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9759 | One-two punch of two generics for breast cancer may be more powerful than wonder drug tamoxifen | This story looks at two classes of drugs – aromatase inhibitors and bisphosphonates – which it says may deliver a “powerful one-two punch” when treating breast cancer. It reports on two Lancet studies that compiled data from 9 and 26 trials, respectively – what are known as meta-analyses. The studies reported on are ne... | mixture | aromatase inhibitors,bisphosphonates,breast cancer,tamoxifen | The Washington Post article calls aromatase inhibitors “inexpensive,” but it doesn’t put a price tag on them. According to some reports, patient copays for taxomifen and aromatase inhibitors are around $8 – $9 for a month’s supply of each drug, which we’ll agree is inexpensive. But the cost of bisphosphonates is not ad... |
17187 | The National Science Foundation awarded $700,000 to fund a climate change musical. | Smith said the science foundation awarded $700,000 for a climate change musical. The NSF awarded nearly that much for a theater company to produce a musical play that focuses on climate change and biodiversity conservation. | true | Climate Change, Federal Budget, Science, Texas, Lamar Smith, | "Republican U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, whose district stretches from San Antonio north into Austin, recently pressed an official about the government bankrolling a musical. Smith, chairman of the House Science, Space & Technology Committee, listed six National Science Foundation grants as questionable--including, Smith sai... |
4007 | German lawmakers approve compulsory measles vaccine plan. | Germany’s parliament has passed a law requiring that children who attend school or daycare must be vaccinated for measles. | true | Health, Measles, General News, Europe, Germany, Europe | Lawmakers approved the government’s bill Thursday with a majority of 459 in favor, 89 against and 105 abstentions. The law means parents who can’t prove their children have been vaccinated for measles by Aug. 1, 2021, will have to pay a fine of up to 2,500 euros ($2,790). Health Minister Jens Spahn has argued that the ... |
8831 | Celebrex-Lipitor combo may fight prostate cancer. | The combination of anti-inflammatory and cholesterol-lowering drugs may be able to stop the progression of prostate cancer, according to new research so far carried out only in mice. | true | Health News | “The two drugs work through different mechanisms of action, but there is a synergistic effect that inhibits the growth of prostate cancer cells,” said Xi Cheng, assistant research professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, who conducted the study. His team administered a combination of Celebrex, a n... |
11202 | Abbott absorbable stent shows good results | Compare this story with one published by the Wall Street Journal four days earlier – even before the study was presented at a conference. The tone and the framing were markedly different. Reuters offered: “proven safe and effective…promising” and even allowed a researcher to predict future uses without any data. The W... | false | heart disease,Reuters Health | No discussion of costs. The Wall Street Journal, by comparison, at least reported: “Abbott expects to charge more for the Absorb device than the permanent, medicated stents currently available, which cost around $1,500 to $2,000.” The story simply stated, “no blood clots were reported among patients who were far enough... |
1344 | British PM May apologizes as overwhelmed hospitals cancel non-emergency operations. | Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May apologized on Thursday to tens of thousands of patients whose operations were canceled to free up staff and beds to deal with emergency patients. | true | Health News | Earlier this week, officials at the National Health Service (NHS) in England recommended that hospitals cancel all non-urgent appointments and operations until next month. May, during a visit to a hospital outside London, said she recognized it is frustrating for patients who had their operations postponed. “I know it ... |
212 | Exclusive: India proposes ban on e-cigarettes, with jail terms for offenders - government documents. | India’s health ministry has proposed a ban on the production and import of electronic cigarettes, documents seen by Reuters showed, potentially jeopardizing the expansion plans of big firms like Juul Labs and Philip Morris International. | true | Health News | The ministry has proposed that the government issue an executive order banning the devices in the public interest, saying it was needed to ensure e-cigarettes don’t become an “epidemic” among children and young adults. “E-cigarettes and similar technologies that encourage tobacco use or adversely impact public health a... |
37611 | "A man was arrested for allegedly forcing a woman to watch the nine-hour miniseries Roots to ""better understand her racism." | Was a Man Arrested for Allegedly Forcing a Woman to Watch ‘Roots’ to ‘Better Understand’ Her Racism? | true | Fact Checks, Viral Content | On February 17 2020, an odd story came out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa via The Gazette, about the arrest of a man who allegedly forced made a woman watch the mini-series Roots so that she might better understand her own racism:A Cedar Rapids man [Robert Lee Noye, 52] who was arrested [February 17 2020] is accused of holding ... |
1251 | Mother Earth's MeToo moment: English town joins campaign for 'nature's rights'. | Nobody knows exactly how ancient masons, wielding chisels made from deer antlers, managed to build Stonehenge, the standing circle that has enchanted southern England for thousands of years. | true | Environment | But one theory about the epic undertaking reserves a special place for a nearby river, now known as the Frome, that may have served as a conduit for ferrying some of the smaller megaliths toward the site on rafts. Today, the placid waterway is once again playing a supporting role in a grand vision, albeit one its archi... |
35382 | In July 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration established new guidelines for hospitals to report COVID-19 patient information that eliminates the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the leader of data collection. | In what was framed as an effort to streamline the reporting process, the federal government ordered hospitals to send patient information to a centralized database operated by HHS. | true | Politics, COVID-19, Editor's Picks | Since the beginning of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak in January 2020, Americans relied on hospital patient data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop emergency plans that aimed to lessen the chances of deadly bottlenecks in the country’s health care system during the pandemic. The ... |
25635 | “Covid-19 is NOT killing people. Weak immune systems and bad doctors are.” | While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 94% of people who died of COVID-19 had other conditions, they still died from COVID-19. | false | Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Viral image, | "A recent Facebook post rounds up a lot of misinformation about the coronavirus and presents it as fact. ""Covid-19 is NOT killing people,"" it says. ""Weak immune systems and bad doctors are. The tests are rigged. The death count is . Masks are useless. Hand sanitizer is toxic. Vaccines are poison. The government and ... |
10360 | Prostate cancer breakthrough as UK team develops more accurate test | This Guardian story touts a new approach for detecting and diagnosing prostate cancer which, it claims, is safer and more effective than the commonly used methods. The story states that researchers used up to 200 patients to gauge the efficacy of shear wave elastography (SWE) — an approach currently used in diagnosing ... | false | The Guardian | The only mention of costs in this Guardian story is the following sentence, “The method is non-invasive and cheaper than current detection techniques.” But the story offers no information to back up that statement. There’s no mention of the current costs for the available screening approaches and there’s no estimate o... |
23280 | "Scott Hassett Says Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen ""knew about (the Ken Kratz sexting) case for nearly a year and did nothing about it." | Challenger Scott Hassett says Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen knew about district attorney sexting case but did nothing about it | false | Legal Issues, Crime, Wisconsin, Scott Hassett, | "Prosecutor Ken Kratz has been battered by a storm of denunciation since revelations in September 2010 that he used his position -- and sexually suggestive text messages -- to pursue a crime victim and possibly two other women who relied on him to do right by them in court. Among those castigating the Calumet County di... |
6805 | NFL, union to host symposium on mental health on May 14. | The NFL and the players’ union will host a symposium on mental health on May 14. | true | NFL football, Mental health, Health, Asher Allen, Sports, Brandon Marshall | Entitled “Beyond The Physical: A Symposium on Mental Health in Sports,” the forum will feature a series of panels with current and former NFL players as well as mental health organizations, caregivers, medical providers and media personalities. The aim is to raise awareness of mental health and promote a culture in whi... |
18612 | We have a federal government that thinks they have the authority to regulate our toilet seats. | "Cruz, railing against modern interpretations of the Commerce Clause and the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, said, ""We have a federal government that thinks they have the authority to regulate our toilet seats."" While federal attention to toilet seats has dropped since its brief foray into seat shape in the ‘70s,... | true | National, Consumer Safety, Corrections and Updates, Government Regulation, Regulation, States, Supreme Court, Workers, Ted Cruz, | "Toilet seats just got political. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a constitutional lawyer recently elected to Congress, says they’re an intimate example of federal overreach. He name-dropped the familiar fixtures in his March 16, 2013, speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC. ""We have a fede... |
16962 | "In Texas, ""a faceless hospital panel can deny life-sustaining care, giving you only 10 days to find another facility for your mother, dad, or young child, even if the patient is conscious." | "Texas Right to Life said in Texas, ""a faceless hospital panel can deny life-sustaining care, giving you only 10 days to find another facility for your mother, dad, or young child, even if the patient is conscious."" This claim accurately tracks a portion of the law and we see how one could construe this scenario. The... | mixture | Corrections and Updates, Health Care, Legal Issues, Texas, Texas Right to Life, | "UPDATE: On May 29, 2014, we rated a claim by Texas Right to Life that in Texas, ""faceless"" panels can judge whether to continue a person's care. But we initially misreported a word in the group's statement. Texas Right to Life's ad referred to ""life-sustaining"" care -- not ""life-saving"" care, which is what we w... |
30840 | Eating six or seven bananas at once can result in death from a lethal potassium overdose. | So fear not that you might drop dead from having a few too many bananas. You’ll likely take in more potassium from eating foods such as avocados and yogurt than from bananas. | false | Food, bananas | The chemical element potassium (K) is vital for the continued healthy functioning of your adrenal glands, which are located on top of your kidneys and composed of two parts, the medulla and the cortex. When properly functioning, the adrenal glands pump hormones out to your body in response to stress in your environment... |
1865 | Chocolate lovers tend to weigh less: study. | People who ate chocolate a few times a week or more weighed less than those who rarely indulged, according to a U.S. study involving a thousand people. | true | Health News | "A model puts on a chocolate accessory backstage before the 9th Annual Chocolate Fashion Show in New York November 9, 2006. REUTERS/Eric Thayer (UNITED STATES) Researchers said the findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, don’t prove that adding a candy bar to your daily diet will help you shed pounds.... |
12449 | ISIS is infiltrating America and using Syrians to do it. | "The ad said that ""ISIS is infiltrating America and using Syrians to do it."" ISIS may dream of carrying out this plan, but there is zero evidence so far of it having worked. In the few examples since 2001 of an ""infiltration"" leading to a terror attack, they have not involved ISIS terrorists from Syria. Indeed, the... | false | Georgia, Homeland Security, Terrorism, National Republican Congressional Committee, | "In the hard-fought special election to fill a vacant, Atlanta-area congressional seat, a Republican group’s ad blares the alarm about terrorism on U.S. soil. In the ad, the National Republican Congressional Committee charges Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff with being soft on terrorism. ""ISIS is infiltrating America a... |
14285 | "Austin’s Stop Abuse for Everyone has seen in its offices ""sexual assault survivors that report being attacked by their ridesharing drivers, at a rate of one per month." | "Supporters of the anti-proposition group wrote that Austin’s SAFE has seen in its offices ""sexual assault survivors that report being attacked by their ridesharing drivers, at a rate of one per month."" According to SAFE’s CEO, that count reflected what forensic nurses heard from victims over the last half of 2015. S... | mixture | Elections, Crime, Transportation, Texas, Our City, Our Safety, Our Choice, | "A fund-raising letter from opponents of a May 2016 Austin ballot proposition affecting drivers for ride-hailing services made us wonder about assaults of residents who purchase a ride through Uber or Lyft. The April 8, 2016, letter, signed by more than 30 women including current and former Austin City Council members,... |
9536 | Amgen’s Repatha Unclogs Arteries in Good Sign for Future Sales | This story looks at new findings on the benefits of adding a monoclonal antibody drug known as Repatha to statin therapy in people with heart disease. We liked that the story makes it clear that so far, prescribers and insurers have been underwhelmed by the evidence showing that the drug can reduce heart attacks and de... | mixture | heart health,monoclonal antibody drugs,repatha | This is a strong point of the story, not only stating the cost but discussing it in the context of why insurers are reluctant to cover it. It states: Sales of Repatha and Praluent, made by Regeneron and Sanofi, have been slow to ramp up because insurers have restricted their coverage, seeing the list price of about $14... |
12553 | "Poor people pay ""in some cases, up to 25 percent of (their) income for water." | Damon said that poor people sometimes pay as much as 25 percent of their income for water. A decade-old United Nations report said that the urban poor in Uganda were paying very nearly that much, about 22 percent of their wages. Damon’s co-founder of Water.org has seen people spending this much in his work in Honduras.... | true | Global News Service, Poverty, Water, Matt Damon, | "Hollywood star Matt Damon has been a champion of bringing clean water and sanitation to the world’s poor for many years, co-founding the group Water.org. The organization links families to microloans so they can tap into safe water supplies. In a conversation with the president of the World Bank, Damon tried to convey... |
10710 | Study: PSA rise not good prostate cancer predictor | It did a better job quantifying harms, but a weaker job in evaluating the evidence. It also never addressed the option of not having PSA tests at all. Neither story addressed costs – a big issue given the evidence about unnecessary biopsies. This story focused on the study results, evaluating the value of tracking risi... | true | Associated Press,Cancer | No discussion of costs – not of PSA testing nor of subsequent biopsies. These are big cost issues that warranted at least a line. The story states the 1 in 20 needing biopsy for total PSA vs. the 1 in 7 needing biopsy for PSA velocity. What the article doesn’t quantify is whether there would be fewer false positive fin... |
11097 | Weight loss from three diet drugs modest | While this was an informative story about the relative average weight loss attained with the use of three different weight loss medications, it neglected some important asepcts of the story needed for readers to understand the complete picture. The results from the studies need to be appreciated in the context of bein... | mixture | There was no presentation of comparative costs for the three medications mentioned in the story. The benefits of treatment in terms of average weight loss were well presented. The benefits in terms of altered risk of heart disease and diabetes were not quantified. The story should have discussed the evidence (or lack t... | |
9434 | Replacing lymph nodes to ease painful legacy of cancer care | This article describes lymph node transfer surgery, which replaces lymph nodes that were removed or damaged during breast cancer surgery and radiation treatment with nodes from elsewhere on a patient’s body. The article briefly cautions readers near the end of the story about the limited data and the need for patients ... | mixture | breast cancer,cancer,surgery | There’s no discussion of costs, although the story does mention that insurance coverage varies. After featuring one woman’s positive outcome, the only discussion in the story about the scope of the benefits was this statement: About a third of lymph node transfer patients see some positive effect, Song said. It’s not c... |
33423 | Ongoing tetanus vaccine campaigns in Kenya are a ruse to sterilize women of childbearing age. | Despite such claims, no compelling evidence exists that the tetanus vaccination program in Kenya has been in any way animated by a desire to sterilize Kenyan women. Such claims have their roots in laboratory testing widely considered to have been flawed in method. | false | Medical, Disease | In October 2014, a group of concerned Catholic bishops in Kenya released a statement claiming a tetanus vaccine program aimed at women entering or in their childbearing years was in actuality a stealth attempt to sterilize women en masse for unstated reasons. Among questions raised by the group in its statement about t... |
30945 | An image contrasts radically different gun laws and homicide rates in Honduras and Switzerland. | All in all, this meme compares two countries that aren’t the least bit similar, then gets wrong nearly all the aspects of those countries it references. As such, it isn’t the least bit useful or instructive as a discussion point for debates over gun ownership laws. | false | Politics Guns, gun statistics, switzerland | Every mass shooting event in the United States prompts renewed debate about the efficacy of gun control regulations, and the 1 October 2015 shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon that left nine people dead on was no exception. Such debates typically feature each side presenting charts contrasting violent crime ... |
8823 | Unhappy LASIK patients urge FDA to take action. | Patients unhappy with their laser eye surgery urged U.S. health regulators to do more to limit poor results, saying complications from the LASIK procedure have taken a toll on their sight and emotions. | true | Health News | Blurred vision, dry eyes, glare and double-vision have led to depression and in some cases suicide, several patients told a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel. “Since LASIK, I am visually handicapped,” said patient David Shell, adding that he has near constant eye pain and depression. “My eyes never f... |
6106 | Illinois oil refinery to upgrade in pollution settlement. | A southwestern Illinois oil refinery will spend nearly $11 million on pollution controls in settling a federal lawsuit accusing it of excessive dangerous chemical emissions. | true | Clean Air Act, Lawsuits, Phillips 66, Mississippi River, Illinois, Environment, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Pollution | The lawsuit filed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleged the Wood River Refinery in Roxana made operation changes in 2009 leading to more than a dozen violations of the Clean Air Act. The Belleville News-Democrat reports the suit cited the refinery over chemical emissions including sulfur dioxide, hydrogen su... |
9847 | A better way to see the brain | The American Academy of Neurology has set new guidelines for correctly diagnosing most strokes, recommending a type of MRI over a CT scan. The study, a literature review of MRI and CT studies going back to 1966, was published in the academy’s journal, Neurology. The story, however, does not make it clear how much bette... | false | "There is no mention in this story of costs, which is a shame. CTs are the preferred diagnostic tool right now and, apparently, are widely used. A switch to MRIs would not only mean the purchasing of a lot of new equipment but also staff training, new protocols and new drugs and dyes to be administered. Are we talking ... | |
3522 | University of Nebraska team creates cornfield robot system. | Plant science students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are still taught to phenotype by hand, wading into muddy fields to record the differences in physical characteristics between varying corn hybrids with a small set of tools and a pen and notebook. | true | Lincoln, General News, Robotics, Financial markets, Nebraska, Science | But like the rest of 21st century life, technology is on track to render humans obsolete. A team of UNL plant scientists and biological systems engineers have built an automated system capable of detecting an individual corn leaf and grasping it with robotic precision to screen its temperature, chlorophyll and water co... |
4334 | 16 Indianapolis students mistakenly injected with insulin. | Sixteen students of an Indianapolis school were hospitalized as a precaution Monday after they were mistakenly injected with insulin during a tuberculosis skin test, according to school officials. | true | Indianapolis, Technology, General News, Health, Tuberculosis, Indiana, U.S. News | The Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township says the students from the McKenzie Center for Innovation & Technology were taken to local hospitals for observation after being injected with a “small dosage” of insulin by Community Health Network personnel. The tuberculosis skin test requires an intradermal injec... |
5447 | Outbreak of Legionnaire’s blamed on hot water system. | An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at a newly opened hospital outside Columbus has been traced to its hot water system. | true | Columbus, Health, General News, Legionnaires disease, Ohio, Disease outbreaks | The health department said at least 16 patients admitted to the 210-bed Mount Carmel Grove City hospital after its opening April 28 have been diagnosed with Legionnaires’. The disease is a severe form of pneumonia that’s caused by inhaling tiny water droplets containing the legionella bacteria. One of the patients, a 7... |
35540 | The government of Italy is calling for the arrest of Bill Gates. | What's true: While giving a speech, a single Italian politician called for former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates to be arrested. What's false: This position has not been endorsed by the Italian government as a whole. | false | Politics, COVID-19 | In May 2020, a video started to circulate online that supposedly showed an Italian politician calling for the arrest of Bill Gates, the former Microsoft CEO who has been at the center of several conspiracy theories due to his foundation’s work to develop a vaccine for the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic. This vid... |
14423 | "Club for Growth Says Donald Trump promised ""to take care of everybody (through government-run healthcare and) the government's going to pay for it." | "Club for Growth says Trump promises ""to take care of everybody (through government-run healthcare and) the government's going to pay for it."" It's clear from Trump's website and some of his public comments that he wants a market-based approach to healthcare, not a system run by the government, which makes the Club f... | false | National, Drugs, Economy, Federal Budget, Health Care, Poverty, Public Health, Club for Growth, | "Club For Growth is trying to make it appear that Donald Trump is in favor of more government-run health care. In a television ad attacking the billionaire Republican, the conservative Washington-based anti-tax group features a female announcer stating, ""Some people think government-run, taxpayer-paid health care is a... |
3892 | Colorado county sheriff to double size of mental health unit. | A Colorado sheriff’s office plans to increase the size of its unit responding to calls involving people experiencing mental health crises, officials said. | true | Colorado Springs, Mental health, General News, Colorado | The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office expects to add a second deputy and a clinician from the UCHealth system by mid-February, The Gazette reported Sunday. They will form a second team to work alongside an existing two-person team, officials said. A case manager is also expected to join the unit to prioritize follow-up... |
8968 | Breastfeeding may help protect mothers against stroke | The release focuses on a prospective cohort study, one of the strongest types of observational studies, that identified a correlation between breastfeeding and stroke. Specifically, the study reported that women who nursed at least one child were less likely to have a stroke later in life. The release notes that this w... | true | American Heart Association,breastfeeding,stroke | Breastfeeding is not an option for all mothers, whether because of medical/physical limitations or because of socioeconomic ones. However, breastfeeding is also not a medical intervention that one can easily place a price tag on. This is a tough one to call. The release clearly lays out the research findings that breas... |
6013 | Space station shipment launched from Virginia seashore. | A fresh grocery shipment rocketed toward the International Space Station on Wednesday after launching from Virginia’s seashore. | true | Virginia, Holidays, Science, Easter | Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket blasted off from Wallops Island. The company’s Cygnus capsule should arrive at the space station Friday, just in time for Easter. While there’s no Easter ham or lamb, NASA said plenty of holiday fixings are going up for the space station’s six residents, including smoked turkey, pork c... |
14073 | "The Dog Meat Festival in Yulin, China, ""threatens global public health." | Hastings said in his resolution that the dog meat festival in Yulin, China threatens global public health. No evidence backs that up. A leading expert at the World Health Organization dismissed the idea, both for the festival in particular, and the practice of eating dog meat in general. Peer-reviewed studies in China ... | false | Global News Service, Animals, Public Health, Alcee Hastings, | "Every June, the city of Yulin in China’s southwestern Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region hosts a spectacle that has drawn international condemnation. An estimated 10,000 dogs are butchered as part of a dog meat festival that started about six years ago. U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., moved to put his colleagues on re... |
41864 | Republicans’ “sabotage of the Affordable Care Act has already cost more than 3 million Americans their health insurance.” | Former President Barack Obama claimed that Republicans’ “sabotage of the Affordable Care Act has already cost more than 3 million Americans their health insurance.” That’s according to one estimate, but another found no significant change in the rate or the number of uninsured from 2016 to 2017. | mixture | Affordable Care Act, health insurance, uninsured, | Former President Barack Obama claimed that Republicans’ “sabotage of the Affordable Care Act has already cost more than 3 million Americans their health insurance.” That’s according to one estimate, but another found no significant change in the rate or the number of uninsured from 2016 to 2017. As politicians are wont... |
4692 | UN chief visits Congo Ebola region, pledging support. | The United Nations secretary general visited Congo’s eastern city of Beni on Sunday, pledging solidarity as the region faces an Ebola outbreak that has killed nearly 2,000 people in a year and ongoing insecurity that has residents skeptical of outside help. | true | International News, Peacekeeping forces, Ebola virus, Armed forces, Africa, Health, Felix Tshisekedi, Antonio Guterres, General News | “I could not go to the DRC (Congo) without coming to meet the brave inhabitants of this beautiful territory,” U.N. chief Antonio Guterres said. “There are major concerns about health. There is measles, malaria, cholera and now the terrible drama of Ebola. We are fully on the side of the Congolese people to try to meet ... |
11234 | Youthful fling with ‘Tommy John’ surgery | This news story describes a study performed at one of the most famous sports medicine clinics in the U.S., where one of the most famous elbow surgeons in the world (and his colleagues) performs an operation known as “Tommy John” surgery (named for the Hall-Fame pitcher). The study shows that more young athletes are get... | false | The article doesn’t mention the cost of surgery. The article says the absolute rate of success (return to previous level of competition or higher) was 83% in a cohort of 743 people who had elbow reconstructive surgery, a rate similar to other studies. (Am J Sports Med. 2008;36(6):1193-205.) However, the news article do... | |
11121 | Study: Not Every Hernia Needs to Be Fixed | Overall, this story does a good job summarizing the results of a recent study on watching waiting vs. preventive surgery for hernias. Hernia operations are a common procedure and the study challenges conventional wisdom that all hernias should be fixed. Watchful waiting, including active monitoring of symptoms, appears... | true | No mention of the cost of hernia operations, which may play a role in someone opting for watching waiting. The story does not provide enough information on the effect of pain or the limits a hernia might place on daily activities. There is some information on this in the study in JAMA, but little is mentioned in story.... | |
3398 | Bill allowing pharmacists to give kids the flu shot at risk. | The contentious debate about whether Connecticut lawmakers should scrap a religious exemption for certain childhood vaccinations could inadvertently end up sinking efforts to make the flu vaccine more accessible to children. | true | Health, General News, Connecticut, Flu, Public health | A bill that would allow trained pharmacists to administer the influenza vaccine to children 12 years and older cleared the General Assembly’s Public Health Committee in a 17-7 vote this year, but it later died on the Senate calendar due to inaction. Bill supporter, Nathan Tinker, CEO of the Connecticut Pharmacists Asso... |
9894 | Short-term pill-free therapy may help insomniacs | There is a lot to like about the possibility of a treatment for insomnia that doesn’t rely on sleeping pills or intense and expensive counseling by specialists. While this story paints a reasonably fair picture of a small test of a brief behavioral therapy for insomnia, the overall impression given to readers may have ... | true | Reuters Health | Although this trial was a preliminary experiment, the proposed intervention is clearly defined as two office visits and two telephone calls with a nurse, so it should have been possible to estimate the cost. Since one purpose of testing this sort of brief intervention is to offer lower-cost alternatives to established ... |
12994 | "Tuberculosis recently passed ""HIV/AIDS as the leading infectious killer globally." | Seymour said tuberculosis is now a bigger killer than HIV/AIDS. Numbers from the United Nations and the World Health Organization support that, but another equally credible source, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said the death tolls are about the same. The data’s not go... | mixture | Global News Service, Federal Budget, Public Health, Nick Seymour, | "Among nations, the United States is the runaway leader in the money it spends on global health programs, and the looming question for advocates is what will happen under President Donald Trump and a Republican Congress. Nick Seymour, a Harvard junior volunteering at a health clinic in Mexico, argued for sustained spen... |
1082 | Sydneysiders find their happy place catching a wave on 'Fluoro Friday'. | The sun is rising over Sydney’s Bondi Beach and surfer Grant Trebilco, clad in a colorful striped long-sleeved shirt and bright yellow shorts with black polka dots, has just caught his first wave. | true | Health News | Whether he catches one wave or a hundred, this salt water therapy, as Trebilco calls it, is where he finds his happy place. Trebilco was diagnosed with bipolar disorder seven years ago and hospitalized in a mental health facility. Finding himself unable to cope with everyday situations, he did the one thing that brough... |
9420 | Stem Cells for Knee Problems? U.S. Doctors Investigate | The focus of this story seems to be this question: Where do we stand with regard to stem cells helping with wear-and-tear arthritis (osteoarthritis) of the knees? The story does well in giving some background regarding stem cells, and how this is apparently a growing trend. The story would have been strengthened consid... | mixture | knee osteoarthritis,stem cell therapies | While the story mentions that stem cell treatments are often not covered by insurance, they should have said how much these treatments typically cost. The story features studies in progress, and gives brief mention to a handful of other published studies. But no results are quantified, and the implication is that that’... |
21227 | Romneycare was model for Obamacare. | "Rick Perry says ""Romneycare was model for Obamacare""" | true | Health Care, Texas, Rick Perry, | "While Texas Gov. Rick Perry was debating rivals for the Republican presidential nomination on Oct. 11, his campaign was righting ""wrongs"" uttered by the other candidates through a Twitter account called ""PerryTruthTeam."" During the debate, PerryTruthTeam sent out a familiar message: ""Romneycare was model for Obam... |
11106 | FDA Approves New Device for Brain Tumor Treatment | The story relies soley on two press releases and as a result falls short on providing important details about the device and of the trial. The company presentation to the FDA is readily available (http://www.fda.gov/downloads/AdvisoryCommittees/CommitteesMeetingMaterials/MedicalDevices/MedicalDevicesAdvisoryCommittee/N... | false | Devices,WebMD | NO discussion of costs – even though the story allowed a company spokesman (from a news release) promote the potential for the device. Why not ask that company directly for the cost? No quantification of benefits – only this: “The FDA says the study showed comparable overall survival rates in patients in both groups.”... |
9915 | 2 Treatments for Retinas Make Gains | This was a story that deals primarily with an experimental new drug called VEGF Trap Eye that treats age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in older adults. (The story also diverges briefly into discussion of a second drug based on embryonic human stem cell research, but this is not the ... | mixture | New York Times | The story does mention the cost per dose of two competing drugs, Lucentis and Avastin (which are actually two different formulations of the same drug that are made by the same company, Genentech). Lucentis is the version of the drug meant for the eye, whereas Avastin is approved and sold as a cancer treatment. However,... |
27768 | A 1964 campaign ad for President Lyndon B. Johnson featured a purported Republican voter expressing concerns which eerily echoed threads of debate in the GOP in 2016. | MALE NARRATOR: Vote for President Johnson on November 3rd. The stakes are too high for you to stay home. | true | Politics Ballot Box, 1964, Barry Goldwater, campaign ads | "On 8 March 2016, the Facebook page for the web site Quartz shared a video called “Confessions of a Republican,” which was originally a political advertisement from 1964. The clip rapidly gained traction, and along with it skepticism that the viewpoints expressed too neatly echoed political schisms debated during the 2... |
43 | Special Report: Powder Keg - FDA bowed to industry for decades as alarms were sounded over talc. | At an invitation-only gathering late last year, U.S. regulators and their guests huddled at a hotel near Washington, D.C., to discuss the best way to detect cancer-causing asbestos in talc powders and cosmetics. | true | Health News | The “Asbestos in Talc Symposium,” sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration, was dominated by industry hands: Most of the 21 non-government participants had done work for talc companies, such as testing and serving as expert witnesses and consultants, symposium documents and other records show. Key sessions were le... |
6473 | Oakland council bans coal shipments, citing health risks. | The Oakland City Council voted unanimously Monday night to kill a plan to use a proposed marine terminal to transport Utah coal to Asia, calling such shipments public health and safety hazards. Backers argued the project would bring needed jobs to an impoverished part of town. | true | Top News, California, Health, Utah, Environmental concerns, Environment, Business, Oakland, Public health, U.S. News | The vote — which prompted environmental activists still in council chambers after four hours to break into applause — approved an ordinance that bans the transport, handling and storage of coal and petroleum coke at bulk material facilities or terminals in Oakland. “We want jobs that people can have, and have a long li... |
13254 | "David Holmes Says Gerald Daugherty advocated lowering the penalty for crimes like strangulation in domestic violence cases because ""they just ‘throw more people into the’"" jail ""‘system." | David Holmes says Gerald Daugherty advocated lighter penalty for certain strangulation cases | false | Criminal Justice, Crime, Texas, David Holmes, | "The Democratic challenger in a Travis County commissioner race says incumbent Republican Gerald Daugherty has urged a reduction in penalties tied to strangulation attempts in domestic violence attacks. David Holmes, a mediator and former legislative aide seeking to represent Precinct 3 covering western parts of the co... |
6606 | Stop! Washing your Thanksgiving turkey could spread germs. | Go ahead and rinse your cranberries, potatoes and green beans. But food experts say don’t — repeat don’t — wash the turkey before popping it in the oven on Thanksgiving Day. | true | AP Top News, Health, General News, Thanksgiving, Lifestyle, Banks, U.S. News, Weekend Reads | They say that could spread the germs lurking on your turkey in the kitchen sink or nearby food. But it’s been a challenge trying to convince cooks to stop rinsing off raw poultry. “If your mother did it and your grandmother did it, and suddenly the (government) says not to wash your turkey, you may take some time to ad... |
26977 | Video shows Gianna Bryant in the hospital after helicopter crash. | No, this is not a video of Gianna Bryant in the hospital | false | Fake news, Facebook Fact-checks, YouTube videos, | "A video claims to show Gianna Bryant being ushered through a hospital, surrounded by medical staff. But that didn’t happen. Bryant died with her father Kobe Bryant in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26. The next day, a video titled, ""Kobe Bryant Daughter Gianna Bryant Final Hours"" was uploaded to YouTube. The video shows... |
6830 | Unlikely alliance fighting pipeline in Texas Hill Country. | One of the longest proposed new natural gas pipelines in the U.S. is set to run through Heath Frantzen’s property in the Texas Hill Country, where more than 600 white-tailed and trophy axis deer graze on a hunting ranch his family has owned for three generations. | true | General News, Environment, Business, Texas, U.S. News, Aquifers | Fearing financial ruin and conservation risks, Frantzen and dozens of other landowners in central Texas have banded together with environmental groups and conservative-leaning city governments in opposing the route of pipeline giant Kinder Morgan’s 430-mile (690-kilometer), $2 billion natural gas expressway. “We know a... |
8432 | China sees drop in imported coronavirus cases but local infections rise. | China reported fewer new coronavirus cases on Thursday that involved travellers arriving from abroad, but said locally transmitted infections rose, with the capital Beijing seeing new local cases for the first time in more than three weeks. | true | Health News | To prevent a rebound of the epidemic as business activity resumes, an increasing number of Chinese provinces have begun offering coronavirus testing to the public. At the same time, local authorities are offering coupons to residents in hopes they will spend money to revive an economy ravaged by the outbreak. On Frida... |
9963 | Robot prostate surgery has downsides, needs more data | This is a story about a study examining the costs, harms and the impact of doctor experience associated with the use of robotic prostatectomy. The story raised some important issues that are not ordinarily broached during patient – doctor conversations. While raising some potential red flags with respect to doctor expe... | true | "The story indicated that the robotic procedure was more expensive than a standard surgical prostatectomy. In addition, it included information about the expenses associated with obtaining and running the equipment. It is not clear from this story what, if any, the benefits are of having a robotic prostatectomy instead... | |
2118 | Herbs, supplements often sold deceptively: U.S. report. | Sellers of ginseng, echinacea and other herbal and dietary supplements often cross the line in marketing their products, going as far as telling consumers the pills can cure cancer or replace prescription medications, a U.S. government probe found. | true | Health News | Herbal, vitamin and mineral pill products in a file photo. REUTERS/File In an undercover probe, investigators at the Government Accountability Office also found that labels for some supplements claim to prevent or cure ailments like diabetes or heart disease — a clear violation of U.S. law. GAO staff targeted supplemen... |
7613 | Overdose deaths down slightly last year compared to 2018. | The number of accidental drug overdose deaths in Rhode Island dropped slightly last year when compared to 2018, and are down more than 8% since 2016, state officials announced Wednesday. | true | Rhode Island, Accidents, Opioids, Health, General News, Virus Outbreak | There were 308 accidental drug overdose deaths in 2019, down from 314 during 2018, and down from a high of 336 in 2016, according to preliminary numbers released by the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals. About 83%, or 256 of last year’s deaths, involved opioids, the agency sa... |
27986 | Some people have eschewed retirement homes in favor of living on cruise ships. | Also, life on a cruise ship means one acquaintance after another, but no permanent ongoing connections of any depth. Fellow passengers disembark to return to their regular lives at the termination of their one- or two-week holidays, which means friendships struck up with them land in the “We’ll keep in touch” bin very ... | true | Travel, Tourist Trap | About 2 years ago my wife and I were on a cruise through the western Mediterranean aboard a Princess liner. At dinner we noticed an elderly lady sitting alone along the rail of the grand stairway in the main dining room. I also noticed that all the staff, ships officers, waiters, busboys, etc., all seemed very familiar... |
9800 | The Best Foods for Thought, Literally | And the body of the story didn’t do enough to establish how the principal finding – a change in brain imaging – may not be tied to the diet at all. We need to do a better job of educating readers that what shows up on an imaging test sometimes has no connection to symptoms or health status. | false | Mediterranean diet | Not applicable. The cost of a Mediterranean diet is not in question. When you find this story online on WSJ.com, it carries the banner: “The Diet That Saves The Brain.” There isn’t any discussion in the body of the story to back up that bold claim. We don’t blame the reporter for this but someone at WSJ has to take re... |
31453 | A 43-year-old woman forced her unfaithful husband to eat his own genitals. | All three publications are known purveyors of fake news. One particularly successful Mississippi Herald hoax, which was picked up by major media outlets in the U.S. and the U.K., alleged that a couple discovered they were biological siblings during IVF treatment. And a Florida Sun Post article duped news outlets with a... | false | Junk News, alabama observer, castration, florida sun post | In late April 2017, three regional fake news items claimed that a local woman forced her husband to eat his own genitals after learning of his cheating behavior. The items were published by the Florida Sun Post, the Alabama Observer, and the Mississippi Herald respectively. All contained near verbatim content, with the... |
9366 | From Chaos To Calm: A Life Changed By Ketamine | Can ketamine help people with depression and other psychiatric diagnoses? Unfortunately, this story doesn’t answer that question, beyond vague claims about one patient’s outcome. It skips any discussion of limitations of the studies or caveats about their conclusions. Importantly, it does not tell readers about the sid... | false | ketamine | The story does not discuss cost, even though it presents a substantial barrier to people who might want to explore ketamine treatment, especially since it is unlikely to be covered by insurance. Although ketamine is not approved by the FDA specifically for treatment of psychiatric diagnoses, some physicians do prescrib... |
8343 | Getinge to ramp up ventilator production capacity by 160% due to coronavirus. | Getinge, one of the world’s biggest makers of medical ventilators, said on Monday it will increase production capacity this year by 160% to 26,000 ventilators to meet demand spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. | true | Health News | That expands on the Swedish company’s announcement last month that it would increase capacity by 60%. Ventilator producers are under pressure to raise output as hospitals around the globe become overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. Meanwhile, the pandemic is disrupting the transport and supply of crucial ventilator par... |
34212 | People with blue eyes have the highest tolerance for alcohol. | Such studies remain limited in size, scope, and number, and are in some cases controversial. As a result, a more complete and confident understanding of the possible relationships between eye color and alcohol tolerance remains elusive, and the meme remains unproven. | unproven | Science, alcohol, eyes | In 1999, Morgan Worthy, a research psychologist at Georgia State University, proposed the hypothesis that light-eyed individuals might be more likely than dark-eyed individuals to develop alcohol dependence. Worthy mentioned this idea in passing, after a discussion of other physical properties correlated to “dark eyes”... |
3743 | Kansas records its first flu death of the season. | Health officials say Kansas has recorded its first flu deaths of the season. | true | Health, Wichita, Kansas, Flu, Pneumonia | The Wichita Eagle reports that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment says two deaths in the state have already been directly attributed to influenza as of Monday. Pneumonia has been the direct cause of death in another 38 deaths, and the flu or pneumonia has been contributing factors in an additional 132 deat... |
21729 | Fracturing or horizontally fracturing the shale to open up larger pockets of natural gas ... has been used for over 60 years and, as of 2009, over 80,000 wells have been fracked in Ohio. | State Sen. Kris Jordan says 'fracking' has been used more than 60 years in Ohio | mixture | Environment, Ohio, Energy, Kris Jordan, | "During a recent debate in the Ohio Senate over a proposed law to allow drilling at state parks, some lawmakers focused on fracking, an increasingly controversial technique used to extract oil and gas from underground. Republican Sen. Kris Jordan was among those to defend process. He questioned why Democrats and others... |
7329 | Doctors, nurses leave homes to protect families from virus. | Lisa Neuburger was caring for a patient with the coronavirus when the person’s ventilator tube became detached. As she worked to help the patient, she knew fluid from the person’s lungs could be spraying into the air, possibly exposing her to the virus, despite the protective gear she was wearing. | true | St. Paul, Health, General News, Lifestyle, AP Top News, Virus Outbreak, U.S. News | That’s when the 37-year-old nurse and mother got scared for her family. “I couldn’t sleep that night. I thought, ‘If I brought this home to my mom, she’s probably going to die, and it’s probably going to be my fault.’ So I had to find a different way,” Neuburger said. To protect her family, Neuburger moved from her par... |
10813 | HPV Vaccine Can Protect Women Across a Broad Age Range | The news release describes a recent study published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases demonstrating the potential benefits of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in women 26 years and older. While the release makes an admirable attempt at summarizing the study in a concise and easy-to-understand manner, the ... | false | Academic medical center news release,Cancer | The vaccine is expensive and requires three, possibly in the future two, doses. Insurance may not cover it since it is not currently recommenced for the age group studied. “The drug company price for either vaccine is around $130 or $140 per dose,” according to the American Cancer Society, “This cost does not include t... |
30294 | "President Trump nominated Giorgio A. Tsoukalos, best known for his appearances on the television series ""Ancient Aliens,"" to lead the Space Force." | Roche is seeking damages and compensation in a U.S. lawsuit against former executives of a Utah-based company, the Swiss drugmaker’s latest case targeting what it calls fraudulent schemes involving its diabetes test strips. | false | Junk News, Giorgio Tsoukalos, military, space force | Roche has filed several lawsuits in U.S. federal court in which it alleges individuals and companies obtained low-priced diabetes test strips meant for mail-order customers, only to re-direct them for sale via pharmacies where higher prices allowed them to profit from the difference. “Defendants caused Roche to wrongfu... |
17371 | "Large parts of Florida"" have experienced ""years of below average rainfall." | "The Associated Industries of Florida said in its press release that ""large parts of Florida"" have experienced ""years of below average rainfall."" While parts of Florida have had below-average rainfall, we also saw years of above-average rainfall. Climatologists told us the state overall is doing fine, thanks to the... | mixture | Environment, Florida, Associated Industries of Florida, | "Florida may be the Sunshine State, but what really sets it apart is its water -- where it comes from, how much there is and who uses it. Lawmakers are paying more attention to water policies in an election year. That means the business-backed lobbying group Associated Industries of Florida is also announcing a new gro... |
9559 | How to heal head injuries? Try new app | This story describes a pilot study that used an app to track cognitive and physical activity in 34 young concussion patients during the two weeks after their injuries. The study, summarized in a letter in JAMA Pediatrics, was designed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Phila... | mixture | concussions | The intervention, rest, does not have any obvious costs. (Unless one is working, wherein prescribed rest can result in loss of income.) The tool used to track activity and symptoms could presumably cost money if it’s ever made publicly available. The nature of the study was to determine if the app was feasible for wide... |
36661 | Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who testified that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the 1980s, is actually comedian Amy Schumer doing a piece of performance art. | The ‘Amy Schumer Is Actually Christine Blasey Ford’ Conspiracy Theory | false | Disinformation, Entertainment, Fact Checks, Politics | The days following a September 27th, 2018 hearing before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, in which Palo Alto University professor and Stanford research psychologist Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh violently assaulted her during a party more than three decades ... |
13294 | Heroin .. pours across our southern borders. | "Trump said heroin ""pours across our southern borders."" The vast majority of heroin in the United States comes from Mexico and South America." | true | National, Drugs, Donald Trump, | "In the third and final presidential debate, Republican nominee Donald Trump blamed President Barack Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for many of the problems faced by people in New Hampshire. Trump said that included drug addiction. ""The single-biggest problem is heroin that pours across our southern bord... |
34179 | Convicted sex offender and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein introduced Donald and Melania Trump. | In sum, given the discrepancy in stories regarding how the Trumps met. | unproven | Politics | If you are experiencing distress, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or visit online here. Conspiracy theories flew after Jeffrey Epstein, a financier with ties to some of the most influential figures in American politics, died from apparent suicide in jail on Aug. 10, 2019, while... |
6269 | Burkina Faso arrests 30 over illegal female circumcisions. | Burkina Faso authorities have jailed more than 30 adults after they carried out botched female genital mutilation on nearly 60 infants and girls who have been hospitalized. | true | Health, Arrests, Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou | Viviane Ursule Sanou, head of the National Secretariat against Circumcision, said Tuesday the banned procedure was carried out on girls and young women ranging from 10 months to 24 years old in the capital, Ouagadougou, Kaya in the north and two towns in the central east. She says because the practice is illegal, many ... |
24491 | About 750,000 people die in China each year from auto emissions. | Car pollution in China doesn't cause as many deaths as Nany Pelosi claims | false | Environment, National, Foreign Policy, Transportation, Nancy Pelosi, | "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has long considered herself a human rights activist and an environmental advocate. So during a recent trip to China, Pelosi discussed how the issues overlap during a meeting with the country's president, Hu Jintao. She recounted the meeting for television host Charlie Rose on the Oct. 5, 200... |
7885 | Italian coronavirus deaths jump, dashing hopes that worst was over. | Fatalities in Italy from coronavirus have surged in the last 24 hours, the Civil Protection Agency said on Tuesday, dashing hopes the epidemic in the world’s worst hit country was easing after more encouraging numbers in the previous two days. | true | Health News | The death toll rose by 743 on Tuesday, the second highest daily tally since the outbreak emerged in northern regions on Feb. 21, and up steeply from the 602 recorded on Monday. Italy has seen more fatalities than any other country, with latest figures showing that 6,820 people have died from the infection in barely a m... |
9455 | Just One Hour of Exercise a Week May Help Prevent Depression | This Time magazine story describes a large study that looked at survey data from Norway to determine if exercise played a role in reducing the risk of developing depression among the 22,000 participants. The story suggests that it does and, to its credit, points out that this kind of study cannot show a causal relation... | mixture | depression,exercise | Costs aren’t a factor in this story given that the researchers are suggesting that even minimal exercise, such as walking and cycling, can lead to the decrease in depression they say that they have found. It costs nothing to walk and, aside from the cost of a bicycle, cycling is also free. Perhaps the biggest cost is a... |
17763 | The vast majority of people in this country are keeping their (health insurance) plan. | Axelrod said the vast majority of people are keeping their health care plans. That’s certainly what the 2010 health care law intended. The law was crafted largely to leave in place the health care delivery systems for people who get health insurance either through their employer (about 50 percent of people with insuran... | true | National, Health Care, Pundits, David Axelrod, | "It’s the question-du-jour about the new health care law: Are people going to be able to keep their health insurance if they like it? President Barack Obama has several times said yes. But cancellation notices coming in the mail to policyholders tell another story. The contrast between Obama’s promises and what’s playi... |
16546 | "In 2012, there were nearly 12.2 million arrests and only 410 ""uses of deadly force"" by police in the United States." | "Flynn said that in 2012, there were nearly 12.2 million arrests and ""410 uses of deadly force"" by police in the United States. The Milwaukee police chief correctly quotes official FBI statistics on arrests and justifiable homicides by law enforcement officers, although it appears the 410 is an undercount of the numb... | true | Civil Rights, Criminal Justice, Public Safety, Guns, Wisconsin, Edward Flynn, | "In the wake of the fatal police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn was interviewed for nearly an hour on Wisconsin Public Radio about the incident and its implications. At one point during the Aug. 20, 2014 interview, Flynn told host Kathleen Dunn ""there are many reasons why (police) uses ... |
19868 | Before Act 10, the total cost of public sector employees’ employment was 29 percent higher than that in the private sector. After the act, it’s still 22 percent higher. | "Johnson argued the changes included in Act 10 were modest -- public employees still receive 22 percent higher wages and benefits than private sector workers. Johnson cited the work of two researchers for conservative think tanks, but later told us he ""doesn’t endorse"" the findings of that study, or ""any specific st... | false | Income, State Budget, Unions, Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, | "On the morning after Gov. Scott Walker rolled to victory in the recall election, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) made it clear the battle over public employee pay and benefits is far from over. Appearing on Charlie Sykes’ talk show on WTMJ-AM (620), Johnson cited Walker’s move to curb collective bargaining and make pub... |
33190 | A photograph depicts a new method discovered by Russian scientists to turn black skin white instantly. | Although the exact origins of this image are uncertain, it appeared at least as far back 2012 on Reddit as an image-based warning about the dangers of falling asleep at the beach (a far likelier explanation for the photograph than a demonstration of skin-whitening). An old (and clearly unrelated) image was repurposed a... | false | Fauxtography, benzodiazepine, moscow faculty of sciences, moscow times | In early August 2015, several web sites published articles with titles such as “A Russian Laboratory has invented a way to remove the black Skin layer of black People” (with the earliest iteration we’ve found being dated 31 July 2015). Nearly all the articles had identical text (down to rendering errors) reporting that... |
9206 | Tucatinib (ONT-380) progressing in pivotal trial against HER2+ breast cancer | This news release from the University of Colorado’s medical center reports on the results of a phase 1 clinical trial involving 50 women who took the investigational drug tucatinib to treat HER2-positive breast cancer. All of the women in the study previously had taken other cancer drugs, averaging five prior treatment... | false | tucatinib,University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus | The news release provides no information about how much tucatinib treatment might cost. If it’s not too soon to promote the potential benefits of a drug it’s not too soon to provide cost estimates. [Editor’s note: We had originally rated this criteria Not Applicable since it is an investigational drug in very early tri... |
6747 | Post-Ebola, West Africans flock back to bushmeat, with risk. | As the deadly outbreak of Ebola has subsided, people in several West African countries are flocking to eat bushmeat again after restrictions were lifted on the consumption of wild animals like hedgehogs and cane rats. But some health experts call it a risky move. | true | Animals, AP International News, Ebola virus, Africa, Abidjan, Africa, Bats, West Africa, Health, Ivory Coast | Ivory Coast, which neighbors two of the three countries where Ebola killed more than 11,300 people since December 2013, lifted its ban on wild animal meat this month. The meat of squirrel, deer, fruit bats and rats has long been a key source of protein for many in the region, but it is also a potential source of the Eb... |
3213 | Destiny’s Child singer Williams seeks mental health help. | Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams says she’s seeking help for the depression she has struggled with for years. | true | Beyonce Knowles, Mental health, Michelle Williams, Kelly Rowland, Entertainment, North America, Health, Music | Williams said in an Instagram post Tuesday that she has “sought help from a great team of health care professionals.” She gave no specifics on her treatment, and a message left with her manager seeking details was not immediately returned. Williams’ post says that for years she has dedicated herself to increasing aware... |
4342 | University of Missouri reports tuberculosis case on campus. | The University of Missouri says a student has been diagnosed with active tuberculosis and left campus voluntarily. | true | Columbia, Health, Tuberculosis, Missouri, University of Missouri, Mens college basketball, College basketball | The school said in a news release that campus and local health officials are working to track down other people who might need testing. The school described the student as cooperative but declined to release the student’s condition or other details, citing student privacy laws. Tuberculosis is a serious disease that us... |
26412 | During the 1918 flu pandemic, San Francisco residents formed the “Anti-Mask League.” San Francisco “was ultimately one of the cities that suffered the most with a high death rate.” | Some people have protested stay-at-home orders in recent weeks with public demonstrations. During the flu pandemic in 1918, protesters formed an Anti-Mask League in San Francisco. San Francisco was among several cities that experienced a second wave of cases. | true | California, Coronavirus, Facebook posts, | "The protests against stay-at-home orders in some state capitals have drawn comparisons to the 2010 tea party movement, but the idea of protesting such rules amid a pandemic is not just a 21st-century phenomenon. There are parallels to a protest a century ago. ""During the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, several influential... |
5786 | N. Carolina court: State retirees should pay health premiums. | A former North Carolina Supreme Court chief justice and other retired state government workers and teachers aren’t exempted from paying health insurance premiums because they had a deal with the state to keep their benefits unchanged, an appeals court ruled Tuesday. | true | State courts, North Carolina Supreme Court, Access to health care, State governments, Health, North Carolina, Courts, John Tyson | The state Court of Appeals said retirees don’t have a contract preventing them from being forced to pay part of their health insurance costs under a law passed in 2011. A three-judge panel ruled unanimously that there is no contractual obligation limiting the State Health Plan covering more than 700,000 employees, reti... |
24543 | "As a candidate, President Obama ""declared that everyone deserves access to reproductive health care that includes abortion, and vowed that this 'right' would be at the heart of his health care reform plan if elected president." | Boehner says abortion access was always a key goal for Obama health plan | true | Abortion, National, Health Care, John Boehner, | "To build opposition to the health care bill, Republicans have been saying it would expand coverage of abortion. To back up that claim, House Republican Leader John Boehner sent a ""GOP Leader Alert"" that said President Barack Obama was doing that to fulfill a campaign promise. ""During his quest for the presidency, n... |
11295 | Gardasil: Yup. Still Safe. | This op-ed-style piece about the safety of the Gardasil vaccine is to be commended for paying attention to a study with negative findings. Negative studies aren’t as sexy as research that reports amazing or frightening new effects from medical interventions, but the mundane finding of “no difference” is often the reali... | mixture | women's health | No mention was made of the cost of the vaccine. The story focuses on safety to the exclusion of efficacy. It does not say which strains of HPV Gardasil protects against or how effective it is.at preventing the cancers those strains cause. It does not tell the reader that the more recently formulated vaccine, Gardasil 9... |
5595 | Hearing begins on fate of Missouri’s lone abortion clinic. | Patient safety at Missouri’s only abortion clinic is the point of contention at a state administrative hearing that will decide if the clinic can remain open. | true | Michael Brown, Health, General News, Abortion, St. Louis | Opening statements and testimony began Monday before a commissioner with the Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission. At issue is the state health department’s effort to revoke the license for Planned Parenthood’s clinic in St. Louis. The state has said that part of the reason it is seeking to remove the license is ... |
4058 | Minnesota woman starts support program for Lyme disease. | Lisa Najarian sipped her chamomile tea in the sunny kitchen of her Grant home on a recent Monday and sighed. | true | Lyme disease, Health, Minnesota | “September’s a bad month for me,” she said. The symptoms of the Lyme disease she has suffered for 19 years were affecting her. She acknowledged them — fatigue and brain fog — and then pushed them aside to keep talking about her project, Twin Cities Lyme Foundation, and the $148,000 raised at its first gala this month. ... |
25692 | “Drug overdose deaths decreased in 2018 for the first time in 30 years.” | According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 67,367 people died of a drug overdose in 2018. Drug overdose deaths decreased from 2017 to 2018, dropping by about 4.1%, according to the CDC. Still, the number of overdose deaths was four times higher in 2018 than in 1999. Experts also note that the 2018 dec... | true | Drugs, Health Care, Health Check, Ryan Holets, | "Detective Ryan Holets, whose personal story includes the adoption of an infant born to a drug-addicted mother, addressed the Republican National Convention on its second night. He praised President Donald Trump’s efforts in addressing drug and opioid abuse and noted ""drug overdose deaths decreased in 2018 for the fir... |
34187 | U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris is descended from the 19th-century slave owner Hamilton Brown. | Even if it is the case that the Harris family, by way of Christiana Brown, are descendants of Hamilton Brown, those who seek to attack or undermine Sen. Harris for the wrongdoing of a man who died almost 200 years ago should first gain a better understanding of the often complicated, traumatic histories of black famili... | unproven | Politics | In June and July 2019, social media users shared reports that claimed one of the ancestors of 2020 presidential Democratic primary candidate and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) was a slave owner on the Caribbean island of Jamaica. Such claims were shared widely in the aftermath of the first round of Democratic prima... |
9806 | Inventor says new heart catheter will save lives | We understand that a newspaper would find it interesting to report on the human interest angle of someone who grew up on a pig farm who won an award for his invention and who hopes to hire disabled veterans to work on his invention. But a health story – so categorized by the Chicago Tribune – that includes claims about... | false | Chicago Tribune,Devices | There is no discussion of how much the “breakthrough” approach will cost. The story states that the catheter: But there isn’t one piece of data – of evidence – presented in the entire 718-word story. That’s not a short story these days – so there was plenty of space afforded. There was no discussion of harms in the sto... |
2626 | Older Americans upbeat about aging, future: survey. | Baby boomers are upbeat about aging and expect the next phase of their lives to be better than the last, but many are concerned about their financial future and long-term health costs, a survey released in Tuesday showed. | true | Health News | Americans are living healthier and longer that ever before. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts boomers will turn 65 at a rate of 10,000 per day for the next decade, making them, along with centenarians, the fastest-growing segment of the population. More than 75 percent of seniors questioned in the poll on aging are optim... |
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