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2998
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Florida Legislature sets sights on education, health care.
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Florida lawmakers signaled that they would likely tackle education spending and health care costs but might seek to avoid a battle over forcing employers to verify the immigration status of workers, as the 2020 legislative session began Tuesday.
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true
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Legislature, Health care costs, Health, General News, Florida, Immigration, Elections, Education
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House Speaker Jose Oliva was unsparing in his criticism of what he called the “healthcare industrial complex,” including drug companies, hospitals and medical device companies that he said were “the great robber-barons of our time.” Oliva sought to build on some of health care initiatives of last year’s legislative session, including passage of a first-in-the-nation drug importation bill. “We did not choose healthcare as our priority,” he said. “No, it chose us. It chose us through the sheer audacity of the defenders of the status quo.” With a presidential election looming this fall, fierce partisan divides could influence the work of lawmakers. But an air of collegiality prevailed Tuesday, as bouquets festooned the chambers and the Capitol halls and rotundas pulsed with activity. Opening day was also important for lobbyists and the activists who seek to influence lawmakers and the legislation that will be crafted over the 60 days the Legislature has to complete its business before adjourning. While DeSantis enjoys strong relationships with lawmakers — particularly his fellow Republicans who run both chambers of the statehouse — he may not necessarily get everything he wants during his second year as the state’s chief executive. His $91.4 billion budget calls for major spending on the environment and education — including a nearly $1 billion outlay for teacher raises and bonuses. Some fiscally conservative lawmakers said they would give the spending intense scrutiny. On the eve of the Legislature’s opening day, thousands of educators and their allies descended on the Capitol to draw attention to the governor’s plan, calling it flawed because of potential pay inequities and because veteran educators and non-teaching school employees would be left out. Some key Republicans have also cast doubt on the governor’s plan to require employers to use a federally operated electronic database known as E-Verify to check the immigration status of workers. E-Verify has been opposed by agriculture, construction, tourism interests and other industries that rely on immigrant labor. Hundreds of bills await, encompassing education spending, health care, the environment and public safety — as well as approving the billions of dollars required to keep the country’s third-most populous state operating day to day. Legislative Democrats are pushing for stronger gun control measures, but face long odds to win over their Republican colleagues. Addressing a joint session of the state House and Senate during his State of the State address, DeSantis urged cooperation — particularly when it comes to approving his agenda on the environment and education. “This is Florida’s season of opportunity,” DeSantis told lawmakers. “We have the chance to build on a strong foundation, the chance to face the challenges before us and the chance to leave a legacy of success that will benefit our people now and in the future.” Rep. Chris Sprowls, a Republican who’s next in line to be House speaker, commended DeSantis for the sweep of his speech -- covering priorities, he said, that were crucial to Florida’s future. “The members of the House want to help the governor because we believe in the same thing,” Sprowls said. However, Sprowls declined to discuss the merits of specific legislation proposed by the governor, saying that task will be undertaken in the days and weeks to come. And while the governor’s agenda appeared “bright,” he said, “nothing is ever a slam dunk.” In his opening remarks, Senate President Bill Galvano, a Republican, reminded lawmakers of their weighty responsibility. “As we go into this session let us continue to show our constituents that we can exchange and debate ideas while maintaining civility and decorum,” he told the chamber. “That we can problem solve together. That we can put aside personalities and politics for good policy. And, that we are not a microcosm of Washington, D.C., but instead will continue to be an example for Washington, D.C.”
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8803
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Glaxo says cervical cancer vaccine works for longer.
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GlaxoSmithKline said on Wednesday new data showed its Cervarix vaccine generated sustained, high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the two most common cervical cancer-causing virus types for 6.4 years.
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true
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Health News
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Glaxo said on Wednesday the data, from an extended follow-up study, showed the longest duration of sustained neutralizing antibody levels reported against both virus types HPV 16 and 18 with a cervical cancer vaccine to date. Experts believe that neutralizing antibodies — so-called because they have the ability to neutralize cancer-causing virus types and prevent them from infecting cells in the cervix — are essential for cervical cancer protection.
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7225
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Romania shuts hospital after babies diagnosed with superbug.
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Romanian health authorities on Friday temporarily closed a maternity hospital in the capital after 13 babies born there recently were diagnosed with a drug-resistant superbug.
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true
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Bucharest, Romania, Health, International News, Europe, Public health
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The Health Ministry said the Giulesti Maternity Hospital in Bucharest would stop admissions after the newborns were diagnosed with antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The hospital said it had canceled dozens of cesarean section operations planned for next week and will be directing pregnant women needing the procedure to other public hospitals in the city. The ministry said 17 babies from Giulesti had recently been admitted to the Grigore Alexandrescu children’s hospital, where tests were being carried out to determine what was wrong with them. The ministry said Giulesti’s maternity wards would be closed for cleaning and disinfection. The Public Health Directorate said 11 hospital employees found to be carriers of the bacteria have been temporarily removed from the hospital to undergo treatment. The bacteria often live on the skin or in the nostrils without causing symptoms but they can become dangerous if they enter the bloodstream, destroying heart valves or causing other damage. Microbiologists say up to 30 percent of humans are long-term carriers of the bug.
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9701
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Marijuana Chemical Shows Promise for Hard-to-Treat Epilepsy in Kids
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Efficacy and safety studies of a marijuana-derived oil on children for whom existing drugs fail to control epileptic seizures support moving cannabidiol into clinical studies. That’s good news. Less cheery is encountering stories about the effects of this drug before it has been tested in placebo-controlled, blinded research venues — or even before the research has undergone peer review. The story in this case makes the shortcomings of the evidence a prominent point in the coverage and we applaud this careful approach. But whether desperate parents will heed that signal is another matter. A source notes in the story that a “major” clinical trial’s results will become available early in 2016. Might the more responsible path have been for journalism to bide its time as well? When a child suffers, little else matters. Parents of epileptic kids whose seizures are not responsive to anti-seizure medicines will be on the lookout for alternatives. Some have apparently already begun to treat their children with marijuana-derived oils similar to that being examined in these studies. Learning as much as possible—as soon as possible—about these chemicals is, consequently, important.
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true
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Epilepsy,marijuana
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Cost is not mentioned. The story is fairly specific about the fates of two groups of individuals—mostly children—with epileptic seizures resistant to available medications. But since it uses only relative risk reduction figures to quantify the benefit, it doesn’t go far enough to satisfy this criterion. The story says, for example, that “seizure frequency declined by an average 45 percent in all participants.” Did they go from two seizures to one seizure per day or from 10 to 5? Providing the absolute numbers would have clarified the size of the benefit. The subheadline declares that “drug interactions remain a concern,” and story includes reference to a study that found cannabidiol to interact “badly” with anti-seizure medications currently approved for epilepsy treatment. It later specifies the drugs that may be affected. We think this nod in the direction of harms is sufficient for a Satisfactory rating, although we’re concerned that the story mentions no other side effects from the treatment. A news release noted that “Adverse events occurred in more than 10 percent of participants with the most common being somnolence, diarrhea and fatigue and led to discontinuation in 4 percent of patients.” The story makes an early point that neither of the studies that received most of the attention was blinded; that is, both patients and scientists were aware of the procedures. The story also prominently reflects the views of an independent researcher who reminds readers that (1) placebo rates can be quite high and (2) the field won’t know the “real” effects until well-designed clinical studies are conducted. Children whose epileptic seizures are not controlled by current drugs have few options. This is a real problem. There was no disease (or pot) mongering. Although the story does make clear the distinction between researchers involved in the studies discussed and those not involved, there is no mention of funding. Who funded the study is a very important question. It would also be important to know if any of the researchers involved/quoted were consultants/paid by this company. A news release issued in advance of the American Epilepsy Society meeting, where these studies were scheduled to be presented, notes that the medicine used (called Epidiolex) and was supplied by manufacturer GW Pharmaceutical. That information didn’t make it into the story. The interest in marijuana constituents as possible treatments arose because existing alternatives—anti-seizure drugs—do not work with some patients. So a premise of this story is that existing alternatives are unsuccessful in this group of paitents. One of the study investigators makes it clear that federal approval for the drug could take up to five years. However, the story also notes that some activist families have already begun using cannabidiol oils “that are made artisanally.” Since cannabis has been used for the treatment of seizures for centuries, it’s curious why the researchers didn’t test the compound in a better designed trial (randomized, blinded and placebo controlled). The public and patients are still left with the question of whether this works. But the story does briefly mention previous studies that have looked at cannibidiol in adults, so the story gets a pass here. The story reflects some enterprise reporting independent of the news release from the American Epilepsy Society; for example, the reporter solicited information about the study’s validity from an independent researcher.
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5775
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Health care, education to lead Maine’s legislative debates.
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Several bills focused on health care and education are expected to lead legislative debates at the Maine Statehouse in 2020.
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true
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Health, General News, Bills, Access to health care, Maine
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Numerous bills on expanding access to health care, and growing training and educational opportunities for residents were included among the 134 new measures the Legislative Council accepted last week. The Portland Press Herald reports only the titles of the bill have been submitted for introduction in the lawmaking session that starts in January. The measures also appear to be a response to the recent leaked propane explosion in a building in Farmington. The state has no current regulation requiring natural gas or propane leak detectors or warning devices. Lawmakers will also take up about 500 other measures either held by Gov. Janet Mills or left over from this year’s session.
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29042
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"Thieves armed with ""code grabbers"" are breaking into cars by recording signals sent by remote keyless entry devices."
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One of the versions of this warning circulated in 2008 contained the contact information for Const. Wally Henry, an RCMP officer from Sherwood Park, Alberta. Henry disclaimed the story being spread in his name, saying in his voice mail message to those who telephoned, “If your call is concerning an e-mail with my name attached to it, please be advised that the information in that e-mail is false, and please do not disseminate it any further.”
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mixture
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Automobiles, code grabber, remote keyless entry, Techno File
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Automobile remote keyless entry systems (RKE) were introduced in the 1980s. They’ve proved to be a big hit, making it easier for the grocery-laden to unlock their cars and sparing many of the terminally forgetful from finding they’ve left their keys in the ignitions of their now-locked vehicles or their purses on the seats of same. The earliest RKE systems were quite vulnerable to the sort of attack that was described in warning e-mails widely spread via the Internet. Their RF transmitters (usually built into key fobs) sent unique identifying codes that could be picked off by ‘code grabbers,’ devices that recorded the codes sent out when drivers pushed buttons on their remote key fobs to lock or unlock their cars: [Collected via e-mail, August 2013] I locked my car. As I walked away I heard my car door unlock. I went back and locked my car again three times. Each time, as soon as I started to walk away, I would hear it unlock again!! Naturally alarmed, I looked around and there were two guys sitting in a car in the fire lane next to the store. They were obviously watching me intently, and there was no doubt they were somehow involved in this very weird situation . I quickly chucked the errand I was on, jumped in my car and sped away. I went straight to the police station, told them what had happened, and found out I was part of a new, and very successful, scheme being used to gain entry into cars. Two weeks later, my friend’s son had a similar happening…. [Collected via e-mail, June 2008] My oldest son Mike came over yesterday – He had to go to Canada for work last week. One of the other engineers traveling to Canada with him, but in his own car, had something happen that I need to share. While traveling he stopped at the roadside park, similar to what we have here with bathrooms, vending machines etc. He came out to his car less than 4-5 minutes later and found someone had gotten into his car, and stolen his cell phone, laptop computer, GPS navigator briefcase… you name it. They called the police and since there were no signs of his car being broken into — the police told him that there is a device that robbers are using now to clone your security code when you lock your doors on your car using your key-chain locking device. They sit a distance away and watch for their next victim. Since they know you are going inside the store, restaurant, or bathroom, they have a few minutes to steal and run. The police officer said to be sure to manually lock your car door by hitting the lock button inside the car. That way if there is someone sitting in a parking lot watching for their next victim it will not be you. When you hit the lock button on your car upon exiting it does not send the security code, but if you walk away and use the door lock on your key chain, it sends the code thru the airwaves where it can be intercepted. I just wanted to let you know about this… it is something totally new to us… and this is real… it just happened this past Thursday June 19th to his coworker… So be aware of this and please pass this note on. Look how many times we all lock our doors with our remotes. Just to be sure we remembered to lock them, and bingo the guys have our code, and whatever was in the car can be gone. I just wanted everyone I know to hear this from me. I never knew about anything like this and do not want this to happen to anyone I know, If we can educate each other on bad things happening. Keep safe everyone! [Collected via e-mail, August 2006] Tonight, John and I went to Church, out to dinner, and then to the movies at Loews, on Spring Valley and Central. Apparently, while we were in the movie theatre, someone broke into our car. John’s sun glasses were taken (they are going to be really surprised when they find out they were prescription!). Aside from the glasses taken and the two glove boxes open, nothing else was taken, including the home clicker. Now, here is the really odd part: there was NO forced entry into the car, nothing was broken, scratched, or removed from the outside of the car. We were really baffled as to how anyone could have gotten into the car that we had locked. The answer came from the security guard at Micro Center, who was in the parking lot talking to another man whose car had also been rifled. (In that instance, the man’s wallet, keys, checkbook, and credit cards were stolen.) But there was no forced entry there either. We soon learned that thieves now have some type of high tech gadget that can monitor and replicate the key pad locking device. In other words, when we got out of the car and started to walk away, John hit his key pad to make sure the doors were locked. When it beeped, apparently there was someone in the vicinity who had one of those devices/gadgets and replicated the key lock tone and then used it to get into the auto. If you know of other instances where this has happened, please let the NA’s/HOA’s know, so they can spread the word to our neighbors to be cautious in locking their car doors. If this is indeed how someone could get into our car, then you can bet that from now on I will definitely manually lock all the doors. We will never again get out, walk off, and then use that key pad to lock the car. Great invention, but obviously you have to be discreet in where you use it. Have a great day but keep a ‘heads up’! [Collected via e-mail, November 2008] Once again, we are approaching the holiday season and that often means a greater risk of becoming a victim of crime. We suspect that, with the current economic conditions, this year the risk could be even greater than normal. In addition, there is evidence that a new form of automobile burglary has begun to occur around the country. Thieves may be using a device that allows them to copy the signal sent out when automobile owners use their remote key button to lock their vehicles. The thief records the signal and then watches as the intended victim walks away. Then, they simply unlock the vehicle. These aren’t typical car break-ins. There is no broken window, the car lock is intact. It appears thieves may be scanning crowded parking lots with some sort of device, and when they see your lights flash, meaning they’ve made a hit, they help themselves. The only way to avoid this type of crime is to use the car door lock button located inside your vehicle, rather than using your remote locking device. While the Tallahassee Police Department reports they are not aware of this occurring in Tallahassee, they do say that it could be occurring in those instances where victims are unclear as to whether or not they had locked their vehicles. However, times change and technology advances. In response to the fixed code security weakness, automakers shifted from RKEs with fixed codes to systems employing rolling random codes. These codes change every time a given RKE system is used to lock or unlock car doors and thus rendered the earlier ‘code grabbers’ ineffective. That form of more robust code system became the industry standard for remote keyless entry systems in the mid-1990s, so automobiles newer than that are not vulnerable to being quickly and easily opened by criminals armed with the first generation of code grabbers. It is theoretically possible for a thief armed with the right technology and the ability to manipulate it correctly to snatch a modern keycode from the air and use it to enter a vehicle. However, it’s unclear how many (if any) crooks have managed to overcome the issues of complexity and time involved in the process to use it as a practical means of stealing from cars. If the scheme requires would-be thieves to have specialized knowledge and equipment and spend hours (or more) crunching data and replicating a device to produce a correct entry code, its application to boosting valuables from cars in parking lots would be rather limited. As Microchip Technology, the manufacturer of KEELOQ brand RKE systems, noted of this possibility: The theoretical attack requires detailed knowledge of the system implementation and a combination of data, specialized skills, equipment and access to various components of a system which is seldom feasible. These theoretical attacks are not unique to the Keeloq system and could be applied to virtually any security system. So far we haven’t encountered any documented cases of items being stolen from locked cars via entry gained through the use of code grabbers, much less evidence that it’s a widespread form of theft. There have been a few reported incidents of thieves’ managing to gain entry to locked vehicles through the apparent use of some form of electronic device, but the specific nature of those devices has yet to be determined. In some similar cases it has been speculated that thieves who have been stealing purses and other valuables from parked vehicles have been using a device that blocks remote keyless signals and thus prevents car doors from locking (rather than using a device that emulates remote keyless signals to open locked doors). In 2016, researchers theorized some makes and models were potentially vulnerable to such an attack, but again there was little to indicate that cars are routinely (or even rarely) stolen in such a fashion: It is conceivable that all VW Group (except for some Audi) cars manufactured in the past and partially today rely on a ‘constant-key’ scheme and are thus vulnerable to the attacks,” the paper argues. The only exception the researchers found were cars built on VW’s latest MQB production platform, which is used in its top selling model, the Golf VII, which they found does not have the keyless flaw. A VW spokesman said that the current Golf, Tiguan, Touran and Passat models are not vulnerable to the attack. “This current vehicle generation is not afflicted by the problems described,” VW spokesman Peter Weisheit said in a statement[.] For the most part, any efforts by car thieves to steal vehicles by exploiting RKE systems have likely been supplanted by a much easier method, that of using boosting devices to relay the RKE signals from far enough away that the car’s owner is unaware of it: A group of researchers at the Beijing-based security firm Qihoo 360 recently pulled off the so-called relay hack with a pair of gadgets they built for just $22. That’s far cheaper than previous versions of the key-spoofing hardware. The Qihoo researchers, who recently showed their results at Amsterdam’s Hack in the Box conference, say their upgrade also significantly multiplies the radio attack’s range, allowing them to steal cars parked more than a thousand feet away from the owner’s key fob. The attack essentially tricks both the car and real key into thinking they’re in close proximity. One hacker holds a device a few feet from the victim’s key, while a thief holds the other near the target car. The device near the car spoofs a signal from the key. That elicits a radio signal from the car’s keyless entry system, which seeks a certain signal back from the key before it will open. Rather than try to crack that radio code, the hacker’s devices instead copy it, then transmit it via radio from one of the hackers’ devices to the other, and then to the key. Then they immediately transmit the key’s response back along the chain, effectively telling the car that the key is in the driver’s hand. “The attack uses the two devices to extend the effective range of the key fob,” says Jun Li, one of the researchers in the Qihoo group, who call themselves Team Unicorn. “You’re working in your office or shopping in the supermarket, and your car is parked outside. Someone slips near you and then someone else can open up and drive your car. It’s simple.” The following demonstration video demonstrates this technique in action:
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11134
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Short Mental Workouts May Slow Decline of Aging Minds, Study Finds
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"This is a story about one of the few long term studies looking at the potential for cognitive training to alter the rate of cognitive decline with aging. It describes results from a second report from the ACTIVE (Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly) study. For the lay reader, the report falls short in several places. Most importantly, the article hypes the problem of Alzheimer's, dementia and similar disorders, when the study is about cognitive decline in normal aging. Second, there was very little in the way of reporting on specific results and it was not clear from the story what were the specific findings of the actual study. The missing context that could have easily been provided (along with other information about preventive options) would have greatly strengthened the study. Although the ACTIVE study is commendable, it has certain limitations that were acknowledged. The participants in this study had a mean education level of 13+ years of schooling, in a population with an average age of 73. For example – will the results obtained in this group with relatively high levels of education translate to people with lower levels of education? The story included several misleading statements about the study. The story mentioned staving off mental decline in middle-aged and elderly people whereas the study only included people who were 65 years of age or older to start, with an average age at the start of 73. Thus they could hardly be considered middle-aged. The story reported that the results of the study would be analogous to finding that ""if someone went to the gym Monday through Friday for the first two weeks of the new year, did no exercise for five years, and still saw significant physical benefits in 2012."" This analogy does not hold up – first, because the study included booster sessions in intervening years and, secondly, because it would be expected that individuals who had received training would make use of what they had learned in the time between studies. Finally, it is very difficult to interpret the results reported in the story, understand what they mean and see how they derived from the study. For example – the story reported that ""those that got the speed training did 300 percent better than the control group."" What exactly was it that the speed trained people were 300% better at? This is explained in the study, but not in the story. Readers need this information in order to weigh the potential benefits of the intervention."
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false
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"Although the story mentioned that 'Mental activities do not have to involve expensive toys…"" there was no estimate of costs that might be associated with the types of mental activies described in the study nor how one might find someone trained in these interventions to work with. The benefits that a senior citizen might reasonably expect to obtain through cognitive training were not presented clearly. The reader has no idea from the information presented the size of the changes observed. There was no discussion of possible harms or comparisons of the harms between three cognitive training activities examined in this study. Perhaps there were none, but the story did not address the issue. The story included the example ""Knowing how to figure out directions and find a new route on a map, for example, could allow someone to retain mobility even after their night vision deteriorates"" though maintenance of this cognitive component might give someone false security about driving under conditions where they are physiologically not up to the tasks. The story included several misleading statements about the study. The story mentioned staving off mental decline in middle-aged and elderly people whereas the study only included people who were 65 years of age or older to start, with an average age at the start of 73. Thus they could hardly be considered 'middle-aged'. There was very little in the way of reporting on specific results and it was not clear from the story what were the specific findings of the actual study. The story reported that the results of the study would be analogous to finding that ""if someone went to the gym Monday through Friday for the first two weeks of the new year, did no exercise for five years, and still saw significant physical benefits in 2012."" This analogy does not hold up – first because the study included booster sessions in intervening years and secondly because it would be expected that individuals who had received training would make use of what they had learned in the time between studies. Lastly – it is very difficult to interpret the results reported in the story, understand what they mean and see how they derived from the study. For example – the story reported that ""those that got the speed training did 300 percent better than the control group."" What exactly was it that the speed trained people were 300% better at? The story said, ""Experts said the federally funded study is a call to action for anyone who has ever worried about developing Alzheimer's, dementia and similar disorders."" But the research reported on was not about prevention of actual diseases, only about preservation of some mental acuity. Age-related decline in cognitive capacity is not the same as development of age-related disease. In addition – the article included reference to inability to drive at night, which is something of great concern but is not relevant to the study described. Two authors of the study and the author of an editorial on the study were used as sources of information for this story. The story did not mention other sorts of lifestyle interventions that have been postulated to help individuals age successfully. Although the story did contain advice (from the lead author of the study) about working on puzzles that are more difficult, something new, and stretch the mind – the nature of the three distinct interventions used with the ACTIVE study participants was not clear, nor was the difficulty of finding people to work with on these specific sorts of mental training activities mentioned. How one might access the interventions used in the study was not clarified for the reader. It is also not clear how the study interventions actually relate to the kinds of examples given in the story such as doing puzzles. The story reported on the most recent results from the ACTIVE (Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly) Study. But the story did not mention that these outcomes do not substantially differ from the earlier results of the ACTIVE study. Does not appear to rely on a press release."
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2916
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Canadian dies from H5N1 avian influenza on return from China.
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A Canadian has died from H5N1 avian influenza after returning from a trip to China in what is the only current confirmed case of its kind in North America, federal health officials said on Wednesday.
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true
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Health News
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Officials at a briefing in Ottawa said that the case was isolated and there was minimal risk to the general public. The H5N1 strain - normally spread through contact with infected birds - kills about 60 percent of those infected, they added. The person, who traveled to China in December, died in the western province of Alberta on January 3. Officials warned Canadians to avoid coming into contact with birds in China. The Alberta health ministry said in a statement that in 2013, there were 38 world-wide cases of H5N1 avian influenza reported to the World Health Organization and 24 deaths.
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32380
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U.S. Gymnastics coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi were illegal immigrants.
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The defection of Bela and Marta Karolyi from Romania to the United States in 1981 has been extensively documented in accounts of Olympic history. The couple followed legal procedure in securing a legitimate claim of asylum that allowed them to remain in the United States (and obtain U.S. citizenship), and at no point in the process were they “illegal immigrants” in America.
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false
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Politics
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Amid an impressive series of performances by the U.S. women’s gymnastics team during the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, coach Marta Karolyi and her husband Bela were the subjects of frequent headlines, including a 12 August 2016 profile that credited them with transforming the United States’ global standing in the gymnastics world: [Gymnastics] wasn’t traditionally a sport the U.S. dominated. The American women didn’t win their first team gold until 1996. But they have now captured the team title at the last two Olympics, and American women have won the individual all-around at the last four Summer Games. It’s fitting that the current team has nicknamed itself the “Final Five,” a tribute to leader Marta Karolyi, 73, who is stepping down after the Rio Games. She and her husband, Bela, have been towering figures in the world of gymnastics since the 1970s. They first rose to prominence in their native Romania where they trained the country’s first wave of superstar gymnasts, including Nadia Comaneci, who scored the sport’s first perfect 10 and took gold at the 1976 Olympics. The Karolyis defected to the U.S. in 1981 and have helped transform the American women into the world’s best. The Romanian couple were also subjects of rumors claiming that they were “illegal immigrants” to the U.S.: On or around 11 August 2016, popular Twitter account @OMGFacts retweeted a subsequently viral iteration of the claim the Karolyis emigrated to the United States under less than legal circumstances: *drops mic* pic.twitter.com/ehGzaiee0k — Lazer Gun Carrier (@branfire) August 11, 2016 The above example references Donald Trump’s campaign slogan (“Make America Great Again”) and appears to critique his controversial stances on immigration, suggesting that immigrants of (initially) dubious status have been responsible for years of American success at the Olympics. The tweet clearly had impact (it was shared by tens of thousands of users), but its claims were misleading, The circumstances under which Bela and Marta Karolyi emigrated from Romania to the United States are well documented but possibly unfamiliar to younger audiences. In their native Romania, the couple coached legendary gymnast Nadia Comăneci, who at the age of 14 achieved the first perfect 10 gymnastics score in Olympic history during the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. In 1981, the Karolyis embarked on what was intended to be an exhibition tour of the United States before a planned return to Romania, but (ostensibly) on a whim, the Karolyis (along with companion and choreographer Geza Pozsar) decided to defect and seek asylum in the United States due to increasing political pressure in their native Romania: The [Karolyis] breaking point came in March ’81, during an exhibition tour of the U.S. by the Romanian team. Secret police accompanied the delegation, clumsily disguised as masseurs and journalists, and Karolyi found himself under increasing pressure to toe the party line. The leader of the Romanian gymnastics federation, Nicolai Vieru, made it clear to Karolyi that the coach was suspected of intending to defect. Fearful of reprisals upon their return to Romania, Bela and Martha did just that. On the last day of the tour, March 29, accompanied by team choreographer Geza Pozsar, they walked out of their hotel and disappeared into the crowded streets of New York City. It was the beginning of a wrenching odyssey. “We just decide, suddenly,” says Karolyi. “We haven’t been prepared. We had not saved any money. We had even bought a big stuffed bear to bring home to Andrea.” Andrea, their seven-year-old daughter, had stayed behind in Romania with an aunt, and now Bela and Martha had no way of contacting her. They carried her bear with them into the street. After a week, with the help of other èmigrès, he and Martha contacted the State Department and applied for official asylum, which was eventually granted. Although their defection made the newspapers, no one in the gymnastics community contacted Karolyi, and after the initial swirl of publicity, he and Martha were left to fend for themselves. An acquaintance named Les Sasvari, an expatriate Hungarian coach living in the U.S., helped pay their way to Los Angeles. California, Sasvari told them, was the promised land of American gymnastics, a land of sunshine, gyms and jobs. A friend of Sasvari’s worked as a manager at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, and there, improbably, Bela and Martha stayed for free for several days. Karolyi, English phrasebook in hand, called every gymnasium in the Los Angeles phone book, offering his services. There were no takers. Seeking political asylum is very different from what Americans often term “illegal immigration,” as the latter typically involves those who unlawfully sneak into the United States at unguarded border crossings or who enter the country on temporary tourist visas but unlawfully decline to leave at the end of the allotted visitation timeframe. By contrast, individuals eligible for asylum (codified in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952) are described legally as “generally people outside of their country who are unable or unwilling to return home because they fear serious harm.” Persons claiming such status must demonstrate the condition of serious risk upon return to their home countries and bear the burden of proof to successfully secure asylum, and those who apply for asylum in the United States are legally authorized to remain in the country while their cases are pending, so at no point could the Karolyis have realistically been considered “illegal immigrants.” In January 1982, the New York Times reported that the Karolyis secured the help of lawmakers in retrieving their daughter from Romania as their application for political asylum was being processed: Karoyli, the man who coached Nadia Comaneci to her gold-medal success at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, and Rumania to a team title at the 1979 world championships, defected to the United States with his wife, Martha, and Geza Pozsar, the top choreographer for the Rumanian national team. Eventually, the Karolyis were reunited with their 8-year-old daughter, Andrea, early in September through the efforts of Representative Bill Archer, Republican of Texas. Andrea had been in Rumania with an aunt. Karolyi had left Rumania, he said, because he believed the gymnastics federation there was trying to use his success and the gold-medal emergence of Miss Comaneci and others as a political tool. Bela and Marta Karolyi were officially granted asylum by 1983, indicating immigration authorities agreed they would have been at risk of harm had they returned to Romania in 1981. Legislative efforts were undertaken to expedite the granting of U.S. citizenship to the couple in order to allow them to take part in coaching the U.S. gymnastics team for the 1988 Summer Olympics: Under the rules, though, Karolyi can’t coach the national team without being a citizen, and, as a Rumanian whom the United States granted political asylum in 1983, he won’t be eligible for citizenship until Oct. 25, 1988 — after the Seoul Games have already ended. Now, to make it possible for him to be considered for the job by the United States Gymnastics Federation, a bill waiving the usual five-year waiting period has been introduced by Senators James A. McClure, Republican of Idaho, and Alan J. Dixon, Democrat of Illinois. “There is no doubt that this citizenship will be granted; it’s just a matter of when,” McClure said in a Senate speech. “He has earned it. He is already a productive, patriotic American.” Karolyi later said he struggled with the decision to leave 19-year-old Nadia Comăneci behind, ultimately deciding that she was too young to fully appreciate the involved risks. Comăneci herself defected in 1989, by which point Karolyi was already an American citizen: While Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci was on a tour of the United States in 1981, the two men who had the most impact on her career, her coach, Bela Karolyi, and her choreographer, Geza Pozsar, defected. They said that they had considered asking Comaneci, who was 19 at the time, to join them, but decided against it — not because they feared that she would reject them, but because they feared that she would accept. “We were about to face a very different future,” Karolyi said by telephone from Stuttgart, West Germany, where he is coaching a team of U.S. women gymnasts in competition. “We had no assignments, no opportunities and no promises … We knew that we could not guarantee that she would be taken care of better than her family could take care of her in Romania. History proved that I was right. I didn’t have a regular job for six months. I took night jobs, cleaning restaurants and making pennies to carry me from one day to another … She had to go back and finish her career as a gymnast and her education. We knew that a few years later she would be mature enough to make a decision on her own.” Only a few days past her 28th birthday, Comaneci made that decision. She crossed the Romanian border into Hungary and went to the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, where her request for political asylum was granted. Her freedom flight landed Friday in New York. “I was always hoping that one of these days she was going to make this difficult step,” Karolyi said.
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29040
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A summary of the 1956 Republican platform describes a significant divergence from the party's focus in recent decades.
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While the two platforms from 1956 and 2012 may appear starkly different when compared side-by-side, one must also keep in mind that the Republican Party tenets referenced in this meme predate many of the issues American voters now feel are central to their lives 60 years on.
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mixture
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Politics, dwight eisenhower, Mitt romney, Republican Party
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A few weeks before the 2012 U.S. presidential election, a meme began to circulate on social media suggesting the 1956 Republican platform included policies that would more closely match those of progressives in later years: The tenets listed in the 1956 Republican platform graphic certainly deviate from many of the GOP’s current party lines, but were the following cited planks notably different six decades ago? It’s difficult to make a direct comparison for a few reasons. One is that the Republican Party’s national platform is not necessarily the same as the issues espoused by individual candidates at the federal, state, or local levels. In recent years, the advent of social media has enabled candidates and political organizations to push individually important agendas that may not hew to the party’s overall national platform. Another issue is defining what the party’s platform is at any given time. The most recent available Republican Party platform dates to 2012, during the campaign of Mitt Romney. Not all issues addressed in the graphic above were directly mentioned or comparably referenced in the 2012 platform, and individual Republican Party members who have made statements about platform issues since then do not necessarily speak for the GOP at large. The image displayed above first points to assistance for “low-income communities,” language that does not specifically appear in the 1956 Republican platform. Under the heading of “Labor,” the original document supported (to a degree) several of the positions summarized in the graphic in respect to minimum wage laws, unemployment assistance, and equal pay irrespective of gender: The Eisenhower Administration will continue to fight for dynamic and progressive programs which, among other things, will:Stimulate improved job safety of our workers, through assistance to the States, employees and employers; Continue and further perfect its programs of assistance to the millions of workers with special employment problems, such as older workers, handicapped workers, members of minority groups, and migratory workers; Strengthen and improve the Federal-State Employment Service and improve the effectiveness of the unemployment insurance system; Protect by law, the assets of employee welfare and benefit plans so that workers who are the beneficiaries can be assured of their rightful benefits; Assure equal pay for equal work regardless of Sex; Clarify and strengthen the eight-hour laws for the benefit of workers who are subject to federal wage standards on Federal and Federally-assisted construction, and maintain and continue the vigorous administration of the Federal prevailing minimum wage law for public supply contracts; Extend the protection of the Federal minimum wage laws to as many more workers as is possible and practicable; Continue to fight for the elimination of discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry or sex; Provide assistance to improve the economic conditions of areas faced with persistent and substantial unemployment. The quoted portion did not specify expanded access to unemployment insurance benefits. However, the introduction addressed matters of expanding that benefit, as well as Social Security and even health care. The word “Protect” did not appear in that bit, but it did state: We are proud of and shall continue our far-reaching and sound advances in matters of basic human needs — expansion of social security — broadened coverage in unemployment insurance — improved housing — and better health protection for all our people. We are determined that our government remain warmly responsive to the urgent social and economic problems of our people.We shall continue to seek extension and perfection of a sound social security system. On the matter of supporting and encouraging labor unions, the 1956 Republican platform stated that “workers have benefited by the progress which has been made in carrying out the programs and principles set forth in the 1952 Republican platform … workers have gained and unions have grown in strength and responsibility, and have increased their membership by 2 millions.” It pledged to: Revise and improve the Taft-Hartley Act so as to protect more effectively the rights of labor unions, management, the individual worker, and the public. The protection of the right of workers to organize into unions and to bargain collectively is the firm and permanent policy of the Eisenhower Administration. In 1954, 1955 and again in 1956, President Eisenhower recommended constructive amendments to this Act. The Democrats in Congress have consistently blocked these needed changes by parliamentary maneuvers. The Republican Party pledges itself to overhaul and improve the Taft-Hartley Act along the lines of these recommendations. By contrast, the 2012 Republican Party platform said of workers, unemployment insurance, and worker protections that: The best jobs program is economic growth. We do not offer yet another made-in-Washington package of subsidies and spending to create temporary or artificial jobs. We want much more than that. We want a roaring job market to match a roaring economy. Instead, what this Administration has given us is 42 consecutive months of unemployment above 8 percent, the longest period of high unemployment since the Great Depression. Republicans will pursue free market policies that are the surest way to boost employment and create job growth and economic prosperity for all.In all the sections that follow, as well as elsewhere in this platform, we explain what must be done to achieve that goal. The tax system must be simplified. Government spending and regulation must be reined in. American companies must be more competitive in the world market, and we must be aggressive in promoting U.S. products abroad and securing open markets for them. A federal-State-private partnership must invest in the nation’s infrastructure: roads, bridges, airports, ports, and water systems, among others. Federal training programs have to be overhauled and made relevant for the workplace of the twenty-first century. Potential employers need certainty and predictability for their hiring decisions, and the team of a Republican President and Congress will create the confidence that will get Americans back to work. Unions were also addressed in the 2012 platform in a somewhat different manner: We will restore the rule of law to labor law by blocking “card check,” enacting the Secret Ballot Protection Act, enforcing the Hobbs Act against labor violence, and passing the Raise Act to allow all workers to receive well-earned raises without the approval of their union representative. We demand an end to the Project Labor Agreements; and we call for repeal of the Davis-Bacon Act, which costs the taxpayers billions of dollars annually in artificially high wages on government projects. We support the right of States to enact Right-to-Work laws and encourage them to do so to promote greater economic liberty. Ultimately, we support the enactment of a National Right-to-Work law to promote worker freedom and to promote greater economic liberty. We will aggressively enforce the recent decision by the Supreme Court barring the use of union dues for political purposes without the consent of the worker. Republicans in 1956 appeared markedly softer on matters of immigration and asylum, as their platform explained: The Republican Party supports an immigration policy which is in keeping with the traditions of America in providing a haven for oppressed peoples, and which is based on equality of treatment, freedom from implications of discrimination between racial, nationality and religious groups, and flexible enough to conform to changing needs and conditions.In that concept, this Republican Administration sponsored the Refugee Relief Act to provide asylum for thousands of refugees, expellees and displaced persons, and undertook in the face of Democrat opposition to correct the inequities in existing law and to bring our immigration policies in line with the dynamic needs of the country and principles of equity and justice. We believe also that the Congress should consider the extension of the Refugee Relief Act of 1953 in resolving this difficult refugee problem which resulted from world conflict. To all this we give our wholehearted support. In 2012, the GOP platform was slightly more stringent: We recognize that for most of those seeking entry into this country, the lack of respect for the rule of law in their homelands has meant economic exploitation and political oppression by corrupt elites. In this country, the rule of law guarantees equal treatment to every individual, including more than one million immigrants to whom we grant permanent residence every year. That is why we oppose any form of amnesty for those who, by intentionally violating the law, disadvantage those who have obeyed it. Granting amnesty only rewards and encourages more law breaking. We support the mandatory use of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (S.A.V.E.) program — an internet-based system that verifies the lawful presence of applicants — prior to the granting of any State or federal government entitlements or IRS refunds. We insist upon enforcement at the workplace through verification systems so that jobs can be available to all legal workers. Use of the E-verify program — an internet-based system that verifies the employment authorization and identity of employees — must be made mandatory nationwide. State enforcement efforts in the workplace must be welcomed, not attacked. When Americans need jobs, it is absolutely essential that we protect them from illegal labor in the workplace. In addition, it is why we demand tough penalties for those who practice identity theft, deal in fraudulent documents, and traffic in human beings. It is why we support Republican legislation to give the Department of Homeland Security long-term detention authority to keep dangerous but undeportable aliens off our streets, expedite expulsion of criminal aliens, and make gang membership a deportable offense. Social Security warranted a few mentions in the 2012 platform, most notably in this portion: For much of the last century, an opposing view has dominated public policy where we have witnessed the expansion, centralization, and bureaucracy in an entitlement society. Government has lumbered on, stifling innovation, with no incentive for fundamental change, through antiquated programs begun generations ago and now ill-suited to present needs and future requirements. As a result, today’s taxpayers – and future generations – face massive indebtedness, while Congressional Democrats and the current Administration block every attempt to turn things around. This man-made log-jam – the so-called stalemate in Washington – particularly affects the government’s three largest programs, which have become central to the lives of untold millions of Americans: Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Among the remaining points of the graphic, gender pay discrepancy was not directly referenced in the 2012 platform.
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9437
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More than 103 million Americans will have high blood pressure under new guidelines
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This story about new guidelines from the American Heart Association and other medical groups that reduce the threshold for diagnosis of high blood pressure summarizes the key recommendations, but doesn’t explain benefits, harms or costs. This story (along with those from many other news media outlets) should have addressed the glaring disconnect between what is recommended and what doctors and patients actually do. The story used far lower estimates of the number of people likely to be told to start taking drugs than what was contained in an American Heart Association news release. (And the online and video versions of the ABC News stories used very different numbers.) Readers of this story learn that they are more likely to be told they have high blood pressure, but not what that means to them, other than that they will probably hear more lectures about diet and exercise, and maybe get more drug prescriptions. For a good alternative view, see the this New York Times opinion piece. If almost all of the “new” patients with high blood pressure will be simply advised to improve their lifestyle, by doing things like exercising more, eating better and drinking less alcohol, which are things everyone is advised to do, then what has really changed? Any time that medical experts spout the routine lifestyle advice, reporters should press them to explain what is really likely to change for patients. Will physicians and clinics adopt (and will insurers pay for) more effective lifestyle interventions? Or will it be business as usual for most patients, except that more people will be prescribed drugs?
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mixture
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high blood pressure,hypertension
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There is no discussion of cost, either from the increase in the number of people the guidelines say should be taking blood pressure lowering medication, or the costs of instituting effective lifestyle modification programs or of expanded blood pressure monitoring, including having people measure blood pressure for an extended period at home as part of the initial diagnostic process. The story says people who will now be told they have high blood pressure (based on the expanded definition) have twice the risk of cardiovascular problems of those with blood pressure below the new cutoff. However, the story does not explain what the actual risk is. In other words, twice what? Then, there is the matter of the benefit of following the new guidelines: how much would it actually reduce cardiovascular problems? How many heart attacks prevented or delayed? How many strokes? The story doesn’t discuss these fundamental questions. By contrast, a story in USA Today noted at the end that “only about half of Americans with hypertension under the old guidelines have it under control, said Whelton, the guideline chair. “I don’t underestimate the challenge of what we need to do.” This statement provides important context by pointing out that diagnosing hypertension often fails to lead to a reduction in blood pressure or any real health benefits that would be expected to follow. ABC News and many other outlets failed to address the disconnect between recommendations about lifestyle and what doctors and patients do in the real world. There is no discussion of harms in the story. The most obvious potential harm is from medication side effects. The story reports that these guidelines are the result of an “extensive report by experts” and the first update in 14 years. But it doesn’t explain that guidelines are based on a systematic review of the evidence–and these guidelines should state what the strength of the evidence is for the recommendations. An independent expert likely would have helped explain the quality of the evidence behind this recommendation. The story doesn’t disease-monger, though it’s up for debate if the recommendation does, since the new guideline dramatically increases the number of people who will be labeled as hypertensive. We wanted to note that ABC News does not agree with itself about how many more people may be prescribed blood pressure lowering drugs. The online text (byline: Ted Handler, MD) says that about 4.2 million more Americans would be advised to take drugs, about 5 percent more than under the old guidelines. However, in the video clip from ABC World News Tonight, chief medical editor Dr. Jennifer Ashton said “it’s estimated that that number will only go up by 2 percent.” It’s not clear where either of those numbers came from. The American Heart Association news release about the new guidelines says “Of the estimated 14 percent more adults to be classified with high blood pressure, about one in five will need medication, according to Paul Whelton, M.D., who chaired the guideline writing committee.” Fourteen percent of the US adult population is about 35 million people, so one in five would be about 7 million more who would be advised to start taking medications, according to the AHA news release. That would be about a 9 percent increase in the number of people advised to take blood pressure drugs, which is a much higher percentage than cited by ABC News. The story does say that the guidelines are based on “an extensive report by experts without relevant ties to the pharmaceutical industry.” However, there are no quotes from or references to any sources who were not involved in creating the new guidelines. The story is all about contrasting the new hypertension definition with the old one. However, as noted above, ABC News used far lower estimates than the American Heart Association news release of the number of people who would be advised to take blood pressure lowering medication. And when discussing recommended lifestyle changes, the story did not note that these recommendations apply to everyone, whether or not they have been diagnosed with high blood pressure Ideally the story would have discussed that other medical groups have suggested different blood pressure guidelines based on age group. It is obvious that blood pressure testing and treatment is widely available. The story reports that this is the first update of American Heart Association guidelines on hypertension in 14 years. The story is less informative than the news release. And, as noted above, some of the numbers in the story do not match those in the American Heart Association news release. However, since we don’t see any evidence of quotes or text taken directly from the news release, we’ll rate this Satisfactory.
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28161
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"The Daily Mail posted, and then deleted, a story saying the U.S. had given the ""green light"" for a chemical weapons attack in Syria that could be blamed on Assad."
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"What's true: The Daily Mail did post and then delete a story claiming U.S. officials had given the ""green light"" to a chemical weapon attack in Syria and frame Assad. What's false: The article was deleted because the Daily Mail admitted it was false; they were subsequently forced to pay libel damages to the British company it named."
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true
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Uncategorized, chemical attack, conspiracy theory, daily mail
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On 7 April 2017, conspiracy web site Truth Theory revived a now-deleted 2013 story by the British tabloid the Daily Mail (headlined, “U.S. ‘backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’s regime'”). The article’s republishing coincided with an American missile strike retaliating against a chemical attack by the Syrian government on civilians in rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun three days earlier. The Daily Mail article reported having evidence of an impending “false flag” attack. (A so-called “false flag” is a common conspiracy theory that asserts governments initiate crises — real or fabricated — to lay the groundwork for unpopular actions such as confiscating guns, or, in this case, removing a president from power.) Conspiracy web sites claimed the reason for the article’s deletion was “unclear,” implying that forces intent on hiding a nefarious plot to oust Syrian president Bashar al-Assad pressured the publication to do so. The Daily Mail article, originally published 29 January 2013, reported that U.S. officials had told a British defense company they had been given a “green light” for chemical weapons use in Syria that could then be blamed on Assad: Leaked emails have allegedly proved that the White House gave the green light to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that could be blamed on Assad’s regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country. A report released on Monday contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence where a scheme ‘approved by Washington’ is outlined explaining that Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons. Barack Obama made it clear to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad last month that the U.S. would not tolerate Syria using chemical weapons against its own people. The idea that the chemical attacks in Syria had been disguised to look like Assad’s work, thus giving his adversaries cover to remove him from power, is a pervasive conspiracy theory that has been disseminated by the Assad-allied Russian government. On 11 April 2017, RT, a Kremlin-funded media outlet, quoted President Vladimir Putin airing that same claim: Russia has information of a potential incident similar to the alleged chemical attack in Idlib province, possibly targeting a Damascus suburb, President Vladimir Putin said. The goal is to discredit the government of Syrian President Assad, he added. “We have reports from multiple sources that false flags like this one – and I cannot call it otherwise – are being prepared in other parts of Syria, including the southern suburbs of Damascus. They plan to plant some chemical there and accuse the Syrian government of an attack,” he said at a joint press conference with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in Moscow. Damascus denied the allegations, noting that the targeted area may have been hosting chemical weapons stockpiles belonging to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) or Al-Nusra Front jihadists. But Truth Theory and other sites that re-posted the old Daily Mail story failed to note that the article wasn’t deleted due to pressure from an evil globalist cabal, but instead was taken down because the publication admitted it was untrue. The Daily Mail apologized to officials of Britam Defence and paid damages for libel after admitting the “leaked e-mails” were actually forged by a hacker. One of the fake e-mails read: Phil We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington. We’ll have to deliver a CW to Homs, a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have. They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record. Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion? Kind regards David Carter-Ruck, the law firm that represented the defense company, wrote in its Autumn 2013 newsletter of the case: The Mail’s allegations were based on emails said to have been sent between two Britam directors, which had been published on the internet after Britam’s computer systems had been illegally hacked. In fact, however,the emails were forgeries. They had been fabricated and published online by the hacker, whose activities remain the subject of a number of criminal investigations. Faced with these facts, the Mail accepted that the allegations it had published were completely false. In addition to publishing a prominent apology on its website and in the High Court, the Mail paid the company and the two directors £110,000 in libel damages, together with their legal costs The 18 April 2013 Daily Mail apology read: An article on 29 January reported allegations on the internet that the US Government had backed a plot to launch a chemicals weapons attack in Syria and blame it on the Assad regime. The reports made reference to an email said to have been from David Goulding, the Business Development Director of Britam Defence, to company founder, Philip Doughty. The email had been published on the internet after Britam’s computer system was illegally hacked in Singapore. It referred to a proposal that Britam would deliver chemical weapons to Syria for enormous financial reward and suggested that the directors were willing to consider the illegal proposal. We now accept that email was fabricated and acknowledge there is no truth in any suggestion that Britam or its directors were willing to consider taking part in such a plot, which may have led to an atrocity. We apologise to each of them and have agreed to pay substantial damages. The Daily Mail‘s publisher paid £110,000 in damages to the firm.
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24496
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Not only is there no scientific evidence that CO2 is a pollutant, higher CO2 concentrations actually help ecosystems support more plant and animal life.
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PlantsNeedCO2.org claims that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant and is good for the environment
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false
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Environment, National, Climate Change, Energy, PlantsNeedCO2.org,
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"With Congress deep in a debate over legislation to slow climate change, the Washington Post has become a popular place for climate change claims, including this one from an organization called PlantsNeedCO2.org: ""Not only is there no scientific evidence that CO 2 is a pollutant, higher CO 2 concentrations actually help ecosystems support more plant and animal life,"" according to an ad the group published Oct. 5, 2009, in the Post . To check this claim, we'll first need to travel back in time to high school biology, when we learned about a little life-sustaining process called photosynthesis. Plants pull carbon dioxide through tiny openings in their leaves where it combines with water and sunlight to create sugar and oxygen. Aside from maintaining normal oxygen levels in the atmosphere, life depends on photosynthesis as a source of energy. Carbon dioxide also plays an important role in climate change. This is naturally occuring — we release it into the atmosphere every time we exhale — but is also emitted when we burn fossil fuels. Along with other greenhouse gases, such as methane and sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide traps energy from the sun in the atmosphere, which causes the Earth's surface temperatures to rise. Most scientists agree that greenhouse gases are primarily responsible for climate change. PlantsNeedCO2.org is skeptical. The organization, which is still awaiting its nonprofit status, is the brainchild of Leighton Steward, a self-described geologist, environmentalist, author and retired energy industry executive. He authored a diet book called Sugar Busters! and is the chairman of the board of the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man at Southern Methodist University. We sent an e-mail to the organization but our inquiry was not returned. PlantsNeedCO2.org has one mission: ""to educate the public on the positive effects of additional atmospheric CO 2 and help prevent the inadvertent negative impact to human, plant and animal life if we reduce CO 2 ."" The Web site is chock-full of links to papers, videos and other evidence that more carbon dioxide is actually good for the environment. ""Far from being a pollutant, rising atmospheric CO 2 concentrations will never directly harm human health, but will indirectly benefit humans in a number of ways,"" according to the site. ""In addition to increasing the quantity of food available for human consumption, the rising atmospheric CO 2 concentration is also increasing the quality of the foods we eat."" We're going to take the group's claims — that there is no scientific evidence that CO 2 is a pollutant and that higher CO 2 concentrations actually help ecosystems support more plant and animal life — one at a time. First, PlantsNeedCO2.org claims that there is no scientific evidence that carbon dioxide is a pollutant. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency disagrees. On April 17, 2009, the agency said that thorough scientific review proved that carbon dioxide, along with several other greenhouse gases, are pollutants that threaten human health; it is taking steps to regulate the gases under the Clean Air Act, a law typically reserved for monitoring traditional pollutants including ozone and sulfur dioxide. ""This finding confirms that greenhouse gas pollution is a serious problem now and for future generations,"" said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson in a press release. ""In both magnitude and probability, climate change is an enormous problem. The greenhouse gases that are responsible for it endanger public health and welfare within the meaning of the Clean Air Act.'"" The EPA's findings were ""based on rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific analysis of six gases — carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride — that have been the subject of intensive analysis by scientists around the world. The science clearly shows that concentrations of these gases are at unprecedented levels as a result of human emissions, and these high levels are very likely the cause of the increase in average temperatures and other changes in our climate,"" according to the press release. PlantsNeedCO2.org's second claim — that higher carbon dioxide concentrations boost plant and animal life — is not so clear-cut. To be sure, carbon dioxide is essential to life as we know it, and climate change skeptics have used the argument to reject efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. ""Plant physiologists have known for a long time that most vegetation loves more carbon dioxide,"" wrote Roy Spencer, a scientist at the University of Alabama at Huntsville in a 2008 National Review article. ""It grows faster, is more drought-tolerant, and is more efficient in its water use. While the pre-industrial CO 2 concentration of the atmosphere was only about 280 parts per million (ppm) by volume, and now it is around 380 ppm, some greenhouses pump it all the way up to around 1,000 ppm. How can environmentalists claim that helping vegetation to grow is a bad thing?"" So, there's an argument to be made that carbon dioxide concentrations increase plant growth and abundance. But the claim leaves out some important facts, said Rob Jackson, a professor of global environmental change and biology at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. ""Is carbon dioxide good for plants? The narrow answer is yes,"" said Jackson. ""But I think it's misleading to say that, if CO 2 is good for plants, it's good for the environment. ... It's kind of like saying that steroids are good for people — they build bone and muscle — but they also have other effects."" For example, Jackson's research shows that with higher carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere we would see more wood growth, but that there may also be more pests due to higher temperatures, and longer droughts due to more evaporation. Beyond the reams of scientific research to demonstrate how dramatically the Earth could change with increased carbon dioxide levels, some studies indicate that more is not necessarily better for plants. For instance, a two-decade study of the Panama and Malaysia rainforests demonstrated that temperature increases of more than 1 degree could lead to 50 percent reduction in tree growth. A study launched in 1997 in California studied the effects of climate change on grasslands. Scientists doubled atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, raised the temperature by 2 degrees, increased precipitation by 50 percent, and raised levels of nitrogen, which is also a product of fossil fuel consumption, to simulate how the Earth might look decades from now. When carbon dioxide levels alone were raised, plants grew quite a bit. ""But when we factored in realistic treatments — warming, changes in nitrogen deposition, changes in precipitation — growth was actually suppressed,"" Christopher B. Field, a professor at Stanford, told ScienceDaily in 2002. But back to PlantsNeedCO2.org's claim. They are wrong that carbon dioxide is not considered a pollutant. According to the EPA, it is. And the claim that ""higher CO 2 concentrations actually help ecosystems support more plant and animal life"" leaves out some important details. While carbon dioxide is good for plants, increased amounts of it in our atmosphere will have auxiliary effects that are decidedly bad for ecosystems. For PlantsNeedCO2.org, it's ."
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10300
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New drug promising against cholesterol
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If things go well with future experiments and clinical use, we may someday look back on this trial as a turning point for this new class of drugs that affect how our bodies manage cholesterol, but this story takes the corner too fast. The results of the trial of anacetrapib give researchers confidence that they can safely proceed to the next round of testing without exposing patients to the life-threatening side effects caused by a similar drug, torcetrapib. However, this story (which misspells the drug’s name throughout the online version) emphasizes potential, but uNPRoven, health effects. There is good material in the story, including several cautionary statements (deep in the story) about how anacetrapib has yet to demonstrate it can save lives or reduce disease. It also reports that the trial was sponsored by the company developing the drug, though it fails to point out the financial ties of the researcher that is quoted. Trials can demonstrate only what they are designed to investigate. This trial was designed to rule out major safety problems and document changes in cholesterol levels in people. It was not designed to produce evidence that this method of altering cholesterol levels translates into health benefits. The next round of trials should provide answers to important questions about health outcomes, but readers of this story may not understand that this trial did not. Over 20 million Americans currently take statin drugs. Anacetrapib works on cholesterol in a different way, by inhibiting a protein called CETP (cholesterol ester transfer protein). These drugs also offer hope to drug companies that are losing patent protection on the leading brands of statins. That marketing angle means journalists need to be vigilant about claims of benefits. The early tests of an earlier CETP inhibitor, torcetrapib, also indicated powerful effects on cholesterol, especially in raising levels of the “good” HDL form. However, as this story notes, larger trials then discovered dangerous side effects. It turned out that drug actually caused more heart problems than it prevented. In reality it takes a lot of subjects to even begin to get a picture of the risks and benefits of a new drug. While encouraging, the results of this study are far from conclusive.
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mixture
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CNN
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This and other CETP inhibitor drugs are being tested in combination with statins. More than 20 million Americans currently take statins, so an approved drug would be expected to be widely prescribed. Stock market jumps that quickly followed the announcement of these trial results show that market watchers expect a lot of money would be spent. So even though this cholesterol drug is still being tested, if the lead sentence of the story promises people that it may be available “soon” then it is reasonable to expect the story to tell them how much they may soon be paying. Readers would be curious to know if the “jaw-dropping” effects (to quote from an American Heart Association news release) will be accompanied by a jaw-dropping price… for individuals and for the nation. The story does include several comments that further testing is needed before researchers will be able to say whether or not anacetrapib can save lives or reduce the risk of heart disease. However, it appears to ignore all the cautionary statements when talking about the “benefits” shown in this specific trial. It reports the changes in cholesterol levels seen in this trial and then continues with a comment about the potential life-saving effect “if the same benefit” were seen in all patients at risk of heart disease. The problem is that this new class of drugs alters cholesterol levels using a different biological mechanism than statins. While it is understandable to hope that the changes in cholesterol will predict changes in disease risk, the way they sometimes can for certain patients taking statins, that fundamental question has yet to be tested… and it certainly was not asked in this trial. As mentioned above, despite the cautionary statements from independent experts, the thrust of this story assumes that changing cholesterol numbers means changing lives. Not only is that link yet to be proven for this class of drugs, but journalists have an obligation to remind people that the simple marketing messages used to promote cholesterol-lowering statins obscure a far more complex reality. Readers of this story are likely to conclude that anacetrapib is safe. They aren’t told that what the researchers actually reported is that based on their statistical analysis, they are at least 94 percent sure that the drug doesn’t cause the 25 percent increase in cardiovascular events that was seen in experiments with a similar drug, torcetrapib. That “promising” drug was yanked from testing. The story did report the dangerous turn taken in trials of torcetrapib, but it could have done a better job of explaining to readers that while researchers breathed a sigh of relief that the same sort of hazards weren’t seen in this trial of anacetrapib, the safety picture is still only short-term and sketchy. The story does tell readers that another drug in this class showed initial promise, but was then dropped because it caused more health problems and deaths than it prevented. And while the story describes key details of the trial, t it fails to make clear that the whole point of this trial was to look for major safety problems, not primarily to test effectiveness. Indeed, the title of the journal article in the New England Journal of Medicine is “Safety of Anacetrapib in Patients with or at High Risk for Coronary Heart Disease.” Nowhere in the article is there a claim that this trial could demonstrate the drug actually improves the health outcomes of patients. The fundamental problem with this story is that it promotes the common misconception that equates elevated cholesterol numbers with heart disease and death. The relationship between cholesterol and health problems is far more complex and murky than most people realize, but this story takes the same short cuts used by advertisements promoting statins to millions of people who don’t actually fit the definition of those shown to benefit from drug treatment. The story points out that the current trial involved people with existing heart disease or at very high risk and that they were all already taking a statin, and the lead sentence also refers to new options for people who are already taking a statin, so it meets this criterion. Nevertheless, readers are likely to miss the point that the drug has yet to be tested in people who are generally healthy except for having somewhat high cholesterol numbers. This is an important point, because statins are already being prescribed for many people who are at relatively low risk of heart disease and may derive little if any actual health benefit from the drug. The story would have been better if it included stronger caution against a similar premature leap from people with existing disease or very high risk to the far larger number of people with milder cholesterol concerns. This is a strong point of the story. It offers readers comments from several independent experts who highlight some of the key questions that still need to be investigated. (However, the story leaves all the caveats out of the lead paragraphs, so readers have to dig down to find the vital context.) It also points out that the trial was sponsored by the company developing this drug. The story should have pointed out that the lead researcher has financial ties to this drug company and others, including board membership and grants. The lead sentence of this story portrays the experimental drug as a potential complement to lifestyle changes and statin treatment. We’ll let this story pass on this criterion because it mentions that the next phase of clinical trials will take at least four years to complete and because it notes that success is not a sure thing. However, the lead sentence about people having a new cholesterol treatment option “soon” gives us pause. Also, the prediction in the story attributed to a drug company spokesman that application for approval could come in 2015 seems questionable, since the next study is not scheduled to begin recruiting participants until April 2011, and then there will be four years of observation, followed by data analysis. The trial just presented began in April 2008 and the participants were followed for an average of 14 to 16 months, yet it took more than a year after that for these results to be announced. The next trial may include 20 times as many patients. The story points out that this drug is one of a new class of drugs intended to alter cholesterol levels using a different biological mechanism than statins. The story does not appear to rely on a news release.
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9197
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Stem cell transplants may induce long-term remission of multiple sclerosis
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This news release describes “encouraging” results of a small 5-year trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of stem cell transplants for aggressive cases of the most common form of multiple sclerosis, called relapsing-remitting MS. Known as HALT-MS, the phase 2 trial yielded a 69 percent remission rate, which researchers say supports the development of a large randomized trial to see how it stacks up against existing treatments. That cautious statement — that the trial justifies the performance of a larger randomized clinical trial — is a positive of the release, since it tells readers the treatment is not yet ready. The release continues to use restraint throughout, and gives readers a good sense of the benefits, but it’s short on perspective. There’s no discussion of costs, availability, or the number of patients who might benefit, and some trial limitations were omitted. More clarity on researchers’ ties to industry was also warranted. An explanation of how this trial relates to similar research would have been helpful, as well. And while the findings were just published in the journal Neurology, they’re somewhat dated, having already been reported at a medical conference in June 2016. There is no cure for MS and the few medications that have been approved to slow its progression and manage symptoms — such as weakness, motor impairment, chronic pain and fatigue — come with high costs and significant side effects. This trial adds to evidence that an intensive one-time treatment, high-dose immunosuppressive therapy followed by a transplant of the patient’s own stem cells, could arrest the course of this potentially devastating autoimmune disorder. Though difficult and costly, this therapy might benefit patients with aggressive disease for whom prior standard therapy did not stop progression. This news release seemed designed to make the case for a full-scale trial that could establish it as a viable option.
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false
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National Institutes of Health (NIH),stem cells
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There’s no mention of the cost of stem cell transplants. We could find no reliable cost estimate online, but several sources including the American Cancer Society put the price in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Transplants that use a patient’s own stem cells, known as autologous transplants, are cheaper than those that use donor cells. The news release states: “Five years after receiving the treatment, called high-dose immunosuppressive therapy and autologous hematopoietic cell transplant (HDIT/HCT), 69 percent of trial participants had survived without experiencing progression of disability, relapse of MS symptoms or new brain lesions…. Five years after HDIT/HCT, most trial participants remained in remission, and their MS had stabilized. In addition, some participants showed improvements, such as recovery of mobility or other physical capabilities.” It also points out that none of the participants resumed MS drugs after their treatment. The news release does the bare minimum here, stating: “The treatment carries some risks, and many participants experienced the expected side effects of HDIT/HCT, such as infections. Three participants died during the study; none of the deaths were related to the study treatment.” Still, we think more could have been said about the side effects of chemotherapy. For example, How many patients experienced them and how bad were they? And the news release does not say how long treatment and recovery takes. The process by which the deaths were categorized is not given and leads to uncertainty about whether these patients may have died as a result of the immuno-suppression of their bone marrow. This was a tough call. While generally upbeat, the news release offers some caution when reporting that the phase 2 trial involved just 24 patients and makes it clear that a larger randomized trial is needed: “Although further evaluation of the benefits and risks of HDIT/HCT is needed, these five-year results suggest the promise of this treatment for inducing long-term, sustained remissions of poor-prognosis relapsing-remitting MS,” said Richard Nash, M.D., of Colorado Blood Cancer Institute and Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital. Dr. Nash served as principal investigator of the HALT-MS study. “If these findings are confirmed in larger studies, HDIT/HCT may become a potential therapeutic option for patients with active relapsing-remitting MS, particularly those who do not respond to existing therapies,” said Daniel Rotrosen, M.D., director of NIAID’s Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation. Unfortunately, the release omitted some important limitations described in the study. According to the published report, six patients did not complete the 5-year follow-up period and their results were not clear, but they were not followed for the full time. This represents a significant proportion of the results (37%) leading to a great degree of imprecision in the results. There were also four patients (17%) who got worse. This was not a controlled clinical trial, or even a prospective study of two groups, so there is significant likelihood of bias. According to the GRADE evidence evaluation process, the quality of the evidence would be low. There’s no disease mongering. And the release provides useful context about multiple sclerosis when it states: “MS symptoms vary widely and may include motor and speech difficulties, weakness, fatigue and chronic pain. The most common form of MS is relapsing-remitting MS, which is characterized by periods of mild or no symptoms interspersed with symptom flare-ups or relapses. Over years, the disease can worsen and shift to a progressive form.” The release doesn’t exaggerate the symptoms, but it does give some sense of the impact this disease may have for some people. The news release states that the research was sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases and the NIH. But it does not mention that Baxter Healthcare Corp. supplied equipment for the trial or that several study authors have financial relationships with biotechnology companies, which are listed in the study. It’s not easy to determine which companies have financial interests in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, but Baxter has at least one patent relating to the procedure. This makes full disclosure an important aspect of the reporting of this trial. The news release could have said more about other treatments beyond stating that other studies “have indicated that currently available MS drugs have lower success rates,” with no specifics. One MS researcher told Medscape Medical News last year that current therapies yield a success rate of 38% to 48%. Thirteen medications have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment relapsing-remitting MS. All have been shown to reduce the number of attacks and new lesions, and they may also slow disease progression, according to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. There’s no mention of whether this therapy is currently available, where it’s performed, or whether regulatory approval is required. Also, there’s no discussion of whether it is likely to be covered by most insurance plans. It appears that this is still purely a research therapy and would not be available outside of research settings. However, there are many physician practices that do research, usually for industry, which don’t have the same safety features as this research lab had. This news release explains the significance of the study in supporting initiation of a randomized trial. However, the results are not entirely “new,” as the release states; they were previously reported at a medical conference in June 2016. Also, we found it interesting that the published study states its results are consistent with three similar trials, including this Canadian study, bolstering the validity of its finding. Those trials are not mentioned in the news release. The idea of using bone marrow transplantation for medical illnesses is not new. During the 1990s bone marrow transplantation following high dose chemotherapy was touted as a cure for breast cancer. A randomized clinical trial was begun in the late ’90s but was discontinued when results from the initial studies were found to have been fraudulently reported. (Described in a book called “False Hope: Bone Marrow Transplantation for Breast Cancer” by Peter D. Jacobson and Richard A. Rettig.) The tone of this news release is restrained, with no sensational language.
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6352
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Lawsuit filed over hepatitis A outbreak linked to berries.
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An Omaha woman who contracted hepatitis A after eating blackberries she bought at a Fresh Thyme grocery store has sued the company.
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true
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Omaha, Health, General News, Hepatitis, Nebraska, Lawsuits
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The woman who filed the lawsuit Wednesday, Kerrie Tabaka, said she was hospitalized for a week for treatment of hepatitis A and continues to experience fatigue and other symptoms. Earlier this month, health officials warned consumers in 11 states against eating some berries bought from the Fresh Thyme chain. Federal and state health officials have confirmed 14 cases of hepatitis A, including six in Nebraska, as part of the outbreak in Nebraska, Indiana, Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin. Fresh Thyme officials didn’t immediately respond to the lawsuit filed Wednesday. The company has said it is cooperating with investigators to identify the source of the contamination. Hepatitis A is a virus that infects the liver and can cause mild, flu-like symptoms for several weeks. According to the World Health Organization, a small proportion of people infected with the virus could die from fulminant hepatitis. “Hepatitis A in berries has been generally a problem with imports,” said Tabaka’s lawyer, Bill Marler. “We look forward to getting to the bottom of where these berries were grown and processed and how this potentially deadly pathogen contaminated the berries.” The Food and Drug Administration last week urged consumers in Nebraska, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania to not to eat any fresh blackberries bought from Fresh Thyme between Sept. 9 and Sept. 30. Anyone who froze the berries for later use should throw them out, the FDA said.
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29116
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Members of Led Zeppelin once employed a mud shark on a female groupie.
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Sightings: The “Mud Shark” was immortalized in song by Frank Zappa during gigs in 1970-71.
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mixture
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Entertainment, music
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Just as the cheery pop music of the early 1960s gave way to psychedelia and heavy metal as the decade progressed, so did interest in pop stars’ lives move beyond comparisons of their hairstyles and favorite colors to consideration of the more salacious aspects of their lives. Favorite tales (then as now) involved drug use and sexual exploits, and, as usual, the most popular stories proved to be mixtures of truth, fiction, exaggeration, and publicity stunts. For example, the Rolling Stones, who probably spawned more legends of the “sex and drugs” variety than any other band of the rock ‘n’ roll era, spanned the spectrum: the lurid tale of Mick Jagger’s being caught in a compromising position with girlfriend Marianne Faithfull during a drug raid at Keith Richards’home was pure invention; an infamous film clip in which the band members passed a naked groupie around their tour plane was staged for the cameras; rumors of Keith Richards’ beating his heroin addiction by having his blood changed were exaggerations; and Angela Bowie’s account of catching her husband, David Bowie, in bed with Mick Jagger was true in the details but rather innocuous in its implications. The most ubiquitous non-Stones-related tale is unquestionably the infamous “mud shark” legend, which relates how members of Led Zeppelin supposedly employed a (live) shark as a sexual device with a pliant female groupie: [Davis, 1985] One girl, a pretty young groupie with red hair, was disrobed and tied to the bed. According to the legend of the Shark Episode, Led Zeppelin then proceeded to stuff pieces of shark into her vagina and rectum.1 [Moser & Crawford, 1998] Then there was the infamous “mudshark incident,” which was actually more like a red herring. In 1969, Led Zeppelin checked into Seattle’s Edgewater Inn. The place was a favorite with musicians because guests could fish from their rooms. The band hauled in some fish. Then they hauled in a seventeen-year-old redhead named Jackie. She mentioned she really liked being tied up. The obliging Englishmen ordered a rope from room service. Next, Jackie removed her clothes and the boys tied her to the bed. Then the road manager entertained the band by taking a red snapper and introducing it to the girl’s private parts.2 This story is tough to classify as either purely “true” or “false” because so many different versions with varying details exist, but we might safely say it’s one of many legends formed from a kernel of truth covered with several layers of exaggeration and embellishment. The core incident took place at The Edgewater in Seattle (probably at the time of the group’s 27 July 1969 appearance at the Seattle Pop Festival), a hotel on Puget Sound from which guests could fish right out the windows of their rooms. According to Richard Cole, Led Zeppelin’s road manager, he and drummer John Bonham (aka “Bonzo”) were busily engaged in the pastime of catching sharks through an Edgewater window when they were interrupted by some persistent groupies, but what occurred next didn’t quite live up to the notorious modern version of the legend: It wasn’t Bonzo, it was me. It wasn’t shark parts anyway: It was the nose that got put in. We caught a lot of big sharks, at least two dozen, stuck coat hangers through the gills and left ’em in the closet . . . But the true shark story was that it wasn’t even a shark. It was a red snapper and the chick happened to be a f_______ redheaded broad with a ginger p____. And that is the truth. Bonzo was in the room, but I did it. Mark Stein [of Vanilla Fudge] filmed the whole thing. And she loved it. It was like, “You’d like a bit of fucking, eh? Let’s see how your red snapper likes this red snapper!” That was it. It was the nose of the fish, and that girl must have come 20 times. But it was nothing malicious or harmful, no way! No one was ever hurt. The basic tale incorporated a number of variations that were added to it across time: So yes, a female groupie was sexually engaged with a fish, but the fish was not a shark (and was presumably dead), it wasn’t “stuffed” inside her, the only member of Led Zeppelin present at the time (John Bonham) was merely an onlooker rather than an active participant, and the woman left the hotel unharmed. (We note that Richard Cole may not have been the most accurate chronicler of Led Zeppelin’s history, but since his accounts tended to run to excess it’s safe to assume the reality was no wilder than he presented it. In any case, accounts given by others connected with the incident didn’t substantially contradict Cole’s version.) Nonetheless, tales of sexual exploits involving groupies and animals are familiar entries in the Led Zeppelin canon of rumors: One evening, two young girls were lounging in the bathtub of Led Zeppelin’s hotel suite. Page walked in. He giggled, “We figured you need something to keep you company.” Then he threw four live octopuses into the tub. The young ladies wound up enjoying the octopuses more than the rockers. “Oh my god,” squealed one of them, “I’ve gotta get one of these. It’s like having an eight-armed vibrator!” Led Zeppelin later cheered on another adventurous female fan while she made love with her pet Great Dane. The boys in the band even provided strategically placed bacon for the Great Dane’s pleasure.2
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31518
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An airliner was saved by a pickup truck after its landing gear malfunctioned.
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A video of an airliner saved by a pickup truck after its landing gear malfunctioned doesn't depict a real event; it was created for a commercial.
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false
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Fauxtography, Advertisements, nissan
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"Rumors began to tout the supposedly incredible abilities of the Nissan Frontier after the advertising agency TBWA Worldwide produced a commercial in 2011 showing the pickup truck saving a plane after the latter’s landing gear malfunctioned: ""@annahcav: OMG: Landing Gear Failure Plane saved by truck http://t.co/cDRry3byob""That truck driver's a hero. We need more like him! — Mary Jean (@MaryJeanUK) October 6, 2013 That's gonna be my next Sport Utility Vehicle #NissanFrontier Landing Gear Failure Plane saved by truck: http://t.co/2qsELwUYov via @YouTube — Pavel Molina (@vegasbra) June 13, 2014 The advertisement was presented like a breaking news story, including witness reports, shaky handheld footage, and an interview with the driver (an airport mechanic) who insisted he “was not a hero.” The video also included the words “Fictionalization. Do not attempt” written in small letters at the bottom of the screen, but many viewers missed and were left believing they had watched a real news segment: Although many viewers believed the commercial depicted a real event, a 2013 Jalopnik article posited the feat shown in the advertisement was extremely implausible, if not outright impossible: You’d be dropping 5,000+ lbs onto the back of a Nissan Frontier that’s only rated for at most 1,500 lbs (assuming you’re driving the manual V6) and that’s going 100+ MPH. That weight won’t hit all at once — it’ll slowly grow heavier and heavier as the pilot pitches the nose down. Pretty soon you’ll break the tires, rims, suspension and more. The landing gear failure ad was just one of the deceptive television spots created by Nissan and TBWA Worldwide in 2011. One of their ads, entitled “Hill Climb,” was so misleading it raised the ire of the Federal Trade Commission, who said in a press release: Nissan and TBWA promoted the Frontier pickup truck with a “Hill Climb” advertisement that showed the vehicle rescuing a dune buggy trapped in sand on a steep hill, while onlookers observe the feat in amazement. It was produced in a realistic “YouTube” style, as if it were shot on a mobile phone video camera. Administrative complaints allege that Nissan and TBWA violated the FTC Act by representing that the ad accurately showed the performance of an unaltered Nissan Frontier under the conditions that were depicted. In fact, the truck is not capable of pushing the dune buggy up and over the hill, and both the truck and the dune buggy were dragged to the top of the hill by cables, according to the complaints. The complaints also allege that the hill was made to look significantly steeper than it actually was. “Special effects in ads can be entertaining, but advertisers can’t use them to misrepresent what a product can do,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “This ad made the Nissan Frontier appear capable of doing something it can’t do.” Nissan issued a statement asserting they had not purposefully deceived customers, saying: “Nissan takes its commitment to fair and truthful advertising seriously. The company has been and remains committed to complying with the law.” The company seemed to be making an attempt to be more honest with its customers afterwards, as an even more implausible 2014 commercial for the Nissan Rogue featured several disclaimers, including “Fantasy, do not attempt” and “Cars can’t jump on trains”:"
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8115
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Thai leader to invoke emergency powers as virus infections climb.
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Thailand’s leader said on Tuesday he would invoke sweeping emergency powers in the face of surging coronavirus infections, and in a sign of toughening official action a man was arrested over allegations of creating panic on social media.
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true
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Health News
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Thailand and neighbouring Cambodia were among Southeast Asian countries accused by New York-based Human Rights Watch of using the pandemic to crack down on criticism. Both countries reject the accusations and say their measures are needed to keep order and combat disinformation. Thailand has the region’s second highest number of virus cases after Malaysia, with a total of 827 after 106 new infections were reported on Tuesday. Four people have died. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who first seized power in a 2014 coup, said he would invoke powers to help suppress the virus that has swept the world since January, killing some 16,500 people and infecting more than 375,000. The emergency decree is due to take effect on Thursday and Prayuth said details of the specific powers to be used would be set out later. Among the powers in the decree is that “to censor or shut down media if deemed necessary.” Prayuth ruled by decree until an election early last year which opponents say was engineered to keep him in office, an allegation he denies Other regional leaders have also taken on additional powers and ordered emergency security measures. The Philippines congress granted President Rodrigo Duterte extra powers overnight as infections also soared there and across the region - rising more than 20-fold across Southeast Asia to more than 4,500. With growing concern in Thailand over the spread of the virus, the government said a man had been arrested after posting false statements about a lack of coronavirus screening at Bangkok’s main international airport. “The post created panic for the public and eroded their confidence in Suvarnabhumi Airport,” the ministry of digital affairs said. Artist Danai Ussama, 42, posted that he had gone through no health screenings and been given no instructions by officials when he arrived on a flight from Barcelona. He was charged under the Computer Crime Act, punishable by up to five years in prison. The Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said Ussama was granted bail later on Tuesday and would appear in court on May 12. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch accused Southeast Asian countries of using the virus as an excuse to crackdown on dissent, saying that 17 people had been arrested in Cambodia over social media posts. “What these government ministers forget is in the era of COVID-19, they need the cooperation of the people to share information and act responsibly, and slamming people into prison will achieve the exact opposite,” said the group’s deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson.
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25623
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For younger people, seasonal flu is “in many cases” a deadlier virus than COVID-19
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Hospitalizations and deaths among children are higher for the seasonal flu than they are for COVID-19 The CDC states that the risk of complications for healthy children is higher for flu compared to COVID-19, though kids with underlying medical conditions will be at greater risk for both But experts caution that we might not yet see the whole picture of how dangerous the coronavirus is for kids because schools largely shut down when it started to spread, shielding them from that potential place of exposure.
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true
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Children, Public Health, Wisconsin, Coronavirus, Ron Johnson,
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"As schools across the country open for the uncertain, unprecedented school year to come, opinions are split on how to do so safely. Some districts have opted for completely virtual learning. Others will try a mix of both online and in-person classes, or will send younger children to school while older kids stay home, or will phase students back to the classroom gradually. Others still are calling for schools to reopen completely for those who feel well enough to teach and attend, and who aren’t especially vulnerable to COVID-19. One such voice is U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, who in an Aug. 13, 2020 radio interview with Milwaukee talk show host Steve Scaffidi on WTMJ-AM discussed why he believes students need to return to school in person this fall. For younger people, Johnson asserted, ""seasonal flu is actually, in many cases, a deadlier virus if they contract that."" Is Johnson correct that COVID-19 is less deadly for children than the flu? Let’s dig in. COVID was less harsh on kids than the flu, this year’s stats show To back up his claim, Johnson’s office sent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on flu and COVID-19 deaths among Americans under age 18. During the 2018-19 flu season, the CDC reported approximately 480 flu deaths among children ages 0-17, about 30% of whom had a lab-confirmed case of influenza. Comparably, 90 American youth have died from coronavirus complications from the beginning of the pandemic through mid-August, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. More than 46,000 children were hospitalized for flu in that 2018-19 period. The hospitalization rate among children 5 to 17 was 39.2 children per 100,000 children. For COVID-19, that hospitalization rate is 6 per 100,000 children ages 5 to 17, the CDC says. In a report detailing the differences between COVID-19 and the flu, the CDC states that ""the risk of complications for healthy children is higher for flu compared to COVID-19."" And data from Wisconsin echoes that sentiment. Since the pandemic began, no children have died from COVID-19 complications, according to state Department of Health Services death data, and 147 people ages 0-19 have been hospitalized. In contrast, three pediatric flu deaths occurred during this year’s flu season, DHS data show, and 605 kids ages 17 and under have been hospitalized. The data show there have been fewer childhood deaths from COVID-19 so far this year than from the seasonal flu. The hold-up, of course, lies in nuance, said Dr. Jon Temte, associate dean for public health and community engagement within UW-Madison’s School of Medicine and Public Health. ""U.S. schools have been out (and) mostly closed since March, thus extremely limiting cases of SARS-CoV-2 in children. Conversely, we rarely close schools for influenza, thus allowing an attack rate of 30-40% in school-aged children,"" Temte wrote in an Aug. 27, 2020 email to PolitiFact Wisconsin. That is, the flu has been able to spread through children more commonly than COVID-19, creating more cases, more complications and more deaths. Other experts agree. Dr. Chad Vercio, chair of pediatrics at Riverside University Health System in California, said children’s risk from the coronavirus depends on how widespread the virus is in any given area, and that ""it is unknown"" if COVID hospitalization rates would rise once schools reopen. And though the early data suggests that COVID-19 is not as bad for children as the flu, it’s just that: Early. Dr. Vidya Mony, an infectious disease expert with Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, Calif., said there isn’t enough data yet to say indisputably that COVID risks are lower for kids. Johnson claimed that in many cases, the seasonal flu was a deadlier virus for youth than COVID-19. The numbers show that this year, that was the case. More children died from flu complications than from COVID-19, and were hospitalized at higher rates for the flu. But experts caution that we don’t have enough data to paint the full picture so early in the game, and that schools shutting down in early spring may have driven down coronavirus case rates in children — meaning we can’t be sure exactly how the virus will move through young people when more of them are potentially getting exposed. Our definition for is ""the statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information."" That fits here."
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11520
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Doctors urge baseline test for prostate cancer
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"One of our medical editors – who follows prostate cancer research very closely – said she read this story several times and was still confused by what she called a “convoluted” approach. The story was about a change in the American Urological Association’s (AUA) past recommendation for annual PSA blood tests after age 50 to screen for prostate cancer. Instead, the AUA says men should be offered a baseline PSA test at age 40, and follow-ups at intervals based on each man’s situation. The story was unclear about the extent to which men would stand to benefit or be harmed from PSA testing. A strength was that it included perspectives from NIH’s Dr. Barry Kramer – that there is no proof that a baseline test will save lives. And from the American Cancer Society’s Dr. Otis Brawley – ""I am very concerned that the urology community and the American public may think there’s more value in PSA than there actually is."" But a weakness is that the story kept going back to the well of quotes of people who promote SOME screening…… Doing a baseline test ""makes a lot of sense to me"" “If you’ve got a PSA of less than one in your initial screen, you can wait to get another PSA for five years” ""Everybody has to get screened at least at some baseline"" …..without ever talking about NO screening as a legitimate option. That’s a big failing – because the story failed to connect the dots to show that the AUA’s new recommendation is still out of line with other groups, including the US Preventive Services Task Force which states: The current evidence is insufficient to assess the balance of benefits and harms of prostate cancer screening in men younger than age 75 years. The USPSTF recommends against screening for prostate cancer in men age 75 years or older."
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false
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"The story included no information about the cost of a PSA test. While one clinician quote asserted that ""Everyone has to get screened,"" the story did not provide readers with any quantified information about the impact screening would have on improved outcomes (e.g. decreased incidence of prostate cancer death, decreased incidence of symptoms of prostate cancer, increased number of years lived). The story did include numbers to give the reader some indication of how various PSA levels at specific ages related to the chance of future risk of prostate cancer. What the story did not explain was how effectively this information could be used to improve outcomes. Although the story mentioned the harm of ‘overdiagnosis’, there was no attempt made to quantify the percentage or number of men who are ‘overdiagnosed’ by PSA testing. The story actually failed to provide a clear definition of the term ‘overdiagnosis’. While the story did mention in an earlier section that annual screening lead to unneeded biopsies and treatment, this is an incomplete explanation about the harms associated with overdiagnosis. Overdiagnosis also means undergoing time consuming or painful treatment as well as encountering commonly occurring side effects. This would have helped the reader grasp the significance of the discussion around the value of PSA testing. The story seems to suggest that by simply having longer screening intervals than annual screening that the harms of PSA testing are diminished, which is not the case. The story did not do an adequate job distinguishing among strength of the observations presented. In one sentence, it stated ""two big studies concluded that annual PSA tests do little to prevent deaths from prostate cancer"". The next sentence went on to say that ""new studies at the urology meeting suggest ways"" that PSA tests can be used. It is significant that the ‘big studies’ were randomized clinical trials, whose results and conclusions have undergone peer review and have been published. The ‘new studies’ were presented at a meeting have not yet undergone scientific scrutiny by colleagues. It is important for readers to understand this is an important difference and that the results of the two should not to be given the same weight of consideration. In addition – the story did not provide a cogent explanation of how a ‘screening test’ and a ‘baseline test’ differed from one another. Changing what you call the test does not change the consequences that follow. Dr. Kramer from NIH spells out that there’s really no difference between ""baseline PSA"" or ""PSA screening"" – both can cause same harms, and both lack convincing data of benefit, but the quotes from Dr. Kramer seem buried or at least diluted from the many quotes of AUA members, such as ""Everybody has to get screened at some baseline."" The story stated the number of new cases of prostate cancer and the number of prostate cancer deaths per year but said nothing about the discrepancy between the number of cases diagnosed and the number of deaths. Without providing a context, this detail is an example of disease mongering. All of the focus on ""the PSA score"" – and on rising numbers of one’s score – failed to connect the dots in the most meaningful way. Quotes from a number of investigators and experts in the field were included as a part of this story. There was no discussion of avoiding PSA tests altogether – a legitimate option that was totally overlooked. The story failed to include any mention of the importance of shared decision making with respect to PSA testing. The story could have helped men think more clearly about how they value the tradeoffs of potential benefit vs. potential harm of PSA testing – at all – baseline, annually, or on a less frequent schedule. It’s clear from the story that PSA testing is a readily available blood test. The story did not imply that PSA testing was new or novel. What is new are the new guidelines which will no longer recommend yearly PSA testing for all men over the age of 50. Does not appear to rely on a press release."
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3922
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Study: For babies born with HIV, start treatment right away.
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When babies are born with HIV, starting treatment within hours to days is better than waiting even the few weeks to months that’s the norm in many countries, researchers reported Wednesday.
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true
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Medication, International News, General News, Africa, Health, Science, Botswana
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The findings, from a small but unique study in Botswana, could influence care in Africa and other regions hit hard by the virus. They also might offer a clue in scientists’ quest for a cure. The Harvard-led team found super early treatment limits how HIV takes root in a newborn’s body, shrinking the “reservoir” of virus that hides out, ready to rebound if those youngsters ever stop their medications. “We don’t think the current intervention is itself curative, but it sets the stage” for future attempts, said Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who co-authored the study. Giving pregnant women a cocktail of anti-HIV drugs can prevent them from spreading the virus to their unborn children, a step that has dramatically reduced the number of babies born with the virus worldwide. Still, some 300 to 500 infants are estimated to be infected every day in sub-Saharan Africa. Doctors have long known that treating babies in the first weeks to months of life is important, because their developing immune systems are especially vulnerable to HIV. But an infant dubbed the “Mississippi baby” raised a critical question: Should treatment start even earlier? The girl received a three-drug combination within 30 hours of her birth in July 2010, highly unusual for the time. Her family quit treatment when she was a toddler — yet her HIV remained in remission for a remarkable 27 months before she relapsed and restarted therapy. The Botswana study was one of several funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health after doctors learned of the Mississippi baby, to further explore very early treatment. The findings are encouraging, said Dr. Deborah Persaud, a pediatric HIV specialist at Johns Hopkins University who wasn’t involved with the Botswana study but helped evaluate the Mississippi baby. “The study showed what we hypothesized happened in the Mississippi baby, that very early treatment really prevents establishment of these long-lived reservoir cells that currently are the barrier to HIV eradication,” Persaud said. She cautioned: “Very early treatment is important, but prevention should still be our top priority.” In Botswana, researchers tested at-risk newborns, enrolling 40 born with HIV, treating them within hours to a few days, and tracking them for two years. On Wednesday, they reported results from the first 10 patients, comparing them with 10 infants getting regular care — treatment beginning when they were a few months old. Medication brought HIV under control in both groups. But the children treated earliest had a much smaller reservoir of HIV in their blood, starting about six months into treatment, the researchers reported in Science Translational Medicine. The earliest-treated children also got another benefit: more normal functioning of some key parts of the immune system. One big question: Did the HIV reservoir shrink enough to make a long-term difference? To find out, next year the researchers will give these children experimental antibodies designed to help keep HIV in check, and test how they fare with a temporary stop to their anti-HIV drugs. In the U.S., Europe and South Africa, it’s becoming common to test at-risk infants at birth. But in most lower-income countries, babies aren’t tested until they’re 4 to 6 weeks old, said study co-author Dr. Roger Shapiro, a Harvard infectious disease specialist. ___ 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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30800
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Turmeric can prevent dementia; as a result, India, whose food contains a large amount of the spice, has the lowest rates of dementia worldwide.
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“To our knowledge, [curcumin] has never been shown to be conclusively effective in a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial for any indication,” Nelson and her colleagues wrote in their 2017 review.
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false
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Medical, alzheimer's disease, curcumin, dementia
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Turmeric, which has been the subject of thousands of studies and perhaps even more memes, came up again recently when an image circulated claiming that the spice prevents dementia, and that because of its curative powers, India has the lowest rate of dementia in the world. The meme, like a lot of claims about turmeric’s curative properties, relies on a large body of research that scientists have recently called into question. Most turmeric studies have focused on curcumin, which appears in high concentrations in the root, and other similar chemicals called curcuminoids. Many of these curcumin studies employ a laboratory technique called High Throughput Screening (HTS) that allows researchers to test how curcumin responds to chemicals representing different bodily functions. These types of studies have suggested that curcumin can treat conditions ranging from diabetes to HIV. One study summed up the findings in this astonishing list: Curcumin has been reported to have activity for the following indications: anti-inflammatory, anti-HIV, antibacterial, antifungal, nematocidal, antiparasitic, antimutagenic, antidiabetic, antifibrinogenic, radioprotective, wound healing, lipid lowering, antispasmodic, antioxidant, immunomodulating, anticarcinogenic, and Alzheimer’s disease, among others. An expansive 2017 review of curcumin and curcmuninoid research, however, argued that curcumin’s chemical properties make it impossible to study using HTS and too biologically unstable to treat anything. Curcumin is part of a group of chemicals called pan-assay interference compounds (or PAINS) that are known to trigger false positives in HTS studies. Even if false positives weren’t a problem, curcumin and curcuminoids are both unstable and not very potent in the human body, making them unlikely to be effective as a treatment. Speaking to the Washington Post, Kathryn M. Nelson, a principal scientist at the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development and the author of the 2017 review of curcumin explained: Curcumin’s bioavailability — the amount that makes its way throughout the body — is “dismal,” Nelson says. The chemical is fragile, and once it’s ingested, it’s quickly excreted. “The compound itself is probably not doing anything,” she adds. “It falls apart in water. Think about how well it’s going to survive your stomach” and its acids. For these and other reasons, research on the benefits of turmeric and curcumin remain far from settled, despite the large amount of literature on the topic. Does India Actually Have The Lowest Rage of Dementia in the World? Web sites promoting the use of turmeric often claim that India, a country with relatively high turmeric consumption, has the lowest rate of dementia in the world. But the research on dementia rates in India is so limited that it makes using the country as proof of turmeric’s efficacy problematic, if not scientifically dishonest. The claim originated with a 2001 epidemiology study that suggested one rural Indian village boasted the lowest rates of Alzheimer’s (the most common dementia subtype) in the world. This finding, however, came with heavy caveats: These are the first AD [Alzheimer’s disease] incidence rates to be reported from the Indian subcontinent, and they appear to be among the lowest ever reported. However, the relatively short duration of follow-up, cultural factors, and other potential confounders suggest caution in interpreting this finding. Later studies on dementia rates in India were hindered by the similar problems. A 2006 study in the journal The Lancet suggested that the existing epidemiological data was insufficient to estimate the actual prevalence of dementia in India, in part due to under-diagnosis and a lack of awareness about the disease in rural communities. Based in part on an increasing awareness of the condition in rural parts of India, scientists predict dementia rates to grow by 300% in the coming years, among the fastest in the world. A 2008 paper further supported the notion that economic factors can contribute to an underestimate of the incidence of dementia in lower-income countries like India. Relying on disease rates in populations that consume a lot of turmeric as evidence for its efficacy is also problematic without data on other dietary factors and genetic differences, as a 2017 review suggested: Even the authors of the oft-cited study cautioned against overinterpretation of their results given the relatively short duration of the study, the small number of incident cases, and the wide confidence intervals. Diet was not considered as part of the study, and the frequency of the APOE4 allele [gene], a risk factor for AD, was noted as being lower in the [Indian] group as compared to the [American] group. How Would Turmeric Treat Dementia? Setting aside for a moment the problems with calculating the rate of dementia in India and the problems with HTS studies of curcumin, how would curcumin cure dementia? There are two main theories. The first relies on its (contested) anti-inflammatory properties: Research to date suggests that chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and most chronic diseases are closely linked, and the antioxidant properties of curcumin can play a key role in the prevention and treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. Another, related, hypothesis suggests that curcumin could stimulate the immune system to more efficiently remove the buildup in the brain of chemicals that produce amyloid plaques, which are thought to contribute to dementia. Some studies suggest that when you have Alzheimer’s, your white blood cells can’t efficiently consume and destroy these chemicals. Some research in animals and in laboratory settings hinted that curcumin could stimulate the immune system to do so. However, there have been no controlled, double-blind, clinical trials on humans that support this claim outside of the lab. In terms of clinical research on humans, a 2012 phase II, 24-week, randomized, double-blinded clinical trial of curcumin on 36 individuals with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s indicated a lack of efficacy: After 24 weeks of treatment, there was no observed difference in mental status between the placebo and treated groups based on several measurements of cognitive status.
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6687
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Trump health chief asks Congress to pass drug discount plan.
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The Trump administration’s top health official asked Congress on Friday to pass its new prescription drug discount plan and provide it to all patients, not just those covered by government programs like Medicare.
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true
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AP Top News, Alex Azar, Health, Politics, North America, Medication, Medicare, Prescription drugs, Government programs, Medicaid
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The plan would take now-hidden rebates among industry players like drug companies and insurers and channel them directly to consumers when they go to pay for their medications. Patients with high drug copays stand to benefit from the proposal, while people who take no prescription drugs, or who rely on generics mainly, would probably pay somewhat more, since premiums are expected to rise. A day after unveiling the plan as a proposed regulation, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar raised the stakes by calling on Congress to make it law and broaden it to include people covered by employer health insurance, not just Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. “Congress has an opportunity to follow through on their calls for transparency ... by passing our proposal into law immediately and extending it into the commercial drug market,” Azar said in a speech at the Bipartisan Policy Center think tank. Ahead of next week’s State of the Union speech, President Donald Trump is under political pressure to show results for his promise to slash prescription drug costs. Data show that prices for brand-name drugs have continued to rise, though at a somewhat slower pace. Polls show consumers across the political spectrum want government action. Democrats say the administration’s plan doesn’t go far enough because it still leaves drug companies free to set high list prices. They say drug pricing is like a black box, and it’s impossible to tell if prices reflect actual costs or if companies are charging what they think the market will bear. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says she’s also worried that the plan would raise premiums. HHS acknowledges Medicare prescription premiums would go up $3 to $5 a month. Nonetheless, the administration’s proposal appears to be in the mix as Congress gears up to craft legislation addressing prescription drug costs. Friday evening, the Republican chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, expressed his support. Rebates “ought to lower costs to patients, and this is a good first step towards that goal,” Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., said in a statement. The complex plan would work by doing away with an exemption from federal anti-kickback rules that currently allows drugmakers, insurers and middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers to negotiate rebates among themselves. Drug companies pay rebates to make sure their medications are covered by insurance plans that are the intermediaries between them and patients. HHS says hidden rebates can amount to up to 30 percent of a drug’s list price. Insurers say they use the money from rebates to hold down premiums for all consumers. Under the plan, the current anti-kickback exemption for industry rebates would be replaced with a new one for discounts offered directly to consumers. Azar said the idea would reshape the drug pricing system, shifting it away from hidden rebates to upfront discounts, creating pressure on drugmakers to keep prices down. The proposal was co-authored with the HHS inspector general’s office. Experts say it will take time to sort out all the potential consequences. Peter Bach, director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said the current system of rebates harms patients who take costly drugs with high copays. Think people with cancer, patients with intractable illnesses such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis, and those who take brand-name medicines with no generic competition. Patients’ cost sharing is often based on list prices, not the cost of the drug after rebates. “Simply put, those on no medications at all will just see their premiums go up and see no savings because they don’t take any medicine,” said Bach. “Those on generics only may be essentially in this category (as well). “But those on expensive medications ... they will see savings in total,” he added. More than half a million people filled at least $50,000 in prescriptions in 2014, according to an Express Scripts report. Insurers and pharmacy benefit managers like Express Scripts and CVS oppose the administration plan, saying it will undercut their ability to bargain with drugmakers for lower prices. Drugmakers have applauded the administration’s action. Consumers are worried about prices for brand-name drugs, particularly new medications that promise breakthrough results. Generics account for nearly 90 percent of prescriptions filled, but brand-name drugs account for more than 70 percent of the spending. Azar contends that under the current system everybody but the patient benefits from high prices. A high list price makes room for bigger negotiated rebates for insurers and middlemen. And drugmakers then merely build that expectation into their prices. Before joining the Trump administration, Azar was a top executive for drugmaker Eli Lilly. That led to criticism that he would be an industry pawn. But the drugmakers vehemently disagree with some of his other ideas, including an experiment using lower international drug prices to cut some Medicare costs.
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1093
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Ebola first responders threaten strike if security not improved.
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Health workers in one of the epicenters of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak threatened on Wednesday to go on strike as early as next week if authorities don’t do more to protect them.
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true
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Health News
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Repeated attacks on treatment centers by armed militiamen and community members who think Ebola is a conspiracy against them have hampered the response to the second-deadliest outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever in history. In the latest attack, on a hospital in the city of Butembo, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist from Cameroon was killed and two others wounded last Friday. At a protest on Wednesday in Butembo, the biggest city to be affected by the current outbreak, dozens of Congolese doctors and nurses marched behind a banner reading “Ebola exists” and urged authorities to take additional security measures. “If our security is not guaranteed, we will go on strike from the first week of May,” Dr. Kalima Nzanzu said, reading from a memo to Butembo’s mayor, Sylvain Kanyamanda. Kanyamanda told Reuters that he understood the health workers’ frustrations and that the government was determined to respond to their demands. The latest outbreak of Ebola, which was declared last August and is Congo’s tenth since the virus was discovered in 1976, is believed to have killed 880 people and infected nearly 500 more in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. The military prosecutor’s office in North Kivu said on Wednesday that authorities had captured the suspected ringleader of last week’s attack, as well as about a dozen other suspects. Prosecutors believe the assailants belong to an armed group called the Patriotic Union for the Liberation of Congo (UPLC) based on a tract left at the hospital threatening health workers. Dozens of militia are active in eastern Congo’s borderlands with Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, where they run lucrative rackets and fight over land, ethnicity and mineral resources.
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34647
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Organ donations occur while the donor is still alive, paralyzed by intravenous medication but not anesthetized.
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What's true: Organs are donated under a variety of circumstances; as medical technology advances, novel procedures (such as living donors) have broadened the scope of organ donation. What's false: That there is evidence organ donors who are clinically dead, brain dead, or have experienced cardiac death can feel pain during organ donation.
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unproven
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Science, biomedical ethics, medical ethics, organ donation
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On 1 October 2015, the Facebook page “The illusion of Science” published the above-reproduced status update. The meme claimed organ donors are injected with a paralyzing agent prior to the harvesting of organs, but not anesthetized. That Facebook page appeared to take a skeptical view of science, scientists, and scientific consensus; its “About” tab stated: All scientific knowledge comes from a process of trial and error – a messy guessing game, that involves many false starts and much stumbling. Scientists first make an educated guess based on their observations … Much Scientific Theory is nothing more, than Scientific consensus in the collective opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of study. There is no requirement for consensus. Scientific truth, or any other truth can’t be achieved by consensus. Many people automatically confuse Science and Technology with progress. Progress serves and benefits humanity, which science and technology not always do. The popular myth is that science and scientists are objective and neutral, but funding usually comes from the federal government or from industry. Rarely is this about “pure” science. There are objectives. The public welfare is far down the list as a consideration. On 17 October 2015, the above-reproduced Facebook post was submitted to Reddit’s r/askdocs forum. The original poster expressed that while they were fearful of the meme’s claims, it wouldn’t affect their decision to donate organs. The subreddit r/askdocs is one of several arranged to connect Reddit users with professionals in any given field. The moderators of that subreddit required doctors to verify their credentials before receiving official tags: If you are a medical professional who wishes to become a verified contributor to this subreddit, please message the moderators with a picture of your medical ID, student ID, diploma, or other form of verification. Please block out personal information, such as your name and picture. The top-rated reply came from a Redditor tagged “Physician”; that user primarily participated on the r/askdocs subreddit, providing a variety of medical answers to questions from fellow redditors. They explained: There are two ways you can be an organ donor: heart beating and non heart beating (or perhaps three: a living donor donating a kidney or part of his liver) Let me illustrate with a case a I saw a couple of weeks ago: a middle aged healthy man falls of the stairs and immediately lost consciousness. I see him in the ER with a wide pupil not reactive to light. CT scan shows bleeding in and around the brain. Neurosurgeon cuts a hole in the patients skull to keep him alive and he is admitted to the ICU. In the ICU, the patients is kept sedated and intubated. We make CT scans that show that the hemorrhage and swelling have grown, and that there are large areas of the brain that show ischaemic changes: damaged tissue due to insufficient blood flow. We talk with the patient’s wife and discuss that her husband will be severely disabled if he ever regains consciousness. We decide that we want to withdraw care and discuss organ donation, to which the wife consents. The patient is not brain death: parts of his brain still work. In this case, we turn off the ventilator and remove the breathing tube. The patient still gets pain medicine and sedatives. If he dies within 2 hours after withdrawing care, we will wait ten minutes after the time of death. Then, the body will be moved to the OR to remove the organs for donation. So: no extra suffering in this typical non heart beating donation. In heart beating donation, the patient is brain death. Brain death patients certainly can’t suffer or feel pain. The user’s assertion that patients who are brain dead cannot feel pain or suffer is generally accepted within the medical community. Patient literature from Brigham & Women’s Hospital titled “Understanding Brain Death” [PDF] stated: Brain dead patients look asleep, but they are not. They do not hear or feel anything, including pain. This is because the parts of the brain that feel, sense, and respond to the world no longer work. In addition, the brain can no longer tell the body to breathe. In a separate comment the user elaborated upon their background and area of practice, and answered further questions about patient care in the time leading up to organ donation: I’m an MD, working in neurology … [Medical science knows] quite a lot [about brain death]. Brain death is a very specific condition. We know for sure that brain death patients are dead: their body just remains somewhat alive because we intubated them and hooked them up to a ventilator. Even with these treatments, it is hard to keep patients in this state for long. Your brain is quite important to remain alive. Brain dead patients have no chance of being crippled, severely disabled or being in a vegetative state. They are dead. Their bodies are just somewhat alive due to the treatments we give. [Brain dead patients feel] Nothing. Just as much as a dead (as in: in a coffin) person would … The protocol [for diagnosing brain death] somewhat differs for each jurisdiction, but usually involves: Many of the nuances of organ donation’s scope hinged on the scenarios under which an individual might donate organs. Living donors were exempt from the meme’s claims, for obvious reasons. Brain death is the most common scenario under which organs are harvested; cardiac death is less common. A public information document issued by the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine explained: Donation after Cardiac Death (DCD) is another way in which a person can help to save lives through organ donation. It can occur when a patient has a non-survivable, irreversible, severe brain injury but does not meet criteria for the diagnosis of brain death … it may be possible for that person to be an organ, eye and tissue donor … Once the heart stops and death is pronounced by a doctor who is not a member of the organ recovery or transplant teams, it may be possible to recover abdominal organs (liver, kidneys, pancreas) for transplant. This like any other surgery is a very delicate and careful procedure. Organ donation can only occur if the death happens rapidly. Once organs have suffered a lack oxygen and blood flow for an extended period of time, they are not suitable for transplant. That document also addressed the question of whether patients in cardiac death feel pain during organ harvesting procedures: After a patient dies, he or she no longer feels pain. Organ recovery occurs only after a patient is declared dead. A similar document [PDF] supplied by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Health department reiterated that cardiac death patients are incapable of feeling pain after death has occurred: Organ and tissue recovery does not take place until after the patient’s heart stops beating and they are declared dead by a physician. When someone is deceased, they cannot feel pain or suffer. Biomedical ethicists assess, debate, and research the ethical considerations surrounding organ donation on an ongoing and extensive basis. Cardiac death patients by far generate the largest number of questions and ethical quandaries; however, those topics centered largely around when a patient can and should be declared dead, whether or not they are an organ donor. The question is far less “whether” than “when,” as ethicists are deeply concerned with whether any one patient can be spared despite a grim prognosis. This conundrum was explained in a 2001 piece in the New Yorker titled “As Good as Dead”: From the beginning, transplant practice has been governed by a simple, unwritten rule: no matter how extreme the circumstances, no matter how ill or injured the potential donor, he must die of some other cause before his vital organs can be removed; it would never be acceptable to kill someone for his organs. But, ideally, a donor would be alive at the time his organs were harvested, because as soon as the flow of oxygenated blood stops, a process called warm ischemia quickly begins to ruin them. By the nineteen-sixties, as doctors began to perfect techniques for transplanting livers and hearts, the medical establishment faced a paradox: the need for both a living body and a dead donor. Another portion of that article illustrated the public confusion outside the medical community with respect to brain death versus standard death: ”It took us years to get the public to understand what brain death was,” Nathan said. “We had to train people in how to talk about it. Not that they’re brain dead, but they’re dead: ‘What you see is the machine artificially keeping the body alive . . .’ ” He stopped and pointed to my notebook. “No, don’t even use that. Say ‘keeping the organs functioning.’ ” Virtually every expert I spoke with about brain death was tripped up by its semantic trickiness. “Even I get this wrong,” said one physician and bioethicist who has written extensively on the subject, after making a similar slip. Stuart Youngner, the director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Case Western Reserve University, thinks that the need for linguistic vigilance indicates a problem with the concept itself. “The organ-procurement people and transplant activists say you’ve got to stop saying things like that because that promulgates the idea that the patients are not really dead. The language is a symptom not of stupidity but of how people experience these ‘dead’ people—as not exactly dead.” While it’s true that bioethics in medicine remained fluid around the handling of organ donation, many questions hinged on management of the window during which organs might be harvested. However, claims regarding pain are less common. Dr. Richard Freeman, chair of the Department of Surgery at Dartmouth Medical School, told NPR in 2012: That’s essentially the situation, but the person – it’s not even legal. It’s physiologically this person is dead. So before there was ventilators, there was never this issue because once your brain stopped functioning to make you breathe, the oxygen stopped being delivered to the organs, and your heart stopped. But now that we have ventilators, it becomes important to understand other ways that the person dies, and you can maintain oxygen to the organs through the ventilator after they’re dead, and that’s precisely what happens in this situation. … The sensation of pain requires upper-level brain function, and as we said, the apnea test proves that there is no upper-level brain function. And so it is not possible if somebody has been declared brain-dead by the apnea test or other tests that we use for there to be pain to be experienced. The meme’s fundamental misinterpretation occurred in the outset, where it asserted organ donors are “alive” during harvesting. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the area isn’t gray. In 1981, all states adopted a form of what is known as the Uniform Determination of Death Act: An individual who has sustained either (1) irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions, or (2) irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem, is dead. A determination of death must be made in accordance with accepted medical standards. A bioethicist to whom we posed this question provided the following response to the larger debate over whether organ donors are “alive” when their organs are harvested: Under the law, vital organ donors have to be determined to be dead before organs can be removed, meaning that they have either had their heart stop permanently or been determined to be brain dead. Brain dead individuals are legally dead; they are in a state of irreversible coma, will never regain consciousness or have a meaningful recovery, and cannot experience pain. The tests done to confirm that someone is brain dead check many different things, including that there is no drive to breathe and no response to noxious stimuli (such as a gag reflex). Although there are some famous cases of brain dead individuals gestating fetuses or persisting on ventilators for years, there has never been a person who was accurately determined to be brain dead who regained consciousness or recovered. As such, a donor is always dead, whether it is cardiac or brain death. No living patients are ever subjected to organ harvesting. Machines such as ventilators ensure organs do not deteriorate during the procedure. Due to the nature of organ harvesting procedures, firm declarations relating to pain management are difficult to come by. However, credible medical literature stated that organ donors are generally incapable of feeling pain once they’ve ceased functioning to the point death has been declared.
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12395
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The new Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in the 2016 Election, just out with a Trump 50% Approval Rating. That's higher than O's #'s!
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"Trump said, ""The new Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in the 2016 Election, just out with a Trump 50% Approval Rating.That's higher than O's #'s!"" There’s a grain of truth here: Rasmussen did put out that result two days before Trump’s tweet, and Rasmussen was closest to the mark among pollsters in its final pre-election survey. However, Trump has engaged in some serious cherry-picking. Other polling in this time frame shows approval ratings for Trump that are seven to 11 percentage points below Rasmussen’s finding. And contrary to Trump’s assertion, Obama’s numbers in the same poll at the same point in his presidency were higher than Trump’s current results."
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false
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National, Polls and Public Opinion, Donald Trump,
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"President Donald Trump opened his first Father’s Day as president with a bright-and-early boast about his poll numbers. ""The new Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in the 2016 Election, just out with a Trump 50% Approval Rating. That's higher than O's #'s!"" The new Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in the 2016 Election, just out with a Trump 50% Approval Rating.That's higher than O's #'s! Rasmussen Reports retweeted the president’s message (and so did more than 21,000 other accounts) despite some questionable logic. Among pollsters, Rasmussen has consistently published higher approval ratings for Trump than its peers that track presidential job approval among Americans. Its June 13-15 poll of 1,500 likely voters did show 50 percent job approval for Trump, with a sampling margin of error of 3 percent. His numbers hadn’t hit the 50 percent-mark since late April, according to Rasmussen’s approval index history. Rasmussen’s numbers are atypical of the polls that have surveyed Trump’s approval ratings. The next-closest results were still pretty far from 50 percent. An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 registered voters from June 11-13 showed 42 percent approval. A June 9-15 Survey Monkey poll of adults showed 43 percent. Gallup, which polls all adults on a three-day rolling basis, most recently showed 39 percent approval. When you look at polling more broadly, Rasmussen really sticks out. The RealClearPolitics.com average of polls from May 30-June 17 shows 40 percent job approval -- a full 10 percentage points lower than the rate Trump touted in his tweet. FiveThirtyEight performs a similar comprehensive reflection of polling data, and it came in even lower -- 38.7 percent approval (and 55.4 percent disapproval) by Trump’s 150th day in office. What about Trump’s assertion that Obama fared more poorly? It’s not the case if you use the most apples-to-apples comparison: Rasmussen’s own polling at this stage of his presidency. Rasmussen’s results for Obama during the same period in June 2009 do not show an approval rating below Trump’s 50 percent. Obama’s approval ratings were between 54 and 58 percent through June 9-16, 2009, and they did not dip below 50 percent until late July of that year. Gallup’s tracking of Obama’s job performance showed a higher mark of 60 percent approval at that time. Of course, Obama’s approval rating did dip below the high 50s later in his presidency. Obama’s ratings in the Rasmussen poll did consistently fall below 50 percent from the fall of 2009 to the summer of 2012, and again from the summer of 2013 to the spring of 2016. However, experts caution that it’s most appropriate to compare presidents’ approval ratings at the same point in their presidency. Historically, most presidents have tended to have higher approval ratings early in the ""honeymoon"" period of their tenure before they sink, as some voters begin to tire of their policies. In addition, Obama periodically did reach 50 percent or more in Rasmussen polls even during his weaker periods, and when he didn’t, he was often within a point or two of that mark. This means it’s possible to do some reverse cherry-picking that makes Obama look better than Trump. Trump’s overall polling right now is far below what all past presidents have polled at an equivalent point in their first term. (Here’s a comparison of Gallup approval ratings for Trump’s predecessors, going back to Harry Truman.) One reason why Rasmussen has shown higher ratings for Trump stems from its methodology. For one, it polls likely voters. Registered voters tend to offer higher job approval than surveys of adults more generally. And surveys of likely voters -- Rasmussen’s approach -- offer higher job approval ratings still. ""As we move from all Americans, to registered voters, to likely voters, and to actual voters, the sample becomes more educated, more wealthy, and more Republican,"" said Steven S. Smith, a political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis. ""Statistical weighting can reduce the bias. Rasmussen weights, but we know little about Rasmussen’s weighting procedures. The details matter."" Meanwhile, polls that use live callers have been showing lower approval ratings than polls conducted by online or automated survey. Rasmussen uses automated surveys. ""Automated polls only call landlines, which means they miss the roughly half (!!) of the American population that uses mobile phones only,"" FiveThirtyEight editor in chief Nate Silver wrote in February. ""This matters because cell-only individuals tend to be younger, lower income, and more urban, all of which bias landline-only surveys in a conservative direction,"" Smith said. Each of these factors help explain the higher results for Rasmussen in Trump’s favor. We reached out to Rasmussen but did not hear back by deadline. Finally, what to make of Trump’s implication that Rasmussen should be more trusted because it was more accurate than other pollsters about the 2016 election? The strongest evidence comes from looking at the final pre-election national polls. According to the rundown in RealClearPolitics, Rasmussen was the only pollster to get the popular vote result -- a two-point Hillary Clinton win -- correct in its final pre-election poll. Two pollsters (Monmouth University and NBC News/Survey Monkey) had Clinton winning by six points; four (ABC News/Washington Post, CBS News, Fox News, and Economist/YouGov) had Clinton winning by four, two (Bloomberg and Reuters/Ipsos) had Clinton winning by three, one (IBD/TIPP) had Trump winning by two, and one had Trump winning by five (Los Angeles Times/USC). However, it’s worth taking this with a grain of salt. First, the polls that had Clinton winning by two or three points were all very close to the mark once margins of error are taken into account. And second, Rasmussen was lucky to have its two-point margin come during the final pre-election poll. During the last week before the election, its daily results were scattered -- Clinton by three, tie, tie, Trump by three, tie, and Clinton by two. Overall, FiveThirtyEight’s comprehensive pollster ratings gives Rasmussen the mediocre grade of C-plus, and it found a two-point Republican bias in its polls. (This rating did not encompass the entire 2016 campaign, but it did go back earlier; it factored in 657 polls by Rasmussen.) Of course, Trump would not be the first president to tout an outlying poll result. ""It is hardly new that presidents choose to talk about polls that support their view of the world and themselves,"" said Karlyn Bowman, a polling analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. Trump said, ""The new Rasmussen Poll, one of the most accurate in the 2016 Election, just out with a Trump 50% Approval Rating.That's higher than O's #'s!"" There’s a grain of truth here: Rasmussen did put out that result two days before Trump’s tweet, and Rasmussen was closest to the mark among pollsters in its final pre-election survey. However, Trump has engaged in some serious cherry-picking. Other polling in this time frame shows approval ratings for Trump that are seven to 11 percentage points below Rasmussen’s finding. And contrary to Trump’s assertion, Obama’s numbers in the same poll at the same point in his presidency were higher than Trump’s current results."
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10916
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New morning-after pill works for up to 5 days
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In 1999, the FDA first approved the prescription-only Plan B (two high dose pills of Levonorgestrel, a hormone commonly found in many birth control pills). In 2006, Plan B was made available without a prescription to women over the age of 18, however this ruling remains controversial and it is currently only available over-the-counter in 9 states (http://www.pharmacyaccess.org). EllaOne, a new drug currently only available in Europe, may be more effective at preventinging pregnancy than Levonorgestrel even when taken several days after uNPRotected sex or contraceptive failure. In a study published in the current issue of Lancet, women who took ellaOne within five days had a lower chance of pregnancy than those who took Levonorgestrel. In the study 1.8% got pregnant after taking ellaOne compared to 2.6% with Levonorgestrel. This story quotes two independent health experts who provide very valuable and balanced perspectives on the new study. The story could have been improved by describing the costs of the new drug compared to Levonorgestrel. Although the story mentions that ellaOne could cost up to three times as much as Levonorgestrel, this is not adequate information on costs. Most importantly, however, the story does the reader a disservice by not describing the harms and side effects of either option. In the study 19% experienced headaches and other common side effects include abdominal pain, nausea/vomiting, and cramps. In short, taking these pills is not a pleasant experience but nonetheless is far safer than abortion.
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true
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"The story does not mention costs of either drug, other than to describe the costs of ellaOne as ""three times the price of Plan B."" The story adequately quantifies the benefits of ellaOne by presenting both the number of pregnancies and the pregnancy rate in both groups. The story doesn’t mention any potential harms of the drug, other than unwanted pregnancy. In the study 19% of women experienced headaches and one dizziness. Common side effects of the drug also include stomach pain and nausea, cramps, and vaginal bleeding. None of these were mentioned in the story. The story adequately describes the design of the current study. The story does not engage in disease-mongering. The story quotes two independent health officials who provide very valuable perspectives on the new findings. The story compares the new drug to the existing option, Levonorgestrel. The story clearly states that ellaOne is only available by prescription in Europe, whereas Levonorgestrel is available in many countries worldwide, including the US. The story accurately represents the novelty of ellaOne compared to Levonorgestrel. Because the story quotes independent researchers and health officials, the reader can assume the story does not rely on a press release as the sole source of information."
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41850
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“I was accused by four or five women who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me.”
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In a recent press conference, President Donald Trump defended Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh from allegations of sexual misconduct and made claims about some of Trump’s own accusers that were false or lacked evidence.
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unproven
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sexual assault, sexual harassment,
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In a recent press conference, President Donald Trump defended Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh from allegations of sexual misconduct and made claims about some of Trump’s own accusers that were false or lacked evidence.Trump made those claims in a press conference in New York on Sept. 26. He said his opinions of the allegations against Kavanaugh have been shaped by personal experience. “Because I’ve had a lot of false charges made against me,” Trump said.Trump claimed that “four or five women” who have accused him “got paid a lot of money to make up stories.” There’s no evidence of that.Trump, Sept. 26: I was accused by four or five women who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me. We caught them, and the mainstream media refused to put it on television. They refused to even write about it.There were four women, and maybe more — I think the number is four or five. But one had a mortgage paid off her house, $52,000. Another one had other things happen. And the one that reported it, I believe, was offered $750,000 to say bad things about me — and she is the one that reported it. This woman is incredible. She reported it, instead of taking the money.Trump appears to be referring to a story, first reported by the Hill, in December 2017, about payments California-based attorney Lisa Bloom acknowledged arranging for two of her four clients who accused Trump of sexual harassment and assault. (At least 18 women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, according to Time.) But the article didn’t say the women were asked to “make up stories” about Trump in exchange for money, as the president said. In fact, the Hill reported that the two women “stressed that Bloom never asked them to make any statements or allegations except what they believed to be true.”In one case, Bloom set up a GoFundMe account that aimed to raise $10,000 — but has so far only collected around $2,600 — to help support Jill Harth, a client who alleged that Trump groped her in 1992 and again in 1993. “She endured a tidal wave of hate for it,” Bloom said in a statement to the Hill. “It was very painful for her. And as a New York City makeup artist, Jill lost jobs after she came out publicly against Donald Trump. I believed that people wanted to donate to help her, so we set up the GoFundMe account.”The Hill reported that Bloom also secured for Harth “a small payment from the licensing of some photos to the news media,” and arranged for an unidentified donor to pay off the mortgage on Harth’s apartment in Queens. The amount for the mortgage “was under $30,000,” according to the article, not $52,000, as Trump claimed.The Hill said that Harth spoke publicly about Trump’s alleged harassment only after her name and the details of the 1997 lawsuit she filed against him surfaced in news reports during the summer before the 2016 election. The fact that Harth filed suit in 1997 undercuts Trump’s claim now that she was paid to make up stories about him. “She asked Bloom to represent her in the fall after hearing Trump describe her allegations against him as false,” the paper said.“Nothing that you’ve said to me about my mortgage or the Go Fund Me that was created to help me out financially affects the facts or the veracity of my 1997 federal complaint,” Harth said in a statement to the Hill.In the other case, a woman who requested to remain anonymous told the Hill that Bloom said she could get as much as $750,000 for “going public with an allegation of an unsolicited advance by Trump on the 1990s beauty contest circuit.” That was actually much lower than the $2 million the woman had requested, citing concerns for her safety, Bloom said. (The woman didn’t dispute the claim that she asked for $2 million. The Hill said she acknowledged trying to see how much she could get or discover who was donating the money. )The woman actually supported Trump in 2016, and said “she held no resentment about the early 1990s advance because Trump stopped it as soon as she asked him,” the Hill said.She had been contemplating sharing her story about Trump in order to support her friend Harth, who had put her in contact with Bloom’s law firm. She changed her mind several times about coming forward, but ultimately decided not to go public with her accusation. She later approached the Hill with information about Bloom’s financial offers after she learned that Bloom had been representing disgraced film executive Harvey Weinstein, who also has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women.Furthermore, it isn’t exactly accurate that “mainstream media refused to put” the story on TV, or “even write about it,” as Trump claimed. Perhaps no news outlet gave the story as much time as conservative commentator Sean Hannity did on his Fox News Channel show on Dec. 15, 2017. But ABC News did air a segment featuring Bloom’s response to the Hill’s report on the weekend edition of “Good Morning America” on Dec. 16, 2017. The New York Times also included some details about Bloom attempting to arrange payments for clients in a Dec. 31, 2017, story about how “political partisans” on the left and right were “raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to support accusers who come forward with charges against President Trump and members of Congress, even amid questions about their motivation.”That Times story mentioned that women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, who is Bloom’s mother, also raised money for her then-client Summer Zervos, who alleged that Trump kissed and groped her without consent on separate occasions in New York and Los Angeles. Zervos competed on Trump’s old reality TV show, “The Apprentice.” Her defamation lawsuit against Trump, who called her allegations lies, is still ongoing. Earlier this month, lawyers for Trump and Zervos agreed their clients would provide sworn answers to written questions by Sept. 28. Trump said another woman told a “total phony story” about how he “attacked her while people were coming onto a plane.” That’s not how she described the assault.Trump: It’s happened to me many times. I’ve had many false charges; I had a woman sitting in an airplane and I attacked her while people were coming onto the plane. And I have a number-one bestseller out? I mean it was total phony story. There are many of them.In October 2016, Jessica Leeds told the New York Times that Trump “grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt,” according to the paper. She said this happened over three decades earlier, when she was sitting next to Trump in first class on a flight to New York.She never claimed it happened as “people were coming onto the plane,” as Trump said. According to the article, the alleged incident happened around 45 minutes into the flight. She alleges Trump moved the armrest and then touched her, causing her to run to the back of the plane. The Times said it spoke with four other people with whom Leeds had shared her story.Trump’s campaign later offered its own witness, Anthony Gilberthorpe, who said he saw Leeds and Trump interacting on the plane and that Trump did not make sexual advances on her. “It was she that was the one being flirtatious,” Gilberthorpe said, according to a note the Trump campaign provided to the New York Post.In his press conference, Trump suggested he would never have done what Leeds described because he had “a number-one best-seller out” at the time. But Gilberthorpe claimed he was on the flight with Trump and Leeds in 1980 or 1981. Trump’s first book, “The Art of the Deal,” which he wrote with journalist Tony Schwartz, wasn’t published until 1987.
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2393
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Comedians have psychotic personality traits, study finds.
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Having an unusual personality structure could be the secret to making other people laugh, scientists said on Thursday after research showed that comedians have high levels of psychotic personality traits.
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true
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Health News
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In a study in the British Journal of Psychiatry, researchers analyzed comedians from Australia, Britain and the United States and found they scored significantly higher on four types of psychotic characteristics compared to a control group of people who had non-creative jobs. The traits included a tendency towards impulsive or anti-social behavior, and a tendency to avoid intimacy. “The creative elements needed to produce humor are strikingly similar to those characterizing the cognitive style of people with psychosis - both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder,” said Gordon Claridge of the University of Oxford’s department of experimental psychology, who led the study. Although the traits in question are known as “psychotic”, Claridge said, they can also represent healthy equivalents of features such as moodiness, social introversion and the tendency to lateral thinking. “Although schizophrenic psychosis itself can be detrimental to humor, in its lesser form it can increase people’s ability to associate odd or unusual things or to think ‘outside the box’,” he said. “Equally, manic thinking - which is common in people with bipolar disorder - may help people combine ideas to form new, original and humorous connections.” The researchers recruited 523 comedians - 404 men and 119 women - and asked them to complete an online questionnaire designed to measure psychotic traits in healthy people. The traits scored were “unusual experiences”, such as belief in telepathy and paranormal events, “cognitive disorganization” such as difficulty in focusing thoughts, “introvertive anhedonia” - reduced ability to feel social and physical pleasure, and “impulsive non-conformity”, or tendency towards impulsive, antisocial behavior. The same questionnaire was also completed by 364 actors - who are also used to performing in front of an audience - as a control group, and the comedians’ and actors’ results were compared to each other as well as a general group of 831 people who had non-creative jobs. The researchers found that comedians scored significantly higher on all four types of psychotic personality traits compared to the general group. Most striking were their high scores for impulsive non-conformity and introverted personality traits, the researchers said. The actors scored higher than the general group on three types - but did not display high levels of introverted personality traits.
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23745
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"The state Legislature attempted to ""outlaw stem cell research, passes bills about microchips in the brain, and talks about seceding from the Union."
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Former Gov. Roy Barnes said Georgia passed laughable legislation
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true
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Georgia, Message Machine 2010, Science, States, Roy Barnes,
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"Georgians, the rest of the country is laughing at you, former Gov. Roy Barnes says. And that means corporations are reluctant to relocate here and give you jobs. It's because your state Legislature has done some wacky things, according to the Democrat's latest campaign commercial, ""Travel for Jobs."" In this bid to win his old job back, Barnes took us on a trip down memory lane to recall some of the Legislature's stranger moments. ""[I]t's hard for industry to take us seriously when the Legislature attempts to outlaw stem cell research, passes bills about microchips in the brain and talks about seceding from the union,"" an announcer said in the ad. Wait. Microchips? In the brain? And secession? Recently? The Barnes campaign sent us information on all three legislative attempts. All passed the Senate, then withered in the House. On stem cell research: The campaign cited 2009's Senate Bill 169, the Ethical Treatment of Human Embryos Act, sponsored by state Sen. Ralph Hudgens of Hull. Typically, when people discuss the stem cell research controversy, they're talking about ""embryonic"" stem cell research, which can destroy the embryo. This poses ethical problems for people who regard a human embryo as a human life. The legislation stated that the creation of all embryos ""shall be solely for the purposes of initiating a human pregnancy."" This means it would have barred scientists from creating human embryos for research. The bill does not ban embryonic stem cell research involving already-existing stem cell lines or lines from out of state. This was by design, Hudgens told PolitiFact Georgia. It passed the state Senate March 12, 2009. So state legislators did try to ""outlaw"" an important element of embryonic stem cell research, but not all of it. On microchips in the brain: Barnes cited SB 235, the Microchip Consent Act of 2010, sponsored by state Sen. Chip Pearson, a Republican from Dawsonville. It would have made it a misdemeanor to require a person to be implanted with the device beneath or in the skin. This includes the brain. Proponents had no evidence of large-scale abuses of the technology. ""This is proactive,"" state Rep. Ed Setzler, who pushed the bill in the House, said at the time. It passed the Senate on Feb. 4. Therefore, while the state Senate did not pass ""bills"" on ""microchips in the brain,"" it did pass one of them. And that one only cleared one chamber of the Legislature. On seceding from the Union: The Barnes camp pointed PolitiFact Georgia to Senate Resolution 632, which was also sponsored by Pearson. He could not be reached to clarify the bill's intent, so we analyzed the language ourselves and read an op-ed he wrote that was published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The six-page resolution does not specifically mention ""secession,"" but it does lay out how and when states would do it. If the federal government creates laws that states think overstep its constitutional authority, they can ""nullify"" those laws, or declare them void. Here's where the possibility of secession comes into play. The bill lists six types of laws that, if enacted, would prompt the dissolution of the United States. Some, such as the declaration of martial law, are remote possibilities. Others are not, such as laws that limit the right to bear arms, ""including prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition."" If such laws are passed, the federal government's powers would revert to the states, according to the resolution. States that want to form a new United States can do so. The rest can go off on their own. The resolution passed the state Senate April 1, 2009. In Pearson's op-ed, he disagreed with critics who said that the bill ""will likely lead Georgia to secede from and disband the United States."" It is an ""extreme view"" and ""loose interpretation of the measure's language."" That may be true, but whether the bill makes secession ""likely"" is a separate issue. The bill opens the door to it. Or as Barnes' commercial said, it ""talks about seceding from the Union."" We find that Barnes' ad is not entirely correct but does say many accurate things. Georgia's state Senate did try to outlaw types of embryonic stem cell research, though not all of it, as the ad suggests. It passed a law -- not ""laws"" -- on ""microchips in the brain."" And while a bill didn't use the word ""secession,"" it raised the possibility and outlined what would trigger it. Barnes earns a ."
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10624
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Study: Taking B vitamins can prevent vision loss
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Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common cause of vision loss in the elderly. There is no cure for AMD and once the vision is lost it cannot be regained. However, there is hope that AMD can be prevented or the rate of loss slowed using vitamin supplementation. This story reports on a new study showing that women who took a specific combination of b-vitamin supplements had a lower risk of developing AMD after 7 years. The story does a good job of describing potential conflicts of interest of the quoted experts, one of whom is not involved in the research or funded by the vitamin manufacturer. The story adequately represents the availability and novelty of the supplements, although it is not clear if this particular combination of vitamins is available and if so, if they are available over the counter or by prescription only. The story quantifies the number of cases of AMD in the vitamin group as well as the control group. The story should have provided a denominator for these numbers so that the reader can get a sense of the size of the risk. The story could have been improved by describing the cost of the vitamins as well as potential harms. While vitamins are generally safe, the FDA does not regulate supplements and therefore there is no guarantee of strength, purity or safety of the product. Furthermore there are some important contraindications and consumers should talk with their doctor before taking the vitamins.
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true
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The story does not mention the cost of the vitamin supplements. The story quantifies the number of cases of AMD in the vitamin group as well as the control group. The story should have provided a denominator for these numbers so that the reader can get a sense of the size of the risk. The story does not mention any harms of b-vitamin supplements. While they are generally safe, the FDA does not regulate supplements and therefore there is no guarantee of strength, purity or safety of products. Furthermore there are some important contraindications and consumers should talk with their doctor about before taking the vitamins. The story adequately describes the current study and discusses some of its strengthes and weaknesses. The story does a particularly good job of describing the study design, the sample size and duration of follow-up. The story does not exaggerate the seriousness or prevalence of AMD. The story should have explained that there are two types of AMD: dry and wet. Dry AMD is more common, progresses more slowly and may respond to vitamin supplementation, whereas wet AMD, although more rare, progresses rapidly and may not respond to vitamins. The story quotes an expert who is not related to the study or employed by the vitamin manufacturer. The story does a good job of describing potential conflicts of interest of the quoted experts. The story mentions smoking cessation and laser treatment as alternatives. The story however might have mentioned the other prevention methods listed on the National Eye Institute website: control of diet, exercise, weight, and blood pressure. Clearly vitamin-b supplements are available, however the story should have described whether this particular combination of vitamins is available and if so, if they are available over the counter or by prescription only. The story adequately represents the novelty of taking vitamins for AMD, which is not a new idea. Given the fact that an independent expert was interviewed, it’s safe to assume it did not rely solely or largely on a news release.
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25201
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More than one person, on average, a day is murdered in Philadelphia.
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AstraZeneca Plc said on Thursday its blood cancer drug met the main goal of a final stage trial, taking the treatment one step closer to a marketing approval as the drugmaker seeks to bolster its oncology portfolio.
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mixture
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National, Crime, Hillary Clinton,
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In its second late-stage trial success in a month, the drug showed meaningful improvement in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia when compared with a chemotherapy-based treatment, the company said. The drug, Calquence, is a cornerstone product for AstraZeneca in haematology and its accelerated U.S. approval in 2017 marked its first entry into blood cancer treatment. “The positive results from both the ... trials will serve as the foundation for regulatory submissions later this year,” said R&D José Baselga, executive vice president of the company’s oncology division. The drug, which is already approved by the U.S. drug regulator to treat a rare type of blood cancer, met the primary endpoint in a trial in May testing the drug in comparison with available treatment. AstraZeneca acquired the drug, also known as acalabrutinib, when it bought a majority stake in Acerta Pharma in 2015. Calquence is currently approved for treating adults with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma in the United States, Brazil, UAE and Qatar, and is being developed for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia and other blood cancers. The company’s shares were up 0.8% at 6005 pence in early trading on the London Stock Exchange.
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6934
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Nearly 700 from LA universities still in measles quarantine.
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Nearly 700 people possibly exposed to measles at two Los Angeles universities are still quarantined three days after health officials ordered the precautions to contain the spread of the highly contagious disease.
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true
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Los Angeles, University of California, Health, Measles, California
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A spokesman for California State University, Los Angeles, said Saturday that 106 staff members and 550 students have been told to stay at home and avoid contact with others. Thirty students and employees from the University of California, Los Angeles, remain quarantined. Those under quarantine were possibly exposed to a person with measles on each campus earlier this month. Many people have been cleared after proving their immunity with medical records or tests. The quarantines mark one of the most sweeping efforts by health officials to contain the nation’s measles outbreak, where cases have reached a 25-year high .
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4858
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Kansas Sen. Roberts pushing to move GOP health plan forward.
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Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts is working with fellow Republicans on their legislation to overhaul health care and arguing that a debate should occur quickly even as fellow Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran grabs national headlines for helping stall the effort.
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true
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Health care reform, Legislation, Kansas, Pat Roberts, Jerry Moran, Topeka, Barack Obama
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Roberts acknowledged during an Associated Press interview that he’s not happy with parts of the latest version of the bill meant to replace former President Barack Obama’s signature 2010 Affordable Care Act. His staff said he’s been working with the plan’s drafters on provisions protecting financially stressed hospitals and a home health program for rural states. But Roberts is stressing a broader message about health care: “We have to move.” He argued that whatever flaws fellow Republicans see, delaying a debate is likely to allow conditions in the health insurance market to worsen. “The whole point is to get where we want to get, we have to get on the bill,” Roberts said. “We can’t just sit back and complain about it.” Moran jumped into the spotlight when he and Utah Sen. Mike Lee tweeted early in the week that they couldn’t support the latest version of the Senate GOP plan, denying it the votes it needed to pass. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell canceled plans to move forward, though GOP senators now expect a debate in the coming week after public pressure from President Donald Trump. Moran called on Congress to “start fresh” and criticized the “closed-door process” behind the GOP plan. He endorsed an failed plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act without having a replacement ready. Roberts would not directly criticize Moran but he said Congress did start fresh on health care and the Senate GOP’s plan is “what we ended up with.” As for having a Senate committee start over, he said, “My God, that would take months.” “You can create headlines,” Roberts said. “I’m not interested in the headlines.” Bob Beatty, a Washburn University political science professor, doubted that the split between Moran and Roberts on health care reflects significant ideological differences. Instead, he said, it could reflect how they’re in different stages of their political careers, with Moran having more time to build a political legacy. Roberts, 81, is serving his fourth term in the Senate and his career in Congress or as a congressional aide stretches back 50 years. Moran, 63, is in his second Senate term, having first won a safe U.S. House seat in 1996. Beatty said Roberts also appears to have a more “black and white” view of working with Democrats. Roberts suggested during his interview that minority Democrats won’t help pass health legislation at all because they want to move toward government-run coverage similar to Medicare for the elderly. “Roberts seems a little more cynical about what’s possible in Washington,” Beatty said. But Roberts said he sees a need for Congress to move quickly on overhauling health care because he doubts “Obamacare” is sustainable even in the short-term, with health care costs and premiums continuing to rise. Roberts said delaying action will encourage insurers to leave the health care markets set up under the 2010 law to help individuals find coverage. “Premiums keep going up and choices keep going down,” he said. ___ Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna .
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4701
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Part of St. Croix River makes Minnesota impaired waters list.
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A scenic stretch of the St. Croix River was one of 581 waterways Minnesota has added to its list of waters that don’t meet state pollution standards, according to a report released Wednesday.
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true
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General News, Lakes, Minnesota, Environment, Stillwater, Pollution
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The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency added the lakes, rivers and streams to its draft list of “impaired waters” that will go to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The 3,416 waterways represent 56% of the state’s waters. The list has been steadily growing over the past decade as researchers evaluate more waterways across the state annually. The popular stretch of the St. Croix River between Taylors Falls and Stillwater, which forms part of Minnesota’s border with Wisconsin, made the proposed updated list because of high phosphorous levels. The stretch includes Minnesota’s William O’Brien State Park and rugged bluffs. “We are very disappointed to see this section of the St. Croix River is proposed to be listed as impaired,” said Deb Ryun, executive director of the St. Croix River Association. “But this potential impairment designation is a reminder that continual work and public action will be necessary to preserve and protect the … St. Croix we all know and love.” The St. Croix was one of the first rivers designated under the national Wild and Scenic Rivers program. The 20-mile stretch from Stillwater south to Prescott, Wisconsin, made the impaired list in 2008 due to excess phosphorus. Most phosphorus, which spurs algae growth, comes from runoff from agricultural or urban areas. Phosphorus levels in the St. Croix actually have been decreasing in recent years due to better controls on wastewater treatment plants and better farming and forestry practices. Julie Galonska, superintendent of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, challenged the idea that the river is deteriorating. She characterized the impairment as an “administrative twist” that resulted from new standards the MPCA recently adopted, not a big increase in pollution. Miranda Nichols, the MPCA’s impaired-waters list coordinator, said that the newly designated stretch had not previously been evaluated for nutrients and algae under the new standards. Although the section of the St. Croix north of Stillwater made Minnesota’s list, it won’t be on Wisconsin’s, Nichols said. Each state sets its own water-quality standards, and Wisconsin has a less stringent phosphorus standard — 90 micrograms per liter compared to Minnesota’s 40, she said. Lakes, rivers and streams on Minnesota’s impaired list have a range of problems, including excess mercury, bacteria, phosphorus, nitrate and other pollutants, as well as struggling fish and insect populations. About one-third of Minnesota’s waterways are considered impaired for recreational use because of high bacteria in streams and phosphorus in lakes. The public has until Jan. 14 to comment on the draft list. Public meetings are planned around the state in December. The MPCA plans to submit the list to the EPA by April 1.
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18574
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A study by the University of Virginia pulls back the curtain on Medicaid’s tragically bad outcomes, including ‘increased risk of adjusted mortality.’
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"Snyder is opposed to expanding Medicaid. He said, ""A study by the University of Virginia pulls back the curtain on Medicaid’s tragically bad outcomes, including ‘increased risk of adjusted mortality.’"" He’s partly right. A U.Va. study in 2010 did find that Medicaid recipients were more likely to die in the hospital during or after operations than all other surgery patients, including those who were uninsured. But he runs into trouble when he suggests that Medicaid is the cause of the high death rate. The authors of the report note that those who qualify for Medicaid are a high-risk group to begin with."
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mixture
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Health Care, Medicaid, Virginia, Pete Snyder,
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"Expanding Medicaid in Virginia would imperil the lives of low-income people who have surgery, according to Pete Snyder, a Northern Virginia businessman who is seeking the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. ""As it stands, Medicaid’s immense price includes a very real and tragic human cost: all too often it actually harms the very people it is meant to help,"" Snyder wrote in a March 6 article for Bearing Drift, a conservative blog. ""But don’t take my word for it,"" he continued. ""A study by the University of Virginia pulls back the curtain on Medicaid’s tragically bad outcomes, including ‘increased risk of adjusted mortality,’ or as one report summarizes, ‘surgical patients on Medicaid are 13 percent more likely to die than those with no insurance at all.’"" We were struck by the ramifications of Snyder’s claim. Under Obamacare, states are being encouraged to expand Medicaid, the government-run healthcare program for the poor and disabled. In return, Washington is offering to pay all the new costs at first, and 90 percent of the new tab in 2020 and thereafter. Expansion in Virginia, which is strongly opposed by Gov. Bob McDonnell, would open Medicaid to an estimated 400,000 people. Across the nation, about 16 million would become eligible for Medicaid if every state accepted the Obamacare offer. Almost all of these people are now uninsured -- making too little money to afford private health insurance but earning above the poverty levels that qualify for Medicaid. The U.Va. study is being cited by several conservatives -- including former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas -- as an argument against expansion. They say the study offers evidence that spreading Medicaid will spread bad health care results. Fact-checking Snyder’s statement requires two determinations: 1) Did the U.Va. study actually find that Medicaid recipients face a greater risk of surgery-related death than uninsured people and all other categories of patients and, if so; 2) Was the heightened risk caused by Medicaid? The U.Va. study, published in 2010, considered how surgical patients fared during their hospitalization based on whether they had private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid or were uninsured. The researchers looked at almost 900,000 major operations across the country and adjusted for many population and health care variables, including age, income, region, type of hospital, type of operation and other health factors. ""Even after adjusting for all those things, the payer was still a predictor of poorer outcomes,"" Dr. Gorav Ailawadi, one of the authors of the paper, told us. The patients covered by Medicaid had the highest risk. They were 1.97 times more likely to die in the hospital than those with private insurance. Compared to the privately insured, Medicare recipients were 1.54 times more likely to die in the hospital and uninsured patients were 1.74 times more likely. With adjustments, Medicaid patients also had the longest hospital stays and greatest total costs. So Snyder is correct -- those covered by Medicaid did have an increased risk of mortality during their hospital stays. And he’s right that Medicaid recipients were 13 percent more likely to die in the hospital during or after surgery than uninsured patients. But researchers place little of the blame on Medicaid. They noted that Medicaid recipients are the poorest, sickest and least educated group of patients. They are the least likely group to seek preventive health care. As a result, they are more likely to enter hospitals in dire conditions that require emergency surgery. ""Medicaid patients had the highest incidence of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, depression, liver disease, neurologic disorders and psychoses,"" the study said. ""Furthermore, Medicaid patients had the highest incidence of metastatic cancer."" The researchers said that uninsured patients have similar characteristics to Medicaid recipients and that it is ""plausible"" that both groups may suffer from a ""system bias"" that limits their access to private hospitals and top physicians. ""For many surgical patients, private insurance status often allows for referral to expert surgeons for their disease,"" the study said. ""Alternatively, Medicaid and uninsured patients may have been referred to less skilled and less specialized surgeons."" Does the research prove, as Snyder and other conservatives suggest, that it’s safer to be uninsured than on Medicaid? Ailawadi, co-author of the study, said it does not. Not all of the uninsured patients in the study were low-income people who would qualify for Medicaid if it is expanded. Thirty-one percent of them lived in zip codes where the average household income was greater than $45,000. Many of these people may have been uninsured by choice. ""The uninsured population in our study included a subgroup that may have had a high income,"" Ailawadi said. He added, ""I don’t think we’re able to say a government-sponsored system is beneficial or not."" Our ruling Snyder is opposed to expanding Medicaid. He said, ""A study by the University of Virginia pulls back the curtain on Medicaid’s tragically bad outcomes, including ‘increased risk of adjusted mortality.’"" He’s partly right. A U.Va. study in 2010 did find that Medicaid recipients were more likely to die in the hospital during or after operations than all other surgery patients, including those who were uninsured. But he runs into trouble when he suggests that Medicaid is the cause of the high death rate. The authors of the report note that those who qualify for Medicaid are a high-risk group to begin with."
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1620
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Beating parasites wins three scientists Nobel prize for medicine.
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Three scientists from Japan, China and Ireland whose discoveries led to the development of potent new drugs against parasitic diseases including malaria and elephantiasis won the Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday.
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true
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Science News
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Irish-born William Campbell and Japan’s Satoshi Omura won half of the prize for discovering avermectin, a derivative of which has been used to treat hundreds of millions of people with river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis. China’s Tu Youyou was awarded the other half of the prize for discovering artemisinin, a drug that has slashed malaria deaths and has become the mainstay of fighting the mosquito-borne disease. She is China’s first Nobel laureate in medicine. Some 3.4 billion people, most of them living in poor countries, are at risk of contracting the three parasitic diseases. “These two discoveries have provided humankind with powerful new means to combat these debilitating diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people annually,” the Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said. “The consequences in terms of improved human health and reduced suffering are immeasurable.” Today, the medicine ivermectin, a derivative of avermectin made by Merck & Co, is used worldwide to fight roundworm parasites, while artemisinin-based drugs from firms including Novartis and Sanofi are the main weapons against malaria. Omura and Campbell made their breakthrough in fighting parasitic worms, or helminths, after studying compounds from soil bacteria. That led to the discovery of avermectin, which was then further modified into ivermectin. The treatment is so successful that river blindness and lymphatic filariasis are now on the verge of being eradicated. Omura, 80, said the real credit for the achievement should go to the ingenuity of the Streptomyces bacteria, whose naturally occurring chemicals were so effective at killing off parasites. “I really wonder if I deserve this,” he said after learning he had won the prize. “I have done all my work depending on microbes and learning from them, so I think the microbes might almost deserve it more than I do.” Omura is professor emeritus at Kitasato University in Japan, while Campbell is research fellow emeritus at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. “This was the work of a team of researchers so it is by no means my work, it’s our work,” said Campbell, 85, who learned of his prize in a pre-dawn phone call from Reuters that woke him at his home in North Andover, Massachusetts. “In the first decade, there were 70 authors that I co-authored papers with. That gives you some idea of the number of people involved,” he said. Tu, meanwhile, turned to a traditional Chinese herbal medicine in her hunt for a better malaria treatment, following the declining success of the older drugs chloroquine and quinine. She found that an extract from the plant Artemisia annua was sometimes effective but the results were inconsistent, so she went back to ancient literature, including a recipe from AD 350, in the search for clues. This eventually led to the isolation of artemisinin, a new class of anti-malaria drug, which was available in China before it reached the West. Tu, 84, has worked at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine since 1965. World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl said the award of a Nobel prize for the discovery was a great tribute to the contribution of Chinese science in fighting malaria. “We now have drugs that kill these parasites very early in their life-cycle,” said Juleen Zierath, chair of the Nobel Committee. “They not only kill these parasites but they stop these infections from spreading.” Death rates from malaria have plunged 60 percent in the past 15 years, although the disease still kills around half a million people a year, the vast majority of them babies and young children in the poorest parts of Africa. The 8 million Swedish crowns ($960,000) medicine prize is the first of the Nobel prizes awarded each year. Prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace were first awarded in 1901 in accordance with the will of dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel. Last year, the medicine prize went to three scientists who discovered the brain’s inner navigation system.
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25082
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"Barack Obama wants to ""unilaterally disarm our nation."
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Obama wants to reduce stockpiles, not disarm
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false
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National, Military, Chain email,
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"Anonymous e-mails claim that Sen. Barack Obama wants to ""unilaterally disarm our nation"" — and they say they have the video to prove it. ""You do not have to check Snopes to determine if this is true or ... watch and listen to Obama's own words,"" warns one e-mail. ""Look at this ASAP — it may be pulled from the Obama Web site very soon,"" another e-mail states. ""This is shocking and reprehensible,"" opines a third e-mail. All the e-mails link to YouTube video that shows Barack Obama talking about his defense policies. The only problem is, Obama doesn't say in the video that he wants to disarm the United States. Rather, Obama talks about ending the war in Iraq, curtailing wasteful defense spending, and negotiating with Russia to reduce the U.S. nuclear arsenal. He says he wants ""a world without nuclear weapons,"" but as we'll explain shortly, that statement is well within the mainstream of U.S. foreign policy thought. We went looking for the source of the video and found it fairly quickly on the Obama campaign Web site. The official version includes opening and concluding remarks in which he emphasizes he will eliminate wasteful spending and make his sole priority protecting the American people. Obama's campaign created the video while campaigning to win the Iowa caucuses. Obama was seeking the endorsement of Caucus4Priorities, an Iowa-based advocacy movement that wants a portion of defense spending diverted to domestic issues like education and jobs. The group instead endorsed John Edwards. Here's Obama's statement in its entirety. We've noted where the edited version in the chain e-mails begins and ends: ""Thanks so much for the Caucus4Priorities, for the great work you've been doing. As president, I will end misguided defense policies and stand with Caucus4Priorities in fighting special interests in Washington. First, I'll stop spending $9-billion a month in Iraq. [Edited video starts.] I'm the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning, and as president, I will end it. ""Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending. I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems, and I will institute an independent defense priorities board to ensure that the quadrennial defense review is not used to justify unnecessary spending. ""Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons. I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material, and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals. [Edited video ends.] ""You know where I stand. I've fought for open, ethical and accountable government my entire public life. I don't switch positions or make promises that can't be kept. I don't posture on defense policy, and I don't take money from federal lobbyists for powerful defense contractors. As president, my sole priority for defense spending will be protecting the American people. Thanks so much."" We suspect that the phrase ""a world without nuclear weapons"" may have set off Obama's anonymous critics. Actually, that goal has been promoted by foreign policy experts on both sides of the political aisle. Obama's goal echoes an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 4, 2007, authored by George P. Shultz, William J. Perry, Henry A. Kissinger and Sam Nunn. Its title: ""A World Free of Nuclear Weapons."" ""The end of the Cold War made the doctrine of mutual Soviet-American deterrence obsolete,"" their essay said. ""Deterrence continues to be a relevant consideration for many states with regard to threats from other states. But reliance on nuclear weapons for this purpose is becoming increasingly hazardous and decreasingly effective."" The piece then goes on to argue for similar points as Obama mentions in his statement, though in more detail. The authors have significant foreign policy experience: Shultz was was secretary of state under Ronald Reagan; Perry was defense secretary under Bill Clinton; Kissinger was secretary of state under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford; and Nunn was chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. The piece kicked off enough discussion and debate in the foreign policy community that the quartet authored another piece for the Wall Street Journal a year later, titled ""Toward a Nuclear-Free World,"" in which they discussed growing support for their ideas. Not everyone agreed, of course. In May 2008, the Weekly Standard published a detailed critique of the policies by Gary J. Schmitt of the American Enterprise Institute and Henry Sokolski of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, who argued that their proposed solutions would be difficult to implement. For our fact-checking purposes, the point here is that Obama's statement falls firmly within the mainstream of the U.S. foreign policy debate. His position does not constitute unilateral disarmament, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Web site that specializes in information about defense, the military, weapons of mass destruction and homeland security. ""He's advocating the abolition of nuclear weapons in general, not nuclear disarmament,"" Pike said. ""If you're going to disagree with him, you have to understand what you're disagreeing with."" The notion of unilateral disarmament is pretty much a nonstarter for both major political parties, including Obama, he added. ""Outside of the religious pacifist community, that is just not a policy position that has had meaningful political support in the United States,"" Pike said. One of the outlets that has promoted the Obama-wants-to-disarm-us argument is the conservative blog Macsmind. Macsmind linked on Feb. 27, 2008, to a YouTube video; several of the e-mails we received linked to the Macsmind post. Macsmind posted the commentary, ""Sen. McCain, you should grab this video and play it on every ad you can. This is absolutely shocking reprehensible. He plans to universally disarm our nation (sic). The question is for what, and more specifically 'for whom'."" On June 8, Macsmind posted a full version of the video, noting ""some lefties are complaining that the video is a hack job and it's out of context. Therefore I present to you context."" Macsmind and others may not like the foreign policy goals that Obama outlines in his video, but it's deceptive to call those goals unilateral disarmament. For this reason, we find this the chain e-mail's statements to be ."
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9649
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Mediterranean Diet Protects Heart Disease Sufferers From Heart Attack, Stroke
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This short story describes an observational study of 15,482 people from 39 countries around the world who were already diagnosed with heart disease and almost all taking medication for it. The people who reported eating a Mediterranean diet–heavy on fruits and vegetables and low on red meat–showed a reduced risk of heart attack, stroke or death, compared to those who said they ate a Western diet with more meat and animal fats. This story does include quantified benefits, including a helpful statistic about “how many people out of 100” would likely develop heart disease, stroke, or die. However, it doesn’t provide much analysis that wasn’t already in the news release. A robust discussion of the study’s many limitations would have been useful, for example. For more about the limits of observational studies, see our guide. This matters because cardiovascular disease is a common cause of death. People love the idea that just adding a few healthy foods or taking a vitamin will reduce their risk of a disease while they still make poor dietary choices (hamburger and French fries). Media reports about a study like this, likely to interest a lot of people–and possibly affirm not-so-healthy dietary choices–should include a robust discussion of the study’s caveats, as well as a discussion of past studies on the topic, so people are fully informed.
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mixture
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heart disease,Mediterranean diet
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The story does not talk about costs. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables–and fresh seafood, especially–is associated with higher costs in many countries. The story helped clarify the somewhat confusing data points in the study by quantifying the benefits this way (italics added by us): “Over nearly four years, 1,588 (about 10 percent) of the study participants suffered either a heart attack or stroke, or died. Those who ate more foods in the Mediterranean diet category were 3.5 times less likely to experience one of these three events than people whose diets more closely resembled the Western standard. In fact, every one-point increase in a participant’s Mediterranean diet score was linked with a 7 percent reduction in risk of heart attack, stroke, or death. Look at it this way: if 100 people ate the highest proportion of Mediterranean foods and 100 ate the least, there would be three fewer heart attacks, strokes, or deaths among those who ate more foods from the Mediterranean diet. These findings held for every geographical region.” We applaud the writer for including the 100 people example to help readers understand the risk reduction. Because this is a story about a study of dietary habits, this is N/A. The story explained the way the study was conducted, which is important. But, the story does not mention some key limitations, including that the short survey did not include as many foods as typically measured in diet studies, and the study did not account for possible benefits of olive oil. To put it another way: What if eating olive oil has a positive effect by itself? If that accounts for the three fewer bad outcomes, then the rest of the diet differences are not statistically significant. There was no disease mongering. The story would have been stronger if it had included analysis from at least one independent source who had no connection to this study. Especially considering that many of the study’s authors, including the source who was indirectly quoted in the story, received support from a variety of pharmaceutical companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, which is mentioned in this story. The story did an adequate job of explaining the two diets, and it mentioned medication, which is another approach to preventing heart disease. Both Western and Mediterranean foods are widely available. However, Western foods are known to be cheaper and more widely available in low-income areas, and that could have been mentioned. Novelty is addressed with these statements, “Surprisingly, the results suggest it might be possible they can have their cake and eat it, too.” and “Now here’s the interesting part: eating more foods thought to be less healthy — those typical of Western diets —did not link to an increase in heart attacks, strokes, or deaths. Eating more healthy foods was the key, even if some unhealthy foods were also consumed along the way.” We saw quite a few repeated phrases from the news release here and the story. It appears it did rely very heavily on the release, especially considering there wasn’t an outside source commenting on the study, nor direct quotes.
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33264
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A 600-pound Australian woman gave birth to a 40-pound baby.
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World News Daily Report‘s prior fake news articles includes a widely shared story about an eyewitness account to Jesus’ miracles, another claiming loggers mistakenly cut down the world’s oldest tree, and a hoax involving a “prehistoric shark” purportedly discovered in Pakistan. Our article “Six Ways to Spot Fake News explores content (like this) that targets social media likes and shares.
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false
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Junk News, Not Necessarily The News, world news daily report
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On 14 January 2015, World News Daily Report published an article titled “Australia: 600 Pound Woman Gives Birth to 40 Pound Baby.” (The claim resurfaced when it was reproduced by the generally satirical site NYMeta on 4 June 2015.) According to the original claim, an unnamed “single mother” in Australia weighing 600 lbs. gave birth to what was possibly the largest baby in recorded history: A 600-pound woman has given birth to a 40-pound baby at Perth’s King Edward Memorial Hospital, a record breaking weight that could possibly make the newborn the largest baby ever born, reports the Western Australian Herald this morning. The baby of gigantic size surprised doctors and staff members who were not fully prepared for such an event but miraculously managed to give birth to the 40-pound (18 kilos) baby who remains in a healthy state, has confirmed a hospital spokesman.The single mother who’s [sic] delivery necessitated a surgical incision in the mother’s abdomen and uterus was done to prevent any harm to the baby and mother’s health and was undergone without any complications. The article included a purported quote from the woman’s doctor, whose name was also not provided: “I have dealt with other women suffering from obesity before but this birth will stick with me until I die” he told reporters with a large grin. “I truly believed there was two or even three babies in there” he commented laughingly, “but no, it was just one big sturdy guy. He obviously has a career as a future rugby player” he added with humor. While many readers took the claim at face value and subsequently shared it on social media sites, there was no truth at all to the story. An image of the woman used in the World News Daily Report article was taken from the TLC channel’s reality show My 600-lb Life, and the woman pictured hailed not from Australia, but from Mississippi. World News Daily Report‘s disclaimer page states: World News Daily Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within worldnewsdailyreport.com are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental, except for all references to politicians and/or celebrities, in which case they are based on real people, but still based almost entirely in fiction.
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2373
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Archaeologists discover earliest example of human with cancer.
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British archaeologists have found what they say is the world’s oldest complete example of a human being with metastatic cancer and hope it will offer new clues about the now common and often fatal disease.
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true
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Health News
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Researchers from Durham University and the British Museum discovered the evidence of tumors that had developed and spread throughout the body in a 3,000-year-old skeleton found in a tomb in modern Sudan in 2013. Analyzing the skeleton using radiography and a scanning electron microscope, they managed to get clear imaging of lesions on the bones which showed the cancer had spread to cause tumors on the collar bones, shoulder blades, upper arms, vertebrae, ribs, pelvis and thigh bones. “Insights gained from archaeological human remains like these can really help us to understand the evolution and history of modern diseases,” said Michaela Binder, a Durham PhD student who led the research and excavated and examined the skeleton. “Our analysis showed that the shape of the small lesions on the bones can only have been caused by a soft tissue cancer ... though the exact origin is impossible to determine through the bones alone.” Despite being one of the world’s leading causes of death today, cancer is virtually absent in archaeological records compared to other diseases - and that has given rise to the idea that cancers are mainly attributable to modern lifestyles and to people living for longer. According to the World Health Organisation’s cancer research agency, new cancer cases rose to an estimated 14 million a year in 2012, a figure seen rising to 22 million within the 20 years. Yet these new findings, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLOS ONE on Monday, suggest cancer is not only a modern disease, but was around in the Nile Valley even in ancient times. Binder said the discovery should help scientists explore the underlying causes of cancer in ancient populations and give fresh clues about the evolution of cancer in the past. Ancient DNA analysis of skeletons and mummies with evidence of cancer can be used to detect mutations in specific genes that are known to be associated with particular types of cancer. The skeleton is of an adult male estimated to be between 25- and 35-years-old when he died. It was found at the archaeological site of Amara West in northern Sudan, on the Nile, 750 km downstream from the capital Khartoum. The researchers said they could only speculate on what may have caused of the young man’s cancer, but it may have been as a result of environmental carcinogens such as smoke from wood fires, or due to genetic factors, or from an infectious disease such as schistosomiasis, which is caused by parasites. Schistosomiasis would be a plausible explanation, they said, since the disease has plagued inhabitants of Egypt and Nubia since at least 1500 BC and is now recognized as a cause of bladder cancer and breast cancer in men.
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34575
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A Kentucky food stamp recipient has more than $5,000 in unused food stamp benefits and is thus abusing the system.
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What's false: A high balance of more than $5,000 on an EBT card would be exceedingly rare -- but it wouldn't necessarily mean the system was being abused if true. What's undetermined: Whether or not the photograph showing the receipt is real or forged.
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unproven
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Food, food, health, welfare
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In August 2016, several viral web sites started circulating a story about a shopper in Liberty, Kentucky, who picked up a receipt dropped by another shopper who was (according to the story) a recipient of “food stamps.” The unnamed person took a picture of the receipt, showing the shopper spent about $40 at the grocery store Save-A-Lot. But they were “floored” to see this shopper also had an EBT food balance of $5,583.42: So, this individual could spend over 5 grand in that store, much more than most working people have in their savings account, and none of that money would actually be money that they had earned. It was taxpayer money. Your money. Turns out this isn’t isolated. There have been cases of up to 20 grand in EBT balances and many other abuses on the system taking place. EBT stands for Electronic Benefits Transfer. Funds are dispersed to qualifying beneficiaries from the federal government on debit-like cards for food purchases. According to officials from Food and Nutrition Service (a subsidiary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP), it’s not impossible for a recipient of assistance to have a high balance on their EBT card — but it is highly unlikely. A USDA spokesman told us: As of June 2015, FNS identified 1,783 households nationwide with balances of $2,500 or higher. That represents 0.00008 percent of the 22,436,441 households nationwide in the same month. It’s actually 0.008%, but even if the shopper in Liberty, Kentucky happened to be one of the less than 1 percent of households with a EBT balance over $2,500, the balance in and of itself doesn’t represent “abuse.” Per the USDA: Existing law allows program recipients to accumulate unused benefits, so long as the account is active. To remain in active status, an account must be used at least once during a 12-month period or the benefits will be expunged. There is no cap on the amount of benefits that may be accumulated… A number of news reports have suggested that households may accrue large SNAP balances because they “no longer need” assistance. SNAP households are required to report changes in income at least every 6 months and to completely recertify their eligibility for benefits at least once every 12 months, with the exception of certain households in which all members are elderly or have a disability and have no earned income. Households are required to promptly report any change in income that might make them ineligible. Participants who fail to report these changes are subject to claims for repayment of any overpayments received, and State agencies are required to remove them from the program if they are no longer eligible. Further, FNS reviewed high-balance holders and found that “few of these households exhibit behavior that suggests potential fraud.” The states of Texas and Ohio reviewed recipients who accumulated high balances. Findings reflected that those balances resulted largely from frugality — using the funds only when needed or using coupons to cut costs. Some recipients reported transportation problems impeding them from making frequent grocery trips, resulting in accumulation of food benefits. The viral stories don’t provide enough information to identify the recipient, nor do they identify the person who posted the picture of the alleged receipt, but Glen Phillips, Jr. claimed in a 22 June 2016 Facebook post to have found the receipt in his driveway. While it’s impossible to determine whether an individual in Kentucky really has an EBT food balance of more than $5,000, it would hardly prove they were abusing the system — if it were shown to be true.
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16440
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"Steve Southerland Says Gwen Graham ""was a Washington lobbyist."
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"Southerland said Graham ""was a Washington lobbyist."" Even if it’s true that Graham lobbied, it would have been for a brief period a quarter-century ago. But it’s not at all clear that the charge is true. Southerland’s campaign based their attack on paperwork from the law firm Graham worked for after earning her law degree, listing her among the support staff. However, Graham provided a note from her supervisor saying that she was a researcher at the time and had not done actual lobbying work. She was listed because listing junior and support staff was a common practice at the time, according to a law firm retained by the Graham campaign. Experts we talked to agreed. At most, Graham’s inclusion on disclosure forms may have technically made her part of a lobbying effort, but there’s little evidence to suggest what, if anything, she did. The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression."
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false
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Candidate Biography, Florida, Steve Southerland,
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"Republican congressman Steve Southerland is throwing attack after attack against his Democratic challenger, Gwen Graham, including the dreaded L-word: ""lobbyist."" In a Sept. 10, 2014, campaign commercial, Southerland, who represents a northern Florida district, accused the daughter of former Florida Gov. Bob Graham of a host of left-wing positions. ""Graham was a Washington lobbyist and liberal political consultant who has taken thousands of dollars from Nancy Pelosi and her special interest allies,"" the commercial said. It also said she is ""hiding the truth"" that she supported the Affordable Care Act and was ""handpicked"" by Pelosi -- the House Democratic leader -- to run for the congressional seat. Politicians often turn to lobbying when their public careers have ended, but it’s less common for a lobbyist to run for office. Rep. David Jolly, who won a special election in March to succeed the late C.W. Bill Young in Pinellas County’s 13th District, spent years as a lobbyist, but he won despite attacks on his lobbying history by his Democratic opponent, former state CFO Alex Sink. Graham has been touting her resume as an attorney and employee of the Leon County School District. Did she once serve as a Washington lobbyist? Curriculum vitae In 1988, Graham graduated with a law degree from American University. She then worked with the firm Andrews & Kurth, a law firm that also did lobbying for some clients. One of those clients was the Secondary Lead Smelters Association. Southerland’s team pointed to lobbying disclosure records from 1989 and 1990 that list Gwendolyn G. Logan, Graham’s married name at the time. The lobbying paperwork says in part that the work was to ""promote battery recycling legislation and other legislation affecting the secondary lead industry."" In addition, Southerland points to an October 1990 handwritten staff note on the Lead Exposure Reduction Act from Bob Graham’s archive at the University of Florida. The note included the sentence from a staffer, ""Put lead bill & materials in envelope to Becky for Gwen from BG,"" which Southerland’s camp considers proof of influence. Graham’s campaign quickly responded that her name being on disclosure forms was not proof of lobbying, because she did not participate in any such activity. It was her employer who listed her name on the forms. She even supplied a letter from her former Andrews & Kurth supervisor to prove it. The supervisor, Rob Steinwurtzel, wrote in a letter that the documents in question were not proof of Southerland’s claim. ""We listed everybody in our group on the form, regardless whether they actually performed lobbying activities or not,"" Steinwurtzel told the Tampa Bay Times. ""She came as a first-year associate and basically, first-year associates spend a lot of time in the library. She did not go to meetings with legislators or advocate on behalf of clients. I’m pretty certain about that."" As for the handwritten note, the campaign said at the time the note was written, Graham was bed-ridden for a high-risk pregnancy. She gave birth to daughter Sarah three weeks later and soon left the firm. The staffer’s direction from her father could have referred to anything, the campaign said. Graham’s campaign had D.C. law firm Sandler Reiff explore the legality of Graham’s name being listed on the forms. The firm concluded that the filings in question fell under the purview of the Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act, which preceded the 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act in effect today. Under the earlier rules, Graham would have had to have been in direct contact with members of Congress for herself or her clients, self-report her work, have done substantial work on the legislation in question, and register herself a lobbyist, although doing a certain amount of work for a client fell under the reporting threshold. She had done none of these things. It was also common practice for a firm to list all support staff, with no regard to what they had actually done for the client, Sandler Reiff’s Joshua Rosenstein concluded. Lobbying experts we spoke to agreed that rules were much different before the Lobbying Disclosure Act, and that undermines Southerland’s attack. ""I think her firm is right by saying they were being overly compliant,"" said Lisa Gilbert, director of the Congress Watch Division for liberal consumer-advocacy group Public Citizen. ""Under the definitions at the time she certainly did not perform lobbying activities. That said, to a layman, her support would seem like lobbying. You can’t tell from the documentation."" Dan Auble, a lobbying researcher for the Center for Responsive Politics, said he wasn’t entirely familiar with requirements the earlier Federal Regulation of Lobbying Act, but the weakness of the paperwork is that you have to take Graham’s employer’s word for it. ""If you take what the law firm is saying on its face, then she really didn’t,"" Auble said, although it’s possible the firm is stretching the truth. He said things have changed in Washington in the last 25 years -- and that’s something to keep in mind when considering Southerland’s claim. ""People used to list names in the report because there was no stigma related to the word ‘lobbyist,' "" he said. ""Now no one wants to be called a lobbyist."" Our ruling Southerland said Graham ""was a Washington lobbyist."" Even if it’s true that Graham lobbied, it would have been for a brief period a quarter-century ago. But it’s not at all clear that the charge is true. Southerland’s campaign based their attack on paperwork from the law firm Graham worked for after earning her law degree, listing her among the support staff. However, Graham provided a note from her supervisor saying that she was a researcher at the time and had not done actual lobbying work. She was listed because listing junior and support staff was a common practice at the time, according to a law firm retained by the Graham campaign. Experts we talked to agreed. At most, Graham’s inclusion on disclosure forms may have technically made her part of a lobbying effort, but there’s little evidence to suggest what, if anything, she did. The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, so"
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Common Heart Attack Treatment Reconsidered
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Balloon angioplasty surgery 3-28 days after a heart attack in combination with drug therapy does not improve the risk of future cardiac problems compared with drug therapy alone. While the story mentions these two treatments for reducing the chance of a subsequent heart attack following an initial heart attack and increasing survival, it does not mention just how much benefit a patient would get from either treatment option post-heart attack. While it was not part of the study, the story also does not mention that lifestyle changes (including diet, exercise and smoking cessation) still play a role in decreasing risk of future heart attacks. The story notes that the results of this study should change the way cardiologists practice, which is a nod to evidence-based medicine vs. conventional wisdom. The story accurately describes the study design, but summarizes the results narratively and provides no quantitative evidence. The story mentions that data from the study was presented at a conference, but it has also been peer-reviewed in a reputable medical journal. The story does not mention the harms of angioplasty following a heart attack, nor is there any discussion of potential harms of a multiple drug regimen, including ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, statins and aspirin, all of which have side effects. The story also does not mention that researchers noticed a trend of early heart attacks in the angioplasty group, but that further research was necessary to see if this was a result of the procedure or simply due to chance. The story does not mention the cost of each treatment reviewed in the study. The cost of lifelong drug therapy would be particularly expensive for patients without health insurance. The journal article mentions, but the story does not, that many of the authors of the study receive funding from makers of heart drugs.
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mixture
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"The story does not mention the cost of each treatment reviewed in the study. The cost of lifelong drug therapy could be particularly expensive for patients without health insurance. The story does not mention how much benefit a patient would get from either treatment option post-heart attack. No absolute data were given – only that ""there was no difference between the two groups in death rate, second heart attacks, or heart failure."" The story does not mention the harms of angioplasty following a heart attack, nor is there any discussion of potential harms of a multiple drug regimen, including ACE inhibitors, beta blockers, statins and aspirin, all of which have side effects. The story does not mention that researchers noticed a trend of early heart attacks in the angioplasty group, but that further research was necessary to see if this was a result of the procedure or due to chance. The story does describe the study design and results narratively. However, the story does not provide any quantitative data. The story mentions that the results of the study were presented at a conference, but they have also been peer-reviewed in a reputable medical journal. The story does not engage in disease mongering. The story only focuses on information relevant to patients who have had a heart attack. The lead author of the study is interviewed, as is a practicing cardiologist. Both provide perspective on the results of the recently published data and how this challenges current treatment. The journal article mentions, but the story doesn't, that many of the lead authors receive funding from makers of heart medications. Pharmaceutical and device (stent manufacturers) donated medications for the study, but the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute was the main funder. The story mentions two treatments for increasing survival and reducing the chance of a subsequent heart attack following an initial heart attack. While it was not part of the study, the story does not mention that lifestyle changes (including diet, exercise and smoking cessation) still play a role in decreasing risk of future heart attacks. There is evidence that lifestyle modifications that result in weight loss, improved blood pressure, and improved diabetic control result in better cardiovascular outcomes. Drug therapy and angioplasty have been standard practice for patients who have had a heart attack. The story reports on the results of a large multi-site study and does mention that physicians should change this practice, based on new evidence. The story mentions that the results of this study should change the way cardiologists practice. Balloon angioplasty surgery 3-28 days after a heart attack in combination with drug therapy does not improve the risk of future cardiac problems compared with drug therapy alone. The information in the story in not taken directly from a press release. There is independent reporting and a cardiac specialist not affiliated with the study is interviewed (briefly!) for perspective on the findings."
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An image shows Melania Trump and Ivanka Trump wearing see-through shirts.
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Pfizer Inc said on Thursday it received a request for documents as part of a U.S. investigation related to quality issues involving the manufacture of auto-injectors at its Meridian Medical Technologies site.
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false
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Fauxtography, ivanka trump, melania trump
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Pfizer, in a regulatory filing, said it would be producing records in response to the civil investigative demand from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. Meridian, a unit of Pfizer that manufactures EpiPen injectors used to deliver an emergency allergy antidote, has been hit by a series of manufacturing problems in recent years. Mylan NV, which markets EpiPens, has recalled tens of thousands of the devices after complaints that some had failed to activate. In 2017, Meridian had received a warning letter from the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA said Meridian had failed to thoroughly investigate product failures, including EpiPen products that were associated with patient deaths and severe illnesses. It said the company failed to take corrective actions until FDA’s inspection. Meridian produces all EpiPens sold globally at a single plant near St. Louis, Missouri. EpiPen auto-injectors deliver a dose of epinephrine in the event of severe allergic reaction, such as to bee stings or exposure to peanuts.
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14597
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"JoAnne Kloppenburg Says state Supreme Court candidate Joe Donald twice ""supported"" incumbent Justice Rebecca Bradley."
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GlaxoSmithKline will sell two travel vaccines to Bavarian Nordic for up to 955 million euros ($1.1 billion), the British firm said on Monday, as it looks to bolster its push into the lucrative cancer drug market.
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true
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Candidate Biography, Criminal Justice, Elections, Legal Issues, Negative Campaigning, Wisconsin, JoAnne Kloppenburg,
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The sale of anti-rabies treatment Rabipur and Encepur, used for the prevention of tick-borne encephalitis, to the Denmark-based biotechnology firm includes an upfront payment of 301 million euros and milestone payments of up to 495 million euros. Chief Executive Officer Emma Walmsley has been pushing for a leaner structure since she took over in 2017 by spinning off or selling units to focus on reinvigorating GSK’s pharmaceuticals business. It staged a comeback into cancer treatments with a $5.1 billion buyout of U.S. drugmaker Tesaro in December last year. “This agreement with Bavarian Nordic will enable us to commit greater resources to our key growth assets and to our R&D pipeline,” Roger Connor, president of Global Vaccines at GSK said. GSK, which is preparing to separate its consumer-facing products and drugs businesses, acquired the vaccines from Novartis in 2015 as part of a broad asset-swap here in which GSK sold its oncology business to the Swiss drugmaker. The drugmaker reported revenue of 5.89 billion pounds ($7.61 billion) from its vaccines segment in 2018. London-listed GSK said that both vaccines will continue to be manufactured at its Marburg site in Germany until full production is transferred to Bavarian Nordic within five years.
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1926
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Smog dims shine of India's festival of lights.
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Bharat Prakash has stayed indoors on Diwali day for the past four years to avoid the smog that envelopes Indian cities during the festival, which celebrates the triumph of good over evil with fireworks and small oil-filled clay lamps.
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true
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Environment
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As the rest of the country celebrates the Festival of Lights, which falls on Wednesday this year, asthma sufferers like Prakash, 22, will be cooped up at home, dreading the blanket of smoke that worsens the already dire air quality. “I don’t step out of the house on Diwali nights,” says Prakash, a marketing professional in Pune. In New Delhi, the morning after Diwali always brings a blanket of thick white smog — and the situation is getting worse. A study conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board showed that noise and air pollution levels were higher during Diwali in 2010 than the previous year despite nationwide campaigns against firecrackers. “It’s a concern that pollution levels go up, noise levels go up, and the doctors in cities have also confirmed that hospital admissions during this time increase, due to symptoms related to pollution-related diseases,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, at the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi. “Every year during Diwali, pollution levels are quite high largely because of the firecrackers, but the traffic intensity also goes up during this time.” Improvements in air quality after Delhi imposed rules making auto-rickshaws and buses run off liquefied natural gas have been partly offset by new cars on the road — and their numbers have nearly doubled over the last decade, thanks to rising incomes. Indians are at high risk of respiratory ailments, heart disease and lung cancer, according to recent World Health Organization (WHO) data that showed Delhi’s air had almost 10 times the recommended level of PM10 particulate matter, or particles small enough to penetrate to the deepest part of the lungs and cause health problems. The air in the Indian cities measured ranges between 80 and 251 micrograms per cubic meter of PM10. The WHO recommends not exceeding 20 micrograms per cubic meter. But firecracker-free Diwali campaigns have not been entirely successful, with most revelers looking forward to the noise and lights as part of the festival fun. Climate and energy campaigner K. Srinivas has a solution. “If you really want to light up the world with crackers, why not light up with solar lanterns and give them to people, or try to light up a few people’s houses, or a few villages,” Srinivas said. “The amount of money that is spent on crackers can easily power a number of houses in rural areas.”
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8142
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France toughens lockdown penalties as coronavirus kills medic.
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French lawmakers approved tougher penalties for defying a nationwide confinement order as the coronavirus death toll rose on Sunday, with a first member of the country’s medical profession among the victims.
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true
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Health News
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Reacting to news of the doctor’s death, health minister Olivier Veran paid tribute to medical staff confronting the pandemic and urged other workers to keep key services running, even as the lockdown halts many businesses deemed non-essential. “The medical profession is making a heavy sacrifice in our country today,” Veran said on LCI television. The doctor who died was an emergency specialist at the university hospital in Compiegne, north of Paris, where several other staff have tested positive for the virus, according to French media reports. The coronavirus death toll recorded by French hospitals rose by 112 to 674 on Sunday, officials said, while the number of confirmed cases increased by 11% to 16,018 over 24 hours. France’s top administrative court on Sunday rejected demands that it impose stricter confinement rules, but the government is taking its own advice on tougher measures. Those caught defying the order - which has exceptions for essential commuting, shopping and solitary exercise - will also face harsher penalties, ranging from 135 to 3,700 euros ($3,960) and a six-month prison term for repeat breaches, under the health emergency bill approved by lawmakers. Supermarket retailer Auchan [AUCH.UL] separately announced a 1,000 euro ($1,070) bonus for employees, amid concern over staffing levels in critical areas of the economy and public services. The government is considering a tax-free “attendance bonus” for people who need to be at their workplace to carry out key jobs, officials have said. “We’re asking citizens to continue mobilising to keep our economy working,” health minister Veran said. “Not for the sake of economic objectives or budgets, but because a single missing link can bring down the entire production system.” Veran also said France was expecting preliminary results within two weeks from a clinical test of the effectiveness of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine against COVID-19, the condition caused by the virus. There are as yet no vaccines or treatments approved but trials are under way in the United States and Europe to see whether hydroxychloroquine can prevent, or reduce the severity of, the illness. French hospitals began testing the anti-malarial and three other drugs on Sunday, research institute Inserm said, as part of a European program involving 3,200 COVID-19 patients.
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41956
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"Those in the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program are ""mostly-adult illegal aliens."
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In rescinding the Obama-era Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program, Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ selective use of facts leaves a misleading impression of the program.
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mixture
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DACA, Dream Act, Illegal immigration, immigration,
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In rescinding the Obama-era Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals program, Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ selective use of facts leaves a misleading impression of the program:Sessions made his announcement Sept. 5 at the Department of Justice. Under the new policy, the Department of Homeland Security said it will no longer accept new DACA applications and will stop accepting renewal requests as of Oct. 5.In his announcement, Sessions provided some background on the program, which was established by President Barack Obama in June 2012. Sessions said the program “essentially provided a legal status for recipients for a renewable two-year term, work authorization and other benefits, including participation in the social security program, to 800,000 mostly-adult illegal aliens.”The White House, in a press release, described the DACA holders as “recipients [who] range from ages 15 to 36, with the overwhelming majority being of adult age.”President Donald Trump, too, described the DACA beneficiaries as adults when he was asked about ending the program during an unrelated event at the White House. The president said “people think in terms of children, but they’re really young adults.”The administration’s emphasis on the current age of most DACA holders ignores the fact that they arrived in the United States as children.Yes, the vast majority of DACA holders are adults. The program, which is now in its fifth year, is open to those who were at least 15 years old but no more than 31 years old as of June 15, 2012. But to be eligible for the program, they also had to prove that they were under the age of 16 when they arrived in the United States and they had been living in the U.S. continuously since June 15, 2007.Tom K. Wong, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, oversaw a national survey of 3,063 DACA holders last month and found that on average they were six and a half years old when they arrived in the U.S. Most of them — 54 percent– were under the age of 7 (see page 13).The DACA program was instituted by Obama after Congress repeatedly failed to pass the so-called DREAM Act that would have created a path to citizenship for some brought to the United States as children.Sessions also blamed the DACA program for the surge of unaccompanied minors who illegally crossed the Mexico border, beginning in fiscal year 2012, mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.Sessions, Sept. 5: The effect of this unilateral executive amnesty, among other things, contributed to a surge of unaccompanied minors on the southern border that yielded terrible humanitarian consequences.This is misleading.It is true that there was a surge of unaccompanied children that caught the Obama administration off guard in fiscal 2012. The number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border peaked in fiscal 2014 at 68,541, dropping 42 percent to 39,970 in fiscal 2015 before rising again in fiscal year 2016 to 59,692.But the children who crossed the border illegally were not eligible for DACA. As we said earlier, the criteria for DACA is continuous residence in the United States since June 15, 2007.All the government reports on the subject that we could find said that misinformation about U.S. immigration policy may have driven some to cross the border illegally. But these reports cited multiple reasons for the surge, primarily violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in 2013 conducted a survey of 404 unaccompanied minors who illegally crossed into the U.S. since fiscal 2012. The U.N. survey found that 48 percent of the apprehended children “said they had experienced serious harm or had been threatened by organized criminal groups or state actors, and more than 20 percent had been subject to domestic abuse,” according to a July 3, 2014, report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.“It is not known if, and how, specific immigration policies may have influenced decisions to try to enter the United States unlawfully,” the CRS report said.The Government Accountability Office also sought to determine the causes of the surge in a 2015 report. In that case, GAO surveyed nine federal officials stationed in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador for the Department of State, Department of Homeland Security and USAID. The federal officials used “various sources of information” to identify the causes of the surge, “ranging from conducting first-hand interviews to analyzing various statistical data.”The nine officials “most commonly identified crime and violence and economic concerns as causes primarily responsible for the recent rapid increase” in unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. illegally, the GAO report said.Five officials told GAO that misinformation about U.S. immigration policies spread by smugglers were “a primary cause.” The example given in the report was a failed congressional attempt to pass comprehensive immigration legislation that would have provided a path to citizenship for those living in the U.S. illegally.In listing his reasons for rescinding DACA, Sessions also cited the need to enforce immigration laws “to ensure the safety and security of the American people.”Sessions: We are a people of compassion and we are a people of law. But there is nothing compassionate about the failure to enforce immigration laws. Enforcing the law saves lives, protects communities and taxpayers, and prevents human suffering. Failure to enforce the laws in the past has put our nation at risk of crime, violence and even terrorism.However, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, those who committed “a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, or three or more other misdemeanor offenses” are not eligible for DACA. Neither are those who pose a public safety threat, which “include, but are not limited to, gang membership, participation in criminal activities, or participation in activities that threaten the United States.”Also, there is no evidence that DACA holders are more likely to commit crimes than U.S. citizens.As we wrote in February, numerous studies have found that immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than non-immigrants. A recap of the literature on this topic can be found here. A 2013 study published in American Sociological Review confirmed that immigration is strongly associated with less violence in a neighborhood.We take no position on the merits of DACA. But Sessions’ description of the program doesn’t tell the whole story, leaving a misleading impression about DACA holders and the impact that the program has had on illegal immigration and crime.Clarification, March 26: We revised one sentence in this article to make clear – as we explained elsewhere in the original story – that those who committed a felony and some misdemeanors are not eligible for DACA. According to USCIS, someone could commit two non-significant misdemeanor offenses and still be eligible.
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912
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Malnutrition, disease rising in North Korea: aid organization.
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Rates of malnutrition and disease are increasing in North Korea as it faces a harvest that is half of what was expected, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Thursday.
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true
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Health News
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International aid agencies as well as North Korea state media have been warning that erratic weather with drought and floods, and a lack of access to resources could lead to a food crisis in a country under strict international sanctions over leader Kim Jong Un’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. “We are already seeing the impacts of this drought on vulnerable people,” Mohamed Babiker, head of the IFRC’s office in North Korea, said in a statement. “Rates of malnutrition and water borne diseases like diarrhea and colitis are on the rise.” After an assessment in May concluded that this year’s harvest would be less than half what it should be, the IFRC spent 250,000 Swiss francs ($253,787) on deploying mobile water pumps, which were able to double crop yields in the targeted areas, the organization said. “Water pumps and irrigation supplies can make a significant difference,” Babiker said, calling for an additional 472,000 Swiss francs ($479,284) for more agricultural and sanitation supplies. North Korea increased imports of fertilizer and food products last year, according to trade data compiled by the United Nations. But the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a Washington-based think tank, documented in a report this week how North Korea also continues to import millions of dollars worth of luxury goods, including at least two armored limousines valued at $500,000 each. South Korea’s intelligence agency told lawmakers on Tuesday that drought had hit the North Korean economy which already faces difficulties such as widening trade deficits, foreign currency shortages and a deepening cash crunch due to sanctions. Rainfall in North Korea has fallen by more than 30% this year from a year before, and there are signs of a deteriorating food situation, according to Lee Eun-jae, one of the lawmakers briefed by the spy agency. “North Korea is expected to exhaust its crop reserves earlier than usual this year,” Lee told reporters. South Korea has said it would donate $4.5 million to the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), and announced it was also providing 50,000 tonnes of rice for delivery to its northern neighbor. South Korea also recently donated $3.5 million to the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for humanitarian projects in North Korea. Last week, North Korea state news agency KCNA said a campaign to mitigate the effects of drought was under way by digging canals and wells, installing pumps, and using people and vehicles to transport water. The official television broadcaster on Monday warned of further damage in the upcoming rainy season. It said the country suffered from floods in June, showing submerged buildings and villages where houses were destroyed by landslides. Sporadic famines are common in North Korea, according to experts based in South Korea, but in the 1990s, a nationwide famine killed as many as one million people.
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Trump declares coronavirus national emergency, says he will most likely be tested.
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency over the fast-spreading coronavirus to free up $50 billion in federal aid and said he would “most likely” be tested for the virus himself soon after facing possible exposure.
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true
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Health News
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Trump made the announcement at a Rose Garden news conference as he battled to show Americans he is aggressively addressing the health crisis after facing criticism that he was slow to react and played down the threat until the number of cases rose. Trump cautioned that Americans will have to make sacrifices and change their daily practices, a stark difference from two weeks ago when he said people should use common sense but otherwise not change their routines. “It could get worse. The next eight weeks will be critical,” he said. The president appeared on stage with members of his coronavirus task force and business executives after meeting them inside the White House over how to accelerate testing of Americans for the virus to better track the contagion’s spread. Shaking hands freely with the gathered business executives, the 73-year-old Trump later acknowledged he expected to be tested for the virus. He had come into contact with a Brazilian official last Saturday who later tested positive for coronavirus. “Most likely, yeah, most likely. Not for that reason but because I think I will do it anyway,” Trump said. “Fairly soon. We’re working out a schedule.” “We have no symptoms whatsoever,” he said to a question about whether he should get a test. Trump said Walmart Inc Chief Executive Doug McMillon had agreed to set up drive-thru testing at store parking lots across the country and that Alphabet Inc’s Google will create a website to help determine whether individuals need a coronavirus test. Trump shrugged off a question about whether he was responsible for what many experts have said was slow progress toward expansion of tests to track the virus. “I don’t take responsibility at all,” he said, blaming rules and regulations he inherited for the inability to mass produce the testing kits. Trump, who on Wednesday ordered citizens from 26 European nations not to enter the United States for 30 days as of midnight Friday, said his administration “may be adding” travel restrictions on the United Kingdom and a couple of other countries. As for whether Americans should take commercial flights, Trump was blunt: “If you stay home, it’s not bad. It’s not bad.” The virus that emerged in central China in December has now spread to over 130 countries and territories and infected more than 138,000 people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. It has so far led to 47 U.S. deaths after six more were reported on Friday in hard-hit Washington state and one in Colorado. Trump said his declaration of a national emergency will “unleash the full power of the federal government” to help states and territories in the fight. The announcement gave Wall Street a much-needed boost with the Dow and benchmark S&P 500 both ending the day more than 9% higher. “Through talent or through luck, call it whatever you want, but through a very collective action and shared sacrifice, national determination, we will overcome the threat of the virus,” Trump said. Trump said the battered cruise ship industry could expect help. “We will be helping them and we will be helping the airline industry if we have to, assuming we have to,” he said. Trump had been heavily focused on hard-hit industries in making sure the U.S. economy is not devastated by a slowdown in consumer activity as a result of the virus. On Friday, he used much of his appearance to focus on the potential human toll of the respiratory illness than can cause pneumonia in severe cases. He urged every state to set up emergency centers to help fight the coronavirus. “We’ll remove or eliminate every obstacle necessary to deliver our people the care that they need and that they’re entitled to. No resource will be spared, nothing whatsoever,” he said. Pressure has been mounting for Trump to declare an infectious disease emergency under the 1988 law that would allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide disaster funds to state and local governments and to deploy support teams. President Bill Clinton in 2000 employed the rarely used measure to declare such an emergency for West Nile virus. Trump said the federal government was partnering with the private sector to accelerate production of test kits to make them more widely available to Americans. He said there will be about 5 million coronavirus tests available soon but doubted that that many will be needed. He urged Americans to only seek the test if they feel they need it. “We don’t want people to take a test if we feel that they shouldn’t be doing it and we don’t want everyone running out and taking - only if you have certain symptoms,” he said. Alongside Trump was Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health expert who is on Trump’s coronavirus task force. He offered a cautious outlook for what may unfold in the short term. “We still have a long way to go. There will be many more cases. But we’ll take care of that,” said Fauci, long the nation’s top infectious disease expert. “What’s going on here today is going to help it end sooner than it would have.” Trump said the federal government would waive interest on student loans and ordered the Energy Department to take advantage of low oil prices to top up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
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33320
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Retired CIA agent Normand Hodges confessed on his deathbed to assassinating Marilyn Monroe.
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World News Daily Report is a fake news site that previously duped readers with claims that an eyewitness account of Jesus’ miracles was found, another alleging loggers cut down the world’s oldest tree, and purported photos of a “prehistoric shark” discovered in Pakistan.
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false
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Media Matters, marilyn monroe, Not Necessarily The News
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On 25 March 2015, World News Daily Report published an article titled “Retired CIA Agent Confesses on Deathbed: ‘I Killed Marilyn Monroe. '” According to that article, former Central Intelligence Agency operative Normand Hodges completed 37 assassinations during his career — numbering among them the killing of a Hollywood legend and long-rumored mistress of President John F. Kennedy: A 78-year old retired officer of the CIA, Normand Hodges, has made a series of astonishing confessions since he was admitted at the Sentara General Hospital on Monday. He claims he committed 37 assassinations for the American government between 1959 and 1972, including the actress and model, Marilyn Monroe. Mr. Hodges, who worked for the CIA for 41 years as an operative with top-level security clearances, claims he was often employed as a hitman by the organization, to assassinate individuals who could represent a threat to the security of the country. The article included a purported quote from Hodges explaining why Marilyn was assassinated: We had evidence that Marilyn Monroe had not only slept with Kennedy, but also with Fidel Castro. My commanding officer, Jimmy Hayworth, told me that she had to die, and that it had to look like a suicide or an overdose. I had never killed a woman before, but I obeyed orders … I did it for America! She could have transmitted strategic information to the communists, and we couldn’t allow that! She had to die! I just did what I had to do! However, the claim was easily disproved. The photograph displayed at the top of the page was not of a former CIA agent named “Normand Hodges,” but rather a picture swiped from a 2014 article published by the Guardian about the practice of chaining gravely ill prisoners in the hospital. If that’s not sufficient, note World News Daily Report‘s disclaimer page: World News Daily Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within worldnewsdailyreport.com are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental, except for all references to politicians and/or celebrities, in which case they are based on real people, but still based almost entirely in fiction.
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10913
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Zinc May Prevent and Shorten Colds
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A review of studies about zinc’s benefits for preventing and treating the common cold was handled in slightly different — but important — ways by three outlets: WebMD, the New York Times and Reuters Health. WebMD hit fewer of our marks because it did not make cost information clear, muddied the waters in its analysis of the evidence and failed to quantify the benefits of zinc in a transparent way. We think it did a nice job explaining the science behind zinc’s effect on colds, and it provided some good details about the possible harms associated with taking zinc. But Reuters took a much more cautious approach – and appropriately so – with a headline that “Zinc will help your cold, at least a little”. And the opening sentences: “may take the edge off the common cold. But not a whole lot.” The search for a cure for the common cold is a quest almost as old as medicine, and the researchers involved in this review and in the underlying studies being reviewed were understandably excited about the possibility that zinc might actually prevent colds and cut down on their duration. But, as this story notes at the end, there is still work to be done to determine the right dose and the proper application of zinc to get the most benefit. Stories like this can have the unintended effect of sending droves of people to the drug store to start taking zinc as a daily supplement, even when the jury is still out.
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false
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Supplements,WebMD
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There was no mention of costs in this story. What the Reuters Health story did was mention the actual costs for the lozenges and also the cost in lost productivity of people calling in sick from colds. Both would have been nice to see in this story. This story did quantify the potential benefits, but it did so in a way that was all over the map. At first it says, “When taken within the first 24 hours of symptoms, results from six trials showed that using zinc lozenges or syrup appeared to shorten the duration of a cold by about a day.” But later it says, “‘Usually it takes about eight days for a cold to disappear,’ Prasad says, ‘but with zinc, it cuts down by about 50%.’” And then there is the absolute difference versus relative difference problem. The story never presents the data in absolute terms. “An analysis of two combined studies, representing more than 1,500 people, found about 40% fewer colds in those who were taking zinc supplements to prevent colds compared to those taking a placebo.” Does that mean 10 people had colds in the placebo group, and 6 had them in the zinc group? It would be good information for readers to have because with a number like 1,500, people might leap to the assumption that hundreds of people avoided colds by taking zinc. The story didn’t quantify the potential harms, but did an adequate job mentioning the harms from zinc. This story did an especially good job providing a range of side effects. “Experts stress that more research is needed before the most effective kind of zinc can be determined, and they caution that in high doses — more than 40 milligrams per day — zinc can cause dizziness, headache, drowsiness, increased sweating, loss of muscle coordination, alcohol intolerance, hallucinations, and anemia.” The story attempted to give readers a piece-by-piece breakdown of what Cochrane did, but, in the end, it sowed more confusion. First it says, “The review of 15 studies with 1,360 participants was published by the Cochrane group, an international collaboration of researchers that reviews evidence behind therapeutic interventions. It updates a 1999 Cochrane review that found no strong evidence to recommend zinc as a help for colds.” That’s a great start, but it goes on to say, “An analysis of two combined studies, representing more than 1,500 people, found about 40% fewer colds in those who were taking zinc supplements to prevent colds compared to those taking a placebo.” Was this outside of the Cochrane review that only covered 1,360 people? And then the story brings up another study from 2008 “in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, which tested zinc lozenges against placebo in 50 study participants.” Was this one reviewed or is it merely being included here for added context? Unlike the Reuters version, this story does a better job in parsing out the study design, noting that not all of the identified research studies were analyzed for each variable. While the information in the story is correct, the reader is not provided with enough information to appreciate that the researchers parsed the studies reviewed based on the design and data collected. So, while 15 studies were evaluated in total, not all were evaluated for each of the primary and secondary outcomes. The researchers carefully assessed the reliability of their conclusions for both the primary and secondary outcomes. We would have liked to have seen a comment in the story noting that the preventive value of zinc preparations was viewed as less reliable that its ability to shorten the duration of symptoms. This is a great example of providing the right information but in a confused and incomplete manner. No disease-mongering. We thought this story did a good job job explaining how zinc works to fight colds. We recognize that the majority of readers are familiar with the common cold, but we would have liked to have seen some information on the estimated number of cases of the common cold, days out of work or other estimates to put the story into perspective. The story included commentary from “Ananda Prasad, MD, PhD, a professor of internal medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, who has spent his career researching zinc’s effects on the immune system.” But, since two of his studies were included in the Cochrane report (something noted by the NY Times story), it’s not truly an independent perspective. And, as noted above, his comments added to some of the confusion in the story. The story makes a brief mentoin of only one alternative to zinc: antibiotics. It says, “The review also found that zinc cut the number of days that kids missed school because of being sick and reduced the use of antibiotics by cold sufferers.” What? Most doctors will tell you that antibiotics are ineffective against the common cold, and that they are mainly given as a placebo to make patients feel like they are taking action. Raising the issue of antibiotics without explaining that they don’t really work is a disservice to readers. We would have liked to have seen some comment on the best ways to protect yourself and your family from getting a cold besides zinc products. A few words about hand hygiene and keeping your hands away from your eyes, mouth and nose would have been helpful to the readers. The story does not make it clear where zinc treatments are available. One could assume that most readers would know, but we think the Reuters Health story did a better job here by actually pointing out that zinc lozenges are sold in most drug stores and even adding the important detail that a specific zinc nasal spray, Zicam, was removed from the market. To its credit however, the story does emphasize that additional research is needed to identify the right zinc preparation and dose. The story makes it clear that zinc has been studied as a possible treatment or preventative measure for the common cold and that this study seems to provide the first significant body of evidence suggesting that zinc has benefits. The story does not rely on a news release.
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8766
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Novartis's Lescol drug protects heart after surgery.
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Giving patients Novartis’s anti-cholesterol drug Lescol after major vascular surgery reduces the risk of serious heart problems, researchers said on Monday.
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true
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Health News
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More than 2 percent of patients undergoing non-cardiac vascular surgery — surgery to arteries and veins — die from heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems. Lescol, a so-called statin drug, appears to be effective in reducing this risk by cutting inflammation and stabilizing plaques in coronary arteries that might otherwise rupture, Don Poldermans of the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam said. Results of a 500-patient study presented by Poldermans at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology showed only 10.9 percent of vascular surgery patients taking Lescol suffered myocardial ischemia — reduced blood supply to the heart muscle — against 18.9 percent of those on placebo. Lescol is less potent than some other statin drugs but patients in the study were given the highest dose of the medicine as an extended release formulation, which lasts around four days. Lescol, known generically as fluvastatin, is one of Novartis’s older products. Sales in 2007 totaled $665 million, down 8 percent on a year earlier.
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21858
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"Virginia spends $400,000 on abstinence programs while losing $2.5 million in federal funds due to Gov. Bob McDonnell’s ""political agenda."
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NARAL says McDonnell's agenda costs state federal sex ed money
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true
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Abortion, State Budget, Virginia, NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia,
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"NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia recently unveiled a video that uses a montage of numbers to criticize Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell’s stance on funding for sex education programs. Among the claims: ""$400,000 -- approximate cost to Virginians to fund ineffective abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. $2.5 million -- federal funding for comprehensive sex education programs Virginia lost due to McDonnell’s political agenda."" Are NARAL’s numbers and claims correct? We asked Tarina Keene, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia, for sources of the information. Let’s start with the statement that abstinence-only education costs the state $400,000. Keene said that’s a reference to match money Virginia provided to receive a federal grant for abstinence-only sex education. The payment allows Virginia to participate in the Title V Abstinence Education Grant Program administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program promotes abstinence until marriage to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases. Last September, HHS announced Virginia would receive an $889,973 grant for abstinence education for fiscal 2010. States have until Sept. 30, 2012, to spend the money. The federal cash pays for 57 percent of the cost of abstinence programs approved by HHS. Participating states are required to provide the remaining 43 percent of cost. The match money can come from a variety of sources including from state coffers, foundation dollars and in-kind donations. Virginia was required to come up with about $670,000 to match the grant. Jeff Caldwell, a spokesman for the governor, said in an e-mail that the state is paying $382,688 towards the match. The rest is coming from in-kind contributions and community organizations awarded contracts to implement the sexual abstinence programs. So NARAL is near the bull’s-eye in claiming Virginia is paying an ""approximate"" $400,000 for abstinence-until marriage programs. Caldwell noted that the state received federal abstinence education funding under previous governors going back to the 1990s. But in 2007, Democratic Governor Tim Kaine cut the state’s funding for abstinence-only education. McDonnell reversed that decision last year. At the same time, McDonnell chose not to seek money from another federal grant program that teaches students about contraception in addition to abstinence -- the Personal Responsibility Education Program. Unlike the federal abstinence-only money, the comprehensive sex education grant requires no match. McDonnell’s refusal to participate drew criticism from NARAL and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia. That brings us to the second part of NARAL’s claim, that Virginia lost $2.5 million in federal money for comprehensive sex education under McDonnell. As a source, NARAL cited an HHS 49-page announcement of the PREP grant, which was created under the 2010 health care reform law. The HHS synopsis shows Virginia was estimated to receive a total of $2,593,487 during fiscal years 2010 and 2011. That’s close to NARAL’s number. But NARAL is greatly understating its case. States that didn’t apply for the grant in fiscal 2010 and 2011 are not eligible to seek funding for the 2012-2014 fiscal years. So Virginia potentially missed out on much more than $2.6 million. Estimates for 2012-2014 allotments are not available, said Kenneth Wolfe, an HHS spokesman. Let’s recap: A video by NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia said that abstinence-only programs pursued under McDonnell have cost the state about $400,000. Meanwhile, the group says the state missed out on about $2.5 million in federal funding for comprehensive sex education. It’s the state spent about $400,000 for a federal abstinence-only grant. And it’s that the McDonnell administration did not apply for a comprehensive sex education grant that would have sent almost $2.6 million to Virginia during fiscal year 2010 and 2011. Because Virginia is now ineligible to apply for the comprehensive grant through 2014, the state will wind up declining a much greater amount of money than NARAL claimed. We won’t penalize NARAL for understating its case. Its statement is ."
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4834
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US flu season arrives early, driven by an unexpected virus.
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The U.S. winter flu season is off to its earliest start in more than 15 years.
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true
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Health, General News, AP Top News, Flu
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An early barrage of illness in the South has begun to spread more broadly, and there’s a decent chance flu season could peak much earlier than normal, health officials say. The last flu season to rev up this early was in 2003-2004 — a bad one. Some experts think the early start may mean a lot of suffering is in store, but others say it’s too early to tell. “It really depends on what viruses are circulating. There’s not a predictable trend as far as if it’s early it’s going to be more severe, or later, less severe,” said Scott Epperson, who tracks flu-like illnesses for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There are different types of flu viruses, and the one causing illnesses in most parts of the country is a surprise. It’s a version that normally doesn’t abound until March or April. That virus generally isn’t as dangerous to older people — good news, since most flu hospitalizations and deaths each winter occur in the elderly. However, such viruses can be hard on children and people younger than 50. Louisiana was the first state to really get hit hard, with doctors there saying they began seeing large numbers of flu-like illnesses in October. Children’s Hospital New Orleans has already seen more flu cases this fall than it saw all of last winter, said Dr. Toni Gross, the hospital’s chief of emergency medicine. Last month was the busiest ever at the hospital’s emergency department. Officials had to set up a triage system and add extra shifts, Gross said. “It is definitely causing symptoms that will put you in bed for a week,” including fever, vomiting and diarrhea. But the hospital has not had any deaths and is not seeing many serious complications, she said. Health officials tend to consider a flu season to be officially underway when — for at least three weeks in a row — a significant percentage of U.S. doctor’s office visits are due to flu-like illnesses. That’s now happened, CDC officials said this week. The agency on Friday estimated that there have already been 1.7 million flu illnesses, 16,000 hospitalizations, and 900 flu-related deaths nationally. The most intense patient traffic had been occurring in a six states stretching from Texas to Georgia. But in new numbers released Friday, CDC officials said the number of states with intense activity rose last week to 12. Flu is widespread in 16 states, though not necessarily at intense levels in each, the CDC said. Last flu season started off as a mild one but turned out to be the longest in 10 years. It ended with around 49,000 flu-related deaths and 590,000 hospitalizations, according to preliminary estimates. It was bad, but not as bad as the one before it, when flu caused an estimated 61,000 deaths and 810,000 hospitalizations. Those 2017-2018 estimates are new: The CDC last month revised them down from previous estimates as more data — including actual death certificates — came in. In both of the previous two flu seasons, the flu vaccine performed poorly against the nasty predominant virus. It’s too early to say how well the vaccine is performing right now, Epperson said. Epperson said there’s a chance the flu season will peak this month, which would be unusually early. Flu season usually doesn’t hit fever pitch until around February. The early start suggests a lot Americans may be sick at the same time, said Dave Osthus, a statistician who does flu forecasting at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “This could be a precursor to something pretty bad. But we don’t know,” he said. Gross is pessimistic. “I, personally, am preparing for the worst,” she said. ___ 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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33805
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Walt Disney prepared a film to be viewed by Disney executives after his death, in which he gave them all instructions about how to run their areas of the company.
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"""In a bizarre turn, one that underscores the anxiety and paranoia of his last days, Walt made a series of films to be shown after his death."""
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false
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Disney
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Such is Walt Disney’s reputation as a keen visionary who mastered futuristic projects down the smallest details (and a somewhat secretive figure to boot) that several prominent legends continue to circulate which credit him with formulating long-range plans extending even beyond the grave: He arranged to have himself frozen after death so that he might be revived when science found a cure for the illness that killed him, he included all sorts of minutiae in his will (such as a list of Disney films that should never be released on video, even though the home video market was years away), and he prepared a film to be viewed post-mortem in which he gave instructions to Disney executives about how to run the company in his absence: After Walt died in 1966, his chief executives were escorted to assigned seats in the company screening room. There they were shown a film that Walt had made before he died in which he spoke to each of them by name and told them all what he expected them to do for the next five years. The reality, however, is that all of these legends are most uncharacteristic of Walt Disney, who left the business aspects of running the company up to his brother Roy and made little or no plans for what would happen with the business after his death. Many people still hold the misconception that Walt Disney owned and ran the company that bore his name. Although Walt was always the guiding force behind Disney creative efforts, at the time of his death he was neither the owner nor the administrative head of Disney: Walt Disney Productions was a public company in which Walt held far less than a controlling share of stock, and he was not even an officer of the company. His relationship to Walt Disney Productions might best have been described as that of an independent contractor. Whatever the level of Walt’s involvement with either the business or creative aspects of Disney, in the last year of his life he was thinking of little beyond the two major projects on his plate: the creation of a winter resort in California’s Mineral King Valley near Sequoia National Park (a project eventually scrapped due to opposition from environmental groups), and the development of his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) in Orlando, Florida. What little time he had left over was taken up by work on Disneyland’s newest attraction, the Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Disney studio’s next full-length animated feature, The Jungle Book. Walt simply had neither the time nor the inclination to make plans for the overall direction Walt Disney Productions should take after his passing. He disliked any talk of death or dying (and would not even attend funerals), generally declined to acknowledge his own mortality, and made no effort to select or groom a successor. His death caught the company flat-footed because neither he nor anyone else had made any preparations for it, even as he was dying of cancer. Not even Walt’s brother Roy knew what he was up to, because, as biographer Bob Thomas wrote, “Walt didn’t want anyone, including his big brother, poking around in his future projects.” The reality is the very antithesis of this “post-mortem film” legend: Walt Disney Productions foundered for many years after Walt’s death (to the point that it nearly became the victim of a hostile takeover in the early 1980s) precisely because nobody knew what Walt would have done, and the company simply recycled the same old ideas instead of embarking on new creative efforts. Undoubtedly, the half-hour long promotional film Walt prepared just a few months before his death to outline his concepts for Disney World and EPCOT to the media and other interest groups helped propagate the notion that he had left a set of filmed instructions behind. Still, the legend of a remarkably prescient Walt Disney’s continuing to direct the company for years after his death through foresightfully-prepared films has been repeated by overly credulous writers such as Stephen M. Fjellman: Walt’s twisted spirit still hangs over the corporation. People still ask, “What would Walt say?” as part of the rhetoric of their own present corporate maneuvering. They sometimes speak of him in the present tense, as if he had just stepped out for a while. In a bizarre turn, one that underscores the anxiety and paranoia of his last days, Walt made a series of films to be shown after his death. Fjellman gullibly accepted at face value a tale told by former Orange Country commissioner Jack Martin, who had Walt Disney — like Hari Seldon, the psychohistorian protagonist of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels — so keenly capable of predicting the future that he was able to leave behind a whole series of instructive films to keep his successors guided along the correct path long after his demise: When Dick [Nunis] was younger Walt used to hold monthly conferences with his executive officers. They’d all sit around a table and Walt would say “Now, next year we want to be sure this gets done.” Or “Last year we said such and such would get done; Joe [Potter] or Dick [Nunis], how’s your schedule on that?” Well, apparently he realized his plans and dreams would outlive him so he called in a camera crew and set up some empty chairs. What he did was to hold conferences right through the 1980s. I think it’s once a month these fellows sit down and view the film. And there’s Walt Disney saying, “Bob, this is October, 1976. You remember we were going to do this or that. Are you sure it’s underway now?” I think that demontrates his remarkable attention to detail. We have to ask: If Walt was so skillfully guiding Walt Disney Productions from beyond the grave, why did they spend the 1970s cranking out bland slapstick comedies such as $1,000,000 Duck and Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo? Surely even Walt’s ghost could have done better than that. In fact, it was Walt’s brother Roy who gathered Disney executives together a week after Walt’s death to discuss the future direction of the company and who stayed on the job well after retirement age to see the first phase of Walt Disney World (the building of the Magic Kingdom theme park) through to completion. And Roy’s son, Roy E. Disney, was one of the guiding forces behind the revitalization of the company that began with the installation of Michael Eisner as CEO and Frank Wells as president of Walt Disney Productions in 1984. To them, and not to an apocryphal film, belongs the credit for Disney’s continued success.
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26656
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On whether the state should use surplus funds for ongoing expenses.
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The state learned in early 2020 that it had $452 million to use for extra spending or a tax cut. In a Jan. 26, 2020 interview Gov. Tony Evers said it was too early to make a decision about how to use the surplus, but said he wanted to be cautious. A week later, Evers asked lawmakers to take up a measure that would allocate $252 million of the extra funds for education and property tax relief.
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mixture
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Economy, Education, State Budget, Wisconsin, Tony Evers,
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"Battles over what to do with extra money in the state’s coffers were a hallmark of Wisconsin’s 2020 legislative session. After learning that the state is expected to take in more from tax collections than previously estimated, Republican Senate and Assembly leaders and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers clashed over how to spend a projected $452 million in surplus revenue. Republicans pushed a tax cut that would have used much of that amount, but Evers vetoed the measure on Feb. 26, 2020. The surplus will now sit in the state’s bank account. But before the veto, the conservative MacIver Institute claimed in a Feb. 12, 2020, email that Evers flip-flopped when he said the state shouldn’t use the funds for ongoing expenses, then proposed using some of it for schools. We decided this would be a good time to break out our Flip-O-Meter. A reminder: The Flip-O-Meter gauges whether a politician has been consistent on an issue. It doesn’t measure whether any change makes good policy or good politics. Let’s take a look at what Evers said about spending state surpluses. The state learned in early 2020 that it is projected to take in $818 million more than expected through June 2021. Most of that was designated for the state’s rainy-day fund right away, but lawmakers had $452 million to use for extra spending or a tax cut. The surplus is considered one-time revenue, like when a relative dies and leaves you $10,000 in their will. In other words, it’s not guaranteed to be there in the next budget. What’s more, the funding is based on projected tax collections, so the situation could change — for instance as the coronavirus disrupts the economy. In a Jan. 26, 2020 interview on WISN TV’s UpFront, Evers said it was too early to make a decision about how to use the surplus, but said he wanted to ensure ""we don’t pay for one-time things that somehow next session we’re gonna have to find the money for."" He also said he wanted to be cautious. So, that’s our starting point on Evers’ views about the current surplus. A week later, Evers asked lawmakers to take up a measure that would allocate $252 million of the extra funds for education and property tax relief, including a boost for rural school funding, school-based mental health services and special education services. The MacIver Institute argues this was a shift in position. ""Initially, I was ecstatic that Governor Evers was going to do the right thing with the surplus and be cautious,"" said MacIver Institute President Brett Healy in a news release. ""What he proposed, however, is not fiscally conservative or smart. Using this one-time surplus to permanently build the base of K-12 education spending will only lead to increased pressure in the future to raise taxes to sustain it."" Jason Stein of the Wisconsin Policy Forum said one-time payments for schools tend to be capital projects or tied to specific initiatives like school safety. But most of the state’s school funding is paid to programs on an ongoing basis, and Stein said Evers’ surplus plan fit that mold. ""In general, it appeared to be increases in ongoing programs and funding,"" he said of the proposal. Not entirely. While Evers shifted his position on use of one-time money for ongoing expenses, he has been consistent on one front: That surplus money should be used to increase funding for schools. The governor similarly pushed in 2019 for a surplus to be used, in part, for funding technical colleges, along with a one-time debt payment and worker training. In Wauwatosa on Feb. 26, 2020, as he vetoed the GOP plan, Evers said he would consider cutting income taxes and reducing state debt — measures pushed by Republicans — but wants any agreement to include school funding and property tax relief. And in an email to PolitiFact Wisconsin, the governor’s office defended Evers’ statement and plans as consistent with his previous views on surpluses. A spokeswoman also noted that his education proposal called for using only some of the available surplus. Evers said he wanted to be cautious about the projected surplus and not use it to fund ongoing expenses. A week later, he proposed using some of that money to boost school funding, which at least one outside expert said, as constructed, amounted to an ongoing expense. That amounts to a switch. At the same time, Evers has so far been consistent on what surplus money should be used for: Supporting education. When it comes to how to handle the surplus, we view this as a partial change in position. As such, we give Evers a ."
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10680
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Study: More omega-3 fats didn’t aid heart patients
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One of 3 stories we reviewed on this study (Reuters and HealthDay were the others), this one did raise some interesting thoughts about why the study failed to show a difference and reported on some of the other types of foods that are now commercially fortified with omega-3 fatty acids. Health claims in food marketing require a great deal of scrutiny. This new data casts some doubt on some past marketing practices. We’ll see how and if that changes – and if consumer behavior and health care advice changes at all. As a quote in the Reuters story suggests, don’t hold your breath waiting for such change.
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true
|
"As the products used in the study are not commercially available, there was no mention of their presumptive costs. (It might have been interesting to explore how fortified margarines compare in cost to those which are not.) The story indicate that there did not appear to be any advantage from the use of the fortified margarines. However – the study actually found a suggestion of a statistical benefit in the sub-population of individuals who had had a prior heart attack and who also had diabetes. This is a correction of our originally-posted score on this criterion. The story did, indeed, report that ""there were no harmful side effects."" Adequate description of the study and of its possible limitations. No overt disease mongering. The story included quotes from sources not involved in the study. The story mentioned the increasing number of foods on the shelves that are fortified with omega-3 fatty acids and perhaps the results of this study will make readers question whether such fortification is actually value added. While indicating that the people in the study were receiving optimal medical therapy, the story did not mention other possible means by which individuals who have had a heart attack can lower their chance of having another one. Even one line of such context would have been appreciated and helpful. While indicating that Unilever makes an omega-3 fortified margarine, the story didn’t mention that the margarines used in the study were specifically formulated for the study and are not commercially available. However – there are commercially available margarines that are fortified with omega-3 fatty acids. Although the story was not clear that the margarines used in the study were prepared exclusively for use in the study, it did indicate that similarly fortified products are commercially available. It’s clear that the story did not rely solely or largely on a news release."
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14667
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"When terrorists killed more than 250 Americans in Lebanon under Ronald Reagan, ""the Democrats didn’t make that a partisan issue."
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"Clinton said that when terrorists killed more than 250 Americans in Lebanon under Ronald Reagan, ""the Democrats didn’t make that a partisan issue."" Clinton has a strong point that the Democrat-held House did not react as forcefully to the 1983 Beirut bombings as the Republican-held House reacted to the 2012 Benghazi attack, which killed four. The House conducted a single investigation into the Beirut bombings, which killed more than 250 Americans, while it has conducted six inquiries into Benghazi, which killed four. But it’s not totally accurate to say the Democrats didn’t make it a partisan issue. Mondale, running against Reagan in 1984, and some congressional Democrats repeatedly said Reagan had failed personally regarding Lebanon."
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mixture
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National, Congress, History, Terrorism, Hillary Clinton,
|
"Republican attacks on Benghazi are totally overblown, Hillary Clinton says. The Democrats didn’t act this way when something similar happened under President Ronald Reagan. At a CNN town hall for Democratic presidential candidates, an audience member asked how the former secretary of state will work with Congress in responding to the 2012 terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in the Libyan city. Clinton said the Republican-led inquiries continue to exist only for a partisan purpose. ""When Ronald Reagan was president in 1983, our Marine barracks, our embassy were attacked in Beirut,"" she said at the Jan. 25 event in Iowa. ""More than 250 Americans were killed. The Democrats didn’t make that a partisan issue. So, the Democratic Congress worked with the Republican president to say what can we do? How do we fix this?"" The April and October 1983 attacks happened when Democrats held the House, and Reagan’s reelection was around the corner. We wondered if the Lebanon bombings really did rise above partisan politics. We consulted experts and read numerous media accounts from the time and found that Clinton has a point that Congress’ reaction to Beirut was more muted than its reaction to Benghazi. Still, criticizing Reagan over Beirut was a big talking point for some Democrats. Muffled congressional reaction Reagan sent 800 Marines to Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission in 1982, partly in the interest in stymying Soviet Union influence. They found themselves in the middle of a civil war. In April 1983, Hezbollah terrorists killed 17 Americans in a suicide bombing at the embassy in Beirut. Six months later, a truck carrying another Hezbollah suicide bomber drove onto Marine barracks in the same city, detonating thousands of pounds of explosives and killing 241 American service personnel. Reagan pulled the Marines out in February 1984. Like the 2012 Benghazi attack, which killed four Americans, questions quickly arose about inadequate security at the Beirut Marine compound. The truck carrying the suicide bomber broke through several barriers before crashing into the building where the Marines slept. Also like Benghazi, the two Beirut attacks happened when opposing parties held the White House and the House of Representatives. In 1983, Republicans held the White House, and Democrats held the House, vice versa in 2012. Here’s where the similarities in congressional reaction unravel. Unlike Benghazi, the 1983 Democratic House only launched one investigation into the Beirut attack, lasting a few months. Compare that to at least six Republican House Benghazi inquiries, one of which is still going on more than three years since the attack. Further, representatives from both parties largely agreed on the Beirut report’s findings, while Democrats for the most part oppose the Benghazi investigations. Democrats’ response to Beirut was more about preventing a future attack and less about playing politics, said Lawrence Korb, senior fellow at the progressive Center for American Progress and assistant secretary of defense under Reagan from 1981-85. He added that the Beirut attacks (and other significant foreign policy events under Reagan) pushed Democrats and Republicans to work together to pass a significant bill that rearranged how different branches of the military worked together. ""It wasn’t partisan, people just wanted to know what happened,"" Korb said. ""No one was saying ‘fire general so-and-so’ or anything like that."" Within 48 hours of the Beirut bombings, the United States invaded the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, which might have played a role in muffling Congress’ reaction to the Beirut bombings, said Stephen Knott, national security professor at the U.S. Naval War College and former director of the Ronald Reagan Oral History Project at the University of Virginia. Knott said the reaction to Grenada was partisan, noting that several House Democrats moved to impeach Reagan. And many Democrats still think the invasion was an attempt to redirect attention away from Beirut, an allegation Knott said is incorrect. ""The reaction to (Grenada) allowed critics to pounce on Reagan's policies without seeming to appear to capitalize on the deaths of American Marines,"" Knott said. ""The Reagan years were hardly an idyllic era of foreign policy bipartisanship."" Rhetorical backlash Even if formal congressional reaction to the Beirut bombings was limited, the attacks played a big role in political rhetoric over the next year. The day after the 1983 bombings, the New York Times ran a story about how Democrats were preparing to campaign on the Lebanon attacks during the upcoming presidential primary. Eventual 1984 Democratic nominee Walter Mondale, who served as Jimmy Carter’s vice president, called out Reagan personally for slacking on Lebanon. ''During all this time, the president is on vacation in California,""' Mondale said in February 1984. ''If the nation is in trouble, the president of the United States should be at the helm. I recommend today Mr. Reagan get on that plane to come back to Washington and answer our questions.'' Mondale also said, following another attack on the U.S. embassy in Beirut in 1984, that through lax security, Reagan had allowed Lebanese terrorists to ''humiliate us and push us around and kill our people.'' On the congressional side, House Speaker Tip O’Neill, D-Mass., called the the Reagan administration’s foreign policy ""frightening"" — despite generally supporting Reagan’s efforts abroad previously. The following April, Reagan said Congressional criticism of his administration’s efforts in Lebanon and calls for troop removal had opened the gates to terrorists, according to the New York Times. ''The deaths of the U.S. Marines are the responsibility of the President of the United States,'' O’Neill responded. ''He acted against the wishes of our top military in this country, and now he is looking for a scapegoat.'' To sum it up: Beirut wasn’t immune to politics. It’s impossible to know for sure whether rhetoric signifies partisan attacks or simply true policy opinion differences, Matthew Beckmann, a political science professor at the University of California Irvine who has studied Reagan’s relationship with Congress. He noted, though, that research shows partisan disagreement has become more reflexive and entrenched since the 1980s. ""So officials' reactions and reporters' coverage of Beirut vis-a-vis Benghazi are surely different, quantitatively and qualitatively, but that says more about systemic changes in Washington politics than changes in leaders' personal virtue,"" he said. Our ruling Clinton said that when terrorists killed more than 250 Americans in Lebanon under Ronald Reagan, ""the Democrats didn’t make that a partisan issue."" Clinton has a strong point that the Democrat-held House did not react as forcefully to the 1983 Beirut bombings as the Republican-held House reacted to the 2012 Benghazi attack, which killed four. The House conducted a single investigation into the Beirut bombings, which killed more than 250 Americans, while it has conducted six inquiries into Benghazi, which killed four. But it’s not totally accurate to say the Democrats didn’t make it a partisan issue. Mondale, running against Reagan in 1984, and some congressional Democrats repeatedly said Reagan had failed personally regarding Lebanon."
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Health officials raise concerns about hepatitis A outbreak.
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Officials are raising concerns that a hepatitis A outbreak in Missouri could worsen if the liver disease spreads to urban areas.
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true
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Michael Brown, Health, General News, Hepatitis, Liver disease
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The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that officials are urging at-risk people, such as recreational drug users and the homeless, to get vaccinated. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said Wednesday that the state has recorded 414 cases in 35 counties since September 2017, mostly in the southeast part of the state. Only about 10 cases per year were reported before then. Health officials say the virus has sent 233 people to the hospital and caused two deaths. Hepatitis A is a viral infection. It usually spreads when a person ingests the virus from objects, food or drinks contaminated by undetected amounts of stool from an infected person. ___ Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com
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10138
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Test Can Tell Fetal Sex at 7 Weeks, Study Says
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The story outlines how new research about an existing family of consumer blood tests shows accuracy at seven weeks into pregnancy for determining the sex of a fetus. What the story also tells is the complicated weighing of risks and benefits that parents may need to use, since the consumer tests and their laboratories are not regulated by the FDA. We would have liked more information in here about which precise forms of testing among the 57 studies analyzed were most reliable and the quality of the evidence in the Journal of the American Medical Association survey. Earlier sex-determination in pregnancy could lead to parents choosing (or trying to choose) the gender they prefer. Internationally, it is already clear that some parents in China and India are deliberately choosing male babies, and aborting female fetuses. The research reported on, a survey in the Journal of the American Medical Association, does not directly address these larger ethical implications. But the study’s lead author, Diana Bianchi, does stress that she wants to examine “why people are buying these things” and the consequences of consumer access to over-the-counter testing for fetal gender. The New York Times story goes a bit further than the competing Reuters story in exploring how consumers may use the testing.
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true
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New York Times
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The story quotes one price estimate of about $250 for the testing. We would have liked more detail about whether new details on accuracy of the tests might change their status in the marketplace, or whether insurability status might change. Parents who fear their child may inherit gender-linked disorders, such as hemophilia, could use this test earlier in pregnancy and possibly avoid more invasive procedures, such as amniocentesis. Amniocentesis carries a risk of miscarriage. We would have liked some numbers about how many women in the US are facing this dilemma; the situations that carry benefit are few. The average gestational “age” at enrollment in prenatal care in the US is after the window in which most of these tests are marketed. So that means if a couple did not know that they needed to think about X-linked mental retardation “fragile X” (which affect males) or hemophilia, the use of the test would not really be integrated into their care. Could have been more skeptical of why they are really being marketed – closer to entertainment ultrasounds than medical care. Yes, the story lists potential harms. These range from inaccuracy, because the tests are unregulated and the laboratories don’t have to meet medical standards, to the potential for abortions based on fetal gender. This story does not evaluate the quality of the evidence in the new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which prompted the headlines. We applaud some of the details, giving consumers information about the lawsuit about one consumer product, but the discussion leaves readers confused about how to evaluate reliability. We’re surprised that the story didn’t point out in absolute terms that 5 of every 100 tests of girls and 1 of every 100 boys will be wrong – 6 out of a hundred multiplied by millions of pregnancies a year! That’s a lot of errors even if uptake is minimal. This story balances the potential for danger in giving parents early information about the sex of a fetus and the genuine benefit for some in avoiding more invasive testing when a condition is ruled out by knowing the gender information. The story quoted four sources, in addition to the study’s lead author. The story explains how parents who fear a sex-linked genetic problem for their fetus must balance risk against benefit in existing alternatives.It did not do a very detailed job of comparing how the new approach could compare, especially considering there is a risk of inaccurate results in the new approach. The hypothetical target group for these tests is much, much smaller than the broader use is and might become. It did do a better job than the Reuters story in describing other tests (urine tests) that have been developed. Yes, the story explains there are a variety of tests that have been widely available to consumers. But the story could have done a better job of connecting the dots for readers. Exactly how does one get a blood test done for a home test kit? Raises questions like: do I go to a lab? Finger stick? Are their costs other than the test? Shipping? Do I do this at home myself? Working with my medical care team? How soon do I get the results?, etc. Process of using several common kits could have been better described. The new research was on testing that is not novel, but by surveying 57 other studies, they reached a new conclusion about overall accuracy and how early in pregnancy it could predict gender. The story did not rely on a release.
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27209
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Pardoned felons are allowed to vote.
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Two months ago, giggles floated through the home of fisherman Dada as his four-year-old son played ball outside with his two younger cousins on one of Madagascar’s famed sun soaked beaches.
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true
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Politics, dinesh d'souza, voting rights
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A few weeks later, all three children were dead, victims of the worst measles outbreak on the Indian Ocean island in decades. Measles cases are on the rise globally, including in wealthy nations such as the United States and Germany, where some parents shun life-saving vaccines due to false theories suggesting links between childhood immunizations and autism. In Madagascar, one of the world’s poorest countries, parents are desperate to vaccinate their children, many trudging for miles to get to clinics for shots. But there are not enough vaccines, the health ministry says, and many people are too poor to afford them. Fisherman Dada – like many Malagasy, he only uses one name – had taken his son Limberaza to be vaccinated once already in their home in the southern district of Fort Dauphin. But a second-dose booster shot cost $15 at a clinic - and the whole family survives on less than $2 a day - so he took the boy to a back-street doctor instead. “I could not afford to take him to the hospital,” Dada said quietly as his young wife silently held Limberaza’s two-year-old brother. In January, Limberaza began to cough. A rash followed. After a week, he died, his body afire with fever. By then Dada’s niece, three-year-old Martina, was also sick. Her weeping mother Martine stroked her face as her fever spiked. She died eight days later. That evening, his other sister Pela’s three-year-old son Mario died as she clutched his hands. “They were so full of life,” Dada said, his voice breaking. The three cousins are among the almost 1,000 people, mostly children, who have died from measles in Madagascar since October. Their deaths show the grim reality for those left unprotected from one of the world’s most contagious diseases. The virus, which can cause blindness, pneumonia, brain swelling and death, is able to survive for up to two hours in the air after a cough or sneeze, where it can easily infect people nearby. Even though there is a highly effective vaccine, globally, around 110,000 people died from measles in 2017, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Most, like Limberaza and his cousins, were children under the age of five. During 2000 to 2017, the WHO estimates that widespread use of measles vaccinations prevented 21.1 million deaths - making the shots one of what the United Nations’ health agency calls the “best buys in public health.” Yet misinformation is knocking confidence in the safety of vaccinations and has jeopardized progress against measles - allowing the disease to gain a hold again in places where it was considered almost beaten. Europe last year saw its highest level of measles cases in a decade, and in January, the WHO named “vaccine hesitancy” - the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate - as one of the top ten global health threats for 2019. In Madagascar, poverty is a bigger risk. While wealthy tourists flock to its rainforests to spot wide-eyed lemurs and business people bargain for its luminous sapphires and fragrant vanilla, nearly half of Madagascar’s children are malnourished, the highest rate in Africa. The former French colony has been battered by decades of coups and instability. Foreign aid plummeted after a 2009 coup sparked bitter political street fighting. Corrupt leaders ignored the crumbling healthcare system despite frequent outbreaks of plague, hemorrhagic fevers and deadly viruses. Measles is endemic on the island but the last vaccination drive was in 2004. Nearly two-thirds of children have not been vaccinated, according to the WHO and coverage needs to be around 95 percent to prevent the virus spreading in communities. The country is $3 million short of the $7 million needed for enough measles vaccines to cover its population, the WHO said last month. There are other hurdles. The vaccines must be kept cold, but less than 15 percent of people in Madagascar have electricity. Roads are mostly mud in the tropical country; journeys are arduous and expensive. At least 922 people - mostly children - have died of measles in Madagascar since October, the WHO says, despite an emergency program that has vaccinated 2.2 million of the 26 million population so far. Some of those, like Limberaza, had previously been vaccinated but had only received one shot, and still needed a second booster jab. Madagascar hopes to roll out a free routine two-dose vaccination program this year. Currently, the first shot is free but the booster is not. Despite the difficulties, some parents walk miles seeking shots, said Jean Benoît Mahnes, deputy representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund in Madagascar. But they often arrive to find the clinic closed, or a doctor with no vaccine, or a vaccine that has expired. “Vaccinating a child can be a real obstacle course here,” he said. Lydia Rahariseheno, 33, said she had to walk an hour and a half to a clinic along a road plagued by robbers to get her three children vaccinated. She has only managed to get one shot so far because the doctor is often not there. The health system’s failures mean poverty-stricken parents often take sick children to traditional healers who prescribe a herb, tingotingo, which is boiled and given to them to drink. The children are only brought to a hospital when their condition deteriorates, said Manitra Rakotoarivony, director of health promotion at the Ministry of Public Health. Limberaza’s father hoped a second, cheaper shot would protect him - but it didn’t. His cousins Mario and Martine weren’t vaccinated at all. Now the family is desperate to protect their remaining children. “We did not expect the failure to vaccinate him would kill him,” wept Pela, Mario’s mother. “My other child, for sure, I am going to take him to get vaccinated.”
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36206
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A meme contains accurate quotes of a conversation between 911 dispatcher Donna Reneau and Debra Stevens, who subsequently drowned in the circumstances of her 911 call.
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911 Dispatcher Donna Reneau/Debra Stevens Drowning Incident
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mixture
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Fact Checks, Viral Content
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On September 1 2019, the following meme appeared in the Facebook group “LIVE PD FANS NO BOUNDARIES” (archived here), purportedly detailing an exchange between the woman shown in the photograph (911 dispatcher Donna Reneau) and a victim of flash flooding (Debra Stevens):The text over her head in the photo read:HELLO, I’M DONNA RENEAU, A 911 DISPATCHER. THIS IS WHAT I TOLD 47 YEAR OLD DEBRA STEVENS AS SHE DROWNED…Text at the bottom was slightly confusing to read, as who purportedly said which parts in the exchange was muddled into one large paragraph. In the transcribed comments below, we’ve marked what appear to be Reneau’s comments and what appear to be Stevens’ responses or questions:[Stevens] WILL YOU PRAY WITH ME? [Reneau] NO, YOU CAN PRAY AND I’LL LISTEN.. [Stevens] CAN I CALL MY MOM PLEASE SO I CAN TELL HER I LOVE HER? [Reneau] NO, YOU NEED TO STAY ON THE PHONE WITH ME. [Stevens] I’M SORRY MA’AM I’M SO SCARED!! [Reneau] WELL YOUR [sic] THE ONE WHO DROVE THRU THE WATER.. [Stevens] WHEN ARE THEY COMING TO HELP ME? [Reneau] WHENEVER THEY GET THERE. [Stevens] MA’AM, I THINK I’M GOING TO PUKE[.] [Reneau] WELL, GO AHEAD AND PUKE YOUR [sic] IN THE WATER.Although the meme featured an image, two names (Reneau and Stevens), and basic details, it lacked a date, location, or link to corroborating news stories. The same image was published by the Facebook page “Fort Smith Police Department” (archived here) on February 7 2019, identifying depicted dispatcher Donna Reneau as dispatcher of the year:The source for the meme-based version of Reneau’s purported remarks appeared to be a since-deleted Facebook post shared publicly by user Laura Treat around August 31 2019:Originally, Treat wrote:DONNA RENEAU. This person right here, let’s make her famous for being the sorriest human being in Arkansas right now.” Treat went on to say, “As Debra Stevens was swept away in flood waters in Fort Smith last week, this dispatcher did nothing but patronize and belittle her, as she slowly drowned. Debra begged for her life and for this dispatcher to help her. “Will you pray with me? No, you can pray and I’ll listen.. Can I call my mom please so I can tell her I love her? No, you need to stay on the phone with me. I’m so sorry ma’am I’m so scared!! Well your the one who drove thru the water.. When are they coming to help me? Whenever they get there. Ma,am, I think I’m going to puke, well, go ahead and puke your in the water.” In the 911 recording that was released, you can hear Debra screaming at the end as she drowned.. Did this dispatcher never think to telI her to unbuckle her seat belt or try to open the door and get out as the water was up to her neck? I pray this dispatcher has fallen to her knees and asked God for forgiveness for her actions. EVERYONE SHARE THIS!On August 26 2019, a local news station reported on the death of Stevens in a flash flooding incident in Fort Smith, Arkansas and the subsequent release of dispatch calls. That early story did not describe the nature of the dispatch calls:Audio recordings between dispatchers and first responders during an effort to try to save a Fort Smith woman from a flash flood have been released.Debra Stevens died around 6 a.m. Saturday (Aug. 24) on Kinkead Avenue while delivering papers.According to the Fort Smith Police Department, the 911 call came in at 4:38 a.m. First respnders were dispatched at 4:40 a.m. The first crews on the scene arrived at 4:53 a.m., but were not close enough to reach Stevens’ because of high water.Due to high waters, it took more than an hour from Stevens’ 911 call for first responders to make direct contact with her. By the time they got to where her vehicle was, it was too late.Emergency crews tried to rescue Stevens but the water was too high and too fast.In that article, the outlet indicated that listeners were able to “hear first responders trying to take multiple routes to rescue” Stevens on the audio, but that was the extent of reporting on the contents of the recordings. Two days later, followup reporting on Stevens’ death included the following:Graphic Warning: This story and the accompanying audio and video are graphic in nature, and the content may be disturbing.Though it was a difficult decision, we have decided to broadcast and post the 911 call for help after concerns were raised as to how dispatchers and first responders handled the situation.An audio file was included in the article, but the comments were not transcribed. An August 30 2019 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article contained a partial transcript, with text that overlapped with some of the meme’s quotes:Reneau tried to determine Stevens’ exact location. She asked Stevens what she was seeing and what was around her. Stevens became more panicked, and said there were people in the apartment complex watching her but not helping as the water in her vehicle reached to her chest.“I need to call and tell my Mommy bye because I don’t want to die,” Stevens says. “Please help me. Please help me.”“You’re not going to die. I don’t know why you’re freaking out,” Reneau says.“When are they going to get here?” Stevens asks later.“When they get there,” Reneau replies.“Will you pray with me?” Stevens asks the dispatcher later in the call.“You go ahead and start off the prayer, and I’ll listen,” Reneau says. “I sure will.”“I’m sorry if I’m being rude, I’m just scared,” Stevens says. “I’ve never had anything happen like this before.”“Well this will teach you next time don’t drive in the water,” Reneau says. “I don’t see how you didn’t see it. You had to go right over it, so.”The phone call lasted 24 minutes, and Reneau worked to calm Stevens, saying her panic was only exacerbating an already tense situation.Although videos of the released portions of the call were readily available, consistent credible transcripts were not. Moreover, searches for the strings of quoted portions only returned similar informal posts or comments about the purported exchange between Stevens and Reneau. One video lasting 22 minutes and 30 seconds featured audio of the call without any imagery.Before the two-minute mark, Stevens began sobbing and stating she was “scared,” reporting that her vehicle was disabled and that the water was “up to [her] neck.” Stevens added she feared that her phone would stop working, and repeatedly expressed her fear of drowning. Reneau assured Stevens she would not die, and attempted to pinpoint the woman’s location.Stevens was unable to provide her exact location, having taken a route with which she was unfamiliar, and then Reneau said she did not have an officer available. Stevens said she would leave the vehicle if possible, and said that passersby were looking on but did not assist her. During that portion of the audio recording, Reneau repeatedly asked her to calm down, and said there was “nothing [she could] do” from the dispatch location. Stevens again said she did not “want to die today,” and Stevens calmly stated she “would not let [her] die.”As Stevens sobbed, Reneau conferred with other law enforcement personnel, informing the barely-audible other individual that Stevens was in a gray SUV and had water “up to her chest.” Stevens cried and lamented her predicament, and Reneau calmly told her that “freaking out” would exacerbate the situation. Stevens asked how long a response would take, and Reneau stated “as long as it takes.” Stevens expressed again a fear that her “brand new phone” would stop working, and Reneau responded that Stevens should not worry about her phone. (“You’re over there crying for your life, who cares about your ‘brand new phone? '”)The portion about the “brand new phone” was somewhat confusing, with several portions of cross-talk between Stevens and Reneau. Stevens went back and forth between fear of the water, fear of her phone ceasing to work, and an urge to vomit because of her panic. That portion was the one in which Reneau told Stevens calmly to go ahead and vomit, since she was in water already.From that point on, portions aligned with the meme, but they did not represent the full context of the call. Based on its actual content, Reneau appears to be attempting to prevent Stevens from becoming engulfed in panic and further endangering herself while simultaneously working with other law enforcement personnel to find Stevens:[Stevens] Ma’am my phone’s gonna die … I’m gonna vomit … [Stevens] I need to throw up right now … I’m gonna vomit, it’s gonna ruin my brand new phone. [Reneau] You’re over there crying for your life, who cares about your ‘brand new phone [Reneau] Well then … you’re in water … you can throw up, it’s not gonna matter, if you got throw up on yourself they’ll still gonna help you. [Stevens] No my car’s just gonna catch on fire. [Reneau] How if it’s under water? [Stevens] It’s [unintelligible] and I can’t turn it off? [Reneau] Your car is not gonna catch fire in water. [Stevens] It’s making awful funny noise and smoking … [sobs] [Reneau] Just stay on the phone with me and I’ll get someone to you … [Stevens] Can I put you on hold … I need to call my mother in law so she knows I’m okay … [Reneau] Okay well you’re not okay, so you can call your mother-in-law [after you are rescued] so no you cannot call her right now. [Stevens] I’m sorry can you pray with … will you pray with me? [Reneau] (to someone else) In her vehicle (to Stevens) .. I’m here, I can still hear everything you’re saying to me. [Stevens] Will you pray with me please? [Reneau] You go ahead and start the prayer and I’ll listen to you, I sure will. [Stevens] [sobs, prays] My vehicle is ruined … [Reneau] But it’s better your vehicle is ruined than you being swept away and nobody knows where you are so just – [Stevens] I’m going to be swept away [Reneau] No you’re not … you have nowhere to be swept away to except the street that you’re on … I’m looking, I’m looking at it right now and at the end of the street there’s some bushes so you’ll be just fine.It is worth noting that elements of the meme seemed to highlight portions such as the “pray with me” one above, in which Stevens is understandably panicking, and Reneau is understandably trying to both keep Stevens calm and connect with rescuers. Reneau does not decline to pray with Stevens, but says she will listen as she continues working with rescuers. Directly after that, the portion in which Reneau “scolds” Stevens occurs:[Stevens] Ma’am it’s getting all the way up to my chest … [Reneau] I know the water’s up to your chest, just stay on the phone with me and I have an officer in the fire department coming out to you so just hold on, okay? [Stevens] Thank you … I’m sorry if I’m rude … I’m scared … [Reneau] You’re not being rude, I know you’re scared, just calm down for me … [crosstalk] [Reneau] Well this will teach you next time, don’t drive in the water … I don’t see how you didn’t see it, you had to go right over it … [Stevens] No ma’am … I was in the parking lot, there was no water where I was at [Reneau] M’kay [Stevens] When I got to the end of the parking lot I was looking for the road … It was too late, there was water … I couldn’t see it [Reneau] The water just didn’t appear … [Stevens] I didn’t see it fast enough, my headlight when out and I couldn’t see it [Reneau] M’kay … it’s okay, we’ll get you help and we’ll get you out of there [Stevens] [unintelligible] [Reneau] You’re welcome [Stevens] [breathes, sobs] [Reneau] You’re not the only one who got stuck in the water … [crosstalk] [Stevens] It’s scary … it’s scary ’cause I can’t swim [Reneau] Even though you can’t swim I think you can still stand up in this, how tall are you? [Stevens] It’s higher than me [Reneau] I don’t think so [Stevens] I don’t know I’m only five foot [unintelligible] [Reneau] Well, you’re not three foot so you’re just fine [crosstalk] [Stevens] Will the cops go to my house [crosstalk, dispatch talk] [Reneau] They’re pullin’ someone else out of the water so just stay where you are [crosstalk] [Stevens] I’m just prayin’ … will they take me back to my house, ma’am … Ma’am? [sobbing] [Reneau] Ten-four [repeatedly], [crosstalk] [sobbing] [Reneau] Okay, just stay on the phone with me, I know that you’re scared so just stay on the phone with me. [Stevens] Will they take me back to my house? [Reneau] I don’t know what they’ll do. [crosstalk]After a few more exchanges, Stevens asks how much longer the rescue will take. Reneau reiterates that she cannot estimate the time of response due to the other people also stranded. Stevens becomes agitated, warning that she will soon be unable to talk to dispatch, and adds that bystanders are not helping her:[Reneau] Until they get there I cannot give you a time … [Stevens] Oh my god, what time is it now? [sobs, unintelligible] [Stevens] They’re watching me sit here, that’s pretty rude … [Reneau] A lot of people have called in on you so don’t think that nobody’s just sitting there [crosstalk] [Reneau] They’re not gonna get [themselves] in danger because you put yourself in danger. [crosstalk] [Stevens] I’m just scared … [Reneau] I know you’re scared. [crosstalk] [Stevens] What’s your name? [Reneau] Donna. [Stevens] Thank you for being there, Miss Donna … when it rains again I ain’t never doin’ this. [Reneau] That sounds like a good idea … [Stevens] I’ve done papers for 21 years and I’ve never had it like this. [Reneau] Yeah, I think that’s understandable though … hold on for me, okay?Stevens once again says she’s “gonna die” and Reneau says she isn’t; Stevens says she needs to urinate as Reneau relates the situation to someone else. Reneau says “5801 Kincaid” is all she’s got, suggesting that Stevens’ location is still unclear. Reneau asks if Stevens can see an officer, and Stevens says she “can’t see nobody.” Reneau asks if she can “hear the fire trucks,” and Stevens says she can only hear “rushing water.” Reneau requests Stevens remain quiet to listen for rescuers, and Stevens says she can only hear “rushing water.”Reneau tells someone else (not on the call) that she cannot hear the “apparatus either.” Stevens reiterates her general location. Repeatedly, Reneau asks Stevens to “hold on for [her].” Reneau continues reassuring Stevens that she will not die, while making stronger efforts to help rescuers locate her:[Stevens] The back side of these apartments over here with these people, they can all see me [unintelligible] [Reneau] (Sighs.) Miss Debbie, you’re gonna have to shut up … listen to me … [Stevens] Yes ma’am. [Reneau] Can you start your … can you start your um … is your car still on there, can you honk your horn? [Stevens] My horn is dead. My horn is dead! … everything is dead. [Reneau] Listen to me, hold on … who, fire? Are they really? [Stevens] It’s even higher … all the way up to my doors! [Reneau] Hold on for me, don’t hang up. [silence] [Stevens] Ma’am please! [Reneau] Hold on for me! Hold on! [Stevens] Oh my god. [silence, break] [Stevens] It’s getting higher and higher and I’m scared … oh my god … [sobs] [Reneau] They’re trying to come to you … the whole parking lot is flooded, they’re trying to find you so hold on for me. [crosstalk] [Reneau] Okay listen to me … I know, I’m trying to get you help as I can. Hold on for me [crosstalk] hold on for me ’cause I gotta take other calls plus you. [Stevens] (Praying.) Dear Lord, please!At the end of the call, Stevens further begins to panic. Reneau sounds audibly shaken as the connection deteriorates:[Reneau] Okay, listen to me! They are in the area, they are trying to find you … they cannot find you right now … I’m trying to ping where you are so do not hang up because this 911 call is helping me ping your location so don’t … don’t hang up on me [unintelligible] Okay, where are you moving to? Tell me where it’s going. [unintelligible screams] Okay, tell me where you are. [unintelligible screams] Listen to me! Hold on! [unintelligible screams] I’m on the phone with her right now, she is legit freaking out, she says the vehicle is now moving in the water and she doesn’t know which way it’s going, stand by. [unintelligible screams] Okay, is the water up to your neck? Yes!At that point, audio of the call concludes. By the end of August 2019, memes about the call between Stevens and Reneau began circulating, many of which were outraged at what appeared to be Reneau’s callousness.Here is the text of the meme in contrast with the actual transcript:[Stevens] WILL YOU PRAY WITH ME? [Reneau] NO, YOU CAN PRAY AND I’LL LISTEN.. [Stevens] CAN I CALL MY MOM PLEASE SO I CAN TELL HER I LOVE HER? [Reneau] NO, YOU NEED TO STAY ON THE PHONE WITH ME. [Stevens] I’M SORRY MA’AM I’M SO SCARED!! [Reneau] WELL YOUR [sic] THE ONE WHO DROVE THRU THE WATER.. [Stevens] WHEN ARE THEY COMING TO HELP ME? [Reneau] WHENEVER THEY GET THERE. [Stevens] MA’AM, I THINK I’M GOING TO PUKE[.] [Reneau] WELL, GO AHEAD AND PUKE YOUR [sic] IN THE WATER.Nearly all of the comments in the original post by Laura Treat (and later the “Live PD” page meme) were inaccurate paraphrases distilled down to the most outrage-inducing portions of the call. As the call made national news, Fort Smith police addressed the viral outrage:Fort Smith police said in a statement that the recording of the call was released “with great reluctance” after requests from the media.“The recording contains the audio of a dying person’s last moments as well as the interaction between her and the 911 operator,” the statement said.“And while the operator’s response to this extremely tense and dynamic event sounds calloused and uncaring at times, sincere efforts were being made to locate and save Mrs. Stevens.”Previously, the dispatcher had been recognized by the police department for her service.Another motorist stranded in the same floodwaters in Fort Smith survived, and told a media outlet she felt “misled” by promises of rescue. On September 2 2019, Fort Smith Interim Police Chief Danny Baker issued a statement about the viral call:I am heartbroken for this tragic loss of life, and my prayers are with Debra’s family and friends. All of our first responders who attempted to save Mrs. Stevens are distraught over the outcome. For every one of us, saving lives is at the very core of who we are and why we do what we do. When we are unsuccessful, it hurts.In a since-deleted August 31 2019 Facebook post, Baker defended Reneau despite growing national outrage:Baker in his post said blaming Reneau for the entire incident “would have been easy” and would have been “the best thing” for him to do politically.“But I’m not a politician. I am just a simple man who, through circumstances I believe are God-made, find myself in a position of leadership that I question daily whether I am fully equipped for,” Baker said, adding that everyone at the Police Department knew the gravity of the situation.“There was a collective ‘Oh my God’ from the department. I knew someone was going to have to advocate for them. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. The easy thing to do would be for me to cast stones at the dispatcher as well,” he continued. “From what I can tell, that has been my ‘sin’ in this: that I didn’t publicly denounce the dispatcher as an evil person deserving of death.”However, Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson condemned the dispatcher’s actions:Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he has listened to the 9-1-1 call.“The call was unacceptable. Everybody who listens to that or reads the transcript of it recognizes they want to have someone on the 9-1-1 operator side who has compassion, who is clear-headed, and particularly under those dire circumstances… this is something she is going to have to live with,” Hutchinson said.In that same article, Reneau disclosed that she resigned just before the day she took that call for a different job. Reneau told the interviewer that third-shift dispatchers are poorly supported and lack the necessary tools to handle many callers’ situations. She also proposed a “distress break” for dispatchers who fielded calls such as the one just prior to Stevens’ death. As of September 4 2019, an internal investigation of Stevens’ death and the way the call was handled was reportedly underway.A since-deleted Facebook post by Laura Treat about a 911 call between Donna Reneau (dispatcher) and Debra Stevens (flood victim) led to viral memes about Stevens’ final words before perishing in flash flooding. Much of the meme appeared to paraphrase Reneau’s comments, placing the most upsetting portions of a nearly half-hour long call out of context.Throughout the call, Reneau attempted to keep a panicked Stevens from becoming further agitated. Stevens, who became overcome by flood waters at some point between 4 and 5 in the morning, was unable to exit her vehicle and unable to describe the location of her car. During several portions of the call, Reneau was clearly attempting to coordinate ground rescue for Stevens, while simultaneously trying to ensure Stevens stayed on the line to “ping” her location in a futile attempt to locate her. (Stevens’ body was recovered 58 minutes after the call. )Although Reneau did admonish Stevens for driving into the floodwaters, parts about her “brand new phone” in context seemed to be an attempt to focus Stevens on the rescue attempt. The incident was highly stressful, and Reneau carried out two separate conversations for much of the call. Reneau did not, as the meme suggested, flatly refuse to comfort Stevens when Stevens asked her to pray; Reneau in fact said: “You go ahead and start the prayer and I’ll listen to you, I sure will.” Reneau both acknowledged the request and politely explained she was too busy coordinating Stevens’ rescue to begin praying.As for Reneau declining Stevens’ request to contact her mother or mother-in-law, Stevens later said the service was using location services to attempt to locate Stevens; had she ended the call, emergency services would likely have been unable to locate her.For additional context, Reneau had resigned just before taking the call for anther job, citing poor infrastructure and support among her reasons for leaving her position. News organizations tended to place the most upsetting exchanges in headlines. For the majority of the call, a calm Reneau attempted to ensure Stevens both stayed calm and (in spite of Stevens’ requests to make calls) stay on the line.It is worth noting that a stated goal of disinformation and propaganda is a coordinated attempt to shake and weaken faith and trust in democratic institutions as an excuse to further dismantle or privatize those very institutions. Emergency services — usually employed during chaotic and distressing situations in which emotions are running high — is certainly one of those institutions, and this meme is calculated for maximum outrage.
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19065
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"We have more hospitals that are children’s hospitals than any other state in the union."" "
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William Batchelder claims Ohio has the most children's hospitals
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false
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Ohio, Health Care, William G. Batchelder,
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"Ohio House Speaker William G. Batchelder, up for re-election Nov. 6, 2012, recently sought the support of The Plain Dealer’s editorial board. During an endorsement interview on Sept. 18, 2012, the subject turned to healthcare in Ohio and the Medina Republican, among other things, noted the state’s impressive network of children’s hospitals was worth bragging about. For example, Ohio is the only state with a ""flagship, world-class children’s hospital within two hours of every child living in the state,"" according to the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association. During the interview, Batchelder noted that ""We (Ohio) have more hospitals that are children’s hospitals than any other state in the union."" That got Politifact Ohio’s attention. The Buckeye State is large, but not as populous as, say, California, New York or Texas. So, could it really have more children’s hospitals than any other state? PolitiFact Ohio asked Batchelder’s office where the speaker got this information. The speaker’s spokeswoman, Shannon Boston, directed us back to the website of the Ohio Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety, a non-profit organization that works to align the vision of all of Ohio’s children’s hospitals. And how many hospitals does it list? Eight. Boston contends that Ohio is tied with Texas and California, which also each have eight children’s hospitals according to organizations in those states similar to the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association — the California Children’s Hospital Association and the Children’s Hospital Association of Texas. But a closer look found that the hospitals listed on those websites to which we were directed for hospitals in California and Texas only represent a portion of all children’s hospitals in those states. These state hospital associations are member-based organizations and not every hospital is necessarily a member and listed on the websites. In fact, Angela Krile, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, when asked about Batchelder’s claim, said: ""I have never heard that we have the most children’s hospitals but we do have the highest rated system of children’s hospitals in the country."" The second part of her comment, about Ohio’s hospitals being highest rated, would indeed be noteworthy. But it is the first part of her comment that PolitiFact Ohio is checking for this article. PolitiFact Ohio checked with the National Association of Children’s Hospitals. Spokeswoman Gillian Ray directed us to a state-by-state list of children’s hospitals on its website. By its count, Ohio hardly has the most children’s hospitals in the country. Not even close. Here’s what we found: 1 17 5 11 1 17 5 11 3 16 7 10 4 15 7 10 The site includes the Shriners Hospitals for Children-Cincinnati and the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital for Rehabilitation, two hospitals that are not members of the Ohio Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety or the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, which lists just six member hospitals. Ray said that the national list is all-inclusive, meaning it lists all the children’s hospitals according to their primary mission or duty: free-standing children’s hospitals, like Akron Children’s, specialty hospitals like Shriners in Cincinnati (which focuses on burn patients), or teaching hospitals, such as, Rainbow Babies and Children’s in Cleveland, which is affiliated with the medical school at Case Western Reserve University. For what it’s worth, Batchelder did get that endorsement from The Plain Dealer’s editorial board. But the organizations referenced by the speaker’s staff in support of his claim were not umbrella organizations that represent all children’s hospitals and their lists were far from complete. Even the two Ohio-based children’s hospital associations do not list the same number of hospitals, and neither lists every children’s hospital in the state. As an aside, there clearly appears to be a strong network of children’s hospitals in Ohio which draws the state high rankings in several areas of care, accessibility and amount of research taking place at the various institutions. But all that does not add up to having the most available hospitals of their kind as compared to other states, as Batchelder claimed. On the Truth-O-Meter, the claim rates ."
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19880
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Oregon schools receive millions of dollars per year in federal school lunch assistance and yet they are required to spend that money almost anywhere but Oregon.
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Ron Wyden says food served in Oregon schools comes from 'almost anywhere but Oregon'
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true
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Oregon, Congress, Education, Federal Budget, Ron Wyden,
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"When the Senate was debating the farm bill recently, Sen. Ron Wyden highlighted the haphazard nature of the way food is purchased and provided to the school lunch program under a program known as USDA Foods. His point was simple: A lot of the food from one program in particular that ends up in school kitchens comes from points far away from the schools serving it. Using local sources of food might be cheaper, he argued, and it certainly would be more nutritious. Wyden offered an amendment that would establish pilot programs at five locations nationwide to see if using local food could be both cheaper and better. Wyden’s amendment, which passed the Senate, would give school officials in five ""pilot"" areas far more flexibility in deciding where they purchase food. Right now, schools that agree to take part in the program, USDA Foods, are locked into a system that almost always forces them to purchase food from outside Oregon. That program is small, supplying only 20 percent of the food used in school nutrition programs but Wyden said the $11 million a year spent on it for Oregon schools should be used for food produced in Oregon. So he offered an amendment for give states and local districts more flexibility in navigating the USDA Foods system. The program offers a list of mostly bulk items that states purchase and then supply to local districts. According to a USDA description, ""Schools are ordering more bulk products that can be processed into kid-friendly items. … Decisions about what products schools order are not based just on the item’s popularity but on its overall usefulness in meeting nutritional standards."" Wyden’s amendment would allow local officials, working in collaboration with state purchasing agents, more flexibility in where they can buy the food to overcome a system that brings most of the food to Oregon from other states. While small and limited, Wyden said it’s important nonetheless and changing the program would bring extra dollars to the local economy while also providing more nutritious food. After it passed, the Oregon Democrat drove home the point in a news release: ""Oregon schools receive millions of dollars per year in federal school lunch assistance and yet they are required to spend that money almost anywhere but Oregon."" That is the kind of statement PolitiFact Oregon can really chew on. There’s no doubt that the federal government spends ""millions of dollars"" to pay for school meals in Oregon. That part of Wyden’s statement isn’t in doubt. But the second part made us wonder. Is it really that most of the food purchased for Oregon schools under USDA Foods ended up with food from ""almost anywhere but Oregon?"" To answer, you have to dive into federal rules governing USDA Foods and some of the department’s school food programs. It is a dense and complicated business that is as close as government gets to an extreme sport. Even the experts admit they don’t always understand all the rules and requirements. Here's just one section: ""At the beginning of each school year, State agencies shall establish the per meal rates of reimbursement for school food authorities participating in the Program. These rates of reimbursement may be assigned at levels based on financial need; except that, the rates are not to exceed the maximum rates of reimbursement established by the Secretary under §210.4(b) and are to permit reimbursement for the total number of lunches in the State from funds available under §210.4. Within each school food authority, the State agency shall assign the same rate of reimbursement from general cash assistance funds for all lunches served to children under the Program."" Had enough? There’s plenty more, but we’ll spare you. The regulations run 65 pages. Wyden’s spokeswoman Jennifer Hoelzer admitted her boss’s statement was based on piles of ""anecdotal evidence"" derived from talks with school officials as well as those at the Agriculture Department because detailed records are hard to find. But we found some. The best is a spreadsheet compiled by David Jones at the Oregon Department of Education that was also shared with Wyden. It reveals that only seven food purchases out of 166 during the 2011-12 school year came from Oregon from the USDA Foods program. That’s 4 percent for those of you who need help with the math. Cheese came from Missouri and Minnesota as well as other states. Oregon schools used meatless spaghetti sauce bought in Indiana, applesauce from Michigan and peanut butter from New Mexico. And then there was California, a category killer that supplied Oregon schools with everything from peaches to salsa to something called ""Burrito, Beef & Bean Bulk"" and frozen strawberries. Forget Oregon cheese and strawberries, foodies. The only products bought from Oregon vendors were green beans, chicken fajita strips and frozen potato rounds. Are the schools ""required"" to buy out-of-state food if they choose to take part in USDA Foods? No. USDA Foods is voluntary. But most schools take part which means, as a practical matter, the answer is yes. Schools that take federal money for the nutrition must purchase their food through the USDA’s program. And the rules governing the program almost guarantee the sale will be made out of state. So we conclude with records that all point in the same direction. Following federal procurement rules, which schools have to do to get federal money, leaves them little choice about what to buy and where to buy it, at least for USDA Foods. It’s unknown whether the portion of out-of-state food is similarly lopsided for the entire school nutrition effort in Oregon. But for USDA Foods, the one definitive document we found shows unambiguous results -- 96 percent of food served in Oregon schools and purchased with federal dollars came from another state. That fits within any definition of ""almost anywhere but Oregon,""."
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7500
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As virus outbreaks multiply, UN declines to declare pandemic.
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As cases of the coronavirus surge in Italy, Iran, South Korea, the U.S. and elsewhere, many scientists say it’s plain that the world is in the grips of a pandemic — a serious global outbreak.
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true
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AP Top News, Italy, Health, South Korea, Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Pandemics, United Nations, Iran, General News, Asia Pacific, Virus Outbreak, Europe, Ebola virus, U.S. News
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The World Health Organization has so far resisted describing the crisis as such, saying the word “pandemic” might spook the world further and lead some countries to lose hope of containing the virus. “Unless we’re convinced it’s uncontrollable, why (would) we call it a pandemic?” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week. The U.N. health agency has previously described a pandemic as a situation in which a new virus is causing “sustained community-level outbreaks” in at least two world regions. Many experts say that threshold has long been met: The virus that was first identified in China is now spreading freely in four regions, it has reached every continent but Antarctica, and its advance seems unavoidable. The disease has managed to gain a foothold and multiply quickly even in countries with relatively strong public health systems. On Friday, the virus hit a new milestone, infecting more than 100,000 people worldwide, far more than those sickened by SARS, MERS or Ebola in recent years. “I think it’s pretty clear we’re in a pandemic and I don’t know why WHO is resisting that,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. Experts acknowledge that declaring a pandemic is politically fraught because it can rattle markets, lead to more drastic travel and trade restrictions and stigmatize people coming from affected regions. WHO was previously criticized for labeling the 2009 swine flu outbreak a pandemic. But experts said calling this crisis a pandemic could also spur countries to prepare for the virus’s eventual arrival. WHO already declared the virus a “global health emergency’ in late January, putting countries and humanitarian organizations on notice and issuing a broad set of recommendations to curb its spread. Even in countries that moved quickly to shut down their links to China, COVID-19 has managed to sneak in. Within a matter of weeks, officials in Italy, Iran and South Korea went from reporting single new cases to hundreds. “We were the first country to stop flights to China and we were completely surprised by this disease,” said Massimo Galli, an infectious-diseases professor at the University of Milan. “It’s dangerous for the entire world that the virus is able to spread underground like this.” With more than 3,800 cases, Italy is the epicenter of Europe’s outbreak and has shut down schools, closed sports stadiums to fans and urged the elderly not to go outside unless absolutely necessary. But it has still exported cases of the virus to at least 10 countries, including Austria, the Czech Republic, Spain, South Africa and Nigeria. Devi Sridhar, a professor of global public health at the University of Edinburgh who co-chaired a review of WHO’s response to the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, said a pandemic declaration is long overdue. “This outbreak meets all the definitions for a pandemic that we had pre-coronavirus,” she said. At a news conference last month, Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO’s emergencies chief, said a pandemic is “a unique situation in which we believe that all citizens on the planet” will likely be exposed to a virus “within a defined period of time.” Several experts said they hadn’t heard that definition. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for its part, defines a pandemic as “an epidemic that has spread over several countries or continents, usually affecting a large number of people.” ___ The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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27706
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Jean Hilliard made a full recovery after she was found frozen in sub-zero temperatures.
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"A truly remarkable story, but not an ""unsolved mystery."""
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true
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Medical, jean hilliard, medical miracles, Medical Myths
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The story of Jean Hilliard, a woman who made a full recovery after she was found frozen stiff in the snow in Minnesota, has been shared in various forms since it was first published in 1980. And with each reiteration the story has grown more astonishing. One of the first reports of the incident, which was published by the Montreal Gazette on 30 December 1980, explained how Hilliard had collapsed on a 22-below-zero night as she tried to seek shelter after a minor car accident. The young woman was found “frozen solid” approximately six hours later and brought to a hospital: She breathed shallowly two or three times a minute and her heart beat faintly eight times a minute. Dr. George Sather said that “I thought she was dead, but then we picked up an extremely faint whimper. We knew there was a person existing then.” Jean’s chances of surviving were rated slim — her body temperature didn’t even register on the thermometer, and that meant it was less than 80 degrees Fahrenheit. “There was no evidence of a pulse or blood pressure,” said Sather’s brother, Dr. Edgar Sather. “Her body was too frozen to find a vein to get a pulse.” Most of the stories published about Jean Hilliard immediately after the incident credited electric heating pads and oxygen tanks for her recovery, but with each retelling the story became more miraculous. When Weekly World News (the same publication has brought audiences fantastically fictional stories about the half-bat, half-human “Bat Boy” and Hitler’s UFO escape) published their version of the story in January 1981, quotes from Hilliard’s parents were added that credited her recovery to the power of prayer. Guide Post Magazine took this theme a step further, claiming that a prayer chain had saved Jean Hilliard’s life: Mrs. Erickson hurried to her office and made a phone call to the prayer chain chairman at the Baptist church where her husband is pastor. The prayer chain was set in motion. The prayer chain was lengthening. Mrs. Erickson called the pastors of the Lutheran, Catholic, Methodist and Bethel Assembly churches in Fosston. They, in turn, called the chairmen of their prayer chain groups, who passed the word along. During the first hours that the prayer chain was underway, my legs and feet, instead of getting darker as Dr. Sather expected, started to lighten and regain their natural color. One after another, the doctors and nurses filed in to marvel at the pinkish tinge appearing at the line of demarcation where the darkness started on my upper thighs — the place where Dr. Sather said he thought they might have to amputate. The prayer chain spread to the nearby towns of Crookston and Bemidji, and into Grand Forks, North Dakota. Soon hundreds, then thousands of people were aware that a young woman had been brought in to the Fosston hospital frozen solid and was in desperate need of God’s miraculous healing. While some may consider Hilliard’s recovery a “miracle” (the New York Times even quoted Dr. Sather’s deeming the young woman’s survival as such), her experience was not a rare one. In an article published by the Spartanburg Herald in January 1981, Dr. Richard Iseke said that it was not unusual for freezing victims to make full recoveries: The recovery of a Minnesota woman frozen stiff after a nightling ordeal in sub-zero weather was described as a miracle by her doctor. But other physicians say such “miracles” are not all that rare: freezing victims have recovered fully even after prolonged periods without heartbeats. “There’s a term we have that says no one is dead until he’s warm and dead,” said Dr. Richard Iseke, associated director of the Boston Emergency Medical Center, which every winter treats victims of freezing or, more accurately, hypothermia. Although Hilliard is undeniably lucky to survive, Iseke said “there are numerous case reports in the medical literature of people who have survived (with interior body temperatures) as low as 68 or 69 degrees. The human body reacts to extreme cold much like a hibernating animal: internal activity is slowed, which dramatically reduces the cells’ demand for oxygen from the blood. Jean Hilliard’s recovery was incredible — some may even say miraculous — but it is not an “unsolved medical mystery”:
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337
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Exclusive: Philip Morris suspends social media campaign after Reuters exposes young 'influencers'.
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Cigarette maker Philip Morris International Inc has suspended a global social media marketing campaign in response to Reuters inquiries into the company’s use of young online personalities to sell its new “heated tobacco” device, including a 21-year-old woman in Russia.
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true
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Health News
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The company’s internal “marketing standards” prohibit it from promoting tobacco products with youth-oriented celebrities or “models who are or appear to be under the age of 25.” The company told Reuters of the decision late Friday, saying it had launched an internal investigation into marketing posts and photographs that Reuters sent to the company for comment earlier this week. They included a paid post plugging the tobacco product by social media “influencer” Alina Tapilina in Moscow - who listed her age as 21 on Instagram - alongside often seductive photos of herself drinking wine, swimming and posing with little clothing in luxurious settings. “We have taken the decision to suspend all of our product-related digital influencer actions globally,” the company told Reuters. “Whilst the influencer in question is a legal age adult smoker, she is under 25 and our guidance called for influencers to be 25+ years of age. This was a clear breach of that guidance.” “No laws were broken,” the company told Reuters. “However, we set high standards for ourselves and these facts do not excuse our failure to meet those standards in this instance.” The company added: “We were deeply disappointed to discover this breach and are grateful that it was brought to our attention.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last month decided it would allow sales of the IQOS device in the United States after a two-year review process in which Philip Morris repeatedly assured the regulator that it would warn young people away from the product. The FDA declined to comment Friday evening on Philip Morris’s decision to suspend the marketing campaign. The agency earlier said it would “keep a close watch on ... how the company is marketing its products.” While most of the social media influencers hired by Philip Morris overseas did not list their ages on Instagram, a Reuters review of the firm’s social media marketing of IQOS in Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Russia and Romania shows that Tapilina’s online persona was typical of what the company called its social media “ambassadors” for the device - rail-thin young women who revel in the high life. The company did not directly respond to additional questions Friday night regarding the intended audience for its digital influencer campaigns. Many of the messages contained the hashtag “#IQOSambassador,” tying them into a network of social media influencers that the international tobacco giant has relied on to brand the IQOS as a safer alternative to cigarettes and a sexy fashion accessory. “I finally have the new IQOS 3, and I can confidently say yes to change … the level of harmful substances is on average about 90 percent lower than in smoke,” Tapilina wrote in an April post. “You haven’t yet switched to IQOS?” One Romanian IQOS marketer is 25 years old, according to a separate actress biography, but did not list her age on Instagram. Tapilina and nine other IQOS marketers did not respond to requests for comment. Philip Morris, in its statement to Reuters, said its suspension of the social marketing campaign is “concrete proof” of its “conviction to achieve a smoke-free world through socially responsible practices.” Matthew Myers, president of The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, had a different take upon hearing of the suspension Friday night. The advocacy group collected some of the IQOS marketing images reviewed by Reuters. Philip Morris, he said, “is changing their behavior only when caught red-handed.” The company, Myers said, has historically been “the single most successful across the globe in making cigarettes fashionable to young people.” Over the past year, Philip Morris has increasingly publicized its “mission” to prevent young people from using tobacco products. Last month, it issued a release calling on “all tobacco and e-cigarette companies to do their part to guard against youth nicotine use.” “Let me be clear: We at Philip Morris International do not, and will not, market or sell our products to youth,” CEO André Calantzopoulos said during a speech in Boston earlier this month. “For Philip Morris International, age matters.” When Philip Morris submitted marketing plans with an FDA application for IQOS in 2017, its sample advertisements featured models appearing at least a decade older and wearing modest, professional clothes. That application, which is still pending before the FDA, seeks approval to market the IQOS as less harmful than smoking and outlines company plans to ensure it doesn’t market the device to “non-intended audiences.” The device heats up but does not burn packages of ground-up tobacco, which resemble small cigarettes, to create a nicotine-filled aerosol. In Japan, the intended audience for IQOS marketing includes the Instagram followers of Ayame Tachibana, a 27-year-old DJ and model. In one post, she shows off a Valentine’s Day message for the IQOS device, lovingly scrawled with multicolored pens. “Happy Valentine IQOS. Love you sooo much!” reads the Instagram post from February. Alina Eremia, a Romanian actress and singer, holds a gold-colored IQOS in front of a Christmas tree. “My list of resolutions contains 95% fewer moments without a smile,” says Eremia, who is 25 according to her actress biography on multiple movie and celebrity information websites. Philip Morris says the IQOS - an acronym for “I quit ordinary smoking” – contains up to 95 percent fewer toxic compounds than cigarettes. Vlad Parvulescu, a manager for Eremia, confirmed she had been hired to promote IQOS and said she had been contacted by a Romanian public relations agency. He did not respond to additional questions about the financial arrangement. Marketing deals between companies and social media influencers vary widely, according to industry experts. But typically a company will work through third-party public relations or advertising firms that have relationships with online personalities. Compensation typically ranges from $20 to $25,000 or more for each post. Corporations have become increasingly sophisticated in how they approach their social media campaigns in the past two years, said Joe Gagliese, co-founder of Viral Nation, a marketing and talent agency that works with influencers. He once had to explain the basic concept of an “influencer” in pitch meetings. Now, companies approach him with “tailor-made decision briefs saying, ‘this is exactly what we want.’” Reuters reviewed dozens of social media posts featuring the IQOS device. Many included hashtags such as #IQOSAmbassador, #paidad, and #notriskfree, indicating that they are IQOS marketing posts. Many of the Instagram influencers featuring the products had tens of thousands of followers, and a few had more than a million. Devices such as IQOS and Juul hold potential as a way for cigarette smokers to transition to less harmful nicotine products, but some public health advocates worry the sleek new devices are addicting young people who would have never smoked cigarettes. Among traditional cigarette smokers, 90 percent start smoking before the age of 18, according to federal data. Philip Morris said there have been “no reports” of “worrisome levels” of unintended use of IQOS. As part of the FDA review process, Philip Morris pledged to market only to adult cigarette smokers once it begins selling IQOS this summer through a partnership with Altria Group Inc, which sells Marlboro cigarettes in the U.S. IQOS delivers about the same level of nicotine as a traditional cigarette. Altria did not respond to requests for comment. Social media marketing has become a flashpoint in the debate over regulation of tobacco products, particularly the newest generation of products such as the wildly popular Juul e-cigarettes. Some of Juul’s early social media and YouTube marketing included images of attractive young people, particularly at a 2015 product launch party. Twitter images from that time on Juul’s official account featured sensual images of a young woman breathing out Juul vapor in a group, next to the slogan, “Share a #Juulmoment.” Those early campaigns sparked an explosion of video and photo posts from young people showing themselves using the product at school or with friends, often under the hashtags #doit4juul or #juullife. Juul Labs Inc has since said it stopped using social media influencers and requires anyone in its ads to be a former cigarette smoker older than 35. Juul Labs Inc said in a statement it recognizes that “some of our earliest marketing initiatives did not fully reflect the goal of our company,” which it describes as helping cigarette smokers transition to its products. “As a young company, we learned from our experiences and instituted changes to help ensure that we are only reaching current adult smokers,” the company said. U.S. laws governing tobacco advertising - which is banned on radio and television - were drawn up long before social media and digital advertising became a dominant force in consumer marketing. Although no current state or federal law restricts tobacco advertising on the Internet - including for e-cigarettes and devices such as IQOS - the FDA can use its authority over new devices to assert sweeping control over a company’s marketing. As a condition for allowing the device to be sold, the FDA is requiring Philip Morris to provide detailed analyses of the age ranges of consumers it reaches through digital advertising. Philip Morris is also required to submit any new advertising campaigns, including digital and social media efforts, to the FDA at least 30 days before it plans to launch them. Any paid influencers promoting the product also must disclose “any relationships between you and entities that create labeling for, advertise, market, and/or promote the products, on your behalf, or at your direction.” Those rules aim to restrict youth access to tobacco marketing, the FDA said in a statement, “especially in shared digital properties such as social media sites.”
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8694
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Northern Irish women told to sail to England for abortions despite pandemic.
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Northern Irish women seeking an abortion have been told they must take an 8-hour ferry to England despite the lockdown, as the regional government resists pressure to offer abortions locally and the coronavirus pandemic stops flights.
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true
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Health News
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Abortion was decriminalised in Northern Ireland last year after the British parliament bypassed opposition from socially conservative Christian politicians in Belfast to bring the region into line with the rest of the United Kingdom, where abortion has been legal for decades. But the regional health ministry missed an April 1 deadline to begin providing abortion just as the coronavirus pandemic complicated the government’s recommended back-up option of travelling to England for the procedure. “We are in a worse position than we have ever been in,” said abortion rights activist Emma Campbell, co-chair of the Alliance for Choice group, which has seen a five-fold increase in calls for help since the travel restrictions were introduced. “Access is worse than it has been for over 50 years.” One 39-year-old education worker from County Down who is seven weeks pregnant and seeking an abortion said she had been told by her local doctor that no provision had been set up to provide abortions in Northern Ireland. “I was told I would have to take a ferry, take the pill in the clinic in the morning, then take the other pill and then get the ferry home,” she told Reuters. “What is happening to women in Northern Ireland is inhumane,” she said. “Having to sneak out to get to Liverpool is not what should be happening in 2020.” The only British clinics currently available for women from Northern Ireland seeking publicly funded abortions are in Manchester and Liverpool, but no direct flights are available due to the coronavirus lock-down, activists say. A spokeswoman for the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, which operates the government’s booking system for Northern Ireland women requiring abortions, said that due to flight cancellations the ferry was currently the only viable route. “Some in the Northern Ireland Executive are clearly attempting to delay the widespread establishment of services, by refusing to commission services for example ...” spokeswoman Katherine O’Brien said. Amnesty International described the situations as “unfair, dangerous and needlessly putting women and girls at risk” and said it was worried it would lead to women attempting unsafe abortions. Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster, who like Health Minister Robin Swann describes herself as “pro-life”, on Monday told a press conference she was against “abortion on demand.” “It’s a retrograde step for our society,” she said. Foster’s Democratic Unionist Party on Monday voted against a proposal to allow doctors to prescribe the abortion pill via telephone consultations - a measure that has been introduced across the rest of the United Kingdom in the wake of coronavirus lockdown while Swann’s Ulster Unionist Party abstained, a source close to the Northern Ireland executive told Reuters. The leader of the non-sectarian Alliance Party Stephen Farry wrote a letter to Swann saying women in Northern Ireland had been left in an “untenable situation.” The department of health said it was “considering this urgently” but said it would be an issue for the Northern Ireland executive to decide. Alliance for Choice says it has been forced to return to its practice from before abortion was decriminalised and work with other groups to try to source abortion pills from the internet and get a doctor in the Netherlands to assess women and prescribe the pills even though it is not legal to prescribe abortion pills for home use in Northern Ireland. However, even this is dependent on supply of pills which have been severely limited by coronavirus, Campbell said. Activists say that in addition to a surge in calls seeking help, they have seen a number of examples of women self-harming and at least one attempting suicide. Another pregnant woman, a 29 year old beauty industry worker from Belfast, said she had asked a local charity to send her pills but she had no idea if or when they would arrive. “At this time nothing is certain and it’s very scary that it’s completely out of my hands,” she said.
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1823
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Government report finds 2.3 percent of Americans gay or bisexual.
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U.S. government data released on Tuesday showed that 2.3 percent of American adults are either gay or bisexual and that these men and women more often reported serious anxiety and having self-destructive habits than their straight peers.
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true
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Health News
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This year’s National Health Interview Survey was the first to ask about sexual orientation in addition to health habits in its 57-year history, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Bisexual women were twice as likely to experience serious anxiety while bisexual men were more likely to indulge in binge drinking than others, according to the survey. In the survey of more than 34,500 Americans age 18 and above, 1.6 percent reported that they were gay and 0.7 percent reported that they were bisexual. A total of 96.6 percent reported being straight and 1.1 percent either said they were “something else,” did not know or declined to answer. Roughly twice as many women than men identified as bisexual, with 0.9 percent of female respondents saying they were attracted to both sexes. Bisexual women were twice as likely to report having serious anxiety than any other group, with almost 11 percent saying they had been distressed in the past month. Among bisexual men, almost 52 percent said they had five drinks or more in a night during the past year compared with only 31 percent of straight men. Gays and bisexuals fared as well or better than their straight peers in some areas, like exercising, taking HIV tests and receiving flu vaccines. “The differences went both ways, and it depends on the specific indicator that you were looking at,” said Brian Ward, a lead author on the survey and health statistician for the CDC’s statistical arm. The CDC said the survey findings were in line with other research on health and sexual orientation, though a smaller proportion of people in this survey identified as bisexual than in other studies.
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16397
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"The non-profit group Feeding America is lying when it claims ""that one in five kids is fighting starvation daily"" in the United States."
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Major oil companies have approved $50 billion of projects since last year that will not be economically viable if governments implement the Paris Agreement on climate change, think-tank Carbon Tracker said in a report published on Friday.
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false
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Children, Poverty, PunditFact, William Benson Huber,
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The analysis found that investment plans by Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L), BP (BP.L) and ExxonMobil (XOM.N) among other companies will not be compatible with the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. “Every oil major is betting heavily against a 1.5 degree Celsius world and investing in projects that are contrary to the Paris goals,” said report co-author Andrew Grant, a former natural resources analyst at Barclays. (Graphic: Carbon Tracker 2 link: here) Big oil and gas companies have welcomed the U.N.-backed Paris Agreement, in which governments agreed to curb greenhouse gas emissions enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or “well below” 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Scientists view 1.5 degrees Celsius as a tipping point where climate impacts such as sea-level rise, natural disasters, forced migration, failed harvests and deadly heatwaves will rapidly start to intensify if it is breached. Carbon Tracker’s analysis, co-authored by Mike Coffin, a former geologist at BP, found that 18 newly approved oil and gas projects worth $50 billion could be left “deep out of the money” in a lower carbon world. The projects include Shell’s $13 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) Canada LNG project, a $4.3 billion oilfield expansion project in Azerbaijan owned by BP, Exxon, Chevron (CVX.N) and Equinor (EQNR.OL), and a $1.3 billion deepwater project in Angola operated by BP, Exxon, Chevron, Total (TOTF.PA) and Equinor. The report also concluded that oil and gas companies risk “wasting” $2.2 trillion by 2030 on new projects if governments apply stricter curbs on greenhouse gas emissions. Previous reports on the implications of climate change for oil and gas companies by Carbon Tracker and other researchers have contributed to a wave of investor pressure on majors to show that their investments are aligned with the Paris goals. While some companies including Shell, BP, Total and Equinor have increased spending on renewable energy and introduced carbon reduction targets, the sector says it needs to continue investing in new projects to meet future demand for oil and gas as Asian economies expand. Shell said in a statement that it has set out an “ambition” to halve net carbon emissions by 2050 “in step with society as it moves towards meeting the aims of Paris.” “As the energy system evolves, so is our business, to provide the mix of products that our customers need,” Shell said. BP said its strategy to produce low cost and low carbon oil and gas was in line with the International Energy Agency (IEA)forecasts and the Paris agreement. “All of this is aimed at evolving BP from an oil and gas focused company to a much broader energy company so that we are best equipped to help the world get to net zero while meeting rising energy demand,” the company said in a statement. Chevron said in a statement that while it was tracking policy changes around climate, “most outlooks we track conclude that oil and gas demand will continue to grow over the coming decades.” Exxon, Equinor and Total did not reply to requests for comment. Nevertheless, the latest Carbon Tracker report said the big oil and gas companies spent at least 30% of their investment last year on projects that are inconsistent with the path to limit global warming to even 1.6 degrees Celsius. “These projects represent an imminent challenge for investors and companies looking to align with climate goals,” the report warned. Carbon Tracker’s calculations were based on three scenarios produced by the Paris-based IEA models of oil and gas supply under different warming pathways. With fossil fuel supply on course to outstrip demand if the world is to limit warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, the report assumed that the projects with the lowest production costs would be the most competitive. “Demand for oil can be satisfied with projects that break even at below $40 per barrel and pursuing higher-cost projects risks creating stranded assets that will never deliver adequate returns,” the report said. Benchmark crude futures were trading at around $62 per barrel on Thursday. (Graphic: Carbon Tracker link: here)
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40290
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A forwarded email with links to a video of someone taking apart a digital TV converter box to reveal a video camera and a microphone. The email claims that the government placed these devices in the converter boxes to spy on citizens.
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Indonesia’s biggest environmental group on Thursday called for an independent investigation into the death of one of its activists after pointing out suspicious circumstances and saying his work could have made him a target.
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false
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Warnings
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Golfrid Siregar, an activist with the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), was discovered by a pedicab driver lying unconscious on the side of a road in the city of Medan on Sumatra island last Thursday, police said. He was brought to hospital but died three days later, police said. Police initially said it appeared to be a traffic accident, but on Thursday Medan’s chief detective, Eko Hartanto, said three men, including the pedicab driver, had become suspects for stealing the victim’s belongings, state news agency Antara reported. “We have also done a reenactment of the crime scene to find what exactly caused his death,” the news agency cited Hartanto as saying. Walhi said in a statement this week that Siregar suffered injuries to his head that appeared to come from a blunt object but there were no wounds on other parts of his body. His bag, laptop, wallet and phone were missing, it said. In a joint news conference in Jakarta on Thursday, Amnesty International Indonesia researcher Papang Hidayat said there should be an independent investigation “because the victim had raised cases on environmental and human rights crimes against local people, whose network of perpetrators don’t only involve corporations but also the state apparatus”. Human rights lawyer Muhamad Isnur also questioned why Siregar’s motorbike had not be stolen if his death resulted from a robbery. Police detective Hartanto and a North Sumatra police spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. Siregar had been involved in various projects in recent years, including helping fishermen in a lawsuit against a sand miner and assisting residents in a fight against forest encroachment, said Walhi’s head of advocacy, Zenzi Suhadi. According to Suhadi, his latest and most high-profile case was representing Walhi in its legal challenge to stop the construction of a $1.5 billion China-funded hydro dam, which some experts had warned would destroy the habitat of orangutans. North Sumatra Hydro Energy (NSHE), which owns the dam project, said by text message: “We are requesting all parties not to speculate and connect PT NSHE directly or indirectly to the death of Golfrid Siregar ... until the results of a police investigation come out”.
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5558
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Kansas anti-vaccine groups say membership numbers surging.
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A Kansas anti-vaccination group says its membership is growing dramatically since the state added two new vaccination requirements for children returning to school this fall.
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true
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Meningitis, Health, General News, Kansas, Hepatitis, Topeka
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As of Aug. 2, Kansas is requiring a meningitis vaccine for students beginning seventh grade and students entering 11th grade who weren’t vaccinated before their 16th birthdays. And students entering kindergarten or first grade need two doses of the hepatitis A vaccine. The vaccines are required for children in public and private schools and are in addition to five other mandated vaccines. Exceptions are allowed for religious or medical reasons. Connie Newcome, president of Kansans for Health Freedom, said the nonprofit has grown larger since the Kansas Department of Health and Environment held a hearing on the two new vaccination requirements in June, The Kansas City Star reported. “I think most people in Kansas are independent enough that they prefer to make their own family decisions without the government telling them what to do,” said Newcome, a grandmother living outside Hutchinson who says she stopped vaccinating her children decades ago. The new requirements follow recommendations of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. “Both of these illnesses are severe and preventable, and the safety profile of the vaccines is well-recognized, in keeping with the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and other scientific authority,” said Kristi Pankratz, a spokeswoman with the state health department. Members of the anti-vaccination group told The Star they worry about the pharmaceutical industry’s influence on scientific studies. Many also discussed their children’s illnesses and disorders, which they claim occurred or grew worse after vaccinations — despite research largely showing the contrary. Christine White, a Johnson County physician, said research shows the benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risks, especially with life-threatening diseases such as meningitis. “Parents who refuse meningitis (vaccines) often say their children aren’t at risk because they’re homeschooled or aren’t often in group environments. And we try to discuss it only takes one sneeze or one shared drink with a kid who has it to get it,” White said. “I’ve had a few converts with that one. But meningitis scares people. People know that it can kill you.” In 2017, 72% of Kansas teenagers had been vaccinated against meningitis, lower than the national average of 85%. Kansas ranks sixth from the bottom in meningitis vaccination rates in the country. Last year, 90% of Kansas children were vaccinated against hepatitis A, due to a previously approved requirement for children in day cares. ___ Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com
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36161
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"Although rapper Tekashi 69 ""snitched,"" lifestyle guru Martha Stewart went to prison without offering evidence about others in order to evade a sentence."
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Tekashi 69 ‘Snitched’ and Martha Stewart Didn’t?
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true
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Fact Checks, Viral Content
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On September 22 2019, Facebook’s “Man Page” shared the following meme, declaring that hip-hop artist Tekashi 69 — also called 6ix9ine — is “a snitch” and lifestyle personality Martha Stewart is not:On the left side was a photograph of Stewart in a Yankees cap and jersey. To the right, Takeshi 69 was seen in profile. Text underneath both images read:As we watch Tekashi 69 (or whatever his name is) snitch on EVERYBODY, I invite you all to remember Martha Stewart snitched on NOT ONE soul during her trial. Baby girl kept it 10 toes down and ate that prison sentence by herself, like the true baddie she is. 😂😂Text for the meme matched a September 20 2019 tweet, that the New York Post‘s Page Six used as the basis for a gossip column:As we watch Tekashi 69 (or whatever his name is) snitch on EVERYBODY, I invite you all to remember Martha Stewart snitched on NOT ONE soul during her trial. Baby girl kept it 10 toes down and ate that prison sentence by herself, like the true baddie she is. 😂😂😂— Chilla (@Chinchilla_773) September 20, 2019Its text made a number of claims: that Tekashi 69 implicated others during the course of prosecution (presumably in return for a lighter sentence), that Tekashi 69 implicated a number of people, that Martha Stewart conversely did not implicate a single person, that Stewart could have done so to evade prison, and that Stewart instead “ate” her prison sentence rather than herself become a “snitch.”In July 2004, Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and two years of probation after she had been convicted of “conspiracy, obstruction of justice and lying to federal investigators about a stock deal” the previous March. A reporter covering Stewart’s sentencing cited reasons the judge agreed to a relatively light sentence:Well, [the judge] gave a couple reasons. She said Martha doesn’t have a prior criminal record, which is true. She also said she’d received over 1500 letters of support saying how Martha had done wonderful things for people and the people supported her.That was a factor in her decision. She also felt that Martha that had suffered enough and she told her that. She said, you have suffered enough and will continue to suffer.In that article, cooperation on Stewart’s part by means of implicating others was not mentioned. In 2018, CNN recapped the basic details of Stewart’s conviction:In December 2001, Stewart sold almost 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems, headed by her friend Samuel Waksal. The problem was that she did it the day before the company announced an FDA ruling about one of its cancer drugs that sent the price of ImClone plummeting. She never faced criminal insider trading charges for the sale, although she later paid $195,000 to settle civil charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Her criminal case revolved around charges that she lied to authorities during an investigation of that sale.In October 2004, Stewart reported to prison to begin serving her sentence — despite the fact she was allowed to remain free, pending an appeal:Martha Stewart reported to prison [in October 2004] to begin serving a five-month sentence for lying about a stock sale, the federal Bureau of Prisons said.Stewart, 63, was convicted in March of lying to investigators about why she sold ImClone stock in December 2001, just before the stock price plunged. She was allowed to remain free pending appeal but asked to begin serving her time anyway … Stewart is to remain at the prison until March. A Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman has said inmates who are sentenced to a year or less are not eligible for early release because of good behavior.An aspect of Stewart’s conviction and incarceration had to do with her attitude and demeanor both during and after the “scandal,” by which the “baddie” label in the meme came into play. A woman known for perfectly arranged decor, complex recipes, and crafts demonstrated what was viewed as a relatable amount of honesty and acceptance of her circumstances.A 2009 special edition of People magazine (“Scandals That Rocked America”) characterized the public’s feeling that Stewart “ate that prison sentence by herself, like the true baddie she is”:Some expected America’s goddess of domestic perfection to fall into terminal despair. Instead, with the drive that would make her a billionaire, Stewart took her lemon of a sentence and made lemonade. Heck, she made a lemon soufflé.”Even before Stewart was indicted, her take-charge attitude was evident — resulting in an often-repeated line uttered by Stewart when she was confronted about the ongoing scandal during a morning show cooking segment in 2002:Notably, on June 25, 2002, CBS anchor Jane Clayson grilled Stewart on the air about ImClone during her regular segment on The Early Show. Stewart continued chopping cabbage and responded: “I want to focus on my salad.”In a subsequent non-criminal contract dispute relating to Stewart’s homewares in 2013, she joked about her incarceration in response to an unrelated query:When the Macy’s attorney inquired about her role at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia by asking “How do you do your time?”, she cracked a joke.“I did my time,” she said, referring to her 2005 prison sentence for insider trading. The courtroom erupted in laughter.We examined archival news articles and subsequent material about the trajectory of the case, none of which mention Stewart “snitching.” One article [PDF] noted that a friend of Stewart’s testimony may have damaged her defense, and in effect that friend “snitched” on Stewart:Perhaps one of the more damaging testimonies which sealed Martha Stewart’s fate was the testimony of her then friend Mariana Pasternak. On the witness stand, Pasternak revealed that she believed Stewart had made a statement indicating her involvement with insider trading. According to Pasternak, Stewart had said, “Isn’t it nice to have brokers who will tell you these things” at around the time the alleged misconduct took place. With testimonies such as these and the failure to provide proof that a stop-call order existed, the situation looked bad for Stewart.A young broker also testified against Stewart in exchange for leniency in the investigation. In the same piece linked above emphasized that throughout the investigation, Stewart repeatedly made clear through her lawyers that she refused to provide testimony. Whether against herself or others, Stewart declined:[Congressional investigators for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee] did not call Martha Stewart to testify in front as her lawyers had made it clear that she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. Investigators, who had been negotiating unsuccessfully with Stewart’s lawyers to arrange for her voluntary testimony, came to believe that Stewart has been “stonewalling” and would not cooperate … Throughout the period after the scandal broke out, however, Stewart and her spokespeople declined to comment or could not be reached … Her refusal to testify made many wonder whether she really was innocent.In the meme, it is implied Stewart not only refused to snitch, but that the opportunity arose and she declined it. No coverage of the case indicated definitively that Stewart was asked to provide information implicating others — but Stewart refused to testify, and she was also “snitched on” by others seeking leniency who were implicated in the same investigation. During a nascent investigation in 2002, Stewart’s refusal to voluntarily provide testimony was likened by the media to “looking like Mafia dons.”In short, Stewart refused to testify, we found no record of her implicating others, and separate individuals ensnared in the investigation testified against her (at least one in exchange for leniency, also known as “snitching”).On Instagram, Stewart’s television co-host Snoop Dogg shared a pointed meme about snitching and wrote “🙅🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️never have never will”:🙅🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️never have never willA post shared by snoopdogg (@snoopdogg) on Sep 18, 2019 at 2:38pm PDTCommenters on the post frequently mentioned Tekashi 69. On the same day, Stewart responded to the post in her own comment:That’s why I like you so much Birds of a feather!!!! !Snoop Dogg’s post appeared not long after TMZ’s September 17 2019 claim Tekashi 69 testified against others:Tekashi69 has completed his first day on the stand in federal court where he’s clearly panicked about testifying against his former fellow gang members of the Nine Trey Bloods.Altogether, he spent nearly 2 hours on the stand — wearing blue prison scrubs, a white undershirt and still rocking his rainbow colored hair, styled in pigtails. In a courtroom potentially filled with current or former Nine Trey members, he testified he became a member in November 2017, and participated in violent crimes … including shootings, assaults and drug traffickingAt one point, 6ix9ine even ID’d the 2 men who are on trial. He nervously pointed at the defendants, Aljermiah “Nuke” Mack and Anthony “Harv” Ellison, and ID’d them as Nine Trey Gang Members.Vulture, Daily Dot, and BuzzFeed covered 6ix9ine’s court appearance, with the latter reporting:Rapper Tekashi 69 [on September 19 2019] named fellow rapper Jim Jones as a member of the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods gang, an admission that stunned the court and people following the trial on social media.Tekashi, whose birth name is Daniel Hernandez, is on trial for racketeering, drug trafficking, and other crimes, and was asked by prosecutors who Jones was.“He’s a retired rapper,” Hernandez said in a Manhattan federal courtroom.“Is he a member of the Nine Trey Bloods gang?” prosecutors asked.Hernandez replied, “Yes.”Hernandez also named Cardi B as a member of the gang. She has publicly talked about her affiliation with the gang before, most recently in a 2018 profile by former GQ writer Caity Weaver.The New York Times addressed Hernandez’s court statements, widespread reaction to his testimony, and the leniency promised to him, should his testimony be useful:But when 6ix9ine — whose real name is Daniel Hernandez — stepped off the witness stand on [September 19 2019], he stepped into an uncertain future.The debacle has all but eviscerated Mr. Hernandez’s credibility in rap, where fellow performers have branded him a “snitch.” His safety is similarly suspect; the Nine Trey gang has not historically taken kindly to being double-crossed, and has already threatened to kill him once.“I knew I was going to become a target,” he said in court. “I knew they were going to try and hurt me.”[…]Artists including Snoop Dogg, Future and Lil Durk shared memes or pointed words denouncing 6ix9ine as a snitch, with Meek Mill writing, “Message of the day don’t be a internet gangsta … be yourself!”[…]Mr. Hernandez pleaded guilty in January [2019] to racketeering conspiracy and eight other charges. He faces a minimum of 47 years in prison. If his cooperation is successful, prosecutors agreed earlier this year to lobby for a lighter sentence.In the tweet contrasting Martha Stewart and Tekashi 69 (and in innumerable social media posts and memes), Stewart was lauded for her refusal to “snitch,” and 6ix9ine was criticized for his identification of purported gang members during a September 2019 court appearance. The overall meme was fueled by Snoop Dogg’s anti-snitching Instagram post, and Stewart’s approval of it via comment. It is also possible Stewart’s Instagram response reflects her distaste for those who testified against her — one of whom was a friend with whom she was traveling during the stock sale.“Snitching” behavior on the part of Tekashi 69 was broadly covered in September 2019. As to the claims about Stewart, she reiterated her own disdain for snitching; meanwhile, others provided evidence against her during the investigation, which led to her conviction. At the time, multiple reports described Stewart’s broad refusal to testify, but didn’t indicate whether she was offered the same leniency offered to those snitching upon her. Nevertheless, there’s no evidence Stewart ever snitched; she did “eat her sentence” as described; and Tekashi 69 provided identification of others in court.
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13913
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"Sherrod Brown Says Donald Trump made a lot of money from outsourcing jobs thanks to NAFTA ""but never, ever raised his voice against it when Congress was considering it."
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"Brown said Trump made a lot of money from outsourcing jobs thanks to NAFTA ""but never, ever raised his voice against it when Congress was considering it."" Yes, Trump has benefitted financially from trade deals like NAFTA. Even he acknowledges that. But Brown’s televised comment makes it sound as though Trump changed his mind on trade when it became politically expedient. Rather, Trump was not a fan of NAFTA from the start, and was a rare voice in opposition to it at a Bakersfield, Calif., convention."
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false
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Ohio, Trade, Sherrod Brown,
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"Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, seemed taken aback when ABC This Week host Martha Raddatz juxtaposed the harsh views of U.S. trade deals of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump with Brown’s own critiques over the years. Brown has said that he’d like to renegotiate a better North American Free Trade Agreement, as has Trump. Both men have also expressed concerns that China could enter the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal ""through the back door"" (a Trump statement we rated ). ""Well done,"" Brown said after Raddatz played clips of his statements. ""Good research."" ""A couple of things -- first of all,"" Brown went on, ""all I’ve heard with Donald Trump, the guy who made a lot of money from outsourcing jobs to China, to Mexico, to Turkey, to Slovenia, to other countries I’m forgetting right now -- the guy that made a lot of money from that is now against this trade policy, but never, ever raised his voice against it when Congress was considering it."" Brown, in office since 2007, has been determinedly critical of U.S. trade policies like NAFTA throughout his career, even authoring the book Myths of Free Trade: Why American Trade Policy Has Failed. Meanwhile, it’s well documented that Trump often says a thing, then denies having said it. So we turned to the public record of Trump on trade. Trump’s trade take-aways In July 2015, defending his ""made in China"" ties, Trump told CNN straight-up: ""It’s very, very hard to have anything in apparel made in this country."" Some, but not all, of Trump’s products are made in China, as we’ve previously confirmed. Others are made in Bangladesh and Mexico. The Washington Post reported that in 2004, Trump signed on with Phillips-Van Heusen to put his name on a collection of shirts, eyewear, cuff links and suits. He hired a company to broker the deal. Trump could have insisted on American manufacturing as part of those negotiations, but he didn’t, the Post reported. In the first three years of the licensing deal with Phillips-Van Heusen, Trump made over $3.2 million in royalties. In 2003, 95 percent of Phillips-Van Heusen’s products were manufactured in foreign countries, many of which had free trade agreements with the United States. The benefits of those agreements are spelled out in the company’s Securities and Exchange Commission annual filings. ""These products are imported and are subject to U.S. customs laws, which impose tariffs as well as import quota restrictions for textiles and apparel established by the U.S. government,"" read one such filing from 2004. ""In addition, a portion of our imported products is eligible for certain duty-advantaged programs commonly known as NAFTA, AGOA, CBTPA and CBI."" To put the cost advantages in plain speech, we turned to Dean Baker at the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research. ""With a deal like NAFTA, the large purpose of the agreement was to encourage investment in Mexico, so companies set up operations in Mexico at lower cost than if they were producing them domestically,"" Baker said. ""Other agreements, like granting China permanent normal trade relations status, facilitated the same sort of thing with China. The direct effect is getting lower-cost labor."" The indirect effect, Baker said, is that domestic workers are pinched even if they keep their jobs. Their bargaining power for better pay or other benefits is decreased under the threat of the company packing up and moving overseas. ""There are many instances where companies force concessions from workers, so that if they don’t agree to lower pay, the company will shift production, and they’ll lose their jobs,"" Baker said. In a 2005 blog posted on his Trump University website, now defunct but archived online, Trump defended outsourcing: ""I know that doesn't make it any easier for people whose jobs have been outsourced overseas, but if a company's only means of survival is by farming jobs outside its walls, then sometimes it's a necessary step. The other option might be to close its doors for good."" In other words, Brown’s account of Trump outsourcing production of his ventures checks out. But what about his lack of a record opposing those deals? ‘Never, ever raised his voice’? Debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement had reached its zenith in October 1993. The policy passed the Senate the following month, was signed by President Bill Clinton in December, and went into effect Jan. 1, 1994. Trump wasn’t a politician in the early 1990s. At the time, the New York real estate mogul’s name was synonymous with wealth, just a few years after he published 1987’s The Art of the Deal. In that autobiography, Trump catalogued all the ways that he’d expanded his influence beyond the $40 million he inherited from his dad. Trump already had the type of fame that draws cameras for walking out to get the mail, so if the businessman were to weigh in on NAFTA, he’d be quoted. And so he was. Buzzfeed’s Andrew Kaczynski unearthed reports of an October 1993 business conference in Bakersfield, Calif., at which Trump was a speaker. (Other speakers included Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush, comedian Phyllis Diller, weatherman Willard Scott, and businessmen T. Boone Pickens and Lee Iacocca.) Nobody taped Trump’s speech, according to conference representatives contacted by Buzzfeed. But Kaczynski found, and PolitiFact Ohio reviewed, local newspaper reports like one from the Daily News of Los Angeles, which called Trump ""one of the few to come out against NAFTA."" The Lodi News-Sentinel reported, ""Trump apparently ardently spoke against the plan,"" because, ""it would only benefit Mexico."" Trump said, ""The Mexicans want it, and that doesn’t sound good to me,"" according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram. That same month, Trump did make his way to Capitol Hill, but not to talk trade deals. He testified before the House Natural Resources Committee, advocating tighter regulation over Native American-owned casinos on tribal lands. Such casinos were stiff competition for his own casino properties in Atlantic City, N.J. Trump complained that prospective casino owners on reservations ""don’t look like Indians to me, and they don’t look like Indians to Indians."" (The paper reported that Trump had been ""on a tear on this subject for months."") Brown spokeswoman Jennifer Donohue told PolitiFact that Brown was trying to draw a contrast between his efforts to discourage outsourcing, and Trump’s capitalization of it. ""The point he was making on Sunday is that he’s never known Donald Trump to be an active ally in that fight,"" Donohue said. Our ruling Brown said Trump made a lot of money from outsourcing jobs thanks to NAFTA ""but never, ever raised his voice against it when Congress was considering it."" Yes, Trump has benefitted financially from trade deals like NAFTA. Even he acknowledges that. But Brown’s televised comment makes it sound as though Trump changed his mind on trade when it became politically expedient. Rather, Trump was not a fan of NAFTA from the start, and was a rare voice in opposition to it at a Bakersfield, Calif., convention."
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29366
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"A federal judge ruling in a defamation suit declared that CNN was ""fake news."
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"What's true: A federal court judge in Georgia denied CNN's motion to dismiss a defamation suit brought against the network by a former hospital executive. What's false: The ruling denying CNN's motion to dismiss did not state (or even insinuate) that CNN is ""fake news,"" nor did it force a ""shocking punishment"" on the news network."
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false
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Media Matters
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In February 2017, the web site Freedom Daily published a blog post that reported a federal judge had ruled the CNN cable news station was officially “fake news”: BREAKING: Federal Judge Just Officially Ruled CNN Is FAKE NEWS And Forces SHOCKING Punishment On Them! During his first press conference after winning the presidency, Donald Trump got in a notable spat with CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta. He refused to take a question from him, then pointed at him and told him “you are fake news,” shutting him down before The Donald took somebody else’s question. “Mr. President that’s not appropriate” Acosta could be heard complaining — but according to a Federal judge, it’s quite the appropriate assessment. In fact, it’ll even hold up in a court of law! For some background, Davide Carbone, who was the former CEO of St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN after they aired a “series of false and defamatory news reports” about his hospital. Among the claims were that the infant mortality rate at the hospital was twice the national average, clearly implying some wrongdoing. Even more shocking, CNN’s report said the overall mortality rate was three times the national average … According to Mr. Carbone, that CNN “intentionally manipulated statistics to bolster their report.” He also claims that CNN had plenty of positive information about the hospital available they could’ve included in their report that they didn’t address so that they could sensationalize. CNN is more than just fake news. They’re biased, sensationalist propaganda — AND fake. And a federal judge just confirmed it. However, a LawNewz article on the lawsuit presented a more straighforward report on the substance and issues of the case: Davide Carbone, former CEO of St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN after they aired what he claims were a “series of false and defamatory news reports” regarding the infant mortality rate at the hospital. CNN’s report said the mortality rate was three times the national average. However, Mr. Carbone contends that CNN “intentionally” manipulated statistics to bolster their report. He also claims that CNN purposely ignored information that would look favorable to the hospital in order to sensationalize the story. [Carbone’s attorney L. Lin] Wood … says that as a result of CNN’s story Carbone lost his job and it became extremely difficult for him to find new employment in the field of hospital administration. Federal District Judge Orinda Evans ruled that the case could move forward, even ruling that she found that CNN may have acted with “actual malice” with the report — a standard necessary to prove a defamation claim. “The Court finds these allegations sufficient to establish that CNN was acting recklessly with regard to the accuracy of its report, i.e., with ‘actual malice,” the order reads. CNN had tried to get the case dismissed. A copy of Judge Evans’ 15 February 2017 decision showed that CNN’s motion to dismiss Carbone’s suit was denied. The 18-page document reviewed the facts of the case as argued by both sides before concluding that Carbone had grounds sufficient to proceed with a defamation claim in the state of Georgia. The decision focused in particular on Carbone’s claim that statistics cited in a CNN report potentially misled viewers. The court deemed that CNN’s motion to dismiss did not satisfactorily address Carbone’s dispute of the way the network had presented their statistics. According to the ruling, Georgia law requires a private figure to prove only that CNN acted with “ordinary negligence” in his complaint (in contrast to a public figure who would need to demonstrate clear and convincing evidence that CNN acted with “actual malice”) and that Carbone met the minimum standard for a defamation claim. Accordingly, CNN’s motion to dismiss the complaint was denied. Freedom Daily‘s headline reported a “shocking punishment” forced on CNN as a result of the ruling, but that claim was never addressed in the body of their article, nor was it supported by the text of the ruling (unless one considers having to contest a lawsuit to be a “shocking punishment”). The court did not declare CNN’s reporting to have been erroneous, examine the overall practices of CNN outside of Carbone’s complaint, nor say (or even hint) that the station deals in “fake news.” The ruling did not even constitute a final judgement in favor of the plaintiff, as it simply established that Carbone had sufficiently proved grounds to proceed with his lawsuit against CNN. As of December 2018, CNN had been unsuccessful in seeking to have the defamation case against them dismissed via an anti-SLAPP motion: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has rejected an appeal by CNN to dismiss a libel case over the cable network’s 2015 investigation of infant deaths at a Florida hospital. The opinion, penned by Judge William Pryor, rejected CNN’s contention that a pending federal defamation case against the network should be thrown out under Georgia’s anti-SLAPP law. The unanimous opinion also dismissed CNN’s petition to overturn U.S. District Senior Judge Orinda Evans’s 2017 decision not to dismiss the case.
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35321
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U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams has said that the general public should not wear or buy masks to protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease.
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What's true: In public statements in early 2020, the surgeon general had recommended against the general public buying or wearing masks. What's false: However, in light of new evidence from the CDC, he changed his views and has since argued in favor of people wearing cloth facial coverings in public settings.
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mixture
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Medical, COVID-19
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U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams made comments in February and March 2020 recommending people not wear masks to help protect against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, and those comments began to recirculate online in April and May. As of April, though, Adams had changed his views in accordance with evolving recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and, to a lesser extent, from the World Health Organization (WHO). On May 7, one Facebook post from Ohio State Rep. Nino Vitale’s Facebook account shared a Newsmax article that included Adams’ past comments. That post was re-shared more than 700 times, along with the hashtags #EndMedicalDictatorship #FreedomAndLiberty: On Feb. 29, 2020, Adams tweeted: Then in an interview with “Fox & Friends” on March 2 he said: One of the things [the general public] shouldn’t be doing is going out and buying masks … It has not been proven to be effective in preventing the spread of coronavirus amongst the general public … Folks who don’t know how to wear them properly tend to touch their faces a lot, and actually can increase the spread of coronavirus. You can increase your risk of getting it by wearing a mask if you are not a healthcare provider. In the same interview, he added that people should clean their hands frequently and stay at home when sick, while maintaining that he was “convinced” more people would die from the flu than from the coronavirus around the world. In another interview with “Fox & Friends,” on March 31, he added that “the data doesn’t show” that wearing masks in public will help people. He said: What the World Health Organization [WHO] and the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] have reaffirmed in the last few days is that they do not recommend the general public wear masks. … On an individual level, there was a study in 2015 looking at medical students and medical students wearing surgical masks touch their face on average 23 times … We know a major way that you can get respiratory diseases like coronavirus is by touching a surface and then touching your face, so wearing a mask improperly can actually increase your risk of getting disease. His recommendation corresponded with advice from the WHO in late March and early April, which stated that a person should only wear a mask if taking care of someone with COVID-19 (or a suspected case) or if exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms, like coughing or sneezing. These masks are also only effective, according to the WHO, if combined with regular hand-washing and the avoidance of touching one’s face. Adams also said that wearing masks “can also give you a false sense of security.” He added, “You see many of these pictures with people out and about closer than 6 feet to each other, but still wearing a mask.” This corresponded with advice given by both the CDC and the WHO that masks should be worn in addition to other measures, like social distancing. One reason Adams initially discouraged the general public from wearing masks: saving critical supplies like N95 respirators for healthcare providers to use. He acknowledged advice on the use of “cotton masks” could eventually change, but the data did not yet support that. He echoed the point he made in his earlier tweet to Fox News on March 31: We still have PPE [Personal protective equipment] shortages across the country … The WHO mentioned this in their statement, so we want to make sure we are reserving PPE for the people who most need it. That’s how you are going to get the largest effect because if healthcare workers get sick, they can’t take care of you when you get sick. In a White House press briefing on April 3, Adams changed his recommendation after he said he had received new guidance from the CDC. Echoing his earlier statements, he said: … I want people to understand that the CDC, the World Health Organization, my office, and most public health and health organizations and professionals originally recommended against the general public wearing masks, because based on the best evidence available at the time, it was not deemed that that would have a significant impact on whether or not a healthy person wearing a mask would contract COVID-19. We have always recommended that symptomatic people wear a mask, because if you’re coughing, if you have a fever, if you’re symptomatic, you could transmit disease to other people. He followed this up with a clear recommendation that the general public should wear cloth masks outside of their homes in specific settings: … We now know from recent studies that a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms. They’re what we call asymptomatic. And that even those who eventually become pre-symptomatic, meaning that they will develop symptoms in the future, can transmit the virus to others before they show symptoms. This means that the virus can spread between people interacting in close proximity: for example, coughing, speaking, or sneezing, even if those people were not exhibiting symptoms. In light of this new evidence, CDC recommends and the [COVID-19] task force recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social-distancing measures are difficult to maintain. These include places like grocery stores and pharmacies. We especially recommend this in areas of significant community-based transmission. It is critical. … The cloth face coverings recommended are not surgical masks or N95 respirators. Those are critical supplies that must continue to be reserved for healthcare workers and other medical first responders, as recommended by the current CDC guidance. On April 3, he also appeared in a CDC video “How To Make Your Own Face Covering.”
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8355
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Washington state confirms second U.S. coronavirus death; New York reports first case.
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Health officials in Washington state said late Sunday that a nursing home resident had died after contracting coronavirus, while New York’s governor confirmed his state’s first positive case, as the virus moved out of its West Coast foothold.
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true
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Health News
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The coronavirus, which emerged in China late last year, has decimated global markets as it quickly moves around the world. It appeared poised for a spike in the United States, in part because of more testing to confirm cases. Florida late Sunday declared a public health emergency as it confirmed its first two cases. Trump administration officials worked Sunday to soothe nerves and calm fears that a global recession was looming, arguing that the public and media were over-reacting and saying that stocks would bounce back because the American economy was fundamentally strong. The total number of confirmed cases in the United States is more than 75 with two reported deaths, both in Washington state. Globally there have been more than 87,000 cases and nearly 3,000 deaths in 60 countries, according to the World Health Organization. In the United States, a cluster of cases is centered on a nursing home near Seattle. The Seattle and King County public health department confirmed late Sunday that a man in his 70s who was a resident of the LifeCare long-term care facility in Kirkland and had coronavirus had died the day before. On Saturday, the department had reported the first death of a coronavirus patient in the United States, a man in his 50s who was living in Kirkland - the same city where the nursing home is located. Six of the 10 confirmed coronavirus cases in Washington state have been residents or workers at LifeCare. State officials said an additional 27 residents of the nursing home and 25 staff members were reporting symptoms of the virus, which can be similar to that of the common flu. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo confirmed on Twitter his state’s first coronavirus case, a woman in her 30s who caught the virus during a recent trip to Iran and was now in home quarantine. Cuomo did not say where the woman lived, but the New York Times reported she was in the Manhattan borough of New York City, citing state officials. “The patient has respiratory symptoms, but is not in serious condition and has been in a controlled situation since arriving in New York,” Cuomo said. Stock markets plunged last week, with an index of global stocks setting its largest weekly fall since the 2008 financial crisis, and more than $5 trillion wiped off the value of stocks worldwide. A key energy conference in Houston that brings together oil ministers and energy firms was canceled on Sunday with the organizers of CERAWeek noting that border health checks were becoming more restrictive and companies had begun barring non-essential travel to protect workers. A world economy conference with Pope Francis due to take place in Italy later this month was also canceled. Trump said on Sunday that travelers to the United States from countries at high risk of coronavirus would be screened before boarding and on arrival, without specifying which countries. Delta Air Lines Inc said on Sunday it was suspending until May flights to Milan in northern Italy, where most of that country’s coronavirus cases have been reported. Flights will continue to Rome. American Airlines Group Inc announced a similar move late on Saturday. The United States has 75,000 test kits for coronavirus and will expand that number “radically” in coming weeks, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. Vice President Mike Pence, appointed last week to run the White House’s coronavirus response, said the government had contracted 3M Co to produce an extra 35 million respiratory masks a month. He urged Americans not to buy the masks, which he said were only needed by healthcare workers. Honeywell International Inc is the other major U.S. mask producer. He also told Fox News that clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine would start in six weeks but that a vaccine would likely not be available this season. Democrats, who will challenge Trump for the presidency in the Nov. 3 election, have criticized his administration for downplaying the crisis and not preparing for the disease to spread in the United States. Pence said Americans should brace for more cases but that the “vast majority” of those who contracted the disease would recover. “Other than in areas where there are individuals that have been infected with the coronavirus, people need to understand that for the average American, the risk does remain low. We’re ready,” Pence told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
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9890
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New Diabetes Drugs Give Double Punch
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Diabetes is a huge public health problem, but it is also a rapidly evolving field of research. This story reports on the release of clinical trial results of a new class of diabetes drugs at the American Diabetes Association meeting. Although the story claims that the pills are “experimental” and that the drug companies “hope to win FDA approval to begin selling them by year’s end”, this is not sufficient information on availability. The story should provide more insight about what phase of research the drugs are in and provide some justification for the proposed timeline for approval. Although the story does mention other diabetes drugs, the story does not elaborate on the advantages or disadvantages of the new drugs compared to existing drugs. Ultimately, it is not clear how these new drugs will fit with existing approaches. Furthermore, iIn several places, the article leaves the reader with the impression that everyone with diabetes needs to have strict blood sugar control (i.e. A1C less than 7%). In reality, there is little data to support this. The story provides quantification of benefits in relative terms only. (See “absolute vs. relative risk” under “Things you should know about research stories” on the home page of this site.) The story provides quantification of benefits in relative terms only. And it does not give enough details about the impact on weight loss, the amount of weight loss, or if people were able to maintain it. Although the story mentions two trials, the story does not provide adequate information on the strength of the available evidence. The story quotes an American Diabetes Associaiton official saying “The positive effects of the drugs, coupled with fewer of the negatives seen in other diabetes treatments, is what sets them apart.” But it doesn’t adequately explain or quantify those “fewer negatives.” It also says “Side effects of the pills include cold and flulike symptoms and headaches,” but doesn’t give any detail about how often these are seen. The story does mention that the drugs are expensive, $3 to $6 a day compared to pennies a day for other diabetes drugs. What isn’t clear is whether these new drugs need to be taken in combination with older ones, which obviously increases the cost. The story does quote a vice president of the American Diabetes Association and a Merck employee, but could have quoted other clinicians or researchers who do not have a stake in the claims being made and who could provide some additional perspectives.
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false
|
The story does mention that the drugs are expensive, $3 to $6 a day compared to pennies a day for other diabetes drugs. What isn’t clear is whether these new drugs need to be taken in combination with older ones, which obviously increases the cost. The story provides quantification of benefits in relative terms only. And it does not give enough details about the impact on weight loss, the amount of weight loss, or if people were able to maintain it. The story quotes an American Diabetes Associaiton official saying “The positive effects of the drugs, coupled with fewer of the negatives seen in other diabetes treatments, is what sets them apart.” But it doesn’t adequately explain or quantify those “fewer negatives.” It also says “Side effects of the pills include cold and flulike symptoms and headaches,” but doesn’t give any detail about how often these are seen. Although the story mentions two trials, the story does not provide adequate information on the strength of the available evidence. In several places, the article leaves the reader with the impression that everyone with diabetes needs to have strict blood sugar control (i.e. A1C less than 7%). In reality, there is little data to support this. This is disease mongering by implying that everyone with diabetes needs to have an A1C less than 7%. The story does quote a vice president of the American Diabetes Association and a Merck employee. The story could have quoted other clinicians or researchers who do not have a stake in the claims being made and who could provide some additional perspectives. Nonetheless, we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt and rate it satisfactory here. Although the story does mention other diabetes drugs, the story does not elaborate on the advantages or disadvantages of the new drugs compared to existing drugs. Ultimately, it is not clear how these new drugs will fit with existing approaches. Although the story claims that the pills are “experimental” and that the drug companies “hope to win FDA approval to begin selling them by year’s end”, this is not sufficient information on availability. The story should provide more insight about what phase of research the drugs are in and provide some justification for the proposed timeline for approval. The story clearly states that these medications are the first in a new class of drugs. We can’t be sure if the story relied on a press release as the sole source of information.
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9743
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T-cell therapy results more modest than hoped for chronic leukemia
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Patient Bill Ludwig is the focus of this story on a leukemia therapy. Early results of T-cell therapy raised hopes for some leukemia patients, but immunotherapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia is proving helpful only for a minority of those who receive it. In this story, an early pioneer patient shares the terrifying lows and ultimate high of his journey. While the use of a single patient anecdote in a news story is often a red flag for us, this patient’s perspective is uniquely engaging and informative. Even though he has benefited from the procedure, he details the significant side effects he faced and calls attention to the fact that most others with the disease have not fared as well. It’s not the cheerleading-type narrative that we often see with single-patient-focused stories. Overall the coverage provided a very human story interwoven with a bit of medical science. This story about the emerging science of immunotherapy provides a vivid look inside the near-death complications for one man and the disappointment that only a minority of chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients go into remission after the experimental therapy in which each patient’s T-cells are engineered to attack their own disease. We would have liked more detail in places, but this story (and headline) helps the public understand the uncertain world of clinical research. “Thrilling, humbling and a bit of a let-down,” the patient called it – and that’s a great summary.
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true
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cancer,immunotherapy,leukemia,University of Pennsylvania
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Although this therapy only exists for patients in clinical trials, we still think cost should have received more than a single word of attention. “The method is complex and costly,” the story stated. Our quick review identified a Wall Street Journal article suggesting that the cost could be as high as $500,000 per patient — roughly equivalent to a stem cell transplant. The story’s focus on the anecdotal success story of one patient, Bill Ludwig, had the potential to confuse readers — since his experience was not typical. However, we think that the story managed to combine his real-life story along with some generalizable information on the treatment success in a straightforward fashion. The story includes these details: Of the first 14 CLL patients given the T-cell therapy, four had their cancers disappear – including the first two, who are now about five years cancer-free. Four others got better but then their cancer progressed. And six had no response to the T-cell therapy. In addition to those results, published last week in Science Translational Medicine, the Penn team has orally presented data for a total of 38 CLL patients. Cancer disappeared in nine (24 percent), and temporarily regressed in another nine. We especially liked the last line, “They’ve never said ‘cured.’ But ‘cancer-free’ works for me.” The patient, Ludwig, who was ultimately “cancer free,” suffered some serious complications. The story talks about these, but we would have preferred more discussion of the overall risks or harms and not just an anecdotal description. Ludwig “suffered catastrophic side effects as his immune system went into overdrive,” the story stated. He had to spend time in intensive care with his organs failing. The story is silent on whether many or most patients who received the therapy suffered harms. Researcher Walter Urba says, “Everything we do in oncology is a risk-benefit balance.” These clinical trials for T-cell therapy have enrolled a small number of patients nationally, so there is not the typical history of studies in thousands of people that might be available for other treatments. The story clearly describes the small number of subjects treated to date and provides absolute numbers in terms of success and failures of treatment. Researcher Walter Urba gives some context: “I suspect that over time we’ll have better T-cell therapies, maybe given with other immune therapies.” There is no disease mongering. The story quotes an expert who was not involved with the study. It contrasts statements the researcher made 4 years ago about the treatment with his thoughts following publication of the new findings — an interesting comparison. However, we must rate the story Not Satisfactory here for its lack of discussion of funding for the study, which came in part from the pharmaceutical company Novartis. In addition, one of the study authors is a Novartis employee, and the expert mentioned above is a paid consultant to Bristol Myers Squibb, which is also developing immunotherapies. The story does note that “pharmaceutical giant Novartis partnered with Penn, aiming to commercialize the breakthrough,” but the extent of commercial involvement in the study that’s discussed isn’t clear. The story provides a bit of insight into the tough road that many patients with leukemia travel: “The retired corrections officer from Bridgeton, N.J., was losing his decadelong battle with CLL when he agreed to try the novel therapy in August 2010. “I didn’t hesitate because I had no options left,” he recalled last week. “And also, these people at Penn had been so wonderful to me and my family for 10 years.”…..“CLL typically progresses more slowly than other types of leukemia, and may be held in check for years with chemotherapy.” Since the story does at least mention one alternative approach — chemotherapy — we’ll give the benefit of the doubt. However, we would have preferred to see just a bit more information on alternative strategies. Single and combination drug therapies are available along with stem cell transplantation; these are all existing alternative to T-cell therapies. The story is clearly about clinical trials only open to select patients. The story explains how the T-cell therapy is novel. The story shows independent reporting beyond any news release.
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13938
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As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton laundered money to Bill Clinton through Laureate Education, while Bill Clinton was an honorary chairman of the group.
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"Trump said Hillary Clinton ""laundered money to Bill Clinton through Laureate Education, while Bill Clinton was an honorary chairman of the group."" That's a serious of charge of illegal activity. Actually, the State Department under Clinton never made any direct transfers to Laureate Education. Trump’s source conflates Laureate with a separate charitable organization that received funds from a separate government agency. The International Youth Foundation is a respected nonprofit that has received money from the government since the Bush years, before Clinton joined the State Department."
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false
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National, Candidate Biography, Ethics, Donald Trump,
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"Donald Trump assailed Hillary Clinton’s credibility in a rapid response email following her speech on economics on June 21. Trump claimed that Clinton used her role as secretary of state as a vehicle to funnel government money to her husband. ""As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton laundered money to Bill Clinton through Laureate Education, while Bill Clinton was an honorary chairman of the group,"" the email said. ""Clinton's State Department provided $55.2 million in grants to Laureate Education from 2010-2012. Laureate thanked Bill for providing unbelievable access to the secretary of state by paying him off $16.5 million. This is yet another example of how Clinton treated the State Department as her own personal hedge fund, and sold out the American public to fund her lavish lifestyle."" Laureate Education is a network of more than 80 for-profit educational institutions that operate in 30 countries. Bill Clinton was named Laureate’s honorary chancellor in 2010 and maintained this position until 2015. His role chiefly consisted of advising the company on educational matters and traveling to campuses across the world to speak to young people. The Trump campaign did not respond to our requests for clarification, but his argument seems to be based off of claims made in Peter Schweizer’s book Clinton Cash. In the book, Schweizer describes what he calls the ""Clinton blur"" between the activities of Bill and Hillary Clinton, the State Department and associated nonprofits and corporations. We decided to investigate Trump’s claim that Hillary Clinton, who was secretary from 2009 through early 2013, ""laundered"" money to Laureate to pay off her husband’s salary. We ultimately found that there is zero evidence that Laureate received any money from the federal government while Clinton was at the State Department. Bill Clinton and Laureate Education Neither Bill Clinton nor Laureate Education disclosed his compensation as honorary chancellor. However, his tax returns show that Laureate paid him approximately $16.5 million between 2010 and 2014. We looked to usaspending.gov to find out if Laureate received any funding from the State Department. The site tracks the amount of money given to various organizations through government grants and contracts. According to this database, Laureate did not receive any money from any federal agency while Bill Clinton was in his role, nor while Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. State Department Spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement, ""The State Department is not aware of any grants provided directly to Laureate Education since 2009, though we are aware of some grants to educational institutions within or affiliated with the Laureate Education network."" The International Youth Foundation Clinton Cash draws a connection between Laureate Education and the International Youth Foundation, a nonprofit that supports youth employment, entrepreneurship and social innovation across the world. The book notes that Laureate Chairman Douglas Becker is also chairman of the foundation’s board of directors. The foundation’s profile on usaspending.gov shows that it received approximately $72.6 million in grants between fiscal years 2009 and 2013. Trump gets to his $55.2 million figure by summing the grant money received between 2010 and 2012. We looked at the grant money given to the International Youth Foundation by the government between 2009 and 2013. FY 2009: $9M from USAID FY 2010: $17M from USAID FY 2011: $14.6M from USAID FY 2012: $23.6M from USAID. $1.9 million from State Department. FY 2013: $10.4M from USAID The grant money shown on usaspending.gov appears to have sharply increased while Hillary Clinton was at the State Department, which is the gist of the claim that Trump’s source makes. However, he fails to mention several key facts that undermine the logic of his claim. First, the International Youth Foundation had been receiving similar amounts of grant money before Hillary Clinton joined the State Department. An open letter by CEO William Reese claims that they negotiated a grant in 2008 under President George W. Bush for $30.2 million for a USAID mission in Jordan. He says that the money from this grant was handed out over several years, overlapping with new grants from President Barack Obama, giving the impression that funding had sharply increased after Clinton became secretary of state. We looked at financial records provided by the foundation and confirmed the existence and size of the grants. The records show that approximately $24 million from the grant was dispensed between 2010 and 2012. Second, almost all of the grants came from USAID, which is a separate agency than the State Department. Is it possible that Hillary Clinton had influence over the USAID grant process while she was secretary of state? A State Department spokesperson told us the two agencies have separate grant and contract offices, separate procurement offices and their own rules with regards to the grant process. ""State would not have oversight of or be involved in the USAID grant process — grants are let through a competitive process that the agency itself undertakes,"" said Jennifer Kates, vice president and director of Global Health & HIV Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, who is familiar with the agencies’ grant processes. Finally, there is no evidence to indicate that the International Youth Foundation is a sister organization of Laureate that could be used to transfer money to the company. Schweizer points to Douglas Becker to imply that the organizations are linked. However, Becker isn’t paid for his position at the foundation and has no official executive role. In an interview with PolitiFact, Reese of the International Youth Foundation expanded on their relationship with Laureate. ""If we were a subordinate organization we would have to state that in our 990. If we were to transfer money over to Laureate we would have to put that,"" Reese said. ""We’ve received money from Laureate but never given money to them."" Reese stated that the two organizations have worked together on a variety of projects related to global development in the past, such as a relief project for the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The foundation’s records show that it’s been receiving between $100,000 and $1.4 million per year from Laureate since 2003, seven years before Bill Clinton joined Laureate. When we asked about any relationship Bill Clinton had with the International Youth Foundation, Reese said, ""No contractual or employment or consulting agreements have been made with President Clinton."" The foundation’s profile on Charitynavigator.org, a site that ranks nonprofits according to transparency and accountability, shows that it’s a respected charity with a score of 94.26 out of 100 possible points. The foundation has worked with various other high-profile partners such as Nokia and Barclays since 1990. Our ruling Trump said Hillary Clinton ""laundered money to Bill Clinton through Laureate Education, while Bill Clinton was an honorary chairman of the group."" That's a serious of charge of illegal activity. Actually, the State Department under Clinton never made any direct transfers to Laureate Education. Trump’s source conflates Laureate with a separate charitable organization that received funds from a separate government agency. The International Youth Foundation is a respected nonprofit that has received money from the government since the Bush years, before Clinton joined the State Department."
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15946
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"Texas has ""the lowest crime rate in this state since 1968"" because of changes in law regarding nonviolent drug offenders."
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Perry said Texas has its lowest crime rate since 1968 because of changes in law regarding nonviolent drug offenders. In 2013, an index combining Texas rates for property and violent crimes reached its lowest level since 1968. Legislated changes affecting drug offenders surely contributed. But in Texas and nationally, crime has been decreasing for a while, for multiple reasons.
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mixture
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Criminal Justice, Drugs, Crime, Texas, Rick Perry,
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"Changes in law, Rick Perry said, explain why Texas crime is at hippie-era lows. In his last appearance before state lawmakers as governor, the Republican presidential prospect saluted bipartisan efforts to treat alcoholism and drug addiction as diseases. ""Over the years, I came to see our approach to nonviolent drug offenders as flawed,"" Perry said in his Jan. 15, 2015 speech. ""And because of the leadership of Democrats and Republicans, we started to take a new approach."" Lawmakers created local drug courts, Perry said, also creating ""diversion programs that treat alcoholism and drug addiction as a disease and not a moral failing."" ""And because of these changes in policy, we’ve been able to shut down three prisons,"" Perry said. ""Repeat offenses by drug offenders are down and,"" he said to applause, ""the lowest crime rate in this state since 1968."" (His prepared text said ""the crime rate is the lowest it has been since 1968."") Unlock your doors, Texas. But did Perry, governor from late 2000 into early 2015, get all of this right? Asked the basis of Perry’s statement, gubernatorial spokesman Felix Browne emailed us a chart, drawing from FBI-collected data, listing Texas crime rates since 1960. And in 2013, the latest year of available data, Texas had its lowest overall crime index—3,666.5 property and violent crimes per 100,000 residents—since 1968 when the index was 3,478.3, according to the chart. Gauged violent crimes include murder, aggravated assault and rape. Tallied property crimes roll in burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft. Outside looks Criminologists responding to our inquiries agreed Perry’s claim was supported by the total Texas crime index. Also, according to the figures, the state’s 2013 property crime rate, 3,258.20, was the lowest since the 3,208.1 rate for 1968. The state’s violent crime rate, 408.3, (a sliver less than the 408.6 rates of 2011 and 2012) was the lowest since it was 407.7 in 1977. Still, the overall crime index can be overplayed, Carnegie Mellon University expert Alfred Blumstein said by email. We asked him about the meaning of the index after noticing an FBI web page stating the agency hadn’t calculated total crime indexes since about 2004 after advisers concluded the index and a modified index (folding in arson) weren’t ""true indicators of the degrees of criminality because they were always driven upward by the offense with the highest number, typically larceny-theft. The sheer volume of those offenses overshadowed more serious but less frequently committed offenses, creating a bias against a jurisdiction with a high number of larceny-thefts but a low number of other serious crimes such as murder and forcible rape."" Blumstein told us he prefers to focus on individual tabulated crimes, particularly murders and robberies if he’s analyzing violent crimes--""which I think people are much more concerned with."" Then again, Tony Fabelo, the Austin-based research director for the Justice Center, which focuses on public safety issues for the national Council on State Governments, said he had no qualms about anyone stressing the index. Methodological doubts abide in academia, he said by phone. ""However, when a politician talks about the crime rate, they are"" understandably ""using the crime index,"" Fabelo said. National decrease a long-term trend Fabelo suggested other reasons for perspective--starting with the fact that crime in Texas (and the nation) has been on the decline most of the past quarter century, according to the FBI statistics. In 19 of the 24 years from 1990 through 2013, the state’s crime index went down; it last increased in 2009, according to the governor’s chart. In the same years, the violent crime rate decreased in all but three years, most recently in 2002, the chart indicates. Nationally, the FBI says, the 2013 violent crime rate was down 21 percent compared to the rate in 2004 while the property crime rate was 22 percent lower. Texas had a slightly bigger difference; its 2013 violent crime rate was 25 percent less than its 2004 rate; the state’s 2013 property crime rate was 28 percent lower. Generally, Texas Christian University criminologist Michael Bachmann said there are ""different schools of thought why crimes are decreasing nationally and the answer you'll get will vary dependent on which theoretical paradigm the criminologist subscribes to. The range goes from simple demographic changes (aging of the population),"" he emailed, ""and effects of abortion legislation to better policing, security and surveillance technology (esp. cell phones), proactive policing, or mandatory minimum sentencing laws for chronic offenders."" And crimes not tallied by the FBI’s reporting system may merit more attention, Bachmann suggested. Financial fraud, white-collar crimes and crimes solely committed online, he said, are on the rise. Perry’s explanation for Texas rate The governor’s ‘68 reference aside, did the crime rate reduction occur due to the actions he described? Changes were put into law with his support. According to a January 2002 state report by Fabelo, drug diversion courts started in some Texas counties in the 1990s. After Perry became governor in late 2000, he agreed to legislation passed in 2001 requiring nine populous counties, including six counties that already had courts up and running, to establish the courts, the report said. And with Perry’s approval, the 2007 Legislature expanded the mandate to more counties, provided that federal or state funding was available, and authorized similar courts to consider driving-while-intoxicated cases. By email, David Reaboi of Right on Crime, a project of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, noted the closing of a state prison in Sugar Land in 2011 (due to legislated budget cuts, an August 2011 Texas Tribune news story said) and the shutdown in 2013 of two privately-run correctional facilities, which the Tribune attributed to a tighter budget and fewer inmates. Reaboi also noted a September 2012 report by the Council of State Governments finding that over the past few years, Texas sent fewer ex-convicts back to prison. From 2000 to 2007, the state’s recidivism rate—reflecting felons who returned to prison within three years after they were discharged or paroled—dropped 22 percent, according to the report, which hailed the decrease as proof that additional rehabilitation and treatment programs were working. Then again, a news story on the report in the Austin American-Statesman said some criminologists also noted the average age of offenders was rising; older people tend to commit fewer crimes. Derek Cohen of Right on Crime guided us to a 2013 state report showing that from 2008 to 2013, the number of adults incarcerated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice dipped, rebounded and then dipped more than before, ultimately hovering around 152,000: Reaboi commented: ""Perry is on firm ground."" Fabelo called drug courts among factors contributing to the index’s decline though, he reminded, those courts only handle a subset of suspected wrongdoers. ""You can never tease out the impact of any specific policies,"" Fabelo said. Blumsteim, speaking generally on Perry’s point, said: ""What he’s taking credit for is very much a national phenomenon and a national trend."" He said it might be more meaningful to compare Texas to other states year by year. Our ruling Perry said Texas has its lowest crime rate since 1968 because of changes in law regarding nonviolent drug offenders. In 2013, an index combining Texas rates for property and violent crimes reached its lowest level since 1968. Legislated changes affecting drug offenders surely contributed. But in Texas and nationally, crime has been decreasing for a while, for multiple reasons. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context."
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11597
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Obese adolescents susceptible to liver disease, studies find
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"This was an alarmist piece that focused on the number of children needinig liver transplants for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The story indicated that testing for the condition was inadequate and that more testing should be done. But the story provided no insight into the magnitude of benefit that might be gained through either weight management or liver transplantation, or the risks or the costs associated with any treatment option. This story engaged in disease mongering, presenting data that exaggerated the prevalence and severity of the condition in children and that provoked fear in the reader. The article says that 2 to 5 percent of kids over age 5 may have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, but then says as many as 10 percent of children and half of obese children have it. ""It"" being a very mild and early form of the condition that may or may not lead to long-term problems. There is a lack of evidence to show whether or not non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a true concern for most people, or whether it is only a concern for some people — and if so, for whom."
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false
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"The costs associated with liver transplantation were not provided beyond the sense that they were out of reach for a family of modest means without medical insurance. The costs associated with the recommendation that pediatricians include liver testing as a routine part of patient care was also not discussed. Lastly – there was no discussion of the costs for behavioral treatment programs designed to better enable children and their families lose weight. All of these approaches have costs; no such costs were explained. The story did not quantify how effective liver transplants are or how effective various treatments are at reducing non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. While the two cases reported on were said to demonstrate relief of symptoms – one child being treated with a liver transplant and the other child being treated with lifestyle change – the story did not indicate how successful either approach was in a broader population. Although it mentioned that the boy who had the liver transplant had not been successful with his weight loss efforts to date, there was no discussion about what that might mean in terms of longer term prognosis for his new liver. While mentioning that one child with cirrhosis was able to reduce the number of medications he needed from 11 to 4, the story did not provide any information about side-effects and potential harms associated with liver transplantation. In addition, the story indicated that this child had failed to lose weight after the transplant, though it failed to discuss that the high dose of steroids after transplant needed to avoid organ rejection likely contributed to this situation. Lastly, as liver transplant just replaces the diseased liver but doesn’t change the underlying circumstance that lead to the condition – the story should have discussed the potential future need for organ replacement. The story mentioned that ‘Some experts think as many as 10 percent of all children and half of those who are obese may suffer from it’. However it neglected to inform the reader about the source of these estimates. And if only some experts believe these numbers to be true, what is the basis of belief for the other experts? Further – while the increased incidence of obesity in children will mean that more children will develop cirrhosis, this does not translate into all of these children requiring liver transplants in order to survive. There is a lack of evidence to show whether or not non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a true concern for most people, or whether it is only a concern for some people — and if so, for whom. This story engaged in disease mongering. Cirrhosis of the liver is a serious condition and though its incidence appears to be on the rise in seriously obese children, liver disease should not be the top concern for parents of children who are overweight or simply obese. The story made it sound as though all children with cirrhosis will require a liver transplant. It presented data that exaggerate the prevalence and severity of the condition in children and provoke fear in the reader. The article says that 2 to 5 percent of kids over age 5 may have NASH, but then says as many as 10 percent of children and half of obese children have it. ""It"" being a very mild and early form of the condition, that may or may not lead to long-term problems. Cirrhosis and the need for liver transplant remain very rare conditions in children. The story included quotes from a number of physicians involved in the treatment of liver disease and liver transplantation as well as quotes from two mothers of patients and one patient himself. The story would have benefited from having a clinician who would have summarized the big picture for readers. The discussion of treatment options for non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver in pediatric patients was way out of balance in this story. It focused on liver transplantation as though that was the appropriate first option. While the story did mention obesity increasing the risk of developing the condition and did wrap up with a vignette about a boy whose condition responded to lifestyle interventions that resulted in weight loss, it failed to discuss what the expectations would be for weight loss to resolve the condition in youngsters. It briefly discussed trials of metformin and vitamin E but gave no details. The story discussed several approaches to treatment. It focused on liver transplantation and indicated that livers were in short supply. It indicated that weight loss was a means to stop progression of the condition and may be an adequate approach. It also mentioned that there are a number of clinical trials being conducted for treatment of cirrhosis. The story captured the exploration of different approaches to tackle the problem. Does not appear to rely on a press release."
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8318
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Italy's daily coronavirus death toll falls, but new cases accelerate.
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Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy rose by 542 on Wednesday, a lower tally than the 604 the day before, but the number of new cases pushed higher to 3,836 compared with a previous 3,039.
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true
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Health News
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The total death toll since the outbreak came to light on Feb. 21 rose to 17,669, the Civil Protection Agency said, the highest in the world. The number of confirmed cases climbed to 139,422, the third highest global tally behind that of the United States and Spain. There were 3,693 people in intensive care on Wednesday against 3,792 on Tuesday — a fifth consecutive daily decline, underscoring growing hopes that the illness is on the retreat thanks to a nationwide lockdown introduced on March 9. Of those originally infected, 26,491 were declared recovered against 24,392 a day earlier.
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7296
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Trial begins in challenge to 4 abortion laws in Virginia.
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A doctor testifying Monday in a lawsuit challenging four abortion-restriction laws in Virginia said abortion is “one of the safest medical procedures that exist.”
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true
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Planned Parenthood, Health, Lawsuits, Abortion, Virginia, Richmond, Womens health, Alabama
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Dr. Mark Nichols, an obstetrician/gynecologist who worked for years as the medical director of a Planned Parenthood chapter in Oregon, testified as the first witness for women’s health groups who are suing Virginia over laws they say are overly restrictive and limit access to abortion in the state. Nichols, during cross-examination by a lawyer for the state, acknowledged that complications, though rare, do occur and sometimes require hospitalization. The trial in federal court in Richmond began as the abortion debate intensifies nationwide. Several states have passed tough new anti-abortion laws, including Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio and Kentucky. The Virginia laws being challenged include a physician-only measure that bars nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants from performing abortions. The lawsuit also seeks to overturn Virginia laws mandating that: —All second-trimester abortions must be performed at an outpatient surgical hospital or general hospital. —Women must get an ultrasound at least 24 hours before the procedure. —Abortion providers who provide five or more first-trimester abortions per month must undergo licensing requirements. Lawyers for the women’s health groups suing Virginia skipped their opening statement and began their case by calling Nichols, who currently serves on the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s national board of directors. Nichols said he believes the laws being challenged in Virginia are not medically necessary. He said the vast majority of abortions are simple procedures that can be done in an office setting and that he has trained many physician’s assistants and nurse practitioners who have done “just as good a job as the physicians” performing abortions. “There’s no medical reason to add these layers of regulation,” he said. During cross-examination by Courtney Paulk, a lawyer for the state, Nichols acknowledged that he formed his opinion about Virginia’s abortion laws without ever observing an abortion in Virginia or ever talking to any abortion providers in the state. He also acknowledged that although there is a low rate of complications during abortions, some more serious complications would require a woman to be hospitalized. Paulk also questioned Nichols in an attempt to show that Virginia is not an outlier when it comes to its physician-only law. Only 16 states allow nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants to perform medication abortions, and only five allow non-physicians to perform suction aspiration abortions. The trial is expected to last about two weeks. U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson will decide the case, not a jury.
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10647
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Aspirin’s heart benefits vary
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This piece presents relative benefits of aspirin for men and women without providing similar context of the risks from daily aspirin use. And the piece provides no absolute figures – only relative. So, for example, it says that “in women, aspirin reduces the rate of stroke blood clots in the brain, the most common type, by 24 percent….in men the daily aspirin cuts heart attack risk by 32 percent.” But 24 percent of what? And 32 percent of what? The journal article upon which the story is based did state the absolute values for both benefits and risks. Those absolute values show that, over about a six and half year period, daily aspirin is predicted to result in 2 fewer strokes and 2.5 more major bleeds per 1000 women; and 8 fewer heart attacks and 3 more major bleeds per 1000 men. To many viewers, those numbers will mean more than 32% or 24%. This meta-analysis of retrospective studies did find that aspirin had different beneficial cardiovascular effects for men and women, and aspirin use was associated with significant bleeding risk for both men and women. When reporting on therapeutic claims, journalists should present the chances for benefit and for harm, and it should be presented in absolute terms, not just in relative terms.
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mixture
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Cost said to be ‘cheap’ but no actual figure of cost was provided. Presented relative risk reductions only; the study upon which the story is based provided calculation of absolute risk reduction, but the story didn’t use it. Harms of treatment mentioned without providing estimate for size of that increased risk. No mention was made that the study reported on was a meta-analysis, retrospective research by definition. What was the quality of the evidence? Quickie consumer soundbite saying that taking a daily aspirin was an insurance policy. The only expert quoted was first author of the study. No mention was made of other means to reduce cardiovascular risk. States that treatment is readily available. Neglects to mention that it is an over-the-counter medication, but most folks know this. This is not a novel treatment. Article points out that aspirin has been in use clinically for 200 years.
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8534
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India set to ship drug sought by Trump for coronavirus.
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India is set to begin shipping the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to the United States where President Donald Trump has touted it as a potential weapon against the coronavirus.
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true
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Health News
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“The first shipments should start next week,” said Sudarshan Jain, secretary general of Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA). India is the world’s largest producer of hydroxychloroquine but last month banned most exports to secure its own supplies, drawing warnings of retaliation from Trump. This week India allowed some exports of the drug and Trump has thanked New Delhi for the decision. Jain said companies in India are ramping up capacity to meet the U.S. demand, including Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, IPCA Laboratories and Cadila Healthcare. Cadila has increased production tenfold to 30 metric tonnes per month and is ready to produce more if needed, Managing Director Sharvil Patel told Reuters. Companies are ramping up while battling a three-week nationwide lockdown India imposed on March 25. Cadila is based in western India’s Gujarat state, a drug production hub where industry insiders say the shutdown has forced companies to contend with supply chain disruptions and worker shortages. “There are 28 manufacturers of hydroxychloroquine in Gujarat,” said H.G. Koshia, a senior drugs department official. “All of them have enhanced production in view of rise in demand.” The IPA’s Jain said firms were confident they could produce adequate quantities to meet both global and domestic demand. “The government is getting a lot of requests from other countries,” Jain noted. India is stocking at least four months’ supply and has agreed to export to at least 30 countries, according to export body Pharmexcil’s estimates. Hydroxychloroquine is unproven as a treatment here but its use has soared as the United States has quickly become the epicentre of the pandemic. U.S. deaths due to coronavirus topped 16,400, while India's death toll stands at 199. here
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3403
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Budget deal puts access to health care above curbing costs.
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The bipartisan budget deal announced in Congress protects access to health care under the Affordable Care Act but it also ditches one of that law’s main cost controls.
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true
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Access to health care, Health, General News, Politics, Business, Steven Mnuchin, Kathleen Sebelius, Barack Obama
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The deal would repeal a cost-control measure in “Obamacare” known as the Cadillac Tax, an unpopular levy on benefit-rich health insurance plans scheduled to take effect in 2022. That means Congress is upsetting the balance between expanding access and controlling costs that former President Barack Obama tried to strike in his signature law, said Kathleen Sebelius, who served as his health secretary. “President Obama thought it was very important to have additional access paid for,” said Sebelius. “This just takes a big step backwards.” The deal was reached in late stage negotiations between congressional leaders and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as part of a broader agreement to keep the government operating past this weekend. As part of the package, the Trump administration would be barred from using its rule-making authority to take certain actions that would destabilize the ACA’s health insurance markets. But it punts on the two biggest consumer health care issues this year: curbing prescription drug costs and ending surprise medical bills. Lawmakers will try again early next year — when another round of budget legislation is due. The Cadillac Tax was intended as a levy on the most generous plans, pegged at 40% of the value above a certain threshold. In 2022 that threshold would have been $11,200 for single coverage and $30,100 for a family plan, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. One in five employers would have been affected. The tax was widely supported by economists and health policy experts, who argued it would help confront the problem of high U.S. health care spending. That’s because employers were expected to scale back their plans or shift costs to workers to avoid paying. Many employers and labor unions opposed it from the beginning. “It could have meant higher deductibles for employees or less choice,” said Cynthia Cox, who leads research on the Obama health law at the Kaiser Foundation. Repeal will “have a positive effect on a lot of people with health insurance coverage.” But critics said taxpayers will be on the hook for more debt, since repeal of the Cadillac tax and two other unpopular “Obamacare” levies is estimated to add about $400 billion to the federal deficit over 10 years. “The Cadillac tax may have resulted in some modest cost increases when it took effect, but what it was actually going to do is reduce health care costs, which would have raised wages,” said Marc Goldwein, of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates for reining in the nation’s $1-trillion deficit. Here’s an overview of some of the other major health care components of the budget deal: — Also repeals the health law’s health insurance tax and its sales tax on medical devices. These taxes were intended to help pay for the cost of expanding coverage under the health law, which currently provides insurance to about 20 million people. Even without these taxes, most of the law’s financing stays in place. —Blocks the Trump administration from issuing regulations that would end the health law’s automatic re-enrollment provision, or from shutting down a state-level workaround called “silver loading,” which has helped stabilize “Obamacare”premiums. —Extends and increases Medicaid funding for U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico.
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35471
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"U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in July 2020 that will lower the price Americans pay for insulin to ""pennies a day."
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"What's true: Trump issued an executive order in July 2020 that was intended to lower the price of insulin for some Americans. What's false: Rather than targeting all diabetic patients nationwide, the directive was written to help low-income diabetes patients of certain community clinics, who are uninsured or underinsured, to buy insulin at reduced prices. Also, no verifiable evidence suggests that the lower costs would amount to ""pennies a day"" for anyone. What's undetermined: Exactly how much money some diabetes patients could save on insulin daily as a result of the directive is unknown because the order did not outline specifics, including when or how it would be implemented."
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mixture
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Politics, COVID-19
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Sitting in front of a mock pharmacy and flanked by people in white lab coats, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders on July 24, 2020, that he framed as end-all solutions for Americans who struggle to pay high premium prices for prescription drugs. Of one of the directives, specifically, Trump told a crowd of supporters and reporters at the ceremony: Under this order, the price of insulin for affected patients will come down to just pennies a day — pennies a day from numbers that you weren’t even able to think about. It’s a massive cost savings. News outlets such as The New York Times and Washington Post described the signing event like it was largely symbolic, since the executive orders are unlikely to take effect this year, if at all (we explain more below). Meanwhile, at least two conservative media sources, Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire and CNSNews — which claims to balance “liberal bias” in mainstream news with its coverage — reported on the president’s pledge to slash prescription prices at face value, and highlighted the above-mentioned quote by Trump regarding insulin. CNSNews published the story, “Trump Says Executive Order Will Drop the Price of Insulin Down to Pennies a Day,” which mainly quoted the president verbatim, and numerous Snopes readers reached out to us to investigate the claim’s accuracy. Namely, diabetic patients wondered whether they would indeed pay less for insulin syringes or insulin cartridges for their pens or pumps because of the president. According to a Congressional analysis in September 2019, insulin averaged $34.75 per dose in the U.S. — a total that’s almost 2.5 times higher than the average price in other countries. First, we’ll lay out what was unequivocally true: Trump issued Executive Order on Access to Affordable Life-saving Medications during the July 24, 2020, signing event, and that directive authorized the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to make certain changes regarding the cost of EpiPens for Americans with severe allergies and the cost of insulin for those who suffer from diabetes, specifically. It stated: The price of insulin in the United States has risen dramatically over the past decade. … While Americans with diabetes and severe allergic reactions may have access to affordable insulin and injectable epinephrine through commercial insurance or Federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, many Americans still struggle to purchase these products. Here’s some more context: Medicare, the federal program that covers the majority of Americans over age 65 and those with disabilities, offers plans that help diabetic patients cover the cost of some insulin products. Meanwhile, policies for Medicaid, the government-run health insurance system for low-income people, vary state by state — variances that include whether or not the program covers the cost of diabetic enrollees’ insulin, or to what extent. Trump’s directive pertained to “federally qualified health centers” (FQHC), which are about 1,400 community health care clinics nationwide that treat low-income patients on sliding fee scales and purchase discounted drugs from pharmaceutical companies under an existing federal program, known as 340B. The July 2020 executive order was worded like this: In other words, the president’s order requires participants of the 340B Program to offer insulin at greatly reduced prices to patients with no or little insurance coverage, without providing specifics on how or when the change would take effect. Advisory Board, a news site for health care providers, said in a statement: “Only patients with low incomes; those with high cost-sharing requirements for insulin or epinephrine; those with high, unmet deductibles; and/or those without health insurance would be eligible for the discount.” A news release from the HHS said: This will increase access to life-saving insulin and epinephrine for the patients who face especially high costs among the 28 million patients who visit FQHCs every year, over six million of whom are uninsured. For perspective, about 34.2 million Americans had diabetes as of 2018, which represented about 10.5 percent of the population, according to the American Diabetes Association. So, hypothetically, if the same proportion of people had diabetes within the FQHC population of 28 million patients (a total reported by the HHS), then Trump’s executive order could help about 2.9 million people, depending on whether their insurance already covers the treatment. So to recap, in regard to the claim in question, it was true to state Trump signed an executive order in July 2020 that aimed to make it easier for low-income diabetic patients to pay for insulin. But nowhere in the federal document did the presidential administration explain its plan for implementing the change, nor the level to which insulin prices would drop. There was no proof that the order would allow any American to someday pay “pennies a day” on the protein hormone. We should note here: In addition to that previously explained executive order, a separate directive signed by Trump on July 24, 2020, touched on a yet-to-be-finalized initiative by the White House to relax international drug importation rules and added insulin to a list of prescription medications that can be imported from Canada. The president characterized that directive, too, as a positive step for people who want lower insulin costs.
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9978
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Fecal Occult Stool Tests for Colorectal Cancer Screening
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In this brief story, the reporter describes three available fecal occult stool tests used to detect colorectal cancer. The story compares the three on such dimensions as false positives and reductions in cancer deaths. Since the story is largely descriptive, it is unfortuante that one of the important variables missing from the text is cost; the story only notes that these procedures are covered by Medicare. Readers also would have benefited from a more detailed discussion of each procedure’s debits, as well as of the nature of evidence used to determine each procedure’s accuracy. Although most Americans know that a colonoscopy is the gold standard for detecting colorectal cancer, many find prepping for the procedure to be so distasteful that avoidance is a real problem. Fecal stool tests can be a reasonable “plan B” for individuals who need an alternative, as long as folks are aware of the constraints that accompany these tests. Colon cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death for both men and women, and only removal of premalignant polyps during colonoscopy actually prevents it. These tests, if they reveal something suspicious, will still trigger the need for a colonoscopy.
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mixture
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U.S. News & World Report
|
Cost should be a prominent part of this story, as the narrative is engaged in offering comparative advice about procedures, but we only learn, quite late in the story, that Medicare typically covers such screening. The costs are the key for some patients, especially those with high deductible plans. According to the Healthcare Bluebook, the fair price for a screening colonoscopy is $1383, while stool testing for blood is $46. We could not find FIT on the Blue Book website but found prices online of $99. Each of the three tests varies in its ability to catch problems early enough to avoid dying of colon cancer, and this story briefly mentions that variance, with some data for two of the three procedures. Although the possibility of false positives exists for each test, the writer gets specific about that for only one of them, the FIT-DNA test. Also, colonoscopy comes with a risk of perforation during biopsy procedures. The reader will encounter little information about evidence, aside from a mention that, for the Cologuard FIT-DNA test, no long-term studies have been completed. That leads to inferences that the other two tests have survived long-term testing, but have they? While this story was not necessarily meant to be a review of the evidence, some discussion of how rigorous the research is for each test would help readers make informed decisions. Detecting signs of colorectal cancer is important. The two sources commenting on the tests both have received money from Genentech, which makes cancer drugs, and is involved in the business of cancer DNA testing. Comparison is the point of the story, and the text does a good job of this. These are all available as noted, and Medicare coverage is explained, which is helpful. This was a review of the current diagnostic tools for colon cancer, not a new test, so we’ll rate this N/A. Such a comparison story is unlikely to stem from a press release.
|
11090
|
'Scoring System' May Spot Those in Greatest Need of Colonoscopy; But one expert cautions that even 'low risk' patients can still develop suspicious polyps
|
Can a new scoring system help some people avoid a colonoscopy?This is an important story that touches on all sorts of issues involved in public health, including how to best to screen for a disease that takes a terrible toll, how to determine who is at highest risk and how to get the best use out of a test (colonoscopy) that is both expensive and invasive. The story does a good job summarizing the study authors’ efforts to devise a scoring algorithm that might answer some of those questions, but makes only perfunctory references to cost and doesn’t acknowledge the long history of similar calculators that have been developed and never widely used. That’s pertinent context for this new effort. Despite leaving some room for improvement, the story makes a strong effort at interpreting a relatively simple algorithm with complex ramifications, and draws on two outside experts for perspective — something we wish more stories would take the time to do. The concept of “risk stratification” — which is what this story and the related research paper address — is difficult for physicians and patients alike. Risk prediction tools are often created and then not used by physicians because they are cumbersome or their use historically has not been incorporated into guidelines because they have important limitations, including that even low-risk people still sometimes develop the cancer or condition. Since this new tool appears to suffer from these same limitations, it’s not clear if it will fare any differently than previous efforts, but the issue is worth exploring.
|
true
|
Cancer,HealthDay,Screening
|
The question of cost is cited in the final line of the story, which suggests that the scoring system can “address escalating health care cost issues.” But we didn’t think that was specific enough to warrant a Satisfactory score. The story doesn’t clue readers in to the fact that the financial burden can be measured in billions of dollars — a single screening test recommended for millions of Americans can cost thousands of dollars apiece. The other cost issue specific to this test is that it takes valuable time for providers to retrieve a reputable risk calculator when sitting with a patient and enter in the specific data points, including in this case waist circumference, which clinicians often do not measure as a ‘vital sign’ per se. The story cites a study that credits colonoscopy with reducing the risk of death from colon cancer by about 50 percent, by removing polyps. It would have been helpful for the story to explain what that relative reduction in risk means in absolute terms (e.g. did the rate of cancer death go from 50% to 25% or from 2% to around 1%?) The story also notes that the study found that patients with a low to intermediate risk score “still have a risk between of between 1.9 percent to 9.9 percent of harboring a polyp that can develop into cancer.” We’ll give credit here for the story’s provision of these key statistics, which do give a sense as how well the test accurately identifies truly low-risk individuals. However, we’d note that the benefit here should ideally refer to the ability of the algorithm to classify people at all risk levels (including high-risk), and therefore target the highest-risk patients for colonoscopy. The story doesn’t really get into discussion of the predictive power of the test, referred to as a likelihood ratio, which is in the study manuscript. However, this is a difficult concept for most health care providers and patients, and we think it’s understandable that the story did not include a full discussion of this topic. The harm of a screening test such as this really is “getting it wrong” in terms of predicting someone to be at low risk and finding them to have a higher risk polyp or malignancy. As noted above, the story cautions that “low- to intermediate-risk patients still have a risk between of between 1.9 percent to 9.9 percent of harboring a polyp that can develop into cancer.” This story accurately explains that the research was about predictive modeling, and explains the components of the risk score as well as the study design. There are some cautionary notes in the text, including a statement from outside expert that “the data from this study is not strong enough to spur any changes in current screening recommendations,” an opinion shared by an editorialist on the study. We think this is sufficient for a Satisfactory rating. The story does not hype the incidence or seriousness of the disease. The prevalence statistics cited are consistent with these National Cancer Institute figures. The story contains two independent voices. The perspective they provide is a particular strength of the article. We wish that more stories would reach out to experts not affiliated with the studies being reported on for context. The story notes that a variety of screening tests exist, but the relevant alternative here is actually other risk calculators, which the authors of the study describe and cite but are not routinely used. The story doesn’t mention these other calculators and why they are seldom used — context that would have deepened reader understanding of the issue. Although availability isn’t explicitly addressed, this risk calculator is now available (implicitly) by virtue of publication of the paper. It is a simple scoring system that can be implemented based on the information in the paper, and the story makes this clear. We’ll rate this Satisfactory. The story makes it sound as if this is a first-of-its-kind tool. However, risk calculation tools for colon cancer have been in circulation for many years. We could not find a news release related to this study. But in any case, the comments from two independent experts assure us that the story wasn’t based on a news release.
|
33863
|
Richard Gere was taken to a hospital emergency room to have a gerbil removed from his rectum.
|
Sightings: Look for some tongue-in-cheek references to the Gere-bil in the 1996 film Scream. Also, passing mention is made to this rumor during a student bull session in 1998’s Urban Legend. As well, in an episode of television’s The Vicar of Dibley (“The Easter Bunny”; original air date 8 April 1996), Geraldine (Dawn French) remarks upon Richard Gere’s sexiness by saying she wouldn’t have minded being the hamster.
|
false
|
Risqué Business, bestiality
|
The following is a true account: A 26-year-old male arrives at the ER complaining of rectal bleeding. He is too embarrassed to provide an accurate history but provides the examing doctor a clue: “There might be something stuck in my rear end.” Examination reveals a non-tender abdomen, but a rectal exam shows blood coming from his anus. A speculum exam reveals bloody stool and a dead gerbil. Apparently, through the cardboard tubing from a paper towel roll, the rodent had been forced into his rectum. Once the animal was in, the tube was pulled out. The idea is that as the gerbil suffocates, it scratches and claws at the lining of the rectum, providing an intense sensation to the patient. The rodent should then have been defecated, but the swelling and bleeding had caused the retention of the animal. The patient required pain medication and antibiotics after the animal was removed, but was then allowed to go home. Contrary to widespread public belief, “gerbil-stuffing” (i.e., placing a live gerbil or other rodent up one’s rectum for sexual pleasure) is unknown as an actual sexual practice, nor are we aware of a verified medical case of a gerbil having been extracted from a patient’s rectum. Despite the assiduousness with which doctors record unusual items removed from patients’ rectums in order to write them up as illustrative cases, we haven’t yet found a medical journal article involving a gerbil removal. (Doctors, like most people, often repeat urban legends and stories told to them by others as first-person experiences, hence our standard for declaring this true is a peer-reviewed journal article rather than anecdote.) The notion of gerbilling (not necessarily restricted to homosexuals, as the insertion of items into the rectum for purposes of autoeroticism is practiced by heterosexuals as well) appears to be pure invention, a tale fabricated to demonstrate the depravity with which some allegedly pursue sexual pleasure. (While people do stick all sorts of unusual items up their rectums, they also do so for reasons other than sexual pleasure.) Like similar legends such as The Promiscuous Rock Star, this tale has been applied to various public figures who are known or believed to be homosexual, and it has stuck with one in particular: Richard Gere. Although the legend homed in on various targets when it first appeared (including a Philadelphia newscaster), it has clung tenaciously to Mr. Gere’s name since at least the mid-1980s. Rumors that he had an emergency “gerbilectomy” at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in California have spread far and wide, and countless doctors and nurses claim to have participated in, been on hand during, or heard from a reliable colleague about, the procedure. (Cedars-Sinai is apparently the best-staffed hospital in the world, since literally thousands of different doctors and nurses claim to have been on duty at the time Mr. Gere was allegedly brought in for treatment.) The rumor’s spread was aided by an anonymous prankster who, not long after the film Pretty Woman led to a tremendous increase in Gere’s popularity, flooded fax machines in Hollywood with a phony “press release” purportedly issued by the Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, claiming that Gere had “abused” a gerbil. But, as a reporter from the National Enquirer found when he attempted to track down the gerbil story, there were no facts to be had. Versions of the following gerbilling fiction date back at least to 1993 when a faked United Press International item appeared on the Internet, one that named Vito Bustone and Kiki Rodriguez of Lake City, Florida, as the accident victims. (The gerbil’s name was withheld by request of the family.) Other versions have been falsely attributed to the Los Angeles Times with the events said to have taken place in Salt Lake City, Utah. Rest assured that neither news outlet ever published a news article about these fictitious events: “In retrospect, lighting the match was my big mistake. But I was only trying to retrieve the gerbil,” Eric Tomaszewski told bemused doctors in the Severe Burns Unit of Salt Lake City Hospital. Tomaszewski, and his homosexual partner Andrew “Kiki” Farnum, had been admitted for emergency treatment after a felching session had gone seriously wrong. “I pushed a cardboard tube up his rectum and slipped Raggot, our gerbil, in,” he explained. “As usual, Kiki shouted out ‘Armageddon,’ my cue that he’d had enough. I tried to retrieve Raggot but he wouldn’t come out again, so I peered into the tube and struck a match, thinking the light might attract him.” At a hushed press conference, a hospital spokesman described what happened next. “The match ignited a pocket of intestinal gas and a flame shot out the tube, igniting Mr. Tomaszewski’s hair and severely burning his face. It also set fire to the gerbil’s fur and whiskers which in turn ignited a larger pocket of gas further up the intestine, propelling the rodent out like a cannonball.” Tomaszewski suffered second degree burns and a broken nose from the impact of the gerbil, while Farnum suffered first and second degree burns to his anus and lower intestinal tract.
|
242
|
U.S. lawmakers grill e-cigarette maker Juul over efforts targeted at schoolchildren.
|
E-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc funded a “holistic health education” camp as part of efforts to market directly to school-aged children, members of a U.S. congressional panel said on Thursday, citing internal company documents.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Democrats on a subcommittee of the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform released a cache of internal Juul emails and other documents that committee staff described as early attempts to “enter schools and convey its messaging directly to teenage children.” Juul’s use of social media influencers to promote its vaping devices in the years after it launched in 2015 also came under scrutiny. James Monsees, Juul’s co-founder and chief product officer, told the committee that the company’s target audience from the beginning has been adult cigarette smokers. Among efforts cited in the Juul documents released were a $134,000 payment to set up a five-week “holistic health education” summer camp at a Maryland charter school, recruiting children from third through 12th grades, and offering $10,000 to schools using the company’s “youth prevention and education” programs for students, including those caught using e-cigarette products. “You don’t think that sounds strange at all?” Representative Katie Hill, a Democrat, asked Juul’s chief administrative officer, Ashley Gould. “All of these educational efforts were intended to keep youth from using the product,” Gould responded. When Juul realized how the school involvement could be perceived as negative, “we stopped the program,” she said. In a statement after the hearing, Juul said the $134,000 donation was to “facilitate already-existing community outreach and youth-prevention programs,” and said the company “did not have any direct interaction with the students.” Several committee members said Juul’s initiatives appeared similar to past efforts by the tobacco industry to reach young people under the guise of smoking prevention programs. Gould said Juul, which is 35 percent owned by Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc (MO.N), halted its program last year once it became aware of the tobacco industry’s past moves. Caleb Mintz, 17, a New York city high school student, testified at a separate hearing on Wednesday that a Juul representative came to his school as part of an educational program on mental health and addiction last year. He said in an interview Thursday that students received “mixed messages” about the product, being told it was safe but not to buy it. Mintz said after the hearing that the Juul presentation seemed to be “playing to the side of teens as rebellious. When a teen is told not to do something, they’re more likely to do it.” Members of the committee also quizzed Gould and Monsees over the use of social media influencers to promote Juul’s vaping devices. Company executives early on agreed that “younger consumers age 25 to 34 was going to be the target of our initial campaign,” Monsees said. “They would be more receptive to new technology solutions,” such as the Juul device. Amid an enormous uptick in teenage use of e-cigarettes in 2018 — a 78% increase among high school students from 2017 to 2018, according to federal data — Juul said it ended all social media advertising last fall. Juul also pulled many flavored nicotine pods, except mint, menthol and tobacco, from retail stores, which Monsees said represented more than half of the company’s sales at that time.
|
21178
|
The Christian Coalition gave (Adam) Hasner an F.
|
"Hasner did receive an ""F"" grade from the Christian Coalition in 2007, but LeMieux's video leaves out important details of Hasner's record."
|
mixture
|
Gambling, Religion, Voting Record, Florida, George LeMieux,
|
"Is Republican U.S. Senate candidate Adam Hasner a failure according to the Christian Coalition? That's what one of Hasner's primary opponents, George LeMieux, wants voters to think. A video we saw on LeMieux's website, www.phonyconservative.com, on Oct. 5, 2011, picks apart Hasner's record as a former state legislator: ""In politics talk is cheap. Voting records matter. Career politician Adam Hasner wants you to think he is a conservative,"" states the sinister voice as images of Hasner speaking in the Legislature appear on the screen. ""Small problem. His record. Hasner used to describe himself as a 'moderate' because his support for stem cell research, his attempt to weaken pro-life laws and his opposition to expanding school vouchers. The Christian Coalition gave Hasner an F...."" states the voice as the screen flashes to a 2007 report card highlighting that Hasner scored 57.1. In a related Truth-O-Meter item, we looked into LeMieux's accusations that Hasner tried to weaken pro-life laws and opposed expanding vouchers. Here we're wondering about that ""F"" for Hasner, who is trying to tout his conservative credentials. Ouch. Does this LeMieux claim make the grade? The Christian Coalition of Florida is a conservative organization that takes stances on several social and economic issues -- including opposing abortion, gay marriage and pornography. The organization publishes a report card of state legislators annually and grades them on multiple issues and gives legislators an ""x"" when they vote against the Coalition's stance and a checkmark if they vote in favor of the Coalition's stance. The Coalition then tallies the legislator's votes and calculates a numerical grade. For example, the 2009 report card evaluated how legislators voted on bills pertaining to bestiality, criminal history screening for sports coaches, Internet safety at public libraries, preventing homelessness and other laws. Hasner was elected in 2002 and served until 2010. As of Oct. 27, 2011, the Coalition hadn't yet posted a 2010 report card so we examined Hasner's report cards for 2003 to 2009: 2003: 83 2003-04: 82 2005: 100 2005-06: 92.3 2007: 57.1 2008: 100 2009: 78.6 Some of the report cards overlap. For instance, the Christian Coalition evaluated legislators in 2003 and then created a two-year scorecard for 2003 and 2004. The same for 2005 and 2005-06. We could not reach anyone from the Christian Coalition by telephone or e-mail for an explanation of the overlapping years. A note about the Coalition's status: It still exists but is for now is operating under the same leadership as the Florida Faith and Freedom Coalition, said Brett Doster, a board member of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Doster founded Front Line Strategies, a public relations firm in Tallahassee that works with conservative candidates and organizations. Because some votes essentially are counted twice, we can't create an average score for Hasner during his time in the Legislature. However, Hasner got a perfect 100 percent twice and scored an ""A"" in a third year. He has two ""B"" years, one ""C"" and one ""F."" That's the ""F"" LeMieux is talking about. So what happened that year? The Christian Coalition gave Hasner an ""F"" for voting in favor of a slew of gambling measures that the coalition opposed. Hasner was at odds with the coalition on six of 14 votes. Hasner voted in favor of these gambling bills in 2007: Senate Bill 134: Allows cardrooms to conduct games of dominoes Senate Bill 500: Provides requirements for operation of instant bingo games Senate Bill 752: Revises hours of operation for card rooms House Bill 1047 and Amendment to House bill 1047: A pro-slot machine gaming measure Amendment to Senate Bill 1376: The bill itself granted the Department of Lottery authority to obtain patents. Hasner adviser Rick Wilson pointed out that LeMieux cannot cast himself as an opponent of gaming. LeMieux, a former chief of staff to Gov. Charlie Crist, helped shape the state's gaming deal with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times reported April 23, 2011. But that's not what we're checking here. The LeMieux video correctly states that Hasner received an ""F"" from the Christian Coalition. But that only accounts for one-seventh of Hasner's report cards from the coalition. To provide an accurate picture requires examining all of his report cards. Also, the video's statement about the Christian Coalition grade is preceded by claims about Hasner's stances on stem cell research, abortion and school vouchers and it could create a false impression that those are the reasons the Christian Coalition gave him an F. But that wasn't the case. The Coalition flunked Hasner in 2007 due to his pro-gambling votes. And the Coalition wasn't exactly impressed with the rest of the House either -- it gave state representatives on average the equivalent of a D-minus that year. Failing grades were passed out to Republican Reps. Carlos Lopez-Cantera (now majority leader) and Jennifer Carroll (now lieutenant governor). Our ruling Hasner did receive an ""F"" grade from the Christian Coalition in 2007, but LeMieux's video leaves out important details of Hasner's record."
|
4340
|
Colorado middle school to be tested for tuberculosis.
|
Students and staff at a middle school in the Denver area will be tested for tuberculosis after prior screening showed positive results for the infection.
|
true
|
Colorado, Health, Aurora, Denver, Tuberculosis
|
The Denver Post reports that all pupils and staff members at Aurora Hills Middle School will be tested as a precaution after the infection was revealed in January test results. No one has developed the illness despite the positive tests at the school about nine miles outside of Denver. Treatment will be provided for those who those who tested positive for the infection. Denver Public Health will provide free skin tests at the school March 4-5 at the school and at the Denver Metro Tuberculosis Clinic for those who cannot attend the school screenings. Tuberculosis spreads through airborne germs and can be deadly if untreated. ___ Information from: The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com
|
36
|
J&J CEO spurns U.S. congressional hearing on carcinogens in talc products.
|
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) Chief Executive Officer Alex Gorsky has declined to appear at a U.S. congressional hearing set for Tuesday on the safety of the company’s Baby Powder and other talc-based cosmetics.
|
true
|
Health News
|
"In an announcement, the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy said that its efforts to persuade Gorsky to testify included “repeated attempts to accommodate the company” over nearly a month. Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, chairman of the House panel investigating concerns about cancer-causing asbestos in cosmetic talc and powders, said he was disappointed Gorsky turned down the invitation. “Mr. Gorsky refuses to speak to the Subcommittee under oath, yet he has not refrained from making multiple public comments on the topic,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement. J&J spokesman Ernie Knewitz said that the subcommittee had rejected the company’s offers to send a talc testing expert or a J&J executive in charge of consumer products. Gorsky “is not, as we have repeatedly told the Subcommittee, an expert in the stated subject of the hearing,” Knewitz said. “We have respectfully declined the invitation for our CEO to testify.” Knewitz said that the composition of the hearing, which includes two experts who have testified for plaintiffs against J&J, also factored into the company’s decision. Gorsky has played a lead role in J&J’s efforts to reassure consumers and investors that its talc powders are safe and asbestos free. Last year, he issued a statement vouching for the safety of the products after a jury issued a $4.69 billion verdict in favor of 22 women who sued over allegations their ovarian cancers were caused by J&J powders. Gorsky appeared on CNBC's ""Mad Money with Jim Cramer"" and in a video posted on J&J's website to rebut a December 2018 Reuters report here that the company knew for decades about the presence of small amounts of asbestos in its talc and powders. “Since tests for asbestos in talc were first developed, J&J’s Baby Powder has never contained asbestos,” Gorsky said in the video. In October, Gorsky testified in a depositihere in a lawsuit filed by an Indiana man, saying, ""We unequivocally believe that our talc and our baby powder does not contain asbestos."" J&J faces more than 16,000 similar lawsuits. Concerns over asbestos in talc cosmetics have grown in recent months as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that the carcinogen had been found in several products, including a bottle of Baby Powder. J&J said it recalled 33,000 bottles of Baby Powder “out of an abundance of caution.” Later, J&J said labs it hired found no asbestos - other than some contamination it blamed on an air conditioner - in samples from the same Baby Powder bottle and its production lot. The FDA has said it stands by its finding. Chief executives of companies embroiled in controversies routinely comply with lawmakers’ invitations to testify. In recent months, the CEOs of Boeing (BA.N) and Facebook (FB.O) have appeared before congressional committees to answer questions about how their companies were safeguarding consumers. Charles M. Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware, said CEOs have a responsibility to go to Washington when Congress calls, just like other citizens. But Elson said Gorsky’s pass was understandable. He said the CEO and his advisers probably figured that the downside was greater to testifying than not. “It’s being invited in for a punch in the nose,” Elson said. For Gorsky, “nothing good will come out of it.”"
|
1558
|
Work on sex life of rats, life as a badger honored at Ig Nobel Prizes.
|
Scientific research into how polyester pants affect the sex life of rats, what it’s like for a human to live like a badger and how different the world looks when viewed through your legs was honored at this year’s Ig Nobel spoof awards.
|
true
|
Science News
|
The group also took a dig at Volkswagen AG, lauding it in chemistry for engineering its vehicles to produce fewer emissions “whenever the cars are being tested.” The prizes will be awarded for a 26th straight year at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Thursday by a group of actual Nobel Prize winners, and are intended to honor accomplishments in science and humanities that make one laugh, then think. “The prizes are for something pretty unusual,” said Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, and host of the awards. “Almost any other kind of award is for the best or worst. Best or worst is irrelevant to us.” Timeliness is also of limited consideration: The Ig Nobel Reproduction Prize went to the late Ahmed Shafik of Egypt, who died in 2007, for a 1993 paper documenting that rats who wore polyester or polyester-cotton blend pants were less sexually active than those who wore cotton or wool pants or conformed to rat norms and wore no garments of any kind. The paper suggested that “electrostatic fields” created by polyester pants could play a role in impotence. “We have never heard of anybody else who carefully spent time examining what happens sexually to rats if you put pants on them,” Abrahams said. Two Britons split this year’s Biology Ig Nobel. Oxford University fellow Charles Foster, was honored for his book “Being a Beast,” chronicling his experiments in living as a badger, including digging a den to sleep in and eating worms. Countryman Thomas Thwaites’ work was in a similar vein; he built a set of prosthetic leg extensions to try living like a goat in Switzerland. Japan’s Atsuki Higashiyama and Kohei Adachi were granted the Perception Ig Nobel for a paper on how objects look different when one bends over and views them through one’s legs. Volkswagen’s award was more ignominious, going to the company for equipping its vehicles with a “defeat device,” which activated the emission controls of an engine undergoing government tests and deactivated them afterward. VW has already agreed to spend up to $16.5 billion to address U.S. environmental, state and owner claims.
|
26552
|
“In Chicago, Covid-19 actually LOWERED the death rate.”
|
A Facebook post shared over 2,000 times claimed that COVID-19 lowered the death rate in Chicago. But an analysis of cases from the Cook County Medical Examiner suggests the opposite. Deaths in Chicago increased in March 2020 compared to previous years, despite a decline in murders.
|
false
|
Crime, Wisconsin, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
|
"As the coronavirus forces people across the country to stay indoors, questions have emerged over how the pandemic is impacting crime rates. It’s a debate of particular significance to cities like Chicago, which is accustomed to high levels of violent crime. As of April 1, 2020, the virus sickened over 3,000 people in Chicago and killed 39 — even as Illinois officials attempt to contain the spread through a stay-at-home order. But a March 22, 2020, Facebook post that accumulated more than 2,200 shares took it one step further. ""In Chicago, Covid-19 actually LOWERED the death rate,"" the post stated, over a background of laughing emojis. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Murders in Chicago decreased in March 2020 compared to years prior, but officials have yet to attribute that shift to COVID-19. And overall, deaths don’t appear to be declining. The first case of COVID-19 arrived in Illinois in January after a 60-year-old Chicago woman returned from Wuhan, China — where the virus originated — but like many states did not see a surge in cases until March. Illinois reported its first death on March 17, a patient who was a Chicago resident. The most recent available numbers on deaths in Chicago come from the Cook County Medical Examiner, which takes cases that require additional investigation to determine a cause of death. If someone was under the care of a doctor when they died, that case wouldn’t necessarily go to the medical examiner because the doctor can sign off on their death certificate. So it’s important to note that information from the medical examiner doesn’t encompass all deaths in Chicago. But it does provide a valuable snapshot. The examiner’s office handled 413 deaths in Chicago in March, according to its case archive as of April 2. At least 11 of them were tied to COVID-19, while other causes of death ranged from gunshot wounds to cardiovascular disease. In March 2019, by comparison, the medical examiner saw 279 deaths in Chicago. There were 301 Chicago cases in March 2018 and 306 in March 2017. These numbers show the virus doesn’t appear to be decreasing deaths as the Facebook post suggested. Instead, officials say it's likely the opposite. ""The uptick you are seeing is a direct correlation to the rise in COVID-19 cases,"" said Natalia Derevyanny, director of communications for the Cook County Bureau of Administration. Chicago sees high rates of gun violence largely tied to gang conflict. Given its reputation, this Facebook post implies that the virus is ultimately saving lives because people are inside and not on the streets. The poster did not respond to a request for comment. According to the Chicago Police Department, the city saw 24 homicides in March, a decrease from 35 in March of last year. But shootings and shooting victims for the month jumped roughly 6% and 5%, respectively. The department declined to say whether it attributes the decrease in homicides to COVID-19. According to the Chicago Tribune, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been hesitant to draw a line between the virus and crime. ""We can’t specifically say that the crime rate is affected by coronavirus,"" Lightfoot said. ""But obviously what we know going back many, many years and looking at data is that when large congregations of people are outside in neighborhoods where gun violence is prevalent, that increases the risk."" A footnote: In Milwaukee — another city plagued by gun violence — there were more homicides in March 2020 than March 2019, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s homicide tracker. A Facebook post shared by more than 2,000 people claimed that in Chicago, COVID-19 has lowered the death rate. But numbers from the Cook County Medical Examiner do not indicate that deaths in Chicago decreased in March as COVID-19 started to ravage Illinois. In fact, the data suggest the opposite — more deaths, despite a decrease in murders reported by Chicago police."
|
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