UMC elder and professor emeritus of American church history at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, it would be unprecedented for formal charges against a lay member (as opposed to a pastor) to escalate to the level of a church trial, rather than being resolved with mediation at the local or regional level. Lawrence told United Methodist News: I’m not aware of any circumstance in the 50-year history of The United Methodist Church when a complaint against a lay person moved beyond the stage of its resolution by a district superintendent or a pastor. We asked Rev. Tracy Wines and Rev. Sterling Boykin — Sessions’s pastors and the addressees of the open letter — for their response to the charges, as well as their views on the Attorney General’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy and the separation of children from their parents. We did not receive a response from either pastor, in time for publication. However, a spokesperson for the Alabama-West Florida Conference, in which the Attorney General’s home church is located, directed us to a statement issued on 18 June by the conference’s bishop David Graves, who wrote: …It deeply troubles me and burdens my heart that innocent immigrant children are being separated from their parents. It was difficult to celebrate Father’s Day knowing these unjust acts were ongoing in this country. The 18 June complaint letter is arguably the most significant public UMC criticism to date of Sessions’s immigration policy and the separation of children from their parents, but it is not the first time the Attorney General’s co-religionists have voiced their opposition. On 15 June, Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe, who is the General Secretary of the UMC’s General Board of Church and Society and a senior national official in the church, described the zero-tolerance immigration policy in scathing terms, calling Sessions’s Biblical defense a “shocking violation of the spirit of the Gospel”: In early May, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a “zero tolerance” policy resulting in de facto family separation: children are immediately removed from their parents as they are apprehended after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. And three days ago, the Attorney General also announced a policy reversing protections for asylum seekers fleeing domestic abuse and gang violence. Neither threat of violence is now considered grounds for asylum. Furthermore — and in response to the ardent opposition from a wide array of faith communities — the officials responsible for these policies have recently used Christian scripture to justify their actions. To argue that these policies are consistent with Christian teaching is unsound, a flawed interpretation, and a shocking violation of the spirit of the Gospel. She added: “Christian sacred texts should never be used to justify policies that oppress or harm children and families” and urged UMC members to contact Sessions’s Department of Justice directly to register their opposition to the policy, pointedly referring to him as “our fellow United Methodist.” Former First Lady Laura Bush (a prominent UMC member along with her husband, former President George W. Bush) condemned Sessions’s policy as “cruel” and “immoral” and likened it to the internment of people of Japanese descent during World War II, in a high-profile column in the Washington Post. The Bush family’s Dallas, Texas UMC pastor, Rev. Paul Rasmussen, had harsh words for Sessions’ invocation of the Bible in defense of the immigration policy: The use of Holy Scripture to justify the separation of children from their parents is as ignorant and egregious an affront to God’s word as I’ve seen in ministry. — Paul Rasmussen (@revrasmussen) June 16, 2018
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29400
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Women need more sleep than men because their brains get more use on a day-to-day basis.
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In addition, the argument as presented in viral news stories — that Horne thinks women “need” more sleep because their brains work harder — is false, as those stories inaccurately reflect his views, misattribute quotes, cite no evidence, and are recycled even in the absence of any new scientific investigations.
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false
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Medical
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On 15 December 2016, the Facebook page “Natural Solutions Magazine” posted a story from the web site Healthy Food House titled “Women Need More Sleep Than Men Because Their Brains Work Harder, According to Science.” That article was no more than a collection of quotes that have been used (with varying degrees of accuracy) in numerous sporadically appearing viral stories: According to Jim Horne: “For women, poor sleep is strongly associated with high levels of psychological distress and greater feelings of hostility, depression, and anger,” and “These feelings were not associated with the same degree of sleep disruption in men.” Professor Jim Horne, has a specific explanation on the importance of sleeping. The professor also wrote the book Sleepfaring: A Journey Through The Science of Sleep. “One of the major functions of sleep is to allow the brain to recover and repair itself. During deep sleep, the cortex — the part of the brain responsible for thought memory, language and so on – disengages from the senses and goes into recovery mode.” “The more of your brain you use during the day, the more of it that needs to recover and, consequently, the more sleep you need. Women tend to multi-task — they do lots at once and are flexible — and so they use more of their actual brain than men do. Because of that, their sleep need is greater. Among the many warning signs present in that story and its numerous iterations was the failure to cite a specific research study as well as the extremely broad and oversimplified rationale, not to mention the ever-popular red flag of a science headline that is “according to science”. As it turns out, this story is only the most recent episode in a long history of viral science news going back, potentially, as far as 2008. Theresa Fisher, in an exhaustive debunker published in on the sleep-focused website Van Winkle’s made it clear that the story (as originally presented) was essentially made up. In response to an earlier March 2016 episode of this story’s appearance, Fisher found that most of the quotes in the story that were attributed to Jim Horne came from either a 2010 Daily Mail story, or from a different scientist altogether: “[M]ost of Horne’s quotes actually date back to a 2010 Daily Mail story. And, at least one quote attributed to Horne appears to belong to Edward Suarez at Duke University.” Another problem was that the pice was not an accurate representation of Jim Horne’s views on the topic, as he stated in Fisher’s debunker: ‘”I never said that women actually need more sleep, they just tend to take more sleep,” Horne told Van Winkle’s. “We have not undertaken a new study.”‘ Digging deeper, Fisher found that the story was a piecemeal stitching together of Horne’s out of context quotes and material from a 2008 press release from Duke University that had quoted a different scientist named Edward Suarez: For all intents and purposes, the Duke study is the “new study” in question — but no outlet, to our knowledge, has acknowledged the work they’re inadvertently reporting on. The Duke research was also the “new study” in 2013, when the then five-year-old research garnered a flurry of press, much of which incorporated Horne’s 2010 quotes to buff up the delayed coverage. It’s hard to know which outlets, if any, were or are cognizant of which piece of research they’re writing about or when it actually counted as “news.” That Duke study did find a gendered difference, not in the need for sleep, but in the harm derived from not getting enough sleep, as Duke University stated in a press release: Their study, appearing online in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity, found that poor sleep is associated with greater psychological distress and higher levels of biomarkers associated with elevated risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. They also found that these associations are significantly stronger in women than in men. That there may be gendered differences when it comes to sleep, however, is commonly reported in the scientific literature. In the 2004 book Epidemiology of Sleep: Age, Gender, and Ethnicity, Kenneth Lichstein and colleagues performed an extensive literature review of studies relating to sleep, finding that some evidence supported gender-derived differences in sleep epidemiology: There is strong evidence that women are more likely than men to report difficulty initiating sleep. There is also evidence that the prevalence of difficulty maintaining sleep and early morning awakening is slightly higher in women, but the findings for these variables are less consistent across studies. Gender differences in [total sleep time, TST] were found mostly in studies including young and middle-age adults, with women reporting longer TST. A study performed by Horne himself in 1996 monitored 400 individuals over a 15 night period and found that women tended to sleep longer than men dod. A 2004 study of 2000 British adult study participants concluded men and women slept about the same, but that women reported more sleep problems. A 2014 study in a similar vein concluded that “Compared to men, women spent 15 min longer in bed, but they slept for 11 min less and reported more sleep difficulties.” While Horne never said women need more sleep, he has made the argument that differences in sleep between genders could be related to the amount and type of daily “use” men and women get out of their brain. Most recently, he made that argument in his 2016 book Sleeplessness: This is not because of myths relating to ‘more delicate constitutions’, but may well be due to women having more deep or slow wave sleep[…], and a sign of their having greater brain (i.e. cortical) recovery during sleep. This in turn indicates that women tend to work their cerebral cortices harder than the age-related man. Women seem to multitask to a greater extent than men, which requires dealing with information from different sources and senses, then selecting which piece of information to attend to and what to ignore, including having quickly to decide on actions and priorities … Horne’s assertion that women’s increased need for (and trouble with) sleep stemmed from their greater amount of daily multitasking, however, is not robustly supported by current scientific literature. Though commonly touted as a scientific truth, there is a striking lack of scientific research into the claim that women are better multitaskers than men. In a 2010 paper about predictors of multitasking skill, David Hambrick and colleagues attempted to find any claim to support the notion that women are better multitaskers and reported that they “could not find a single scientific report to support this view.” Since then, two studies have investigated the claim experimentally. A 2013 study published in the journal Psychological Science experimentally investigated the existence of gendered differences in multitasking and found evidence to support that notion. But — by this researcher’s metric of multitasking — the difference was not so simple, and it did not indicate female superiority with multitasking: Demands involving the scheduling and interleaving of multiple activities have become increasingly prevalent, especially for women. This fact, in combination with media reports and popular books, has contributed to less-well-grounded assumptions about females’ superiority at multitasking. The present findings suggest that these assumptions and actual differences between men and women in time-use patterns do not directly translate to a superior female capacity to handle multiple tasks. Another 2013 study, this one published in the journal BMC Psychology, addressed essentially the same question and came to a different conclusion: “Our findings support the notion that woman [sic] are better than men in some types of multi-tasking (namely when the tasks involved do not need to be carried out simultaneously). More research on this question is urgently needed, before we can draw stronger conclusions and before we can differentiate between different explanations.” Both studies, in fact, stressed the need for more research, arguing that empirical data for this commonly held belief was lacking. The authors of the latter study went so far as to argue that “The near lack of empirical studies on gender differences in multitasking should caution against making strong generalisations.” As Horne’s explanation for gendered differences in sleep relies on this strong generalization — that women are by necessity superior multitaskers and therefore have differing sleep needs — this aspect of his claim (and by extension the viral post’s claims) is unproven.
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11634
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Low-carb diet trumps low-fat on ‘good’ cholesterol
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"The story makes it seem like the HDL cholesterol effect was the main thrust of the study, and it was not. Overall the story appears to slant in favor of the low-carb approach (e.g., ""a low-carb diet works just as well … and it might be better for your heart""), despite the main result of the study finding essentially no difference between the two diets on most outcomes. Why emphasize that ""The key difference was in HDL"" without explaining the absolute differences and without explaining if that surrogate marker resulted in any difference in endpoints that matter, such as fewer heart attacks? Americans are already overly obsessed with ""scores."" Emphaszing the HDL difference without adequately explaining its real significance in peoples’ lives feels like more scoreboard-watching without knowing the rules of the game."
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mixture
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There was no discussion about how the different food consumption patterns compared in terms of price. Doesn’t cost matter in this decision? The story indicated that the 15 pound average weight loss observed at 2 years was the same for the two groups. The information about weight loss would have been better had it included insight about the variability in weight loss across the two groups. There was no mention of any issues or problems that might arise from either of these diets. The story opened by informing readers that the two dietary approaches to weight loss resulted in similar weight loss but that the low-carb approach might be better for your heart. The first piece of this statement is founded on the actual weight loss in the two groups; the contention about heart health is merely speculative. It is based on a difference in HDL levels between the two groups, but as the story indicated, neither of the groups had cholesterol problems to begin with. So it is really less clear that the difference in HDL was clinically meaningful. It failed to report on the percentage of individuals who dropped out of the study. The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. But the story’s emphasis on the surrogate endpoint of HDL cholesterol is borderline. One clinician who headed up the study reported on was quoted in this story along with a clinician who was not involved in that study. But that clinician, Dr. Yancy, has a long-standing history of research favoring the low-carb diet approach. That was not disclosed, and he is not a truly independent commenter in this case. The story should have included comments from independent experts to help readers understand the take home messages from the study reported on. The story did not include a comprehensive list of evidence-based methods for weight loss. The story lacked a discussion about the essential role of caloric intake, even within the low-carbohydrate diet group. It’s fairly clear from the story that these two diets have been in use for a long time by lots of people. The story was clear about the fact that the dietary approaches for weight loss that were compared are not new or novel. Does not appear to rely exclusively on a news release.
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8832
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School closings may be no holiday for flu pandemic.
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Closing schools during an influenza pandemic could prevent one in seven cases of flu, British researchers said on Wednesday in a study that suggests such action would have less impact than some other estimates.
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true
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Health News
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An influenza virus vaccine vial sits on the counter of medical center in Great Neck, New York, October 22, 2004. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton SS But they said school closings would create significant hardships for working parents, who might be forced to create informal daycare arrangements that would undo efforts to contain the spread of flu. “We find school closings would be less effective than some studies have suggested,” said Dr. Simon Cauchemez of Imperial College London, whose study appears in the journal Nature. “The main effect would be to slow and flatten the outbreak — so the numbers becoming ill in the worst week of the outbreak might be reduced by up to 40 percent, reducing peak demand on health-care systems,” Cauchemez said in an e-mail. Health experts almost universally agree that a global epidemic — a pandemic — of influenza is overdue. The most likely cause now is H5N1 avian influenza, which could evolve into a form that passes easily from person to person. Government estimates suggest vaccines and drugs will not be enough to slow or prevent a flu pandemic. The U.S. pandemic plan recommends closing schools and implementing strategies to limit social contact as a way to limit transmission. If done quickly, such widespread measures combined with drugs and vaccines might reduce transmission in a large city by as much as 80 percent, by one estimate. But such estimates are often based on widely varying assumptions, Cauchemez said. He and colleagues instead used public health data from France that compared flu transmission when school was in session and during school holidays. They found school holidays prevent 16 to 18 percent of seasonal influenza cases. When extrapolated to a pandemic, they said prolonged school closure might reduce the cumulative number of cases by 13 to 17 percent, and peak attack rates by 39 to 45 percent. But that impact would be reduced if it proved too difficult to keep children apart. “If we want the policy to have an impact, children must be kept relatively isolated and not cared for in groups,” Cauchemez said. U.S. cities that quickly closed schools and discouraged public gatherings during the great flu pandemic of 1918 — which killed tens of millions of people globally — had as many as 50 percent fewer deaths than cities that took less decisive measures, according to a recent study. Cauchemez said an especially deadly pandemic might provide strong incentives for people to keep their children at home. “It might nonetheless be difficult for a lot of working parents to be absent from their work for months to look after their kids,” he said. Cauchemez said a prolonged outbreak might force working parents to put their children into informal daycare settings, a risk governments need to consider when they formulate pandemic flu plans. “We can’t predict how people will behave, but we need to be aware that if this happens, school closings might have no effect at all on flu transmission,” he said. H5N1 bird flu only rarely infects people now. It has killed 239 out of 379 infected, according to the World Health Organization, but could easily mutate into a form that one person could pass to another, and governments around the world are preparing for the possibility.
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11186
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Kidney, Heart Disease Spur Each Other
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"The story reports recently published data establishing a clear link between heart disease and decreased kidney function. The story quotes the lead study author who advocates mass screening of kidney function. In the sidebar, the story suggests only screening patients with known risk factors, such as a relative with kidney disease, diabetes, or hypertension. The story does not talk about the lack of any national guidelines for screening. That might have helped emphasize the novelty of developing a population-based screening approach. Early screening may help doctors and patients stave off some of the effects of cardiovascular disease with medications to reduce blood pressure. The story provides treatment options (medication) for managing early-stage chronic kidney disease and options for people who are making the decision for renal replacement if chronic kidney disease progresses to end-stage kidney disease (dialysis and transplant). The story states that kidney disease patients are ""terrified"" of having to go on dialysis, but no patients are actually interviewed. The story does give an explanation of the disease and how it affects the heart, but to say the kidneys “disintegrate” is not accurate. Finally, the story only provides one perspective, that of the study author whose work is highlighted in the story. Interviews with primary care doctors or nephrologists, and possibly patients would be useful for balance in discussing the the pros and cons of routine screening for kidney disease in patients with and without known risk factors. Generally, though, the story is well done."
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true
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"The story lists the costs for screening – ""urine and blood tests that cost less than $25."" The story mentions some interventions for people with declining kidney function, but these are not quantified. We are also not told if screening and subsequent monitoring and pharmacological interventions save lives, or how many people would need to be screened in order to makes such programs or practices cost effective. The story focuses on the benefits of detecting disease. They could have talked about the potential harms of mass screening (i.e. the need to draw blood or the possibility of false positives). While the story is not focused on blood pressure management, per se, we are told that ACE (angiotensin II receptor blockers) inhibitors are ""good for the heart"", but the story does not mention potential side effects of these medications. The story does an adequate job of explaining the evidence. The story does not engage in disease mongering but some of the language used is questionable. The story says chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients are ""terrified"" of having to go on dialysis, but no CKD patients are actually interviewed. The story does give an explanation of how kidney function works and how it can become impaired by heart disease, but to say the kidneys ""disintegrate"" with CKD is not accurate. The story only provides one perspective, that of the study author whose work is highlighted in the story. Interviews with primary care doctors and nephrologists, and possibly patients would be useful for balance and for discussion of the pros and cons of mass screening. The story provides treatment options (medication) for managing early-stage chronic kidney disease and options for people who are making the decision for renal replacement if chronic kidney disease progresses to end-stage kidney disease (dialysis and transplant). It’s fairly clear from the story that the screening tests for kidney disease that are discussed are generally already available, although perhaps not used as much as some think they should be. The story does not talk about the lack of any national guidelines for screening. That might have helped emphasize the novelty of developing a population-based screening approach. Early screening may help doctors and patients stave off some of the effects of cardiovascular disease with medications to reduce blood pressure. Information in this story does not appear to be taken from a press release."
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30397
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The mayor of London encouraged muslims to riot during President Donald Trump's visit to the U.K
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Shares in Germany’s Bayer’s fell more than 12 percent on Wednesday after a second U.S. jury ruled its Roundup weed killer caused cancer.
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false
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Junk News, free speech time, sadiq khan
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Tuesday’s unanimous jury decision in San Francisco federal court was not a finding of Bayer’s liability for the cancer of plaintiff Edwin Hardeman. Liability and damages will be decided by the same jury in a second trial phase beginning on Wednesday. Bayer, which denies allegations that glyphosate or Roundup cause cancer, said it was disappointed with the jury’s initial decision. Bayer acquired Monsanto, the longtime maker of Roundup, for $63 billion last year. Bayer shares were 12.5 percent lower at 1110 GMT, the biggest intraday loss in 16 years, wiping some 8 billion euros ($9.1 billion) off its valuation. “This looks like 2-0 plaintiffs, and clearly not helpful for the overall payout calculus and resolution of the litigation,” said Bernstein analyst Gunther Zechmann. Glyphosate is the world’s most widely used weed killer. Monsanto’s Roundup was the first glyphosate-based weed killer but is no longer patent-protected and many other versions are now available. Bayer does not provide sales figures for the product. “We are confident the evidence in phase two will show that Monsanto’s conduct has been appropriate and the company should not be liable for Mr. Hardeman’s cancer,” the company said. The case was only the second of some 11,200 Roundup lawsuits to go to trial in the United States. Another California man was awarded $289 million in August after a state court jury found Roundup caused his cancer. That award was later reduced to $78 million and is on appeal. Baader Helvea analyst Markus Mayer noted that Bayer management announced ambitious targets in December. “(It) is now under pressure to deliver and trying to avoid becoming a target for activist or strategic buyers.” Activist investor Elliott already holds a stake of less than 3 percent in Bayer, Reuters disclosed last year. Brokerage Warburg lowered its recommendation to “Hold” from “Buy”, arguing that the with the renewed setback upcoming glyphosate court cases would remain a drag on the share price. Bayer had claimed that jury was overly influenced by plaintiffs’ lawyers allegations of corporate misconduct and did not focus on the science. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria called such evidence “a distraction” from the scientific question of whether glyphosate causes cancer. He split the Hardeman case into two phases: one to decide causation, the other to determine Bayer’s potential liability and damages. Under Chhabria’s order, the second phase would only take place if the jury found Roundup to be a substantial factor in causing Hardeman’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The jury found that it was on Tuesday. Union Investment fund manager Markus Manns cautioned that it was too early to read anything into individual rulings in courts of first instance. “What will be important for Bayer is the outcome of the appeals hearings,” he told Reuters, adding that Bayer should not yet engage in settlement talks. Chhabria has scheduled another bellwether trial for May and a third trial is likely to take place this year. All three cases will be split into causation and liability phases. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the European Chemicals Agency and other regulators have found that glyphosate is not likely carcinogenic to humans. But the World Health Organization’s cancer arm in 2015 reached a different conclusion, classifying glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”
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37729
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Amish people are not contracting coronavirus because they don't have televisions.
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A number of Facebook memes claimed that Amish people did not contract coronavirus or develop COVID-19, because “they don’t have televisions” or the internet. The claim was doubly false, as Amish communities experienced outbreaks of COVID-19. The second claim about a lack of televisions and a lack of knowledge of the pandemic was rooted in several misconceptions about Amish people, not to mention televisions. Amish leaders were kept abreast of the pandemic in its early stages, Amish people do use (but often don’t own) devices like cell phones, Amish people read the news, and Amish people practiced social distancing on state recommendations to avert the spread of the virus.
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false
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Disinformation, Fact Checks
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In July 2020, a number of Facebook memes circulated riffing on the same theme — that Amish people in the United States were not developing COVID-19, because they “don’t have television sets.”VariationsWe observed this claim spreading in the form of a variety of memes, typically either outright stating the claim, or depicting two apparently Amish people purportedly discussing a lack of televisions and coronavirus in their communities:Although an occasional variation indicated the Amish “don’t have the internet,” television was largely described as the means by which Amish people avoided the COVID-19 pandemic.Do Amish People Know About Coronavirus?We noticed that the first autopopulated search for “do Amish …” in July 2020 was “do Amish people know about Coronavirus?”, indicating a level of concern among people who are not Amish for Amish communities during the pandemic. Google Trends indicated interest in whether Amish people knew about COVID-19 peaked numerous times, first in mid-March 2020, and again in July as the pandemic worsened.Do Amish People Have Access to Television, the Internet, or Other Modern Technology?According to Discover Lancaster, the non-Amish belief that the Amish are totally walled off from all technology is erroneous:Telephones are an interesting illustration of the way that Amish families incorporate technology into their lives. Visitors [to areas where Amish people live] often mistakenly think the Amish use nothing modern. So, when they notice an Amish person making a call from a pay telephone booth, they might be surprised. They may wonder why Amish sometimes use the phone of their “English” (non-Amish) neighbors. Many visitors are even more shocked to discover that some of the buildings that resemble outhouses sitting near an Amish house or in a field are actually private Amish telephone booths.Noting that Amish people typically do not own telephones, the site explained how telephones made their way into Amish communities in the 1950s:The use of the “community phone” or “phone shanty” was permitted beginning in the 1950s, when more Amish were forced to go into businesses and hotels to use phones for emergency purposes and to contact doctors, dentists, veterinarians and food dealers. This community phone building, which often resembles an outhouse, is typically built at the end of a farm lane and shared by several neighboring families. The objective of this concept was to allow access, but maintain distance. Hence, the phone is not in the house and the number is unlisted, to be used essentially for necessary outgoing calls, not socializing. […]As is typical of the Amish, when a new technology comes along, its effect on the church and community is examined. The technology should not be an intrusion into the home, but rather serve the social purposes and goals of the group. With that in mind, the Amish often re-purpose the technology, in a sense, to align with their community beliefs.In other words, technology like phones or television are not foreign, alien concepts to Amish people. A gazebo retailer based in Manheim, Pennsylvania had this to say of the relationship between Amish people and technology in general:The Amish do not have electricity running into their houses like the average American does, true. However, most families and businesses have generators which they use to power various appliances or devices in their homes. Also, though they will not allow a phone in their homes, it is not uncommon for Amish to own cell phones for business purposes, or to have a landline phone in the barn or other outbuilding.Although it was hard to be sure, it seemed possible that Amish cell phone owners might, on occasion, sneak a peek at the internet in addition to making phone calls.As far as Amish awareness of the coronavirus pandemic, a news source in Pennsylvania (home to a very large Amish community) addressed how the Amish were faring in early April 2020. Steven Nolt, a senior scholar at Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College told PennLive.com that even in the pandemic’s early days, community leaders and the communities they led were very aware of the virus and its spread:“They take this seriously and have gotten messages from trusted sources,” Nolt said. “At the same time many Amish folks are also taking their cues from their non-Amish neighbors and friends. In a rural context, a semi-rural context, I think we are seeing that not necessarily all Americans in those settings are responding in the same way.”Nolt also explained that the idea Amish people are unaware of current events or didn’t read newspapers was yet another fallacy:The Amish may not be as connected to current news sources as the general public, but they are also not cut off.“There is a popular impression that the Amish are entirely sequestered and that they have no idea what is going on in the world,” Nolt said. “That’s simply not true, especially here in southcentral Pennsylvania, in Lancaster County.”The Amish are regular newspaper consumers, and have regular contacts with non-Amish friends and co-workers who tend to keep them apprised of current events.Lancaster County, Pennsylvania commissioner Craig Lehman confirmed that county officials immediately looped Amish elders into discussions about the pandemic in its early days:“We are all concerned about our Amish neighbors,” Lehman said. “They are well informed and know what is going on. We are trying to maintain the lines of communication open and we are at least informed in what steps they are taking to mitigate this COVID-19 pandemic.”Alice Yoder, director of community health at a Lancaster hospital, said:“[Amish communities have] been very open, wanting to understand what COVID is about and what it meant to them[. ]”On April 11 2020, a regional expert spoke to NBC News and referenced the “Amish internet,” and how information spreads by word of mouth “fairly quickly” in Amish communities. On May 30 2020, a local news source in Pennsylvania reported that Amish communities complied with state orders and closed their schools — even introducing virtual learning:In mid-March [2020], Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf ordered all Pennsylvania schools to close, prompting an abrupt shutdown of the state’s public and private schools – and, it turns out, Amish one-room schoolhouses.Local experts in Amish and Old Order Mennonite culture say most, if not all, of the 250-or-so area Amish-run schools closed in accordance with Wolf’s order. And, just like at many traditional schools, learning never stopped.While most schools in the state shifted instruction online, Amish schools switched to remote assignments with paper and pencil.Did Any Amish People Get COVID-19?Unfortunately, the notion that the pandemic spared the Amish community was not rooted in any factual reality.On April 14 2020, Nolt spoke to another outlet about Amish workers exposed to the broader community. In May 2020, Amish people continued following social distancing recommendations overall.On June 16 2020, a news organization in Ohio — another place where there are Amish communities — reported that “communities in Holmes County, including the Amish, have been hit by the virus about equally.”That same day, another news outlet in Ohio confirmed an outbreak of COVID-19 in an Amish community:LOUDONVILLE, Ohio (WJW) — The Ashland County Health Department (ACHD) on [June 16 2020] warned the public of a COVID-19 outbreak in the Amish community in the Loudonville area.In a news release, the health department said, “An outbreak is declared when at least two or more individuals have tested positive for an infectious disease. There are currently 6 confirmed cases (5 Ashland residents) affiliated with this outbreak, with several tests pending, 69 individuals in quarantine, and an unknown number of unreported illnesses.”[…]“Please, continue to treat our Amish neighbors with kindness and support, while taking steps to limit your exposure to this outbreak,” said Heather Reffett, ACHD’s Health Commissioner. “The health department is actively working to ensure that everyone who needs to be tested is tested and that those who need medical treatment have access to health care. The most effective measures that we have to prevent the spread of the virus is individual behavior as well as enforcement of isolation and quarantine orders. It is critical that those who have been exposed remove themselves from the general population.”On June 26 2020, reports indicated that the outbreak was worsening:LOUDONVILLE — Health officials are reporting an increase in coronavirus cases among the area’s Amish communities.On [June 26 2020], the Ashland County Health Department confirmed an uptick in cases, initially reported in Loudonville — a village of less than 3,000 (2010 Census data) that spans both Holmes and Ashland counties — as the virus spreads in both counties. […]Health officials said on [June 26 2020] that an unknown number of Ashland County Amish are affected by the spreading virus. A third cluster of cases involving four individuals, of which three are Ashland residents, is associated with a home-care agency.On June 27 2020, a Pennsylvania newspaper reported on an outbreak in Lancaster’s Amish communities. The scope of the outbreak was uncertain at that time due to gaps in testing.SummaryA number of Facebook memes claimed that Amish people did not contract coronavirus or develop COVID-19, because “they don’t have televisions” or the internet. The claim was doubly false, as Amish communities experienced outbreaks of COVID-19. The second claim about a lack of televisions and a lack of knowledge of the pandemic was rooted in several misconceptions about Amish people, not to mention televisions. Amish leaders were kept abreast of the pandemic in its early stages, Amish people do use (but often don’t own) devices like cell phones, Amish people read the news, and Amish people practiced social distancing on state recommendations to avert the spread of the virus.Comments
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15839
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A lot of people who go into prison straight, and when they come out they’re gay.
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"Carson said, ""A lot of people who go into prison straight, and when they come out they’re gay."" There is no research that supports this point. The one study that even begins to address the topic has too small a sample size -- and too many variables -- to shed light on Carson's claim. And its author finds Carson's view ""simplistic."" Further, Carson used this example to prove that sexual orientation is a personal decision. Respected scientists consider it settled that homosexuality is not a matter of choice. Additionally, experts told us the sex culture in prison is not comparable to sex culture outside of prison, making it a bad analogy."
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false
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National, Criminal Justice, Sexuality, Ben Carson,
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"Homosexuality is a choice, just look at the prisons, Republican neurosurgeon Ben Carson said on CNN. In a March 4 interview, the likely 2016 presidential contender said he believes that legalizing same-sex marriage is a decision that should be left to the states. He also argued that homosexuality is a choice, rather than biological. ""Because a lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight -- and when they come out, they're gay. So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question,"" said Carson, a former head of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. We’ll jump to the point here: There is no conclusive evidence to support Carson’s claim that ""a lot of people"" make a switch from heterosexual to homosexual while in prison. Further, the medical community tends to conclude that homosexuality is not a matter of choice -- notably the American Psychological Association. ""Dr. Carson's contention has a political intent but is absent of awareness of research on human sexuality,"" said Mark Fleisher, a social science professor at Case Western University, who studies sexuality and violence in prisons. A spokesman for Carson declined our request for comment. In the prisons Many inmates who identify as heterosexual change their sexual habits while in prison, possibly as a victim or perpetrator of abuse or due to lack of access to the opposite sex, said Christopher Hensley, a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga criminal justice professor. But a change in sexual behavior does not necessarily equate to a change in sexual orientation. Hensley recently authored a study that he said is one of the first to examine a shift in sexual orientation in prisons. He and his co-author questioned 142 prisoners at a maximum-security facility in the South about their sexual orientation. They found that of the sample, 24 men changed sexual orientation while incarcerated. Of those 24, 18 changed from straight to bisexual, three changed from bisexual to straight, and one each changed from bisexual to gay, gay to bisexual, and gay to straight. These results do not conclusively support Carson’s point, Hensley said. The sample size is too small to make any sweeping conclusions -- 142 is just about 0.001 percent of the nation’s prison population. Additionally, Hensley said his research does not support Carson’s implication that prison behavior shows that a shift in sexual orientation is a choice. Prison sex culture is not analogous to the sex culture outside of prison. ""Carson is taking a simplistic view of sexuality,"" Hensley said. It’s possible that people go into prison unaware of their sexuality, and then once they are exposed to homosexual behavior as an inmate, they realize that they are gay or bisexual, Helen Eigenberg, who also studies prison sexuality as a professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said in an interview with PolitiFact. This isn’t necessarily captured in Hensley’s research, she said. Eigenberg added that sometimes victims of sexual abuse -- in prisons that can mean gang rape, prostitution or other forms of coercion -- are sometimes confused. They might think that just because they played a role in a homosexual act, they are now gay, which is not necessarily true. ""The fundamental assumption of the analogy (Carson’s) using is insane,"" Eigenberg told the Washington Post. We asked numerous other experts who study criminal justice and sexuality, and none agreed with Carson’s claim. Nor were they aware of modern research addressing this topic, other than Hensley’s. ""There is absolutely no good evidence supporting Carson's contention, and there is good evidence against it,"" said J. Michael Bailey, a psychology professor at Northwestern University who studies sexual orientation. A choice? In a previous PolitiFact article, we found that, while it’s not certain what factors cause sexuality, scientists agree that personal choice is not involved. The American Psychological Association, which has 150,000 members, considers it a ""settled question."" Greg Herek, a psychology professor at the University of California Davis who studies sexual orientation, pointed us to a nationally representative study that shows the vast majority of gay men and women do not perceive their sexual orientation as a result of choice. People can change their behavior -- such as engaging in homosexual behavior in prison -- but that does not equate to a change in orientation, Bailey, the Northwestern researcher, told PolitiFact. He also noted that there are examples (updated with new link) of boys being surgically changed into girls at birth (in the past, for medical reasons), but when these former boys grow into women -- they are attracted to other women. ""If you can't make a male attracted to men by changing him, surgically and socially, into a girl, how likely is it that prison can do that?"" Bailey said. Our ruling Carson said, ""A lot of people who go into prison straight, and when they come out they’re gay."" There is no research that supports this point. The one study that even begins to address the topic has too small a sample size -- and too many variables -- to shed light on Carson's claim. And its author finds Carson's view ""simplistic."" Further, Carson used this example to prove that sexual orientation is a personal decision. Respected scientists consider it settled that homosexuality is not a matter of choice. Additionally, experts told us the sex culture in prison is not comparable to sex culture outside of prison, making it a bad analogy."
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6790
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UN steps up aid to plague-hit Madagascar after 21 deaths.
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The U.N. health agency says it is stepping up its response to an outbreak of plague in Madagascar that has claimed 21 lives so far.
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true
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Madagascar, Seychelles, International News, Health, Sports, Plague, Basketball
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The World Health Organization said Sunday that Malagasy authorities have confirmed a basketball coach visiting the island from the Seychelles for a sports event died from the disease Wednesday. It says authorities are trying to trace people he may have come into contact with to administer antibiotics against pneumonic plague. WHO says it is deploying further staff and supplies amid concerned the disease could spread further because cases have already been reported in several cities. So far at least 114 people have been infected with the plague since the outbreak was identified in late August. Both pneumonic and bubonic plague are endemic on the island.
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5228
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Large hospital system says it was hit by ransomware attack.
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New Jersey’s largest hospital system said Friday that a ransomware attack last week disrupted its computer network and that it paid a ransom to stop it.
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true
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Health, Technology, General News, Hackensack, New Jersey
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Hackensack Meridian Health did not say in its statement how much it paid to regain control over its systems but said it holds insurance coverage for such emergencies. The attack forced hospitals to reschedule nonemergency surgeries and doctors and nurses to deliver care without access to electronic records. The system said it was advised by experts not to disclose until Friday that it had been the victim of a ransomware attack. It said that its network’s primary clinical systems had returned to being operational, and that information technology specialists were working to bring all of its applications back online. Hackensack Meridian said it had no indication that any patient information was subject to unauthorized access or disclosure. It quickly notified the FBI and other authorities and spoke with cybersecurity and forensic experts, it said. Hackensack Meridian operates 17 acute care and specialty hospitals, nursing homes, outpatient centers, and the psychiatric facility Carrier Clinic.
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134
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Massive jury award against J&J highlights risks of its legal strategy.
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A jury award that hit Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) with $8 billion in punitive damages for a case involving its anti-psychotic drug Risperdal highlights the risks of the drugmaker’s all-or-nothing legal strategy, several legal experts told Reuters on Wednesday.
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true
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Health News
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The jury in a Philadelphia court awarded the $8 billion to a man who previously won $680,000 over his claims that it failed to warn that young men using Risperdal could grow breasts. J&J called the sum “grossly disproportionate with the initial compensatory award” and said it was confident it would be overturned. Legal experts agreed that the penalty was likely to be slashed. But the verdict, which helped drive J&J’s shares down 2% on Wednesday, is an example of how public outrage at the pharmaceutical industry for high drug prices has contributed to harsher verdicts against drugmakers accused of wrongdoing in recent years, legal experts said. Outsized penalties awarded by some juries highlight risks in a longstanding strategy by drugmakers such as J&J of taking their chances at trial rather then settle product liability lawsuits brought by patients. “Every pharmaceutical company needs to seriously consider if they want to litigate to verdict in the present environment, but with the settlement demands so incredibly high it’s not always clear what their alternative is,” said Barry Thompson, a partner at Baker McKenzie law firm who was not involved in the case. Drugmakers often prefer to litigate rather than settle in hopes of protecting their brands and discouraging future patient lawsuits, Thompson said. Companies also may use a series of early trial verdicts to gauge the size of any settlement it might eventually offer, as Merck & Co (MRK.N) did with its withdrawn Vioxx arthritis pain drug when facing thousands of lawsuits by patients who claimed harm from the drug. A 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision suggests that the upper limit of a fair punitive penalty in the Risperdal case would be about $6 million based on the earlier compensatory award. J&J could still get a favorable ruling on appeal that would give the company leverage in dealing with the remaining cases, said Benjamin McMichael, a professor at the Alabama School of Law who has researched punitive damage awards. “With such a large punitive damages award at issue, appellate courts may be more willing to come down hard on the plaintiffs,” McMichael said. J&J faces more than 13,000 lawsuits tied to Risperdal alleging that it caused a condition called gynecomastia in boys, in which breast tissue becomes enlarged. The company is also facing lawsuits involving its baby powder, opioids, medical devices and other products. “We’re operating within a very litigious environment, and we must at times be willing to go to trial when the science, facts and law are on our side,” J&J spokesman Ernie Knewitz said in an email. “We also have to remain open to resolving cases through settlement when and where that’s appropriate to do. We have a proven track record of being able to successfully and appropriately manage this balance,” Knewitz added. The company has had its share of legal wins, losses and settlements. An Oklahoma judge in August ordered J&J to pay $572.1 million to that state for its part in fueling the opioid crisis by deceptively marketing addictive painkillers, although the sum was substantially less than investors had expected. Johnson & Johnson has said it plans to appeal the ruling. Earlier this month, the company agreed to pay $20.4 million to settle claims by two Ohio counties, avoiding a federal opioid trial. In 2013, J&J paid more than $2.2 billion to resolve civil and criminal investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice into its marketing of Risperdal and other drugs.
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7834
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Ministers urge religious chiefs to oppose genital mutilation.
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Religious leaders must convince women carrying out female genital mutilation that it is not required by scripture and it can cause infection, infertility or even death in young girls, African ministers said on Monday.
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true
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Health News
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The practice is prevalent in 28 African countries and parts of the Middle East and Asia, notably Yemen, Iraqi Kurdistan and Indonesia. There are several types including partial or total removal of the genitalia and narrowing of the vaginal opening. It is usually arranged by other women in the family for girls between infancy and 15, and performed by traditional cutters who use anything from razor blades to scissors or tin can lids. The United Nations passed a resolution in December urging countries to ban the practice that an estimated 100 to 140 million girls worldwide have been subjected to, putting them at risk of serious physical and psychological problems. But participants at an international meeting in Rome said new laws needed to be accompanied by education and discussion in traditional communities to help dispel misleading myths. “Religious leaders have to be involved, primarily Muslims and those from traditional religions. Opinion leaders have to be on board in this fight,” Benin’s Family and Social Affairs Minister Fatouma Amadou Djibril said. “We can uphold traditions but we have to find ways to replace this kind of practice with different rituals,” she said. People often believe the practice is required by religion, but it is not mentioned in the Koran or any other religious text. Speakers at the Rome meeting said it was crucial to inform and educate the women who were perpetuating the practice, often because they worry they will be punished by ancestors in the afterlife for not performing it on relatives. “We need to explain to the women, because they don’t understand how it can be prevented - it has such important societal implications,” Ivory Coast Health Minister Raymonde Coffie Goudou said. “The traditional practitioner who uses the knife has value, she has a reputation, she is a woman with a role in the village - we have to understand her to deal with this,” she said. The practice can cause severe bleeding, pain, shock, recurrent urinary tract infections, cysts and infertility. It increases the risk of labor complications and newborn deaths. The procedure itself can prove fatal. Speakers said cross-border cooperation and enforcement was also crucial for eradicating the practice, because cutters often move to countries where legislation is less strict so they can carry on working unhindered. Female genital mutilation has been banned by 20 of the 28 countries that practice it in Africa as well as many industrialized countries. But enforcement is usually weak and prosecutions are rare.
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"Speaking about Japan: ""They haven’t bought our beef since the year 2000."
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In his much publicized visit to Iowa, President Donald Trump made a few false and misleading statements about agricultural exports.
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false
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agriculture, Exports, farmers, NAFTA, trade,
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In his much publicized visit to Iowa, President Donald Trump made a few false and misleading statements about agricultural exports:The president visited Iowa on June 11, the same day former Vice President Joe Biden campaigned in the state. Trump, who won Iowa by 9.4 percentage points in 2016, touted his record on farming issues and took aim at the policies of former President Barack Obama and Biden, the current frontrunner in the Democratic presidential field.In his remarks, the president touted a recent agreement with Japan on U.S. beef exports. Trump, June 11: And all around the world, my administration is knocking down barriers to products made, grown, and raised in the USA — not only on the farm, but all over. Just recently reached an agreement to eliminate restrictions and expand exports of American beef — you saw that — to Japan by up to $200 million a year. You saw that. There’s somebody selling beef over there. They haven’t bought our beef since the year 2000.He’s right that Japan agreed “to eliminate restrictions and expand exports of American beef,” but he’s wrong that Japan hasn’t imported U.S. beef since 2000.In a press release last month, the Department of Agriculture announced that Japan has agreed to give full access to U.S. beef products — the final step in a years-long process to fully restore access to the lucrative Japanese market. Japan was one of at least 100 countries that closed their markets to U.S. beef in late 2003 because of a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, according to a 2013 report by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office. The ban had a devastating impact on U.S. beef exports. “In 2003, U.S. producers exported $3.86 billion (1.3 million metric tons) of beef and beef products. The following year, as a result of the widespread import ban, U.S. exports fell by 79 percent, to $808 million,” the USTR report said.After two years, Japan eased its restrictions, and the U.S. started to sell some beef and beef products in Japan again. Access was further expanded in 2013. “In December 2005, Japan restored partial access for U.S. beef muscle cuts and offal items from cattle 20 months of age and younger,” the USDA said in its release. “In February 2013, Japan extended access to include beef and beef products from cattle less than 30 months of age.”According to USDA, U.S. beef exports to Japan totaled $1.4 billion in 2013, $1.6 billion in 2014, $1.3 billion in 2015, $1.5 billion in 2016, and $1.9 billion in 2017. The value of U.S. beef exports to Japan topped $2 billion in 2018, according to USDA data compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation. (See chart below. )The export federation website contains 10 years of USDA data, from 2009 to 2018, and shows Canada was the top market for U.S. beef in 2012. But Japan has been the best customer for U.S. beef since 2013. Trump cherry-picked figures to claim a drop of “over $22 billion” in agricultural exports during the last two years of the Obama administration. But the decrease (actually $15.3 billion from 2014 to 2016) masks the overall increase in export values under Obama.Agricultural export values rose during the first half of Obama’s tenure, peaking in 2014, before falling mostly as a result of lower commodity prices. Even with the drop in the last two years, export values rose by 17 percent over Obama’s time in office. They’ve gone up another 4 percent under Trump.Trump also misleadingly claimed that “farm income declined” under “past administrations.” The overall trend, similar to that of agricultural exports, has been a rise since the early 2000s, with a peak in 2013 and a general decline since.Trump, June 11: Past administrations did nothing while the farm income declined. In the last two years of the previous administration, farm income plummeted by more than $30 billion, and agricultural exports dropped by over $22 billion. Did you know that? Did you know that? You’ll be hearing it a lot over the next little while. That’s not a good number. …By the end of this year, farm incomes are projected to rise by more than $10 billion from the day I was elected.Here’s the longer-term trend for both farm income and agricultural exports since 1993. As the chart shows, the value of agricultural exports grew under Obama. Calendar-year figures from the USDA show that under former President George W. Bush the annual average was $70.8 billion, and it was $131.8 billion under Obama – a clear upward trend. Export values dropped from 2014, when they hit their peak of $150 billion, to 2015, when they were $133 billion. Jason Grant, director of the Center for Agricultural Trade at Virginia Tech University, told us in an email that about 75 percent of the decrease from 2014 to 2015 was because of declining commodity prices, and the rest was attributable to a decline in export quantities.“The US also experienced a large appreciation in the value of the US dollar against a broad basket of foreign currencies,” Grant said. “Dollar appreciation makes it more expensive for foreign customers to purchase our products, thus contributing to the decline in US agricultural exports during the last two years of the Obama presidency.”Looking at quantities, not dollar values, shows that “2016 was a record year for US soybean and corn exports (58 and 56 million metric tons, respectively, compared to 50 million metric tons each in 2014), even though the 2016 value of these exports fell short of 2014 values,” Grant said.In other words: “Lower values do not always translate into farmers and ranchers producing less or selling less on the global market,” since these values are moving with the change in commodity prices. Since Trump took office, the value of exports edged up a bit – to $138 billion in 2017 and $139 billion in 2018, according to data from the USDA. The 2018 figure is just $4 billion higher than exports in 2016.The average monthly agricultural export value in Obama’s last year in office was $11.2 billion, and it has averaged $11.5 billion over the past 12 months under Trump.As for net farm income (a “broad measure of profits,” the USDA says), that, too, has been on a general upward trend since 2003. Farm income did drop by about $30 billion, as Trump said, from 2014 to 2016, when net farm income was $61.5 billion. But that came after an increase from 2009, the year Obama took office, until 2013, when it hit a peak of $123.4 billion. We’ve explained before that this trend largely reflects the ebb and flow in commodity prices.“Trade agreements help and are important for longer run sustainability of the agricultural sector, but year-to-year changes in farm income are driven largely by movements in commodity prices which are a function of supply (weather, yield, stocks, etc) and demand balances,” Grant said.Farm income during the Trump administration has fluctuated — rising in 2017 to $75.2 billion, dropping to a projected $63.1 billion in 2018 and edging back up to a projected $69.4 billion in 2019.That would be a $7.9 billion increase from 2016 to 2019. Trump claimed “farm incomes are projected to rise by more than $10 billion from the day I was elected,” a figure we couldn’t confirm since USDA farm income figures are by year, not month or day. The 2019 projection is still below the recent historical average, the USDA’s Economic Research Service notes. “If realized, inflation-adjusted net farm income and net cash farm income would remain below their historical averages ($90.0 billion and $108.0 billion) across 2000-17,” it says.USDA ERS says “most” of the forecasted bump up in farm income for 2019 was driven by an expected increase in commodity prices. Why are prices expected to go up this year? It’s classic supply-and-demand. “Commodity prices are expected to increase because of severe flooding and poor planting conditions which has plagued the Midwest this spring,” Grant said. “When supply is expected to fall, this is supportive for prices.”The president also wrongly claimed that past trade policies — particularly the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA — have hurt U.S. farmers “so badly over a 15-year period.”Trump, June 11: How bad was NAFTA — what they did to you with NAFTA? And that’s why, for 15 years, you’ve been going — that and other reasons. That’s why the farmer has been hurt so badly over a 15-year period.As we’ve written before, U.S. farmers have had some down years recently, but not over a 15-year period and not because of trade.Farmers “experienced a golden period during 2011 through 2014 due to strong commodity prices and robust agricultural exports,” a February 2018 report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service said. Since 2013, farm income has been generally falling, mostly because of a drop in commodity prices.“The ag sector is seeing some hard times, but it is because of lower prices and not trade,” Wallace E. Tyner, who teaches agricultural economics at Purdue University, told us when we looked into this issue last year. “Weather has been pretty good, production high, and prices therefore lower.”As for the impact of NAFTA on farmers, “U.S. agriculture has benefited significantly from increasing market access in Canada and Mexico as a result of the formation of NAFTA some 25 years ago,” according to a February paper written by agricultural economists at Purdue University’s College of Agriculture.“The share of U.S. agricultural exports to these two countries has increased from 14.2% when the agreement was first signed to almost 30% currently,” the paper said.Along with an increased market share, there has been a significant increase in the total value of U.S. agricultural exports since NAFTA took effect.In 1993, a year before NAFTA was implemented, the U.S. exported about $43 billion worth of agricultural products, according to USDA’s calendar year export data. By 2007, agricultural exports had more than doubled ($90 billion). The next year, agricultural exports exceeded $100 billion for the first time ($114.8 billion). The total value of agricultural exports last year was nearly $140 billion. Tyner, a coauthor of the Farm Foundation paper, told us in an email that it’s “hard to say exactly how much of the change in share of ag exports to Mexico and Canada was due to NAFTA.” But, he added, “My sense is that most of it was due to NAFTA.”In fact, the USDA has a chart on its website that shows NAFTA has had more of an impact — in terms of export value — than any other trade agreement. The USDA chart compares the five-year agriculture export average for periods immediately before and after the implementation of 12 trade agreements since 1994.“Agricultural trade among NAFTA’s member countries has grown tremendously during the NAFTA period,” the USDA’s Economic Research Service wrote in a February 2015 paper on the impact of NAFTA. “The total value of intraregional agricultural trade (exports and imports) among all three NAFTA countries reached about $82.0 billion in 2013, compared with $16.7 billion in 1993 (the year before NAFTA’s implementation).”Trump also claimed that his replacement for NAFTA — the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, or USMCA — will reverse the damage he says NAFTA has inflicted on farmers, claiming his plan is going “to do pretty much the opposite” of NAFTA.The Farm Foundation paper said that the USMCA will have a “modest” impact on farm exports.“The new NAFTA agreement, the USMCA, consolidates the agricultural market access gains from the original NAFTA and in some sectors leads to an improvement in market access, most notably in dairy and poultry exports to Canada,” the report said.The USMCA will expand import quotas in Canada for dairy and poultry products, the Purdue researchers say.We won’t know the impact of the USMCA for sure unless and until it is ratified by Congress. For now, NAFTA remains in effect.Mary Marchant, a professor in Virginia Tech’s Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, told us for a previous article on agricultural exports: “Bottom line, trade has been good for ag. overall & we are dependent on it for our success.”
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War-weakened South Sudan tries to prepare for Ebola.
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With the deadly Ebola outbreak in Congo now an international emergency , neighboring South Sudan and its war-weakened health system is a major concern, especially after one case was confirmed near its border. Health experts say there is an urgent need to increase prevention efforts.
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true
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AP Top News, South Sudan, Health, Ebola virus, Africa, Sudan, General News, International News
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The World Health Organization on Wednesday made the emergency declaration for the year-old outbreak, a rare move that usually leads to more global attention and aid. More than 1,600 people have died in what has become the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history. Health experts worry about what would happen if Ebola reaches South Sudan as the shattered nation tries to recover from a five-year civil war that killed nearly 400,000 people and displaced millions. Many health facilities were badly damaged or destroyed, and unrest continues in parts of the country despite a fragile peace deal signed in September. Last month a 41-year-old woman was discovered with Ebola in northeastern Congo, just 70 kilometers (43 miles) from South Sudan. She had traveled 500 kilometers from Beni, the epicenter of the outbreak, despite having been exposed to the virus and warned not to travel. South Sudan has sent a health team to strengthen surveillance at one of its busiest border posts, Kaya in Central Equatoria state, near where the woman’s case was confirmed. Hers was the closest confirmed case to South Sudan since this outbreak was declared. “The risk of cases of Ebola coming across the border into South Sudan is very high,” said Sudhir Bunga, South Sudan country director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “A person who comes into contact with a confirmed case of Ebola in (Congo) could travel to South Sudan, or any neighboring country, undetected during the 21-day incubation period and spread the disease once contagious.” That recently happened in neighboring Uganda, a more stable country with a more developed health system and experience with past Ebola outbreaks, as millions of people flow across borders in the densely populated region. Three people died in Uganda before other family members were taken back to Congo for treatment and Ugandan officials quickly declared the country was again free of the disease. Ebola’s spread into South Sudan would pose more of a challenge. Even though Ebola preparedness, including vaccinations for some health workers, began several months ago the current phase of the country’s $12 million response plan is just 36% funded, according to a report this month by the country’s health ministry. Fighting in places such as Central Equatoria has hampered efforts to prepare for Ebola. The United Nations’ migration agency manages 15 screening sites along the border but three others have yet to be established in part because of access challenges. Many South Sudan communities lack the basic resources to respond to one of the world’s most notorious diseases. The phone network in Central Equatoria is limited, meaning most people cannot call the emergency help line. Many hospitals don’t have staff trained to deal with the virus or the isolation wards needed to control its spread. The country is about 60% ready to deal with a potential Ebola outbreak, Richard Lako with South Sudan’s national Ebola task force has told The Associated Press. But he expressed concern about the border: “There are forest areas between communities in South Sudan and the Congo and these people can’t be screened from the other side. It’s a big worry if those people sneak in and we have a case. It’ll take us time to get in and control the issue.” South Sudan’s prevention efforts include educating communities to dispel myths about Ebola that have posed a major challenge for disease responders in Congo. Health workers in South Sudan’s border towns are going door-to-door trying to inform people, with support from WHO and people who responded to West Africa’s devastating outbreak in 2014-2016 that killed more than 11,000 people. At one animated training session earlier this year in an army barracks outside Yei, a major city in western South Sudan near the Congo border, two U.N. staffers playfully bumped elbows, showing how to greet others without shaking hands. Ebola is spread via close contact with bodily fluids of those infected. “Don’t touch each other, don’t play with saliva, yours or someone else’s,” a WHO staffer from Sierra Leone said. This month diplomats and other officials made a special visit to Yei, one of the hardest-hit cities during South Sudan’s civil war, to observe Ebola preparations. “It is really the most important place in South Sudan right now,” U.S. Ambassador Thomas Hushek said, according to the U.N. mission in South Sudan. “This is where we are most worried about what might happen.” ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa
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"The United States ""refused"" COVID-19 diagnostic tests offered by the World Health Organization."
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What's true: The U.S. did not use COVID-19 diagnostic tests produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) in favor of producing its own. What's false: The U.S. did not turn down an offer to use those tests (as no such offer was extended), nor was it unusual for the United States to design and produce its own diagnostic tests in lieu of those made elsewhere.
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mixture
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Politics, COVID-19
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As a COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic spread throughout the world in early 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries to “test, test, test” for the virus in order to stop it from spreading. WHO officials said the global health organization had provided 1.5 million tests to 120 countries. “You cannot fight a fire blindfolded,” said WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a March 16 press conference. “And we cannot stop this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected.” The global health leader’s comments came as state and local governments across the United States began instituting “social distancing” measures that included shuttering bars and restaurants and instructing residents to stay home and avoid large social gatherings. Despite these aggressive actions, the U.S. as a whole was lagging behind other countries and struggling to ramp up diagnostic testing for the disease despite intense pressure to do so and confirmed cases that mounted into the thousands. The first case of COVID-19 was reported in the U.S. in Washington state in late January 2020. Around that same time, officials in China quarantined Wuhan, the city where the disease was initially detected. By the end of January, the WHO deemed the new virus a global health emergency. Nevertheless, the U.S. was still in the early stages of rolling out testing for the disease weeks after its first case was reported, resulting in something of a scandal, as cases that could be confirmed multiplied. According to news reports, diagnostic tests developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were sent out by early February 2020 to public health labs in the U.S. Days later, however, labs were reporting back that the tests weren’t working due to a manufacturing defect. The defective tests, coupled with regulatory red tape that prevented state laboratories from using their own tests, caused further delay. This resulted in a bevy of accusations that the U.S. “shunned” or “refused” working tests available from WHO even as its own testing protocols fell short. As the BBC reported, “The US declined to use a test approved by the World Health Organization in January — instead, the CDC developed its own coronavirus test. However, there were manufacturing defects with the initial CDC tests which meant many of the results were inconclusive.” The accusation was even echoed on the presidential election debate stage, with 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden saying: “Look, the World Health Organization offered the testing kits that they have available and to give it to us now. We refused them. We did not want to buy them. We did not want to get them from them. We wanted to make sure we had our own.” We sent emails to the CDC and WHO asking about WHO’s test and why it was not adopted in the U.S., but did not get a reply in time for publication. However, WHO told PolitiFact that the organization had never discussed providing testing kits to the United States, and The Washington Post reported that it’s typical, historically, for the U.S. to develop its own methods under such circumstances: China developed its own test. Leading laboratories in Germany published their own version, which was adopted by the World Health Organization. Many countries, including the United States, developed their own tests. The traditional U.S. strategy for devising new diagnostic tests starts with the CDC. That is supposed to ensure new tests are accurate and reliable, but it also meant that other parallel approaches were not aggressively pursued. In an interview with CNN on March 12, 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stated that it would have been “nice to have” the WHO tests as a back-up to the CDC’s tests, but characterized it as a case of hindsight being 20/20. [DR. SANJAY] GUPTA: And, Dr. Fauci, I want to echo what Anderson said as well. Thank you very much for your service. People may not know this, Dr. Fauci is 79 years old and, I mean, you have the energy I think many of us emulate. Let me ask one more question though about this testing. I know you’ve talked a lot about it, but I think, you know, Dr. Fauci, there was a test. It was being distributed around the world. WHO was using this test, I believe it was created in Germany, in Berlin, and it was being used, and yet we did not use it in this country even as a stopgap measure, even as we prepared to make our own test. And as a result, we got behind. That’s a problem. And I’m just wondering, was that a mistake? Should we have used that test? Why didn’t we?
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Marijuana health claims lure patients as science catches up.
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Marijuana has been shown to help ease pain and a few other health problems, yet two-thirds of U.S. states have decided pot should be legal to treat many other conditions with little scientific backing.
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true
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Anxiety, Medical marijuana, Health, Washington, General News, District of Columbia, Marijuana, Business, Science, California, U.S. News
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At least 1.4 million Americans are using marijuana for their health, according to an Associated Press analysis of states that track medical marijuana patients. The number of medical marijuana cardholders more than tripled in the last five years as more states jumped on the bandwagon. The analysis is based on data from 26 states and the District of Columbia. The total climbs to 2.6 million patients if California, Washington and Maine are included, the AP estimates. States that expanded the use of medical pot for common ailments such as severe pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety saw a boost in enrollment, the AP found. The U.S. government, meanwhile, both considers marijuana an illegal drug and a therapeutic herb worth more study. A look at the health claims and research on medical marijuana: THE EVIDENCE Besides chronic pain, there’s strong evidence marijuana or its ingredients can ease nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy and help with symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Several European countries have approved Sativex, a mouth spray containing THC and CBD, for multiple sclerosis symptoms. Last year, U.S. regulators approved Epidiolex, made from CBD, to treat two rare seizure disorders. THC causes marijuana’s mind-altering effect; CBD doesn’t get people high. British drugmaker GW Pharmaceuticals is seeking U.S. approval for Sativex. Other companies are pursuing Food and Drug Administration backing for products based on marijuana ingredients. Arizona-based Insys Therapeutics, which filed for bankruptcy protection Monday as it faced fallout over its marketing of an addictive opioid painkiller, is developing CBD drugs for two types of childhood epilepsy and a rare genetic disorder. Pennsylvania-based Zynerba Pharmaceuticals is working on a CBD skin patch for autism and fragile X syndrome, a genetic condition. Prescription drugs already on the market use synthetic THC to treat weight loss, nausea and vomiting in patients with AIDS or cancer. And researchers continue to study whether marijuana helps with PTSD, back pain and other problems. OPIOID ALTERNATIVE? New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New Mexico allow medical marijuana for opioid addiction despite little evidence it works. But marijuana may be helpful in reducing use of opioid painkillers. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, better known for its research on herbs and yoga, has set aside $3 million for studies to determine which of marijuana’s 400-plus chemicals help with pain. THC was excluded however. Its mood-altering effects and potential for addiction and abuse make it less useful for pain, said Dr. David Shurtleff, the agency’s deputy director. And THC has been studied more than the lesser-known compounds. CURE FOR CANCER? Despite online claims, there’s only weak evidence that marijuana’s ingredients might one day be used to treat cancer. Most studies have been in animals or in the lab. Results have been mixed. In one study, nine patients with an aggressive form of brain cancer had THC injected into their tumors; any effect on their survival was unclear. Another study found worrying evidence that marijuana might interfere with some cancer drugs, making them less effective. RESEARCHING AN OUTLAW MEDICINE The U.S. government grows marijuana for research at a farm in Mississippi and generally bans grant-funded studies of real-world products. But a mobile lab inside a white Dodge van allows University of Colorado Boulder researchers to study the potent strains of marijuana many patients consume without running afoul of the law. Study participants use marijuana in their homes, coming to the van for blood draws and other tests before and after using, said Cinnamon Bidwell who has federal grants to study marijuana’s effects on lower back pain and anxiety. With increased demand for research pot, the Drug Enforcement Administration created an application process for growers, but has not acted on more than two dozen applications. Such challenges are common for scientists studying an outlaw medicine, said Dr. Igor Grant, who directs the oldest marijuana research center in the U.S. at the University of California, San Diego. There, scientists are studying marijuana chemicals for children with autism and adults with a brain disorder that causes uncontrollable shaking. Established by state law in 2000, the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research once relied solely on California for funding. The center now has support from private foundations, a sign of growing public acceptance of the research. TRACKING PATIENTS Minnesota medical marijuana patients must regularly fill out surveys about their symptoms and side effects. That allows researchers to study how people with cancer react to marijuana. In one study, a third of cancer patients made only one purchase and didn’t come back during a four-month period. They may have died, or decided marijuana was too expensive or didn’t work. Of the rest, most reported improvements in vomiting, pain, disturbed sleep, anxiety and depression with few side effects. Marijuana can ease many symptoms “all at one time,” but more study is needed, said study co-author Dr. Dylan Zylla of the health care system HealthPartners. He has no financial ties to cannabis companies. Zylla is studying whether cancer patients can decrease their prescription opioid use while using marijuana. Marijuana “does seem to help patients,” he said, “but so much is unknown about the risks, side effects and drug interactions.” ___ AP data journalist Angeliki Kastanis in Los Angeles contributed to this report. ___ This Associated Press series was produced in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Moderna receives $483 million BARDA award for COVID-19 vaccine development.
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Moderna Inc said on Thursday that it received a $483 million contract from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to accelerate the development of its vaccine candidate for the novel coronavirus.
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true
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Health News
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The experimental vaccine is being tested in an early-stage trial conducted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health and Moderna expects to begin mid-stage trial in the second quarter. Depending on the data from these studies and discussions with regulators, the company said a late-stage study could begin as soon as fall of 2020. The drug developer said BARDA funding would support the vaccine’s clinical development program, as well as the scale-up manufacture of the vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, in 2020. Moderna plans to hire up to 150 new team members in the United States this year to support the ramp-up. Moderna’s study has made the most headway among efforts by the pharmaceutical industry to develop coronavirus vaccines as it is the first to be tested in human patients. The vaccine uses synthetic messenger RNA (mRNA) to inoculate against the coronavirus. Such treatments help the body immunize against a virus and can potentially be developed and manufactured more quickly than traditional vaccines.
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16719
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"Between June 30 and July 10, CNN interviewed ""17 Israeli public officials versus one"" Palestinian official."
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"Jebreal said, on CNN ""this time around, you have, between June 30 and July 10, you had 17 Israeli public officials vs. one"" Palestinian public official. She is referencing a preliminary tally of Israeli and Palestinian officials’ voices during that time by a pro-Palestinian media watcher. Our tally confirms there was a disparity, but it was not quite as lopsided as Jebreal said. We found 20 appearances by Israeli public officials on CNN compared to 5 appearances by Palestinian officials. Also, the tally is measuring appearances, not the number of officials from each side who appeared. And it's worth noting that any look at the media coverage is incomplete because the story is continuing to unfold. Because of those caveats."
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mixture
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Israel, Foreign Policy, PunditFact, Rula Jebreal,
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"Palestinian journalist Rula Jebreal accused CNN of presenting a one-sided picture of the fighting in the Gaza Strip in a heated July 22 interview on MSNBC. A day earlier, she called MSNBC’s coverage ""disgustingly biased"" toward Israel. PunditFact wanted to see if Jebreal had a point, using the evidence she laid out in her interview with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. (Watch the video for more from their chat.) Jebreal told Hayes that on CNN ""between June 30 and July 10, you had 17 Israeli public officials vs. one"" Palestinian public official. While the statistic doesn’t necessarily prove bias, it does suggest lopsided coverage of the Israel-Gaza crisis. Is Jebreal right? The source of her count Biased coverage of the Israel-Gaza crisis has been a constant cable news subplot. ABC News’ Diane Sawyer acknowledged she mislabeled a Palestinian family assessing damage after an Israeli bomb strike as an Israeli family. NBC News raised questions for pulling reporter Ayman Mohyeldin off the story for a script he wrote about four Gaza children killed by a bomb on a beach because it was allegedly seen as too sympathetic to Palestinians. Jebreal emerged as a Middle Eastern voice in Western media after sharing her experiences about growing up in the West Bank and reporting in Egypt during the Arab Spring. While Jebreal did not respond to our attempts to reach her, we were able to find the source of her claim about CNN. Two years ago, Yousef Munayyer, executive director of The Jerusalem Fund and The Palestine Center, reviewed transcripts of CNN’s coverage of Gaza fighting from Nov. 14, 2012, when Hamas military commander Ahmed Jabari was killed in an Israeli airstrike, until Nov. 21, 2012, the day a cease-fire was announced. During that week, he found officials from Israel appeared on the network 45 times, compared to five appearances by Hamas officials and 20 combined appearances of spokespersons for the Palestine Liberation Organization, Palestinian Legislative Council and Hamas. Munayyer revived the media watching to document the current crisis, and on July 10, Munayyer tweeted new observations of CNN. Munayyer again relied on available transcripts of CNN programming. In @CNN coverage of Israel/Palestine since 6/29 they have had 35 guests on the topic this is how they break down (1/2) 17 Israeli officials 4 Israel lay persons 1 Palestinian official 4 Palestinian lay persons 8 Unaffiliated 6 Michael Oren appearances (2/2) In an interview with PunditFact, Munayyer said the exercise shows CNN alarmingly favored Israeli perspectives. Munayyer said a more thorough analysis will be done whenever the conflict ends. Munayyer started analyzing coverage to coincide with the discovery of the bodies of three missing Israeli teens in the West Bank on June 30. (The boys had been missing since June 12, the tipping point of the conflict. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced June 15 that Hamas was responsible ""for a fact."") On July 2, a retaliatory killing of a Palestinian teen escalated the fighting. Four days later, the beating of an American-Palestinian teen by Israeli police made the U.S. airwaves. On July 8, the Israelis launched an official offensive operation known as ""Protective Edge."" When Munayyer tweeted on July 10, the death toll in Gaza had reached at least 78. Who did Munayyer count? For starters, he was looking at appearances, not individual guests. He counted Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, as six Israeli officials because he gave six interviews. Mark Regev, spokesman for the Israeli Prime Minister’s office, was also counted six times. Israel Defense Forces spokesman Peter Lerner was counted twice and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was counted once. President Shimon Peres was counted twice, bringing Munayyer’s tally to 17 appearances from Israeli officials. (However, Munayyer told us he counted two more appearances from Peres on July 10, the same day as his tweet, upping the total for that period to 19. He says he thinks he sent the tweet without ""closing out"" the July 10 appearances.) Former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren got his own category in Munayyer’s tally because he is now CNN’s Middle East analyst. Conversely, Munayyer counted just one Palestinian official, -- Palestinian Ambassador Maen Areikat, though there were other Palestinian ""lay persons"" invited as CNN guests, including lawyers for the Tampa teen beaten up by Israeli police, and Muyanner himself. Munayyer told us he focused on CNN because it’s more mainstream than MSNBC and Fox News and typically throws more resources on the ground to cover international crises. His team reviewed transcripts for every hour of news coverage to see who was invited to weigh in. He excluded interviews within correspondent’s reports, looking instead for pundits and analysts asked to provide their take of the situation by phone or in-studio. ""The question we’re trying to ask is, who is CNN trying to give a platform on this issue, and is it done in a balanced way?"" Munayyer said. ""My hunch is there’s going to be slight improvement over 2012, but there’s still a lot of work to do to get towards parity."" In the interview with Jebreal, Hayes argued one reason for the uneven coverage is the difficulty of booking a spokesperson for the militant group firing rockets into Israel, Hamas. Still, Munayyer told us, ""that doesn't mean there aren't Palestinian voices who can speak to the situation on the ground from an informed Palestinian perspective that would provide a greater sense of balance to all of the Israeli perspectives that are there."" In a statement, CNN said, ""Our team of correspondents, anchors and contributors have been reporting live from the Mideast fairly across all our platforms. Our reporting represents all sides (Israeli, Palestinian and Hamas) daily. We're comfortable with the Palestinian voices we have included from Gaza, Qatar, Washington, D.C., and New York when supplemented with our countless live reports from Gaza with three correspondents on the ground."" We set out to match up Munayyer’s preliminary analysis with our own, using a computer program we subscribe to called Critical Mention. The program allows us to search video going back 30 days for all major news networks, and it allows us to search using the closed captioning transcript. We scanned the network’s discussion of Israel, Gaza and Palestine from June 29 to July 10, the same window as Munayyer. Our findings suggest Munayyer undercounted the number of Palestinian officials CNN had on air. The following breakdown somewhat mirrors the categories Munayyer outlined, which do not include voices from correspondents’ news packages. There is no perfect way to do this, however, as it’s awkward to classify appearances by people with neutral titles and biased commentary and vice versa. With that note, here’s what we found (and here’s a link to our chart of who appeared when): 20 appearances by Israeli public officials (four of these were replays); 2 appearances by Israeli laymen; 5 appearances by Palestinian officials; 11 appearances by Palestinian laymen, including Munayyer himself; 6 appearances by Michael Oren. While Munayyer found one appearance by a Palestinian official, we found five. Four were by Palestinian Ambassador Maen Areikat, and one was a prerecorded interview with PLO committee member Hanan Ashrawi. Other ""pro-Palestinian"" voices included four appearances by Palestinian-American relatives and lawyers commenting on the case of Tariq Abu Khdeir, the Tampa teen beaten by Israeli security. Former PLO legal adviser and spokesperson Diana Buttu accounts for five ""layman"" appearances, though one appearance was cut before it began when CNN lost the phone connection. Another former PLO adviser and current Brookings Institution fellow, Khaled Elgindy, appeared once on CNN. It’s also worth noting efforts to incorporate more Palestinian voices that fall outside of the timeline Munayyer and Jebreal talked about, closer to daily news. CNN host Jake Tapper, for example, interviewed Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad by phone on July 18. Seem complicated? It is. What drives the disparity Marda Dunsky, a former journalist who teaches at Northwestern University’s Medill School and author of Pens and Swords: How the American Mainstream Media Report the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, said the imbalance of Israeli and Palestinian news sources in most mainstream coverage is well documented, but it does not necessarily imply a deliberate attempt to mislead. It’s an accessibility issue. The shortage of Palestinian voices is more often a symptom of two very different warring societies, she said. ""The Israeli government has people in many different branches who are trained specifically to speak to the media,"" she said. ""The Palestinian government is not as well developed, and as a result it lacks the same depth of field when it comes to official sources."" Buttu, the former PLO spokeswoman and legal adviser, told us in an interview that her CNN appearances are a ""drop in the bucket"" compared to Michael Oren, the network’s on-hand Middle East analyst and former Israeli ambassador to the United States. ""No matter what any Palestinian commentator says on the show, at the end of the day they always have Michael Oren,"" she said. ""That’s quite problematic. Can you imagine if a former Palestinian ambassador of the United States served as a commentator on Fox, don’t you think they would be up in arms in that? It’s accepted as commonplace at CNN."" Buttu’s bigger issue is with the style of questions directed at Palestinian guests, and that she is often asked about the official Palestinian position even though she has not been an official for years. Another thing to remember: Both sides point to bias in reporting. Countering Munayyer’s media-monitoring group are U.S.- and Israel-based organizations such as the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) and HonestReporting. Our ruling Jebreal said, on CNN ""this time around, you have, between June 30 and July 10, you had 17 Israeli public officials vs. one"" Palestinian public official. She is referencing a preliminary tally of Israeli and Palestinian officials’ voices during that time by a pro-Palestinian media watcher. Our tally confirms there was a disparity, but it was not quite as lopsided as Jebreal said. We found 20 appearances by Israeli public officials on CNN compared to 5 appearances by Palestinian officials. Also, the tally is measuring appearances, not the number of officials from each side who appeared. And it's worth noting that any look at the media coverage is incomplete because the story is continuing to unfold. Because of those caveats."
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10679
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Breast Cancer Study Offers New Hope
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The story has the same basic content and quotes as this press release put out by the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University four days before the HealthDay piece. As you might expect from a lightly edited press release, the HealthDay story has very few of the elements we deem critical to quality health journalism. No information about costs, no evaluation of the evidence, poor discussion of benefits and harms, and no independent perspective. A disappointing effort to say the least. HealthDay stories get picked up by major news outlets and are read by many. These readers think that they’re getting independent journalism–not a rehash of a press release.
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false
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"No discussion of costs in this story. It could have pointed out that two of the estrogen-lowering drugs tested in this study are off patent and relatively cheap, whereas the third drug, exemestane, is a brand name drug that remains quite costly. Again, the story talks about ""successful"" surgery and ""good"" outcomes without ever defining what is meant by these terms. Did these women live longer? Have fewer recurrences? Have better quality of life than if they hadn’t had the treatment? This is hugely important information for anyone who might be considering this treatment. There is no discussion of any potential harms from aromatase inhibitors. These drugs can cause joint pain and sexual problems which lead many women to discontinue using them. There also is concern that these estrogen-lowering drugs may decrease bone density and increase the risk of osteoporotic fractures. This is an outcome that can have severe health consequences for older women. The story included no cautionary statements about limitations of this study or how it should be interpreted. We can think of a couple: The story did not resort to disease-mongering. The only perspective we receive in this story is that of the investigators with the study, who provide a uniformly positive take on the results. No independent views are provided. Chemotherapy also is sometimes used presurgically to shrink tumors and allow for less invasive surgery instead of mastectomy. The story should at least have pointed this out and could have attempted to provide some comparison of the two approaches. The story should have done a better job of explaining how the drugs discussed in this story, known as aromatase inhibitors, are currently used in cancer treatment and why this study may represent an advance over current approaches. All of the drugs discussed are currently approved by the FDA for breast cancer, but they are typically administered to women only after surgery or as an adjunct to other drugs in order to prevent a cancer recurrence. The new study is testing these treatments prior to surgery to see if this improves outcomes. The story isn’t explicit about most of this and assumes that readers are already aware of this background. Many probably are, but others are not. The story doesn’t provide any history about the use of aromatase inhibitors for presurgical cancer treatment, but neither does it inappropriately attempt to portray the treatment as novel. The story is based exclusively on a press release."
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8819
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Families tell U.S. lawmakers of heparin deaths.
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A man who said he lost his wife and a son to reactions from tainted heparin made with ingredients from China urged U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday to protect patients from other unsafe drugs.
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true
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Health News
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Families of the victims of Heparin reactions testify during a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on Heparin imports from China on Capitol Hill, April 29, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Young Leroy Hubley said his wife, Bonnie, and son, Randy, had undergone kidney dialysis at an Ohio clinic and were given heparin that was later recalled by Baxter International Inc. Both had reactions to the blood thinner and died within one month of each other. “Now I am left to deal not only with the pain of losing my wife and son, but anger that an unsafe drug was permitted to be sold in this country,” Hubley, who frequently choked back tears and wiped his eyes, told a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee hearing. A U.S. Food and Drug Administration probe found a contaminant in some batches of Baxter’s heparin. Officials said tests showed the chemical could have caused the reactions reported in 81 deaths of patients treated with some brand of heparin since January 2007. Lawmakers questioned Baxter and its ingredient supplier, Scientific Protein Laboratories LLC (SPL), about why they failed to detect the heparin contamination. Both companies said it appeared the chemical was deliberately added before either company received the ingredients. Baxter, which had supplied about half of the U.S. heparin market, recalled most of its heparin products in February. The action followed a string of U.S. recalls linked to China last year, ranging from tainted pet food and toothpaste to excessive lead in paint that swept millions of toys from stores. The heparin contaminant has been detected in 13 countries, FDA officials have said, but only the United States and Germany have seen reports of an increase in allergic reactions. The FDA says all heparin imported into the United States is now tested for contamination and the current supply is safe. Hubley and other relatives of heparin victims urged new steps to keep medicines free of contamination. “I want to know what is going to be done to rectify the matter. I want to know if my daughter, Dawn, and the millions of others who continue to receive dialysis are safe,” Hubley said. Baxter Chief Executive Robert Parkinson said the company was “alarmed that one of our products was used, in what appears to have been a deliberate scheme, to adulterate a life-saving medication, and that people have suffered as a result.” “We deeply regret that this has happened, and I feel a strong sense of personal responsibility for these circumstances,” he said. Heparin — used in dialysis and some surgeries to prevent blood clots — is derived from pig intestines and often collected from small, mostly unregulated farms in China. FDA tests found the recalled drug contained an altered form of chondroitin sulfate that mimics raw heparin. Chinese officials have said the chemical was present but is not to blame for the reactions or deaths. Rep. Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, said it remained uncertain whether the contamination was intentional or accidental. He said both companies should have done more to assure their products were safe. “Both Baxter and SPL have failed the American public,” said Stupak, chairman of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight and investigations panel. Using the contaminant would be about 100 times cheaper than real heparin, said committee investigator David Nelson. Lawmakers attacked the FDA for failing to inspect SPL’s plant in Changzhou, China, before approving Baxter’s heparin. Agency inspectors found a series of manufacturing problems during a visit in February, after Baxter’S recall. Baxter officials audited the facility five months earlier and said they found acceptable conditions, Nelson said. “I’m really baffled by that. How is it you can have two divergent findings from the same plant?” Stupak asked. Baxter’s Parkinson said the visits happened at different times, and the drug maker’s audit was routine while the FDA visit was in response to a specific problem. Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said the agency needed more tools and better technology to hold companies accountable. “FDA needs the help of Congress to make sure that a tragedy like this does not happen again,” Woodcock said. Woodcock said it would cost about $225 million annually for the FDA to inspect, every other year, all pharmaceutical plants around the world that supply the U.S. market. Lawmakers are considering legislation that would charge drug and device makers fees to boost inspections.
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2290
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E-cigs a 'consumer-driven' revolution born from a bad dream.
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Before Hon Lik invented the e-cigarette, a device now shaking up the Big Tobacco industry, he was a pharmacist in China struggling to quit a two-to-three pack a day smoking habit.
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true
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Health News
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Once in 2002, Hon forgot to remove a nicotine patch from his stomach before bed and had nightmares all night. He traced it to the continuous dose of nicotine and then realized it was precisely that steady release that made patches inadequate for him. Without the sharp nicotine highs he got from smoking, he found there was no relaxation or stress relief. Armed with a background in Oriental medicine, knowledge of mechanics and an interest in electronics, Hon set out to make something that would mimic smoking - without the deadly smoke. His drive was galvanized further when his father, also a smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer shortly afterwards. He died in 2004. “I believed that if I could use vapor to simulate cigarette smoke, this could help me,” Hon told Reuters on Tuesday. Thirteen years on from those nightmares, the 59-year-old stopped off in London after participating in a global summit in Warsaw on nicotine as the father of the most disruptive technology the industry has seen. He is also now employed by one of its biggest players, Imperial Tobacco Group, following Imperial’s 2013 purchase of Hon’s business. Imperial, the world’s fourth-largest tobacco company, will become a major e-cigarette player in the United States following its purchase of the Blu brand in a deal expected to close this week. E-cigarettes, which heat nicotine-laced liquid into vapor, have ignited a global market for “vaping” products that could top $7 billion this year. In the absence of definitive studies about the long-term health effects of vaping, they are the subject of great debate. Tobacco giants including Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco are also racing to enter the market as governments race to control it. ‘CLOUD-CHASERS’ Authorities in Wales on Tuesday proposed a new public health law that would ban e-cigarettes in enclosed spaces like offices and restaurants following similar moves in Ireland and elsewhere. Some regulators fear e-cigarettes could lead non-smokers to vape or even smoke, while proponents say bans discourage smokers from switching. “E-cigarettes are a consumer-driven revolution,” Hon said, noting the array of products now on the market that address the needs of various groups, from people wanting to cut back or quit smoking to a new band of recreational “cloud-chasers” who use nicotine-free vapor to blow the biggest and densest clouds. “When automotive manufacturers first started out, they were not thinking about a sport to be called Formula One. You always have groups of people who are looking for excitement,” Hon said of the cloud-chasing phenomenon. Although most e-cigarettes are manufactured in China, the market there is very small and tobacco smoking remains high. China is by far the world’s biggest tobacco market, and is a virtual monopoly dominated by state-owned firm China National Tobacco. Some estimates peg revenue from tobacco sales as making up as much as 10 percent of the government’s coffers. Yet Hon could soon see more people in his home city of Beijing vaping, due to this month’s implementation of strict rules on smoking in public places. Anyone who violates a ban on smoking in restaurants, hotels, schools, hospitals and in certain outdoor public places must pay a 200 yuan ($32.25) fine. That is 20 times the current, albeit rarely enforced, penalty. Hon said second and third-tier cities in China could follow Beijing’s lead as governments seek to improve public health. “I understand the market is slowly changing,” said Hon, who now only smokes when his job requires him to compare the flavors of various tobaccos and vapes. “What could happen to the Chinese market could be similar to what’s happening here.”
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6777
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Nigeria reports record high Lassa fever cases with 317.
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Health authorities say a Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria has reached a record high and there are suspected cases in neighboring Benin as well.
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true
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Health, Africa, Nigeria, Hemorrhagic fever, Benin
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Nigeria has reported 317 confirmed cases in two months, more than the total for all of last year. The World Health Organization says there are 20 suspected cases across the border in Benin. Nigeria has reported 72 deaths so far. There is no vaccine for the hemorrhagic fever, which is transmitted through the bodily fluids of sick people. Humans also can contract the disease by coming into contact with food contaminated by rat excrement. Those with the disease initially present with high fever but in extreme cases can later suffer bleeding from the nose and mouth.
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6597
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Documentary about anxiety taps a world-class athlete.
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A new documentary about anxiety argues that everyone to some extent suffers from stress, nerves and social fear. And, to make their point, the filmmakers have enlisted as Exhibit A the most decorated Olympian in history.
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true
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Stress, Anxiety, Mental health, New York, Entertainment, Movies, North America, Health, Michael Phelps
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Michael Phelps appears in “Angst” to share his story of being bullied and depressed, leading to severe anxiety. The swimmer, winner of 28 Olympic medals, would look in the mirror and not like what he saw. “Once I opened up about that and things that I had kept inside of me for so many years, I then found that life was a lot easier. I got to the point where I understood that it’s OK to not be OK,” he says in the film. “Angst,” an IndieFlix film designed to be screened at schools and community centers, features candid interviews with children and young adults discussing their anxiety, along with advice from mental health experts and resources and tools. Phelps is like a muscular explanation mark for what the filmmakers wanted to show — that even world champions can feel low. “I’m grateful because my mission with this film is to help make the world a better place and I believe he is so additive on that level,” said Scilla Andreen, CEO and co-founder of IndieFlix. “If we can introduce prevention, self-care and well-being to our children — even in the pre-K and kindergarten years — they can have a completely different life.” Andreen hopes the film will reach more than 3 million people around the world from 25,000 community and school screenings. “Angst” was filmed in the U.S. and United Kingdom and is appropriate for children starting at age 10. “Anxiety is totally treatable,” she said. “It can be a precursor to so many things that can then lead to addiction, homelessness, dropping out of school and a host of other mental health challenges.” Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health challenge in the U.S., impacting 54 percent of females and 46 percent of males, with age 7 being the median age of onset, according to the World Health Organization. The American College Health Association has found that undergraduates reporting “overwhelming anxiety” jumped to 62 percent in 2016 from 50 percent in 2011. “Talking about it is the most effective thing you can do and, of course, the last thing you want to do,” said Andreen. In addition to talking, writing about your feelings or connecting to music can help. “Anything that helps you to take a break from the anxiety and move the energy to the front of the brain.” Andreen, whose distribution streaming service embraces projects that push for social change, was bullied as a child and learned something about herself while working on the film. “Everyone has anxiety. And I learned in making the movie that I have social anxiety. I never even knew that. I just thought I was born less than everyone else and that was my lot in life. I would always have to work harder, try harder, never fit in,” she said. “I don’t feel so alone.” In addition to the documentary, IndieFlix is creating a web-based series on anxiety to dig deeper into the issue and has produced a virtual reality component that allows users to experience a panic attack firsthand. Andreen believes anxiety levels are so high in part because of the pace of modern life and the amount of time people spend with their electronic devices, which takes away from connecting in person and developing empathy. “We need more face time with each other,” said Andreen, a former Emmy-nominated costume designer. “We just stopped doing it. We’re out of practice, that’s all.” ___ Online: Film: http://angstmovie.com See Phelps: https://vimeo.com/234937898 __ Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
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7312
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Babies receive hats with heart through program.
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What better way to celebrate American Heart Month and Valentine’s Day than receiving a gift from the heart?
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true
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Valentines Day, Health, American Heart Association, Birth defects
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Rather, for the heart. The Little Hats, Big Hearts program, sponsored by the American Heart Association, distributes little, red, handmade hats to babies born in February. The effort aims to spark conversations about congenital heart defects in newborn babies. Recently, Ryan Jerico, development director of AHA, brought 100 hats to donate to the Mon Health Family Birth Center. According to the AHA, congenital heart defects are the top killer of newborns with birth defects. The word “congenital” means the defect existed at birth. This happens when vessels around the heart or the heart itself don’t form properly. Jerico said Little Hats, Big Hearts started in Chicago in 2014. In 2017, The Today Show did a story on the program, and the movement blew up nationwide. “Last year, West Virginia had a little over 1,300 hats donated. We distributed those to hospitals all over the state. Last year here, we had over 100 hats donated specifically to this hospital,” he said. About 1,500 hats are being donated in West Virginia this year. They come from volunteers across the state who take time to knit them. “We want to make awareness of congenital heart defects. One in 100 babies is born with a congenital heart defect. Whether it’s a small hole in their heart all the way to a seriously life-threatening condition,” Jerico said. Jill Buterbaugh, health system director of Women’s Service Line, said the best part about the program is the affiliation with the AHA and getting the word out about the program and heart defects, at birth and throughout life. “I think getting the awareness out, the Red Hat program causes us to talk about it with our patients. It’s always a very nice gesture to be able to give the families a pretty red hat for the month of February and celebrate for Valentine’s, as well,” Buterbaugh said. Baby Anderson Plaski was the recipient of a red hat. Anderson’s mom, Beth Plaski, is a nurse at Mon Health Medical Center, and she was happy to be able to bring awareness to heart defects by participating in the program. “I said absolutely that I would love to participate in this and to bring awareness to anybody that I can about the red hats,” Beth Plaski said. “And now I’m able to do so, not only with my little guy, but through my work.” ___ Information from: The Dominion Post, http://www.dominionpost.com
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2815
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Amgen cholesterol drug meets goal of 3rd late stage trial.
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A cholesterol fighter developed by Amgen Inc from a highly promising new class of medicines significantly lowered levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol in a late stage trial in patients unable to tolerate statin drugs, the company said on Thursday.
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true
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Health News
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The results marked the third successful Phase III test of the drug evolocumab reported by Amgen in recent months - this one in a patient population among the most in need of alternative therapies. An estimated five to 20 percent of heart patients are intolerant of statin medications for lowering cholesterol due to side effects such as muscle weakness or fatigue, Amgen said. Evolocumab belongs to a class of medicine called PCSK9 inhibitors that work by blocking a protein that reduces the liver’s ability to remove LDL cholesterol from the blood. Based on dramatic LDL lowering demonstrated by Amgen and other companies in earlier studies, PCSK9 inhibitors could be the most important new heart drugs to come along in several years with multibillion-dollar sales potential. The injected medicines are likely to be used in high risk heart patients unable to lower their LDL levels sufficiently with high doses of widely used statin drugs, such as Pfizer’s Lipitor, and in those unable to take statins. Many patients remain at high risk of heart attack and stroke “despite the use of all available therapies,” Amgen research and development chief Sean Harper said in a telephone interview. “The ability to treat those individuals with a completely distinct mechanism and see this very large effect size of dropping LDL cholesterol by roughly 50 percent, that’s a pretty big deal for those patients,” Harper said. The company expects during the current quarter to have results of its final two Phase III studies - one in patients already taking high doses of statins and one in patients genetically predisposed to dangerously high cholesterol levels. Amgen will provide details of its latest 307-patient Phase III study, called GAUSS-2, which compared evolocumab to Merck & Co’s Zetia (ezetimibe), at an upcoming medical meeting. However, the world’s largest biotech company said the percentage of cholesterol lowering was consistent with those observed in a similar, smaller Phase II trial. In that study, evolocumab led to 51 percent reduction in LDL levels and 63 percent when combined with Zetia versus a 15 percent reduction seen with Zetia alone. “It’s very unusual to have a therapeutic that addresses one of the underlying factors that drive the greatest mortality risk that exists in Western countries, and increasingly in developing countries - cardiovascular disease driven by atherosclerosis,” Harper said. The company anticipates that some of its global filings seeking approval of the drug will occur this year. “We don’t come across therapeutics like this very often in this industry,” Harper said. “It is very exciting, and as we get each data set our confidence slowly builds that we have the efficacy and the safety profile that will make this an important medicine.” Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc, in partnership with Sanofi, is also in Phase III testing of a rival drug. Pfizer is developing its own PCSK9 inhibitor. Amgen shares were down about 0.6 percent at $123.55 on Nasdaq, roughly in line with declines in the broader market.
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10051
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Silicone Breast Implants: Safe, With Caveats
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400,000 women have breast implants each year and use is rising. This story was about where we are today with silicone. The use is on the rise but have we really settled the question about safety? The article kind of skirts the scary issues like the autoimmune disease and focuses on the common complications (which are much higher than perhaps people recognized). The story missed a chance to dig into the data and to help women really understand the issue more deeply. Instead, we hear a lot from one plastic surgeon who presents his own point of view. We would have liked more data, less opinion. The safety of silicone breast implants is an emotionally charged issue, whether for reconstruction or augmentation; specific facts and clear options help women make better decisions about such a significant surgery.
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mixture
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NPR,women's health
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The article sidesteps any issues related to costs of breast implants or the remedies for failures, a glaring omission in light of frequent complications and adverse outcomes. Not applicable. This was about safety. No good way to quantify benefits. The story discussed common problems, but was silent on: Half the story on harms just isn’t good enough in this case. Missing is reference to the actual FDA- published information on post-approval studies describing: Conflicting implications of silicone leakage are anecdotal, rather than evidence-based. It would be difficult to oversell the caveats in this story; the article presented dramatic, significant concerns. Two independent experts were quoted. (Sidney Wolfe’s name was misspelled.) However, the article could have benefited from: Saline implants were mentioned briefly but not discussed in any detail. No other options, such as choosing to avoid the procedure with its risks, or fat relocation, were discussed. Beginning with a clear description of silicone breast implants…banned in 1992, back five years ago with a concurrent FDA evaluation process…the article does an excellent job of establishing availability. One focus of the story was the June FDA report – the new angle. It’s clear that the story didn’t rely solely on a news release.
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11362
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Cervical cancer screening can wait till 21, group says
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This story on revised guidelines for cervical cancer screening puts them in medical and political context. It does an adequate job of describing the new guidelines themselves. It is well sourced. But the story fails the reader in two important ways: While it raises the question of whether the guidelines might be motivated by a desire to contain health care costs, it fails to say how much the test costs–or whether the new guidelines would save or cost money. It does not give details of the evidence that the new guidelines are based on. But it falls short in broader terms. When controversial new guidelines are proposed, a reader reasonably wants to know what the guidelines are based on, how they might apply to them, and what the risks of getting the screening–or not getting it–are. This story doesn’t discuss those issues.
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mixture
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The story quotes two sources who dispute the notion that the guidelines are motivated by a desire to save money. Unfortunately, it never says how much money the test costs–or whether applying the new guidelines would cost or save money. The story fails to quantify the benefits or risks of screening. The story describes in paragraph two the potential harms of over-screening–that the testing led to stress, anxiety and some unnecessary treatments. This point is emphasized by a quote in the following paragraph. In the last paragraph, the story briefly describes the epidemiological evidence upon which the guidelines are based. But it’s too little too late. The reader doesn’t know what data the panel used to change the testing guidelines. The story does nothing to exaggerate the prevalence or severity of cervical cancer. Sourcing is excellent. Sources include: The story describes the new guidelines in layman’s terms, and briefly describes the old ones. It makes it difficult for the reader to find and digest this information, however. It should have indicated the risks of not getting screened at all. The availability of Pap testing is assumed. The novelty of cervical cancer screening is not in question in this story. The story does not draw from any of the press releases associated with the guidelines’ release.
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2867
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FDA advisory panel backs Chelsea Therapeutics drug.
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A drug to treat a rare form of low blood pressure made by Chelsea Therapeutics International Ltd is effective enough to warrant regulatory approval, an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded on Tuesday.
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true
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Health News
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The panel voted 16 to 1 in favor of the drug, Northera, for patients with neurogenic orthostatic hypotension (NOH), a rare, chronic type of low blood pressure that occurs on standing and is associated with certain neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Chelsea shares more than doubled in after-hours trading. The FDA is not bound to follow the advice of its panels but typically does so. Panelists wrestled with gaps in the clinical data which they said made it difficult to determine whether the drug, which appears effective after one week’s treatment, is effective over the long term. Most suggested the company be required to conduct a follow-up study to prove a durable benefit. Dr. James de Lemos, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, said he voted in favor “based on the compelling evidence of suffering and the absence of viable alternatives,” but said the approval should be conditional on further study. Patients and patient advocates testified before the panel about the positive impact the drug has had on their lives. Gail Hershkowitz, 65, a retired music teacher who lives in Boynton Beach, Florida, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 15 years ago and, later, with NOH. She said in an interview that she became afraid to leave her house after fainting and vomiting multiple times in public. She took Northera as part of a clinical trial and says it has enabled her to lead a relatively normal life. But some panelists expressed frustration that the experience of patients who have benefited from the drug was not clearly backed up by data from the clinical trials. A reviewer for the FDA, Dr. Shari Targum, said in preparatory documents published on Friday that she did not think the data was strong enough to support approval. Chelsea’s shares fell as much as 36 percent following that review. They were halted during the panel meeting on Tuesday, and rose to $5.78 in after-hours trading from a close on Monday of $2.30 Northera, also known as droxidopa, is converted by the body into norepinephrine, a chemical messenger that sends signals to blood vessels and the heart to regulate blood pressure. Insufficient norepinephrine can lead to light-headedness and fainting upon standing. Chelsea originally filed for approval of droxidopa in 2011, based on a study known as 301. In February, 2012, an FDA advisory panel recommended approval of the drug, but the agency rejected it and asked for additional data. The company sought to address the FDA’s concerns using data from a different study known as 306B, but the FDA denied the request and said an additional trial would be needed. Chelsea appealed the decision, and in early 2013 the FDA agreed to accept a resubmission based on data from the 306B study, saying that while short-term data, if convincing, would be adequate for approval, a post-approval study could be required to prove the results were durable. Targum said the results of study 306B did not meet those criteria. Most panelists, however, said that while there was no convincing evidence that the drug provides a durable benefit, there was no convincing evidence to show that it does not show a benefit. “This is a terrible disease and there are no other effective medications,” said Dr. Vasilios Papademetriou, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Georgetown University. Although the studies were not perfect, he said, “the data convinced me there is a long lasting benefit in some patients.” Chelsea licensed rights to the drug outside Asia from Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma in 2006. It was introduced in Japan in 1989.
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18880
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"Since 1968, ""more Americans have died from gunfire than died in … all the wars of this country's history."
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Since Shields’ comparison was otherwise accurate, with about 1.4 million firearm deaths to 1.2 million in war.
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true
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National, Guns, Mark Shields,
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"Since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., supporters and opponents of gun control have thrown out statistics to support their point of view. Here’s one that caught our eye, offered by liberal commentator Mark Shields on the Dec. 21, 2012, edition of the PBS NewsHour. Shields told host Judy Woodruff, ""You know, Judy, the reality is -- and it's a terrible reality -- since Robert Kennedy died in the Ambassador Hotel on June 4, 1968, more Americans have died from gunfire than died in … all the wars of this country's history, from the Revolutionary through the Civil War, World War I, World War II, in those 43 years. ... I mean, guns are a problem. And I think they still have to be confronted."" Is the death toll that high? Let's examine each half of his comparison. Deaths from warfare We found a comprehensive study of war-related deaths published by the Congressional Research Service on Feb. 26, 2010, and we supplemented that with data for deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan using the website icasualties.org. Where possible, we’ve used the broadest definition of ""death"" -- that is, all war-related deaths, not just those that occurred in combat. Here’s a summary of deaths by major conflict: 4,435 2,260 13,283 525,000 2,446 116,516 405,399 36,574 58,220 383 2,175 4,486 1,171,177 Another 362 deaths resulted from other conflicts since 1980, such as interventions in Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Somalia and Haiti, but the number is not large enough to make a difference. Gunfire deaths The number of deaths from gunfire is a bit more complicated to total. Two Internet-accessible data sets from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allow us to pin down the number of deaths from 1981 to 1998 and from 1999 to 2010. We’ve added FBI figures for 2011, and we offer a number for 1968 to 1980 using a conservative estimate of data we found in a graph in this 1994 paper published by the CDC. Here is a summary. The figures below refer to total deaths caused by firearms: We should note that these figures refer to all gun-fire related deaths -- not just homicides, but also suicides and accidental deaths. In 2011, about one-quarter of firearm-related deaths were homicides, according to FBI and CDC data. Using total firearm-related deaths makes the case against guns more dramatic than just using homicides alone. When we rated a previous Facebook post, we lowered an otherwise claim because it said that ""nearly 100,000 people get shot every year."" We found that the number of gun deaths and non-fatal injuries added up to 104,852, but we concluded that the term ""get shot"" could suggest victims who got shot by someone else rather than by their own hand. We don’t see a similar problem with the way Shields’ comment was phrased -- namely, ""died from gunfire."" Our ruling Since Shields’ comparison was otherwise accurate, with about 1.4 million firearm deaths to 1.2 million in war."
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28773
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The Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco (ATF) has reclassified wet nitrocellulose as a high explosive.
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What's true: The ATF reclassified wetted nitrocellulose as a high explosive in June 2016. What's false: The decision is not final, as the ATF has rescinded their determination pending industry input.
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mixture
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Politics Guns, ammunition, atf, gun control
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Nitrocellulose is a chemical compound formed when cellulose, an organic polymer found in cotton fiber and wood, is “nitrated” by exposure to nitric acid or a similar agent. It’s explosive and highly flammable, so in addition to being used to produce the first man-made plastic and celluloid photographic film in the 1800s, nitrocellulose became a key ingredient in the manufacture of ammunition. Since it’s hazardous to store and transport, it’s usually dampened with water, alcohol, or other liquid to make it more stable (at which point it’s referred to as wetted nitrocellulose) then dried as needed for use. Alarms were raised by firearms manufacturers and gun rights advocates in mid-2016 when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) announced the reclassification of wetted nitrocellulose from “nonexplosive” to “high explosive”: We are aware that the U.S. Department of Transportation may assign a nonexplosive classification to nitrocellulose when it has been wetted with water or alcohol. This is based, in part, on the diminished likelihood of explosion in a transportation accident. Because the nitrocellulose retains its explosive characteristics when the water or alcohol is removed, the wetted nitrocellulose remains a nitrocellulose explosive, subject to the licensing, safety and security requirements of the Federal explosives regulations. However, based upon the diminished likelihood of wetted nitrocellulose exploding, ATF will consider variance requests to store the wetted material under an alternative arrangement. This prompted the usual cries of “backdoor ammo ban” from gun rights advocates, as well as objections by ammunition manufacturers that the announcement came with no warning and little guidance, posing problems for the industry: ATF’s sudden and unexpected change in policy on wetted nitrocellulose will likely have a significant impact on industry’s ability to deliver products to the military and commercial markets. Industry members have relied on the exemption for wetted nitrocellulose for many years and are aware of no accidental detonations or diversion of this product into illicit channels. Consequently, it is unclear why ATF believed it necessary to change its policy and, more importantly, why ATF announced the change in a newsletter article with no advance notice to industry. This, in turn, prompted ATF to reconsider the decision and, at least for the time being, rescind its July ruling in order to solicit and consider industry input. This addendum to the June 2016 announcement spells out where the issue stands as of 31 August 2016: ATF’s June 2016 Explosives Industry Newsletter included a brief discussion of Nitrocellulose, and attempted to clarify the circumstances under which wetted Nitrocellulose is considered a high explosive under 27 CFR, Part 555. As with all explosives, ATF’s focus is on the potential public safety risks associated with materials that can be misused or diverted to unlawful purposes. Subsequent contact from industry members who import, transport, store or employ wetted Nitrocellulose in the production of ammunition, however, has brought to our attention issues that were not fully addressed in the Newsletter and require further consultation and consideration with the industry. Accordingly, ATF has and will conduct further industry outreach concerning wetted Nitrocellulose. In the interim, previously authorized industry practices concerning wetted Nitrocellulose will not be affected.
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34093
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A video shows the decapitated head of a poisonous wolf eel biting down on a can of coca-cola.
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What's true: A video shows the decapitated head of a marine creature biting down on a can of Coca-Cola. What's false: However, the wolf eel is not a poisonous (or venomous) species. What's undetermined: We have not yet determined the exact species of creature featured in the video.
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true
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Critter Country
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In October 2019, an animated GIF purportedly showing the decapitated head of a wolf eel biting down on a can of Coca-Cola was shared to the “WTF” section of Reddit under the title “the head of a Wolf Eel can still bite and poison you after it’s been decapitated”: The head of a Wolf Eel can still bite and poison you after it’s been decapitated. from r/WTF This is a genuine piece of footage. However, the title of this post contains at least one error: The wolf eel is not poisonous or venomous. Furthermore, the wolf eel isn’t an actual “eel.” The wolf eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus) is a species of wolffish that lives in the North Pacific Ocean. The Seattle Aquarium explains: The eel that’s not an eel Wolf eels aren’t eels at all—they’re fish, and not the same as true eels. One key distinction is that wolf eels have pectoral fins behind their heads, which is characteristic of fish, not marine eels like morays. Put simply, they’re a just a long, skinny fish! The above-displayed GIF comes from a longer video that was posted to YouTube in January 2019. The original video appears to have been taken aboard a commercial fishing ship. Filmmaker Rúni Djurhuus titled the footage “Catfish vs. Coke,” but the marine species in the video is labeled a “wolf eel” and a “catfish wolf eel” in the description: Don’t stick your hand into the mouth of a dead fish – even after you chop the things head off. Head of a wolf eel that can bite you even after the head is detached from the body. One reason for the confusion may relate to this fish’s nickname, the “ocean catfish.” We compared stills from the GIF with photographs and believe that the marine creature featured in this video is indeed a wolf eel. We’ve reached out to the Marine Conservation Institute to confirm and will update this article when more information becomes available. The original video also provides some insight into how and why this decapitated fish head bit down on a can of Coca-Cola. While some viewers hypothesized that this fish head was still alive when this video was filmed, it’s likely that the footage shows an involuntary muscle reflex. The original video shows that this fish was decapitated just before a Coke can was pushed into its jaws. It’s likely that the fish’s nerve endings were still functioning, and that pressure near its jaw triggered a muscle spasm. In June 2018, after a man in Texas was bitten by a decapitated rattlesnake head, National Geographic and Science Alert penned articles explaining the phenomena: The bodies of snakes often writhe around for some time after they are dead, says Bruce Jayne, a biology professor at the University of Cincinnati. It’s a similar reflex to that of a headless chicken being able to run around for a short time, Jayne says. The mechanism behind this eerie behavior is a nervous system pre-programmed to make certain movements without the brain needing to send a signal. And a decapitated venomous snake head is evidently pre-programmed to bite in response to a stimulus—such as a someone trying to pick it up, he said. Snakes and other cold-blooded animals such as fish and amphibians, on the other hand, don’t thermoregulate internally, instead relying on outside sources for warmth. Because their bodies aren’t generating their own heat, their energy and oxygen requirements are lower. This is how some cold-blooded, or ectothermic, animals are able to survive conditions without oxygen for periods of time. And it’s why snakes (and other reptiles) continue to move after being bisected. As seen in the below video, the body will reflexively writhe for a time after being cut off the brain – but the head itself can remain “alive”, and likely on the defensive because of the pain of being chopped. It will attempt to bite whatever it can – even its own wriggling body. The wolf eel may be scary looking and may have a powerful bite, but these fish aren’t aggressive. In fact, these friendly fish are a favorite among scuba divers. The eel-like fish can grow up to 8 feet in length and subsists on a diet of sea urchins, mussels, and clams, which it can eat thanks to its powerful jaws: The friendly, but fierce looking wolf-eel is a favorite of Pacific Northwest divers. They can often be spotted peering out of the many crevices and holes in popular local dive sites. When lured out of their dens in search of their favorite food (Sea Urchins), this impressive fish is a sight to behold, growing to a maximum length of 8’. While not a true eel (eels have no pectoral fins), wolfies are actually a fish with an elongated body and are referred to by scientists as a “wolf-fish”. Don’t judge a book by its cover with wolf eels. It’s not an eel, but a long, slender fish. It’s not aggressive like its sharp teeth suggest, but generally gentle. Wolf eels also form one of the sweetest pairings in the sea: they mate for life and huddle together in a rocky cave or crevice. They are dedicated parents, with both partners guarding the eggs and their territory. In the cold Pacific waters of their range, that sounds like the perfect way to keep warm!
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7333
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Pizzas (and haircuts) back on the menu, but with warnings.
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Venice geared up to receive tourists, Milan’s pizzerias prepared to open and Australians headed out to eat for the first time in weeks Saturday, but the reopening of restaurants, pubs and cafes came with a warning: Don’t overdo it.
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true
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Italy, International News, General News, Latin America, Health, Milan, AP Top News, Pandemics, Asia Pacific, Virus Outbreak, Europe, Public health, Restaurants
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Public health experts are urging caution as governments ease restrictions on eateries, shops and parks in many countries and roll out measures to restart dormant factories. The coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 300,000 people, has slowed in many places but could pick up again if precautions aren’t taken or officials move too quickly to get people back to work. “The message is, yes, appreciate all the efforts, appreciate the opportunity to release some of those measures, but let’s not have a party, let’s not go to town,” said Tony Bartone, president of the Australian Medical Association. Most restaurants are limited to 10 customers at a time, and Bartone said people must maintain social distance, follow coughing etiquette, wash their hands regularly and stay away from others if they are ill. Italy’s tourism industry is focused firmly on June 3, when both regional and international borders reopen, allowing the first prospect of tourists since Europe’s first lockdown went into place in early March. In tourist-reliant Venice, occupancy of the city’s 50,000 hotel beds has hovered around zero ever since. “Venice lives on tourism, period,” said Claudio Scarpa, head of the city’s hotel association. ’’All the economic structures that operate in the city, including the port, are tied to tourism.” While Venice hopes for some kind of restart, it may have to wait a while yet. Germany — its border about a four-hour drive from Venice — is instructing citizens not to travel abroad for tourism until at least June 15. In Milan, Italy’s financial capital, 3,400 restaurants plan to open Monday, along with 4,800 bars, 2,900 hairdressers, 2,200 clothing stores and 700 shoe shops. “After a long period at home, we will all want to go out and have a good coffee in a bar, eat a pizza in a pizzeria, buy a pair of jeans, or go to the hairdressers,” Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala said in a Facebook video Saturday. Many restaurant owners, however, complained that the new rules for reopening were unclear and that the entire sector — including suppliers and food producers — was suffering. Dozens protested Saturday outside Milan’s main train station in front of signs reading: “I won’t open today to close tomorrow,” and calling for an abolition of taxes and more concrete help. In the United States, an Associated Press analysis found that 41 of the nation’s 50 states fall short of the COVID-19 testing levels that experts say are necessary to avoid another wave of outbreaks, even as some of those states move aggressively to allow businesses to reopen. Rapid, widespread testing is considered essential to tracking and containing the coronavirus. The AP analysis is based on metrics developed by Harvard University’s Global Health Institute. Harvard researchers have calculated that the U.S. needs to test at least 900,000 people daily to reopen the economy safely, nearly three times the current tally of about 360,000, according to figures compiled by the COVID Tracking Project website. Among the states falling short are Texas and Georgia, which have reopened shopping malls, barbershops and other businesses. “I really do feel there are dangers here to opening up without enough tests, but I don’t feel it’s a uniform danger everywhere in the country,” said.Dr. Ashish Jha, director of Harvard’s Global Health Institute. New York state is moving more cautiously. It will allow smaller cities and rural regions spared the brunt of the outbreak to reopen first. The first wave will include retail — though only for curbside or in-store pickup — along with construction and manufacturing. Gov. Andrew Cuomo also said beaches would reopen in time for next weekend’s Memorial Day holiday. In South Korea, which has one of the highest levels of testing, a Health Ministry spokesman said Saturday that the country may have dodged a major outbreak after finding 162 cases linked to clubgoers in Seoul, the densely populated capital. Son Young-rae said 46,000 people have been tested in the club-related outbreak. “It’s notable there were no new transmissions in churches, call centers and gyms where virus carriers went to,” he said, adding it was a sign that facilities and businesses are practicing proper hygiene and enforcing distance between people. India overtook China in the number of confirmed infections as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is due to announce this weekend a decision whether to extend the 54-day-old lockdown. India counted 85,940 infections and 2,752 deaths compared to China’s 82,941 confirmed case and 4,633 fatalities. China is shortening its annual legislative session, which begins late next week in Beijing, as small clusters of cases pop up elsewhere in the country. The spread of the disease has largely stopped in the country where the pandemic started, but Jilin province in the northeast has reported 28 cases over nine days, the latest two on Friday. In Mexico, the number of new confirmed cases hit a new daily high Friday, even as the government clarified guidelines for the construction, mining and automotive industries to start returning to work Monday. The country recorded more than 2,000 cases for the second straight day, suggesting its outbreak has yet to peak. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, straddling the issue, said Friday that “we have to be more careful, not relax the discipline.” Meanwhile, efforts to find new and effective testing methods for the new coronavirus now include man’s best friend. British researchers are launching a trial to see whether dogs can use their noses to detect whether humans have COVID-19 before they show symptoms. Britain’s health department said that disease control experts are looking into whether dogs, which have been trained to sniff out certain cancers and malaria, can be potentially be used as a “non-invasive, early warning measure” to identify the coronavirus. Six dogs, including labradors and cocker spaniels, have started basic training for the trial. ___ Passa reported from Brisbane, Australia, and Gorondi from Budapest, Hungary. Associated Press journalists from around the world contributed to this story. ___ Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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2303
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Even in isolated, pristine Tasmania, pressure to allow GMO farming.
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Thousands of Black Angus bulls snort steam gently into the frigid early morning air at Tasmania’s largest cattle feedlot as they jostle for space at a long grain trough.
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true
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Environment
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The pitch black cattle, blending into their muddy surroundings and stretching as far as the eye can see, are being fattened up for the Japanese market where marbled Angus beef is in high demand. These bulls at the feedlot owned by Japan’s Aeon Co Ltd book an even higher premium, thanks to Tasmania’s status as the only Australian state that bans genetically modified food crops and animal feed. That moratorium has made Tasmania - an island the size of Ireland separated from Australia’s mainland by 250 km (150 miles) of Bass Strait waters - a model of high-end, value-added agriculture production. Tasmania’s isolation and wilderness once made it a dumping ground for the British Empire’s convicts. But these same qualities, and a small population of just over half a million people, make the island one of the cleanest places on earth. Now, with fewer and fewer places in the world free from genetically modified farming and the innovations it brings, the pristine environment is under threat. The state government says it is planning legislation to extend the ban on genetically modified farming when it expires later this year. But Tasmania’s powerful poppy industry, the world’s largest supplier of pharmaceutical grade opiates for painkillers, is strongly lobbying for the moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMO) to be lifted. Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Tasmanian Alkaloids, GlaxoSmithKline and Australia’s privately-held TPI Enterprises, who share a A$120 million ($113 million) oligopoly, see a major threat looming as Victoria state on the mainland recently indicated it wanted to allow production of genetically modified poppies. That throws open the prospect of tough competition and Tasmanian poppy farms losing out on cost-savings just as global demand for painkillers surges. “There is a threat,” said Tasmanian Alkaloids field operator Rick Rockliff, whose factory in the state’s northwest processes around 80 percent of the world’s thebaine poppies, the main ingredient in slow-release pain medication. “I would hope our government wouldn’t sit on their hands and let that happen.” The road that Tasmania chooses will be critical as Australia seeks to fulfill lofty ambitions to become a “food bowl” for a rapidly growing middle-class in Asia. Already the world’s third largest exporter of beef and the No.4 wheat exporter, Australia is eyeing agriculture as a key economic driver as a decade-long mining investment boom that brought the country riches wanes. But critics warn that it is in danger of failing at the farm gate due to the country’s harsh, drought-prone climate and a lack of investment in agricultural innovation. In Tasmania, the accent is on high-value crops and cattle for export. The state’s niche producers are supplying everything from off-season wasabi and lavender teddy bears to fresh salmon and live abalone and see this as the future, rather than low value, bulk commodities. Its wine industry is thriving as climate change pressures major producers to move from traditional grape-growing regions on the mainland to Tasmania’s cooler climes. These products attract a premium because of the GMO ban - the state’s honey brings in prices of at least 40 percent more than mainland honey - according to the Safe Food Foundation. Tasmania Feedlot Pty Ltd in Powranna is home to between 6,000 and 11,000 Angus cattle all year round. The animals are beefed up over a period of five to six months before large cuts are shipped frozen to Japan. “They’re looking for a very safe product, and a very consistent product,” said the feedlot’s Managing Director Andrew Thompson of the company’s Japanese buyers. “GM is one of the main factors, along with no use of hormone growth promotants,” he added. “We’ve got this great reputation of being safe and clean and I think we’ve got to enhance that into the future.” The use of GMOs was outlawed in Tasmania more than a decade ago, after genetically altered canola escaped from crops at secret trials around the state. The state government says it plans to introduce legislation later this year to extend the ban, which expires in November. But it has left the door open a crack, retaining exemptions for scientific trials of GM crops and refusing to rule out lifting the ban in the future. That’s left Tasmania’s organic farmers nervously eyeing a recent landmark court case in Western Australia. Farmer Steve Marsh unsuccessfully sued his neighbor, blaming him for losing his licence as an organic grower after Monsanto GMO canola seed heads blew on to his property. Marsh is appealing the ruling, a process that could take up to a year to be finalised. Tasmania’s fear of contamination is reflected in its strict food importation rules. Visitors arriving from the mainland are required to dispose of any foodstuffs before leaving the airport. The island’s isolation and its small population were the main reasons the federal government granted an exclusive licence to Tasmania to grow opium poppies for legal commercial production half a century ago. The arrangement has proved a boon for growers, with U.N. figures showing demand for pain relief more than tripled between 1993 and 2012 to the equivalent of 14 billion doses. Demand is expected to rise further in coming decades as the middle-class, particularly in Asia, grows. But Tasmania’s efforts to secure a further five-year ban on other states growing poppies for commercial production have fallen on deaf ears as the federal government considers Victoria’s bid. Tasmania’s poppy farmers say expanding production across Australia will leave them at a handicap if the GMO ban in the state remains. “It will make it more attractive to grow in Victoria,” said Tasmanian Alkaloids’ Rockliff. His company developed a trial GMO poppy several years ago that was unaffected by a common herbicide used to kill weeds, a development that would cut growers’ costs and time in the field if able to be used commercially. “From that perspective, GMO is really interesting and it will eventually happen in Tasmania,” he said. Many others are fervently hoping that Rockliff is wrong. “I think the key is that Tasmania will never have the scale to produce enormous crops of grain or fruit for example, so why push for advantages that only work for scale?,” said Tasmania Feedlot’s Thompson. “Perhaps we’re better to push for advantages that work for our particular image, of being grown in this island state and being clean and green and safe.”
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16665
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"Ed Gillespie ""supports a personhood amendment."
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"Warner says Gillespie ""supports a personhood amendment."" Gillespie says he doesn’t and challenged the senator to prove his claim. Gillespie was certainly national GOP chairman in 2004 when the party adopted a platform supporting a human life amendment. But we haven’t seen any clear personal expression from his supporting such a law either then or now. So Warner has failed to prove his claim."
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false
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Abortion, Human Rights, Virginia, Mark Warner,
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"During a sharp exchange at their first debate, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner insisted that GOP challenger Ed Gillespie supports laws that would provide embryos with rights the moment of conception. ""He supports a personhood amendment that is so far out of the mainstream that it would ban certain common forms of contraception,"" Warner, a Democrat, said during the July 26 debate. He cast Gillespie as sympathetic towards several other socially conservative policies. Gillespie protested. ""This is an area where you’re making up my views,"" he said. ""Please provide the documentation for my support of any of those things."" Warner persisted, directly asking Gillespie if he ever supported a personhood amendment. ""No,"" Gillespie said. ""Provide documentation of that. When did I support a personhood amendment?"" ""We’ll give you the documentation,"" Warner replied. Shortly after the debate, his campaign put out an email saying that Gillespie was chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2004 when the party adopted a national platform calling for a personhood amendment. The platform said, ""As a country, we must keep our pledge to the first guarantee of the Declaration of Independence. That is why we say the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution, and we endorse legislation to make it clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children."" As our colleagues at PolitiFact national have noted, the human life amendment would assert that legal personhood begins at conception and with it, constitutional protection. Personhood legislation has drawn enormous debate in Virginia and across the nation. Supporters say the laws provide a legal remedy if an unborn child is killed by neglect or a third party. Opponents say the measures are a ruse to challenge rights to abortion and contraceptives that could prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in a uterus. Gillespie ""had an understanding of the platform, and what was in it,"" said David Turner, Warner’s campaign spokesman. ""He was chair of the RNC and on the platform committee that crafted the language."" Gillespie was RNC chairman from 2003 to 2005. We should note that GOP has adopted platforms calling for a human life amendment at each of its national conventions since 1984, according to records kept by the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara. All this is in the past, however. Warner’s statement was in the present tense. He said Gillespie ""supports a personhood amendment."" Turner shifted to 2014 by pointing to the National Right to Life’s endorsement of Gillespie in May. The anti-abortion group said Gillespie, when he was RNC chairman, ""worked closely with pro-life leaders to ensure the platform remained resolute in seeking to restore legal protection to unborn children threatened by abortion…"" We repeatedly asked officials at National Right to Life group to specify actions Gillespie took to ensure the GOP stood hard on a personhood amendment but didn’t receive a direct answer. Turner noted that Gillespie tweeted news of his Right to Life endorsement. ""By touting a release that specifically referenced his work on a platform that had language described as calling for a personhood amendment, he has effectively endorsed that work during this campaign,"" Turner emailed. Gillespie, on his website, says he’s ""pro-life,"" and opposes taxpayer funding of abortion. He doesn’t mention a personhood amendment. Paul Logan, Gillespie’s campaign spokesman, emailed us last week that ""Ed doesn’t support a personhood amendment."" Our ruling Warner says Gillespie ""supports a personhood amendment."" Gillespie says he doesn’t and challenged the senator to prove his claim. Gillespie was certainly national GOP chairman in 2004 when the party adopted a platform supporting a human life amendment. But we haven’t seen any clear personal expression from his supporting such a law either then or now. So Warner has failed to prove his claim."
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41656
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There has been a 22% drop in ambulances meeting their 15 minute transfer target since 2010.
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The decrease is actually greater—28%. In 2010/11 in England 80% of ambulance transfers were done in 15 minutes, in 2015/16 it was 58%.
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true
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health
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There are 16,481 fewer beds in hospitals since 2010. This is in the right ballpark, but it doesn’t seem to be the best comparison. It seems to compare the number of beds at different times of the year, but the number available fluctuates seasonally. Comparing July-September in 2010 and 2017, the decrease in beds available overnight in England is closer to 13,200. 66 A&E and maternity wards have been closed. We don’t know, as this information isn’t collected nationally. In 2014, there were reportedly plans to close or downgrade 66 in England, but while some have been, others have stayed open. 103 NHS walk-in centres have closed or been downgraded since 2010. We don’t know exactly, as this information isn’t collected centrally. Research from an NHS regulator and from campaign group 38 Degrees suggests more than 90 have been closed or downgraded. 60 ambulance stations have closed since 2010. We don’t know how many ambulance stations have closed since 2010 as national figures on this aren’t regularly published. 1,000 GP practices have closed since 2010. There are around 1,000 fewer GP practices in England in 2017 than in 2010. Some practices may have merged together, rather than closing completely, but we don’t know how many have done so. A&E four hour targets have been missed more than 10 million times since 2010. Correct. Between 2010/11 and 2017/18, around 12 million A&E attendances in England took over four hours from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge. The number of patients waiting more than 12 hours in A&E is up 2,700% since 2010. Correct (although not all patients will necessarily have been waiting in A&E). In 2011/12, 120 patients in England waited 12 hours between the decision to admit them to emergency admissions and their actual admission, compared to 3,500 in 2017/18. Spending on social care is down 8% since 2010. Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies last year said that between 2009/10 and 2016/17, councils’ spending on adult social care in England fell 8% in real terms. Newer analysis says that it fell by 6% over the same period. We’ve asked it for more information. There are 5,240 fewer mental health nurses since 2010. This seems to be looking at different months in 2010 and 2017, which isn’t the best comparison. Comparing the number of full-time equivalent mental health nurses between January 2010 and January 2018 (the latest figures), the drop is closer to 4,500. The number of operations classed as urgent that have been cancelled twice have doubled since 2010. Correct. The number of urgent operations in England cancelled for the second time or more for non-medical reasons more than doubled between 2011/12 and 2017/18. There has been a 22% drop in ambulances meeting their 15 minute transfer target since 2010. The decrease is actually greater—28%. In 2010/11 in England 80% of ambulance transfers were done in 15 minutes, in 2015/16 it was 58%. Claim 1 of 12
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2337
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"Uganda makes ""intentional transmission"" of HIV a crime."
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Uganda has made it a crime to “wilfully and intentionally” transmit the HIV virus and made it legal for medical staff to disclose a patient’s HIV status to others without his or her consent.
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true
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Health News
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The law was passed on Tuesday, a parliamentary spokeswoman said, in response to a resurgence in HIV infections in a country that was once hailed as a success in the global fight against AIDS. Those convicted face up 10 years in prison. But rights activists said the law would deter voluntary testing and further stigmatize infection with HIV, which causes AIDS and is primarily transmitted through unprotected intercourse as well as from mother to child during pregnancy. “Evidence from the Ugandan Ministry of Health shows clearly - criminalization of HIV doesn’t work,” said Asia Russell, Uganda-based director of international policy at Health GAP, an HIV advocacy group. “It drives people away from services, and fuels discrimination and fear.” Uganda had managed to cut infection rates from 18.5 percent of the population in 1992 to about 5 percent in 2000, according to United Nations figures. But the Ministry of Health puts the current rate at about 7.3 percent. While HIV sufferers in developed countries can have near-normal life expectancy thanks to anti-retroviral drugs, rather than dying within perhaps a decade, this medication is too expensive for many in Africa. According to the United Nations, in 2011 only 54 percent of eligible Ugandan HIV sufferers were receiving anti-retrovirals. The government argues that the “HIV and AIDS prevention and control bill”, first put forward in 2010, is needed to cut infection rates and reinforce other government measures to combat HIV/AIDS. But activists say that, in addition to violating rights to confidentiality, the law will be hard to enforce as it can be very hard to determine which of two HIV-positive people infected the other. They also note that the law does not appear to spell out what constitutes “wilful and intentional” transmission, and whether this would specifically exempt someone who had sex without knowing that they were HIV-positive, or who used a barrier such as a condom. Russell said her group would petition President Yoweri Museveni not to sign the bill into law unless parliament removed the provision criminalizing transmission of HIV. “This HIV bill is yet another step backward in the fight against AIDS in Uganda, said Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It is founded on stigma and discrimination and based on approaches that have been condemned by international health agencies as ineffective.”
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10068
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Study finds antidepressant doesn’t help autistic children
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This story about the failure of Celexa (citalopram) to control repetitive behaviors in autistic children does one very important thing wonderfully right: It explains why the conclusions of this study, which compared a group that got the drug to a group that got a placebo, are therefore valuable. Given the fact that the results sharply contradict current clinical practice, that’s a great service to readers. It essentially says: This study matters and its conclusions can be trusted. The story also devotes some space to describing gold-standard clinical trials generally–something that’s particularly important for caretakers of kids with autism, who are faced with shams and scams constantly. For all this the reporter deserves a public service award of some sort. Having said that: The report falls short in three significant ways: It does not report the cost of the drug. At a time of health care reform, when costs are central to the national discussion of care delivery, this piece of information is essential. In a case where a drug is expensive–and found ineffective–it’s even more important. It underplays the harms. When a study has negative findings on a treatment, it’s essential to explore harms. The story skids past them too quickly. The story here is not only that the drug doesn’t reduce repetitive behaviors, but that it raises the risk of other negative behaviors and side effects that may be worse. It doesn’t discuss treatment options. Once again, a study that finds a drug does not work immediately raises in a reader’s mind the question of what does work–or at least what other approaches are currently tried. Overall, the story scores solidly under our rating system and earns points for explaining the value of well-controlled clinical trails. But its failure to address three of the most important issues–costs, harm and treatment options–prevent it from fully serving readers’ needs.
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true
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"The story does not report how much treatment with Celexa costs, for the drug and medication management. Celexa itself is an expensive, highly marketed drug; it costs between $3 and $4 per daily dose. That’s about $1,300 per year. Generic, citalopram costs about a dollar per day but can be had at $10 for a 90-day supply. Further, the study shows it doesn’t work, which only increases the relevance of costs. Even at pennies per day, the money is wasted. The story does an adequate job quantifying most results. It describes the study’s size, population and duration. It reports that 33 percent of the treatment group and 34 percent of the placebo group had improvements. The report should have said more about how ""improvements"" were measured and helped readers understand them as concrete behaviors. On balance, however, the story deserves a ""satisfactory"" rating under this criterion. The story mentions side effects of Celexa but underplays them. The data show that nearly all children in the study who took Celexa had side effects, including increased energy levels, impulsiveness, decreased concentration, hyperactivity, diarrhea, insomnia and dry skin. The side effects also included stereotypy–repetitive behaviors. Which is to say: In some children, the drug caused the very symptoms it was supposed to treat. The story lists only ""insomnia and impulsivity"" as side effects. It says they were ""twice as common"" in the group taking Celexa, but it doesn’t say in absolute terms how many of them experienced side effects considered serious. The story does an unusually good job explaining the value of the type of evidence this study produced. It explains why a clinical trial that uses a placebo is so powerful, and why blinded, randomized trials are the gold standard. A reader comes away with a clear sense of why this study is authoritative, in a context where science is often sketchy, false claims are often made and the need for treatments so great. The reporter might have mentioned that with 149 participants, only 73 of them in the treatment group, the study is considered small. Further, the story fails to point out that the research question was very narrowly tailored: Did the drug reduce repetitive behaviors? The findings are silent on the value of Celexa and other SSRIs in treating other symptoms in the same patients. The reporter should have said so. Having said all that: On balance, thanks to its exemplary work illuminating the world of study quality, the story earns a ""satisfactory"" rating. The article does not exaggerate the prevalence or severity of autism spectrum disorders. For greater precision and public value, the story should have said that the conditions studied and related to autism include Asperger’s syndrome and other developmental disorders. The reporter quotes three sources: This is adequate sourcing. The reporter properly discloses the authors’ financial links to drug companies, including the maker of Celexa. The story mentions that the drug Risperidone is approved for some symptoms of autism. But it fails to say what the standard treatment is for controlling repetitive behaviors and similar behavioral symptoms of kids with autism and Asperger’s. Studies have shown ""early intensive behavioral interventions"" to have some efficacy. The story states that Celexa is taken by about a third of children diagnosed with autism. The novelty of the treatment is not in question. There is no evidence the reporter has drawn excessively on the press release."
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6077
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Springfield Legionnaires probably not from cancer center.
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The Springfield-Green County Health Department has determined that two people with Legionnaires’ disease probably did not get it from a local outpatient cancer center.
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true
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Cancer, Health, General News, Legionnaires disease, Springfield
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Department administrator of community health and epidemiology Kendra Findley said water samples from Mercy health system’s center found evidence of a type of Legionella species but not the type two local people had contracted. Findley said Green County has an average of 4.5 Legionella cases a year and health officials are heightening their surveillance for the disease. The department had said in a news release that two cases of Legionnaires’ disease have been reported since late April among individuals who visited Mercy’s outpatient cancer center. People are infected with a severe form of pneumonia by inhaling airborne water droplets containing the Legionella bacterium.
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2553
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Study casts doubt on link between cannabis, teen IQ drop.
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A landmark study suggesting a link between cannabis use and a drop in teenage IQ may not have gone far enough in its research, with any falls in IQ more likely due to lower socioeconomic status than marijuana, according to a Norwegian study.
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true
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Health News
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The latest work, which appears in the journal PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, also suggests that different policy steps might be needed in that case. “My study essentially shows that the methods used and analyses presented in the original research are insufficient to rule out other explanations (for lower IQ),” said Ole Rogeberg, an economist at the Frisch Centre for Economics Research in Oslo, to Reuters. The Dunedin Multi-disciplinary Health and Development Study is an ongoing report produced by New Zealand’s University of Otago, monitoring 1,037 New Zealand children born between April 1972 and March 1973. The study followed them for 40 years. The participants were periodically tested for IQ and other indices including drug taking, and in 2012 clinical psychologist Madeline Meier produced a study saying there was a link between teenage cannabis use and a lower IQ. Researchers in the Meier study compared the IQ trends of people who never smoked cannabis with four groups of those who did: people who smoked, people who scored as dependent in a follow-up survey, those who scored as dependent twice and those who scored as dependent three times. The study found IQ declines increasing “linearly” with cannabis use, Rogeberg wrote in PNAS. The crucial assumption in the Meier study is that cannabis use is the only relevant difference between the groups tested, he said. His use of a simulation model showed that it may be premature to draw a causal inference between marijuana use and falling IQ scores. For one thing, other writing about the Dunedin group on which Meier’s study is based suggest that early cannabis use is more common for people with poor self-control, previous conduct problems, and high scores on risk factors linked to low family socioeconomic status, he wrote. Given these factors, young people from lower status families tended to end up in less intellectually demanding environments, whether by choice or by circumstance, which would increase the difference in IQ levels as they aged. “We know that the researchers have measured the IQ of the participants at various ages in childhood - but we don’t know if the IQ changes were similar for the different cannabis-using groups before their cannabis use,” he told Reuters. “We don’t know how much of the change in IQ we can explain by differences in education, jail time, occupational status, etc and whether this affects the estimates in the paper.”
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15338
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Obama’s Clean Power Plan ... eliminates coal-fired power plants.
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"Henneke said ""Obama’s Clean Power Plan ... eliminates coal-fired power plants."" That’s off the mark in that the plan, yet to be finalized, doesn’t wipe out any coal-fired plants. It looks to us like decisions to close plants (or individual units) will depend on how Texas decides to address its assigned carbon-reduction goals. Meantime, pollution limits already in place might hasten shutdowns--with or without the Clean Power Plan taking effect."
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false
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Environment, Climate Change, Energy, Texas, Robert Henneke,
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"A federal plan to drive down carbon emissions wipes out coal-fired power plants, an Austin analyst wrote. In a June 2015 opinion column published in the Austin American-Statesman, Robert Henneke of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation took issue with the Clean Power Plan released in 2014 by President Barack Obama’s administration. Henneke, director of the foundation’s Center for the American Future, wrote: ""Coal, the target of Obama’s Clean Power Plan, generates 34 percent of Texas’s electricity. The plan eliminates coal-fired power plants and requires Texas to assume reductions in excess of 27 other states combined."" It doesn’t surprise us that the nation’s second-largest state would be saddled with more reductions than a slew of other states. For this fact check, we focused on whether the Obama plan eliminates coal-fired plants — a claim the Texas office of the Environmental Defense Fund brought to our attention, calling it inaccurate. To our inquiry, a foundation spokeswoman, Caroline Espinosa, conceded by email that under the Environmental Protection Agency plan, all ""coal-fired plants are not eliminated, though,"" she said, ""a great number of them will be: enough to cause grievous harm to the Texas economy and Texas families."" Let’s summarize the plan, which is to be finalized this year, then explore its impact on coal-fired electricity plants. Clean Power Plan The Clean Power Plan is premised on the states by 2030 collectively driving down carbon emissions from power plants by 30 percent from 2005 levels — in part, the agency has said, through regional ""cap and trade"" networks, investments in renewable energy and smart grid technology — plus phase-outs of many existing coal-fueled plants. ""Power plants,"" the EPA says in a fact sheet last updated in June 2015, ""are the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, making up roughly one-third of all domestic greenhouse gas emissions."" A 2014 fact check But PolitiFact concluded previously that the plan doesn’t outlaw coal as fuel or require coal-fired plants to close. In August 2014, PolitiFact in Washington, D.C., rated False a claim by U.S. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., that the administration plan meant coal would not be permitted as an electricity fuel, even in limited amounts. In 2014, Michael Webber, deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, said: ""In no way does this program say coal can’t live. What it is is a death blow for outdated, old, vintage coal plants, unless they pay for"" technology upgrades. Amy Jaffe, executive director of Energy and Sustainability at the University of California, Davis, said at the time that states would influence the process as each one creates its blueprint for decreasing emissions. ""It may be in some places there is nothing you can do other than stop using coal, but there's nothing in the rules that says there can’t be coal,"" Jaffe said. EPA: Plan doesn't mandate retirement of coal-fired plants To our inquiry, a Washington-based EPA spokeswoman, Enesta Jones, said by email ""EPA’s proposal provides each state with enormous flexibility to design plans that meet their individual and unique needs, and does not mandate the retirement of any coal plants."" Nationally, though, coal is expected to recede as a fuel. The EPA’s initial estimates assumed 30 percent of the country’s energy would come from coal in 2030, down from 39 percent in 2013. According to the agency, the plan gives each state a different threshold for reducing carbon emissions it must reach based on feasibility, cost and current pollution levels, among factors. And, the agency says, it’s up to each state to decide how to comply. Federal rules against mercury emissions, which experts have described as more stringent than the pending power plan, also could factor into coal fading. Foundation cites national and Texas studies Espinosa, elaborating on Henneke’s claim, told us there are reasons to expect Texas plants to close due to the plan. By email, she pointed out a May 2015 analysis of the plan undertaken by the U.S. Energy Information Administration at the request of U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Nationally under the plan, the report says, projected coal plant ""retirements,"" meaning closings, would total 90 gigawatts in power generation, most of that occurring by 2020. That prediction compares with an expected retirement of 40 gigawatts in coal-fueled power if the plan doesn’t take effect, the report says. New plants, the report says,would largely be fueled by natural gas and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power. Texas stands to see coal-fired generation decline by 100 billion kilowatthours by 2025 — alongside spurts in natural gas and renewable energy — with a slight coal rebound occurring by 2040, the report says. In the illustration below, the ""Base Policy"" case refers to EIA’s modeling of the Clean Power Plan and the ""AEO2015 Reference Case"" reflects its projections of energy supply, demand and prices based on federal, state and local laws in place as of October 2014 — in other words, without the EPA plan in effect: Espinosa, in her email, said the ""remarkable extent of de facto coal-fire plant elimination in Texas"" is backed up by the the Balanced Energy for Texas Coalition--which represents consumers and coal producers, transporters and industrial users, spokesman Russ Keene told us. By email, Keene said the EPA’s own Integrated Planning Model indicates 24 of the 41-coal fired power plants in Texas would close from 2020 to 2025 under the administration plan even though none are currently scheduled to retire for other reasons. The EPA in 2013 described the planning model as a ""multi-regional, dynamic, deterministic linear programming model of the U.S. electric power sector. It provides forecasts of least cost capacity expansion, electricity dispatch, and emission control strategies while meeting energy demand and environmental, transmission, dispatch, and reliability constraints. IPM can be used to evaluate the cost and emissions impacts of proposed policies to limit emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon dioxide (CO2), mercury (Hg), and"" hydrochloric acid ""from the electric power sector."" Espinosa forwarded an email from Austin attorney Michael J. Nasi, who represents the coalition, stating the calculations behind the projection were rooted in EPA data. Separately, Terry Hadley, spokesman for the Public Utility Commission of Texas, pointed out an August 2014 filing with the commission from Nasi on behalf of the Partnership for a Better Energy Future, which the filing describes as drawing together more than 150 trade groups including the American Petroleum Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Texas Association of Business and the American Farm Bureau Federation. The filing says EPA’s assumptions about plants switching from coal to natural gas to reduce carbon emissions indicate Texas would experience a decrease of 72 million megawatt hours from coal-fired plants, most of that by 2020. Other analyses We asked others including the EPA to assess the plan’s effect on coal-fired plants. By phone and email, Ilan Levin, an Austin-based lawyer for the Environmental Integrity Project, which focuses on strict enforcement of anti-pollution laws, questioned the coalition’s conclusion that the plan would result in 24 Texas coal-fired plants shutting down. While the EPA predicts a drop in coal-fired electricity by 2030, he said, and an EPA scenario involves Texas fulfilling its CO2-reduction goals by moving from coal to natural gas power generation and improved efficiency, Levin said, the federal plan ""simply sets goals and leaves it to the states on how to get there. It's premature to say the CPP eliminates coal plants,"" he said. That said, Levin added, there ""are certainly very realistic scenarios with retirements of many Texas coal plants in the next 15 years or so. But these are driven mainly by economics. Regulatory drivers, specifically EPA rules that will involve more costs to power plants, include a long list of anti- smog and mercury rules and clean water and waste rules that have been in development for years if not decades. So, CPP is an important rule,"" he said, ""but it has not yet been implemented by the states, so all the details in terms of how it will get implemented have yet to be written."" By phone, Adele Morris, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution, said coal has been supplanted by other fuel sources already for a variety of reasons, some of them regulatory, others having to do with natural gas being cheaper and new plants being cheaper to build than it costs to fix up old ones. Jones, the EPA spokeswoman, called the coalition’s calculation a ""reasonable interpretation of the Integrated Planning Model (IPM) data for the proposed Clean Power Plan. Our own review was slightly different, showing 23 additional retirements in 2025,"" she said. ""Actual compliance may differ from the illustrative approaches that EPA lays out,"" she said, again noting each state is to determine how to meet its carbon reduction goals. In Texas, Robbie Searcy, a staff spokeswoman for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the flow of electricity to most Texans, responded to our inquiry by pointing us to a November 2014 report in which ERCOT estimated the proposed CO2 emission limits would result in the retirement of 3,300 to 8,700 megawatts of coal generation capacity in Texas. Yet Searcy also emailed us an agency summary of a December 2014 ERCOT report indicating multiple federal pollution regulations might explain plant closings. The summary said: ""Coal-fired power plants are the most affected by environmental regulations, which include the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, the Regional Haze program, the 316(b) Cooling Water Intake Structures Rule, the Electric Effluent Limitation Guidelines Rule, the Coal Combustion Residuals Disposal Rule, and the proposed Clean Power Plan released earlier this year. ""ERCOT assessed the impacts of these regulations through a generator survey and a modeling analysis. Results indicate that the Regional Haze Program and Clean Power Plan, in combination with other regulations, could result in the retirement of up to 8,700 megawatts (MW) of coal-fired generation resources in the ERCOT region. That is about half the coal-fired capacity and more than 13 percent of the overall thermal generation resources, by MW, that serve ERCOT today."" By telephone, John Hall of the Environmental Defense Fund, Texas, said he read the December 2014 ERCOT report to mean the Clean Power Plan could by itself account for 200 megawatt hours in additional coal-fueled power plant reductions in Texas--which he said amounts to one third to one half of a plant. We asked ERCOT if it expects coal-fired plant closings due to many federal pollution regulations, with the pending power plan perhaps playing a minimal role? By email, Searcy said: ""Yes, ERCOT anticipates that some coal-fired plants will retire as a result of changes to environmental regulations. It is too early to tell what… role (minimal or otherwise) CPP specifically will play."" Our ruling Henneke said ""Obama’s Clean Power Plan ... eliminates coal-fired power plants."" That’s off the mark in that the plan, yet to be finalized, doesn’t wipe out any coal-fired plants. It looks to us like decisions to close plants (or individual units) will depend on how Texas decides to address its assigned carbon-reduction goals. Meantime, pollution limits already in place might hasten shutdowns--with or without the Clean Power Plan taking effect. – The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression."
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14746
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"Every ""one of the mass shootings except two in America since 1950 have been"" in ""gun-free zones."
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"Patrick said every ""one of the mass shootings except two in America since 1950 have been"" in ""gun-free zones."" The Lott-steered research delivers a basis for this statement. But this all-but-two assessment also rests on how you define a mass shooting or gun-free zone. Change the definitions to take in more events and you end up with more shootings in places that weren’t otherwise free of guns. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. CLARIFICATION, 3:35 p.m., Jan. 13, 2016: We clarified Lott's reference to places that rarely grant civilian gun permits to indicate some jurisdictions don't grant them at all. This addition didn't change our rating of the claim."
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mixture
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Corrections and Updates, Texas, Guns, Dan Patrick,
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"Dan Patrick of Texas hinted he’d like to ease access to guns, then lofted a historical claim making us wonder. The Republican lieutenant governor appeared on NBC’s Jan. 3, 2016 edition of Meet the Press as the Texas law permitting licensed individuals to openly carry holstered handguns took effect. Patrick told host Chuck Todd he wants to see a day ""when every American citizen can simply have a gun, does not have to go through a long ordeal or pay a high price. We're going to address that in Texas, as well. Because it's the right of every individual under the Second Amendment."" Then came the historical note: ""Having law-abiding citizens having guns is a good thing,"" Patrick said. ""In fact, Chuck, every one of the mass shootings except two in America since 1950 have been"" in ""gun-free zones,"" his implication being that wrongdoers don’t open fire in places where permitted citizens may have loaded handguns. That’s at least a disputed analysis. In April 2013, Mother Jones magazine said its review of more than five dozen U.S. ""mass shootings"" since 1982 hadn’t identified a single case of a killer choosing a target because it barred guns nor had it found an instance of an armed civilian saving the day. ""To the contrary, in many of the cases there was clearly another motive for the choice of location. For example, 20 were workplace shootings,"" the magazine said. ""Or consider the 12 school shootings we documented, in which all but one of the killers had personal ties to the school they struck,"" the story said. Moreover, the magazine said, the majority of mass shootings are murder-suicides, arguably not involving perpetrators ""whose priority was identifying the safest place to attack."" So, how did Patrick determine that only two mass shootings since 1950 occurred in places that weren’t gun-free zones? A spokesman, Alejandro Garcia, declined comment on that, but web searches and interviews identified the likely originator of the two-since-1950 claim as economist John Lott Jr., whose books include ""More Guns, Less Crime"" and ""The Bias Against Guns."" Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, also is a Fox News columnist. In a January 2013 blog post, Lott said: ""Since at least 1950, with two exceptions, all the multiple victim public shootings in the US in which more than three people have been killed have taken place where guns are banned."" In a 2014 web post, the center said: ""There are only two mass public shootings since at least 1950 that have not been part of some other crime where at least four people have been killed in an area where civilians are generally allowed to have guns. These are the International House of Pancakes restaurant in Carson City, Nevada, on September 6, 2011 and the Gabrielle Giffords shooting in Tucson, Arizona, on January 8, 2011."" Defining ""mass shooting"" Generally we take a gun-free zone to mean a place where civilians can’t legally carry handguns. That’s in the spirit of the Gun-Free School Zones Act, revised by Congress in 1996, which states it’s unlawful for an individual to knowingly carry a firearm that’s been part of interstate or foreign commerce in a school zone or within 1,000 feet of the grounds of a public, parochial or private school. But ""mass shooting"" has had a range of definitions. In a 1996 paper, Lott and a fellow researcher presented a multi-part definition ruling out incidents connected to other crimes and applying other limits. The paper defined ""a multiple public shooting as one in which two or more people are killed or wounded in a church, business, bar, street, government buildings, schools, public transit, place of employment, park, health care facility, mall or restaurant. We excluded multiple shootings that were byproducts of other crimes (e.g., a robbery or drug deal) or that involved gang activity (e.g., drive-by shootings), professional hits or organized crime. We also did not count as a multiple shooting serial killings or killings that took place over the span of more than one day,"" the authors wrote. There are less restrictive definitions. A 2008 FBI report said that over the previous 30 years, a mass murder was described as four or more murders occurring during the same incident, with no distinctive time period between the murders. A 2013 report by the Congressional Research Service said there’s no agreed-upon definition of ""mass shooting,"" so it would define public mass shootings as ""incidents occurring in relatively public places, involving four or more deaths—not including the shooter(s)—and gunmen who select victims somewhat indiscriminately."" Meantime, an FBI spokesman, Stephen Fischer, advised us by email that a 2012 law set the threshold for a ""mass killing"" as three or more people killed. Mother Jones magazine, in research last updated in December 2015, employed a four-or-more killed definition to conclude that since 1982, there had been at least 73 U.S. mass shootings--meaning public incidents in which four or more people died and the motive appeared to be indiscriminate killing. Still, in an August 2012 story, Mother Jones suggested that classifying a mass murder based on a death count or lack of ties to other crimes could seem arbitrary. ""Dropping the number of fatalities by just one, or including motives of armed robbery, gang violence, or domestic violence, would add many, many more cases,"" the magazine said. Lott summarizes research We reached out to Lott, who estimated by phone there had been about 200 mass shootings since 1950. By email, he sent spreadsheets that he said show how he and other researchers catalogued incidents from 1977 to the present. A result, Lott said, is the conclusion that just the two mass shootings occurred where civilians could legally carry handguns. No signs barred people from bringing handguns into the Nevada restaurant or the Tucson parking lot, Lott said, and both states permitted licensed citizens to carry handguns. We asked Lott about the Aug. 1, 1966, incident when Charles Whitman shot and killed people from atop the University of Texas tower as residents with rifles fired from below; Whitman died after a police officer subdued him from close range. Civilians wielded weapons that day, no? Lott said he classified UT as a gun-free zone because under Texas law until 1996, residents couldn’t legally carry handguns in public except under limited circumstances. Lott, asked how he delved into incidents from 1950 to 1977, pointed out an April 2000 New York Times news story on 100 U.S. ""rampage killings"" from 1949 to 1999. The 100 cases included 20 shootings at schools, 11 at restaurants or shopping malls and 32 at the killer's workplace, the newspaper reported. There were 102 killers, it said, with 425 people killed and 510 injured. We couldn’t tell if the Times determined whether citizens could carry handguns at the shooting sites. Lott told us his research determined, in each Times-listed instance, if laws allowed civilians in a city or state to get gun permits and to carry handguns. He emailed us a map indicating that as of 1986, 29 states allowed civilians to carry handguns and 21 states (including Texas) did not; by 2003, 44 states allowed civilians to carry handguns. An alternate analysis We spotted a short-term breakdown countering Lott’s all-but-two conclusion, though the center headed by Lott maintains it’s wrong. In a 2014 report, Everytown for Gun Safety, a pro-gun control group, said that from 2009 to July 2014, 18 multiple-victim U.S. shootings--meaning any incident where at least four people were killed with a gun--occurred in places where civilian handguns were allowed. Of 33 incidents in public spaces, the report said, 18 took place wholly or in part where concealed guns could be lawfully carried. Conversely, no more than 15 incidents ""took place entirely in public spaces that were so-called ‘gun-free zones,’"" the report said. Jack Warner, an Everytown spokesman, told us by email that a 2010 shooting incident in a Hialeah, Florida, restaurant later was removed from its count; the establishment was a gun-free zone. Seventeen is far more than two, of course, and the Everytown report covered less than six years, far fewer than the 65 years referenced by Lott. Might it be that far more shootings have taken place in locations where a licensed citizen could legally hoist a handgun? Questioning the report, the Lott-led center charged in a September 2014 web post that nearly half the incidents described as occurring where civilians could carry handguns took place either as parts of other crimes or in non-public locations and so shouldn’t have been deemed mass shootings--or the shootings actually took place in gun-free zones such as a Wisconsin temple where guns weren’t allowed, according to a Fox News report authored by John Lott’s son, Maxim, though Mother Jones in 2013 reported that guns were allowed in the temple. The center’s critique gives a taste of Lott’s investigatory approach. According to the post, Lott followed up the March 2009 shooting deaths of eight people in a North Carolina nursing home by calling the home and hearing that neither the home’s residents or staff had been allowed to bring in guns. In another case, after the 2012 shooting deaths of four people at a Georgia spa, Lott ""spoke with someone at the spa after the attack and was told that the killer knew ‘nobody there had a gun.’ ...While the official policy at the spa isn’t clear because the conversation was very short,"" the center wrote, ""the important thing was that the killer knew that there were no guns for people to defend themselves there."" There’s room for quibbling with the center’s critique perhaps in that one of the center’s declared gun-free zones was the Washington Navy Yard, which is fronted by armed guards. We noticed this note in a Lott spreadsheet summarizing that attack: ""There were armed guards at the Washington Navy Yard, and the shooter was familiar with the premises, so he did not select it as a target on the presumption he would not face armed resistance. In fact, the shooter reportedly used a gun that he took from a guard after killing him."" Regardless, Lott told us by email, the shooter knew that past the guard station, he wouldn’t encounter armed individuals. Lott’s note in his spreadsheet summarizing an August 2010 incident in Buffalo lays out his contention that even if civilians legally may have handguns, that’s often unlikely to occur; the note quotes a police inspector saying local authorities virtually never give out gun permits other than for sportsmen to carry weapons for hunting. In the same vein, the center’s 2014 critique said several shootings tallied by the Everytown group occurred in places -- such as Boston, East Oakland and Los Angeles -- where authorities rarely if ever grant handgun permits. By email, Warner gave no ground, saying state and local laws made it legally possible in each of the cited shootings for a civilian to have been present with a handgun. Also, ""narrowing the definition of ‘gun-free zone’ to exclude locations where armed police were stationed does not make sense,"" Warner wrote. An FBI study A 2013 FBI review of ""active shooter incidents"" since 2000 identified five instances when shooting ended after armed individuals who were not law enforcement exchanged gunfire with the shooters; three shooters were killed, one was wounded, one committed suicide. ""The individuals involved in these shootings included a citizen with a valid firearms permit and armed security guards at a church, an airline counter, a federally managed museum, and a school board meeting,"" the report said. The report gave more detail about a civilian’s intervention in a Nevada incident. In May 2008, the report said, Ernesto Villagomez, 30, armed with a handgun, began firing inside Player’s Bar and Grill in Winnemucca, Nevada. Two people were killed; two were wounded (leaving the results short of the three or four deaths needed to be a mass shooting by most definitions). ""The shooter was killed by a citizen with a valid firearm permit before police arrived,"" the report said. Our ruling Patrick said every ""one of the mass shootings except two in America since 1950 have been"" in ""gun-free zones."" The Lott-steered research delivers a basis for this statement. But this all-but-two assessment also rests on how you define a mass shooting or gun-free zone. Change the definitions to take in more events and you end up with more shootings in places that weren’t otherwise free of guns. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. CLARIFICATION, 3:35 p.m., Jan. 13, 2016: We clarified Lott's reference to places that rarely grant civilian gun permits to indicate some jurisdictions don't grant them at all. This addition didn't change our rating of the claim."
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A woman named Amanda spared her child from blatant human trafficking agents in a checkout line.
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We attempted to contact the original author of the post to find out more about the incident but have not yet received a response.
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unproven
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Crime, human trafficking, longview, sex trafficking
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On 19 February 2016, a Facebook user published the above status claiming her child was recently the target of at attempted “sex-trafficking scam” in an unnamed store in Longview, Texas. (One commenter claimed it was a Walmart, but the original poster didn’t confirm that.) Rumors about sex traffickers trawling retail establishments flourished in mid-2015, but went dormant after a relatively active period of novel claims. In May 2015, a Facebook user fronted a similar claim of trafficking rings descending upon an Oklahoma Hobby Lobby store; in June, Twitter users warned others of sex slavery rings targeting college kids during summer job interviews; in that same month, the theme park abduction urban legend resurfaced; then a harrowing tale of heroin-armed purported teenaged assailants working out of the bathroom of a Denton, Texas, Dillards department store circulated across the same channels; a Hickory, North Carolina woman claimed human trafficking rings were menacing the parking lots of Walmarts to locate new victims; and a Long Island Target was briefly cited as the locale of similar kidnappers in August 2015. Taken at face value, nothing in Amanda from Longview’s account matched with known operating habits of sex or human trafficking rings, and none of what she recalled was specifically enough to raise red flags. The incident didn’t sound unlike many interactions experienced by parents of young children in public. Police in Longview posted a status update about the claim shortly thereafter, which read: Suspicious activity was reported to the Longview Police Department over the weekend. The reporting party felt that she had just avoided a potential sex trafficking situation with her two year-old child. An LPD Detective spoke with the mother at great length and she explained the situation that occurred over the weekend. She stated that while in line at the grocery store an unknown couple showed interest in her two year-old daughter. Several things occurred in a matter of a couple of seconds that caused the mother to be alarmed. Her protective instincts kicked in and she removed her child from the situation that was bringing unwanted attention to her child. As of right now this is an isolated event, we have not had any similar reports. We do appreciate this parent coming forward and letting us know about the incident at the local store. We have documented the information and also reviewed the video from the store in order to be able to share that information with other agencies should the need arise. We would like to encourage parents to be vigilant when it comes to your child’s safety. Be watchful over the contact they have with others. Teach your children about appropriate relationships and to avoid strangers. In addition we would like to remind citizens to report any suspicious activity immediately. When our citizens are observant and they report suspicious activity they may be a key to deter or prevent future criminal offenses from occurring. We contacted Longview police about the claim on 25 February 2016. They told us that the department reviewed surveillance video and that the interaction in question lasted approximately “two seconds.” Police were sympathetic to the mother’s fears but said that the incident was inconsistent with genuine reports of labor or sex trafficking. The clip was passed on to state law enforcement for further review, but police in Longview did not indicate parents need worry about “stranger danger” in the area (at least, not more than usual). The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has a FAQ about human trafficking that provides useful information on the problem and who is at risk.
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A woman filed a lawsuit against Samsung after her cellphone became stuck in her vagina.
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Pyke spoke for the first time Monday at her attorney’s office in Salt Lake City about six months after her allegations against Sizemore surfaced. Pyke said her dreams of having an acting career evaporated after the 2003 incident during production of the “Born Killers” movie, leaving her with post-traumatic stress and drug and alcohol addiction that have plagued her life.
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false
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Junk News, world news daily report
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A favorite subject of World News Daily Report (WNDR), a well-known “satire” site that has a long history of publishing junk news articles, involves fictional stories about people placing odd items inside body cavities. Over the years they’ve published stories about a man’s getting his head stuck in a woman’s vagina, a terrorist’s attempting to smuggle a grenade in his anus, a babysitter’s stealing a baby by concealing it inside of her vagina, and a McDonald’s employee’s pilfering 80 pounds of frozen chicken McNuggets by hiding them in his anal cavity. WNDR added a new entry into their body cavity category on 20 September 2018, when they posted a junk news item reporting that a woman was suing Samsung for $1.8 million after she got her cellphone stuck in her vagina: An Albuquerque woman is suing Samsung for $1.8 million after she necessitated medical attention after inserting her cell phone inside her vagina and was unable to retrieve it for 96 hours. Salma Briant, 39, claims her medical bills at the University of New Mexico Hospital amount to $1,168,000 and that she has suffered from severe psychological distress because of the whole ordeal. Briant said she first inserted the cell phone inside her vagina as a dare from one of her friends but quickly realized that the phone would not come out. This was not a genuine news item but just another piece of junk news from WNDR, whose disclaimer notes that the site’s content is “satirical” and “fictional.” The photograph included with the story does not show a woman named Salma Briant but rather Kiersten Pyke, who filed a lawsuit against actor Tom Sizemore alleging that he had molested her when she was 11 years old: A Utah woman filed a lawsuit against Tom Sizemore for allegedly groping her when she was 11. The alleged incident took place in 2003, when the two were working together on the film “Born Killers.” Kiersten Pyke, 26, says she is standing up for other child actors.
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Court says schools can be liable for suicides but clears MIT.
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Schools can be held liable for student suicides in certain circumstances, Massachusetts’ highest court said Monday in a ruling that also cleared the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of responsibility for the death of a graduate student who killed himself on campus in 2009.
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true
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Technology, North America, Health, AP Top News, Massachusetts, Suicides, U.S. News, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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The Supreme Judicial Court said MIT cannot be blamed for the death of 25-year-old Han Nguyen, who jumped from the top of a campus building minutes after a professor confronted him about an offensive email. But it found that schools can be liable if they fail to act after they become aware that a student has attempted suicide while enrolled, or shortly before entering, or learn that the student had threatened to commit suicide. Gary Pavela, a consultant on law and policy issues in higher education, said he’s unaware of another state appellate court that has explicitly found that universities have a duty to prevent suicide in limited cases and defines those circumstances. “This will be very newsworthy to colleges around the country,” said Pavela, who has written a book about the legal questions surrounding student suicides. Jeffrey Beeler, an attorney for Nguyen’s estate, said they were disappointed the court sided with MIT, but believe its ruling will nonetheless “save student lives going forward.” An MIT spokeswoman said in a statement that Nguyen’s death was a tragedy and students’ well-being is of “paramount importance to the school.” Spokeswoman Kimberly Allen said the school already offers a “robust network” of services for students and “continually considers ways to enhance those resources.” The court noted that Nguyen never told anyone at MIT that he planned to kill himself or tried to kill himself while enrolled at the school. Furthermore, he was living off campus instead of a dormitory under “daily observation,” the court said. But the judges said schools must take “reasonable measures” to help students they know have attempted suicide while at the school or have threatened to kill themselves. That would include initiating a suicide prevention protocol, getting the student in the care of a medical professional, or contacting police, fire or emergency medical personnel. “It requires the school to really have a lot of information that the suicide is likely and the reasonable measures that the school needs to take are not extremely onerous,” said Naomi Shatz, an attorney who’s not involved in the case. A group of 18 colleges and universities — including Harvard University and Boston College — told the court that holding MIT responsible for Nguyen’s death would have far-reaching consequences by causing officials with no medical expertise to overreact to concerns out of fear of liability. Nguyen’s professors shared concerns about his mental health in the months leading up to his death, and one encouraged his colleagues to pass him or they might have “blood on their hands.” In a telephone call 11 minutes before he killed himself, a professor “read him the riot act” over an email Nguyen sent to another MIT official that they believed was inappropriate, court records said. The family said that the school should have known that “mishandling this fragile student” would result in his suicide. But MIT said the school wasn’t aware of the severity of his condition, noting that he was treated by outside professionals and refused on-campus resources. None of the professionals who treated Nguyen while he was at MIT believed he was an imminent risk of killing himself, the school said. ___ Follow Alanna Durkin Richer at http://twitter.com/aedurkinricher . Read more of her work at http://bit.ly/2hIhzDb .
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A photograph taken by a responding police officer shows a couple passed out in their vehicle from a suspected heroin overdose, with their child in the back seat.
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Thompson said when he tried talking to Acord, his head was bobbing, his pupils were pinpoint, and his speech was slurred. Thompson wrote that Acord said he was attempting to take Pasek to the hospital, but during the conversation, Acord went totally unconscious. Thompson noticed Pasek was turning blue and tried to assist her while he called for an ambulance. Thompson also wrote that he saw paramedics administer the anti-narcotic Narcan, which enabled both adults to regain consciousness before they were transported to the hospital.
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true
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Fauxtography, crime, Drug Horrors, drugs
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On 9 September 2016, a photograph of two adults passed out in the front seat of their car with a small child in the back seat hit social media. The photograph is legitimate and was taken by an East Liverpool, Ohio, police officer who had stopped the car after seeing it being driven erratically. The city of East Liverpool posted pictures showing the driver and an adult passenger, James Acord and Rhonda Pasek respectively, looking extremely pale, limp and unconscious in the front seat of the vehicle. A little blond boy can be seen behind them in the back seat: Brian Allen, the city’s director of public safety, confirmed to us that the photograph is real. Both adults survived and have been charged with crimes, and the child has been taken into protective custody. Acord has been convicted of operating a vehicle under the influence and Pasek has been charged with child endangerment and drug use, Allen told us. Acord and Pasek were presumed to have been under the influence of heroin, but blood test results are still pending. The city posted the photograph and a copy of the incident report to their official Facebook page with the following cautionary message: We feel it necessary to show the other side of this horrible drug. We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess. This child can’t speak for himself but we are hopeful his story can convince another user to think twice about injecting this poison while having a child in their custody. According to the report posted by the city, on 7 September 2016, just after 3 p.m. local time, Kevin Thompson, a police officer for the city of East Liverpool, noticed a dark Ford Explorer driving erratically toward a bus full of schoolchildren. After the car skidded to a stop, it drifted a little before coming to a stop again. Thompson wrote in his report that he had to turn off the engine and take the keys out of the ignition to prevent the driver from continuing on.
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"The 1979 Boomtown Rats song ""I Don't Like Mondays"" was inspired by a deadly shooting at a school."
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She is eligible to again apply for parole in 2019. Those who continue to be troubled by the callousness of Brenda Spencer’s crime and concerned by her continued attempts to shift blame for her actions onto anyone or anything else can draw comfort from the knowledge that murderers are rarely granted parole in California.
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true
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Entertainment, Bob Geldof, Boomtown Rats, don't like mondays
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Horrifying events like the April 1999 killing of twelve students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, by two of their classmates might have left some believing deadly school shootings were a new ill bestowed upon us by a society only recently gone mad, yet that was not the case. That today’s death tolls are higher and the media coverage surrounding them more intense might serve to encourage belief that this sort of random murder by, and of, young people is a recent phenomenon, but the sad history of such attacks belies that belief. Deadly shooting sprees at schools perpetrated by troubled teens took place at least as much as a generation before Columbine. One of the earliest mass school shootings occurred in 1975 in Ottawa, Canada, when on 27 October of that year, 18-year-old Robert Poulin went on a killing spree at St. Pius X High School, killing one student and wounding five others before turning the gun on himself. Poulin had earlier raped and stabbed a 17-year-old friend to death. Of all the pre-Littleton school shootings, the one most remembered by people at the time was recalled primarily because of its impact on pop culture: it inspired the popular Boomtown Rats song “I Don’t Like Mondays.” Released in October 1979, this song captured the insanity of the moment by working the shooter’s chilling utterance into its lyrics: Of course fallible memory being what it is, people who now remember the shooting spree behind the song recall it in only the most haphazard of fashions. They recall that a shooting took place at a school, that lives were lost, that the shooter was female, and that by way of explanation for her actions she said “I don’t like Mondays,” but some have her as a high school student gunning down students at her own school, while others remember her as a high school teacher who turned a gun on some of her pupils: There’s this 80’s song called “I Don’t Like Mondays”. I don’t know who wrote it, but the rumor is that the song was based on a girl. She was a younger girl, I think in High School. She was quiet and was very shy. She didn’t have very many friends. One Monday she went to school with a gun and shot several of her teachers and fellow students. When the cops asked her why she did it she said “I don’t like Mondays”. And that’s what the song was based on. The late 70s/early 80s song “I Don’t Like Mondays” was written to reflect the mindset of a teacher who came to work one day and shot up a schoolyard full of kids. When asked at trial why she did it, the teacher supposedly only gave the reply, “I don’t like Mondays.” The facts are that on 29 January 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer opened fire on children arriving at Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego from her house across the street, killing two men and wounding eight students and a police officer. Principal Burton Wragg was attempting to rescue children in the line of fire when he was shot and killed, and custodian Mike Suchar was slain attempting to aid Wragg. Spencer used a rifle her father had given her as a gift. As to what impelled her into this form of murderous madness, she told a reporter, “I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day.” The “Mondays” comment was not the only eyebrow-raising declaration to issue from Spencer that day. According to a report written by the police negotiators who spoke with her during the six-hour standoff, she made comments to them such as: “There was no reason for it, and it was just a lot of fun”; “It was just like shooting ducks in a pond”; and ” [the children] looked like a herd of cows standing around, it was really easy pickings.” That Spencer failed to kill any of the children she shot at was attributable to luck rather than any reluctance on her part to take their lives. The bullet that struck 9-year-old Charles “Cam” Miller missed his heart by about an inch. Spencer pled guilty to two counts of murder and assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. She has been up for parole four times and has been turned down each time, the last in 2005. At her first parole hearing she expressed doubt that any of the victims was hit by bullets from her rifle and contended they might have been shot by police. She also claimed to have been under the influence of alcohol and hallucinogenic drugs at the time of the shootings and asserted prosecutors and her attorney had conspired to fabricate test evidence showing there had been no drugs in her system. By her third parole hearing she was admitting guilt and expressing remorse but was still contending she had been drunk and high on marijuana laced with PCP the day of her deadly rampage. She also claimed something new, that she had been beaten and sexually abused by her father, an avowal conspicuously absent from previous records.
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Experts scramble, but new virus vaccine may not come in time.
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The flu-like virus that exploded from China has researchers worldwide once again scrambling to find a vaccine against a surprise health threat, with no guarantee one will arrive in time.
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true
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Severe acute respiratory syndrome, Understanding the Outbreak, Health, Ebola virus, France, International News, AP Top News, China, Racing for a Remedy, Asia Pacific, Virus Outbreak, General News, U.S. News
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Just days after Chinese scientists shared the genetic map of the culprit coronavirus, researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health had engineered a possible key ingredient for a vaccine they hope to begin testing by April. Scientists from Australia to France, along with a list of biotech and vaccine companies, jumped in the race, pursuing different types of inoculations. And Texas researchers froze an experimental vaccine developed too late to fight an earlier coronavirus — SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome — but are pushing U.S. and Chinese authorities to give it a try this time around. Because the new virus is a close cousin of SARS, it just might protect, said Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital. All that work is coming at lightning speed compared to past outbreaks. Yet many experts agree it still may take a year — if every step along the way goes well — for any vaccine to be ready for widespread use. That’s if it’s even needed by then. Globally, more than 31,400 people are infected and the death toll climbed past 630. The overwhelming majority are in China, but more than 310 people with the illness have been reported in over two dozen other countries. For now, health officials are isolating the sick to fight spread of the virus, which causes fever, cough and in severe cases pneumonia. With no specific treatment, some doctors also are experimenting with antiviral medicines developed for other conditions. “Ours is already manufactured and could take off pretty quickly,” said Hotez, who created the earlier SARS vaccine with Texas Children’s colleague Maria Elena Bottazzi. But “there’s still no road map for what you do to make a vaccine in the midst of a devastating public health outbreak.” NIH specialists say rather than chasing outbreaks, it’s time to pursue prototype vaccine designs that could work for entire virus families, ready to be pulled off the shelf at the first sign of a new disease. “We have the technology now. It’s feasible from an engineering and biological standpoint,” said Dr. Barney Graham, deputy director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Vaccine Research Center. Without that step, “we’re going to be at risk for new pandemics.” A FASTER VACCINE RECIPE Traditionally, making vaccines required first growing lots of virus in a lab. The NIH team is pursuing a newer and far faster method: Simply use a piece of the virus’ genetic code, called messenger RNA or mRNA, that instructs cells to make a particular protein. “We think of RNA as the software of life,” said Dr. Tal Zaks, chief medical officer of Moderna Inc., which is developing mRNA vaccines for other diseases and working with NIH on the new coronavirus. Inject the right piece and “you’ve taught the body to make its own medicine,” he explained. As cells produce just that protein, the immune system learns to recognize it, primed to attack if the entire virus ever comes along. The target: A protein aptly named “spike” that lets the virus bind to cells. It studs the surface of coronaviruses — the new one as well as its cousins SARS, which erupted in China in 2002 and spread to 26 countries, and MERS, or Middle East respiratory syndrome, which emerged in 2012. Graham’s team zeroed in on the RNA responsible for the new virus’ production of spike and then — because prior research showed the protein can change shape — engineered a more stable version of it. Moderna is manufacturing samples of the synthetic mRNA vaccine for NIH to use in animal studies and, hopefully within three months, first-stage safety tests in people. If further testing proves it really works, the hope is scientists could simply swap in a new spike code if another coronavirus comes along. That’s important because after three such outbreaks in less than 20 years, “this is not the last,” predicted Dr. Mark Denison, a virologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. It’s key to find vaccine “strategies that go after these unique things common to every coronavirus.” WHAT ELSE IS IN THE PIPELINE Inovio Pharmaceuticals is pursuing a similar approach with synthetic DNA, and recently reported promising results from first-stage testing of a MERS vaccine. It’s collaborating with a Chinese company, Beijing Advaccine, in hopes of being able to test a new vaccine candidate in China later this year. In France, researchers at the Pasteur Institute are piggybacking on the tried-and-true vaccine against measles. They’ve had some early success mixing genetic material from other viruses into that vaccine, and now hope to put the immune system on alert against this new coronavirus in the same way. “The work we’re doing now involves making a vaccine against measles but re-engineered in the sense that it has antigens from the new coronavirus,” said virologist Frederic Tangy, head of Pasteur’s vaccine innovation department. What about Hotez’s old SARS vaccine? In that case a piece of the spike protein was genetically engineered and grown in a lab, a classic vaccine technology compared to the newer and less proven Moderna and Inovio approaches. The Texas researchers showed the vaccine protected animals but in 2016 ran out of money for further testing and froze what was left. Every six months, Hotez thaws a small sample to make sure it’s still usable. CHASING OUTBREAKS Past outbreaks are full of such missed opportunities: There’s no commercial vaccine for MERS even though illnesses still occur. The birth defect-causing Zika outbreak was ending by the time experimental shots were ready to test. The bright spot: Ebola vaccines. Some candidates began early testing during the massive Ebola epidemic in West Africa in 2014-2016, although the outbreak waned before scientists had proof they worked. But authorities and vaccine companies kept up the research, and by 2018 shots were ready to help tamp down an outbreak still smoldering in Congo. The World Health Organization will meet next week to identify promising drug and vaccine candidates for the new coronavirus and fast-track their development, much like happened with Ebola. “To put it bluntly, we’re shadow boxing,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We need to bring this shadow out into the light so that we can attack it properly.” ___ Associated Press writers Rodrique Ngowi in Boston, Alex Turnbull in Paris and Maria Cheng in London contributed to this report. ___ 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.
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A Kentucky couple were placed under house arrest in July 2020 after a woman diagnosed with COVID-19 refused to agree to self-isolate because it would require her to get prior approval to go to the hospital.
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"What's true: Elizabeth Linscott and her family were ordered to remain confined to their home for 14 days after she tested positive for COVID-19 and refused to sign a ""Self-Isolation and Controlled Movement Agreed Order."" The couple were ordered to wear ankle monitors. What's false: In an interview, Linscott claimed she objected only to a provision in the isolation order that she believed would prevent her from going to the hospital without prior approval. However, in her earlier written response to the isolation order, Linscott never mentioned going to the hospital, and instead objected on broader, principled grounds, writing ""There is no pandemic"" and ""It's my right and freedoms [sic] to go where I please."""
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true
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Medical, COVID-19, Editor's Picks
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In July 2020, readers asked us about news articles claiming that a couple in Radcliff, Kentucky, had been placed under house arrest for refusing to sign an agreement to self-isolate and quarantine, after one of them tested positive for COVID-19. Elizabeth Linscott told WAVE 3 News that, although she had no symptoms, she got tested for COVID-19 as a precaution before a planned visit to her parents in Michigan in July. According to Linscott, after she tested positive the “health department” sent her a document for her signature, in which she was asked to “agree to comply to call the health department … prior to leaving my house for any reason.” Linscott told WAVE 3 that she refused to sign the document because of a provision that she said required her to notify public health officials in advance of traveling to the hospital for care, but that she was not refusing to self-isolate in principle, adding “I have to go to the ER, if I have to go to the hospital, I’m not going to wait to get the approval to go.” Linscott’s husband Isaiah said that a few days after his wife refused to sign the agreement, officers from the Hardin County’s Sheriff’s Department and a public health official visited the family’s home and produced three written orders, for the couple and their daughter, effectively forcing each of them to quarantine at home. WAVE 3 reported that the Linscotts were “ordered to wear ankle monitors.” The family’s story was covered by national news outlets including The Associated Press, Fox News, and the New York Post. In response to our inquiries, the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed, without naming the Linscotts, that on July 16 its officers had “delivered Notices and Orders to Isolate and Quarantine,” as a result of a court order. In response to our inquiries about the Linscott case, the Hardin County District Court provided Snopes with a copy of the three isolation orders that the Sheriff’s department served upon the Linscott family. The isolation orders, dated July 16 and signed by Hardin Circuit Court Judge Ken Howard, specify that each of the Linscotts were ordered to isolate at home for 14 days, by virtue of a petition from the Lincoln Trail District Health Department, which covers several counties including Hardin County. That petition outlined the following: The “Self-Isolation and Controlled Movement Agreed Order” asks the recipient to agree to several provisions, including: “As long as I do not require hospitalization, I will self-isolate at home, reducing contact with all others as much as is practicable” as well as “I will not leave my house without the approval of the Department for Public Health” and “I will not travel by any public, commercial or healthcare conveyance such as ambulance, bus, taxi…without the prior approval of the Department for Public Health.” On July 15, the district health department filed its petition with Hardin Circuit Court, and the following day Judge Howard issued an injunction ordering the Linscotts to comply with the provisions of the order. The ruling was based in part on the “nature of the disease,” as well as Linscott’s positive diagnosis, of course, but Howard also specified that his decision to grant the isolation order was also partially based on Linscott’s “conduct,” noting that she had “declined to voluntarily agree to isolate… and has conveyed that she will leave her home to get supplies and do errands which she considers necessary.” Howard also ordered the couple to wear ankle monitors, to be installed by a company called Envivo Health, and ordered the district health department to pay for the monitors and ensure the family has “adequate provisions of food, medicine or other necessities during the period of confinement.” The isolation order issued by the district health department, and the injunction signed by Howard, were both based on Kentucky state law. Specifically, Chapter 212, Section 245(6) of the Kentucky Revised Statutes states that: “County, city-county, and district health departments may: […] Issue written orders directed to the owner or occupant of any property, or to any person, firm, or corporation whatever, commanding, within the time and manner specified in the order, compliance with applicable public health laws of this state and all regulations of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services or the county board of health. Notwithstanding the provisions of this section and KRS 212.210, any health officer may institute and maintain mandatory or prohibitory injunction proceedings in the appropriate Circuit Courts of this state to abate nuisances that are or may be a menace to the health of the people of the state or community, and to compel compliance with the public health laws of this state and the rules and regulations of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the county board of health and the orders described in this section or in KRS 212.210.” Title 902, Chapter 2, Section 50 of the Kentucky Administrative Regulations further states that: “Whenever any person has been implicated as a possible reservoir or possible source of infection of any communicable disease, the local health department or the Cabinet for Human Resources shall employ such measures as are necessary to secure adequate isolation, restriction of employment or other control procedures that may be necessary to insure cessation of transmission of infection.” Based on the evidence provided to Snopes by the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office and Hardin Circuit Court, it’s true that the Linscotts were indeed ordered to remain confined to their home for 14 days, after Elizabeth Linscott contracted COVID-19 and subsequently refused to sign a “Self-Isolation and Controlled Movement Agreed Order.” Hardin Circuit Court did indeed order the couple to be fitted with ankle monitors to ensure their compliance, and the isolation order papers were given to Isaiah Linscott during a visit from the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office. Most of the basic facts of the case were therefore accurately reported in the news articles mentioned above.
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26071
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Gov. Gavin Newsom “has no legal authority” to make wearing face coverings mandatory in California.
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Gov. Newsom has broad authority under the California Emergency Services Act to issue health mandates during a pandemic. Two constitutional law experts said Newsom does, indeed, have the power to make face coverings mandatory under that act. They said unless face coverings are shown to be ineffective, Newsom’s requirement should hold up against legal challenges. Top public health officials and recent studies say wearing a face covering is an effective measure for reducing the spread of COVID-19 when people gather.
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false
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Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, California, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
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"Following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement last week that all Californians must wear face coverings in certain public settings, some local government officials and viral social media posts alleged the governor has no legal authority to make masks mandatory. One Facebook post viewed more than 80,000 times on the day of Newsom’s order claimed the governor hadn’t really made such a requirement and has no power to do so. ‼️GREAT NEWS!‼️ Contrary to the LA Times story, Newsom did NOT issue any mandatory mask orders in CA! (He has no legal authority to do so.) This was new GUIDANCE (not a public health order) from the CA State Dept of Health, and it is a RELAXATION of the previous orders!!! It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about PolitiFact California’s partnership with Facebook). The claim was made by a woman in Orange County who heads a group that also claims healthy people should not wear masks. PolitiFact in May found there’s no evidence that wearing standard masks, such as surgical masks or ones made of fabric, is harmful to the general public. In Northern California, Nevada City Mayor Reinette Senum claimed on Facebook ""Our Governor does NOT have that unilateral power to make such orders."" She linked to a YouTube video of the Orange County woman. While the act of wearing a mask, or choosing not to, has become politicized nationwide, leading public health officials and recent studies say wearing a face covering is an effective measure for reducing the spread of COVID-19 when people gather. Newsom’s requirement is lauded by some and seen as an intrusion by others. For this fact check, we wanted to know whether it rests on solid legal footing. What Does Newsom’s Face Covering Requirement Say? The governor announced new rules through a California Department of Public Health press release on June 18. ""Simply put, we are seeing too many people with faces uncovered – putting at risk the real progress we have made in fighting the disease,"" Newsom said in the release. There’s been some confusion about whether the announcement makes wearing a mask mandatory because the new CDPH requirements are technically termed ""guidance."" But as the Sacramento Bee explained, a previous executive order issued by Newsom that required Californians to follow public health guidelines grants the state the ability to enforce CDPH rules. The governor's office also made the announcement on social media: Here’s what’s mandatory under the new rules: People in California must wear face coverings when they are in the ""high-risk situations,"" including: Inside of, or in line to enter, any indoor public space Visiting a hospital, pharmacy, medical clinic, laboratory, physician or dental office, veterinary clinic, or blood bank Waiting for or riding on public transportation or paratransit or while in a taxi, private car service, or ride-sharing vehicle Some law enforcement agencies across the state have said they will not enforce the mandate, but will encourage residents to voluntarily comply with it. Is The Requirement Legal? We asked both the Newsom administration and two constitutional law experts about this issue. A spokesperson for the administration cited the California Emergency Services Act as giving the governor the power to make masks mandatory. Through that law, ""the State Legislature has given the Governor broad authority to respond to state emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic,"" Kate Folmar, a spokesperson for the state’s Health and Human Services Agency, said in an email. Leslie Jacobs, who teaches constitutional law at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, agreed that the act along with the state’s broad public health authority gives Newsom extensive power to address the pandemic, including requiring face coverings. It’s the same law he used to justify his statewide stay-at-home order in March. ""That’s the authority under which the governor declared an emergency on March 4,"" Jacobs said. ""That transfers all the authority of the state to the governor, to the extent necessary, to address the COVID emergency."" Jessica Levinson, who teaches at Loyola Law School, also said Newsom has the legal authority to require face coverings. ""Short answer – He does. Medium answer – He sure does. Longer answer – He sure as hell does,"" she wrote in an email. Levinson added in a phone interview that the state has ""broad authority when it comes to health and welfare measures."" Both law professors said they believe Newsom’s order would stand up to a legal challenge, unless new and credible studies show face coverings are not effective. ""Based on what we know now, I believe this would stand up,"" Levinson added. The professors said Newsom’s position would be strengthened should the Legislature pass a bill requiring face-coverings. But, they said, because Newsom’s requirement is so closely tied to an immediate public health issue, that action is probably unnecessary. Jacobs added that the governor’s powers during the pandemic are far-reaching. Under his authority, he could go even further to mandate things like temperature checks at sporting events or require face shields in some settings. Should the mask order or any future measures be challenged in court, she said Newsom would have to show that the state truly needs to require them and that they can only be done in the way prescribed by the state. Our ruling Some local government leaders and widely-shared facebook posts claim Gov. Gavin Newsom doesn’t have the legal authority to make face coverings mandatory in California. To justify the move, the Newsom administration pointed to the California Emergency Services Act, the same authority it used to order a statewide stay-at-home requirement in March due to the COVID-19 crisis. Two constitutional law experts said Newsom, indeed, has broad powers under that law and under the state’s public health authority to make masks mandatory. Unless face coverings are shown to be ineffective, they said Newsom’s requirement should also hold up against legal challenges."
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11293
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3-Drug Combo May Treat Hepatitis C
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This story reports on the results of multiple clincial trials suggesting that the protease inhibitors, boceprevir and telaprevir, further reduce viral loads in chronic hepatitis C patients when added to standard therapy. However, this piece does not tell the reader much about the study methods, nor do we know much about the study populations. In addition to providing more information about the trials and their participants, the story should have also included cost estimates for the new drugs and for the standard therapy, pointed out the potential conflicts of interest, and presented the results in absolute terms. As the story states, hepatitis C affects several million worldwide and while the current mainstays of therapy (peginterferon and ribavirin) were major advances in treatment, a significant number of people do not respond to treatment with these drugs and are at risk of developing cirrhosis or liver failure.
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mixture
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WebMD
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The story merely quoted one hepatitis C specialist saying, “This is a very expensive drug, and I would imagine some insurance companies would not pay for it.” But why not give specific cost estimates? Even a framework for what “very expensive” means. As we wrote on our blog (a piece that commented on how inconsistently some journalists deal with drug cost information), “It’s probably safe to say that the cost will be in the thousands per month. The costs of existing treatment is about $70,000 for 48 weeks of treatment.” You better believe that any company that expects drug approval within a month knows what its pricing will be. Also, the story could have mentioned the specific cost of erythropoietin, since the trials found that many participants require it to combat the anemia that often results from the treatment. The piece presents the results in percentages; however, it would have been more meaningful to the reader if the story had also provided the actual numbers, particularly since it did not mention how many people were in each of the treatment arms. In addition, one of the trials evaluated the efficacy of boceprevir in a black cohort—a population group that usually does not respond as well to treatment—but these results were not discussed in the story. Furthermore, the story does not provide any data for telaprevir, but only states that “outcomes were similar” to boceprevir. The study points out that a major side effect of the new drugs is anemia, and more than 40% of patients in the boceprevir studies required erythropoietin to combat it; however, the story should have noted that over 20% of patients in the control groups also became anemic. In addition, there was a high drop-out rate in the two trials, which should have been mentioned. Why did so many drop out? The story uses the term “phase III trial” throughout, but do we expect readers to know what that means? The story should have also provided more information about the patient population, including age, race, and number of participants in each arm. In addition, the story gives very little information on the telaprevir trial. This story does not engage in disease-mongering, but it would have been helpful had it indicated what percentage of the 3.2 million Americans living with chronic hepatitis C have the genotype 1 infection, for which these new drugs are indicated. While the story uses independent sources, it fails to note that Merck, the maker of boceprevir, sponsored the two clinical trials published in the New England Journal of Medicine. It also fails to mention that many of the study authors have received funding from Merck. The story compares the new drugs to the standard therapy for chronic hepatitis C. This story makes it clear that boceprevir and telaprevir are not yet available, but they may be reviewed by the FDA at the end of April. It’s clear from the story that triple-therapy is a new treatment approach for chronic hepatitis C. The story does not appear to be based on the press release.
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11204
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Health Buzz: Dried Plums May Reduce Colon Cancer Risk The sweet snack can affect gut bacteria, researchers say.
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Yet another miracle food to add to the list. This story excites the reader at the prospect of eating dried plums to reduce the risk of colon cancer. In a study on rats, researchers from Texas A&M University found that a diet consisting of dried plums promotes beneficial bacteria in the colon and reduces the development of precancerous lesions. But does a reduction in such lesions (not actual cancers) in a rat mean that a human eating more plums would have less risk of developing cancer? The story eagerly suggests that “people who eat dried plums as part of a regular diet can reduce their risk for developing colon cancer.” But we think that statement is totally inappropriate based on this animal study. In fact, human readers would be “plum” crazy to change their diet based on this research. According to the National Cancer Institute, colon cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, and approximately $13.8 billion is spent annually on providing colon cancer care. Colon cancer prevention is a top priority, but when risk factors include age, obesity, alcohol consumption, and physical inactivity, dried plums may not be the most appropriate intervention.
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false
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Diet studies,U.S. News & World Report
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Although it was not explicitly mentioned in the article, most readers understand that dried plums are a low-cost intervention. The headline of this story is misleading. The idea that dried plums “may reduce colon cancer risk” is simply not supported by the study. The study looked at levels of bacteria and the number of precancerous lesions in rats — the idea that this has a relationship to risk of actual colon cancer in humans is not tenable and an overstatement. Beyond that, the article doesn’t quantify in any way the effects of the plums on bacteria levels or, more importantly, on the number of precancerous lesions observed. We don’t want to overstate the risks here, but it’s pretty well known that plums have high fiber content and accordingly can produce unpleasant effects on the digestive system. According to the website of the California Plum Board (also the funders of this study), healthy adults can incorporate 10-12 dried plums daily into their diet without significant changes in their bowel habits. The website also includes the caveat that everyone has different digestive reactions, and some people may want to start with smaller amounts. A nod to this concern would have earned the story a Satisfactory rating. The lede says, “PEOPLE who eat dried plums as part of a regular diet can reduce their risk for developing colon cancer” (our emphasis added). But this study looked at RATS — not PEOPLE. The story waits too long to alert readers to the fact that this is an animal study. Findings based on animal studies should identify that fact early in the story so that readers — humans — can gauge the story’s importance to them, not to rats. There is no exaggeration of colon cancer or the outcomes of the disease. Not only does the article fail to bring in any outside testimonial, it also does not mention that the research was sponsored by the California Dried Plum Board. The article makes no mention of any other prevention tactics for colon cancer, and how the consumption of dried plums compares. The American Cancer Society recommends changes in diet as one of the six ways to prevent colon cancer, but notes that eating more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains can contribute to better colon health. Dried plums seem to only be a small part of that strategy, and the reader should understand that an overall healthy diet could be effective as well. Following recommended colon cancer screening practices is also an effective method of reducing cancer risk. It is assumed that dried plums are readily available at your local grocery store, so even though the story didn’t discuss availability, we won’t ding the story for this. We’ll rule it Not Applicable. The story positions this research as a “discovery” that is applicable to people — an overstatement at best. It also does not accurately present the intervention in the context of similar research on the effects of a healthy diet. The article does not employ any outside sources about the effects of diet on colon cancer, and its only quotes are pulled directly from this news release. Although the story appropriately acknowledges the fact that the news release is the source for these quotes, we don’t see any information in the story that didn’t also appear in the release. So we’re inclined to rule this Not Satisfactory.
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27850
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Halloween hanging stunt goes wrong and hangs a man for real.
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These Halloween hanging stunts went terribly wrong.
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true
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Horrors, death, freakish fatalities, halloween
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Imitating a grisly death by hanging is an annual feature of many Halloween “haunt” shows and spooky decorative displays, usually implemented by securing the victim in a harness that supports his weight when he drops from the gallows so that the noose placed over his head doesn’t actually snap his neck or constrict his windpipe and prevent him from breathing. Unfortunately, on more than one occasion such stunts have gone wrong and resulted in actual deaths. One such fatality was reported by the Chicago Tribune in October 1990: A teenager who pretended to hang from a gallows as part of a pre-Halloween hayride died while performing the stunt. Police said that hayride customers found the body of Brian Jewell, 17, hanging from the gallows, his feet touching the ground. The stunt had worked on other nights and there was no indication of foul play, prosecutor James Holzapfel said. The gallows was being checked for flaws, and an autopsy was performed. “He’s supposed to have the noose around his neck, but it’s not a noose that tightens,” said Holzapfel. Jewell would step down about one foot to the ground, making it appear he had been hanged, Holzapfel said. During the ride, about 40 people are driven past several Halloween fright exhibits. The stunt went off without problems earlier [that day]. But the tractor driver became concerned later, when Jewell failed to give a speech he normally made as the wagon passed. A 15-year-old staging a gallows scene at a Halloween party accidentally hanged himself when the noose somehow tightened, authorities said today. William Anthony Odom of Charlotte, N.C., was pronounced dead Friday night amid fake spider webs and plastic bats decorating an aunt’s home. Odom and several of his friends had staged a haunted house in the basement. Other related fatalities involve incidents of Halloween celebrants dying after putting their necks into decorative nooses that had no harnesses or other protective mechanisms to prevent accidental choking. The Associated Press reported such a fatal hanging accident in October 2001, this one involving a 14-year-old boy named Caleb Rebh who was working a “haunted hayride” attraction at Alpine Ridge Farms in Sparta, Michigan. According to reports, Rebh “felt awkward simply jumping out of the woods to scare passers-by” and decided to take the place of a skeleton that was hanging by a noose in a nearby tree: Caleb put the noose around his neck but when he let go of the rope, he apparently was not heavy enough to prevent the branch from whipping back up and choking him, his mother said. When he started scrambling to get the double-knotted rope off his neck, fellow workers seemed to think he was acting, she said. “I think he thought he was safe because his feet were touching the ground,” Kathy Rebh said. Hayride employees and participants tried to resuscitate Caleb, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. In September 2013, a Kentucky teenager died in similar fashion after prankishly inserting his neck into a decorative noose he had put up in his home’s front yard as part of a Halloween display: Jordan Morlan, 16, died after a prank involving his love of Halloween went horribly wrong. Morlan had been hanging Halloween decorations all day and had just returned home from helping his mom do laundry when the tragedy occurred. Jordan’s mom, Ginger Rodriguez, said he was trying to prank his little sister and her by pretending to be hanging from a noose decoration he put up on a tree in their front yard. The coroner said when he placed the noose around his neck, he became disoriented cutting his brain off from oxygen within 20 to 30 seconds. His younger sister discovered him unconscious and Rodriguez rushed to help cut him down, but said she was unable to remove her son. Morlan was taken to the hospital where he was placed on a ventilator because he was in a coma. Rodriguez says her son’s organs started to fail. Jordan died 12 hours after this accident. Rodriguez said her son loved to play pranks and loved Halloween.
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29222
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"In June 2018, Ivanka Trump adopted the alias ""Adrienne Vittadini"" to market her fashion line to unwitting buyers."
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Vogue UK confirmed that some Ivanka Trump pieces were relabeled under the Adrienne Vittadini brand before they were distributed in Steinmart stores (those respective brands have different distributors). However, it is well established that excess designer inventory is regularly sold off to off-price retailers, and for a variety of reasons.
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false
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Business, adrienne vittadini, bipartisan report, clothing
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In June 2018, rumors swept social media that Ivanka Trump had adopted the alias “Adrienne Vittadini” for her fashion brand: Ivanka quietly changed her clothing line to Adrienne Vittadini because of the decline in her sales. Trump conveniently made Ivankas clothing line exempt from Tariffs. So let’s conveniently spread the word so her line completely flops!#AdrienneVittadini #SundayFunday — Molly 💪♀️ (@Molly3186) June 3, 2018 The rumor was that Ivanka Trump had completely rebranded her line, often purportedly due to poor sales performance or disinclination on the part of consumers to purchase “Trump” branded clothing. Across Twitter, responses to Adrienne Vittadini’s account (@AVittadini) suggested that many people believed that the line existed solely as a surreptitious outlet for Ivanka Trump’s products: @AVittadini Don’t be fooled consumers this is @IvankaTrump clothing line! pic.twitter.com/rLfAspeM6x — Norma Knudsen (@norma_knudsen) June 3, 2018 @AVittadini so, are you the new @IvankaTrump brand? Just want to make sure I don’t accidentally buy . — Gabby Revilla Lugo (@gabbyrevlugo) June 3, 2018 However, Adrienne Vittadini was a distinct brand established in 1979 (two years before Ivanka Trump was born) and Vittadini is a real person, not an alias. The claim most often spread without links to any supporting news articles. BipartisanReport.com discussed the rumor on 3 June 2018: After Donald Trump took over the White House, America wasn’t the only thing he began to destroy… he also destroyed the Trump name quite a lot. For instance his daughter Ivanka had her clothing line pulled from a lot of upscale stores because they didn’t want to sell anything with the Trump name on it. So what was poor Ivanka to do with all those clothes she couldn’t sell? Well it appears that she took the name Trump off of them, and changed the designer name to Adrienne Vittadini and started selling them at discount stores. Further pulling the wool over the eyes of Americans who wanted nothing to do with anything branded with the Trump name. That outlet linked to an April 2017 tabloid piece, which in turn was a regurgitation of a 24 April 2017 Business of Fashion article. Originally, the site reported it had “obtained photos of identical garments being sold at Stein Mart, with the only difference being … [s]ome say ‘Ivanka Trump’ while others say ‘Adrienne Vittadini. '” But that initial report touched on precisely how Ivanka Trump’s line came to be wearing the label of a different designer: G-III, the company that owns the right to manufacture and distribute Ivanka Trump apparel through a license agreement — and also owns brands including DKNY outright — acknowledges that it sold the relabelled merchandise to Stein Mart without the knowledge of the Ivanka Trump brand. It is not known whether this inventory was also sold to other retailers. “G-III accepts responsibility for resolving this issue, which occurred without the knowledge or consent of the Ivanka Trump organisation,” a representative for G-III said in a statement to BoF. “G-III has already begun to take corrective actions, including facilitating the immediate removal of any mistakenly labelled merchandise from its customer. The Ivanka Trump brand continues to grow and remains very strong.” Business of Fashion further explained that relabeling designer brands is a common practice used to insulate the original maker of the garments when those items appear in a market considered less-than-optimal for that label: Swiping labels — or simply ripping the label out completely — before a garment is sold to a discount retailer has long been commonplace. One reason is brand protection: if a brand is hot, it’s not desirable to be associated with a discounter. However, this practice occurs less often now that many major full-price retailers — such as Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue — operate their own off-price outlets, marketing the same brands they sell at full-line stores. … It could be argued that G-III was simply looking to protect the Ivanka Trump brand from being associated with a discount retailer. In its 2016 fiscal year — which ended at the end of January 2017 — G-III reported that net sales of Ivanka Trump merchandise increased by $17.9 million from 2015, although the company does not break out exactly how much revenue the merchandise generated altogether. At the time the story was originally reported, the Guardian briefly touched on the myriad retail-related issues surrounding brands and licensing involved in the story: Hmmm. For its part, G-III says Ivanka Trump and her company knew nothing about it. “G-III has already begun to take corrective actions,” it said in a statement, “including facilitating the immediate removal of any mistakenly labelled merchandise from its customer.” I see. What does Vittadini say about it? Nothing yet, but she doesn’t own the brand any more, so it probably has nothing to do with her. Authentic Brands, which manufactures under licence from Vittadini, aren’t talking either. To understand the relationship between discount stores and designer products and their primary markets (high-end places like Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, for instance), it is necessary to examine at how those distribution channels acquire their merchandise and stock their shelves. Retailers in that sector operate primarily by absorbing stock that is past-season, excess, or otherwise not selling well in its intended market: T.J. Maxx and Marshalls … buy surplus when a vendor has over-produced, or buy returns when a major department store has backed out of an order. And while department stores return merch to the vendors when they don’t sell it, T.J. Maxx and Marshalls buy their merchandise for keeps so they can get goods at a much better price. They also have the power to buy in varying quantities since they can place goods in all stores, or just select stores. This explains why you might find an awesome YSL bag at one store (we saw one trust us) and not at another store. Part of the tradeoff for customers is that the “buy whatever is available” strategy means that off-price retailers do not try to offer every size and color in every outlet, which limits choice and product availability. But on occasion, designers do intentionally produce excess to supply the off-price market, a practice that is done surreptitiously. Retail blogs surmised that political tensions may have influenced the volume of merchandise landing in stores like Steinmart, but that speculation was formed without any information about whether there was any increase in unsold goods from Trump’s line when the story emerged in early 2017. It was equally likely excess products from that line and many others wound up in the hands of bargain hunters in stores like Steinmart in seasons past.
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28748
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A Massachusetts judge passed a law making it legal for black men to run from police because they are at risk of being racially profiled.
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"What's true: The highest court in Massachusetts cited a ""document[ed] pattern of racial profiling of black males in the city of Boston"" as cause for black men to be disinclined to interact with officers. What's false: The ruling didn't explicitly state or establish as law that ""black men ... have good reason to run from police."""
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mixture
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Crime, black lives matter, boston, law enforcement
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In what later became a viral (and frequently misinterpreted) ruling, in September 2016 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court cited “a pattern of racial profiling of black [men] in the city of Boston” as reason in part not to view one defendant’s avoidance of a police encounter as inherent justification for a stop and seizure. As described in news accounts, Jimmy Warren was arrested on 18 December 2011 by police who were investigating a break-in in Roxbury: Police had been given a description of the suspects as three black men — one wearing a “red hoodie,” one wearing a “black hoodie” and the other wearing “dark clothing.” An officer later spotted Warren and another man (both wearing dark clothing) walking near a park. When the officer approached the men, they ran. Warren was later arrested and searched. No contraband was found on him, but police recovered an unlicensed .22 caliber firearm in a nearby yard. Warren was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and later convicted. A motion to suppress in Commonwealth vs. Jimmy Warren was originally denied in an appeal to the Boston Municipal Court, Roxbury Division. A pretrial motion filed by Warren’s counsel sought to suppress the entering into evidence of the firearm found on Warren by police. Lower court appellate judges initially disagreed as to whether Warren’s running away was by itself “a reasonable suspicion justifying the officer’s stop of the defendant. The Municipal Court’s decision noted that Warren was “not charged with the breaking and entering that precipitated [the recovery of a firearm].” In short, Warren’s subsequent involvement with the court was based on the seizure of a firearm in a police encounter of questionable justification. Warren’s motion to suppress the gun was denied, he appealed, a majority of the appellate court judges affirmed that the “motion to suppress was properly denied”: In this case, the facts, examined in combination, compare favorably to those in stops that have been upheld by the courts. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Depina, 456 Mass. at 245-247. To make an investigatory stop based on a physical description, the description cannot be so general that it would include a large number of people in the area where the stop occurs, nor need it be so particularized as to fit only a single person, provided other accompanying circumstances are present. See id. at 246-247. Here, as in Depina, the description of the perpetrators, together with the spatial and temporal proximity of the defendant and his companion to the scene of the home Page 483 invasion, the defendant’s twice reversing direction and running away upon encountering the police, and the gravity of the crime under investigation gave rise to a reasonable suspicion that justified Officer Carr’s stop of the defendant. Boston news station WBUR reported that a higher court disagreed, finding that “police didn’t have the right to stop Warren in the first place, and the fact that he ran away shouldn’t be used against him.” The latter point was buttressed by the court’s noting that “a pattern of racial profiling of black males in the city of Boston” should be taken into account: Black men who try to avoid an encounter with Boston police by fleeing may have a legitimate reason to do so — and should not be deemed suspicious — according to a ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Citing Boston police data and a 2014 report by the ACLU of Massachusetts that found blacks were disproportionately stopped by the city’s police, the state’s highest court on Tuesday threw out the gun conviction of Jimmy Warren. In its ruling, the court made two major findings: The justices said police didn’t have the right to stop Warren in the first place, and the fact that he ran away shouldn’t be used against him. On the second point, the court noted that state law gives individuals the right to not speak to police and even walk away if they aren’t charged with anything. The court said when an individual does flee, the action doesn’t necessarily mean the person is guilty. And when it comes to black men, the BPD and ACLU reports “documenting a pattern of racial profiling of black males in the city of Boston” must be taken into consideration, the court said. In a 20 September 2016 decision [PDF], the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (not “a judge”) held with respect to Warren’s arrest that, at a baseline, citizens were not obligated to respond to a police officer’s inquiry: Where a suspect is under no obligation to respond to a police officer’s inquiry, we are of the view that flight to avoid that contact should be given little, if any, weight as a factor probative of reasonable suspicion. Otherwise, our long-standing jurisprudence establishing the boundary between consensual and obligatory police encounters will be seriously undermined. Thus, in the circumstances of this case, the flight from [an officer] during the initial encounter added nothing to the reasonable suspicion calculus. The ruling went on to cite recent data provided by the Boston Police Department suggesting black men were disproportionately targeted by police and might reasonably attempt to avoid contact with police in order to “to avoid the recurring indignity of being racially profiled,” and those who avoided police contact could not necessarily be presumed to possess “consciousness of guilt”: As set out by one of the dissenting Justices in the Appeals court opinion, where the suspect is a black male stopped by the police on the streets of Boston, the analysis of flight as a factor in the reasonable suspicion calculus cannot be divorced from the findings in a recent Boston Police Department (department) report documenting a pattern of racial profiling of black males in the city of Boston … citing Boston Police Commissioner Announces Field Interrogation and Observation (FIO) Study [Results] … According to the study, based on FIO data collected by the department, black men in the city of Boston were more likely to be targeted for police-civilian encounters such as stops, frisks, searches, observations, and interrogations. Black men were also disproportionally targeted for repeat police encounters. We do not eliminate flight as a factor in the reasonable suspicion analysis whenever a black male is the subject of an investigatory stop. However, in such circumstances, flight is not necessarily probative of a suspect’s state of mind or consciousness of guilt. Rather, the finding that black males in Boston are disproportionately and repeatedly targeted for FIO [Field Interrogation and Observation] encounters suggests a reason for flight totally unrelated to consciousness of guilt. Such an individual, when approached by the police, might just as easily be motivated by the desire to avoid the recurring indignity of being racially profiled as by the desire to hide criminal activity. Given this reality for black males in the city of Boston, a judge should, in appropriate cases, consider the report’s findings in weighing flight as a factor in the reasonable suspicion calculus. For the reasons stated above, the police lacked reasonable suspicion for the investigatory stop of the defendant. Therefore, we vacate the judgment of conviction and 20 remand the matter to the Boston Municipal Court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Massachusetts legal director Matthew Segal described the ruling as “powerful”: The state’s highest court, in talking about people of color, it’s saying that their lives matter and under the law, their views matter. The reason that’s significant is that all the time in police-civilian encounters there are disputes about what is suspicious and what is not suspicious. So this is an opinion that looks at those encounters through the eyes of a black man who might justifiably be concerned that he will be the victim of profiling. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court unanimously ruled that in the case of Commonwealth v. Warren, defendant Jimmy Warren (approached by police due to a concurrent report of a break-in) did not behave in an inherently suspicious manner by attempting to evade that interaction. Moreover, the judges cited data “documenting a pattern of racial profiling of black males in the city of Boston” per a then-recent audit conducted by the Boston Police Department. The ruling stood as legal precedent with potential to influence future decisions, but it in no way established “a law” making it “legal” for “all black men” to “run from police.” The court simply ruled in part that black men in Boston “might just as easily be motivated by the desire to avoid the recurring indignity of being racially profiled as by the desire to hide criminal activity.”
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9033
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MRI technique differentiates benign breast lesions from malignancies
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Mammography screening for detection of breast cancer produces a lot of false positive findings. This means that many women are subjected to unnecessary breast biopsy procedures. This news release reports on a study in which the authors argue that false-positives prior to biopsy may be reduced by using a procedure called diffusion kurtosis imaging. This technique relies on information provided by MRIs performed as a supplement to mammograms. Diffusion kurtosis imaging provides information on tissue structures at a microscopic level that can be read via a software algorithm rather than by human technicians. Given that malignant lesions affect tissue structures at this level, it is suggested that this technique might serve as a relevant marker of changes. False positives are frightening for patients and lead to increased diagnostic costs. Reducing the number of them seems like a laudable goal, and a software algorithm to assess imaging would be less invasive than biopsy procedures. The news release is careful to state that the new approach is not being presented as a substitute for current MRI protocols that use contrast-imaging to detect malignancies. The lead author emphasizes that diffusion kurtosis imaging is simply another diagnostic option, and that findings must be subjected to larger scale studies. All of this is straightforward. It does, however, beg the question of why these findings are worth reporting in a news release. At HealthNewsReview.org we regularly see releases and articles describing results of early stage trials and pilot studies which may not hold up in larger trials and which are years away from widespread implementation. Information in such studies is certainly worth disseminating to the scientific community as knowledge about a particular issue is painstakingly being constructed. However, to flood the broader public with preliminary results runs the risk of raising false expectations or inuring them to significant developments when they arise.
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false
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diffusion kurtosis imaging,MRI breast imaging,Radiological Society of North America
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Although it seems self-evident that reducing the number of unnecessary biopsies could save on medical costs, the release doesn’t elaborate on the role of MRIs as an adjunct to mammography. In what proportion of cases are MRIs ordered prior to tissue biopsy? Does diffusion kurtosis imaging add to the cost? Cost of this procedure simply isn’t addressed. Readers learn that after the technique was developed, the radiomics analysis reduced false-positive findings by 70%, while detecting 60 of 61 malignant lesions in a test set of 127 women, or 98%. In order to give full meaning to these statistics, we need to know what the number of false positives was in the comparison group, rather than being given only the percentage of change. Similarly, a brief statement is made about the advantage of the consistency provided by a software algorithm in comparison to readings of images by human technicians. That statement, too, is not quantified. How much error does result from the variability introduced by human reading of images? To what extent is that a problem? Also, the publication stated that the rate of malignant lesions was higher than expected in this group so they would need to replicate this technique to make sure they didn’t have bias within their sample. No specific description is provided of potential harms. One potential harm is that this technique still misses some malignant lesions. This news release is based on a retrospective study in which a software algorithm was created based on 222 women at two independent study sites who had suspicious mammography findings. The algorithm was then pilot-tested on another 127 cases retrospectively, and found to be effective. Given the very preliminary nature of these findings, the news release is appropriately careful not to over claim benefits. The release does assert that the new technique might cut down on the number of false positive findings, and therefore on unnecessary biopsies. However, it also states that definitive information on that awaits large-scale clinical trials. No disease mongering is evident in the news release. Breast cancer is a serious disease, and false positives create a very real level of anxiety in patients. No statement is made regarding the funding source for the study. The lead researcher is quoted explaining that the new approach is not being presented as a substitute for current MRI protocols that use contrast imaging to detect malignancies. Diffusion kurtosis imaging simply adds to the spectrum of diagnostic tools. A statement detailing why the software algorithm might be superior to use of gadolinium-based contrast agents that need to be injected intravenously would have made the comparison clearer. This report is based on a retrospective study early in the process of testing the new imaging procedure. It is too early to comment on availability. Also, it appears this study was conducted in Europe so it’s unclear if the algorithm would become available to use in US clinics. Diffusion kurtosis imaging is about a decade old technique for examining diffusion of water in human tissue. However, the application to identifying breast cancer malignancies appears to be novel. The lead author notes: “The new approach is not intended to replace current contrast-enhanced breast MRI protocols in general, Dr. Bickelhaupt emphasized, but to expand the spectrum of options available for answering specific clinical questions.” No unjustifiable language was observed in this news release.
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795
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Global measles cases three times higher than last year: WHO.
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Every region in the world, except the Americas, is experiencing an increase in the number of cases of measles, a vaccine-preventable disease that can kill or disable children, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
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true
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Health News
|
The WHO’s Kate O’Brien put the blame on weak health systems and misinformation about vaccines, and called on social media outlets and communities to make sure information about preventing the highly contagious disease was accurate. “We are backsliding, we are on the wrong track,” O’Brien, director of WHO’s department of immunization, vaccines and biologicals, told a news briefing. “We have a worrying trend that all regions are experiencing an increase in measles except for the region of the Americas, which has seen a small decline.” Nearly three times as many cases were reported from January to July this year than in the same period in 2018, the WHO said. Nearly 365,000 cases have been reported globally this year, the highest figure since 2006, it said, noting that they represent only a fraction of the 6.7 million suspected cases. Measles caused an estimated 109,000 deaths in 2017, its most recent figures show. The biggest outbreaks are raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (155,460 cases), Madagascar (127,454) and Ukraine (54,246), it said. Europe has also lost ground, with four countries stripped of their “measles-free” status in 2018 - Albania, Czech Republic, Greece and Britain, it said. The WHO figures did not include a specific breakdown of numbers for the Americas region. The United States has recorded 1,215 measles cases across 30 states in its worst outbreak since 1992, federal health officials said on Monday. Health experts say the virus has spread among school-age children whose parents declined to give them the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine, which confers immunity to the disease. Trust in vaccines - among the world’s most effective and widely used medical products - is highest in poorer countries but weaker in wealthier ones where scepticism has allowed outbreaks of diseases such as measles to persist, a global study found in June. “We do see misinformation as an increasing threat,” O’Brien said. “We are calling on social media providers, communities, leaders, people who speak out, to be sure you are communicating accurate, valid, scientifically credible information.” In the 53 countries of Europe, 90,000 measles cases were recorded in the first half of this year, already more than that for all of 2018, said Siddhartha Datta, from the WHO’s regional office for Europe. Ukraine, which accounts for more than half of the cases, is implementing a robust response, he said. “The ministry of health is doing targeted immunization campaigns ... They are also doing school-based vaccination, high-risk vaccination of military recruits and health care workers.” (This story was refiled to fix typo in first paragraph.)
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5520
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Former research chimps to get new life at Georgia sanctuary.
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On a sunny Tuesday in May, 11-year-old Hercules made a brave move and ventured outside alone. He moved slowly at first, looking at the ground and shaking his head before walking across 2 acres of forest to observe the sights and sounds around him. Not far behind him was Leo, also 11, who ran forward before stopping, sitting down and staring up at the sky.
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true
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Chimpanzees, Georgia, Animals, Medical research
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Hercules and Leo are former research chimpanzees, and it was the first time in their lives they had ever been outside. The pair first made headlines in 2013 when they were named as plaintiffs in a lawsuit demanding they be recognized as persons and released from a laboratory in New York. It would take five years, a series of events that effectively ended biomedical research on chimpanzees, and plenty of tension between animal activists and animal researchers, but Hercules and Leo would eventually move from laboratories to their forever home at a new chimp sanctuary in the mountains of North Georgia. Project Chimps is a 236-acre property in Morganton on the site of the former Dewar Wildlife facility, which housed gorillas until 2015. Under an agreement with University of Louisiana-Lafayette New Iberia Research Center (NIRC), Project Chimps, which is accredited by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, will soon be home to more than 200 chimps that have been retired from research. The first chimps began arriving in fall 2016 with the population growing to 40 this spring. ... The first phase of development — a $3 million update of the former gorilla habitat — will be finished in February. The walled habitat includes five villas, a 6-acre open-air enclosure and a revamped kitchen and veterinary center. Phase two is a $10 million undertaking that will be built from the ground up to accommodate more than 170 chimps still waiting at NIRC. In 2017, annual operating costs were $1.5 million, with more than $700,000 going toward chimp care and programs. Once all the chimps have arrived, the goal is to give them, the last generation of research chimps, the opportunity to live the remainder of their lives as they wish. ... Hercules and Leo were born at NIRC in 2006. They were about 3 years old when NIRC loaned them to Stony Brook University School of Medicine in New York for a six-year research study funded by the National Science Foundation. Susan Larson, professor and chair of the Department of Anatomical Sciences, was head of the project. The research was designed to compare the movement of chimps to the movement of humans to better understand human evolution, she said. It involved taking video images that tracked Hercules and Leo walking, having them walk over force plates to measure forces and inserting fine wire electrodes into their muscles to see which muscles were being used as they walked. Protocol called for Hercules and Leo to be under anesthesia when the electrodes were inserted, but Larson said it wasn’t a painful process. “You are unaware of them when they are there. I can say this with confidence because I have had the same procedure done to me,” she said. During their time at the lab, Hercules and Leo lived in rooms with climbing ropes and hammocks. A caregiver engaged them in creative and physical play, said Larson, noting that the image people have of labs is outmoded. “They got a lot of attention. They are very social animals. I think they pretty much enjoyed being here,” Larson said. But not everyone agreed. In late 2013, the Nonhuman Rights Project filed a lawsuit on behalf of Hercules and Leo to recognize them as legal persons. The court dismissed the case, but pressure was mounting elsewhere. For decades, the U.S. government supported the capture and breeding of chimps for biomedical research. The practice peaked during the AIDS epidemic when more than 1,000 chimps were living in research labs across the country. In 2000, the government established a federal sanctuary to retire chimps no longer used in research. Chimp Haven, a sanctuary in Keithville, La., was awarded the federal contract for all chimps owned by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Two years after the Institute of Medicine issued a report in 2011 concluding that chimps were no longer useful animal models for current biomedical research, the NIH announced it would end invasive research and retire to Chimp Haven 300 of the 350 government-owned chimps. In 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service changed the status of captive chimps to endangered. “That is really what has terminated the kind of research I would do on chimps, making it virtually impossible,” said Larson. ... In 2014, a year before the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision, Sarah Baeckler Davis, founder and then-CEO of Project Chimps, and Bruce Wagman, animal lawyer and Project Chimps founding board member, had been in negotiations with NIRC to retire its privately owned chimp population. The center had already planned the transfer of 110 federally owned chimps from NIRC to Chimp Haven, but that left 220 chimps owned by NIRC. When an agreement was reached in 2015, plans for Project Chimps moved forward. They just needed a location. Despite its ambitions, the Dewar Wildlife Facility had never housed more than a few gorillas. When Baeckler Davis approached owner Steuart Dewar about Project Chimps, he agreed to sell the land and donate the facility. The Humane Society of the United States provided almost $2 million in funds to purchase the property and surrounding parcels. Other contributions came from a range of supporters, including board members; the American, New England and National Anti-Vivisection Societies, which oppose surgery on animals for experimentation; and the Animal Legal Defense Fund as well as public donations and grant funding. It also helped to have celebrity supporters. Project Chimps is run by 25 staff members, including five managers. There are 85 active volunteers ... Of the 236 acres, 40 acres are dedicated to chimp care or housing. The 1,500-square-foot chimp villas feature multiple levels and access to heated bedrooms and open-air spaces. Project Chimps is also working with local farmers to convert some of the acreage into a farm with high-yield crops that will lower the cost of feeding the chimps over time. ... NIRC decides which chimp groups are ready to make the transition to Project Chimps and consults with Project Chimps on how to balance the gender mix. The chimps are transferred in their existing gender-separated peer groups of up to 10 chimps. Project Chimps handles the local approvals required for the transfer, but otherwise they do not have ownership until the chimps are on the trailer for the 16-hour trip to Georgia. For the first two sets of chimps who arrived in 2016, part of the daily schedule also includes socialization. The process, overseen by Mike Seres, manager of chimpanzee socialization, is designed to encourage them to establish groupings similar to how they would have grouped themselves in the wild. ... By the time Hercules and Leo made the journey to Project Chimps in March, there were 31 chimps already in residence. After they were unloaded from their individual transport cages and settled into Villa Two, the chimps in their group of nine embraced and kissed to reassure one another. ... The two chimps still have a strong bond — Leo is the only chimp who can get away with stealing food from Hercules — but they have also each formed their own relationships. Leo has developed friendships with Binah and Jacob, while Hercules has become a protector for a young chimp named Kivuli. Once during a thunderstorm, caregivers found Kivuli, 7, tucked under Hercules’ arm, leaning against his chest for comfort. For most days of the year, Project Chimps operates outside the public view, but ... last spring, they began offering Discovery Days twice a year in May and September — a day when the public is invited in for education, tours and more. ... Today, there are about 1,500 chimps in the U.S., and for the first time in decades, more of them live in sanctuaries than laboratories. ... ___ Information from: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, http://www.ajc.com
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27799
|
Dozens of nature words were removed from the Oxford Junior Dictionary in order to make room for modern technology-related words.
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To compound the difficulties, the language keeps growing, with new words coming knocking on the door and demanding entry — internet, online, blog, etc. Closing the door on new words and crying, ‘No room!’ is not an option, so the axe has to fall on some of the old ones. Some words are clever and manage to evolve to maintain their slot. Wireless is one which, as a device for listening to BBC radio, was on the verge of being kicked out, until it cunningly managed to reinvent itself as an adjective, so it keeps its place between wire and wise.
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true
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Politics, dictionary, nature words, oxford
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The English language, like most living languages, is constantly evolving. As such, dictionary editors frequently update their works in order to keep up with the lexicon as it is being used by modern speakers. One such change occurred in 2007, when the Oxford University Press removed dozens of words from their Oxford Junior Dictionary in order to make room for more modern terms. Example: [Collected via Facebook, September 2015] While it was noted at the time that dozens of nature words had been removed from the Oxford Junior Dictionary during its most recent revision, the media primarily mainly focused on the fact that terms related to religion and British history such as “bishop” and “monarchy” had been omitted in order to make room for newer technological words such as “blog” and “broadband”: Oxford University Press has removed words like “aisle”, “bishop”, “chapel”, “empire” and “monarch” from its Junior Dictionary and replaced them with words like “blog”, “broadband” and “celebrity”. Dozens of words related to the countryside have also been culled. The publisher claims the changes have been made to reflect the fact that Britain is a modern, multicultural, multifaith society. But academics and head teachers said that the changes to the 10,000 word Junior Dictionary could mean that children lose touch with Britain’s heritage. “We have a certain Christian narrative which has given meaning to us over the last 2,000 years. To say it is all relative and replaceable is questionable,” said Professor Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment at Buckingham University. “The word selections are a very interesting reflection of the way childhood is going, moving away from our spiritual background and the natural world and towards the world that information technology creates for us.” Vineeta Gupta, the head of children’s dictionaries at Oxford University Press, responded to the controversy at the time by explaining how the Oxford Junior Dictionary had limited space, and therefore in order to add new words they had to remove some older words: “We are limited by how big the dictionary can be — little hands must be able to handle it — but we produce 17 children’s dictionaries with different selections and numbers of words. “When you look back at older versions of dictionaries, there were lots of examples of flowers for instance. That was because many children lived in semi-rural environments and saw the seasons. Nowadays, the environment has changed. We are also much more multicultural. People don’t go to Church as often as before. Our understanding of religion is within multiculturalism, which is why some words such as “Pentecost” or “Whitsun” would have been in 20 years ago but not now.” These changes, the last of which occurred in 2008, quietly remained in place for several years. But in January 2015, a group of writers led by Margaret Atwood penned a letter to Oxford University Press urging them to reinstate some of the words that had been removed: We the undersigned are profoundly alarmed to learn that the Oxford Junior Dictionary has systematically been stripped of many words associated with nature and the countryside. We write to plead that the next edition sees the reinstatement of words cut since 2007. We base this plea on two considerations. Firstly, the belief that nature and culture have been linked from the beginnings of our history. For the first time ever, that link is in danger of becoming unravelled, to the detriment of society, culture, and the natural environment. Secondly, childhood is undergoing profound change; some of this is negative; and the rapid decline in children’s connections to nature is a major problem. This is not just a romantic desire to reflect the rosy memories of our own childhoods onto today’s youngsters. There is a shocking, proven connection between the decline in natural play and the decline in children’s wellbeing. Compared with a generation ago, when 40% of children regularly played in natural areas, now only 10% do so, while another 40% never play anywhere outdoors. Ever. Obesity, anti-social behaviour, friendlessness and fear are the known consequences. The physical fitness of children is declining by 9% per decade, according to Public Health England. And just as in 2008, Oxford University Press (OUP) released a statement explaining how they decide which words to include and which words to remove from their dictionaries: “Our children’s dictionaries provide a vital tool for helping children to improve their literacy skills and develop a passion for language. “In the last 40 yours our range of children’s dictionaries has incread from two to 17, and as such the total number of words — including those about nature — has significantly increased across the range. The last change to the content of the Oxford Junior Dictionary was in 2008 and it still includes a large number of words focusing on the natural world. Our dictionaries are developed through a rigorous research programme, analyzing how children are currently using language. They also reflect the language thatt children are encourage to use in the classroom, as required by the national curriculum. This ensures they remain relevant and beneficial for children’s education.” OUP offered additional explanation on their web site: Compiling a small dictionary for children is never easy — so many words competing for space in a book with a finite number of pages. Animals and plants, clothing, fruits and vegetables, musical instruments, body parts, animal noises … the list is endless. They can’t all go in. We know that, but it’s still painful to have to exclude some familiar favourites. At the extremes, it’s fairly easy — apple is in and durian fruit is out, piano is in and didgeridoo is out, jumper is in and jeggings is out. It’s always the grey area in between that is difficult: kiwi fruit? French horn? stocking?
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37747
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U.S. President Barack Obama took the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine in 2008.
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Did Barack Obama Take Hydroxychloroquine in 2008?
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false
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Disinformation, Fact Checks
|
A right-wing radio host and Fox News personality attempted to gin up more conspiracy theories about former United States President Barack Obama by misrepresenting what he claimed was a prescription given to Obama.Mark Levin posted a photograph on Twitter on July 11 2020, showing a prescription for the anti-malarial drug Malarone (proguanil and atovaquone), calling it “Obama’s hydroxychloroquine from 2008.”The origin of the photograph and whether it is even genuine remains unclear. However, atovaquone and proguanil are not the same medications as hydroxychloroquine, and Levin’s claim that Obama took it in 2008 — even assuming, despite Levin’s career of pushing disinformation and propaganda, that this claim was made in good faith — is misleading at best. As the New York Times reported in 2014, Obama and other White House officials were prescribed Malarone that June prior to visiting Myanmar. Suggesting that Obama took it to ward off COVID-19 would also be false because the disease was not reported until December 2019, years after Obama left office.As Levin’s post spread, it came under criticism not only for its inaccuracy, but for suggesting that he had obtained private health information related to Obama and violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountabilty Act (HIPAA) by posting the photograph. The tech site Paubox reported in June 2020 that Twitter itself is not HIPAA-compliant, because it has not signed the requisite agreement:A business associate is a person or company that performs certain functions or activities that involve the use or disclosure of protected health information (PHI) for a covered entity.If a business associate handles, stores, or in any way uses PHI for a covered entity, then a business associate agreement (BAA) must be in place. A BAA is a written contract between a covered entity and a business associate and is required by law for HIPAA compliance.The site’s terms of service state:You are responsible for your use of the Services and for any Content you provide, including compliance with applicable laws, rules, and regulations. You should only provide Content that you are comfortable sharing with others.However, its policy on the use of personal information states:You may not publish or post other people’s private information without their express authorization and permission. We also prohibit threatening to expose private information or incentivizing others to do so.According to Twitter, posting “biometric data or medical records” would constitute a violation of the policy. Since Levin posted what he claims is information belonging to Obama, we contacted Twitter seeking comment.United States President Donald Trump and other right-wing figures have promoted hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19, but several studies have cast doubt on its ability to treat patients who have contracted the virus. The Food and Drug Administration has cautioned against its use outside clinical trial settings.Comments
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23134
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On possibly raising the Social Security retirement age.
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Bill Flores says he has consistently opposed raising the retirement age
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false
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Social Security, Texas, Bill Flores,
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"In France, the president’s push to raise the age at which residents qualify for retirement benefits incited violent protests. In Texas, a Republican candidate speculated about trying something similar here and protested his own remarks. Bill Flores of Bryan, the Republican challenger to ninth-term U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, said in an Oct. 12 TV interview that he didn't oppose raising the age at which seniors can receive Social Security checks to 70. ""I'd have to look at what the actual economics are,"" Flores told WFAA-TV in Dallas. ""I'm not philosophically opposed to raising the retirement age... I accept the fact that I may have to raise my retirement age for that."" Flores' comment was politically daring, though it's not out of step with talk among Washington wonks. In July, the nonpartisan Urban Institute said in a fact sheet on retirement policy that increasing Social Security's retirement age ""appears to be gaining political traction,"" noting that in June, the majority and minority leaders of the U.S. House ""expressed willingness to raise the retirement age."" On its sheet, the institute lists pros and cons to raising the retirement age. Currently, beneficiaries can receive reduced-benefit checks starting at age 62 or choose to get full benefits starting at age 66. In short, raising the retirement age would promote work at older ages, improve the Social Security system's solvency by shortening retirements and reducing lifetime benefits, and better target benefits to the oldest Americans, according to the institute. Among the pitfalls, a new hardship could be imposed on workers with health problems unless Congress improves other programs and raising the retirement age could strain low-skilled workers. Then again, Flores insisted shortly after the WFAA interview that he didn't mean what he said. Before the news clip aired on Oct. 17, Flores asked the station to not run it. According to an Oct. 15 news story posted on WFAA, Flores said he had a ""headache"" during the interview and ""misspoke."" Also Oct. 15, Flores issued this statement, according to WFAA: ""Voters should be assured that I absolutely do not support raising the retirement age for Social Security."" Three days later, according to WFAA, Flores was interviewed on College Station's WTAW-AM, saying: ""I am philosophically opposed to raising the retirement age. I misspoke and said I was not philosophically opposed."" In his own interview, aired by WFAA Oct. 17, Edwards said: ""I would not vote to raise the retirement age to 70 because there are just too many Americans that work hard all their lives and just simply physically couldn't work until they are 70."" Edwards subsequently lampooned Flores for backpedaling. In an Oct. 22 press release about the candidates' upcoming debates, Edwards spokeswoman Megan Jacobs said: ""After claiming that a 'headache' caused Mr. Flores to say he is 'not philosophically opposed' to raising the Social Security retirement age to 70, we wonder if any ailments will sway his position at these upcoming debates."" The same day, the Waco Tribune-Herald added fuel to the fire with a news story based on conservative radio host Shane Warner of Waco publicizing an April interview he had with Flores. In the interview, the audio of which Warner excerpted on his blog Oct. 19, Flores seems to agree that changing the retirement age should be considered. Said Warner: ""And how do we do that, what specifically, I mean, do we raise the retirement age? Do we start cutting benefits? What do we do?"" Flores: ""I think almost everything has to be on the table... You've got to look at a way to grow the economy higher so that you have more tax revenues going into the system, you've got to look at different retirement ages that are based on today's lifespan, and you've also got to look at how we grow the Social Security trust fund itself."" When we followed up with the Flores campaign, spokesman Matt Mackowiak sent a statement from Flores: ""I am against raising the retirement age. I have been consistent in saying we have to grow our economy and create more jobs to fill Social Security's $16 trillion unfunded liability."" Mackowiak told us that he doesn't think the April radio clip ""disproves that."" In a statement following the WFAA interview from the Flores campaign that Warner posted on his blog, Flores said: ""I have consistently opposed raising the retirement age for Social Security."" On the blog, Warner counters: ""That's not true. He told me in the spring that changing the retirement age should be an option that's on the table to improve the system. Many Republicans talk tough about fiscal responsibility until the stuff starts to hit the fan."" Our finding? Flores now says he firmly opposes raising the retirement age and has done so consistently. But twice he has said he's open to looking at raising it. Grab the aspirin. This is a on the Flip-O-Meter. We have updated this story to correct the Social Security retirement age that Megan Jacobs, a spokeswoman for Rep. Chet Edwards, said Bill Flores said he is 'not philosophically opposed' to raising it to. Jacobs said that Flores said he 'is not philosophically opposed' to raising it to 70, not 80."
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32609
|
"An ""Islamic refugee"" was apprehended in Luna County, New Mexico and found to be in possession of plans to a gas pipeline."
|
Likewise, the U.S. Border Patrol told us: “We’re just as confused as you are. We heard nothing about it and contacted the Luna County sheriff’s department to see what they said. The story appears to be completely, one hundred percent fabricated and we have no knowledge of anything like that happening.”
|
false
|
Politics, gas pipeline, judicial watch, larry klayman
|
On 15 June 2016, Judicial Watch reported that an “Islamic refugee” was recently arrested in Luna County, New Mexico. The woman was purportedly in possession of plans to interfere with local gas pipelines: Police in a U.S. town bordering Mexico have apprehended an undocumented, Middle Eastern woman in possession of the region’s gas pipeline plans, law enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch. Authorities describe the woman as an “Islamic refugee” pulled over during a traffic stop by a deputy sheriff in Luna County, New Mexico which shares a 54-mile border with Mexico. County authorities alerted the U.S. Border Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) has been deployed to the area to investigate, sources with firsthand knowledge of the probe confirm. The gas pipeline plans in the woman’s possession include the Deming region, law enforcement sources say. Deming is a Luna County city situated about 35 miles north of the Mexican border and 60 miles west of Las Cruces. It has a population of about 15,000. Last year one local publication listed Deming No. 1 on a list of the “ten worst places” to live in New Mexico due to high unemployment, poverty, crime and a horrible public education system. The entire region is a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), according to the Justice Department’s National Drug Intelligence Center due to the large amounts of methamphetamines, heroin, cocaine and marijuana smuggled through the state by Mexican traffickers. Specifically, the renowned Juárez and Sinaloa cartels operate in the area, the feds affirm in a report. The article was published days after the June 2016 mass shooting in Orlando. The claim spread like wildfire on social media and unreliable blogs, all citing Judicial Watch‘s unnamed sources in local law enforcement. The article also didn’t say where in the Middle East the “Islamic refugee” came from, how someone can be a refugee but also undocumented, how authorities knew she was “Islamic,” or what she was supposedly doing with plans to a gas pipeline. (The article heavily implied, but didn’t actually state, that police found any evidence that she was planning to blow up the pipeline.) Judicial Watch has previously misreported or misrepresented other stories, such as one 2014 claim that ISIS was entering the United States via Mexico, and planning an imminent attack: Intelligence officials have picked up radio talk and chatter indicating that the terrorist groups are going to “carry out an attack on the border,” according to one JW source. “It’s coming very soon,” according to another high-level source, who clearly identified the groups planning the plots as “ISIS and Al Qaeda.” An attack is so imminent that the commanding general at Ft. Bliss, the U.S. Army post in El Paso, is being briefed, JW’s sources say. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to multiple inquiries from Judicial Watch, both telephonic and in writing, about this information. We contacted the Luna County Sheriff’s Department to inquire about the rumors, and a representative told us that there was absolutely “no truth” to the story: that no such arrests had been made, no such refugees had been apprehended, no such gas pipeline plans had been uncovered in the course of any criminal apprehensions.
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29480
|
Cheez-It brand crackers contain the preservative TBHQ, which is made from butane and is dangerous to consume.
|
"What's true: Cheez-It crackers contain a preservative called TBHQ. What's false: TBHQ is an FDA-approved preservative and is not made from ""butane."""
|
false
|
Food, butane, cheez-it, food babe
|
On 24 August 2016, the discredited food alarmist known as “Food Babe” posted an image showing the ingredient list on a box of Cheez-It brand snack crackers, along with the claim that the product contains TBHQ, a “toxic synthetic preservative created from butane”: Are you buying these? You can’t get much more toxic than TBHQ. This synthetic preservative is created from butane (a very toxic gas) and has been linked to vision disturbances, liver enlargement, childhood behavioral problems, and stomach cancer in animal studies. New research coming out of Michigan State University links it to the rise in food allergies, which has prompted more research. Although the FDA allows this in America, this additive is banned for use in food in other countries including Japan, and is on the Center For Science in The Public Interest’s list as one of the worst additives to be avoided in our food. Please share! #FoodBabeArmy TBHQ, tertiary butylhydroquinone, is a synthetic antioxidant that is commonly used as a food preservative. Although TBHQ does contain a butyl moiety, this does not mean that the preservative is “created from butane” (which is commonly used as lighter fluid). In response to a similar claim made in 2007 about McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets, the ScienceBlogs web site explained TBHQ’s relationship to butane: TBHQ contains a butyl moiety (a tert-butyl moiety, more accurately), but so does butter, which contains esters of the blameless butyrate (when degraded to free butyrate, it’s the origin of the smell of rancid butter, esterified, as in fresh butter, it’s not a problem). Butter is not lighter fluid, nor is TBHQ. A butyl group does not butane make. It’s worth noting that preservatives might not be entirely benign (you also encounter BHT and BHA, your cereal box’s cardboard is probably impregnated with one of these). However, none of these are lighter fluid by a long shot. While it’s true that TBHQ has been banned in Japan, it is not “toxic,” as the FDA and the European Food Safety Authority both classify TBHQ as a safe food additive in the small amounts present in foods such as Cheez-It snack crackers. In response to the message posted by “Food Babe,” Cheez-It stated on their Facebook page that they have been testing natural alternatives to TBHQ: While synthetic preservatives may not be the healthiest of options, TBHQ is not “created from butane,” it is not “toxic, nor is it been deemed by the FDA to be dangerous to consume in moderate quantities.
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8768
|
Infections may cause many premature births: study.
|
Undiagnosed infections may be causing a significant number of premature births, researchers reported on Monday after finding bacteria or fungi in 15 percent of the amniotic fluid samples taken from women in pre-term labor.
|
true
|
Science News
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The heavier the infection, the more likely the women were to deliver younger, sicker infants, the team at Stanford University in California found. “If we could prevent these infections in the first place, or detect them sooner, we might one day be able to prevent some of these premature births,” Dr. Dan DiGiulio, who worked on the study, said in a statement. More and more children are being born prematurely in the United States, with 12 percent of births coming before the 37th week of gestation. Premature babies are vulnerable to breathing problems, underdeveloped organs, infections and cerebral palsy. DiGiulio’s team looked for the DNA of germs in amniotic fluid samples collected from 166 women in pre-term labor at the Detroit Medical Center between October 1998 and December 2002. They used this method and standard laboratory cultures to determine that 25 of the 166 samples were infected with either bacteria or fungi. They also found at least one unknown organism that could be a new species. All 25 of the women with infected amniotic fluid went on to deliver their babies pre-term, while 53 of the women with no infections were able to stop their labor. Now the team is working to see if infections can be detected before pre-term labor starts, which could lead to new prevention or treatment approaches.
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11174
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Transcatheter aortic valve replacement is safe, effective for very elderly patients
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The release describes a study which found that transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) surgery in patients who are 90 years old or older can improve quality of life for patients and does not pose a significant increase in health risks. More specifically, the release describes TAVR surgeries as “safe” for “very elderly patients.” However, much hinges on how one defines “safe” — since the paper reports that more than 30 percent of patients suffered “major adverse events” within 30 days of having a TAVR procedure. In addition, some 13% of patients receiving one of the procedures likely died as a result of complications — context that would have been helpful for readers evaluating the study. Aortic stenosis — or the narrowing of the aortic heart valve — increases with age and for many years the only treatment was a surgical procedure to replace the valve. For many individuals with other health issues associated with aging, surgery is not a reasonable option. Therefore, there has been a long search for alternatives for those deemed too high risk for surgery. Prior treatments such as balloon procedures to open up the narrowed valve didn’t work well and could make things worse. The advent of the TAVR procedures as a less invasive alternative to surgical replacement represents a scientific breakthrough for individuals who faced a poor quality of life and shortened life expectancy. The current study seeks to extend work showing benefit to an extremely old population – those who are in their 90’s. The release highlights some improvement in symptoms and quality of life after two different TAVR procedures — transfemoral TAVR (TF-TAVR), which is the traditional approach performed via the groin, and transapical TAVR (TA-TAVR). The challenge is that since patients were not randomly assigned to treatment and there is no comparison to surgical or conservatively treated patients, it is difficult to definitively state, as this release does, that this represents a safe and effective procedure in this population. The rates of complications and death are not negligible, especially for the TA-TAVR procedure. Any patient considering such a procedure should be given the results of this study so that they can make a personalized decision.
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false
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Journal news release
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The release does not mention cost or that this requires hospitalization. The article highlights that patients spent on average 5 days in the hospital. The release tells readers that within six months of having a TAVR procedure, patients had quality-of-life measurements that were “considerably better” than they had been before the surgery. Unfortunately, the release doesn’t offer any specific information about how much the quality-of-life measurements improved or which quality-of-life metrics were being used. The release would have been stronger if it had backed up qualitative terms like “considerably better” with quantitative information. Given the risks associated with the procedure, one would be interested in demonstrating that this procedure improved quality of life in individuals who, given their age, have limited life expectancy. This is a close one. The release (and related study) looks at both TF-TAVR and TA-TAVR patients. It notes the frequency of adverse health outcomes associated with the two procedures. For example 30-day stroke risk for TF-TAVR was 3.6 percent, and 35 percent of TF-TAVR patients had “major complications, such as bleeding or vascular issues.” Stroke risk for TA-TAVR was 2.0 percent and 32 percent of TA-TAVR patients had major complications. That’s useful information, but the release neglects to mention the higher mortality rate observed in the TA-TAVR group compared with TF-TAVR — a difference that was not trivial. Overall, 4.6% of patients in the TF-TAVR died within 30 days or as a complication of the procedure. Among the TA-TAVR, the rate was 13%. Overall, we think the lack of any mention of death rates related to the procedure unbalances the discussion of harms. We also think it’s problematic that the headline of the release describes TAVR as “safe,” when the second half of the release makes clear that there are substantial health risks associated with the procedures. Since the patients in this study were not randomly assigned to the valve treatment or conservative care, it is difficult to know for sure how the risks compare. The release could have done more to highlight that these patients are at high risk based upon age and their valve disease, and that it isn’t clear whether the complications and deaths associated with these procedures are greater than what would be expected with conservative care. This is another close one. The release describes the size of the study and sketches the study design in broad strokes, but it doesn’t give readers many details, is silent on important limitations of the study, and leaves out some key nuggets of information. The main thrust of the release is that the procedures can be done without excessively high death/complication rates. However, the release could have been clear about the fact that the study did not randomize treatment and thus one cannot be sure that these outcomes are better than what could be expected from conservative care. Similarly, the study emphasizes apparent benefits on quality of life, but gives a misleading portrait on other important outcomes. The higher death rate with TA-TAVR is one omitted finding that we mentioned above under the Harms criterion. It’s also worth looking at the release’s characterization of discharge status — it says that “more than 80% of patients were discharged home after the procedure,” but that’s only true for the TF-TAVR group. For the TA-TAVR group, only 58% were discharged home and some 42% were discharged to an extended care facility. No disease mongering here. The release does not mention funding sources or conflicts of interest. This is particularly problematic for a release that leads with a statement that valve replacement surgery should be an option for older patients — given that the relevant journal article makes clear that six of the study authors have financial relationships with companies who have a vested interest in valve replacement surgeries. The release notes that TAVR is primarily a treatment option for patients who would be at high risk for “open” surgery. The release also mentions that there are other ways to perform TAVR in addition to the ones studied here. Based on the language in the release, it is not possible to tell whether TF-TAVR and/or TA-TAVR are widely available, if they are available only at specialized medical centers, or if these treatment options are still undergoing review for use outside of clinical trials. It is implied that this is an available procedure, but it could have been stated more clearly. The release notes that this study is “the largest series published to date.” However, the release would have been better if it had added a little bit of additional context. Does this work expand on an already robust literature in the field? Or is it relatively new? In medical care, and certainly in surgical care, doctors and patients need to make informed decisions that balance risks and potential benefits. If there is a strong likelihood that a procedure will significantly enhance a patient’s quality of life, a patient may opt to pursue a procedure regardless of potential risks. But that cannot be assumed. And therein lies the problem with this release. If one includes the headline, the release uses the words “safe” and “effective” three times each by the time the reader has reached the third paragraph. However, any mention of potential harms associated with the procedures doesn’t come until the reader reaches paragraphs eight and nine. The word “safe” can easily be construed as meaning “free from risk” — and that’s clearly not the case here. Since we’ve already called attention to this problem above under the Harms criterion, we’ll give the story a pass here. We’d add that including information about the outcomes if nothing is done would be helpful in highlighting that the risks of this procedure may be worth it. But fundamentally, the individual undergoing this procedure is taking a short-term risk to improve symptoms and prolong life. For some individuals this risk may be worth taking, but others may be willing to accept their current state. It is notable that three-year mortality was around 50% among these patients — so while it may have relatively low short-term risks, it is not postponing death, often from other issues in this aged population.
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10245
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U finds pig cells can treat diabetes
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This story is about research that reversed the course of diabetes in monkeys by transplanting islet cells from pigs — “giving renewed hope that a better treatment, or even a cure, may soon be available.” The story did not explain that this research was done in only 12 monkeys followed for only up to 6 months and that some monkeys rejected the transplant. If the story had included such facts, readers would have been able to better judge the use of the term “cure” and the projection that this may “soon” be available. The story didn’t even include the researcher’s own projection that human trials may be three years away. So how should people with diabetes define “soon”? The story provides no data from the trial, and includes only comments from the principal investigator without any independent second opinion from another researcher.
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false
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No projection of cost was given. Some comparison could have been made based on the current costs of human-to-human islet cell transplants. No details of the study were given. There was no discussion of the potential harms of an islet cell transplant. The story provides no data on the trial. Readers should be told that this was done in only a dozen monkeys and the followup time was only six months. Some monkeys rejected the cell transplants. These are critical facts. If you’re going to cover animal research and make the leap to possible use in humans, it’s important to tell the whole story. The story states that “Roughly 20 million people in the U.S. have diabetes.” But even the framing of the University news release announcing this finding puts in the context only of “the tens of thousands of people with difficult-to-manage diabetes.” The statistical framing of the story is potentially misleading. The only scientific expert interviewed was the lead investigator. That is insufficient, especially when the story lets the investigator get away with saying his approach “might have the fastest track to human clinical trials.” Why didn’t the journalist provide the perspective of other scientists to counter that subjective opinion from an investigator with a clear vested interest in the prospects of his own research? The story discusses human islet cell transplants and “the potential to transplant human stem cells that grow new islet cells in the pancreas.” Story states that “More research is required before pig-to-human transplants can take place.” But the reporter overrules that caveat with the enthusiastic line that the research gives “renewed hope that a better treatment, or even a cure, may soon be available.” The story does not include the researcher’s own projection that human trials may be three years away. So how much further away might a true treatment be? How should patients define “soon”? The story makes it clear that human islet cell transplants have been done, and even that other animal-to-animal islet cell transplants have been done. Does not appear to rely solely on a news release.
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7003
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Greece: 5 deny poor women’s babies sold in illegal adoptions.
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Three Greeks and two Georgian nationals appeared in court Friday on charges of belonging to a criminal organization that allegedly sold babies for adoption.
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true
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Thessaloniki, Georgia, Health, General News, Greece, Europe
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All five denied the charges before a Thessaloniki magistrate. The two Georgian nationals are accused of being the ringleaders. The gang allegedly recruited pregnant Bulgarian women who were destitute and willing to give up their newborns for a fee. Authorities say the group sold babies to childless Greek couples. A total of 12 people, including a lawyer, an obstetrician and a midwife, were arrested this week in connection with the alleged illegal adoptions and the alleged sale of human eggs. Another 54 have been charged with complicity. Police say it was one of the biggest and best-organized gangs of its kind in Europe that functioned as a “birth industry.” The gang was active since at least 2016, and its profits exceeded 500,000 euros ($550,000), police said. The investigation, assisted by Europe’s Europol police agency, traced 22 sales of babies for adoption and 24 sales of human eggs. The pregnant women were allegedly offered up to 5,000 euros (around $5,500) to sell their babies and were brought to deliver in Thessaloniki clinics. The gang arranged for the babies to be legally adopted, but charged fees of up to 28,000 euros ($30,000) for the service. Under Greek law, adoptions can’t involve financial transactions. The gang also allegedly sold human eggs from donors recruited in Greece, mainly women from Bulgaria, Georgia and Russia, according to a Europol statement. Europol said the women were then transferred to Thessaloniki for fertility treatments to increase the number of eggs. The police investigation was triggered by an anonymous tip-off in March.
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9357
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Doctors Try Genetically Modified Poliovirus As Experimental Brain Cancer Treatment
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This is one of two stories we reviewed about an early-phase trial of the use of a modified poliovirus for glioblastoma, a fatal brain cancer. The other review covers an NBC News story. Results of the study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The story and the headline did an exceptional job of maintaining a cautious tone with phrasing, such as saying the approach “seems to have extended survival in a small group of patients.” It also did a good job of covering harms and describing the scope of the benefit. A couple of quibbles: The story could have mentioned the financial interests of the research team, and provided some context on how this isn’t a brand-new idea–it’s been in the spotlight of news coverage for a few years now. Stories about experimental treatments for fatal conditions such as glioblastoma serve the public when they exercise discretion and avoid raising false hopes. Journalists should also strive to give some perspective on the breadth of ongoing research. Notably, this study at Duke University gained notoriety beginning in 2015 when it was the subject of a two-part story on CBS News’ 60 minutes. HealthNewsReview.org ran a critique of that story.
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true
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glioblastoma
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There’s no mention of how much this might cost, but we’ll rate this N/A since the story makes it clear that this is early research. The story did a good job of reporting the scope of the observed benefit, stating that 21% of patients “experienced a prolonged survival” and then breaking down that number with more specifics. For example, it reported that after three years, 21% the treated patients survived versus 4% of a historical control group. But in a small study, why not cite the actual numbers – how many out of how many? – rather than make readers do the math in their heads. The story reported “substantial risks” with the treatment, including “dangerous swelling in the brain that can lead to seizures and other complications.” It reported that one patient had a life-threatening blood clot in the brain that required surgery. The story did not explain how many of the patients in the trial experienced the substantial risks. This was something NBC News handled better (see the review). We can look the other way on the benefits criterion, but the story should have given some estimate of how many people experienced harm from the treatment. We applaud cautious framing in both the story and the headline. The lead refrained from overstating the evidence, saying the treatment “may help some patients.” That conservative tone continued in the second paragraph, which said it “seems to have extended survival in a small group of patients.” The story admonished that the research is “at a very early stage” and “much more follow-up” is needed, and also explained that the study’s use of a historical control group of patients “could produce misleading conclusions.” No disease-mongering here. The story said glioblastoma is the “most common and aggressive malignant brain tumor in adults.” The story did have an independent source, but did not mention that seven of the researchers on the study reported financial interests in the company that holds the license for the treatment. The story mentioned standard treatment without getting specifics, and also mentioned plans to combine this treatment with chemotherapy and other drugs. It could have also mentioned other studies that are attempting to find a cure for glioblastoma. The story made clear this is an experimental therapy and thus not yet widely available. The story made it sound like this was a new concept, but this research has been dancing in and out of the sensational spotlight for years. The story drew from a Duke news release but refrained from adopting the news release’s assertion that the poliovirus “significantly improved long-term survival for patients with recurrent glioblastoma.”
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10719
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Using Radar to Make Breast Surgery Easier for Women
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This news release claims a newer procedure called the Savi Scout device which uses radar to locate and mark a tumor in the breast prior to surgery has many advantages over the traditional procedure that uses a hook wire — but offers not a single concrete example. The availability of the new localizing technology may be an important step forward for patients as well as for institutions, but we need evidence in addition to positive marketing copy. No numbers are provided to back up the claims despite the fact that there is a limited amount of information available about the device on the manufacturer’s website that could be referenced. In an entry on ClinicalTrials.gov, the manufacturer informs that the device is currently being tested for long-term (beyond 30 days) placement prior to surgery, and that the FDA cleared the device for commercial sales in August 2014. Under the approval, the manufacturer was not required to conduct clinical trials to prove the device’s safety and effectiveness. The commonly used process for localizing a non-palpable breast lesion prior to surgery involves the insertion of a thin wire hook into the tumor using ultrasound or mammography. Once the lesion has been located to the satisfaction of the radiologist, the patient then is transported to the operating room for removal of the mass. This process can be inefficient, resulting in delays in the operating room. Operating room time is an expensive and rare commodity in busy medical centers. For the patient, having a wire extruding from her breast can’t be a comfortable or comforting experience. The Savi Scout device offers an interesting and potentially valuable alternative. It may well be more cost-effective for hospitals due to reduced downtime in the operating room and it seems reasonable that it would be preferable to women. Unfortunately, there is little in the way of data offered in this news release to support its claims of superiority over standard methods.
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mixture
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Hospital news release
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The cost of new technology is an important consideration in its evaluation by patients and by institutions. The news release neglects to mention that some insurance companies view the Savi Scout device to be experimental despite its FDA approval. In that case, some patients may have to pay out-of-pocket. It’s likely that the real savings comes from reducing the amount of time a woman is in the operating room, leading to decreased down time, but there’s no data on that here either. Although there are theoretical advantages to the Savi Scout device, the news release takes that speculation one step further suggesting not just convenience for the patient but also implying superiority: “…surgeons can target the affected tissue within 1 millimeter of the reflector,” and “…the more precise localization of the surgical site enable surgeons to plan the procedure better. That advantage may lead to less tissue needing to be removed and a better appearance of the breast after surgery.” Since the Savi Scout has not been compared to the standard approach these are unvalidated statements. The release did not mention any potential harms from inserting the radar reflector. It mentions that it is performed on a day separate from the surgery, in a procedure similar to a needle biopsy. Uncommon but potential complications of a needle breast biopsy procedure include pain, syncope (fainting), bleeding, and infection. The news release provides no evidence to support the claims made. This is quite unfortunate since the manufacturer’s website does provide a modest amount of information on the early experience with the system. The release doesn’t engage in disease mongering. But the news release is silent on potential conflicts of interest either institutionally or with individuals mentioned. Is Dr. Madrigrano, who speaks favorably about the device, a paid consultant to the company that makes it? We would have liked some information on any institutional or individual potential (or lack thereof) for conflict of interest. The news release does provide comments on the current standard of care and places the Savi Scout in a positive light in comparison. But since no clinical trials have been conducted comparing the two, readers should be reminded that the advantages stated are theoretical. It is clear from the release that Rush Medical Center is now making the device available to its patients. Beyond that facility, it’s unclear if the device is widely available. The news release claims that the Savi Scout is novel and that Rush is the first institution in Illinois to deploy the technology. The release doesn’t rely on sensational language. The benefits claims are carefully worded and provide a positive view of the technology. Statements such as: “Ultimately, this wireless technology has the potential to reduce surgical delays, and more importantly will benefit patients by increasing comfort and satisfaction during a stressful time,” are technically correct when viewed as a potential. However, the release is consistent in its suggestion that the technology is a clear advance over existing methods, without offering any comparisons or data.
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10975
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Vaccine-like shots help fight cocaine addiction
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Johnson & Johnson said on Tuesday that recent tests showed that Johnson’s Baby Powder was free of asbestos, after U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigations reported trace amounts of the material in the product earlier this year.
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true
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A total of 155 tests were conducted by two different third-party labs using four different testing methods on samples from the same bottle tested by the FDA’s contracted lab, the company said. The tests are the latest effort by J&J to prove the safety of its widely used consumer product after the test by the FDA prompted J&J to undertake a nationwide recall of one lot of Johnson’s Baby Powder in October. The FDA was not immediately available for comment. However, in response to an October announcement from J&J that a smaller number of independent tests also found no asbestos, the regulatory agency said it stood by its findings. The different test outcomes could have resulted from the fact that contaminants are not uniformly dispersed throughout talc and there is no standard test for asbestos in talc, FDA officials told Reuters in October. Tests conducted by the third-party labs showed asbestos was not present in the single bottle that the FDA’s contracted lab had tested, nor was it present in retained samples of the finished lot from which the bottle was produced, the company said on Tuesday. The company said its investigation concluded that the most probable root causes for the FDA’s reported results were either test sample contamination or analyst error at the lab, or both. In October, J&J recalled around 33,000 bottles of baby powder in the United States after the FDA said it had found trace amounts of asbestos in samples taken from a bottle purchased online. The voluntary recall was limited to one lot of Johnson’s Baby Powder produced and shipped in the United States in 2018, the company said at the time. That move marked the first time the company recalled its baby powder for possible asbestos contamination, and the first time U.S. regulators have announced a finding of asbestos in the product. Asbestos is a known carcinogen that has been linked to deadly mesothelioma. The recall was the latest blow to the more than 130-year-old U.S. healthcare conglomerate that is facing thousands of lawsuits over a variety of products, including baby powder, opioids, medical devices and the antipsychotic Risperdal. J&J faces more than 15,000 lawsuits from consumers claiming its talc products, including Johnson’s Baby Powder, caused their cancer.
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37752
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A doctor working out of McKinney, Texas has treated more than 75 patients for COVID-19 using a regimen of hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, losartan, aspirin, zinc, and CBD, a.k.a. cannabidiol oil.
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Is a Texas Doctor Curing COVID-19 Patients For $50?
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unproven
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Disinformation, Fact Checks
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A Texas doctor’s claim that he has cured more than 75 patients for COVID-19 for no more than $50 spread widely around Facebook and YouTube before apparently being removed from both platforms.Dr. Brian Procter first drew attention through a photograph of a printout of his various claims:Procter’s argument gained further exposure when users recirculated it (with slight variations, but with the same oddly political commentary about contact tracing and communism) in a “copypasta” format:My name is Brian C. Procter MD and I am a Board-Certified Family Physician in McKinney, Texas. I am a colleague of Dr. Ivette Lozano that you interviewed a few weeks ago. I understand that you are trying to get the truth out about hydroxychloroquine. I respectfully suggest that there is a much bigger issue/story here. Most commentators are discussing inpatient treatment only. If patients are admitted to the ICU then their chances of survival are dismal. But what happens when we treat patients 3-6 weeks earlier, when they first develop symptoms? I have been treating COVID-19 patients in the outpatient trenches for over 2 months now just like Dr. Lozano. I like her, I am using Hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, losartan, aspirin, and zinc (all for less than $50 at my local pharmacy). We have identified, diagnosed, and successfully treated these patients at a relatively early point in the course of the disease.It is these statistics that are amazing. I have treated over 50 patients without a single death, ventilator, or hospitalization. Dr. Lozano has treated twice that many with the same success. I even treated one patient that was discharged from a hospital the day before who was treated with IV fluids only for 4 days and released, still feeling terrible! We are two community docs using EARLY AGGRESSIVE OUTPATIENT TREATMENT to handle the disease with a 100% success rate (ZERO Admissions, ZERO).Therefore, If we can treat patients EARLY for $50, we seem to be successful at preventing hospitalizations, ICUs, and death as well as saving tens of thousands of healthcare dollars per sick patient. My local ICU doctors have pleaded with me to keep doing what I am doing. The answer seems to be EARLY AGGRESSIVE OUTPATIENT TREATMENT and NOT contact tracing (which is communism and I cannot even get the Public Health Dept on the phone), quarantine (which destroys millions of lives), wearing masks (which is ridiculous as a long term solution w/o proven data), a vaccine (by the time we get it, likely won’t need it), social distancing (which won’t sustain or GDP with 25% occupancy), testing (ALL tests have a high false negative rate up around 20-30%), or watchful waiting (a tactic that has needlessly resulted in 100,000 deaths).We could also place all Nursing home patients on HCQ prophylaxis for 180 days on a voluntary basis of course. This could theoretically prevent thousands of needless hospitalizations and deaths.In conclusion, if we treat COVID-19 just like anything else we treat (ie, the flu, pneumonia, a sinus infection, hypertension, and diabetes) early and aggressively with a regimen that costs $50 out of pocket or less with 100% success (which is a far better stat than treating all those other conditions), then why is the country shut down and doing social distancing? This political sham must stop.The American people deserve to know they can go to their regular doctor and get treated early with a regimen that is completely safe and extremely effective, and they do not need to worry about ending up in the hospital and dying. The public is UNAWARE of this, please educate them with the truth. The country needs to return to normal NOW.This is the REAL story. Please feel free to contact me with questions. My heart goes out to all those who have needlessly suffered and continue to suffer during this sham crisis and a disease that is extremely treatable if treated EARLY!! !He later recorded a nine-minute video largely repeating his claims, but versions of the video have been taken down from Facebook and YouTube.Procter has claimed that he has been treating patients for COVID-19 “in outpatient trenches for over three months now.” Whereas he said that he had treated more than 50 patients in the original version, though, in the video that number goes up. He said in the video:I’m using hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, losartan, aspirin, zinc, and CBD [Cannabidiol oil] as an anti-inflammatory. My prescription regimen costs less than $50 cash at my local pharmacy. When I do this regimen it works really well, so it saves insurance companies millions of dollars. Anyway, we have identified, diagnosed and successfully treated these patients at a relatively early point in the course of the disease. It is these statistics that are absolutely amazing that I think the public needs to know about. I’ve treated over 75 patients personally now without a single ER visit, hospitalization, ventilator or death. And of course, no cardiovascular side effects contrary to what people hear about on the news. That’s totally misleading the public.He then claims that the cost of his treatment comes out to $50, saving “tens of thousands of healthcare dollars per sick patient” and that local intensive care unit doctors have “pleaded” with him to continue using it. In the video, Procter claims that nursing home patients could be placed on hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis — meaning that they would be administered the anti-malarial drug before being exposed to the virus — for a 180-day treatment plan on a voluntary basis.“This could theoretically prevent thousands of needless hospitalizations and deaths, especially in our elderly population,” he says. “Why hasn’t this been done? I don’t know. Ask your congressman.”He has also claimed that another family practitioner, Dr. Ivette Lozano, has treated more patients than him with a similar regimen. Lozano did not respond to a request for comment, but her Dallas clinic’s website contains a disclaimer saying that she “has a presence on Facebook and YouTube, but they regularly remove her posts,” asking visitors to “refer to this website for uncensored content.”While Procter claims might constitute his experience thus far, they are currently unproven compared to actual trial data, said Dr. Sarah LaMere, an assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine.“The danger with practicing medicine based on such claims is that it is not uncommon to find either no benefit or outright harm when all is said and done,” said LaMere, who specializes in immunology and virology:Anecdotal data often does not end up being true when extrapolated to larger populations. I understand why this is frustrating to people in the midst of such an emergent situation, but unproven treatments should only be used as a last resort until we at least know they don’t do harm. The way we figure that out is with clinical trials.The Food and Drug Administration has already discouraged the use of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin outside of randomized clinical trial settings. As Science magazine reported in June 2020, a British study found that of 1,542 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine after being hospitalized, 25.7 percent were reported dead after 28 days. By comparison, 23.5 percent of a separate set of 3,132 patients who received regular care were reported dead after the same length of time.According to Science:“These data convincingly rule out any meaningful mortality benefit,” wrote the investigators, who ended the study early and promised to publish the full results as soon as possible.The results are persuading some doctors to stop using the drug for COVID-19. “The Recovery trial, in addition to the signals from other studies we have received so far, are enough to convince me to not offer hydroxychloroquine to hospitalized patients,” Nahid Bhadelia, a physician at Boston Medical Center, wrote in an email. Martin Landray of the University of Oxford, one of Recovery’s principal investigators, agrees: “If you, your spouse, your mother gets admitted to hospital and is offered hydroxychloroquine, don’t take it,” he says.Similar studies conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and the Fight AIDS Foundation in Spain, Science reported, found no significant difference in the amount of people who developed COVID-19 between patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine and those who received regular care.At the same time, though, the effectiveness of giving hydroxychloroquine to patients before they were exposed to the virus remained up for debate. “You have a much better chance of preventing something with a weak drug than you have of curing a fully established infection,” said Nicholas White, a professor of tropical medicine at Mahidol University in Thailand.While the effectiveness of Procter’s stated training regimen is unproven, however, his statements also contain several claims that have already been debunked. For instance, in the video he criticizes the use of facial coverings and social distancing to mitigate the spread of the virus:Wearing masks is kind of ridiculous as a long-term solution. There’s no proven data about this. Another thing you need to know is, this prevents us from developing passive immunity; if you’re out in the public and you contract some disease and you develop antibodies to this you could passively potentially give your antibodies to someone else and their own immune system might develop an immunity to the same disease. So wearing masks all the time’s just not what our body is built for. No one talks about that, of course.Contrary to his argument, several studies have already demonstrated that both the use of masks and maintaining social distancing when possible have shown positive results.LaMere also responded to Procter’s claims regarding face coverings and “passive immunity”:We do not passively transfer antibodies to each other. The only case where this happens is when neonates get colostrum from their mothers, but otherwise we aren’t sharing antibodies with other people. Exposure to pathogens on an individual basis is how we develop them.I have seen a few people try to suggest that both masks and isolation are somehow dampening our immune systems by decreasing our exposure to microbes. It is true that we are constantly barraged with bacteria and viruses, and a healthy immune system develops based on these exposures. However, taking measures to avoid one particular pathogen doesn’t somehow mean this process doesn’t still occur. Even someone who is isolated away from everyone else at home is still constantly in contact with microbes because none of us lives in a sterile environment.If he is trying to (poorly) argue that we are preventing herd immunity, the thing to understand here is that herd immunity only develops once a certain percentage of the population has developed immunity to a pathogen. This does not happen passively. It either happens when a large percentage has contracted the virus, or a large percentage has been vaccinated. In the first scenario, if 70% of our population is infected with SARS-CoV-2, in the United States that will correspond to the death of nearly 1 million people before we achieve herd immunity, and that is using the very conservative estimate of a 0.4% infection fatality rate. If we assume the infection fatality is closer to 1%, then it means the death of well over 2 million people. In a perfect world we would instead achieve herd immunity using a vaccine, which would result in substantially less loss of life. Until we have vaccines and/or better therapeutics, social distancing and masks to prevent viral spread are our best tools to prevent a substantial death toll.Our bodies weren’t built to wear shoes either, but that doesn’t mean they provide no benefit.Procter’s claim that he is “board-certified” is accurate; the Texas Board of Medicine website does show his registration status as “active” and that the board had verified his claim that he graduated from medical school at Texas Tech University.His record also shows that the board took disciplinary action against him on June 16 2017.“The board found Dr. Procter prescribed controlled substances to himself and family members without appropriately documenting the medical records and prescribed beyond the 72-hour period of immediate need,” the board website says. He agreed to “have his practice monitored by another physician for six consecutive monitoring cycles” and to complete eight hours of training (or “continuing medical education,” as the board calls it) covering ethics and treatment for attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. The order was terminated on July 26 2019, after Procter completed his requirements.Procter’s claims spread online amid increases in both hospitalizations and deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Texas. On July 10 2020, Gov. Greg Abbott called the fact that that several counties had either refused to heed or to enforce his order that residents wear face coverings in public “disappointing.” More than 2,900 people across the state have died because of the virus.“If we do not all join together and unite in this one cause for a short period of time of adopting the masks, it will lead to the necessity of having to close Texas back down,” Gov. Abbott said.Procter did not respond to a request for comment.Comments
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11412
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Chocolate lovers have fewer strokes, study finds
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Starting with the headline, this story is careful to explain that the study observed fewer strokes in those who ate more chocolate; it doesn’t suggest that the chocolate prevented strokes. It also features excellent use of statistics, a more explicit description of potential harms, and mentions alternative approaches to prevention. The only major shortcoming was a lack of an independent perspective on the findings. Some journalists may balk at our insistence that stories about observational studies include appropriate discussion of the limitations of the evidence. In only 378 words, this story provides another example that this can be done – and it doesn’t require the length of a full medical journal article to do so.
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true
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health food claims,Reuters Health,Stroke
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We’ll rule this not applicable because, in general, most people have ballpark knowledge of how much chocolate costs. The story did not mention that dark chocolate is typically more expensive than milk chocolate — especially for the premium brands with very high concentrations of cocoa solids. A brief explanation would have been helpful. The story went the extra mile here, providing the absolute rates of stroke seen in the groups consuming the lowest and highest quantities of chocolate. “Among those with the highest weekly chocolate intake — more than 45 grams — there were 2.5 strokes per 1,000 women per year. That figure was 7.8 per 1,000 among women who ate the least (less than 8.9 grams per week).” These statistics weren’t provided in the study text, suggesting that the writer made the calculations based on data contained in one of the study tables. We applaud the extra effort made to provide meaningful statistics to readers! Close call here, but the story goes a step further than WebMD when discussing the possible adverse effects of consuming too much chocolate. In addition to warning that chocolate has a lot of fat, sugar and calories, it explicitly notes that eating too much of it “could be counterproductive.” WebMD offers no comparable warning and suggests that eating more chocolate than was consumed in this study would result in similar health benefits. This story was much more cautious in its depiction of the findings than the competing WebMD coverage. Most important, it was careful to explain high up that the study found only a correlation between chocolate intake and lower stroke risk. As one of the study authors explains: “Given the observational design of the study, findings from this study cannot prove that it’s chocolate that lowers the risk of stroke.” We also appreciate the story’s more nuanced language regarding which constituents of chocolate might be responsible for possible benefits. Whereas WebMD states unequivocally that flavonoids and antioxidants “deserve the credit” for these benefits, Reuters says more judiciously that flavonoids “may be responsible for chocolate’s apparent effects on health.” [Emphasis ours.] “Whether that theoretical benefit translates into real-life benefits remains to be proven by rigorous studies, however,” Reuters appropriately adds. There was no disease-mongering. This was the only major shortcoming — no independent perspective. An expert in epidemiology might have pointed out, for example, that the data on chocolate consumption were collected from subject self-reports, and therefore should be viewed cautiously. The availability of chocolate is not in question. The story appropriately notes that there is a stronger statistical association with dark chocolate as opposed to milk chocolate. The story notes that previous research has linked higher levels of chocolate consumption with improved heart health. The story includes comments attributed to a direct email from one of the study authors, so we can confirm our overall impression that this story wasn’t based on a press release.
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33551
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Pampers Dry Max diapers commonly cause severe diaper rash and chemical burns on infants.
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Update: A similar item involving Huggies brand diapers was circulated in November 2013.
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false
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Medical, diaper rash, pampers, Toxin Du Jour
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In March 2010, Pampers updated its Swaddlers and Cruisers diaper line with Dry Max, a thinner, more absorbent technology that Procter & Gamble viewed as its biggest diaper innovation in 25 years. The switch to the thinner diapers was not welcomed by all, however, as a small group of parents began reporting their babies were experiencing severe diaper rash problems after wearing the new product: Examples: [Collected via e-mail, July 2013] I noticed the other day that my daughter back was very red. The next day there had appeared to be a small blister that had been poped. Today it looks like this. I found out that it is a chemical burn. So I am thinking how on earth did this happen to my 1 year old daughter, and it turns out shes not the first baby its happened to. Pampers crusiers diapers have a chemical in them that when mixed with urine or stool can give the baby a chemical burn. These dipears have not had a recall on them, I urge everyone to tell there friends and family to not use pampers with DRY MAX anymore! [Collected via e-mail, May 2010] I recently heard that the New Pampers Dry Max diaper has been causing severe diaper rash and chemical burns on the infant using this product. Can you verify this? Is this true? Thank you. These complaints were aired through various social media outlets such as Facebook and ultimately addressed by regulatory agencies in both the U.S. and Canada. In September 2010, the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) announced that after having followed up and investigated 4,700 reported cases, they could not identify “any specific cause linking Dry Max diapers to diaper rash”: From April through August 2010, CPSC received nearly 4,700 incident reports about diaper rash. Nearly 85 percent of these complaints came in May and then dropped off significantly. As part of its technical evaluation, staff from each agency considered certain characteristics of the diaper, including the materials used, the construction of the diaper, and heat and moisture retention issues.In addition, CPSC staff reviewed clinical and toxicological data found in published, peer-reviewed medical literature. CPSC also critically reviewed data submitted by Procter & Gamble (P&G) and the results of a human cumulative irritation patch study conducted by P&G in May 2010. Further, chemistry, toxicology and pediatric medicine information provided by Health Canada was reviewed by CPSC. Health Canada declared likewise, stating that their safety review “has not identified any cause for concern.” Health Canada and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) have reviewed consumer incident reports and other information involving Pampers Dry Max diapers. The review has not identified any cause for concern.Health Canada has received approximately 125 incident reports since May 2010 concerning this product. Departmental officials immediately contacted the manufacturer to follow up and began investigating the complaints. As part of its technical evaluation, staff from each organization considered certain characteristics of the diaper, such as the materials used and the construction of the diaper. In addition, staff evaluated clinical and toxicological data and critically reviewed data submitted by the manufacturer, drawing from expertise in various fields, including chemistry, toxicology and pediatric medicine. Infants do sometimes develop cases of <AHREF=”http://www.desitin.com/pictures-of-diaper-rash” TARGET=upd>diaper rash (and allergic reactions) so severe that the rash resembles a chemical burn, regardless of whether those toddlers wear cloth or disposable diapers (or what brand of the latter is used). Nonetheless, after the CPSC and Health Canada investigations found no cause linking Dry Max diapers to diaper rash, Procter & Gamble — while admitting no wrongdoing — agreed to settle a class action lawsuit brought by 59 parents of diaper rash-afflicted babies, agreeing to pay each of them $1,000 per affected child and take care of their estimated $2.73 million of attorneys’ fees, provide a one-box purchase price refund, add more information about diaper rash to Pampers websites, and fund medical education on the subject. (This settlement was overturned by an appeals court in August 2013 on the grounds that it provided far too much compensation to plaintiffs’ counsel and too little to the class members themselves.)
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16876
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"Battleground Texas Says Dan Patrick has ""called immigration into Texas an invasion"" and ""said immigrants coming into Texas bring ‘third-world diseases.’"
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"The Battleground Texas activist said Patrick has ""called immigration into Texas an invasion"" and Patrick has ""said immigrants coming into Texas bring ‘third-world diseases.’"" This year and earlier, Patrick referred to illegal immigration as an invasion that he wants to stopper. In 2006, he was quoted as saying illegal immigrants bring third-world diseases to the state. Both claims have weaknesses, but we're not judging Patrick's veracity here. The Democratic group's statement is True. TRUE – The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing."
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true
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Immigration, Crime, Public Health, Texas, Battleground Texas,
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"A claim about Dan Patrick by an organizer for Battleground Texas, the pro-Democratic group, rang a bell. In a June 10, 2014, interview on Bloomberg TV, Jeremy Bird said Patrick, the Houston state senator who dusted incumbent David Dewhurst in the May 2014 primary runoff for the Republican lieutenant governor nomination, has ""called immigration into Texas an invasion"" and ""said immigrants coming into Texas bring ‘third-world diseases.’ "" We looked into whether Patrick made these statements and, if so, whether facts backed them up. Patrick: ‘Stop the invasion’ Patrick, championing his desire to secure the Texas-Mexico border, has often called to stop ""the invasion,"" referring to individuals who cross the border without legal documentation. Spokeswoman Lynda Tran of Battleground Texas noted by email, Patrick has an undated online post in which he asks supporters to donate ""if you agree we must stop the illegal invasion!"" According to a January 2014 news story in the Dallas Morning News, Patrick and another GOP aspirant blasted Dewhurst in a Jan. 27 debate for not doing more to secure the Texas border from illegal immigration. ""The first question is to stop the invasion,"" Patrick said. ""Until you secure the border, you cannot address any other issues."" It wasn’t a new cry. A Feb. 24, 2006, Texas Observer story described Patrick, then waging his first Senate campaign, as blaming illegal immigrants for a rising crime rate, overcrowded schools, an overburdened health-care system and runaway growth in the state budget. ""The number one problem we are facing,"" the Observer quoted Patrick as saying, ""is the silent invasion of the border. We are being overrun. It is imperiling our safety."" More recently, Patrick shelved such language. A June 7, 2014, Texas Tribune news story said Patrick didn’t use the ""invasion"" term at that week’s Republican Party of Texas convention. Instead, the story said, he called on Republicans to reach out to Hispanic voters by telling them ""that we stand with them for the future of their family"" and that only the GOP would work to secure their communities. U.S. Border Patrol figures show its apprehensions of individuals crossing the country’s southern border declined 69 percent from a little over 1 million in the fiscal year running through September 2006 to nearly 328,000 five years later. But such apprehensions bumped up 27 percent, to 414,397,as of two years later, in fiscal 2013, the agency says. Since 2011, there’s been a surge in people from countries other than Mexico, including many minors from Central America. ‘They are bringing Third World diseases’ The Observer story revealed Patrick’s claims about disease along the border, saying Patrick characterized illegal immigrants as walking pathogens. ""They are bringing Third World diseases with them,"" Patrick said, citing ""tuberculosis, malaria, polio and leprosy."" But the story quoted a physician, identified as Tim Metz, the top epidemiologist at the Texas Department of State Health Services, as saying there wasn’t a known case of polio in the Western Hemisphere when Patrick spoke ""and we haven't seen it in decades."" According to the Observer, Metz said malaria, a tropical disease spread by the anopheline mosquito, is easily treated and remains ""a rare disease in Texas and not a huge problem."" Leprosy, he said, is known today as Hansen's disease and ""we have no more than 50 cases a year that are reported, but it's not on the rise."" As for TB, the physician told the Observer, ""we'll have 1,500 or so cases in Texas this year, which might be a slight increase, but we've got very effective TB-control programs in every local health department in the state."" For our part, we didn’t identify anyone by the name of Tim Metz. When we asked the Texas Department of State Health Services for guidance, spokesman Chris Van Deusen said by email that Tom Betz (not Tim Metz) was at one time the manager of the agency’s Infectious Disease Surveillance and Epidemiology branch. Van Deusen didn’t directly speak to what Patrick reportedly said in 2006, but he indicated immigrants aren’t showing up as bringing most of the diseases listed by Patrick. Polio, Van Deusen said, has been eradicated from the Western hemisphere and ""we don’t generally see cases in Texas. Van Deusen said about 100 cases of malaria are annually reported in the state. All are imported, he said, and it’s not spread person to person in Texas. ""It’s generally related to travel, either people from here visiting parts of the world where malaria is endemic or people from abroad visiting the U.S., rather than immigration,"" he said. Cases of Hansen’s disease -- or what has been called leprosy -- are reported, Van Deusen said, with one third related to armadillos; one third tied to ""old European families that have a genetic susceptibility;"" and one third ""related to immigration from areas of the world where the disease is more common, irrespective of the type of immigration."" In April 2014, Patrick suggested critics distort what he said in 2006. Patrick bridled after San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro said to him in an immigration debate aired by Univision and posted online by the Texas Tribune: ""You have talked about undocumented immigrants bringing third-world diseases including leprosy and polio to Texas. You have said that we’re seeing an illegal invasion from Mexico."" Patrick shot back that his comment about disease in 2006 was based on information distributed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control indicating tuberculosis cases were up nationally and in Texas, ""particularly along the Texas-Mexico border--and those cases were coming from Latin America,"" Patrick said. A 2012 CDC tuberculosis fact sheet states the disease had decreased in prevalence nationally. Some 9,945 TB cases (an average of 3.2 cases per 100,000 persons) were reported, the sheet says, and the 2012 count was the lowest since national reporting of TB commenced in 1953. Still, Texas, California and Florida were among a few states with an average number of cases exceeding the national average, according to a map with the fact sheet. Van Deusen said about half the state’s decreasing number of TB cases show up in residents born abroad. ""TB often crops up in immigrant populations because of the nature of the disease where a person can be exposed to the bacteria but not develop active disease for many, many years,"" he wrote. ""In fact, the vast majority of people who get the tuberculosis bacteria in their body will never go on to develop active TB disease because their immune systems will keep the bacteria in check."" In the Univision debate, Patrick said he’d previously mentioned leprosy because the World Health Organization reported that from 2010 to 2012, cases increased in Mexico and the U.S. An online search led us to a WHO chart indicating U.S. cases of leprosy increased from 169 in 2010 to 168 in 2011 to 173 in 2012 with cases in Mexico going from 211 in 2010 up to 216 in 2011 and down to 215 in 2012. We asked Patrick’s campaign about Battleground Texas’s claim and the reports that Patrick described and didn’t hear back. Our ruling The Battleground Texas activist said Patrick has ""called immigration into Texas an invasion"" and Patrick has ""said immigrants coming into Texas bring ‘third-world diseases.’"" This year and earlier, Patrick referred to illegal immigration as an invasion that he wants to stopper. In 2006, he was quoted as saying illegal immigrants bring third-world diseases to the state. Both claims have weaknesses, but we're not judging Patrick's veracity here. The Democratic group's statement is . – The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing."
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26832
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“If you like your private plan, you can keep it.”
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Private insurance availability isn’t up to the government. The government cannot specifically require insurance companies to offer plans, and any carrier has the option to stop providing coverage. It’s the same problem as the promise made by then-President Barack Obama about the Affordable Care Act. That went on to become PolitiFact’s “Lie of the Year” in 2013. Buttigieg’s plan is to build on the Affordable Care Act with a public health insurance option he calls “Medicare for All Who Want It.”
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false
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Health Check, Pete Buttigieg,
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"As the Democratic presidential campaign moves to the battleground of South Carolina this weekend, candidate Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is highlighting his health plan as he seeks to slow the momentum of the front-runner, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. In a video ad airing across the state, Buttigieg argues that his health plan — called ""Medicare for All Who Want It"" — offers Americans their choice of insurance plans, in a way he says Sanders’ more sweeping ""Medicare for All"" plan does not. The Sanders plan would eliminate private insurance and move everyone into a government-run program. Under Buttigieg’s proposal, the ad says, ""Everyone gets access to Medicare, if they choose."" Specifically, according to campaign documents, people or employers could buy into a government-provided health plan, which the campaign says would provide an ""affordable, comprehensive alternative"" to what is sold on the private market. But, the voiceover adds, ""if you like your private plan, you can keep it."" This isn’t the first time a politician has made such a promise. Arguing in favor of the Affordable Care Act, then-President Barack Obama repeatedly said the health law would let people keep their private health plans, if they liked them. That didn’t pan out: Millions of Americans’ plans were canceled, spawning months of controversy. In 2013, PolitiFact rated Obama’s statement the ""Lie of the Year."" With that context, we decided to look deeper at Buttigieg’s remark. We reached out to his campaign but never heard back. An uncertain market Experts we talked to said the former mayor’s remark is remarkably similar to Obama’s ― right down to the pitfalls it encounters. Those policy analysts said Buttigieg is trying to differentiate his plan from Sanders’ sweeping proposal, arguing his offering is more moderate than Sanders’ and preserves choice. He suggests many Americans would be able to pick between buying private insurance or opting into the government plan. But does that mean that if you like your plan, you can keep it? As the Obama White House learned, not necessarily. ""It’s like déjà vu all over again,"" said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. The problem is that private insurance availability isn’t up to the government. To be sure, state and federal regulators have the power to dictate, for example, the inclusion of certain benefits and to set basic consumer protections. But the government cannot specifically require insurance companies to offer plans, and any carrier has the option to stop providing coverage. Already, market forces dictate what health insurance is available from year to year. For example, negotiations between an insurer and physicians could mean that an insurer drops doctors from its network. Changing profit margins could drive a private carrier to exit a certain market. An employer looking to trim expenses might decide to change health insurers, changing coverage offerings for employees. Buttigieg’s health plan — which would more generously subsidize people buying private insurance than the ACA does and create a public health insurance option that individuals and employers could buy ― wouldn’t change any of those economic scenarios. ""When you have private plans offered and sold by private companies, those private companies are going to make business decisions that might affect your coverage,"" Corlette said. ""They can opt to get out of the business."" That’s been especially clear in the ACA individual marketplace. In many counties, only one private insurer sells coverage on the marketplace. It’s impossible to predict, but a competing public option might change the financial incentives for those plans and push some of those carriers to abandon the exchange. If that happened, people using that plan would lose the insurance they have, regardless of how they feel about it. Put more forcefully, ""There’s no way the government can guarantee a private plan will continue, without mandating it will,"" said Cynthia Cox, a vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. So, she added, suggesting that people who like their private plans will have the option to keep them under Buttigieg’s proposal is ""probably not true."" (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) The employer question This is especially the case when it comes to the nearly 160 million people who get their insurance from an employer. Already, that group experiences volatility when it comes to their health insurance. In 2019, 53% of employers providing coverage considered changing the plan or the carrier they offered, according to a KFF survey. Of that group, almost a fifth — 18% ― ultimately did change insurance carriers. That flux would likely increase under a plan like Buttigieg’s. Already, many employers (particularly smaller ones) indicate frustration with providing a health benefit that is increasingly complex and expensive. If a public option were cheaper, more might shift employees into that pool, dropping private insurance. ""Even if you don’t want the public option, your employer might decide that they do,"" Cox said. How big the change would be is difficult to gauge. It depends, for instance, on how generous the public option is, how much it costs employers and whether current private insurance trends continue. Still, ""any change you make to the health care environment would cause changes to reverberate throughout the system,"" said Sherry Glied, a health economist and dean of New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service. ""Any government action will cause change to happen more than they would otherwise."" It’s worth noting that many people may not be affected. Under the ACA, for instance, 4 million lost their plans, or fewer than 2% of all people who had coverage. Most people who move from private insurance to the public option would likely have better benefits, said Benjamin Sommers, a health economist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. But, some would be unhappy to lose the existing, private coverage that they know. ""The more accurate soundbite would be most people with private insurance would be able to keep it,"" he added. ""That would beg the question of who isn’t included there — and the answer is, we don’t know."" And, in contrast with Sanders’ Medicare for All single-payer proposal, Buttigieg’s plan would preserve much of the current private insurance. But Buttigieg suggests that Medicare for All Who Want It — if administered well — could function as a ""glide path"" to a Medicare for All world, eventually bringing everyone into the public system. ""There’s good reason to think some of the private insurance competition won’t fare well against ‘Medicare for All Who Want It,’ "" Sommers said. ""You might see some of the private plans dropping out. And that may be a sign the policy is working."" Our ruling In a new campaign ad, Buttigieg claims that under his proposal to overhaul the health care system, ""if you like your private plan, you can keep it."" This may be true for some Americans who have private coverage, but it is not true for all. It ignores the inherent instability of the private insurance markets — in which plans are canceled or changed all the time, people often don’t get to pick which private plan is even available to them, and government intervention would likely exacerbate that volatility. Introducing a public option, as Buttigieg intends to do, could create more incentives for employers to drop private coverage and switch to the public Medicare plan — and, in some cases, for private carriers to exit the individual marketplace. The fact that it would be less disruptive than Medicare for All doesn’t change this. Buttigieg’s claim has some truth to it, but leaves out key facts and context."
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3910
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University of Hawaii seeks mental health, scholarship funds.
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The University of Hawaii seeks additional funds for student mental health services, scholarships and other items in a new supplementary budget request, officials said.
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true
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Legislature, Scholarships, Mental health, Health, General News, David Ige, Hawaii, Honolulu, State legislature
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The Board of Regents approved the fiscal year 2020-2021 supplemental operating budget of about $28 million Thursday, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. The request will be submitted to the state Legislature and Democratic Gov. David Ige. The university requested $2.6 million to hire 19 psychologists for the 10-campus system. The University of Hawaii Manoa has eight psychologists, the Hilo campus has three, and the West Oahu campus has 1.75 positions, while each community college has one position, said Allyson Tanouye, who coordinates mental health throughout the university system. “The national standard is one mental health professional per 1,000 to 1,500 students,” Tanouye said. “If we add the 19 positions we will be up to one per 1,500. That’s how low we are.” The mental health funding would also expand programs to prevent suicide, reduce mental health stigma, provide peer education, and alert new students and parents to college transition challenges, officials said. The largest item in the supplemental budget is $17.7 million to expand the Hawaii Promise Program scholarship to four-year state institutions. The university has proposed a flat amount to cover tuition and fees of Hawaii residents qualifying for need-based federal Pell grants. “This is looking to focus on the most needy students going to the four-year campuses,” said Donald Straney, vice president for academic planning and policy. “It would add Hawaii Promise on top of the Pell grants to cover the total tuition costs of students who are receiving those grants.” The request also covered staffing increases including positions for operations and maintenance, security, educational and cultural programming, and student mentors. ___ Information from: Honolulu Star-Advertiser, http://www.staradvertiser.com
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18740
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There are 3 million jobs that go vacant each month in this country.
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Rep. Dave Joyce says millions of U.S. jobs go unfilled each month
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true
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Ohio, Jobs, Dave Joyce,
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"While the rest of the nation celebrated Mardi Gras on Feb. 12, official Washington was transfixed by a different spectacle: delivery of President Barack Obama’s yearly State of the Union speech. Newly elected Congressman Dave Joyce watched the hour-long oration on the House of Representatives floor with his House and Senate colleagues and was up the next morning to discuss it with radio talk show host and Plain Dealer columnist Mike McIntyre on WCPN’s ""The Sound of Ideas"" call-in program. The Russell Township Republican told McIntyre he heard plenty of familiar themes in Obama’s speech, and said many of the president’s solutions to problems ""seemed to involve more big government."" But Joyce said he was intrigued by Obama’s call for providing high school students with a more technical education that will help them get better jobs after graduation. During the speech, Obama highlighted a school in Brooklyn, N.Y. that graduates students with both a high school diploma and an associates degree in computers or engineering. ""We need to better prepare our workforce for the jobs that we have,"" Joyce said. ""There are three million jobs that go vacant each month in this country, so the idea of trying to better prepare our children for the workforce by reforming high schools and stressing technical degrees in engineering, that is something that intrigues me. It’s something that people in other districts hear from their people, who said we have difficulty finding competent workers."" PolitiFact was intrigued by Joyce’s assertion that three million U.S. jobs go unfilled every month. Could that be that a nation with a 7.9 percent unemployment in January, 2013 actually has so many job openings? Joyce’s press secretary referred us to monthly job openings reports produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A Feb. 12 report that covered statistics from December 2012 said there were 3.6 million job openings on the last day of the year, a number that varied little throughout 2012. The report said that during 2012, hires totaled 51.8 million and separations totaled 50.0 million, yielding a net employment gain of 1.8 million. Reports the office issued for previous months in 2012 indicated there were 3.8 million job openings in June, 3.7 million job openings in November, October , July, May and March, 3.6 million openings in September and August, 3.5 million vacancies in January and February, and 3.4 million unfilled jobs in April, So why are there so many unfilled jobs? Employers maintain there’s a skills gap, while some labor economists say that skilled workers desire more pay than employers want to provide. A Bloomberg.com article on the subject said U.S. companies have reported more than 3 million job openings every month since February 2011. The article quoted Anthony Carnevale, who heads the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce in Washington, D.C., saying there’s a demand for workers with highly specific skills. The article described a growing skills gap as a global problem, quoting a McKinsey Global Institute study that said employers worldwide could face a shortage of 85 million high- and medium-skilled workers by 2020. It also highlighted a Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center program that helps unskilled workers train for better paid, skilled jobs in fields such as nursing. ""‘Qualified’ used to mean a high school degree,"" Carnevale told Bloomberg. ""Now the qualification level has gone up so they’re pressing for better people."" A Nov. 11 segment on CBS News’ ""60 Minutes"" said that manufacturers nationwide say the lack of skilled workers is the reason for hundreds of thousands of unfilled jobs. But it quoted management professor Peter Capelli of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business saying that if companies paid better, they might be able to get the higher skilled workers they say they need. ""This is a market. And so, you know, if you're not willing to pay more, don't expect to get better quality people,"" Capelli said. ""One of the things we know now is wages are not going up. In fact, they've been stagnant and some cases even declining over time. So where is the shortage?"" Capelli also noted that a generation ago, companies provided workers with the training they needed. ""Companies are now saying, for all kinds of reasons, ""We're not going to do it anymore,"" Capelli told ""60 Minutes."" ""And maybe they're right, they can't do it. But what they probably can't do is say, ‘We're not going to do it, and it's your problem. It's your problem to provide us with what we need, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer. You need to pay for this for us."" Alcoa Inc. CEO Klaus Kleinfeld provided a counterpoint to Capelli’s views. Kleinfeld said he believes manufacturing jobs pay ""very, very well,"" and that Alcoa is making efforts to fill the skills gap as are many other businesses. Asked why there’s still a skills gap if manufacturing is attempting to close it, Kleinfield replied: ""This is not a society where you can tell somebody what - where to go, or where to - what education to get, right?’ Joyce’s claim that 3 million jobs go vacant each month is accurate."
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11298
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Mystery writer recovers voice box with botox
|
"This story reports on the use of botox injections to treat spasmodic dysphonia, a rare but disturbing condition in which an individual could lose their voice. Botox is being increasingly used to treat a variety of neurological conditions that involve involuntary muscle movements, or spasms. This story vividly describes what it must be like to have this difficult condition, but does little to provide consumers with important information, such as the evidence to support the use of Botox, how much the injections cost and any potential harms of the treatment. The story does indicate that Botox is widely used for wrinkles but that it is a relatively new idea for spasmodic dysphonia. While stating that Botox is now ""the standard of care"" for this condition, the story does not give any sense of how many practitioners are available who are skilled at the specialized injections nor does it state how much they cost, which could be substantial given that the injections are needed every 4 or 5 months. Furthermore, the story does not adequately describe the strength of the available evidence to support the use of Botox for spasmodic dysphonia. The story says that ""The injections help about 90% of patients with the most common type of spasmodic dysphonia."" But 90% of how many? In what trials? It does not mention any harms, such as difficulty swallowing. The story does indicate that over time Botox wears off and that the individual may become resistant to it, but this is not adequate information on harms. Finally, the story does not provide enough information on alternative treatments. The story mentions vocal therapy briefly, but does not discuss the advantages and disadvantages of vocal therapy compared to Botox. Nor does the story mention other treatments such as surgery or counseling."
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false
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"The story does not mention cost of treatment, which could be substantial given that the injections are given every 4 or 5 months. The story says that ""The injections help about 90% of patients with the most common type of spasmodic dysphonia."" But 90% of how many? Was it 90% of 10 patients or 90% of 100 patients? The absolute data is important for readers to know. The story does not mention any harms, such as difficulty swallowing. The story does indicate that over time Botox wears off and that the individual may become resistant to it, but this is not adequate information on harms. The story does not adequately describe the strength of the available evidence to support the use of Botox for spasmodic dysphonia. The story indicates that Botox is now the standard of care for the condition, and says that ""The injections help about 90% of patients with the most common type of spasmodic dysphonia."" But 90% of how many? In what trials? The story does not appear to exaggerate the seriousness or prevalence of spasmodic dysphonia. The story only quotes one expert and several patients. The story should have quoted other clinicians or experts who could give some more perspective on the potential benefits and harms of Botox. The story mentions vocal therapy briefly, but does not discuss the advantages and disadvantages of vocal therapy compared to Botox. Nor does the study mention other treatments such as surgery or counseling. The story said Botox injections have become ""the standard of care,"" implying widespread availability. It could have been more explicit, especially about how many physicians are trained in this type of specialized Botox injections. The story does indicate that Botox is widely used for wrinkles but that it is a relatively new idea for spasmodic dysphonia. There is no way to know if the story relied soley or largely on a press release. It did only cite one expert source."
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37832
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Colorado just REDUCED their Covid death toll from 1150 to 878 after their Department of Health ADMITTED they were counting those who tested positive for the virus but died from OTHER CAUSES!
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A Facebook status update accused the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) of “admitting” it exaggerated COVID-19 deaths, and subsequently reduced the number of such deaths from 1150 to 878. The claim grossly misconstrues the circumstances of COVID-19 record-keeping both in the state of Colorado and the United States overall. A persistent rumor falsely claimed COVID-19 deaths have been exaggerated deliberately — in actuality, hospitals and medical examiners worked constantly to include and rule out individual deaths during the pandemic, adjusting figures as necessary and often with a weeks-long lag in case data on any given day.
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mixture
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Disinformation, Fact Checks
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A May 16 2020 Facebook post claiming that Colorado had revised its COVID-19 death count from 1150 to 878 and “ADMITTED” that the state was including deaths from other causes in its count to make the virus seem more lethal took off across social media platforms:A text-based status update image in bold letters blared:BREAKING: Colorado just REDUCED their Covid death toll from 1150 to 878 after their Department of Health ADMITTED they were counting those who tested positive for the virus but died from OTHER CAUSES!🙄Pass it on!Rumor Strains Mutate Like VirusesBased on share count alone, the post resonated with many Facebook users, as it was clearly part of a larger and more pervasive rumor, which held that various state and federal entities sought to exaggerate the mortality rate of COVID-19, engaging in a nationwide (and possibly global) conspiracy to attribute virtually any death due to any cause to novel coronavirus in order to keep “the masses” frightened and compliant:Did the CDC Order All Deaths Be Recorded as a Result of COVID-19 — Even Heart Attacks and Accidents?Before examining the claim, it is worth noting that the numbers cited in the post (1150 and 878, respectively) were not indicative of any grand conspiracy to fleece the public into fearing a threat where none existed. The cited adjustment amounted to a decrease of 23 percent, which seemed more in line with a change in record-keeping than a plot to bamboozle Colorado residents with crafty math.As we noted in our fact check embedded above (regarding whether the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, “ordered” all deaths in the United States to be recorded as COVID-19), nomenclature frequently used early in the pandemic included the term “novel coronavirus.”Why a Novel Coronavirus Complicates Facts and FiguresA CDC page last updated in April 2019 (before SARS-CoV-2 even leapt from animals to humans) covering the well-known threat of novel pathogens explains the “novel” element of “novel coronavirus” and the challenges presented by newfound infectious diseases. In that particular page, the CDC explains that novel influenza strains are a constant looming threat, due both to the fact that little information exists to combat new pathogens, because they are new, and because each novel virus is a potential pandemic:Some novel influenza A viruses are believed to pose a greater pandemic threat than others and are more concerning to public health officials because they have caused serious human illness and death and also have been able to spread in a limited manner from person-to-person. Novel influenza A viruses are of extra concern because of the potential impact they could have on public health if they gain the ability to spread easily from person to person, which might cause the next influenza pandemic.As we all now know, the “next pandemic” was nearer than the public expected in April 2019, and it wasn’t influenza — it was a new strain of coronavirus. As explained by the University of Colorado in March 2020, the virus posed the threat it did (and does) precisely because it was not just new to those sickened with it, but also to those attempting to formulate a treatment plan.Not only was medicine ill-equipped to address the novel threat, so too were those who contracted it:Why is the new coronavirus so contagious and spreading so quickly? Is there something about it that makes it a super villain among viruses? Or is it just behaving the way viruses do? What makes the new coronavirus so dangerous to humans is simply that it’s “novel,” meaning it’s new to humans, so we don’t have any way to fight it.“This is the first time it’s ever circulated in humans,” [Dr. Dan] Pastula said.So, the virus isn’t more powerful, per se, than other viruses. But when it enters the human body, we have no pre-existing defenses since our bodies don’t immediately recognize it as a dangerous intruder. Imagine an old, walled medieval town. If this virus were a disguised attacker arriving at the town’s protective walls, but open gates, the guards would not immediately know to be suspicious. With this coronavirus, it’s as if the guardians of our cells have kept the gates open and let the coronavirus in without immediately recognizing its danger.Then the virus starts to spread.“It gets in and hijacks the human cell’s machinery. Instead of the cell doing what it’s supposed to do, the virus overrides the cell’s normal programming and turns it into a machine to make more of the virus. It goes and goes and goes until the immune system stops it,” Pastula said.Updating Records During an Active, Severe PandemicChallenges inherent in novel viruses stemmed from other places too. As SARS-CoV-2 made its way across Washington and leveled New York City, doctors scrambled to save the sick and hospitals struggled to protect workers.Further, as the medical system struggled under the wake of a burgeoning pandemic, medical record-keeping required edits too. Initial victims of the virus in Wuhan, China were thought to have an aggressive form of pneumonia, as reflected in a January 9 2020 World Health Organization (WHO) statement.That odd snapshot in time illustrated precisely how little medicine knew about a virus on the verge of infecting millions globally:WHO Statement regarding cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China [9 January 2020 Statement China]Chinese authorities have made a preliminary determination of a novel (or new) coronavirus, identified in a hospitalized person with pneumonia in Wuhan. Chinese investigators conducted gene sequencing of the virus, using an isolate from one positive patient sample. Preliminary identification of a novel virus in a short period of time is a notable achievement and demonstrates China’s increased capacity to manage new outbreaks.Initial information about the cases of pneumonia in Wuhan provided by Chinese authorities last week – including the occupation, location and symptom profile of the people affected – pointed to a coronavirus (CoV) as a possible pathogen causing this cluster. Chinese authorities subsequently reported that laboratory tests ruled out SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV, influenza, avian influenza, adenovirus and other common respiratory pathogens.One hundred and twenty-eight days passed between the WHO’s January 9 2020 statement that a novel coronavirus was identified in Wuhan, and the appearance of the Facebook status above — or just over four months. It was easy to lose sight of just how novel the novel coronavirus was.In terms of record-keeping (a vital but often overlooked aspect of medical administration), SARS-CoV-2 of course posed its own challenges. This aspect of hospital administration was one we touched upon on our original page about purportedly exaggerated COVID-19 case counts — because codes for COVID-19 fatalities and related deaths were not even created until at least late March 2020.As we noted on that previous page, a National Vital Statistic System (NVSS) memo issued on March 24 2020 [PDF] explicated the ways in which past, present, and future record-keeping would be evaluated, adjusted, and recalculated based on the introduction of the new codes.In that memo, NVSS outlined scenarios wherein cases would be initially coded, evaluated, re-coded, and adjusted where necessary. It was evident on a layperson’s review that the introduction of new codes would not result in static data from March 24 2020 onward:The WHO has provided a second code, U07.2, for clinical or epidemiological diagnosis of COVID-19 where a laboratory confirmation is inconclusive or not available. Because laboratory test results are not typically reported on death certificates in the U.S., NCHS is not planning to implement U07.2 for mortality statistics. […]Will COVID-19 be the underlying cause? The underlying cause depends upon what and where conditions are reported on the death certificate. However, the rules for coding and selection of the underlying cause of death are expected to result in COVID-19 being the underlying cause more often than not.What happens if certifiers report terms other than the suggested terms? If a death certificate reports coronavirus without identifying a specific strain or explicitly specifying that it is not COVID-19, NCHS will ask the states to follow up to verify whether or not the coronavirus was COVID-19. As long as the phrase used indicates the 2019 coronavirus strain, NCHS expects to assign the new code. However, it is preferable and more straightforward for certifiers to use the standard terminology (COVID-19).What happens if the terms reported on the death certificate indicate uncertainty? If the death certificate reports terms such as “probable COVID-19” or “likely COVID-19,” these terms would be assigned the new ICD code. It is not likely that NCHS will follow up on these cases. If “pending COVID-19 testing” is reported on the death certificate, this would be considered a pending record. In this scenario, NCHS would expect to receive an updated record, since the code will likely result in R99. In this case, NCHS will ask the states to follow up to verify if test results confirmed that the decedent had COVID-19.Colorado’s Adjusted COVID-19 Death TollThe status update above claimed that Colorado’s Department of Health “ADMITTED” it revised its number of COVID-19 fatalities down 23 percent from 1150 to 878, again, arguably a fairly reasonable adjustment to occur as the manner in which deaths were tabulated and classified actively changed.The numbers cited in the meme were provided in a May 15 2020 Denver Post article, which contained significant context lacking in the Facebook post above, although for some reason this update did not link to the article. Its headline alone pointed to an oddly political angle to quibble over how many COVID-19-positive patient deaths in Colorado ought to be attributed to the virus: “As coronavirus deaths become political flashpoint, Colorado changes how COVID-19 fatalities are publicly reported.”It began:Colorado’s health department changed the way it publicly reports coronavirus deaths [on May 15 2020], introducing a second category of fatalities after its methods came under scrutiny — including by a state representative who’s calling for the agency’s chief to be investigated.How COVID-19 deaths are counted has become politically divisive, with critics claiming the numbers are inflated and medical experts saying deaths may actually be undercounted. Still, the number of deaths is a crucial data point that informs public understanding of the pandemic’s severity and health officials’ response to the crisis.The second paragraph mentioned rumors that COVID-19 deaths were exaggerated, adding that medical experts believed that COVID-19 deaths were broadly underestimated. It continued, providing further information about the supposed discrepancy between the 1150 deaths officially tallied, and the adjusted number of 878:The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is now clarifying that its death tally includes the total number of fatalities among people who had COVID-19, including those deaths in which the respiratory disease was not the cause of death listed on the death certificate.By the agency’s count, there were 1,150 people who had died with COVID-19 in their systems as of [May 14 2020].Unlike that total, which has been updated daily by the agency since the start of the outbreak, death certificate data only shows 878 deaths were caused by the new coronavirus between Feb. 1 and May 9 [2020]— but that number is expected to increase as there is a several-week lag.There was a lot to unpack in those three short paragraphs, but they noted in part:The Colorado Sun also addressed discrepancies in the numbers and conspiracy theories that have sprung up around them:The issue even drew a pointed response from Gov. Jared Polis at his own news conference on [May 15 2020].“What the people of Colorado want to know is not who died with COVID-19, but who died of COVID-19,” said Polis, who has rarely expressed such public frustration with his health leadership before. “And the numbers are very close, of course. There’s only a few cases that we’re aware of where there is some gray area. But where there is a gray area, we should always use — for reporting — the numbers that come from the physician or the coroner that actually addressed the patient or inspected the body.”[…]Dr. Eric France, CDPHE’s chief medical officer, said the state’s surveillance-system reporting is in line with federal guidance and matches how other states are also reporting deaths, allowing for a quick apples-to-apples comparison across states. Death certificate data also gets reported to the federal government, but it can take weeks or months for those numbers to trickle in. Having uniform surveillance definitions across states is vital for tracking the spread of the virus and allocating federal resources, France said.“Having that standard measure so that I can be confident that the way we’re measuring it and the way it’s being measured in Texas or Florida is the same really is important for the whole nation in how it manages this pandemic,” he said.Subsequent reporting indicated that the controversy stemmed primarily from the objections of Colorado State Representative Mark Baisley, who called for a criminal investigation into Jill Ryan, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). In response to the letter in which Baisley requested that investigation, Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment issued a statement explaining essentially what NVSS outlined ought to be expected in their March 24 2020 memo:Officials with the Department of Public Health and Environment said [on May 15 2020] they are not altering death certificates, but noted it is difficult to track deaths during such a large public health crisis.”“When COVID-19 is reported as a cause of death on the death certificate, more than likely it will be determined to be the underlying cause of death and contribute to those underlying mortality statistics,” said Kirk Bol, manager of the vital statistics program, during a news conference. “But again, if COVID-19 was not determined to be part of the cause of death it should not be reported on the death certificate.”In the final sentence, Bol made an important distinction: “if COVID-19 was not determined to be part of the cause of death” then “it should not be reported on the death certificate.” In a separate May 14 2020 statement to KUSA, the department explained:“We classify a death as confirmed when there was a case who had a positive SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) laboratory test and then died. We also classify some deaths as probable.“According to the Denver Post, Baisley’s letter was less about the 272 deaths where COVID-19 was not the sole listed cause than three deaths at a Colorado nursing home. An April 2020 letter from that nursing home to the families of residents counted four deaths, but the state of Colorado counted seven — likely the “only a few” Polis mentioned:Baisley’s call for an investigation into the state health director was inspired by an April 17 letter written by Tim Rogers, executive director of the Someren Glen retirement community. The letter, which went to residents and their families, said the Centennial facility was aware of four residents whose deaths were confirmed to be related to COVID-19.Someren Glen’s attending physician, Rogers wrote, determined other recent deaths, including at least one of a resident who tested positive for the virus, were not caused by the coronavirus.However, he said, the Department of Public Health and Environment counted at least seven resident deaths from the coronavirus — three more than his staff had calculated — and was deciding whether to include a potential eighth death that a physician had ruled was not COVID-related.Outside the nursing home, the paper described one death of possibly indeterminate cause in an individual with chronic heart disease who tested positive for COVID-19, then negative. That individual later died and their death was included in the tally.A Final Factor: Excess Deaths During the COVID-19 PandemicA related matter to COVID-19 mortality involved the number of “excess deaths” in any given jurisdiction, state, or the entire country in a specific period. The CDC explained how the number of excess deaths (versus seasonal averages) informed understanding of COVID-19 mortality, due to the possibility some deaths occurred due to uncounted cases:Estimates of excess deaths can provide information about the burden of mortality potentially related to COVID-19, beyond the number of deaths that are directly attributed to COVID-19. Excess deaths are typically defined as the difference between observed numbers of deaths and expected numbers. This visualization provides weekly data on excess deaths by jurisdiction of occurrence. Counts of deaths in more recent weeks are compared with historical trends to determine whether the number of deaths is significantly higher than expected. Counts of deaths from all causes are provided, including deaths due to COVID-19. As many deaths due to COVID-19 may be assigned to other causes of deaths (for example, if COVID-19 was not mentioned on the death certificate as a suspected cause of death), tracking all-cause mortality can provide information about whether an excess number of deaths is observed, even when COVID-19 mortality may be undercounted. Additionally, deaths from all causes excluding COVID-19 were also estimated. Comparing these two sets of estimates — excess deaths with and without COVID-19 – can provide insight about how many excess deaths are identified as due to COVID-19, and how many excess deaths are reported as due to other causes of death. These deaths could represent misclassified COVID-19 deaths, or potentially could be indirectly related to COVID-19 (e.g., deaths from other causes occurring in the context of health care shortages or overburdened health care systems).Although the above text involved a lot of words, the CDC also maintained several regularly updated charts and a toggle function. One of the graphs, simply labeled “Number of Excess Deaths” (since February 1 2020 across the United States) put the figures into stark relief:On the low end of the CDC’s estimates, 84,891 deaths in excess of seasonal averages occurred between February 2 and May 9 2020. On the higher end, 113,129 excess deaths occurred between those two dates.We selected “excluding COVID-19” from a dropdown menu on the right of the bar graph, and the following result was returned for the same time period:According to the CDC, between 22,105 and 43,204 excess deaths were recorded when excluding COVID-19 as a cause of death. The Denver Post noted that medical experts believe that the true mortality rate or death toll of COVID-19 is underestimated, not overestimated — and those figures appeared to support their supposition.SummaryA Facebook status update accused the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) of “admitting” it exaggerated COVID-19 deaths, and subsequently reduced the number of such deaths from 1150 to 878. The claim grossly misconstrues the circumstances of COVID-19 record-keeping both in the state of Colorado and the United States overall. A persistent rumor falsely claimed COVID-19 deaths have been exaggerated deliberately — in actuality, hospitals and medical examiners worked constantly to include and rule out individual deaths during the pandemic, adjusting figures as necessary and often with a weeks-long lag in case data on any given day.Comments
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26317
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“Germany and the United States are the two best in deaths per 100,000 people, which, frankly, to me, that's perhaps the most important number there is.”
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“Deaths per 100,000 people” is a public health metric used to quantify the intensity of an epidemic. In this case, it shows how many people have died from COVID-19 while controlling for countries’ populations. Although the U.S. is showing a lower number than countries such as Spain and Italy, various datasets indicate that, per capita, the U.S. has far more COVID-related deaths than does Germany and many other countries, including Canada, South Korea, Iran, Russia, Poland and Switzerland.
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false
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Health Check, Coronavirus, Donald Trump,
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"Following weeks of criticism over his administration’s COVID-19 response, President Donald Trump pulled out new statistics to claim the nation is actually among the best in the world in fighting the lethal coronavirus. ""Germany and the United States are the two best in deaths per 100,000 people, which, frankly, to me, that's perhaps the most important number there is,"" Trump said at a May 11 Rose Garden press briefing. We’ve followed the numbers closely on this. Germany has won praise for its early and aggressive testing-and-tracing response to the pandemic. The United States has not. With that in mind, we wondered: Are these countries so similar? And are they really the ""two best""? We contacted the White House to find out the basis for the president’s statement and never heard back. But of all the datasets tracking COVID-19 deaths, none supports anything near Trump’s assertion. And when you look at the numbers on which experts rely, Trump’s claim is at best misleading. The United States’ rate of COVID deaths per capita is better than many countries — but in no universe is it one of ""the two best."" Deaths per 100,000 people — the per capita metric Trump used — is generally considered a valuable public health measure that helps quantify the intensity of an epidemic. In this situation, it tracks how many people have died from COVID-19 in relation to countries’ populations. It’s an imperfect measure, to be sure. Globally, COVID-19 deaths are typically undercounted, since countries aren’t testing all the people who have been infected, let alone counting all deaths attributed to the virus. And comparing the numbers gets trickier when you place countries like Germany, which has tested large swaths of the population, against the United States, which has not. But even when comparing apples with oranges, Trump’s claim inflated just how well the United States has performed. ""It is not supported by the facts,"" said Jennifer Kates, a senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. We looked at four credible estimates, all of which were recommended by health researchers: Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus death count, along with global estimates published by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Our World in Data and Worldometer. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.) The Hopkins death count estimates that, in the United States, 24.66 people per 100,000 have died of COVID-19, as of May 12. In Germany, meanwhile, the rate is 9.24 — meaning the American death rate is 2.5 times that of Germany. And that’s only part of the issue. When compared with many other countries — including Canada, South Korea, Iran, Russia, Poland and Switzerland — the U.S. numbers don’t do very well. ""We have higher levels of deaths per capita than [those] countries and many others,"" said Jeffrey Shaman, a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University. That’s true no matter the dataset. The United States performs better than countries like Spain and Italy, but still far worse than Germany and worse than numerous other countries. In fact, per Our World in Data’s estimates, the United States’ rate of COVID-19 deaths per capita isn’t just worse than what we see in countries like Canada and South Korea. It’s also worse than the global average. As of May 12, 36.66 per million people had died of COVID for the entire world — in the United States, it was 243.76 deaths per million people. There is another way to look at the numbers, Kates said. Instead of the cumulative number of people who have died per capita since the pandemic began, one can consider whether the United States is performing better when it comes to recent deaths. If American numbers were similar to that of Germany within a specific window of time, it would suggest that the United States is approaching a similar point in efforts to alleviate the crisis. Even then, the United States falls short. As of May 12, numerous countries, including Canada, France, Germany, Russia and Italy, had fewer daily deaths per capita based on a seven-day average than did the U.S. — suggesting that the risks here are still greater than they are in those nations. So, big picture? It is misleading to suggest the United States and Germany are in the same league, especially when it comes to COVID deaths per capita. It’s flat-out untrue to suggest that the United States is one of the ""two best,"" when countless other nations are seeing far lower death rates per 100,000 people. ""The claim is ,"" Shaman said. Trump claimed that, when it comes to COVID-19 fatalities, ""Germany and the United States are the two best in deaths per 100,000 people."" This is untrue. While the metric Trump highlighted is important, there are countless countries performing far better than the United States on COVID deaths per capita. And it is misleading at best to categorize the American fatality count in the same group as Germany’s; Germany’s numbers are better."
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9561
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Blood Clot Removal Could Help More Stroke Victims, Study Finds
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The news story focuses on a recent JAMA article that reports some stroke patients would benefit from surgically removing a blood clot — via a process called endovascular thrombectomy — up to 7.3 hours after stroke symptoms appear. This is a departure from existing guidelines, which say the surgery should only be done within 6 hours of the onset of symptoms. The story does a good job of illustrating how the new research findings may affect the current standard of care for stroke patients–though it should have been clearer about which patients are eligible for this surgery. Also, the story only addresses costs indirectly, and does not address potential risks associated with endovascular thrombectomy nor adequately quantify the potential benefits of the surgical intervention. Strokes are a big deal. According to the CDC, strokes account for 5 percent of deaths in the United States; more than 795,000 people have a stroke each year in the U.S.; and strokes are estimated to cost the U.S. $34 billion each year. Given the number of people affected by strokes — both patients and their loved ones — new research on stroke treatment is big news. This is not only because it may reduce mortality, but because the type and quality of treatment in the hours immediately following the stroke can have an enormous impact on a patient’s independence — affecting the quality of life for both patients and their loved ones. For all of these reasons, it is important for news about stroke treatment to clearly outline potential risks, costs and benefits associated with various treatment options. The story does a fair job here, but there is room for improvement.
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mixture
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stroke
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The story does a lot of things right here. For example, the story notes that long-term disability caused by stroke is more expensive than the cost of hospitalization (presumably referring to hospitalization costs related to receiving endovascular thrombectomy). That’s a good point: if the surgical procedure reduces stroke-related disability, long-term costs may well be lower than the costs of the procedure (a point made in a 2016 article in the journal Neurology). Similarly, the story highlights the importance of this research (and any future research) that might encourage insurance companies to cover the cost of endovascular thrombectomy. But while these points are important, and are worth making, the story fails to address a fundamental question: How much does endovascular thrombectomy cost? It’s tough to find clear numbers on this, but a 2011 article on the website TCTMD says that “median hospital costs in 2008 dollars were $36,999 for patients with a good outcome and $50,628 for those with severe disability.” What that means in terms of out-of-pocket costs for patients may vary widely, but given that we’re talking about tens of thousands of dollars, it’s a point worth addressing in any news story on the procedure. Again, the story does a lot of things right here. First, it makes clear that the benefits being discussed are reduced disability. i.e., the benefit is that a patient who receives the endovascular thrombectomy in a timely way experiences less stroke-related disability in the long-term than he or she would have experienced without the intervention. Second, the story makes clear that the benefit decreases with each hour of delay in the intervention. In other words, the more time has passed between the onset of symptoms and the surgical intervention, the less benefit there is for the patient. However, these benefits are not quantified. And that’s a sticking point. Here’s the thing: The news story is focused on the evidence that there is still benefit for patients after six hours, and up to 7.3 hours (or 7 hours, 18 minutes), of stroke symptoms. Since that is the focal point of the news story, it seems reasonable for readers to want to know what that benefit is. Instead, they’re simply told that the benefit is less than if a patient receives it earlier. Okay — how much less? What are we talking about here? Harms aren’t discussed. Given that we’re talking about a surgical procedure, potential harms really must be discussed. Those potential harms may well be outweighed by the potential benefits, but readers should be allowed to make those decisions for themselves. It’s impossible for readers to perform a cost/benefit analysis if they’re not aware of costs (in terms of money and potential harms). The story does a good job of capturing the essence of the work covered in the JAMA article, which evaluated outcomes from five studies. It would have been useful to note that the studies were phase 3 randomized clinical trials, but the story covers the most important bases here, including the number of patients involved and which data the study authors were evaluating. The story could have been clearer about the fact that these studies were randomized, a high quality study design. No disease mongering here. The story does cite one independent source, to good effect. But it missed the potential conflicts of interest noted in the study for the authors, related to research funding and fees some authors have received from relevant health care industry sources. The story makes clear that this research was focused on comparing outcomes associated with standard medical treatment for a stroke, versus standard treatment along with endovascular thrombectomy surgery. The story makes clear that endovascular thrombectomy is neither new nor uncommon, but doesn’t explain that the procedure is only available at certain stroke treatment centers and applies to only a subset of patients. (It tells us only “certain” patients are eligible, but doesn’t explain beyond that.) The story makes clear that what is new here is the fact that the window of opportunity for stroke patients to benefit from endovascular thrombectomy is larger than previously thought. The story does not appear to be based on a news release.
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22021
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Obesity kills 34 children per hour.
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State Rep. Rob Eissler says 34 children die from obesity every hour
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false
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Children, Health Care, Public Health, Texas, Rob Eissler,
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"Honoring Dallas physician Kenneth Cooper, who has spent much of his career promoting aerobics, state Rep. Rob Eissler warned against the dangers of obesity. It ""kills 34 children per hour,"" The Woodlands Republican said on the House floor May 23. Obesity — an accumulation of body fat above the range generally considered healthy for one’s height — increases the likelihood of certain disease and health problems, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among children, the agency says, obesity can foster high blood pressure and heightened cholesterol, breathing and joint difficulties and fatty liver disease. But does it kill a kid every couple seconds? Eissler told us he based the claim on a documentary about obesity that premiered at Austin’s Long Center the previous evening: ""Health Needs a Hero."" Both Cooper and Eissler appear in the film, which focuses on childhood obesity. ""People die as a result of disease resulting from obesity,"" Eissler told us. Jen Ohlson, the founder of PE3, an Austin-based nonprofit that works to curb obesity in schools, wrote, directed and produced the film. She sent us the statement from the documentary that Eissler was referring to: ""Our national cemeteries pay visual homage to American heroes on the battlefields of war. But there’s another battle on the home front: obesity-related diseases. They kill one person every 90 seconds, 34 people every hour, 822 people every single day and 330,000 people"" annually. Ohlson cited a Wikipedia page and a WikiAnswers page as her source for the declared rates of death-by-obesity. The Wikipedia page links to a 1999 study that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, based in part on 1991 national statistics on body mass index distributions, population size and deaths, concluded that 280,000 to 325,000 U.S. adults annually die due to obesity. We noticed a similar statistic posted online by the CDC. Based on mortality data from the 1970s, the agency said that 365,000 U.S. deaths a year could be attributed to obesity. That’s about 41 deaths an hour. However, CDC spokeswoman Karen Hunter told us the agency lately estimates that obesity accounts for less than one-third that number: 112,000 deaths a year, or about 13 deaths an hour. According to an undated CDC sheet of frequently asked questions about calculating obesity-related risk, the estimate has dropped in recent years because CDC scientists started using newer data and different methods of analysis. The 2005 study used different statistical methods to estimate the proportion of deaths related to obesity, taking the decline in obesity-related deaths among older adults into account, according to the sheet. The sheet says the latest estimate, made public in 2005, is based on mortality data through 2000 from a ""nationally representative sample of U.S. adults,"" and ""appear to reflect a real decline in the risks of dying from obesity-related diseases like heart disease."" According to the sheet, the decline may be related to ""big improvements in the control of risk factors for heart disease"" and advances in ""life-saving interventions for obesity-related diseases,"" such as catheterization. Note: All these estimated death rates, from the outdated to the most recent, are for adults, not children. Hunter said the CDC does not know how many U.S. children annually die from obesity. The chronic obesity-related diseases that kill most Americans, including heart disease and diabetes, ""typically take decades to develop."" That is, they show up mostly in adults. For more expertise, we reached Stephen Pont, medical director of the Texas Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Childhood Obesity, affiliated with the Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas in Austin. He told us that while he was unaware of any data showing that 34 children die every hour from obesity, the spirit of the claim reflected the magnitude of the problem. Childhood obesity likely contributes to the number of adults who are estimated to die every hour as as a result of obesity-related diseases, he said. Even so, the mortality numbers are hard to pin down. Hunter told us that ""obesity, while often a contributing factor, is not typically listed as the ‘cause of death’ on a death certificate."" It’s difficult for doctors to cite that cause on death certificates, according to the CDC’s sheet of frequently asked questions, ""because obesity has so many different effects on so many diseases."" Obesity isn’t among the leading causes of death for 1-14 year olds, according to 2006 child mortality data on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website. What does kill kids most frequently: Unintentional injuries, cancer, congenital abnormalities and homicide. ""Diseases of the heart"" is the fifth greatest cause of death in among 1 to 4 year olds (1 death per 100,000 children) and 5 to 14 year olds (0.6 deaths per 100,000). That doesn’t mean obesity isn’t a growing health problem for kids. Since 1980, according to the CDC, instances of obesity among children and adolescents in the United States has almost tripled. According to the 2007-08 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, approximately 17.5 percent of children who are 2-19 years old — 12.5 million — are obese. According to the Texas Health Institute, an Austin-based nonprofit that works to improve the health in Texas communities, 35 percent of Texas children and more than half of Texas adults are overweight or obese, the Austin American-Statesman reported on May 14. Time to weigh in. No doubt, obesity has health consequences across age groups. But Eissler’s claim that 34 children die every hour because of it misstates an outdated statistic solely referring to adult deaths. And, according to the latest data, about 13 adults die every hour due to obesity-related disease — not 34. The statement is ridiculous. !"
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14304
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Right now, here in Texas, wind power is already cheaper than dirty fossil fuels.
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"Obama, in Dallas, said: ""Right now, here in Texas, wind power is already cheaper than dirty fossil fuels."" Wind-generated electricity is offered for sale in Texas at lower prices than power fired by coal or natural gas. Unsaid: wind power, unlike electricity fueled by oil or gas, isn’t always available."
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true
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Energy, States, Texas, Barack Obama,
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"Barack Obama, exhorting Dallas Democrats during a March 2016 Texas swing, called Republican claims that the country and planet are in sorry shape a ""false narrative."" ""America is pretty darn great right now,"" the Democratic president said. And among great things, Obama said, Democrats believe in science and that climate change is real -- and that wind is a better bargain in Texas than traditional oil and gas. Come again? ""Right now, here in Texas,"" Obama said, ""wind power is already cheaper than dirty fossil fuels."" Wind power sure has sizzle. In 2015, PolitiFact in Washington, D.C., found Mostly Obama’s claim that ""America is No. 1 in wind power."" China led in overall wind-power capacity but the U.S. was generating more electricity from the wind. Earlier, in 2010, we rated a declaration that Texas had ""installed more wind power than any other state, and all but four countries."" As of 2009, Texas boasted 9,410 megawatts of wind power — enough to power two million homes. More recently, FactCheck.org, based at the University of Pennsylvania, dug into Obama’s claim in his 2016 State of the Union address that ""in fields from Iowa to Texas, wind power is now cheaper than dirtier, conventional power."" Nationally, average coal and gas prices were running less than average wind power costs. Yet in Iowa and Texas, wind energy proved cheaper, according to an Energy Information Administration analyst. Meantime, an American Wind Energy Association blog post talking up Obama’s Iowa-Texas SOTU claim noted a 2015 study by Lazard LLC, a financial services firm, stating the cost of wind production in Texas, not counting government subsidies, runs from $36 to $51 per megawatt-hour while an average national cost for coal-fired electricity ranges from $65 to $150 per MWh and for gas, depending on the type of plant, from $52/MWh to $218/MWh. White House cites DOE report We asked the White House about the basis of Obama’s statement in Dallas. By email, spokesman Frank Benenati said a federal report shows that in 2014, the ""average executed price of wind power purchase agreements"" was $23.50 per MWh and according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a non-governmental outfit, ""the levelized cost of energy from wind in Iowa and Texas, even without subsidies, is lower than the"" levelized cost of energy ""of coal at $59/MWh."" Congress in 2015 extended the federal Production Tax Credit for five years. That action, recapped in North American Wind Power, means ""wind developers"" get a credit of $23 per MWh for electricity generated to the power grid though the credit is set to diminish from 2017 through 2019. The U.S. Department of Energy’s latest annual report on wind technologies, which affirms Texas as the No. 1 wind-power state, states that based on research compiled by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the ""national average levelized price of wind PPAs,"" or Power Purchase Agreements, ""that were signed in 2014 (and that are within the Berkeley Lab sample) fell to around $23.50/MWh nationwide—a new low, but admittedly focused on a sample of projects that largely hail from the lowest-priced Interior region of the country."" Absent from the report: A direct wind-to-fossil-fuel cost comparison, though the report says that based on the agency’s sample, ""wind PPA prices are most competitive with wholesale power prices in the Interior region. The average price stream of wind PPAs executed in 2013 or 2014 also compares favorably to a range of projections of the fuel costs of gas-fired generation extending out through 2040."" The Interior region takes in the middle-of-the-country states running north from the Texas-Mexico border to Canada. Levelized costs represent the per-MWh cost (in inflation-adjusted dollars) of building and operating a generating plant over an assumed financial life and duty cycle, the EIA says, counting capital and fuel costs, fixed and variable operations and maintenance costs, financing costs and ""an assumed utilization rate for each plant type."" So, Obama’s claim has a basis. Still, the report also cautions against comparing long-time purchase agreement prices for wind with shorter-term fluctuating prices of electricity from fossil fuels like coal. An ""important note"" says the presented prices don’t reflect ""the full social costs of power generation and delivery."" That is, the report says, the cited wind purchase agreement prices are driven down by federal and, sometimes, state tax and financial incentives. Also, the wind prices don’t ""fully reflect integration, resource adequacy or transmission costs,"" the report says. On the other hand, the note continues, ""wholesale electricity prices (or fuel cost projections) do not fully reflect transmission costs, may not fully reflect capital and fixed operating costs and are reduced by virtue of any financial incentives provided to fossil-fueled generation and its fuel production cycle as well as by not fully accounting for the environmental and social costs of that generation."" ""In addition, wind PPA prices—once established—are fixed and known, whereas wholesale electricity prices are short term and therefore subject to change over time,"" the note says. ""Finally, the location of the wholesale electricity nodes and the assumption of a flat block of power are not perfectly consistent with the location and output profile of the sample of wind power projects. In short, comparing levelized long-term wind PPA prices with either yearly wholesale electricity prices or forecasts of the fuel costs of natural gas-fired generation is not appropriate if one’s goal is to account fully for the costs and benefits of wind energy relative to its competition. Nonetheless, these comparisons still provide some sense for the short-term competitive environment facing wind energy, and how that environment has shifted with time."" Energy department cites Bloomberg report Like Benenati, Dawn Selak, an energy department spokeswoman, told us the estimated cost of coal in 2015 was around $59/MWh, a figure she attributed to Bloomberg research. So, Selak said, ""the cost of wind (including in Texas) is less than the cost of coal even with the $23/MWh"" tax credit factored in. In a February 2016 report prepared for the pro-wind-power Business Council for Sustainable Energy, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said: ""Wind in Texas is among the cheapest in the country, with an unsubsidized levelized cost of electricity of around $50/MWh, due to high capacity factors (>50%) and low cost to build."" Capacity factor refers to the share of time a turbine (or plant) is actively generating power. A Bloomberg analyst, Stephen Munro, told us by phone and email that Obama was essentially correct per the latest costs of wind power generation in the Texas Panhandle. ""Since 2013,"" Munro wrote, ""we have observed that the cost of new Power Purchase Agreements for wind energy has fallen below the average around-the-clock wholesale prices in the wholesale pool that covers much of the wind power generation in the Panhandle. Average around-the-clock wholesale prices include power generated from fossil fuels, renewable sources and uranium. ""As of the second half of 2015,"" Munro wrote, ""we observed a levelised cost of power of $43/MWh in PPAs for wind in the utility region including much of the Texas Panhandle."" In comparison, Munro said, coal-fired electricity was costing $74.70 per MWh in most of East Texas and the Panhandle as well as Kansas plus parts of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arkansas and Louisiana. Munro said the wholesale price of wind-fueled power is ""notably lower"" in the Panhandle and other parts of the region ""because that region features an extraordinary wind resource and because the costs of land and construction are lower than elsewhere. Developers have taken advantage of this to install advanced, large capacity turbines."" That is, it’s way windy a lot up over there, we (or maybe someone from Fort Worth) would put it. Texas analysts We also ran Obama’s statement past a staff spokeswoman for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the flow of electricity to most Texans. By email, Robbie Searcy said she’d grant the claim credence. a Mostly rating. ""Within the ERCOT real-time wholesale energy market,"" Searcy said, ""all generation that is used in any interval technically clears at the same price, which is the highest price of all resources used to serve demand in each load zone at that time. During periods of high wind output,"" she said, ""wind generation resources are able to offer power into the market at very low, and sometimes negative, prices. This in turn drives down the settlement point prices for all resources operating during those intervals, especially when demand is low."" At our request, Searcy emailed a chart showing wind, coal and natural gas electricity ""price offers"" in ERCOT’s market at 7 a.m. Jan. 22, 2016. At that time, the chart indicates, coal and gas offers were priced higher than wind. She said the date was the most recent day of available public data when we inquired and agency experts chose the hour to reflect the period when demand, and therefore generation, peaked. Searcy said wholesale market prices at 7 a.m. that day were ""about $26.70 per MWh on average among all resources used at the time."" At that time, she said, average offers from gas-fired power producers were $23.37/MWh compared to $14.14 per MWh for coal and a negative $23.89 for wind power. (Perhaps wind power producers could afford that thanks to the federal subsidy.) Searcy said too it’s worth remembering that when ""we talk about natural gas-fired resources, that covers a broad range of technologies and efficiency levels, from older steam units to more modern combined-cycle units to quick-start combustion turbines."" The case for coal Even if Texas wind power may be cheaper for electricity than traditional fuels, other authorities told us there’s at least one smart reason to keep the other fuels handy. Winds can die down, keeping turbines from spinning. At the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas producers, Lauren Hamner, spokeswoman for Commissioner Christi Craddick, said by email that it’s worth remembering a coal-fired plant is capable of running longer at all hours than a breeze-dependent wind turbine -- so power capacity, she said, should be folded into any comparison. Similarly, Russ Keene, Austin-based spokesman for the Balanced Energy for Texas Coalition, which says it represents consumers and coal producers, transporters and industrial users, pointed out a June 2015 study by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Energy Research, a free-market think tank. The study seems an outlier in saying that when ""all known costs"" are considered, the average U.S. cost of producing electricity from established coal-fired plants is far less than new wind-power generation. Still, we asked its lead author, Tom Stacy, to evaluate Obama’s claim. By email, Stacy said the president didn’t acknowledge that an established plant fueled by coal, gas or nuclear power can be available at all hours and that’s just not so for wind-dependent generators. It stands to reason, he indicated, that wind-generated electricity can’t (or shouldn’t) be price-compared to electricity generated by fossil fuels or nuclear sources. Availability at all times aside, we wondered, is it also so that wind-fueled power is lately cheaper in Texas than power drawn from fossil fuels? ""And dog meat in China is cheaper than Kobe beef in NYC,"" Stacy wrote, ""but it isn't the same thing, is it?"" Our ruling Obama, in Dallas, said: ""Right now, here in Texas, wind power is already cheaper than dirty fossil fuels."" Wind-generated electricity is offered for sale in Texas at lower prices than power fired by coal or natural gas. Unsaid: wind power, unlike electricity fueled by oil or gas, isn’t always available. – The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing."
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11461
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Lucentis Proves Effective Against Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy
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This release describes a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the use of the drug ranibizumab (brand name Lucentis) to treat proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), which can damage eyesight and lead to blindness. The clinical trial at issue found that the use of ranibizumab was at least as effective on vision as laser therapy but with fewer side effects. While the release does a good job explaining a complex trial, it skimps on presenting benefit data, and does not address physician-industry ties or costs, both of which are important factors for consideration with any medical treatment. According to the CDC, 9.3% of the U.S. population — 29.1 million people — have Type 2 diabetes. The number rises to 16.2% of adults between the ages of 45 and 64. Among them, PDR is an added burden affecting a great many people with diabetes. A 2010 study reported that the prevalence of vision-threatening diabetic retinopathy in diabetic adults over 40 is 4.4%. It has serious implications for quality of life and the ability to function independently. And with diabetes on the rise in the U.S., rates of PDR are unlikely to decline anytime soon. There’s a significant economic component as well. In 2004, the direct medical cost of diabetic retinopathy treatment was $493 million. Because diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of vision impairment and blindness among working-age adults in the U.S., there is likely a significant economic burden associated with the condition’s impact on job performance in the workforce. New research findings on a condition this common — and this pricey — are important and worth paying attention to.
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true
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Academic medical center news release,diabetes,Foundation/nonprofit news release
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The story doesn’t mention cost at all. Since Lucentis can cost $2,000 per injection, that’s a significant oversight. It would also be useful to tell readers how Lucentis injections compare with the cost of laser treatment. The benefits are, for the most part, reasonably well explained. But those explanations lack numbers to back them up and are overstated in at least one place. “One benefit discussed in the release is that study participants who received laser treatment were more likely to suffer peripheral vision loss than participants who were treated solely with Lucentis — although this isn’t quantified. A second benefit was that participants who received laser treatment were more likely to require subsequent surgery to remove blood from the eye — and this was quantified. But the release pushes things a bit when it comes to vision, or visual acuity. The release states: “At two years, vision in the Lucentis group improved by an average of about half a line on an eye chart, compared with virtually no change in the laser group.” But here’s how the journal article puts it: “There was no statistically significant visual acuity difference between the ranibizumab and PRP [laser] groups at 2 years. The language in the journal article itself stresses that what was being evaluated was whether Lucentis was at least as good as laser treatment — and they found that, after two years, the visual acuity of patients who took Lucentis (and had no laser treatment) was as good as patients who had the laser treatment. The release could have simply stated this and avoided confusion. In short, this was a close one — but the lack of numbers on peripheral vision and the overstatement of the visual acuity results make this a “Not Satisfactory.” The release mentions that one study volunteer in the Lucentis group developed an eye infection and stated that “serious systemic adverse events,” namely cardiac arrest and stroke, occurred at similar rates among the two groups undergoing the two different procedures. We’ll rate that satisfactory for the disclosure although the release might have gone even further by mentioning the other side effects named in the study including inflammation and elevated intraocular pressure which occurred in both treatment groups. The release does a good job of describing the study design, the number of participants, and the fact that this was a randomized clinical trial. A few words about the limitations of the study — e.g. the investigators and patients could not be masked to which treatment they were getting, would have be useful as well. No disease mongering here. The release does tell readers that the study was funded by the National Eye Institute. However, it does not make clear that Lloyd Paul Aiello — who is quoted in the release — was also a co-author of the journal article. The release also fails to mention that several co-authors receive research funding or consulting fees from Genentech, which developed ranibizumab and markets it in the U.S., and Novartis, which markets the drug outside the U.S. The release does a good job of comparing Lucentis to conventional laser treatment for PDR and we’ll award a Satisfactory rating on that basis. However, we’d note that these are not necessarily the only two options. Lucentis is classed as an “anti-VEGF” (anti- vascular endothelial growth factor) drug — by blocking a protein called VEGF, the drug can reverse abnormal blood vessel growth and decrease fluid in the retina. Other drugs in this category include Avastin and Eylea. Are those drugs under consideration for trials related to PDR treatment? If so, it’s worth mentioning — particularly since Avastin costs around $60 per dose, as compared to Lucentis’s $2,000 per dose. The release notes that Lucentis is already used to treat other diabetes-related eye problems, and “should be considered a viable treatment option for people with PDR.” The clinical trial at issue here appears to be the first to look at the use of Lucentis as a treatment for PDR, particularly in a randomized study with direct comparison to laser treatment. However, the release doesn’t tell readers that. On the other hand, the release does make clear that this is the first significant advance in clinical treatment for PDR since the 1970s — that’s good context. The release does a good job of avoiding hype and explaining what was a complex study.
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18485
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The sex-offender registry has been around for a long time, and the research that's out there says that it has no positive impact on the public safety.
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Ohio Public Defender’s Office says sex offender registry doesn’t improve public safety
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true
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Ohio, Crime, Ohio Public Defender's Office,
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"Ohio will begin tracking arsonists this summer through a new registry similar to the one used to track sex offenders. A law passed last year by the General Assembly will require people convicted of arson-related offenses to register at their local sheriff's office each year for at least 10 years. Failing to register will be a felony. Supporters tout the measure as a tool for law enforcement. Critics argue, among other points, that the registry will be a burden for sheriffs already charged with keeping the sex-offender registry. ""The sex-offender registry has been around for a long time, and the research that's out there says that it has no positive impact on the public safety,"" Amy Borror, spokeswoman for the Ohio Public Defender's Office, told The Plain Dealer. ""And, if anything, it might have a negative impact on public safety because it creates this administrative burden."" The registry has been around for almost 20 years and has been public for more than 15. The Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children Act, enacted by Congress in 1994, required convicted sex offenders to record their address with local law enforcement. Megan’s Law, added in 1996, allowed the information to be given directly to the public. The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), passed in 2006, set registration standards that widened the reach of registration for the entire nation. PolitiFact Ohio knew the subject could be an emotional one. We asked Borror how the claim is supported that the registry does not improve public safety. She referred us first to the website of the Public Defender's Office, which links to a number of reports, and to a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Criminal Justice and Behavior, from May 2010, which was dedicated to sex offender issues. Criminal Justice and Behavior published 10 academic studies related to sex offenses, focusing on the question of whether public policies concerning sex offenders enhance the safety of children and communities. The journal found that the subject is consistently one of the leading policy issues on legislative agendas. It concluded, however, that ""sex offender policies are often inconsistent with empirical evidence about sex offender risks, recidivism, reintegration and supervision.... ""Legislators cite the news media and the views of their constituents -- not research evidence -- as their primary sources of information about sex offenses and offenders,"" the journal said. One of the published studies, by criminologists with the University of Massachusetts, Lynn University and the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice, focused on Ohio and Oklahoma, two of the first states to meet federal guidelines set by SORNA. Those guidelines classify offenders into one of three categories determined by solely by convicted offense. (Previously, judges determined what risk offenders posed and assigned them to one of three registration categories.) Drawing on data from more than 28,000 cases in Ohio and from other research, the study’s conclusions ""shed doubt on the public safety utility of the SORNA classification system."" It found that a disproportionate number of offenders were classified as high risk, placing greater burdens, perhaps unnecessarily, on law enforcement personnel and budgets. ""From a public safety perspective,"" the study found, the SORNA classification guidelines hurt the ability of the system ""to effectively discriminate between those who pose a substantial risk to society and those who pose minimal risk,"" and also contradict evidence about the risk of repeat offenses for both adult sex offenders and juveniles. Another report, from the Minnesota Department of Corrections, studied sexual offenders who were jailed for failing to register with local law enforcement agencies. It found that the failure to register was not a predictor of repeated crime, other than future failure to register. An analysis of adult arrest data from 1990 to 2005 in South Carolina found that sex offender registration laws did have a deterrent effect on first-time adult offenders, but no effect on juveniles and no effect on recidivism. Borror also pointed us to a 2009 study from the state of New York’s Office of Mental Health that specifically compares a risk-based classification system (which Ohio used to have) to the offense-based registration system, which Ohio has now. It concluded that the current system ""falls short of increasing public safety,"" citing five earlier studies that found registration and notification laws were ""ineffective methods of reducing sexual victimizations."" It also noted there is evidence that such laws actually lead to more criminal behavior by aggravating the factors linked to it -- an unintended consequence of reducing or denying employment, educational, social and housing opportunities. ""Although well intended, such laws have done little (if anything) to increase public safety and may in fact be lowering it,"" the study said. (A 2007 report by the non-government organization Human Rights Watch detailed the harassment of registered offenders because of online community notification.) We looked further and found a 2008 report funded by the U.S. Justice Department examining the original Megan's Law in New Jersey. ""Despite widespread community support for these laws,"" it said, ""there is virtually no evidence to support their effectiveness in reducing either new first-time sex offenses (through protective measures or general deterrence) or sex re-offenses (through protective measures and specific deterrence). ""Given the lack of demonstrated effect of Megan’s Law on sexual offenses, the growing costs may not be justifiable,"" it said. Another study, by J.J. Prescott of the University of Michigan Law School and Jonah Rockoff of Columbia Business School and the National Bureau of Economic Research, examined data from 15 states over more than 10 years. They found that registering sex offenders does reduce sex crime, especially among victims with a personal connection to offenders, most likely because of better police monitoring. They also found, however, that making the registry information available to the public has the opposite effect and increases crime. ""There is little evidence of a decrease in crimes against strangers,"" the study said. ""We also find evidence that community notification deters crime, but in a way unanticipated by legislators. Our results suggest that community notification deters first-time sex offenders, but may increase recidivism by registered offenders by increasing the relative attractiveness of criminal behavior. This finding is consistent with work by criminologists showing that notification may contribute to recidivism by imposing social and financial costs on registered sex offenders and, as a result, making non-criminal activity relatively less attractive. ""We regard this latter finding as potentially important, given that the purpose of community notification is the reduction of recidivism,"" the authors concluded. The federal Government Accountability Office evaluated the effects of SORNA in a report issued earlier this year. The GAO noted that law’s purpose is to protect the public from sex offenders, but found ""analysis of the act’s effect on public safety has been limited."" Positive effects included ""improved monitoring of registered sex offenders"" and better information sharing between law enforcement agencies. Negative consequences found by the GAO included a lack of consideration of the risk of repeating sexual offenses in classifying offenders; a disproportionate increase in the workload of law enforcement agencies, and increased problems for registered sex offenders to find work or housing. What conclusion can we draw about Borror’s statement for the Ohio Public Defender’s Office, that research shows the sex offender registry has no positive impact? We found that research has been done generally on the effectiveness of sex offender registration and notification laws. We found that studies indicate the laws have no clear effect on recidivism, or repeat offenses, which is their intended target, and are ineffective in assessing and managing risk. Although there is some indication that registration and community notification may deter first-time adult offenders, the studies find that the deterrence doesn’t extend to juveniles -- and that community notification likely increases repeat sex crimes and other crimes. With that information needed for clarification,"
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5347
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Some of the biggest names in Chinese technology.
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Technology and U.S. anxiety about Chinese competition are at the center of the trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies.
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true
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Beijing, Technology, Business, Medical equipment, Apple Inc, China
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Washington accuses Beijing of trying to build its own tech champions by stealing or pressuring foreign companies to hand over technology. Here are some of China’s biggest names in telecoms equipment, clean energy and medical equipment: ZTE CORP.: The No. 2 Chinese maker of network gear for phone and internet companies was nearly driven out of business this year after running afoul of Washington over its exports to Iran and North Korea. State-owned ZTE says it spends 13 billion yuan ($2 billion) a year on research and development, but the company still needs U.S. components and technology. The company pleaded guilty in 2017 to violating restrictions on exports of U.S. technology to Iran and North Korea. Washington accused it in April of violating a settlement in that case and imposed a seven-year ban on purchases of U.S. technology — a penalty its chairman said might destroy ZTE. The company was paying American technology suppliers an estimated $1.9 billion annually. To regain access, ZTE agreed to pay a $1 billion fine, replace its executive team and embed a U.S.-chosen compliance team in the company. FOXCONN TECHNOLOGY GROUP: The world’s biggest contract electronics manufacturer is an example of U.S technology investment and job creation that President Donald Trump is keen to publicize. Founded in 1975 by Taiwanese entrepreneur Terry Gou, Foxconn employs more than 1 million people in factories in China assembling smartphones, computers and other products for Apple Inc., Dell Inc. and Sony Corp. Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., is expanding abroad. Last week, it broke ground in Wisconsin for its first U.S. facility in a ceremony attended by Trump. Foxconn acquired Japan’s Sharp Corp. in 2016 and announced plans this year to U.S. electronics brand Belkin International Inc. —HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO.: The biggest global supplier of network gear and the No.3 smartphone brand behind Samsung and Apple has faced complaints it improperly copied technology. Founded by a former Chinese military engineer in 1987, Huawei ranks No. 1 among Chinese companies in research and development spending and said its 2017 total rose 17 percent to 89.7 billion yuan ($13.8 billion). Authorities in the United States, Australia and other countries have expressed concern Huawei is a security risk, but the company denies helping Chinese military or spy agencies. In 2003, Cisco Systems accused Huawei of copying source code and infringing patents but dropped the case after the Chinese company removed the contested code and other features. —BYD CO.: The world’s biggest maker of electric cars by number of vehicles sold standards to benefit from Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” plan to develop its own tech champions. Founded in 1995 to make rechargeable batteries for toys and mobile phones, BYD — short for “Build Your Dreams” — sells battery-powered taxis and buses in Europe and Latin America and has a factory in Lancaster, California, to produce electric buses. It also has expanded into solar power, light rail and other fields. —SINOVEL WIND GROUP CO.: One of China’s biggest makers of wind turbines, Sinovel was convicted in January by a U.S. federal court of stealing software from AMSC, a former supplier in Massachusetts. The company is part of a Chinese wind industry that has boomed due to Beijing’s support for renewable energy to help curb demand for imported oil and gas. In 2013, the company was charged with stealing AMSC software. The same year, Sinovel closed its international units in the United States, Canada, Italy and Belgium, but said that was unrelated to the prosecution. The U.S. Justice Department says Sinovel faces the possibility of hundreds of millions of dollars in fines at its sentencing. —HIKVISION DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY CO. LTD.: The company that says it is the world’s biggest supplier of video surveillance equipment has run into U.S. accusations it is a security risk. State-owned Hikvision says its customers include the Universal Studios theme park in Florida, a London district government, the South Korean city of Daegu and Milan’s Malpensa Airport. People working in the American video surveillance industry have accused Hikvision of including features in its products that transmitted images to its China headquarters without its customers’ knowledge. A military spending bill approved by the U.S. House of Representatives last month includes a ban on government purchases from Hikvision. —MINDRAY BIO-MEDICAL ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.: China’s biggest manufacturer of ultrasound scanners and other medical equipment — a key category targeted by Washington’s threats of tariff hikes. Founded in 1991, Mindray says its equipment is used by hospitals and other medical and veterinary institutions in 190 countries.
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1138
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After devastating floods, U.S. Midwest farms need more than 'paper towels' to recover.
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Missouri farmer Richard Oswald needs a lot of help to recover from flooding that left his home and farm looking like a manmade island in an inland sea.
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true
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Environment
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Relief groups are giving tetanus shots and handing out free meals and cleaning supplies near his farm in the Langdon-Rock Port area, about 100 miles (161 km) northwest of Kansas City. But what Oswald really needs is money. Hit by the worst flooding in living memory, he and thousands of other farmers along the Missouri River will each require hundreds of thousands of dollars in disaster funds or loans to start over. “The typical response on flood relief is groups like the Red Cross show up with paper towels and rubber gloves and scrub buckets,” said Oswald, 69, who does not expect to be able to get to his home or land for weeks. “The biggest thing farmers need is cash, or ways to access funds.” Slammed by a trade war and low commodity prices, Midwest family farms have been in the red and in decline for the last five years. The number of U.S farms fell by 100,000 between 2010 and 2017, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data. Thousands more will now go under without emergency financial support for flooding, pummeling heartland economies almost entirely dependent on agriculture, farmers and aid groups said. It is a call federal and state agencies, as well as non-governmental and faith-based relief groups are answering. President Donald Trump has approved disaster declarations for Nebraska and Iowa, making federal disaster funding available in flood-hit areas. Missouri Governor Mike Parson declared a state of emergency, paving the way for similar actions in his state. “I know we aim for bringing everything back up to where it was,” said Rosalynn Days-Austin, a USDA emergency coordinator helping direct Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) efforts in flood-affected areas. “Sometimes that’s not always possible, for a variety of reasons, but the goal is definitely to help them bounce back from their loss.” Relief groups like Farm Aid are tending to the immediate needs of farmers, distributing tens of thousands of dollars in “emergency grants” - $500 gifts from cash donations that help families pay for things like groceries. After that, the group and its partners advise farming families on how to access federal disaster funds they hope are coming soon. “What we’re hearing, because of the snowpack and rain and the wet ground, is that farmers are going to be dealing with this throughout the spring. So we’re in it for the long haul,” said Jennifer Fahy, a spokeswoman for the group established by country singer and activist Willie Nelson. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is coordinating a long-term response to get displaced families housed, navigate the red tape of insurance companies and federal agencies and tend to the mental health needs of people who have suffered extreme trauma, said Bishop Brian Maas. “We have national partners and coalitions within the state,” said Maas, who is asking people to hold off donating more material goods, for now. “There will be stresses because we’ve not done anything of this magnitude. “Now we have mountains of cleaning supplies and so forth that can’t be used,” Maas said, appealing to people to get back in touch in a month to see how they can donate then. “Cash is the most flexible way to respond.” Another immediate need is feed for livestock. Relief organization Farm Rescue is collecting donations of hay in the Dakotas and trucking it to farmers whose cattle are starving after their feed stands were submerged in floodwater. “I don’t know of anything this widespread that has ever affected so many people in our service area,” said Dan Erdmann, a spokesman for the group which helps family farms get through crises ranging from natural disasters to medical emergencies. Farm workers, some of them undocumented and legal migrants, have been hit hard. Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska is looking at housing assistance for displaced people who previously paid around $300 a month rent and now face rents triple that due to a dearth in properties, said Stacy Martin, chief executive of the social services charity. While relief groups tend to urgent needs, farmers like Scott Olson say more federal relief money is needed at a time when low crop prices and high debt levels are limiting farmers’ access to credit. He is counting on a farm relief bill in Congress for extra disaster compensation after he successfully lobbied in Washington for similar funds following 2011 flooding. “Flood insurance isn’t going to cover this worth a darn. FEMA is worthless,” said Olson, who farms 3,000 acres near Tekamah, Nebraska and runs a farm equipment business. “They don’t have any money, nobody has any money.”
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11627
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Studies show that for kids’ ear infections, antibiotics work better than waiting
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Overall, we reviewed four pieces on this study. All the others (CNN, LA Times, NPR) got four star reviews. We appreciate that journalists sometimes want to bring their own perspective to a story, and we think this can provide valuable context when the reporter approaches the issue carefully. In this blog post about the use of antibiotics to treat children’s ear infections, however, the writer prioritizes her own experience and conclusions while ignoring important evidence and failing to seek out the perspective of any real expert. And so the story provides a lopsided and overly simplified account of an issue that demands more balanced coverage and careful consideration of benefits and harms. Read the CNN blog post for what we think is a fair comparison – blog to blog, head to head. This blog piece suggests that antibiotics are more effective than placebos for treating middle ear infections in infants and toddlers — a conclusion supported by two new randomized controlled trials reported in the respected New England Journal of Medicine. While useful to know, this information isn’t enough to tell us how all children with ear infections should be treated. To make these kinds of treatment choices, it’s also important to consider how much more effective antibiotics are than no treatment, and we should be aware that the benefits might depend on how confident the doctor is in the diagnosis (viral colds and other problems often look like ear infections, but won’t benefit from treatment). We also need to weigh the downsides of treatment, which include adverse effects such as diarrhea as well as the potential for increased risk of future infections with antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. After considering all of these factors, different parents may come to different decisions about whether they want to treat their child immediately with an antiobiotic or reserve treatment for a brief period while waiting to see if he gets better on his own. Reporters don’t do parents any favors when they encourage them to make knee jerk decisions about a child’s care, as this blog did.
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false
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Washington Post
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Although the cost of antibiotics to treat an ear infection may not be a significant issue for most families, we think costs always should be addressed. We found an estimate on Drugstore.com of $76 for a 10 day course of treatment. There, that wasn’t difficult, was it? Insufficient data here. The blog says antibiotics are “more effective than placebos in relieving ear-infection symptoms.” But the question is how much more effective are they and does this difference outweigh the downsides of treatment? The story could have helped readers answer this question by providing some data on the absolute rates of improvement reported in the these studies. Had it done so, readers might have observed that in one of the studies, rates of symptom resolution were 80% in the antibiotic group after 7 days compared with 74% in the placebo group. This might have opened the door to a discussion of whether this 6% difference is worth the potential risks of antibiotic therapy. Or, the story could have pointed out in the second study, only 18.6% of antibiotic children failed to get better by day 8, compared to 44.9% of the placebo group — a much bigger benefit for antibiotics. This may have prompted an exploration of the differences between the studies (for one thing, the second study was conducted in Finland, whereas the first was done in Pittsburgh) and consideration of which study may be more representative of the benfits readers can expect for their children.
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37896
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A popular photograph online can help users determine their stress level by how much it appears to be spinning.
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Was This Illusion ‘Created by a Japanese Neurologist’ to Identify Stress Levels?
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false
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Fact Checks, Viral Content
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Like many other memes, a roundly-debunked graphic continued to make the online rounds in 2020, though one version did gain more traction earlier in the year.The photograph itself shows an optical illusion, but the caption often accompanying it is misidentified, using exoticization to play to readers’ insecurities:This image was created by a Japanese neurologist. If the image is still, you are calm, if the image moves a bit, stressed and if it moves like a carousel, you are very stressed. Tell me how are you doing?One Facebook user’s reproduction of the graphic has been shared more then 89,000 times since being posted in January 2020. And as recently as March 26, 2020 another user’s post garnered more than 7,000 shares.But as Agence France-Presse has reported, the graphic has been circulated for much longer: its first iteration, posted onto Facebook in November 2018, amassed more than 180,000 shares within six weeks. The creator, though, is not “a Japanese neurologist” but a Ukrainian graphic designer identified as Yurii Perepadia:AFP found him also on Facebook and asked him about the image. “This image is one of the best selling. Make it was not very hard. At that time I already had experience working with Adobe Illustrator”, he told AFP via Facebook messenger on January 10.Perepadia told AFP he created it in 2016. Several posts confirm the image did go online that year.Besides being spotted on commercial photography platforms, Perepadia posted the image on his own Twitter account — where, ironically, it did not receive much attention:https://t.co/w1dBDgyRan #Vector #art #artwork #motion #illusion #abstract #illustration pic.twitter.com/alevuXC6x2— Yurii Perepadia (@yurrey_p) September 27, 2016He also shared it on his Instagram account, where it has been “liked” more than 1,500 times, and also shared the secret of its creation:I drew this optical illusion in Adobe Illustrator on September 26, 2016. To create it, I used the effect of Akioshi Kitaoka. This is a white and black stroke on a colored background, this is a white and black stroke on a colored background, which sets in motion the focus of vision and it seems to a person that the details of the image are moving. Japanese psychotherapist Yamamoto Hashima has nothing to do with this picture. Moreover, Yamamoto Hashima does not really exist. Google to help.According to AFP, the photo has been shared all over the world. Perepadia told the BBC in 2018 that as the photo continued to spread online, he wrote letters demanding that it be taken down.“It annoyed me,” he said. “After all, it was copyright infringement.”However, the graphic continues to make the rounds. We would like to point out here that if you feel that you may be under stress in a time of increasing instability during a global pandemic, you would not need a graphic to tell you so — even if it was accurate, which it is not.Comments
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10628
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Newer Genetic Test for Autism More Effective
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This piece reports on a study, which found that a newer genetic test is better at detecting abnormalities linked to autism when compared to the standard tests. This was a well-referenced piece that met many of our criteria, but it would have been improved had it included: a clearer discussion of why children with autism receive genetic testing; information about the patients in the study, including their specific diagnoses; a discussion of the spectrum of autism disorders; information on the nuances of genetic testing, including potential psychological harms; and a discussion of the cost of these tests. This is a story about an emerging diagnostic test for a childhood disorder that appears to have increasing prevalence. Knowledge of genetic predisposition to this disease is important.
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true
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"The story did not mention specific costs of the CMA test; however, it did indicate that not all insurance will cover this test. Since the story stated that ""both Children’s Hospital Boston and Montefiore have offered CMA testing for several years,"" some cost estimate could have easily been found. The story adequately presents the efficacy of three different genetic tests in identifying abnormalities that may be associated with autism—karyotype: 2%; fragile X: 0.5%; CMA: 7%. It would have been helpful to let readers know that not all 933 people included in the study were tested with each of the three tests. According to the results, the CMA tests performed best in females with autistic disorder, but this was not reported. There was no discussion regarding the emotional or social ramifications associated with receiving genetic testing results. More information on who was included in this test would have been useful. The majority of the patients were diagnosed with autistic disorder (n=447) and Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) (n=454). A small number of participants had Asberger disorder (n=31). This story did not exaggerate the prevalence or seriousness of autism. This story included perspective from a pediatric geneticist unaffiliated with the research. The story provided data comparing the two standard genetic tests to the newer CMA test. The story clearly states that not all hospitals offer the newer chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) test. It could have also mentioned that genetic counseling services are not widely available in some geographic areas. The story clearly points out that genetic tests for autism are often performed, but the CMA test is relatively new."
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11518
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More help in the battle of the bulge
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This is a very brief story (156 words), with many of the problems inherent in such briefs. It's about about an over-the-counter product, due out this summer, to help people with weight loss. It is a half strength version of orlistat, a prescription drug, and though the story implies that the weight loss with the over-the-counter version will be about the same as the prescription strength this is not supported by the scientific evidence. And no source of data to support that projection is given. Although the story briefly mentioned clinical trials involving this product and reported on the increased weight loss when using this product in addition to a diet and exercise program, there do not appear to be any studies published in peer reviewed journals. Without that, it is impossible to weigh the strength of the evidence, something the story should have pointed out. In addition, the story did not completely describe the side-effects associated with the use of this product. Overall, no sources were cited. Criticisms of the over-the-counter use of orlistat are easy to find.
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mixture
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The story mentioned that this product will cost $50 for a 30-day supply. The story mentioned a 5-10 pound increased weight loss over a period of six months with the use of this product. But no source is given for that projection. Is that based on use of the prescription-strength version of orlistat? If not, what is the source? The story included a parenthetic thought about possible side effects if a low-fat diet isn't followed. But unpleasant side-effects may be experienced even with consumption of a low-fat diet. The FDA also advises that because nutrients may be lost, people using alli are recommended to take a multivitamin. Although the story mentioned clinical trials involving this product and reported on the increased weight loss when using this product in addition to a diet and exercise program, there do not appear to be any studies published in peer reviewed journals. Without that, it is impossible to weigh the strength of the evidence, something the story should have pointed out. This story did not engage in disease mongering. No sources were cited. Criticisms of the over-the-counter use of orlistat are easy to find. There is no mention of other treatment options for weight loss. The story mentioned that the product is expected to be available this summer. The story was clear that alli is an over-the-counter strength of orlistat,a medication that has previously been available by prescription only. There is no clear source for the material presented in this story; it is therefore not possible to eliminate the possibility that it was based exclusively on a press release.
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7043
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Vanuatu plans to permanently evacuate entire volcanic island.
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The Pacific nation of Vanuatu is preparing to permanently evacuate the entire population of one of its islands as thick ash spewing from a volcano kills crops, dirties water supplies and fouls the air.
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true
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International News, Asia Pacific, Vanuatu, Science, New Zealand
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The 10,000 or so people who remain on Ambae island have mixed feelings about the plans. Some who are badly affected by the ash are eager to leave while others are resisting losing their land and culture. The island was temporarily evacuated last September when the eruption cycle began. This time, authorities are planning a permanent move. Government spokesman Hilaire Bule told The Associated Press on Thursday that he expects the Council of Ministers to approve a relocation plan by next week. Bule said the islanders would be offered residence on two neighboring islands. “It’s not an easy decision,” Bule said. He said there were many details to work through, including providing schools and facilities to the displaced residents and negotiating land and new homes for them. Many people have close family and spiritual ties to the islands where they’ll be relocated, Maewo and Pentecost, Bule said. Traditional religion even has it that the islands are part of a family — Pentecost being the mother, Maewo the father and Ambae the son. Most people on Ambae live a subsistence lifestyle by farming and fishing. Already hundreds of people have moved to temporary shelters on parts of the island that are not so affected by the ash. Ambae is about 400 square kilometers (154 square miles) and is one of about 65 inhabited islands in Vanuatu, which is home to 280,000 people. Vanuatu sits on the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire,” the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where earthquakes and volcanoes are common. Brad Scott, a New Zealand volcanologist with GNS Science who has been seconded to help Vanuatu authorities, said more than one-quarter of Ambae has been severely impacted, with many traditional thatch roofs collapsing under the weight of the thick ash. He said traditional gardens have been buried and killed in some places and water supplies have been discolored and the water tastes strange. He said there is lots of fine-grained ash, which can affect people’s breathing and respiratory functioning. Other countries including France, New Zealand and Australia provided aid and financial help for the earlier evacuation. Australia on Thursday announced it was providing 300,000 Australian dollars ($226,000) to help with the island’s permanent evacuation, with a focus on the needs of women, children and people with disabilities. Despite the problems, Scott said, many people want to stay put. “There has been significant pushback in the community,” Scott said. “Some people, suffering from significant ash fall, would love to be anywhere else on the planet. Others have strong cultural associations.” Scott said the Manaro volcano on Ambae island had a large eruption about 400 years ago and has had several smaller eruptions over the past 100 years. There have been three phases in the current eruption, with the most recent phase, which started in March, producing the most ash. He said the volcano has actually quietened down over the past two weeks, although there is no way of predicting if and when the next explosive phase would begin. Asked if there was a chance that the residents might be able to one day move back to the island, Bule, the government spokesman, said that was not a question for him. “We don’t know,” he said. “You’ll have to ask the volcano.”
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2934
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Seasonal flu widespread in the United States: CDC.
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Nearly half of the United States is reporting widespread influenza activity, most of it attributed to the H1N1 virus that caused a worldwide pandemic in 2009, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.
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true
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Health News
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Thousands of people die every year from flu, which peaks in the United States between October and March. The flu is spreading quickly this season, with 25 states already reporting cases, the CDC said. “We are seeing a big uptick in disease in the past couple of weeks. The virus is all around the United States right now,” said Dr. Joe Bresee, chief of Epidemiology and Prevention in the CDC’s Influenza Division. In 2009-2010, the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, spread from Central Mexico to 74 other countries, killing an estimated 284,000 people, according to the CDC. While younger people were more susceptible to H1N1 in 2009, Bresee said it is too early to tell whether the same will be true this year. This season’s virus has killed six children in the United States, according to CDC data. The agency does not track adult deaths, but dozens have been reported around the country. “There is still a lot of season to come. If folks haven’t been vaccinated, we recommend they do it now,” Bresee said. Texas has been one of the harder hits states, where at least 25 people have died this season from the flu, local health officials said. The Texas Department of State Health Services issued an “influenza health alert” on December 20, advising clinicians to consider antiviral treatment, even if an initial rapid-flu test comes back negative. Texas health officials also encouraged people to get a flu vaccination. “The flu is considered widespread in Texas,” Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the state’s health department, said.
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26196
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Blogger Says Nancy Pelosi tried “once again” to include abortion funding in the latest coronavirus bill.
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The HEROES Act doesn’t contain any mention of abortion services, and the proposed changes to funding rules aren’t specific to Planned Parenthood. The organization would be eligible for Paycheck Protection Program loans under the bill’s expanded eligibility guidelines for nonprofits.
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false
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Abortion, Coronavirus, Bloggers,
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"In March, conservative groups falsely accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of trying to include abortion funding in the first coronavirus stimulus bill. Now, anti-abortion website Life News claims that Pelosi has been ""caught"" trying to do something similar in a $3 trillion package that passed the House on May 15, 2020. ""Pelosi is back at it — trying to remove the safeguards from the previous bill to exclude Planned Parenthood from small business bailouts in her new Phase 4 relief legislation,"" the story says. It also claims that, under the bill’s proposal to help state and local governments, ""states would be free to pass along taxpayer dollars to the Planned Parenthood abortion business."" The story 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 an element of truth to the claim that the bill does not explicitly restrict states from using funds to cover abortion services, but it leaves out important context that could give a different impression. The Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act passed the House by a vote of 208-199, with only one Republican in favor. It awaits action in the Senate, where its prospects are dim. The key provisions include nearly $1 trillion for state and local governments, a $200 billion hazard-pay fund for essential workers, and $75 billion to support coronavirus testing, contact tracing and patient isolation. The bill also offers a new round of direct payments to families. It’s meant to boost the economic support to individuals and businesses provided by the $2 trillion CARES Act. The bill does not mention abortion. What Life News and other websites are talking about, in part, involves eligibility for the Paycheck Protection Program established in March. The program offered low-interest loans to small businesses and nonprofits to keep employees on the payroll during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic. The program is administered by the Small Business Administration with support from the Treasury Department. The CARES Act included a cap on the size of organizations that could receive the money, but the new House bill attempts to expand nonprofit organizations’ access to aid by setting aside 25% of available PPP funds for nonprofits, removing the size and category restrictions for them and steering more aid to smaller nonprofits. Proposed changes to the PPP provisions aren’t specific to Planned Parenthood, which offers a range of women’s health services that includes abortions. But the expanded guidelines would make a large group like Planned Parenthood eligible for the loans. Meanwhile, there’s already a fight over about $80 million in subsidized SBA loans that were given to state and local Planned Parenthood affiliates. Over 125 Republicans have called for a federal investigation into the loans, and the SBA ordered the chapters to give back the money, saying they’re too closely affiliated with the national organization to be considered independent entities. Planned Parenthood released a statement denouncing the criticism, saying its independent affiliates complied with eligibility rules in applying for and receiving the loans. Other corporate entities, such as AutoNation and Ruth’s Hospitality Group (which owns Ruth’s Chris Steak House), have faced similar scrutiny for receiving millions in PPP loans through their local affiliates. The companies said they will return the money. The Treasury says it will audit every company that received more than $2 million from the programs. The Life News claim that ""states would be free to pass along taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood"" stems from a provision to give fiscal relief to state and local governments. The HEROES Act provides $540 billion in funding to assist state governments with the fiscal impacts from the public health emergency, and $375 billion to local governments. The website quotes Tom McClusky, president of the anti-abortion group March for Life Action, as saying the bill would allow federal tax dollars to pay for abortions through subsidized health care plans and would authorize over $900 billion in ""open-ended funding"" at the state and local level, ""so nothing would prevent this money from further subsidizing the abortion industry."" The bill doesn’t include the Hyde Amendment budgetary rider, which prohibits the federal government from covering the costs of abortions except in very rare cases. The concern is that without the rider, state and local governments could pass some of the money along to Planned Parenthood for abortion services. In the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the first emergency aid bill, language was amended by Democrats to limit funds to cover only COVID-19 expenses. So far, the same has not been done in the HEROES Act. Specifically, the Hyde Amendment states that federal Medicaid funds cannot cover an abortion unless the woman’s life is in danger or the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. But it does not limit a state’s ability to use its own funds to cover abortion. As of January 2020, 15 states use their own funds to extend abortion coverage to Medicaid enrollees, while 34 states and the District of Columbia follow the amendment’s standards. One state, South Dakota, does not follow Hyde standards and pays for abortions only when they are necessary to protect a woman's life. Laurie Sobel, associate director of women’s health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said the suggestion that states could use emergency funds for abortion services is not easy to respond to, but it wouldn’t happen through Medicaid. Any added federal money for Medicaid, Sobel said, would likely come in the form of increased reimbursements to states for the federal share of most Medicaid expenses, in which the Hyde language applies. She said it’s unlikely that the state's general emergency funds will be able to be spent freely, but rather that the funds will be designated for particular uses. We reached out to Life News for comment but didn’t hear back by time of publication. A website claims that Pelosi tried ""once again"" to include abortion funding in the latest coronavirus bill. The HEROES Act does not contain any mention of abortion, and there is no section that funnels money specifically for those services. As is, the bill would make it easier for nonprofit organizations, including large ones like Planned Parenthood, to receive funds under the Paycheck Protection Program. Anti-abortion groups are also pointing to the lack of language explicitly barring state and local governments from using federal relief money to fund abortions as evidence of Pelosi getting ""caught."" But health policy experts say the Hyde amendment restrictions still apply to federal support under Medicaid, and that aid to states will likely be designated for specific uses, and won’t be open-ended. The claim is largely speculative about the use of the money and oversimplifies the allocation of federal funds."
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10480
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Baking Soda Boosts Athletic Performance
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"This story is based on a study of just nine skilled college tennis players. The story provides no context, no data, no comparisons with related research. In the firehose of health information that floods the American public every day, this story about trying to prevent ""fatigue-induced decline"" in just 9 elite tennis players just doesn’t seem to be worth the time or attention."
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false
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"Not applicable. The cost of baking soda isn’t in question. There were no detailed results reported in the story – none of the data that would explain whether blood tests or accuracy/velocity testing was significantly different between the treated and non-treated groups. So readers are given no sense of the scope of potential benefit. There was no discussion of potential harms. There was no discussion of the limitations of drawing conclusions from a study of just nine people. Or of two little trials a week apart. The story didn’t discuss any of the limitations that the researchers themselves described: Is ""fatigue-induced decline"" in tennis really something that requires treatment? Does a study in 21-year old Division I college tennis players have any direct relevance to the rest of the population? None of these questions were explored. No independent perspective appeared in the story. There was not even a line about other fatigue-fighting measures in tennis players, and no comparison of these new small-study results with anything else. It’s just an island of isolated information from an extremely small study. Why this is newsworthy is beyond us. Not applicable. The availability of baking soda isn’t in question. The story didn’t place this new, tiny study into the context of other research that’s been done on sodium bicarbonate and athletic performance. The story lifted its researcher quotes from a news release."
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7504
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Trump faces credibility test as he plays down virus threat.
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President Donald Trump faces a critical personal challenge in grappling with the new coronavirus outbreak: asking Americans to believe him after he and some of his top advisers have contradicted federal scientists in playing down the threat.
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true
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AP Top News, Health, Ebola virus, Politics, Public health, Election 2020, Business, Donald Trump, Virus Outbreak, Michael Pence, General News, U.S. News
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Keenly aware of the stakes not just for public health but also his credibility, Trump conducted a lengthy press conference Wednesday evening aimed at reassuring everyone that he has the crisis well in hand. Trump surrounded himself with his administration’s top health experts. And he encouraged Americans to be prepared for the virus’ potential spread. But he continued to minimize the risk, saying the outbreak “may get a little bigger; it may not get bigger at all.” And he continued to distance himself from the stated opinion of public health officials that it’s inevitable the virus will spread within the United States. As businesses, schools and people in general think about preparing, the X-factor may be an unpredictable president who has clashed repeatedly with scientists in his own administration and tends to see any crisis through the lens of his own reelection chances. “I don’t think it’s inevitable,” Trump said at the news conference, where he announced Vice President Mike Pence would lead the administration’s response to the outbreak. “I think it has a chance that it could get worse. There is a chance you can get fairly substantially worse. But nothing’s inevitable.” He also said he had recently learned that thousands die from the flu each year, contrasting that to the coronavirus. After two days of the stock market tumbling, Trump took to Twitter Wednesday morning to blame the media and Democrats for causing undue alarm and harming American financial markets. He singled out MSNBC and CNN for “doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible,” and added that ”incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action.” He blamed part of this week’s stock market slide on people’s reaction to Tuesday night’s Democratic debate and the possibility one of those candidates might replace him. And Trump acknowledged that the outbreak could “have an impact on GDP” but insisted that the U.S. economy is still “doing great.” The setting for Trump’s evening press conference — the White House press briefing room — was meant to offer a sense of calm and assurance by the Republican president. It was only the second time in his presidency that Trump had spoken from the podium in that room, and aides acknowledged he was trying to underscore that he has the situation under control and understands the gravity. In advance, Trump played down the mortality rate for a pathogen that has been confirmed to have killed 2,700 people globally. His top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, echoed Trump’s outlook, saying Tuesday that the U.S. had “contained” the threat of a domestic outbreak. Trump’s and Kudlow’s comments were at odds with warnings from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials who said American communities need to prepare now for when the disease starts spreading domestically. There have been just 60 confirmed cases in the U.S. “The messaging by the White House is unhelpful,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University. “What the White House is doing is conveying a sense of overconfidence. ... Of course, we do want to maintain calm with the public, but it flies in the face of facts.” Trump’s public efforts to project calm masked a behind-the-scenes focus. During his 36-hour visit to India, Trump received briefings from staff and periodically checked the impact on Wall Street, tweeting at all hours to try to reassure Americans and the markets about the spread of the virus. Trump expressed deep concern to aides about the effect on the markets, according to White House officials and Republicans close to the West Wing. Trump has tied his fortunes to Wall Street more closely than any of his recent predecessors and has made a strong economy his No. 1 argument for reelection. As the media coverage of the virus has increased, Trump has grown concerned that even fears of an outbreak would stagger Wall Street, leading him to wonder aloud if Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was the right person to lead the administration’s response, the officials said. Since the start of the crisis, Trump has been reluctant to blame China, where the virus originated, for fear of upsetting President Xi Jinping or damaging ongoing trade talks. But he is also fearful he could be accused of being unresponsive to the crisis. At the urging of a number of his internal and outside advisers, he directed the White House to adopt a more public presence, leading to a briefing by officials and emails to the press stressing the administration’s response. “Americans want to see their president taking charge and showing leadership, and that is exactly what President Trump is doing,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany. Privately, aides said concerns have spiked in recent days inside the Trump reelection campaign. Republicans close to the White House are keenly aware of the political implications of a pandemic scare. In 2014, the GOP aggressively criticized the Obama administration’s handling of the Ebola epidemic, which it later credited with helping the party seize back the majority in the Senate. The most pressing concern, aides said, is not the possibility of widespread outbreak in the U.S. — Trump’s aides do believe existing monitoring and restrictions are working — but the downstream effects of the virus on the global economy and public sentiment. The virus has already shut Chinese factories that are part of the U.S. supply chain. Mark Zandi, an economist at Moody’s Analytics, estimated Wednesday that U.S. growth could slow to 1.7% this year — roughly the same level as in 2016. He said the situation could become worse if a pandemic emerges. “The U.S. economy is more insulated from the impact of the virus, but it is not immune, and it too would likely suffer a downturn in this scenario,” Zandi said. Trump moved swiftly to severely curtail most travel to China a month ago, a move administration officials believe slowed the spread of the virus to the U.S., even if it drew criticism for being too extreme in the moment. Until now, federal health authorities have been preparing for the coronavirus’ arrival in the U.S. with little if any White House interference. They’re following the playbook: pandemic preparedness plans that were put into place in anticipation of another flu pandemic, but will work for any respiratory-borne disease. Part of those plans call for educating the public on what to expect if the virus begins spreading in U.S. communities, such as school closures or calls for people to telework. One of the lessons learned in prior crises is not to offer false assurances when scientists have questions about the illness. As Trump plays down the threat of an outbreak, his past attacks on government scientists on everything from hurricane forecasts to climate change and his reputation for straining the truth all factor into the credibility of his message. The flap over Trump’s off-base comments about Hurricane Dorian last fall — when he went so far as to display a weather map that had been altered with a black marker to extend the hurricane’s possible path — demonstrated the pitfalls when a president veers from the message provided by government scientists and career professionals. Trump, who pilloried President Barack Obama over his response to the Ebola epidemic, now finds himself having to fend off a wave of criticism from Democratic presidential rivals who claim he’s discounted science and has inadequate response plans. At Tuesday’s presidential debate, Mike Bloomberg claimed “there’s nobody here to figure out what the hell we should be doing.” Sen. Amy Klobuchar criticized Trump for trying to cut back funding of the CDC and the National Institutes of Health. Trump’s budgets have proposed cuts to public health, only to be overruled by Congress, where there’s strong bipartisan support for agencies like the CDC and NIH. Instead, financing has increased. —- Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Lauran Neergaard and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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