claim_id
stringlengths 1
234
| claim
stringlengths 14
491
| explanation
stringlengths 1
4.18k
| label
stringclasses 5
values | subjects
stringlengths 0
223
| main_text
stringlengths 18
41.7k
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
11405
|
Computers help docs spot breast cancer on X-rays
|
This well-reported story on a study of computer-aided detection (CAD) of problems found in mammograms follows most health journalism best practices. But two related flaws, and one contextual issue, prevent it from providing a higher level of reader service. As the ratings above show, the reporter provides necessary information about evidence and outcomes, and does an excellent job with sourcing. It communicates very clearly the conclusion that one radiologist using CAD appears to be as effective in identifying cancers as two radiologists reading the same images. The flaw is that the story fails to compare the benefit of these practices to the most common method of diagnosis used in the U.S.–a single reading by one radiologist. The published study itself reveals that double readings have been shown to be 4 to 14 percent more effective at detection than single readings, with a meta-analysis showing a 10 percent advantage. Combined with the report’s failure to directly compare costs of single-reader, double-reader and single-reader-with-CAD methods, the reader isn’t able to understand the real trade-offs facing the U.S. medical system: the cost of missed cancers vs. the cost of additional technology. And finally, when dealing with mammography it’s important for reporters to understand the underlying challenge is not simply to identify cancers, but to identify the cancers that matter. It has not been demonstrated that diagnosing more cases of breast cancer reduces mortality or incidence of invasive cancers. This fact is always worth mentioning in stories about the benefits of cancer detection.
|
true
|
The story should have stated how much CAD costs per mammogram, and how that compares to the costs of a radiologist or technician providing a second reading of the images. The story quotes a researcher saying cost-effectiveness needs to be studied. This should have triggered additional reporting comparing costs. The story says Medicare pays $15 per CAD reading, but this does not indicate whether this covers costs. The story does a good job of describing the methodology and the outcomes in terms readers can understand. The study results showed that the recall rates–the percentage of women brought back for a second mammogram–was signficantly higher with CAD than with double readings (3.9 percent vs. 3.5 percent). Yet CAD discovered no more cancers. These additional mammograms without more accurate diagnosis can produce increased anxiety and potentially more biopsies. The report should have mentioned this. This news report is based on a peer-reviewed study published in a top-tier medical journal. The underlying study itself is a randomized, blinded trial involving about 30,000 women. The story does nothing to exaggerate either the prevalence or severity of breast cancer, or the benefits of CAD. The reporter quotes the article itself, the lead author, a breast cancer clinician at a major teaching hospital, a medical society’s breast cancer expert, and a clinician who uses CAD in his practice. This is excellent sourcing. The story reports the study’s funding, as well as two of the researchers’ links to CAD makers. The story clearly compares the options of having two human readers of mammograms against one reader using CAD. Yet the reporter fails to compare the value of these methods with those when a single human reader is used, which remains the common practice in the U.S. The study reports that double readings have been shown to be 4 to 14 percent more effective in detecting cancers than single readings, with a recent meta-analysis showing a 10 percent advantage to double reading. This context would have been very valuable, to demonstrate that U.S. diagnostic practices miss a lot of cancers. The story states that computer-aided dectection (CAD) of breast cancer is used for about a third of mammograms in the U.S. This implies availability at more specialized facilities and teaching hospitals. A more direct statement of this would have been useful. But the story meets minimum standards under this criterion. The story says CAD is used for about one-third of mammograms in the U.S. and is likely to be used more as digital imaging becomes more widespread. The report does not appear to draw on the press release.
|
|
13194
|
"Chris Koster ""opposed protecting the women of Missouri"" because he ""was one of only four senators to vote against"" a bill ending the practice of making rape victims pay for their own rape kits."
|
Our ruling Greitens says Koster voted against a 2007 bill requiring the state to pay for rape victims’ medical exams. Greitens says Koster voted against a 2007 bill requiring the state to pay for rape victims’ medical exams. In reality, the bill did more than that. In reality, the bill did more than that. Koster says he objected to wording that made it possible for convicted murderers to be granted parole by claiming they were victims of domestic abuse. Koster said the language made it possible for murderers to manufacture evidence to be released before the completion of their sentence. Koster says he objected to wording that made it possible for convicted murderers to be granted parole by claiming they were victims of domestic abuse. Koster said the language made it possible for murderers to manufacture evidence to be released before the completion of their sentence. Greitens is cherry-picking one part of the legislation to paint his opponent as soft on domestic abuse.
|
mixture
|
Crime, Women, Missouri, Eric Greitens,
|
"In a September press release, Eric Greitens, Missouri’s Republican candidate for governor, said his opponent, Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, voted against legislation protecting women from sexual assault and domestic violence. Greitens said Koster voted against a 2007 bill mandating that the state pay for ""rape kit"" medical exams, not the victim of the assault. Koster was a state senator at the time the bill was proposed."" Chris Koster is always quick to tout his ‘experience.’ But he is totally silent about his record on issues related to sex crimes and violence against women, probably because it is so bad,"" the release reads. It continues: ""He opposed protecting the women of Missouri."" We wanted to know more about Koster’s stance on the bill, so we decided to investigate Greitens’ claim. More about the bill The legislation, House Bill 583, became law. Besides mandating that the state paid for rape kits, the bill also classified repeated instances of first-degree domestic assault as a Class A felony and established a designated address for sexual assault victims in order to protect their privacy. Greitens is right — Koster was one of four senators who voted against the bill. The Senate passed it with a vote of 29-4. It passed in the House 133-19. But Greitens’ release doesn’t provide the full story. We reached out to Koster’s campaign, who sent us a statement about why Koster opposed the bill. ""The idea Attorney General Koster wants rape victims to pay for their own rape kits is beyond ludicrous,"" the statement read. ""This bill contained a blanket provision that could allow convicted murderers whose trials occurred decades earlier to get out of prison, based on potentially manufactured evidence. He couldn't support that and for that reason opposed the bill,"" the Koster campaign said. The bill allows the Department of Corrections to grant parole to inmates serving time in prison for murdering their spouse or ""domestic partner"" if the inmate can prove that he or she was the victim of repeated domestic violence. To get parole, the inmate must provide evidence of domestic violence, and that evidence could not have been used in the original trial. According to the bill, the evidence could include ""witness statements, hospital records, social services records, and law enforcement records."" The provision allows parole only if the inmate has served 15 years of his or her sentence. The parole board must determine that the prisoner will not break the law again. The inmate’s trial had to have begun before 1991, and the homicide has to have been the person’s first violent felony conviction. Koster’s campaign staff said Koster objected to witness statements being used as evidence of domestic abuse leading to the murder. Koster’s position was that under the wording of the bill, the parole board and not the original jury would decide the prisoner’s fate on the basis of the witness statements. ""The bill doesn't provide a standard where the parole board weights (sic) the evidence, i.e. preponderance or without a reasonable doubt. This opens the door to manufactured evidence that would not be weighed by a jury,"" his campaign said. The Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence supported the bill when it was in the legislature, said Colleen Coble, the coalition’s CEO. Coble said the bill’s aim was to allow imprisoned women who killed their partners following an act of domestic violence to have their cases reviewed by the parole board. Before 1991, evidence of domestic violence was not commonly presented as a defense in court, she said. Coble said Koster was supportive of the bill’s other provisions, including the measure to have the state pay for medical exams. Koster’s voting record We wanted to find out more about how Koster voted on other legislation related to sexual violence when he was a state senator. Koster’s staff provided us with more information. As attorney general, Koster assembled the Domestic Violence Task Force in 2010. The task force suggested 12 changes to Missouri’s domestic violence laws in a 2011 report to the Missouri General Assembly. One of the recommendations was to create more consistent definitions of ""domestic violence,"" ""abuse,"" ""adult,"" ""family"" and ""household member. ""Some of the suggestions were folded into a Senate bill that became law that year. As a state senator, Koster sponsored several bills related to sexual assault, though none became law. In 2006, he sponsored a bill that would increase penalties for sexual offenders who fail to register. That year, he also sponsored a bill that would have required lifetime probation for first-time sex offenders. In 2007, he sponsored a bill that would allow victims of sexual assault to register a designated address with the Missouri Secretary of State’s office to protect their privacy. That was one of the provisions of the bill Greitens referenced. He also sponsored a bill that year requiring people convicted of felonies to serve a minimum of three years in prison if they failed to register as a sex offender at the time of their crime as required. Our ruling Greitens says Koster voted against a 2007 bill requiring the state to pay for rape victims’ medical exams. In reality, the bill did more than that. Koster says he objected to wording that made it possible for convicted murderers to be granted parole by claiming they were victims of domestic abuse. Koster said the language made it possible for murderers to manufacture evidence to be released before the completion of their sentence. Greitens is cherry-picking one part of the legislation to paint his opponent as soft on domestic abuse."
|
10745
|
Diabetes study: Interventions help prevent disease
|
The study upon which this story is based is very complicated and riddled with caveats. Some of the results baffle its authors. The study’s simple but narrow conclusion is this: A few years of diet and exercise education/support appears to reduce risk of type 2 diabetes in a high risk population over 10 years. But the story fails by not discussing the findings with experts who do understand it and could explain the implications and applications of the data. The story talks only to the proverbial Area Man and cribs written statements from two remote experts. That’s insufficient. One is tempted to suggest it’s the result of reporters not having enough time or newsroom support to do their jobs thoroughly. The report also fails to connect the dots between the study and the readers. By failing to discuss costs and availability of lifestyle interventions–or to describe what kinds of interventions the study participants received–it misses a chance to serve its readers who, demographically speaking, are very likely to be in the high-risk group the study focuses on. The reporter should be commended for one thing: Including an anecdote from someone who has a family history of diabetes, participated in the program and. . .got diabetes anyway. Lifestyle helps him manage, but did not prevent, the disease. An excellent reality check.
|
false
|
Again, the story misses an opportunity to say how much it costs to participate in a diabetes prevention program–or, for that matter, to take metformin. A creative story could then have compared those costs to the costs of managing diabetes. During a time when costs of health care are so much in the public’s mind, stories should always probe the question of costs vs benefits. We have two problems with how the study results were presented: The story fails to mention the side effects of metformin, which include gastro-intestinal side effects that can inhibit compliance. A serious condition, lactic acidosis, is a rare but significant side effect. It’s contraindicated for people with kidney disease, congestive heart failure and a few other conditions. The study on which the story is based follows a complicated protocol with a three-year randomized, placebo-controlled phase and 7 years of follow up. During the follow-up phase all participants followed were offered lifestyle interventions. As a result, as the authors admit, it’s hard to draw firm conclusions beyond the simplest top-line assertion that lifestyle intervention and metformin appear to reduce or delay diabetes in high-risk patients. The story could have been clearer about the complexity and limitations of the study, and the fact that the researchers themselves cannot explain some of the findings. [The NIH press release did.] Still, the story receives a satisfactory rating, if barely. The story does nothing to exaggerate the prevalence or severity of type 2 diabetes. The sourcing in this story is very thin. The only live source is a study participant. The quote from a local doctor involved with the study comes from a written statement. The second quote is from an editorial published with the study in Lancet. The basic options for reducing risk of diabetes–lifestyle changes and medication–are built into the study design. But the story fails to describe the lifestyle modifications in sufficient detail. How often did people exercise? What did they eat? How compliant were they? Readers should have had a few details. The story could have also mentioned the growing evidence on weight loss and bariatric surgery as ways to prevent type 2 diabetes. The story doesn’t mention how and where diabetes prevention programs are available. Lifestyle-modification diabetes prevention programs are a staple offering of hospitals, community centers, insurance companies and corporate wellness programs. The article could at least have mentioned this to allow readers to follow up if they wanted to. No claim of novelty is made for the lifestyle or drug interventions. There’s no evidence the story depended on information in the press release.
|
|
10008
|
Study: Stockings given to stroke patients don’t work
|
This news report on a study showing that compression stockings don’t reduce stroke patients’ risk of blood clots is cleanly done. The findings are of high quality, the results clearly explained, and two independent sources are used to provide context. The story could have been made stronger in three ways: Since the story finds that stockings don’t reduce risk of blood clots in stroke patients, the reader naturally will want to know what does reduce the risk. The story makes a brief mention of anti-clotting medications, but the reporter should have invited an expert to explain how clot risk is minimized and the highest-risk patients identified. The research was conducted, published and funded mostly in the UK, where use of compression stockings for stroke patients is widepsread. But they are not used as widely in the US. The editors of US publications should have edited the story to emphasize its more limited relevance to here. The story should have mentioned costs. These stockings are fairly technical garments, carrying different compression ratings and requiring precise sizing. Retail costs run from $20 to $75 per pair. The cost implications of changing a clinical recommendation are significant. At a time when health care reformers are looking closely at costs and benefits of various treatments, health journalists can play an important role by regularly reporting on price.
|
true
|
The story does not report the price of compression stockings [which range from $20 to $75 per pair through online retailers]. This is a surprising omission. Because in the UK these stockings are so commonly used, the costs of treatment for the population are significant. Even in the US where use is less common, the costs are meaningful. Further, there are costs associated with treatment of skin ulcers and sores which the stockings cause. These should have been mentioned as well. The story adequately describes the study population, size and methodology, and clearly states the key finding–that use of the stockings did not reduce risk of blood clots. It also mentions the important secondary finding, that use of the stockings significantly increased risk of skin problems. The story reports on the harms of stroke patients using compression hose, which include skin problems and blisters. The story is based on a randomized clinical trial done with a large population in multiple centers. The evaluators–who tested the patients for the presence of clots–were blinded, making this a very strong study design. The story could have mentioned this. The story correctly treats the findings as credible. The story does not engage in disease mongering. Having said that, the reporter could have been more diligent about keeping the risk of using the stockings in perspective, particuarly for a U.S. audience. The recommended practice in the U.S. (per medical guidelines) is to use anticoagulants to prevent blood clots in sick hospitalized patients, with stockings as a primary treatment only for those who cannot tolerate the drugs and in some other subgroups. This study is more likely to have impact on practice in the UK, where compression stockings are more commonly used. Additionally, the reader should be cautious in applying the findings among hospitalized stroke patients to patients hospitalized for other reasons. The story quotes one of the study’s authors and two independent medical experts, one of whom represents the American Heart Association. This constitutes adequate sourcing. Since the study showed that compression stockings do not reduce risk of blood clots in stroke patients, the news story should have reported on the treatments that do. Anti-clotting drugs are mentioned briefly but their benefits and risks were not explained sufficiently. The story makes clear that compression stockings are widely available to stroke patients. Compression stockings are widely used for stroke patients, particularly in the UK. No claim is made for their novelty. There does not appear to be a press release linked to this report.
|
|
6271
|
Shutdown casts pall on effort to help Oregon winegrowers.
|
Winegrowers in southern Oregon faced financial ruin after a California winemaker claimed wildfire smoke tainted their grapes and refused to buy them. Now, the rejected fruit that was turned into wine by local vintners is facing another setback.
|
true
|
Earl Blumenauer, Wildfires, Ron Wyden, Fires, Oregon, North America, Business, Wineries, Science, Donald Trump, Wine
|
Two Oregon wineries stepped in to buy the grapes, but getting the Oregon Solidarity wines they produced to markets on time is in doubt because the federal agency that approves labels has a huge backlog, a hangover from the government shutdown. Nationwide, makers of alcoholic drinks face disrupted business and lost revenue. If another shutdown starts in about two weeks, as President Donald Trump has threatened if Congress doesn’t provide money for a border wall, the backlog could persist. U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, both Oregon Democrats, warned of “disastrous” consequences in a letter to John Manfreda, administrator of the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. They urged Manfreda to dedicate all resources to clearing the backlog of applications. “This regulatory paralysis disproportionately disadvantages small, craft brewers, vintners, cider makers, and distillers, who depend on new product releases for their businesses’ survival,” Wyden and Blumenauer said Tuesday. Michael Kaiser, vice president of WineAmerica, a national association of U.S. wineries, said the backlog will also stretch the turnaround time on new applications to around 36 days. The federal alcohol agency strives for it to be two to four days. It must issue permits for beverages that will be sold across state lines and approve the labels. “This will impact wineries of all size,” Kaiser said in an email. California winery Copper Cane canceled contracts last fall to buy 2,000 tons (1,814 metric tons) of grapes, saying lab testing showed smoke taint after wildfires last year cloaked much of Oregon in smoke and ash. Jim Blumling, Copper Cane’s vice president of operations, has said both lab and sensory tests showed a high level of smoke taint and that the most effective time to test is as close as possible to harvest. But independent laboratory analysis showed much of the crop was not adversely affected, the local wineries said. Willamette Valley Vineyards head winemaker Joe Ibrahim had sampled a few of the grapes, searching for an ashy taste in the skins that would reveal some taint. He found none. “The wines are actually really beautiful wines,” Ibrahim said, standing next to a huge vat in his winery’s cellar containing rose of pinot noir, the first of the three Oregon Solidarity wines that will be bottled. The vineyard outside the small town of Turner and King Estate Winery in Eugene bought 150 tons (136 metric tons) of the grapes, enough to produce 88,800 bottles of wine. Eyrie Vineyards and Silvan Ridge Winery helped make the wines. Willamette Valley and King Estate would have bought even more grapes, but they were already getting overripe on the vine, Willamette winery director Christine Collier Clair said. One grower also had crop insurance for 1,500 tons (1,360 metric tons), she said. The label application for the rose was sent and approved before the government shutdown, Clair said. The federal agency still must approve labels for Oregon Solidarity chardonnay and pinot noir. Retailers are counting on having the wines and to do promotions, she said. The wines will be sold nationwide and will be available to buy online. Rogue Valley Vintners, a southern Oregon nonprofit made up of wine producers, growers and community partners, will get the proceeds. Clair said she hopes the chardonnay label gets approved on time for its scheduled May release. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau spokesman Thomas Hogue said there are many applications to wade through. “We are still assessing the workload,” Hogue said in an email Monday, when federal employees returned to work after five weeks. “I think it’s safe to say that our backlog has roughly doubled as a result of the shutdown.” ___ Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky
|
34273
|
"The Trump administration made immigrants pay $800 for DNA tests in order to get back children taken under its ""zero tolerance"" policy."
|
"What's true: A handful of immigrants at a Texas shelter said they were informed by government workers they would have to personally pay hundreds of dollars for DNA tests to prove their relationship with children taken under the Trump administration's ""zero tolerance"" policy. What's false: The federal government has since promised to pay for any genetic testing necessary to reunify families. What's undetermined: It's unknown whether any immigrants separated from their children actually paid out-of-pocket for DNA tests to prove familial ties, or whether the federal government has paid for such testing."
|
unproven
|
Politics, donald trump, immigration, zero tolerance policy
|
In mid-July 2018, outraged social media users shared a meme reporting that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump was forcing migrants to pay $800 in out-of-pocket costs to prove familial ties in order to regain custody of children taken from them under the government’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy: The text of the meme was based on a 10 July 2018 story originally reported by the Daily Beast, whose journalists spoke with Ruben Garcia, director of the El Paso immigrant shelter Annunciation House, and an immigration attorney, Iliana Holguin. In telephone interviews with Snopes.com, both of those individuals confirmed their accounting of the details in the Daily Beast’s report: four adults (three mothers and one older sister) asserted that government social workers had told them they’d have to fork over $700 to $800 for DNA tests proving their relationship to separated children before they could get their kids back. Shortly after the story broke, however, both Garcia and Holguin reported to us that the government had abruptly changed course, with the former telling us: If you ask me the question, ‘Do you know for a fact that any of those parent had to pay the money [for a DNA test]?’ I do not. We had about five people who at that point said they were told they would probably have to pay for [the DNA tests]. Since that story came out, the whole scenery has changed because [the government] has now moved aggressively to reunite and release all of these kids. Holguin told us no formal request was ever made for the women to pay for the tests. She described the entirety of “zero tolerance” and its aftermath as “very chaotic” and said that conflicting information had been the norm throughout. “With the DNA test, I think someone at one point said it, someone repeated it — things were changing so quickly that it was just impossible to know at any given at any moment. The left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing.” We reached out to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the federal agency tasked with coordinating the care of unaccompanied immigrant children. An agency representative told us HHS, not immigrant families, pays for DNA testing. The federal government is rushing to meet a deadline set by a federal judge after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) successfully sued for an injunction on family separations under “zero tolerance,” a policy initiated by the Trump administration in April 2018. Judge Dana Sabraw of the Southern District of California gave federal agencies until 10 July 2018 to reunify children under five years of age with their respective adults, and until 26 July 2018 to reunify kids five through 17 years old. According to a status report submitted to the court by HHS on 13 July 2018, not all families with children in the older age cohort will be subjected to DNA tests, as HHS has truncated its process for confirming family relationships to meet the looming deadline for reunification. In a statement, HHS spokesperson Evelyn Stauffer said: The department has been operating in good faith and earnestly trying to comply with court orders, including the rapidly approaching deadline for reunification. Our interpretation of the court’s order is that HHS must make a determination of parentage, fitness, and safety before reunifying families, but that HHS need not undertake the fuller process of vetting for children’s safety that HHS would ordinarily conduct in its operations. In the interests of transparency and cooperation, the department felt it necessary in our filings on Friday to share with the court our view that meeting the deadline would mean truncating the process we might have otherwise followed. Within the time the court allows, we will strive to implement the most comprehensive procedures possible to ensure child welfare. We look forward to continuing our close work with the court to accomplish the goals we share of safe, expeditious reunification. Under “zero tolerance,” all immigrants caught crossing the southern border between ports of entry were charged with crimes — mostly misdemeanors. Adults accompanied by children were separated from them and, initially, the U.S. government appeared to have no plan to reunify families. With court orders and pressure mounted by public outrage over the policy, the Trump administration has more or less reversed course. Garcia told us the federal government would begin reuniting the remainder of separated families at centralized locations in Arizona and Texas in the coming week in order to meet the court’s 26 July 2018 deadline. Judge Sabraw also temporarily halted deportations of those families to give them time to decide whether to leave children behind in the United States in hopes they will win their asylum cases, or to be deported together.
|
7807
|
U.S. youth activity report card gives poor grades to adults.
|
American children are scoring failing marks in fitness because of the lure of the Internet, time-pressed parents and the culture of the car, fitness experts say.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Only one quarter of children aged 6 to 15 meet the current guidelines of 60 minutes of moderate physical activity per day, said Dr. Russell R. Pate, chairman of the non-profit National Physical Activity Plan (NPAP) Alliance, which issued the first U.S. report card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth. “Fifty percent of waking hours are spent in sedentary activity,” said Pate, professor in the Department of Exercise Science in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. Fitness experts say it is up to parents and policy makers to get their children to be more active. “It’s not about grading the kids,” said Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk, a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and chairman of the research committee that issued the report card. “Kids want to be active, if they’re given the opportunity.” he said. “This is for us to change.” The report is based on public data and provides a snapshot of the state of youth physical activity in America. The 2014 grades were bad, without a single top mark. NPAP evaluated 10 key indicators, from overall physical activity to organized sports participation, and the number of children who cycle or walk to school. It found that since 1969, the proportion of elementary and middle-school students walking or cycling to school dropped from 47.7 percent to 12 percent. “More kids these days live too far from the school they attend,” Pate said. “The social norm around this behavior has really changed, and not for the better.” The report card did not come as a surprise for Brian Sanders of i9 Sports, which provides camps and clinics for boys and girls aged 3 to 14 in sports such as flag (no-contact) football, soccer, basketball and baseball. “Public schools don’t have funding to support athletic programs and both parents working don’t have the time to get kids to activities,” he said. “Then there’s the increase in digital use. It all adds up.” Sanders added that many parents are also concerned about safety aspects of playing in the neighborhood, and organized sports too often putting the emphasis on competition over fun. Katzmarzyk said the report also reflects socio-economic disparities. “Kids who come from higher incomes are participating (in sports),” he said.”Lower economic groups are not participating. There’s a lot more work to do to make these activities available to everyone.” Katzmarzyk said the U.S. is one of 15 countries that compiled the report card, which will be the first of many. It is an advocacy tool aimed at the adult decision makers, he added.
|
7352
|
Emails: Trump nominee involved in shelving CDC virus guide.
|
A former chemical industry executive nominated to be the nation’s top consumer safety watchdog was involved in sidelining detailed guidelines to help communities reopen during the coronavirus pandemic, internal government emails show.
|
true
|
AP Top News, Health, General News, Politics, Pandemics, Virus Outbreak, Science
|
Now the ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is questioning the role played by nominee Nancy Beck in the decision to shelve the guidelines. Beck is not a medical doctor and has no background in virology. President Donald Trump has nominated Beck to be chairwoman and commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, a position that requires Senate confirmation. Beck is scheduled to appear before the Senate committee later this month. Emails obtained by The Associated Press show that Beck was the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s main point of contact in the White House about the proposed recommendations. At issue was a 63-page guide created by the CDC that would give community leaders step-by-step instructions for reopening schools, day care centers, restaurants and other facilities. Beck is currently on detail for the White House with the Office of Management and Budget, where she is coordinating review of pandemic-related stimulus measures, and of the CDC guidance. She has a doctorate in environmental health and has worked as a toxicologist, specializing in the study of the health risks from chemical substances to the human body. “I am deeply concerned by the nominee’s involvement in advocating for the deregulation of toxic chemicals known as PFAS and I also have questions about her potential involvement with the CDC coronavirus guidance,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the committee, in a statement to AP. Cantwell sent a letter of inquiry on Wednesday to Beck, asking for more information. Beck did not immediately respond to questions from AP sent to her via email. Beck’s role in the coronavirus guidance document was revealed in a series of emails from late April obtained by the AP. On April 10, CDC Director Robert Redfield emailed the guidance to a group that included some of the president’s closest White House advisers, including Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, and counselor Kellyanne Conway, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert. Redfield wrote that he wanted White House review and clearance to post the documents on the CDC website. By the time the administration had released its “Opening Up America Again” plan on April 17, the process had stalled. The emails show that the CDC’s chief of staff, Robert “Kyle” McGowan, emailed Beck on April 26 seeking an update. “We need them as soon as possible so that we can get them posted,” McGowan wrote. Beck responded that they still needed approval. “WH principals are in touch with the task force so the task force should be aware of status.” The next day McGowan checked with Beck again. “I have no word on revisions yet for the rest of the package. My understanding is it is still being reviewed,” she responded. One of Beck’s colleagues, Satya P. Thallam, followed up saying the White House Principal’s Committee had not yet responded. “However, I am passing along their message: they have given strict and explicit direction that these documents are not yet cleared and cannot go out as of right now — this includes related press statements or other communications that may preview content or timing of guidances.” McGowan responded that White House changes would cause further delay. “The comments and edits we get back will have to be reviewed at the CDC for scientific accuracy,” McGowan responded to Thallam and Beck. “We will not be able to post the document we get back from the WH quickly if there are a substantial number of edits.” On April 30, one day before Trump’s May 1 reopening goal, McGowan was told guidelines will “never see the light of day,” according to three sources inside CDC who were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity. In her letter, Cantwell said the emails raise “serious questions about whether you believe in preserving and respecting the scientific and professional integrity of scientists and health professionals that work at agencies like the CDC and the CPSC.” On Thursday, another committee Democrat cited AP’s story in calling on the administration to withdraw Beck’s nomination. “Nancy Beck reportedly led efforts to thwart CDC’s science-based guidance for protecting public health — exactly the wrong credential for a nominee to lead the CPSC, and clear reason her nomination should be withdrawn,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. An OMB spokesperson said the initial submission to the office was the “start of the deliberative process, not the end, and everyone knows that,” and added the White House appreciated that Beck continued “serving her country by helping the government respond to this pandemic while her nomination was pending.” Before joining the Trump administration, Beck was a senior director for policy at the American Chemistry Council, the primary lobbying arm for U.S. chemical manufacturers. In that role, she frequently testified on Capitol Hill against stricter safeguards to protect human health and the environment from toxins. In 2017, she joined the Environmental Protection Agency as a top official in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. She oversaw efforts to block or weaken Obama-era regulations on harmful substances including asbestos, and at the White House was involved in a rewrite of limits on PFAS. Those are class of chemicals used in making nonstick cooking pans and raincoats, and the chemicals have been linked to birth defects. Democrats and environmentalists have opposed her nomination to lead the consumer agency. While she awaits Senate confirmation, Beck has been assigned to the White House Council of Economic Advisers, which consults with the president on matters of economic policy. On May 7, the day AP ran a story about the administration shelving the guidance, McGowan emailed Beck and copied Redfield. “When can we expect OMB comments on the rest of the guidance? We would really like to get these moving,” he wrote. Late that afternoon, the White House called the CDC and told the agency to resend a series of detailed “decision trees” that had been shelved. Emails showed staff working on the guidance said they would “stand down.” At a Senate hearing Tuesday on the coronavirus, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., asked Redfield about the status of that guidance. Redfield replied: “Soon.” ___ Dearen reported from Gainesville, Florida. Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report. ___ Follow AP investigative reporters Jason Dearen at http://twitter.com/JHDearen and Michael Biesecker at http://twitter.com/mbieseck
|
28691
|
Transcript reproduces Ben Stein's television commentary about the observance of Christmas.
|
In 2014 the entire conglomeration mistakenly came to be attributed to journalist Steven Levy.
|
mixture
|
Politics Soapbox, ben stein, christmas, steven levy
|
Ben Stein, a lawyer by training, has also served as a speechwriter for President Richard M. Nixon, has to date authored dozens of books (both novels and non-fiction efforts), and continues to write editorials and columns for a number of publications. He is perhaps best known to the world at large, however, for his in-front-of-the-camera work as the dreadfully dull economics teacher in the film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, his similar role as the monotonic science teacher Mr. Cantwell on the TV series The Wonder Years, and as the keenly competitive host of the former Comedy Central game show Win Ben Stein’s Money. Mr. Stein has also offered occasional commentaries for the CBS Sunday Morning news program, and the item quoted above is based on one such commentary, titled “Confessions for the Holidays” and delivered by Mr. Stein on that program on 18 December 2005, one week before Christmas. However, the versions of this piece which now circulate online typically contain transcription errors, present only a truncated version of the original, and include additional text and other modifications that were not part of the piece as it was first aired. Here is the full version as broadcast, taken from a CBS News transcript of the program: CHARLES OSGOOD: We all have our own thoughts about the holidays. Here’s Ben Stein with his. BEN STEIN: Here at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart. I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. (Footage of People magazine; Us magazine) STEIN: I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I’m buying my dog biscuits. I still don’t know. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores who they are. They don’t know who Nick and Jessica are, either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they’ve broken up? Why are they so darned important? (Footage of People magazine) STEIN: I don’t know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I don’t care at all about Tom Cruise’s baby. (Vintage footage of congressional hearing) STEIN: Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I’m a subversive? Maybe. But I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young? Hm, not so bad. Next confession: I am a Jew and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish, and it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautifully lit-up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. (Footage of Christmas trees) STEIN: I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are — Christmas trees. It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they’re slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. I shows that we’re all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me one bit that there’s a manger scene on display at a key intersection at my beach house in Malibu. (Footage of manger scene; menorah) STEIN: If people want a creche, fine. The menorah a few hundred yards away is fine, too. I do not like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another way. Where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we used to know went to. The following bit about the White House’s supposedly renaming Christmas trees as holiday trees began circulating on the Internet at the head of the Ben Stein Christmas piece in October 2011: Apparently the White House referred to Christmas Trees as Holiday Trees for the first time this year which prompted CBS presenter, Ben Stein, to present this piece which I would like to share with you. I think it applies just as much to many countries as it does to America Ben Stein’s “Confessions for the Holidays” debuted in December 2005, and the (false) “the White House is now going to call them holiday trees” didn’t appear until August 2009, so no, the former was not written as a reaction to the latter. (As detailed in our White House Christmas article, Christmas trees continue to be referred to as Christmas trees by the White House, and at no point were they ever called anything else.) In mid-2006, someone added the following coda (not written by Ben Stein) to this piece. It combines older items about a television appearance that Anne Graham Lotz (the daughter of evangelist Billy Graham) made just after the September 11 terrorist attacks and the false claim that the son of child care expert Dr. Benjamin Spock committed suicide: In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her “How could God let something like this Happen?” (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?” In light of recent events .. terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn’t want prayer in body our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about. And we said OK. Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with “WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.” Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is through suppressed in the school and workplace. Are you laughing yet? Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they on believe, or what they will think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us. Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it… no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in
|
9465
|
Menopause hormone therapy not linked to premature death
|
This is a story about a study that follows-up on the long-term effects of hormone therapy on the risk of death. The findings show that women who took combined hormone therapy (estrogen and progesterone) for approximately 5 years, or who took estrogen alone for 7 years, had the same risk of death 18 years later as those who had taken no hormone therapy. Thus the small increases in risk of developing breast cancer and (mainly in older women) heart disease with combined hormone therapy did not translate into an increased risk of death. The story does a good job describing the findings, and how the study was designed. The inclusion of an independent source also strengthened the reporting. A discussion of the costs would have made it even stronger. The subject of women and menopause and hormone therapy has been debated for decades. This new study, which shows no significant difference in death rates for women who did or did not take hormone replacement, is important. But the take-home message, which is also important, is that each woman has to talk about risk vs. benefit with her own health-care practitioner in order to understand the nuances. This story will help women make an informed choice.
|
true
|
HRT,menopause
|
No information is given on the cost of a typical course of treatment. This study does not aim to quantify the benefits of treatment, rather to show whether there is any difference in risk of death associated with taking hormone therapy for 5 to 7 years. The original Women’s Health Initiative trial was designed to examine whether there was any benefit of hormone therapy for prevention or heart disease, which had been suggested by earlier studies. The story does a good job of outlining the complicated history of findings from hormone replacement studies, and the harms and risks, and uses numbers to explain the risks. There is great nuance in the findings, which can be interpreted differently for women of different ages seeking HRT. Women bring different life risks of cardiovascular disease or breast cancer with them into any discussion of HRT. The conclusion quoted in the story may be less-than-reassuring, but is here: “Hormone therapy has been in and out of favor – first it was good for all menopausal women, then it was dangerous for all women,” McNeil said. “The take-home message now is that for the right patient, hormone therapy is safe and effective.” The story does a good job of describing how the study was done and establishing the high-quality of evidence from a large randomized trial. There was no disease mongering. The story included an independent source and there does not appear any conflicts of interest that should have been disclosed. The story is about alternatives, on its face, about the alternative of taking or not taking hormone replacement therapy. We wish there had been a sentence or two more on how other methods are available to women to ease symptoms. These therapies are widely available and that’s implied in the story. The story makes it clear that this is a new analysis that looks at long-term data on deaths years after use or non-use of hormone therapy. The story includes original reporting and does not rely solely on the news release.
|
31579
|
Sweden has the highest rate of rape among European countries.
|
There is simply no data to show that Sweden is the rape capital of Europe, or even that rape is on the rise in the country.
|
false
|
Uncategorized, 2015 refugees, rape in sweden, refugee
|
On 18 February 2017, U.S. president Donald Trump drew international attention for comments during a rally in Florida in which he argued that accepting refugees from war-torn regions like Syria would make the United States less safe. To make his point, President Trump claimed that the night before, asylum seekers had done something terrible in Sweden (a country that had taken in roughly 193,000 asylum seekers in 2015 and 2016): Here’s the bottom line: We’ve got to keep our country safe. You look at what’s happening. We’ve got to keep our country safe. (Applause.) You look at what’s happening in Germany. You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden? Who would believe this? Sweden? They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible. Bewildered Swedes took to social media to express confusion about what Trump may have meant, sparking the ironic Twitter hashtag #LastNightInSweden: #LastNightInSweden more Muslim violence! Things are so bad, #ABBA is requesting refugee status in Switzerland! — Trump Paradise (@nopenochange) March 7, 2017 The trolling predictably prompted Trump’s supporters to seek out evidence of migrant-linked crime in Sweden. Suddenly the small Scandinavian country of 10 million people became a political proxy in the American debate over immigration and asylum policies. Trump later clarified that he wasn’t referring to a specific incident but a segment he had seen on Fox News about Sweden’s migrants and crime. Partisan media outlets have been quick to select their own truths, with liberal publications celebrating that the president had been proved wrong because nothing happens in “peaceful” and “egalitarian” Sweden, and conservative ones rushing to prove Trump right by presenting reports of crime and violence they linked to the refugee crisis that began in 2015. We sent our reporter, Bethania Palma, to Sweden to research both sides’ claims. What follows is Part I of a three-part series on migration and crime in Sweden. Is rape on the rise in Sweden due to an influx of refugees in 2015? On 20 February 2017, British politician Nigel Farage claimed that the Swedish city of Malmö is the “rape capital” of Europe – or maybe even the world. The municipality in southwest Sweden is home to communities populated by immigrants and is often cited in media reports as an area of high crime: Pro-rata, Sweden have taken more young, male migrants than any other country in Europe and there has been a dramatic rise in sexual crime in Sweden, so much so that Malmö is now the rape capital of Europe and some argue even the rape capital of perhaps the world and the Swedish media frankly just don’t report it. Farage’s sensational comments grabbed headlines, but later sparked a probe by Great Britain’s broadcasting standards watchdog Ofcom, whose spokesperson told reporters: We are investigating whether the comments made in this programme were materially misleading. Farage echoed the rhetoric of the Sweden Democrats, a political party that has risen in influence by marshaling fear of asylum seekers and advocating for strict immigration policies. Critics like the Sweden Democrats suspect that the government is colluding with the “mainstream media” to hide damning statistics of a supposed rape epidemic. Statistical evidence shows that rape in Sweden is not on the rise. Reported cases have remained steady for almost a decade. But egregious cases have sharpened the narrative and raised people’s fears. In one January 2017 incident, three men, two of whom are from Afghanistan, reportedly livestreamed the gang rape of a Swedish woman in Uppsala, a city north of Stockholm. The trial began on 24 March 2017, with the accused men denying charges that they raped the woman. The strategy of playing on such fears seems to be working for the Sweden Democrats, which Reuters reports has grown in influence and parliamentary power. Author and historian Johan Norberg told us in an e-mail that the party’s rhetoric has created a feedback loop, reinforcing the impression of a refugee-related crime wave in Sweden: The surge of refugees has created a climate of opinion that is vulnerable to this. It was very big in Swedish media when it happened, and people could see it with their own eyes in railway stations. The reception was mixed. At first there was much of the willkommen kultur [welcoming culture] that we saw in Germany and people helped and even expressed more liberal attitude in polls for a long time. But after a while, it turned out that the Swedish government and municipalities weren’t prepared for the inflow. We have a system that is not very open and dynamic, it is difficult to get the permission to build anywhere, we have very few low-skilled jobs and so on, so that resulted in a very slow-moving system that was overwhelmed. For some time families had to live on the streets and it all seemed chaotic. This all contributed to a sense that Sweden is being overwhelmed, and that politicians and civil servants can’t deal with that. The focus of SD has since then been to give the impression that this is ongoing even when things have calmed down. The crime story is part of that. In an e-mail, Yasmine Eriksson, Sweden Democrats’ press secretary, told us the party wants to reduce immigration and act as the “voice” of people who refuse to let the government and mainstream media “present a false image of our country:” It is our opinion that Sweden has accepted far more immigrants than we should have. We have a lot of policies in this particular area, but I suppose it could be summarized by saying that we’re aiming to drastically strengthen our borders and increase the value of the Swedish citizenship. In accordance with the Dublin Agreement, asylum seekers are referred to the first EU-country they arrive in. However currently, most immigrants are passing several safe countries just to get to Germany or Sweden, because of the generous social benefits we offer to migrants. We fail to see the point in accepting asylum seekers that aren’t originally from any of our neighboring countries; and seeing as how none of our neighbors are currently at war, it shouldn’t apply to us. She also sent a graph from Sweden’s annual crime survey to prove that “sexual assault” is skyrocketing in Sweden. However, a closer examination reveals that, like Farage’s comments, the claim is misleading for a number of reasons. First of all, the graph does not just represent rape, but a wide category called “sexual crimes.” Sweden’s National Council for Crime Prevention (Brottsförebyggande rådet, usually shortened to its Swedish acronym Brå), which produced the graph, explained in their report: – The question posed on sexual crimes in NTU includes a wide range of crimes. It can range from minor events [like] flashing and groping, to very serious incidents of rape. Those who say they suffered must therefore answer questions about the severity of the crime. The responses show that in 29 percent of cases [have been] a more serious form of sexual crimes, says Emelie Hambrook, investigator at the National Council. While Brå noted that the broad category of “sexual crimes” had increased since 2012, the same was not true for rape. Another Brå graph shows that reported cases of rape (represented by the purple line below) did not spike suddenly after the influx of refugees in 2015 – instead, they dropped from 6,697 in 2014 to 5,918 in 2015 (about the same amount as in 2009). Preliminary statistics for 2016 show an increase of reported rapes to 6,570, a 13 percent rise over 2015 (but still lower than 2014), according to Brå. While the graph does seem to indicate a general upward trend in rape since 2005, the numbers do not tell the whole story. Brå notes in both 2005 and 2013, Sweden broadened its definition of rape, contributing to the apparent upward trend: The number of reported rape offences has increased over the last ten years (2006-2015). The increase can be partially explained by the entry into force of new sex offence legislation on 1 April 2005. This legislation entails, among other things, that certain acts which were previously classified as sexual exploitation are now classified as rape. The effect of the statutory change appeared in the statistics such that the number of reported offences in respect of sexual coercion and exploitation declined in the years immediately following the statutory change while the number of reported rapes increased. As from 1 July 2013, the sex offence legislation was again made tougher; among other things rape was expanded to include cases where the victim reacts passively. Just as there’s no evidence supporting the claim that newly-arrived refugees have caused an increase in sexual crimes in Sweden, there’s also no proof that the city of Malmö is a “rape capital” of Europe (or the world). According to Brå, 60 rapes were reported in Malmö in 2015, while 55 were reported in Gothenburg and 67 in Stockholm. Preliminary figures for 2016 suggest that Gotheburg had more reported rapes with 69 cases. Malmö had 67 and Stockholm at 65. In the table below, figures for Gothenberg, Malmö and Stockholm are represented in top-to-bottom order. As the BBC reported, there hasn’t been an incline in reported rape cases in Malmö coinciding with the 2015 refugee crisis: Malmo, along with other urban centres in Sweden, has one of the highest levels of reported rapes in proportion to population in the EU, mainly due to the strictness of Swedish laws and how rape is recorded in the country. The rate of reported rapes in Malmo has not dramatically risen in recent years and has in fact declined from its peak in 2010, before the recent large increases in refugees. It is not possible to connect crimes to the ethnicity of the perpetrators as such data is not published. Are there more sexual crimes in Sweden than other European countries? The idea that sexual crimes in Sweden are rising isn’t limited to partisan media. On 8 February 2017, the mainstream American publication USA Today made a claim similar to Farage’s comments: Sweden has about 47 reported rape cases per 100,000 people, according to a 2014 survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, which provides data about the 28-nation EU, including Sweden. That compares to about three reported rape cases per 100,000 in Portugal. But, again, this apparent disparity may have less to do with the amount of rape in each country, and more to do with a difference in how each country defines and records rape. For one thing, Sweden tallies each incident as a separate case, even if the accusation, perpetrator and victim are the same, a practice that may create confusion on an international level. Crimes are also counted at the point of contact with police, not when convictions are made. This could make the level of crime appear higher than it is when viewing raw data without qualifying information. Brå researcher Johanna Olseryd told us: In Sweden we count as many crimes as [the victim] can specify. So we’ve had cases with women who had a diary so they can say, ‘I’ve been raped within this marriage 400 times.’ That will result in 400 reported crimes. That also contributes to the difficulties in our statistics with comparing from month to month, or comparing one area to another, because a single case of that sort will turn the statistics upside down. That’s been a problem when some journalists from other countries go into our database. It could be one case with 50 reported crimes. Also, Sweden has a broader definition of rape than some of its European neighbors. Until recently in Germany, for example, the victim having said no to a sexual act was not always enough to meet the legal definition of rape. Kristine Eck, a researcher at Uppsala University, argued in a February 2017 Washington Post op-ed that because Sweden is particularly thorough in recording and publicly reporting crime, it may lead to the false impression that crime is higher there than elsewhere.
|
14511
|
Statistics show 2 to 3 Texas women per week have major complications and 10 women per week seek help at an ER after an abortion.
|
"Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office said in a press release that ""statistics show 2 to 3 Texas women per week have major complications and 10 women per week seek help at an ER after an abortion."" These statistics were based on a study of abortions in California, not Texas. That study included a higher percentage of abortions performed in the second and third trimesters than occurred in Texas, making a direct extrapolation to attribute those numbers to women in the Lone Star State problematic. Moreover, the researchers who calculated the number of abortion-related complications in the study characterized those rates as ""low."" The numbers do not lead to the conclusion that abortion providers are operating ""outside the parameters of the medical profession,"" as the attorney general’s office says. To recap, Paxton characterized Texas abortion practices and outcomes based on a California study that included twice the number of women at risk for complications as exists in the Lone Star State. He also presented the figures in a misleading way to suggest that abortion providers were operating outside of medical norms."
|
false
|
Abortion, Texas, Ken Paxton,
|
"This week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, a landmark abortion case that will decide the fate of Texas’ 2013 abortion law, known as House Bill 2. The law, among other things, requires abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and requires abortion clinics to comply with the state-set standards for ambulatory surgical centers. Before the case went in front of the Supreme Court, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton prepared to defend the law. In a Feb. 5, 2016, press release, his office highlighted that the court received ""more than 30"" amicus briefs in support of the law. ""Statistics show 2 to 3 Texas women per week have major complications and 10 women per week seek help at an ER after an abortion,"" the release said. ""Texas believes abortion facilities have no special privilege to operate outside the parameters of the medical profession and it is the right and responsibility of the state to ensure the safety of patients."" We wanted to check: Is it true that two to three Texas women have major complications from abortion per week, and that 10 women in that time seek help at an emergency room after an abortion? Attorney General’s numbers First, we asked the attorney general’s office where it got its statistics. Deputy Press Secretary Cynthia Meyer told us via email that those statistics came from an expert for the petitioners in this case. The expert, Elizabeth Gray Raymond, is an obstetrician-gynecologist and medical researcher who currently is a senior medical associate at Gynuity Health Projects, a women’s health research organization, and an adjunct professor at the New York University School of Medicine, an appendix for the case says. Gray Raymond cited a University of California at San Francisco study, Meyer said, that found that ""the incidence of major complications following an abortion (hospital admission, abdominal surgery, hysterectomy, or blood transfusion) was 0.23 percent, and that 0.87 percent of all abortions resulted in a visit to an emergency department in which treatment was provided for an abortion-related condition."" The events that qualified as ""major complications"" were hospital admission, abdominal surgery, hysterectomy, or blood transfusion, according to Gray Raymond’s testimony. The attorney general’s office then multiplied those statistics by an estimated 60,000 abortions per year in Texas, a number taken from Department of State Health Services data. (The exact total for 2013, the most recent data available, is 63,849.) That came out to a projection of 138 major complications a year, which, divided by 52 weeks in a year, works out to 2.6 complications per week, and 522 ER visits per year, which comes out to 10 visits per week. Using the more exact 63,849 abortions per year in Texas, we get 2.8 complications and 10.7 emergency room visits per week. Numbers in context In the study that was the basis for these calculations, researchers characterized the complication rates they found as ""low."" The complication rates, a press release about the study on the university’s website said, are about the same as rates for complications following colonoscopies. That exact comparison came up during oral arguments before the Supreme court, when Justice Stephen Breyer said abortions had ""28 times less than a risk of a colonoscopy,"" and that the risks were ""roughly the same as the risks that you have in a dentist office when you have some surgery."" The rate of major complications also was similar for vasectomies, according to Gray Raymond’s testimony. Gray Raymond concluded: ""The clear message of these data is that complications of induced abortion, and particularly complications that cannot be managed at the original abortion facility, are rare."" The University of California at San Francisco study, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, began with the goal to determine rates of complications after abortions, in part because those rates previously may have been underreported; researchers thought that complications diagnosed at a separate facility, rather than immediately following an abortion procedure, previously had been missed. Their results showed that wasn’t the case. The study concluded: ""These findings show abortion complication rates to be low and comparable to previously published rates even when there is no loss to follow-up and ED visits are included."" The study that was the basis for the Texas attorney general’s weekly and annual calculations was based in San Francisco, and all study participants had abortions paid for by California’s Medicaid program. While the study is reliable, it may not be a one-to-one comparison between low-income women in northern California and all abortions in Texas. Ushma Upadhyay, one of the study’s authors, said by phone that the rates from her study could be comparable to rates in other states. However, the abortions in the UCSF study included, at 16 percent, a higher proportion than usual of second-trimester and late-term abortions, which have a higher risk of complication. That is twice the percentage of abortions performed in the second or third trimester in Texas in 2013, the last year for which data are available from the state. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, of the 63,849 abortions recorded in the Lone Star State in 2013, 92 percent were performed in the first trimester, when the risk of complication is lower compared with the second and third trimesters. The best way to apply the study’s complication rates to Texas, Upadhyay said, would be to separate abortions by types of procedure, rather than multiply the rate by the total 60,000 abortions in Texas. Our ruling Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office said in a press release that ""statistics show 2 to 3 Texas women per week have major complications and 10 women per week seek help at an ER after an abortion."" These statistics were based on a study of abortions in California, not Texas. That study included a higher percentage of abortions performed in the second and third trimesters than occurred in Texas, making a direct extrapolation to attribute those numbers to women in the Lone Star State problematic. Moreover, the researchers who calculated the number of abortion-related complications in the study characterized those rates as ""low."" The numbers do not lead to the conclusion that abortion providers are operating ""outside the parameters of the medical profession,"" as the attorney general’s office says. To recap, Paxton characterized Texas abortion practices and outcomes based on a California study that included twice the number of women at risk for complications as exists in the Lone Star State. He also presented the figures in a misleading way to suggest that abortion providers were operating outside of medical norms. – The statement is not accurate."
|
673
|
U.S. CDC recommends against using vapes with marijuana ingredient.
|
People should stop using e-cigarettes, especially those with marijuana ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), U.S. public health officials recommended on Friday, as an investigation into illnesses and deaths related to vaping deepens.
|
true
|
Health News
|
E-cigarettes have been marketed as tools to help smokers quit, but rising use among youth in the United States and a spate of severe lung illnesses tied to the devices have triggered a backlash and heightened regulatory scrutiny. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has in the past advised consumers to avoid the devices, but the latest recommendation focused on THC products follows nationwide data that pointed to a large number of cases related to the use of the high-inducing component of marijuana. The CDC and state health officials, along with other health agencies, are investigating 805 confirmed and probable cases and 12 deaths so far from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping, as of the latest update on Thursday. According to the research published by CDC on Friday, 514 of the 805 patients knew about substances used in their vaping products, with nearly 77% using THC-containing vapes. However, this does not narrow the focus of the investigation as some users have also reported using e-cigarettes with just nicotine, CDC’s principal deputy director Anne Schuchat told reporters on Friday. The data showed that 56.8% used nicotine in their vapes, while 16% used vapes containing just nicotine in the 30 days preceding their symptoms. “We do not know yet what exactly is making people sick, for example, whether particular solvents or adulterants are leading to lung injury, or whether cases stem from a single supplier or multiple ones,” Schuchat said. Separate data from Wisconsin and Illinois showed that although no single brand name was reported by all patients, two-thirds of consumers reported using a prefilled THC cartridge under the brand name “Dank Vapes”. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this month found that more than half of lung illness patients extensively interviewed in Wisconsin and Illinois reported having used the “Dank Vapes” brand.
|
2773
|
New British biotech firm to tap gene therapy for blindness.
|
Oxford scientists have set up a biotechnology company to develop the use of gene therapy in treating blindness, and the Wellcome Trust medical charity has invested 12 million pounds ($20 million) in the start-up.
|
true
|
Health News
|
NightstaRx plans to develop and sell therapies for retinal dystrophies - degenerative conditions affecting vision - by building on work carried out at the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, it said on Thursday. Oxford-based researchers reported two weeks ago that an early-stage clinical trial using gene therapy had shown promise in a handful of patients with a progressive form of blindness called choroideremia. The company has an exclusive license to the intellectual property underpinning the Oxford gene therapy programme. Choroideremia is caused by a mutation in a gene that makes a protein called REP1. It affects an estimated one in 50,000 people and causes sufferers, who are mainly men, to lose their sight gradually as the cells in the retina degenerate. ($1 = 0.6041 British pounds)
|
7833
|
Working out when to exercise in the cold and flu season.
|
Sniffles, runny noses and flu-like symptoms can deter, delay and even derail many exercisers just when enthusiasm for that New Year’s resolution is beginning to flag.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Health and fitness experts advise to starve a fever of exercise. But feeding a cold moderately, with a brisk walk, may not be a bad idea. “The classic line from every sports medicine doctor is, ‘If you can do it, do it. If you can’t, don’t,’” said Dr. Lewis G. Maharam, author of “Running Doc’s Guide to Healthy Running.” Usually if symptoms are confined to above the neck, exercising is OK, he explained. But if you’re running a fever of 101 degrees Fahrenheit (38.3 degrees Celsius) or higher, skip it. Body heat rises during exercise due to increased metabolism, explained Maharam, who practices medicine in New York City. If you start high, your body’s way of cooling you down is out of balance. “If fever gets too high, you break down proteins, maybe in the kidneys or liver,” he said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 425 million case of colds and flu occur annually in the United States. The average person has about three respiratory infections per year. Dr. David C. Nieman, a professor of health sciences at Appalachian State University, North Carolina Research Campus, said research shows that regular, moderate aerobic exercise strengthens the immune system, and that people who exercise report fewer colds than their inactive peers. Nieman said five days or more of aerobic activity per week was found to be a powerful factor in lowering the number of sick days. “Even three to four days was effective. To be avoided was being sedentary,” he explained. But when animals infected with a systemic virus are forced to exercise in fever and pain, studies show that their symptoms are exacerbated, prolonged, and sometimes life-threatening. “It’s very dangerous.” said Nieman, who has written about the impact of exercise on the common cold. “If you have flu or virus with fever and pain, the best remedy is bed rest. The worst thing is to sweat it out with exercise.” He said common cold and flu viruses can stay on objects, such as door handles, treadmills and computer keyboards, for hours. The main route to infection is through touching one’s mouth or nose with unwashed hands. Patrick Strait, of Snap Fitness, a franchiser of gyms with locations worldwide, said this time of year fitness centers step up cleaning efforts because they see a lot more traffic and so many people catch colds and the flu. “It’s a public place where a lot of people are sweating,” said Strait. “We tell manager/owners to clean once an hour, wash down the equipment with bleach, etc.” He urged clients to wipe down equipment and wash hands often. “And if you’re sick, don’t come to the gym,” he said. Jessica Matthews, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise, said some days symptoms dictate scaling back your workout or, if you’re contagious, skipping the gym entirely. “Always listen to your body,” she said. “It might be a good idea to exercise at home or privately.” Nieman said that while moderate exercise strengthens the immune system, elite athletes will experience a rise in stress hormones and a dip in immunity after about 90 minutes of high-intensity activity. Maharam said the immunity of marathoners is decreased for up to 72 hours after a race. During that time, the athletes are more susceptible to colds, flu, and, most commonly, the so-called “marathon sniffles.” He said symptoms usually subside within 48 hours. “At the end of a race, when you’re all sweaty and they’re all sweaty, you don’t need to be hugging and kissing people,” Maharam said. “Your immune system isn’t as strong as it was.”
|
31172
|
"Chelsea Clinton tweeted that ""genital mutilation"" is a culturally loaded, racist term, and that the practice of ""genital cutting"" has many health benefits."
|
Despite such claims, all the outrage surrounding Clinton’s alleged comments about FGM was (and remains) pointless, however. The tweet was a hoax.
|
false
|
Questionable Quotes, chelsea clinton, female genital mutilation, new york times
|
The final week of April 2017 saw an outburst of vitriol on Facebook and Twitter in reaction to comments allegedly tweeted by Chelsea Clinton defending the practice of female genital mutilation. The World Health Organization defines female genital mutilation (FGM) as “all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.” “Genital mutilation is a culturally loaded, racist term,” Clinton supposedly wrote. “The correct term is genital cutting, and has many health benefits.” Here is a brief sampling of the kind of responses that appeared on Twitter: @ChelseaClinton is an Advocate for Female Genital Mutilation. This is Extremely Disturbing, Sickening! #Women #FGM @WHO @womenshealth pic.twitter.com/0krdEW64JE — Green Diplomacy (@GreenDiplomacy) April 28, 2017 Liberals are mind numb. Chelsea Clinton on twitter writes genital mutilation is racist term should be genital cutting im with #muslims — Real News Wire (@realnewswire) April 28, 2017 @ChelseaClinton since you approve of genital cutting (genital mutilation) when will your daughter be getting her genitals cut? — J T loves COVFEFE (@JodiTarvin) April 27, 2017 Interestingly, the majority of these retorts were addressed to Clinton’s verified Twitter account (@ChelseaClinton), even though no such tweet ever issued from it. Based on what we were able to find in the public record, Chelsea Clinton has never suggested that female genital mutilation (FGM) be called anything other than what it is, nor claimed that FGM has “health benefits,” nor taken anything less than a strong stand against it. For example, she unambiguously tweeted, not two weeks before this controversy erupted, that female genital mutilation must be eradicated wherever it’s found: Tragic that #FGM occurs in the U.S. or anywhere. We must #endFGM. Learn more about what the world needs to do here: https://t.co/FKgDNw4fe6 https://t.co/6Y18kZYbOW — Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) April 13, 2017 The only “evidence” that Chelsea Clinton has ever said anything to the contrary is this purported screenshot of a 26 April 2017 tweet from the “@ClintonChelsea” account (note the reversal of first and last names), which is not verified and does not belong to Chelsea Clinton: As one would expect, Clinton did not react favorably to scores of people tweeting that she or her daughter ought to be subjected to genital mutilation, especially given that the message in which she allegedly expressed support for it was a hoax: Both this fake account & replies to it are often vile. Repeatedly have asked @Twitter to suspend. Asking again here. pic.twitter.com/UNBQOYWJnB — Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) April 29, 2017 We don’t know who created the hoax, but we can speculate with a fair degree of certainty what inspired it: a 21 April 2017 reply by a New York Times editor to readers questioning the use of the phrase “genital cutting” instead of “genital mutilation” in an article about a case reported in Michigan: We asked Celia Dugger, the editor of Health and Science, to explain he reasoning behind the decision. I began writing about this back in 1996 when I was an immigration reporter on the Metro desk covering the asylum case of Fauziya Kassindja. I decided in the course of reporting that case — especially after a reporting trip to Togo, her home country, and the Ivory Coast — to call it genital cutting rather than mutilation. I never minced words in describing exactly what form of cutting was involved, and there are many gradations of severity, and the terrible damage it did, and stayed away from the euphemistic circumcision, but chose to use the less culturally loaded term, genital cutting. There’s a gulf between the Western (and some African) advocates who campaign against the practice and the people who follow the rite, and I felt the language use widened that chasm. The editor, Celia Dugger, not only expressed a preference for the term “genital cutting” (as Chelsea Clinton supposedly did in the tweet), but defended her choice by characterizing it as a “less culturally loaded term.” In terms of timing, the fake Clinton tweet appeared only a few days after the New York Times editorial comment, a fact some partisans attempted to use to their advantage: Chelsea & the NY Times decides to sugar coat Female Genital Mutilation, is there nothing sacred to the PC Nut Jobs?! https://t.co/BOnQ5McZps pic.twitter.com/zaibFD62Um — JC Shannon (@BillClintonTHOF) April 28, 2017
|
3523
|
Robotic device winds its own way through beating pig heart.
|
Borrowing from the way cockroaches skitter along walls, scientists have created a robotic device that safely guides itself through the delicate chambers of a pig’s heart as it’s beating.
|
true
|
Technology, Robotics, North America, Science, U.S. News
|
It is one of the first times researchers have shown that a truly autonomous surgical robot can navigate inside the heart, not controlled by a doctor with a joystick, according to a study in Wednesday’s journal Science Robotics . Heart surgeons routinely push a thin tube called a catheter through twisting and turning blood vessels to make repairs in the heart without open surgery. But how does a robotic version find its own way through moving heart tissue and with blood swishing in the way? Researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital turned the catheter’s camera tip into essentially an “optical whisker,” said cardiac bioengineering chief Pierre Dupont, the lead researcher. Just as cockroaches navigate along walls and rats reach out with their whiskers, the catheter maps its path through the heart, tapping periodically against the heart’s valve and wall ever so lightly — with about the force of a stick of butter sitting in your hand, Dupont said. The technology combines the camera’s images with machine learning to interpret what tissue it’s touching and how hard. “This robot is trying to walk along the wall of the heart until it gets to the valve,” Dr. Uma Duvvuri of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who heads a robotic innovation lab but wasn’t part of Wednesday’s study. “That’s a pretty exciting development but this is still very, very preliminary.” The demonstration technology is still years away from any operating room, and isn’t designed to replace a surgeon, Dupont said. Instead, he said it might free up a surgeon’s time to focus on harder tasks, comparing it to a plane’s autopilot — and also reduce the time patients and medical staff are exposed to X-rays that currently are needed for navigation. “The easiest part of autonomy in surgery is the technology,” Dupont said. “The hardest parts are the politics, the regulatory” approval and legal efforts. Dupont’s team tested the robotic catheter in 83 procedures in live pigs in a lab. The device found its target, on average taking seconds longer than a doctor threading a catheter into place. But Dupont said the robotic catheter will learn, just like humans, and get better and faster with more practice. Russ Taylor, a medical robotics specialist at Johns Hopkins University, called the technology clever and the study “a significant achievement, but I wouldn’t flag it as a breakthrough.” Robots with different levels of autonomy have been used in surgery for radiation therapy and orthopedics, said Taylor, who wasn’t part of the research. And Pittsburgh’s Duvvuri pointed to studies with a robot that can stitch tissues together without human help. Still, true autonomy, “in my humble opinion, it’s still a hammer looking for a nail,” said Duvvuri, who couldn’t think of an area where it would improve a procedure. And while the new study focused on a potential heart use, Duvvuri said adding that sensing technology to catheters could have other uses, such as helping to diagnose risky growths in the colon. Added Hopkins’ Taylor, “I see things evolving where the machine keeps undertaking more and more discrete tasks while working in partnership with the humans.” ___ Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter: @borenbears . ___ The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
|
25840
|
Eric Esshaki Says Haley Stevens’ plan for “socialized medicine” would “eliminate 100,000 doctors and nurses.”
|
Eric Esshaki, a former nurse, is running to unseat incumbent Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s 11th congressional district. Esshaki claims that Stevens health care plan would significantly reduce the number of nurses and doctors. The campaign cites analysis funded by a group lobbying against Medicare for All that makes problematic assumptions. While Stevens supported Medicare for All before the Democratic primary two years ago, she is currently campaigning on a public option and told PolitiFact Michigan she no longer supports Medicare for All.
|
false
|
Health Care, Health Check, Michigan, Eric Esshaki,
|
"Republican Eric Esshaki, a former nurse, is vying to unseat incumbent Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Rochester Hills, in Michigan's 11th congressional district, which she flipped from red to blue in 2018. In an ad, Esshaki attacks Stevens on health care, promising to stop her plan for ""socialized medicine."" ""She’d eliminate 100,000 doctors and nurses,"" the ad says. The evidence Essahaki’s campaign cites comes from a report funded by a group lobbying against Medicare for All that makes problematic assumptions to support its analysis. While some progressive Democrats are pushing for a single-payer system to replace private insurance, others are calling for a public option, a government-sponsored program that would be available alongside private plans through the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges. Stevens has publicly been on both sides of this divide, but her latest position is in favor of the public option. At the time Esshaki’s campaign produced the ad, Stevens had already moved away from Medicare for All, campaigning instead on a public option. Although her stance on Medicare for All has shifted over time, she told PolitiFact Michigan she does not support Medicare for All. What’s the difference between Medicare for All and a public option? Medicare for All would create a single, national health insurance plan supported by payroll taxes that would cover every American, mostly eliminating private health insurance. Under public option proposals, by contrast, Americans would have the choice of a government health plan in addition to private insurance options. Some critics argue this would inevitably lead to a single-payer national system if private insurers aren’t able to compete with the government’s prices and quality. But advocates of a public option have differing ideas of the role it would play in the health care system. Those who support a modest version envision the public plan as a kind of last resort for those who cannot find affordable private insurance, while others see it as a transitional step toward Medicare for All. Would Stevens’ health care plan eliminate 100,000 doctors and nurses? Esshaki bases his claim that Stevens’ health care plan would eliminate 100,000 doctors and nurses on a report published this year by FTI Consulting, a global consulting firm with offices around the world, that projects a loss of nearly 45,000 physicians and 1.2 million nurses by 2050 under Medicare for All. The report was funded by Partnership for America’s Health Care Future (PAHCF), a group of medical professionals, hospitals, health insurers and pharmaceutical companies lobbying against Medicare for All and public option proposals. The report notes that countries where physicians are paid more have more physicians. The FTI analysis then assumes that Medicare payment rates would remain constant under Medicare for All, and looks at how a decline in incomes would affect the supply of physicians in the U.S. But ""the relationship between physician salaries and physician supply is an association and not necessarily causal"" warns Joelle Abramowitz, a University of Michigan economist. Meanwhile, ""the calculation assumes that all other components of Medicare as it is currently implemented for seniors will remain the same under Medicare for All, which is likely not the case,"" Abramowitz said. Esshaki’s campaign shared another report with PolitiFact Michigan that found that a public option would eliminate the jobs of 420,000 health care employees. This report was also funded by PAHCF and assumes that a public option would reimburse health care providers at current Medicare rates. It does not specify how many doctors and nurses are included in this figure. Robert Pollin, an economist at the Political Economy Research Institute of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst told Kaiser Health News that Medicare for All would entail significant job losses. ""Every proponent of Medicare for All — including myself — has to recognize that the biggest source of cost-saving is layoffs,"" he said. But experts predict most of the job losses under Medicare for All would be in the health insurance industry, such as insurance brokers, medical billing workers and other administrative roles. Some argue that Medicare for All, by decreasing the number of uninsured Americans, would increase demand for health care providers, including doctors, physician assistants and nurses. Stevens supports a public option over Medicare for All During her 2018 campaign, Stevens advocated for Medicare for All. In a June 2018 tweet she wrote, ""Medicare for all. NOW."" That same month, during a candidate forum, the former Obama administration official said, ""We absolutely need to propose legislation to provide Medicare for All."" This did not remain her position for long. A month before she won her seat, BuzzFeed reported Stevens supports a voluntary public option instead of Medicare for All. In a debate days before she was elected, Stevens said, ""I think that Medicare for All is a place where we can grow and go into, but for right now we need to focus on the cost of prescription drugs."" A Medium article written by a member of Michigan for Single Payer in early 2019 notes Stevens has ""said in private"" that she supports a Medicare for All bill ""but has not done so publicly."" Stevens has not co-sponsored Medicare for All bills late introduced in the current Congress. Back on the campaign trail, Stevens has said she supports a public option instead of Medicare for All. ""We need to work together to fix the Affordable Care Act (ACA), not dismantle it,"" her website reads. When asked to clarify her stance on Medicare for All, Stevens told PolitiFact Michigan, ""I do not support Medicare for All. I believe we can expand and improve on the Affordable Care Act to achieve the goal I have spent my life fighting for: the right for every American to have healthcare."" Our ruling Esshaki claims that 100,000 nurses and doctors would disappear under Stevens’ ""plan for socialized medicine."" The studies Esshaki’s campaign shared make problematic assumptions and were from a group lobbying against Medicare for All. While Stevens has supported Medicare for All in the past, her current position is for a public option, and she told PolitiFact Michigan that she does not support Medicare for All. The ad comes up short in offering a fair characterization of Stevens’ views and a credible assessment of the impact of her health care policies."
|
7364
|
Whitman County 9th county approved for phase 2 reopening.
|
Whitman County in Eastern Washington has been given the OK to take a faster path to reopening businesses, including restaurants, under Gov. Jay Inslee’s coronavirus recovery plan.
|
true
|
Health, General News, Virus Outbreak, Washington, Jay Inslee
|
Washington State Secretary of Health John Wiesman approved the county’s application Friday, making it the ninth county in the state to receive approval to move into phase two of the four-phase reopening process. Those counties can allow restaurants to open at 50% of capacity. Hair and nail salons, tattoo and makeup artists, and stores also can start reopening with additional protections in place. Counties applying for a quicker reopening must currently have a population of less than 75,000 and no new cases of COVID-19 in the last three weeks, among other stipulations, in order to be approved. The other eight counties of the 39 in Washington that can begin the second phase include: Columbia, Ferry, Garfield, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Skamania, Stevens and Wahkiakum. Inslee and health officials have said other counties may enter phase two on June 1, depending on public-health COVID-19 data. Reopening businesses must comply with health and safety requirements outlined in their industry’s guidance, officials said. More than 17,950 people in Washington state have tested positive for the coronavirus and at least 992 have died. The virus causes mild to moderate symptoms in most patients, and the vast majority recover. But it is highly contagious and can cause severe illness and death in some patients, particularly the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.
|
34432
|
A Southern California mom experienced a near-miss abduction of her daughter by human traffickers at a local IKEA store.
|
A familiar urban legend about retail environments and human trafficking popped up again in a viral Facebook post about a Southern California IKEA store.
|
unproven
|
Crime, facebook warnings, human trafficking, ikea
|
On 23 March 2017, Facebook user Diandra Toyos shared a photograph said to have been taken inside an IKEA furniture store somewhere in Southern California, along with a common claim: that she and her family had narrowly avoided abduction by human traffickers while shopping there. Toyos’ report was widely disseminated via social media and was also aggregated by a share-focused site called inspireMORE. Like many other accounts of its kind, it began with Toyos’ saying she had read similar stories on Facebook (i.e., that human traffickers commonly ply their trade within chain stores) and went on to explain that fellow shoppers inside the IKEA behaved in a vague manner which convinced her she and her children were potential targets of a crime: I recently read a post written by a mother I didn’t know, that went viral. She described an event that happened to her while she was at target. She and her children were targeted by human traffickers. She talked about how when she reported the incident after the fact, she was told that this was a very common way they worked. I read things like that, and I always think “wow, that’s so scary… I need to be careful”. But I also always think “that could never happen to me.” But you guys, it did. A few days ago, my mom and I took the kids (I have 3 kids. A daughter who is 4, and two sons, 1.5 years and 7 weeks) to IKEA … We were in the couch section and the kids were enjoying climbing on each couch and trying them out … I noticed a well dressed, middle aged man circling the area, getting closer to me and the kids. At one point he came right up to me and the boys, and instinctively I put myself between he and my mobile son. I had a bad feeling. He continued to circle the area, staring at the kids. He occasionally picked something up, pretending to look at it but looking right over at us instead. My mom noticed as well and mentioned that we needed to keep an eye on him. We moved on… and so did he. Closely. My son wandered into one of the little display rooms across from the couches and I followed him closely with my baby strapped to me. My mom said she watched as the older man dropped what he was doing and quickly and closely followed us into the area. At the same time, she noticed another man dressed more casually and in his 20s. He wasn’t looking at us, but was walking the same circling pattern around us as the first man. My mom and I decided to sit down and wait for them to move on. We had a gut feeling something was going on, but we hoped we were wrong and they would move on. So we sat in one of the little display rooms. For close to 30 minutes. And they sat too. They sat down on one of the couches on the display floor that faced us. That was when we knew our gut feeling was right and something was off. They sat the whole time we sat, and stood up right as we got up. We continued on and my mom turned around and realized the two men had moved and were sitting only one couch away from each other, still facing our direction. The older man was still watching us. She made eye contact… very clearly letting them know that we saw them. And we moved on. We managed to lose them at that point. (We talked with an employee, circled back and used the bathroom and went out into a different section). But still kept the kids right with us the whole time. I kept the baby in the sling which kept my hands free and my eyes too. I didn’t have to keep an eye on the stroller AND two kids… I just had to watch my older ones. When we got through the maze of IKEA, we reported what happened to security. At this point, we note that IKEA is well known for its unique (and occasionally frustrating) store layout that essentially directs customers to follow one another on the same path throughout a store — a subject addressed by Professor of Architecture Alan Penn in a 2011 talk about related planning structures: [A student] followed people around the store — and guess what [customers] do — they walk around like this. You can see the sort of lines of people. In fact, if you shop in Ikea, all you do is follow people around the store. You very seldom find people going the other direction. You do occasionally but they are always looking very harassed … You can only give in and follow the route that they set out for you, because to do anything else is really difficult. In her lengthy post, Toyos listed inferences based on her observations of the men in IKEA, among them that they were unaccompanied by wives, were not talkative, were not dressed in a fashion similar to one another, didn’t smile at people, and were at one point adjacent to one of the store’s exits. And she asserted that human trafficking and the abduction of children from chain stores such as IKEA and Target is “happening all over [the place]”: These men weren’t shopping. While they walked around the store, they weren’t looking at things… not really. The older man would occasionally pick something up and act like he was looking at it, but he’d look right over the top of it at my kids. Then he’d drop it and move on as soon as we did. They weren’t waiting for anyone. Often you see men in a place like IKEA waiting for their wives, but these guys appeared to be alone. They didn’t even talk to each other. They didn’t talk to anyone. They didn’t smile casually at people (in fact, early on, I looked at the older guy when he got close to us and smiled… which is something I do regularly when I’m out.. I’m always making eye contact with people. He instantly looked away. That was odd to me). They were dressed nicely but very differently. I would never have put these two together. And they didn’t appear to be together. The area they were hanging around had an exit right by it. IKEA is a massive confusing maze of a store. But they could have run out that exit with my child and handed them off to someone waiting outside and been gone before I could find them. Something was off. We knew it in our gut. I am almost sure that we were the targets of human trafficking. This is happening all over. Including the United States. It’s in our backyards. I’m reading more and more about these experiences and it’s terrifying. If not that, something else shady was obviously going on. Either way, as parents, we NEED to be aware. Please PLEASE be aware when you’re out with your children. It’s not the time to be texting or facebooking or chatting on the phone. When you’re in a public place with your kids, please be aware and present so that you don’t become a victim. Had I not been paying attention that day… or had I let my kids roam and play while I checked my phone… I may have lost one. The thought just makes me completely ill. (Especially because I’ve been guilty of this!) Also, in hindsight, I would have taken a picture of the guys. Probably right in their faces so they saw me do it. Trust your gut. It’s there for a reason. Toyos replied to commenters by denying that the men could have been loss prevention officers and reiterating that parents ought to watch their children in public, asserting that her belief was based on “what [she knew],” that the men “were up to something,” and that such occurrences were happening regularly across the United States: Something was not okay here. This was not a situation that I misunderstood. Do I know 100% what harm these men intended? No. I’m taking an educated guess based on how things played out and what I know. But even if I am wrong about their specific intentions… I KNOW they were up to something and focused on me and my children. Presumably, Toyos was referencing the barrage of near-identical Facebook posts in which women have reporteclaim they had close brushes with human trafficking rings in Target, Walmart, mall parking lots, or craft stores. Rumors fitting that template began appearing in force on social media in May 2015, when a woman shared a later-debunked tale about an Oklahoma Hobby Lobby store. In June 2015, Twitter was awash in fears of a sex slavery ring targeting college kids at summer job interviews; and later that same month a long-circulating theme park abduction urban legend popped up again. Variations on that theme included a harrowing (yet false) story involving purported teenaged abductors (armed with heroin-filled syringes to drug victims) at a Denton, Texas, Dillards, a claim from a woman swearing she was a near-victim of human traffickers with gift bags in the parking lot of a Hickory, North Carolina, Walmart store, and a spate of rumors claiming Target stores in Tampa, Longview (Texas), and Houston were hotbeds of sex trafficking scouts. Almost universally, such reports were found to be based on misunderstandings, overstatements, embellishments, and not infrequently outright fabrications (including a woman’s claim about an unsettling encounter at a Michigan Kroger store and a convoluted scheme involving free rings from Kay Jewelers). Similarly, nearly all such reports were appended with lengthy commentary about how the purported near misses were in fact exceedingly common and could happen to anyone. Missing from the constellation of these hair-raising tales was documentation that abductions are commonly (or even rarely) being carried out in the described manner, as crime statistics don’t seem to back up claims that such a ruse is truly happening “all over.” Free Range Kids author (and advocate for reason-driven parenting) Lenore Skenazy addressed the uptick in such reports on social media, pointing out their illogic and pleading for a realistic approach to the growing number of social media abduction horror stories: What the heck is going on, America? This “My kids were about to be trafficked, I just KNOW it” post is so shockingly similar to last week’s, “My kids were about to be trafficked, I just KNOW it” post that it feels … creepy. A lot creepier than being at Ikea where a couple of men glance at my kids. The reader who sent me this link asked if I thought there might be some “validity” to it, to which I must respond: No. In fact, I think it’s crazy. What, two men are going to grab two or three kids, all under age 7, IN PUBLIC, in a camera-filled IKEA, with the MOM and the GRANDMA right there, not to mention a zillion other fans of Swedish furnishings? Can we please PLEASE take a deep breath and realize how insanely unlikely that is? How we don’t need to be “warned” about this? How NOTHING HAPPENED! You can TELL nothing happened, because the whole thing was described as an “incident.” And Lenore’s #1 Rule of Reporting is: When something is called an “incident,” it’s because nothing happened. In fact, my alternate headline for this post was: POINTLESSLY TERRIFIED MOM URGES OTHER MOMS TO BE POINTLESSLY TERRIFIED As noted above, Skenazy cited the prevalence of such tales as drivers of the belief “this is happening” everywhere. Moreover, she observed that the dozens of near-identical narratives do not match known patterns of abduction or trafficking: So while we’re at it, here’s a snippet of last week’s note from David Finkelhor, head of the Crimes Against Children Research Center, on the likelihood (or not) of sex trafficking of young children in America: Child abduction rarely occurs in a crowded public venue like that, where help would be easy to muster. Moreover: Most sex trafficking lures and abductions are of teenagers. We have been so brainwashed by talk of trafficking that we imagine we see it everywhere. We attempted to contact Diandra Toyos via Facebook for further information but have not yet received a response.
|
12923
|
"Jeanne Shaheen Says Donald Trump's abortion rule ""puts at risk 15 times more funding and millions more women and families ... than previous similar policies by Republican presidents."
|
"Shaheen said Trump’s Mexico City policy has a much broader reach compared to past Republican presidents, putting 15 times as much money ""at risk,"" as well as millions of women and families. On paper, the numbers support that comparison. Previous Republican administrations applied the abortion funding policy to family planning programs, which amount today to about $600 million. Trump included all global health spending, which is nearly $10 billion. There is no question Trump’s approach is broader and that millions more people could be affected. The White House has not clarified how it will interpret the policy. Its reach could be much narrower than the full scope of global programs, but Shaheen included the caveat that certain dollars were ""at risk,"" not that they definitely would be affected. It’s also true that organizations facing funding cuts could drop activities related to abortion and the funds would continue to flow. Given what we know so far.
|
true
|
Global News Service, Foreign Policy, Public Health, Jeanne Shaheen,
|
"Among the flurry of policies President Donald Trump put in force in his first week was to reimpose a ban on taxpayer dollars going to overseas groups that have anything to do with abortion. The so-called Mexico City policy was born under President Ronald Reagan and since then, with partisan regularity, Republican presidents invoke it and Democratic ones reject it. On the Senate floor, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., warned that Trump’s version was even more extreme than those of his GOP predecessors. ""Previously, under President Reagan and the Bush administrations, this policy applied only to family planning funding,"" Shaheen said. ""But under President Trump's order, it applies to every program that falls under global health assistance. This means that it puts at risk 15 times more funding and millions more women and families."" We compared the policies of all four Republican presidents and found that on paper, Shaheen’s number is largely correct, but there’s uncertainty surrounding Trump’s policy. The first Mexico City policy Reagan administration officials announced a new U.S. family planning policy at the 1984 International Conference on Population in Mexico City. It required all nongovernmental organizations, foreign and domestic, receiving aid from the United States to agree that they would not perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other countries. This applied to U.S. family planning programs run by the U.S. Agency for International Development. President George H. W. Bush left the Reagan policy in place. President Bill Clinton rescinded it, and President George W. Bush brought it back with the focus still on family planning through the U.S. Agency for International Development. But in 2003, Bush expanded the reach of the policy, instructing the secretary of state to apply it to ""all assistance for voluntary population planning."" Even as he did that, Bush excluded a number of groups and programs. ""Such organizations do not include multilateral organizations that are associations of governments,"" Bush wrote. ""This policy shall not apply to foreign assistance furnished pursuant to the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003."" With those words, Bush exempted some of the largest and highest profile global health programs. Those programs, experts told us, dwarfed any other programs at the State Department that Bush’s order might have affected. Trump’s presidential memorandum to reinstate the Mexico City policy is broader. In addition to the head of USAID, it is addressed to the departments of State and Health and Human Services. ""I direct the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to the extent allowable by law, to implement a plan to extend the requirements of the reinstated Memorandum to global health assistance furnished by all departments or agencies."" The operative phrase is ""global health assistance furnished by all departments or agencies."" Trump’s order provides no exceptions. It’s unclear exactly how the Trump administration will interpret those words. We asked the White House press office for details and did not hear back. The experts we reached told us they too were in the dark. Comparing family planning and global health programs The pipeline of family planning and global health programs is more complicated than you might expect. Governments agencies often contract with nonprofits which in turn subcontract out to smaller organizations in countries around the world. Jennifer Kates, director of global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said this makes it difficult to know the real impact of the order. ""Not all of the organizations that directly or indirectly receive U.S. government global health support carry out the activities prohibited by the policy, but figuring that out will take some time,"" Kates told us. However, Kates said that in theory, Trump’s policy puts a lot more funding on the line. ""Whereas family planning assistance represents about $600 million per year, global health funding overall is close to $10 billion,"" Kates said. Data gathered by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation allows us to tease out exactly which programs Bush exempted from the Mexico City policy, but that Trump has included (see this IHME data graphic). Remember, Bush kept money for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis off the table, as well as U.S. support for programs involving multiple nations, the big ones being the Global Fund and United Nations programs. Add all of those up and you get $9.7 billion. That’s about 15 times as much money as the United States spends on family planning, which was the core program affected across all three previous Republican administrations. Shaheen said millions of women and families might be affected. In spending, the single largest global health program is the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. According to the latest report to Congress, PEPFAR treated 9.5 million people in 2015, at a cost of about $6.8 billion. Trump, along with his Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, has voiced support for PEPFAR. But in theory, since many HIV/AIDS programs include a family planning component, the programs that touch those people might be affected by Trump’s Mexico City policy. If the policy extends to malaria programs, the numbers climb dramatically. In 2015, American dollars protected over 16 million people with indoor spraying and many more through the distribution of nearly 30 million bed nets. Our ruling Shaheen said Trump’s Mexico City policy has a much broader reach compared to past Republican presidents, putting 15 times as much money ""at risk,"" as well as millions of women and families. On paper, the numbers support that comparison. Previous Republican administrations applied the abortion funding policy to family planning programs, which amount today to about $600 million. Trump included all global health spending, which is nearly $10 billion. There is no question Trump’s approach is broader and that millions more people could be affected. The White House has not clarified how it will interpret the policy. Its reach could be much narrower than the full scope of global programs, but Shaheen included the caveat that certain dollars were ""at risk,"" not that they definitely would be affected. It’s also true that organizations facing funding cuts could drop activities related to abortion and the funds would continue to flow.
|
26369
|
Wisconsin has “no tracing program going on that we can speak of.
|
Wisconsin is still ramping up the capacity for tracing, and there have clearly been gaps in the work so far. But hundreds of people around the state are doing this tracing work -- local and state health officials both.
|
false
|
Public Health, States, Wisconsin, Scott Fitzgerald,
|
"Facing a growing push to re-open Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers has laid out a series of key benchmarks for easing social distancing restrictions, dubbed the ""Badger Bounce Back"" plan. The state is tracking data on cases, symptoms and hospital usage, but Evers has also pointed to three other logistical elements: access to personal protective gear, expanded testing and expanded contact tracing. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald homed in on the last of those while criticizing Evers in an April 26, 2020, interview with WISN-TV’s ""UpFront"" program. ""We need better information. More explanations,"" said Fitzgerald, R-Juneau. ""They have no tracing program going on that we can speak of."" Contact tracing, done by public health officials, is the process of supporting patients with suspected or confirmed infections. Steps include identifying who else they had contact with, warning those other individuals and educating everyone exposed on how to protect themselves and others through isolation and other steps. It’s a fundamental element of the pandemic response, helping to identify clusters of cases early on to minimize the spread. Does Wisconsin really have no such program ""to speak of""? Asked for evidence of the claim, Fitzgerald spokesman Alec Zimmerman said this: ""The point he was trying to make is the same that (Wisconsin Department of Health Services) makes daily in the briefings -- tracing as it is now isn’t enough."" Zimmerman noted the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has reported on shortcomings in the system. For instance, the newspaper contacted 10 people who had the disease or lost loved ones within the first few weeks of the outbreak, and seven said they were never contacted by health officials as of April 23 when the story published. A story published May 1, 2020, detailed how Milwaukee has added staffing and made other changes to improve the tracing program. Health officials across the nation are scrambling to add contact tracers. The number of tracers needed for the pandemic is about double the usual need, according to the National Association of County and City Health Officials. ""Public health nurses do this regularly, for example, for sexually transmitted diseases or tuberculosis,"" DHS spokeswoman Elizabeth Goodsitt said in an email. ""What is new in this space is mainly the large scale of cases and the speed at which the virus is able to spread – which means we need additional contact tracers to do this work so that we are able to reach each identified exposed person really quickly."" DHS doesn’t know how many tracers are working in Wisconsin or how many tracing investigations have been done since those efforts are lead by local health departments. DHS Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said at the April 28 COVID-19 media briefing that the goal is to have 1,000 contact tracers ""between the DHS surge capacity and the capacity of local health departments."" The state had trained 400 contact tracers as of April 30 to provide ""surge capacity"" for local health departments, Goodsitt said. The number trained was closer to 250 when Fitzgerald made his claim. ""The state surge team has been part of more than 1,100 interviews (as of April 30), which is just a fraction of calls our local public health tracers have made,"" Goodsitt said. The number of tracers varies widely among some of the state’s larger health departments. As of April 25, the Journal Sentinel reported the Milwaukee Health Department had dedicated 19 people to tracing, about 8% of its staff (though that was up to 54 by May 1, 2020). The Washington Ozaukee Health Department had dedicated 15 people, or about 38% of its 40-person staff. CBS 58 reported April 23 that Waukesha County had 30 contact tracers. Milwaukee officials told the Journal Sentinel the initial tracing interview had been conducted within a week for 92% of all positive cases in the city, but it’s an extensive process. They make about 10 contacts for every positive case. Fitzgerald said Wisconsin has ""no tracing program going on that we can speak of."" Wisconsin — like every other state — is still ramping up the capacity for tracing. And there have clearly been gaps in the work so far. But it’s a significant exaggeration to summarize that as having no program when hundreds of people are doing this work around the state. Tracing was being done around the state when Fitzgerald said this, and those efforts have continued to ramp up since.
|
5851
|
Louisiana ranks 2nd for chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis rates.
|
Sexually transmitted diseases have increased across the U.S. for a third consecutive year and Louisiana ranked second-highest for each of the three STDs measured.
|
true
|
Sexually transmitted diseases, Chlamydia, Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gonorrhea, Syphilis, Louisiana
|
NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune reported Tuesday that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Louisiana has the second-highest rates of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. The CDC’s 2016 STD Surveillance Report was released in late September. Louisiana had roughly 16 syphilis cases per 100,000 people. Gail Bolan with the CDC said that babies born with syphilis represent a systems failure as “all it takes is a simple STD test and antibiotic treatment to prevent this enormous heartache.” Louisiana’s chlamydia rate was nearly 680 cases per 100,000 people. Gonorrhea was around 230 cases per 100,000. A CDC report released last year said Louisiana had the second-highest rate of HIV diagnoses. ___ Information from: The Times-Picayune, http://www.nola.com
|
10616
|
Preventive Surgeries May Be Lifesaver for Women at High Cancer Risk
|
It is careful to make clear that the potential benefits of preventive surgery seen in the study apply only to women who carry these specific gene mutations. It provides readers with absolute percentages of cancer and death among the women in the study and not merely vague descriptions of the how the women who opted for surgery fared compared to those who did not. However, the story does not give readers much detail about the pros and cons of the options faced by women with these specific gene mutations. It would have been helpful for this story (and the three others we reviewed) to tell readers that the gene mutation is rare. It is present in less than 2 percent of the general population and less than 3 percent of those who have only a single relative who had breast cancer. Terrible choices deserve careful consideration. While this story acknowledges that a decision to undergo preventive surgery is difficult, it skims over the consequences.
|
mixture
|
The story does not mention the costs of genetic testing, increased cancer surveillance or surgery. This story presents a generally positive portrayal of the benefits of preventive surgery. Coupled with the absence of information about harms, the overall impression might be considered out of balance. But the story does not give the impression that surgery eliminates the risk of cancer and it includes cautionary comments, for instance referring to the “very complex set of considerations” facing women who are considered to have a high cancer risk based on genetic test results. The story also includes some of the absolute percentages of women who developed cancer. In sum, then the overall balance seems reasonable. The story calls preventive surgery “drastic,” but it doesn’t provide any details about harms of the procedures. Also, the description of laparoscopic ovary removal makes the procedure seem entirely benign. No mention of how women might think about potential harms such as premature menopause, heart disease, osteoporosis, etc. The story does not make clear that this study was observational and not a randomized controlled trial comparing the treatment options available to the participants. Nevertheless, because the study behind this story is a large, high-quality research endeavor, we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. The story makes clear that the study findings are relevant specifically to women who have been told that they carry BRCA1/2 genetic mutation that substantially increase their risk of cancer. It compares the lifetime risk estimates of women with the mutations and those in the general population. It also includes comments from experts saying that women who have a family history of cancer should talk to their physicians about whether they should consider genetic testing, thus highlighting the distinction between family history and the specific gene mutations looked at in this study. Also, as mentioned in the summary, the gene mutations are present in less than 3 percent of women who have just a single relative who had breast cancer, so the quote urging all women with a family history of breast cancer presents an extremely aggressive position. The story includes comments from an author of an editorial in the journal who was not involved in this study. Although the story does not report financial or other information about the sources, the study was funded by a variety of grants from public agencies and foundations and neither the researchers nor the editorial writers reported any relevant financial disclosures. Although the story says the decision to undergo preventive surgery is complex, it does not describe the alternative approaches that women may choose. The story does not mention that the type and quality of genetic testing, genetic counseling, surgery and surveillance offered to women in this study may not be available to women in other settings. This story doesn’t imply that preventive surgery is new, but it could have pointed out more clearly that the procedure has been offered to certain women for more than a decade. The story includes comments from interviews with experts and does not appear to rely on a news release.
|
|
10576
|
Prenatal Vitamins May Lower Autism Risk
|
Although the findings of this preliminary study are important and warrant additional exploration, we can’t yet say with any confidence whether prenatal vitamins are protective against autism, as this story prematurely suggests. Autism, as the story notes, affects about 1 in 110 children, and its prevalence seems to be rising. It would be wonderful if simply taking a vitamin pill could help prevent autism and the huge burden it places on children and families. However, there have been too many cases in the past where vitamin supplements seemed to be beneficial in early research but proved to have no benefit or worse when definitive studies were conducted. We need to temper our enthusiasm for prenatal vitamins pending replication of these initial results in more rigorous studies. Meanwhile, women of childbearing age should continue taking prenatal vitamins for their other well-documented benefits, including the prevention of spina bifida and other birth defects.
|
mixture
|
Autism,WebMD
|
There was no discussion of costs, which is unfortunate considering that there can be big differences in the price of prescription prenatal vitamins vs. OTC brands. Some women may also do fine with a basic store-brand multivitamin. Costs can also vary depending on insurance coverage, since some plans may cover the cost of prescription vitamins but not OTC products. At a minimum, the story should have mentioned the range of costs for a month’s supply in order to satisfy the criterion. Some discussion of the other tradeoffs between prescription and OTC brands (varying formulations, tolerability, etc) would also have been helpful. The story communicates the results using relative terms, noting that women who didn’t take vitamins had “about a 60% higher risk of having a child with autism.” In women with a high-risk genetic profile who didn’t take vitamins, the risks were 4.5 to 7 times higher compared with women who didn’t have the high risk genes and took prenatal supplements, according to the story. While these relative numbers probably give readers an overinflated sense of the benefits of taking supplements (or the harm of not taking them), using absolute numbers, which we normally prefer, would be inappropriate and probably even more misleading in coverage of a case-control study such as this one — for the reasons discussed here. The use of relative numbers is acceptable in a case-control study if there is some indication of the underlying population-wide risk, which this story provides when it says that autism affects “up to one in 110 children” — or about 1%. While admittedly complicated and imperfect, this mix of numbers should help readers draw appropriate conclusions about the significance of the findings. There should have been some discussion of the possible downsides of getting too high a dose of certain vitamins, and that more is not necessarily better when it comes to supplements. Especially now that many foods are fortified with folic acid, there is some concern about women receiving folic acid doses that could overwhelm the body’s systems for metabolizing this vitamin, which could lead to unknown adverse effects on the fetus. Some women also report gastrointestinal problems, including nausea and constipation, when taking prenatal vitamins. The story uses inappropriate language to discuss the results of this observational study. The headline and lead play up the possibility that prenatal vitamins “may reduce” autism risk, suggesting a cause-and-effect relationship that this study wasn’t designed to assess. In addition, there was no discussion of the many limitations that we need to consider when evaluating the importance of these results. For example, women who are health conscious-enough to take vitamins may also take other health-promoting steps that might reduce the risk of having a child with autism. This might confound the data. Even this press release issued for the study acknowledged problems that it says “could have biased the results.” A researcher quoted in the release explains: “Because the mothers were asked about their vitamin use years after their pregnancies and after their child’s developmental status was known, some error is expected in their reporting. Moreover, in comparison with mothers who have an affected child, mothers whose children are healthy and show typical developmental milestones may be less likely to remember accurately, simply because they have less reason to reflect on and be concerned about their behaviors years earlier.” There was no disease-mongering in this story. Autism incidence was clearly stated and there were no dramatic anecdotes. The story quotes an independent expert who was not involved with the research and who is identified as working for an advocacy group. There don’t seem to be any other potential conflicts to disclose. The story should have mentioned a healthful diet as a means to ensure adequate intake of folate and other nutrients that are important for fetal development. Readers will know that the vitamins discussed in the story are widely available either by prescription or as over the counter (OTC) supplements, so we’ll award a satisfactory here. However, the story could have been more precise about what exactly these women were taking. Were they using formulations specifically designed for women of childbearing age or simply taking a standard multivitamin supplement during the prenatal period? Did the benefits extend to women who only took folic acid, which is widely regarded as the most important vitamin to supplement during the prenatal period? In addition, the story might have noted that there are different formulations of prenatal vitamins with varying doses of key nutrients. It would have been helpful to include some discussion of the nutrients women should look for and why. The association between prenatal vitamins and autism does appear to be a novel and newsworthy finding, as the story suggests. This story quotes an independent researcher and doesn’t seem to rely excessively on any news release.
|
37928
|
"In August 2020, Democrats removed ""under God"" from the pledge of allegiance at the Democratic National Convention (DNC)."
|
An August 19 2020 Fox News chyron reading “DEMS STRIKE ‘UNDER GOD’ FROM PLEDGE WHILE PITCHING BIDEN AS FAITH CANDIDATE” circulated on social media, leading users to believe the Democratic National Convention (DNC) had omitted “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance in its opening ceremonies. The chyron was misleading, and it referenced clips from two caucuses. C-SPAN video of the DNC’s opening moments on all three nights up to and including August 19 2020 showed that as the convention was called to order, the Pledge of Allegiance was recited with “under God” intact.
|
mixture
|
Fact Checks, Politics
|
"On August 19 2020, a screenshot of a Fox News chyron asserting that Democrats had removed “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance began circulating on social media:We encountered the Fox News chyron in image-only form; it read:DEMS STRIKE “UNDER GOD” FROM PLEDGE WHILE PITCHING BIDEN AS FAITH CANDIDATEA cropped edge indicated the chyron appeared during Laura Ingraham’s show, Ingraham Angle. No other information was immediately available.Source of the ‘Dems Strike Under God from Pledge’ ChyronBased on contextual information about the segment, we managed to locate a video which aired and was shared to YouTube on August 19 2020.At the 23:15 mark, the chyron changes from “THE LOWLIGHTS OF DNC NIGHT 3” to “DEMS STRIKE “UNDER GOD” FROM PLEDGE WHILE PITCHING BIDEN AS FAITH CANDIDATE”:Fox News shared a transcript of the ensuing discussion between Fox News’ Laura Ingraham and Fox News Contributor Raymond Arroyo. When the chyron changed, the two discussed the content of the third night of the Democratic National Convention (DNC).Arroyo was introduced by Ingraham, and then he said:Laura, the Democrats smartly program this evening through their speakers, there was a theme: America is finished. It’s a dystopian nightmare out there, and then they proved it. Watch.Next, a clip played, in which individuals discussed how “businesses around the country are bearing the economic brunt of the coronavirus pandemic.” At the end of the clip, Ingraham and Arroyo introduced the purported removal of “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance at the DNC.Arroyo began by addressing the content of the video clip, asserting that “blue state” lawmakers shut down states’ economies due to the coronavirus. He continued, introducing the claim about “under God”:ARROYO: Laura, what they didn’t tell you is when you mentioned it earlier, these are mostly blue states where Democrats shut down these economies. So, of course, it looks bad. This looks like the outtakes from the Hunger Games, you know — a dark dystopian vision. This is why the ratings are so low for this entire extravaganza. People don’t want this kind of gloom and doom for three hours on end with a couple of speeches in between. Tonight, we also saw, Laura, Kamala Harris during her speech, she invoked patriotism and faith. She said, to love our country is to fight for the ideals of this country. Well, I watched a couple of the DNC caucus meetings over the last few days. This was the start of the LGBT caucus meeting earlier today. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you don’t have a flag, I have flags here. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. (END VIDEO CLIP)ARROYO: I think they left something out there, Laura. But surely the Muslim caucus event wouldn’t exclude under God from the pledge, right? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. (END VIDEO CLIP)ARROYO: Laura, I don’t know how they imagined that this is going to win over people of faith. I mean, you know, we all resolve these plays for people of faith today. Tomorrow, we’re going to bring you even more of their interfaith council. This may appeal to secular voters. People of faith have evangelicalism and Catholics run when they hear this kind of thing.INGRAHAM: Well, it’s the kind of stuff also that’s in these pre-big speech events, or you really find out what’s going on in the party. And I think no one’s watching these things, you are, thank you, because — but nobody’s watching this stuff. But when you watch, that’s the nitty gritty of radicalism, and you really get a taste of what your kids are going to be taught, what the Justice Department’s going to be doing, what judges are going to be picked upon their, their credentials and their viewpoints. That’s going to govern, not, you know, we’re all going to come together and, and Kumbaya along the constitution museum. That’s, that’s not what it’s going to be.Although the chyron said “Dems strike ‘under God'” from the DNC’s Pledge of Allegiance, the segment actually involved video from two caucuses — not the DNC itself. Before cutting to a commercial break, the segment continued:ARROYO: Well, beyond the happy talk, beyond the flag waving and Joe Biden make phone calls to people he meets on elevators on Amtrak, we’re left with this. You’re left with this. What are the activists in the party, the people driving momentum and collecting voters? What do they believe? This is what they believe? And we’ll bring you more of it in the days ahead.INGRAHAM: All right, Raymond, we look forward to it. Thanks so much. And Dinesh D’Souza, Pastor Daryl Scott, they’re standing by fiery responses from both to Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech. Stay tuned.After the break, commentator Dinesh D’Souza spoke about Harris’ acceptance speech. The Pledge of Allegiance and “under God” were not mentioned again in the transcript.Although the chyron contained the claim that Democrats had removed “under God” from the pledge, the videos were of two caucuses — not the entirety of the convention.Additional IterationsOn Reddit’s r/politics, a user shared a link to the partisan Washington Times, titled “DNC delegates drop ‘under God’ from Pledge of Allegiance”:DNC delegates drop ‘under God’ from Pledge of Allegiance from politicsIn the linked article, the first few paragraphs reported:At least two caucus meetings at [August 2020]’s Democratic National Convention began with recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance that omitted the phrase “under God.”Two videos posted online — one of the person kicking off a Muslim meeting, and the other starting an LGBT meeting — showed the Pledge being recited incompletely.“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands. One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” delegate A.J. Durrani said at the start of the DNC’s “Muslim Delegates and Allies Assembly.”Included were two tweets, each with video of the respective caucus recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance:NEW! Democrats leave out, ""Under God"" from the Pledge of Allegiance at the #DemocraticNationalConvention Muslim Caucus meeting this week. Watch delegate AJ Durrani skip it. Featured speakers at the event were @BernieSanders @RashidaTlaib & @TomPerez @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/Ra4SX2cqNy— David Brody (@DavidBrodyCBN) August 19, 2020NEW VIDEO: At the #DemocraticNationalConvention , LGBT Caucus purposely leaves out the words, ""under God"" from the Pledge of Allegiance. Watch. This now makes twice that two key constituencies of the Democratic Party have done this. See my earlier tweet about DNC Muslim Caucus pic.twitter.com/2GIDcCMq1F— David Brody (@DavidBrodyCBN) August 19, 2020Both clips appeared to document meetings for specific caucuses within the Democratic party. In the first clip, the Muslim Caucus speaker omitted “under God”; in the second, the LGBT Caucus speaker paused during the “under God” portion of the Pledge.After embedding the tweets, the Washington Times added clarification about the relatively recent addition of those two words:The phrase was not part of the Pledge when Congress first officially codified it in 1942 (it dates back in various forms to 1906). It was added in 1954 under a bill signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.‘Under God’ in the Pledge of Allegiance at the 2020 DNC Nights One, Two, and ThreeC-SPAN’s archive of transcribed video made it fairly easy to retrieve three days’ worth of DNC content.Just after the three-minute mark of a video titled “Democratic National Convention, Day 1,” Rep. Bennie Thompson called the first day of the Convention to order. Immediately thereafter, the Pledge of Allegiance was recited with “under God” included:Captions generated by C-SPAN included the phrasing:C-SPAN also featured a video titled “Democratic National Convention, Day 2,” published on August 18 2020. At roughly 11:15, numerous people began reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.At 11:28, two people in the video say “under God”:C-SPAN footage published on August 19 2020 (the same day Fox News aired the “Dems strike ‘under God'” chyron), titled “Democratic National Convention, Day 3,” features the Pledge at the 4:40 mark. Once again, several people recited it together.At 4:52, “under God” is included as part of the night’s recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance:A Rev.com transcript published on August 17 2020 for the first night of the DNC not only captured “under God” in the opening Pledge of Allegiance, what followed immediately thereafter — a prayer. In the first five minutes of the transcript, the Pledge of Allegiance was not only recited with “under God” intact, but God immediately took center stage when Gabriel Salguero led the DNC in a prayer:Intro: (00:05) Justice, strength, liberty.Intro: (00:10) Let’s do this!Intro: (00:17) We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our prosperity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.Intro: (01:03) We the people call the 48th [inaudible 00:01:07] Democratic Nation Convention to order.Intro: (01:08) I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.Intro: (01:15) (singing)Gabriel Salguero: (04:04) Hello. My name is Gabriel Salguero. Let us pray. Almighty God, we confess that our nation needs you and has always needed you. We pray for your blessing upon all of us, Republican, Independent, and Democrat. As we strive to form perfect union, we pray for your strength, guidance, and wisdom. Lord, we recognize that we are living in challenging times that call us to live up to the highest angel of our national character. As we confront the turbulent winds of a global pandemic, economic uncertainty, and civil discourse, may your gracious hand lead us to the peaceful shores of love, justice and civility.Gabriel Salguero: (04:44) Help us, oh Lord, to be ever mindful of the most vulnerable among us, from our golden generation to our youngest children, [foreign language 00:00:04:54] to our veterans, from our health care workers to our schools teachers.Give us a heart of compassion and grace. This nation from Miami to Minneapolis, and from Portland to El Paso, ask you to shepherd us to a hope filled vision that does justice. [foreign language 00:05:14], and walks humbly before you.I pray this in the maximus name of Jesus, amen.Eva Longoria : (05:23) Welcome to our convention across America. We had hoped to gather in place, but instead we figured out a safe and responsible way to come together to share ideas and talk abut the future of our country. That’s the kind of leadership we need right now. That’s the kind of leadership that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will bring to the White House. So during the next four nights, we will gather safely from our homes to listen, to learn, to be inspired to act, to vote and to build that more perfect union. I am honored to be with you this evening.TL;DRAn August 19 2020 Fox News chyron reading “DEMS STRIKE ‘UNDER GOD’ FROM PLEDGE WHILE PITCHING BIDEN AS FAITH CANDIDATE” circulated on social media, leading users to believe the Democratic National Convention (DNC) had omitted “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance in its opening ceremonies. The chyron was misleading, and it referenced clips from two caucuses. C-SPAN video of the DNC’s opening moments on all three nights up to and including August 19 2020 showed that as the convention was called to order, the Pledge of Allegiance was recited with “under God” intact.Comments"
|
5559
|
2 new vaccines required for some Kansas school students.
|
Students in certain grades at Kansas public and private schools will be required to have two new vaccinations this year.
|
true
|
Meningitis, Health, General News, Kansas, Hepatitis, Topeka
|
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced Thursday that students entering kindergarten and first grade will need two doses of a hepatitis A vaccine. Students entering seventh grade will need one dose of the meningococcal ACWY vaccine. And students starting their junior year will need the meningococcal ACWY vaccine if they have not been vaccinated before their 16th birthday. The new requirements take effect Aug. 2. Kansas allows exemptions from vaccines only for medical and religious reasons. Health department Secretary Lee Norman said the agency collected public input before proposing the new requirements. He said meningitis and hepatitis A are both severe diseases that are preventable with vaccines.
|
2785
|
Colorado farmers get home detention for 2011 listeria outbreak.
|
A federal court judge sentenced two Colorado farmers on Tuesday to six months of home detention and five years probation for their role in a deadly 2011 listeria outbreak linked to contaminated cantaloupes.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Eric and Ryan Jensen, brothers who are former owners of Colorado-based Jensen Farms, pleaded guilty in October to six counts of adulteration of a food and aiding and abetting linked to one of the deadliest U.S. outbreaks of food-borne illness. “I must deliver both justice and mercy at the same time,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty said during a hearing in Denver. Explaining his reason for not sending the brothers to jail, Hegarty said he wanted to preserve their ability to earn enough income to pay restitution of $150,000 each to the families of those who died and other victims in the case. Prosecutors said they recommended probation in the case because of the brothers’ demonstration of remorse and their cooperation with authorities investigating the outbreak. Both will be allowed to leave their homes for work, to attend church and for certain educational purposes under the sentence. Each brother had faced a possible maximum sentence of six years in prison and $1.5 million in fines. The Jensens’ cantaloupes were processed and packed at a plant in Granada, Colorado, but equipment there failed to wash the melons with enough anti-bacterial solution to remove listeria bacteria, prosecutors said in court papers. U.S. health officials have reported that a total of 147 people in 28 states fell ill in the outbreak, including 33 who died. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jaime Pena, however, said in court on Tuesday the death toll was closer to 40. Pregnant women and others with compromised immune systems are particularly vulnerable to listeria infection, which has a mortality rate of about 20 percent and is the third-leading cause of death from food poisoning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, nausea or diarrhea, stiff neck, confusion and in severe cases convulsions and meningitis. The infection can also cause pregnant women to miscarry. Pena said the magnitude and scope of the Jensen Farms outbreak was a key reason for prosecuting the brothers, even though he believed they “did not intentionally and knowingly allow adulterated food to leave their premises.” U.S. Attorney John Walsh said in a statement the sentence “serves as a powerful reminder of farmers’ legal and moral responsibility for ensuring their product is safe.” Before they were sentenced, the brothers each addressed the packed courtroom to apologize. “This is a huge tragedy for everyone involved, and we’re very sorry,” Eric Jensen said. Although many farmers and ranchers across the United States had expressed outrage that the Jensens were criminally charged for the outbreak, lawyers for both sides in the case said the prosecution had led to improvements in food safety controls.
|
6279
|
EPA proposes rewrite of rules on lead contamination in water.
|
The Trump administration on Thursday proposed a rewrite of rules for dealing with lead pipes contaminating drinking water, but critics say the changes appear to give water systems decades more time to replace pipes leaching dangerous amounts of toxic lead.
|
true
|
Health, General News, Politics, Environment, Business, Flint, Michigan
|
Contrary to regulatory rollbacks in many other environmental areas, the administration has called dealing with lead contamination in drinking water a priority. Communities and families in Flint, Michigan, Newark, New Jersey, and elsewhere have had to grapple with high levels of lead in tap water and with regulatory failures dealing with the health threat. Lead in drinking water has been linked to developmental delays in children and can damage the brain, red blood cells and kidneys. It is most often caused by lead service lines — pipes connecting a home to a water main — or lead fixtures in a home or school. At a news conference in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced changes that include requiring water systems to test lead levels in water at schools and child care facilities. Other changes would require officials to identify the areas with the worst contamination and toughen procedures for sampling tap water. But Wheeler disappointed conservation groups by declining to lower the level of lead contamination in drinking water systems that triggers mandatory remediation. And another change would lower the amount of lead pipe that water systems have to replace each year once the threshold is hit, cutting it from 7% to 3%. That, according to Eric Olson at the Natural Resources Defense Council conservation group, would give water utilities about 20 more years to fully replace all the lead pipes in a contaminated system. Wheeler said a series of other, smaller changes in the new proposals are expected to offset that. Overall, he argued, the rule changes, if the White House ultimately adopts them, would mean leaking old lead pipes are “replaced at a much faster rate than ever before.” Betsy Southerland, a senior EPA water official under the Obama administration, said the new proposals fail to boost the urgency of the country’s rules, issued in 1991, for cleaning up lead in water systems. In Flint on Thursday, the pediatrician and public health official who helped expose the city’s lead crisis treated children at her clinic as usual. Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha also told The Associated Press that the EPA’s proposed changes were “a missed opportunity” for not lowering the action level for lead from where it has stood for decades. In that time, “science has taught us so much about lead — we’ve learned there’s no acceptable level,” Hanna-Attisha said. “I was hopeful the new rule would have respected current science.” ____ Jeff Karoub contributed from Detroit.
|
5785
|
Montana state Rep. Tom Winter announces run for US House.
|
Democratic state Rep. Tom Winter of Missoula says he’s running for Montana’s lone U.S. House seat in 2020.
|
true
|
Health, Access to health care, Montana, Missoula
|
The 32-year-old first-term legislator, who owns a business that provides in-home health care, is seeking the seat held by Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Gianforte. Winter is the first Democrat to announce plans to run for the seat held by Republicans since 1997. Winter said Tuesday he wants to improve access to health care while reducing costs and protecting coverage for people with preexisting conditions. Winter says he has a preexisting condition, which he did not disclose, and that his sister has a life-threatening chronic health condition. He says when he was campaigning for his state House seat he heard numerous concerns about access to health care and its sometimes overwhelming costs.
|
1668
|
Mind-controlled prosthetic limbs allow precise, smooth movement.
|
More than a decade after becoming paralyzed from the neck down, Erik Sorto has been unable to perform even the simplest of daily tasks.
|
true
|
Science News
|
“That was the ultimate goal: to drink a beer by myself,” said Sorto, a 34-year-old from Los Angeles who became a quadriplegic after a 2002 gunshot wound. Things may be looking up for Sorto and others with similar disabilities. Scientists on Thursday described a better way to harness mind power to move prosthetic limbs. Microelectrodes, implanted in the part of the brain that controls a person’s intention to perform a movement, enabled a patient to fluidly guide a robotic arm, they said. In a study published in the Science journal, surgeons at Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California placed a pair of small electrode arrays into Sorto’s posterior parietal cortex, or PPC. These neural prosthetics were then connected to computers that processed Sorto’s brain signals and determined his intent, allowing him to control a robotic arm mounted to a table nearby, or a computer cursor. “Mr. Sorto was able to learn to grasp different objects, play ‘rock-paper-scissors,’ play video games, drink a beverage,” said California Institute of Technology neuroscientist Richard Andersen, who led the study. “The PPC is a rich source of signals that can be used to determine the goals of a paralyzed subject,” said Andersen. “These signals can be used to control ‘smart’ robotics and computers that can work out the details of movement of external devices such as a robotic limb.” Neural prosthetic devices have previously been implanted in paralyzed patients’ motor cortex, the part of the brain that directly controls body movement. However, while those patients could control a robotic limb, movement was delayed and jerky. Implanting the neuroprosthetics in the part of the brain that controls the intent to move yielded a more natural motion. Sorto said he had a few tasks lined up. “On the top of the list is that I want to be able to groom myself. I want to be able to brush my teeth by myself,” he said. And he was indeed able to drink his own beer. “When I was able to do it with the robotic arm, it just reassured me that somehow in the future, people with my disability will be able to have some sort of independence,” said Sorto. “And with that will come some sort of self-pride.”
|
30758
|
George Soros experienced a life-threatening cardiac condition just before Christmas 2017.
|
This report is false. No news outlets, in Hungary or elsewhere, have reported that the billionaire had suffered a serious heart attack or had undergone cardiac surgery on Christmas Eve 2017. This story originated with Your News Wire, a fake news site that peddles in sensationalized and fabricated clickbait stories.
|
false
|
Junk News, george soros, your news wire, yournewswire
|
On 25 December 2017, frequent offender YourNewsWire.com reported that Hungarian-American business magnate George Soros had suffered a heart attack in Hungary on Christmas Eve and underwent triple coronary artery bypass surgery soon afterward: George Soros suffered a “massive heart attack” while inspecting a new faculty building at his private university in Budapest, Hungary on Sunday morning, according to Hungarian reports. Soros had been complaining of “severe indigestion” and “foggy thinking” in the early hours of the day, according to reports, and began to feel unwell while meeting staff in the new faculty building, announcing that “the hand of God has seized me by the neck.” Dismissing suggestions he was reacting badly to his traditional Christmas Eve lunchtime meal, Soros staggered outside in search of fresh air, before collapsing just outside the gymnasium of the Central European University. The globalist billionaire, who recently donated $18 billion to international liberal causes, collapsed against a wall, before slumping to the ground where he was found “lying on his side, whimpering softly.” “Quick-thinking actions” by “trained gymnasium staff” saved Soros’s life and “expert CPR” helped the 87-year-old billionaire survive and avoid brain damage, according to reports in Hungary’s liberal media. After 15 minutes of CPR the paramedics arrived and took over. Soros was given the defibrillator three times and they managed to restart his heart and take him to a private residence where he where he underwent triple coronary artery bypass surgery.
|
5778
|
Rally to demand continued transgender access to health care.
|
Supporters of transgender rights are staging a rally in downtown Boston to demand continued federal protections for transgender people who need health care.
|
true
|
Access to health care, Health, Discrimination, Gender discrimination, Massachusetts, Boston
|
Activists and advocates planned to gather at City Hall Plaza on Sunday afternoon to protest the Trump administration’s proposed rollback of the Health Care Rights Law. Organizers say they’re mobilizing in response to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposal that would tell health care providers and insurance companies to ignore the law, which is designed to guard against gender discrimination. It was enacted as part of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act. The Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition says flouting the law “will deny transgender people access to live-saving care by falsely telling doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies that they can turn away transgender people.”
|
9079
|
Allergy drug improves function in patients with chronic injury from multiple sclerosis
|
This news release from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) describes a trial using the antihistamine drug clemastine fumarate to see if it regenerated nerves in patients with chronic multiple sclerosis (MS). Approved by FDA in 1977 for allergies, the generic form of this drug has been available over the counter since 1993. The study found that the drug improved results on a test of function in a nerve pathway in the visual system, which is usually damaged in MS. These test results indicated that myelin had been repaired, a first for MS treatment. This is encouraging, although no effect on actual symptoms was shown in this small, short-term trial. UCSF’s release does a thorough job explaining the disease mechanism of MS, especially in clarifying how nerve degeneration through the progressive damage of myelin leads to symptoms like loss of vision and coordination problems. The release also gives a thorough, clear description of the study design, including an easy-to-understand illustration of what a “crossover” trial is. Costs are not discussed in this news release, but it’s a hot topic in the MS community, since current drug therapies amount to tens of thousands of dollars per year. Clemastine as a generic, “older” drug would provide a much welcome cheaper alternative. Overall, we feel this release was well written and informative, leaving readers with a good sense of what was uncovered in this study and why the findings are important. MS is an autoimmune neurodegenerative condition affecting almost 2.5 million people around the world. It is potentially disabling depending on its severity, as some people may lose their ability to walk. Many drugs are already out on the market, the latest disease modifying therapy being ocrelizumab (Ocrevus). The only FDA-approved drug for primary progressive MS, Ocrevus is expensive with a list price of $65,000 a year, but this figure may be lower depending on patients’ insurance policies. Despite the steep price tag, this is still about 20 percent lower than the current market average for an MS treatment like Rebif, another MS disease modifying therapy. If future studies show clemastine fumarate demonstrates clinical benefits for patients through repair of damaged myelin, it would be a much cheaper alternative, costing only about $400 per year.
|
mixture
|
Clemastine fumarate,multiple sclerosis,University of California - San Francisco
|
Clemastine fumarate, also known by its brand name Tavist, is an antihistamine that can currently be bought over the counter. According to GoodRx.com, 60 tablets of 2.68mg Clemastine go for $33.33. If patients take the clinical trial’s dose of 2 tablets per day, this supply should last 30 days. Since costs are not discussed in this news release, we give it a Not Satisfactory rating here. The news release doesn’t cite any figures to support its benefits claims. It only states that neural signals from the eyes to the brain were “significantly accelerated over baselines measurements.” The study authors report that clemastine reduced the delay by 1.7 ms/eye in the treatment group compared to the placebo group. We caution against using the word “significant” when describing benefits data due to its ambiguity. “Significant” in a scientific context usually refers to a result being “statistically significant,” which means the result is probably not attributable to chance. It’s important to recognize the distinction between significance on a lab test (a surrogate outcome) and something patients actually care about–a clinical improvement in a symptom. In this study they measured visual acuity, for example, and found no difference between the groups. Perhaps in a longer trial they would find a difference, but this should be made clear. A lot more work needs to be done to see if this drug will be truly useful. Since benefits data are not given quantitatively. Most common side effects associated with clemastine include transient drowsiness, sedation, dizziness and disturbed coordination. Other adverse effects include rash, low blood pressure, vomiting, difficulty urinating and wheezing. Participants did not experience serious adverse effects during the trial, according to the published journal article (page 5). Some patients experienced fatigue, which resulted in a patient modifying his/her dose, and a small number of patients showed increased levels of triglycerides, a type of fat found in blood. Since harms are not addressed in the news release. The news release does an excellent job laying out the basics of the trial, providing an easy-to-understand, thorough description of the study design. This five-month phase II trial enrolled 50 patients with relapsing, long-standing MS, whose histories also revealed deficits in neural transmission. One group was given clemastine for 90 days, while the other took a corn starch placebo. Then the groups were switched for the next 60 days, with the first group taking placebo with the other undergoing clemastine drug therapy. Researchers measured how quickly it took for visual signals to travel from patients’ eyes to the back of their brains. While there was improvement in speed of transmission, how would that translate to improved outcomes for patients? What should have been made more clear was that no clinical benefits were seen that improved patients’ day-to-day lives. The news release does address the inability to observe the regeneration of myelin using magnetic resonance imaging (also called MRI) scans. Researchers chalked this up to the inadequate imaging methods currently in place. There is no disease mongering in this news release. It gives readers a primer on what myelin is and how its progressive degeneration leads to MS. One clever clarification was to point out the differences between myelin and rubber insulation around wires. The news release mentions that work was funded by the Rachleff Family. However, five out of 18 authors, including the first author, had multiple competing interests, mostly in the form of personal and consulting fees from the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies according to the original journal report. Those conflicts should have been mentioned in the news release. As there is no cure for MS, treatment focuses on slowing its progression, managing its symptoms and speeding up recovery after attacks. The release does note that current drugs work on the immune system, but there’s more that could be said. To treat MS attacks, patients are given corticosteroids or plasma exchanges, in which their blood cells are mixed with a protein solution and put back into their bodies. Different drugs, such as beta interferons, are prescribed to delay MS progression and to alleviate symptoms. Patients may also undergo physical therapy and be given muscle relaxants to reduce muscle stiffness. The news release doesn’t mention any of these therapies, which is why we give it a Not Satisfactory rating here. The news release reports that clemastine was first approved by the US FDA in 1977 for allergies and that its generic form has been available over the counter since 1993. The news release does a good job explaining what exactly is new in this study. This is the first time to the best of their knowledge, according to the principal investigator, that a drug therapy can reverse nerve damage. Participants had been living with MS for years, but their nerves showed “strong” evidence of repair, the first author added. However, this is not the first time an older, generic drug showed it could restore nerve function. There have been previous reports that high doses of the immune-suppressing drug cyclophosphamide could also slow MS progression and bring back neurological function lost to the disease. Although this background could have been provided, we feel the news release does a Satisfactory job here. The headline (“Allergy drug improves function in patients with chronic injury from multiple sclerosis”) may be misleading to some readers since improving function in the usual sense implies a clinical benefit and that is clearly not the case here.The study did not report on improvements in loss of coordination or balance and other common symptoms of the disease. The very specialized laboratory test used to measure the speed of visual transmission did show an improvement in a surrogate for the disease, but not as claimed in another sentence as “restores nervous system function in patients.” Aside from that, the news release avoids unjustifiable, sensational language and, instead, continually warns readers that this drug is “not a cure.”
|
4976
|
Alaska AG thinks hitting plane’s call button saved his life.
|
Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson has said he overcame any thoughts of embarrassment and pushed a call button seeking help from a flight attendant when he suspected he was having a heart attack during a flight last month.
|
true
|
Health, Heart attack, Alaska
|
“This cannot be happening to me, I’m the guy who runs or walks three-five miles every day,” Clarkson recounted of the April 26 incident in guest column provided to media outlets this week. “Looked up at the call-button, hesitated — I thought ‘we’re only 30 minutes out of Seattle, maybe this will get better.’ But something inside my head said, ‘Stop fooling yourself.’ I reached up and hit the button, an act that likely saved my life,′ Clarkson wrote. Clarkson was flying from Louisiana to Seattle when the symptoms of the heart attack started. After he called for help, flight attendants identified a nurse on board the flight who took his blood pressure. “Her eyes got really wide when she saw the results,” Clarkson recalled. The nurse said paramedics would need to be standing by when the plane landed in Seattle. “The paramedics came on the plane while other passengers stayed seated — a big thanks to everyone for their patience — and I walked out to the gate with them. They performed an EKG, looked at it and said ‘yeah, you’re not going home tonight,’ and then called medics to transport me to the nearby hospital,” Clarkson wrote. He went into cardiac arrest just minutes later, with five medical professionals standing around him. “I remember looking up at them from my back on the floor and realizing what had happened. Those guys saved my life and I owe them my thanks,” Clarkson wrote. Clarkson said his heart attack was caused by a sudden blockage of blood flow in his right coronary artery that ruptured and turned into a full blockage. He was taken into surgery, where two stents were placed in his heart to keep the artery open. Before the surgery, Clarkson said the operating staff might have thought he was delusional, however. Every time they asked him how old he was, he replied with the question: “What time is it?” “I finally said, ‘Look, if it’s after midnight then I’m 60,’” he told them. “They wished me a happy birthday. What a party.” Clarkson said his experience has prompted him to urge others to live a healthier lifestyle, cut back on sugar, carbs and salt, and get checked by your doctor. He also said people need to know the signs of a heart attack that include pain in the chest, arm, discomfort radiating to the back, jaw, throat or arm, sweating, nausea, vomiting or dizziness. “If you experience these symptoms, don’t worry about making a fuss, let someone know or call for help. Better to experience a little embarrassment than to risk losing your life,” Clarkson wrote.
|
3740
|
Advisers: Baltimore’s mayor still recovering from pneumonia.
|
Close advisers to Baltimore’s embattled mayor said Tuesday that she’s staying out of public view because of a serious case of pneumonia, not the mounting scandal involving her sale of her children’s books.
|
true
|
U.S. News, Health, Pneumonia, Childrens books, Maryland, U.S. News, Baltimore
|
The Baltimore Sun reported that Catherine Pugh continues to convalesce at home and is under doctors’ supervision. She abruptly took leave April 1. “While her well-known tireless energy has been diminished by this illness, her doctors are confident she will recover her health and strength in due course,” Pugh’s personal attorney, Steven Silverman, told The Sun. “I know she is grateful for the good wishes of concern and support that she’s received.” Pugh was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in late March, before she took leave and just as the scandal began to grow. The scandal involves her sales of her “Healthy Holly” children’s books to the University of Maryland Medical System, where she sat on the board. Details also emerged that she had collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for her books from entities doing business with the city of Baltimore. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan asked a state prosecutor to begin a criminal investigation. Many city and state lawmakers have called for her resignation. All but one member of the Baltimore City Council have called for Pugh to step down. U.S. Rep. Andy Harris told The Sun that Baltimore needs a new leader. “There are enough questions — legitimate questions cast about this — that I think the mayor probably can no longer be an effective leader of the city,” the Republican said. But the people closest to Pugh say her health, not the scandal, is keeping her from public view. “She’s recovering day by day,” said James Bentley, her spokesman. “She’s focused on getting healthy, and remains committed to Baltimore.” The Sun reported that Pugh, 69, has not publicly faced serious medical issues previously. Neither she nor her advisers have offered details about the nature of her pneumonia. Dr. Paul Auwaerter, clinical director of the division of infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told the newspaper that recovery times can vary. After people seek treatment, and particularly if they’ve been hospitalized, they are on average “feeling better within 48 to 72 hours,” though it “might take five to seven days” to bounce back completely, he said. But he said it can take longer if complicating factors are involved, such as stress. ___ Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com
|
26315
|
“It’s not the coronavirus that’s killing people. It is the economy.”
|
A TikTok video said skyrocketing unemployment is killing people, not the coronavirus. The researcher whose work lies behind the stat in the video said that’s a complete misreading of his results. The link between recessions and future deaths is complicated, and the unprecedented current crisis makes predictions even harder.
|
false
|
National, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Bloggers,
|
"A TikTok post is proof that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. In the video, Steven Baker, an Idaho chiropractor and self-defined ""expert in healing,"" argued that the tens of thousands of deaths the country is witnessing don’t come from the coronavirus. They come from the shutdown. ""The economy is what’s killing people,"" Baker said in his April 23 video. ""Homicide, suicide, heart attacks, mental health institutions, alcoholism, drug use. That’s called deaths of despair."" Baker cited a stat that when unemployment goes up 1%, deaths of despair go up 58,000 over five years. And he noted that unemployment now is through the roof. At the end of his piece, he doubled down on his key point. ""It’s not the coronavirus that’s killing people. It is the economy. Way more people are dying because of the economy and unemployment than will ever be killed by coronavirus."" We reached Baker, and when we explained the underlying research to him, he acknowledged that the numbers didn’t add up. ""I admit, I was wrong,"" Baker said. He said he heard the 58,000 figure from a reliable source, and added, ""this virus is a lot less dangerous than people think it is."" Since an extended economic downturn can cause some kinds of deaths to rise, and there are more and more warnings about that, it’s worth a moment to unpack what the real research shows. We’ll start with the researcher whose work, indirectly, lies behind Baker’s central argument. More than four decades ago, in a report for the congressional Joint Economic Committee, medical sociologist Harvey Brenner assessed the impact of sustained unemployment. Brenner found that in a five-year period, a 1.4% rise in unemployment added about 30,000 deaths due to suicides (1,540), homicides (1,740), liver disease (870) and cardiovascular/kidney disease (26,440). Factoring in America’s growing population, a recent opinion piece estimated the added deaths to be 58,000. That piece, citing Brenner, was the source of Baker’s claim. But Brenner, now a professor at the University of North Texas, described how the video fundamentally misused his work. Brenner said his work is about ""the permanent loss of jobs,"" not an immediate rise in unemployment, no matter how dramatic. The deaths he identified started two years after a sustained economic downturn. ""It is not now statistically possible to render a verdict on the economy-based mortality implications of the immediate downturn of the past two months,"" Brenner said. ""Baker’s video is not factually correct."" Baker builds his entire case on Brenner’s findings. But over the decades, other researchers have cast doubt on Brenner’s core conclusion, some going so far as to say he got things upside down. There are deaths of despair, said Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton. They wrote a New York Times bestseller ""Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism."" The deaths primarily were among less educated white Americans and started in the 1990s. ""They rose before the Great Recession, they grew during the Great Recession and they grew after the Great Recession,"" Case and Deaton wrote in a recent op-ed. ""The line of rising deaths shows no perceptible effect of the collapse of the economy."" Case and Deaton point to Spain and Greece as the poster children of the beneficial effects of recession. ""Unemployment in Greece and Spain more than tripled, to the point where more than a quarter of the population was unemployed,"" they wrote. ""Yet Greece and Spain saw increases in life expectancy that were among the best in Europe."" As counterintuitive as it might sound, mortality from cardiovascular disease in the U.S. typically falls during a downturn, as Christopher Ruhm, a University of Virginia economist found. One study reported that in a lackluster economy, people exercise more and smoke less. That’s particularly telling, since heart related deaths were a huge factor in Brenner’s total. Ruhm cautions, though, that the tie between the economy and any given disease is complex and changeable. The reduction in heart disease deaths seen in decades past was not as strong in recent years and might give way further in the current crisis if fear of the virus keeps people from seeking treatment. Still, he called the statistics in Baker’s video ""silly."" Ruhm’s overarching warning is that the country is in new territory. ""The fundamental fact is that we can’t extrapolate from the recent past to understand the effects of the coronavirus,"" he said. ""The nature and magnitude of the effects are just too different from past experience."" And as he and other researchers have noted, if the country hadn’t moved to stop the spread of COVID-19, deaths would have mounted astronomically — which would have brought economic devastation in its own right. A TikTok user said it’s the economic downturn, not the coronavirus, ""that’s killing people."" He brought up the statistic that a 1% rise in unemployment causes 58,000 additional deaths over five years, due to heart attacks, drug abuse and other ""diseases of despair."" The researcher whose work lies behind that statistic said it doesn’t apply and that he has no question that current deaths, now over 80,000, stem from the virus. No analyst said the immediate scale of deaths could be tied to rising unemployment."
|
4206
|
University forensic science team reveals stories of the dead.
|
Staff and students with Mercyhurst University’s applied forensic science program do much more than just study bones.
|
true
|
Pennsylvania, General News, Crime, Forensics, Science
|
When the Mercyhurst team arrives at a crime scene, members are tasked with telling the story of how human remains arrived there, how long they were in place, and whether the remains were affected by weather, animals or other humans. “It’s all about reconstructing past events,” said Dennis Dirkmaat, department chairman of the Mercyhurst University forensic science program. Dirkmaat, a forensic anthropologist, has led his students to scenes across Pennsylvania and beyond to help coroners and medical examiners answer questions crucial to each case. With forensic anthropology, he said, investigators don’t bring bones to a lab to be identified, at least not at first. Vital information exists at the scene where a body is found, including the origin and spatial distribution of the remains. “Each particular case is a new scenario,” he said. DNA can easily provide the identity of human remains, Dirkmaat said. But his students are educated in identifying trauma in bone and gathering information at each scene that could show whether the individual died from homicide, suicide, accidental or natural causes, as well as whether remains were moved or scattered by animals, gravity, water, wind or human activity. “We always search for where the body was originally,” Dirkmaat said, and look at whether remains are still articulated - together in the proper order or pattern - or if there are signs of decomposition. “The police or coroners, when they call us in, they have some idea of who this might be and how long ago it occurred, and so we start with that hypothesis and we try to prove or disprove it from the evidence.” Dirkmaat said he’s seen an average of 100 cases each year in the nearly two decades that he and his students have assisted police and coroners at outdoor crime scenes. “In an academic setting, I don’t think anyone’s come close to that number,” he said. ‘Processing the scene’ Cambria County Coroner Jeff Lees called Dirkmaat in May concerning human remains discovered near a Johnstown trail. The Mercyhurst team helped local officials identify the remains of Nancy Giles, who had gone missing in October. “Dealing with the remains is one process, but the entire scene has to be cleared methodically,” Lees said. “It’s a diligent and slow process, but one that must be done. (Dirkmaat) and his team are second to none. Processing the scene will have a long-term impact on the investigation.” Somerset County Coroner Wallace Miller said Dirkmaat was the first person he called last September, when the remains of two homicide victims were found along Ligonier Pike in Conemaugh Township. “Anytime you have skeletal remains, you have to have (the Mercyhurst University team),” Miller said. “They’re qualified as experts in court. (Dennis) is well-known and well-respected.” Rusty Styer, Bedford County coroner, has called in Dirkmaat and his students several times. The latest instance was last October, when remains were located by a hunter near Route 30 in Snake Spring Township. The recovery and mapping capabilities are “top notch,” Styer said, and the Mercyhurst team accurately captures the location of every bone and piece of evidence, which he said is vital to the work of coroners and the police. “It’s essential to have it,” he said. “They turn over every leaf and every rock.” ‘Practical experience’ Dirkmaat said he enjoys his work for a variety of reasons: including seeing his students graduate from the program and earn their own success in the field, while navigating the challenges each case brings. He arrived at Mercyhurst University in 1991 with a doctoral degree from the University of Pittsburgh. One of his first assignments was to help then-Cambria County Coroner John Barron with a case involving human remains, coincidentally found near the site off Roosevelt Boulevard where Giles’ remains were found in May. From there, “it just expanded,” Dirkmaat said, as coroners spoke with each other about these types of cases they were working through, and the resources he and his team could provide. Dirkmaat said he and his students have worked on cases all over Pennsylvania and in parts of New York and Ohio. “It’s a pretty big territory,” he said. “And I attribute it to the fact that we can do the forensic archaeology. We can process a scene for the police and for the coroner’s office.” The hands-on experience has given the program its good reputation, Dirkmaat said. “The students that I’ve produced are well-trained forensic anthropologists,” he said. “There are really very few, if any, programs that give as much hands-on practical experience as we do. Some of the graduate students that just recently graduated have 15 to 20 forensic cases under their belts.” Dirkmaat recalled getting a call about a plane crash in Westmoreland County the day before that year’s classes started, before he’d even met his new students. On the first day of the semester, he took the students to the scene of that crash. “The first day of classes, they were working a scene,” he said, “right off the bat.” Career opportunities Dr. Erin Chapman, forensic anthropologist with the Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office, is one of Dirkmaat’s former students. During a recent lecture at Mercyhurst, Chapman said she is assigned 40 to 50 cases each year, 60 percent of which are trauma-related. Chapman said real-world scenarios encountered at Mercyhurst make that master’s degree program in forensic anthropology stand above similar options at other schools. “I think it’s the difference between having a job and not,” she said. Mercyhurst’s program is an attractive commodity, Dirkmaat said, due to the hands-on experience his students receive in assisting with cases. The approach involves applied learning, because there’s only so much forensic anthropologists can gain from a textbook, Chapman said. Over the past five years, Dirkmaat has seen more of his students explore careers in investigation, he said. About half graduate from the Mercyhurst program and get their doctorate degrees, he said, while the other half go into investigatory positions with coroners’ and medical examiners’ offices. “There’s a lot they can do,” he said of his students. Dirkmaat envisions a day when police will be able to collect DNA from human remains at outdoor scenes with the click of a device. Although the capabilities of forensic anthropology continue to expand - almost daily - through technology and research, Dirkmaat said bone identification will continue to be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to processing a scene. “If you just say, ‘I only work with bones,’ you’ll become extinct,” he said. ?___ Glossary of terms . Forensic anthropology: The examination and excavation of human remains to assist law enforcement with identification, signs of trauma, estimated time of death and historical context of a crime scene. . Forensic taphonomy: The study of postmortem changes to human remains, including decomposition of soft tissue, animal activity, bone modification or human interference. . Forensic pathology: The examination of corpses through autopsy to determine a medical cause of death, collect medical evidence, order further laboratory tests such as X-rays, toxicology screens and samples of tissues or organs. . Total Station: A surveying instrument used to map and reconstruct accidents or crime scenes to preserve the locations of evidence and the context in which a death or accident occurred. ___ Local scenes worked by Mercyhurst team . 2010: An unmarked cemetery near site of 1800s location of Somerset Hospital, where an addition to SCI-Laurel Highlands was planned. Tribune-Democrat archives show workers realized they were uncovering rows of coffins during excavation, and officials with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections postponed work while Mercyhurst graduate students conducted research on each coffin’s contents. The remains were later relocated to a burial place away from the construction site. . November 2011: Dirkmaat and several of his students responded to Bedford Township near the Midway Travel Plaza of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, where skeletal remains were found by hunters in a wooded area. The remains were later identified as 30-year-old Audrey Rock Phoenix, of Portland, Oregon, who was entered as an endangered missing person by the Portland Police Department six months prior. . November 2012: The discovery of human remains along the Great Allegheny Passage hiking trail in Larimer Township, Somerset County, were quickly identified by Dirkmaat and his team as 19-year-old Justine Jackson and led to the arrest of her boyfriend, Jonathan Beal. Beal eventually admitted to strangling and killing Jackson, then burying her, and was sentenced in 2013 to serve 10 to 24 years in state prison for voluntary manslaughter. . December 2015: Mercyhurst University students helped investigate the scene of a fatal fire in Shade Township, Somerset County. Investigators and Dirkmaat’s students determined that Helen Kalanish, 56, died from smoke inhalation and her death was ruled accidental. . September 2017: Human remains found along Ligonier Pike in Conemaugh Township, Somerset County; later identified as homicide victims Damian Michael Staniszewski, 19, of Duncansville, and James Edward Smith, 32, of Portage, who were both reported missing in March 2017. State police then charged two Ohio men in the murder and allege it was retaliation for allegedly stealing drugs from a “stash house” in Johnstown. Devon Lee Wyrick and Samson Ezekiel Washington are both being held without bond at the Somerset County Jail awaiting trial. . October 2018: Human remains discovered near Route 30 in Bedford County, later identified as Robert E. Cochran, 27, of Canajoharie, New York, who had gone missing in 2013. Investigators said Cochran’s cause of death and the details of why he was in the area may never be determined, but the information from his family and Dirkmaat’s team did not include evidence of anything suspicious. . May 2019: Human remains found in shallow grave near the James Wolfe Sculpture Trail in Johnstown, later determined to be those of 40-year-old Nancy Giles, a city woman who had gone missing in October. According to Cambria County Coroner Jeff Lees, Giles’ body was found “approximately two feet off the trail and two feet down,” by a man who was searching for metal objects in the area. Dental records were used to identify the remains, and, to confirm the identification, investigators used the serial number of a medical device found with the remains that matched Giles’ medical records. Lees has called Giles’ death highly suspicious, but has not released her cause or manner of death. Police are still investigating and have not yet made any arrests in the case. ___ Online: https://bit.ly/31YjAC5 https://bit.ly/2NqbvTw ___ Information from: The Tribune-Democrat, http://www.tribune-democrat.com
|
7213
|
City asks judge to let case against OxyContin maker proceed.
|
A Washington city that says the pain medication OxyContin has devastated the community asked a federal judge Monday to let it move forward with its lawsuit seeking to hold the pill’s manufacturer accountable for damages.
|
true
|
Health, Lawsuits, Washington, Patrick Fitzgerald, Courts, Seattle, Everett
|
Everett, a working-class city of about 108,000 north of Seattle, sued Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma in January, alleging the company knowingly allowed pills to be funneled into the black market and into the city and did nothing to stop it. Purdue filed a motion to dismiss in March. Before hearing arguments Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo S. Martinez called the case an interesting one with some novel legal issues. Purdue attorney Patrick Fitzgerald told the judge the case should be tossed for a number of reasons. Among them, the city fails to show a direct relationship between the company’s conduct and the alleged harms. “It’s a textbook example of remoteness,” Fitzgerald said. He argued there are nine steps — including wrongdoing by pharmacies and criminal gangs — between Purdue’s conduct and the expenses the city incurred in responding to the problems of opioid addiction. The lawyer for the city, Christopher Huck, told the judge that emails and other internal documents show that Purdue knowingly put their painkillers into a supply chain they knew ended at an organized drug ring, and the city has suffered for it. The city should be allowed to make its case at trial, he said. “OxyContin has devastated the community and inflicted enormous harm,” said Huck, who was joined at the table by Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson. The injury here is the diversion and misuse of OxyContin and the damages is what the city had had to deal with that harm, Huck said. Three city council members, the police chief and others filled the benches in the courtroom Monday. “Our city has been significantly damaged. Obviously, we hope the case is not dismissed and goes forward on its merits,” the mayor said outside the courtroom. “Our community needs help. And clearly we believe our city has been damaged by this crisis.” Purdue knew their pills were going into the black market, had an obligation to report it and they didn’t do that, Stephanson said. Fitzgerald argued in court that there’s no proof Purdue was dealing to drug dealers and noted that Purdue provided pills to a wholesaler. The company argued Monday that the statute of limitations has passed for the city to file the lawsuit. In court documents, it also argued that city can’t hold it responsible for illegal trafficking when law enforcement officials knew and were already investigating criminal trafficking at issue. The lawsuit doesn’t say how much money the city is seeking. Stephanson said that will be determined in the weeks and months to come. Everett filed its lawsuit after the Los Angeles Times reported that Purdue had evidence that pointed to illegal trafficking of its pills but in many cases did nothing to notify authorities or stop the flow. That newspaper investigation prompted the city’s lawsuit. Last week, a second city in Washington state, Tacoma, sued Purdue Pharma and two other opioid manufacturers, Endo Health Solutions and Janssen Pharmaceuticals. That lawsuit alleges the companies made false and misleading statements about the benefits and risks of opioids to doctors and patients over the past two decades. ___ Information from: The Daily Herald, http://www.heraldnet.com
|
26819
|
Viral image Says the 2008 book “End of Days” predicted the current coronavirus outbreak.
|
Dean Koontz, not Sylvia Browne, wrote about “Wuhan-400.”
|
false
|
Pop Culture, Public Health, Coronavirus, Viral image,
|
"The book ""End of Days"" by Sylvia Browne explores, well, end of days — ""predictions and prophecies about the end of the world,"" according to the book’s subtitle. It was first published in July 2008, more than a decade before the new coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Online, fact-based news is going to be very important in the coming weeks. Please consider donating to PolitiFact today. But a Feb. 19 Facebook post suggests that the book predicted the outbreak now causing global panic. It shows two photos of text with certain words and sentences underlined or circled in orange. The first photo has this sentence underlined: ""They call the stuff ‘Wuhan-400"" because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside the city of Wuhan, and it was the four-hundredth viable strain of man-made microorganisms created at the research center."" The second photo has this sentence circled: ""In around 2020, a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments."" 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.) We used Google Books to search the text of ""End of Days"" for ""Wuhan"" and Wuhan-400"" and found nothing. But the text in the second photo is from the book. Here’s what it says: ""In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments. Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived, attack again ten years later, and then disappear completely."" The reference to ""Wuhan-400"" comes from the 1981 book ""The Eyes of Darkness"" by Dean Koontz. But Snopes, which fact-checked another claim that Koontz predicted the new coronavirus outbreak, pointed out several ways the current outbreak differs from what’s described in the novel. In the book, for example, Wuhan-400 has a 100% fatality rate. But in China, where more than 77,600 cases have been confirmed, the death toll is 2,663. The Facebook post we’re checking similarly suggests that Browne’s ""End of Days"" predicted the new coronavirus. But it misleads by suggesting that Browne wrote the passage in Koontz’s novel that describes ""Wuhan-400.""."
|
7194
|
Castro vows to champion health care, housing during 2020 bid.
|
Former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro introduced himself to Iowa Democrats on Monday night as a champion for universal health care and affordable housing as he indicated he was close to launching a run for the presidency.
|
true
|
San Antonio, Iowa, Health, Universal health care, North America, Campaigns, Politics, United States, Julian Castro
|
Castro spoke with party activists at a crowded house party in North Liberty after forming an exploratory committee last month. Castro said that he would announce his presidential campaign on Saturday in San Antonio and that he looked forward to meeting with Iowa voters before the first-in-the-nation caucuses next year. Castro said that he would lay out his vision for making the United States “the smartest, the healthiest, the fairest and the most prosperous nation in the world.” He said that his plans will include expanding Medicare to allow access for all and addressing what he called a housing affordability crisis in which rising rents are squeezing the poor and middle class. Castro, who served as the nation’s housing secretary during President Barack Obama’s second term, also promised that he will not accept money from political action committees tied to corporations and unions. “What you’re going to hear from me is that I’m not taking that PAC money, that I support universal health care, and that I’ve shown in my time in public service an ability to stand with the people instead of the special interests, and I’ve taken action to do that,” said Castro, 44. Castro shook hands, spoke and fielded questions for an hour as guests sipped wine from plastic cups. He received a warm welcome from the activists, who said they were eager for someone who could defeat President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. North Liberty is a fast-growing bedroom community that’s located near Iowa City in Johnson County, which has long been the state’s liberal stronghold. Castro’s visit was the latest activity in Iowa as the field of candidates seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination begins to take shape. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts visited the state over the weekend after forming her own exploratory committee, and several more candidates are expected to join the race soon. Castro acknowledged that some Democrats will view his and other candidates’ decisions to not accept PAC money as tantamount to “bringing a knife to a gun fight.” But he said that the Democratic nominee will have no problem raising money from individuals who want change and that the decision sends an important message. “I think it says something, that if a candidate doesn’t take that money, they’re going to work for you,” he said. “If I’m elected, that’s what I’m going to do.”
|
9671
|
Smart air quality device and app helps you breathe easier
|
The story describes a device and related mobile app, called Awair, that monitors air quality in the home and reports the information to users. The story offers little information about how the device could actually benefit users. More importantly, the story makes the air in our homes sound positively terrifying, using language that seems aimed at making homeowners scared of everything from dust to dirty carpets. The lack of quantified benefits — or any information about how accurate the device is — make this story read more like a paid promotion than a news article. Journalism is more than simply reciting facts. Reporters should ask questions, talk to independent sources, and help readers understand why (or if) something might be important to them. Reporters need to be skeptical critical thinkers, filtering through a sea of information before passing information on to readers in a context that helps the reader understand what’s going on. This story offers readers vague, scary information and points to a specific commercial product as a solution to a problem that readers may not know they had (if they have it at all). Some of the things mentioned in the story, like carbon monoxide poisoning, are legitimate concerns — but the story fails to mention options like carbon monoxide detectors, which would be less expensive options than the tech that the story does focus on. In short, consumers need sources of news that can offer reliable, thoughtful insight into health issues — not news stories that scare readers without offering context or detail.
|
false
|
air quality monitor,awair,fox news,journalism
|
The story states that the Awair app is free, but that each air monitoring device costs $199 dollars. Presumably, one would need multiple devices to monitor air quality throughout a residence. Not only are the benefits not quantified, but the potential benefits are not clearly defined at all. Instead, the story makes statements like “[Awair] can help you breathe easier by tracking air quality.” But what are the benefits of knowing the air quality levels via this device compared to other monitors? Or no monitors at all? The concern here is that the story discusses a series of potential circumstances, many of which are either unlikely to harm human health or would only be potentially harmful to some people. For example, dry air is not a health concern for many people. This creates a potential “overdiagnosis” problem. In other words, using a product like Awair could potentially lead people to be concerned about circumstances that don’t actually threaten their health. This may result in unnecessary worry, stress or anxiety, or in causing people to spend money on treatments or technologies — such as humidifiers or air filtration system — that they don’t need. To be clear, there is a very real market for technologies like humidifiers and air filtration systems, but not everyone needs them. The story doesn’t address these issues at all. Also, potential harm could come from false positives in the tracking device, but that isn’t addressed, either. The headline states that this device “helps you breathe easier.” But other than an endorsement from the company that makes it, the story offers no evidence that the device works at all. Disease mongering is when a potential problem is exaggerated, or when a story describes a risk factor as if it’s a disease. And this story is guilty on both counts. For example, among the litany of possible air quality problems in a home, the story states “Different sources of air pollution in your home could include paints that release lead or volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carpets that harbor dirt, dust mites, and fungus and even nitrogen dioxide from gas stoves.” The story goes on to say “…but these aren’t the worst culprits” — yikes! In fact, the story tells readers, “Every room in your house could be susceptive to some form of an air pollutant.” Unfortunately, the story doesn’t tell readers why they should be worried about any of these things. Even when mentioning carbon monoxide poisoning, the story doesn’t explain why carbon monoxide poisoning is dangerous or how dangerous it is. In fact, the only air quality issue for which the story articulates any specific health risk is dry air, when the story tells readers that low humidity can make asthma worse or exacerbate nasal infections in some people. This is satisfactory, but barely. The story does quote a physician with no obvious ties to Awair about how air quality may affect health. What’s not clear is why the reporter chose to spoke to the physician, who specializes in rheumatism, arthritis and related ailments. More importantly, the story is missing any independent sources who can weigh in on Awair, or how effective it may be at reducing any kind of health risk. The story does not talk about any of the other air quality monitoring devices that are on the market, at all. And there are a lot of them. We’ll come back to this under “Novelty.” It’s clear from the story that the device and app are already available. According to the story, “Awair is the first smart air quality device that monitors, analyzes and provides feedback to improve the air you breathe.” Yet here’s an online article from 2014 titled “6 Smart Interior Air Quality Monitors You Should Buy For Your Home” — not to mention this or this. That’s not to say that any of these products work, or that we can offer insights into how well they work relative to Awair. It does drive home, however, that Awair may not be as novel as the story makes it out to be. For readers to truly understand what makes Awair different (if it is different), the story would have had to articulate its novelty in the context of a marketplace that is crowded with air quality monitoring devices. The story does not appear to stem from a specific news release.
|
397
|
Fourteen NGOs oppose London Metal Exchange plans to ban tainted cobalt.
|
Fourteen non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including Amnesty and Global Witness have opposed plans by the London Metal Exchange to ban cobalt tainted by human rights abuses, a letter seen by Reuters showed.
|
true
|
Environment
|
Cobalt is a key ingredient in the batteries that power electric vehicles, a fast-growing sector of the auto industry, and in metal alloys used to make jet engines. It was singled out in LME proposals to embed responsible sourcing principles into metal brands deliverable against its contracts, which include copper and zinc. Most of the world’s supply comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, often from artisanal mines where several organizations have cited human rights abuses. The LME plan outlined last October involves suspending cobalt brands trading at a significant discount to its contract on the grounds that they may be seen as tainted. Now, objections by NGOs to a consultation on its plans could leave the exchange at risk of legal challenges from banned cobalt producers, metal industry sources say. The LME will publish its proposals this quarter. “The LME received 39 responses to its recent discussion paper on responsible sourcing,” the exchange said. “The LME’s role is now to identify a path forwards which balances the diverse views of its stakeholders (including civil society organizations), while achieving the LME’s stated aim of helping the broader metals industry embrace key principles of responsible sourcing and environmental stewardship.” The letter from the NGOs said the LME should not immediately ban cobalt brands and that it should work with firms that produce them to ensure responsible sourcing. “It is short-sighted and irresponsible of the LME to single out cobalt and tin as higher risk metals above others, or to single out (artisanal) material as implicitly higher risk,” the letter signed by 14 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) said. All companies involved with the exchange should implement responsible sourcing practices in line with the OECD Guidance, the letter dated Dec. 3 said. The OECD Guidance says companies should report in detail about their supply chains and advises on ways in which they can uncover and address human rights and corruption issues. “Heightened supply chain due diligence on cobalt, as with all other LME metals, must be triggered by assessment of all supply chain risks, including corruption risks,” the NGO letter said. Sources say the business of an exchange is to facilitate trade between buyers and sellers. “The NGOs don’t understand the difference between end consumers and the LME. The LME is a market of last resort, you can’t choose which metal to take or reject,” a metal trading source said. “Consumers can choose where they source their cobalt from, people buying on the LME can’t, that’s why there is such a deep discount between LME cobalt prices and (Fastmarkets MB)” Cobalt prices published by Fastmarkets MB at around $44,000 a tonne are $12,000 a tonne higher than those for the LME’s contract, which was launched in 2010. However, the NGOs say singling out low-priced cobalt typically produced by artisanal miners ignores other “serious red flags” such as corruption by large-scale miners of all metals. “Is the LME trying to create a reputational green wash that allows it to say its members source responsibly because they tick some boxes,” said Sophie Pickles, who leads Global Witness’ work on conflict mineral. The director of “mines to market” at NGO Pact, Karen Hayes, said the LME’s plan lacked detail on implementation. “We are more than willing to work with the LME or any companies seeking to comply with the LME’s responsible sourcing standards,” she said.
|
4532
|
Baker takes aim at ‘surprise’ bills in health care overhaul.
|
Gov. Charlie Baker introduced legislation Friday aimed at overhauling Massachusetts’ health care system by restricting how hospitals and doctors bill patients and requiring walk-in clinics to treat low-income patients on Medicaid.
|
true
|
Health care reform, General News, Legislation, Charlie Baker, Medicaid, Massachusetts
|
Outlining the effort, the Republican governor said it’s designed to lower costs and streamline health care for the future. “We need to prepare our health care system for the future, focus our efforts on achieving the best outcomes for patients and bring down costs,” Baker said in a statement. He said the legislation would “address the challenges associated with supporting an aging population, individuals with a chronic illness, or those in need of behavioral health services.” Baker was state health secretary and the CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care before becoming governor and has taken a special interest in the issue. His legislation would outlaw “surprise” bills for emergency room care and rein in certain hospital fees. Baker cited the example of an individual who gets an unexpected bill after going to the emergency room for a broken arm and getting an X-ray by a radiologist who turns out to be out of the patient’s insurance network. Drug companies would be penalized for raising prices on medications by more than 2% a year over any cost adjustments for inflation. Primary care and behavioral health care are two main focuses. Baker’s office said the administration has invested $1.9 billion in behavioral care since January 2015, but the system is still failing patients. “Consumers consistently report long waits for appointments, lack of treatment available at the right time and at the right place and difficulty finding providers who take insurance,” it said. Baker’s overhaul also would require retail clinics and urgent care centers — which are exploding in growth nationwide as health care options after hours and on weekends when traditional doctors’ offices are closed — to provide care to Medicaid patients and other low-income individuals. “There is currently no clear definition of urgent care services in Massachusetts, which can lead to confusion among insurers and patients and differing oversight,” the governor’s office said. 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, a major industry union, said Friday the legislation “is a good first start as Massachusetts works to make health care more affordable and accessible for patients.”
|
28811
|
Improperly cleaned tanning beds are vectors for sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes.
|
What's true: It's theoretically possible that one could catch sexually transmitted disease (STD) from an improperly cleaned tanning bed. What's false: It's highly unlikely that one would catch an STD in this manner.
|
mixture
|
Medical, Disease, herpes, sexually transmitted disease
|
According to long-standing rumors, tanning beds can be dangerous — not just because the ultraviolet light can potentially deliver a nasty burn to your skin, but because they purportedly can be vectors for various viruses and bacteria. The possibility has spawned a plethora of stories that are long on scares but relatively short on facts: Genital herpes is highly contagious and spreads from one person to another via skin-to-skin contact. It is commonly passed on through sex and oral sex. Once a person is infected with the virus it can reactivate every so often to cause a new episode of painful genital herpes. There is no complete cure for the infection – rather, a sufferer will be given treatment each time they suffer a flare up. Dermatologist Dawn Marie Davies, an associate professor of dermatology at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, warns the virus, and other bacteria, can survive on tanning beds, despite the heat. ‘In my practice, I’ve seen acquired bacterial infections, warts, and herpes infections from tanning beds,’ she told Yahoo. Despite the range of Dr. Davies’s quote (she says it’s “possible” to acquire infections from fecal bacteria as well as various viruses) many news outlets naturally seized on the disease with the most stigma. However, as with so many stories, the truth is far less dire than the warnings. It is possible, in theory, to pick up sexually transmitted infections such as herpes from tanning beds, because the ultraviolet light doesn’t necessarily kill viruses or bacteria (and many people slip into the beds nude without cleaning them first), and overexposure to UV rays can depress the immune system. However, such an infection would have to take place under a very specific set of circumstances, and you’re much more likely to get staph or some other bacterial infection than herpes. “As you can imagine, this issue varies greatly by type of infection and the conditions outside the body,” Brian Katzowitz from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told us: Although studies have demonstrated that some STDs (eg, herpes virus) can survive on some surfaces or in water, or that some STDs (e.g, trichomonasis) can survive for up to 45 minutes on toilet seats, wash cloths, clothing and in bath water, transmission of such STDs is overwhelmingly by direct genital contact. However, even if you’re not guaranteed a case of the clap with your tan, it’s always best practice to wipe down the tanning bed before and after each use, or to not use tanning booths at all. While the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease from a tanning salon or a sunlamp may be infinitesimal, the risk of burns, blisters, and skin cancer is not: melanoma risks increase dramatically with indoor tanning.
|
40656
|
This is a prayer request for 2 year old Michael Novenche from New York. The email says he’s got a brain tumor, underwent surgery, but only a portion of the tumor was removed and he is now going through chemotherapy.
|
Pray for two-year-old cancer victim Michael Novenche
|
true
|
Prayers
|
(01/16/02) The family of little Michael requests fresh prayer. He is going for an emergency MRI because of excruciating headaches. (7/12/01) According to Michael’s family, a more recent check-up shows that Michael’s tumor, which showed signs of shrinkage in a previous check-up, did not shrink any further this time. The doctors are pondering what it means and what to do next. He may need radiation treatments. He’s been getting headaches and has had trouble taking the oral chemo treatments. If he does need radiation, the family will have to move to Boston for six weeks to be near the treatment center. The family thanks everyone who is praying. Comments
|
10309
|
New Inhaled Insulin Shows Promise for Diabetes
|
The story reads like an advertisement for the therapeutic superiority of a new treatment for diabetes — a treatment that has not been approved by the FDA, a treatment about which the FDA has requested more data before it can decide whether it’s worth approving. Neither the article’s author nor anyone interviewed described the details of any clinical trial data that might back up the dramatic claims of superiority. Almost no substantiation is provided for many of the far-reaching claims in the story. There are no references to published, presented, or any other type of results besides those from an animal study. The only source we know for sure that was used for the key evidence discussed in the story was an interview with a vice president of the company seeking approval for this product. All studies are not created equal, and the story is begging for context about the studies whence these benefits and risk have come.
|
false
|
Costs are not mentioned. It’s relevant because one of the problems Exubera faced was that it cost about twice as much per day as standard insulin, according to a NY Times article. The overall economic burden of Exubera was influenced by (see page 105 of this journal article) its enormous development costs and the needs for much higher doses than standard insulin, thorough training for patients prior to using the inhaler, and multiple lung function tests. All the claims are qualitative. No quantities are provided to substantiate any of the benefits claimed in the article. With the exception of one animal study and ongoing trials in people with asthma, we aren’t even told the sources of evidence where any of these benefits were presumably demonstrated. A reader is left with the distasteful conclusion that these benefits are real simply because a vice president at the company says so. The early claim that Afrezza offers superior glucose control over injectable insulin is entirely unsubstantiated. This whole array of products is designed to control blood glucose. The story should not have glossed over the central potential benefit. The story ends by telling us that the drug company hopes the technology may be used to treat pain and osteoporosis. Of course they hope that. They’d be thrilled if it could cure the common cold, too. Perhaps this sentence was a way of describing ongoing or planned trials in these therapeutic areas, but it’s entirely inappropriate to discuss the hopes of the product’s manufacturer in this context.
|
|
7429
|
Shut by COVID-19, Wyoming ski hill to reopen for summer.
|
A western Wyoming ski hill that shut down in March due to the coronavirus pandemic plans to reopen starting Memorial Day weekend.
|
true
|
Jackson, Health, General News, Wyoming, Virus Outbreak, Public health, Restaurants
|
Snow King Mountain has developed an operations plan and will open for summer season as scheduled May 23, officials at the ski hill in Jackson announced Thursday. The announcement came as Wyoming prepared to ease up on public health measures. Starting Friday, people could gather in groups as large as 25, up from 10 previously, and dine in at restaurants where servers wear masks and keep tables widely separated. Summer offerings at Snow King will include a scenic lift, mini golf, ropes course and zip lines. The Kings Grill restaurant will open for prepackaged snacks and drinks. Bikes, stand-up paddle boards and kid kayaks will be available for rent and guided hikes will be available for small groups. Employees in close contact with guests will wear masks and enforce social-distancing guidelines. Wyoming on Friday had 701 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19, of which 487 had recovered. Seven people had died of the illness. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
|
13912
|
We’re losing as many people to heroin and opioid overdoses as we lost to the AIDS epidemic at its peak.
|
The scourge of heroin and opioid deaths still doesn’t match AIDS at its worst
|
false
|
Drugs, New York, Andrew Cuomo,
|
"Before signing legislation to combat New York State’s growing heroin and opiate addiction problem, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo compared the epidemic’s death toll to the number of people who died during the peak of the AIDS crisis. Cuomo, who created a heroin and opioids task force this year, said the number of people dying from a heroin or opiate overdose today is comparable to the number of people who died from AIDS at its worst. ""Over the past 10 years we’ve lost 10,000 people to heroin overdoses and the numbers are increasing exponentially. It is spiking. It is becoming more and more available, especially among the younger community, it’s becoming more and more accepted, and it is truly, truly a frightening and staggering increase. We’re losing as many people to heroin and opioid overdoses as we lost to the AIDS epidemic at its peak. That’s how bad this is. Think about that: The AIDS epidemic – one of the worst things that society has had to deal with, and the loss of life is just about the same with this heroin epidemic. So the numbers are staggering, and it’s frightening, and it’s getting worse,"" Cuomo said, referring to the country’s growing problem with heroin and opiates. Cuomo’s office said the governor was referring to New York State residents when citing the loss of 10,000 lives over the past 10 years. In comparing recent heroin and opioid deaths to the AIDS death toll, Cuomo’s office said he was referring to national figures. So did the number of deaths from heroin and opioid overdoses actually match AIDS at its peak? Prescription Drug Overdoses vs. Heroin and Opioid Overdoses The number of people in the U.S. who died from a drug overdose in 2014 was 47,055, which rivals the worst year of the AIDS epidemic. But only about 60 percent - 28,647 - were from heroin and opioid overdoses, according to 2014 data from the Centers for Disease Control. The federal agency hasn’t finished compiling 2015 numbers yet, and no other government entity has released anything more recent. Deaths From AIDS That doesn’t come close to the deaths from AIDS at the peak of the AIDS epidemic in 1995. The CDC’s mortality database, confirmed by a CDC representative, shows 43,115 deaths directly caused by AIDS that year. That’s different from the number of people who died with AIDS, which counts people who died following an AIDS diagnosis regardless of whether their deaths were related to the disease or not."
|
9841
|
Experimental Treatment May Help Relieve Back Pain
|
The story presents the results of a trial examining outcomes of patients with a disc herniation treated with a spinal injection of ozone and steroids. Because the story describes results presented at a meeting, it lacks details that are important to assess the quality of the study. Patients in this study had symptoms that weren’t improving with conservative treatment and were thought to be candidates for a steroid injection or surgery. Instead, they received a single injection of a combination of ozone gas and steroids. Six month outcomes are described – about a third had complete pain relief, another third had partial pain relief, 20% had little pain relief and 7% had no pain relief or were worse. Though promising, these results may be no better and possibly worse than steroid injections alone and probably worse than for surgery. Disc herniations can cause pain that radiates from the low back or buttocks into the legs, often below the knee – commonly called sciatica. Though the story refers to disc herniations as causing low back pain, leg symptoms are often more bothersome to patients than the back pain itself. Treatments for disc herniations such as surgery are also generally better at relieving leg than back pain. For most patients with sciatica due to a disc herniation, the natural history is one of improvement over time. The body has the ability to shrink the disc material that is irritating the nerves that are causing the pain. However, some patients continue to have symptoms and these are the ones addressed in this study. Though not clear from the story, there are good treatments available for these patients. The standard of care for patients with persistent and bothersome symptoms for more than 6 weeks is surgical discectomy. It is common that patients may undergo an injection of steroids into the area where the disc is inflaming the nerve as an alternative to surgery. However, it is not clear that this results in outcomes that are the same or better than going directly to surgery. Indeed there is little data to suggest that steroid injections decrease the need for subsequent surgery. With this background, the current study seeks to examine whether adding ozone to a steroid injection improves pain in patients with a disc herniation who aren’t getting better. The major problem is that the reader does not know whether the outcomes seen are as good as those with a steroid injection or surgery. The study didn’t compare these treatments, nor did the story describe the results of studies from patients with a steroid injection without ozone or surgery. If the story did, it would have to state that the outcomes may be similar but don’t appear to be better. With that context, the value of this treatment would appear less certain that implied.
|
mixture
|
Back pain,WebMD
|
Though this is still an experimental approach, it would have been appropriate to discuss the costs in terms of the closest similar treatment – an epidural steroid injection. Since the story claims the experimental approach has been used thousands of times in Europe, some cost frame of reference was possible. The story did a good job explaining the benefits observed in this study. However, where it fell short was in comparing these outcomes to those that may be expected with alternative treatments – specifically, an epidural steroid injection alone or disc surgery. The story explained that no side effects were observed and that a small percent of patients had more pain after the injection. Bu the story does not talk about the potential risks of ozone gas to individuals as well as the environment. Ozone is a toxic gas and one would expect that the benefit of its use as a medical treatment would need to be clearly demonstrated prior to recommending it as a routine treatment option. Even if that is done, one would want to know that this gas can be safely generated and administered without causing toxicity to those administering it and to the environment itself. In this context, the mention of no risks seen in the study needs to be taken with considerable caution. The story did an adequate job explaining the preliminary nature of the results and that further research is needed before this can be considered for routine use. (But we think it could have done a better job of directly addressing supporters’ claims that the new approach “could become a standard treatment.” This came in the third paragraph. More conservative statements came much later.) It also described that the outcomes could be due to the ozone, the steroid, a combination of both or just the favorable natural history of a disc herniation. What the story didn’t do as well is describe outcomes of current treatments that would be alternatives. Though the story made the important point that the natural history of many disc herniations is to improve on their own with time, the story made an incorrect statement. By saying that, “As many as 80% of adults in the U.S. suffer from lower back pain at some point in their lives, and for many, the cause is a herniated disc,” it implies incorrectly that disc herniations are a common cause of low back pain. It isn’t. In fact, only a small percent of patients with low back pain have a disc herniation as the cause. It is true that patients with pain radiating into the leg are more likely to have a disc herniation, but this was not stated and most patients with low back pain do not have associated leg pain. The story quotes a spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and it is implied but not stated that this person was not associated with the study. The spokesman provided important context. Though the study described alternative treatments, it didn’t actually state how the results reported here compare. A key deficiency of this study is that it didn’t compare the treatment to common alternatives. Since there are good treatments available for herniated discs that aren’t getting better on their own with conservative treatment, one can only comment on the current results in comparison to these alternatives. This was not done. The story made clear that this treatment is available in Europe, but not in the United States. The story made clear that this is a relatively new experimental approach for a disc herniation. The story used several sources and did not appear to rely upon a press release.
|
9794
|
A New Approach to Treating Hair Loss
|
This story about two patients who underwent a hair transplant using leg hair starts with a problematic premise: that male pattern baldness is a medical condition causing “enormous stress” that needs to be treated with surgery. But even with that framing, this story fails to deliver most of the basic components necessary to provide readers with the necessary tools to make good choices. Benefits and harms are not quantified. The limitations of the research are not discussed. Costs and availability are not explained, and alternatives are not explored. The story reads like a sales pitch, and, it’s no wonder. The sole source in the story is the surgeon trying to sell this surgical technique. The gradual medicalization of every aspect of human life has sped up in recent years, and cosmetic surgery has been especially adept at finding new ways to persuade people to pay hefty sums to “cure” themselves of all the things that happen as you age. Instead of aiding in the disease mongering and fear mongering that feed the medicalization hype machine, reporters have a duty to their readers to ask critical questions about the research, starting with the most basic one not asked here: “Why is a review of two surgical cases performed by one surgeon worth a news story by the most well respected newspaper on the planet – even if it’s only on its blog?”
|
false
|
baldness remedies
|
The closest readers are given about any sense of costs is the amount of work involved. The story says “On average, a procedure involves 1,500 to 1,800 follicles and takes about eight hours, with breaks.” Cosmetic surgeons don’t work cheaply, and insurance is likely not to cover these procedures. All it would have required is one question to the surgeon, “How much does it cost to transplant 1,500 to 1,800 follicles”? There is no clear quantification of benefits. The story says, “About 75 to 80 percent of the transplanted leg hair grew successfully on the patients’ heads after the operations, and both men were happy with the results, Dr. Umar said. “The hairline was fully grown and soft-looking by nine months” in the 35-year-old, he wrote, “at which time the patient started combing his hair backward and sporting a ponytail, exposing his hairline comfortably.” What does successfully mean? How does one judge happiness in a case like this? What is the long-term potential for this hair to stay in and to continue to grow normally? Will, as is often the case with hair transplants, the transplanted hair stay in one spot while the hair the men were born with continue to thin? All surgeries carry the potential for harms. None of the harms were discussed in this story. The story does not provide a true picture of the process involved in the two patients. Prior to the 8 hour transplant procedure, the patients underwent harvesting of leg hair, “…once or twice daily for a variable period of 6 weeks to 6 months before surgery.” There is no discussion of the quality of the evidence here. Everything is taken on faith and presented in the most positive light. A significant missing piece in the story is that the procedure is likely to be limited to, “.. selected hirsute individuals who have poor aesthetic results of harsh hairlines created previously using coarse terminal hair from the SDA of the head.” The story engages in the worst kind of disease-mongering by overstating the potential benefits of the unproven procedure and by attempting to turn one of the most naturally occurring phenomena of aging into a medical condition that requires treatment. The story says, “The procedure has the potential to restore the hairlines of millions of men with male pattern baldness, the most common cause of hair loss and often an enormous source of stress.” Then it goes on to use the term that hair transplant surgeons love to use to market their techniques, “The condition, also called androgenic alopecia, typically begins at the hairline and eventually creates a horseshoe-shaped pattern of hair around the ears. It stems from a sensitivity — largely genetic — to the effects of hormones on hair follicles.” Yes. It’s genetic. It’s called being born with an X and Y chromosome. Given this description, roughly 50% of the world’s population may be potential victims of this genetic problem. There is not a single independent voice in this piece. Instead, it ends with a sales pitch from the surgeon marketing this technique. In a story about a review of a cosmetic procedure in just two patients, a story should never include a phrase like this: “It’s life-altering for them when they realize that this is possible.” Yet, this is the message that readers are given as a take home. The story does talk about how transplants are most often done, but it does not explain that there are a wide variety of techniques being used, many of which have very little in the way of peer reviewed evidence supporting them. After introducing the concept that hair loss creates “enormous stress” for men, the story might have talked with a researcher who has studied male self-esteem to find out whether cosmetic procedures can create their own anxiety because of exactly what this story describes: outcomes that “end up looking harsh and pluggy”. The story also does not mention that the men chosen for this surgery were men who the doctor describes as having hair thick enough on their legs to work for a transplant to the head. Not all men would be candidates. The story also doesn’t mention any of the alternative strategies used in hair transplant. In addition to transplanting hair from other areas of the scalp, chest, thigh, leg and pubic hair have been used. From the claims made at the top of the story, one would think that there is only one place in the world to undergo this technique: a clinic in Redondo Beach, California. That does not appear to be the case. In a brief online search, we were able to identify multiple dermatologists who suggest transplanting of hair from legs, chest and pubic region. In the first sentence, the story makes a claim of novelty: “A new report highlights a novel way for doctors to replace thinning hairlines: transplanting leg hair.” Later it says that, “Men’s leg hair had successfully been transplanted before to the back of the head”. All it takes is a cursory review of the types of hair transplant methods being hawked to find multiple references to leg hair being used all over the head, including this Australian cosmetic surgeon promising, “you can even use your own body hair (chest, legs, arms) as donor and transplant them to thinning areas in your scalp.” Given that this is a review of what happened with just two patients, it is difficult to even call it a study, let alone back up the claim made in the story that, “believed to be the first documented cases of leg hair being used to restore the hairline.” The story does not appear to be based on a press release
|
13685
|
Overdosing is now the number one accidental killer in our Commonwealth.
|
"Attorney General candidate Josh Shapiro wrote in his campaign platform for fighting the opioid epidemic in Pennsylvania that ""Overdosing is now the number one accidental killer in our Commonwealth."" Data from The Department of Health, the Center for Disease Control and the several other independent reports shows that overdosing has surpassed car crashes and other accidental causes as the leading accidental cause of death in Pennsylvania."
|
true
|
Drugs, Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro,
|
"Pennsylvania’s heroin and prescription drug abuse crisis is one of the most acute problems facing the state, and the number of overdose deaths has skyrocketed in recent years. Sitting politicians and candidates for office are racing to propose solutions. Among them is Democrat Josh Shapiro, a Montgomery County commissioner and a candidate for attorney general who dedicated a page on his campaign website to fighting the opioid epidemic. But it was the stat he used at the beginning of his platform that caught our eye. ""Overdosing,"" his campaign wrote, ""is now the number one accidental killer in our Commonwealth."" At first glance, it’s a stunning statistic. But this one checks out to be , as drug overdose deaths have increased over the years while car crash deaths have been on the decline for decades. We took a look at the numbers to compare the leading causes of death in Pennsylvania and compare those to the number of deaths related to drugs. Drug overdose deaths have sharply risen in recent years. The most recent data shows that upwards of 3,500 people died of a drug overdose in Pennsylvania last year, representing a significant increase from 2014, according to a recent report released by the Pennsylvania State Coroners Association. Nearly 2,500 people died in Pennsylvania of a drug overdose in 2014, and Pennsylvania leads the nation in the number of drug overdose deaths among young men. A report released last summer by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation put these figures into context: The number of deaths by drug overdose first surpassed car accidents in 2011, and the difference has only become more stark since then. Drug overdose deaths now surpass car accident deaths in 36 states. According to PennDOT, 1,195 were killed as a result of a motor vehicle crash in Pennsylvania in 2014, and the 2014 total of reportable traffic crashes is the fourth lowest total since 1950. (PennDOT defines a crash as one in which an injury or a fatality occurs or at least one of the vehicles involved requires towing from the scene.) That means that in 2014, drug overdoses represented double the number of deaths compared to motor vehicle crashes in Pennsylvania and is by far the leading accidental cause of death in the state. Though drug overdose data is available for 2015 and 2014, the most comprehensive data with regard to the reason for all deaths in the state is from 2013. The Pennsylvania Department of Health reported that in 2013, 4,891 people died of an ""accident"" -- a category that includes drug overdoses. Of those, the Center for Disease Control reports 2,426 were drug overdoses. In 2013, 1,965 people died from an accident that wasn’t a drug overdose or in a vehicle while 1,313 people were killed as a result of a car accident. But it’s important to note: Drug overdoses are the No. 1 form of accidental death in Pennsylvania, not the No. 1 overall reason for death. That’s heart disease, followed by cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease. In addition to illnesses and accidents, there were 630 homicides in Pennsylvania in 2013. Here’s a look at the top five causes of death in the commonwealth in 2013: Heart disease - 31,537 Cancer - 28,418 Chronic lower respiratory disease - 6,702 Cardiovascular disease - 6,575 Total accident deaths (including drug overdoses) - 4,891 The opioid addiction and drug overdose problem is increasing the most in 1. Rural areas of Pennsylvania ravaged by addiction to prescription drugs and 2. In Philadelphia, which had the highest drug-related death rate per 100,000 people in 2014. That year, 655 people died of a drug overdose in Philadelphia and heroin was present in 349 of those deaths. According to a report by the Drug Enforcement Agency, the increasing abuse of heroin and cocaine as well as opioids like fentanyl and oxycodone caused the spike in drug overdoses in the city over the last decade. There was a 33 percent increase in drug-related deaths in Philadelphia between 2013 and 2014 alone. Susquehanna, Cambria, Fayette and Wayne counties round out the top five counties in the state where drug overdose deaths have increased most rapidly. Our ruling Attorney General candidate Josh Shapiro wrote in his campaign platform for fighting the opioid epidemic in Pennsylvania that ""Overdosing is now the number one accidental killer in our Commonwealth."" Data from The Department of Health, the Center for Disease Control and the several other independent reports shows that overdosing has surpassed car crashes and other accidental causes as the leading accidental cause of death in Pennsylvania."
|
41716
|
The government will build 40 new hospitals.
|
Six hospitals in England are getting the money to upgrade their buildings within the next five years. Up to 38 hospitals are getting money to develop plans for their hospitals between 2025 and 2030, but not to actually begin any building work.
|
mixture
|
health
|
There will be 50,000 more nurses going into the NHS. The government has committed to do this by 2024/25. Not all of these nurses will be ‘new’. The government have announced the end of hospital parking charges for patients. In December it was announced that hospitals in England will have to provide free car parking to frequent hospital visitors, blue badge holders and at certain times to staff and parents of child patients. The government will build 40 new hospitals. Six hospitals in England are getting the money to upgrade their buildings within the next five years. Up to 38 hospitals are getting money to develop plans for their hospitals between 2025 and 2030, but not to actually begin any building work. The government is putting 20,000 more police on the streets. The government has committed to do this. If this happens it will take the number of police in England and Wales to almost, but not quite the same level as it was at in 2010. The government gave the police much more use of Tasers to help deal with street crime. The Home Office announced police in England and Wales can bid for part of a fund to equip their force with more Tasers. Final funding allocations will be announced in February. The government are lifting the living wage by the biggest ever amount, up to £8.72, and it will go up to £10.50. The national living wage set by the government is set to rise to £8.72 in April, the largest rise since it was put in place in 2016. It was also announced at last year’s Conservative party conference that it would rise to £10.50 within the next five years. Claim 1 of 7
|
5305
|
Jane Fonda uses 80th birthday to help others with fundraiser.
|
Even with all her fame and accolades, Jane Fonda struggled for years with self-confidence.
|
true
|
Georgia, Health, Jane Fonda, Entertainment, Movies, North America, Teen pregnancy, Atlanta
|
The two-time Oscar-winner was able to overcome her insecurity with a strong support base of friends, therapy sessions and by writing a memoir. But she knows others aren’t as fortunate as her, particularly teenagers trying to find themselves while avoiding life’s pitfalls. To help, Fonda started the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power & Potential, which has sought to prevent teen pregnancy and improve adolescent health. Fonda founded GCAPP in 1995, when Georgia had one of the highest teen birth and pregnancy rates in the country. Since then, the state saw a 66 percent decrease in the birth rate for teens between the ages of 15 to 19, according to state data. “Teen pregnancy is a factor of poverty and hopelessness,” said Fonda, also known as a political activist. “We have to give kids hope, so they won’t engage in risky behavior.” Fonda’s foundation will hold a fundraiser to help her cause. An 80th birthday celebration called “Eight Decades of Jane” will be held on Saturday with hopes of raising at least $1 million for her nonprofit organization. Singer-songwriters James Taylor and Carole King will perform. Guests expected to attend include CNN founder and ex-husband Ted Turner, Sally Field, Rosie O’Donnell, Diane Lane and Troy Garity, who is Fonda’s son. In a recent interview, Fonda, who stars in the Netflix show “Grace and Frankie,” spoke with The Associated Press about the reason she founded GCAPP, how she continues to grow as an actor and the continuous sexual harassment claims in Hollywood. ____ AP: What made you want to focus on teen pregnancy prevention? Fonda: In 1994, I was traveling around Georgia and taken to a maternity ward in Albany, where I saw a 14-year-old girl who was pregnant. There was nothing much I could do for her. ... I knew that there was a 90 percent chance she was sexual abused at her age. I learned she lived in a tarpaper shack with no windows or plumbing. ... I didn’t say anything to her. I just kissed her forehead and left. I cried. AP: What are the misconceptions about teen pregnancy? Fonda: Middle-class kids don’t get pregnant in large numbers, because they see a future compromised if that happens to them. It has nothing to do with race. White kids who live in poor areas of the country have high rates of teen pregnancy, and so does every other race and ethnicity. It’s a factor of poverty, not race. AP: The fundraiser will also recognize your life achievements. How do you continue to grow as an actress? Fonda: Stay curious. Pay attention. Do the work. Get deep. ... You have to do in the work. There aren’t any shortcuts. AP: You’ve been around Hollywood for decades. Why do you think women are stepping forward now and making sexual harassment claims? Fonda: The reason it’s happening now is because of who our president is. He’s a perpetrator (President Donald Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct but has denied the allegations). Many women are horrified that a man like that has been elected into office. He’s triggered a lot of memories in many women who have been victims. I think that it was white famous actresses who stepped forward and kind of opened the floodgates, and now people are realizing how much of an epidemic it is. Now, they’re doing something about it. AP: How do you feel about those who have made claims in the past, but went unheard? Fonda: African-American women ... including Ida B. Wells and Anita Hill, have spoken out about this and demanded gender equality before white women did. We have to be grateful for the women who have come before us. Sexual harassment and assault is even more rife among restaurant, farm and office workers. Women don’t have any power to speak out without losing their jobs. We are now reaching out in solidarity. AP: What do you want to see changed? Fonda: Where there is equality, and more egalitarian power distribution, sexual abuse is reduced. A lot of what we have to do is not just think about sexual abuse, but also have women in power across industries in decision-making power. Then you’ll see the number of sexual harassment cases drop. ___ Online: www.gcapp.org www.gcapp.org/celebratingjane ___ Follow Jonathan Landrum Jr. on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MrLandrum31 . His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/jonathan%20landrum
|
11387
|
J&J joins development of blood test that can spot 1 cancer cell in a billion healthy ones
|
This story about a business deal to support development of a test that can detect extremely low levels of cancer cells circulating in a person’s blood stream hits most of the points we want to see, yet our reviewers felt that readers are left with an overly positive and uncritical portrayal of the present state of this technology. We wish readers had been shown some excerpts from the hard-nosed evaluations of this approach that have been published in medical journals in recent months. Or even more of the cautious analysis given by the American Cancer Society’s Dr. Len Lichtenfeld on his blog. Excerpt: “…this is an announcement of a research deal. Nothing more, nothing less. It is not a new breakthrough. It is not something that has been proven effective in improving cancer detection and treatment. Not that it is anything less than stunning to develop and demonstrate that this technology works – but as with all research it is a giant step to go successfully from the laboratory phase of development to the clinical phase of making a real difference in patients’ lives. So that in essence is what the fuss is all about: the researchers have signed a contract with a company to further develop this research and determine whether in fact it can be applied successfully to large numbers of patients in a more efficient and less expensive manner.” Cancer is a leading cause of death. No disease incites greater fear. There is great demand for tests that could improve cancer outcomes. Stories about potential advances in this area should be careful not to stoke desperate hopes.
|
true
|
Associated Press
|
We’ll give the story a minimally passing grade on this criterion as well, because it does note that an earlier version of a test that uses some of the same principles costs several hundred dollars. The story would have been better if it more clearly differentiated between tests used to monitor treatment (where a new test might be compared to biopsies or imaging scans) and tests used to screen healthy people, where even relatively low-cost tests could lead to substantial individual and national expenditures on follow-up testing and treatment. The story does point out that this sort of test for circulating cancer cells is just entering clinical trials. However, the repeated emphasis on the potential benefits obscures the lack of actual evidence. The amount of attention given to possible use to screen healthy people for cancer is out of balance with the more likely scenario that this sort of test will be used initially as a research tool to help track the effects of experimental treatments… and then in conjunction with conventional methods to monitor treatment in people with cancer. The lead sentence promise that this sort of test will be coming to “your doctor’s office” is out of step with the available evidence. This story glosses over the substantial harms that tests can cause. The story could have referred to examples from PSA to mammography to remind readers that detecting cancer does not always improve outcomes and that generally many people are subjected to the harms of invasive follow-up testing and treatment for each one who benefits. As Dr. Susan Love noted on the ABC News website: “Having the cells in the bloodstream does not necessarily mean that the cancer will spread and kill you. Just because you find them does not mean you know what to do with the information….We all have cancer cells in our body that are dormant,” Love said. “We need to be careful not to over react to the presence of cancer cells when the treatment may actually be worse than the cure.” Here again, this story does tell readers that this type of test is just entering clinical trials. But as mentioned before, it tends to minimize the amount of research and investment of time and money that will be required before this sort of test could be considered for use outside of experimental settings. This story does not exaggerate the threat of consequences of cancer. However, readers are likely to get the impression that the detection of circulating cancer cells means the person would benefit from early treatment, when actually researchers don’t yet know whether such a test result actually predicts the future health of an individual. The story quotes an expert who was not involved in the development of this test, though he is going to be involved in upcoming clinical trails. The story makes clear that the developers of the test have struck a deal with Johnson & Johnson to do move toward marketing their invention. The story would have been stronger if it had included comments from experts who have written about the substantial hurdles and obstacles that face developers of this test. We would have liked to see a comment like one included in the article by Martin et al. mentioned above: “Although fluid-based biomarkers seem promising, their reliability has not been determined. Assay sensitivity and specificity need to be improved, techniques must be standardized and validated, and biomarkers are not yet closely legally regulated. Pressing financial, political, and cultural issues have the potential to derail anticipated benefits.” Or some of the cautious analysis offered by Dr. Len Lichtenfeld of the American Cancer Society, also mentioned above. Finally, we notice that AP profiled the same patient that ABC News profiled. Did the hospital or the company provide their best case scenario? Where is the data on this test to date? The story suggests that this test is inherently superior to existing tests that detect and monitor cancer. While developing a better test is the goal of this line of research, it has a long way to go to reach that goal. As Dr. Len Lichtenfeld wrote on his blog: “…we are seeing many tests that are being touted as important in answering various questions about the future behavior of an individual’s cancer but we are not seeing the type of validation we need to know whether or not such claims are in fact clinically relevant. There are so many markers and genetic tests out there that even the most knowledgeable experts in the clinical treatment of patients with cancer are having a hard time separating the proverbial wheat from the chaff.” This story sneaks by because it says only that experiments are set to begin and it doesn’t promise that this cancer test will be available within any specific timeframe. However, the overall tone of the story minimizes the difficult challenges ahead. The story started on a confusing note, mixing within the first two sentences phrases that the test is “moving one step closer to being available at your doctor’s office” – yet it’s “experimental” – yet big names are “joining forces to bring it to market.” We think readers heads would be spinning about the state of the research after that lead. The authors of a recent journal article on this concept described the kind of research needed to know if this sort of test really has clinical benefits, ”Determining whether a program is effective could require large (i.e., multithousand patient) clinical trials lasting many years and requiring great expense.” Reference: A Need for Basic Research on Fluid-Based Early Detection Biomarkers Katherine J. Martin, Marcia V. Fournier, G. Prem Veer Reddy, and Arthur B. Pardee. Cancer Research July 1, 2010 70:5203-5206; Published OnlineFirst June 29, 2010; doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-10-0987 http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/70/13/5203.abstract The story points out that this test builds on an earlier technology that counted circulating tumor cells and it refers to research articles that have appeared in several medical journals. However, the news (as the story points out) is the business deal between John & Johnson and Massachusetts General Hospital; not any specific research revelation. Readers are likely to infer that there is some scientific advance being announced, when actually all of the facts about the test mentioned in the story were announced over the course of several years. The work was summarized in a Massachusetts General Hospital newsletter article last summer: “Advancers at the Mass General Cancer Center”, Summer 2010. http://www.mgh.harvard.edu/cancer/assets/pdfs/FINAL_Advances at the MGCancer Center.pdf The story does not appear to rely on a news release.
|
31588
|
Entering your PIN in reverse at any ATM will automatically summon the police.
|
Finally, there is the problem of ATM customers’ quickly conjuring up their accustomed PINs in reverse: Even in situations lacking added stress, mentally reconstructing one’s PIN backwards is a difficult task for many people. Add to that difficulty the terror of being in the possession of a violent and armed person, and precious few victims might be able to come up with reversed PINs seamlessly enough to fool their captors into believing that everything was proceeding according to plan. As Chuck Stones of the Kansas Bankers Association said in 2004: “I’m not sure anyone here could remember their PIN numbers backward with a gun to their head.”
|
false
|
Crime, atms, crime warnings
|
Messages offering a seemingly helpful heads-up about how to deal with a situation in which one is forced to hand over money withdrawn from an ATM under duress began circulating on the Internet in September 2006: I just found out that should you ever be forced to withdraw monies from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your Pin # in reverse. The machine will still give you the monies you requested, but unknown to the robber, etc, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you. The broadcast stated that this method of calling the police is very seldom used because people don’t know it exist, and it might mean the difference between life and death. Hopefully, none of you will have to use this, but I wanted to pass it along just in case you hadn’t heard of it. Please pass it along to everyone possible. [Collected via e-mail, December 2008] PIN NUMBER REVERSAL If you should ever be forced by a robber to withdraw money from an ATM machine, you can notify the police by entering your PIN # in reverse. For example if your pin number is 1234 then you would put in 4321. The ATM recognizes that your pin number is backwards from the ATM card you placed in the machine The machine will still give you the money you requested, but unknown to the robber, the police will be immediately dispatched to help you. This information was recently broadcast on CTV and it states that it is seldom used because people don’t know it exists. I checked with my Bank of Nova Scotia to see if this was correct and staff said yes this information is correct. Please pass this along to everyone possible. [Collected via e-mail, June 2009] WHEN A THIEF FORCES YOU TO TAKE MONEY FROM THE ATM, DO NOT ARGUE OR RESIST, YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW WHAT HE OR SHE MIGHT DO TO YOU. WHAT YOU SHOULD DO IS TO PUNCH YOUR PIN IN THE REVERSE, I..E IF YOUR PIN IS 1254, YOU PUNCH 4521. THE MOMENT YOU PUNCH IN THE REVERSE, THE MONEY WILL COME OUT BUT WILL BE STUCK INTO THE MACHINE HALF WAY OUT AND IT WILL ALERT THE POLICE WITHOUT THE NOTICE OF THE THIEF. EVERY ATM HAS IT; IT IS SPECIALLY MADE TO SIGNIFY DANGER AND HELP. NOT EVERYONE IS AWARE OF THIS. FORWARD THIS TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS AND THOSE YOU CARE However, the word “seemingly” applies in this case because the tip is only a chimera, as entering one’s Personal Identification Number (PIN) in reverse at Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) does not automatically summon the police. The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 compelled the Federal Trade Commission to provide an analysis of any technology, either then currently available or under development, which would allow a distressed ATM user to send an electronic alert to a law enforcement agency. The following statements were made in the FTC’s April 2010 report in response to that requirement: FTC staff learned that emergency-PIN technologies have never been deployed at any ATMs. The respondent banks reported that none of their ATMs currently have installed, or have ever had installed, an emergency-PIN system of any sort. The ATM manufacturer Diebold confirms that, to its knowledge, no ATMs have or have had an emergency-PIN system. Ergo, there aren’t and haven’t ever been “reverse PIN” technologies despite online claims dating to September 2006 that anyone being robbed at an ATM simply had to enter his or her PIN in reverse to summon help. Moreover, said that FTC report: The available information suggests that emergency-PIN and alarm button devices: (1) may not halt or deter crimes to any significant extent; (2) may in some instances increase the danger to customers who are targeted by offenders and also lead to some false alarms (although the exact magnitude of these potential effects cannot be determined); and (3) may impose substantial implementation costs, although no formally derived cost estimates of implementing these technologies are currently available. The reverse PIN system was first imagined in 1994 and patented in 1998 by Joseph Zingher, a Chicago businessman. His SafetyPIN System would alert police that a crime was in progress when a cardholder at an ATM keyed in the reverse of his personal identification numbers. The flip-flopped PIN would serve as a “panic code” that sent a silent alarm to police to notify them that an ATM customer was acting under duress. Because palindromic PINs (e.g., 2002, 7337, 4884) cannot be reversed, Zingher’s system included work-arounds for such numeric combinations. However, Zingher had little success in interesting the banking community in SafetyPIN despite his pitching it to them with great persistence over the years. He did in 2004 succeed in getting the Illinois General Assembly to adopt a “reverse PIN” clause in SB 562, but the final version of the bill watered down the wording so as to make banks’ implementation of the system optional rather than mandatory: “A terminal operated in this State may be designed and programmed so that when a consumer enters his or her personal identification number in reverse order, the terminal automatically sends an alarm to the local law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the terminal location.” In 2006, Michael Boyd pressed the Georgia State Assembly to pass a law requiring banks to create ATM panic codes that would operate the machines normally while also alerting police. His wife, Kimberly Boyd, was killed on 12 September 2005 after being carjacked by convicted sex offender Brian O’Neil Clark and forced to withdraw cash at an ATM. (She died when Clark crashed her SUV while being followed by a civilian who ultimately shot Clark to death afterwards.) Such a bill was placed before the Georgia Senate on 29 December 2005 (SB 379), but nothing came of it. In 2004, the Kansas state senate sent to its Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee SB 333, a bill that stated: “Any automated teller machine operated in this state shall be designed and programmed so that when a consumer enters such consumer’s personal identification number in reverse order, the automated teller machine automatically sends an alarm to the local law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the automated teller machine location.” That bill died in committee that year. All this talk of various bills in three different state legislatures may serve to obscure some of the more important points attaching to this issue, points that are key to making up one’s mind about whether having such a system in place is actually a good idea. No one in the banking industry seems to want the technology. The banks argue against its implementation, not only on the basis of cost but also because they doubt such an alert would help anyone being coerced into making an ATM withdrawal. Even if police could be summoned via the keying of a special “alert” or “panic” code, they say, law enforcement would likely arrive long after victim and captor had departed. They have also warned of the very real possibility that victims’ fumbling around while trying to trigger silent alarms could cause their captors to realize something was up and take those realizations out on their captives.
|
37846
|
"Garbage Pail Kids' ""Corona Mona"" predicted the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic."
|
It seems that a surefire way to drive traffic is to link a pop culture memory to a current event, in this case claiming that “Corona Mona” was a Garbage Pail Kids card with artwork featuring an obvious respiratory infection. The image was likely altered as a joke before it was presented as an authentic “strange coincidence” or “prediction.” Each Garbage Pail Kids illustration bore two names — and in this case, “Corona Mona” was a modern invention. The originals were, as seen above, “Messy Tessie” and “Leaky Lindsay,” issued as part of its second series in 1985.
|
false
|
Fact Checks, Viral Content
|
In April and May 2020, memes circulated of a specific trading card from 1980s American pop culture touchstone the Garbage Pail Kids called “Corona Mona,” showing one of the product’s signature unseemly figures covered in mucus:In the above version, a card called “Corona Mona” is captioned: “we traced the virus back to its true origins.” Other variations indicated — jokingly — that the creators of the Garbage Pail Kids trading cards “knew something we didn’t”:Readers old enough to have collected the original Garbage Pail Kids cards (and old enough to have forgotten the characters’ names) might have searched around to see if the “Corona Mona” card was a real thing. An April 23 2020 blog post (“1980s Garbage Pail Kids Sticker Predicted Coronavirus COVID-19 and Accurately Depicted Side Effects”) heavily suggested that was indeed the case:A 1980s Garbage Pail Kids sticker predicted the coronavirus COVID-19, and accurately depicted the side effects. The 80s Garbage Pail Kids sticker “Corona Mona” shows a sick kid with a very runny nose, and sinus medicine on the ground … The 1980s Garbage Pail Kid “Corona Mona” has a whole new meaning now because of COVID-19, or quite possibly we are finding out what it meant all along.A separate blog post on the same date read simply:Remember these Garbage Pail Kids collector’s cards from the 1980’s? I bet this ones value just went up!A Quick and Dirty History of Garbage Pail KidsA collector and fan site for the Garbage Pail Kids brand, GeePeeKay.com, went over the brand’s early history. “A” and “B” versions of each card (as well as other toys and memorabilia, eventually) were produced with the same art, but featuring two different names for each character. Part of the joy of collecting the cards was obtaining both versions, which looked like this:Or this:Or this:“Corona Mona” Garbage Pail Kids PairThe illustration featured on the Garbage Pail Kids “Corona Mona” card involved one of the most prominent of the series’ illustration. “Leaky Lindsay” appeared in a 2012 CNN retrospective, and as of May 20 2020, both cards in the “Leaky Lindsay (45A)” pair were available for sale on eBay. However, the matching card was in fact “Messy Tessie (45B),” not “Corona Mona”:TL;DRIt seems that a surefire way to drive traffic is to link a pop culture memory to a current event, in this case claiming that “Corona Mona” was a Garbage Pail Kids card with artwork featuring an obvious respiratory infection. The image was likely altered as a joke before it was presented as an authentic “strange coincidence” or “prediction.” Each Garbage Pail Kids illustration bore two names — and in this case, “Corona Mona” was a modern invention. The originals were, as seen above, “Messy Tessie” and “Leaky Lindsay,” issued as part of its second series in 1985.Comments
|
9181
|
Soy food consumption linked to prolonged survival in some breast cancer patients
|
This news release describes results of a patient survey-based study that examined the association between dietary soy foods and death from any cause among thousands of American and Canadian women with breast cancer. The release reports that women with breast cancer who ate the highest amounts of isoflavones (a primary active ingredient in soy foods) had a 21 percent lower risk of dying (from any cause, not just breast cancer) over a median nine year follow up period than women who ate the lowest amounts. It offers important details about the hormone-receptor status and treatment of the women to help readers sort out which women with breast cancer might experience the benefits. It also noted the controversies that have emerged from previous research linking soy intake and breast cancer. While the release clearly has its strengths, it would have been stronger had it explicitly stated that nothing in the study demonstrates that eating soy will absolutely prevent breast cancer or extend the life of patients already diagnosed. This was an “association” study and not one designed to determine cause and effect. And the release would have been more useful had it noted the weaknesses found in research based on self reporting through patient surveys of dietary habits. To see how health journalists covered this research, see the related blog post. Previous laboratory and animal studies have offered mixed and conflicted results about the impact of soy’s active ingredients on the incidence of breast and other cancers, although epidemiological studies have shown a relatively lower risk of breast cancer in populations (such as those in Asia) with diets high in soy foods. Adding to the confusion, however, is that soy isoflavones are also known to be estrogenic, increasing available estrogen to cells and potentially increasing the risk of breast cancer in places — like the U.S. and Canada — where soy consumption is very low overall. And even further adding to the confusion are data showing that some isoflavones bind to estrogen receptors much the way tamoxifen does in the treatment of patients whose tumors are estrogen hormone receptor-positive. Because soy is an increasingly high quality source of protein worldwide; because soybean products are a component in many processed foods; because breast cancer death rates overall have declined very little over the last 40 years; and because the U.S. is the number one producer of soybeans, questions about the safety and benefits (prevention and post-diagnosis) of dietary soy have been of concern to women with breast cancer, those with a family history of the disease, and women in general. Consequently, studies designed to clarify the situation are of high interest and high value.
|
mixture
|
soy foods,Wiley
|
Although a report on this study did not necessarily require observations involving the $ sign, the release would have been more helpful had it noted that soy products are relatively inexpensive compared to other sources of protein and might also have mentioned the financial and social costs of breast cancer. We would have given the release full credit if it had included absolute numbers along with the relative risk reduction data. Absolute numbers would better clarify for readers the actual number of women in each patient group who survived longer. Overall, the reader is given a sense of the modest but significant finding with respect to reduced deaths. The release would have been improved further if it had added the qualifier “some” to the first sentence of the release. Many readers skim or read only the first few sentences and thus might miss the important point that soy consumption was beneficial only for some women — those who are hormone receptor negative and those who were not treated with hormone therapy, which of course is not recommended for those who are hormone receptor negative. Breast cancer survivors and their family members also would benefit from information about the relationship of the stage at diagnosis and death as related to soy consumption. The release does a competent job of explaining the concerns about soy’s estrogenic properties and the fact that the study was designed to look at overall deaths from any cases among the patients, and not at quality of life or morbidity. A careful reader would be able to discern in the release that gobbling up soy supplements is not encouraged by the results of this study or the scientists who conducted it; and that there is a difference between saying something is “not detrimental” in women treated with hormone therapy and that something is completely safe for all women with breast cancer. We would have liked the release to include a statement noting that women with breast cancer should consult their physicians about their tumor’s potential sensitivity to estrogen and to discuss dietary soy with them. This is particularly important since the release ends by quoting an editorial that encourages wide consumption of soy. The release doesn’t mention that this is an observational study and that such studies don’t prove cause and effect. The release would have benefited from more details about the 6,235 women whose data make up the study, such as their ages, cancer stage, ethnicity, and race. Some details about the questionnaire/survey tool, and its strengths or weaknesses would also have been helpful for evaluating the evidence. It would also have been good to know whether the women surveyed were hormone receptor negative and if so, did they consume soy before their diagnosis? How much soy did they consume? No disease mongering here. The release also provides useful context. The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute; noting that would have strengthened the release. Sophisticated health news consumers appreciate knowing whether a study was government funded or funded by a special interest such as the soybean industry. Readers should also be told that this research is part of a larger study that has been ongoing since 1995. There other dietary and lifestyle factors that affect cancer risk and survival. The release doesn’t mention any of them. It would have been interesting and helpful for the release to note what kinds of soy foods the participants said they ate, and which ones were most popular. The release did a creditable job of explaining what the study was designed to do and how it differed from past studies. One of the key findings of the study was that soy consumption was not detrimental. During the 1990s, many doctors and breast cancer organizations were urging women not to consume soy products because they could be harmful. Survivors may be relieved to know this study, at least, did not find soy consumption harmful since soy products are now found in many foods. But as noted in the review summary, study results have been mixed and conflicting. The release includes a comment from a related editorial that should be out-of-bounds for an observational study: “We now have evidence that soy foods not only prevent breast cancer but also benefit women who have breast cancer. Therefore, we can recommend women to consume soy foods because of soy’s many health benefits,” he wrote.
|
3826
|
Collection sites available for expired, leftover medications.
|
Illinois and federal officials are encouraging people to bring expired and unused prescription drugs to collection sites.
|
true
|
General News, Medication, Prescription drugs, Illinois
|
Saturday marks the Drug Enforcement Administration’s nationwide “Drug Take Back Day.” Only pills or patches can be accepted, not liquids or needles. A list of collection sites is available on the DEA’s website. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s website also provides a list of medication collection sites around the state. People turned in nearly 469 tons of prescription drugs nationwide last year. The Illinois Department of Human Services says turning in unused or expired prescription drugs can prevent abuse or theft of the drugs.
|
28666
|
A photograph shows a homeless woman outside in the cold holding a dead baby.
|
What's true: News organizations reported that a homeless woman was found holding a dead baby in Portland, Oregon in January 2017. What's false: The photograph attached to the meme shows a homeless man in Washington, D.C. in 2013.
|
mixture
|
Fauxtography, homeless, misleading, oregon
|
On 17 January 2017, the Willamette Week reported a heartbreaking story: as the temperature there dipped below freezing, a homeless woman was discovered at a bus stop barefoot, clad in tattered clothes, and holding a dead baby: The infant, found Jan. 9, marks the fifth death on Portland’s streets during the cold weather this year. Four homeless people died of exposure in the first 10 days of 2017. A week after the baby was found, it’s still unclear whether he died of exposure hours after being born outdoors or was stillborn. This report is true, and was filed by a legitimate news organization. However, a photograph that was quickly attached to the already-shocking story in order to make it into a meme is not related to the incident: The meme about the woman and her baby also spread the claim that the baby froze to death and did not die from a cause unrelated to the cold, which has been debated. First responders had previously reported that the child was alive when it was found, but the state’s medical examiner said that the infant was actually stillborn: First responders told colleagues in text messages that the baby was “conscious and breathing OK, but has been outside this entire time” and was “ice cold.” The child was “born in a transient camp,” one message said. The baby was taken to the hospital and later pronounced dead. Meanwhile, police said the infant’s 34-year-old mother showed signs of mental illness, telling investigators that she became pregnant by “immaculate conception.” Although two emergency room doctors reportedly told investigators that the baby “appeared to ‘be viable,'” the state’s medical examiner, Dr. Karin Gunson, said the infant was stillborn after performing an autopsy. There are many factors to this story, none less tragic than any other — the fact that many people on the streets of Portland, Oregon (as in many parts of the United States) suffer from untreated mental illness; that this 9 January 2017 death was not the first of the year from possible exposure in the local homeless population, nor even the second, but the fifth; or that the mother of the dead baby is now nowhere to be found. However, this particular meme not only oversimplifies the issue, but uses a misleading photograph in order to do so.
|
16971
|
Less than 5 percent of registered users in states allowing medical marijuana have cancer or AIDS.
|
"Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot said ""less than 5 percent of registered users in states allowing medical marijuana have cancer or AIDS."" The medical marijuana opponents that run the website said they estimated their total using figures from states with current laws allowing the drug. Not all states report figures the same way, however, or may not report them at all. Patients who don’t have cancer or AIDS still may have legitimate reasons to use medical marijuana, including for pain relief. So the statistic Don't Let Florida Go to Pot cites isn't perfect. But the available evidence does suggest fairly strongly that the people who use medical marijuana for cancer or AIDS is a small percentage of all users."
|
true
|
Health Care, Florida, Marijuana, Don't Let Florida Go To Pot,
|
"One of the biggest question marks over Florida’s proposed medical marijuana amendment is over who will use it. According to an opposition group, it’s not who you may think. Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot, a campaign run by a coalition of more than 40 organizations opposing Amendment 2, says on its website that most patients don’t suffer from the life-threatening diseases often associated with medical marijuana use. ""Less than 5 percent of registered users in states allowing medical marijuana have cancer or AIDS,"" it says. The site ramped up earlier in May, and is run by St. Petersburg lobbyist group Save Our Society From Drugs. They use information from the Florida Sheriffs Association. Cancer and AIDS are often cited by proponents of medical marijuana as the diseases that marijuana can help. We were curious to know if it’s true that only 5 percent of patients who use the drug have those two diseases. Let’s check the registries and find out. Playing percentages Florida’s Amendment 2 specifically names cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, hepatitis C, ALS, Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis as eligible for treatment. It also allows for ""other conditions for which a physician believes that medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks for a patient."" That provides doctors plenty of latitude to make recommendations for things not on the list, like chronic pain or muscle spasms. Marijuana is typically recommended to cancer patients to treat nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy treatments. AIDS patients often use it to treat nausea, pain and loss of appetite. The big problem with tracking why medical marijuana patients use the drug is that the rules and record-keeping vary widely among the 21 states that allow it. Eric Pounders, spokesman for the Florida Sheriffs Association, said the 5 percent figure comes from an average Save Our Society From Drugs calculated from data from 15 states, which all report things in different ways. For example, statistics from Rhode Island say 4 percent of users there have cancer, and 1 percent have HIV/AIDS. New Jersey says 2.3 percent use marijuana for a terminal illness. Vermont allows conditions to remain confidential. Washington has no database of users or their conditions. California has no mandatory patient registration. The Marijuana Policy Project, a national group that tracks state regulations and favors the Florida amendment, says only six states routinely update comprehensive user data, so Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot’s list of 15 states is suspect. Karen O’Keefe, the project’s director of state policies, says a state like Alaska (which Pounders cited) doesn’t keep very accurate records on patients at all. At any rate, the numbers reflect a trend among the states that report conditions: A very small number of medical marijuana patients have cancer or AIDS. Opponents think that’s a big problem. ""We want to show Floridians that the disease groups they are constantly hearing about, are not the ones that marijuana is primarily treating,"" Pounders said. He said pro-marijuana groups often use those two diseases to appeal to people’s sympathies. Dr. Gary Reisfield, from the University of Florida’s psychiatry department, agreed. While he said the 5 percent was comparable to research he’d seen, the outsized use of the two diseases as an example was a smokescreen by advocates. ""Cancer and HIV are the camel's nose under the tent,"" he told PolitiFact Florida. ""Physicians, most of whom favor medical cannabis legislation, will acquiesce to their patients' demands for cannabis for other ‘debilitating conditions,’ like pain, muscle spasm, headaches, insomnia and anxiety."" Those are the kinds of conditions for which most patients are treated, said Dr. Barth Wilsey of the University of California Davis Medical Center. He pointed to a University of Michigan study last year that found 87 percent of sample patients from a Michigan clinic sought medical marijuana for pain relief, either on its own or in conjunction with other conditions. Cancer was cited as 3.4 percent of the sample and people with AIDS were combined with hepatitis C under ""chronic infection,"" and totaled 2.3 percent. Wilsey added that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with patients wanting to relieve pain, especially because most medical marijuana patients turn to the drug only after exhausting other options. He said he thought Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot was ""trivializing"" patients suffering from very real medical issues. ""The significance of this statement is tempered by the fact that millions of Americans suffer from chronic pain. One type, neuropathic pain, is particularly difficult to treat,"" Wilsey said. ""One thing is certain, we need more research on medical marijuana and less decision-making by legislatures and referendums."" Our ruling Don’t Let Florida Go To Pot said ""less than 5 percent of registered users in states allowing medical marijuana have cancer or AIDS."" The medical marijuana opponents that run the website said they estimated their total using figures from states with current laws allowing the drug. Not all states report figures the same way, however, or may not report them at all. Patients who don’t have cancer or AIDS still may have legitimate reasons to use medical marijuana, including for pain relief. So the statistic Don't Let Florida Go to Pot cites isn't perfect. But the available evidence does suggest fairly strongly that the people who use medical marijuana for cancer or AIDS is a small percentage of all users."
|
22897
|
"In Wisconsin, ""6.2 percent of the population is black yet 24 percent of all state abortions are on African-Americans."
|
Pro-Life Wisconsin says African-Americans make up about 6 percent of population, account for 24 percent of abortions
|
mixture
|
Abortion, Wisconsin, Pro-Life Wisconsin,
|
"Using 13 billboards in Milwaukee, Pro-Life Wisconsin says it wants to raise awareness of what it calls the disproportionate abortion rate among African-American women in Wisconsin. According to the organization, which works to outlaw abortion, the billboards appeared Nov. 29, 2010, and will stay up for 30 days. They feature one of two messages: ""Black children are in danger"" or ""Black & Beautiful."" Each billboard shows a picture of an African-American infant and lists a website -- TooManyAborted.com/WI. That website, and an announcement about the billboards issued by Pro-Life Wisconsin, make the same claim: In Wisconsin, ""6.2 percent of the population is black, yet 24 percent of all state abortions are on African-Americans."" On the face of it, that seems like a large disparity. And it suggests race is a determining factor in abortion rates. We decided to take a look. Pro-Life Wisconsin’s claim is based on figures cited by the Georgia-based Radiance Foundation, which is co-sponsoring the Milwaukee billboards. The foundation accurately cites U.S. Census figures on the percentage of Wisconsin’s population that is African-American, and the state’s annual abortion report on the percentage of Wisconsin abortions that are performed on African-American women. But in doing so, it is setting up a false comparison. It compares the number of abortions obtained by black women to the entire black population. Obviously, only females in a certain age range can become pregnant. Nationally, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looks at abortions by comparing the number each year per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44. The most recent CDC figures show the national rate abortion rate generally declined between 1997 and 2006. But the 2006 rate of 16.1 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 was up 3.2 percent over the previous year. The abortion rate for black women, meanwhile -- 33.4 abortions per 1,000 black women ages 15 to 44 -- was more than twice the overall rate. Abortion rates for black women have been higher for years, ""and have been attributed to high unintended pregnancy rates,"" according to the CDC. In making its claim, Pro-Life Wisconsin is suggesting that race is somehow the determining factor in people seeking an abortion. Experts say there are many other factors at play. Like the CDC, Jacquelyn Paykel, an OB/GYN at the Medical College of Wisconsin, points to the higher unintended pregnancy rate among black women. She said unintended pregnancies tend tend to occur among women with less education, lower socioeconomic status and less access to reproductive health care. And those factors are more likely to be present among black women, she said. So, the construction of the statement can lead to another false impression. Now, on to the Wisconsin figures, which are more current than the national ones. In Wisconsin, the estimated overall abortion rate for 2009 was seven abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 -- less than half of what national figures have shown. The rate was the same in 2008, according to the state’s annual abortion report. That report doesn’t provide statistics by race for the 15-to-44 age group. But we were able to make calculations, for 2009, using abortion and population statistics from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services: Using this approach, which focuses on child-bearing years, the disparity among black women isn’t quite as large as what Pro-Life Wisconsin stated. We asked the group, which is based in the Milwaukee suburb of Brookfield, the purpose of the billboards. They are located mainly on Milwaukee’s north and northwest sides, the areas of the city where the largest numbers of African-Americans live. Spokeswoman Virginia Zignego said the organization wants to publicize the disparity in the abortion rate among black women and highlight abortion alternatives such as adoption. The website listed on the billboards, which is run by the Radiance Foundation, mentions adoption, but most of the material criticizes Planned Parenthood and other organizations. Zignego said the campaign also aims to show that Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin is racist because it locates many of its facilities -- some of which perform abortions -- in areas with the heaviest concentrations of African-Americans. Amanda Harrington, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said its services are geared toward pregnancy prevention -- and its sites are in areas where women need access to health care. Let’s return to the claim itself. The group accurately stated cited census and abortion numbers. But it used an approach that takes in the entire African-American population, not just women between age 15 and 44 -- the approach used by federal and Wisconsin authorities. By that measure, the actual disparity is smaller than what Pro-Life Wisconsin claimed. The group’s claim also leaves out important details -- namely, that socioeconomic factors, rather than race, have been identified as key contributors to the higher abortion rate among black women."
|
26549
|
Pictures and reports of “empty hospitals” prove COVID-19 spread is “fake crisis for real government planned agendas.”
|
There are hospitals with significant numbers of empty beds — but not because of a conspiracy that exaggerates the coronavirus outbreak. Hospitals have canceled non-urgent surgeries and other procedures in an effort to free up bed space for an expected influx of coronavirus patients.
|
false
|
Health Care, Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
|
"As the death toll from the coronavirus continues to climb, some conservative commentators questioned how busy American hospitals actually are. On Twitter, photos and video clips purporting to show nearly empty hospital parking lots were tagged with #FilmYourHospital. More of the same on a YouTube ""citizen reporters"" video. And on Facebook, there were posts such as this one with dark warnings of a conspiracy: ""Nurses reporting hospitals are empty mostly. Fake crisis for real goverment (sic) planned agendas. Wait for them."" Included were screenshots of other claims that medical professionals are saying their hospitals are empty, or at least slower than usual. The 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.) We found some hospitals with significant numbers of empty beds. But that’s due largely to hospitals keeping beds empty as they prepare for an expected influx of patients who have COVID-19 disease. ""Canceled elective procedures and admissions are freeing up bed space to prepare for (the) surge,"" Dr. James Lawler, an infectious diseases expert and internal medicine professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, told PolitiFact. ""In regions where hospitalization rates from COVID are still relatively low, this is resulting in more empty beds — which is good. The surge is coming to them as well."" There is plenty of evidence showing how extensive the outbreak is and is expected to continue to be. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, has estimated between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans could die from the pathogen even as communities adopt stronger social distancing measures. And an analysis from ProPublica and the Harvard Global Health Institute found that even in a ""moderate case"" scenario — where 40% of the adult population contracts the disease over the course of a year — the country would need to more than double available hospital beds by freeing up existing beds or adding new ones. The report also noted that America lags behind China and Italy, where the epidemic has overwhelmed hospitals, when it comes to hospital bed capacity. The U.S. has 2.8 hospital beds per 1,000 people, compared with 3.2 in Italy and 4.3 in China. There are also stark regional differences in hospital capacity. Modeling suggests that hospitals in more urban communities will likely be more stressed, but larger hospital systems may also have more flexibility to stretch their resources if they shift patients around to free up beds. Within days of the Facebook post, one U.S. Navy hospital ship had arrived in Los Angeles, and another was two days from reaching New York City, both to provide relief from the coronavirus pandemic, with space for 1,000 beds each. Again, there are examples of hospitals with empty beds, but the key reason is that they are clearing out space to treat coronavirus patients. A few we found: On the day of the Facebook post, only 70% of the beds at the University of Nebraska Medical Center were occupied, spokesman Taylor Wilson told PolitiFact. ""It's only because we've canceled elective procedures to prepare for a surge of coronavirus patients,"" he said. Two days after the Facebook post, the local newspaper in Syracuse, N.Y., about 250 miles northwest of New York City — where the outbreak is worst — reported that Syracuse’s three hospitals had a total of 300 empty beds. That was attributed to cancellations of scheduled non-emergency surgeries and postponements of other hospital admissions, as well as a decline in seasonal flu activity. Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston was only about 65% occupied, well below its usual 99%, because it was preparing for a surge of coronavirus patients, WBUR radio reported three days before the post. In West Virginia, some hospitals are having cash flow problems and at least one, Charleston Area Medical Center, has cut the hours of some employees because of fewer patients and procedures, a statewide radio network reported. A Facebook post amid the surging coronavirus outbreak claimed nurses are reporting mostly empty hospitals in the United States and suggested it shows a conspiracy to exaggerate the coronavirus outbreak. There are hospitals with significant numbers of empty beds, but that’s because they are canceling non-urgent surgeries and other procedures in an effort to free up bed space for an expected influx of coronavirus patients. The COVID-19 outbreak is real."
|
1871
|
"Work burnout tied to ""emotional eating"" in women: study."
|
Women who are fed up with their jobs may be more likely to turn to food for comfort in times of stress, according to a Finnish study.
|
true
|
Health News
|
"A woman takes part in a chocolate eating competition in Tbilisi February 10, 2012. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili The study, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that those who reported work burnout were also more likely to have a habit of “emotional” eating, or eating when stressed, anxious or down, rather than just hungry. What’s more, they were more prone to “uncontrolled” eating — the feeling that you’re always hungry or can’t stop eating until all the food’s gone. “Those experiencing burnout may be more vulnerable to emotional eating and uncontrolled eating and have a hindered ability to make changes in their eating behavior,” wrote Nina Nevanpera of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, who led the study. “We recommend that burnout should be treated first and that burnout and eating behavior should be evaluated in obesity treatment.” The findings are based on 230 women ages 30 to 55 who were part of a clinical trial looking at healthy lifestyle changes. All were employed, and at the start of the trial they completed surveys on job burnout and eating habits. Overall, 22 percent of the women had some degree of work burnout. As a group, they scored higher on measures of emotional eating and uncontrolled eating. On top of that, women who did not have job burnout at the study’s start tended to cut down on uncontrolled eating over one year. But, on average, the burnout group failed to make that change. “Work permeates our lives,” said Sherry Pagoto, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and a clinician at the university’s Weight Center. “People may be in a job where they’re unhappy, or a marriage where they’re unhappy, and eating can become one of the few pleasures in their lives,” added Pagoto, who was not involved in the study. There was no obvious effect of burnout on the women’s weight, however. At the outset, half of the women reporting work burnout were normal weight — compared with a third of women reporting no burnout. One reason might be education, Nevanpera said. Women with work burnout generally had a higher education level, and education, in turn, was linked to lower weight. Still, she added, emotional eating is a potential risk factor for becoming heavy in the future. And it’s not particularly healthy, since stressed-out people are more likely to reach for chocolate or fast food than an apple. Pagoto agreed that addressing sources of stress in general was important, adding that big stress triggers in life may make it difficult to lose weight and keep it off. When people are not overweight, emotional eating is still not a good idea, she said. ""It's reinforcing a habit that's not healthy."" SOURCE: bit.ly/yeSCiv"
|
12845
|
Most of these mass shootings take place in (areas) where you're not allowed to have a concealed weapons permit.
|
"Corcoran said, ""Most of these mass shootings take place in arenas where you're not allowed to have a concealed weapons permit."" Corcoran cites research by an advocate for gun rights who used a strict definition to define places where guns were not allowed. In reality, there are places where concealed weapons are permitted, places where police or security officers openly carry weapons, and places where concealed weapons are not permitted. Additionally, there are different ways to define mass shootings. We found that advocates for more gun control analyzed the data and reached different conclusions. Our assessment is that it is difficult to draw broad conclusions about the motivations of the perpetrators of mass shootings or whether they are influenced by gun restrictions."
|
mixture
|
Crime, Florida, Guns, Richard Corcoran,
|
"In the wake of mass shootings at the Pulse night club in Orlando and at the Fort Lauderdale airport, Florida lawmakers are expected to act on a series of bills to expand where people can carry their guns. The bills would allow concealed-carry permit holders to carry their guns in places such as airports, schools, college campuses, police stations and polling places. Florida leads the nation in conceal-carry permits with more than 1.7 million permits. Republican House Speaker Richard Corcoran supports expanding the list of where permit holders can carry their guns, possibly as a way to avert future attacks. (So does President Donald Trump, who promised to get rid of gun-free zones in schools and military bases.) ""Most of these mass shootings take place in arenas where you're not allowed to have a concealed weapons permit,"" he told CBS4 Miami’s Jim DeFede on Feb. 12. (By ""arenas"" Corcoran seemed to be referring to places in general, not sports arenas.) Corcoran argued that people who commit mass shootings say they chose certain areas because they ""knew nobody had guns."" That raises an interesting question, but it’s separate from the focus of this fact-check: whether most mass shootings happen in places where concealed carry permits don’t apply, or ""gun-free zones."" Corcoran was citing research from a pro-gun advocate who reached that conclusion. But anti-gun advocates have argued that the data isn’t so clear cut; they see other patterns in the statistical evidence. Overall, the evidence remains murky and depends on how researchers define ""gun-free"" or ""mass shooting."" Varying definitions of mass shootings Corcoran’s spokesman said he was referring to the numbers of mass public shootings compiled by economist John Lott, president of the pro-gun Crime Prevention Research Center. Lott’s research has been quoted by those who support expanding gun rights, but academics often attack his research as flawed. His book More Guns, Less Crime has been a subject of ongoing academic and policy debates as well numerous fact-checks. His book argues that crime data over multiple years shows reductions in crime in states that have ""right to carry"" laws. But many other academics have said his work doesn’t account for other factors that influence crime rates, and that he manipulates the data to reach his conclusions. The National Academies of Sciences concluded in 2005 that ""no link between right-to-carry laws and changes in crime is apparent in the raw data."" Before we delve into the numbers compiled by Lott, we will explain why it’s complicated to make sweeping claims of mass shootings in gun-free zones. There is not an agreed-upon definition of what constitutes a mass shooting -- even the federal government has cited various criteria at times. FBI spokesman Stephen Fischer pointed to a 2012 law setting the threshold for a ""mass killing"" as three or more people killed, but another report by the federal Congressional Research Service says that ""mass murder"" has been defined generally as a threshold of four or more deaths. Lott points to the types of shootings the FBI included in this study of active shooter situations, but that study clearly says it isn’t covering all mass shootings. Lott said he included mass shootings in which four or more were killed that occurred in public, and he excluded those that occurred within the commission of another crime such as an armed robbery. Lott’s data showed that between 1988 and 2015, about 3.8 percent of mass shootings occurred in areas where guns were allowed. Everytown for Gun Safety found that among 133 mass shootings between January 2009 and July 2015, 70 percent took place in private homes while 13 percent took place in ""gun-free zones,"" where carrying of concealed guns were prohibited. Another 17 percent took place in public areas where the carrying of firearms are allowed. Daniel Webster, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, who has disagreed with Lott’s findings, pointed to research by Louis Klarevas, a professor at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. In Klarevas’ book Rampage Nation, he said that Lott has used too loose a concept of gun-free zones. Klarevas disagrees with gun advocates who define a ""gun-free zone"" as simply an area that bans private citizens from carrying a gun. For example, Lott characterized Fort Hood and Washington Navy Yard, military sites attacked by gunmen, as gun-free despite the presence of armed security. ""There’s an obvious logical problem with such a conceptualization: How can a place be a gun-free zone if guns are present?"" Klarevas writes. ""The implication is that rampage shooters are only deterred by armed civilians, not by armed guards and cops. But that’s an absurd suggestion."" Klarevas uses three definitions: he refers to ""gun-free zones"" as places where civilians are not allowed to carry guns, and there aren’t armed personnel stationed on the property. He calls ""gun-restricting zones"" as places where civilians can’t carry guns, yet armed security is routinely present -- such as military facilities or certain college campuses. He refers to places that allow civilians to carry guns as ""gun-allowing zones."" Using these categories, Klarevas examined 111 shootings since 1966 in which six or more people had been killed in each incident -- regardless of whether it occurred in a public or private location or if it was in the commission of another crime. He found 13 took place in gun-free zones and five took place in gun-restricting zones. That means that the majority occurred in areas where there was no evidence that private guns were prohibited. Since Klarevas includes mass shootings in private residences or during the commission of another crime, that means that he counts several additional incidents that aren’t factored in by Lott. For example, as a mass shooting in a ""gun-allowing zone,"" Klarevas counts a gunfight between two rival biker gangs in Waco,Texas, in 2015 that left nine people dead. So that’s an example of a shooting that wasn’t in a gun-free zone that is omitted from Lott’s calculations. The two also disagree on how to characterize whether guns were allowed at certain locations. Lott says that the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon was in a gun-free zone and points to a school policy that bans possession of firearms ""except as expressly authorized by law or college regulations."" Umpqua Community College spokeswoman Anne Marie Levis previously told PolitiFact Florida the school’s gun-free policy didn’t apply to students with a valid permit. ""UCC was never designated as a ‘gun-free zone’ by any signage or policy,"" she said. ""Umpqua Community College does comply with state law by allowing students with concealed carry licenses to bring firearms on campus."" Our ruling Corcoran said, ""Most of these mass shootings take place in arenas where you're not allowed to have a concealed weapons permit."" Corcoran cites research by an advocate for gun rights who used a strict definition to define places where guns were not allowed. In reality, there are places where concealed weapons are permitted, places where police or security officers openly carry weapons, and places where concealed weapons are not permitted. Additionally, there are different ways to define mass shootings. We found that advocates for more gun control analyzed the data and reached different conclusions. Our assessment is that it is difficult to draw broad conclusions about the motivations of the perpetrators of mass shootings or whether they are influenced by gun restrictions.
|
1575
|
Sweet potato experts win World Food Prize.
|
Four scientists who specialized in sweet potatoes were named the winners of this year’s World Food Prize on Tuesday for their work to make foods more nutritious.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Maria Andrade of Cape Verde, Robert Mwanga of Uganda and American Jan Low, who all are from the Lima, Peru-based International Potato Center, and American Howarth Bouis of the international research group HarvestPlus were honored in a ceremony at the U.S. State Department. Kenneth M. Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, called their work “a breakthrough achievement in developing and implementing biofortification.” He defined biofortification as “the process of breeding critical vitamins and micronutrients into staple crops, thereby dramatically reducing hidden hunger and improving health for millions and millions of people.” The honorees’ work has focused on the orange-fleshed sweet potato, an important source of vitamin A, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Vitamin A deficiency, especially there and in Asia, is a cause of blindness and premature death, according to the International Potato Center, an agriculture research center based in Lima, Peru. “The impact of the work of all four winners will be felt around the globe but particularly in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Gayle Smith, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. The prize is awarded annually by the World Food Prize Foundation for food and agriculture innovation. The scientists will share the $250,000 prize equally and it will be awarded at a ceremony during World Food Prize week in Des Moines, Iowa, in October, when the prize will celebrate its 30th anniversary. Past recipients include John Kufuour, a former president of Ghana; former U.S. Senators Bob Dole and George McGovern; and Grameen Bank founder and Nobel laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh.
|
4619
|
1-year-old daughter, wife of Congo’s Goma victim have Ebola.
|
The wife and 1-year-old daughter of the man who died of Ebola in Goma this week have tested positive for the disease, health officials confirmed Thursday, the first transmission of the virus inside the densely populated crossroads city on the border with Rwanda, a scenario that health experts have long feared.
|
true
|
AP Top News, Health, General News, Africa, International News, Rwanda, Ebola virus
|
Rwanda briefly closed its border with Congo over the virus outbreak in the city of more than 2 million as the painstaking work of finding, tracking and vaccinating people who had contact with the man — and the contacts of those contacts — began. The man died on Wednesday after spending several days at home with his large family while showing symptoms. Congo’s presidency said the entire family was at “high risk” and in quarantine. The Ebola coordinator for North Kivu province, Dr. Aruna Abedi, confirmed the wife’s case to The Associated Press hours after that of the child. “We’re seeing the first active transmission chain in Goma and expect more to come,” the International Rescue Committee’s Ebola response director, Andre Heller, warned in a statement. This outbreak has killed more than 1,800 people, nearly a third of them children. It is now the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, and last month the World Health Organization declared it a rare global emergency. Rwanda’s state minister for foreign affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe, confirmed the border closure, a day after WHO officials praised African nations for keeping their borders open. Last week Saudi Arabia stopped issuing visas to people from Congo, citing the Ebola outbreak, shortly before the annual hajj pilgrimage there this month. Congo’s presidency condemned Rwanda’s decision, and Congolese at the busy frontier expressed frustration. “I can’t understand why they don’t just test us instead of closing these borders,” said Angel Murhula, who works in Rwanda. Several hours later Congo’s presidency said the border had reopened. A Rwanda health ministry statement called the events a “traffic slowdown” as surveillance for Ebola was reinforced. The ministry advised against unnecessary travel to the Goma area. WHO has recommended against travel restrictions amid the outbreak but says the risk of regional spread is “very high.” Any border closure is likely to push people to avoid official crossings equipped with hand-washing stations and where people are checked for signs of fever or other Ebola symptoms. In June, three people who crossed on an unguarded footpath into Uganda died there before their family members were taken back to Congo for treatment. The death Wednesday in Goma “in such a dense population center underscores the very real risk of further disease transmission, perhaps beyond the country’s borders,” United Nations agencies said in a joint statement marking a year of the outbreak. The man in his 40s was a miner returning from an area of northeastern Ituri province, Mongwalu, where no Ebola cases in this outbreak have been recorded, WHO said. He was exposed to the virus along the roughly 300-mile-long (490-kilometer) route from the city of Komanda to Goma as he took motor taxis over a number of days through the densely populated region at the heart of the outbreak. The man arrived in Goma on July 13 and started showing symptoms on July 22. He was isolated at an Ebola treatment center on Tuesday. He had spent five days being treated at home before going to a health facility, where Ebola was suspected. Symptoms can start to occur between two and 21 days from infection, health experts say. “He may not even have been aware of the exposure that he had,” WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan said Wednesday. Symptoms such as fever can be confused with malaria, which is endemic in the region. Congo’s new Ebola response coordinator, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, has said there appears to be no link between the case and a previous one in Goma announced two and a half weeks ago. That case was a 46-year-old preacher who managed to pass through three health checkpoints on the way from Butembo, one of the communities hardest hit by this outbreak. The declaration of a global health emergency — the fifth in history —came days after that first Goma case. It has brought a surge of millions of dollars in new pledges by international donors, but some health workers say a new approach is needed to combat misunderstandings in a part of Congo that had never experienced Ebola before. Health workers responding to the outbreak have been attacked, even killed, in a region where rebel groups are active and the population is wary of outsiders. There is no licensed treatment for Ebola, which is spread by close contact with bodily fluids of those infected, and survival can depend on seeking treatment as quickly as possible. And yet many people in the region don’t believe that the virus is real, health workers have said. This outbreak is second only to the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa that left more than 11,300 people dead. ___ Ssuuna reported from Kigali, Rwanda. Associated Press writer Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro contributed. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa
|
34250
|
Another man was responsible for the assault that Christine Blasey Ford described as being perpetrated by Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
|
No additional information has yet been made available regarding the claims put forward by the two men interviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee staff.
|
unproven
|
Politics, brett kavanaugh, christine blasey ford
|
On 16 September 2018, Christine Blasey Ford identified herself publicly as the woman who wrote a confidential letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein alleging that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, in the presence of his classmate Mark Judge, had sexually assaulted her in the 1980s when he was a student at Georgetown Prep, leading to tense negotiations about if and when Ford would testify before the Judiciary Committee. Following Blasey Ford’s disclosure, several attempts were made to insinuate that Blasey Ford had confused Kavanaugh with another man, something she categorically denied as a possibility. The first prominent presentation of this argument was offered in a now-deleted, defamatory, and false Twitter thread from Ed Whelan, the president (currently on leave) of the conservative think tank the Ethics and Public Policy Center. In a series of Tweets, Whelan utilized comments left on Facebook posts, floor plans found on the real estate website Zillow, and yearbook photographs to accuse (by name) another Georgetown Prep classmate of the assault, based primarily on his physical similarities with a young Kavanaugh. Through her lawyers, Blasey Ford dismissed this possibility: “I knew them both, and socialized with” the classmate, [Blasey Ford] said. She noted that she had once even visited the classmate in the hospital. “There is zero chance that I would confuse them.” Whelan later apologized for the incident and was placed on a leave of absence from the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “I made an appalling and inexcusable mistake of judgment in posting the tweet thread in a way that identified Kavanaugh’s Georgetown Prep classmate,” Mr. Whelan Tweeted on 21 September 2018. “I take full responsibility for that mistake, and I deeply apologize for it. I realize that does not undo the mistake.” On 26 September 2018, the night before Blasey Ford was scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, committee chair Chuck Grassley released a report that had the effect of suggesting, for a second time, that Blasey Ford’s memories were confused. According to this report, between 24 and 26 September 2018, two separate men reached out to the committee claiming that they were in fact the person who assaulted Blasey Ford. The report, a timeline of investigative actions which Grassley maintained his committee undertook, included three references to these two individuals: 24 September 2018: Committee staff have first interview with a man who believes he, not Judge Kavanaugh, had the encounter with Dr. Ford in 1982 that is the basis of his complaint. He submitted a written statement earlier in the day. 25 September 2018: Committee staff have a second interview with a man who believes he, not Judge Kavanaugh, had the encounter with Dr. Ford in the summer of 1982 that is the basis of her allegation. He described his recollection of their interaction in some detail. 26 September 2018: Committee investigative staff spoke via phone with another man who believes he, not Judge Kavanuagh, had an encounter with Dr. Ford in 1982 that is the basis of her allegation. He explained his recollection of the details of the encounter. The allegations made by these men, though offered “in some detail” in one case, have not been publicly outlined, and it is not clear if both of these men allege themselves to be the primary assailant, or if one of them alleges to have been the second man in the room at the time of the assault. For obvious reasons, both men cannot be correct if they both assert to be the person allegedly confused for Brett Kavanaugh. On 27 September 2018, during her sworn testimony, Ford was asked several times under oath if she could have confused Kavanaugh for someone else, and each time she emphatically and categorically denied such a possibility, first in an exchange with Senator Feinstein: FEINSTEIN: I want to ask you one question about the attack itself. You were very clear about the attack. Being pushed into the room, you say you don’t know quite by whom, but that it was Brett Kavanaugh that covered your mouth to prevent you from screaming, and then you escaped. How are you so sure that it was he? FORD: The same way that I’m sure that I’m talking to you right now. It’s — just basic memory functions. And also just the level of norepinephrine and epinephrine in the brain that, sort of, as you know, encodes — that neurotransmitter encodes memories into the hippocampus. And so, the trauma-related experience, then, is kind of locked there, whereas other details kind of drift. FEINSTEIN: So what you are telling us is this could not be a case of mistaken identity? FORD: Absolutely not. In an exchange with Senator Patrick Leahy, Ford reiterated this point and provided additional information about the person whom Ed Whelan falsely accused of the assault, indicating she knew this other man well at that time: LEAHY: Now, how did you know Brett Kavanaugh and Mark Judge? And is it possible that you had mixed them up with somebody else? FORD: No, it is not. And the person that was blamed [by Whelan] for the incident is actually the person who introduced me to them originally. So he was a member of Columbia Country Club. And I don’t want to talk about him because I think it’s unfair, but he is the person that — that introduced me to them. LEAHY: But you — you would not mix up somebody else with Brett Kavanaugh, is that correct? FORD: Correct. LEAHY: Or Mark Judge. FORD: Correct. In response to a question from Senator Dick Durbin about her level of certainty that Kavanaugh was the assailant, Dr. Ford said she was 100% certain: DURBIN: Dr. Ford, with what degree of certainty do you believe Brett Kavanaugh assaulted you? FORD: One hundred percent. DURBIN: One hundred percent.
|
10396
|
A Squirt of Insulin May Delay Alzheimer’s
|
We are always leery of stories reporting on very preliminary clinical research, especially for conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease where there are no effective treatment options. These stories frequently raise hopes to a level that is not justifiable given where we are in the scientific evaluation process. In its report on an early study of the use of inhaled insulin for Alzheimer’s disease, the New York Times is careful to emphasize the limitations of this small pilot study and warns readers that the findings might not hold up. These caveats are offered early in the story and are helpfully reiterated toward the end by an independent source. However, the story should have been more discriminating when reporting on the size of the benefits observed and whether they merit much optimism. Early studies of new therapies often find large, clinically important benefits that are typically reduced when larger, more rigorous studies are conducted. Even at this early stage, however, the benefits of inhaled insulin are were, according to the study authors, “small in absolute terms” and had “unclear” clinical significance. The World Health Oganization estimates that there will be 34 Million people suffering from Alzheimers Disease by 2025 with about 70% residing in the developed world. Given the magnitude of the disease worldwide in terms of lives lost and cost, any advancement in its treatment is newsworthy. Reporters need to be especially careful in reporting on treatments especially those in the early stages of research. Attention to our 10 criteria can help reporters stay grounded.
|
mixture
|
Alzheimer's,New York Times
|
The story did not mention the cost of insulin. This information is readily available and would have provided valuable context. There will also be the cost of the specialized inhaler. The story says that insulin-treated patients “either improved slightly or remained the same in tests of memory and assessments of their ability to handle day-to-day activities.” The statement is not misleading, but it is not detailed enough to satisfy this criterion. Unfortunately the story did not place the study results into context. How relevant to the patient were the changes seen and would they or their family members notice the improvement? The story could have described the scales that researchers used to measure function, and provided the actual values for the treatment and placebo groups. This would have given readers a more objective accounting of how “slight” the improvement was. Notably, the researchers acknowledge in their paper that “although we achieved statistical significance for our primary outcome measure, the observed effects were small in absolute terms, and thus their clinical significance is unclear.” The story references potential adverse effects, and notes that this study was too short and small to reliably document the potential harms of treatment. However, it didn’t mention the adverse effect data — limited though it may be — that was reported in the study. Adverse events were more common in the insulin-treated groups and were reported by 72% of patients receiving 20 IU of insulin, 68% receiving 40 IU, and 57% receiving placebo. The most commonly reported adverse event was a stuffy nose, but headaches and nosebleeds were also more common with insulin treatment. The story provided a reasonably detailed and accurate description of the study, with appropriate attention to limitations. It cautioned readers about the small size of the study and the preliminary nature of the data in several places, including high up in the piece. We liked that it referenced previous experience showing that early findings such as this “often fall apart” in larger, longer tests. The story did not engage in disease-mongering. The story includes quotes from the lead researcher on the study as well as an expert who was not affiliated with the research. The comments from the independent expert help drive home the need for caution when interpreting these results. The story notes that there are no effective ways to prevent or delay the progress of Alzheimer’s. However, it should have mentioned that the FDA has approved some medications for the treatment of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. Although these drugs do not affect the course of the disease, they may have a small effect on preserving the functioning of patients in the early stages of the disease. It also could have noted that there are other drugs in late-stage testing for Alzheimer’s disease. The story notes that this treatment is experimental and that the device used to administer insulin deep inside the nose is not on the market. It urges readers not to rush out and take insulin for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. The story closes with the implied promise of a larger study in which “many” people might have access to the intranasal insulin therapy, which sets an overly optimistic tone. Only a small fraction of people who might benefit from this therapy will be eligible to participate in any future studies. On the whole, though, the story’s message on availability is correct and merits a satisfactory. The story describes the earlier research that laid the foundation for the current study, and does not overstate the novelty of this approach. The story contains enough independent context that we can be sure it wasn’t based on a news release.
|
23534
|
Over 80 percent of our trade deficit today is with countries that are not trade agreement partners, that are not level playing fields for the United States.
|
Hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless after a cyclone packing winds of about 200 km per hour slammed into eastern India, ripping out tin roofs and destroying power and telecom lines, officials said on Sunday.
|
true
|
Trade, Texas, Kevin Brady,
|
At least 33 people were killed after cyclone Fani struck the state of Odisha on Friday but a million people emerged unscathed after they moved into storm shelter ahead of landfall. The death toll could have been much greater if not for the massive evacuation in the days before the storm made landfall, officials said. The seaside temple town of Puri, which lay directly in the path of Fani, suffered extensive damage as winds gusting up to 200 kph (124 mph) tore off tin roofs, snapped power lines, and uprooted trees on Friday. “The cyclone has killed 21 people in Puri and about 300 people are injured,” Brajabandhu Dash, medical officer at Puri, told Reuters. Earlier, 12 deaths were reported from other parts of the state. The depression over the Western Meghalaya and adjoining Bangladesh has weakened, and will become insignificant in the next 24 hours, India’s met department said on Twitter early on Sunday. According to preliminary reports, Fani damaged power infrastructure worth more than 12 billion rupees ($173.7 million) and the authorities are trying to restore electricity supply for emergency services, another official said. More than 60,000 people including officials and volunteers were involved in relief operations, said special relief commissioner Bishnupada Sethi, who monitored the evacuation. The relief effort used sirens, loudspeakers and sent more than 20 million mobile messages to the targeted people, he said. The cyclone season in the Bay of Bengal can last from April to December, and storms can be deadly. In 1999, a super-cyclone battered the coast of Odisha for 30 hours, killing 10,000 people. Fani was the strongest summer cyclone in 43 years to hit Odisha, disrupting water supplies and transport links, the state’s chief minister Naveen Patnaik said in a statement. “We are in the process of restoring physical infrastructure,” he told reporters. Relief agencies were trying to provide food and medicine to victims in other parts of the state, while hundreds of thousands were still not accessible due to roadblocks and disruption in the communication network, officials said. The town of Puri was littered with tree branches, the debris of damaged houses and broken glass. Relief teams were trying to clear the roads. “There was no wind at night (before landfall). We thought nothing will happen,” P. Chittmma, 45, told Reuters while laying on a bed at a government hospital, showing her fractured leg.
|
29388
|
The U.S. government was sued and found culpable for the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., but the news media refused to report it.
|
Questions and speculation may always surround the assassination of Dr. King and other national tragedies. Our investigation of these most recent allegations, as well as several exhaustive previous official investigations, found no reliable evidence that Dr. King was killed by conspirators who framed James Earl Ray. Nor have any of the conspiracy theories advanced in the last 30 years, including the Jowers and the Wilson allegations, survived critical examination.
|
false
|
Politics Conspiracy Theories, conspiracy theories, martin luther king jr.
|
Intermittently, rumors have circulated on social media holding that the United States government was found guilty in 1999 of conspiring to assassinate Martin Luther King, Jr. Furthermore, according to these rumors, the reason this relatively new information (King was murdered on 4 April 1968) comes as a surprise to many is the “mainstream media” intentionally suppressed it after the government’s role in King’s death was exposed: It’s common for exaggerated claims to contain a few elements of truth, and that factor comes into play in this conspiracy theory rumor for a few reasons. One is rudimentary research would confirm the claim’s basics (i.e., the verdict in a wrongful death civil action did allow that “government agencies” participated in a conspiracy to assassinate Dr. King), leading readers to believe the entirety of the rumor was factual. Another is the shaky foundation on which the conspiracy theory rests is a matter of some nuance. As well, the gravity of the trial’s supposed conclusion, when contrasted with the relatively little public discussion of that addendum to King’s life, has lent credence to the belief the trial in question and its outcome were deliberately omitted from the news. Historical figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. tend to be the subject of complicated conspiracy theories, particularly when they are vectors for widespread societal change. The man who was charged with King’s murder, James Earl Ray, confessed to the crime and pled guilty; he then recanted his confession, hinted at a conspiracy, and sought to withdraw his guilty plea and secure a trial. However, any claim made by Ray about his guilt or innocence should be weighed against his strong incentive to be freed from prison (where he died in 1998). Also at issue is the difference between Ray’s guilty plea in 1969, which avoided his undergoing a criminal trial, and the case cited by the rumors, which was a civil trial heard in 1999. The latter (King vs. Jowers) was a civil suit brought by agents of King’s estate (including his widow, Coretta Scott King) against a man named Loyd Jowers, who claimed to have taken part in a conspiracy to assassinate King. In a criminal trial the guilt of the defendant must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, but in a civil suit the plaintiff need only support his claim with a preponderance of evidence to prevail. Loyd Jowers was a Memphis restaurant owner who inserted himself into the narrative about King’s death in the course of a 1993 television interview during which he claimed to have been party to a larger conspiracy to assassinate King. However, Jowers had long asserted he had no involvement in the event before suddenly and bizarrely claiming, twenty-five years after the fact, he had been paid to hire a hit man to kill Martin Luther King. He then repudiated his claims when required to testify to them under oath: At the time of the assassination, Loyd Jowers owned and operated Jim’s Grill, a tavern below the rooming house where James Earl Ray rented a room on April 4, 1968. Until 1993, Jowers maintained in several public statements that he was merely serving customers in his tavern when Dr. King was shot. He did not claim any involvement in the assassination or significant knowledge about it. In December 1993, Jowers appeared on ABC’s Prime Time Live and radically changed his story, claiming he participated in a plot to assassinate Dr. King. According to Jowers, a Memphis produce dealer, who was involved with the Mafia, gave him $100,000 to hire an assassin and assured him that the police would not be at the scene of the shooting. Jowers also reported that he hired a hit man to shoot Dr. King from behind Jim’s Grill and received the murder weapon prior to the killing from someone with a name sounding like Raoul. Jowers further maintained that Ray did not shoot Dr. King and that he did not believe Ray knowingly participated in the conspiracy. Since his television appearance, Jowers and his attorney have given additional statements about the assassination to the media, the King family, Ray’s defenders, law enforcement personnel, relatives, friends, and courts. Jowers, however, has never made his conspiracy claims under oath. In fact, he did not testify in King v. Jowers, despite the fact that he was the party being sued. The one time Jowers did testify under oath about his allegations in an earlier civil suit, Ray v. Jowers, he repudiated them. Further, he has also renounced his confessions in certain private conversations without his attorney. For example, in an impromptu, recorded conversation with a state investigator, Jowers characterized a central feature of his story — that someone besides Ray shot Dr. King with a rifle other than the one recovered at the crime scene — as “bullshit.” Consequently, Jowers has only confessed in circumstances where candor has not been required by law or where he has not been required to reconcile his prior inconsistencies. The U.S. Department of Justice found Jowers’ claims were without merit and explained that he’d never been able to provide any support for later assertions about his involvement in King’s death: When Jowers has confessed, he has contradicted himself on virtually every key point about the alleged conspiracy. For example, he not only identified two different people as the assassin, but also most recently claimed that he saw the assassin and did not recognize him. Jowers also abandoned his initial allegation that he received $100,000 with which he hired a hit man to kill Dr. King, claiming instead that he merely held the money for the conspirators. Additionally, Jowers has been inconsistent about other aspects of the alleged conspiracy, including his role in it, Raoul’s responsibilities, whether and how Memphis police officers were involved, and the disposal of the alleged murder weapon. Furthermore, the Justice Department’s investigation determined no physical evidence whatsoever supported Jowers’ multiple and conflicting accounts of his involvement in King’s assassination, and Jowers stood to profit from his assertions: It was not until 1993, during a meeting with the producer of a televised mock trial of James Earl Ray, that Jowers first publicly disclosed the details of the alleged plot, including the names of the purported assassin and other co-conspirators. He also initially sought compensation for his story, and his friends and relatives acknowledge that he hoped to make money from his account. In summary, we have determined that Jowers’ claims about an alleged conspiracy are materially contradictory and unsubstantiated. Moreover, Jowers’ repudiations, even under oath, his failure to testify during King v. Jowers, his refusal to cooperate with our investigation, his reported motive to make money from his claims, and his efforts along with his friends to promote his story all suggest a lack of credibility. We do not believe that Jowers, or those he accuses, participated in the assassination of Dr. King. Unfortunately, the jury who heard the case of King vs. Jowers (in which the King family was represented by James Earl Ray’s former lawyer, William Pepper) returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, holding that Loyd Jowers had participated in a conspiracy to kill King, and that “governmental agencies” were party to the conspiracy: THE COURT: In answer to the question did Loyd Jowers participate in a conspiracy to do harm to Dr. Martin Luther King, your answer is yes. Do you also find that others, including governmental agencies, were parties to this conspiracy as alleged by the defendant? Your answer to that one is also yes. And the total amount of damages you find for the plaintiffs entitled to is one hundred dollars. Is that your verdict? THE JURY: Yes (In unison). However, the verdict was of no real significance given that virtually nothing was at stake (this was not a criminal trial, and the defendant was only being sued for a mere $100 and thus had little motivation for vigorously defending himself), allowing the King family to present a mostly unopposed version of events and guide the jury to return the verdict they desired. As noted in the New York Times‘ report of the verdict, the one-sided presentation of the case allowed for no other result: John Campbell, an assistant district attorney in Memphis, who was not part of the civil proceedings but was part of the criminal case against Mr. Ray, said, “I’m not surprised by the verdict. This case overlooked so much contradictory evidence that never was presented, what other option did the jury have but to accept Mr. Pepper’s version?” And Gerald Posner, whose recent book, “Killing the Dream” made the case that Mr. Ray was the killer, said, “It distresses me greatly that the legal system was used in such a callous and farcical manner in Memphis. If the King family wanted a rubber stamp of their own view of the facts, they got it.” The Justice Department also found the evidence presented in the civil trial to be lacking in credibility: The evidence introduced in King v. Jowers to support various conspiracy allegations consisted of either inaccurate and incomplete information or unsubstantiated conjecture, supplied most often by sources, many unnamed, who did not testify. Important information from the historical record and our investigation contradicts and undermines it. When considered in light of all other available relevant facts, the trial’s evidence fails to establish the existence of any conspiracy to kill Dr. King. The verdict presented by the parties and adopted by the jury is incompatible with the weight of all relevant information, much of which the jury never heard. All of this is therefore a very slender thread on which to hang the claim that the “U.S. government was proved responsible for King’s assassination.” (In the event, the verdict referred only to “governmental agencies” rather than the U.S. government specifically, a term that could include anything from local police to the CIA.) And contrary to the rumor’s assertion, the 1999 civil case involving Jowers was widely reported by major news outlets at the time (including, as referenced above, the New York Times). More to the point, however, Jowers (who didn’t even testify) was the only named party in the civil suit brought by the King family, and the judgment awarded in that case was a paltry $100, widely described as a token award to mark the trial’s outcome. No other parties (including any branches or agents of the United States Government) were named as defendants in King v. Jowers, and no identification was provided by Jowers of the purported other parties with whom he colluded to assassinate King. By all accounts, the two main parties involved, the King family and Jowers, had disparate goals served by the civil suit’s outcome; and no substantive evidence was presented to establish any of the claims made by Jowers had any merit. In a statement about the 1999 civil suit, Coretta Scott King cited several unrelated and unspecified agents in her description of the parties she believed were responsible for her husband’s murder: There is abundant evidence of a major high level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. And the civil court’s unanimous verdict has validated our belief. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations. This verdict is not only a great victory for my family, but also a great victory for America. It is a great victory for truth itself. It is important to know that this was a SWIFT verdict, delivered after about an hour of jury deliberation. The jury was clearly convinced by the extensive evidence that was presented during the trial that, in addition to Mr. Jowers, the conspiracy of the Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were deeply involved in the assassination of my husband. The jury also affirmed overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame. I want to make it clear that my family has no interest in retribution. Instead, our sole concern has been that the full truth of the assassination has been revealed and adjudicated in a court of law. The one thing the conspiracy rumor correctly states is a 1999 civil trial reached a verdict that cited the existence of a conspiracy to assassinate Martin Luther King, Jr. What it neglects to mention is the relative worth of such a judgment: The verdict in question was civil rather than criminal, the sole named defendant was someone who stood to gain both publicity and money from repeating his claims, and the King family’s motivation in bringing the suit was to validate their long-held suspicions a larger conspiracy was at play in the death of the civil rights leader. Given the minor sum of money awarded, a jury would have little incentive to not find in favor of an account supported by both sides of a flawed case. The U.S. Justice Department concluded in June 2000 the “allegations originating with Loyd Jowers … are not credible”: After reviewing all available materials from prior official investigations and other sources, including the evidence from King v. Jowers, and after conducting a year and a half of original investigation, we have concluded that the allegations originating with Loyd Jowers and Donald Wilson are not credible. We found no reliable evidence to support Jowers’ allegations that he conspired with others to shoot Dr. King from behind Jim’s Grill. In fact, credible evidence contradicting his allegations, as well as material inconsistencies among his accounts and his own repudiations of them, demonstrate that Jowers has not been truthful. Rather, it appears that Jowers contrived and promoted a sensational story of a plot to kill Dr. King.
|
5647
|
Lawsuit: Fertility doctor used own sperm to impregnate woman.
|
A family alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that a Colorado fertility doctor used his own sperm instead of that of an anonymous donor to impregnate a woman without her consent.
|
true
|
U.S. News, Colorado, Grand Junction, Health, General News, Lawsuits
|
KUSA-TV reports that the lawsuit contends Dr. Paul Jones of Grand Junction committed fraud by using his own sperm to artificially inseminate Cheryl Emmons, allowing her to give birth to two daughters in 1980 and 1985, respectively. The Mesa County District Court suit contends the daughters discovered they shared Jones’ DNA with a number of strangers this year — including cousins of Jones, according to plaintiffs’ attorney Patrick Fitz-Gerald. It alleges negligence, fraud and other causes of action and seeks damages in a civil trial. Attorneys Nicole Black, who represents Jones, and Ivan Sarkissian, who represents Women’s Health Care of Western Colorado, where Jones practiced, didn’t immediately respond Tuesday to telephone messages seeking comment. Plaintiffs include Emmons; her husband, John Emmons; and daughters Maia Boring and Tahnee Scott. They live in Texas. The daughters’ claimed discovery of shared DNA with at least five strangers — people born between 1976 and 1997 — came through use of Ancestry.com and 23andMe.com, KUSA reported. The daughters confronted their mother, who disclosed earlier this year that she had had artificial insemination procedures by Jones to conceive. “I would like to ask him, ’Why? Why did you do this?” said Boring, who lives in San Antonio. Jones, of Grand Junction, refused to answer when asked if he’d donated his own sperm to father the children. “I don’t deny it. I don’t admit it,” he told KUSA. Jones, a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, has been licensed to practice medicine in Colorado on July 11, 1972. He co-founded what’s now known as Women’s Health Care of Western Colorado, where the suit claims he saw Cheryl Emmons from 1979 to 1985. Texas this year passed a law barring a fertility doctor from inseminating a patient without her consent. California and Indiana have so-called “fertility fraud” laws, but Colorado does not. ___ Information from: KUSA-TV, http://www.9news.com
|
38652
|
A blog post titled “Two Droplets” tells the story of a Milwaukee man who suffered a chemical burn on the back of his hand from drain cleaner that has lead to a five-year medical nightmare.
|
Two Droplets Blog Warns of Drain Cleaner Dangers-Investigation Pending!
|
unproven
|
Health / Medical
|
We don’t have any clear answers on this one. We can’t independently confirm whether or not the claims made in the Two Droplets blog post are true, but our investigation is ongoing. In the blog, the unnamed author tells the horrific story of her husband’s encounter with “two droplets” of drain cleaner in June 2010. After a bathroom sink became clogged, her husband poured drain cleaner directly into a pipe beneath the sink through a funnel. Then, the “funnel burped and two droplets of the chemical hit the back of his hand” and began to eat away at the skin on his hand: The chemical began to eat away at the skin. We lived 5 minutes from a local hospital, so I snapped a photo of the ingredients on the bottle and we headed off to the emergency room. The hospital called poison control and proceeded to follow protocol in treating the chemical burn. He ended up having a skin graft performed to cover the wound area, which was not much larger than a quarter. Done, right? End of story? Not even close. It was only the beginning. After a few uneventful months, the grafted area began to ache. It was an ache that he would become all too familiar with moving forward. The ache was followed by redness in the area, which quickly evolved into necrotic (dead) skin and flesh. The wound spread beyond the grafted area and became a bit larger. He was admitted to the hospital and another graft surgery was performed. It didn’t fix the problem. Neither did the next one, or the next one, or the next one. Over the next five years, the woman wrote, the back of her husband’s hand constantly ached and the skin repeatedly died. The affected area spread until it covered the entire surface of his hand, and doctors have not been able to find a diagnosis, the author continued. A number of doctors who have read the blog have offered possible diagnosis and treatment options in the comment section, including pyoderma gangrenosum and white clot syndrome, which could be a side effect of medication he’s receiving. It’s interesting to note that these conditions would not be caused by the two droplets of drain cleaner that hit the back of the man’s hand. They would be caused by the skin grafts, other health conditions or medications that resulted from his chemical burn. Here’s what we know for sure: drain cleaners can cause severe chemical burns when they come into contact with skin. And drain cleaners become especially dangerous when they’re mixed with other chemicals. These dangerous mixtures can explode from drains and onto skin, as described in the Two Droplets blog post. That’s exactly what happened to a grandmother who owns a bed and breakfast in England in July 2010. She poured “two droplets” — an really odd coincidence — of Extreme Green’s Dr. Drain into a sink. After a few seconds there was a gurgling sound and then chemicals suddenly exploded from the drain, causing severe burns on her face, the Daily Mail reports: Doctors at Southampton General Hospital told her that it was only because of her quick-thinking to keep her eyes closed that her sight was saved. Mrs Insch, a grandmother of ten, from Netley Abbey, Hampshire, said: ‘I read the instructions and put two drops in, we hadn’t used any other product that day, only the plunger. ‘It started to bubble so I turned round to see what was happening and it exploded, it hit the ceiling and went straight into my face. Shocked: Sheila Insch pictured grandaughter Ceri Roper ‘I just grabbed something to wipe my face and I kept my eyes closed as my eyes are very valuable to me. ‘I kept washing my face all the way to hospital. It was terribly painful, burning, it hurt. ‘The doctor said my quick actions saved my face but he said I can’t go out in the sun for a year.’ Mrs Insch, who runs Telemark House B&B, was rushed to hospital by her daughter Gwen, but was transferred to the specialist burns unit at Salisbury Odstock Hospital, where she stayed for three days. That story is eerily similar to the one told in the Two Droplets blog. The two events even happened within a month of each other. A chemist for Extreme Green’s Dr. Drain said the company was assisting in the investigation, but he said the product is safe when used properly: He added: ‘It clearly states that this product will react violently if it is in contact with other products and I would suspect there was something else down her drain for it to react in such a way. ‘Incidents like this are very rare.’ Out investigation into the Two Drops blog is ongoing. Check back for future updates. Comments
|
42075
|
Senator Elizabeth Warren has been on Risperdal since first being prescribed the drug in 2011.
|
A baseless claim about Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s health is circulating on social media.
|
false
|
conspiracy theories, false claims,
|
A baseless claim about Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s health is circulating on social media.Shortly after Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced on New Year’s Eve that she has formed an exploratory committee for president, an internet conspiracy theorist falsely claimed that she is taking an anti-psychotic medication.David Zublick, who runs a website that pushes the thoroughly debunked “pizzagate” conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton, posted the claim about Warren on Facebook and Twitter. He also has a YouTube channel with more than 125,000 subscribers.We’ve written about Zublick’s bunk before when he wrote a story claiming that President Donald Trump called for a new branch of the military called the “space force” (that actually happened) following communications with aliens (that did not happen). The part about aliens had been lifted largely from an old story on a satirical website.Zublick’s claim about Warren was also lifted from elsewhere. When reached by phone, Zublick was unable to provide any evidence to support the claim that the Democratic senator is on Risperdal, an anti-psychotic medication used to treat schizophrenia, mania, and bipolar disorder. He told us that his posts were based entirely on a tweet from another Twitter user, although he said he couldn’t remember which one.A cached version of Twitter shows that a user by the name of @Anonamis6 posted a now deleted tweet on Dec. 31 that is, word-for-word, the same as Zublick’s. It says: “BREAKING: According to sources Senator Elizabeth Warren has been on Risperdal since first being prescribed the drug in 2011. Risperdal is used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and irritability caused by autism…..developing.” Zublick’s posts on Facebook and Twitter appeared a day later.A spokeswoman for Warren, Kristen Orthman, responded to the claim in an emailed statement to FactCheck.org that said: “She has never been prescribed, nor has she ever taken Risperdal.”Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on the social media network.Warren, Elizabeth (@ewarren). “Every person in America should be able to work hard, play by the same set of rules, & take care of themselves & the people they love. That’s what I’m fighting for, & that’s why I’m launching an exploratory committee for president. I need you with me: http://elizabethwarren.com.” Twitter. 31 Dec 2018.Robb, Amanda. “Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal.” Rolling Stone. 16 Nov 2017.Hale Spencer, Saranac. “Conspiracy Theory Follows Call For ‘Space Force’.” FactCheck.org. 21 Jun 2018.Trump, Donald. Remarks by President Trump at a Meeting with the National Space Council and Signing of Space Policy Directive-3. White House. 18 Jun 2018.Zublick, David. Interview with FactCheck.org. 10 Jan 2019.Orthman, Kristen. Spokeswoman, Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s office. E-mail to FactCheck.org. 4 Jan 2019.
|
26161
|
“There were not chemical irritants” used to clear a crowd. Pepper balls are “not a chemical irritant.”
|
Attorney General William Barr said federal officers did not use chemical irritants to clear protesters from around a D.C. church that Trump was to visit. Park Police say they used pepper balls from the PepperBall company. The company’s weakest pepper ball contains a synthetic compound that government agencies describe as a chemical irritant.
|
false
|
National, Civil Rights, William Barr,
|
"On a Sunday morning news show, U.S. Attorney General William Barr said federal officers used no chemical irritants to disperse a crowd of people near a D.C church President Donald Trump was due to visit. Appearing on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Barr said Park Police and Secret Service used ""standard crowd control"" methods during the June 1 action. Host Margaret Brennan reminded him that the Park Police had said chemical irritants were used. ""No, there were not chemical irritants,"" Barr said June 7. ""Pepper spray is not a chemical irritant. It's not chemical."" Brennan interjected: ""Pepper spray, you’re saying, is what was used."" ""Pepper balls. Pepper balls,"" Barr clarified. Barr’s statement about chemical irritants is wrong. The Park Police issued a statement saying its units fired pepper balls, a product that contains a chemical irritant. Pepper balls are a generic term for small plastic balls that burst on impact. They fall into the category of less-lethal impact munitions. Think of the popular mock battle game called paintball using balls filled with something other than paint. The Park Police told PolitiFact that its officers deployed products from the PepperBall company. The weakest variety of pepper ball on the PepperBall company’s website contains a 0.5% concentration of the chemical irritant pelargonic acid vanillylamide, or PAVA, a synthetic compound. (The company offers a version that is 10 times more potent, but it is unclear if Park Police used that one.) ""PAVA primarily affects the eyes causing closure and severe pain,"" according to a report by Britain's Committee on Toxicity, an independent scientific body that advises the government. The National Institutes of Health web page on the active ingredient in PAVA powder nonivamide carries these four warning pictograms: After the incident near the church, there was extensive coverage of which devices federal officers used to send the crowd running. While there was debate over the description of the chemicals used, the Park Police confirmed that chemical agents had been deployed. Why that’s misleading PAVA is the synthetic version of the natural chemical found in chili peppers. For those interested in chemistry, it is formed by ""the formal condensation of the amino group of 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylamine with the carboxy group of nonanoic acid,"" according to the NIH website. A Justice Department report on less-lethal weapons said pepper balls contain ""highly irritating pepper powder."" The PepperBall company’s website says its product is good for ""area saturation,"" meaning anyone close to the point of impact is affected by the chemical. As the area outside the church was cleared, multiple eyewitnesses and news accounts reported noxious fumes that caused a burning sensation in protesters’ eyes and throats. As federal officers fired on the crowd near the church, protesters cried out that tear gas was being used. Tear gas just deployed at 16th & H Streets, police in riot gear & on horseback pushed the crowd back to Connecticut Av #dcprotest pic.twitter.com/LOd2UC5nmH We reached out to the Justice Department and did not hear back. Barr said federal officers used no chemical irritants to clear people away from a D.C. church Trump planned to visit. He said pepper balls are not chemical irritants. The Park Police used impact munitions made by the PepperBall company. Those munitions contain PAVA, a synthetic chemical that causes extreme eye pain. The Justice Department says pepper balls contain ""highly irritating pepper powder."""
|
37900
|
Warnings that someone is injecting poising into water bottles circulated on social media in March 2018.
|
Officials Warn About Poison Injected into Water Bottles-Reported as Fiction!
|
false
|
Disinformation, Fact Checks
|
There have been scattered reports about people injecting poison (or some kind of foreign substance) into water bottles over the years. But no official warnings were issued about poisoned water bottles issued in March 2018, and there didn’t appear to be an elevated threat.The rumor was started by various warnings about poison injected into water bottles on Facebook. These warnings don’t cite any credible authorities or reports of poisoned water bottles. Instead, they typically include videos of users squeezing water through tiny holes in the tops of bottles (that were presumably created by a syringe needle while injecting poison).Of course, there’s no way to verify how those holes go there. They could have easily been made by the person filming the video before the recording started. And these posts don’t provide any details that would be required to verify the claims. A number of them stated that the water poisoning happened in Texas — but no public health warnings had been issued there about it by state authorities. And some of these warnings specifically stated that it was Nestlé brand bottle water that was tainted, but the company issued no recalls or public health alerts verifying that. Given that warnings about poison injected into water are based solely on videos of water bottles with pinprick holes in the top of them, we’re reporting this rumor as fiction.There have been a number of actual cases of poison being injected into bottled water of the years, however. A Houston man was arrested in December 2011 for allegedly injecting bottles of water with an unknown substance at a convenience store in Texas. A local ABC News affiliate reports that the Harris County Assistant District Attorney said at the time “there is no belief that this is a widespread occurrence.”Reports of an “Aquabomber” also surfaced in Rome in 2003. CNN reported that authorities in Italy were on high alert after a Italians reported more than 20 cases of bottled water had been tampered with. In most cases, “consumers have noticed a strange smell or the tell-tale pinpricks and handed the bottles to the police.” Incidents were reported in 20 cities, along with tampering of milk and orange juice containers.Finally, three people were hospitalized in New York in 2000 after drinking bottled water that was contaminated with “an ammonia like substance.” The New York Times reports, “The police commissioner, Bernard B. Kerik, said that a test of the water from the glass showed that it contained ‘some type of sodium hydroxide,’ which he characterized as a kind of ‘strong cleaning agent’ or a ‘lye-type agent.’ He said that the woman, who was not identified, spent several days in the hospital.” Officials were looking at a glass that the water was served in at a restaurant, not the bottle itself, however.So, while there have been a handful of cases of bottled water being injected with poison over the years, there didn’t appear to be an elevated threat in March 2018. That’s why we’re reporting this one as fiction.Comments
|
4086
|
Minnesota officials find THC in vaping illness cases.
|
Investigators are focusing on marijuana-derived THC in the Minnesota cases of teens and young adults who developed vaping-related lung illnesses this summer.
|
true
|
Health, Lung disease, General News, Marijuana, Minnesota
|
The Star Tribune reported Tuesday that health officials have interviewed eight of 15 patients in Minnesota who have been hospitalized for severe respiratory illnesses with confirmed links to vaping. Rich Danila of the Minnesota Department of Health says all eight inhaled THC, the compound in marijuana that gives it its high. Investigators have not yet confirmed links to vaping in another nine hospitalizations for respiratory injuries reported to the state. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week they are looking at 215 possible cases of lung disease in 25 states involving teens or young adults who have used e-cigarettes or other vaping devices. ___ Information from: Star Tribune, http://www.startribune.com
|
8835
|
Antigenics wins Russian approval of cancer vaccine.
|
Russian regulators have approved the world’s first cancer vaccine, validating an unusual strategy by its maker to introduce the product even though it failed a late-stage clinical trial.
|
true
|
Health News
|
Shares of Antigenics Inc, the tiny New York-based biotechnology company which has been developing the vaccine for 11 years, rose as much as 58 percent on the news. It is the first time the Russian government has approved a drug that was not first cleared in its country of origin, according to Antigenics, and clears the way for the company to start generating revenue from Oncophage later this year. The company plans to file for approval of the vaccine in Europe by the end of the year, based on a relatively new set of guidelines in that jurisdiction. Regulators in Russia approved Oncophage based on a subset of data from a late-stage clinical trial that in 2006 failed to show the vaccine delayed the recurrence of kidney cancer. In the subset of patients — those whose cancer was least likely to recur following surgery — Oncophage lengthened the period before which the disease recurred by 45 percent, or an average of 1.8 years, versus those in the control group. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not consider subset analysis a valid measure of success or failure since all manner of sub-populations can be carved out retrospectively. Therefore the vaccine stands little chance of approval in the United States. “What this company needs to do now is a trial based on their findings with the good prognosis patients,” said Dr. Otis Brawley, Chief Medical Officer at the American Cancer Society. “If they have a positive finding at that point then I’m going to be excited, and then I believe it would go before the FDA very quickly.” Conducting such trials, however, could take up to 10 years and vast sums of money, and would take the product’s development cycle to 20 years. “No one in their right mind would authorize that,” said Garo Armen, the company’s chief executive, in an interview. “Even if we had the money it wouldn’t be practical.” Unlike their U.S. counterparts, Russian regulators have accepted the validity of the subset — in part because roughly a third of the 604 patients enrolled in the late-stage trial were tested in Russia, and about 70 percent of those fell into the subset of patients whose prognosis following surgery was better than that of the total population. Antigenics thinks it will be able to win approval elsewhere in the world too. European regulators can now approve drugs on a conditional basis, meaning companies can market their products while simultaneously conducting additional follow-up of patients or further clinical studies. If at the end of the trial period the regulatory agency were not satisfied, it could pull the drug from the market. “Filing in Europe won’t be a slam dunk, and will probably be more difficult than in Russia,” said Armen, who added that the European review process would likely take 12 to 18 months. The Russian approval caps years of dogged determination to bring the vaccine to the market despite multiple setbacks and investor skepticism of cancer vaccines in general. Oncophage is designed to reprogram a patient’s immune system to target cancer cells from a specific tumor. The company takes tissue from a tumor following surgery, extracts proteins it says activate the immune system and then injects the enriched proteins back into the body through the skin. Unlike a vaccine such as Merck & Co’s Gardasil, which is designed to ward off a virus that is believed to cause some 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, Oncophage is designed to target the cancer directly and delay or prevent it from spreading once it has developed. There are about 16,000 new cases of kidney cancer a year in Russia, according to Armen, of which about a quarter fit the profile of patients most likely to benefit from Oncophage — a market theoretically worth about $200 million to Antigenics. The Russian pharmaceuticals market is one of the fastest growing in the world. It will grow by nearly 60 percent to $19.4 billion in 2009 from about $12.3 billion in 2006, the research group DSM estimates. Armen said he expects the initial sales growth for Oncophage to be “modest.” “We would have to price this probably at the low- to mid-range of other new-generation cancer drugs,” Armen said. Such drugs can cost as much as $60,000 per patient per year, he said. “How much of that market we achieve depends on how well we iron out reimbursement issues and how effectively we can reach every single patient,” Armen said. Shares of Antigenics were up 62 cents or 25 percent to $3.09 in late afternoon trading on Nasdaq after touching $3.90 earlier in the day, an increase of about 58 percent.
|
7232
|
Kate Spade New York fulfills $1 million mental health pledge.
|
A year after Kate Spade took her own life, the foundation that bears her name has announced the completion of a $1 million pledge to support mental health services.
|
true
|
Mental health, Kate Spade, Health, General News, Entertainment, Lifestyle, New York, Celebrities
|
The Kate Spade New York Foundation said in a statement Wednesday it is donating $200,000 to The Jed Foundation, which partners with schools to strengthen mental health programs. The fashion brand will match public donations to JED from Wednesday through June 12, up to $100,000, at jedfoundation.org/katespade. The donations follow money already given to other organizations, including the Crisis Text Line. Anna Bakst, brand president and CEO of Kate Spade New York, said the company hopes to encourage more conversation, education and research around mental health. Spade killed herself June 5, 2018, at 55, after years of battling depression and anxiety.
|
6690
|
Apollo 11′s ‘amiable strangers’ Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins.
|
Mission commander Neil Armstrong was the flying ace, Buzz Aldrin the scholar. Michael Collins was a crack test pilot, too, but also a wordsmith who described the trio as “amiable strangers.”
|
true
|
Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, AP Top News, Apollo 11 moon landing, General News, Moon, Business, Michael Collins, U.S. News, Science
|
Apollo 11′s astronauts had six months to gel as a crew and prepare for humanity’s greatest space feat. The three had never served together on the same spaceflight before, and the “almost frantic” preparation left little if any time for bonding, Collins said. “Apollo 11 was a little different than some of the other flights,” Collins explained. “We didn’t cruise around in color-coordinated Corvettes or anything like that. We were all business. We were all hard work, and we felt the weight of the world upon us.” A brief look at each man: Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon but the least inclined to talk about it. Last year’s film, “First Man,” captured his private nature; his two sons served as movie consultants. Such reticence merely reinforced the mystery surrounding the late astronaut, who by skill, hard work and chance became the first human to set foot on another world. Armstrong was superbly qualified for the job: fighter pilot in Korea, X-15 test pilot, one of only two civilians selected for the second astronaut group in 1962, Gemini 8 command pilot, backup commander of Apollo 8 and, finally, commander of Apollo 11. He’d proven his mettle again and again. He had to gain control of his tumbling Gemini 8 spacecraft in 1966 and bring it down early, and he ejected from a lunar lander training device in 1968 just before it crashed in flames in Houston. Armstrong left NASA two years after Apollo 11 and taught engineering at the University of Cincinnati until 1979. He spent his remaining years in his home state of Ohio. He finally agreed to a biography: 2005′s “First Man” by historian James Hansen, the basis for last year’s film. Armstrong died in 2012 at age 82. ___ Buzz Aldrin was the second man to walk on the moon, but the first astronaut to have a doctorate and dance with the stars. Aldrin, now 89, had a long list of accomplishments by the time NASA chose him for the third astronaut group in 1963: third in his class at West Point, fighter pilot in Korea, Air Force officer, a doctorate in astronautics. He was dubbed Dr. Rendezvous for his expertise in orbital dockings. He flew on Gemini 12 in 1966 and was on the backup crew for Apollo 8. Then came Apollo 11. He later legally changed his name from Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. to his childhood nickname Buzz. His name was the inspiration for the character Buzz Lightyear in the animated “Toy Story” films. His mother’s name: Marion Moon. After Apollo 11, Aldrin spent years struggling with mental depression and alcoholism. He left NASA in 1971 and briefly headed the test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Drawn toward the spotlight, Aldrin portrayed himself in a 1994 episode of the TV program “The Simpsons” and took a spin in 2010 on TV’s “Dancing with the Stars.” He’s traveled the globe, including the South Pole, pushing for Mars travel. Last year, two of his three children sought to declare him mentally incompetent, then he sued them. Both sides dropped the case in March. Aldrin moves between Satellite Beach, Florida, and Southern California. ___ Michael Collins was “The Forgotten Man” during the Apollo 11 lunar landing: While the two others were walking on the moon, he circled overhead in the command module. For previous Apollo 11 anniversaries, Collins was content to be forgotten. But with the “huge gap” left by Armstrong’s death, Collins, 88, feels compelled to speak up even though “my first inclination for celebrating the 50th anniversary ... is to go hide under a rock somewhere.” His two daughters have helped him navigate the avalanche of requests. The Air Force officer and former test pilot flew on Gemini 10 in 1966, three years after being accepted into the third astronaut group. He was supposed to be command module pilot of Apollo 8, the first manned flight to circle the moon, but was bumped because of a bone spur in his neck. Surgery corrected the problem, and he wound up on Apollo 11. Collins was astounded when reporters later asked him about being lonely as he circled the moon by himself, especially on the lunar far side, out of radio contact. “I felt like I was Neil and Buzz’s meal ticket home,” he said. “I was in no way, shape or form lonely.” Collins left NASA six months after Apollo 11. He briefly served as assistant secretary of state for public affairs and was founding director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. In an updated preface to his 1974 autobiography “Carrying the Fire,” Collins said he enjoys fishing, painting and reading near Florida’s Everglades, and feels “lucky, lucky, lucky.”
|
7325
|
France turns to speedy trains to catch up in virus response.
|
The high-speed train whooshing past historic World War I battle zones and through the chateau-speckled Loire Valley carried a delicate cargo: 20 critically ill COVID-19 patients and the machines helping keep them alive.
|
true
|
AP Top News, Transportation, Understanding the Outbreak, Health, General News, France, Lifestyle, Paris, Science, Emmanuel Macron, Virus Outbreak, Europe, International News
|
The TGV-turned-mobile-intensive-care-unit is just one piece of France’s nationwide mobilization of trains, helicopters, jets and even a warship, deployed to relieve congested hospitals and shuffle hundreds of patients and hundreds more medical personnel in and out of coronavirus hotspots. “We are at war,” President Emmanuel Macron tells his compatriots, again and again, casting himself as a warrior and harnessing the might of the armed forces to fight this invisible foe. But while the extraordinary mobilization seems to be helping, critics charge the 42-year-old leader waited far too long to act in the first place. France, one of the world’s wealthiest countries with one of the best health care systems, they say, should never have found itself so deep in crisis. Macron had just emerged from weeks of damaging retirement strikes and a year of violent “yellow vest” protests over economic injustice when the pandemic hit. Now he is struggling to keep the house running in one of the world’s hardest-hit countries. The Rungis food market south of Paris, Europe’s biggest, is transforming into a morgue as France’s death count races past 8,000. Nearly 7,000 patients are in intensive care, pushing French hospitals to their limit and beyond. Doctors are rationing painkillers and re-using masks. France’s centralized state and powerful presidency make it easier to coordinate the patient-moving efforts, which have crisscrossed the country and even extended to overseas territories. And nearly three weeks of confinement are starting to bear fruit: France reported its lowest number of deaths Sunday in a week, and a slowing growth in infections. But the pandemic has exposed weaknesses in the world-renowned state hospital system after decades of cost cuts. When the president visited a Paris hospital on the front lines of the virus battle, an angry neurologist challenged him to reinvest massively. “When it was about saving Notre Dame, many were moved,” Dr. Francois Salachas said, a reference to the Paris cathedral that was severely damaged by fire a year ago, prompting immediate, massive pledges of public and private funds for reconstruction. “This time it’s about saving public hospitals, which are going up in smoke at the same speed as Notre Dame almost did.” Many think Macron did not anticipate the severity with which the virus could hit and set a bad personal example. Similar criticisms have been leveled at other world leaders including the presidents of Mexico, Brazil and the United States. In February, Macron made a point of repeatedly kissing Italy’s premier on a visit to Naples to show there was nothing to fear. At the time, the virus was already spreading fast across France, but limited testing meant health authorities didn’t yet know. In early March, he toured a retirement home even as he announced that families should no longer visit elderly relatives. That same day he went with his wife to a Paris theater where the owner tweeted that the president wanted to show that “life goes on.” By then, the official virus infection numbers in France were doubling every two days. In mid-March, as COVID-19 was ravaging neighboring Italy, France went ahead with the first round of nationwide municipal elections. First lady Brigitte Macron strolled the banks of the Seine, crowded with Parisians enjoying a sunny day despite recommendations of social distancing. Then on March 16, Macron abruptly changed his tune, declaring war on the virus and announcing nationwide confinement measures. A week later he appeared wearing a face mask for the first time at a field hospital set up by troops outside Mulhouse, the eastern city that saw an eruption of cases stemming from a five-day evangelical gathering. The armed forces took on a key role, as military and hospital authorities worked out the system to shuttle patients to less-strained hospitals and medics to virus zones in need. The first “medicalized” TGV made its inaugural trip on March 26. Doctors in protective gear pushed gurneys along the nearly empty platform of the train station in the eastern city of Strasbourg as safety warnings echoed from loudspeakers. Inside the double-decker cars, patients and webs of tubes and wires were squeezed past luggage racks and rows of seats. Once they were secured, the train sped off toward less impacted hospitals in the west. While the militarized mobilizations are popular, public debate has mushroomed over the relatively low numbers of people being tested for the virus in France and shortages of medical equipment. Macron ordered all face masks requisitioned for medical personnel after it became evident France entered the crisis well short of the necessary supply. “The question of masks is now the priority question for the French,” said Jean-Daniel Levy of polling agency Harris Interactive, adding that the public feels the government “didn’t take enough responsibility” for masks at the outset. France has had to send some patients for treatment to tiny neighboring Luxembourg, Switzerland and Germany, which has conducted massive nationwide testing and confirmed more cases than France while recording a death toll about one-fifth as high so far. Macron, a centrist, has taken fire from both ends of the political spectrum. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen told France 2 television that “the government lied about the preparedness of the country,” while far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said Macron, a former investment banker, “used to think that the free market would meet the country’s needs, so his mental framework collapsed.” Among the broader public, Macron “is seen as relatively authoritarian,” Levy said. That hurt him during the protest movements, but helps his popularity now because “we want to have a strong authority figure” to manage the crisis. In the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, a fact-finding mission is scrutinizing the government’s handling of the emergency. Macron said while visiting a mask manufacturing company that it’s not yet time to focus on what went wrong. “When we’re fighting a battle, we must all be united to win it,” the president said. “And I think those who seek to send people to trial when we have not yet won the war are irresponsible.” ___ Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
|
5896
|
4th Legionnaires’ disease death reported in North Carolina.
|
North Carolina health officials say a fourth person has died from Legionnaires’ disease.
|
true
|
Health, General News, North Carolina, Legionnaires disease, State fairs
|
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Resources said in a statement on Friday that its Division of Public Health has confirmed 141 cases involving residents from counties and multiple states. In addition to the deaths, 94 people were hospitalized. Information gathered by local health officials showed that most patients attended the NC Mountain State Fair, which ran from Sept. 6-15 at the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center in Fletcher. Officials have said those who were diagnosed with the disease may have walked by the hot tub displays. On Thursday, DHHS reported a case of Legionnaires’ in a person who didn’t attend the fair, but instead went to the Agricultural Center for a quilt show.
|
36040
|
A hotel cleaner in Las Vegas stole a millionaire's used condom from his room, became pregnant, and was awarded millions of dollars in child support for the scheme.
|
Hotel Cleaner Who Stole Sperm from a Millionaire’s Used Condom Won Child Support Battle, Millions?
|
false
|
Disinformation, Fact Checks
|
On November 10 2019, a story about a hotel cleaner stealing a millionaire guest’s used condom to covertly impregnate herself and receive millions of dollars in child support was shared by the Facebook page “Waploaded.com Media”:The claim was also shared to Reddit’s r/nottheonion (a sub devoted to supposedly real and weird stories which were explicitly not satirical):Hotel cleaner who stole millionaire’s sperm from a used condom won child support battle from nottheonionImmediately, a few things about the claim stuck out. One was that it was shared as a screenshot of a purported article, without a link to any news stories. Another was that a cursory Google search led to stories primarily published outside the United States, when the hotel cleaner child support hustle supposedly occurred in Las Vegas. Such a story would be as viral stateside as globally, but no one in the United States appeared to be interested in reporting it.Iterations were shared to many sites based in Africa, and to forums such as Lipstick Alley — never with any indication the claim was satirical in nature. All iterations included the same graphic (a woman and an unwrapped condom), but no identifying details or surnames.In its apparent first iteration, the claim was shared by the site ihlayanews.com on November 9 2019. That site claimed:A 40-year-old Las Vegas hotel cleaner won a child support battle against a 28-year-old millionaire who she never slept with.Jane was 36 when she stole a used condom from a then 24-year-old tech millionaire’s hotel garbage can.She inserted the semen inside her vagina and became pregnant with a baby boy who is now 4-years-old.During the child support hearing, Jane confessed that she never slept with the young millionaire and that she impregnated herself with his sperm while she was cleaning his room.“He left his bank statement on the nightstand in his hotel room and I saw it when I was cleaning, at the time I wanted a baby so bad and I thought it would be better if I had a baby with a rich man”According to that report, the woman (“Jane”) was awarded $2 million for three years of the child’s life prior to the purported child support suit’s filing. Ihlaya News added that the woman started a business with her “newfound fortune.”Ihlaya News’ header has faint text reading “nuusparodie waarvan jy hou,” which was translated by Africa Check:“Ihlaya News” roughly translates, from isiZulu, as “crazy person news”. The site’s tagline is “nuusparodie waarvan jy hou” — Afrikaans for “news parody that you like”.When Ihlaya News (“crazy person news”) published “Hotel cleaner who stole sperm from a used condom won child support battle” on November 9 2019, faint “satire” signifiers appeared on that first iteration. When numerous outlets in Africa shared it, those details were stripped away, as was the case with screenshots of the “news” on Facebook. However, the claim originated on an openly satirical site.
|
22320
|
Some of the colleges, including A&M, have already guaranteed that they will not increase their tuition.
|
"Texas Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock says ""some of the colleges, including A&M,"" have guaranteed tuition freeze"
|
false
|
Education, State Budget, Texas, Jimmie Don Aycock,
|
"During debate over legislation that cuts about $1.5 billion in spending from the state’s current budget, state Rep. Sylvester Turner spoke in favor of an amendment that would have redirected $6.2 million from programs under the purview of Gov. Rick Perry to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which administers state-funded student financial aid programs. On the House floor March 31, Turner, a Houston Democrat, said that after expected reductions in funding for higher education, ""students in the state of Texas will need more financial aid than ever before because their tuition will go up. … Why are we more interested in protecting the governor’s agency than in providing financial aid to our students?"" Republican Rep. Jimmie Don Aycock of Killeen, an opponent of the amendment, responded by defending the programs handled by the governor’s office and indicating that tuition hikes are not a done deal: ""Some of the colleges, including A&M, have already guaranteed that they will not increase their tuition."" The amendment failed, but we still wondered whether Texas A&M University and other colleges have really decided to freeze their tuition, as Perry urged in his February State of the State address. On Feb. 9, the day after Perry’s speech, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that ""at least one public university system had already decided to freeze tuition."" Texas A&M’s board of regents ""last year voted to freeze tuition rates for the 2011-12 academic year at 11 universities,"" according to the news article. Texas A&M spokesman Jason Cook confirmed that the university system had frozen ""designated"" tuition — what public universities charge students on top of state-set tuition — but he said A&M’s flagship university in College Station is proposing to raise additional tuition for three of its colleges: architecture, engineering and veterinary medicine. Cook told us the proposed hike only applies to certain undergraduates — about 1,415 architecture students, 7,880 engineering students and 510 students in a veterinary medicine program. Total enrollment last fall on the College Station campus was 49,426, so about 20 percent of students would pay the higher charges. A&M President Bowen Loftin will take the proposal to the university’s board of regents in May, Cook said — a year from when the board decided not to raise university-wide tuition this fall. Tuition won’t go up at the other universities in the A&M system, Cook said, but fees may go up. According to the an overview of tuition by the coordinating board, mandatory fees, such as library and laboratory fees, are charged to all students upon enrollment. Texas A&M University at College Station is proposing ""a small increase in three mandatory fees,"" he said. When he spoke on the House floor, Aycock said that A&M was among ""some of the colleges"" that have promised to freeze tuition. When we checked back with the lawmaker, he told us that he was only talking about institutions within the A&M system. Still, we think Texans who heard him could be left with the impression that some other public colleges in Texas had guaranteed tuition freezes. We looked for such pledges — unsuccessfully. Searching news articles, we discovered that the governing boards at three public higher education institutions had voted within the past two weeks to increase tuition and fees this fall at some campuses, including the University of North Texas in Denton, Del Mar community college in Corpus Christi and Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. In each case, projected cuts to state funding were a factor in the board’s decision to implement the increases. Representatives of Texas Tech and the University of Houston also told us that fall tuition could be raised. What about the University of Texas system? The Austin American-Statesman reported in a March 3 story that the new chairman of the system’s board of regents, Gene Powell, has pledged to try to hold tuition at current levels or even lower. In Feb. 18 remarks to the board, Powell said: ""We are going to lower the cost (of a bachelor’s degree) if we can do it in any way."" UT regents typically set tuition every two years. In March 2010, they voted to increase tuition and fee rates at most of the system’s institutions for both this school year and next. During that meeting, regents did not increase the 2011-12 cost of attending the system’s medical, dental and nursing health campuses but signaled that they would revisit the question the following year. And last month, they raised the tuition at those institutions. In a press release announcing the March 2010 vote, UT regents left the door open to consider an additional increase for this fall ""should available funding change."" Because tuition recommendations originate at individual campuses, we checked with UT-Austin to see whether any increases for the fall are being considered. Robert Meckel, director of public affairs at the school, told us that ""there will be no proposal for a tuition increase"" for the next school year. We also asked Matt Flores, a spokesman for the UT System, whether any UT institutions had ""guaranteed"" that they wouldn’t raise tuition for the following school year, 2012-13. ""No,"" he said. ""That’s too speculative right now."" So, where does that leave us? In his remarks on the House floor, Aycock said ""some colleges"" including Texas A&M have pledged not to increase tuition costs to students. That’s not quite what we found. It’s true that all but one of the A&M system’s campuses won’t be seeing tuition increases this fall. But 20 percent of students at the system’s flagship campus may have to pay higher tuition, and all A&M students could face mandatory fee increases. Outside the A&M family, we found no evidence of tuition freezes — instead we found impending tuition hikes. On July 27, 2011, we changed the name for the rating to ."
|
34990
|
Donald Trump has paid up to eight sexual partners to obtain abortions and sign nondisclosure agreements.
|
2) Neither Daniels nor McDougal claimed to have been impregnated by Trump, nor has any other woman come forward to make such a claim.
|
unproven
|
Politics
|
Rumors have circulated for years to the effect that U.S. President Donald Trump has paid off multiple sexual partners to undergo abortions after he impregnated them, and to sign nondisclosure agreements precluding them from discussing their involvement with him. One common form of this rumor holds that Trump may have paid as many as eight different women to undergo abortions. Critics of Trump are inclined to believe such rumors because: 1) Two women — Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal — have publicly asserted that they were paid “hush money” to keep quiet about their sexual encounters with Trump: Daniels, a porn actress whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, alleges she had an affair with Trump in 2006, and [Trump attorney Michael] Cohen paid her $130,000 to keep her from speaking about it publicly ahead of the 2016 election. McDougal, a former Playboy model who also says she had an affair with Trump, was paid $150,000 by National Enquirer parent company American Media Inc. as part of a “catch-and-kill” scheme in which the company paid for her story and then buried it. 2) Both women alleged that Trump eschewed the use of condoms during the sexual encounters they each had with him in 2006: In describing their alleged affairs with President Donald Trump publicly, Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels have raised a host of legal issues about possible abuse of power and campaign-finance violations. But they also revealed to Anderson Cooper a health-related detail that has raised other questions. They say that Trump preferred to not use condoms in the sexual encounters they had with him in 2006. The TV anchor pointedly asked both women if “protection” was used during their alleged encounters with the future president. They said no, and people on Twitter took note. 3) During a 2016 interview, Trump dodged answering a question about whether he had ever been involved with anyone who had an abortion: Given [Trump’s] draconian comment [about] sending women back to back alleys, I had to ask: When he was a swinging bachelor in Manhattan, was he ever involved with anyone who had an abortion? “Such an interesting question,” he said. “So what’s your next question?” On the other hand, this rumor seems to be driven purely by speculation rather than by any hard evidence: 1) The origin of the claim about the supposed existence of up to eight “Trump mistresses paid to have abortions and kept quiet with nondisclosure agreements” appears to be a gossip blog item that attributed the information to nothing more specific than “one source.”
|
21978
|
"Planned Parenthood ""raked in more than $300 million in profits over the past four years."
|
Abortion opponents claim Planned Parenthood had $300 million 'profit'
|
false
|
Abortion, Florida, Marjorie Dannenfelser,
|
"A debate in Congress earlier this year about whether to yank millions of dollars in federal funding for Planned Parenthood spawned a whole slew of claims by politicians about abortion. The Truth-O-Meter weighed in on several claims: everything from a claim by Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain that Planned Parenthood's early objective was to ""help kill black babies before they came into the world,"" which got a , to Richard Corcoran, a Florida state representative, who claimed that ""90 percent of babies with Down syndrome are aborted,"" which received a True rating. Before we delve into a new claim about Planned Parenthood, here is a summary about the debate from an April 21 fact-check by our colleagues at PolitiFact National: ""Even though Planned Parenthood cannot use federal money to provide abortions, Republicans passed an amendment in the U.S. House in February that would block all federal funding to the group. Republicans contend that any support for Planned Parenthood can provide indirect support for abortions. The amendment, which did not have sufficient support to pass the Senate, was a key issue in the budget debate that nearly led to a government shutdown on April 8, 2011. It was not included in the budget agreement that prevented the shutdown."" Planned Parenthood receives about $363 million a year from the federal government, which can be used for cancer screenings, annual exams, birth control and other preventative services. Now, a leader of an organization that advocates for pro-life legislation claims that Planned Parenthood is a money-maker. The claim comes from a U.S. News and World Report Washington Whispers blog on May 26 about U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz -- the Democratic National Committee chair who represents part of South Florida -- who called the GOP ""anti-women"" after the vote to de-fund Planned Parenthood. In response, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said: ""The truly ‘anti-woman’ organization here is Planned Parenthood and the party that continues to defend its taxpayer funding when it has raked in more than $300 million in profits over the past four years. Fifty-four percent of Americans don’t want to be coerced into contributing to an organization they don’t believe in just by paying their taxes — nor should they be."" For this Truth-O-Meter, we wanted to check Dannenfelser's claim that Planned Parenthood ""raked in more than $300 million in profits over the past four years."" We'll focus on two parts: Is the dollar figure right, and is 'profit' the right word? We contacted SBA List spokeswoman Mallory Quigley, who referred us to ""excess of revenue over expenses"" listed in Planned Parenthood's annual reports. Here is what those reports show: 2005-06: $55.8 million 2006-07: $114.8 million 2007-08: $85 million 2008-09: $63.4 million Total: $319 million. Although Planned Parenthood doesn't dispute the numbers pulled from the annual reports, a spokesman says it's not that simple. Spokesman Tait Sye notes that the full text of that line in the annual report for 2008-09 is ""excess of revenue over expenses excluding investment losses."" He points to the next line showing that the organization lost $78.1 million in investments that year, which should be subtracted from the four-year total. He also says that the group sometimes receives multi-year grants that show up as revenue in one year but are really spread out over several years. In the reports from other years, the financial data does not refer to investment losses or gains, and Sye said those amounts were simply included in the totals for those years. The extraordinary losses when the markets plunged for almost all investors, presented differently in the 2008-09 report, makes it awkward to combine the four years since Planned Parenthood didn't detail its investment losses or gains previously. Subtracting the $78 million would leave the group with about $240 million in revenue over expenses in the four-year period. But how much more or less is unknown since we were unable to obtain the actual investment income for the other years. We asked the SBA List why it didn't factor in the investment losses. Quigley responded: ""We added up the bottom-line numbers that Planned Parenthood listed for excess revenue."" We think the number is somewhat overstated because of those 2008-09 losses, but we can't tell by how much. In the second part of our fact-checking, does the ""excess revenue over expenses"" constitute a ""profit""? We sent Dannenfelser's claim to experts in nonprofit management and heard back from four. Three disagreed with using the term ""profit"" to describe excess revenues over expenses: Christopher Stone, faculty director of the Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University; Herman B. ""Dutch"" Leonard, professor of public management at Harvard Kennedy School of Government and at the Harvard Business School; and Beth Gazley, assistant professor at Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs. ""Bottom line: a nonprofit’s surplus should not be confused with profit,"" Stone wrote in an e-mail. ""Profits are generated by businesses to reward investors. Businesses also use profits to provide additional compensation (bonuses tied to profits) for employees who help generate the profits for investors. Because nonprofits may not use their surpluses for either of these purposes, these surpluses should not be confused with profits. All surpluses must be devoted to the charitable purposes of the organization."" And Gazley wrote: ""But more to the point, the 'taxpayer'-funded portions of the Planned Parenthood affiliates’ budgets are either program grants or reimbursements for services eligible for Medicaid. So the government-funded parts of the (Planned Parenthood) budget would NOT be generating a 'profit' – they would be used in full each year. This means any excess of revenues over expenses (AKA 'profit') would have come from other sources – private donations, endowment income, etc. So Ms. Dannenfelser’s argument that the taxpayers are somehow subsidizing this 'profit' is misleading."" We asked Gazley how she knew the taxpayer portions were not the source of the excess revenue. She cited her 16 years of experience as a fundraiser and management consultant for nonprofits, and her service as both a board member and past president of a developmental disabilities agency that is primarily Medicaid funded. ""Based on my experience with other NPOs, it is very hard (to carry a surplus of federal funding from year to year) given the care that is taken in the calculation of formulas to reimburse only for real costs,"" she wrote. Sye, the Planned Parenthood spokesman, also said the federal funds are not part of the excess of revenue over expenses -- in fact, he said, the government money never covers the full cost of services. Back to whether we can call that excess of revenue over expenses a ""profit."" Terri Renner, longtime CPA and lecturer at Indiana University's school of Public and Environmental Affairs, argued that ""the excess of revenues over expenses is the accounting definition of profit."" ""Any time an organization of any kind has revenue that exceeds expenses - it's making a 'profit,' "" Renner wrote in an e-mail. ""NPOs don't like that word - so they use different vocabulary ('revenues over expenses'). The key difference is that for-profit organizations usually distribute part of the excess to the owners as compensation for their investment and reinvest the rest back into the company. NPOs reinvest all of the money back into the organization - theoretically."" Planned Parenthood, of course, disagrees with characterizing the sum as a profit. ""To be clear, Planned Parenthood is a nonprofit entity and so we do not generate a profit,"" Sye said. ""Obviously the reserves are reinvested to meet the health care needs of women we serve. Every healthy nonprofit will have reserves."" We asked Quigley of the SBA List, why refer to this figure as a ""profit"" for a nonprofit? She responded by e-mail: ""We feel the point is clear — we’re not saying nonprofits shouldn’t have a profit, but rather wish to point to excess in profit and question why this organization would need to be supplemented by American taxpayers. Planned Parenthood does not need to receive $363 million in taxpayer funding per year."" Let's return to Dannenfelser's claim: ""The truly ‘anti-woman’ organization here is Planned Parenthood and the party that continues to defend its taxpayer funding when it has raked in more than $300 million in profits over the past four years."" We said we'd examine both the dollar figure and the word ""profits."" We think the ""more than $300 million"" description is off base because of the $78 million in losses, but neither Planned Parenthood nor the SBA List is saying definitively what the investment gains or losses were for the four-year period. Still, there is some element of truth in that it's at least scores of millions of dollars. In the second part of our ruling, we looked at whether ""excess revenue over expenses"" for a nonprofit is the same as ""profit."" Most of the experts we consulted say no. And the one who would call it profit agrees that it's not treated the same way as profit for a corporation. Companies distribute their profits to shareholders and owners, while nonprofits put their excess revenues back into the organization's work. We think the real sting in this claim comes from the word ""profits,"" so we weighed that more heavily than the vague dollar figures in our ruling.arely True."
|
32871
|
"An ""alien mummy"" was recently unearthed in a pyramid, and scientists cannot explain its origins."
|
We contacted the SLSC and confirmed that the child mummy exhibit remains a permanent fixture at that center, ruling out the possibility that it has escaped and assumed extraterrestrial form.
|
false
|
Uncategorized, worldwide science stories
|
On 21 March 2016 the web site Worldwide Science Stories published a post reporting that the discovery of an “alien mummy” in an Egyptian pyramid had been confirmed by archaeologists speaking under condition of anonymity: The mysterious creature was between 150 and 160 centimeters, and was found by archaeologist near Lahun when investigating small pyramid near the Dynasty doceaba of Senusret II. However, this fact was not discovered immediately. “Mummy of alleged alien, dating back more than 2,000 years, said a source from the Egyptian Department of Antiquities, which submitted the details and photographs of the mummy, but on condition of anonymity. The remains of the alien created a lot of controversy in the world. Some online sources say this is some kind of reptile because of the features that characterize these animals as their eyes too big oval. The inscriptions on the tomb of the mummy show that it was counselor to the king named Osirunet, meaning star or sent from heaven. What has fueled passions that it is alien … The “anonymity” clause presented an immediate red flag, as it conveniently inhibited any nosy fact-checking of the claim. Another less obvious clue was the non-existence of any organization called the “Egyptian Department of Antiquities”: the former Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), a branch of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, became the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA) in 2011. That agency historically oversees the “conservation, protection and regulation of all antiquities and archaeological excavations” in Egypt. Worldwide Science Stories cited primarily unnamed sources in their article, identifying only an individual named “Dr. Victor Lubeck,” who (like the “Egyptian Department of Antiquities”) doesn’t appear to exist. But the largest clue to the claim’s lack of credibility came in the form of reverse image searches. The “alien mummy” photograph first appeared online as early as 2008 and in its original incarnation (as a specimen purportedly discovered in Peru, not Egypt) depicted a far less extraterrestrial specimen: The original photograph circulated primarily on web sites outside the United States between 2008 and 2011, when the image was altered significantly to give the mummy a more “extraterrestrial” appearance. Unfortunately, the doctored photograph proved far more popular than its legitimate counterpart. Due to the age of the original photographs, much of what was published about that particular mummy had long disappeared from news web sites, and few unaltered iterations of the original now populate search results. Some social media clues remain, however: A bit more digging reveals that the mummy was covered in the news in 2007, after the Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC) got hold of a specimen that was originally acquired by a dentist back in the 1900s: Washington University scientist Charles F. Hildebolt got an intriguing phone call. A mummy had turned up in the storage facility of the Saint Louis Science Center (SLSC), but no one knew much about it. Could he and his colleagues do some detective work to learn more? “When you hear the word ‘mummy,’ you think big box or large tomb,” says Hildebolt, DDS, PhD, a dentist and anthropologist in the Department of Radiology. “It was a surprise when we got over there and found that this was a small child, partly unwrapped and in a little pine box. We said, ‘Wow! This is really interesting.’ But we didn’t know exactly what we’d be able to find out.” At the same time, they made a bit of scientific history. Although the record of child mummies in existence is still incomplete, they are “exceedingly rare,” says Hildebolt. The extensive research they have done to understand this one may well rank, he says, “as the most extensive work ever done on a child mummy.” What information they had when they began came from SLSC records. Around the turn of the last century, a dentist from Hermann MO was traveling in the Middle East when he acquired the mummy as a keepsake. Back home, a niece eventually inherited it, and she brought it out for display on Halloween. Her family donated it to the SLSC in 1985. For two decades, the small mummy remained in the SLSC storage facility until new vice president Al Wiman noticed it in 2006. “The first thing I asked was ‘What do you know about it?’ Well, they knew it was a boy,” he says today. “‘Do you know anything else?’ No, they didn’t. At the time, initial testing revealed only a few facts about the circumstances under which the child was born and died: With funding from the SLSC, university researchers sent another swatch of wrapping to a laboratory for radiocarbon dating; with 95 percent certainty, the results showed a close match. This baby lived sometime between 40 BC and 130 AD, at the end of the Macedonian-Egyptian period of control and the beginning of Roman rule under Caesar Augustus. “So this child could easily have been alive at the same time as Cleopatra, Marc Antony, Julius Caesar and Octavian,” says Hildebolt. To trace the baby’s roots, they contacted Washington University geneticist Anne M. Bowcock, PhD, who enlisted researcher Li Cao, MD, to help retrieve and analyze DNA. Targeting the mitochondrial DNA, they amplified and sequenced their samples, checking the results with Douglas C. Wallace, PhD, of the University of California-Irvine, a mitochondrial expert. Next came a major surprise: This kind of DNA, provided by the maternal side, showed that this child’s mother came of European lineage — perhaps a Roman or Greek living in Egypt. So far, the researchers have not been able to amplify the child’s nuclear DNA, which would show the father’s lineage. Photographs of SLSC’s “Child Mummy” are rife on travel web sites as well, snapped from different angles: As is often the case with fabrications of this nature, the real story of the child mummy is more compelling than the made-up tale of the alien mummy.
|
30258
|
When meeting President Donald Trump in July 2018, Queen Elizabeth wore a brooch given to her by former president Barack Obama.
|
Queen Elizabeth’s brooch choices over the three days of President Trump’s visit can easily, and much more plausibly, be explained by other factors, and accepting or speculating that she was engaging in a weekend-long rebuke to the U.S. president requires the acceptance of assumptions that are simply not supported by concrete evidence.
|
false
|
Politics, conspiracy theories, donald trump, elizabeth ii
|
President Donald Trump’s short trip to the United Kingdom in July 2018 was accompanied by by protests, political intrigue, and typically intense scrutiny of his demeanor and actions, in particular during his meeting with Queen Elizabeth on 13 July. One theory to emerge after the visit was that the Queen had issued a coded, symbolic rebuke to Trump by wearing a brooch that had been gifted to her by Trump’s predecessor, former U.S. president Barack Obama. The Huffington Post asked, for example, “Did Queen Elizabeth, the 92-year-old monarch of the United Kingdom, throw some subtle shade at President Donald Trump during his recent U.K. visit?” explaining that: It’s a popular theory that social media users are peddling this week, citing the royal’s interesting brooch choices as evidence. Last Thursday, the day Trump landed in Britain, the Queen was spotted wearing a brooch that was reportedly gifted to her in 2011 by then-President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. The pin, a vintage piece made from 14-karat yellow gold, diamonds and moss agate, is known as the American State Visit Brooch. Vanity Fair elaborated on that subject as follows: The brooch she wore to meet Trump on Friday is the palm-leaf brooch, which the Queen Mother wore at the state funeral for King George VI. The brooch is pictured in the “Three Queens in Mourning” photograph…The brooches the Queen wore on the days adjacent to the Trump meeting are also included as part of the “theory,” since Trump was visiting the U.K. on both of those days, as well. On Thursday, she wore the brooch gifted to her by Barack and Michelle Obama in 2011 … And on Saturday, she wore the sapphire brooch that was a gift from the Canadian people in 2017. As the theory goes, the choice to wear brooches from two of Trump’s slew of “enemies” — the Obamas and Canada — were intended to annoy the president, as well. The New York Post ran with the misleading headline “Queen Elizabeth Wore Gift from Obama During Trump Meeting,” which the article itself quickly contradicted by explaining that the Queen had worn the “Obama brooch” on the day Trump arrived in the UK, but the “George VI” brooch during her actual meeting with the U.S. First Couple. So headlines such as the New York Post‘s and the Daily Caller‘s, stating that Elizabeth II wore a brooch gifted by the Obamas during her meeting with the Trumps, are false. More broadly, we can’t intuit the motivations behind the British monarch’s fashion choices either in general or in these specific cases. The entire “brooch theory” is based on the premise that Queen Elizabeth personally doesn’t like President Trump and is tacitly signaling her dislike to the public, but no concrete evidence supports that assumption. With that theory in mind, we’re going to briefly examine the items worn by Queen Elizabeth on the three days of President Trump’s visit to the U.K. and scrutinize the stated rationale behind the “brooch warfare” theory. Queen Elizabeth’s jewelry choices are regularly tracked on a blog called “From Her Majesty’s Jewel Vault,” and the brooch theory was most prominently expounded and promoted on Twitter by a user with the handle SamuraiKnitter. Day One — 12 July 2018 Trump arrived in the U.K. but did not meet Queen Elizabeth. At Windsor Castle, the Queen hosted the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and Ahmad al-Tayeb, a leading Sunni Muslim cleric and High Imam of al-Azhar in Egypt. According to “From Her Majesty’s Jewel Vault,” on that day Queen Elizabeth wore a brooch given to her by the Obamas during their visit to the U.K. in May 2011. The Obamas purchased the item from the Tiny Jewel Box in Washington D.C., whose website describes it as “a vintage American-made brooch from 1950 — with 14-karat yellow gold, diamonds and moss agate.” Queen Elizabeth was seen wearing that brooch during a dinner hosted by the Obamas at the U.S. Embassy in London on 25 May 2011. Below is a photograph of the Queen’s visit with Welby and al-Tayeb on 12 July 2018. The image is not entirely clear, but Her Majesty does appear to be wearing that same brooch: It was an honour for myself and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar to be received by Her Majesty The Queen at Windsor Castle today. #GrandImamUK (Photo: @PAImages) pic.twitter.com/JxIQjMtgO1 — Archbishop of Canterbury (@JustinWelby) July 12, 2018 It’s possible that Queen Elizabeth chose to wear that particular brooch as a rebuke to President Trump, but we’ve seen nothing other than supposition that would support such a claim. Some awkwardness surrounded the initial announcement that U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May had invited President Trump, who is relatively unpopular in the U.K., to visit that country, so the Royal Family could possibly have had a reason to be put out by his trip. Queen Elizabeth also once made an off-hand joke in which she likened the sound of a hovering helicopter to both Trump and Obama. Nonetheless, these facts do not provide evidence of how President Trump is viewed by Queen Elizabeth, who is famous for keeping her personal feelings and political beliefs closely guarded. It is at least equally plausible that she simply decided to wear green jewelry to match the green on her dress; or that if her choice of brooch were in any influenced by Trump’s visit, she simply chose to mark the occasion of the U.S. president’s arrival in the U.K. with a piece of jewelry given to her by the last person to occupy that office. Day Two — 13 July 2018 Queen Elizabeth met with Donald and Melania Trump at Windsor Castle. The Queen wore a palm leaf brooch that she inherited from Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, upon her death in 2002, as “From Her Majesty’s Jewel Vault” pointed out. The purported rationale behind the theory that this choice also represented a rebuke to the U.S. president was laid out on Twitter by SamuraiKnitter: Jewel watchers nearly died, because it is the brooch worn in the famous “Three Queens in Mourning” photo, worn by the Queen Mum. [Queen Elizabeth] rolled up to tea with the tRUmps wearing the brooch her mother wore to her father’s STATE FUNERAL. The photograph in question shows Elizabeth II (soon to be crowned), her grandmother Mary of Teck, and her mother Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother), attending the funeral of Elizabeth II’s father, King George VI, in 1952. The implication here appears to be that Queen Elizabeth, by wearing the same brooch in meeting President Trump that her mother wore to her father’s funeral, was symbolically marking the occasion as one of sadness and mourning. This theory might have made some sense if these were the only two occasions upon which the brooch was worn, but that is not the case. In fact, according to the blog whose information forms the basis of the “brooch theory,” Queen Elizabeth II has worn the “palm leaf brooch” on at least 27 other occasions, and it is one of her favorite pieces of jewelry. If one claims that Queen Elizabeth were engaging in a symbolic protest or expressing profound sadness by wearing the brooch to her meeting with Trump, one must also explain how she was symbolically protesting or expressing profound sadness at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2010, or in a meeting with Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto in 2015, or on an official visit to Canada in 2010. Which brings us to the third part of the theory. Day Three — 14 July 2018 This day President Trump played golf at the Turnberry resort in Scotland, which he owns. Queen Elizabeth II hosted the King and Queen of Belgium at Windsor Castle, and for that occasion she wore a sapphire brooch which Canada’s Governor General David Johnston gifted to her in July 2017: I was pleased to present the Sapphire Jubilee Snowflake Brooch to Her Majesty The Queen to mark 65 years of her reign. pic.twitter.com/Mbd6JJ9AYy — GGJuliePayette (@GGJuliePayette) July 19, 2017 Queen Elizabeth can be seen wearing the brooch at Windsor Castle in July 2018, below: Bezoek aan Hare Majesteit Queen Elizabeth II in Windsor Castle @RoyalFamily pic.twitter.com/dp8SEunvhq — Belgian Royal Palace (@MonarchieBe) July 14, 2018 SamuraiKnitter’s explanation as to how Elizabeth again signaled President Trump as he golfed in Scotland, while she met her Belgian counterparts in Windsor, was again laid out in a series of tweets: It’s called the Sapphire Jubillee Brooch, and it was given to the Queen of England as a gift for ruling for eleventy billion (okay, 65) [years]. From Canada. You know, who Trump’s been screaming about and insulting. The commonwealth country and one of the UK’s greatest allies. Them. The logic here is that by choosing to wear a brooch given to her by Canada’s Governor-General, on a day when President Trump was still physically present in the U.K., Elizabeth II (who is Queen of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, not merely England, as SamuraiKnitter falsely stated) was expressing solidarity with Canada as a sideways dig at the U.S. president, who has recently been strongly critical of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. This might be true, or the Queen might simply have chosen a sapphire brooch to match the blue color in her dress, or picked that particular brooch because it had been almost exactly a year since she was presented with it. The second strand to the theory is that Queen Elizabeth may have deployed an ironic subversion of the term “snowflake,” a derogatory word typically used online by right-wing commentators to describe liberal adversaries, by choosing a piece of jewelry called the Sapphire Jubilee Snowflake Brooch. SamuraiKnitter outlined this second part of the theory in another series of tweets: If [Queen Elizabeth] knew the snowflake term, it’s absolutely why this brooch was chosen. It’s never been worn before and she has always before this worn a diamond maple leaf given to her…I can’t possibly begin to guess what the Queen was thinking, but the facts as I know them are thus: 1. [Queen Elizabeth] has a brooch very heavily associated with Canada to the point it really is a signal flag. 2. She did not wear it. 3. She wore a jewel that she had never worn before. 4. That [sic] in the shape of a snowflake, sorta. 5. That was referred to as a snowflake somewhere in the press release about it. 6. [Queen Elizabeth] has amply proven she is a master of brooch warfare. This argument is a good example of circular reasoning. SamuraiKnitter claims it is noteworthy that, given that Queen Elizabeth wanted to express solidarity with Canada, she did not choose to wear the maple leaf brooch she typically opts for on occasions associated with Canada, so her choice of a different brooch must have had added significance. However, no evidence suggests Queen Elizabeth was attempting to make any statement relating to Canada in the first place. Once other (arguably far more plausible) explanations for her choice are advanced — such as the brooch’s sapphires matching the blue of her dress, for example — it cannot be accepted as a given that her choice of the Jubilee Brooch had anything to do with Canada. Therefore, there is no reason to think that the choice of an unprecedented Canada-related brooch, in particular, has any further symbolic significance, and the “snowflake” theory falls down as no more than wild speculation based on very shaky logical premises. This is the case even if one accepts that Queen Elizabeth is familiar with the connotations of the term “snowflake” and that any expression of solidarity with Canada must necessarily be an oblique attack upon President Trump — two more assumptions that stretch credulity.
|
5278
|
Science Says: Kate’s morning sickness brutal, not dangerous.
|
Prince William and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, are expecting their third child. And for the third time — as with her previous two pregnancies — the former Kate Middleton is suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, or severe morning sickness.
|
true
|
Health, Science Says, Science, Kate Middleton, Prince William, Europe
|
Hyperemesis gravidarum is estimated to affect about one to three percent of pregnant women and can result in nausea and vomiting so acute that hospitalization is required. It is thought to be caused by pregnancy hormones, but doctors aren’t sure why some women experience worse symptoms than others. The condition usually begins in the early weeks of pregnancy and in many cases, subsides by about 20 weeks. But for some women, the effects may persist until the baby is born. The condition can be “absolutely devastating,” said Dr. Roger Gadsby of Warwick University, who has studied the issue for decades. “Your life is on hold while the symptoms are present,” he said, noting that some pregnant women may vomit dozens of times per day and be restricted to bed rest. Kensington Palace made the pregnancy announcement Monday, saying the duchess was not feeling well enough to attend an official engagement later in the day. Kate is being cared for at her Kensington Palace home in London. There was no word of when the baby is due. She and Prince William already have two children: Prince George, 4 and Princess Charlotte, 2. In 2012, Kate was hospitalized for several days when she was believed to be suffering from dehydration. There is no evidence that the nausea and vomiting from severe morning sickness will affect the baby’s future health. Women with the condition actually have a slightly lower risk of miscarriage, according to Britain’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. In severe cases, however, babies can be born with lower than expected birthweight. Women with the condition are advised to eat small meals often, to avoid any foods or smells that trigger symptoms and to consult their midwife or doctor if their symptoms do not subside. If treatment requires hospitalization, women are typically given vitamins, steroids and anti-nausea drugs intravenously. Patients are also sometimes treated with shots of heparin, to thin their blood: pregnant women are at increased risk of developing blood clots in their legs, and being dehydrated further elevates the risk. Gadsby said he would expect doctors to be able to treat the duchess at Kensington Palace and that there shouldn’t be any lasting effects. She would likely have to cut back on her royal schedule, though. “As long as the mom receives adequate treatment, the mom is usually fine and the baby is fine,” he said. ___ This Associated Press series was produced in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
|
4519
|
Marshalltown hospital will close obstetrics unit.
|
A hospital in Marshalltown plans to close its obstetrics unit and women’s health clinic because of a drop in births at the facility.
|
true
|
Health, General News, Iowa, Marshalltown, Womens health
|
The Marshalltown Times-Republican reports UnityPoint Health announced Monday it would make the move in response to a 45 percent decrease in the number of births at the obstetrics unit. As Jennifer Friedly, president of UnityPoint Health — Marshalltown put it, “There simply aren’t enough women choosing to deliver locally.” The closures will result in the loss of 32 jobs but UnityPoint says it’s trying to find work for displaced employees elsewhere in the organization. The closure follows the June 2018 loss of the hospital’s catheterization lab and the November 2018 ending of its intensive care unit. ___ Information from: Times-Republican, http://www.timesrepublican.com
|
40923
|
58% of coronavirus deaths in Scotland are from care facilities.
|
Dutch businesswoman Minke van Wingerden looks on proudly as one of her 32 brown-and-white cows makes a pit stop at an automated milking station on an unusual farm: a platform located on one of the waterways in Rotterdam port.
|
false
|
online
|
Van Wingerden is one of the developers of the “Floating Farm”, testing whether small-scale, sustainable dairy farming is feasible in the heart of one of the world’s most urban, industrial areas - far away from rolling green fields of a traditional agribusiness. “This idea started in 2012, my partner Peter he was involved in a project in New York and then Hurricane Sandy hit New York very badly, so it was flooded and after two days there was no fresh food on the shelves anymore because the logistic hub was also flooded,” she said. “So then we realized ‘why not produce fresh food healthy food on the water close to the city?’, and that’s where the idea came up.” The cows, seemingly unperturbed by their futuristic setting on the fringe of Europe’s largest and busiest port, can rest on the upper level of the structure or head to a feeding station for a mix of hay, grass clippings and beer byproducts. Milk and manure processing facilities are located on the lower deck, as well as the visitors’ entrance and store. A quay side pasture gives the animals the chance to be on dry land. The structure’s roof is used to collect rainwater. Power for the farm comes from a solar panel array floating nearby. “The amount of arable land is decreasing and the world population is growing so how can we produce enough healthy food in the future?,” Van Wingerden said. “Seventy percent of the world is water so why not use the water to produce fresh healthy food near to the consumers?” Close to the town of Schiedam, the farm is located in one channel of the “Merwehaven”, a harbour within the sprawling 105 square kilometer port, which handles containers ships from all over the world. The whole farm site is kitted out with the latest in dairy tech such as an automated feeding system, manure-scooping robots, self-serve cleaning stations, and the smartphone app on-site farmer Albert Boersen uses to monitor his cows. “We try to be as circular as can be and it’s still a (matter of) research how we can find out more circles in this farm,” Van Wingerden says. As part of its aim to be self-sustainable, the farm already has a manure separator used to separate dry material from urine, with the dry part used as bedding for the cows and the urine turned into an organic fertilizer. It sells some bottles of raw milk on-site to visitors, while the rest is pasteurized and turned into milk or yoghurt. It is sold to customers who live nearby via a online grocer, Picnic, known for its small, electric delivery vans.
|
34760
|
"Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver proved that the meat in McDonald's hamburgers is ""unfit for human consumption"" due to the use of beef trimmings treated with bacteria-killing ammonium hydroxide."
|
The FDA and USDA continue to maintain that the chemical process is “generally recognized as safe” and that meat and poultry properly treated with ammonium hydroxide is acceptable for human beings to consume.
|
mixture
|
Food, fast food, jamie oliver, mcdonald's
|
January 2018 saw a spate of clickbait posts on social media attempting to exploit a settled, years-old controversy surrounding McDonald’s use of a product called “ammoniated beef” (also known by other names, including “select lean beef trimmings,” “lean finely textured beef,” as well as the colloquialism “pink slime”) in their hamburgers. The posts linked to articles on “natural health” web sites touting British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s criticism of McDonald’s use of “substandard” beef treated with the antimicrobial agent ammonium hydroxide (a process which has also been applied to poultry): Chef Jamie Oliver Proves McDonald’s Burgers “Unfit for Human Consumption” https://t.co/aEpqrkJZg4 — Rob (@djroblee) January 19, 2018 An article on the web site The Essence of Life reported: Healthy food supporter Jamie Oliver took on the biggest fast food joint in the world, and he won. He managed to get the multi national corporation to admit that their burger meat was sub-standard and have vowed to change it. Oliver highlighted how McDonald’s used ammonium hydroxide to ‘wash’ their beef before it was made into hamburgers, in order to make it fit for human consumption, without this stage the food would not have been legal to sell by nationwide standards. Meat that has not been treated in this way is usually used for dog and cat food. The ammonium hydroxide is used as an anti-microbial agent which basically acts as a catalyst to turn ‘inedible’ meat into burgers. Oliver said: “Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest way for dogs, and after this process, is being given to human beings.” These claims are partially true. However, what none of the recent articles (including the one above) makes clear is that Oliver’s media campaign against the use of ammoniated beef took place in 2011, and McDonald’s and other large restaurant chains (including Taco Bell and Burger King) stopped using the product later that same year. A 2013 statement on McDonald’s global corporate web site reads: McDonald’s does not use lean beef trimmings treated with ammonia, what some individuals call “pink slime,” in our burgers, and hasn’t since 2011. Any recent reports that we do are false. Burgers are at the heart of the Golden Arches, and the fact is, McDonald’s USA serves only 100% USDA-inspected beef — no preservatives, no fillers, no extenders — period. Prior to 2011, to assist with supply, McDonald’s USA, like many other food retailers, used this safe product but it is no longer part of our supply. The public controversy over the widespread use of ammoniated beef (which McDonald’s describes as “safe,” as you may have noted above) actually took off in 2009, when the New York Times ran an article questioning the safety of the product. At that time it could be found in “a majority of the hamburger sold nationwide,” the Times reported, including that used in school lunch programs. Despite being deemed safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and effective at curbing bacterial growth by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), evidence had come to light that E. coli and salmonella contamination was found at some of the plants that produced the ammoniated lean beef trimmings. The USDA promised closer oversight. Jamie Oliver, who is known as a healthy eating crusader as well as a popular celebrity chef, jumped into the controversy by lambasting the use of ammonia-processed beef in an April 2011 episode of his television show Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. Oliver dramatized his point by dousing an armful of beef byproducts with liquid ammonia and running it through a meat grinder, saying, “So, basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest form for dogs, and after this process we can give it to humans.”
|
2361
|
Casual pot use causes brain abnormalities in the young: study.
|
Young, casual marijuana smokers experience potentially harmful changes to their brains, with the drug altering regions of the mind related to motivation and emotion, researchers found.
|
true
|
Health News
|
The study to be published on Wednesday in the Journal of Neuroscience differs from many other pot-related research projects that are focused on chronic, heavy users of cannabis. The collaborative effort between Northwestern University’s medical school, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School showed a direct correlation between the number of times users smoked and abnormalities in the brain. “What we’re seeing is changes in people who are 18 to 25 in core brain regions that you never, ever want to fool around with,” said co-senior study author Dr. Hans Beiter, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University. In particular, the study identified changes to the nucleus accumbens and the nucleus amygdala, regions of the brain that are key to regulating emotion and motivation, in marijuana users who smoke between one and seven joints a week. The researchers found changes to the volume, shape and density of those brain regions. But more studies are needed to determine how those changes may have long-term consequences and whether they can be fixed with abstinence, Beiter said. “Our hypothesis from this early work is that these changes may be an early sign of what later becomes amotivation, where people aren’t focused on their goals,” he said. The study, which was funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, comes as access to pot is expanding following 2012 votes in Washington state and Colorado to legalize its recreational use. The drug remains illegal under federal law. Medical pot is allowed in 20 U.S. states. Pot legalization advocates make the argument that marijuana is safer than alcohol a central part of their campaigns. Other research has found drinking alcohol alters the brain, Beiter said. But while researchers do not know exactly how the mental rewiring seen in pot users affects their lives, the study shows it physically changes the brain in ways that differ from drinking, he said. This latest study fits with other research showing marijuana use has significant effects on young people because their brains are still developing, and Beiter said he has become convinced that marijuana should only be used by people under 30 if they need it to manage pain from a terminal illness.
|
8092
|
South Africa prepares quarantine sites as coronavirus cases rise to 709.
|
South African officials identified quarantine sites across the country on Wednesday, as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 709 from 554 and the health minister warned infections were expected to keep rising.
|
true
|
Health News
|
South Africa has reported the most coronavirus cases in sub-Saharan Africa, and public health experts are worried that the virus could overwhelm the health system if infection rates rise steeply. President Cyril Ramaphosa has been praised for ordering some of the toughest measures on the continent to try to halt the spread of the virus, including a 21-day lockdown from midnight on Thursday, deploying the army to support police and ordering underground mines to suspend operations. Public Works Minister Patricia de Lille told a news conference that her ministry had identified more than 16,000 beds in potential quarantine facilities, including government buildings, hotels, holiday properties and hospitals. De Lille’s spokeswoman and a Health Ministry spokesman were not able to say who would be placed in the quarantine sites. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in an interview with state broadcaster SABC that it was still “early days” in terms of the number of infections. “We are expecting that there is still going to be quite an increase in the number of cases, and we are also expecting that a lot of work needs to be done by South Africans to contain this infection,” Mkhize said. Businesses of all sizes are bracing for a big impact from the lockdown, with Airlink becoming the latest local airline to suspend flights from midnight on Thursday and state power utility Eskom applying for its critical staff to be exempt so that electricity supplies can continue uninterrupted. South African National Parks said it would close all its tourism facilities to the public from Wednesday. Mining Minister Gwede Mantashe said production of gold, chrome, manganese and other minerals would be scaled down but that the processing of platinum group metals would continue. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) launched a bond-buying programme, giving into public and political pressure to intervene more directly in providing stimulus. Government bonds including the 2030 issue rallied on the SARB intervention.
|
10471
|
A balloon instead of a knife: Sinuplasty for ailing sinuses
|
This story provides a good balance of information on a new treatment option for chronic sinusitis, and there is corroboration with otolaryngologists not affiliated with the makers of the balloon device who are able to provide perspective on the procedure. The story clearly notes this procedure would be for chronic, not acute sinusitis and describes how these are different. The story explains that this form of sinuplasty is not for everybody, and that it may not prevent the need for more comprehensive surgery in which bone and inflamed tissue are removed to open the sinus passages. More information is needed on the safety and efficacy of balloon sinuplasty, and no one knows if this surgery works as well as traditional surgery for chronic sinusitis. The story mentions other options for treating chronic sinusitis, including medication and sinus surgery, which is described as highly effective, but with a painful recovery and side effects such as scar tissue. Quantification of the incidence of side effects with traditional surgery would be useful. While there is not much quantitative evidence available on the new procedure, the story stresses the importance of a randomized trial underway comparing medication, traditional sinus surgery and the newer balloon sinuplasty. There is adequate description of this trial and the need for further evidence before this new procedure can be widely recommended. There is a caveat that this procedure should not have been FDA approved with so little quality evidence: a study of 10 people that found “no safety concerns”, but readers should be told more about this very small group. What were the long term outcomes and did these patients eventually have to undergo further sinuplasty, more invasive surgery or continue to take medications to relieve their chronic sinusitis? The story explains that general anesthesia is still needed for the balloon procedure and this comes with its own set of health risks and additional costs. There is no mention of the cost of this newer procedure. This is important information if the surgery is not a permanent fix for chronic sinusitis. A cost comparison of the newer sinuplasty, which may require repeated operations, sinus medications and traditional surgery is needed.
|
true
|
No mention of the cost of treatment. This is important if the surgery is not a permanent fix for acute sinusitis. Repeated operations and continued medications need to be compared to cost for traditional surgery. No quantitative estimate of the benefits of the new procedure. There was a study of 10 people that found “no safety concerns”, but readers should be told more about this very small group. What were the long term outcomes and did these patients eventually have to have further sinuplasty, more invasive surgery or continue to take medications to relieve sinusitits? The story mentions that a larger, randomized trial is underway to better understand the risks and benefits of sinuplasty compared to medication and traditional sinus surgery. Mentions that more information is needed and no one knows if balloon sinuplasty works as well as the more traditional surgical option for chronic sinusitis. Mentions that general anesthesia is still needed for balloon procedure and this comes with its own set of health risks. There isn’t much evidence for the story to report. The story did stress the importance of a randomized trial underway comparing medication, traditional sinus surgery and the newer balloon sinuplasty. Story describes this trial and the need for further evidence before this new procedure can be widely recommended. Mentions that this procedure should not have been FDA approved with so little quality evidence. No evidence of disease mongering. The story mentions that this procedure would be for chronic, not acute sinunitis and describes how these are different. Good balance of information on treatment options with input from otolaryngologists not affliated with the makers of the device who are able to provide perspective on the new procedure. They mention that further study is needed. There is a note that one of the physicans studying the new sinuplasty has no financial ties to Acclarent, maker of the balloon devices used in this type of sinuplasty. Mentions that this form of sinuplasty is not for everybody and that it may not prevent the need for more comprehensive surgery in which bone and tissue are removed. There is mention of other options including medication and the more traditional surgery, which is decribed as highly effective, but with a painful recovery and side effects such as scar tissue. Quantification of the incidence of this and other side effects of traditional surgery would be useful. The story is clear that the FDA approved the device but that it still needs to undergo further study via randomized controlled trials. Story mentions that this is a new procedure only offerred by 100 doctors. This story is a blananced presentation of sinuplasty and the information here does not appear to be from a press release. The are quotes from otolaryngologists not affliated with the makers of the device who are able to provide perspective on the new sinuplasty procedure.
|
|
7837
|
Irish rally for government action on abortion.
|
At least 5,000 people marched to the offices of Ireland’s socially conservative prime minister on Saturday to call for clearer guidelines on abortion following the death of a woman denied a termination.
|
true
|
Health News
|
It was the largest of a wave of protests across Ireland in recent days in response to the death of 31-year old Indian woman Savita Halappanavar who died of septicaemia following a miscarriage 17 weeks into her pregnancy. The Irish health authority (HSE) has launched an inquiry into the death, which has reopened a decades-long debate over whether the government should legislate to explicitly allow abortion when the health of a mother is at risk. Activists in the overwhelmingly Catholic country, which has some of the world’s most restrictive laws on abortion, say the refusal by doctors to terminate the pregnancy earlier may have contributed to Halappanavar’s death. “A vibrant, healthy woman starting her family life has died needlessly ... because of the failure of successive governments to deal with this issue,” independent member of parliament Clare Daly told the crowd, which responded with chants of “shame.” Irish law does not specify exactly when the threat to the life or health of the mother is high enough to justify a termination, leaving doctors to decide. Critics say this means doctors’ personal beliefs can play a role. Despite a dramatic waning of the influence of the Catholic Church, which dominated politics in Ireland until the 1980s, successive governments have been loath to legislate on an issue they fear could alienate conservative voters. Prime Minister Enda Kenny, whose ruling Fine Gael party made an election pledge not to introduce new laws allowing abortion, on Friday said he would not be rushed into a decision on the issue. Halappanavar was admitted to hospital in severe pain on October 21 and asked for a termination after doctors told her the baby would not survive, according to her husband Praveen. The foetus was surgically removed when its heartbeat stopped days later, but her family believes the delay contributed to the blood poisoning that killed Halappanavar on October 28. “I just feel outrage,” said Mary Sheehan, a midwife in her 50s, who took part in the march with a sign that read “Vatican Republic killed Savita. “I want the message to out her parents that the Irish people are demanding change.” The crowd also targeted the government’s junior coalition partner, the Labour Party, which is more socially liberal, for not doing more to force change on the issue, chanting “shame on Labour.”
|
3591
|
High-tech chestnuts: US to consider genetically altered tree.
|
Chestnuts harvested from high branches on a chilly fall morning look typical: they’re marble sized, russet colored and nestled in prickly burs. But many are like no other nuts in nature.
|
true
|
Plants, Genetics, New York, Forests, Environment, Science, Trees, Syracuse, Technology, General News, Genetic engineering, Forestry, Engineering, U.S. News
|
In a feat of genetic engineering, about half the chestnuts collected at this college experiment station feature a gene that provides resistance to blight that virtually wiped out the American chestnut tree generations ago. Researchers at New York state’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry are seeking federal clearance to distribute thousands of modified trees as part of a restoration effort — a closely-watched move that could expand the frontier for genetically engineered plants beyond farms and into forests. The precedent-setting case adds urgency to a question scientists have already been grappling with: Should genetic engineering be used in the wild to help save or restore trees? Opponents warn of starting “a massive and irreversible experiment” in a highly complex ecosystem. Proponents see a technology already ubiquitous in the supermarket that could help save forests besieged by invasive pests. “We have this technology, it’s a very powerful technology, and we can use that now to save a species,” said Professor William Powell, a molecular plant biologist who directs the American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project at the college. The researchers want the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assess an American chestnut tree with a gene from wheat that helps it tolerate cryphonectria parasitica, a fungus unwittingly imported to the United States over 100 years ago. The blight decimated a towering tree species once dominant in forests from Maine to Georgia. Nuts from up to 4 billion trees fattened hogs, and its sturdy wood was used to build cabins. Yet by the time Nat King Cole crooned about “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” after World War II, trees were doomed by the blight. Surviving trees today are typically shrubs sprouting from old roots, yet to be infected. Long-running efforts to breed American chestnut trees with the blight tolerance of Chinese chestnut trees are more complicated than once appreciated. That’s because the Chinese tree’s tolerance comes from a suite of genes, instead of one or two. Powell and his research partner Charles Maynard began working on a complementary track decades ago at the request of the New York chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation. The added wheat gene enables trees to produce an enzyme that breaks down harmful acid released by the fungus. Right now, the trees are tightly regulated. Modified trees grow behind the fence of the college’s experiment station near trees without the added gene. Researchers breed the two types of trees for genetic diversity. But flowering branch tips are covered with bags that keep pollen from blowing away. Chestnuts grow and are harvested in the same bags. About half the chestnuts will inherit the gene, the researchers say. The researchers want the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to evaluate the risks of the modified tree and to lift the current regulations. Researchers say they recently sent in their filing, though it needs to be reviewed for completeness before the agency begins its formal assessment. “What we have to make clear is that it’s not going to be any different than the trees produced through conventional means,” Powell said. The USDA commonly authorizes genetically engineered crops. The vast majority of commercial corn and soybean acreage in the United States is used to grow crops engineered to be tolerant to herbicides or insects. There are even some genetically engineered plantation trees, such as papayas resistant to ringspot virus. But engineered trees are not intentionally planted in the forests for conservation. That could change as genetic manipulation becomes more common and trees are increasingly threatened by climate change and invasive pests. “If the chestnut is approved ... I think it’s accurate to say that it does help pave the way for other biotech trees,” said Jason Delborne, an associate professor of science, policy and society at North Carolina State University. Delborne served on a National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine committee that this year released a report that said biotechnology has a potential to help protect forests but recommended more study and investment. Some scientists are concerned about the long-term effects of a re-introducing a tree into the woods that can live for more than 200 years. How will the new trees interact with the species that replaced the long-gone chestnuts? What if the trees die off again in 50 years? Forest eco-systems are incredibly complex and the current regulatory framework is not up to the task of evaluating the environmental and societal risks, said biotechnology and sustainable agriculture expert Doug Gurian-Sherman. “I think we have to step back and ask whether our ability to manipulate things is getting ahead of our ability to understand their impacts,” said Gurian-Sherman, a former senior scientist for the Union of Concerned Scientists. Rachel Smolker, a co-director of the advocacy group Biofuelwatch and co-author of a report critical of the tree’s release, is concerned that the chestnut tree — with its cozy public image — could be a “Trojan horse” for other trees engineered for commercial use instead of conservation. Many scientists see biotech as a promising tool left on the shelf, partly due to opposition they say is grounded more in emotion than science. Meanwhile, trees are dying from scourges such as the emerald ash borer and the spotted lantern fly, and some scientists say biotech could help where other efforts have failed. “Compared to what’s happening in the world with pests and climate change, I think the risks of making a mistake due to tweaking a gene wrong are so small compared to the risks of doing nothing,” said Steven Strauss, a forest biotechnologist at Oregon State University in Corvallis. Strauss is prominent in efforts to overturn biotech tree bans on certified commercial forest land. If the application clears the USDA, the tree still needs to be considered by the Food and Drug Administration and it may need to be reviewed by the Environmental Protection Agency. Powell believes the review could take two to four years. A green light from the government would clear the way for distribution of the genetically engineered seedlings, pollen, or scions for grafting to volunteers around the chestnut’s traditional range. In rural upstate New York, Allen Nichols is waiting. Nichols, president of the New York chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, has about 100 chestnut trees on a rise by his house. Thanks to his diligent care, some lived long enough to produce chestnuts this year. Other trees are dying while others sprout anew — a steady cycle of life, blight and renewal in a rural orchard. The 69-year-old -retiree looks forward to the day he can graft the genetically engineered tree onto his stock, letting the pollen drift in the wind and bringing back a healthy tree his parents talked fondly about. “If we can do it, we should do it,” Nichols said as he surveyed his trees. “We owe it to the forest to try to correct some of the damage that we’ve done.” ___ Follow Michael Hill on Twitter: @MichaelTHill
|
5745
|
New York ends religious exemption to vaccine mandates.
|
New York eliminated the religious exemption to vaccine requirements for schoolchildren Thursday, as the nation’s worst measles outbreak in decades prompts states to reconsider giving parents ways to opt out of immunization rules.
|
true
|
AP Top News, Immunizations, Religion, New York, Measles, Legislation, Health, Andrew Cuomo, U.S. News, General News
|
The Democrat-led Senate and Assembly voted Thursday to repeal the exemption, which allows parents to cite religious beliefs to forego getting their child the vaccines required for school enrollment. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, signed the measure minutes after the final vote. The law takes effect immediately but will give unvaccinated students up to 30 days after they enter a school to show they’ve had the first dose of each required immunization. With New York’s move, similar exemptions are still allowed in 45 states, though lawmakers in several of them have introduced their own legislation to eliminate the waiver. The issue is hotly contested and debate around it has often been emotional, pitting cries that religious freedom is being curtailed against warnings that public health is being endangered. After the vote in the Assembly, many of those watching from the gallery erupted in cries of “shame!” One woman yelled obscenities down to the lawmakers below. The debate has only intensified with this year’s measles outbreak , which federal officials recently said has surpassed 1,000 illnesses, the highest in 27 years. “I’m not aware of anything in the Torah, the Bible, the Koran or anything else that suggests you should not get vaccinated,” said Bronx Democrat Jeffrey Dinowitz, the bill’s Assembly sponsor. “If you choose to not vaccinate your child, therefore potentially endangering other children ... then you’re the one choosing not to send your children to school.” Hundreds of parents of unvaccinated children gathered at New York’s Capitol for the vote to protest. Stan Yung, a Long Island attorney and father, said his Russian Orthodox religious views and health concerns about vaccines will prevent him from vaccinating his three young children. His family, he said, may consider leaving the state. “People came to this country to get away from exactly this kind of stuff,” Yung said ahead of Thursday’s votes. Supporters of the bill say religious beliefs about vaccines shouldn’t eclipse scientific evidence that they work, noting the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1905 that states have the right to enforce compulsory vaccination laws. During the Assembly’s floor debate, supporters brought up scourges of the past that were defeated in the U.S. through vaccines. “I’m old enough to have been around when polio was a real threat,” said Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, D-Manhattan. “I believe in science.... Your personal opinions, which may be based on junk science, do not trump the greater good.” Supporters also suggest some parents may be claiming the religious exemption for their children even though their opposition is actually based on scientifically discredited claims about the dangers of vaccines. The bill would not change an existing state exemption given to children who cannot have vaccines for medical reasons, such as a weakened immune system. Cuomo told reporters on Wednesday that he believes public health — and the need to protect those who cannot get vaccinated because for medical reasons — outweighs the concerns about religious freedom. “I understand freedom of religion,” he said. “I have heard the anti-vaxxers’ theory, but I believe both are overwhelmed by the public health risk.” The current measles outbreak has renewed concern about the exemptions in many states. The nation last saw as many cases in 1992, when more than 2,200 were reported. The majority of cases are from outbreaks in New York in Orthodox Jewish communities. California removed personal belief vaccine exemptions for children in both public and private schools in 2015, after a measles outbreak at Disneyland sickened 147 people and spread across the U.S. and into Canada. Maine ended its religious exemption earlier this year. Mississippi and West Virginia also do not allow religious exemptions. Once common in the U.S., measles became rare after vaccination campaigns that started in the 1960s. A decade ago, there were fewer than 100 cases a year.
|
8550
|
Pass the salt: The minute details that helped Germany build virus defenses.
|
One January lunchtime in a car parts company, a worker turned to a colleague and asked to borrow the salt.
|
true
|
Health News
|
As well as the saltshaker, in that instant, they shared the new coronavirus, scientists have since concluded. That their exchange was documented at all is the result of intense scrutiny, part of a rare success story in the global fight against the virus. The co-workers were early links in what was to be the first documented chain of multiple human-to-human transmissions outside Asia of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. They are based in Stockdorf, a German town of 4,000 near Munich in Bavaria, and they work at car parts supplier Webasto Group. The company was thrust under a global microscope after it disclosed that one of its employees, a Chinese woman, caught the virus and brought it to Webasto headquarters. There, it was passed to colleagues - including, scientists would learn, a person lunching in the canteen with whom the Chinese patient had no contact. The Jan. 22 canteen scene was one of dozens of mundane incidents that scientists have logged in a medical manhunt to trace, test and isolate infected workers so that the regional government of Bavaria could stop the virus from spreading. That hunt has helped Germany win crucial time to build its COVID-19 defences. The time Germany bought may have saved lives, scientists say. Its first outbreak of locally transmitted COVID-19 began earlier than Italy’s, but Germany has had many fewer deaths. Italy’s first detected local transmission was on Feb. 21. By then Germany had kicked off a health ministry information campaign and a government strategy to tackle the virus which would hinge on widespread testing. In Germany so far, more than 2,100 people have died of COVID-19. In Italy, with a smaller population, the total exceeds 17,600. CHART: Contrasting curves here “We learned that we must meticulously trace chains of infection in order to interrupt them,” Clemens Wendtner, the doctor who treated the Munich patients, told Reuters. Wendtner teamed up with some of Germany’s top scientists to tackle what became known as the ‘Munich cluster,’ and they advised the Bavarian government on how to respond. Bavaria led the way with the lockdowns, which went nationwide on March 22. Scientists including England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty have credited Germany’s early, widespread testing with slowing the spread of the virus. “‘We all know Germany got ahead in terms of its ability to do testing for the virus and there’s a lot to learn from that,’” he said on TV earlier this week. Christian Drosten, the top virologist at Berlin’s Charite hospital, said Germany was helped by having a clear early cluster. “Because we had this Munich cohort right at the start ... it became clear that with a big push we could inhibit this spreading further,” he said in a daily podcast for NDR radio on the coronavirus. Drosten, who declined to be interviewed for this story, was one of more than 40 scientists involved in scrutiny of the cluster. Their work was documented in preliminary form in a working paper at the end of last month. The paper, not yet peer-reviewed, was shared on the NDR site. It was on Monday, Jan. 27, that Holger Engelmann, Webasto’s CEO, told the authorities that one of his employees had tested positive for the new coronavirus. The woman, who was based in Shanghai, had facilitated several days of workshops and attended meetings at Webasto’s HQ. The woman’s parents, from Wuhan, had visited her before she travelled on Jan. 19 to Stockdorf, the paper said. While in Germany, she felt unusual chest and back aches and was tired for her whole stay. But she put the symptoms down to jet lag. She became feverish on the return flight to China, tested positive after landing and was hospitalised. Her parents also later tested positive. She told her managers of the result and they emailed the CEO. In Germany, Engelmann said he immediately set up a crisis team that alerted the medical authorities and started trying to trace staff members who had been in contact with their Chinese colleague. The CEO himself was among them. “Just four or five days before I received the news, I had shaken hands with her,” he said. Now known as Germany’s “Case #0,” the Shanghai patient is a “long-standing, proven employee from project management” who Engelmann knows personally, he told Reuters. The company has not revealed her identity or that of others involved, saying anonymity has encouraged staff to co-operate in Germany’s effort to contain the virus. The task of finding who had contact with her was made easier by Webasto workers’ electronic calendars – for the most part, all the doctors needed was to look at staff appointments. “It was a stroke of luck,” said Wendtner, the doctor who treated the Munich patients. “We got all the information we needed from the staff to reconstruct the chains of infection.” For example, case #1 - the first person in Germany to be infected by the Chinese woman - sat next to her in a meeting in a small room on Jan. 20, the scientists wrote. Where calendar data was incomplete, the scientists said, they were often able to use whole genome sequencing, which analyses differences in the genetic code of the virus from different patients, to map its spread. By following all these links, they discovered that case #4 had been in contact several times with the Shanghai patient. Then case #4 sat back-to-back with a colleague in the canteen. When that colleague turned to borrow the salt, the scientists deduced, the virus passed between them. The colleague became case #5. Webasto said on Jan. 28 it was temporarily closing its Stockdorf site. Between Jan. 27 and Feb. 11, a total of 16 COVID-19 cases were identified in the Munich cluster. All but one were to develop symptoms. All those who tested positive were sent to hospital so they could be observed and doctors could learn from the disease. Bavaria closed down public life in mid-March. Germany has since closed schools, shops, restaurants, playgrounds and sports facilities, and many companies have shut to aid the cause. This is not to say Germany has defeated COVID-19. Its coronavirus death rate of 1.9%, based on data collated by Reuters, is the lowest among the countries most affected and compares with 12.6% in Italy. But experts say more deaths in Germany are inevitable. “The death rate will rise,” said Lothar Wieler, president of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases. The difference between Germany and Italy is partly statistical: Germany’s rate seems so much lower because it has tested widely. Germany has carried out more than 1.3 million tests, according to the Robert Koch Institute. It is now carrying out up to 500,000 tests a week, Drosten said. Italy has conducted more than 807,000 tests since Feb. 21, according to its Civil Protection Agency. With a few local exceptions, Italy only tests people taken to hospital with clear and severe symptoms. Germany’s government is using the weeks gained by the Munich experience to double the number of intensive care beds from about 28,000. The country already has Europe’s highest number of critical care beds per head of the population, according to a 2012 study. Even that may not be enough, however. An Interior Ministry paper sent to other government departments on March 22 included a worst-case scenario with more than 1 million deaths. Another scenario saw 12,000 deaths - with more testing after partial relaxation of restrictions. That scenario was dubbed “hammer and dance,” a term coined by blogger Tomas Pueyo. It refers to the ‘hammer’ of quick aggressive measures for some weeks, including heavy social distancing, followed by the ‘dance’ of calibrating such measures depending on the transmission rate. The German government paper argued that in the ‘hammer and dance’ scenario, the use of big data and location tracking is inevitable. Such monitoring is already proving controversial in Germany, where memories of the East German Stasi secret police and its informants are still fresh in the minds of many. A subsequent draft action plan compiled by the government proposes the rapid tracing of infection chains, mandatory mask-wearing in public and limits on gatherings to help enable a phased return to normal life after Germany’s lockdown. The government is backing the development of a smartphone app to help trace infections. Germany has said it will re-evaluate the lockdown after the Easter holiday; for the car parts maker at the heart of its first outbreak, the immediate crisis is over. Webasto’s office has reopened. All 16 people who caught COVID-19 there have recovered. (This version of story edits final paragraph of top section)
|
28080
|
We evaluate the claims made in a viral 2018 meme about the police shooting death of John Crawford III.
|
"What's true: Almost every detail of the case is presented accurately in the meme. What's false: There is a significant dispute over whether police shot John Crawford ""before he even knew what was going on."" The officers involved asserted that he failed to obey instructions to put down what they perceived to be a loaded rifle."
|
true
|
Politics, donald trump, national anthem protests, police shootings
|
As the NFL preseason schedule commenced in August 2018, President Donald Trump resumed his fierce criticism of players who protested against racial injustice and police brutality by kneeling or declining to stand on the field during the playing of the U.S. national anthem. After similar protests occurred during several games held on 9 August, President Trump the following morning posted a series of tweets claiming that the players themselves did not understand why they were demonstrating and calling for them to be suspended without pay: The NFL players are at it again – taking a knee when they should be standing proudly for the National Anthem. Numerous players, from different teams, wanted to show their “outrage” at something that most of them are unable to define. They make a fortune doing what they love…… — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2018 …..Be happy, be cool! A football game, that fans are paying soooo much money to watch and enjoy, is no place to protest. Most of that money goes to the players anyway. Find another way to protest. Stand proudly for your National Anthem or be Suspended Without Pay! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2018 In response to this tweetstorm, Twitter user Anna Gallardo posted a meme about one particular fatal police shooting of a black man, writing: “Since Donald Trump doesn’t know why NFL players are protesting, let’s retweet this.” The meme, which was retweeted 120,000 times within three days, gave the following account of the death of an Ohio man named John Crawford III: He was 22 years old. A father to two young sons. He went into Walmart to buy marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers to make s’mores at a family cookout. While shopping, he picked up an unpackaged BB/pellet air rifle at the store’s sporting goods section. A customer called 911, claiming that John was pointing the gun at people walking by. Since the security video has been released, the customer has recanted. John was carrying a BB gun in the store that sold the gun, in an open carry state. The police arrived, went directly to John and shot him twice before he even knew what was going on. He died at the hospital soon after. A grand jury decided not to indict the officers. John Crawford III mattered. THE INJUSTICE OF HIS MURDER IS WHY THEY KNEEL. The text of the meme was a modified version of an account which the progressive political action committee Voters for Equality published on Facebook in October 2017: His name was John Crawford III. He was 22 years old, a father to two young sons. He went into Walmart to buy marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers to make s’mores at a family cookout. While shopping, he picked up a un-packaged BB/pellet air rifle inside the store’s sporting goods section. Another customer called 911, claiming that John was pointing the gun at people walking by. Since the security video has been released, the customer has recanted, stating “At no point did he shoulder the rifle and point it at somebody.” John was carrying a BB gun in the store that sold the gun, in an open carry state. The police arrived. Crawford was talking on his cell phone while holding the BB/Pellet air rifle when officers shot him; store video shows the officers fired immediately without giving any verbal commands and without giving Crawford any time to drop the bb gun, even if he had heard them. He died at the hospital soon after. A grand jury decided not to indict the officers. John Crawford III mattered. His life matters, and the injustice of his murder is #WhyTheyKneel #WhyWeKneel. The widely-shared August 2018 tweet prompted enquiries from readers about the overall veracity of the account presented in the meme. On the whole, the meme is highly accurate, but the claim that Crawford was shot “before he even knew what was going on” is a significant point of contention, based on the accounts presented by the police officers involved. Crawford’s Trip to Walmart John Crawford III was shot dead on 5 August 2014 by Sean Williams, a police officer in the city of Beavercreek, Ohio, near Dayton. Crawford was shopping in the Walmart store at 3360 Pentagon Boulevard in the city. As the meme stated, he was indeed the father of two young sons aged five months and under two years old, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. As reported by the Guardian, Crawford’s girlfriend Tasha Thomas told police in an interview after the shooting that the couple had gone to the Walmart to buy the ingredients to make s’mores for a family cookout, as the meme stated. Multiple news reports confirm the claim in the meme that Crawford picked up an unpackaged pellet gun from a shelf in the Walmart store and walked around with it. The 911 Call Another Walmart customer, later identified as Ronald Ritchie, called 911 to report Crawford to police. Excerpts from an audio recording of the call were later published by multiple news organizations, in which Ritchie told dispatchers that Crawford had loaded a rifle and was “pointing it at people,” including children. Ritchie and his wife’s initial characterizations of Crawford as a threat to shoppers were significantly discredited when surveillance video footage of the incident was released, and when Ritchie himself told the Guardian that “At no point did [Crawford] shoulder the rifle and point it at somebody.” Several witness statements later seen by the Guardian also negated the notion that Crawford was perceived as a threat by other shoppers: Ritchie and his wife, April, claimed afterwards that Crawford was causing panic among fellow shoppers. Yet only one of seven other customers interviewed by Ohio’s bureau of criminal investigation recalled seeing Crawford. The customer, Billie Brewer, told investigators that he was not alarmed and presumed the 22-year-old was a Walmart employee taking a gun on sale at the store to a storeroom. Ritchie stated repeatedly on his 911 call that Crawford was pointing the gun at people, including two children in particular. This was relayed to the officers on the ground, and before shooting Crawford, [office Sean] Williams called back to the 911 dispatcher to confirm the gun was being pointed at people. In a written statement to Beavercreek police the following day, Ritchie repeated again that Crawford was “pointing the gun at people as they walked by”. Yet Ritchie “later explained that the man with the gun wasn’t actually pointing the gun at the family,” according to a report of his interview with state investigators, but rather “swinging the gun around and flashing the muzzle at children”. Ritchie later made similar remarks to the Guardian in an interview. Later still, the surveillance footage showed Crawford occasionally swinging the gun at his side and pointing it at a shelf, but not in the direction of anyone. April Ritchie gave a similar account to investigators, adding that Crawford was acting “very shady”…[She] said she traveled around warning shoppers about Crawford. No one interviewed by investigators recounted this. Surveillance footage showed Crawford continued to look straight ahead. Yet April Ritchie, who had been standing to his left, “said that despite what the video camera was showing, they maintained eye contact with Crawford”. So while Ritchie did not take back every claim he made during his 911 call (he insisted that Crawford was “waving [the pellet gun] around”), he did later contradict a very significant claim which likely fuelled the escalated police response: that Crawford was pointing the “gun” at other shoppers, including children. The meme is again accurate in this respect. A judge in nearby Fairborn later ruled that sufficient grounds existed to charge Ritchie with raising false alarms, but Hamilton County special prosecutor Mark Piepmeier declined to proceed, deciding that the evidence was not clear that Ritchie knew his descriptions of Crawford’s movements and actions were factually inaccurate. As the meme stated, Ohio is indeed an “open carry” state, meaning the carrying of a visible firearm (even a rifle) in public is lawful. However, the legality of open carry does not extend to using a firearm to threaten others. Although Crawford was apparently not threatening anyone and was carrying only a pellet gun, it’s worth noting that police arriving at the scene had only one source of information (Ronald Ritchie) who had told them Crawford was carrying a loaded rifle and pointing it at children. The Shooting The claim that police shot Crawford “before he even knew what was going on” is the most contentious assertion made in the meme. The surveillance footage shows that a relatively very short period of time (mere seconds) elapsed between the arrival on the scene of Officer Sean Williams and Sergeant David Darkow, and Williams’ fatal shooting of Crawford. However, Williams asserted that within that period of time, Darkow repeatedly shouted at Crawford to drop what the policemen thought was a loaded rifle, and that Crawford failed to do so. Williams also claimed that Crawford made an aggressive motion just before he fired two shots at Crawford. Here’s how Williams described the incident in a statement he wrote on 5 August 2014: We then made it to the final row of the pet department. Sergeant Darkow checked to the left and I covered his back by checking the long row to the right. As I quickly checked to the right I immediately heard Sergeant Darkow yell, “Drop the weapon!” As I turned towards the pet department I immediately saw a black male standing in the center of the aisle. He was holding a rifle. I quickly identified that he was holding a rifle and I could see the silhouette of the magazine seated in the weapon. Sergeant Darkow repeatedly yelled, “Drop the weapon!” The black male, who matched the description of the black male waving the rifle around (blue pants and blue shirt) did not drop the rifle. After repeated commands to drop the weapon the male turned towards us in an aggressive manner with the rifle in hand. At that time the black male was in a position where he could shoot me or Sergeant Darkow. I felt at that moment that my life was in immediate danger, that Sergeant Darkow’s life was in immediate danger, and that the lives of all the families, children and customers were in immediate danger. I then fired two rounds at the suspect. As I shot the suspect he began to move from my right to my left. Once I fired the shots he retreated backwards and dropped the rifle. He then fell backwards behind the end of the row and out of sight. At that time the rifle was in the open. I then quickly closed the distance between me and the suspect. As I neared the weapon, which was lying on the floor, I identified it again as being a black rifle with a seated magazine. As I neared the rifle the black male jumped from behind the aisle and charged towards the weapon. He began to reach for it as he neared it and I yelled for him to get on the ground. Just before reaching the rifle he collapsed to the floor … Elements of Williams’ account were contradicted both by Darkow and civilian witnesses, as the Guardian reported: Reports from interviews of Williams and the other officer who responded, sergeant David Darkow, said that they apparently did not identify themselves as police to Crawford as they turned the corner into the aisle where he was standing. They specified that they shouted at Crawford repeatedly “drop your weapon”, “drop your gun” or “drop the gun”. Yet three witnesses separately said they heard one, less specific, command: “Put it down, put it down”. Crawford’s family have said surveillance footage suggests that while speaking on his phone, he may not have heard an order or realised that it was directed at him. One witness said she did hear police say “drop your weapon”; another said that he heard “get down”. In a recording of the 911 call, a word that sounds like “down” is shouted as officers round a corner in the Walmart, about a second before two shots ring out. Darkow confirmed to investigators that the time between the “last command” being given and shots being fired was “fairly close”. Darkow also told his interviewers that before opening fire, he and Williams separately instructed Crawford to put down the gun. Yet Williams said that he did “not recall personally giving any commands”, and that only Darkow had done so. Darkow further said that Crawford “made a movement that seemed to indicate an attempt to run or an attempt to take cover” just before the 22-year-old was shot. This description appears to be supported by the store surveillance footage, which was released last week. Williams, however, apparently made no mention of this, telling the officials in his interview that he opened fire after Crawford made an “aggressive” move. He added in a written narrative that the 22-year-old had “turned towards us in an aggressive manner with the rifle in hand”. By the time Darkow filed his own written narrative, 10 days after his interview, he described Crawford’s final action differently. Darkow said only that it was a “quick movement”, and did not repeat his earlier remarks that Crawford appeared to be trying to retreat. In his 911 call, Ritchie can be heard telling a dispatcher that Crawford was “on his phone” thirty seconds before his fatal shooting. It’s plausible that Crawford, distracted by his phone call, was not aware of the presence of police or their instructions until it was too late. Accounts of two other important details also vary: how clear and specific the order police gave to Crawford was (and who exactly issued that order), and whether Crawford made an aggressive or defensive movement immediately before Williams shot him. At the 8:26:54 mark in the video published by WLWT, a voice can be heard shouting what appears to be “Down!” followed by what sounds like “Put the weapon down,” but two shots were seemingly fired before the second order was completed. Crawford also appeared to retreat sharply after the word “Down” was heard rather than moving towards the officers, who had not identified themselves as police. However, it’s unclear whether Williams and Darkow issued any earlier instructions not captured in the background of Ritchie’s 911 call, or how Crawford’s movements and gestures appeared to Williams in person (rather than as seen on somewhat grainy surveillance footage). Ultimately, we can’t say with certainty whether Crawford was shot “before he even knew what was going on,” as the meme claims, but evidence to that effect can be interpreted in various ways. Aftermath Williams shot Crawford in his torso and left arm, and Crawford died later that day at the hospital, as the meme states. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine appointed Hamilton County prosecutor Mark Piepmeier to head a grand jury prosecution in Greene County, and in September 2014 that grand jury decided against indicting either Williams or Darkow on charges of murder, reckless homicide or negligent homicide. The U.S. Department of Justice investigated whether the shooting of Crawford involved a civil rights violation but ultimately decided it did not and declined to launch a federal civil rights prosecution against Williams: Based on a legal analysis of the investigative materials, the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney have concluded that there is insufficient evidence to establish that Officer Williams acted with the requisite criminal intent necessary to pursue a federal prosecution. To establish that Officer Williams acted willfully, the government would be required both to disprove his stated reason for the shooting — that he was in fear of death or serious bodily injury — and to affirmatively establish that Officer Williams instead acted with the specific intent to violate Mr. Crawford’s rights. Williams returned to full duty a few days after the Justice Department announced their decision not to proceed with a civil rights prosecution. Crawford’s family is suing Sean Williams, the city of Beavercreek, and Walmart in a federal civil wrongful death lawsuit.
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.