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8821
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Swiss study suggests diabetes drugs double fracture risk.
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Diabetes drugs Avandia from GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd’s Actos can more than double the risk of bone fractures, Swiss researchers said on Monday.
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true
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Health News
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Previous studies have established a heightened risk for fractures among patients taking both medicines, since they may cause slower bone formation and faster bone loss. The new research sheds light on the scale of the problem by comparing the records of 1,020 diabetic patients with fractures diagnosed by British doctors between 1994 and 2005 against a control group of diabetics who did not have fractures. Christian Meier of University Hospital Basel found those on Avandia or Actos — known generically as rosiglitazone and pioglitazone — had double or triple the odds of non-spine fractures. The odds for fracture were increased among patients who took the drugs for approximately 12 to 18 months and the risk was highest for those with two or more years of therapy. Fractures of the hip and wrist were most notable, according to the findings published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine. Avandia and Actos belong to a class of medicines called thiazolidinediones, which are designed to sensitise the body to insulin. But researchers believe they also stimulate the action of a cell that drives the process of reabsorbing bone, making bones more apt to break. Both are blockbuster products but Avandia has lost out to Actos following publication of a U.S. study last May linking it to heart attack risk.
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29932
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Some 18 million 'illegal immigrants' received benefit checks during a government shutdown in January 2019.
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The National Council of State Legislature explains that illegal immigrants may receive some benefits under certain circumstances, such as emergency medical care or disaster relief, and undocumented children also have access to public schools. None of the potential benefits available to illegal immigrants listed by the NCSL, however, would result in the government’s issuing checks to undocumented immigrants:
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false
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Politics, immigration
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As an estimated 800,000 federal employees were set to miss yet another paycheck in January 2019 due to the longest federal government shutdown in United States history, a message spread on social media which claimed that some 18 million illegal immigrants had received their benefit checks despite the lapse in government funding: This factually inaccurate message appears to have been first posted to Facebook by “Miles Dalton” on 20 January 2019. While that post only had a few hundred shares, verbatim copies of the message were posted to dozens of additional social media accounts: This claim was inaccurate on its face for two reasons. The number of undocumented persons residing in the United States is less than 18 million, and undocumented immigrants are ineligible for most government benefits. The number of unauthorized immigrants living in the United States peaked at around 12.2 million in 2007, according to the Pew Research Center, and that number dropped to about 10.7 million by 2016, with the most recent statistics from the Department of Homeland Security citing a similar figure. In a December 2018 report report, DHS estimated that 12 million illegal aliens were living in the United States in January 2015. In other words, 18 million illegal immigrants couldn’t have received government checks because fewer than 18 million illegal immigrants were in the United States in the first place. This Facebook post didn’t specify the purpose of the “government checks” supposedly handed out to these 18 million illegal immigrants during the government shutdown, but since undocumented persons are ineligible for most government benefits, it’s safe to say that this claim was made up out of whole cloth: Undocumented immigrants, including DACA holders, are ineligible to receive most federal public benefits, including means-tested benefits such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, sometimes referred to as food stamps), regular Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and are prohibited from purchasing unsubsidized health coverage on ACA exchanges. Undocumented immigrants may be eligible for a handful of benefits that are deemed necessary to protect life or guarantee safety in dire situations, such as emergency Medicaid, access to treatment in hospital emergency rooms, or access to healthcare and nutrition programs under the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
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3354
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Pakistan issues health IDs for trans people to improve care.
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Pakistan began issuing special health ID cards for transgender people on Tuesday as way to lessen health care discrimination.
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true
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Pakistan, Religion, Health, Islamabad, General News, Lifestyle, Asia Pacific
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Trans people have often been denied treatment in Pakistan because doctors could not decide whether to treat them in a male or female ward, and have even died for lack of care. The government plans to set up separate wards in hospitals around the country for transgender patients, according to Dr. Zafar Mirza, a special aide to Prime Minister Imran Khan for health services. Pakistan — a conservative, majority Muslim nation — officially recognized transgender as a third gender in 2012. Yet transgender people are still largely confined to the margins of society, often taunted in public, ostracized by family and targeted in violent attacks. Most transgender people in Pakistan are forced to survive by begging, dancing or prostitution. Sex reassignment surgery requires a court order, family approval, a psychiatrist’s note and a medical recommendation. The Supreme Court ordered the government to list transgender as a third gender on ID cards, and the national agency responsible for issuing them will also handle the new health cards. The health ministry will immediately start giving health cards to all transgender people who are registered, said Dr. Mirza. He said anyone who wants to change the listing on their ID to transgender will have a “one-time option” to do so. He didn’t specify how long that period would last. Speaking to reporters in the capital of Islamabad, he stressed that the government is legally responsible for ensuring all citizens’ rights, including access to healthcare nationwide. Transgender people face greater peril in more conservative areas of Pakistan, where Islamic extremists associate them with homosexuality and prostitution. But there are also signs of progress. In 2018, Marvia Malik made history by becoming Pakistan’s first transgender newscaster at just 21 years old. ____ Khan reported from Karachi, Pakistan
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10856
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Drug OK’d to Fight Breast Cancer Relapse
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This story summarized some of the findings from a recent New England Journal of Medicine article on the BIG I-98 Trial, which randomized approximately 8,000 women to either letrozole or tamoxifen for 5 years. The outcome of this study and similar large-scale, randomized double-blind trials have shown that aromatase inhibitors are effective in reducing rates of breast cancer recurrence in post-menopausal women with estrogen receptor positive tumors. However, there is not enough emphasis here that this is only for post menopausal women with invasive disease — e.g. last quote citing 800,000 women assumes all ER/PR positive women are eligible.The FDA has approved two aromatase inhibitors, Letrozole and Arimidex, for early-stage breast cancer. While this story provides a decent overview of how these medications work and the findings on which the new FDA approval is based, there is little information on some of the potentially serious side effects noted in the women who look letrozole. These side effects include an increase in cholesterol levels and cardiovascular disease, as well as a significant increase in the risk of bone fractures. There are no quantitative 5-year estimates of these side effects, nor is there a quantitative comparison with the Tamoxifen group, though the safety of each drug is briefly mentioned. Additionally, there is no mention of the cost of either drug. Since hormonal drug regimens (i.e. tamoxifen alone, aromatase inhibitors alone or aromatase inhibitors following a course of tamoxifen) might be prescribed for 5 years or more, a cost comparison would be important. It’s good that the story points out that the study is funded by pharmaceutical money and that some of the researchers own stock in Novartis. An independent source from the National Cancer Institute is quoted for balance, presumably with no ties to pharmaceutical funding.
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true
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Cost of treatment not mentioned. 5-year estimated outcomes were given after only 2 years of data. No quantitative data on safety presented. Absolute numbers provided. Limited long term data and small absolute benefit are key issues here. Does not mention the increase in cholesterol and cardiovascular disease among the women in the aromatase inhibitor group. Tamoxifen may have a positive, cholesterol-lowering effect, which is also not mentioned. Study design not adequately discussed. It didn’t really describe that some of the data were likely gathered on women with more advanced disease where the benefits would be bigger. Gives estimates of women diagnosed with this type of breast cancer. Perhaps not enough emphasis that this is only for post menopausal women with invasive disease — e.g. last line in story assumes all estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor positive women are eligible. Journalist notes that the study was funded by Novartis, maker of Femara, and that many of the researchers own stock in this company or in companies for rival drugs. Mentions other adjuvant drug treatment, tamoxifen, as well as some side effects of both of the aromatase inhibitor drugs (Femara and Arimide) studied as well as Tamoxifen. Story about FDA approval for women with early-stage invasive disease. Discusses how drug is already in use for women with advanced breast cancer.
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18181
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"Luis Gutierrez Says under the Senate immigration bill, newly legalized immigrants will ""pay every tax possible, but you don’t get a single benefit"" for 10 years."
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Gutierrez said that immigrants with provisional status would pay every tax and get no benefits. His staff said he was talking about means-tested benefits, and to a large extent, Gutierrez was in line with what the Senate immigration bill says. It requires unauthorized immigrants to pay taxes, and so long as they are in a provisional status, they would not be eligible for food, housing or medical assistance. There are exceptions under current law that would allow them to get some public benefits, but these are limited and in any event, the Senate bill does not change the status quo. A subset of immigrants, children brought to the country at a young age and agricultural workers, would be eligible for green cards in less than 10 years, but the majority, about 70 percent, would have to wait the full time.
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true
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Immigration, National, Welfare, Luis Gutierrez,
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"The effort to pass a sweeping immigration law has shifted to the Republican controlled U.S. House of Representatives where it faces a much tougher challenge than it did in the Senate. Supporters say that any hope for success lies in compromise. House Republican leaders say the Senate bill falls short in significant ways, but Democrats argue that it already contains major concessions. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., a long-time advocate for immigration reform from Chicago, highlighted how much his side was willing to give up to get the Senate bill through. ""They said to immigrants, 11 million of them, they said, tell you what we're going to do: For 10 years, you pay every tax possible, but you don't get a single benefit,"" Gutierrez said on CNN’s State of the Union. Gutierrez gave some examples: Immigrants with provisional legal status would not get help paying their health insurance premiums under Obamacare, and they would get no credit for any Social Security taxes they paid during the time they worked illegally. In this fact-check, we explore the terms of the deal in the Senate bill. Are they as stark as Gutierrez presents, or is the picture more complicated? Gutierrez’s staff clarified that he was using shorthand to refer to means-tested federal benefits.That would include some of the country’s largest programs such as Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF or welfare), and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP or food stamps). What the Senate bill says The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act allows immigrants without documents to get permission to live and work in the country legally. The Social Security Administration expects that nearly three-fourths of the estimated 11.5 million people here will qualify for what is called Registered Provisional Immigrant, status, or RPI. A smaller number of agricultural workers would qualify for a separate program called the blue card. Neither program grants citizenship or permanent legal status, but they provide a pathway to both. Applicants would need to pay a fine, a fee, and pass a criminal background check to qualify for provisional status. The bill has a specific provision that goes to Gutierrez’s claim. For both RPI and blue card holders, it says, ""An alien who has been granted blue card (or RPI) status is not eligible for any Federal means-tested public benefit"" and to be clear about what those benefits are, the bill refers to a law passed about 15 years ago. In 1996, Congress defined the public benefits that undocumented immigrants couldn’t get. That law listed ""Any retirement, welfare, health, disability, public or assisted housing, postsecondary education, food assistance, unemployment benefit, or any other similar benefit."" Numerous agencies have interpreted this to mean Medicaid and Medicare, SNAP, energy assistance and so forth. The Senate bill also expressly blocks immigrants with temporary status from receiving any health insurance premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. However, individuals can use their own money to buy their insurance through the clearinghouses called exchanges. ""Rep. Gutierrez is broadly correct, but not 100 percent,"" said Leighton Ku, a professor in the Department of Health Policy at George Washington University who analyzed immigrant use of public benefits in a paper for the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. ""If they are poor enough and meet other eligibility criteria, for example, if they are a child or a low-income parent, RPIs may be eligible for emergency Medicaid, as are unauthorized immigrants."" The 1996 law built in some exceptions for immigrants without legal documents. In addition to Medicaid paying for emergency medical treatment, young children are eligible for reduced school lunch programs and standard immunizations. The Women, Infant and Children program, WIC, can subsidize grocery bills for young families. So for children, women who are pregnant or have recently delivered, and medical emergencies, current law allows benefits for the undocumented and the Senate bill does not change that. Lastly, on the tax side, the Senate bill says ""an alien may not file an application for registered provisional immigrant status ... unless the applicant has satisfied any applicable Federal tax liability."" In other words, these provisional residents must pay Uncle Sam. Regarding the 10 years Gutierrez mentioned, some immigrants under provisional status might be eligible for permanent resident status, a green card, sooner. If that happens, then they would gain access to public benefits in less than 10 years. However, both Social Security and Medicare require that a person or their spouse pay into the system for 10 years before they can claim any benefits. This applies to everyone, native born or not. And both programs are available only to citizens or permanent residents. People with provisional status would have Social Security and Medicare taxes deducted from their paychecks but would be ineligible to use those programs for 10 years. A dispute over benefits The U.S. Code defines public benefits, but there are some who say the list is incomplete. Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that favors limited immigration, said the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit provide aid to lower income workers through the tax code. A working family that owes no taxes and meets other criteria can apply and receive thousands of dollars from the government. ""Gutierrez is mistaken,"" Camarota said. ""These large programs are explicitly available to those in RPI status. Low income immigrants typically work and have children, so their use rates of these two programs are very high, as it will be for RPI folks."" Immigration reform advocates agree that provisional residents would gain from the tax credits. But Tanya Broder, senior staff attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, counters that blocking their use of these credits would be a first for the tax code. ""Individuals granted RPI status are required to pay the same taxes and are subject to the same deductions from their income as all other taxpayers,"" Broder said. ""Denying them the ability to claim the EITC would create an unprecedented two-tiered tax system for lawfully present workers."" Regarding the accuracy of Gutierrez’s statement, he was using the federal definition of benefits, and while lawmakers could decide otherwise, we take current law as our guide. For many years, Camarota and others have noted that the children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States are deemed citizens and are eligible for benefits. Their family members could indirectly benefit. The Senate bill makes no change in that. Our ruling Gutierrez said that immigrants with provisional status would pay every tax and get no benefits. His staff said he was talking about means-tested benefits, and to a large extent, Gutierrez was in line with what the Senate immigration bill says. It requires unauthorized immigrants to pay taxes, and so long as they are in a provisional status, they would not be eligible for food, housing or medical assistance. There are exceptions under current law that would allow them to get some public benefits, but these are limited and in any event, the Senate bill does not change the status quo. A subset of immigrants, children brought to the country at a young age and agricultural workers, would be eligible for green cards in less than 10 years, but the majority, about 70 percent, would have to wait the full time."
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26278
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Nancy Pelosi Says President Donald Trump is “morbidly obese.”
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Donald Trump does not fit the CDC’s description of “severely obese.” Stories have questioned both Trump’s height and weight. But even if Trump isn’t telling the truth, it’s extremely unlikely he would be classified as morbidly or severely obese.
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false
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Congress, California, Coronavirus, Nancy Pelosi,
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"President Donald Trump brought his health to the national coronavirus conversation on May 18 when he told reporters that he was taking hydroxychloroquine, a longstanding anti-malaria drug, as a preventative measure against COVID-19. Trump’s confidence in the drug against COVID-19 has not been supported by most studies. In fact, physicians say that the drug has serious side effects for patients, especially if they have pre-existing conditions such as heart problems. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN’s Anderson Cooper she was concerned for other reasons. In the interview, Cooper asked Pelosi what she thought of Trump saying he is taking the drug. ""I would rather he not be taking something that has not been approved by the scientists, especially in his age group and in his, shall we say, weight group,"" Pelosi said. ""He’s morbidly obese, they say."" Pelosi’s comment probably was meant to get under Trump’s skin. Trump has ridiculed other people’s heights and weights in the past, while others have questioned whether he’s been accurate in describing his own height and weight. But morbid obesity, or severe obesity, is a term of science, and weight is a risk factor for COVID-19. We decided to see what we could find out. Pelosi’s office did not offer a comment. The White House did not respond to an inquiry for this article. Trump responded to Pelosi’s comments at a May 19 news conference, calling Pelosi ""a sick woman"" with ""a lot of mental problems."" Officially, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not define the threshhold needed for someone to be considered ""morbidly obese."" Instead, the CDC says that ""Class 3"" obesity, sometimes categorized as ""extreme"" or ""severe"" obesity, is defined as having a body-mass index, or BMI, of 40 or higher. Other medical sources list a definition of ""morbidly obese"" as equivalent to a BMI of 40 or higher. Some available data about Trump comes from his most recent periodic physical exam. In a 2019 memo, Trump’s physician Dr. Sean Conley said Trump was 6 feet, 3 inches tall and 243 pounds. Trump, who was 72 at the time, had gained 4 pounds since his 2018 exam, when his previous doctor, Ronny Jackson, said Trump’s ""overall health is excellent"" but ""he would benefit from a diet that is lower in fat and carbohydrates and from a routine exercise regiment."" Officially, Trump’s height and weight would correlate to a BMI of 30.1, just a bit over the 30.0 level to be considered obese — the lowest of three levels. That is not high enough to count as Class 3 obesity. Based on the 2019 physical exam, Trump ""would not be considered morbidly obese at this time,"" said Lucas Carr, a professor in the department of health and human physiology at the University of Iowa. Paresh Dandona, the head of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at the State University of New York, agreed with this observation. Some critics, such as MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough, say they think Trump is neither 6-foot-3 (a New York driver’s license listed him as 6 feet, 2 inches), nor does he weigh around 240 pounds. ""By the way he's picked up, magically picked up, he's 2 inches taller now than he was a couple years ago, right?"" Scarborough said on his MSNBC show in 2019. ""I'm sorry, I'm a guy that weighs about 240, 241,"" he said. ""This guy, this guy is, he's pushing 300, there's no doubt about it,"" Scarborough said. ""Maybe he's 270, maybe he's 280."" The Washington Post went so far in 2016 as to have experts guess Trump’s weight. Their answers: 250-260 pounds; 228-242 pounds; 252-255 pounds; at least 240 ""maybe more"". To have a BMI above 40, with the highest of those weights (260 pounds), Trump would need to be shorter than 5 feet, 8 inches. He’s not. Pelosi does have a point that an individual’s age and weight are risk factors for worse outcomes after a coronavirus infection. Many studies connect obesity with COVID-19 complications, and data has shown higher death rates for older patients than younger ones. The CDC warns on their ""Defining Adult Obesity"" page that ""severe obesity (a BMI of 40 or higher) may raise risk"" of a severe reaction to COVID-19. The CDC also warns that ""older adults, 65 years and older, are at higher risk for severe illness and death from COVID-19."" Trump is 73. Pelosi called Trump ""morbidly obese."" Based off of his declared height and weight, Trump has a body mass index of 30.1. This places him into the lowest of three levels under the CDC’s definition of obesity. Even if the public numbers are a bit shy of reality, Trump would have to be substantially heavier to meet a level of severe, or morbid, obesity. PolitiFact senior correspondent Louis Jacobson and executive director Aaron Sharockman contributed to this report."
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34441
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"The ""Blue Whale"" suicide game has been responsible for more than 130 suicides in Russia."
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This story was inexplicably picked up months later by international tabloids (alongside claims that the game was spreading across the world), but we remain unable to verify any of the claims.
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unproven
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Viral Phenomena
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In February 2017, English-language web sites caught wind of a purported “suicide game” that had reportedly resulted in more than a hundred deaths in Russia. The general premise of the game, which goes by several names but is commonly referred to as the “blue whale” game, is as follows: The player signs up to play the game and agrees to follow instructions over the course of 50 days. An administrator assigns a series of tasks (anything from cutting yourself to listening to song) that the player must accomplish. The player wins when they complete the final task, committing suicide, on the 50th day. The claim that the “blue whale” suicide game (named after the way whales sometimes beach themselves and then die) had resulted in a wave of suicides appears to have originated with a misinterpretation of a May 2016 story from the Russian site Novaya Gazeta. That article reported dozens of suicides of children in Russia during a six-month span, asserting that some of the people who had taken their lives were part of the same online game community on VK.com, a social media network based out of St. Petersburg, Russia: We counted 130 suicides of children that occurred in Russia from November 2015 to April 2016 (!) – Almost all of them were members of the same group on the Internet. Novaya Gazeta reported that “at least” eighty of the suicides were linked to these “blue whale” games, but an investigation by Radio Free Europe found that no suicides had been definitively linked to these online communities: But while the Russian-language Internet is groaning with profiles of young people playing or seeking to play the game, shocking photographs of self-injury like cutting marked with the game’s hashtags, and purported links to teen suicides, not a single death in Russia or Central Asia has been definitively tied to Blue Whale. Over the last six months or so, dozens of suicides and attempted suicides in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan have been provisionally linked to the game, although on closer inspection none of them has been found to have a conclusive tie. Furthermore, the Novaya Gazeta report was highly criticized at the time of its publication. For instance, the web site Meduza noted that Noyaya Gazeta arrived at their conclusion that a social media game was causing teenagers to commit suicide because several teenagers from the same social media group had taken their own lives. However, Meduza argued, it is more reasonable to assume that depressed or suicidal teenagers are simply drawn to the same social media groups, not that the groups were causing them to commit suicide: The author of the material in the “Novaya Gazeta” states that the community in the social network “VKontakte” bring children to suicide. As a confirmation of this it lists the following fact: a few dozen teenagers who committed suicide were in groups devoted to this topic. However, to reliably establish a causal link in this case is impossible, and it is quite possible to assume an inverse relationship — a teen becomes part of a group due to the fact that it is contains people who struggle with suicidal thoughts. The reasons teenagers commit suicide are well researched. According to data from the General Prosecutor’s Office, in Russia 62% of suicides among adolescents are associated with family conflicts and general distress, conflicts with teachers, classmates, friends, and also with the fear of violence by adults and callousness of others. From a report on the topic from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the increase in the number of suicides “occurs in times of economic crisis and sharp social change.” For example, in Russia there was an increase the number of suicides from 1987 to 1994, when the USSR collapsed. As soon as the company adapted to its new socio-economic conditions, the number of suicides stabilized. Although “Blue Whale” suicide groups have not been directly linked to hundreds of suicides in Russia, the groups do apparently exist. They originated shortly after the death of Rina Palenkova, a Russian teenager who supposedly took her own life shortly after posting a photograph of herself on VK.com. The image was widely circulated on social media, and Rina soon became the central figure of a strange cult-like group: These groups actively exploited the theme of suicide – continued the cult of Rina Palenkovoy and published shock content: psychedelic and sinister video recording suicides. The creators of the community filled it with strange characters — Hebrew inscriptions, numbers, codes, pictures and video with a strange logo (it turned out to have been borrowed from the logo of a brand of lingerie). Later, groups of creators began to promote them through an interactive quest, ARG, a game with augmented reality. They took the idea of a mysterious quest “Insider”, created in 2012 — few details exist of the original project, but you can get acquainted with its ominous promo video — and created on that basis a new ARG with the levels and tasks in the real world. Author of the new project “Insiders” Nosferatu by Alexander refused to communicate with Apparat. According to the testimony of other users, the project initially had no relation to suicide, but later it “stole” the administrators of destructive groups. One of the elements of the project was a timer on the site, counting down the 70 days prior to a certain date — according to the F57, until the day of the mass suicides. There is certainly reason to be concerned about groups that venerate and promote suicide, but the creator of the “Sea of Whales” community said that he had no interest in encouraging people to take their own lives. Rather, the group’s creator says that they created the game and the surrounding lore to drive traffic to the page: It took just one day, however, for the news website Lenta.ru to get in touch with More Kitov, the creator of the Sea of Whales community (whales “commit suicide” by beaching themselves) – yet astonishingly, he claimed that the administrators of such groups had no interest in grooming minors to take their own lives but were merely interested in boosting their commercial profile. He said that Filip Lis, the administrator of the now-deleted community f57, just wanted to increase the number of subscribers to attract advertisers to his page – in Russia, the social network VKontakte is also a popular advertising market, and you can earn a lot of money from popular communities. Having come across this topic, which was trendy with teenagers, Lis launched the myth of the “sect” and used Rina Palenkova (a young girl who reportedly committed suicide) to promote it. He sold her cloned pages, reposts, videos and photos of her grave as well as screenshots of her correspondence. After VKontakte removed f57, he created similar groups. “I looked at all the fuss, got stunned by the hype and created my whales,” More Kitov told Lenta.ru. He insisted that his aim was to dissuade teenagers prone to suicidal thoughts, but first it was necessary to “become one of them.” Russia has a high baseline suicide rate among young people. In 2013, for instance, 461 minors took their own lives. In May 2017, stories appeared in English-language media about the alleged creator of the game, who according to media reports remains detained in Russia. Phillip Budeikin, 21, had apparently confessed to inciting young girls to commit suicide months before (calling them “biological waste”, according to some reports) but we were only able to trace these claims back to a November 2016 story on one site, saint-petersburg.ru (translated): Did you really push the teenagers to death? -*Firmly* Yes. I really did. Do not worry, you will understand everything. Everyone will understand. They were dying happy. I gave them what they did not have in real life: warmth, understanding, communication. How many of them were there? Is it really that, as a number of media outlets write, there are 130 people in the region? -Of course not. Investigation of the “News” is just squalor. There were 17. There were those with whom I simply communicated, whom I knew and who later committed suicide, but without my direct influence. So, come on from the very beginning. When it all started, how it was organized and how did you get to the point of pushing people to suicide? -At first? There are people, but there is a biomass. These are those who do not represent any value to society and are or will only bring harm to society. I cleaned our society from such people. It began in 2013. Then I created “F57” (one of the names of “death groups” “VKontakte” –Ed. ). Just created, see what will happen. It was stuffed with shock content, and it began to attract people. In 2014, it was banned. For a long time I laughed when I saw everyone trying to understand what “F57” means. It’s simple. F – Philip, my name. 57 – the last digits of my then number. I thought about the idea for five years. You can say I was preparing. I thought through the concept of the project, specific levels and stages. It was necessary to separate the normal from the biomass.
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10879
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Thousands of schizophrenics might be alive if they had been on clozapine
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"This story is about a study in which the strongest finding is that treatment with antipsychotics lowers mortality. The differences between drugs is less convincing and the opening statement that ""thousands of lives could have been saved"" if patients had been prescribed clozapine is simply not explained or justified adequately. There are cardiac and other long-term risks associated with most anti-psychotic medications (including clozapine) and schizophrenics generally have a higher rate of suicide than the general population, so we cannot say how many lives would have been saved with clozapine. The story focuses on clozapine as a viable drug treatment for schizophrenia when other anti-psychotic medication does not work. Use of the drug as a ""last resort"" may be reconsidered based on new evidence that there is lower long-term mortality risks with this drug compared to other commonly prescribed anti-psychotic medications. However, the story does not mention more common side effects of this drug which may limit tolerability. The story also does not mention that patients taking clozapine are typically monitored frequently (weekly to monthly) for white blood cell counts (loss of white blood cells led to the death of patients taking the drug in the 1970s). This would increase cost, which is also not mentioned. One strength of the story is that it used two independent sources who provide good clinical perspective on the results of this 10-year retrospective study."
|
false
|
"The story does not give the cost of Clozapine nor a cost comparison between it and other anti-psychotic medications. Frequent monitoring and dealing with common side effects increase costs and potential for hospitalization. But even giving the cost of the drug alone is not giving the entire cost picture. Clozapine is usually prescribed from specialized clinics and requires frequent monitoring (weekly for 6 months, then biweekly for 6 months, then ongoing). So there is the cost of the drug and monitoring and dealing with side effects and any effects on health care utilization (e.g. hospitalization for decompensation) vs other regimens. The story does not mention costs for additional monitoring. One problem is that only relative risks are given without any information on baseline risk. It would be much better if the story provided the annual or 10-year risk of dying untreated, with clozapine and with other antipsychotics. This would give the reader a better idea of the potential benefit (lower mortality) vs. harms (rare agranulocytosis, common – constipation etc) and hassles (weekly monitoring initially) and costs (one of the most expensive drugs). The story leads with a statement that ""thousands of lives could have been saved"" if more schizophrenics were prescribed clozapine instead of no medication or newer anti-psychotics. This is an overstatement and not an entirely correct interpretation of the study. There are cardiac risks associated with most anti-psychotic medications and schizophrenics generally have a higher rate of suicide than the general population, so we cannot say how many lives would have been saved with clozapine. The story notes the rare, serious harms of clozapine and there is a comparison of mortality data of this medication with other anti-psychotics from the Finnish study. However, the story does not mention the other long-term, more common and also potentially serious side effects of clozapine and many other anti-psychotic medications. Clozapine is poorly tolerated (hypotension, sedation, constipation and others) and more common side effects limit tolerability and use. The story briefly discusses the design of the Finnish observational study comparing death rates of schizophrenics with the general non psychotic population. The story provides data that schizophrenics prescribed a once-considered dangerous drug actually had lower mortality rates than those prescribed other (newer) anti-psychotics. The story also mentions that people with schizophrenia typically die two decades earlier than other people. The story speculates about the reasons for reduced mortality, but there are many (medication and non-medication) reasons for earlier death among people with schizophrenia. The story didn’t give adequate explanation for the statement that thousands of lives worldwide could have been saved if patients had been treated differently. This is an overstatement and not an entirely correct interpretation of the study. There are cardiac risks associated with most anti-psychotic medications and schizophrenics generally have a higher rate of suicide than the general population, so we cannot say how many lives would have been saved with clozapine. Information in this story is based on a recently study published in the medical journal The Lancet. The story cites one author and two independent sources who provide good clinical perspective on results of this 10-year retrospective study of schizophrenics taking clozapine or newer anti-psychotics . The story focuses on clozapine as a viable drug treatment for schizophrenia when other anti-psychotic medication does not work. Use of the drug as a ""last resort"" should be reconsidered based on new evidence that there is lower long-term mortality risk with this drug compared to other commonly prescribed anti-psychotic medications. The story does not mention that patients taking clozapine are typically monitored frequently (weekly to monthly) for white blood cell counts (loss of white blood cells led to the death of patients taking the drug in the 1970s). The story also does not mention that some forms of psychotherapy are useful as adjunct treatment with medications for schizophrenics. There are also intensive community help programs that appear effective. The story does not mention that access to Clozapine (Clozaril) is still restricted in the U.S. WWW.CLOZARILCARE.COM. The story does note physicians’ reluctance to prescribe this medication based on rare but serious side effects which affect white blood cells and can lead to death. The story mentions the drug was ""banned"" from the market, but it was voluntarily removed from the market by the manufacturer after reports of rare but serious side effects. The story is also inaccurate when it says the drug is sold generically as Clozaril. Clozapine is the generic name. Clozapine is not a new medication; the story notes it has been available since the 1970’s. Since there is independent reporting and interviews with clinicians not affiliated with the Lancet paper it does not appear that the story relied on a news release."
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8048
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Some Kenyan nurses refuse coronavirus patients in protest over shortages: union.
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Nurses in Kenya’s capital and at least two towns have launched protests or refused to treat suspected coronavirus patients because the government has not given them enough protective gear or training, a medical union chief said.
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true
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Health News
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Only a fraction of Kenya’s estimated 100,000 healthcare workers had received any instruction in how to protect themselves, Seth Panyako, the secretary general of the Kenya National Union of Nurses, told Reuters. Government spokesman Cyrus Oguna said he would check into the reports of the training and protective gear shortages. Kenya had reported 28 cases of the coronavirus and one death as of Friday. The virus has so far been multiplying across Africa more slowly than in Asia or Europe - but the World Health Organization has warned the continent’s window to curb the infection is narrowing every day. Nurses in the western Kenyan town of Kakamega and the coastal town of Kilifi ran away when patients with coronavirus symptoms came to their hospitals over the past two weeks, Panyako said on Thursday. Nurses at Nairobi’s Mbagathi County Hospital went on a go-slow protest last week in protest at a lack of protective gear and training. They feared catching the disease and infecting their families, Panyako said. “The government is not taking it seriously when health workers run away,” he said. “My clear message to the government ... give them the protective equipment they need.” Panyako, whose union represents 30,000 health workers, said he had only heard of 1,200 staff getting training in how to protect themselves. A host of initiatives have sprung up to fill the gaps. Kenyan start-up Rescue.co, whose Flare app functions as the Uber for private ambulances in Kenya, last week began offering training and protective equipment for the 600 nurses and paramedics using its network. One paramedic on a course told Reuters he had previously refused to attend a suspected coronavirus patient because he did not have training. “The team was scared so we didn’t go,” he said, declining to give his name. Caitlin Dolkart, who co-founded rescue.co, said her company had applied for government permission for trained paramedics to carry out coronavirus tests in patients’ homes. “They are on the frontlines of responding to patients,” she said. “They have to be protected.”
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7891
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Quake hits Zagreb, PM urges social distancing as residents flee buildings.
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A large earthquake struck near the Croatian capital Zagreb on Sunday, critically injuring a teenager caught in a collapsed building in the city center and prompting appeals for social distancing after people rushed out onto the streets.
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true
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Environment
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Sixteen other people were injured, including another minor who was badly hurt, and the 5.3 magnitude quake caused fires and power blackouts in parts of the capital, hospital and emergency services said. People ran from their apartment buildings to their cars as pieces of the facades started falling off. Dozens of cars were also damaged by debris which fell off buildings. Authorities said around 70 buildings were damaged. Ministers warned people not to walk close to buildings and beware of falling debris due to a strong wind. They also urged them to stay apart from one another as the country struggles to contain the spread of coronavirus. “We are fighting two enemies at the moment, one is invisible and the other is unpredictable,” Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said. So far, Croatia has reported 254 cases of the virus and one death. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said the government would provide accommodation in the students’ dormitory in Zagreb for up to 1,800 people whose homes were damaged. He said the quake was the biggest to hit Zagreb in 140 years. It struck 6 km (4 miles) north of the city and was felt across the Western Balkans. Zarko Rasic, head of the Zagreb Emergency Medicine Institute, a children’s hospital, said a 15-year-old was in a critical condition after being found by an emergency services team under a collapsed building and another minor had been admitted with head injuries from a falling roof. The Zagreb Fire Department said firefighting and rescue operations were ongoing at several locations. Plenkovic said the army had been called in to help clean up debris in Zagreb and urged citizens to “stay outside and keep your distance”. “We are facing two crises now,” Plenkovic told a news conference. “Let us not forget the coronavirus epidemics ... Individual discipline and responsibility is of utmost importance.” Local media reported that many people had headed out of Zagreb, prompting police to organize checkpoints on the highway to check if they were violating self-isolation. The German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) downgraded the magnitude of the quake to 5.3 from an initial reading of 6.0. Croatia’s state seismology service said there had been 30 aftershocks. The government said it would estimate the damage in the coming weeks and ask the European Commission for aid. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake measured 5.4, while the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) also reported 5.3 magnitude, followed by another 5.1 magnitude earthquake.
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1296
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Middle-East resident diagnosed with MERS in Britain.
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A person in northern England has been diagnosed with the potentially deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and is being treated at hospital in Liverpool, Public Health England said on Thursday.
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true
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Health News
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The patient is a resident of the Middle East, where they were believed to have contracted the infection before traveling to Britain, PHE said on its website. MERS is thought to be carried by camels and comes from the same family as the coronavirus that caused China’s deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003. Most of the known human-to-human transmission has occurred in healthcare settings, and the World Health Organisation has said hospitals and medical workers should take stringent precautions as standard to stop the disease spreading. PHE said it was the fifth case of the disease diagnosed in England, the others having been identified in 2012 and 2013. PHE deputy medical director Jenny Harries said it would monitor those who had been in close contact with the patient. “It is important to emphasize that although a case has been identified, the overall risk of disease transmission to the public is very low,” she added.
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13488
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"Americans for Prosperity: Florida Says ""Patrick Murphy’s ‘Pay More’ energy agenda means you could pay another $500 a year for your utility bills!"
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"Americans For Prosperity Florida said, ""Patrick Murphy’s ‘Pay More’ energy agenda means you could pay another $500 a year for your utility bills!"" The group is attempting to link Murphy’s support for the Clean Power Plan to the possibility of higher gas and electric rates for consumers. But Murphy has no control over the rule, and the study AFP cited is disputed and outdated. Economic impacts of the Clean Power Plan, which is currently on hold by order of the U.S. Supreme Court, are a hotly debated subject with no clear result."
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false
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Environment, Energy, Florida, Americans for Prosperity: Florida,
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"An anti-regulation group is accusing U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy of wanting to use the Senate to adopt policies that would raise the cost of just about everything, starting with your utility bills. ""Vote against Patrick Murphy,"" reads a mailer we received Sept. 12, 2016, from Americans for Prosperity Florida. ""We can’t afford his ‘Pay More’ agenda."" The flier cautions electricity and grocery prices will go up as wages go down with Murphy in the Senate. ""Patrick Murphy’s ‘Pay More’ energy agenda means you could pay another $500 a year for your utility bills!"" the flier warns. The group behind the attack is the Florida affiliate of the main political committee for the anti-tax industrialists and billionaires Charles and David Koch. We wondered just what Murphy would be planning that would make utility costs go up $500 annually. There’s a tenuous link between what the Jupiter Democrat supports and the future of energy costs, but it’s not nearly as charged as AFP claimed. Shockingly high The ""Pay More"" Murphy nickname, which is being used by AFP in other attacks, is borne of Murphy’s support for President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The plan was a proposed environmental rule announced by the White House in August 2015. The new regulations would require power plants to reduce carbon emissions, from 2005 levels, by 32 percent by 2030. (A 2014 draft of the plan had sought a 30 percent reduction. We’ll get back to why this is important in a moment.) The idea was largely to promote cleaner sources of energy than coal-fired power plants, fostering more renewable energy while pushing utilities to upgrade existing infrastructure. But the U.S. Supreme Court put the rule on hold on Feb. 9, 2016, in the face of opposition from corporations and industry groups. Murphy has publicly supported its implementation, signing an amicus brief supporting the plan and calling the court’s decision to block the rule ""misguided."" But as a congressman, Murphy has no direct say over the fate of the final rule, which was created by the Obama administration and would be enacted by the Environmental Protection Agency. So what’s this about surging utility prices? Critics of the Clean Power Plan say it would be expensive for utilities to comply with the new emissions standards, and those costs would be passed on to consumers. An array of reports that examine just how much customers may end up paying resulted. AFP’s mailer points to one specific study from a firm called Energy Ventures Analysis. That study said that by 2020, the average Floridian’s annual gas and electric bills could potentially go up by a combined $464 from what they were in 2012. AFP rounded that up to $500, and made the connection that since Murphy supports the plan, he wants your bill to go up. That’s already a stretch, since Murphy has little to do with the Clean Power Plan. But there’s much more to all these analyses, which make a wide range of assertions about how the plan could affect utility customers. Energy Ventures Analysis’ estimate is near the top end of the scale, but the firm told us it’s already outdated. The analysis was done on the proposed Clean Power Plan from 2014 we mentioned before. Revisions have been made to the rule since the initial proposal. A lot has happened in the energy sector since then. Gas prices have dropped, utility rates have changed, electricity demand has largely decreased, and solar and wind energy is in wider use today, among other factors. ""If they (AFP) are linking it to our website, that’s from some time ago, during the original proposal, and that has now changed,"" Energy Ventures Analysis principal Thomas Hewson told PolitiFact Florida. Because of all the factors involved, predictions on how the plan would affect utility rates are in constant flux, he said. Hewson added that the company had since revisited the Clean Power Plan in a 2015 report for the National Mining Association. Energy Ventures Analysis hasn’t re-evaluated utility rates on a state-by-state basis, Hewson said. The National Mining Association study was about wholesale electricity prices, although it did say those would go up in Florida. Their estimates are on the high end of how much the Clean Power Plan would cost and have been attacked by groups that favor renewable energy. The Natural Resources Defense Council called Energy Ventures Analysis, which has some ties to the coal industry, a ""fossil industry mouthpiece."" Few other studies look at the specific impact on individual states, although most say the plan’s results largely depend on how utilities in individual states supply their power and charge their customers. Those decisions are usually made on a state level, and can drastically change how the Clean Power Plan’s standards come into play. Some of the rosier reports are the complete opposite of the Energy Venture Analysis study. The group Advanced Energy Economy predicted there will be no real change to energy prices at all in Florida. The EPA’s own analysis predicted that the plan will eventually result in electricity prices going down, although most groups predict a modest increase. ""Our modeling shows average annual changes in Florida retail prices of less than 1 percent between the baseline and the policy,"" said Dallas Burtraw, senior fellow at Resources for the Future, a think tank that tracks energy policy. ""Our results are consistent with those from the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Nicholas Institute (at Duke University)."" Our ruling Americans For Prosperity Florida said, ""Patrick Murphy’s ‘Pay More’ energy agenda means you could pay another $500 a year for your utility bills!"" The group is attempting to link Murphy’s support for the Clean Power Plan to the possibility of higher gas and electric rates for consumers. But Murphy has no control over the rule, and the study AFP cited is disputed and outdated. Economic impacts of the Clean Power Plan, which is currently on hold by order of the U.S. Supreme Court, are a hotly debated subject with no clear result."
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38798
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Leftover onions become poisonous after just a day because they’re magnets for bacteria.
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Leftover Onions are Poisonous Because They’re Magnets for Bacteria
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false
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Food / Drink
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Claims that leftover onions are magnets for bacteria and should never be eaten are mostly fictional. That rumor first surfaced in a 2008 blog post that appeared at the website DinnerWithZola.com. The blog, headlined “Watch out for those spoiled onions,” reported that cut or leftover onions are magnets for bacteria and are among the most common causes of food poisoning: …Onions are a huge magnet for bacteria, especially uncooked onions. You should never plan to keep a portion of a sliced onion. (A food expert) says it’s not even safe if you put it in a zip-lock bag and put it in your refrigerator. It’s already contaminated enough just by being cut open and out for a bit, that it can be a danger to you (and doubly watch out for those onions you put in your hotdogs at the baseball park!) The National Onion Association took exception to that claim. The trade group argued that the opposite is true: juices released from cut onions kill and inhibit the growth of some microorganisms that can cause illness: When cut, onions release compounds that do not promote pathogen growth. This is the same compound that causes our eyes to produce tears. When handled properly, cut onions can be stored in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to 7 days. Uncut onions, meanwhile, should be stored in a dark, dry and well-ventilated place. It’s always important to make sure that you store onions and potatoes separately, too, because they can make each other spoil faster, according to the Penn State Extension: Avoid storing onions near potatoes; onions will absorb the potato’s moisture and spoil from exposure to the potato’s gas. Also avoid storing onions where they will be exposed to moisture. So, it’s true when not properly stored after they’re cut, onions can become magnets for bacteria. The claims that all onions are poisonous and should not be eaten within a day or two of being cut is false. Comments
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38786
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Steve Burns from “Blues Clues” has died in a car accident.
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Steve from Blues Clues Died in a Car Accident
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false
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Celebrities
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The rumor that Steve from Blues Clues died in a car accident is a celebrity death hoax. The fake news website MSMBC News started the rumor that Steve from Blues Clues died in a car accident at the age of 42. The website (falsely) reported that Steve Burns was killed in a one-vehicle car cash that happened in Pennsylvania: Burns was pronounced dead at 7:11 p.m. Friday at The Reading Hospital and Medical Center in Reading, Berks County Coroner Randall Wiseman told The Associated Press. Burns, best known as the original host of the long-running children’s television program Blue’s Clues, suffered severe head trauma and internal injuries after he wrecked a 2014 Dodge Challenger near the community of Shillington. Pennsylvania Highway Patrol responded to the crash after receiving a 911 call of a vehicle that had overturned on the roadway. Burns was traveling north, toward Reading along Route 422, when the wreck occurred, Wiseman confirmed. The caller, who was traveling behind Burns at the time of the accident, indicated to the 911 operator that he had seen deer on the roadway just before the accident occurred, which police believe may have been a major factor. Many fans of the popular children’s show Blue Clues shared the false report of Steve Burns’s death on social media sites. The story had been shared nearly 50,000 times on social media sites within days of publication. MSMBC News publishes a combination of real and fake news stories, which makes false reports like the one about Steve from Blues Clues dying hard to pinpoint. The site has started other celebrity death hoaxes about Willie Nelson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, just to name a few. Steve Burns took to Twitter to settle rumors of demise: Steve from Blues Clues became a household name after the children’s show first aired on Nickelodeon in 1996. Steve walked away from Blues Clues at the peak of the show’s popularity, which has sparked plenty of rumors of his demise over the years. The earliest rumors about Steve from “Blues Clues” being killed in a car crash date all the way back to the late 1990s, the Cincinnati Inquirer reports: He walked in the door, and the rumor flew out the window. Steve Burns, host of Nickelodeon’s hugely popular Blue’s Clues,was not dead. Indeed, he was standing right there in the Ritz-Carlton ballroom. According to rumors on the Internet, Steve Burns had been killed in a car wreck or overdosed on drugs. Where did the rumors come from? “We have no idea,” says Mr. Burns. The 25-year-old actor had come to Pasadena last month to accept a children’s TV award from the Television Critics Association. He wore a brown sports coat and a print shirt, not his trademark green striped rugby shirt. After Steve left Blues Clues he acted in a Dunkin’ Donuts commercial and made an appearance in the show “Homicide: Life in the Street” as a man who died in police custody. After that, Steve said that he couldn’t return to on-camera children’s television because he had “confused his audience” by taking on adult-themed roles. Steve did work behind the scenes on a few Blues Clues side project as an executive producer, however. So, this isn’t the first celebrity death hoax about Steve from Blues Clues, and it probably won’t be the last. Comments
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9085
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Genetic testing helps set safe dose of common blood thinner
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This news release describes results of a study designed to learn whether testing for the presence of three gene variants could make dosing with the blood thinner warfarin safer for patients given the drug to prevent blood clots after joint replacement surgery. The study found a modest reduction in the risk of bleeding or clots (from over- or under-dosing) in those whose regimens were developed in part by genetic testing for the variants, compared to those whose doses were calculated without the genetic testing. The release does an overall good job in describing the study, its purpose and design; and in quantifying the results. It could have been even stronger if it had included more information about newer alternatives to warfarin that are growing in use and an explicit statement that no one is yet recommending routine genetic testing for the variants based on this study. And although the headline somewhat over promises clinical benefit at this point in time, thoughtful readers will come away with a decent understanding of the context of the research and its potential impact. Some estimates put the number of Americans regularly taking the clot-preventing blood thinner warfarin and several newer anticoagulants at more than six million. Warfarin (sold under the brand name Coumadin) requires frequent blood testing to address risks of overdoses (and potentially lethal bleeding) and under-dosing (ineffective prevention of strokes and other blood clots). Because warfarin is cheap, and its effects are reversible with vitamin K, research designed to make it easier and safer for patients to take is likely to be highly newsworthy for them and their caregivers.
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true
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genetic testing,warfarin,Washington University School of Medicine
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Although the release doesn’t give actual costs of warfarin versus some of the newer drugs, or factor in the cost of the usual monthly blood testing required of those taking the drug, it does note the cost of the gene testing used for the study, and that the $200 price tag is now less than a month’s prescription of one of the newer anti-coagulants on the market. The release gives results in both actual numbers of patients and the percentage of reduction of adverse events in those given the genetic test and a comparison group. Although it does so in general terms, the release covers the essentials: the risk of using blood thinners like warfarin and the risks of not using them. The release offers a good description of the design of the study. It was randomized and enrolled more than 1,600 older patients at high risk of blood clots following surgeries. The release explains that one group received warfarin dosing based on standard factors (age, height and weight) and the second group was dosed using these clinical factors plus their genetic variants. The release also offers a detailed breakdown on how many fewer side effects occurred among patients had genetic testing completed compared to those who didn’t. No mongering here. Nicely done and quite complete. Although the release briefly mentions the availability of a “newer anticoagulant,” it should have included a sentence or two about these newer injectable drugs and their overall risks and benefits in comparison to warfarin. It would also have been helpful to tell readers whether the genetic testing that appears to play a role in safer warfarin dosing would have clinical relevance for informing the use of the new blood thinners as well. The fact is that genetic testing is irrelevant for the newer anti-coagulants because they operate in a completely different manner. But all the blood thinners — old and new — carry the same risk of bleeding. The problem with warfarin is the variability in blood levels which requires frequent monitoring, hence the genetic tests to guide dosing. The careful reader will get it: testing for these genetic variants is still an experimental practice for the most part, and further testing of how the mutations affect warfarin is needed. But the release could have been more explicit in saying that no one is yet recommending genetic testing for millions of warfarin users. While the genetic tests are “available” in the sense that anyone can order them for the most part, they are not routinely used clinically and probably wouldn’t be covered by insurance so in that sense they are not widely available to most people. The release describes how the genetic test used in the new study differs from previous similar studies. Overall the language is careful and contextual. The headline should have been toned back a bit to note that this is early research and more study is needed before concluding that “Genetic testing helps set safe dose of common blood thinner,” as the headline now states.
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10123
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Plavix Can Help Cut Death Risk in Certain Heart Patients
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"Few studies have examined the possible benefit or harm of clopidogrel in heart failure patients. This observational study does not provide definitive evidence that the benefit exceeds the risks. In fact, no mention of risk is mentioned in the article. It suggests possible benefit but that benefit may be because of physicians using their judgment to decide that sicker patients should not receive clopidogrel, so the improved survival observed in patients taking clopidogrel may simply be due to differences in how doctors selected patients for treatment or not. It is not clear if the study attempted to ""adjust"" for differences in the study populations using statistical methods. It is overly enthusiastic to say that this drug ‘can’ cut death risk in heart failure patients. The story is misleading because it failed to report on the study nuances that prevent conclusions from being drawn at this time."
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false
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"There was no discussion about the cost of this drug. The story provided absolute numbers for two categories of patients who had had heart attacks and did not have angioplasty. In the first group, the chance of survival for those with heart failure at 18 months appeared to be higher for those that took Plavix than those who did not. In the second group, at two years, there did not appear to be a difference in survival between those without heart failure whether they took the drug or not. While presenting the reader with the quantitative results, the story neglected to indicate if the differences observed were statistically significant. It would also have been helpful to note the number needed to treat: 37 heart failure patients would need to be treated for a year in order for one life to be saved. For non-heart-failure patients, 667 patients would need to take the drug for a year in order for one life to be saved. There was no discussion about any potential harms associated with the use of plavix. The story did not do an adequate job in describing the quality of the evidence discussed. The story just assumed that the reason those receiving Plavix fared better was because of the drug. However – this was a non-randomized study so that patients who were taking Plavix could have differed from those that did not. They may have been healthier so the lower risk of dying might simply be due to this rather than from the addition of the medication. Not applicable because there was really no discussion of heart failure incidence or seriousness. The story quotes an editorial writer but did not appear to go beyond a news release for interpretation of the study results. There was no discussion about the impact other medications in the same class as Plavix have in the populations studied. Plavix (clopidogrel) is a medication already on the market. While the story did not state this explicitly, it was implied. The story stated that ""the value of clopidogrel (Plavix) to treat heart failure patients has been long debated."" The story states that its sole source was a news release from the American College of Cardiology."
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23573
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I've shut down pill mills.
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Bondi said that as a Hillsborough prosecutor she's shut down pill mills and offered the case of Dr. John Mubang as an example. But Mubang's story highlights how difficult it is to stop pill mills, and in fact, is an excellent example of the problem the next attorney general will face. Mubang was shut down briefly following his arrest, but he's back in business pending trial. To be sure, PolitiFact Florida searched Hillsborough County court records to find other specific cases Bondi may have been involved with. So did Bondi, who maintains that she has prosecuted other cases involving doctors who prescribed medicine illegally. But she couldn't find another specific case for us to analyze. We couldn't either. That leaves us to judge her claim based on the evidence she's provided.
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false
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Health Care, Crime, Florida, Pam Bondi,
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"In the race for the Republican nomination for attorney general, former Hillsborough County prosecutor Pam Bondi continues to contrast her courtroom experience with the political experience of opponents Jeff Kottkamp and Holly Benson. One of the distinctions Bondi makes is that while Kottkamp, the lieutenant governor, and Benson, the former secretary for the Agency for Health Care Administration, can talk about taking on criminals, she's actually done it. Take pill mills for examples. Doctors illegally writing prescriptions for painkillers is a big issue in Florida and has been a focus of current Attorney General Bill McCollum. The issue also has been a centerpiece of Kottkamp's campaign. Though Kottkamp oversees the Governor's Office of Drug Control, Bondi notes that she has been on the front lines as a prosecutor. ""You've heard General McCollum talk about pill mills,"" Bondi said to a group of Republicans on April 28, 2010, in Clay County. ""(I) prosecuted them. Dealt with them. Shut them down."" She's made the claim, or a claim close to it, several times during the campaign. We heard something similar when Bondi came to speak June 3 to the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club in St. Petersburg. We wanted to see if Bondi, in her nearly two decades as a prosecutor, has shut down pill mills. Bondi worked as an assistant state attorney for Hillsborough County from 1992 to 2009 where she says she prosecuted thousands of cases, including murder, rape and drug cases. Her campaign office said she participated in the prosecution of multiple drug trafficking cases involving prescription medications. ""At the time, they weren't called 'pill mills,' but she investigated and charged pain clinic doctors for trafficking and controlled substances,"" said Bondi spokeswoman Kim Kirtley. Kirtley said Bondi had trouble remembering the names of the specific cases. But the spokeswoman did point PolitiFact Florida to a 2008 case to make Bondi's point that she has shut down pill mills. The case involves Dr. John Mubang, who was arrested in Hillsborough County on July 16, 2008, and charged with trafficking in prescription drugs while he worked as an internal medicine doctor at a Tampa medical facility he owned and operated. According to law enforcement officials, Mubang prescribed controlled substances to patients without a valid medical reason. Medical records show that Mubang prescribed drugs to at least five people who subsequently died from accidental overdoses. The investigation and arrest was coordinated among the state attorney's office, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. We found no reason to doubt Bondi's involvement in the case. Her name, for instance, is included on the FDLE press release announcing the arrest. We should note, however, that Bondi did not represent the state attorney's office at pre-trial hearings. Mubang is currently free on bond awaiting trial. And, here's the rub, he's back to prescribing drugs. Bondi's response: 'Unreal"" Bondi called PolitiFact Florida in the middle of filming a television commercial when she heard Mubang was back publicly soliciting clients. ""He was shut down. He reopened in a different way,"" Bondi said. ""This helps illustrate the tremendous problems we have with pill mills. The guy is on an ankle bracelet! Can you believe that? It's unreal the problem we have in our state with pill mills."" In a front-page story published in June 2010, the St. Petersburg Times updated Mubang's story. ""As Mubang awaits ... trial on felony charges of trafficking in illegal drugs and prescribing controlled substances without medical necessity, he is free to keep seeing patients and dispensing drugs,"" the Times reported. ""His state Health Department license record consumers can see online shows not one single blemish -- no complaints, no discipline."" The article noted that Mubang was advertising his services in news publications, including the Times' free daily tabloid, tbt*, and has been touting his willingness to see patients without an appointment. ""The audacity of a doctor who's currently being prosecuted to go back and do it again is outrageous,"" Bondi said. The Mubang story illustrates just how hard it can be to permanently shut down pain clinics. Bruce Grant, director of the Governor's Office of Drug Control, describes pill mill doctors as nothing more than drug dealers in white lab coats. The clinics themselves are often run by someone else, who simply finds a down-on-their-luck doctor to write out the prescriptions. Catch one bad doctor, and another can step in. It's difficult, Grant says, to pin a case on the people with the money behind the clinics. And clients are unlikely to testify against a doctor prescribing drugs. In fact, most say the doctor is under-prescribing, Grant says. That means investigations center almost always on undercover work. ""These are not easy things to stop,"" Grant said. ""Our laws are set up to allow things to happen, not to stop them."" Grant's office and law enforcement officials have started to work closely with the Department of Health to temporarily suspend the licenses of doctors who are believed to be prescribing drugs illegally. Eulinda Smith, a spokeswoman with the Department of Health, provided PolitiFact Florida with a list of the current doctors and health care providers whose licenses have been suspended by emergency action. Mubang is not included. Our ruling Bondi said that as a Hillsborough prosecutor she's shut down pill mills and offered the case of Dr. John Mubang as an example. But Mubang's story highlights how difficult it is to stop pill mills, and in fact, is an excellent example of the problem the next attorney general will face. Mubang was shut down briefly following his arrest, but he's back in business pending trial. To be sure, PolitiFact Florida searched Hillsborough County court records to find other specific cases Bondi may have been involved with. So did Bondi, who maintains that she has prosecuted other cases involving doctors who prescribed medicine illegally. But she couldn't find another specific case for us to analyze. We couldn't either. That leaves us to judge her claim based on the evidence she's provided."
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2825
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Gay juror's ouster forces new U.S. pharma trial.
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A gay man was improperly excluded from jury service because of his sexual orientation, a federal appeals court has ruled, illustrating the widening influence of a key U.S. Supreme Court decision on gay rights.
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true
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Health News
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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Tuesday ordered a new trial for GlaxoSmithKline Plc against an Abbott Laboratories spinoff because Abbott excluded the potential juror. The case involved Abbott’s pricing of HIV medications, a controversial issue in the gay community. Glaxo accused Abbott of improperly hiking the price of one drug, Norvir, to help it preserve sales growth of one of its other HIV blockbusters, Kaletra. The jury returned a mixed verdict in 2011, and Glaxo was awarded far less money than it had originally sought. However, Glaxo appealed the lower court’s decision to allow Abbott to exclude the juror, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the constitution prohibits jury strikes because of sexual orientation. “Strikes exercised on the basis of sexual orientation continue this deplorable tradition of treating gays and lesbians as undeserving of participation in our nation’s most cherished rites and rituals,” 9th Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel. Glaxo spokeswoman Mary Anne Rhyne said the company is pleased with the ruling. Abbott spokesman Scott Stoffel said Abbott passed its HIV portfolio to a new company, AbbVie Inc, last year. AbbVie representative Adelle Infante said the company is evaluating its options. The 9th Circuit on Tuesday cited United States v. Windsor, the U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In that case, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the law defining marriage as between one man and one woman violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection. However, Kennedy’s ruling was ambiguous on just how far gay rights protections should extend, Northwestern University law professor Andrew Koppelman said. Since the ruling was issued, judges around the country have grappled with how to apply it in a variety of gay rights cases, including rulings that permitted same-sex marriage in Oklahoma and Utah. Those cases are currently under appeal. “The big difference between now and Windsor is a shift in the culture,” Koppelman said. “Discrimination that made intuitive sense to people before doesn’t make a whole lot of sense anymore.” Norvir plays a key role in AIDS-fighting cocktails because it can boost the effectiveness of other drugs. Glaxo accused Abbott of raising Norvir’s price by 400 percent in 2003, as part of an effort to harm competitors whose drugs were dependent on being used in combination with Norvir. During jury selection in an Oakland, California federal court, a potential juror discussed his partner by using the masculine pronoun “he” several times. The juror also said he did not know whether any of his friends were taking the medications at issue in the case. Abbott’s attorney sought to exclude the juror, and Glaxo objected, saying that Abbott was attempting to use a peremptory challenge in a discriminatory way. However, U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken allowed Abbott to exclude the juror. Glaxo had sought $571 million, but after a four-week trial the jury awarded Glaxo $3.5 million. Given the legal reasoning in Windsor, the 9th Circuit held that gays and lesbians deserve the same constitutional protections during jury selection as those enjoyed by African-Americans and women. Juror strikes based on sexual orientation “deprive individuals of the opportunity to participate in perfecting democracy and guarding our ideals of justice on account of a characteristic that has nothing to do with their fitness to serve,” Reinhardt wrote. The case in the 9th Circuit is Smithkline Beecham Corp dba GlaxoSmithKline vs. Abbott Laboratories, 11-17357.
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8829
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FDA says generic Wellbutrin OK despite reports.
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A cheaper, generic version of GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Wellbutrin XL antidepressant is just as safe and effective, despite complaints from some patients, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday.
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true
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Health News
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The FDA said it received 85 reports from patients who switched from Wellbutrin XL to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd and Impax Laboratories Inc’s cheaper generic, including 78 who said they slipped back into depression. Other patients reported new or worsening side effects, including headaches, fatigue, anxiety and digestion issues. “The question is whether the reported lack of efficacy and/or new onset side effects in these patients who switched suggest a problem with the generic product ... or have some other explanation,” the FDA said in a statement on its website. Agency scientists reviewed 300-milligram versions of the two drugs, which both use once-a-day formulations of the chemical bupropion, and found the data did not show that the problems stemmed from any differences between the two drugs. One factor that could account for the reported problems is the natural recurrence of depression, which can happen despite treatment, the FDA said. Half of the patients who went back on the name-brand drug said they improved, the agency said, adding that it would continue to monitor the issue. FDA officials received the reports during the first half of 2007. Teva and Impax’s version of Wellbutrin was approved in 2006. Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc also makes a 300-mg XL version of bupropion, though it was not part of the FDA’s review. GlaxoSmithKline makes other versions of Wellbutrin that face generic competition. Total sales of Wellbutrin slipped 37 percent last year in the face of generic competition, the company has reported. The drugmaker could not comment on the FDA’s conclusion because it did not have access to the data used but is pleased the agency would continue its monitoring, GlaxoSmithKline spokeswoman Mary Anne Rhyne said. Teva spokeswoman Denise Bradley said the company would issue a statement later. Shares of GlaxoSmithKline rose 39 cents to $42.47 on the New York Stock Exchange. Teva rose 65 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $46.67 on Nasdaq.
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28398
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Nike workers in Vietnam earn 20 cents per hour, work 70 to 80 hours per week, and are 80 percent female.
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What's true: Nike workers in Vietnam are 80 percent female, and some are illegally forced to labor more than the statutory working week of 48 hours. What's false: Working between 70 and 80 hours per week is not typical for a Nike worker in Vietnam. Wages were around 20 cents per hour in the mid-1990s but have increased since then.
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mixture
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Politics
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In September 2018, Nike’s announcement of an endorsement deal with Colin Kaepernick brought renewed scrutiny and allegations about the company’s labor practices. The free agent quarterback became a leading figure in ongoing protests against racial injustice by National Football League players and staff, since he first “took a knee” during the playing of the national anthem before matches in the 2016 season. One sentiment in particular gained traction on social media in the days following the announcement of the Nike deal: that Kaepernick was demonstrating hypocrisy by criticizing injustice against black people in the United States while also agreeing to be an ambassador for Nike, a company with a history of poor treatment of workers in the developing world. On 4 September, conservative commentator Ryan Fournier tweeted the following widely-shared observations, along with a photograph of women making Nike shoes in a factory: Just so I’m clear: These factory workers (which are 80% female) are making NIKE’s for 20 cents an hour and working 70 to 80 hours a week, so NIKE can profit enough to pay Colin Kaepernick millions to speak out against oppression and injustice? pic.twitter.com/8NqVVxrl9G — Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) September 5, 2018 Fournier’s message was widely shared on Twitter and (in the form of screenshots) on Facebook, but it is almost identical to several earlier tweets. The photograph included in the viral tweet shows workers at a Nike factory in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It was captured by Associated Press photographer Richard Vogel in April 2005. We asked Fournier for documentation of the information in his tweet, but we did not receive a response in time for publication. However, the key figure of “20 cents an hour” appears to derive from reports published in the mid-1990s, a time when Nike’s labor practices came under intense scrutiny. In 1996, CBS News’ 48 Hours program investigated conditions at Nike factories in Vietnam, finding instances of corporal punishment of female workers and interviewing laborers who earned $40 per month for six days’ work per week (the equivalent of 20 cents per hour). According to a subsequent report by Dara O’Rourke, a researcher with the Transnational Resource and Action Center, the average wage of nightshift workers at the Tae Kwang Vina factory in Vietnam was closer to 15 cents per hour, with workers performing 10.5 hours a day, six days a week — a total of 252 hours per month, with a monthly salary of $40. In 2003, the World Bank reported that Nike violated Vietnam’s environmental and labor laws by exposing 10,000 workers (85 percent female) at the Tae Kwang Vina factory to toxic solvents and routinely forcing them to work above the legally-mandated overtime limit. As a result of an outcry provoked by activist groups in Vietnam and the United States, the World Bank reported, Nike introduced a code of conduct at its Vietnamese factories, vowed to implement U.S. labor laws there, and brought in health and environmental protections for workers, as well as educational opportunities. The Clean Clothes Campaign, an alliance which advocates on behalf of global workers in the garment industry, told us by email that wages for Vietnamese Nike workers had increased somewhat in the past 20 years and provided figures for 2016: Depending on where the factory is, workers would receive between 118 USD and 171 USD a month for a normal working week. However … it’s not uncommon for the employers to withhold some money (wage-theft) and to force overtime which decreases the wage per hour which workers would effectively take home. That means Nike workers in Vietnam earned between $0.61 and $0.89 per hour in 2016, based on a working week of 48 hours. However, as the group pointed out, the effects of inflation and an increased cost of living in Vietnam since the 1990s means that this increase in the nominal hourly wage is not as significant in real terms, and may not be that high even in nominal terms, after one accounts for forced overtime, an illegal practice documented by the Worker Rights Consortium in a 2016 report. We asked Nike for a response to the claims in the viral September 2018 tweet and details on the average hourly wage, weekly hours, and gender breakdown of Nike workers in Vietnam. A spokesperson directed us to the company’s code of conduct and the Nike manufacturing map. According to the manufacturing map, 80 percent of the 385,000 Nike workers in Vietnam are women, as of 6 September 2018, which corresponds with one claim in the tweet. Nike’s code of conduct does not contain data on average wages or hours, but it does outline the company’s expectations of factories where their products are made, including commitments that all work be voluntary, employees be over 16, harassment and abuse be forbidden, wages be paid on time, the workplace br safe, and so on. The spokesperson quoted the following sections from the Nike wage policy, which can be read in full here: Nike expects that factory employees are timely paid at least the minimum wage required by country law, or prevailing wage, whichever is higher, and an overtime premium aligned with local law, or 125% of the employee’s base hourly rate, whichever is higher, plus legally mandated benefits, including holidays and leaves, and statutory severance when employment ends … Suppliers shall not require workers to work more than the regular and overtime hours allowed by the law of the country where the workers are employed. The regular work week shall not exceed 48 hours. Suppliers shall allow workers at least 24 consecutive hours of rest in every seven-day period. All overtime work shall be consensual. Suppliers shall not request overtime on a regular basis and shall compensate all overtime work at a premium rate. Other than in extraordinary circumstances, the sum of regular and overtime hours in a week shall not exceed 60 hours. Conclusion The tweet that went viral in September 2018 stated that Nike workers in Vietnam earned 20 cents per hour. This was certainly true in the 1990s, when a series of investigations forced the company to make changes in its labor practices. However, the pay for Nike workers in Vietnam has increased since then. The tweet also accurately asserted that 80 percent of Nike factory workers in Vietnam were women, and that they performed between 70 and 80 hours a week. Again, there is evidence that this was so in the 1990s, but since then conditions have improved somewhat, and an external 2016 report found that, while some workers were forced into illegal amounts of overtime, the statutory working week of 48 hours is often respected, and a working week of 70 to 80 hours is not typical.
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7339
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Navajo Nation residents to be under strictest lockdown yet.
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Residents of the Navajo Nation will be under the strictest weekend lockdown yet, with grocery stores and gas stations closed, and even essential workers ordered to stay home.
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true
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U.S. News, Health, General News, New Mexico, Virus Outbreak
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Navajo President Jonathan Nez made the announcement after a spike in deaths that he attributed to shifting traffic patterns after the city of Gallup recently shut down to outside visitors. That lockdown in northwestern New Mexico has since ended. On the Navajo Nation, residents will face citations, with potential fines and jail time, if they leave their homes during the lockdown, which starts Friday night and ends Monday around dawn. Nez urged people to listen and not pack their bags to head out of town during the lockdown. “Stay home, that’s the bottom line. There’s nothing wrong with staying home and taking care of your home, taking care of your family members,” a frustrated Nez said Thursday. “We need to be able to recognize that what you do affects everybody.” While the state of Arizona has loosened its restrictions on residents and businesses, the Navajo Nation has clamped down. The tribe already has daily nighttime curfews and requires people to wear masks when out in public. Government offices are closed or have limited services. The tribe’s stay-at-home order has been extended to June 7, while Arizona’s expired Friday. As of Friday, the tribe reported 127 deaths and 3,740 positive coronavirus cases since it first began tracking the figures. More than 500 people have recovered, tribal health officials said. There were no new deaths reported on Friday. Loretta Christensen, the chief medical officer for the Navajo-area Indian Health Service, said the reservation’s three largest hospitals hit capacity last week — in line with expected predictions — and a significant number of patients were transferred off the reservation. “We’re still getting cases across the area, but not at the velocity we did before,” she said in a call with reporters Thursday. People who have tested positive but no longer need to be hospitalized are being encouraged to stay in one of three isolation centers set up in basketball gyms on and off the reservation to protect their families. Isolation tents also are available for those who would rather not leave their property, Christensen said. For most people, the new 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. McKinley County, which includes Gallup, had been the hot spot on the reservation because of a recent outbreak at a detox center. Apache County in Arizona surpassed it with the most COVID-19 cases on the reservation, according to the Thursday figures. Apache County had 948 positive cases, while McKinley County had 928, tribal officials said. Navajo County in Arizona had 757 cases, and San Juan County in New Mexico had 428. Six other counties in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah had smaller numbers. The Navajo Nation’s total cases include 99 that previously weren’t included because they took longer than usual to verify. Tribal officials also cited jurisdictional challenges.
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9118
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Radiation prior to surgery reduces risk of secondary tumors in early-stage breast cancer
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This news release from the Moffitt Cancer Center promotes pre-surgury radiation for early breast cancer patients — a non-standard approach to treating patients with this type of cancer. The study the release is based on drew data from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program, a national registry that’s been collecting data on cancer cases nationwide since the 1970s. We like how the release clearly summarized the source of the data — a very large database of cancer cases spanning several decades. But it’s important to keep in mind that the evidence supporting the treatment approach comes from a retrospective study, not randomized controlled clinical trials, and that point could have been made earlier. The SEER database didn’t capture why some early stage breast cancer patients were treated with pre-surgical — or neoadjuvant — radiation therapy but the release speculates that it was to reduce the size of the tumor before surgery. This treatment strategy also hasn’t been shown to improve survival as stated in the subhead; a randomized clinical trial that follows patients over a period of time is required to study survival outcomes. Breast cancer patients are hit with a barrage of decisions when the cancer is diagnosed. With radiotherapy, as with other therapies, quality evidence well-explained helps both doctor and patient make the best treatment plan possible. Readers should keep in mind that while the release calls the study results “promising” it also states that randomized clinical trials are needed to confirm the benefit of pre-surgical radiation therapy for early-stage breast cancer.
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mixture
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early-stage breast cancer,H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute,radiation
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The costs of neoadjuvant radiotherapy vs. postoperative-adjuvant radiotherapy were not discussed. The release doesn’t provide any numbers to support the benefit claims. It states, “Researchers discovered that among the breast cancer patients who tested positive for the estrogen receptor (ER) biomarker, patients who had neoadjuvant radiation therapy had a significantly lower risk of developing a second primary tumor than patients who had adjuvant radiation therapy.” How much lower was the risk? Some absolute risk numbers should have been included here. They were available in the published study. There is no comment in the release about potential harms, although the study itself addressed the potential negative impact on healing. The release did a good job describing the database, some terminology, patient demographics, and some of the study limitations. It also includes some caution in the closing paragraph: “These data are promising, but randomized clinical trials are needed to confirm the benefit of neoadjuvant radiation therapy.” However, while the news release is clear that the study was based on the SEER database, the opening sentence of the release notes that the Moffitt Cancer Center “launched a first of its kind study.” To a patient or lay person not familiar with the difference between a prospective randomized clinical trial and a retrospective database review (which this was), this could give the impression that the technique of utilizing radiation therapy prior to surgery was actually being performed and studied at Moffitt. Rather, what the researchers did was analyze a large database of patients who were diagnosed between 1973-2011 across the United States. That is explained in the third paragraph but it may not be enough to offset the false impression created earlier in the release that this was a contemporary study of patients recently treated at Moffitt. There was no disease mongering noted. Funding sources were noted and do not appear to be a conflict of interest. The release briefly referenced chemotherapy and endocrine therapy as alternatives to pre- and post-surgical radiation but offered no comparison data. The evidence comes from the SEER database which has been collecting data on cancer incidence for several decades, indicating that the treatment has been performed. However, the authors clearly state a need for further clinical trials to validate their hypotheses that pre-surgical radiation is a good option. The release alludes to “a growing body of literature” that suggests radiotherapy may trigger an immune response that suppresses future tumor growth and that this study supports that view. But when the release claims novelty in its description of “a first of its kind study” that’s misleading. It was not a controlled trial but a review of information captured in a database. This should have been spelled out clearly early on to avoid confusion. The release doesn’t engage in sensational language.
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31086
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"Police in Charlottesville were issued a ""stand down"" order and told to let violence happen."
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We did not find evidence of a direct order to officers to “stand down” and not respond to fights and other disorders. Even if there was no explicit “stand down” order in place, CPD and VSP both failed to “stand up” to protect human life. Supervisors devised a poorly conceived plan that under-equipped and misaligned hundreds of officers. Execution of that plan elevated officer safety over public safety. The consequence was that many in the crowd felt physically vulnerable despite intense law enforcement presence, a perfect recipe for undermining the community’s faith in law enforcement.
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false
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Uncategorized, charlottesville, conspiracy theory, newspunch.com
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On 15 August 2017, the disreputable web site YourNewsWire posted a story purporting to quote an “anonymous” police officer saying that law enforcement in Charlottesville, Virginia had been instructed not only to “stand down” during a violent white supremacist rally, but to instigate violence by purposely bringing rival groups together in order to start a race war. YourNewsWire dives deep into conspiracy territory, claiming the chaos at the weekend rally was instigated by the “deep state,” as well as former President Barack Obama and former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton: The New World Order, led in the United States by elite operatives Obama, Podesta, Soros, Clinton and company, are pulling out all the stops to create division through chaos and destruction. Crowds of paid protestors and useful psychopaths are being sent into pitched battle against one another to sour the mood of the nation and further divide us all. They are manipulating and controlling newsworthy events in order to maintain power and control over the public, and to swing public opinion. The web site quotes a supposed anonymous police officer as saying: We [Charlotesville police] were ordered to bring the rival groups together. As soon as they were in contact with each other, we were told to stand down. It was outrageous. We weren’t allowed to arrest anyone without asking the mayor first. We weren’t even allowed to stop the driver as he sped away. The event was being set up as far back as at least May and it went like clockwork. We wanted to do our job and keep the peace. But these mother******s in charge really want to destroy America. We found no evidence the supposed quote being shared on the Internet and featured by YourNewsWire is authentic, and because it’s not only unattributed but vague, we have no way of tracing it. However it only appears on YourNewsWire and other junk sites that cite YourNewsWire, a web site that regularly posts unfounded conspiracy theories. Violence did plague the city of Charlottesville through the weekend of 11 August 2017, as protests, general unrest, and street brawls broke out surrounding the “Unite the Right” white supremacist rally. One woman was killed when a rally attendee reportedly purposely rammed his car into a crowd of counter-demonstrators, and two state police officers lost their lives when the helicopter they were flying to monitor the unrest crashed. However we were able to confirm via a Freedom of Information Act request that no official “stand down” order was given. The rumor seems to have its roots in a 12 August 2017 tweet posted by the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which cited an unnamed police officer saying law enforcement would wait for a “command” before intervening in street clashes: Clash between protesters and counter protesters. Police says “We’ll not intervene until given command to do so.” #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/UkRDlNn2mv — ACLU of Virginia (@ACLUVA) August 12, 2017 The same day, investigative news outlet ProPublica published a story reporting police inaction in the face of violence: There was nothing haphazard about the violence that erupted today in this bucolic town in Virginia’s heartland. At about 10 a.m. today, at one of countless such confrontations, an angry mob of white supremacists formed a battle line across from a group of counter-protesters, many of them older and gray-haired, who had gathered near a church parking lot. On command from their leader, the young men charged and pummeled their ideological foes with abandon. One woman was hurled to the pavement, and the blood from her bruised head was instantly visible. Standing nearby, an assortment of Virginia State Police troopers and Charlottesville police wearing protective gear watched silently from behind an array of metal barricades — and did nothing. It was a scene that played out over and over in Charlottesville as law enforcement confronted the largest public gathering of white supremacists in decades. We walked the streets beginning in the early morning hours and repeatedly witnessed instances in which authorities took a largely laissez faire approach, allowing white supremacists and counter-protesters to physically battle. On 14 August 2017, Fox News reporter Doug McKelway claimed to have a specific police source that told him officers were ordered not to engage. He said: I know for a fact that we have heard from a senior law enforcement from another county nearby this one, nearby Albemarle County, who that says that some of his underlings who attended a briefing here conducted by the city of Charlottesville and the police department of Charlottesville and the mayor’s office of Charlottesville before Saturday morning’s riot happened, that they were not to make arrests without the explicit approval of the mayor of the city of Charlottesville. Despite the critique by some that police didn’t do enough to quell violence, both police Chief Al Thomas and city spokeswoman Miriam Dickler said no such order was issued. We filed a FOIA seeking any records documenting such an order by either the city, or by any agency outside the city to Charlottesville police and received this response: We have no records responsive to this request. Dickler explained to us why the claim that the mayor issued a stand-down order which police were required to obey is not possible: The city operates under a council-manager form of municipal government, meaning the city manager functions as the executive. Under this system, the mayor is selected by the City Council, not voters. The role rotates and is mostly ceremonial in its duties. Thus, Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer would not have had the authority to issue a “stand-down” order to the police. In the months following the deadly weekend, the city commissioned an independent review of the response to the white supremacist rally by the law firm Hunton & Williams, lead by former U.S. Attorney Timothy Heaphy. The scathing report released 1 December 2017 is heavily critical of the city’s response and faults police for failing to prevent much of the violence with flawed planning and coordination that produced “disastrous” results. The report found that the failure of police to quell violence and block traffic while pedestrians fought and marched allowed for tragedy to strike: The planning and coordination breakdowns prior to August 12 produced disastrous results. Because of their misalignment and lack of accessible protective gear, officers failed to intervene in physical altercations that took place in areas adjacent to Emancipation Park. VSP [Virginia State Police] directed its officers to remain behind barricades rather than risk injury responding to conflicts between protesters and counter-protesters. CPD commanders similarly instructed their officers not to intervene in all but the most serious physical confrontations. Neither agency deployed available field forces or other units to protect public safety at the locations where violence took place. Instead, command staff prepared to declare an unlawful assembly and disperse the crowd. When violence was most prevalent, CPD commanders pulled officers back to a protected area of the park, where they remained for over an hour as people in the large crowd fought on Market Street. Once the unlawful assembly was declared, law enforcement efforts to disperse the crowd generated more violence as Alt-Right protesters were pushed back toward the counterprotesters with whom they had been in conflict. Once Emancipation Park was clear, the violent conflicts spread beyond the park. Small groups of people wandered through the streets and engaged in frequent skirmishes unimpeded by police. Violence erupted at the Market Street parking garage, Justice Park, High Street, the Water Street parking area, and on the Downtown Mall. Police attempted to respond to these violent conflicts, but were too far away and too late to intervene. The result was a period of lawlessness and tension that threatened the safety of the entire community. The most tragic manifestation of the failure to protect public safety after the event was declared unlawful was the death of Heather Heyer. Early on August 12, CPD had placed a school resource officer alone at the intersection of 4th Street NE and Market Street. This officer feared for her safety as groups of angry Alt-Right protesters and counter-protesters streamed by her as they left Emancipation Park. The officer called for assistance and was relieved of her post. Unfortunately, CPD commanders did not replace her or make other arrangements to prevent traffic from traveling across the Downtown Mall on 4th Street. A single wooden saw horse was all that impeded traffic down 4th Street as large groups of people continued to roam the streets. This vulnerability was exposed when James Fields drove his vehicle down the unprotected street into a large crowd of counter-protesters at the intersection of 4th Street SE and Water Street, killing Ms. Heyer. The report further alleges Charlottesville police command staff deleted text messages relevant to the review and two people — a police captain and the chief’s personal assistant — told investigators that Thomas said that allowing people to fight in the streets would facilitate the declaration of an unlawful assembly, which would make it a crime for anyone to remain in the area: Chief Thomas’s response to the increasing violence on Market Street was disappointingly passive. Captain Lewis and Chief Thomas’ personal assistant Emily Lantz both told us that upon the first signs of open violence on Market Street, Chief Thomas said “let them fight, it will make it easier to declare an unlawful assembly.” Thomas did not recall making that statement, though he did confirm that he waited to “see how things played out” before declaring the unlawful assembly. Regardless of what he said, Chief Thomas’ slow-footed response to violence put the safety of all at risk and created indelible images of this chaotic event. Thomas’s attorney Kevin Martingayle said the chief does not recall making that statement. The report doesn’t find evidence that a “stand down” order was explicitly given — but it does say that the city and authorities failed to keep the peace and protect the safety of the community despite having a visibly large police presence:
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9493
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Vaccine shows protection against gonorrhea for first time, study says
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This story reports on a New Zealand study that suggests a vaccine that protects against a strain of meningitis may also offer some protection against gonorrhea. The research, published in the Lancet, estimated that a meningitis B vaccine administered to teens and young adults during an outbreak in the early 2000s was 31 percent effective in protecting against gonorrhea. The story does a good job of covering the science behind this surprising finding, but its optimistic assertion that the “world might be catching a break when it comes to drug-resistant gonorrhea” seems premature. Also, the potential costs and side effects were not discussed. Excluding the drawbacks plays into the marketing strategy of GlaxoSmithKline, which is pushing to increase sales of its vaccine, Bexsero. Gonorrhea is common worldwide, with an estimated 820,000 new infections annually in the U.S. Untreated, it can cause infertility and lead to infections in other parts of the body. Yet journalists should use caution when reporting on the potential for a vaccine. This industry-sponsored study received broad coverage, much of which downplayed the lack of safety and efficacy data while raising an alarm about antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea and neglecting other strategies to combat the disease.
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true
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gonorrhea,sexually transmitted,vaccines
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There’s no mention of how much a gonorrhea vaccine might cost. In the U.S. meningitis B vaccine Bexsero, which contains manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline, costs $99 for a pediatric dose and $106 for an adult dose. Two doses are required. A discussion of cost and cost-effectiveness is particularly important when considering a widespread public vaccination campaign. The story just passes the bar, giving actual numbers far down in the story. It states researchers “found people who were vaccinated were 31 percent less likely to be infected with gonorrhea than those who hadn’t received the meningococcal B vaccine.” We would have liked to see that data higher in the story. Instead, the story states in the third paragraph that the gonorrhea rate was “significantly lower” among those who were vaccinated. The story doesn’t give the overall risk of getting gonorrhea, so it’s hard to tell whether a 31 percent drop amounts to a significant benefit for individuals. The study itself states that the findings provide preliminary evidence of “moderate” cross-protection, and we think that should have been given more discussion so people get a better sense of how little is known about the efficacy compared to other vaccines. Any vaccine has potential side effects, and these aren’t mentioned. According to the CDC, more than half of the people who get meningitis B vaccines have mild problems such as headaches or soreness where the shot was given. Fainting, allergic reactions and shoulder pain are less common effects. Also, the vaccine appears to be only moderately effective, meaning people may get infected regardless. Overall, not much is known about this vaccine’s safety–whether it’s being used for meningitis or gonorrhea. As Bloomberg News explained, many health experts decry the lack of data on the vaccine. Discussing this issue would have made the story stronger. The story states that the findings were observational and adds: “Clinical trials will need to be conducted to see if the effect researchers have observed is actually due to the meningococcal B vaccine.” It explains that only a particular vaccine component that protects against one strain of meningitis appears to offer some protection against gonorrhea, while meningococcal vaccines that protect against other strains do not. The story could have mentioned the number of vaccinated young people in the study, which was nearly 15,000. The story dramatizes the threat of antibiotic resistance with an unattributed statement: “The last remaining drugs to cure this sexually transmitted infection are showing signs they may only have a few more years of usefulness left.” It also gives a quote from a GSK spokeswoman who calls the findings “a positive step in the search for a vaccine against this common and distressing disease that is increasingly resistant to antibiotic treatment.” As this Scientific American article explains, that actual rate of antibiotic-resistance–while on the rise–is still pretty small. Independent sources would have been useful on this point, but we wouldn’t say this rises to the level of disease mongering. The story reports that the study was funded by GSK and Auckland Uniservices, the commercialization arm of the University of Auckland. It does not mention that one of the researchers in the study has been a paid consultant for GSK and other drugmakers. The story appears to use one independent source, Dr. Jean Longtin, head of Quebec’s public health laboratory. It also quotes from an accompanying editorial by Kate Seib, of Australia’s Institute for Glycomics, who declared no conflicts. There’s no discussion of other strategies to address the spread of gonorrhea. The CDC has urged the development of new treatments for gonorrhea. Public health education, including condom use, can prevent new cases. A report sponsored by health agencies in the U.S. and the United Kingdom highlighted the need for strong data-driven public health surveillance to better understand how resistant strains evolve and get transmitted, as well as point-of-care diagnostic testing to identify resistant strains. At least a line or two discussing these alternatives would have informed readers that the vaccine isn’t the only solution. The story says the single-component vaccine used in New Zealand is no longer made but that the component is part of GSK’s Bexsero vaccine, which is on the market. The story also distinguishes the B vaccine from others on the market: “Meningococcal vaccines that protect against the other strains do not seem to have the same effect (on gonorrhea).” Significance is conveyed in the headline: “Vaccine shows protection against gonorrhea for first time, study says.” The story does not appear to rely on the news release from The Lancet.
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5537
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‘Survive, not enjoy’: Heat, humidity gripping half the US.
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Americans from Texas to Maine sweated out a steamy Saturday as a heat wave canceled events from festivals to horse races, chased baseball fans out of their seats and pushed New York City to order steps to avoid straining the electrical system.
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true
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Science, New York, MLB, General News, Heat waves, AP Top News, New York City, Weather, U.S. News
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The National Weather Service said “a dangerous heat wave” sent temperatures into the 90s, with high humidity that made it feel considerably hotter. It was expected to stay warm at night, in the upper 70s to low 80s, with more heat on the way Sunday for the East Coast. “It’s brutal,” Jeffrey Glickman said as he paused during a run in Washington. The 37-year-old got out early to try to escape the worst of the heat but still planned to cut his route short on an already 90-degree (32-degree Celsius) morning. “You just have to power through it the best you can,” he said. Many people in areas facing excessive heat this weekend have no air conditioning, and cities opened shelters for people to cool off. With record- or near-record-high temperatures at night when many air conditioned places are closed, the weather can become especially dangerous for people who don’t get a chance to cool down, experts say. The risks are greater for young children, the elderly and the sick. Over three days in July 1995, more than 700 people died during a heat wave in Chicago as temperatures rose above 97 degrees (36 degrees Celsius). Many of the dead were poor, elderly and lived alone. Animals at an Illinois zoo are given icy treats and sprayed with water misters as the Midwest faces temperatures nearing 100 degrees. (July 19) While the Midwest will get some relief Sunday as a cold front brings storms and lower temperatures, the East won’t be so lucky until Monday, the weather service warned. The heat will be the worst from the Carolinas to Maine. In Norwich, Connecticut, Larry Konecny watched as one of his workers a couple of stories up in a boom lift cleaned the outside of an office building. The pair had no choice but to work in 90-degree heat and stifling humidity because the job needed to be done when office workers were away, Konecny said. “He’s pressure-washing, so the water is splashing. So at least there’s some degree of refreshment,” he said. New York City authorities canceled a Times Square commemoration of the 1969 moon landing and an outdoor festival featuring soccer star Megan Rapinoe, musician John Legend and “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah. Still, Megan Vallerie ran 5 miles (8 kilometers) in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. “It’s not the day to be out here. I should have been up much earlier,” she said Saturday morning. “You’ve got to take your time and drink a lot of water and survive, not enjoy. That’s the goal.” The city also directed owners of many office buildings to set thermostats no lower than 78 degrees (26 degrees Celsius) through Sunday to reduce strain on the electrical grid. The measure came after a power outage related to an equipment failure, not heat, caused a roughly five-hour blackout July 13 that affected a 40-block stretch of Manhattan, including Times Square and Rockefeller Center. Storms have knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people in parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, heightening the misery. Strong wind and rain were expected to persist Saturday night and into Sunday in the Midwest and Central Plains. In Philadelphia, several hundred people were evacuated from a retirement community due to a partial power outage, though it wasn’t immediately clear whether the problem was heat related. Residents were taken to a nearby shelter, and police said some went to a hospital for evaluation. In Chicago, heat nixed several outdoor events, including a 5k run in Grant Park and a morning workout at Millennium Park. It hit 94 degrees (34 degrees Celsius) by first pitch at the San Diego Padres-Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field, but some fans didn’t want to stay away, largely watching from shaded concourses as the Cubs won 6-5. “We’re sticking to water and not having beer. It’s helping a little bit,” said Jaclyn Jendrisak of St. Louis. In New Jersey, operators of the Monmouth Park horse racing track canceled six races and pushed back others, including the $1 million Haskell Invitational, until early evening. Maximum Security, the horse that crossed the finish line first in this year’s Kentucky Derby and then was disqualified, headlines the Haskell field. Races were set to resume just before sunset. Animal rights activists protested outside the New Jersey Shore track, where temperatures hit the high 90s. The track set up misting fans in the paddock and saddling areas for the 14-race card, shortened post parades before the race to limit track time for the horses and hosed them down after they ran. Amid pressure over a series of horse deaths in California, several tracks canceled their Saturday races, including Saratoga Race Course and Finger Lakes in New York and Laurel Park in Maryland. At New York’s Yankee Stadium, the temperature hit 94 degrees when the home team and Colorado Rockies took the field for what turned into an 11-5 Yankees romp. Extra hydration stations were set up in all three decks and the bleachers. Announcements reminded fans to keep drinking water. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he was mindful of the heat, too. “You tend to monitor guys a little more closely, want to see how your pitchers are doing,” he said. ___ Associated Press writers Julie Walker and Ronald Blum in New York; Michael Balsamo in Washington; Susan Haigh in Norwich, Connecticut, and Tom Canavan in Oceanport, New Jersey, and Michal Dwojak in Chicago contributed to this report.
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9280
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Study shows first signs that ADHD drug may improve cognitive difficulties in menopausal women
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University of Pennsylvania researchers conducted a clinical trial to test whether giving lisdexamfetamine (LDX), a psychostimulant currently approved to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and binge-eating disorder, would improve the cognitive performance of menopausal women who complained of cognitive difficulties. The study showed an improvement in executive functions among the women after taking the drug, although the importance of that improvement is unclear. This news release draws a flag for disease-mongering. The assumption of the release is that there is a large population of menopausal women who require treatment for menopause-related cognitive dysfunction. However, such a need is never established by the release and hasn’t, to our knowledge, been established in the medical literature. Should it really be “a major public health goal” to promote “healthy cognitive aging” among menopausal women? That’s the contention of one of the researchers who’s quoted in this news release, and it’s obviously a key part of the rationale for testing this drug in menopausal women. But while many women experience transient cognitive issues during menopause, it’s not clear that there are, in fact, a large number of women who experience symptoms significant enough to interfere with their functioning or relationships (the threshold that would warrant treatment). And if such women don’t exist in large numbers, it’s questionable whether the primary goal here is improving the public’s health or the financial health of LDX manufacturer Shire. Let’s recall that within the past few months, Shire has successfully petitioned to have this drug, originally used for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, approved for treatment of binge-eating disorder — a condition that some feel was created with significant help from the drug industry and which Shire has been aggressively marketing to the public with an “awareness” campaign. So its attempts to expand the use of this drug to a new population deserve careful scrutiny. Is this based on a real public health need? Or is this is drug in search of a new market — one that Shire will create for itself if necessary?
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false
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menopause,Shire Pharmaceuticals,Vyvnase
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There is no mention in the release as to the cost of LDX although, since it is routinely prescribed for ADHD, the cost for users should be easy to provide. A cursory search of the internet suggests that a 30-day supply could cost between $100 and $300, depending on the provider and insurance coverage. Nor is it clear from the release how long women would need to take the drug to ward off any cognitive decline, since the trial the release reports on only continued for several weeks. Providing that information would allow readers to accurately gauge the value of the treatment. The release describes benefits like this: “The researchers found a 41 percent overall improvement in executive functions for women receiving LDX, compared to a 17 percent improvement when taking placebo medication.” And it points out that in four of the five areas of cognitive loss, those taking the drug experienced “significant improvements,” although it fails to provide specific details on those areas. We’d add that on the objective measures of cognitive function (the neuropsychological tests where performance is externally graded), only 2 of 12 tests showed a statistically significant improvement, and these would not have been significant if the study authors had made the appropriate statistical adjustments for multiple comparisons. This is perhaps more of a problem with the study itself and the journal that published it rather than the release per se, but it’s a problem that deserves comment. And while the subjects’ self-rated improvements in function were greater, as would be expected, than the objective measures, it’s hard to know whether these statistically significant changes are clinically meaningful. In other words, are they large enough and durable enough to make a real difference in people’s lives? The release doesn’t say or give us any context for judging the importance of the benefit. The release fails to mention any harms in this release, although the paper mentions that this drug can raise both heart rate and blood pressure, although not precipitously. This release does identify the nature of this trial, pointing to the randomization of the participants and that they served as their own control group as crossovers in the study. It also comments on the short duration of the study, noting that “long-term studies of menopausal women receiving LDX are needed.” However, the study only involved 32 women, and the original study paper recommends testing the hypothesis with a much larger cohort. Moreover, in the paper itself, the researchers state: “While these findings are compelling, there are several aspects of the study design that limit our ability to generalize these data to all women with cognitive complaints during the menopause transition.” (For example, women with mood problems were excluded from the study.) Both the lede of the story and its headline could have better represented this caveat by referring to “some menopausal women.” We’ll give the benefit of the doubt here with suggestions for improvement for next time. As noted in above in this review, we’re concerned that this release engages in disease mongering. Fresh off of an approval of this drug for binge-eating disorder, study co-funder Shire appears to be looking to menopausal women as a new market and possibly pathologizing such women inappropriately. Are these women truly impaired enough to require drug treatment? The release says that reports of cognitive impairment are “widespread” in menopausal women. But to truly establish such a need, the release should have provided more context as to the degree of impairment and the number of women with severe impairment, and how long this lasts. The idea that this research is addressing “a major public health goal” needs more high-quality evidence to be accepted. In the study itself, the authors acknowledge that “the true prevalence and severity of mid-life onset of executive function difficulties among women experiencing a natural menopause are not known.” While the release does identify the four funding entities underwriting the research, it fails to point out what the research paper actually does: That two authors receive grant support from Shire, the drug’s manufacturer, and that that the lead author has stock holdings with five different pharmaceutical firms (although not with the manufacturer of the drug used in the study). Readers need this information to be able to interpret the evidence. The release offers no mention or discussion of alternative treatments for menopause-related symptoms or cognitive dysfunction. The release establishes that the drug used in the study is now frequently prescribed for ADHD patients, suggesting that it is available and also could also be used for menopause-related symptoms.. Both the headline on the release and the lead paragraph both mention that this is the first study to show these results when using a psychostimulant to reduce losses in executive function among menopausal women. As noted above, we don’t think it’s well documented how “commonly experienced” these cognitive complaints really are, to the point they interfere with life or functioning. However, since we’ve already dinged the story for that problem and there aren’t any egregious overstatements, we’ll award a Satisfactory grade.
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4304
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Science Says: Why scientists prize plant, animal genomes.
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Just about every week, it seems, scientists publish the unique DNA code of some creature or plant. Just in February, they published the genome for the strawberry, the paper mulberry tree, the great white shark and the Antarctic blackfin icefish.
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true
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Biology, Animals, Technology, Genetic Frontiers, Science Says, Science
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They also announced that, thanks to a crowdfunding campaign, they’d produced the genome of Lil BUB, a female cat with a large internet following. That followed a notable advance in January: an improved genome for the axolotl, a salamander renowned for regrowing severed limbs and other body parts. Scientists have been uncovering genomes for quite a while. The first from an animal — a worm — came in 1998. Now, the technology has advanced far enough that scientists last year announced a project to produce the genomes for all life forms on Earth other than bacteria and single-celled organisms called archaea. They called it a “moonshot for biology.” But what’s the point of uncovering new genomes? For scientists, a detailed look under the hood of their favorite organism provides a foothold for learning the deepest secrets of their objects of attention, it leads to discoveries about how life works, and possibly how to prevent disease. Take the mosquito. Late last year, researchers published a much-improved description of the DNA code for a particularly dangerous species of mosquito: Aedes aegypti, notorious for spreading Zika, dengue and yellow fever. That achievement came from analyzing the DNA of 80 mosquito brothers. They were born in Leslie Vosshall’s lab at Rockefeller University in New York, where thousands of mosquitoes swarmed in cages recently as Krithika Venkataraman was trying to make some more. She stuck a tube that protruded from her mouth like a straw into a transparent cube filled with male mosquitoes. Then she repeatedly sucked about 30 males at a time into the tube. She counted them, and then blew them into another cube that housed females. Before long, the two sexes were mating. You can think of a genome as an instruction book for building a living thing. Its language is a four-letter alphabet, which stand for the four compounds that make up the innards of the DNA molecule. The order of those compounds along the molecule is the code; it creates “words” that we call genes. The mosquito genome, for example, is about 1.28 billion letters long, a bit less than half the length of the human version. Knowing the DNA sequence lets scientists manipulate it with gene editing techniques, said Ben Matthews of the Vosshall lab, who was part of the international team that published the refined description of the mosquito genome last November. And once researchers started analyzing that version of the DNA code, discoveries began to pop out. — They nearly doubled the known size of a family of genes that help mosquitoes sense information from their environment, such as the odor of humans. That was “totally, mind-blowingly, unexpected,” Vosshall said. (Vosshall’s salary is paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports The Associated Press Health & Science Department.) Further study may reveal surprises about what mosquitoes pay attention to, Vosshall said. And that could lead to better lures for mosquito traps, as well as better repellents. Maybe scientists can find something “10,000 times more disgusting” to a mosquito than the old standby, DEET, she said. — They found new details about genes that let some mosquitoes resist certain insecticides. That’s a possible step toward predicting what insecticides would be useless for fighting certain populations, as well as a potential lead for coming up with new chemical weapons against the insect. — They found previously unknown targets for a major class of insecticides. That could open the door to designing new versions that target mosquitoes while sparing beneficial insects and posing less risk to people. — They narrowed the search for genetic variants that prevent some Aedes aegypti mosquitoes from infecting people with dengue, a severe flu-like illness that sickens millions every year. If those variants can be identified, scientists might use genetic engineering to reproduce them in some mosquitoes, which could then be released to spread the variants though wild populations, Vosshall said. Those variants, or others, might also work for reducing threats of spreading Zika and yellow fever, Vosshall and Matthews said. — A similar strategy might be used to make mosquito populations overproduce males. That would reduce mosquito bites in the short term — only females bite — and open the door to shrinking wild populations through genetic engineering. The new genome revealed details of the DNA stretch that makes mosquitoes develop as males, which Matthews called “step one” in pursuing the make-more-males strategy. The salamander genome published in January built on a previous publication by European scientists last year. Although its genome is about 10 times the size of the human one, which makes the analysis harder, the axolotl’s regenerating capabilities are an obvious lure. Axolotls can replace “almost anything you can cut off of them, as long as you don’t cut off their heads,” says Jeramiah Smith of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, an author of the more recent genome paper. But Smith points to another trick that might pay off sooner for human medicine: The salamander can also heal large wounds without scarring. As for learning how to let people grow back a severed arm, he figures that’s a long way off. “That probably won’t be useful for me,” joked Smith, who’s 42. “I’ll be dead, so I won’t need to grow my arm back.” And Lil BUB ? She’s the size of a kitten even though she’s 8 years old, and has a number of other odd traits. Scientists looked for genetic mutations, and found altered genes that appear to be responsible for her extra toes and for a rare bone disease. ___ Follow Malcolm Ritter at @MalcolmRitter. ___ 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.
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2937
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China says child deaths not linked to hepatitis vaccine.
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Chinese health authorities said they have found no link between a hepatitis B vaccine and the deaths of nine children who had received those shots, state media said on Friday.
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true
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Health News
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China has been investigating 17 deaths following inoculation with a hepatitis B vaccine, made by Shenzhen-based BioKangtai, from December 13 and 31. The news alarmed many Chinese Internet users, who called on the government to make more information public. Many Chinese people are suspicious that the government tries to cover up bad news about health problems, despite assurances of transparency. In 2003, the government initially tried to cover-up the outbreak of the SARS virus. Nine of the cases have nothing to do with the vaccines, state news agency Xinhua cited the director of the disease control bureau of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, Yu Jingjin, as saying at a press conference. A preliminary analysis of the eight other cases have also found no link between the deaths and the vaccines, but the cause of the deaths will be confirmed only after autopsies, Yu said. Li Guoqing of the China Food and Drug Administration said at a press conference that no problems had been found with BioKangtai vaccines in production practices or product quality, according to Xinhua. BioKangtai said in a statement in December that it rigorously followed safety rules but that they were testing the batches suspected of causing the deaths. China has been beset by a series of product safety scandals over the past few years. At least six children died in 2008 after drinking milk contaminated by the industrial chemical melamine, and there have also been reports of children dying or becoming seriously ill from faulty encephalitis, hepatitis B and rabies vaccines.
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1381
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U.S.-UK alliance targets the world's deadliest superbugs.
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Eleven biotech companies and research teams in Britain and the United States were awarded up to $48 million in funding on Thursday to speed development of new antibiotics powerful enough to take on the world’s deadliest superbugs.
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true
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Science News
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The range of antimicrobial medicines able to kill the growing number of drug-resistant infections is dwindling and health experts warn that within a generation the death toll from such “superbug” infections could reach 10 billion. Announcing its first funding, a new U.S.-U.K. alliance known as CARB-X, short for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator, said it would invest an initial $24 million in 11 biotech companies pursing various projects to develop antibiotics and diagnostic. Another $24 million will be given in staged payments over three years as projects progress. Added to private funds from the companies, the CARB-X funding could lead to an investment of more than $75 million in projects that show success, it said in a statement. Britain’s Wellcome Trust global health charity is committing 125 million pounds ($155.5 million) over five years. Public health specialists have been warning for years that the world is facing an urgent global health threat from antibiotic-resistant superbug bacteria and that the pipeline of novel therapies to treat them is precariously thin. Drug-resistant infections kill 700,000 people a year worldwide, and the last new antibiotic class to be approved for market was discovered in 1984. With CARB-X funds, three of the 11 projects are working on potential new classes of antibiotics, while four are exploring new ways of targeting and killing bacteria. Tim Jinks, head of drug resistant infection at the Wellcome Trust, said antibiotic resistance is already “a huge global health challenge” and is getting worse. “Without effective drugs, doctors cannot treat patients,” he said in a statement. Kevin Outterson, CARB-X’s executive director and a professor of law at Boston University in the United States, added: “By accelerating promising research, it is our hope that we can speed up the delivery of new effective antibacterials, vaccines, devices and rapid diagnostics to patients who need them.”
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15366
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"The California governor ""says yes to poisoning more children with mercury and aluminum"" in vaccines."
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"Actor Jim Carrey called aluminum a poison and toxin. Like many other chemicals, it could be, in dosages and scenarios that are rare. There is no scientific evidence suggesting otherwise. In fact, the only debate stems from a theory, not research that contradicts decades of immunizations. Attaching scientific sounding terms like ""neurotoxin"" can lend a sheen of respectability or fear depending on the usage. Look at the willingness of people to sign a petition banning Dihydrogen Monoxide (you probably call it water). But the fact is, Carrey’s claim has no basis in fact and ignores several studies that contradict it."
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false
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Georgia, Autism, Public Health, Science, Jim Carrey,
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"Georgia has the CDC in its backyard to talk up the importance of childhood immunizations, but the anti-vaccine movement gained some high-profile supporters in California with a new law there that requires all public school children receive vaccinations. Actors Selma Blair and Kirstie Alley blasted the law, which starting next year will no longer allow immunization exemptions based on a religious convictions or ""personal belief"" that vaccines might be harmful. (Exemptions remain for medical reasons and kids being homeschooled). Actor Jim Carrey was the most prolific of all in his attacks, unleashing a series of Tweets that called the CDC ""corrupt"" in the vaccine debate and blasted California Gov. Jerry Brown a ""corporate fascist"" for signing the bill into law. ""California Gov says yes to poisoning more children with mercury and aluminum in manditory [sic] vaccines,"" Carrey posted on Twitter on June 30. Carrey, who dated anti-vaccine crusader and former Playmate and TV host Jenny McCarthy, continued his barrage on social media through Tuesday, several times to insist he was ""pro-vaccine"" but ""anti-neurotoxin."" The myth that ""mercury"" causes autism ranks up with the flat-earth as among the most debunked scientific theories in history. PolitiFact Georgia walked through that debate earlier this year, ruling it a ridiculous ! But aluminum as a poison? We reached out to Carrey and his representatives several times, but never heard back about his source or explanation. The actor’s Twitter feed cites a book edited by environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that continues to posit the thimerosal-autism link, but it makes no mention of the aluminum claim. So, we brushed off chemical books – well, looked at some scientific encyclopedias online – to see if we could sort that part out. Aluminum in vaccines Aluminum is literally everywhere. It is the third most abundant element on earth and the single most abundant element in the earth’s crust. It sits on the Periodic Table of Elements with ""other metals."" But unlike boron, needed in trace amounts in humans, and Thallium, a highly toxic element, aluminum has no known biological function nor significant toxicity. As such, its function in vaccines is far different than thimerosal, or ethyl mercury. Thimerosal was added to multi-dose vaccines (but not live shots, such as the MMR vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella) to act as a preservative against bacterial infections. It could be removed by simply making vaccines single-vial doses, said Dr. Walter A. Orenstein, a professor of medicine and pediatrics at Emory University and the associate director of the Emory Vaccine Center. Aluminum salts or gels are added to vaccines as ""adjuvants,"" enhancers that boost the immune system response of the shot. A 2011 report by two Canadian researchers raises questions about whether that boost is worth the potential risk. Dr. Lucija Tomljenovic and Dr. Christopher Shaw raise the possibility of overexposure to aluminum as potentially toxic and a cause of autoimmune disorders. ""The widespread presence in the human environment may underlie a number of (central nervous system) disorders,"" their paper concludes. ""The continued use of aluminum adjuvants in various vaccines for children, as well as the general public, may be of significant concern."" It’s worth noting, though, that the paper is a theory, not a scientific study. Several scientific websites have debunked the conclusions, citing decades of research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Food and Drug Administration that show aluminum is safe, and necessary. ""Aluminum is an essential component in boosting the immune responses,"" Orenstein said. ""We have no scientific evidence there is damage. We do have scientific evidence that there are bad diseases that aluminum in vaccines can prevent: cancer with the Human Papillomavirus vaccine, Diphtheria with the DTaP vaccine, and so on."" Toxicity? That said, there is such a thing as aluminum toxicity. Medical research shows it tends to occur in patients with significant kidney damage, or limited kidney function, who are also fed intravenously. In other words, there must be a specific spike in aluminum exposure – from the IV feeding – with simultaneous damage to one of the body’s essential trash collectors. That makes aluminum toxicity exceedingly rare – even as immunization rates have increased over time, said Dr. Paul Offit, a professor of pediatrics in the infectious diseases division at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Meanwhile, the CDC reports more than 2,200 alcohol poisoning deaths in the U.S. each year – an average of 6 such deaths every day. And water intoxication – a rare instance of overhydration that throws off the body’s sodium levels – killed a 10-week old Gwinnett County baby earlier this year. The key? To paraphrase the founder of toxicology, Paracelsus, the dose makes the poison. When it comes to aluminum, the FDA has concluded that a year-old baby given vaccines according to the recommended schedule will receive about 4.225 mg of the element over the course of a year. But remember that aluminum is in just about everything on earth, and the body can process it. A breast-fed child will typically ingest about 7 mg of aluminum in its first year, Offit said. For formula fed, it’s 38 mg. Soy formula, 117 milligrams. ""It’s the most abundant metal on earth’s crust, so if you live on the earth’s crust, which everyone with the possible exception of Jim Carrey does, you are exposed to aluminum,"" Offit said. Ouch. But given the miniscule amounts of aluminum in question in vaccines, Offit raises the critical point about what makes something toxic. Our ruling Actor Jim Carrey called aluminum a poison and toxin. Like many other chemicals, it could be, in dosages and scenarios that are rare. There is no scientific evidence suggesting otherwise. In fact, the only debate stems from a theory, not research that contradicts decades of immunizations. Attaching scientific sounding terms like ""neurotoxin"" can lend a sheen of respectability or fear depending on the usage. Look at the willingness of people to sign a petition banning Dihydrogen Monoxide (you probably call it water). But the fact is, Carrey’s claim has no basis in fact and ignores several studies that contradict it."
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22365
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"Oregon concealed gun applications include ""home phone numbers, home address, Social Security numbers, what kinds of guns you have in the house … whether you were dishonorably discharged from the military, what controlled substances you are taking and were you ever accused of -- accused, mind you -- of stalking."
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Kim Thatcher says concealed handgun applications require great deal of personal information
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true
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Oregon, Privacy Issues, Guns, Kim Thatcher,
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"The Oregon House recently passed a bill that would remove concealed handgun applications from the public record. Proponents of the bill say that there’s too much personal information on individual citizens tied up in the documents. Public records should focus on the government, not private citizens, they say. Here’s Rep. Kim Thatcher’s full-throated defense of the move from the House debate on the day they passed the bill: ""As the law stands now, the information in these applications includes things like, home phone numbers, home address, Social Security numbers, what kinds of guns you have in the house -- that's what's on the application -- whether you were dishonorably discharged from the military, what controlled substances you are taking and were you ever accused of -- accused, mind you -- of stalking,"" Thatcher, R-Keizer, said. ""And right now all of that would be subject to public records disclosure."" That’s an awful lot of information, indeed. But being our usual suspicious selves, we wondered whether all of that was truly included in the application. So, we did a quick check -- well, we thought it would be a quick check. We’d just pull down the Multnomah County Sheriff’s online license application and take a look, right? Well, it turns out that each of Oregon’s 36 counties has a slightly different application -- some considerably more stringent, some considerably less. After a few days of web searching and phone calling, we got our hands on 34 of the applications. Here’s what we found: -""Home phone numbers"": Yes. This is one of the first things every application we reviewed asks for. -""Home address"": Yes, again. You also have to include a mailing address if that’s different. -""Social Security numbers"": Sort of. Every application we reviewed asks for a Social Security number, but all, save two, expressly note that ""disclosure of your Social Security account number is voluntary."" -""What kinds of guns you have in the house"": Not usually. On 24 of the applications we looked through, there was no question asking applicants about current ownership. Of the remaining eight, six asked whether you ""currently own or possess a firearm,"" but only if you have ever been dishonorably discharged from the armed forces, renounced your U.S. citizenship, been ordered to register as a sex offender in any state or use controlled substances. Everybody else can skip the question. The remaining four from Baker, Grant, Gilliam and Klamath counties ask all applicants for this information. -""Whether you were dishonorably discharged from the military"": Yes, this is on most applications. If you have been, you also have to say when it happened. -""What controlled substances you are taking"": Yep, this is there. Such controlled substances, for those who are curious, include but are not ""limited to, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, LSD, or ecstasy."" (That quote is from the Multnomah County application.) -""Were you ever accused of ... stalking"": Nope. Eleven applications don’t touch on this subject at all. The other 23 ask only if the applicant is ""currently subject to any type of restraining or stalking order by the court."" They also have to include some specifics about that situation if that question applies to them. That said, if the order has been lifted, the question doesn’t apply -- note the word ""currently."" For what it’s worth, those last two questions (the one on controlled substances and the one about stalking) are pretty important given that federal law, according to the application, prohibits folks who say yes to those questions from possessing firearms at all, much less handguns of the concealed variety. Thatcher is spot on when it comes to four of her assertions (the phone numbers, home addresses, military discharge and controlled substances), but she’s less accurate on the other three (social security, current gun ownership and stalking). When we called her office, Rep. Thatcher -- and later her spokeswoman Dawn Phillips -- told us she wasn’t making sweeping proclamations about all of the applications. What matters, they said, is that her comments apply to some of the state’s 36 applications. On that point, she’s pretty close to right. That is, except for the stalking claim. Thatcher makes it sound as though anybody accused of stalking at any point in their lives would have to say so on the application. But that’s just no true. On certain applications, you have to noted whether you are currently under a court order. That’s considerably different, in our view. Still, we’ll give her the benefit of the doubt that some of the necessary nuance was left out because her comments were spoken -- not written."
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38612
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Claims that after successfully unlocking one of the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhones the FBI spilled water on it, rendering it useless, have gone viral.
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Authorities in New Delhi declared a public health emergency on Friday and closed schools and all construction activity until next week as air pollution in the city hit its worst level this year.
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false
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Terrorism
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A thick haze has hung over the Indian capital this week caused by plumes of toxic smoke from farm fires raging in neighbouring states. An index measuring the level of a deadly air pollutant hit 484 on a scale of 500 on Friday, the government’s Central Pollution Control Board, the worst this year. The index measures the level of PM 2.5, tiny particulate matter that goes deep into the lungs. Anything above 400 poses a risk for people with respiratory illnesses and can also affect even those with healthy lungs. Some companies advised employees to avoid exposure to toxic air and work from home. “We have been advised to stay at home on Monday,” said Anuj Rawat, an account director at Kantar, the market research arm of British advertising major WPP. Kantar employs around 400 people at its office in New Delhi, Rawat said. The Environment Pollution Control Authority, which is leading the effort to tackle Delhi’s pollution, said: “We have to take this as a public health emergency as air pollution is now hazardous and will have adverse health impacts on all, but particularly our children.” It banned all construction work in the sprawling metropolis of 20 million people and its neighbouring cities until Nov. 5. Each year, farmers in the states of Punjab and Haryana burn crop residue to prepare for the sowing season, ignoring government warnings. According to government-run monitor SAFAR, satellite pictures had captured nearly 3,200 incidents of stubble burning on Thursday in Haryana and Punjab that contributed to 44% percent of Delhi’s pollution. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal offered free masks on Friday and ordered schools shut till Nov. 5 to protect children. The toxic air has left several Bangladeshi cricket players with sore throats and itchy eyes ahead of their Twenty20 match against India on Sunday. “Government knew an emergency situation was approaching and did not take substantive steps on stubble burning or big industrial polluting sources,” said Sunil Dahiya, an energy and air pollution analyst at Greenpeace. “A public health emergency situation began at least 10 days ago.”
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2018
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London council confiscates breast milk ice cream.
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A London council has confiscated supplies of breast milk ice cream from a specialist parlor which launched the new flavor in the British capital last week on concerns the frozen treat may spread viruses.
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true
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Health News
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Westminster Council said it had visited the Icecreamists restaurant in London’s Covent Garden and removed all ice cream containing breast milk for testing after being contacted by members of the public and the Food Standards Agency. “Selling foodstuffs made from another person’s bodily fluids can lead to viruses being passed on and in this case, potentially hepatitis,” Brian Connell, Westminster Council’s cabinet member for business, said on Tuesday. He added that the owner had agreed to cease making and serving the ice cream while it was being tested. Matt O’Connor, founder of the restaurant where the “Baby Gaga” ice cream made from breast milk, Madagascan vanilla pods and lemon zest was launched on Friday, dismissed the concerns, saying they were “complete rubbish.” He said the breast milk — provided by women who responded to an advert on an online mothers’ forum — had undergone the same “scrupulous” screening procedures as the milk, blood and sperm found in donation banks. “If the ice cream is not safe, then these mothers pose a serious risk to their babies,” he told Reuters on Tuesday.
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34762
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The family of a terminally ill boy is asking people to send him Christmas cards.
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The family of Jacob Thompson requested cards for the ailing child so that he could have a final celebration.
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mixture
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Medical, christmas cards, jacob thompson
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In October 2017, Michelle Simard, the mother of nine-year-old Jacob Thompson, started a GoFundMe campaign for the somber task of having to raise funeral expenses for her terminally ill son. Simard explained that Jacob was unlikely to live to see another Christmas due to a spreading form of cancer known as neuroblastoma: On October 11, 2017 Jacob was admitted to the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital for the last time. Jacob’s Neuroblastoma has spread to his head — namely the sinuses, bottom of the skull, several spots in the small bones in the inner ear and several spots on the membrane between the skull and brain. We started radiation a week prior and Jacob’s condition got worse and he was having no success with oral pain meds. On on the Monday the 10th we started chemotherapy in conjunction with the radiation and by Wednesday the doctors were concerned that there were no significant reduction of pain and decided to admit Jacob. Since then we have learned that his hip is extreamly peppered by tumors, which was described as looking like lace. This obviously has added to the pain and more importantly with his ability to walk and move around. With that being said, his father, Roger and myself have been told that we should be spending as much time as possible with him and we should start making arrangements for his passing. It is expected Jacob may pass away within the month. Today Roger and I went to start making prearrangements for Jacob’s funeral, and were sticker shocked. No one thinks about having to do this type of planning for their child and because of that we did nor do not have life insurance on him. We are asking for some assistance from family and friends to help support this. We we understand everyone lives on a budget and if you can not donate the best way to help (other than prayers) is to pass this along on your Facebook or other social media. Jacob has touched the lives of so many, he as well his father and myself appreciate your continued support, love, and well wishes. Although Simard’s initial message was intended to address the “sticker shock” of the costs associated with funeral planning, another campaign grew out of hwe fundraiser. According to WBZ-TV, Jacob was thrilled by a side effect of that fundraiser — his receiving a number of early Christmas cards: Jacob has Stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma, and doctors told his family in early October he probably only had a month to live … So they’ll celebrate Christmas early this year, and Jacob wants people to celebrate with him by sending him cards, his mother, Michelle Simard told CNN. “He got some cards from this Halloween, and he opened up and saw them and it was like getting a gift. He read it to us and had a big smile his face and his nose scrunched,” Jacob’s father, Roger Guay, told CNN in a phone interview. “He was excited to see what people had to say and it just brightened his day.” On 2 November 2017, CNN’s Jake Tapper tweeted the address to which interested parties could sent cards or letters to Jacob: Jacob Thompson C/O Maine Medical Center 22 Bramhall St Portland, ME 04102 https://t.co/Xc4ROARruz — Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) November 2, 2017 That same day, Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital described the outpouring of Christmas cheer toward Jacob as “wonderfully overwhelming,” but they also issued a minor request to well-wishers: Out of concern for Jacob and all the patients at the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital, please refrain from personally delivering cards to the hospital. Instead, homemade cards can be mailed to Jacob, care of The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center, 22 Bramhall Street, Portland, Maine, 04102. Any toys or other gifts sent will be donated to the holiday gift pool for all patients at BBCH, at the request of Jacob’s parents. Unfortunately, Jacob finally succumbed to cancer and passed away on 19 November 2017, but not before he had received Christmas greetings from some high-profile celebrities: Let’s make Jacob’s early Christmas as big as he deserves. Here’s the card I drew for him. I’m counting on you guys! https://t.co/aVNp0H7efG pic.twitter.com/4SeksvtvyM — Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) November 3, 2017
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33978
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"H. L. Mencken wrote that eventually ""the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
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General Motors Co said late on Wednesday it will temporarily suspend operations at 11 Michigan plants and its Warren Tech Center after a utility made an emergency appeal to users to conserve natural gas during extreme winter cold.
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true
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Politics Quotes, h.l. mencken
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV also said it had canceled a shift on Thursday at both its Warren Truck and Sterling Heights Assembly plants and was considering whether it would need to cancel additional shifts. GM said it had been asked by Consumers Energy, a unit of CMS Energy Corp, to suspend operations to allow the utility to manage supply issues after extreme cold temperatures and a fire at a compressor station. It said workers were told not to report for the shifts at its Orion Assembly, Flint Assembly, Lansing Delta Township Assembly and Lansing Grand River Assembly plants, as well as other stamping and transmission plants on Wednesday evening and early Thursday. GM said it was still assessing when employees could return to work. Workers at its Warren Tech Center were also told to stay home on Thursday. In a video message posted on Facebook, CMS Energy Chief Executive Patricia Poppe said large companies, including Fiat Chrysler, Ford Motor Co and GM, had agreed to “interrupt” production schedules through Friday to tackle the issue prompted by a fire at a Michigan facility and the record-breaking cold. Poppe said the usage cuts by large businesses were not enough, and urged 1.8 million Michigan customers to turn down thermostats as much as they could to cut natural gas use in order to protect critical facilities like hospitals and nursing homes. “I need you to take action right now,” she said. Ford Motor said it had also taken steps to reduce energy use at its four Michigan plants supplied by Consumers Energy, but added the situation remained fluid. A spokeswoman said it had reduced heating levels at Livonia Transmission and Van Dyke Transmission, stopped heat treatment processes at Sterling Axle and shut down the paint process at Michigan Assembly. Consumers Energy sent an alert to mobile phones in Michigan asking residents to reduce natural gas use. In a Twitter message, Consumers Energy warned that “without additional reductions, we run the risk of not being able to deliver natural gas to families and critical facilities across Michigan – a scenario none of us want to encounter.” Consumers Energy said a fire at a gas compressor station in Michigan’s Macomb County Wednesday forced it to halt gas flow from the compressor station until safety and damage assessments could be completed.
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11631
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How to diagnose systemic infections much more quickly and reliably
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This news release from a Harvard bioengineering and tech transfer institute describes animal and early clinical studies of a relatively new test for quickly diagnosing the presence of blood-borne bacteria that can lead to sepsis, a life-threatening condition. The test detects pathogen-associated molecular patterns, or PAMPs, in the blood. The assay would potentially be used to distinguish such infections early and help determine if and when a patient should be hospitalized for aggressive antibiotic treatment. The release ably explains what is potentially life-saving and novel about the assay. However, the release makes no mention of the company, Opsonix, launched by the Wyss Institute research team last fall to develop and commercialize the technology for patients at risk of sepsis; nor does the release offer much quantitative or qualitative details about the animal or human studies of this proof-of-principal research. Pathogen-induced sepsis affects an estimated 1 million Americans each year and kills 30 percent of those affected. Sepsis refers to inflammatory changes in the body that can be due to a variety of causes, but infection due to bacteria entering the blood stream is one that requires a high degree of monitoring since starting treatment immediately can be the difference between life and death. At present, identifying patients with sepsis due to a bacterial infection is based upon presenting symptoms, exam findings and tests that can be done quickly, often in an emergency room. However, it can still be hard to know for sure, so some patients may be started on treatment for an infectious cause of sepsis when that may not be the case. Similarly, some patients — potentially those with early symptoms — may be thought to have something else and thus treatment is delayed. This new test is meant to provide one more piece of data early in the evaluation process that may improve clinical decision-making. Because it is only meant to say bacterial infection, yes or no, and not which one it is, the test won’t replace current tests, but rather add to them. Blood cultures will still be needed to identify the specific cause and to determine which antibiotic is best. Rather, the test may improve the triage process — leading to more accurate diagnosis. The real question — and one this study does not answer — is whether the addition of this test to current treatment improves the outcomes of those presenting with symptoms and findings suggestive of sepsis. Only future studies can determine whether this new test can improve care. The current findings are encouraging, but nothing more.
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mixture
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Academic medical center news release,Screening tests
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Given that Wyss and its start-up company have experience with the pathogen detection technology the researchers developed, there likely is by now some sense of what the cost of the assay might be, or at least some idea of whether it would be more or less expensive than current laboratory tests. It’s also important to note that such a test may be associated with additional downstream costs for testing or treatment. The published study has substantial quantification of its findings, and the range of pathogens detected. The release notes that the assay “picked up infection within an hour in 85 percent of patients who exhibited clinical symptoms of sepsis,” but offers no actual number of patients. The release states that the Wyss team “successful tested the assaying rat and pig models” of E.coli infection, but left out any data about the strength or accuracy of the experiments in pigs. The sensitivity and specificity of the test in the emergency department patients studied is key. The release quantifies the sensitivity, but only mentions specificity in a qualitative way. The published study, by contrast, notes: “In patients with suspected sepsis, the FcMBL ELLecSA detected infection in (55 of 67 patients) with high sensitivity (>81%), specificity (>89%), and diagnostic accuracy (0·87). It also distinguished infection from trauma-related inflammation in the same patient cohorts with a higher specificity than the clinical sepsis biomarker, C-reactive Protein.” This test may have harms that warrant mention. It is possible that this test could mislead doctors, just as any test that isn’t perfect could. It wasn’t 100 percent sensitive. So the 15 percent who had a normal test but turned out to have sepsis could have been sent home inappropriately. Or antibiotics could have been delayed where they otherwise might not have. Similarly, it wasn’t 100 percent specific either, so some patients may have received treatments they didn’t need or weren’t given ones that they should have been. A researcher is quoted saying that he envisions this as an add-on to current tests, but until it is studied prospectively in real practice settings, one can’t be sure if it will help more than it may harm. The release offers sufficient information about the nature of the assay, but it doesn’t give us any details about the number of patients in the study or how it was done. It mentions that the patients were recruited from the emergency department but no details are provided to give a sense of whether these patients would reflect individuals who would typically receive this type of test in routine practice. In general, the release didn’t present enough details to support the favorable outcomes it suggests. The release might also have mentioned that the study was a proof-of-principle and a “pilot”study in terms of clinical testing. No disease mongering here. Sepsis is a serious condition and we do need better ways to quickly diagnose it. The release notes the funding sources for the research. But the release doesn’t mention the financial stake the researchers have in the development and eventual marketing of the test under a start-up called Opsonix. Those ties include equity holdings and patents. According to the published study, “D.E.I. and M.S. hold equity in Opsonix Inc., and are members of its scientific advisory board. M.C. is a consultant for Opsonix Inc. D.E.I. also holds equity in Emulate Inc., and chairs its scientific advisory board. D.E.I., M.S., M.C. and M.R. are inventors on patent applications WO2013012924, WO2011090954, WO2015009734, WO2013130875. J.T., and N.G. are inventors on patent application WO2015009734. A.W. is an inventor on patent applications WO2013012924, WO2013130875.” The release notes some alternatives to this new technology. It describes briefly that current blood cultures are often not adequate, both from a timing and sensitivity perspective. It would have been even more thorough to note that there are other diagnostic tools in the research pipeline. The release gets a pass here but just barely. Unless you’re reading carefully you might think the test is already ready for prime-time. Instead, a researcher notes that “We are currently working to ready it for for high-throughput use in clinical and point of care situations and to accelerate it even further.” The release notes that the new test fills “a void” among tests that detect for infectious pathogens. The release also does a good job of explaining what is new and different about the assay’s underlying technology. Although, as noted earlier, there is some overstatement and a bit of hyperbole, the text does offer context and some cautions where needed.
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10468
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The dark side of eye surgery
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"This brief segment reports on an FDA advisory committee recommendation that patients should receive clearer warnings about the side effects of Lasik vision correction surgery. It sketches the scope of the problem and the risks. But the segment falls short of best practices in several important ways: It fails to make clear that the Lasik procedure is elective and expensive–and that the ""treatments"" of glasses and contacts are used by a large majority of people who need vision correction. It uses two diametrically opposed medical sources–one a strong advocate of the procedure, one a strong detractor. The public would be better served by hearing from one or more dispassionate, knowledgeable sources who can thoughtfully compare risks vs. benefits, provide more detail about the side effects, etc. It fails to cite facts regarding what may be the most important measure of surgical success/patient satisfaction: The ability to see well without glasses. It fails to include any patient takeaway: Given the advisory committee’s recommendation, what should someone considering getting Lasik surgery know and do? The reference at the end to what doctors should do is, for patients, beside the point. A viewer of this story is likely to come away frightened of the surgery and uncertain about what to do. That is not a good outcome."
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false
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"The segment fails to mention the price of Lasik surgery, which is considerable–$4,000 and up. The omission is particularly unfortunate because the story is essentially about benefits vs. risks of a voluntary surgery. The report cites the estimate of a 95 percent patient satisfaction rate. The source for this is not given. The reason why many people get this procedure is to be able to stop wearing glasses. The story should have told viewers what proportion achieve that goal. The report focuses largely on the potential harms. But the segment fails to describe which of these side effects is permanent, and what proportion are disabling. That figure is far less than the 5 percent who report being unsatisfied with the results. Many of these are dissatisfied because their vision is short of 20/20 or because they still need to wear glasses. This is a key omission which results in an exaggerated sense of visual disability. The segment is based on an FDA advisory committee’s recommendation that patients should receive better warnings about Lasik. While the action itself is not evidence, the committee’s recommendation is based on an assessment of evidence. The report cites ""studies"" that show a 95 percent patient satisfaction rating. This is not enough detail to help a viewer determine the quality of this evidence. There is also no source provided for that figure, or any sense for how it was derived. The story states: ""the FDA has received only 140 complaints from 1998 to 2006. But even if only 5 percent of patients are dissatisfied, with 700,000 Americans getting Lasik every year, it could mean thousands of unhappy patients. "" Wait a minute: 140 out of 700,000 is not 5 percent!!! The piece does not exaggerate the risks of surgery. At the same time it is not clear where the ""5%"" complication rate comes from. Certainly NOT from the number of complaints that the FDA has reported which is well under the 5% level. The report would be stronger if this information was included. The segment quotes one doctor who is an advocate of the procedure and one who is absolutely opposed. But the public would be better served by hearing from one or more dispassionate, knowledgeable sources who can thoughtfully compare risks vs. benefits, provide more detail about the side effects, etc. The story fails to emphasize that this surgery is elective, and that contact lenses and glasses correct vision with virtually no risk of side effects. The segment makes clear that Lasik eye surgery is widely available. It’s clear from the story that this procedure has been around for years and is in widespread use. Because two different physician sources were quoted – one advocating the procedure and one opposing – we assume it did not rely on a news release."
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37714
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"In August 2020, news outlets reported the ""escape"" of ""nuclear cannibal ants"" from a bunker in Russia."
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A “2020 Bingo” meme suggested that “nuclear cannibal ants” had “escaped” a bunker in Russia in August 2020. In actuality, research published in October 2019 catalogued ongoing observations by scientists of a colony of wood ants in an abandoned bunker once used to store nuclear weapons. Ants in the bunker were believed to survive by consuming the corpses of dead nestmates, and beginning in 2016, the same researchers set out to relocate the colony. As of early 2017, most of the ants appeared to have moved on from the colony through a “boardwalk” installed by the researchers. In other words, the ants did not “break out” of the bunker, but were directed to do so as part of ongoing study of their colony, as part of a purposeful effort to liberate the ants in unpleasant conditions from which they were unable to escape unassisted.
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mixture
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Fact Checks, Viral Content
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On August 2 2020, a Facebook user shared the following anxiety-provoking Twitter screenshot with the following commentary:Okay, who has nuclear cannibal ants for August?The screenshot showed an August 2 2020 tweet by @NinjaEconomics:One million cannibal ants trapped in Soviet nuclear weapons bunker have escaped https://t.co/QJYF8ZWCrm— Ninja Economics (@NinjaEconomics) August 2, 2020That tweet included a link to a news story, but when the rumor migrated to Facebook, the link didn’t travel with it.2020 Bingo MemeUnsaid — but strongly implied in the Facebook post’s wording — was a reference to the “2020 Bingo” meme. Although it was fairly self-explanatory, it was defined and tracked on the meme encyclopedia KnowYourMeme:2020 Bingo refers to metaphorical or literal custom bingo cards relating to major occurrences in 2020. Following, the Australian bushfires and the coronavirus outbreak many Redditors and Twitter users began reacting to new surprising news by referencing their 2020 bingo card or predicting apocalyptic scenarios using a custom bingo card. […]On March 16th, 2020, Twitter user @bjoewolf tweeted, “Did anyone have ‘Mitt Romney endorsing Universal Basic Income six weeks after voting to convict Donald Trump’ on their 2020 bingo card?” … The tweet garnered over 4,100 likes and 470 retweets in three months. On March 20th [2020], Redditor tumsdout posted a custom 2020 Apocalypse Bingo card to r/memes … The card features past and predicted future 2020 events.On June 8th [2020], Twitter user @maureenjohnson posted a screenshot of the PG Tips and the Yorkshire Tea Twitter accounts speaking out against racism and said, “I didn’t have anti-racist tea on my 2020 bingo card but I am delighted that it is here”[. ]But Did Nuclear Cannibal Ants Escape from a Russian Bunker?The original Newsweek article was published on November 4 2019, and was therefore not exactly applicable to the “2020 Bingo” meme:One Million Cannibal Ants Trapped in Soviet Nuclear Bunker Have EscapedA “colony” of up to one million cannibal ants trapped in a nuclear bunker for years have escaped, scientists in Poland have said.The ants, which had no food source other than their dead nestmates, were first discovered in 2013 were found to be solely made up of worker ants meaning they could not reproduce — how their numbers grew so large was a mystery.On the same date, SYFY reported:Stranded and left for dead years after falling into a forsaken bunker meant to house nuclear weapons, a colony of ants has apparently resorted to necrotic cannibalism not only to survive, but to thrive.Checking in recently on a colony of Formica polyctena ants that fell into the nether depths of a decrepit, abandoned nuclear weapons storage bunker in rural Poland, a team of researchers led by Prof. Wojciech Czechowski of the Polish Academy of Science found that their numbers hadn’t shrunk at all. In fact, they’d proliferated — even though their entrapment had cut the colony off from any known source of nourishment.Worse still — at least for anyone who shrinks at the thought of mixing insects and radiation — is that the ants, commonly called European red wood ants, apparently have now found a way out of their dark post-atomic prison. What was thought to be a tomb for a small ant colony of workers cut off from its mother nest has, instead, become the launch pad for a surface invasion of thriving cannibal critters.Both sites linked to published research in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research. “Hymenoptera” is a large order of insects including ants, bees, and wasps.Nuclear Cannibal AntsOn October 31 2019, the Journal of Hymenoptera Research published an article with the headline, “Ants trapped for years in an old bunker; survival by cannibalism and eventual escape.” An abstract provided a summary of the situation:Successful evacuation of a peculiar ‘colony’ of the wood ant Formica polyctena Först., for years trapped within an old bunker previously used for storing nuclear weapons (see Czechowski et al. 2016), is reported. Using an experimentally installed boardwalk, the imprisoned ants managed to get through the ventilation pipe to their maternal nest on the top of the bunker. In our previous report, we left open the question of how the ‘colony’ could survive seemingly without food. Here we show that the ‘colony’ in the bunker survived and grew thanks to an influx of workers from the source nest above the bunker and mass consumption of corpses of the imprisoned nestmates.The ants were “nuclear” due to the fact their colony was observed in “an old bunker previously used for storing nuclear weapons.” We feel it is important to point out that the location of their colony appeared unrelated to their cannibalistic behaviors.In the text of the article, researchers reiterated that their previous efforts included an “open” question about the ants’ food source. However, the portion about “cannibalism” cited 1979 research about wood ants’ consumption other wood ants’ corpses:Our previous study also left open, how the bunker colony could survive and grow without access to foraging grounds. One evident means could be cannibalism. It is known that wood ants consume dead bodies of their conspecifics left in masses on the ground during spectacular ‘ant wars’ early in the season. The function of such wars is to settle the borders of neighbouring conspecific colonies, but the corpses also add substantially to the scarce food resources available when the colony lives commence after winter (Mabelis 1979).Here we report our successful trial to re-connect the imprisoned ants with their maternal colony. We also studied possible consumption by the bunker ants of their dead nestmates which seemed to be the only food resource available to keep the ‘colony’ alive such that it could grow through the years.It appeared researchers concluded, based on past observed behavior in wood ants and the remote location of the isolated colony, that “dead nestmates” were the only logical food source for the bunker’s ant colony. As for their “escape,” the research also explained of previous interactions with the colony:As a first step in freeing the captive ants, in spring 2016, we took a group of ca 100 ants from the bunker and let them free on the outskirts of the mother nest, to check relations between the two partly isolated entities. As expected, no aggressive behaviour was observed. Subsequently, on 18th September 2016, we constructed a ca 3-metre long vertical boardwalk with one end burrowed in the earthen mound of the bunker colony and the other one tucked inside the ventilation pipe (Fig. 3). It was meant to serve as an escape route, allowing the ants to leave the bunker. At that time, the mound in the bunker was fully inhabited by ant workers – as in previous years….In September of 2016, the researchers added a “boardwalk” to facilitate movement of the isolated ant colony in the nuclear bunker. In the article’s conclusions, researchers explained:Recent research has also shown that corpse consumption in F. polyctena is more common than it was previously thought, and nestmate corpses can serve as an important food source not only in periods of food shortage (Maák et al., in press). In the light of the above, and the clear signs of mass consumption of the F. polyctena corpses in the bunker with practically no other organisms able to do it (see Czechowski et al. 2016), we can safely deduce that the bunker ‘colony’ survived on cannibalism, by consuming dead nestmates.Summing up, the ecological and behavioural flexibility of the wood ants (Seifert 2018) may allow them survival even in unexpectedly suboptimal conditions (e.g. Czechowski and Vepsäläinen 2009). The survival and growth of the bunker ‘colony’ through the years, without producing own offspring, was possible owing to continuous supply of new workers from the upper nest (Czechowski et al. 2016) and accumulation of nestmate corpses. The corpses served as an inexhaustible source of food which substantially allowed survival of the ants trapped down in otherwise extremely unfavourable conditions.As for the escape, not only did it not occur in 2020, it did not take place in 2019, either:On 11th February 2017, the mound was almost deserted, only a few ants being present close to the base of the boardwalk (Fig. 5); no live ants were seen elsewhere in the bunker chamber. To compare the situation with that in the former winter [of 2016], when the bunker mound and the whole chamber was filled with ants….Researchers initiated attempts to relocate the ants in 2016, and by February of 2017, most had used the “boardwalk” to leave the bunker.Social media shares tended to imply (or outright state) that the “nuclear ants” managed to “escape” an enclosure; in actuality, researchers created a route for the ants to relocate to better conditions. Not long after they did so, the ants vacated the bunker.A better and more accurate explanation of the saga of the nuclear cannibal ants appeared in Atlas Obscura in November 20 2019. Their deep dive provided a significant amount of context:[In 2019], [István Maák, a zoologist at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw] had taken it upon himself to do something about [the ants’ plight], and recently published the tale of a momentous rescue in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research. […]The ants were first discovered in 2013, during the first year of a campaign to monitor the health of bats known to frequent abandoned bunkers like these. They make great bat dens, with internal temperatures that hover around 44 degrees Fahrenheit in the dead of winter. Though the bunkers had been sealed, curious tourists and intrepid bat-lovers had made their way in, according to an earlier study in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research that first documented the existence of the colony, authored by Wojciech Czechowski, Maák’s colleague at the academy.Atlas Obscura explained the manner in which unlucky ants wound up in what it called a “formic Donner party”:To understand the bizarre nature of this colony, one must understand the layout of the bunker. Somewhere inside its reinforced concrete walls, which are over three feet thick, there is a small, closet-like room, cryptically numbered 12. The aesthetic of its walls screams “abandoned Soviet nuclear bunker,” with peeling paint and swelling limewash. The floor, once terra-cotta, is now a pile of rubble and soil. In the ceiling is a hole that holds the ventilation pipe, which is approximately a foot wide and connects the chamber to the outside world, about 16 feet above. Ant Colony One, which rejoices in the light and imbibes sweet honeydew, lives right on top of the pipe’s opening. “These ants are mostly eating aphid [honeydew],” Maák says. But when an unlucky ant takes one wrong step, it can tumble down the perilous chute, where it becomes a member of Ant Colony Two. No light, no aphids, no escape. “These ants are eating corpses,” he says.After the initial research was published, some members of the public fretted over the conditions in which the ants were forced to live:When Czechowski published his study marking the discovery of the bunker ants in 2016, he cited the split colony as evidence of wood ants’ remarkable perseverance. But the general populace was less awed and more concerned. “Professor Czechowski got many letters saying how cruel it was to keep the ants down there,” Maák says. “People kept asking why we did not set them free.”[…]And so, out of both compassion and scientific curiosity, Maák devised a plan. Before he could unite the colonies, he had to check if they would recognize each other. If not, the resulting carnage could wipe out both populations. Wood ant colonies each carry a hydrocarbon profile that’s as specific as a barcode, and ants will scan this to see if a newcomer is a friend or foe. In spring 2016, he took a group of around a hundred ants from Colony Two to Colony One, and let them scramble toward the mother nest. The ants were not attacked, and quickly — and perhaps with no small measure of relief — reimmersed themselves in the mother ship.TL;DRA “2020 Bingo” meme suggested that “nuclear cannibal ants” had “escaped” a bunker in Russia in August 2020. In actuality, research published in October 2019 catalogued ongoing observations by scientists of a colony of wood ants in an abandoned bunker once used to store nuclear weapons. Ants in the bunker were believed to survive by consuming the corpses of dead nestmates, and beginning in 2016, the same researchers set out to relocate the colony. As of early 2017, most of the ants appeared to have moved on from the colony through a “boardwalk” installed by the researchers. In other words, the ants did not “break out” of the bunker, but were directed to do so as part of ongoing study of their colony, as part of a purposeful effort to liberate the ants in unpleasant conditions from which they were unable to escape unassisted.Comments
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41746
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"Crime is up"" in New York City under Mayor Bill de Blasio's leadership."
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President Donald Trump and his son Eric both took shots this week at New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, saying crime has risen in the city under his leadership. That’s wrong, according to crime data kept by the New York Police Department.
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false
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crime, jobs, migration, murders, population, violent crime,
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President Donald Trump and his son Eric both took shots this week at New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, saying crime has risen in the city under his leadership. That’s wrong, according to crime data kept by the New York Police Department.Major felony offenses have dropped every year de Blasio has served as the city’s mayor, according to New York Police Department data. Other felonies are down. Misdemeanors are down. Arrests are down.According to FBI crime data, New York City had a lower violent crime rate than all but two other cities with a population over 1 million in 2017.Nonetheless, in a Twitter spat with de Blasio on May 14, Eric Trump claimed that under de Blasio’s leadership “crime is up” in New York City.Spare me? First you have never created a job in your life. Second, our great city has gone to shit under your leadership. Crime is up, the men & women of the NYPD detest you, homelessness is rampant, our streets are dirty and people are leaving our city in record numbers. https://t.co/3Fn1glQJEa— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) May 14, 2019Two days later, de Blasio, a Democrat, announced his bid for the presidency. That prompted President Trump to sarcastically tweet that “if you like high taxes & crime, he’s your man.”The Dems are getting another beauty to join their group. Bill de Blasio of NYC, considered the worst mayor in the U.S., will supposedly be making an announcement for president today. He is a JOKE, but if you like high taxes & crime, he’s your man. NYC HATES HIM!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 16, 2019Whether “NYC HATES HIM! [de Blasio]” as the president claims, is a matter of opinion, of course. De Blasio was reelected mayor in 2017 with 66 percent of the vote, but according to an April Quinnipiac poll, 76 percent of New Yorkers didn’t want him to run for president, and only 42 percent approve of how he is handling his current job as mayor. .We’ll get to some of the other claims made by the Trumps about de Blasio’s record, but let’s start with crime in New York City, which data indicate is historically low.As a mayoral candidate in 2013, de Blasio vowed to end the controversial stop-and-frisk policy, a get-tough-on-crime tactic of stopping people for suspicious activity that was begun under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and expanded under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. As it faced court challenges, the policy was well on its way out by the time de Blasio took office in early 2014, but it was greatly reduced during de Blasio’s tenure.According to online “Stop, Question and Frisk” data kept by the NYPD, those kinds of stops were at nearly 700,000 in 2011, but had declined to about 192,000 in 2013, the year before de Blasio took office, and to nearly 46,000 in 2014. They continued to decline under de Blasio’s time as mayor, dipping to about 11,000 in 2018.Although many critics warned it would spur a return to higher crime rates, that didn’t happen.“Crime is definitely not up under de Blasio,” said Patrick Sharkey, a sociology professor at New York University, who created a website that tracks data on murder for large cities.“The best measure of crime that we have is the murder rate,” Sharkey told us. “Under de Blasio, the murder rate has stayed very consistent but overall, it has fallen slightly — it rose a bit in 2015 and 2016 and fell in 2017 and 2018. Last year was the lowest point for the city’s murder rate on record. Over 2,000 people were murdered in New York City in each year of the early 1990s, and last year there were 295 murders.“New York City is now one of the 3 or 4 safest big cities (500,000 or more people) in the country,” Sharkey said in an email. “Perhaps more important, de Blasio has overseen a complete transformation of policing in the city. He ended the use of stop, question, and frisk as a central tactic of policing — about 12,000 people were stopped by the NYPD last year, compared to roughly 700,000 at the peak before he took office. Arrests are down and summonses are also way down. I view the transformation of policing (and the criminal justice system) in NYC as a proof of concept for cities trying to find ways to keep violence low while also reducing the impact of the [criminal justice] system and the harm done by aggressive policing.”According to data from the NYPD, the total number of the seven major felony offenses — murder/manslaughter, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand larceny of a motor vehicle — has gradually declined every year under de Blasio’s time as mayor. Those types of crime dropped from 111,335 in 2013, the year before de Blasio took office, to 95,883 in 2018. That’s a nearly 14 percent drop.The number of murders, 295 in 2018, was up three from 2017, but down nearly 12 percent from the number in 2013. Robberies, burglaries, and grand larcenies and car thefts are all down. The number of felony assaults has remained about the same. And the number of rapes — 1,794 in 2018 — has gone up 30 percent since 2013.The total number of “Non Seven Major Felonies” is also down. Those crimes — which include possession of stolen property, forgery/identity theft, arson, sex crimes, felony drug and weapons offenses, and criminal mischief — dropped 8.6 percent between 2013 and 2018, to 52,667.And the number of misdemeanors declined 24.4 percent between 2013 and 2018, to 271,630. That includes possession of stolen property, drugs and weapons, as well as driving while intoxicated and criminal trespass.The number of arrests is also down. According to data kept by the state, total arrests in New York City have declined every year under de Blasio, going from 313,513 in 2013 to 205,556 in 2018 — a 34 percent drop. Broken down, there was a nearly 13 percent drop in felony arrests over that period and a 43 percent drop in misdemeanor arrests.In 2017, the latest full year available for city-specific data from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, New York City had the third lowest violent crime rate among the 11 cities with a population of more than 1 million. The city’s violent crime rate that year — 539 violent crimes per 100,000 population — was the lowest since at least 1985, the last year available on the UCR’s online search tool.“Crime rates are down for murder and most other interpersonal crimes of violence and theft (other than rapes — where the reporting rate by victims may have increased),” Andrew Karmen, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, told us via email.Those declines came even as de Blasio greatly scaled back “the harsh tactics pursued by Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg for 20 years” — “excessive stopping and frisking” and “excessive arresting for minor quality of life infractions,” Karmen said.“In other words, even though the NYPD under de Blasio’s two [police] commissioners was compelled to cut back on the two ‘get tough’ approaches touted by Giuliani and Bloomberg as absolutely necessary to maintain public safety, the crime rates in NYC have continued to drift downward, as they have since 1990,” Karmen said. “They certainly have not shot up as hardliners predicted and as Trump has mistakenly tweeted.”As for Eric Trump’s claim that “people are leaving our city in record numbers,” the city’s population of 8.4 million in 2018 was nearly identical to what it was in 2013, the year before de Blasio took office, according to U.S. Census estimates. But there’s more to the story than that.After rising during de Blasio’s first couple years in office, New York City’s total population declined between 2016 and 2017, and again between 2017 and 2018 — the first time the city had seen a decline in total population in more than a decade.Although the city’s population has remained about the same during de Blasio’s time in office, the city has been “losing” people in the sense that there are more people moving out of the city than are moving in from other parts of the United States, explained Frank Donnelly, the geospatial data librarian at Baruch College CUNY and co-author of the 2018 paper, “New Yorkers on the Move: Recent Migration Trends for the City and Metro Area.”But that’s not new under de Blasio. The net domestic out-migration, as it is called, is a long, historical trend, Donnelly told us via email.So how has the population of New York City mostly climbed over the last decade despite the net domestic out-migration? “In the 21st century this loss has been offset by natural increase (more births than deaths in the city) plus a large influx of foreign migrants,” Donnelly explained. “These outweigh any loss in domestic migration and have been the reason why NYC has been growing.”In the last two years, foreign immigration has dipped (from 63,223 in 2016 to just under 50,000 in 2017 and 2018) and net domestic out-migration has climbed (from 71,314 in 2013, the year before he took office, to 137,191 in 2018). “This tipped the scales from growth to loss,” Donnelly said.But for Eric Trump to claim that people are “leaving the city in record numbers” is embellishment, Donnelly said. “Domestic out-migration this decade hasn’t been as high as it was in the late 20th century,” Donnelly said, as “lots of young people have been moving to the city, offsetting people moving out to some degree.”“Most experts would agree that NYC population growth has been strong in the 21st century – certainly not the high growth you see in cities down South and out West, but exceptional for an older Northeastern city that’s built out and densely populated,” Donnelly said.As for Eric Trump’s claim that “you have never created a job in your life,” we assume Trump was talking about as an employer. But what about de Blasio’s record as mayor? Responding via Twitter, de Blasio said, “NYC’s jobs are at record highs.”We have long cautioned readers about taking boasts of all-time highs in employment with a grain of salt, that it is not such a remarkable accomplishment when the population continues to rise. We also have repeatedly warned that elected officials often get too much credit and blame for employment trends, which are often driven by forces outside their control.With those caveats, we note that the number of people employed in New York City increased from 4,087,900 in January 2014 — the month de Blasio took office — to 4,650,400 in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a 13.8 percent increase, better than the national 9.8 percent increase over the same period.The unemployment rate in New York City went from 8.1 percent in January 2014, when de Blasio took office, and has steadily declined to 4.3 percent in April. Nationally, the unemployment rate went from 6.6 percent in January 2014 to 3.6 percent in April.
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3347
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A year after Michael, Florida community still in crisis.
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A year after Hurricane Michael , the Florida county hardest hit by the Category 5 storm is still in crisis: Thousands in Bay County are homeless, medical care and housing are at a premium, domestic violence has become a problem and severely diminished mental health services are overwhelmed with backlogs.
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true
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AP Top News, Mental health, Hurricane Michael, General News, Violence, Storms, Florida, Hurricanes, Domestic violence, U.S. News, United States
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Michael, among the strongest hurricanes ever to make landfall in the United States, barreled onto the Florida Panhandle on Oct. 10, 2018, with 160 mph (257 kph) winds, ripping homes from their foundations, flattening others and utterly devastating Tyndall Air Force Base, home to 11,000 airmen. It left 22,000 of Bay County’s then-180,000 residents homeless and resulted in total insured losses of almost $7 billion. This summer, county officials unveiled a nearly 300-page blueprint to rebuild. Among their ideas is to use shipping containers and 3-D technology to build new houses and to offer signing bonuses for doctors to replace those who fled when their offices and equipment were destroyed. They have their work cut out for them: About 5,000 people are still homeless and rent for the few available living quarters has skyrocketed. About 1 in 6 insurance claims are still unresolved, and local government officials are worried about depleted tax coffers as small businesses struggle to reopen. Bay County schools have lost more than 1 in 8 students, which will affect the amount of state education funding they receive. “The community at large is suffering from trauma and grief,” officials said in their report, released in July. “Citizens are fatigued, tired and anxious.” Teri Powell Hord, whose Panama City neighborhood was blasted by Michael, said haggling with insurance companies and contractors has dragged out the recovery process and is taking its toll on residents’ mental health. “It’s frustrating,” Hord said. More people than ever before are in need of mental health services. Such services were fairly limited before Michael hit. Now, officials said in their report, they are “taxed well beyond capacity.” During the past school year alone, 125 students in Bay County schools were placed in custody for a mental health evaluation under Florida’s Baker Act. Because the hurricane left standing only one medical center that can receive Baker Act patients, students were sent to facilities as far as 580 miles (933 kms) away. The school district has a waitlist of 350 students who need mental health services, and the county at large lost 40 percent of its behavioral health specialists after the storm. “We are in the midst of a mental health crisis here in Bay County,” school district officials concluded in a report. County officials also said they had seen a disturbing amount of domestic violence cases but did not provide details immediately. Health care also has suffered. Several months after the hurricane, Daniel Steele’s fiancee, Rebecca Akins, started having breathing problems that he thinks were caused by storm-related mold in their home outside Panama City. He took her to the damaged hospital, Bay Medical Center, but it had lost its intensive care unit. Akins eventually was taken to a hospital in Pensacola, 140 miles (225 kms) away. “The hospital was devastated by the storm and there’s still no ICU. What’s up with that?” Steele said. One of the county’s two hospitals, heavily damaged by the storm, has only about a quarter of the beds it did before. The Bay County recovery blueprint calls for signing bonuses, slashed taxes and student loan forgiveness to physicians and mental health providers who come to Bay County. It recommends building a new hospital in Panama City Beach, a section of the county largely spared the worst of the damage, and enhancing security during emergencies at clinics that house pharmaceuticals. It also calls for acquiring block housing — a large number of apartments in the same building or trailer park — to house mental health providers. In August, Florida first lady Casey DeSantis announced the installation of 63 “telehealth” kiosks where students in public schools that were affected by the hurricane can speak to a mental health professional remotely. Building affordable housing is another priority for the county — both for residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed and the influx of construction workers who are helping to rebuild. Hurricane Michael damaged an estimated 60,000 homes. Since the storm, rental prices have spiked. There have been increases in foreclosures as residents who lost their jobs struggled to keep up with mortgage payments. County leaders are in talks with private builders to construct new affordable housing quickly through nontraditional means such as 3-D printing, modular construction and tiny houses. “It’s a chicken and an egg thing,” said Panama City manager Mark McQueen. “You can’t get employees until you get housing. You can’t get housing without construction workers. We are in a vulnerable state of our recovery without housing. It crosses every sector of our community.” ___ Associated Press reporter Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama, contributed to this report. ___ Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP
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The crowd (in Las Vegas) fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer ...
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Hillary Clinton suggested gun silencers would have worsened the Las Vegas attack in a tweet. It’s certainly possible that silencers or suppressors could make some shootings worse than they would be otherwise. But the specifics of the Las Vegas shooting don’t fit that scenario. Experts told us it’s highly unlikely a silencer would have made the Las Vegas shooting even more deadly, because of the distance of the shooter from the crowds and because of the crowded, urban environment where the victims were targeted. Gun silencers can slightly lower the visual and sound impact of a shooter, but experts agreed the impact would have been negligible in the case of Las Vegas.
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false
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National, Guns, Hillary Clinton,
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"In the wake of the Las Vegas shooting, Hillary Clinton suggested gun silencers could have amplified the bloodshed. ""The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get,"" Clinton tweeted. The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get. A silencer is the popular name for a suppressor, a canister attached to a gun muzzle that reduces (but doesn’t entirely silence) the sound produced by a gunshot. Some members of Congress have been pushing for legislation that would make it easier for gun owners to use suppressors. The Hearing Protection Act, introduced in the House of Representatives in January, would lower the restrictions on buying suppressors. As it stands, there is an approximately nine-month approval process and a $200 tax stamp. Act proponents want to streamline purchases to match regular firearm purchases. We wondered whether introducing suppressors to the Las Vegas shooting would have indeed increased casualties. Our research shows that a suppressor would not have made a difference in the Las Vegas case, because of the positioning of the weapons and because of the distance of the shooter from the crowd. Clinton’s staff provided no evidence to suggest a different outcome. A shooting weapon produces two sounds. One is the crack of the bullet, which can be heard on most video recordings of the shooting and is produced by the bullet traveling faster than the speed of sound. This is unaffected by suppressors. Suppressors instead work on the muzzle blast, or the sound the gun barrel produces when it fires. A typical gunshot is around 150-160 decibels, a level that can cause hearing damage. Suppressors can reduce that sound by around 20-30 decibels, depending on the gun, ammunition, temperature and even humidity. That’s just below the threshold for instant hearing damage. Experts compared the suppressed sound levels to a jackhammer and a jumbo jet on the tarmac 100 yards away. That’s still fairly loud. It’s important to note that suppressors are intended to lower the sound for the shooter, not the target. Jeremy Mallette, who has researched suppressors for Silencer Shop, estimated the sound of suppressed gunfire would go up 10 to 15 decibels downrange -- making the impact of the suppressor even lower for those on the receiving end. The gunman shot at the crowd out of windows on the 32nd floor of the hotel and positioned the guns so that they shot outwards. If the shooter’s aim was to lower the sound emissions, the room could have better trapped the noise, according to Tom Satterly, the director of development for Asymmetric Solutions, a firearm training firm based in Missouri. ""If you hang your weapon outside of your window the muzzle blast is going outside,"" Satterly said. ""If you back in -- a foot or farther -- a lot of that sound is absorbed into the room. That’s what snipers do when they’re trying to hide their position."" Suppressed or not, Mallette said adjacent hotel rooms would have heard the sound very loudly. Marty Langley, a gun-control advocate and a senior policy analyst at Violence Policy Center, pointed to claims from the silencer industry that if the suppressor masks the sound of the gunshot, then the person being shot at can only hear the ballistic crack after it has whizzed by, causing them to think the fire is coming from the opposite direction. However, Satterly, an Army veteran with combat experience in Somalia, said that neither he nor his colleagues had ever been able to pinpoint the direction the sound originated from -- an effect that is amplified in a loud, urban area like the Las Vegas strip. ""It’s nearly impossible to tell where someone shot you from in an urban environment unless there’s visual cues,"" Satterly said. Which brings us to our next point: Langley also pointed out claims from the industry that silencers make shooters less detectable in the dark. The flash hider that comes with a silencer is designed to minimize the flame the shooter sees coming out of the barrel, which can blind night vision goggles for a couple of seconds. But while it minimizes the flash, it doesn’t eliminate it altogether. What’s more, it’s a function that can be performed by tools that are already on the market without the same barriers to purchase as suppressors -- and that many rifles are already equipped with. Langley also pointed out industry claims that silencers can improve accuracy and enable quicker follow-up shots by reducing recoil. That is, they can decrease the barrel’s rising produced by the pressure and gas of the bullet. Experts agreed a suppressor can slightly improve accuracy, but the effect would have been minimal in the indiscriminate shooting seen in Las Vegas. Hillary Clinton suggested gun silencers would have worsened the Las Vegas attack in a tweet. It’s certainly possible that silencers or suppressors could make some shootings worse than they would be otherwise. But the specifics of the Las Vegas shooting don’t fit that scenario. Experts told us it’s highly unlikely a silencer would have made the Las Vegas shooting even more deadly, because of the distance of the shooter from the crowds and because of the crowded, urban environment where the victims were targeted. Gun silencers can slightly lower the visual and sound impact of a shooter, but experts agreed the impact would have been negligible in the case of Las Vegas. Clarification: After this report was published, we added language to clarify that Langley was pointing to industry claims about the characteristics of suppressors."
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35688
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A zookeeper in Paderborn, Germany, was killed when an elephant defecated on him.
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This entertaining “news item” appeared in the Weekly World News, a publication not known for adherence to strict journalistic standards. Fantastic stories invented cut of whole cloth regularly appear in its pages, and this pachyderm tale is but another of that ilk.
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false
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Critter Country, ASP Article
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Something stinks about this story, which made its way to Team Snopes in summer of 1998: PADERBORN, GERMANY – Overzealous zookeeper Frederic Briefed fed his constipated elephant Stefan 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-up pachyderm finally let fly — and suffocated the keeper under 200 pounds of poop! Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive-oil enema when the relieved beast unloaded on him like a dump truck full of mud. “The sheer force of the elephant’s unexpected defecation knocked Mr. Riesfeldt to the ground, where he struck his head on a rock and lay unconscious as the elephant continued to evacuate his bowels on top of him,” said flabbergasted Paderborn police detective Erik Dern. “With no one there to help him, he lay under all that dung for at least an hour before a watchman came along, and during that time he suffocated. “It seems to be just one of those freak accidents that happen sometimes — a billion-to-one shot, at least.” The heartbreaking tale of constipation and tragedy began April 23 when the conscientious zookeeper noticed that his prize, 8,000-pound African elephant didn’t seem to be producing his usual poop aplenty. “Friedrich had actually been concerned for several days because he knew that severe constipation can kill an elephant,” assistant zookeeper Kurt Herrman recalled. “He told me he was going to stay late that Thursday night to treat Stefan with laxatives and possibly give him an enema. “I offered to help, but he sent me on home, saying he had everything under control.” But two hours later, horrified night watchman Walter Pleuger found Friedrich lying lifeless under a mound of muck, his body visible only from the knees down. “I had never really thought about it before,” Det. Dern said. “But obviously, giving an elephant an enema can be a very dangerous activity — and not something that should be attempted alone.”
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26025
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COVID-19’s “contagion probability” between two people is 70% if the carrier is not masked, 5% if the carrier is masked, and 1.5% if both parties are.
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Epidemiologists seem to agree that the scientific studies necessary to quantify the exact percentage of contagion risk have not been done — making numbers advanced by this image are questionable. The same scientists, however, agreed that the message communicated by this image is on target.
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false
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Facebook Fact-checks, Health Check, Coronavirus, Viral image,
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"A popular social media post that’s been circulating on Instagram and Facebook since April depicts the degree to which mask-wearing interferes with the transmission of the novel coronavirus. It gives its highest ""contagion probability"" — a very precise 70% — to a person who has COVID-19 but interacts with others without wearing a mask. A middle tier of 5% is if the person with COVID-19 wears a mask while others don't. The lowest probability, 1.5%, is when masks are worn by all. The exact percentages assigned to each scenario had no attribution or mention of a source. So we wanted to know if there is any science backing up the message and the numbers -- especially as mayors, governors and members of Congress increasingly point to mask-wearing as a means to address the surges in coronavirus cases across the country. As with so many things on social media, it’s not clear who made this graphic or where they got their information. Since we couldn’t start with the source, we reached out to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ask if the agency could point to research that would support the graphic’s ""contagion probability"" percentages. ""We have not seen or compiled data that looks at probabilities like the ones represented in the visual you sent,"" Jason McDonald, a member of CDC’s media team, wrote in an email. ""Data are limited on the effectiveness of cloth face coverings in this respect and come primarily from laboratory studies."" McDonald added that studies are needed to measure how much face coverings reduce transmission of COVID-19, especially from those who have the disease but are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic. Other public health experts we consulted agreed: They were not aware of any science that confirmed the numbers in the image. ""The data presented is bonkers and does not reflect actual human transmissions that occurred in real life with real people,"" Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine at the University of California - San Francisco, wrote in an email. It also does not reflect anything simulated in a lab, he added. Andrew Lover, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, agreed. He had seen a similar graphic on Facebook before we interviewed him and done some fact-checking on his own. ""We simply don’t have data to say this,"" he wrote in an email. ""It would require transmission models in animals or very detailed movement tracking with documented mask use (in large populations)."" Because COVID-19 is a relatively new disease, there have been only limited observational studies on mask use, said Lover. The studies were conducted in China and Taiwan, he added, and mostly looked at self-reported mask use. Research regarding other viral diseases, though, indicates masks are effective at reducing the number of viral particles a sick person releases. Inhaling viral particles is often how respiratory diseases are spread. One recent study found that people who had different coronaviruses (not COVID-19) and wore a surgical mask breathed fewer viral particles into their environment, meaning there was less risk of transmitting the disease. And a recent meta-analysis study funded by the World Health Organization found that, for the general public, the risk of infection is reduced if face masks are worn, even if the masks are disposable surgical masks or cotton masks. Though the experts said it’s clear the percentages presented in this social media image don’t hold up to scrutiny, they agreed that the general idea is right. ""We get the most protection if both parties wear masks,"" Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech who studies viral air droplet transmission, wrote in an email. She was speaking about transmission of COVID-19 as well as other respiratory illnesses. Chin-Hong went even further. ""Bottom line,"" he wrote in his email, ""everyone should wear a mask and stop debating who might have [the virus] and who doesn’t."" Marr also explained that cloth masks are better at outward protection — blocking droplets released by the wearer — than inward protection — blocking the wearer from breathing in others’ exhaled droplets. ""The main reason that the masks do better in the outward direction is that the droplets/aerosols released from the wearer's nose and mouth haven't had a chance to undergo evaporation and shrinkage before they hit the mask,"" wrote Marr. ""It's easier for the fabric to block the droplets/aerosols when they're larger rather than after they have had a chance to shrink while they're traveling through the air."" So, the image is also right when it implies there is less risk of transmission of the disease if a COVID-positive person wears a mask. ""In terms of public health messaging, it’s giving the right message. It just might be overly exact in terms of the relative risk,"" said Lover. ""As a rule of thumb, the more people wearing masks, the better it is for population health."" Public health experts urge widespread use of masks because those with COVID-19 can often be asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic — meaning they may be unaware they have the disease, but could still spread it. Wearing a mask could interfere with that spread. A viral social media image claims to show ""contagion probabilities"" in different scenarios depending on whether masks are worn. Experts agreed the image does convey an idea that is right: Wearing a mask is likely to interfere with the spread of COVID-19. But, although this message has a hint of accuracy, the image leaves out important details and context, namely the source for the contagion probabilities it seeks to illustrate. Experts said evidence for the specific probabilities doesn’t exist."
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26439
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Covid-19 is now the leading cause of death in the United States.
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"North Carolina health secretary Mandy Cohen said ""Covid-19 is now the leading cause of death in the United States."" When it comes to deaths per day, Cohen has a point. In the bigger picture, the CDC says heart disease and cancer are still the leading causes of death."
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mixture
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Public Health, North Carolina, Coronavirus, Mandy Cohen,
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"With North Carolina in the middle of a stay-at-home order, the state’s top health official tried to emphasize the severity of COVID-19. The novel coronavirus has killed more than 200 people in North Carolina and reached 93 of North Carolina’s 100 counties, according to the NC Department of Health and Human Services. On top of that, health secretary Mandy Cohen on April 20 said the virus has reached a new status among other illnesses in America. ""Covid-19 is now the leading cause of death in the United States,"" Cohen said. Is that true? If you look at average daily deaths, yes. If you look at the bigger picture, no. If you look for the answer to this question online, you’ll likely get mixed results. Several media outlets -- such as Live Science, Newsweek and others -- recently reported that coronavirus is the top cause of death in America. But those claims look at death rates in a very small window, while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control tend to label diseases based on their toll in a given year. Live Science and Newsweek based their claims on a chart created by Dr. Maria Danilychev, who practices at Scripps Health in San Diego. Her chart takes the number of COVID-19 deaths in America as reported by Worldometer.com. Then it compares the deaths to the average daily deaths from other illnesses as reported by the CDC. For instance, if you look at the number of total deaths caused by heart disease reported in 2018 (647,457) and divide that by 365 (the number of days in a year) you get about 1,774 deaths per day. On April 20, Worldometer reported 1,939 coronavirus deaths across the U.S. Cohen’s office told PolitiFact that she also based her claim on how daily coronavirus deaths compare to past heart disease death averages. In an email to PolitiFact, DHHS spokeswoman Tracy Zimmerman cited the 30-day rolling average for COVID-19 deaths as documented on OurWorldInData.com. Over the phone, Zimmerman added that Cohen didn’t mean for her comment to be taken as a broad statement about historical death trends. At the CDC, experts tend to look at a bigger picture when classifying something as a top cause of death. In fact, a spokesman for the National Center for Health Statistics has pushed back at the idea that COVID-19 is the leading cause of death. ""There are no data to support that theory,"" Jeff Lancashire, a spokesperson for the National Center for Health Statistics, said in an email to CNN on April 10. ""We have limited data on 2020 deaths by cause, and no final official numbers yet for 2019, but we do know by looking at the final death totals in 2018 for the two leading causes of death in the U.S., Heart Disease and Cancer, there is no way that at this point COVID-19 comes anywhere close to those totals,"" Lancashire said. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C. have used Lancashire’s comments to add context to claims about coronavirus. PolitiFact emailed the CDC on Tuesday to ask if its opinion had changed. ""Not really,"" CDC spokesman Brian Tsai said in an email. ""One can argue that for some weeks, it is the leading cause for those particular weeks, but we typically talk about leading causes in terms of annual deaths,"" the spokesman said. ""When looking at the data year-to-date (i.e., January-April), COVID-19 wouldn’t be the leading cause. In a typical year, there are more than 200,000 heart disease deaths from January-April. For cancer, the number is a little less than 200,000 for that period. By contrast, when Cohen made her claim on April 20, the CDC reported coronavirus deaths at 39,000. Cohen said ""Covid-19 is now the leading cause of death in the United States."" That’s true only if you compare the number of people dying of coronavirus daily against estimates of other causes from previous years. The CDC has advised against using those daily numbers to make sweeping claims about the biggest causes of death in America. Cohen’s claim is partially accurate but leaves out important details that would give a different impression about the broader situation of health risks in America."
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25913
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“Taxpayers spent $70,000,000 to develop this drug ( remdesivir).
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When the drug that would come to be known as remdesivir was identified as a possible treatment for the Ebola virus, the Department of Defense paid Gilead to develop it, to the tune of $34.5 million today A $6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health was awarded to researchers at the University of North Carolina to speed the development of remdesivir NIH also sunk $30 million into the clinical trial to observe how remdesivir acted against COVID-19 earlier this spring Both the Department of Defense and NIH are federal agencies whose budgets stem from tax dollars
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true
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Drugs, Health Care, Wisconsin, Coronavirus, Public Citizen,
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"We may be months — at least — away from a vaccine to protect against COVID-19, but in the meantime the public is turning its eyes to drugs that could be used to treat it. Among the first to be lauded as a possible solution was the antiviral drug remdesivir, which attacks the coronavirus to prevent it from making copies of itself and spreading. A clinical trial run in April found that patients who took the drug were more likely to recover from the disease — and do so faster — than patients who took a placebo pill. But as excitement about remdesivir amps up, criticism has followed over the price that Gilead Sciences, the drug’s manufacturer, wants to charge for it. U.S. insurers, including Medicare and Medicaid, will pay $3,120 for a five-day course of the drug, while other developed countries will pay about a third less because they’ll purchase from generic manufacturers to which Gilead has licensed production. The move has angered many, including the progressive advocacy group and think tank Public Citizen, which tweeted on June 29, 2020 about the price declaration, writing, ""Taxpayers spent $70,000,000 to develop this drug. It should be in the public domain. Instead, Big Pharma is robbing us blind."" Parts of the tweet, course, are opinions. But the $70 million claim is stated as a fact. How much did taxpayers spend to develop remdesivir? Let’s dig in. To back up the organization’s claim, Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicine director, sent a May 7, 2020 post published on their site titled, ""The real story of remdesivir."" Amid the worldwide Ebola outbreak in 2015, the U.S. government partnered with Gilead to identify a drug that targeted the Ebola virus and was successful in blocking the infection in Rhesus monkeys. That drug would later come to be known as remdesivir. In 2017, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report noted that an entity within the Department of Defense would cost-share with Gilead for ""continued development of this product,"" noting its antiviral activity against a number of viruses, including coronaviruses. The Department of Defense has spent $34.5 million so far on this effort. Also in 2017, the National Institutes of Health issued a $6 million grant to researchers at the University of North Carolina to speed the development of remdesivir. And as the novel coronavirus made its way into the world, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of NIH, announced it would funnel $30 million into the aforementioned clinical trial for remdesivir. Since the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health are funded through federal taxes, these three payments add up to what Public Citizen claimed. Public Citizen wrote that taxpayers paid $70 million to develop remdesivir. Three separate projects from agencies that are funded by taxpayer dollars, adding up to $70 million, have commenced since 2015.
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4450
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University studies cancer risk and testing for black women.
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Luisel Ricks-Santi keeps the medical family tree of one of the participants in her study taped to the door of her office in her lab at Hampton University.
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true
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Health, General News, Genetics, Cancer, Breast cancer
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There are four slashes among the women’s siblings, others among her immediate family, and most family members’ symbols are partially colored in. Each partially filled circle represents a cancer diagnosis. Each slash indicates a death. Although white women get breast cancer more frequently, it’s usually diagnosed later and is more severe in African American women. Breast cancer death rates among black women were about 40 percent higher than among white women between 1999 and 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Ricks-Santi, director of the Hampton University Cancer Research Center, and another Hampton colleague, John McDonald, recently received a $446,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the genetics behind breast cancer diagnoses in African American women. In particular, they’re trying to refine genetic tests that don’t seem to be as effective for black women as white. “I wanted to make sure that there was equity in the way that genetics and genomics was being applied across populations,” Ricks-Santi said. She has a longstanding interest in cancer research, dating back to when she was a kid. Her family has a history of cancer; her father has prostate cancer. That led her to pursue an undergraduate degree at Hampton University and a Ph.D. from Georgetown University. She worked as a post-doctoral fellow in a joint cancer studies program between Georgetown and Howard University. There, she saw a trend among genetic tests for breast cancer, particularly the most common ones, BRCA 1 and 2. They are sometimes an indicator for some of the hardest to treat forms, and they’re also correlated with other kinds of cancer in men and women. At Georgetown’s cancer center, which Ricks-Santi said served mostly white and affluent patients, BRCA tests often helped doctors decide if women were candidates for preventative treatment or if they needed additional testing. At Howard’s cancer center, which served more black patients, BRCA tests often came back inconclusive. This, Ricks-Santi said, makes it hard for oncologists to come up with specific, informed approaches for patients of color. “You can’t do that if you’re not identifying the right risk factor, the right gene,” said Melissa Gomes, a mental health nurse practitioner and a co-investigator on the study. “You can’t make that personalized approach if it wasn’t based on a population that included you.” The study that Ricks-Santi and McDonald are leading uses family history and genetic data from 300 breast cancer patients at Howard, along with relatives without cancer diagnoses and other types of cancer. Ricks-Santi will conduct statistical research to find candidate genes that could provide a better test. McDonald, an assistant professor of physics, will then conduct the laboratory phase of the study, injecting those genes into cancer cells in Petri dishes to determine exactly what kind of effect those have. They’re also working with Hampton University students on the project, who will be paid with grant money. “It’s nice to create that pipeline of researchers that look like the population we want to study,” Gomes said. This round of funding lasts for three years. But they’re already looking toward the next phase. That’s where Gomes’ experience comes in, whose background is clinical psychiatry. She sees patients four days a week. In a second study, once they’ve isolated some possible genes, they want to control for those genes and then investigate social circumstances that might contribute to breast and other kinds of cancer. Gomes hopes to use her background in psychiatry and patient care to help build connections in Hampton Roads in addition to helping with the social research. “Nurses are considered one of the most trusted health professionals,” Gomes said. “I think that the community trusts us and they value their opinion.” Ricks-Santi is hopeful about this holistic approach, citing her father’s own experience. Because of the small size of his tumor, they took a more wait-and-see approach to treatment. He moved to Puerto Rico for six months to relax. It seemed to work. His prostate-specific antigen levels, an indicator of that kind of cancer, dropped significantly and have stayed stable. “It’s scary and exciting,” Ricks-Santi said. “There’s so many possibilities.” ___ Information from: Daily Press, http://www.dailypress.com/
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14467
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"James Dobson Says Ted Cruz’s wife Heidi ""will be the very first pro-life first lady."
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"In the Ted Cruz campaign ad, James Dobson says, ""His wife, Heidi, will be the very first pro-life first lady."" In support of the claim, the campaign provided an article stating that all first ladies since the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision have supported a woman’s choice on abortion. That is accurate. Yet, Dobson’s claim went further, stating that Mrs. Cruz would be the ""very first pro-life first lady"" -- the first in American history. Experts say it’s difficult to confirm or refute the claim because, while abortion has always been a controversial subject, before Roe vs. Wade it was also illegal. None of the experts we spoke with could cite a first lady publicly commenting on the issue before Roe vs. Wade, except for Jacqueline Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson. This raises the possibility that other first ladies may have opposed abortion earlier in the country’s history, but never expressed it publicly. With that caveat."
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true
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Abortion, Colorado, James Dobson,
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"There was a time when no presidential candidate's TV ad would trumpet his wife's views on abortion. But Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign does so proudly with an ad featuring James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family in Colorado, praising the Texas senator's spouse. ""His wife, Heidi, will be the very first pro-life first lady,"" Dobson says in the TV ad, in which he also endorses Ted Cruz for president. The ad has aired about 30 times -- mostly in Iowa before the caucuses -- between November 2015 and late February 2016, according to PoliticalAdArchive.org It is an intriguing claim, so PolitiFact decided to examine its accuracy. For this analysis, we're defining ""pro-life"" as how the first ladies felt about access to abortion from a policy perspective, not their personal view. We asked the Cruz campaign for information supporting Dobson's claim. (Dobson's spokesman said Dobson was out of the country and unreachable for comment.) The Cruz campaign provided a 2012 Townhall.com report, headlined: ""Surprising: Ann Romney would be first Pro-Life First Lady since Roe vs. Wade."" The story says that every first lady from Pat Nixon to Michelle Obama has supported a woman’s freedom of choice on abortion -- even if some first ladies’ personally opposed abortion. Ann Romney, wife of then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, in 2012 told ABC’s The View, ""I am pro-life. I'm happy to say that."" Clearly, Mrs. Cruz isn't the first candidate's wife to be held up as possibly the first pro-life first lady. And in this election year, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio’s wife, Jeanette, is also described -- along with Heidi Cruz -- as ""Unapologetically Pro-Life."" The New York Times reports that friends and colleagues ""detect Mrs. Rubio’s influence on her husband’s outspoken opposition to abortion in almost all cases."" Remember, in the Cruz campaign ad, Dobson says Heidi Cruz ""will be the very first pro-life first lady,"" while the campaign’s supporting documentation is a story stating that all first ladies since the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion in 1973, have supported a woman’s choice on abortion. Experts say it is very difficult to find a first lady commenting on abortion before the court ruling, because few Americans publicly discussed the controversial issue, let alone presidents’ wives. ""The reason people didn't discuss (abortion) back then was because it was illegal,"" said Carl Sferrazza Anthony, who is considered the foremost historian on the political and social power of first ladies. His books include the two-volume First Ladies: The Saga of the Presidents' Wives and Their Power, 1789-1990. Anthony said it is known that two pre-Roe vs. Wade first ladies, Jacqueline Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson were ""pro-choice."" Yet this is why it’s hard to confirm or refute Dobson’s claim that Heidi Cruz’s anti-abortion stand would be a ""first"" for first ladies. In the past, if a first lady had opinions on abortion, ""they weren’t made public,"" said Edith Mayo, a curator emerita at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, who oversaw a first ladies exhibit. ""So you'd have a very difficult time tracing it,"" added Mayo, whose books include, First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image and The Smithsonian's Book of First Ladies. Anthony said first ladies’ reticence about discussing controversial issues changed during the national upheaval over the Vietnam War. Suddenly presidents’ wives, whose duties had historically tended toward ribbon cuttings and non-controversial projects, were facing tougher questions from reporters. ""The Vietnam War is the turning point,"" said Anthony, who wrote speeches for Nancy Reagan. ""So questions are asked to Pat Nixon that would never have been previously asked of her immediate successors. ... Mrs. Nixon really got to be the first one to be asked about the Equal Rights Amendment, about abortion, about amnesty for guys who didn't go to Vietnam."" ""From that point, every single (first lady) has had to address and respond to questions on important issues,"" he said. Yet it is true that every first lady since since Roe vs. Wade has publicly expressed their support for a woman’s choice on abortion. Here’s a list: Pat Nixon: In response to questions after the Roe vs. Wade decision, Pat Nixon said, ""I believe abortion is a personal choice."" A year before the ruling, she offered a more nuanced opinion: ""I'm really not for abortion. I think it's a personal thing. I mean abortion on demand — wholesale."" Betty Ford: When Barbara Walters asked her views on Roe vs. Wade, Ford called it ""a great, great decision."" As she later recalled the interview, ""I just said, 'Well, I'm delighted because I'm glad they have taken abortion out of the backwoods and put it into the hospitals.' "" Rosalynn Carter: At a 1980 press conference, Carter said she and her husband are ""personally very opposed to abortion"" and always have been. However, she supported the Roe vs. Wade decision while being against federal funding for abortion. ""I oppose it for myself, but I have a hard time with deciding for other women what is right or wrong or best for them,"" Mrs. Carter once wrote. Nancy Reagan: After President Ronald Reagan had left office, Mrs. Reagan told a George Washington University class in 1994 that while she personally opposed abortion, she supported a woman’s right to choose. ""I'm against abortion. On the other hand, I believe in a woman's choice,"" she said in response to a question from Anthony, her former speech writer who was teaching a class titled ""The President's Spouse."" Her comments were not a total surprise. According to a book by former White House chief of staff Donald Regan, Mrs. Reagan once said, ""I don't give a damn about the pro-lifers,"" and demanded that all mention of abortion be removed from the president's 1987 State of the Union address. Barbara Bush: When her husband ran for president in 1980, Mrs. Bush drew attention by expressing her pro-choice views on abortion. Then, during President George H.W. Bush's 1992 re-election campaign against Bill Clinton, Mrs. Bush opposed Republicans placing an uncompromising anti-abortion policy in the GOP platform. She said it was a ""personal thing"" and added, ""The personal things should be left out of, in my opinion, out of platforms and conventions,"" she told reporters. She later wrote in her memoirs, ""She supports abortion rights. But, her opinion didn’t matter because she’s not elected by the American people."" Hillary Clinton: In January 1999, Hillary Clinton ventured into new territory for a first lady by addressing NARAL -- then known as the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League. She declared her goal of ""keeping abortion safe, legal and rare into the next century"" -- a phrase that's become her pro-choice mantra. ""I have never met anyone who is pro-abortion,"" she told the crowd. ""Being pro-choice is not being pro-abortion. Being pro-choice is trusting the individual to make the right decision for herself and her family, and not entrusting that decision to anyone wearing the authority of government in any regard."" Laura Bush: While less of an activist than some first ladies, Laura Bush didn’t shy away from expressing her views -- even when they differed from her husband’s. Katie Couric asked her on the day of George W. Bush’s inauguration if Roe vs. Wade should be overturned, and Mrs. Bush replied ""No."" In her 2010 memoir, ""Spoken from the Heart,"" Laura Bush writes, ""While cherishing life, I have always believed that abortion is a private decision, and there, no one can walk in anyone else’s shoes."" Michelle Obama: Mrs. Obama often speaks about her husband's support for a woman's choice on abortion. ""And he believes that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care ... that's what my husband stands for,"" Mrs. Obama said at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Our ruling In the Ted Cruz campaign ad, James Dobson says, ""His wife, Heidi, will be the very first pro-life first lady."" In support of the claim, the campaign provided an article stating that all first ladies since the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision have supported a woman’s choice on abortion. That is accurate. Yet, Dobson’s claim went further, stating that Mrs. Cruz would be the ""very first pro-life first lady"" -- the first in American history. Experts say it’s difficult to confirm or refute the claim because, while abortion has always been a controversial subject, before Roe vs. Wade it was also illegal. None of the experts we spoke with could cite a first lady publicly commenting on the issue before Roe vs. Wade, except for Jacqueline Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson. This raises the possibility that other first ladies may have opposed abortion earlier in the country’s history, but never expressed it publicly. With that caveat."
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5703
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Texas guard Andrew Jones diagnosed with leukemia.
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Andrew Jones flirted with leaving Texas for the NBA before returning to school for what he hoped would be a big sophomore season and a splash in the next draft.
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true
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NBA basketball, Andrew Jones, Leukemia, Health, Sports, Shaka Smart, College Sports, Texas
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He was on his way. The shooting guard was the Longhorns’ leading scoring through the start of what looked like a big season. After a wrist fracture sidelined him for a few games, his return to the lineup was going to be big: the Big 12 season opener against Kansas. He hardly played. Same thing for the next game at Iowa State. Two games, 20 minutes total. The 20-year-old Jones had told his coaches he was tired. No energy. Texas sent him for tests. Then Jones didn’t travel to a game last Saturday just 90 miles away at Baylor. By Tuesday, coach Shaka Smart looked shaken and on the verge of tears when he said he couldn’t discuss what was ailing Jones out of “respect for the family.” On Wednesday, the school announced Jones has been diagnosed with leukemia and had started treatment. “Speaking for our entire team and staff, we love Andrew and will do everything we can to support his family and help him get back to health,” Smart said in the university statement, and no further details were released. “We hope everyone will keep him in your thoughts and prayers,” the Jones family said in the statement. “This is obviously a difficult situation for our family, and we hope everyone will respect our privacy at this time.” Texas hosted No. 16 TCU on Wednesday night and the Longhorns wore “AJ1” patches on their jerseys. During pregame introductions, the Texas bench left a seat open and draped Jones’ jersey across the back. Athletic director Chris Del Conte said the school “will do everything in our power to provide all of the resources we can to assist Andrew and his family.” Jones, who is from Irving in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, averaged nearly 12 points as a freshman and considered leaving for the NBA draft after but returned to Texas after attending the scouting combine. His sister, Alexis, was a standout at Baylor and plays for the WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx. Jones’ family has dealt with challenges in the past. Andrew was 7 in 2007 when his father was paralyzed in a car accident on an icy road. Jones was ejected from the car but escaped with only some bruising. The announcement of Andrew Jones’ illness prompted a wave of support on social media, including Twitter messages from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and ESPN reporter Holly Rowe, who has battled cancer. “Gut wrenching news for Andrew Jones. So much love & support for he & his family. We are here for you ,” Rowe wrote on Twitter. The Kansas basketball program used its official Twitter account to send Jones a message. “On behalf of the entire #KUbball family, we send our thoughts and prayers to Andrew and his family. May he stay strong through this difficult time and we are eager to see him back on the court soon,” the Jayhawks program said. ___ For more AP college basketball coverage: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_Top25
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8680
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Europe is epicenter of coronavirus pandemic: WHO.
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Europe has now become the epicenter of a coronavirus pandemic that has claimed 5,000 lives around the world, “a tragic milestone”, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
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true
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Health News
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More than 132,000 cases of the virus have been reported in 123 countries since it emerged in December in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual news conference. “Europe has now become the epicenter of the pandemic with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of world combined apart from China,” he said in Geneva. Tedros announced that the WHO was launching a coronavirus Solidarity Response Fund. This would to allow people and organizations to contribute to help fund masks, gloves, gowns and goggles for heath workers, as well as diagnostic kits and investment in research and development, including for vaccines. Facebook will match up to $10 million in donations, while Alphabet Inc’s Google will donate $5 million, the WHO and UN Foundation later announced in a joint statement. Social distancing, where people avoid close proximity or touching, is a “tried and tested method” to slow the spread of a virus but “not a panacea” that will stop transmission, the WHO’s top emergency expert Dr. Mike Ryan said. Each country must decide on its own measures to protect its population, he said, adding: “But we’ve also consistently said that blanket travel measures in their own right will do nothing to protect an individual state.” Detection and isolation of infected people, as well as tracing their contacts and wider testing, must be part of a comprehensive strategy, Ryan said. “As part of an overall comprehensive strategy, there is a place - particularly inside national borders - for potentially restricting movement between zones, as we’ve seen in certain places,” he said. “But there is rarely a justification for blanket bans, unless of course the context and the risk defines that.” U.S. President Donald Trump has announced sweeping travel restrictions to prevent people from 26 European countries - except for Britain and Ireland - from traveling to the United States in a bid to limit the virus spread. A number of other countries in recent days have announced stepped up border checks, and canceled flights to other countries, in an effort to contain the spread. Trump on Friday declared a national emergency over the fast-spreading coronavirus, opening the door to providing what he said was about $50 billion in federal aid to fight the disease.
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15811
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"A ""majority of our students are trapped in"" underperforming schools."
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"Bush said the ""majority of our students are trapped in"" underperforming schools. Bush relied on another official’s speculation about how well schools might meet disputed federal standards that don’t apply to Texas this year anyway. Meantime, 2014 state ratings indicate more than nine in 10 districts fulfilled state-set standards and more than eight in 10 campuses did so."
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false
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Education, State Budget, Texas, George P. Bush,
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"George P. Bush, the first-year Texas land commissioner, maintains that most students are stuck in bad schools. Bush, addressing a ""school choice"" rally outside the Texas Capitol Jan. 30, 2015, said: ""I believe that most teachers are doing the very best in very difficult situations when a majority of our students are trapped in schools that are underperforming. Some schools don’t work and refuse to change — and that’s why we need school choice and that’s why we need it now."" The Rev. Charles Johnson, executive director of Pastors for Texas Children, which describes itself as an independent ministry and outreach group supporting quality public education opportunities for Texas children, asked us to check Bush’s statement, which Johnson said he heard about from someone who watched the rally. We were curious too. Asked where Bush’s data came from, Brittany Eck, a General Land Office spokeswoman, pointed out a comment by the state’s chief education official in October 2013, when Texas received a waiver from the federal Adequate Yearly Progress requirement that more than 90 percent of students in each school and district pass the state’s standardized tests in reading and math, in accord with the No Child Left Behind Act that passed into law when George W. Bush was president. At the time Texas got its waiver, Eck said by email, the state’s education commissioner, Michael Williams, said 95 percent of the state’s school districts would not have met the federal law’s expectations, according to an October 2013 news story in the Dallas Morning News. Eck noted the same judgment was aired by a non-governmental group, the Texas Classroom Teachers Association. Meantime, Eck wrote, only 28 percent to 41 percent of Texas fourth- and eighth-graders chosen to take the National Assessment of Educational Progress, sometimes called the nation’s report card, met ""proficiency"" levels in math or reading in 2013. Some perspective: According to the 2013 results, 62 percent to 84 percent of the Texas students scored well enough to meet basic expectations or better. State accountability ratings Next, we asked the Texas Education Agency what it considers the best measurement of schools in Texas. Spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe said by email the state’s own accountability system is the only rating system in place. And according to the latest state summary of the ratings, released in December 2014, 949 of the state’s 1,025 school districts, 93 percent, ""met standard"" while 76 districts were rated ""improvement required."" The summary said 6,723, or 86 percent, of the state’s individual schools ""met standard"" with 142 meeting an alternate standard — leaving 636 campuses rated ""improvement required,"" meaning the campus missed the state’s standard on one or more performance indicators, according to the TEA. Those indicators include student results on the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) and graduation and annual dropout rates, according to the TEA’s Accountability Manual. For 2014, the summary said, some 484 campuses weren’t rated and one school had ""data integrity issues."" (We did not consider charter schools to carve out these counts; there aren’t a lot of them.) Overall in the year, Ratcliffe said, 372,287 of the state’s 5,151,925 public-school students, 7 percent, were enrolled in schools that received the ""improvement required"" rating. Ratcliffe did not dispute that Williams had said 95 percent of the state’s districts would not have cleared the AYP hurdles. The waived expectation under the federal law was that more than 90 percent of students in each school and district pass the state’s standardized tests in reading and math. ""We do fall short of perfection,"" Ratcliffe said. Texas Classroom Teachers Association Given that Eck singled out the classroom teachers association, we asked that group, which advocates for teachers, to assess Bush’s statement. By email, Holly Eaton focused on doubts about the usefulness of the AYP standards, which she said have long been regarded as not attainable at the law’s stipulated pace, explaining why many states (more than 40, the News story said) got waivers, she said. ""Accordingly, the projection that 95% of Texas schools would have failed to meet AYP in 2014 shows that Texas was in the same predicament as every other state in the country due to a poorly conceived and widely discredited federal standard,"" Eaton said. By phone, she elaborated: ""We don’t think the federal AYP ratings are of any significance."" Broadly, Eaton said, the association disagrees with Bush’s characterization. Other perspectives We also reached out to other close observers of Texas schools. Lori Taylor, a Texas A&M University associate professor in the Bush School of Government and Public Service, commented by email: ""I think the term ‘underperforming’ is really squishy. If one has exceedingly high standards for education, then every school is always underperforming."" Taylor pointed out the state’s 2014 accountability ratings — and called AYP an ""odd standard of performance"" because of the law’s everyone-must-pass requirement for a school to be considered acceptable. ""Most researchers are highly critical of AYP as a measure of performance, so schools that are performing badly by this measure are not necessarily underperforming as most folks understand the term,"" Taylor wrote. Also by email, Torey Tipton of Children at Risk, which analyzes test results and other indicators in its own way, said many Texas children are in failing schools. In spring 2014, she said, 2,275, or 30 percent, of more than 7,000 schools ranked by the group landed Children at Risk grades of D, needing ""significant improvement,"" or F, which the group defines as ""highly concerning."" Our ruling Bush said the ""majority of our students are trapped in"" underperforming schools. Bush relied on another official’s speculation about how well schools might meet disputed federal standards that don’t apply to Texas this year anyway. Meantime, 2014 state ratings indicate more than nine in 10 districts fulfilled state-set standards and more than eight in 10 campuses did so. – The statement is not accurate."
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1906
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Arkansas farmer seeks to save historic turkey breeds.
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P. Allen Smith can talk for hours about saving rare poultry. He also will be eating one of them for Thanksgiving.
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true
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Environment
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P. Allen Smith rounds up his flock of blue state turkeys at his 650-acre Moss Mountain Farm outside Little Rock, Arkansas, in this 2009 handout image obtained by Reuters on November 23, 2011. REUTERS/Courtesy Heritage Poultry Conservancy/Handout On his 650-acre Moss Mountain Farm outside Little Rock, Smith breeds domestic heritage poultry - turkey, chickens, ducks and geese - threatened with extinction. “The Thanksgiving turkeys that people put on their tables now are not what their great-grandparents ate,” Smith told Reuters. “They ate birds with names like the Bronze, the Black Spanish and the Slate, but the grocery store ones originated from these.” Smith, a garden and lifestyle designer and author, is known by television viewers around the country for garden design advice and food tips on two PBS shows as well as NBC’s Today show and the Weather Channel. But on his farm, he has cultivated another passion. In 2009, Smith began the Heritage Poultry Conservancy, a non-profit organization, as a way to support threatened breeds and strains of poultry. The conservancy focuses on fowl that were developed or recognized in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. He now has about 600 birds on his farm. These poultry breeds were once very common. They fled the country during some of its most desperate times, such as the Civil War and the Great Depression, Smith said. But as factory farms and hybrid genetics became more prevalent in the last several decades, these birds began to vanish quickly. “My grandmother raised these types of birds and so did a lot of other people’s grandmothers,” Smith said during a tour of his sprawling farm. “Now we have a monoculture when it comes to poultry.” Smith, a Tennessee native who moved to Little Rock as a child, started showing poultry at 4-H shows at age 10. On his farm, a brown flag, flying below the American flag, promotes the conservancy. Several old cotton wagons from the Arkansas Delta are used for poultry houses. The farm also has an incubator room for eggs in a hatchery on the grounds. The poultry do not have pet names because they are raised for meat and eggs. Farm workers use manure to fertilize Smith’s gardens. “This is not a petting zoo of exotic chickens,” he said. “The eating of these animals is what saves them. These are animals that have lost their jobs and we are trying to put them to work.” And yes, he will eat one of the Blacks, often referred as the Black Spanish, or blue slate turkeys, for Thanksgiving. Christopher Columbus and other early explorers were given Blacks by various Indian tribes on return voyages to Europe. The Indians often used the feathers in ceremonial dress. The Black became popular among Colonists and then throughout the United States until the early 20th century. They are now extremely rare, as are the Blue Slates. Smith pointed out that turkeys were once much larger than they are now because the industrialized farm setting rushes the growing process. It is important, Smith said, to raise heritage poultry in traditional ways. Birds should naturally reproduce by breeding instead of by artificial insemination, he said. They should have a long, productive outdoor lifespan and adapt to their surroundings. They should have a slow growth rate to develop a strong skeletal structure and healthy organs. To be classified as heritage poultry, birds must be recognized by the American Poultry Association as having parent and grandparent stock prior to the mid-20th century. Only a few farms in the United States have such birds. Smith acquired most of his breeds from Frank Reese’s Good Shepherd Poultry Ranch in Lindsborg, Kansas. Reese has been raising poultry for 60 years. Some of the turkey breeds he remembers as a child such as the White Holland, which Aztec Indians bred in the 1500s, are nearly extinct or are raised only as show birds. But Reese still raises them. This Thanksgiving, Reese sold a few White Hollands along with about 8,000 Bronze, Narragansett, Bourbon Red, and Black turkeys from his farm “The idea of a white turkey doesn’t appeal to a lot of people,” Reese told Reuters by phone. “People want color and it’s too bad because they are a very practical turkey.”
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29448
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Muslims demanded the U.S. Army change its dress code to allow beards and turbans.
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"What's true: The Department of Defense announced back in January 2014 that religious dress accommodations had been added to uniform guidelines on a case-by-case basis. What's false: U.S. military uniform regulations were not changed in response to ""demands"" from Muslims (and beards and turbans are a religious requirement of male Sikhs, not Muslims)."
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false
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Uncategorized, american news, muslims, sikhs
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On 1 September 2014, the disreputable American News web site published an article whose clickbait headline stated that Muslims had “demand[ed] the Army change its dress code to include turbans and beards. The article text itself made no mention of any such “demands” from “Muslims,” however, but merely summarized an earlier Department of Defense (DoD) announcement regarding religious accommodation in uniform codes: The Department of Defense released regulations to protect the rights of service members to wear a turban, scarf, or beard, to display their religious beliefs — as long as the practices don’t interfere with “military discipline, order, or readiness.” “We welcome the important decision to broaden the religious rights of American military personnel,” a statement from the Council on American-Islamic Relations read, “We hope it will allow all those in uniform to practice their faith while serving the nation.” The American News article about changes to military dress code regulations was dated 1 September 2014, but no such regulations were issued or updated on immediately prior to that date. Several months earlier, on 22 January 2014, the Department of Defense did issue a press release titled “DOD Releases New Religious Accommodation Instruction” via the American Forces Press Service which painted a far less alarming picture of the issue than the American News headline did. In a 22 January 2014 statement, Pentagon spokesman Navy Lt. Cmdr. Nathan J. Christensen explained that as a result of a DoD instruction, allowance for religious dress accommodations would be added to U.S. military uniform guidelines on a case-by-case basis: A DOD instruction implements a policy or prescribes the manner or plan of action used to carry out a policy, operate a program or activity, and assign responsibilities. “The new policy states that military departments will accommodate religious requests of service members,” Christensen said, “unless a request would have an adverse effect on military readiness, mission accomplishment, unit cohesion and good order and discipline.” When a service member requests such an accommodation, he added, department officials balance the need of the service member against the need to accomplish the military mission. Such a request is denied only if an official determines that mission accomplishment needs outweigh the need of the service member, Christensen said. Requests to accommodate religious practices will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, the spokesman noted. “Each request must be considered based on its unique facts, the nature of the requested religious accommodation, the effect of approval or denial on the service member’s exercise of religion, and the effect of approval or denial on mission accomplishment, including unit cohesion,” he added. Immediate commanders may resolve religious accommodation requests that don’t require a waiver of military department or service policies that address wearing of military uniforms and religious apparel, grooming, appearance or body-art standards. Accommodation requests that require a waiver will be forwarded to the respective military department for determination. Christensen elaborated on factors that could warrant a denial of accommodation: The release concluded with a final quote from Christensen: The Department of Defense places a high value on the rights of members of the military services to observe the tenets of their respective religions and the rights of others to their own religious beliefs, including the right to hold no beliefs. On 22 January 2014, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a press release responding to the DoD’s updated guidelines. The CAIR release made reference to a successful 2011 effort that resulted in the relaxation of Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) dress codes to allow for religious attire: The [DoD] policy now states: “Service member’s expression of sincerely held beliefs (conscience, moral principles, or religious beliefs) may not be used as the basis of any adverse personnel action, discrimination, or denial of promotion, schooling, training, or assignment.” “We welcome the important decision to broaden the religious rights of American military personnel and hope this updated policy will allow all those in uniform to practice their faith while serving the nation,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. Awad noted that CAIR has dealt with past requests for religious accommodations by Muslim military and ROTC personnel. In 2011, CAIR successfully urged the Department of Defense (DOD) to allow Muslim and Sikh students who wear an Islamic head scarf (hijab) or a turban to participate in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC). At the time of the dress code update, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said: What we are seeing is not a revolution but an evolution in military policy. It sends a message that the military is friendly to minority faiths. Jasjit Singh of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund said the updated guidelines were structured in such a way that they continued to discourage Sikhs (who are not Muslims) from military service: Unfortunately, this continues to make us have to choose between our faith and serving our country. This is an expansion of the waiver policy that is decided person by person. It does not open doors and say you can apply as a Sikh American and serve your country fully. It has been a work in progress, but we were hoping they would go further. What we want is not to be an exception. Sikh Americans want to be able to serve their country as any other Americans are allowed to do. The updated regulations affected a number of faiths and was supported by interfaith groups. A New York Times article quoted the leader of a Sikh advocacy group and provided a short explanation of the effect the previous ban on beards and turbans had on Sikhs: “There is still a presumptive ban, which would discourage any recruit,” said Rajdeep Singh, director of law and policy with the Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group. “If I sign up to join the Army for example, and wear a turban, there’s no guarantee my accommodation request will be granted.” Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded in the 15th century in the Punjab region of what is today northwestern India. Five articles of Sikh faith were established to give Sikhs a sense of identity when they were chafing under the Islamic Mughal court of Delhi. The five articles are unshorn hair, a comb, a wristband made of iron or steel, underwear (a symbol of sexual modesty and personal hygiene) and a sword. The turban is worn as a sign of religious respect but also as a practical matter, to bind up long hair. At least two requests for religious accommodation were denied by the Army in 2014.
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18614
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"Rick Perry Says Houston is ""home to more doctors, more nurses, more researchers than any other place in the world."
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"Perry said Houston is ""home to more doctors, more nurses, more researchers than any other place in the world."" Perry did not provide nor did we find evidence proving this claim, and there are signs that it’s not supported, including the census table indicating that Harris County ranked fourth nationally in total physicians in 2004 and trailed even more counties, including more than half a dozen in Texas, in physicians per 100,000 residents. Also, while Houston had the most doctors and nurses among five populous Texas cities in 2011, Dallas had greater concentrations of physicians and nurses. Finally, there is not yet any confirmation that the Texas Medical Center employs more doctors, nurses and researchers than any other place. That could be. But mights aren’t facts and regardless, Perry specified Houston in his recent statement, not the center."
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false
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Health Care, Medicaid, Public Health, Texas, Rick Perry,
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"Protesters interrupted Gov. Rick Perry at a Washington, D.C. event by calling for the Republican to support Medicaid’s expansion in Texas as encouraged under Obamacare. According to video snippets of the Feb. 22, 2013, event posted on YouTube, Perry said at one point the protesters hailed from Alabama. After a protester replied that she was from Houston, another woman rose, saying: ""Excuse me, Mr. Perry, I’m from Houston, Texas, as well,"" before suggesting some Houston women lack health insurance. ""You know one of the interesting things,"" Perry replied, ""Houston, Texas, is home to more doctors, more nurses, more researchers than any other place in the world--and I'm really proud of what we've done."" Is Houston first on the planet all those ways? To our inquiry, Perry spokesman Josh Havens said by email the governor was referring to the sprawling Texas Medical Center in Houston, and not to an across-the-board tally of doctors, nurses and researchers in the Bayou City. ""It is the largest medical complex in world,"" Havens wrote. Perry did not single out the center in his February remark, though in July 2010, he told a radio host: ""When you think about the medical center in Houston, there are more doctors, nurses, researchers go to work there than any other place in the world, every day."" His comment was recapped in a July 29, 2010, blog post by the liberal-leaning Think Progress. In contrast, the medical center has not aired such a precise global claim, though its ""Facts and Figures"" web page refers to the center as ""the largest medical complex in the world"" employing 92,500 people in 54 entities including government agencies and non-profit health-related institutions on an annual total budget of $14 billion. Center spokeswomen told us by phone and email that they had no precise counts, or planet-wide comparisons, of its physicians, nurses and researchers, though spokeswoman Lisa Mayes said incomplete results from a 2011 survey indicate that more than 21,773 physicians, nurses and researchers worked at the center that year. Center official Laura Jordan said final results, being compiled, will break out the number of physicians, nurses and researchers. Another spokeswoman, Bobbi Gruner, said she doesn’t believe any other medical complex ""remotely compares in the entire world."" In hosting delegations from more than 100 countries and 50 of the largest U.S. cities, Gruner emailed, ""we have found that none have medical assets as concentrated as is the case with the Texas Medical Center. If you look at size alone,"" she said, ""the Texas Medical Center is the 9th largest downtown area in the U.S. If you look at patient visits, the Texas Medical Center had 7.1 million,"" according to the center’s 2010 survey. In contrast, Gruner noted, Johns Hopkins Medicine, headquartered in Baltimore, says it has more than 2.8 million ""outpatient encounters"" a year, while the Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic reports more than 1.1 million clinic patients a year. Granted, the Houston center is huge. Still, that alone doesn’t make Houston home to the world’s most doctors, nurses and researchers. We did not fare well scouring for independent confirmation of Perry’s statement. Spokespeople for the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics pointed out that its counts of health care professionals are based on the nation’s metropolitan statistical areas, which can fold in more than one city or county. For that reason, we were ready to set them aside. But the Greater Houston Partnership, which promotes the Houston-area economy, answered our inquiry by citing the bureau’s analysis. Spokesman Erik Noriega sent a chart drawing on the bureau’s work suggesting the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metro area has the fourth-most individuals (129,930) employed as ""healthcare practitioners and technical occupations,"" a grouping that he said folds in surgeons, doctors, nurses, therapists, medical/clinical technologists and healthcare technicians. The New York (265,020), Los Angeles (206,300) and Chicago (188,340) areas have more workers in the fields, according to the estimates. Separately, U.S. Census Bureau spokesman Robert Bernstein guided us to a table in its ""County and City Data Book: 2007"" stating the number of physicians by county for each state in 2004 as well as the ratio of physicians to every 100,000 county residents--a reasonable way of adjusting for population differences. In 2004, the table indicates, Harris County had 11,419 physicians, the fourth-highest total nationally behind California’s Los Angeles County (30,102 physicians); Illinois’s Cook County, home to Chicago (21,189); and New York County (19,849). Separately, a spokeswoman for the Harris County Medical Society, Jennifer Snyder, pointed out that according to the Texas Medical Board,, Harris County had 11,821 physicians as of September 2012. Harris County’s 2004 ratio of 314 physicians per 100,000 residents was lower than the ratios in 10 other populous counties, including Bexar County in Texas, home to San Antonio (375). Indeed, eight other Texas counties had more physicians per 100,000 residents than Harris County, according to the bureau’s table. Next, the Texas Department of State Health Services provided August 2011 counts of physicians and nurses for five big Texas cities. According to the information emailed by spokeswoman Christine Mann, Houston then had 6,946 physicians, topping Dallas (4,304), San Antonio (3,485), Austin (2,678) and Fort Worth (1,729). Mann said nearly 22,000 vocational and registered nurses practiced in Houston at that time, more than in San Antonio (13,491); Dallas (13,100); Fort Worth (7,385); and Austin (7,180). We adjusted these totals for each city’s population, as estimated by the census bureau for 2011. By this approach, Dallas had the lowest, or best, ratios of 284 and 93 residents per doctor and nurse, respectively. Austin narrowly bested Houston with 306 local residents per doctor, compared to Houston’s 308, while Houston had the second-lowest ratio of residents per nurse, 98. Our attempts to obtain comparative counts of physicians and nurses spanning the globe came up empty. We did not endeavor to compare the number of researchers in Houston against those in other cities. Our ruling Perry said Houston is ""home to more doctors, more nurses, more researchers than any other place in the world."" Perry did not provide nor did we find evidence proving this claim, and there are signs that it’s not supported, including the census table indicating that Harris County ranked fourth nationally in total physicians in 2004 and trailed even more counties, including more than half a dozen in Texas, in physicians per 100,000 residents. Also, while Houston had the most doctors and nurses among five populous Texas cities in 2011, Dallas had greater concentrations of physicians and nurses. Finally, there is not yet any confirmation that the Texas Medical Center employs more doctors, nurses and researchers than any other place. That could be. But mights aren’t facts and regardless, Perry specified Houston in his recent statement, not the center.s ."
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3602
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Penn State creates food packaging material from wood, shells.
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Jeffrey Catchmark had the ideal formula for an all-natural, nontoxic coating to replace plastic coatings and packaging used in the food industry, among other uses. Not only would it be cheaper than plastics but his formula would be biodegradable and nonpolluting.
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true
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Pennsylvania, Agricultural science, Science
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But the Penn State University professor of agricultural and biological engineering in the College of Agricultural Sciences faced a problem. His formula of cellulose from wood and cotton and chitin derived from the exoskeletons of arthropods and such crustaceans as lobsters, crabs and shrimp, just wouldn’t mix. It kept separating. Driving his car and pondering a solution, the professor was staring at the pavement ahead when he realized the solution. He was staring at it. “I was looking at the blacktop and remember when I was a college intern at (The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation), which was using bituminous asphalt that had to be mixed with high-shear mixtures of oil, polymers and water,” he said. “Oil and water don’t mix but if you blend them at ultra high shear, they will form a solution or emulsion.” Milk, for example, is an emulsion of fat and water. Back at his lab, colleagues watched a bit dubiously, he said, as he put the components into a food blender and mixed them at high speed before applying the emulsion to a test surface. It was a eureka moment. The mixture he’d worked on for years formed a waterproof coating that he’d hoped to create, That product, with its multiple potential uses, is described in a recent study published in the Green Chemistry Journal. A cheaper, safer material for food packaging was his primary goal, with sustainability motivating him to develop the all-natural material that still lacks a name. Its components include cellulose pulp from wood or cotton and a material known as chisosan, derived from chitin, a main component of exoskeletons of insects and crustaceans. Cellulose, the main component of wood, is one of the most readily available materials on the planet, Mr. Catchmark said. He now is seeking a patent on the material, which he said could be used in wood-fiber composites for flooring, impervious films and industrial coatings and adhesives. It also could replace formaldehyde-based adhesives in many construction materials as well as uses in eco-friendly cosmetics. “The potential reduction of pollution is immense if these barrier coatings replace millions of tons of petroleum-based plastic associated with food packaging used every year in the United States and much more globally,” he said in a statement describing his new product. Plastic long has raised concern as food packaging including its use to line aluminum cans. Bisphenol A, a component of such plastics, has been linked with health impacts. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently granted two petitions requesting the administration to amend its food additive regulations to no longer provide for the use of certain BPA-based materials in baby bottles, sippy cups and infant formula packaging. These uses, the FDA said, “have been abandoned” as a result of controversy over their use. In the meantime, the FDA said, “Studies have raised questions about the safety of ingesting the low levels of BPA that can migrate into food from food contact materials. To address these questions the National Toxicology Program, partnering with FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research, is carrying out in-depth studies to answer key questions and clarify uncertainties about BPA.” Plastics have other problems. Global production is approaching 300 million tons per year, with about 10 percent ending up as municipal solid waste, half of which is packaging. “It is anticipated that 10 percent of all plastic produced globally will become ocean debris, representing a significant ecological and human health threat,” said Mr. Catchmark, who holds a doctorate in electrical engineering, in a statement about his product. Southern Champion Tray, a leading manufacturer of paperboard packaging including pizza boxes in Chattanooga, Tenn., already is testing the new material in its products. ___ Online: http://bit.ly/2yKxtHg ___ Information from: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, http://www.post-gazette.com
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24507
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Gas will reach $4 a gallon under a cap-and-trade plan.
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EnergyCitizens.org claims gas will cost $4 a gallon under a cap-and-trade plan
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false
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Environment, National, Cap and Trade, Climate Change, Energy, EnergyCitizens.org,
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"In a full-page ad in the Sept. 30, 2009, edition of the Washington Post , was this eye-catching claim about gas prices: ""$4 GAS - Another unfortunate truth about the House's climate bill,"" said the ad from EnergyCitizens.org . ""As Congress considers new climate legislation, Americans aren't getting the whole truth. A recent study found the House-passed bill could lead to $4 per-gallon gasoline. America is in the middle of a harsh recession. Think about the impact of $4 gas."" We've heard a lot about the cap-and-trade plan — that it will increase the cost of energy and that it will eliminate jobs — but it's been a while since we put claims about the price of gas to the Truth-O-Meter. The concept of cap-and-trade is relatively easy to understand. A cap is put on greenhouse gas emissions, and firms are required to buy credits, either from the government or from other companies, to continue polluting. Iterations of a cap-and-trade plan have been introduced in Congress previously, but the most recent legislation, written by Democrats Henry Waxman of California and Ed Markey of Massachusetts, has been passed by the House of Representatives. Their bill aims to lower carbon pollution by 17 percent by 2020 and 83 percent by 2050. Under their plan, most pollution permits initially would be given out free. But eventually, companies would have to buy those permits from the government. Opponents of cap-and-trade argue that forcing industry to buy pollution credits will ultimately harm consumers and business. Firms will have no choice but to pass on the cost of buying those permits. And that's where the argument from EnergyCitizens.org comes into play. The group, a coalition of business organizations, antitax groups, transportation companies, and Washington heavy hitters such as the American Petroleum Institute and the American Farm Bureau Federation, says those higher prices will hit consumers in the form of higher gas prices. The ad cites a Heritage Foundation study of the bill published on June 16. The conservative think tank, which has been critical of the Waxman-Markey bill, contends higher energy prices ""will spread throughout the economy as producers everywhere try to cover their higher production costs by raising their product prices. ... Even after adjusting for inflation, gasoline prices will rise 58 percent over the 2035 baseline price."" We checked with the Heritage Foundation to find out if EnergyCitizens.org was correctly interpreting Heritage's study, and were told that the group was. Heritage also pointed us to another study the think tank did that looked at gas prices per state. Heritage assumes that under Waxman-Markey, gas will be at a minimum $3 a gallon in 2035, depending on where you live. A 58 percent price increase as a result of cap-and-trade would put the cost of a gallon of gasoline at more that $4. So, based on Heritage's data and assumptions, EnergyCitizens.org is in the ballpark. However, the group leaves out an important detail in its ad: These predictions are for 2035, 26 years from now when, presumably, our economic landscape will be very different. EnergyCitizens.org plays on people's anxiety about the recession by portraying these prices as something that would take effect immediately. To get more perspective, we looked at other estimates. For comparison, keep in mind that the current national average is $2.60 for unleaded regular. The Energy Information Administration, a branch of the Energy Department, published an analysis of the bill on Aug. 4, 2009, which predicts gas price increases will be relatively small compared to increases in the electricity sector, in part because emissions reductions from the fossil-fuel sector will only account for 12 to 20 percent of overall reductions. If the bill is enacted, gas prices will only be about 20 cents more per gallon in 2020 and 35 cents more in 2030, the report predicts. Another analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency predicts impacts on future gas prices would be minimal under the Waxman-Markey bill. Specifically, prices would go up $0.13 in 2015, $0.25 in 2030, and $0.69 in 2050, according to the June 23 report. Clearly, there's a difference of opinion on how much the price of gas will change as the result of cap-and-trade. For the most part, those differences have to do with what kind of assumptions are made about nonfossil fuels, such as nuclear and wind power. The EPA, for example, assumes that cleaner technologies and renewable energy will replace fossil fuel more quickly, which would translate to lower costs to consumers. Heritage takes an austere approach, assuming that traditional energy sources would be scaled back to meet new emissions standards, but would not be immediately replaced by new technology or renewable fuels. As a result, fossil fuel prices will go up and continue to rise. Another point to put this all in perspective: Gas prices fluctuate dramatically. In January 2009, a gallon of gas cost about a $1.80 a gallon. This week, gas costs $2.60 — about a $1.20 less than it was a year ago. So predicting how much gas will cost next week — let alone in 2035 — is an imperfect science. Based on the estimates, it's probably a safe bet that the price of gasoline will ultimately increase as a result of cap-and-trade. And the estimates vary based on reasonable disagreements about methodology. But Energycitizens.org is guilty of a significant exaggeration because the ad strongly implies the price hike would happen very soon. It fails to mention that $4-a-gallon gasoline wouldn't be the norm until 2035 — if it ever is. The group also leaves out other important studies that predict smaller increases. On July 27, 2011, we changed the name for the rating to ."
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34725
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A photograph shows an improperly displayed American flag outside of a Quality Inn hotel in May 2019.
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Coal-fired utilities around New Delhi were still operating on Wednesday despite threats from the Indian authorities to close them down if they had not installed equipment to cut emissions of sulfur oxides by the end of the year.
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mixture
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Fauxtography
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Three senior executives at companies operating power plants around New Delhi and facing an end-2019 deadline said they had not received direction on whether they could continue to run the plants having not installed the kit. Only one out of the 11 utilities in the national capital region had installed the equipment. India had already extended its December 2017 deadline for its utilities to meet the emissions standards - posing a further challenge to the authorities grappling with the pollution that can cause lung disease and blights air quality. Officials from the India’s Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), who had threatened a shut down for non-compliance, did not respond to repeated calls and text messages seeking comment. Reuters reported last month that more than half of India’s coal-fired power plants and 94% of the coal-fired units ordered to retrofit equipment to curb air pollution would likely miss the phased deadlines. The air quality index for the Indian capital, the worst affected major city, indicated “severe” conditions on Wednesday - like most days this winter - a potential risk for even healthy people. Real-time data government data showed both power plants in the country’s largest state of Uttar Pradesh which had a Dec. 31 deadline were operating. In Punjab, Vedanta-owned TSPL units were producing power, as were state-run plants at Ropar and Bhatinda. Mohammed Shayin, managing director at northern Haryana state-run power generator HPGCL said all units other than ones under scheduled maintenance were operational, adding that the utility was “pleading” with federal authorities to extend the emissions deadline. Private producers such as Vedanta and Larsen & Toubro Ltd argued for yet another extension to the deadline. L&T-owned Nabha Power Ltd said it was “constrained to shut down both its units due to a delay in extension of timelines by the CPCB”. Vedanta said it was “confident” that authorities “would take a considerate stand”. “We shall shut the plant in case we get the directions from the CPCB or the environment ministry,” the company said.
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4187
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Environmentalists, state officials disagree on toxin limits.
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Environmental activists and state environmental officials disagree about how regulations should be used to combat algae blooms in Florida’s waterways.
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true
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General News, Florida, Environment, Tampa, Algae
|
The state Department of Environmental Protection is considering new regulations on how much toxins are allowed in the state’s waterways. The Tampa Bay Times reports that environmentalists say the state should set numeric limits on the amount of toxins. However, the state agency believes the new limits should determine when and where to declare a public health emergency, not as a tool to try to prevent such emergencies. Florida had the worst blue-green algae bloom last year in the state’s history. That was coupled with a devastating red tide outbreak along the state’s beaches that caused respiratory irritations in people and killed sea turtles, manatees, dolphins and fish. ___ Information from: Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.), http://www.tampabay.com.
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7265
|
McHenry County to give teachers youth mental health training.
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McHenry County will train educators on how to identify and assist youths experiencing mental health issues.
|
true
|
Crystal Lake, Arlington Heights, General News, Education, Mental health
|
The county mental health board is collaborating with 17 school districts in August to bring Youth Mental Health First Aid training to instructors and teach them crisis intervention, the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald reported . “It gives you an opportunity for early intervention,” said Kristin Schmidt, assistant director of special education for Crystal Lake Elementary District 47, one of school districts receiving teacher training. “This will provide them a lens of empathy. They can apply it to how they choose to interact with students in their classroom or change expectations for classroom behaviors; modify workload for students with high anxiety.” The Illinois Association for Behavioral Health has used the nationally known training model to educate instructors, school personnel, parents, and neighbors on how to help teenagers dealing with mental health problems. But the five-day training in August will be primarily for middle and high school administrators, special education staff, social workers and psychologists. It will be provided by expert national trainers and enabled by the Crystal Lake chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness . The class will comprise of a five-step action plan for how to assist adolescents in crisis and non-crisis circumstances. Those steps include: evaluating for danger of suicide or harm; listening nonjudgmentally; providing reassurances and information; encouraging proper professional help; and promoting self-help and other support strategies. One in five children, ages 13 to 18 years, has experienced a serious mental disorder in their lives, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Scott Block, executive director of the McHenry County Mental Health Board, said McHenry County’s evaluation of child and adolescent mental health and psychiatric needs in 2017 underscored a mounting issue and need for improved access to services. “With the pressures of today’s society, both in the educational (and) social environment in which children are using many different social media platforms. There have been anecdotal increases in anxiety, depression, body image issues, and bullying-related concerns, all of which have exacerbated mental health-related issues within our youth,” Block said. “Our response was to increase and bolster some of our community-based services.” In January, the mental health board approved up to $40,000 in subsidies to allocate to the Youth Mental Health First Aid training after a new state mandate required school boards to adopt and implement rules addressing mental health concerns. ___ Information from: Daily Herald, http://www.dailyherald.com
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38696
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There’s buzz that Crest Pro Health Tooth Paste contains blue beads, or polyethylene, that can become lodge in your gums, allowing bacteria to enter.
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Crest ProHealth Toothpaste Leaves Blue Beads in Your Gums
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mixture
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Health / Medical
|
Dentists raised concerns about the tiny blue beads found in some types of Crest ProHealth Tooth Paste back in 2014, but manufacturer Proctor & Gamble has already taken steps to get rid of them. The controversy started back in March 2014 when dental hygienist Trish Walraven wrote a blog headlined “Crest toothpaste embeds plastic in our gums” for the blog site Dental Buzz. Walraven wrote that she had found tiny blue beads of polyethylene plastic lodged in the gum lines of her patients: Around our teeth we have these little channels in our gums, sort of like the cuticles around our fingernails. The gum channel is called a sulcus, and it’s where diseases like gingivitis get their start. A healthy sulcus is no deeper than about 3 millimeters, so when you have hundreds of pieces of plastic being scrubbed into your gums each day that are even smaller than a millimeter, many of them are getting trapped. The thing about a sulcus is that it’s vulnerable. Your dental hygienist spends most of their time cleaning every sulcus in your mouth, because if the band of tissue around your tooth isn’t healthy, then you’re not healthy. You can start to see why having bits of plastic in your sulcus may be a real problem, sort of like when popcorn hulls find their way into these same areas. Ouch, right? Walraven didn’t claim that polyethylene left behind after you brush causes gum problems. There’s no scientific proof of that. Still, other dentists across the country followed suit in sounding alarms that polyethylene plastic beads could cause dental hygiene problems because the sulcus is so sensitive. According to Proctor & Gamble ingredient listings, polyethylene was used in nine different types of Pro Health Toothpastes at the time: Crest ProHealth for Me Crest ProHealth for Life Crest ProHealth Enamel Shield Crest ProHealth Sensitive + Enamel Shield Crest ProHealth Intensive Clean Crest ProHealth Healthy Fresh Crest ProHealth Whitening Toothpaste Crest ProHealth Night Toothpaste Crest ProHealth Toothpaste One of the dental community’s biggest gripes about the little blue or green beads in Crest ProHealth Toothpastes was that they don’t provide any oral health benefits. Rather, Proctor & Gamble disclosed in a FAQ (that has since been removed) that polyethylene is “an inactive ingredient used to provide color.” Back in 2014, the company pledged to remove the polyethylene microbeads from all Crest toothpastes by March 2016, Plastic News reports: After months of prodding, Procter & Gamble Co., the makers of Crest brand toothpastes, say PE will be completely removed from its dental products by March 2016. “While the ingredient in question is completely safe, approved for use in foods by the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] and part of an enjoyable brushing experience for millions of consumers with no issues, P&G understands there is a growing preference for them to remove this ingredient. So P&G will,” said a company spokesperson, via email. “The majority of Crest product volume will be microbead-free by March 2015. Crest will complete the removal process by March of 2016, well ahead of any state legislation targets.” Also, a number of states have banned the use of polyethylene microbeads in all consumer products. Microbeads found in shampoos, body washes and hand soaps can’t be filtered from wastewater, so they end up in lakes and streams. A report by the New York Attorney General found that water treatment plants across the state couldn’t process 19 tons of microbeads that wash into the state’s water supply each year, which led to them being banned in that state, and many other states. So, concerns about microbeads in consumer products like Crest ProHealth Toothpaste are based in reality, but states and manufacturers have taken steps to end their use. That’s why we’re calling this rumor “outdated.” Comments
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30608
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A judge cut fifteen years off the sentence of a man convicted of lewd acts with a 3-year-old girl because the perpetrator claimed the child had 'asked to be raped.'
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If Rojano-Nieto had claimed his 3-year-old victim had “asked to be raped,” that element would surely have been cited by the prosecution as a factor supporting a harsher sentence. But again, no such claim was mentioned anywhere in their brief to the court.
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false
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Junk News, your news wire, yournewswire
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In December 2014, Kevin Jonas Rojano-Nieto was convicted of one felony count of sexual intercourse or sodomy of a child 10 years or younger, and one felony count of lewd acts upon a child under the age of 14. The events in Santa Ana, Calif., that led to his conviction were described as follows, per local broadcaster ABC7: On June 4, 2014, Rojano-Nieto was playing video games in the garage of his home when a 3-year-old girl he is related to wandered into the area. At some point, he became sexually aroused by the toddler, pulled her pants down and assaulted her, according to officials at the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. During the assault, the girl’s mother was looking for her and attempted to get into the garage, but it was locked. The mother then searched for her daughter in a neighbor’s home. Rojano-Nieto is said to have put his hand over the girl’s mouth to keep her from crying for her mother. He then made the toddler touch his penis. Rojano-Nieto then unlocked the garage door and let her into the home where her mother found her. Moments later, her mother found out what happened when her daughter complained of pain. Rojano-Nieto was convicted, yet controversy arose in the sentencing phase because of a state mandate for severe punishments for sex offenders. In 2006, 70 percent of California voters approved Proposition 83 to increase penalties for sex offenses, which meant Rojano-Nieto’s “crime carried a mandatory 25-years-to-life sentence,” according to The Orange County Register. However, judge Marc Kelly felt that imposing the mandatory sentence would have been tantamount to “cruel and unusual” punishment, in part because Rojano-Nieto “almost immediately” stopped assaulting the toddler. Kelly sentenced Rojano-Nieto to ten years in prison instead. The Register reports: Kelly agreed that under most circumstances the [25-year mandatory] sentence would be appropriate. “However, in looking at the facts of Mr. Rojano’s case, the manner in which this offense was committed is not typical of a predatory, violent brutal sodomy of a child case,” Kelly said. “Mr. Roiano did not seek out or stalk (the victim). He was playing video games and she wandered into the garage. He inexplicably became sexually aroused but did not appear to consciously intend to harm (the victim) when he sexually assaulted her.” The defendant “almost immediately” stopped and “realized the wrongfulness of his act,” Kelly said. “Although serious and despicable, this does not compare to a situation where a pedophilic child predator preys on an innocent child,” Kelly said. “There was no violence or callous disregard for (the victim’s) well-being.” The judge also noted the defendant “has shown extreme remorse for his actions and has been willing to accept the consequences,” Kelly said. “Mr. Rojano was born into and raised in a dysfunctional familiar environment.” Pointing to a doctor’s report, the judge said that while growing up the defendant suffered “a great deal of family disruption and abuse, making him an insecure, socially withdrawn, timid, and extremely immature young man with limited self-esteem.” Unfortunately, the notorious Your News Wire fake news site opted to turn this tragic story into clickbait, publishing a (mostly accurate) summary of the case under the false headline “Judge Cuts Pedophile’s Prison Term Claiming 3-Yr-Old ‘Asked’ to Be Raped,” and including the following fabricated statement in the middle of their article: [Judge Kelly] also backed the claim from child rapist Kevin Rojano that the young girl initiated the act of sodomy. Rojano said in his own defense that “she asked me to do it.“ This false notion that the defendant claimed the victim “asked me to do it,” and that the judge “backed” his claim, appeared nowhere in any reporting on the case, nor in the judge’s sentencing analysis. Rather, the judge held that he was recommending a lesser sentence because Rojano-Nieto had acted on a momentary impulse, had promptly recognized its wrongfulness, and had stopped almost immediately: Sodomy of a 3 year old child is a horrific crime, and imposition of harsh punishment will ordinarily not give rise to constitutional concerns. However, in looking at the facts of Mr. Rojano’s case, the manner in which this offense was committed is not typical of a predatory, violent brutal sodomy of a child case: Mr. Rojano did not seek out or stalk his sister. He was playing video games and she wandered into the garage. He inexplicably became sexually aroused but did not appear to consciously intend to harm [her] when he sexually assaulted her; as noted by defense, in an instant, he reacted to a sexual urge and stopped almost immediately after he put his penis in [her] anus. Within seconds of commencing his offense, he realized the wrongfulness of his act and stopped without ejaculating. Although serious and despicable, this does not compare to a situation where a pedophilic child predator preys on an innocent child. There was no violence or callous disregard for [the victim’s] well-being. Per Dr. Apodaca: Mr. Rojano is not a sexual predator and is not a pedophile, nor a sexual deviant. As the defense has noted, he is a confused young man who acted inappropriately in an instant with immensely damaging ramifications for the victim, his family, and himself. As a result, a mandatory term of 25 years to Life in state prison for Mr. Rojano’s offense is grossly disproportionate to his individual culpability, and thus would amount to cruel and unusual punishment in this Court’s eyes. Kelly’s decision sparked protests and nationwide calls for him to be removed from the bench, and for his sentence ruling to be overturned. In a unanimous decision, the 4th District Court of Appeal held that there was nothing cruel or unusual about imposing the mandatory sentence in Rojano-Nieto’s case because his offense was not significantly different from other cases of sodomy on a child under 10. The appellate court ordered that Rojano-Nieto be returned to Orange County to be re-sentenced, as the prosecution had argued he should be: We do not agree with the trial court’s assessment of the significance of Rojano’s actions. Although the trial court minimized the serious nature of Rojano’s molestation of [the victim] by characterizing it as happening “in an instant” and stopping “within seconds” when Rojano “realized the wrongfulness of his act,” the trial court ignored important undisputed evidence about the entire scope of Rojano’s actions. Crucially, Rojano was charged with and convicted of two separate criminal acts against [the victim], namely (1) sodomizing her, which was the factual basis for count 1; and (2) making her touch his penis and masturbate him, which was the factual basis for count 2. During the interview with the social worker, [the victim] stated that Rojano made her touch his penis after he sodomized her. Therefore, it is simply not accurate to characterize the evidence as showing that Rojano acted momentarily and impulsively, and then immediately stopped the molestation when he recognized that it was wrong. Instead of ceasing the molestation after sodomizing [the victim], Rojano continued to molest [the victim] by committing a second sexually predatory criminal act. Further, the evidence shows that rather than being based on a momentary impulse that occurred in an “instant,” Rojano’s molestation of [the victim] was something upon which he had time to reflect before acting. Specifically, Rojano locked the garage door and spoke with [the victim] about buying [her] Cheetos before commencing his wrongful acts. For the reasons we have set forth … we conclude that Rojano committed a grave and serious offense when he sodomized [the victim]. Therefore, a sentence of 25 years to life is not grossly disproportionate to the crime and does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
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6608
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Jets QB Sam Darnold cleared to play, will start vs. Cowboys.
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Sam Darnold’s spleen is fully healthy and he’ll be back under center as the struggling Jets’ starting quarterback.
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true
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New York, Sam Darnold, NFL, Philadelphia, Health, Sports, New York Jets, Dallas Cowboys, Football
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Finally. Darnold was cleared by doctors Tuesday to play this week after he missed three games while recovering from mononucleosis. He had medical tests to determine if the swelling in his spleen — a common symptom of the illness — had dissipated enough for him to play again. The Jets announced in a Twitter post that Darnold would start Sunday at home against Dallas. It’s some rare good news for the Jets, who are 0-4 — their worst start since 2003 — while dealing with several injuries to key players. And Darnold’s illness is at the top of the list. The team was optimistic last week that Darnold would be able to play at Philadelphia, which was the initial goal for his return. Darnold took first-team snaps last Wednesday and Thursday, but an ultrasound and blood test last Thursday night revealed he was not yet able to be fully cleared. So Luke Falk — on one day of full reps with the first-team offense — started his second straight game for New York. The Jets lost 31-6 and Falk was sacked nine times and had two turnovers returned for touchdowns while New York struggled to get anything going on offense. That has been a common theme during Darnold’s absence, with Adam Gase’s offense ranking at or near the bottom of the league in several categories. New York has just 233 yards of total offense in its last two games combined. With Falk starting, the Jets had 105 against New England two weeks ago and 128 at Philadelphia. “It’s probably more than just Sam getting out there,” Gase said Monday. “We have a lot of other things to clean up. Sam is able to hide things sometimes for us, where if we make a mistake, he covers it up. I think we just need to do a better job as a group making sure that all 11 are on the same page.” Darnold was diagnosed with mono on Sept. 11, three days after the season-opening loss to Buffalo. He acknowledged that he was beginning to experience symptoms leading into that game and was not 100% against the Bills, going 28 of 41 for 175 yards and a touchdown. He was sent home before practice three days later and received the diagnosis that night. Backup Trevor Siemian started in Week 2 against Cleveland, but he suffered season-ending ligament damage in his left ankle in the 23-3 loss. Falk, who had been on the practice squad until shortly before that game, came in and started the next two games for the Jets. Darnold was cleared for non-contact activity last Monday and appeared to be trending toward playing at Philadelphia — until another medical test failed to bring positive results. But the quarterback was eager for the latest round of tests. “I’m excited to hear the news,” Darnold said Monday during his weekly appearance on “The Michael Kay Show” on 98.7 ESPN Radio. “I have a feeling it’s going to be good news. I thought maybe it would come last week, but I had to wait it out again. Hopefully, this week it’s better news and I get to practice and get ready for a game on Sunday.” Darnold is all clear now, and the Jets have their starting quarterback back on the field. “Let’s get it Sammy,” an excited running back Le’Veon Bell wrote on Twitter. Darnold said last week that when he was cleared to play, he would wear customized padding around his ribcage/spleen area to help protect him. That’s something to watch as the Jets have allowed an NFL-leading 23 sacks. New York has two other key players returning this week in second-year tight end Chris Herndon, who was suspended by the NFL for the first four games for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy, and outside linebacker Brandon Copeland, who also was banned four games for violating the NFL’s policy on performance enhancers. The short-handed Jets are still waiting for linebackers C.J. Mosley (groin) and Jordan Jenkins (calf) to return, and starting left guard Kelechi Osemele is dealing with knee and shoulder injuries. Wide receiver Quincy Enunwa (neck) was lost for the season with a neck injury against Buffalo, further hindering the offense. “We have a lot of talent,” defensive lineman Leonard Williams said Monday. “We’re 0-4 right now, but the season isn’t over and we still have a lot to fight for.” ___ More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
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7193
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Castro meets with Nevada Latino leaders ahead of 2020 bid.
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Former Obama administration housing chief Julian Castro met with Nevada Democrats and leaders of the Latino community in Las Vegas on Tuesday, days ahead of his planned announcement of a 2020 run for the presidency.
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true
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Education, Barack Obama, Julian Castro, Universal health care, Immigration, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
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Castro, the Democratic former mayor of San Antonio who served in President Barack Obama’s second term, said that as a presidential candidate, he’s going to be talking about improving public education, equal treatment under the criminal justice system and addressing what he called the existential threat of climate change. Castro, who plans to announce his campaign in San Antonio on Saturday, told a group of Las Vegas high school students that two things at the top of his agenda if elected are to recommit the United States to the Paris climate accord and work to pass universal health care legislation. The next president will also have to rebuild alliances with foreign countries that President Donald Trump has weakened, Castro said, and “spend at least the first two years of their administration trying to clean up the mess of an administration that has been quite corrupt and is just doing a terrible job of managing these federal agencies.” Republican National Committee spokeswoman Renae Eze, in a prepared statement, called Castro’s visit “nothing more than a mandatory campaign rendezvous for an ego-driven politician that only cares about advancing his career, not Nevadans.” She said Castro would “deliver empty promises.” Castro, fighting off a head cold Tuesday afternoon, helped re-arrange tables and chairs to set up his roundtable chat with about a dozen students and teachers in a portable classroom at Rancho High School. The north Las Vegas school is known for political alumni, including U.S. Rep. Ruben Kihuen, and its active Hispanic student union, whose leaders met with Castro. “I remember that when I was in high school, I kind of had mixed feelings about politics because in some ways I felt like I didn’t see what difference it made,” Castro said. “I didn’t see that the people in office were doing much to help the people I was growing up with.” Castro is expected to be among the youngest candidates in the field and the most prominent Latino. On Tuesday night, minutes after Trump wrapped up a prime-time address to the nation about his U.S.-Mexico border wall, Castro told Clark County Democrats that the president “delivered his usual lies about immigration.” “The president has been on a three-year mission to scare the American people on the issue of immigration,” Castro said. He added that America needs to secure its border with personnel and technology and needs to “harness the potential of immigrants in the country, starting with our Dreamers.” The term relates to the never-passed DREAM Act that would have provided protections for young immigrants who were illegally brought to the United States as children. Castro’s visit was the first public one to Nevada by a potential 2020 candidate this year, though he and other potential 2020 contenders made appearances during last year’s campaign season. In August, Castro visited a Nevada Democratic Party office on the heavily Latino east side of Las Vegas and stumped for Democratic candidates north in Reno, the state’s second-most populous area outside of Clark County. Earlier in the day, Castro met with Peter Guzman, the president of the Latin Chamber of Commerce, which has backed candidates of both parties in past elections. Guzman, a Republican, said he and Castro spoke about how education and health care are areas where entrepreneurs and business-friendly Democrats can find common ground. “I was very, very impressed with him,” Guzman told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “I’m impressed with his story. I’m impressed that he comes from San Antonio and was mayor there.” Guzman said he told Castro that he’d be a top contender for vice president if he doesn’t become the Democratic presidential nominee in 2020. “If was Joe Biden, I would already be having meetings with him,” Guzman said. ___ Follow Price on Twitter at https://twitter.com/michellelprice .
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26389
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Facebook post Says Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers “wants to force residents to fund Planned Parenthood abortion business.”
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In 2019, Gov. Tony Evers attempted to expand funding for groups like Planned Parenthood that provide abortion services, but the proposal didn’t get through the budget process. If it had passed, taxpayers still wouldn’t be footing the bill for abortions except in rare cases. The Facebook post also calls Planned Parenthood an abortion business, which is an exaggeration.
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false
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Abortion, State Budget, Wisconsin, Facebook posts,
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"In 2018, Gov. Tony Evers campaigned on a promise to restore funding for Planned Parenthood. It’s an issue that has taken a backseat in the past year, since the Republican-controlled Legislature quashed an expansion of the Affordable Care Act in the state’s biennial budget, essentially nixing Evers’ Healthy Women, Healthy Babies initiatives. Among other measures, the proposal would have provided state funding to organizations such as Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion services. Evers’ initiative prompted a Feb. 21, 2019 article from the anti-abortion website LifeNews.com headlined ""Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers Wants to Force Residents to Fund Planned Parenthood Abortion Business."" So, why are we talking about a year-old article now? It gained new life on Facebook after a April 23, 2020 post in a ""Recall Tony Evers"" Facebook group that has been shared more than 300 times. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Evers’ proposal would have allocated funding to Planned Parenthood. But Wisconsin law prevents state or local tax dollars from being used to subsidize abortions, except in rare circumstances. Let’s see how the claim holds up. In 2019, Evers introduced a number of initiatives geared toward women and children’s health as part of his proposed budget. Nearly $28 million would have gone toward services such as cancer screenings, sexually-transmitted infection testing and other policies related to pregnancies and births. The bill would have routed federal funds from the family planning and women’s health block grant programs to Planned Parenthood and other entities. The proposal also would have allowed the health-care providers to share ""nondirective"" information about pregnancy termination as part of family planning services. Generally speaking, that means they could discuss the option. One important note: Wisconsin generally can’t use state or federal tax dollars to pay for abortions. And that wouldn’t have changed under Evers’ proposal. State law only permits money going toward abortions when a woman is a victim of sexual assault or incest, or if the abortion is necessary to save her life. Funding is also permitted if the woman has a preexisting health condition and the procedure would ""prevent grave, long-lasting physical health damage to the woman."" Wisconsin’s policy mirrors the Hyde Amendment, which bars the use of federal funding for abortions in most cases. A 2005 study from the Guttmacher Institute showed 4% of women had an abortion because of health concerns, while less than 0.5% were victims of rape. That suggests exceptions to the policy are not common. So, Evers’ proposal would have restored funding — cut under former Gov. Scott Walker — that went to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortions. But the money never made it into the final budget, and even if it had, it would have generally been barred from paying for abortions. Another part of the claim labeled Planned Parenthood an abortion business. That caught our eye. According to Planned Parenthood’s 2018-2019 annual report, the organization’s health centers performed 345,672 abortions from October 2017 to September 2018 — the most recent data available. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin reported just over 4,600 abortions for the 2017-2018 fiscal year. In Wisconsin, Planned Parenthood also provided around 105,000 sexually-transmitted infection tests, 5,300 cervical cancer screenings, 13,000 pregnancy tests and 860 breast exams. Nationwide, patients visited Planned Parenthood for contraception, prenatal services, and preventative care like pap tests or HPV vaccinations. Testing for STIs and HIV accounted for half of all services provided. Abortions comprised 3.5% of those services. Even at that rate, Planned Parenthood is still the largest provider of abortions in the United States. But to call it an abortion business is a stretch, as the organization provides other services far more often. A Facebook post links to a 2019 article that claimed Evers ""wants to force residents to fund Planned Parenthood abortion business."" Evers tried and failed to restore funding for entities like Planned Parenthood that also provide abortion services. But even if the measure had passed, under state and federal law the money generally couldn’t have gone to pay for abortions. Finally, it’s an exaggeration to call Planned Parenthood an abortion business, when abortions make up a small portion of the services offered. A statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.
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10433
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Impact of first federally funded anti-smoking ad campaign remains strong after three years
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CDC Tips ad campaign features advice from former smokersThis news release focuses on a recent study that evaluates the effectiveness of a 2014 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) educational advertising campaign called “Tips From Former Smokers” (Tips) that aimed to encourage and help cigarette smokers quit smoking. The release highlights the health risks associated with smoking and the estimated effectiveness of the ad campaign. The release also argues that the Tips campaign was a cost-effective means of helping people quit smoking. It provides some good background data on the health-related costs of smoking as well as estimates on how many people were reached through the ad campaign. However, the release does not give readers a hard number on the campaign’s cost. It would also have been good to know how the effectiveness of the Tips campaign compared to other “quit smoking” efforts. There are few activities as closely tied to adverse health outcomes as cigarette smoking. As the CDC notes (on its site, not in the release), “cigarette smoking harms nearly every organ of the body.” Smoking is linked to significantly increased risks of stroke, heart disease and lung cancer, with close to 500,000 deaths each year attributed to smoking in the United States. Smoking is not only a national health issue, but a global health issue. A 2015 study estimated that, globally, cigarette smoking causes approximately $500 billion in economic damage (largely through health costs) each year. For these reasons, finding effective means to help cigarette users stop smoking is clearly of widespread interest. However, that means taking a critical look at just how well anti-smoking campaigns actually work. And one way to do that is through the lens of a cost-benefit analysis, and comparing the outcomes of multiple campaigns. This release would have been stronger if it had helped readers make the necessary comparisons.
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mixture
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Government agency news release
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We give the release credit for providing some detail on the costs of smoking-related illnesses. However, the intervention here was a national anti-smoking campaign and the cost of that campaign was described in obscure terms: “The Tips campaign is an important counter measure to the $1 million that the tobacco industry spends each hour on cigarette advertising and promotion,” said Corinne Graffunder, Dr.P.H., director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “The money spent in one year on Tips is less than the amount the tobacco industry spends on advertising and promotion in just 3 days.” One can deduce based on the numbers given that the campaign costs less than $72 million ($1 million an hour for three days), but why spin it to this extent when it would have been easy to give us an actual number? The release is focused on a study that used survey data to estimate the impact of the Tips campaign. And the release does a good job of articulating those estimated benefits. The most concrete benefit was the estimate that 104,000 people “quit smoking for good” as a result of the Tips campaign. That’s enough to earn a “satisfactory” rating. But the release doesn’t tell readers what quitting smoking “for good” means. It appears to mean, based on the study itself, that smokers had quit for six months — that’s good to know. It also doesn’t place those 104,000 quitters in context. Based on the information in the release itself, there are 40 million adult smokers in the U.S., and approximately 80 percent of those smokers saw at least one of the Tips ads. That comes to 32 million smokers. If 104,000 of those smokers quit, that means that the 2014 Tips campaign helped approximately 0.3 percent of smokers who saw the campaign to quit. Is that good? Bad? It’s hard to tell without comparing the 2014 Tips campaign outcome to the outcomes of other campaigns — which the release doesn’t do. It’s also important to note that the 104,000 is an extrapolation based on surveying only 4,428 subjects. Given that about 3,500 of these subjects saw the ads, the 0.3 percent quit rate equals 10 study subjects. Intuitively, it may be hard to consider the possibility that there could be harms attributable to an anti-smoking campaign. However, some assessments of other public health education programs have found that to be the case, and we wish this summary had at least addressed the possibility. In 2008, for example, ABC News reported on a large Congress-mandated study of the effectiveness of a $1 billion anti-drug campaign that launched in 1998. The report was published in the American Journal of Public Health. “The study’s authors,” ABC reported, “assert that anti-drug ads may have unwittingly delivered the message that other kids were doing drugs, inadvertently slowing measured progress that was being made to curb marijuana use among teenagers.” “Overall, the campaign was successful in achieving a high level of exposure to its messages; however, there is no evidence to support the claim that this exposure affected youths’ marijuana use as desired,” the report said.” The release does an excellent job of explaining the 2014 Tips campaign, and of explaining why smoking is an important public health issue. However, the release offers virtually no information about how the CDC was able to estimate the impact of the Tips campaign. The only clue is this sentence: “The survey results are published in the March 24 release of the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.” If a release is focused on the findings of a study or analysis, it needs to offer some explanation of the study or analysis. Given that results were based on a relatively small sample, all results (attempted quits, quitters) should be prefaced with “estimated.” Additionally, all results were self-reported and thus not validated. Known biases in reporting health behaviors would suggest that these estimates could be inflated. Finally, extrapolating results from an online survey to the population level is susceptible to selection bias — survey respondents may not be representative of the general population. The study acknowledges this limitation. Normally, we ding releases or news stories that equate risk factors and health effects. There is, after all, a significant difference between the two. This release emphasizes the costs — both human and economic — of smoking, to the point of disease mongering. However, given the overwhelming abundance of research linking cigarette smoking to a wide array of severe health problems, we think this may be the exception to the rule. What keeps it on the satisfactory side is the language in the release highlighting smoking as a risk factor to cancer, stroke and other health problems. The release offers very little information about the study — readers aren’t told who performed the study or who paid for it. Two of the authors are CDC researchers, and the study itself was funded by the CDC. To be clear: neither of those facts is necessarily problematic; what’s problematic is that the release doesn’t share that information with readers. However, since the study is evaluating a CDC initiative and being published in the CDC’s journal, savvy readers would most likely deduce CDC funding. There are a number of other campaigns out there that aim to help smokers kick the habit, such as the FDA’s “The Real Cost” campaign. How effective have those other campaigns been? How does that compare to the 2014 Tips campaign? The release offers no information related to those questions. The news release refers readers to the quit line and a web site containing the Tips ads. The release clearly articulates how the 2014 Tips campaign differed from an earlier Tips campaign, and notes that Tips was the “first federally funded anti-smoking paid media campaign.” That’s enough to earn it a pass here. However, again, it would have been great to draw comparisons to other major anti-smoking campaigns. What makes Tips different? Special? More effective? This one is borderline. We understand what the CDC is trying to accomplish, and we sympathize with its goals. However, if a release is going to include a phrase like the one in a quote that says Tips is “extremely cost-effective and a best buy,” it should provide the numbers to back that up. That said, there is nothing completely over-the-top here, and the vast bulk of the language — including the headline and lead paragraph — are written responsibly. Ergo, the satisfactory rating. The quote from the co-author most misrepresents the actual study findings.
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7154
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Ewe now have sheep in new program at Tuscaloosa school.
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A Tuscaloosa school is welcoming several animals onto its campus this year as it launches a program for students interested in veterinary medicine.
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true
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Sheep, Animals, Tuscaloosa, Veterinary medicine, Science
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About 25 students are enrolled in the new pre-veterinary science program at the Tuscaloosa Career & Technology Academy, The Tuscaloosa News reported . As part of the program, the school has acquired six sheep that will be kept on campus. The first sheep brought to the school was 5-month-old Betsy, who came from a farm in Jefferson County. Last week, several people got to know Betsy when she wandered into the school’s conference hall. Agriscience instructor Carl Hughes had taught a veterinary program at the school that did not involve live animals, and interest in the program grew over the years, The Tuscaloosa newspaper reported. “From there, we decided to put together a pre-vet program,” he said. The biggest change is having the sheep as part of the program. “We wanted to have live specimens to care for and deal with,” he said. The school “is all about hands-on experience, and we thought that was a good way to get that experience,” he added. Hughes decided on sheep for this year’s focus because of their docile nature and the way they are fairly easy to handle, compared with other animals. “Students will explore pets and disease management for animals, as well as explore the different breeds of animals, such as livestock and exotic pets,” he said. “We will begin learn how to check the vital signs for animals and learn about treatment of diseases.” The school is also working with veterinary instructors from Tuskegee University and Auburn University to help the program, perhaps by coming into class to teach and offer their expertise to students. ___ Information from: The Tuscaloosa News, http://www.tuscaloosanews.com
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4089
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Illinois patient’s death may be first in US tied to vaping.
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Health officials said Friday that an Illinois patient who contracted a serious lung disease after vaping has died and that they consider it the first death in the United States linked to the smoking alternative that has become popular with teens and young adults.
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true
|
AP Top News, Lung disease, Health, General News, Marijuana, Illinois, U.S. News, United States
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The Illinois Department of Public Health the adult patient was hospitalized after falling ill following vaping, though it didn’t give other information about the person, including the patient’s name, age, hometown or date of death. The state received the report of the death Thursday, said Dr. Jennifer Layden, the Illinois agency’s chief medical officer. Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that 193 people in 22 states have contracted severe respiratory illnesses after vaping. However, they said a clear-cut common cause of the illnesses hasn’t been identified and that they are being called “potential cases” that are still under investigation. All of the sickened have been teens or adults who had used an electronic cigarette or some other kind of vaping device. Doctors say the illnesses resemble an inhalation injury, with the lungs apparently reacting to a caustic substance. So far, infectious diseases have been ruled out. The illnesses have been reported since late June, but the total count has risen quickly in the past week. That may be partly because cases that weren’t initially being linked to vaping have begun to be grouped that way. Among the newest reports are two in Connecticut, four in Iowa and six in Ohio. Health officials are asking doctors and hospitals to tell state health officials about any possible vaping-related lung disease cases they encounter. In its news release, the Illinois agency said the number of people who contracted a respiratory illness after vaping had doubled in the past week, to 22. “The severity of illness people are experiencing is alarming and we must get the word out that using e-cigarettes and vaping can be dangerous,” IDPH Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike said in the release. Electronic cigarettes have been described as a less dangerous alternative to regular cigarettes, but health officials have been worried about kids using them. Most of the concern has focused on nicotine, which health officials say is harmful to developing brains and might make kids more likely to take up cigarettes. But some vaping products have been found to contain other potentially harmful substances, including flavoring chemicals and oils used for vaping marijuana, experts say. A number of the people who got sick had vaped products containing THC, the high-inducing ingredient in marijuana. CDC officials said they do not have a breakdown of how many of the sick people vaped THC. The American Vaping Association, an advocacy group, issued a statement arguing that “tainted, black market THC products” are to blame. The group called on federal officials to clear nicotine vaping products of suspicion. Matthew Myers, the head of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the illnesses underscore why the U.S. Food and Drug Administration should be looking into e-cigarettes and their impact on health before they can be sold to the public. Health officials said they need to gather more information. “Investigators haven’t identified any specific product or compound that is linked to all of the cases,” Ileana Arias, a CDC official who oversees non-infectious disease, said during a Friday call with reporters. She also said the sickened might be dealing with different illnesses that have similar symptoms. ___ AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe reported from New York.
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8425
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Mass COVID-19 testing underway at stricken Belgian care homes.
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Belgium has begun testing more than 210,000 residents and staff at nursing homes, which now account for about half of the coronavirus-related deaths in the country.
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true
|
Health News
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Belgium is one of only a few countries in Europe that includes all non-hospitalised people who displayed symptoms of the disease in its daily tally of COVID-19 deaths, even if they had not been confirmed as having had it. That may help to explain why Belgium, a small country of about 11.5 million people that has been in lockdown since mid-March, now has the fifth highest coronavirus death toll in Europe, more than larger countries such as Germany and the Netherlands. On Thursday, Belgian medical authorities said the coronavirus death toll had risen to 4,857 people, of which 49% had been in care homes. Of these, only 6.5% were confirmed as having COVID-19. The vast majority were merely suspected cases. The mass testing at care homes is expected to take around three weeks.
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2732
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GSK upbeat on heart drug, cancer vaccine despite setbacks.
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Two high-risk bets by GlaxoSmithKline on new ways to fight heart disease and cancer were dealt a double blow last year by dud clinical trials - but the company remains hopeful about both projects.
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true
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Health News
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Chief Executive Andrew Witty said on Wednesday there were still “intriguing” opportunities for its heart drug darapladib and MAGE-A3 therapeutic cancer vaccine. Many analysts stripped out forecasts for darapladib, which is designed to prevent heart attacks and strokes in a completely different way from cholesterol-lowering drugs, after it failed to reduce risks in the first of two big final Phase III trials in November. GSK, however, is continuing to investigate the drug’s role in coronary heart disease and Witty told analysts in a call following full-year results that further data on the approach would be presented at a medical meeting next month. He was also upbeat about prospects for the MAGE-A3 cancer vaccine in other tumor settings, despite initial negative results in melanoma in September. Unlike traditional preventative vaccines, MAGE-A3 is designed for people with established disease, helping their immune systems to prevent the return of tumors after surgery. In fact the head of Britain’s biggest drugmaker said both darapladib and MAGE-3 were among the most promising drugs in the company’s pipeline. He also highlighted a new triple combination respiratory drug, a long-acting integrase inhibitor for HIV and a drug for pre-term labor, all of which could start final Phase III clinical testing this year or next.
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1590
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For New York hospital's patients, miniature horses are a strong medicine.
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Some of the most powerful medicine delivered to young patients at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York on Wednesday came in a package less than 32 inches tall and with a tail.
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true
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Health News
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Honor, a 10-month-old colt with Gentle Carousel Miniature Therapy Horses, trotted into the hearts of dozens of children and teens being treated at the Manhattan hospital. Just a handful of young patients were well enough to secure their doctors’ permission to meet Honor in person in a hospital playroom, while others watched him from their beds, viewing an internal television broadcast in their rooms and isolation units. Maria Benitez, who is 19 but looks much younger, broke into a smile when Honor pranced into the playroom. The hospital declined to elaborate on details of Benitez’s medical condition, saying only she is currently being treated as an outpatient. While Maria said her favorite animal is a horse, this one was quite different from what she expected. “He’s smaller,” Maria whispered, staring at the chestnut horse with black eyes. “They are little horses, but they have big jobs,” said Jorge Garcia-Bengochea, co-founder of Gentle Carousel. Miniature horses have comforted trauma victims after such tragedies as the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, the 2013 tornadoes that devastated Oklahoma and the 2015 church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina. They also work with families of police officers who have died in the line of duty. “They are herd animals, so they are very intuitive of what other horses are doing, needing. And they treat people that same way. They sense different emotions, different feelings that children have,” Garcia-Bengochea said. “Children have been through very traumatic situations and they’ve shut down. Just being around the animal, they get animated, they start talking and they actually sometimes tell the horse things that they haven’t told other people,” he said. In the hospital, the tiny equines serve as a symbol of hope and beauty, conjuring up an image of outdoor activities, running and strength, said Diane Rode, who heads up the hospital’s child creative arts therapy unit. “When you’re in the hospital, you’re dealing with pain, anxiety, isolation, and it’s easy to get stuck in that. Focusing on the miniature horses creates a relationship back to the world and an interest and pleasure in the world we are working to foster,” she said. “Children need more than medicine to get better,” Rode added. (This version of the story corrects the last name in paragraph four to Benitez)
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22979
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"A recent report from the president's deficit commission was ""completely empty"" on controlling health care costs."
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Paul Krugman said Obama's deficit co-chairs had no ideas for controlling health care costs
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false
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National, Federal Budget, Health Care, Medicare, This Week - ABC News, Paul Krugman,
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"The co-chairs of President Barack Obama's deficit commission released their ideas for getting control of the federal deficit last week. Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is not a fan. ""I think the most important thing to understand is that the commission did not do its job. It has a bunch of ideas for reducing the deficit, some good, some really bad, some of them not ideas about reducing the deficit at all,"" Krugman said on ABC's This Week with Christiane Amanpour. ""But it's easy to come up with ideas. I can come up with ideas for reducing the deficit while patting my tummy and rubbing my head, you know?"" The key to reducing the deficit, Krugman said, is reducing the future growth of health care costs. ""The way you have to do that is by deciding what you're going to be willing to pay for,"" Krugman said. ""They completely wimped out on that. They simply assumed they were going to reduce the rate of health care cost growth. And they said, how are we going to do that? By monitoring and taking additional measures as necessary. So the report was completely empty on the only thing that really matters and then had a whole bunch of things which involved large tax cuts for the top bracket. What on earth is that doing in there?"" Here, we'll fact-check Krugman's statement that the report was ""completely empty"" on reining in the future growth of health care costs. We'll check his statement about large tax cuts for the top bracket in a separate report. First, a bit of (recent) history on the commission: President Barack Obama created the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform in February, 2010, asking it to identify ""policies to improve the fiscal situation in the medium term and to achieve fiscal sustainability over the long run."" Obama asked the commission to propose ideas designed to balance the budget, excluding interest payments on the debt, by 2015. He appointed six members, including bipartisan co-chairs, and asked congressional leaders from both parties -- Democrats Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and Republicans Mitch McConnell and John Boehner -- to appoint three each, for a total of 18 members. The proposal released Nov. 10 was not the final report, which requires approval from 14 of 18 members and has a deadline of Dec. 1. Rather, the proposal summarized the ideas of the two co-chairs: Alan Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming and Erskine Bowles, former White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. We're not sure why the two took the step of releasing their proposals ahead of the deadline; some news reports speculate it was an attempt to prod other members to keep negotiating before the December deadline. If the members are not able to come to an agreement, it's possible that no report will be issued. We previously reviewed the co-chairs' proposal for our factsheet on reducing the deficit, but now we wanted to look in detail at what it said about health spending. Krugman is right that the report released last week reads like ""a bunch of ideas."" It reminded us more of a PowerPoint presentation than a policy brief. But it does address Medicare spending and other improvements to the health care system on pages 31 to 36. (The full report is 50 pages; view it here.) Some of its suggestions for Medicare are vague, such as its solution for addressing future shortfalls for payments to doctors and hospitals. Right now, Congress funds payments every year in a move that's come to be known as the ""doc fix."" The co-chairs' proposal suggests paying for that ""by asking doctors and other health providers, lawyers, and individuals to take responsibility for slowing health care cost growth."" It then suggests, ""Pay doctors and other providers less, improve efficiency, and reward quality by speeding up payment reforms and increasing drug rebates,"" as well as, ""Pay lawyers less and reduce the cost of defensive medicine by adopting comprehensive tort reform."" The report also suggests the government ""expand cost-sharing in Medicare to promote informed consumer health choices and spending."" That means asking seniors to pay more for their health care benefits. But the proposal also includes budget estimates for various health care-related cost savings in 2015 and for the years 2012 through 2020, on pages 33 and 35. More specifically, the report recommends strengthening the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB, a new board created under the 2010 health care law. The board is intended to make evidence-based recommendations on reducing costs and improving the quality of care in Medicare. In practice, the board will likely issue rules on which procedures it will pay for and which it won't, and these rules will apply across the board. (The board will not get involved in decisions on individual patients based on their worth to society -- the old ""death panels"" lie.) The board's recommendations will take effect unless Congress overrules them. The co-chairs' proposal suggested several ways that the board could be strengthened, such as applying its recommendations to all health care providers without some of the exceptions allowed under the health care law. It suggested that the board make recommendations on benefit design and cost-sharing, which the health care law does not allow. Finally, the co-chairs suggested that the board's proposals apply not only to Medicare but also to private health insurance plans sold in government-sponsored exchanges. On This Week, Ruth Marcus, a Washington Post columnist, challenged Krugman's claim and specifically mentioned the IPAB. ""They did talk about strengthening that commission, the famous IPAB, and giving it more power to go after more aspects of the health care system, because it's now rather constrained,"" Marcus said. ""They made no headlines with that,"" Krugman responded. ""And some friends of mine are calling this the commission to put caps on lots of stuff. It's a lot of numerical caps without any explanation of how they're going to happen."" We e-mailed Krugman after the show to ask him about his comments. He said his reading of the report, particularly page 31, struck him as ""a model of vagueness."" But, he added, ""I was somewhat unfair in not giving credit for the endorsement of the IPAB."" In ruling on Krugman's statement, he said the deficit proposal was ""completely empty"" on reining in the future growth of health care costs. Krugman has a point that the co-chairs' proposal is vague. But the proposal does have several specific ideas on how to strengthen the IPAB. It has other recommendations on health care spending as well, and it includes dollar estimates for how much its ideas would reduce spending. It does recognize that health care spending must be controlled, and it's not completely empty of ideas."
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16049
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Since 9/11, right-wing extremists (incl anti-abortion, anti-gov) have killed more Americans than Islamic extremists.
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Kohn said that since 9/11, right-wing extremists have killed more Americans than Islamic extremists. She drew that from a database created by the New America Foundation which found 26 victims of jihadists compared to 39 of right-wing zealots. That count is limited to deaths on American soil. Kohn didn’t include this context in her tweet, though she did include a link that clarified that point. The tally itself is subject to certain judgment calls and has been criticized on that basis. Also, there are times when the motives of the Islamic and right-wing extremists are difficult to separate from underlying mental illness. The evidence suggests that while the margin might be small, it still falls on the side of slightly more deaths due to right-wing extremists. But the experts we talked to led us to conclude that a definitive answer is challenging. Given these uncertainties.
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mixture
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Islam, Terrorism, PunditFact, Sally Kohn,
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"The cold-blooded killing of a dozen people at the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly in Paris, has inflamed the debate over the ties between Islam and extremist violence. The gunmen’s motive is hardly in doubt. A video captured one of them shouting ""Allahu Akbar! "", or ""God is great"" in Arabic. Liberal pundit Sally Kohn waded into the firestorm on Twitter. At one point, seeing what she called ""repeated condemnation of Islam as a whole,"" Kohn wrote, ""Since 9/11, right-wing extremists (incl anti-abortion, anti-gov) have killed more Americans than Islamic extremists."" We decided to check Kohn’s numbers. Kohn’s tweet linked to a CNN opinion piece that in turn was based on data gathered by the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank that promotes data-driven innovation to social and economic policy. By the New America count, in the time since 9/11, jihadists have killed 26 Americans on U.S. soil, while those with right-wing leanings have killed 39. The single-most deadly event by an Islamic extremist was the 13 people killed at Fort Hood. On the right-wing side of the ledger, the worst was the six people slain at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. The first thing to note is that Kohn’s tweet failed to specify that the deaths took place in the United States. Kohn explained that she counted on people to use the link in the tweet to fill in that detail. We hunted around for a count of Americans -- aside from military and such -- who were killed by terrorists while overseas and came up dry. Judgment calls Conservatives have challenged the New America tally. An article on Breitbart charged that the analysis wrongly attributed some of the killings to right-wing zealots when the ideological connection was weak. For example, in 2009, Joshua Cartwright shot and killed two police officers in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. Cartwright had beaten his wife and then driven to a local shooting range. When two deputies found him there, he shot them, fled, and was later killed in a shootout with police. Cartwright’s ties to right-wing extremists? The sheriff said Cartwright was interested in militia groups and thought the government was conspiring against him. His wife said he held anti-government views and was disturbed by the election of Barack Obama. All told, the Breitbart article questioned enough deaths to tip the count. In order to reach that point, however, it needed to add in the 10 victims of John Allen Muhammad, the so-called Beltway Sniper who terrorized the Washington metro area with his random shootings in 2002. Muhammad attended a mosque in Seattle, but financial setbacks and the loss of custody of his children seemed to have triggered his killing spree. Leave those deaths out of the equation for slayings on American soil, and the edge, however slender, still goes to the right-wing extremists. By our count, the Breitbart article came up three deaths short. For the record, this analysis deals only with fatalities even though some of the Islamic-driven violence in this country, such as the Boston Marathon bombing and the Fort Hood shootings, left many with permanent, life-changing injuries. No easy way to count If this exercise shows nothing else, it is that the number of post-9/11 deaths in the United States from either cause is low, and drawing firm conclusions is dicey. A single event or a change in definitions can shift the balance. The matter of definitions makes a big difference because most of the killers acted on their own. Experts in terrorist and extremist violence told PunditFact that in these cases, it can be difficult to draw the line between ideological and purely personal motivations. Alex Schmid is a research fellow at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in the Netherlands. ""Mental illness plays a role in up to 40 percent of the lone wolf attacks,"" Schmid said. In contrast, he said most organized terrorists are ""clinically normal."" William Braniff at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland also said this is the most challenging part of any assessment. Braniff said the best research approach is to include any violence that might be tied to extremist beliefs. But also, be sure to include enough details so others can separate the clear cases from the murky ones. ""If I am a law enforcement official or a policymaker, I might want to know if or how violent ideologies attract those who are mentally unstable because ultimately, that suggests that more resources ought to be directed to mental health interventions,"" Braniff said. Our ruling Kohn said that since 9/11, right-wing extremists have killed more Americans than Islamic extremists. She drew that from a database created by the New America Foundation which found 26 victims of jihadists compared to 39 of right-wing zealots. That count is limited to deaths on American soil. Kohn didn’t include this context in her tweet, though she did include a link that clarified that point. The tally itself is subject to certain judgment calls and has been criticized on that basis. Also, there are times when the motives of the Islamic and right-wing extremists are difficult to separate from underlying mental illness. The evidence suggests that while the margin might be small, it still falls on the side of slightly more deaths due to right-wing extremists. But the experts we talked to led us to conclude that a definitive answer is challenging. Given these uncertainties."
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38805
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Parents should be on the lookout for a new street drug that looks like gummy bears that could be given out as Halloween candy.
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Beware of New Gummy Bear Drugs this Halloween
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false
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Warnings
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Street drugs can be made to look like gummy bears, but there wasn’t a specific threat of them being given out as Halloween candy when this rumor went viral. A warning that surfaced on infunny.co, a website that allows users to share memes and gifs, shows pictures of oversized gummy bears with the following warning: Okay so there is a new drug on the streets that are in the form of a gummy bear, gummy worm etc. This Halloween if you get handed a gummy bear in (an) irregular package DON’T RECEIVE IT! It is known to put you in a coma, make you brain dead and/or death. As Halloween approached, the image went viral and left many questioning whether there actually was a new street drug that looks like gummy bears, and if there’s a threat that it could be given out as a Halloween candy. First, there is a new street drug that takes the shape of gummy bears. The crystal-like synthetic drug was first found during a drug bust in Miami in June. The drug, which can be swallowed, smoked or injected, causes hallucinations and paranoia, CBS Miami reports: During a narcotics bust, Miami-Dade Police said they found what looked like candy in a zip lock bag. Turns out, it was laced with a synthetic drug similar to Flakka and bath salts. It’s a crystal-like drug that is cheap, addictive and deadly .It can be swallowed, smoked or injected and often causes hallucinations and paranoia. “There’s been a lot of medical problems,” said Criminalist Stephen Snipes. In this case, narcotics detectives say the drug mimicked the candy’s sugar coating. It looked almost identical to regular gummies but they were stickier and individually wrapped. “The crystal was crushed up and a piece of candy was rolled in the crystals,” said Snipes. “It wasn’t as flexible and it was much stickier than the actual commercial product and it was individually wrapped.” While this is Miami-Dade’s first case, police are warning the community to be on the look out. The drug has led people to have numerous run-ins with South Florida authorities, some with deadly consequences. Still, even though the warning that went viral makes credible warnings about a new street drug made to look like gummy bears, there’s no specific threat of it being given out this Halloween. Each year as Halloween approaches, warnings about Halloween candy being laced with drugs, poison or razor blades go viral. TruthorFiction.com researched a similar rumor that the drug Ecstasy has been made to look like candy is being given out this Halloween, for example. But in reality, there have been no confirmed reports of children being poisoned from Halloween candy that was handed out by strangers. The only confirmed case of poison by Halloween candy came in Texas in 1974 when a father named Ronald Clark O’Bryan poisoned his own child’s Halloween candy with cyanide in a life insurance scam, Mental Floss magazine reports: A bit of digging revealed that Ronald O’Bryan had recently taken out hefty life insurance policies on both of his children, and police quickly built a case, albeit a circumstantial one, that O’Bryan had given both Timothy and his daughter, Elizabeth, the poison candy to try to collect on the policies. To help cover his tracks, O’Bryan also gave two other children cyanide Pixy Stix. Luckily, his daughter and the other two children had passed up the poisoned powders in favor of other treats. O’Bryan was eventually convicted and executed for murdering his son. While his crime was certainly a horrific one, it was hardly the sort of random poisoning that parents fear. Still, parents are always urged to be cautious when allowing their children to accept Halloween candy from strangers. Candy that isn’t packaged commercially should be discarded; as well as any candy with packaging that appears to have been tampered with. Comments
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10586
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For weight loss, add sleep and relaxation to diet and exercise
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The headline promotes an action – “For weight loss, add sleep and relaxation” – that is a leap when based on an observational study that can’t establish cause and effect. The flaw is compounded when the story doesn’t challenge the researchers’ statement that “people who need to lose weight should consider changes in their sleep patterns and exposure to stress.” It’s premature to jump to therapeutic recommendations based on this kind of work. Let’s be clear: it’s interesting and important work. But it has limitations. And the conclusions one can draw from it are limited. If the story had turned to an independent expert to comment, perhaps these issues would have been addressed. Obesity is an increasingly more common chronic condition and people may be interested in learning new insight that may better enable them to lose weight and keep it off. But you often need more than 300 words to explain what research has shown – and what it can’t.
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false
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Los Angeles Times
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Not applicable. While reporting that those who slept 6-8 hours per night were more likely to be in the group of people who lost at least 10 pounds in the 26 weeks of study, the story provided no insight about how they actually compared to those who did not have adequate sleep. Did those others lose, but lose less? Did they gain? We weren’t told. The treatment discussed in this story was obtaining adequate amounts of sleep. Although there were no harms discussed, there were none detailed in the study reported on. The story provided information about the study including the number of individuals studied, some of their characteristics, and then the absolute values of the outcomes of interest – i.e. the average amount of weight lost in the time period of study. But a flaw we can’t overlook is letting the researchers get away – unchallenged – with saying that “people who need to lose weight should consider changes in their sleep patterns and exposure to stress.” This study – and this type of observational study – can’t establish cause and effect so it’s premature to jump to therapeutic recommendations based on this kind of work. The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. No quotes from independent sources appear in the story. HealthDay did a better job in its story in this regard. The study actually examined the impact of a counseling intervention on weight loss for individuals who were obese and found that amount of sleep and stress seemed to predict who would and would not be able to lose weight with this intervention. There was no discussion of other approaches to weight loss or examination of the amount of weight loss reported in terms of its clinical or even personal impact on study participants. Not applicable. One of the things that falls by the wayside in short 300-word stories is context. A longer, competing HealthDay story at least described one other recent study presented at the American Heart Association meeting this month – to convey that this Kaiser study was not the only research underway about sleep and weight. Not applicable because we can’t be sure of the extent to which the story relied on a news release. One of the reasons we can’t be sure is that no interview quotes appear.
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11604
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Breast Cancer Drug Looks More Promising
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This story discusses the drug Herceptin as a “promising” drug for both early and late-stage breast cancer. Currently, Herceptin is only approved for late-stage breast cancer, though some women in the early stages of breast cancer have been included in clinical trials. Two of these clinical trials reported in this story are randomized studies that tested different combinations of drugs. The article notes that Herceptin is only useful in about one-quarter of breast cancers, but there is no mention that women must first be screened (via a test on the biopsy or tumor, which may be presented in a pathology report) to determine if they are among this group. There is little long-term data on the survival benefit of Herceptin, and only recurrence rates (after two and three years) are available in this news story. The story is balanced in that it presents Herceptin as an adjunct to existing adjuvant breast cancer treatment regimens, but some of the serious side effects of heart failure seem to be downplayed, and there is no perspective on frequency or severity of heart disease. That data on heart disease would be important information for women with early stage breast cancer who are expected to live longer. To claim that “Herceptin is very safe”, may be an overstatement at this time in the drug’s history.
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mixture
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Cost mentioned. The story provided absolute numbers. One angle the journalist could have developed further: comparing the two studies at three years, the Finnish groups are doing a lot better than the U.S. groups. What’s going on? Is it the patient population? There is no perspective on frequency or severity of heart disease. Need to put magnitude of problem in perspective — the BCIRG study showed the cardiac toxicity was significant and still persisted for more than 18 months at the date of the last follow up. Of the 3,222 patients in the study, 353 experienced a greater than 10 percent loss of heart function. Of those, 91 patients (9 percent) were enrolled in the ACT study arm; 82 patients (8 percent) were in the TCH arm; and 180 patients (17.3 percent) were in the ACTH arm, which paired Adriamycin with Herceptin. Can argue whether this amount of loss of function is significant (only 3 on ACT and 4 in other arms combined developed severe problems – left ventricular dysfunction) but for women who have high chance of living many years with things other than breast cancer likely to cause their death it could be. Finally, the story only discusses one potential harm of treatment, that of heart failure. And there’s no mention that heart failure may remain even after the drug is discontinued. Both are randomized trials that tested different combinations of drugs. The story briefly mentions randomization but doesn’t mention anything else about the study design. It is important to mention the stage of breast cancer of women in the trials and if they were those with the appropriate tumor profile and positive for HER2/neu overexpression. Potential conflicts of interest noted for pharmaceutical-funded studies and for Dr. Slamon. Physicians not affiliated with drug company research also cited for balance. Except for chemotherapyt, no other adjuvant therapies are compared with Herceptin in terms of risk of recurrence. This drug is still very new and not as much data is available about adverse outcomes for women with early breast cancer. Does not explicitly state that Herceptin is not currently approved for early stage breast cancer. Only being used in clinical trails for women with early stage cancer.
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12112
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Muslims’ disturbing plan comes out after grocery stores go bare to prepare for Irma.
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Freedom Daily misleads about potential food poisoning at grocery stores, Hurricane Irma
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false
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Environment, Fake news, PunditFact, Freedom Daily,
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"A misleading headline from a website called Freedom Daily suggests that reports of potential food poisoning at grocery stores emerged after people stocked up in preparation for Hurricane Irma. ""BREAKING: Muslims’ Disturbing Plan Comes Out After Grocery Stores Go Bare To Prepare For Irma,"" said the headline of an undated post on Freedomdaily.com Like a lot of fake news, the headline is extremely misleading while the text of the story itself is more accurate. The article summarizes and adds its own commentary to reports from the media and other sources about the Islamic State’s poisoning of prisoners and about the group’s followers potential to also poison Western grocery stores. In its About Us page, Freedom Daily said they ""post and decipher content to a level that is consistent with a common sense approach and falls in line with the ideals of American liberty and freedom."" Its Facebook page said the website ""gives Americans the real news as it unfolds with a conservative opinion."" In its story, the website doesn’t make any claims about active plots discovered against American supermarkets. ""Multiple outlets have reported that ISIS is utilizing social media to instruct members to poison food in supermarkets. It may or may not happen, but the thought of it occurring on a widespread attack on groceries could be terrorizing,"" said the post about the grocery stores. ""People could even entertain the thought of an ISIS attack before a hurricane in which the food is all poisoned and people falter in the midst of a category 4 storm before the storm even hits them. Of course, this is not something that has happened, but a mere idea or spectacle that theorists could allege."" SITE Intelligence Group reported on Sept. 3 that potential terrorists were advised to inject food sold at markets with cyanide poison. SITE said that message was distributed Sept. 3 on a pro-Islamic State channel on the social media platform Telegram and that it was part of a series of information promoting ""lone-wolf jihad in Western countries."" Freedom Daily linked to a Sept. 6 story on The Federalist Papers Project based on SITE’s report. Newsweek also published a story Sept. 7 headlined, ""ISIS supporters call for poisoning of food in grocery stores across U.S. and Europe."" But neither of them say the information came after people emptied shelves at stores as they prepared for Hurricane Irma’s path across the Caribbean and Florida. Freedom Daily’s story uses a photo of a woman in a blue blouse pushing a shopping cart past empty shelves in a grocery store. That photo was shot on Sept. 5 at a Publix supermarket in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. by the Palm Beach Post — two days after SITE’s report came out. The Miami Herald and several other outlets also reported on Sept. 5 about empty shelves at stores as Floridians prepared for Hurricane Irma. The New York Times on Sept. 4 also noted there were bare water shelves in Puerto Rico as they also braced for the storm. Freedom Daily’s story itself contains true information, but the headline ignores critical facts that would give a different impression."
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10537
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Routine screenings prevent cervical cancer in elderly women
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[Editor’s Note: The University of Illinois has updated its news release on this study to address some of our criticisms. The revised release, which can be accessed here, features a new headline and a more extensive discussion of the study’s methods and limitations. The original release that we reviewed has been archived and is accessible here or from the “Read Original Release” link above.] This release reports on a study that analyzed the Medicare billing records of elderly women diagnosed with cervical cancer during the 1990s and a matched control group of non-cancer patients — 1,200 patient records in all. It attempts to find a link between screening for cancer past age 65 and a reduced risk of cervical cancer. It states that women past 65 who continued to be screened by pap smears showed a reduced risk of cervical cancer, but it offers no information about the degree of risk reduction. Nor does it address concerns over possible harms from the screening or the cost of screening for women who are now told the screening is unnecessary because of their age. The headline claims a causal link that the study design cannot prove. If this research showed that women who are now told not to get pap smears as a screening for possible cervical cancer should actually continue being screened beyond age 65, then that would be an important public health change. Unfortunately, the release offered little detail to support that claim. Screening is not a harmless activity and while it is invaluable in some cases for some patients, screening is not always beneficial. Stories and releases that suggest that are not serving the public well.
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mixture
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Academic medical center news release,Cancer,Screening tests
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The release includes the statement, “Rosenblatt said there needs to be a more thorough cost-benefit analysis of conducting the screenings in elderly women,” but that’s hardly enough to earn a satisfactory rating in this category. Because these screenings are not recommended by physicians, insurance companies may not pay for them. The cost of getting regular screenings may be prohibitive for elderly women on a fixed income. Readers could benefit from knowing the average cost of such screening including the cumulative costs of multiple screenings over the years, screenings that are not now recommended beyond the age of 65. This release offers no data to explain in detail the degree of benefits from continuing screening, other than to say, “We found that the newly diagnosed cervical cancer group was less likely to have had a Pap smear, compared with the control group,” and “These results imply that routine Pap tests are beneficial for preventing malignant cervical cancer in women over 65.” Neither of these statements — nor anything else in the release — quantifies the reduction in risk that screening beyond age 65 would bring. Some actual numbers, given in percentages or statistics, would have been welcome here. While the release does say that for some women, “screenings may be unnecessarily invasive,” and that “There needs to be further study of the benefits and risks of doing Pap smears in the elderly,” it does not mention the risk of both false positives (over-diagnosis) or false negatives (under-diagnosis) and their impact on elderly women, nor does it acknowledge that the screening carries risks of infection, among others. While the lede of the release explains that the research, “confirms a link between routine Pap smear screenings and a lower risk of developing cervical cancer in women over age 65,” that cautious statement is preceded by a headline shouting “Routine screenings prevent cervical cancer in elderly women.” Unfortunately, this was a case-control study, an observational study, that cannot show causality, regardless of what the headline argues. If the first absolute statement the reader sees makes a definitive claim, caveats later in a story cannot effectively correct for that kind of exaggeration. This release does not appear to be disease mongering. It does seem to encourage a proliferation of Pap smears. The release makes no mention of the funding for this project, nor any statement regarding any possible conflict of interest. The release does, however, link to an abstract of the formal journal paper which offers information that the study was funded by the University of Illinois, so it would have been easy enough to include that in the release. Pap smears are the routine technique for screening for cervical cancer so alternatives are not applicable in the case of this release. It’s clear from the release that Pap smear cervical cancer screenings are readily available through private practices, public clinics and hospitals. The release doesn’t make an explicit claim of novelty but is clear that the study challenges conventional thinking regarding the frequency of cervical cancer screens. Since current guidelines recommend against such screening for women beyond the age of 65, with some exceptions, research that actually suggests a reduction in cervical cancer risk by screening would seem novel enough to warrant a release. Unfortunately, this release offers scant detail which would support such a finding. The release’s headline suggesting a causal link between reduced cervical cancer risk and screening pushes the envelope too far but the rest of the release, while scant on detail, is more conservative in its claims, warranting a satisfactory rating.
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5567
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Jury deliberations to resume latest meningitis outbreak case.
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Jury deliberations are continuing in the case of six former employees of the Massachusetts facility responsible for the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak that killed 76 people and sickened hundreds.
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true
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Meningitis, Health, Massachusetts, Racketeering, Public health
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Jurors in the latest case stemming from the outbreak linked to the now-closed New England Compounding Center are scheduled to return to federal court on Monday after failing to reach a verdict Friday. The former employees face mail fraud, racketeering and conspiracy charges. The pharmacy’s co-founder, Barry Cadden, and a pharmacist, Glenn Chin, are already serving prison sentences after being convicted of mail fraud and racketeering. They were both cleared of second-degree murder. The outbreak sickened more than 700 people in 20 states and is considered the worst public health crisis in recent U.S. history.
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11048
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Tumor profiles can help improve treatment
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This story gives a glimpse of some of the nuances for treatment of cancers that will be begin to be available sometime in the future. One strength of the article was that it pointed out some of the current tumor-specific treatment decision-making dilemmas – that currently there are a number of women with early breast cancer who are given unnecessary chemotherapy which contrasts with the situation of lung cancer patients, many of whom might benefit but currently do not receive chemotherapy. But the article missed a golden opportunity to educate readers that not all types of cancer are similarly aggressive or hazardous. While a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society was quoted, it would have been more helpful to have insight provided about what the study results mean in terms of breast or lung cancer treatment decisions that patients could face sometime in the future. Overall, this wire service story covered a lot of the bases in only 385 words.
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true
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Presumably this genotyping is for research purposes only and not ready for public use, and thus no estimates of cost are yet available. This could have been explicitly stated. The article did present quantitative estimates for the accuracy of the test for lung cancer and by including the measures on two different samples, provides the reader with a glimpse into the kind of variability that exists. The story mentions that it can be predicted that 1/3 of lung cancer patients will get worse and die but that few get chemo because doctors currently can’t distinguish between this third and the two thirds that won’t get worse. And it mentions that many women with early breast cancer get chemo even though the majority don’t benefit from it . But no quantitative estimates are given about how many might benefit from these tests. There was no discussion about the burden of treatment decisions based on the results of the tests or the possibility of insurance coverage ramifications based on the results of the tests. These are significant potential harms. The article explained that the information was derived from two articles published in the most recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. However, there was no discussion about the current study design or the prospective clinical trials that will be needed in order to evaluate the value of these genetic screens. The article did not actively disease monger about cancer or cancer risk. However, it painted a perhaps unnecessarily dismal picture for treatment of cancer, stating that “treatment guidelines for cancer are relatively crude — based on a tumor’s size, whether it has spread, and other characteristics” when in fact not all cancers are managed in this way and there are already a number of lymphomas and leukemias, for example, for which treatment is determined by the biology of tumor. The article did mention possible financial conflicts of interest present for one of the two groups of investigators. Although a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society was quoted, it would have been more helpful to have insight provided about what the study results mean in terms of breast or lung cancer treatment decisions that patients could be facing sometime in the future. Although these genetic screens appear to provide information on which to base clinical treatment decisions, prospective clinical trials have yet to be conducted. This was not mentioned in the article. However in presenting the problem of potential over-treatment of early breast cancer and under-treatment of lung cancer, the article provided valuable information for individuals with these conditions to think about when facing treatment decisions for these conditions even with only the widely available treatment options. Atlhough the article did not explicitly mention how widely available the two genetic screens discussed are, or when patients might expect to see analysis such as this in common use, it did state that the tests might “someday” be able to predict which patients should get chemotherapy. With the advent of the human genome project, there are a number of panels of genes being investigated to see whether they can be used to better match treatment to the precise disease of the patient. Although the article failed to put these two new reports within this context, the article also did not make claims about novelty of the approach. Does not appear to rely solely on a press release.
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8088
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U.S. companies, labs rush to produce blood test for coronavirus immunity.
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As the United States works overtime to screen thousands for the novel coronavirus, a new blood test offers the chance to find out who may have immunity - a potential game changer in the battle to contain infections and get the economy back on track.
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true
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Health News
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Several academic laboratories and medical companies are rushing to produce these blood tests, which can quickly identify disease-fighting antibodies in people who already have been infected but may have had mild symptoms or none at all. This is different from the current, sometimes hard-to-come-by diagnostic tests that draw on a nasal swab to confirm active infection. “Ultimately, this (antibody test) might help us figure out who can get the country back to normal,” Florian Krammer, a professor in vaccinology at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine, told Reuters. “People who are immune could be the first people to go back to normal life and start everything up again.” Krammer and his fellow researchers have developed one of the first antibody tests in the United States for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Krammer said his lab is busy distributing key ingredients for the tests to other organizations and sharing the testing procedure. He is transferring the work to Mount Sinai’s clinical lab this week so it can begin testing patient samples. Antibody tests won’t face the same bureaucratic hurdles diagnostic testing initially did. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration relaxed its rules last month, and body-fluid tests can proceed to market without full agency review and approval. Several private companies have begun selling blood tests for COVID-19 antibodies outside the United States, including California-based Biomerica Inc (BMRA.O) and South Korean test maker Sugentech Inc (253840.KQ). Biomerica said its test sells for less than $10 and the company already has orders from Europe and the Middle East. Chembio Diagnostics Inc CMI.O of New York said it received a $4 million order from Brazil for its COVID-19 antibody test, and it plans a study of the test at several sites in the United States. Such tests are relatively inexpensive and simple, usually using blood from a finger prick. Some can produce results in 10 to 15 minutes. That could make ramping up screening much easier than for diagnostic tests. Many questions remain, including how long immunity lasts to this new virus, how accurate the tests are and how testing would roll out, according to researchers and infectious disease experts. For now, the number of people who have been able to fight off the virus is unknown. If testing goes forward on a wider scale, some public health experts and clinicians say healthcare workers and first responders should take priority. Detecting immunity among doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers could spare them from quarantine and enable them to keep treating the growing surge of coronavirus patients, they say. It could also bolster the ranks of first responders, police officers and other essential workers who have already been infected and have at least some period of protection from the virus, the experts say. “If I ever get the virus and then get over it, I’ll want to get back to the front lines ASAP,” said Dr. Adams Dudley, a pulmonologist and professor at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine. “I would have a period in which I am immune, effectively making me a ‘corona blocker’ who couldn’t pass the disease on.” Other workers sidelined by lockdowns also could potentially return to their jobs, providing a much-needed boost to the foundering U.S. economy. The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits has soared, and business activity slumped to a record low this month as the pandemic battered the manufacturing and service sectors. Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said companies, schools, colleges and professional sports teams could all flock to these tests. He also said a broad sample of testing could give a governor or mayor enough confidence to lift certain restrictions on businesses and schools if there is a strong level of immunity. “These tests would be very attractive if they’re cost effective, readily available and easy to do,” he said. Tony Mazzulli, chief microbiologist with Toronto’s Sinai Health system, sounded a note of caution. It is uncertain whether antibodies would be sufficient protection if a person were to be re-exposed to the virus in very large amounts. That could happen in an emergency room or intensive-care unit, for instance. The timing of a return to work and normal life also matters, he said. Some people who have antibodies to the virus could still be contagious, even if their symptoms have eased. Patients begin to make antibodies while they are still sick, Mazzulli said, and they continue to shed the virus for a few days after they have recovered. It would be “a bit premature” to use the tests to make staffing decisions now, Mazzulli said. “The hope is … (antibodies) do confer protection and they can go to work, ride the subways, whatever they do. But there’s no guarantee.” Meantime, at the Mayo Clinic MAYO.UL in Rochester, Minnesota, researchers are preparing to start a clinical trial in which patients who test positive for COVID-19 would have their blood collected at the time of diagnosis, and again 15 to 20 days after that in the patient’s home. The trial is designed to show when people who have COVID-19 infections “seroconvert” - when antibodies produced by the body begin to show up in blood tests. That information will be useful in determining the best time to conduct the tests. “You don’t want to do it too soon because of the risk of false negatives,” said Elitza Theel, director of Mayo’s Infectious Diseases Serology Laboratory. Mayo also is evaluating the performance of antibody tests from several companies, including two from China. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is working on its own version of antibody tests, but it has not given a timetable. The agency has said extensive research is underway. One challenge for the CDC and other labs is to get enough blood samples from people who have already been infected to verify the antibody results. The agency faced heavy criticism for sending a faulty diagnostic test to state and local labs early in the coronavirus epidemic and then taking weeks to fix it. The federal government is still trying to expand diagnostic testing capacity. The potential for antibody testing arises as U.S. President Donald Trump is considering scaling back “social distancing” and stay-at-home advisories in the weeks ahead. His political allies argue that the toll on the U.S. economy is too severe. About half of Americans have been ordered to shelter in place as many schools and businesses remain shuttered indefinitely. On Tuesday, Trump said: “I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter.” Reopening offices and businesses without fear of triggering more infections, however, has been complicated by the lack of testing to diagnose COVID-19 cases across much of the country. On Monday, Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said simple, finger-prick antibody tests could play an important role, and she suggested the federal government is not waiting on the CDC’s version. “Some are developed now. We are looking at the ones in Singapore,” Birx said Monday at a White House press briefing. “We are very quality-oriented. We don’t want false positives.” False positives are erroneous results that, in this case, could lead to a conclusion that someone has immunity when he or she does not. Researchers at the Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School said they quickly developed one antibody test that had about 90% accuracy and later introduced a more sophisticated version that was more reliable, according to a report in the Straits Times of Singapore. Infectious disease experts say immunity against COVID-19 may last for several months and perhaps a year or more based on their studies of other coronaviruses, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which emerged in 2003. But they caution that there is no way to know precisely how long immunity would last with COVID-19, and it may vary person to person. “You are likely to have immunity for several months,” said Dr. Stanley Perlman, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Iowa. “We just don’t know. This is an incredibly important question.” Perlman said many of the new antibody tests coming on the market now may be highly effective, but researchers want to see data to back that up. “You want them to be sensitive enough to detect everyone who has had the infection,” Perlman said, “but not so nonspecific that you are picking up other coronaviruses.” (This story has been refiled to fix Bioamerica Inc RIC)
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22101
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"President Obama’s health care law ""represents a government takeover of health care."
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Romney calls Obama's health care law a government takeover
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false
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National, Health Care, Mitt Romney,
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"Some talking points keep getting recycled, even when they're not true. Such is the case with the claim by many Republicans that the new health care law is ""a government takeover of health care."" PolitiFact has repeatedly rated that False or and selected it as our 2010 Lie of the Year. But the line still gets repeated, most recently by likely presidential candidate Mitt Romney. During a speech in Ann Arbor, Mich., on May 12, 2011, Romney sought to explain how the health care plan he signed as governor of Massachusetts was different than the law signed by President Barack Obama. The Massachusetts plan -- passed with bipartisan support in the Legislature in 2006 -- shares many features with the Obama plan, so it poses a political problem for Romney. In the speech, Romney sought to draw distinctions between the Massachusetts plan and Obama’s. He said, ""When I ask people what they dislike most about the president’s plan, what I typically hear is they say, ‘Obamacare represents a government takeover of health care, and I don’t like it.’ And I think they’re right."" He made the same point in an accompanying PowerPoint slide, which called ""Obamacare"" ""a government takeover of health care,"" as opposed to ""Mass-Care,"" which he said was designed to ""help people get and keep their health insurance."" We have examined the government takeover claim in detail in our previous coverage, but since the line is being used by a likely 2012 presidential candidate, it's worth revisiting why we found it flatly incorrect. ""Government takeover"" conjures a European approach in which the government owns the hospitals and the doctors are public employees. But the law Congress passed, parts of which have already gone into effect, relies largely on the free market. Critics of the law are correct that it significantly increases government regulation of health insurers. But it is, at its heart, a system that relies on private companies: • Employers continue to provide health insurance to the majority of Americans through private insurance companies. • Contrary to the claim, more people will get private health coverage. The law sets up ""exchanges"" where private insurers will compete to provide coverage to people who don't have it. • The government will not seize control of hospitals or nationalize doctors. • The law does not include the public option, a government-run insurance plan that would have competed with private insurers. • The law gives tax credits to people who have difficulty affording insurance, so they can buy their coverage from private providers on the exchange. But here too, the approach relies on a free market with regulations, not socialized medicine. Critics of our conclusion have said the significant increase in government regulation -- which, among other things, requires that adults have health insurance -- justifies the use of the term. In an editorial responding to our Lie of the Year choice, the Wall Street Journal wrote that ""at the heart of ObamaCare is a vast expansion of federal control over how U.S. health care is financed, and thus delivered. The regulations that PolitiFact waves off are designed to convert insurers into government contractors in the business of fulfilling political demands, with enormous implications for the future of U.S. medicine. All citizens will be required to pay into this system, regardless of their individual needs or preferences. Sounds like a government takeover to us."" Michael Cannon, a scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute, went so far as to announce that he was boycotting PolitiFact because of problems he had with both the ""government takeover"" article and the previous year’s Lie of the Year -- former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s argument that the Obama health care bill included ""death panels."" When we asked Romney’s camp to explain their use of the term ""government takeover,"" spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said, ""It seems pretty obvious that under Obamacare, the federal government takes on a vastly expanded role in health care. Whether you call it a ‘takeover’ or a ‘power grab,’ the effect is the same -- it shifts power and responsibility from the states to Washington and suffocates the nation under a massive, byzantine bureaucracy fueled by a half trillion dollars in higher taxes."" But we find flimsy evidence for such a strong claim. The government's expanded role in health falls far short of being a government takeover. As we said in our Lie of the Year announcement, analogies about strict government regulation provide some helpful illustrations. The Federal Aviation Administration imposes detailed rules on airlines. State laws require drivers to have car insurance. Regulators tell electric utilities what they can charge. Yet that heavy regulation is not described as a government takeover. There's no question that ""government takeover"" has been a successful talking point. A poll in March 2010 found that a majority of the American people believed it was true. But the facts simply don't support it. The health care law continues to depend on private health insurance and private-sector physicians. So Romney earns the same rating as others who have made the false claim: !"
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26514
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"Tweets Says Rudy Giuliani ""bought $2M in shares of Novartis, a primary supplier of hydroxychloroquine"" in early February."
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Novartis is a Swiss pharmaceutical company that manufactures hydroxychloroquine. It has donated 30 million doses to the U.S. While Novartis paid Giuliani a speaker’s fee in 2006, there is no publicly available evidence that he currently has a financial stake in the company. He has denied having one in press reports. Financial disclosure documents indicate that Trump does not have a current connection to Novartis.
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false
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Drugs, Ethics, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Tweets,
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"Rudy Giuliani’s promotion of a lupus and arthritis drug to treat COVID-19 patients is raising eyebrows about his motivation. In an interview with Fox News on April 5, Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, said hydroxychloroquine could potentially be used to alleviate symptoms associated with the coronavirus. ""I think we should let doctors decide whether we should use hydroxychloroquine, not the national bureaucracy,"" he said. ""Everything shows that it works."" Giuliani’s comments echo what Trump has said over the past few weeks, despite the fact that medical experts still don’t know much about the drug’s efficacy against COVID-19. (Not every study shows that it works, for instance.) But a tweet published the same day as the Fox interview claims Giuliani has ulterior motives for promoting the drug. ""Here @whpresscorps Ask Trump about THIS!!"" @Wiseronenow said in the tweet. ""‘Giuliani, in early February, bought $2M in shares of Novartis, a primary supplier of hydroxychloroquine. How many shares did Sean Hannity & the Trump family buy?’"" (Screenshot from Twitter) The tweet was referred to us by VineSight, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to surface potential misinformation. We found the same claim circulating on Facebook, where some posts also implicated President Donald Trump. ""Novartis also paid Michael Cohen $1M in payments in 2016,"" one post reads, referring to Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney. ""Also Trump had a 1 on 1 meeting with Novartis CEO in January 2020."" We’ve seen a lot of misinformation about chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, so we wanted to take a closer look at Giuliani and Trump’s financial interests in the drugs and their manufacturers. We could find no evidence that Giuliani purchased stock in Novartis in early February. The company paid Cohen more than $1 million in consulting fees in 2017, not 2016. And while Trump did attend a dinner with a Novartis leader in January, it was not a one-on-one meeting with the CEO. Novartis is a Swiss pharmaceutical company. It has donated hydroxychloroquine to the U.S. National Strategic Stockpile for use in treating COVID-19 patients. On March 29, the Department of Health and Human Services published a statement saying that it had accepted 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate donated by Sandoz, the generics division of Novartis. The company said in an earlier press release that it plans to give out 130 million doses by the end of May. The donation came after Trump said during a March 19 press briefing that chloroquine could potentially be used to treat COVID-19. But the research is far from settled. But two other studies found that the drug had no discernible effect on the coronavirus. With more than 50 studies still in the works, the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19 is still unproven. Novartis has said criticism that the drug is unproven and the company is profiting from it is ""without merit."" Now let’s take a closer look at any ties to Trump and his lawyers. While Novartis has paid Giuliani in the past, we could find no evidence that the former New York mayor has a current financial connection to the company. A search of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s database, which contains information about publicly traded companies, turned up no documents linking Giuliani to Novartis. We also found no mention of Giuliani on the company’s website. A 2007 financial disclosure form from Giuliani, who campaigned for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, shows that Novartis paid him a $60,000 gross speaker fee on Feb. 6, 2006. The company is not listed anywhere else on the form. The New York Times reported that Giuliani’s interest in hydroxychloroquine stems in part from his contact with Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, a New York physician who has been giving the drug to people with coronavirus-like symptoms. Giuliani told the Times he does not have any financial interests in hydroxychloroquine. We reached out to him for a comment, but we haven’t heard back. Novartis has had connections with another Trump associate. In May 2018, the company disclosed that it had paid Cohen, the former Trump personal attorney, for health care policy consulting. A Senate report published in July 2018 outlined how Cohen had received $1.2 million over a 12-month period ending in February 2018. A month after the deal was signed, Novartis ""determined he would not be able to provide the anticipated services,"" according to the report. However, Cohen was still paid for a year under the terms of the contract. In December 2018, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. The connection between Cohen and Novartis has led some to speculate that Trump has financial motives for promoting hydroxychloroquine. Some Facebook users have claimed Trump met with the company ""one on one"" in January, making his recent promotion of the drug suspicious. There’s little evidence to back either claim up. Trump’s financial disclosure forms indicate that he has not held stock in Novartis since taking office. The last form filed was in May 2019. The New York Times reported that the president does have a stake in Sanofi, a French company that makes hydroxychloroquine, through a mutual fund. But the stake is rather small; the Washington Post reported that it’s ""between about $100 and $1,500 in total."" The event included a slew of executives from other companies around the world. Even if Trump or his associates did have some stake in Novartis, it’s uncertain whether they’d reap financial benefits from the increase in demand for hydroxychloroquine. The company is donating, not selling, nearly its entire supply of the drug. ""Any rumors that Novartis stands to benefit financially or otherwise from the donation of hydroxychloroquine is without merit,"" a company spokesman told PolitiFact in an email. Novartis shares spiked briefly after Trump began touting chloroquine on March 19, but since then they have performed about as well as the broader stock market. A tweet claimed that Rudy Giuliani bought $2 million in shares of Novartis in February. We could find no evidence that Giuliani has a current financial connection to Novartis, which has donated 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine to the U.S. The company did pay consulting fees to a former Trump associate, but documents don’t show any financial connection between the president himself and Novartis. The meeting that Trump had with the company’s chairman in January was not one on one — it included many other business executives. Bottom line: Available evidence does not show any financial link between Giuliani or Trump and Novartis. Barring additional evidence, the tweet is inaccurate."
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4268
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Officials study link between rain and bacteria in water.
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For Kellyn Reese, waking up on Tuesday mornings and going to the beach because it’s her job is a nice perk of being a summer intern at the East Shore District Health Department.
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true
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Water quality, Health, Environment, Environmental health, Public health
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“The water affects everyone,” she said, which is why she believes her job is so important. Reese is studying public health and environmental health at East Carolina University in North Carolina. She will be an intern for the East Shore department, working on the Connecticut shoreline until the end of July. Reese spends her Tuesday mornings driving around to all the public and private natural swimming areas in Branford, North Branford and East Haven, collecting water samples and putting them on ice in her purple cooler. The samples are then collected by state Department of Public Health couriers and brought to the state lab in Rocky Hill for testing. Water quality testing has always been a priority for the East Shore department every summer, but this year, Alex Cinotti, the assistant director of health, has something he’s trying to prove. Every year, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, the department collects weekly water samples from 12 water bodies used for swimming, both freshwater and saltwater, to ensure bacteria levels are low enough for public safety. Samples are collected and tested once a week, and as long as bacteria levels fall below state-determined risk levels, the beaches and other water bodies remain open. This year, however, Cinotti would like to take the sampling a step further — to show a direct correlation between rainfall and elevated bacteria levels, he said, as rain will often wash contaminants into public waters and cause bacteria levels to rise. “This is our opportunity to take samples and establish a pattern,” Cinotti said. “Bacteria is bacteria and we consider it pathogenic.” As such, in addition to the weekly sampling of water, Cinotti said that the department is collecting samples after heavy rains to see if bacteria levels rise after rainfall. This kind of analysis could not be done last summer, Cinotti said, because there were few rain events due to the drought. On the state level, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will close public beaches after a significant amount of rainfall, in anticipation of potentially higher bacteria levels. Scott Szalkiewicz, a health program supervisor for the state Health Department, told the Register last summer that because samples take 24 hours to process, it’s helpful to be able to close beaches before test results come in when officials believe bacteria levels will be high based on the amount of rain and visual indicators. The East Shore District Health Department serves Branford, North Branford and East Haven. The 12 bathing waters surveyed each week include the east and west East Haven beaches, the Clark Avenue beach, Branford Point, Stony Creek, Hotchkiss Grove, Turtle Bay, Sunrise Cove, Lanphier Cove, Cedar Lake, Linsley Lake and Clear Lake. According to water quality records from the East Shore District Health Department in 2016, there was only one time when bacteria levels reached a level at which one of the beaches had to close. Sunrise Cove reached a level of 1,000 colonies of bacteria in the sample of 100 milliliters of water on Aug. 2, 2016, according to the records. Cinotti said that the safe levels for salt water are 104 colonies of bacteria per 100 milliliters of water and 235 colonies for fresh water per 100 milliliters of water. Some things that cause heightened bacteria levels include wild animal and dog feces, sewer overflows and leaks, Cinotti said. Rain may wash contaminants such as sewer overflows, nitrogen-rich pollutants and goose and dog feces into the Sound and other bathing water bodies. Potential health risks from swimming in water with high levels of bacteria include possible infections to open wounds and gastrointestinal illness when water is accidentally swallowed, Cinotti said. He added that it’s possible swimmers could contract eye- or ear-related illnesses from high levels of bacteria. “We really need to protect children,” Cinotti said. “They are more vulnerable than adults.” ___ Online: http://bit.ly/2rFTp4s ___ Information from: New Haven Register, http://www.nhregister.com
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31885
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Salt lamps, because they emit negatively charged ions, impart myriad health benefits including reduced anxiety, improved sleep, increased energy, and protection from an “electric smog.”
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Incidentally, that nice pinkish color that glows once the bulb is turned on is the only thing you are going to get from a salt lamp. Salt lamps may look neat, but claims that they can do anything medically rely — fatally — on the claim that the lamps produce negative ions and then further rely on a series gross simplifications or misinterpretations of science to argue that those negative ions (which don’t exist in the first place) could affect you in any meaningful way.
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false
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Medical, salt lamps
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Salt lamps, which are merely light bulbs of varying wattages placed within blocks of rock salt of varying sizes, have become an increasingly popular product in the alternative medicine scene and are marketed as “natural ionizers.” An ionizer, in theory, produces ions, which are atoms or molecules with a net positive or negative charge caused by an uneven number of protons to electrons. According a popular (and representative) Facebook post about salt lamps, the product can positively affect your health in these diverse ways: All the claims described above rely on the singularly false assertion that a block of salt with a light bulb inserted inside will naturally emit negative ions. That argument, when intelligible, usually invokes some sort of interplay between the salt, which attracts water from the air, and the heat from the light evaporating that water, as described in a non-peer-reviewed 2010 paper in the Pakistan Journal of Molecular Biology: The negative ions are generated by a continuous interplay of water attraction and evaporation. The salt crystal lamp attracts water molecules from the surrounding air to its warm surface. The water and salt form a solution. In the process of evaporation of the solution, due to the heat of the lamp, negatively charged ions are created. Both positive and negative ions are created but much more negative ions than positive ions are created, therefore providing a surplus of negative ions. Natrium [another word for sodium] is positively charged. This unique ion emission interplay ability with water is because of salt’s neutral atomic structure. This explanation has the great benefit of sounding scientific. Who really knows how ions are formed in the first place or what will happen to blocks of heated salt rock, anyway? One person with pretty deep knowledge on the topic is Caltech professor of chemistry Jack Beauchamp, an expert in (among other things) the myriad processes that generate ions and the analytical methods used to detect those ions. Beauchamp was skeptical that a heated block of sodium chloride would produce ions (any amount of them, positive or negative ones, let alone “boundless amounts”) but not so skeptical that he didn’t want to hook up the most popular salt lamp available from Amazon.com to his lab’s quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer. This instrument, in essence, sucks in air from directly around the solid and analyzes the mass and charge of particles captured by the instrument. Here’s Beauchamp description of what he did in his own words: We have a lot of experience with observing ions. What we did with the lamp, since it’s supposed to make negative ions, was to place it adjacent to the inlet and, just by itself, we observed no ions at all. We turned it on and looked for negative ions. We looked for positive ions. We waited for the lamp to heat up. The bulb inside eventually does heat the rock salt, but we didn’t see anything. I can’t think of any physical process that would result in the formation of Ions from heating rock salt, with and without the presence of water vapor in any amount. Rock salt has a face-centered cubic structure which would not be expected give rise to electric fields that would generate ions around individual crystals. The structure aspect is important, says Beauchamp. One way to get crystals to generate ions is to alter the shape of its crystal structure via temperature, something that can happen if a crystal structure is asymmetric. He points to a crystal called lithium tantalate, which changes its crystal structure when heated up in such a way as to create areas of high and low electrical potential when heated or cooled. This property allows it to generate an electric field that could, in theory, ionize the air around it. Sodium chloride’s chemical structure is a symmetrical cube that does not have the capability to generate high electric fields in the vicinity of a crystal. The bottom line, according to Beauchamp and other chemists, is that there is no reason why putting a 15–45 watt bulb in a block of sodium chloride would do anything to generate ions, and this suspicion was confirmed by testing one of the most popular salt lamp models on the market with a machine designed specifically to detect ion formation. However, since one should always be concerned with low-sample, un-peer reviewed research (as our salt lamp experiment undoubtedly was), it is worthwhile looking into the claims that rely on salt lamps’ producing the ions we could not find, as these are equally tenuous in their scientific validity. They emit “boundless amounts” of negative ions, which counter the positive ions that both surround us and make us feel bad. As discussed above, “boundless amounts” of negative ions would be a bit of a stretch, given the total and complete lack of any ions generated by our lamp. Ignoring that fact, however, brings us to the claim that positive ions make us feel bad and negative ions make us feel great. In terms of effects on mood, there is some research that suggests that negative ions can play a role in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder. A 1998 study in JAMA psychiatry found, for example, that: Bright light and high-density negative air ionization both appear to act as specific antidepressants in patients with seasonal affective disorder. Whether clinical improvement would be further enhanced by their use in combination, or as adjuvants to medication, awaits investigation. A similar 2006 study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, hinted at at the possibility that high concentrations of negative ions could aid in the treatment of seasonal affective disorder. A 2013 review concluded, more broadly, that negative ions at very high concentrations had an effect on improving mood. These studies, however, used high concentrations of negative ions generated by industrial scale ion generators. Seeing as we have uncovered no evidence to support the claim a salt lamp produces any ions, the notion that a $29.99 block of rock with a light bulb could rival the power of a specifically designed laboratory equipment seems dubious. Much of the pseudoscience written about the positive effects of negative ions similarly disregards scale in their analyses, equating negative ionization at any level as the same phenomenon. Those ions increase oxygen flow to the brain, which combats lethargy, gives you more energy, and causes you to be more alert and responsive to your surroundings. There are two main arguments one could make to suggest negative ions increase oxygen flow to the brain or provide you with more energy. The first one is that negative ions increase respiratory function and, as a consequence, would allow your body to deliver more oxygen overall. This claim, though oft repeated, has very little evidence to support it. A 2013 systematic review of papers investigating a relationship between exposure to ions and respiratory health stated: Despite numerous experimental and analytical differences across studies, the literature does not clearly support a beneficial role in exposure to negative air ions and respiratory function or asthmatic symptom alleviation. Further, collectively, the human experimental studies do not indicate a significant detrimental effect of exposure to positive air ions on respiratory measures. Exposure to negative or positive air ions does not appear to play an appreciable role in respiratory function. The other claim, discussed in more detail below, has to do with a study published on the effects of ionization in neural structures and blood flow in laboratory rats. In a similar issue of blindly comparing different scales, these rats (which are both not human and much smaller than humans) were directly fed negatively ionized air at high concentrations that would be inconceivable for a block of salt to produce, even if it did produce some small amount of ions. The ions negate the radioactive waves or “electric smog” emitted by our electrical devices. While “radioactive waves” are not—strictly speaking—a thing, what the author is likely talking about is an electromagnetic field generated by household electronics. The issue is that the only problem a salt lamp (via its dubious negative ionizer mechanism) would theoretically solve is a preponderance of positively charged ions in the air which would be in turn neutralized by the negative ions. An electromagnetic field will only generate ions if the voltage is high enough to cause an electric discharge, and the electromagnetic fields generated by household appliances are not that that strong, per the WHO: Some electromagnetic waves carry so much energy per quantum that they have the ability to break bonds between molecules. In the electromagnetic spectrum, gamma rays given off by radioactive materials, cosmic rays and X-rays carry this property and are called ‘ionizing radiation’. Fields whose quanta are insufficient to break molecular bonds are called ‘non-ionizing radiation’. Man-made sources of electromagnetic fields that form a major part of industrialized life — electricity, microwaves and radiofrequency fields — are found at the relatively long wavelength and low frequency end of the electromagnetic spectrum and their quanta are unable to break chemical bonds. In terms of lessening the actual voltage of any electromagnetic field caused by household electronics, you’d be hard pressed to come up with a mechanism by which a salt lamp could provide any effect whatsoever, even if it did produce “boundless amounts” of negative ions. The ions protect you from airborne toxins that could be floating around us. Many air filters do have an ionization component to aid in the removal of dust and particulate matter from the air. These machines ionize the air, then attract the dust and other ions created with charged surfaces as air is pushed through the system, thus and removing those particles from the air. A block of sodium chloride, which, again, does not produce any ions, does not have any mechanism for the flow of air or the trapping of the particles in that air, and would therefore be useless as an air filtration system. This is, incidentally, why the Sharper Image Ionic Breeze line of products, despite actually producing ions, is complete bunk. The constant intake of negative ions makes your slumber less fitful, and helps you get more out of your rest. This claim has existed sporadically in the scientific literature for decades, but ultimately is not supported by current science. A 2013 review of psychological effects attributed to air ions, which looked at 33 studies from 1957 to 2012 evaluating “the effects of air ionization on depression, anxiety, mood states, and subjective feelings of mental well-being”, concluded: No consistent influence of positive or negative air ionization on anxiety, mood, relaxation, sleep, and personal comfort measures was observed. The ions lower high blood pressure, reducing the chance of heart attacks and strokes. This claim stems from research performed on laboratory rats who were under anesthesia and essentially pumped directly with high concentrations of negatively ionized air. It goes without saying that humans are not rats, and a that specifically designed laboratory ionization instruments produce a whole lot more ions than a salt lamp, which, not to drive this point home too much, they do not. The salt that is used in these lamps, Himalayan salt, contains up to 84 trace minerals that your body needs, allowing the lamp to also strengthen your bone, regulates your body pH, and balances the water content in your body. This assertion is perplexing because it is a) unclear where that number comes from, b) which ones they are, or c) how these trace minerals would be released from the salt in a lamp and transported into your body. It seems likely that the number and associated health claims comes from a page on Dr. Mercola’s online store in which he is selling his own brand of Himalayan salt (supplies are limited!) Ironically, Mercola claims Himalayan salt to be “the most pure” while simultaneously suggesting its health benefits come from its impurities: This salt from the Himalayas is known as “white gold.” Together with pure spring water, Himalayan Crystal Salt offers all the natural elements original to its source – the very same elements originally found existing in the “primal sea.” Containing at least 84 naturally occurring trace elements in their natural mineral form, the benefits of natural Himalayan Crystal Salt include […] Needless to say, the claims listed on an advertisement for a product cannot be taken as peer-reviewed science. Not that you need to even look that far. This advertisement is for salt to cook with, which would provide a much more plausible route for those trace minerals to get into your body. Unless you are licking your salt lamp, however, the only thing those impurities might do is impart its nice pinkish color.
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9448
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Cutting-edge immunotherapy treatment approved for another deadly cancer
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We applaud this story for taking the time to walk readers through the different side effects from the drug — including patient deaths — and for raising the issue of the high cost of the drug. However, we would have liked to have seen a clearer description on the benefits of the therapy and more explanation of both the evidence underpinning the findings and the availability of the drug. Though the tone of this story is that CAR T-cell therapy represents a cure (“This is not just an incremental benefit”), the results suggest otherwise. The story states that at 6 months only 44% are still responding and 39% have no sign of cancer. There was no control group, and it’s still early on, so whether this therapy represents a long-term cure and for how many remains to be established. For patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas who have failed conventional treatment, and face an otherwise bleak prognosis, CAR T-cell therapy offers a new option. But given the very high cost of this treatment, the limitations of the research and the lack of long-term information on survival, readers need to understand that it’s not clear yet just how great this new option is.
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mixture
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cancer,immunotherapy,lymphoma
|
The story states the cost of this new therapy. It also contrasts it to the other approved drug for CAR T-cell therapy. However, it would have been helpful to know if this cost includes all the related hospital care and services, or is simply the cost of the drug itself. It also would have been useful to compare it to other treatments for this form of cancer, such as chemotherapy or transplantation. The story describes the scope of the benefits for the patients this way: “An independent review committee found that 72 percent of patients treated with a single infusion responded to therapy, including 51 percent who then showed no evidence of remaining cancer. Kite has said that at six months, 44 percent of patients were still responding, with 39 percent having no sign of cancer.” While the story is murky on the details, this is in reference to 101 patients who received the therapy. This survival outcome was compared to historical data related to how long most people survive if they have no response to first-line treatments. This comparison is not the same as having an actual control group, and the story should have been clearer about that and what it means. The story wisely documents the harms found in the trials for the drug, including patient deaths. This is important, and helps balance the glowing patient anecdote from a woman whose cancer went into remission. The story is not as clear as it could be on the quality of the evidence. It’s unclear, for example, whether any of the findings have undergone any sort of peer review or have been published. And, what are the limitations of FDA fast-tracking a “breakthrough” therapy? Probably the most important detail to explore, as mentioned earlier, is that there was no control group. The story does not engage in disease mongering, and did a nice job discussing the prevalence of this type of cancer. There are no independent sources in this story. It would have benefited greatly from at least one outside voice commenting on the importance of the findings. The story discusses other drugs on the market. The implication is that the patient has failed all other available treatments. For insurers this will be a major point. Given the cost of the treatment, insurers may require additional standard therapies that may be less effective but significantly less costly. Moreover, how this new therapy compares to others has not been directly tested. It doesn’t appear that any such head to head comparisons are in the near-term future. The piece isn’t clear on this point. It says “[T]he agency [FDA] is requiring hospitals and clinics that dispense Yescarta to be certified after undergoing special training.” This implies that not all places will be able to prescribe this. The story explains that this is a new therapy and is the second approved treatment of its kind. Many of the facts and some of the quotes in the story come from the news release put out by the FDA, but there were enough unique details to give the story a pass in this category.
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1635
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Global life expectancy rises, but people live sicker for longer.
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People around the world are living longer, but many are also living sicker lives for longer, according to a study of all major diseases and injuries in 188 countries.
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true
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Health News
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General health has improved worldwide, thanks to significant progress against infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria in the past decade and gains in fighting maternal and child illnesses. But healthy life expectancy has not increased as much, so people are living more years with illness and disability, according to the analysis, published in The Lancet journal. “The world has made great progress in health, but now the challenge is to invest in finding more effective ways of preventing or treating the major causes of illness and disability,” said Theo Vos, a professor at the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington who led the analysis. The study’s main findings were that global life expectancy at birth for both sexes rose by 6.2 years — from 65.3 in 1990 to 71.5 in 2013. Healthy life expectancy at birth rose by 5.4 years — from 56.9 in 1990 to 62.3 in 2013. Healthy life expectancy takes into account both mortality and the impact of non-fatal conditions and chronic illnesses like heart and lung diseases, diabetes and serious injuries. Those detract from quality of life and impose heavy cost and resources burdens. For most of the 188 countries studied, changes in healthy life expectancy between 1990 and 2013 were “significant and positive”, the researchers said. But in many - among them Belize, Botswana and Syria - healthy life expectancy in 2013 was not much higher than in 1990. And in some, including South Africa, Paraguay, and Belarus, healthy life expectancy has dropped. In Lesotho and Swaziland, people born in 2013 could expect to live some 10 fewer healthy years than people born there 20 years earlier. The study also found stark differences between countries with the highest and lowest healthy life expectancies, and in the rates and direction of change. Nicaraguans and Cambodians have seen dramatic increases since 1990, of 14.7 and 13.9 years respectively. People in Botswana and Belize, however, saw declines of two and 1.3 years respectively. In 2013, Lesotho had the world’s lowest healthy life expectancy, at 42 years. Japan had the highest, at 73.4 years.
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27015
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"NARAL Pro-Choice America Says Scott Walker ""said that forcing women facing abortion to get invasive ultrasounds was 'just a cool thing.'"
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"NARAL Pro-Choice America says that Walker ""said that forcing women facing abortion to get invasive ultrasounds was 'just a cool thing.'"" Walker did defend the law he signed requiring an ultrasound in order to get an abortion. But the ""cool"" reference wasn’t to forcing some women to get vaginal ultrasounds, but rather to the ultrasound technology that produces images from the womb. For a statement that contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. More on Scott Walker For profiles and stories on Scott Walker and 2016 presidential politics, go to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Scott Walker page."
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false
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Abortion, Health Care, Government Regulation, Public Health, Women, Wisconsin, NARAL Pro-Choice America,
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"The nation’s oldest abortion rights advocacy group attacked Gov. Scott Walker and his presidential aspirations on June 18, 2015 with a TV ad called ""Crazy Ideas."" In it, NARAL Pro-Choice America, formerly the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, made a claim about comments Walker made about abortion and transvaginal ultrasounds. Walker, according to the group, ""said that forcing women facing abortion to get invasive ultrasounds was 'just a cool thing.' "" Let’s see if that’s what he said. Forced ultrasound law The ad, which NARAL said would run statewide in Iowa and New Hampshire for a week, begins with a narrator saying: ""Scott Walker talks and talks about abortion. He said that forcing women facing abortion to get invasive ultrasounds was...""; then, to finish the sentence, an audio clip is inserted with Walker saying: ""just a cool thing."" The reference is to a law Walker signed in July 2013. It requires an ultrasound before getting an abortion. But the woman can choose to receive the ultrasound transabdominally, which is done externally; or transvaginally, which is what NARAL refers to as invasive. (For some women, though -- in cases of early pregnancy or morbid obesity, for example -- the transvaginal procedure may in effect be required because it is medically necessary.) ‘Cool thing’ The audio clip used in the ad is from an interview Walker did May 22, 2015 with Dana Loesch, a conservative radio talk show host in Dallas. About halfway into a 30-minute interview, there was this exchange about ultrasounds: Loesch: What place do social issues have in 2016 and why do you think so many Republican candidates are scared of them -- are scared to embrace them; they're scared to get trapped by the media? Walker: Well, I think a little bit of it is the media is a gotcha; some do at least, I don't want to say universally. But I think that -- Loesch: Oh, most of them do. Walker: Yeah. I mean, well, I'll give you an example. I'm pro-life, I've passed pro-life legislation. We defunded Planned Parenthood, we signed a law that requires an ultrasound -- which, the thing about that -- the media tried to make that sound like that was a crazy idea. Most people I talk to, whether they're pro-life or not -- I find people all the time who'll get out their iPhone and show me a picture of their grandkids' ultrasound and how excited they are; so that's a lovely thing. I think about, my sons are 19 and 20 -- you know we still have their first ultrasound picture. It's just a cool thing out there. We just knew, if we signed that law, if we provided the information, that more people, if they saw that unborn child, would make a decision to protect and keep the life of that unborn child. Walker’s comments led to some contrasting news reports. For example, the headline in the Washington Post was: ""Scott Walker, discussing abortion, says ultrasounds are ‘just a cool thing out there.’"" But the headline in the Huffington Post was: ""Scott Walker defends mandatory ultrasounds: they’re a ‘cool thing.’"" Walker did defend mandatory ultrasounds. But what he called cool was the ultrasound technology, not forcing women to get transvaginal ultrasounds. Our rating NARAL Pro-Choice America says that Walker ""said that forcing women facing abortion to get invasive ultrasounds was 'just a cool thing.'"" Walker did defend the law he signed requiring an ultrasound in order to get an abortion. But the ""cool"" reference wasn’t to forcing some women to get vaginal ultrasounds, but rather to the ultrasound technology that produces images from the womb. For a statement that contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. More on Scott Walker For profiles and stories on Scott Walker and 2016 presidential politics, go to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Scott Walker page."
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34651
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Drug testing welfare recipients (and then disqualifying those who fail from collecting benefits) is an effective method for saving taxpayer money.
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One could argue that the savings are higher than shown because simply knowing the testing program exists scares drug abusers away from applying in the first place. We could also contend that people will be motivated to lie on their questionnaires because they need their welfare benefits, thus preventing them from getting the drug treatment they need and simply perpetuating the addiction problem. While most sources decry drug testing as a waste of time and money, better data is needed for an accurate determination.
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unproven
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Politics, drug testing, welfare
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In 1986, during the administration of President Ronald Reagan, the federal government began recommending workplace drug testing as part of the War on Drugs. By 1988, any employer who had a contract of $25,000 or more with the federal government was required to operate a drug-free workplace, with drug testing of employees a mandatory condition of qualifying for that status. Many businesses who didn’t have contracts with the federal government soon followed suit, and it is currently estimated that 62% of all large employers in the U.S. have implemented drug testing programs in the workplace. Although a number of states proposed the drug testing of welfare applicants and recipients following the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, most of these proposals stalled in state legislatures. However, in 2011, welfare drug testing took off when three states — Arizona, Florida, and Missouri — passed legislation that required drug testing for at least some groups of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) applicants or recipients. By the end of 2014, 14 states had mandated welfare-related drug testing, and an additional two states enacted similar legislation in 2015. Most of these laws are suspicion-based drug testing, meaning that a state agency must have a reasonable suspicion that the individual is using drugs in order to test the person (rather than random drug testing of all welfare applicants or recipients, an approach which Florida tried until courts ruled it to be an unconstitutional practice.) The pro-welfare drug testing meme reproduced above appears to present a reasonable approach to many viewers, who reason: “Hey, I have to be drug tested to hold a job at XYZ Corporation. Why shouldn’t welfare applicants have to be drug tested, too? I pay the taxes that fund those lazy bums’ welfare checks, after all.” Although numerous articles have addressed the issue of whether drug testing of welfare applicants/recipients is a cost-effective use of taxpayer money and whether the results of such programs have actually been effective, many such analyses fail to consider some important factors on both sides of the equation. Most states that conduct welfare drug testing combine paper questionnaires followed by physical drug testing if an applicant’s answers on the questionnaire indicate a strong probability that the applicant is a substance abuser. Based upon the figures shown below, several states count only the money spent on actual drug testing in the cost of their programs. However, there is a very real cost associated with the personnel time required to administer and interpret those questionnaires, to administer the contract with the testing company, and to follow up with the individuals referred for drug testing. Therefore, the cost of such maintaining such programs can be significantly underestimated. Many of the news articles that have been written about welfare drug testing have cited extremely low rates of positive test results as evidence showing the ineffectiveness of drug testing programs. However, those articles typically arrived at their figures by counting all of the individuals who went through the paper screening process rather than the number who actually took drug tests. If we look at the number of positive test results as a percentage of people who actually take drug tests, the percentage of positive tests results increases substantially. But drug testing might nonetheless be considered ineffective for other reasons, chief among them that there are numerous ways applicants can game the system. They can lie on their questionnaires about previous drug use, for example. Or they can simply refrain from using drugs for a few days before their scheduled test dates (since these are not randomly-administered surprise tests) by which time most drugs will have cleared out of their systems enough for them to pass urine-based tests. (Alcohol, amphetamines, and barbiturates all clear out of a person’s urine after four days or so. Marijuana lingers longest, for roughly 30 days. Hair testing, which is rarely used, would show drug use within the last 90 days.) The main premise behind drug testing of welfare applicants is that the state will save money by kicking drug addicts off of welfare and thereby denying them benefits (which they will presumably waste on little more than supporting their drug habits.) In addition, there’s a moral aspect to drug testing: some states have explicitly said that they don’t want welfare dollars to be used to facilitate substance-abusing lifestyles. Only Arizona and Utah have published any figures on welfare cost savings associated with denying benefits to those who test positive, the former showing a net savings of a mere $3,500 for 26 individuals who either tested positive or failed to show up for their drug testing appointments, for an overall saving of less than $135 per person. Although Arizona’s TANF benefits are estimated to be only between $2 and $3 per person per day (don’t expect to get rich off of welfare! ), this amounts to little more than two months’ worth of savings even at the low end of the range. According to Arizona’s Department of Economic Security, the average adult receives TANF benefits for approximately 14 months. Utah claims to have saved $350,000 during their first year of drug testing. Although only 12 individuals in that state tested positive, an additional 250 were barred from receiving benefits for three months and would have received an estimated $350,000 in welfare if drug testing had not been in place. Seven states thus far have active drug testing programs (others are in the process of being implemented or have been suspended due to court rulings questioning their constitutionality): Arizona has the oldest drug testing program in place. Since 2010, Arizona has screened all TANF applicants via a paper questionnaire and then refers individuals for drug testing if there is a reasonable suspicion that the applicant may be a substance abuser. Over the five year period between 2010 and 2014, Arizona paper-screened 142,424 TANF applicants but referred only 42 for drug testing. Only 19 of those 42 applicants completed their tests, and only three of those (15.8%) tested positive. Arizona claims it has spent only $499 on drug testing — an amount which obviously doesn’t include the personnel costs associated with conducting the paper screenings. Using the state’s own figures, however, Arizona’s program would rank as one of the most cost-effective, resulting in a cost of only $166 per positive test result or (if we count the no-shows) only $19 per individual who became ineligible for TANF benefits, due to either a positive test result, or because of failure to show up for testing. The Arizona Sonora News Service reported in March 2015 that the net savings of withheld TANF benefits for 26 individuals was only $3,500. Kansas‘ drug testing program is fairly recent, having begun in 2014. TANF applicants in that state are tested if there is a reasonable suspicion that they are substance abusers. During the last six months of 2014, the state referred 65 individuals for drug testing, of whom 11 (16.9%) tested positive and 12 (18.5%) failed to show up for their test appointments. Expenses related to the program were approximately $40,000. Depending upon how the no-shows are counted, this means that Kansas spent $3,636 per positive result, or $1,739 per individual who became ineligible for TANF benefits. Mississippi‘s drug test program is even newer than Kansas’ is, having gone into effect in August 2014. The state conducts a paper screening via questionnaire of all TANF applicants and refers those to drug testing whose answers indicate a probability of substance abuse. During the program’s first five months of operation, a total of 3,656 TANF applicants underwent paper screening, with 38 referred to drug testing. Of those, only 2 (5.3%) tested positive. At an estimated cost of $5,290 for drug testing, this amounted to $2,645 spent per positive test result. Those who test positive are denied TANF benefits unless they enroll in treatment programs. Inpatient rehabilitation programs in Mississippi are estimated to cost more than $16,000 per month — far more than the value of the welfare benefits individuals would receive. State officials say that Medicaid would cover the costs of those drug treatment programs. Missouri‘s first full year of drug testing was 2014, during which the state spent $336,297 to test 446 of the state’s 38,970 welfare applicants. Of those tested, 48 (10.8%), tested positive for a cost to the state of $7,006 per positive test result. A deterrent effect may be in place, however: Between March 2013 and November 2014, 711 applicants refused to take drug tests and were therefore denied benefits. Oklahoma requires drug screening for all welfare applicants and further chemical testing of those who are suspected of using illegal substances. Over a two year period between 2012 and 2014, the state tested 3,342 welfare applicants and conducted 2,992 follow-up tests. A total of 297 individuals (8.9%) tested positive. The estimated cost of the drug screening program for the two-year period was $385,872, or $1,299 per positive test result. Adult applicants who fail their drug tests are referred to drug treatment, although their children can still receive benefits. The adults are suspended from benefits for six months and must prove they are clean from drug use before receiving TANF benefits. At approximately $3.25 of TANF benefits per person per day, and a suspension of six months per person, we could estimate that Oklahoma saved $173,745 from the 297 individuals who tested positive. Tennessee‘s relatively recent program (begun in July 2014) conducts suspicion-based testing on TANF applicants. During the program’s first year of operation, the state spent $11,000 to conduct 468 drug tests, which resulted in 55 (11.8%) positives. Thirty-two people out of the 55 ultimately lost their benefits. Tennessee residents who test positive can still receive their welfare benefits if they enroll in treatment programs. At $200 per positive test result, Tennessee’s program is one of the least costly of the states studied. Utah requires a written screening process for all welfare applicants followed by drug testing of those who have a reasonable likelihood of substance abuse. Over a two-year period between 2012 and 2014, the state screened 9,552 welfare applicants and drug tested 838 individuals. Of those tested, 29 (3.5%) had positive results. At a cost of $64,556, this comes out to $2,226 per positive test result. Utah doesn’t automatically bar people from receiving benefits if they test positive. Instead, those individuals are required to enter drug treatment in order to receive their welfare checks. We’ve seen that the cost of drug testing ranges from a low of $19 per person denied welfare benefits in Arizona to a high of over $7,000 per positive test result in Missouri. The amount of welfare cost savings associated with those positive test results appears to be negligible, but accurate information on cost savings is scarce.
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3963
|
Farmer enters plea, will serve probation in dead cow case.
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An eastern Indiana farmer has pleaded guilty to one count of failing to dispose of a dead animal after an inspection found 38 dead cows on his property.
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true
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Health, Richmond, Animal health, Indiana
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The (Richmond) Palladium-Item reports that 42-year-old Rodney Sintz of West College Corner also has been sentenced to a year and a half of probation. Court documents say an Indiana State Board of Animal Health field veterinarian found the dead cows in various stages of decomposition on March 5. Under state law, animals must be properly disposed of within 24 hours of an owner’s knowledge that they have died. The veterinarian said other cattle appeared below normal body weight and about half of the herd didn’t have access to adequate food and water. ___ Information from: Palladium-Item, http://www.pal-item.com
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32832
|
Donald Trump ex-wives admitted that the Republican Presidential candidate forced them to have abortions.
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Receiving tweets twice daily via fax from religious advisers impregnates our right-wing furnace of hate, enabling us to bring you the most horrifyingly sensational headlines you’ve ever seen, or your money back — guaranteed!
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false
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Uncategorized, abortion, donald trump
|
On 8 August 2015, the web site Internet Chronicle published an article reporting that Donald Trump’s ex-wives had disclosed the Republican presidential candidate had pressured them into undergoing unwanted abortions: Saturday, Donald Trump’s ex-wives came forward with shocking stories of the bombastic Republican presidential candidate’s multiple abortions, alleging he coerced them into aborting when they wanted to keep their babies. Trump’s first wife, Ivana, told reporters, “He was obsessed with having unprotected sex with me at all moments of the day, and I got pregnant ten times during our marriage. The first time he just scowled and said ‘you’re getting an abortion’ even though I wanted to keep the baby. I had no choice at all. He wouldn’t even pull out.” Amidst tears, Ivana explained her reason for coming forward, “I knew I had to say something when Donald was on TV saying his views on abortion had evolved because he knew a man who was not aborted. That man is his own son, who he wanted to abort so badly that he gave me a black eye. But I kept three of my babies, mostly by lying to him, and he resented it so much he left me for Marla.” This article didn’t garner much attention when it was first published in August 2015, but when a major controversy was triggered by Trump’s remarking that women should face “some sort of punishment” for having abortions (if the procedure were illegal) when MSNBC interviewer Chris Matthews posed a hypothetical question to him (a comment Trump tried to dial back), the Internet Chronicle article began circulating anew and much more widely. There was no truth to the report, however. The Internet Chronicle is a fake news web site that does not publish factual stories. While the web site does not explicitly state that its content is fabricated news, the site’s “About Us” section makes the humorous nature of the Internet Chronicle clear: Sadly, chronicle.su is not of this earth. After crash landing in an asteroid December 30th, 1976, the alien husks of Chronicle editors rapidly adapted to Earth climates and bacterial flora. They are able to survive naturally in the wild and reproduce freely.
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10738
|
Robotic help at heart of hospital’s bypass surgery initiative
|
This report on the University of Chicago’s new program in robotic cardiac surgery has several key flaws. It does not cite literature about the devices’ safety and efficacy, or compare it to similar data on treatment alternatives. It does not compare the financial costs of the surgery to costs of conventional surgery or angioplasty. It interviews only one dispassionate source. The quoted source representing the device’s maker is its marketing director rather than a member of its medical staff. The article does not explore the potential conflicts of interest the physicians or university might have in promoting use of the program or its use on individual patients. The impression created by the article–that the device is safe and effective, that it can spare patients signficant pain and recovery time, that this program brings an important new medical treatment to the Chicago area–may be correct. But there is insufficient reporting in the story to verify it.
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false
|
"The reporter fails to indicate how costs of robot-assisted bypass compare to costs of conventional bypass operations. The article does not report whether insurance companies pay the additional costs, if any. And since the device maker offers a comparison between bypass surgery and stents, the report should compare prices of stent insertion to robot-assisted bypass surgery. The article does not cite specific figures of benefits. It uses several anecdotes that suggest the surgery is safe, effective and likely to speed recovery time. The article fails to compare key risks–of death, complications, need for additional surgeries, infection rates, etc.–of robot-assisted to conventional surgeries. Again, since the article raises the comparison between stenting and robotic surgery, these risks should have been compared too. Because the story uses anecdotes that suggest better outcomes and fewer side effects, the reporter should have looked for data to compare those anecdotes to. The article offers no evidence of safety or efficacy beyond anecdotes. In fact, it does not refer to any studies of the robots’ use. Quoting the marketing director of the company that makes the robotic systems, the story suggests that bypass surgery may be safer than using a stent to keep an artery open, generating fears about the safety of stents. The data about stent risk is complex and in dispute. This implication of greater risk from stenting should not have been reported unless it was investigated further. The article’s sources include a physician who has devoted the last five years of his career to the robotic surgery, three satisifed patients, a marketing representative of the company that makes the device and one doctor who is skeptical about the device’s utility in heart bypass surgery. Interviewing additional dispassionate sources would have strengthened the story. The article makes a brief refererence to the device maker being an ""enthusiastic backer"" of the Chicago program, but fails to indicate whether there is a financial relationship beyond that of customer and vendor. The subject of whether Srivastava has financial ties to the maker should have been explored, or, if it was, should have been addressed in the story. The article indicates that conventional bypass and stenting are alternatives to the robot-assisted surgery. The article does not clearly state how widely robotic treatments are available, either for bypass surgery or other operations. The article reports 504 units are in use in the U.S., but it’s not clear how they are distributed or what they are used for, even in the Chicago area. Nonetheless, we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. While the article implies that use of the robotic device for heart bypass surgeries is rare, insufficient data is provided to help readers understand how rare it is. Since the report says the machines have been in wide use most of this decade, it should have been clearer about how many hospitals use the machines for bypass surgery, what else they use them for and which patients are considered best candidates for it. Nonetheless, we’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. A University of Chicago issued a press release on the robot surgery program and its head, Sudhir Srivastava, on July 31. The Chicago Tribune article does not draw on the language or facts in the press release."
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28434
|
"Several cities have started to use ""silent fireworks"" in order to make the shows more enjoyable for children, pets, and people with PTSD."
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What's true: A number of cities and organizations have staged relatively quiet firework displays. What's false: These firework shows are not entirely silent, and they typically don't include the large aerial explosions found in traditional shows nor make use of some new form of 'quiet' decorative explosives.
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mixture
|
Science, 4th of july, fireworks
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As the 4th of July approached in 2018, some social media users were surprised to learn about the existence of “silent fireworks” when they came across an article published by the web site “DogTime” a few years prior about a town in Italy which had supposedly switched to these seemingly noiseless pyrotechnic displays: One town in Italy is taking a big step to reduce the fear of fireworks in their non-human population. The local government of Collecchio made a law that fireworks in their town must be silent. It’s a way of reducing the stress that the loud noises cause to animals–not just pets, but wildlife, as well. There’s a company called Setti Fireworks that makes these silent explosives and can customize them for each event. The phrase “silent fireworks,” however, is a bit misleading. Many readers seemed to come away with the impression that these “silent fireworks” would appear just as big and bright as traditional fireworks, but without the loud explosive booms normally associated with them. That’s not the case, however: No matter how advanced pyrotechnicians may be at developing fireworks, they haven’t quite yet figured out a way to remove noise from these large explosions. In fact, these “silent firework” displays (which are probably better described as “reduced noise” displays) don’t typically include the big aerial explosions found in traditional fireworks shows. Rather than employing some new form of pyrotechnology that dampens the noise of traditional fireworks, such “quiet” displays mostly make selective use of existing non-loud forms of fireworks: Quiet fireworks are not a new invention. In fact, they are used routinely in classic firework shows as visual effects to accompany the loud bangs. Think of the “comet tail,” which shoots into the sky with a trail of sparkles before quietly fizzling out. Or the “flying fish,” which features tiny tadpole embers scattering away from a silent burst. What is new is the emergence of a genre of low-key, quiet fireworks displays for audiences that want the fanfare of fireworks without the auditory disturbance. [But] quiet fireworks can be more colorful. The colors in a firework are packed in pellets called “stars.” When certain chemical compounds are heated, they emit signature colors to get rid of their excess energy. For instance, barium compounds emit green, red comes from strontium and blues are made with copper. As such, these types of displays are generally more appropriate for smaller crowds rather than for large, city-wide celebrations: From a strictly visual standpoint, there are pros and cons to a quiet fireworks show. Because they do not include big aerial explosions, quiet shows cannot entertain a large audience, said John A. Conkling, a professor emeritus of chemistry at Washington College in Maryland. As a result, traditionally big shows — like those on the Fourth of July — would need to be divided into smaller viewings. Although many readers may have only recently learned about the concept of “silent fireworks,” most of them have probably already seen forms of these relatively noiseless displays, such as roman candles and sparklers. Here’s a video of the “flying fish” firework referenced above: Thus, reports about “silent fireworks” are less about the development of new noiseless products and more about how some towns are focusing on putting on quieter displays. These shows range from nearly silent displays featuring large sparklers, fountains, and roman candles, to aerial shows that employ most everything other than the massively loud aerial “skyrocket” shells. Paul Singh, the director of Epic Fireworks in England, said that his quiet firework displays are typically softer than the accompanying music and are well below the 120 decibel limit placed on fireworks sold in the UK: For people, loud fireworks can lead to hearing loss. The World Health Organization lists 120 decibels as the pain threshold for sound, including sharp sounds such as thunderclaps. Fireworks are louder than that. “They’re typically above 150 decibels, and can even reach up to 170 decibels or more,” said Nathan Williams, an audiologist at Boys Town National Research Hospital in Nebraska. Quiet fireworks are not completely silent, but they are nowhere near the 120 decibel cap placed on consumer fireworks in Britain, said Paul Singh, director of Epic Fireworks in England. The fireworks he uses in quiet shows are softer than the music he plays to accompany the visuals, Mr. Singh said. His company has done quiet firework shows for school groups, senior citizen homes and venues near easily spooked animals like horses. A 2012 video from Gala Fireworks shows just how quiet (or loud) these “silent firework” displays can be. This footage was taken during a wedding at Browsholme Hall in England, and the company explained that they used “low-noise” fireworks because the venue was surrounded by farm land and they didn’t want to scare the livestock: Although companies may bill these displays as “silent” or “quiet,” the fireworks can still generate a good bit of noise. In fact, when the Birmingham Botanical Gardens advertised a quieter fireworks show in 2015, a number of parents still complained that the “silent” explosions were far too loud: Helen Panayi posted on Facebook: “Very disappointing that the advertised ‘silent fireworks’ weren’t actually silent, in fact they were very loud. Lots of upset children and angry parents.” Katie Harrison wrote on the same site: “Very disappointed that the advertised ‘silent’ fireworks were far from silent. My frightened two-year-old (who I never would have taken to a normal display) did not appreciate them.” So, the term “silent fireworks” does not refer to a new form of firework that produces huge explosions with little or no noise, but rather to shows that selectively utilize existing forms of relatively quiet fireworks.
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12346
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There is no reason for anybody to be losing any of their current benefits under Medicaid.
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"Rubio said, ""There is no reason for anybody to be losing any of their current benefits under Medicaid."" Rubio is wrong to state that benefit cuts are off the table. There are reasons that Medicaid recipients could lose benefits if the Senate bill becomes law. The bill curbs the rate of spending by the federal government over the next decade and caps dollar amounts and ultimately reduces the inflation factor. Those changes will put pressure on states to make difficult choices including the possibility of cutting services."
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false
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Health Care, Medicaid, Florida, Marco Rubio,
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"U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., says reports that Floridians will be kicked off of Medicaid under the Senate health care bill are misleading. ""As long as Florida keeps the same amount of funding or gets an increase, which is what we are working on, per patient being rewarded for having done the right thing -- there is no reason for anybody to be losing any of their current benefits under Medicaid. None,"" he said in a Facebook Live on June 28. ""In fact, I asked the governor that point-blank, I asked the legislative leaders that point-blank. They have no plans, even if this bill passes, to kick anybody out of current services."" Really -- no reason? We can’t know for certain what changes Florida will make to its Medicaid program down the road if the Senate bill becomes law. However, Rubio is making too strong of a vow here that there is no reason for anyone to lose Medicaid benefits. Here’s what we know: the Senate bill slows the rate of Medicaid dollars that the federal government gives to the states. This will force states to make tough choices, one potential being cutting enrollment. Some of the changes won’t happen for many years, delaying those choices for states. We contacted Rubio’s office but did not get a reply. (Rubio, who has long criticized Obamacare, hasn’t clearly stated if he will vote for the Senate health care bill. It was unclear as of June 30 when any potential new version would appear and when it would be brought up for a vote.) CBO and experts predict Medicaid enrollment declines Medicaid is the health care program for the poor funded by the federal government and the states. Under the Affordable Care Act, about 31 states agreed to financial incentives to expand eligibility for Medicaid. Florida rejected expansion. Currently about 4.4 million Floridians are on Medicaid or CHIP, a program for children. The Senate bill also provides additional money that might come to Florida. For states that didn't expand Medicaid, nationwide there would be up to $2 billion a year, and potentially other new funds aimed at hospitals with a high percentage of poor patients. But the Senate bill takes several steps to restrain future Medicaid spending. While the impact is greater on states that expanded Medicaid by making federal payments less generous, non-expansion states will also take a hit. The bill ends the open-ended promise for the federal government to cover a certain percentage of a state’s costs. Instead, the bill converts federal Medicaid funding to a per-person cap and limits growth in federal spending beginning in 2020. In 2025, it shifts to a different consumer price index, which has a lower inflation factor than is used today. That will without a doubt be a lower rate than underlying cost growth, and the gap will grow each year, said Matthew Buettgens, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute. Medicaid spending goes up whether the current Affordable Care Act remains in place or if the House or Senate versions become law. However, the Republican health care bills slow the rate of spending. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that total Medicaid spending from the Senate bill would be about $770 billion less than under current law over the next decade, leading to an enrollment decline of 15 million. The Urban Institute estimated the decline in federal dollars and enrollment for the states. It found for Florida, that federal funding for Medicaid under ACA would be $16.8 billion in 2022. Under the Senate legislation, it would fall to about $14.6 billion, or a cut of about 13 percent (see table 6). The Urban Institute projects 353,000 fewer people on Medicaid or CHIP in Florida. The gap in funding is largely driven by enrollment numbers. Under the ACA, the federal government takes steps to actively recruit people to sign up for Medicaid, even in states that didn’t expand the program. The Republican Senate bill doesn’t have that same goal to spread the word about Medicaid eligibility. In fact, it aims to curtail sign ups. Here are a few ways it sets out to do that: Mandatory six-month eligibility checks that could reduce enrollment Takes away the right of hospitals to make presumptive-eligibility determinations Limits the effective date for retroactive coverage of Medicaid benefits to the month in which the applicant applied (currently it is a three-month window) There is no doubt that the Senate bill leads to cuts that will affect Florida, said experts on Medicaid spending, including Buettgens; Joan Alker, an expert at Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy; and Elizabeth Carpenter, senior vice president at Avalere Health, a consulting group. Alker said the cap will result in all states making substantial cuts to their Medicaid program. Those would likely be even bigger in the second years after the CBO window. The cuts will force states to fill the gap in some way that could include any combination of these options: cutting enrollment or benefits, reducing provider payments, cutting other areas of the budget or raising taxes. ""While it is impossible to say exactly what states will do, they will only have bad choices — especially those like Florida that are starting with low per capita spending very much below the national average,"" Alker said. Florida would likely reduce monthly payments to health plans leading providers to reduce the number of Medicaid patients they serve or stop serving them all together, said Jeffrey Harman, a professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences & Social Medicine at Florida State University. ""Recent cuts in Medicaid payments to specialists in Texas has left many Texans that rely on Medicaid without access to specialty care, which can have life and death consequences,"" Harman said. ""I believe similar effects would be seen in Florida."" Rubio said that Scott and legislative leaders told him they won’t cut services, but those decisions will lie with a future governor and legislators years from now. Other experts pointed us to the Urban Institute’s analysis but we’ll note that a separate group, the liberal Center for American Progress, cited an even higher number by using a different methodology that factored in potential expansion. Rubio challenged the center’s prediction that 1 million Floridians will lose Medicaid by 2026. Our ruling Rubio said, ""There is no reason for anybody to be losing any of their current benefits under Medicaid."" Rubio is wrong to state that benefit cuts are off the table. There are reasons that Medicaid recipients could lose benefits if the Senate bill becomes law. The bill curbs the rate of spending by the federal government over the next decade and caps dollar amounts and ultimately reduces the inflation factor. Those changes will put pressure on states to make difficult choices including the possibility of cutting services."
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465
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Tremors worsen on New Zealand volcano island, prevent recovery of bodies.
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Increasing tremors on a volcanic island in New Zealand on Wednesday heightened the risk of another massive eruption, preventing the recovery of bodies two days after an eruption engulfed dozens of tourists in steam and hot ash.
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true
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Environment
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Six people were killed in Monday’s explosion at White Island, which lies some 50 km (30 miles) off the mainland, with another nine officially listed as missing, and 30 injured. Australian Gavin Dallow, 53, and his stepdaughter Zoe Hosking, 15, were the latest victims to be identified on Wednesday. “Our hearts break at the loss of Zoe at such a young age,” the Dallow family said in an emailed statement. “We mourn the loss of Gavin and Zoe.” And the death toll could rise with 29 people in intensive care in several hospitals around the country. Twenty seven people have horrific burns to 30% or more of their body and 22 are also on airway support due to the severity of their burns, said medical authorities. “We anticipate we will require an additional 1.2 million square centimeters of skin for the ongoing needs of the patients,” Counties Manukau Chief Medical Officer, Dr Peter Watson, said at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland. “The nature of the burns suffered is complicated by the gases and chemicals in the eruption. This has necessitated more rapid treatment of these burns than is the case for thermal-only burns,” said Watson. Surgical teams were engaged in around-the-clock treatment. “This is just the start of a very long process that for some patients will last several months,” he said. The Australian government said it expected to transfer up to 10 injured citizens from New Zealand starting in the next 24 hours, if medical staff approve them for travel. GRAPHIC: Volcanic Eruption in New Zealand - here Authorities monitoring the uninhabited island said conditions were worsening and there was now a 40-60% chance of a massive eruption similar to Monday in the next 24 hours. “In summary, yesterday there was a high risk of an eruption. Today there is an even higher risk of an eruption. And the parameters are worsening at the moment,” Graham Leonard, a senior volcanologist at GNS Science, told a news conference in Wellington. A plume of smoke could still be seen coming from the island. “I’ve spoken to many of those involved in the operation and they are very, very eager to get back there, they want to bring people’s loved ones home,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in an interview with Reuters in Wellington. Aerial surveillance has detected no signs of life on the island, where at least one tour group was captured on automated webcams in the crater just a minute before the eruption. GRAPHIC: Volcano map of New Zealand - here Police said the safety of recovery teams was the priority and are awaiting advice from experts on when they could access the island. That has prompted some criticism authorities are being too cautious. “We cannot put other people in jeopardy to go out there until we’re absolutely certain that the island is actually safe,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Bruce Bird told a media conference in Whakatane, the town that is an access point for tourist trips to the island. There were 47 people on White Island at the time of the eruption. Twenty-four of those were from Australia, nine from the United States, five from New Zealand, four from Germany, two each from China and Britain and one from Malaysia. A mother and daughter were the first Australians to be named as victims, media said on Wednesday. Brisbane woman Julie Richards, 47, and her daughter Jessica, 20, had been confirmed dead, family friend John Mickel told Sky News. The death toll from Monday’s eruption rose to six after one victim died in hospital on Tuesday. Daily tours bring more than 10,000 visitors to the privately owned island every year, marketed as “the world’s most accessible active marine volcano”. GeoNet raised the alert level for the volcano in November because of an increase in volcanic activity. The alert level was increased further after the eruption, and remains elevated. GRAPHIC: Volcanic alerts for White Island since 1995 - here
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26691
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Of the Trump administration’s European travel restrictions that exempt the U.K.: “Well, you can just get into the Chunnel, and you’ll be in the U.K.”
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It isn’t that easy to get around the restrictions by taking a train linking England and France. The travel ban applies to people who were in designated European countries 14 days before their attempted travel to the United States. Someone in France who traveled to England would not be immediately exempt from the restrictions.
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mixture
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Corrections and Updates, Health Care, Public Health, Coronavirus, Nancy Pelosi,
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"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi questioned whether it made sense for the Trump administration to stop travel from certain countries in Europe — but not the United Kingdom — in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus. At Pelosi’s weekly press conference, a reporter asked if she thought the administration’s travel ban was ""wise."" Pelosi said she had spoken with Vice President Mike Pence and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, and was told it was a ""scientific medical decision."" ""I have great confidence in Dr. Fauci. It's just strange, because they're saying it's because it's easy to travel among these countries. But they're separate from the U.K.,"" Pelosi said. ""Well, you can just get in the Chunnel, and you'll be in the U.K. Again, it's a decision they made. It has its ramifications. We'll see whether it's worth the trouble."" Pelosi said she wasn’t there to criticize President Donald Trump’s decisions, but emphasized that testing would be ""the only way"" to learn how the virus is spreading. PolitiFact wanted to take a closer look at Pelosi’s comments about travel in Europe and how it relates to the details in Trump’s proclamation. Trump’s proclamation seeks to restrict ""all aliens who were physically present within the Schengen Area during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States."" U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents and their close relatives are exempt from the ban. So are numerous categories of other people. The Schengen Area covers European states that agree to free movement among their nations without border checks. Countries in the zone include Austria, Belgium, and France (here’s the full list). The United Kingdom — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — is not part of the Schengen Area. (Neither is the Republic of Ireland, a member of the European Union that borders Northern Ireland.) When Pelosi said ""well, you can just get in the Chunnel, and you'll be in the U.K,,"" she was referring to the Channel Tunnel (Chunnel is the short name) that runs under the English Channel linking England and France. People move from one country to the other via trains. However, even if someone gets from France to the United Kingdom, they can’t get on a plane right away and come to the United States, since Trump’s proclamation bars people who had been in Schengen Area two weeks before. People from the United Kingdom who traveled to a Schengen Area state in the two weeks before their attempted travel to the United States would presumably be barred entry, unless they qualify for the exemptions. Pelosi didn’t say that a person could cross the Chunnel and then immediately travel from the United Kingdom to the United States, said Henry V. Connelly, Pelosi’s deputy communications director. ""The point is that, with the ease of travel between the U.K. and the continent, there’s not a meaningful difference in risk of the community spread of coronavirus between the two — and thus, not much difference in the coronavirus risk from a person from the U.K. or from inside Schengen Area,"" Connelly said. Speaking of Trump’s Europe travel restriction exempting the United Kingdom, Pelosi said, ""Well you can just get into the Chunnel, and you’ll be in the U.K."" It isn't that easy to get around the restrictions by taking a train linking England and France. The travel ban applies to people who were in the Schengen Area 14 days before their attempted travel to the United States. So someone in France who traveled to England would not be immediately exempt from the restrictions. Pelosi’s statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context."
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9703
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"Bubble baby"" stem cell treatment looks like a cure"
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This 400-word story is an update of a 2014 news release from UCLA that provides little in the way of new information about a new stem cell treatment for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). Given the story’s brevity, many key aspects of the disorder and its current treatment were neglected. The research methods were not clearly articulated and the fact that the trials thus far have been phase 1-2 clinical trials all take away from the importance of the research itself. The last statement concerning the use of the approach as a “cure” for sickle cell disease is an unsubstantiated add-on. SCID is a rare but important genetic disorder that has been managed at children’s specialty hospitals for many years. It would have been great had this story provided some data regarding the rarity of the condition. Bone marrow transplant or simple replacement of adenosine deaminase (ADA) has been the standard approach. The new approach described in the story may prove to be an important advancement in the treatment of these children but a more measured tone would have been appreciated. The results to date are certainly encouraging but the method has a long way to go to routine clinical application. To suggest, as the headline does, that this treatment “looks like a cure” is a bit of an overstatement at the moment.
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false
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stem cells
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We think that costs should almost always be part of a discussion for a new treatment and this brief report is no exception. Autologous stem cell transplants, performed for certain types of cancer, can cost in excess of $100,000. Since the procedure is experimental, as noted in the story, it is not likely to be covered by insurance. The story relies heavily on one child’s journey and notes that ” …the treatment has restored immune systems in all 23 patients in the most recent clinical trials.” But we aren’t told how long these children were followed after the procedure or what a “restored immune system” is or how it was measured. There is simply too little information provided to assess this treatment’s potential. Harms were not discussed in any way. With such a serious disease, harms would have to be significant to outweigh the potential benefits, but they should still be mentioned. The story’s depiction of the procedure doesn’t convey the full scope of what’s involved. It states, “….the treatment involves taking bone marrow from the patient to gather stem cells. A cloned gene is then added to correct what was missing at birth…”Those stem cells are given back to the patient where they can go back to the bone marrow and make the blood cells for the rest of the patient’s life.” Although it sounds pretty straightforward, a look at the actual procedure as listed at ClinicalTrials.Gov provides a more complete picture. The stem cells are collected under general anesthesia and treatment with busulfan (which can cause significant side effects) to reduce bone marrow cell production in preparation for the stem cell infusion. There is no description or assessment of the study design. ClinicalTrials.gov lists the existing research protocol as a phase 1-2 trial. So the primary purpose of the study is safety and not effectiveness. We are not provided with any of the specifics of the methods, inclusion and exclusion criteria, or much about the follow-up period. No disease mongering is evident here. However, this disease is serious and often fatal. There could have been more information provided such as the average life expectancy without treatment and with alternative treatments, to put the disease in context and not just say it is serious. The only two people quoted are the clinical investigator and the parent of a child treated. A comment or two from other experts in the field would have rounded out the reporting. Most children with SCID receive a bone marrow transplant or receive weekly injections of ADA. This fact was not noted in the story. In addition a quick check of ClinicalTrials.Gov uncovered several new approaches that are technically different from that of the story. In addition, drug companies are working on the development of other approaches to this form of SCID. The story notes, “Dr. Kohn is currently working with the FDA to make his treatment available nationwide. He’s also testing the same method as a cure for sickle cell disease. Clinical trials for that treatment are now underway.” This gives the impression that although the approach is still experimental, its availability nationally is a forgone conclusion. In fact, many treatments get to this stage and do not pan out. As we noted previously, most children with SCID undergo a bone marrow transplant. The use of gene modification for the disorder is more than 20 years old having started in France in the early 1990s. The approached highlighted in the story is indeed new but the general approach has been around for some time. We couldn’t find any recent news release that this story might have been based on. And although it’s similar to a 2014 news release that we identified above, it has quotes that are different and appear to reflect original reporting. We’ll give the benefit of the doubt here.
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25958
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Only 56 coronavirus deaths a day was enough to collapse the world economy, even though thousands of people die daily from tuberculosis, hepatitis B, and other diseases.
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The post used March 9 as its date for coronavirus deaths, which was right before deaths soared. Subsequent daily totals show that coronavirus deaths have become larger than any other disease on the list. The coronavirus spreads through the air, there is no vaccine or treatment, and by now it’s established itself in most countries. So in many cases, limiting casual contact between people, including by economic shutdowns, may be the only effective way of stopping the virus’ spread.
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false
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Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
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"A social media post says the novel coronavirus causes a small number of deaths compared with other diseases, essentially arguing that the coronavirus shouldn’t have forced such widespread economic shutdowns. The July 8 post is headlined, ""Disease deaths per day worldwide."" In a bar chart, the post lists more than two dozen communicable diseases, along with what it says are the number of worldwide deaths per day for each. According to the chart, the top five killers are tuberculosis (3,014 deaths), hepatitis B (2,430), pneumonia (2,216), HIV/AIDS (2,110), and malaria (2,002). About two-thirds of the way to the bottom of the list is the coronavirus, with just 56 daily deaths. Punctuated by a big red arrow, the post says, ""THIS is what collapsed the world economy."" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We found that the post (seen below) is highly misleading. Here are some big problems with it. We researched the number of deaths from each of the diseases in the post and found some variation. But they were usually in the ballpark — except for COVID-19. Usually, cause-of-death data is released a couple of years after the fact and is subject to estimation. But coronavirus is such an urgent health threat, deaths are tabulated on a daily basis with a much smaller lag. In tiny type, the post cites data as of March 9, 2020. That was just before coronavirus deaths began their exponential growth — and just before U.S. communities started to shut down schools and restrict public gatherings to prevent its further spread. On March 9, the seven-day rolling average for worldwide coronavirus deaths was 130. (It’s unclear where the 56 deaths cited in the post came from.) By April 18, the peak to date, the seven-day rolling average was 7,036. By July 12, the number had dropped to 4,945, but that was still far higher than the 56 deaths claimed in the post. We re-did the chart based on the best available data, including those three options for coronavirus deaths, marked in red: Both the April or July numbers for COVID-19 deaths are larger than for any of the other diseases. The closest is tuberculosis, with 3,452 deaths. ""The original figure is incredibly misleading, especially if still being circulated today,"" said Brooke Nichols, a health economist and infectious disease mathematical modeler at the Boston University School of Public Health. Unlike for most of the other diseases on this list, ""it needs to be pointed out that we have not yet had one year’s experience"" with the virus to have an accurate count and to understand the disease’s dynamics over time, said Nicole Gatto, associate professor in the School of Community and Global Health at Claremont Graduate University. It’s too early, she said, ""to fairly compare with these other causes of death."" In all, then, the notion that coronavirus is causing a piddling number of deaths is bunk. There’s not yet an effective drug or vaccine for coronavirus. That’s also the case for a few of the other diseases on the list, including norovirus, dengue fever, Ebola, SARS, and MERS. For most of the diseases on the list, however, we do have one or more effective tools. Vaccines exist for hepatitis A and B, rotavirus, seasonal flu, whooping cough, typhoid, cholera, meningitis, measles, rabies, yellow fever, and chicken pox, Nichols said. Effective treatments are available for tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, and malaria has an effective prophylaxis. But for COVID-19, not having an effective vaccine or treatment means that the only tool is to limit personal contact and maintain good hygiene. Doing this makes economic shutdowns a much more urgent tool for the coronavirus than for any of the other diseases on the list. While tuberculosis, measles, pneumonia, the seasonal flu, whooping cough, SARS, and MERS are spread by respiratory pathways, most of the others do not. They may spread through contaminated food or water, such as cholera; or bodily fluids, like HIV/AIDS; or animal vectors, such as malaria or rabies. Since respiratory diseases are particularly hard to control, they are more likely to require significant disruptions, such as economic shutdowns. You wouldn’t need a broad-scale economic shutdown to prevent HIV/AIDS, because it doesn’t spread through casual contact. For most of the other diseases on the list, you would mainly need a robust public health system. Some of the other diseases on this list aren’t apples to apples because they’re regional. Malaria and dengue are carried by certain types of mosquito, so if you don’t live near the mosquitoes, you won’t get the disease. The parasite that causes leishmaniasis tends to be found only in certain areas. For other diseases, many wealthier countries have been able to vaccinate to a level of herd immunity, reducing the risk of catching the illness in those places even if you’re unvaccinated. By contrast, the coronavirus spread within months to nearly everywhere in the world. The post said that only 56 coronavirus deaths a day was enough to collapse the world economy, even though thousands of people die daily from tuberculosis, hepatitis B, and other diseases. For starters, the post chose March 9 as its date for coronavirus deaths, which was right before deaths soared. Subsequent daily totals show that coronavirus deaths have become larger than any other disease on the list. In addition, coronavirus poses special risks that may need to be ameliorated by economic closures. It spreads through the air, there is no vaccine or treatment, and by now it’s established itself in most countries, so in many cases, limiting casual contact between people may be the only effective way of stopping the virus’ spread."
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27758
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A paramedic saved the doctor who saved his life as a baby.
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The photograph used in the meme was taken in 2015, when the two reunited for a charity event.
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true
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Glurge Gallery, People
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On 18 April 2016, the “Unbelievable Facts” Facebook page posted an image purportedly showing a paramedic and a doctor who saved each other’s lives: The story seemed like the most farfetched of urban legends, but it was in fact true. The photograph was taken from a news story from Los Angeles-area outlet KTLA on 29 March 2015, and shows Dr. Michael Shannon, Chris Trokey, and three other firefighters from Orange County Fire Authority’s Paramedic Engine 29. According to KTLA, Shannon saved Trokey’s life in 1981, just after he was born: Trokey was just 3.2 pounds at birth, and doctors had initially gave him a 50/50 chance at surviving. But his pediatrician — Dr. Shannon — helped save his life, staying with the infant around the clock until his health improved and he was stable. Trokey returned the favor in 2011, when Dr. Shannon was involved in a car accident: Firefighters from Paramedic Engine 29 were returning from another call and responded within minutes to the fiery crash. By the time they arrived, Shannon’s vehicle was also ablaze and the flames were burning his legs. Fire crews then worked to extinguish the flames and rescue him using the Jaws of Life. The seriously injured Shannon was taken to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo where he spent the next 45 days recovering from internal injuries. He also had to have two of his toes amputated. Among those who had helped save Shannon that day was Orange County Fire Authority paramedic Chris Trokey, whose own life had been saved 30 years earlier by the pediatrician. “I didn’t know about until I went to the hospital and started talking about it, Dr. Shannon. And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, Dr. Shannon?’” Trokey recalled on Sunday. “That’s when I found out.”
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3239
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Celebrity suicides highlight troubling trend in midlife.
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The deaths of celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain and fashion designer Kate Spade highlight a troubling trend — rising suicides among middle-aged Americans.
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true
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Mental health, Health, Celebrity, Entertainment, North America, Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, Celebrities, Fashion design
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Mental health problems, often undiagnosed, are usually involved and experts say knowing warning signs and who is at risk can help stop a crisis from becoming a tragedy. Bourdain, 61, and Spade, 55, died three days and a continent apart this week amid a new U.S. report showing an uptick in suicides rates in nearly every state since 1999. Middle-aged adults — ages 45 to 64 — had the largest rate increase, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Previous studies have suggested economic downturns and the nation’s opioid crisis contributed to the rise in middle-aged suicides. Dr. Christine Moutier, a psychiatrist and chief medical officer for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said Friday it’s important for everyone to know the warning signs and to intervene when family members, friends or co-workers appear troubled. Asking if they’ve had suicidal thoughts is not harmful and lets them know you care, she said. Behavior that may indicate someone is suicidal includes: —Talking about feeling hopeless, trapped, a burden to others or wanting to die. —Unusual mood swings or withdrawing from family, friends and usual activities. —Giving away important possessions. —Increased use of alcohol or drugs. This week’s report found that many suicides were in people with no known mental illness. But Dr. Joshua Gordon, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said that contradicts years of data, suggesting many have “gone undiagnosed and untreated. It’s very troubling.” Gordon said doctors need to ask patients at every opportunity about their mental health and evaluate their risk for suicide. “When you ask everybody and not just people you might suspect, you double the number you detect,” he said. Gordon noted that psychotherapy and certain psychiatric drugs have been shown to reduce suicidal tendencies. Moutier of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said that suicides can be “contagious” — hearing about one may make others who are already at risk turn to self-harm. She said celebrity suicides also typically prompt an increase in calls to suicide help lines. “People should know that suicide is preventable. Anyone contemplating suicide should know that help is available, and that there is no shame in seeking care for your mental health,” Dr. Altha Stewart of the American Psychiatric Association said in a statement. ___ Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner on Twitter: @LindseyTanner . Her work can be found here . ___ 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.
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This email lists seven alleged court decisions in various states in the U.S. that awarded large cash awards to people under apparently absurd circumstances, including occasions when they were responsible for their own injury or loss. Later versions say these court cases have won the “Stella Award,” named after an elderly woman who won a large award from a lawsuit against McDonalds’s.
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Only In America-crazy court awards
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false
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Miscellaneous
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TruthOrFiction.com has checked court records and news archives for the cities mentioned, and have not found any documentation for any of these stories. When this eRumor started circulating, we didn’t find anything that resembled the “Stella Awards,” but there is a group that has now started such an award at http://www.stellaawards.com. The court case involving Stella Liebeck is true and is widely known because of it being the little old lady who got millions because of what seemed like a small incident. She spilled hot coffee on herself after the drive-through at a McDonald’s in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was sitting in the passenger seat of her grandson’s car. The spill caused severe burns over 6 percent of her body. She spent a week in the hospital, underwent several skin drafts, and ended up with permanent scarring on 15 percent of her body. According to the Washington State Trial Lawyer’s Association, Liebeck sued McDonalds only after the company refused to pay her medical expenses. The WSTLA says her bills added up to $11,000, but McDonalds offered to pay only $800. A mediator recommended a $250,000 settlement, which McDonald’s turned down. One of the issues in the trial was that Liebeck’s lawyers said there had been several hundred similar cases that McDonald’s had ignored and that the company had refused to reduce the temperature of the coffee machines. A jury gave Stella Liebeck $160,000 but also fined McDonald’s a punitive damage of $2.7 million. A judge later reduced that amount to $480,000 then McDonald’s settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. Comments
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8400
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U.S., European health agencies to partner drugmakers in coronavirus fight.
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U.S. health agencies, the European drug regulator and 16 top drugmakers will collaborate on vaccine and drug development efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. National Institutes of Health said on Friday.
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true
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Health News
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"The partnership, known as the Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV), will focus on coordinating regulatory decisions and provide funding to move promising therapies into human trials. ""We need to bring the full power of the biomedical research enterprise to bear on this crisis,"" NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins said in a statement bit.ly/34HYTfk. The participants include the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency and drugmakers Pfizer Inc, Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline Plc. There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines for the coronavirus, which has infected 2.14 million globally, according to a Reuters tally. There are over 100 potential vaccine and therapeutic candidates for COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, and the partnership aims to help prioritize development and connect clinical trial networks to test new and repurposed candidates quickly and efficiently."
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