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9903 | Gene-Targeted Cancer Fix Could Be a Breakthrough | "Yes, it could lead to a breakthrough, but, after tests on just a few tumor samples (something not disclosed in the article), it could also lead to something far less than a breakthrough. The story fell victim to over-enthusiastic language (""…this is the first time the process, known as RNA interference (RNAi), has b... | mixture | "No costs were discussed, which is understandable at this early stage of research. Not applicable. Didn’t give readers any sense of how many samples were tested and what the results were. The Reuters story at least explained that the researchers reported on results in three tissue samples. The story paraphrased the res... | |
3531 | Third Illinois resident dies of vaping-related lung damage. | A third Illinois resident has died after being hospitalized with a vaping-related lung injury the Department of Public Health reports. | true | Health, General News, Injuries, Vaping, Illinois, Public health | Health department spokeswoman Melaney Arnold on Thursday declined to give the age of the victim or the time or location of the death, citing privacy concerns. According to the department, 166 people in Illinois, ranging in age from 13 to 75 years old, have experienced lung injuries after using e-cigarettes or vaping. H... |
17964 | Over the past twenty years, the number of homicides committed with a firearm in the United States has decreased by nearly 40 percent. The number of other crimes involving the use of a firearm has also plummeted, declining by nearly 70 percent. | Have gun-related homicides, other serious crimes decreased dramatically in the last 20 years? | true | Oregon, Crime, Guns, Doug Whitsett, | "State Sen. Doug Whitsett recently took to the Internet to warn Oregonians that the Legislature was within a single vote of passing legislation that he said would have eroded the Second Amendment right to bear arms. We disagreed with Whitsett on the way he described the votes, in another fact check, but he said somethi... |
9376 | Ecstasy as PTSD Relief for Soldiers: ‘I Was Able to Forgive Myself’ | The study highlighted in this well-written article adds to a growing body of research into whether using the synthetic, psychoactive drug MDMA (street names “Ecstasy” or “Molly”) in conjunction with psychotherapy, can improve outcomes in PTSD. The article makes effective use of a question-and-answer format to discuss ... | true | ptsd | The cost of MDMA is not mentioned, and likely difficult to forecast. However, the associated therapy is fairly intensive, and it remains to be seen if it would be covered by insurance. Still, a discussion of these potentially significant costs would have been relevant and helpful, even if the story admits they’re large... |
13717 | "California’s marijuana legalization initiative, Prop. 64 ""allows marijuana smoking ads in prime time, on programs with millions of children and teenage viewers." | Feinstein’s claim about marijuana ads on ‘prime time’ TV goes up in smoke | false | California, Marijuana, Dianne Feinstein, | "Editor’s Note: A week after we published our fact check, a Sacramento Superior Court judge ordered campaigns for and against Prop 64 to soften their claims about what the initiative would do. The No on Prop 64 campaign was ordered to change claims similar to Feinstein’s statement at the center of this fact check. Clai... |
3234 | Wendy Williams to take health-related break from TV show. | Wendy Williams is taking an extended break from her TV talk show to deal with health issues related to her immune system disorder, her family said Friday. | true | Health, Talk shows, Entertainment, Wendy Williams, North America | The family wrote in a statement that Williams has suffered complications from Graves’ disease in the past few days. Treatment is necessary and will include “significant time” in the hospital, according to the family statement provided by show producer and distributor Debmar-Mercury. Williams has a strong desire to retu... |
23894 | "Fulton County has successfully reduced the number of pregnancies"" among 15- to 19-year-olds." | Fulton County says teen pregnancy is down | true | Georgia, Women, Fulton County Government, | "As part of Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month, Fulton County hosted a day of awareness events May 27 at the Neighborhood Union Health Center in Vine City. A news release announcing the effort said the following: ""Fulton County has successfully reduced the number of pregnancies among 15-19 year olds [sic] in the County. ... |
3076 | Democrats release climate plans ahead of town hall spotlight. | Democratic presidential candidates are releasing their plans to address climate change ahead of a series of town halls on the issue as the party’s base increasingly demands aggressive action. | true | Cory Booker, Climate, Cabinets, Climate change, New Jersey, General News, Politics, Environment, Election 2020, Elizabeth Warren, Business, Amy Klobuchar, Science | New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Obama Cabinet member Julián Castro laid out their plans Tuesday. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar released hers over the weekend. The release of the competing plans comes as issues of climate and the environment have become a central focus of the D... |
13039 | Emboldened by election, Texas Republicans kill Medicaid funding for kids with disabilities. | "IfYouOnlyNews.com said: ""Emboldened by election, Texas Republicans kill Medicaid funding for kids with disabilities."" Cuts sure happened. But this headline claim, not backed up by the accompanying story, fumbles facts. Specifically, the Republican-majority 2015 Legislature requested fee reductions for specific servi... | false | Health Care, State Budget, States, Texas, If You Only News, | "In case you missed it, Texas Republicans followed on Donald Trump’s election by wiping out aid to needy children. Except, we confirmed, that's not so. A news-entertainment website, IfYouOnlyNews.com, topped a Dec. 4, 2016, post, later pointed out to us by Facebook, with this headline: ""Emboldened by election, Texas R... |
5303 | Lifetime movie ‘Flint’ dramatizes city’s water crisis. | Melissa Mays, a resident of Flint, Michigan, came armed to discuss the city’s tainted water crisis and a new Lifetime TV movie dramatizing it. | true | Queen Latifah, Betsy Brandt, Health, Michigan, Entertainment, Movies, North America, Flint, Marin Ireland, TV, Neil Meron | Mays, speaking to a TV critics’ meeting Friday, pointed to several bottles she had filled with her tap water and challenged the room to taste or even smell it. There were no immediate takers. The activist, who said the battle over water safety continues, is among the residents portrayed in Lifetime’s movie titled “Flin... |
7964 | U.S. death toll spirals amid rush to build field hospitals, find supplies. | The U.S. government raced on Tuesday to build hundreds of makeshift hospitals near major cities as healthcare systems were pushed to capacity, and sometimes beyond, by the coronavirus pandemic. | true | Health News | Even as millions of Americans hunkered down in their homes under strict “stay-at-home” orders, the death toll, as tallied by Reuters, shot up by more than 850 on Tuesday, by far the most for a single day. Nearly half of the new fatalities were in New York state, the epicenter of the pandemic despite closed businesses a... |
22546 | I campaigned on (the proposals in the budget repair bill for Wisconsin) all throughout the election. Anybody who says they are shocked on this has been asleep for the past two years. | Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he campaigned on his budget repair plan, including curtailing collective bargaining | false | Labor, State Budget, Wisconsin, Scott Walker, | "In the turbulent wake of his controversial plan to sharply curtail collective bargaining rights, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has faced criticism that he gave no warning of such a dramatic plan during the long 2010 governor’s race. Walker has forcefully challenged that contention, most bluntly at a Feb. 21, 2011 news c... |
10467 | 'Holy grail' of breast cancer prevention in high-risk women may be in sight | The news release focuses on the potential of a drug called denosumab to prevent breast cancer from developing in women who have a BRCA1 gene mutation that makes them more likely than the general population to develop breast cancer. The relevant research was published in Nature Medicine. However, the release has some si... | false | Breast cancer,Independent research center news release | The release doesn’t address costs at all. Given that denosumab is already on the market to treat other conditions, under the trade names XGEVA and Prolia, this is a significant oversight. Costs are listed in various public outlets as ranging from $990 for a six-month course to $1,650 per year (neither estimate includes... |
26233 | Facebook post Says Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s family spent May 20 at her second home, breaking her own stay-at-home orders. | An image claims to prove that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s family spent May 20 at their second home in Elk Rapids, Mich. Until late April, Whitmer’s stay-at-home order prohibited Michiganders from traveling to their vacation homes within the state, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Whitmer spent May 20 in Midland,... | false | Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts, | "Some Facebook users say they have proof that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer isn’t following her own stay-at-home order. On May 20, conservative radio host Randy Bishop posted an image that shows two cars outside a blue house and a garage. In the caption, he claimed it was taken that afternoon at Whitmer’s ""‘UpNorth C... |
32612 | Muslims assaulted a Denny's waitress for serving bacon during the holy month of Ramadan. | The fake JTXH report also makes no sense theologically, as Muslims eschew eating pork products at all times, not just during the holy month of Ramadan. Moreover, Muslims are supposed to fast during daylight hours throughout the entire month of Ramadan, so if a few Muslims were trying to impose their standards on everyo... | false | Junk News, islam, pork | On 9 June 2016, the web site JTXH News published an article reporting that Muslims had assaulted a Denny’s waitress in Round Rock, Texas, for serving bacon during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan: A Denny’s waitress was allegedly assaulted by two Muslim men for serving pork during Ramadan. The woman, an 18 year old t... |
35371 | Thirteen Felician sisters from one convent died from COVID-19. | In the case of the final fatality on June 27, English said, “the Sister had been COVID-positive and while she had passed the 28-day quarantine, we believe it was the lingering effects that caused her death.” | true | Medical, COVID-19 | From April 10, 2020, to June 27, 2020, 13 sisters from the same convent in Michigan died from COVID-19, prompting Snopes readers to ask if that particularly concentrated pandemic tragedy was true. Sadly, it is true. Twelve sisters from Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Convent in Livonia, Michigan, died within 30... |
2509 | 'Healthier' chocolates gives U.S. cocoa demand a shot in the arm. | In an increasingly diet-conscious nation where the amount of chocolate candy sold has tumbled in recent years, a niche segment of the U.S. market is taking off: so-called “healthier” chocolate. | true | Health News | Studies declaring health benefits found in cocoa, combined with new chocolate products touting lower fat and calories, have helped manufacturers to capitalize on a growing consumer appetite for these alternative sweets in the United States, the world’s biggest chocolate consumer. Nestle USA says the lower-calorie choco... |
27901 | A letter highlighting fallacies in Biblical anti-homosexuality arguments was sent to radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger. | In the wake of President George W. Bush’s election to a second term, in the Fall of 2004 the piece was circulated yet again, this time addressed “Dear President Bush” rather than “Dear Dr. Laura.” Following the “Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging” close of the Dr. Laura letter, t... | true | Politics | Thanks to her oft-aired opinion that homosexuals were a “mistake of nature,” radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger became one of the targets of pro-gay sympathies looking for someone to shake a finger at in the late 1990s. Dr. Schlessinger attracted both adherents and detractors during her years of public life. Thro... |
31730 | President Trump signed an Executive Order banning childhood vaccinations for 90 days. | Although some posing-as-regional fake news outlets included disclaimers marking their content as fabricated, we were unable to locate any such notice on HoustonLeader.com. | false | Junk News, executive order, houston leader, president trump | On 6 February 2017, the Houston Leader web site published an article reporting that President Trump had enacted a 90-day ban on childhood vaccinations via executive order: Late [on the] afternoon [of 6 February 2017] President Trump announced what may be one of his most controversial decisions to date when he signed a... |
35866 | Joe Biden's son Hunter was dishonorably discharged from the Navy for cocaine use. | "What's true: Hunter Biden was discharged from the U.S. Navy Reserve after testing positive for cocaine. What's false: Hunter Biden received an administrative discharge, which is a form of discharge that does not include the ""dishonorable"" classification." | mixture | Politics, 2020 election | During the contentious debate between U.S. presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden on Sep. 29, 2020, Biden referenced an article from The Atlantic where he took a shot at Trump, who supposedly referred to veterans who died in combat as being “suckers” and “losers.” When Biden spoke of his own son’s military ... |
7965 | 'Sailors do not need to die,' warns captain of coronavirus-hit U.S. aircraft carrier. | The captain of the U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, in a blunt letter, has called on Navy leadership for stronger measures to save the lives of his sailors and stop the spread of the coronavirus aboard the huge ship. | true | Health News | The four-page letter, the contents of which were confirmed by U.S. officials to Reuters on Tuesday, described a bleak situation onboard the nuclear-powered carrier as more sailors test positive for the virus. The Navy puts the ship’s complement at 5,000, the equivalent of a small American town. The letter was first rep... |
5005 | Health study related to chemical at Pease will go ahead. | The federal government has approved a pilot study at a former military base to look at the health implications for those who may have been exposed to potentially toxic chemical in the drinking water. | true | Health, New Hampshire, General News, Portsmouth, Jeanne Shaheen | U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, says the Office of Management and Budget approved the study of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl compounds, known as PFAs, at New Hampshire’s Pease International Tradeport. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will begin the study this fall. The Air Force has spent... |
23416 | "Due to the war in Iraq, ""4,400 Americans are dead, 30,000 severely wounded and more than 100,000 are suffering from serious health problems related to post traumatic stress syndrome." | Rep. Ron Paul says that 4,400 Americans were killed in Iraq, 30,000 wounded and more than 100,000 suffering from PTSD due to the Iraq War | mixture | Iraq, Texas, Ron Paul, | "From the Oval Office where President George W. Bush announced the United States would invade Iraq, Barack Obama said Aug. 31 that ""the American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraqi people now have lead responsibility for the security of their country."" U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, ... |
8837 | China approves bird flu vaccine for humans. | Beijing has given the go-ahead to a Chinese drug maker to begin large-scale production of a human bird flu vaccine, after a second clinical trial showed the vaccine was safe and effective, the company said on Thursday. | true | Health News | The vaccine uses an inactivated whole H5N1 virus from Vietnam, said an official for Sinovac Biotech, which jointly developed the vaccine with China’s Centers for Disease Control. “We finished our second trial in November. We checked our 402 participants for antibodies and they met international standards used in the Un... |
5289 | Tony-winner and women’s health advocate Phyllis Newman dies. | Phyllis Newman, a Tony Award-winning Broadway veteran who became the first woman to host “The Tonight Show” before turning her attention to fight for women’s health, has died. She was 86. | true | Plays, Health, General News, Entertainment, Neil Simon, Womens health | Newman’s son, Adam, said his mother died Sunday of complications in New York from a longtime lung disorder. Newman won the 1962 Tony for best supporting actress in the musical “Subways Are for Sleeping,” where her costume consisted of a bath towel and which had lyrics co-written by her late husband, Adolph Green. She e... |
10490 | Blood injections may help chronic “tennis elbow” | We would have liked to have seen information on costs and the potential risks of the treatment. The story could have benefited from a deeper analysis of the evidence and from the use of some independent experts. We wonder if this was rushed onto the web because there were a number of copy errors: “Analogous blood inje... | mixture | Reuters Health | The story made no mention of costs. Given that platelet-rich plasma already is being used for a variety of conditions, including tennis elbow, it would not have been difficult to get a range of costs. A basic Google search reveals a number of sources declaring that insurance plans do not typically cover plasma injectio... |
35111 | A new disease outbreak caused by the hantavirus has been detected in China. | "What's true: A fatal case of hantavirus infection occurred in China in March 2020. What's false: Though rare, a single human case of hantavirus infection, which is spread by rodents, is neither an ""outbreak"" nor a new phenomenon." | false | Medical, COVID-19 | A man who passed away in China’s Yunnan Province tested positive for hantavirus, a rare type of virus transmitted from rodents to humans, and news reports about that event raised fears that a new disease outbreak was looming. The reports came in late March 2020, as the world was reeling from the global COVID-19 pandemi... |
18552 | "Assertions that it makes no difference whether children are raised by heterosexual or homosexual parents have been ""shattered by the latest and best social science and research." | Same-sex marriage foe says latest research has “shattered” claims about children raised by same-sex couples | false | Rhode Island, Children, Families, Gays and Lesbians, Race and Ethnicity, Marriage, Susan Yoshihara, | "Supporters and opponents of bills to legalize same-sex marriage argued for more than 12 straight hours recently before the Rhode Island Senate’s Judiciary Committee. One of the many issues on which they disagreed was the consequences, if any, of same-sex couples raising children. ""It's true some people claim that it ... |
10607 | Low-carb, low-calorie diets can both result in weight loss | "The story did an adequate job of quantifying benefits, but does not address harms or costs. The story also allows a questionable quote from one ""outside expert"" who clearly has a potential conflict of interest with a book he’s promoting. The story matters because people are always looking for a less difficult answer... | mixture | "There was no discussion about how the different food consumption patterns compared in terms of price. Is there a difference? Does cost not matter in such decisions? The story did a good job reporting the average weight loss observed in the two diet groups. It might have been useful to readers to understand how variabl... | |
26985 | "Blogger Says China ""stole Coronavirus from Canada and weaponized it into a Bioweapon." | A Zero Hedge story claims that Chinese agents stole coronavirus samples from Canada to create a biological weapon, which has now caused an outbreak of the disease around the world. A Chinese scientist who worked in a Canadian lab studying coronaviruses is under investigation for trips she took to Wuhan. But there’s no ... | false | Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Bloggers, | "A widely shared article on social media inaccurately claims Canada is the source of the 2019 coronavirus outbreak in China. Zero Hedge, a blog with a track record of publishing information, said in a Jan. 26 story that the coronavirus is part of a Chinese plot to develop a bioweapon. The article was republished from ... |
23381 | The stimulus has not created one private sector job. | Rick Scott says the stimulus didn't create a single private sector job | false | Economy, Stimulus, Florida, Rick Scott, | "For Rick Scott, a Republican businessman running for governor, distinguishing himself from a Democratic competitor who also focuses on jobs is simple: He ties her to ""President Obama’s agenda."" So at a Sept. 3, 2010, appearance before Tallahassee reporters, the Friday before Labor Day, he described how he differs fr... |
386 | Search on for 1,276 now missing after California's deadliest wildfire. | The number of people missing after California’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire jumped on Saturday to 1,276, despite authorities locating hundreds of people who scattered when the Camp Fire tore through the mountain town of Paradise. | true | Environment | Forensic recovery teams sifting through the charred wreckage recovered the remains of five more victims, bringing the death toll to at least 76, authorities said. Sixty-three of them have been tentatively identified, pending DNA confirmation. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said much of the increase in the number of mi... |
35967 | The United States Department of Defense posted a commemoration of the Battle of the Bulge on social media — written from the perspective of the Nazis. | Did the U.S. Department of Defense Display an Image of a Nazi on the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge? | true | Fact Checks, Politics, Viral Content | On December 16 2019, social media accounts affiliated with the United States military put up the following image with a post attached to it commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge:The photograph showed a Nazi war criminal, SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper. The image was attached to a post that a... |
8545 | Hungary prolongs coronavirus lockdown indefinitely as infections near 1,000. | Hungary has prolonged a nationwide lockdown indefinitely to slow the spread of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday, asking citizens to observe the order despite the Easter holiday. | true | Health News | Hungary has officially recorded 980 confirmed cases and 66 deaths in the pandemic, although the government has acknowledged the number of actual cases is probably much higher as the country nears the phase of mass infections. The country introduced stay at home orders last month. That order was about to expire over the... |
34057 | A woman in Brazil contracted HIV during a manicure. | "What's true: According to a paper written by researchers in São Paulo, a woman likely contracted HIV from her cousin by sharing manicure equipment. What's false: However, the researchers did not assert that method of transmission as a certainty, and the woman did not contract the disease ""during a manicure"" as such ... | true | Medical | In October 2019, we received multiple inquiries from readers about the accuracy of reports that claimed a 22-year-old woman had contracted the HIV virus during a manicure. During that month, social media users widely shared a 2015 article published on the Filipino website TheAsianParent, with the headline “22-Year-Old ... |
29066 | The Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are buying arms as preparation for civil unrest. | What's true: The SSA issued a Request for Quote for 174,000 rounds of hollow point bullets. The DHS issued requests for quotes for hundreds of millions of rounds of ammunition. What's false: The SSA and DHS are not stocking up on ammunition in preparation for civil unrest, and the DHS did not purchase 2,700 tanks for u... | mixture | Politics Guns | An August 2012 Infowars.com post pointed to a Request for Quote (RFQ) issued by the Social Security Administration (SSA) for the purchase of 174,000 rounds of “.357 Sig 125 grain bonded jacketed hollow point pistol ammunition.” The article opined that as the ammunition was to be sent to a number of major cities around... |
41851 | "Affordable Care Act 2019 premiums ""are far lower than they would have been under the previous administration ... because we're managing it very, very carefully." | President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that Obamacare is “dead,” but recently he has been making a misleading boast about low insurance premium growth for 2019 marketplace plans. | mixture | Affordable Care Act, health insurance, insurance premiums, | President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that Obamacare is “dead,” but recently he has been making a misleading boast about low insurance premium growth for 2019 marketplace plans.Trump claimed that “the rates are far lower than they would have been under the previous administration,” adding, “because we’re managing ... |
9459 | This Test Can Determine Whether You've Outgrown A Food Allergy | This story reports the results of a study of 6,300 oral food challenges, or medically supervised allergy tests, to determine whether patients have outgrown their food allergies. The story did a good job discussing how oral food challenges work, and included an expert source not directly connected to the research who pr... | true | allergies | The story does not mention the cost of oral food challenges. That’s too bad because the economics of food challenges are part of the overall newsworthiness of the procedure, although it was not a focus of this particular study. Considering that oral food challenges take three to six hours and require multiple staff to ... |
8708 | UK virus outbreak 'probably' peaking, but too soon to ease lockdown. | Britain’s coronavirus outbreak is probably peaking, but it is too early to start relaxing restrictions, officials said as critics warned that the country may end up with the worst death rate in Europe due to government failings. | true | Health News | Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s top medical adviser, Chris Whitty, said on Wednesday that data on the extent and impact of the outbreak was encouraging but that it was too soon to focus the next phase of the government’s response. “Our view is that it is probably reaching the peak overall,” Whitty said at the government... |
25691 | “President Trump marshalled the full resources of our federal government from the outset. He directed us to forge a seamless partnership with governors across America in both political parties.” | Early in the pandemic, Trump feuded with governors over whose responsibility it was to secure supplies. States found themselves competing with each other and the federal government for scarce personal protective equipment and testing materials. At one point, Trump threatened to withhold school funds for districts that ... | false | States, Coronavirus, Mike Pence, | "Vice President Mike Pence portrayed his boss President Donald Trump as a leader who reached out across the aisle to help during the pandemic. ""President Trump marshalled the full resources of the federal government and directed us to forge a seamless partnership with governors across America in both parties,"" Pence ... |
7257 | Tire company gives $5M to protect land around Bayou Pierre. | A $5 million donation from the state’s newest major industry will help preserve an environmentally stressed waterway in southwest Mississippi. | true | MS State Wire, Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi River, Environment, Wildlife, Darts, Continental AG | Continental AG announced this week that it has given $5 million to Wildlife Mississippi to finance that organization’s purchase of 1,000 acres along Bayou Pierre west of Hazlehurst in Copiah County. One parcel was purchased from a timber company and one was bought from an individual, said James Cummins, executive direc... |
26383 | "Facebook post Says President Barack Obama ""signed the medical appliance tax bill that forced companies to outsource manufacturing of masks, gowns, gloves and ventilaors [sic] to China, Europe and Russia to avoid the tax.”" | The tax, known as the medical device tax or the medical device excise tax but not the medical appliance tax bill, has not been in effect since the end of 2015. It was repealed in 2019. Experts say the current shortage of personal protective equipment is more likely connected to lack of a reserve stockpile and Presiden... | false | Health Check, Coronavirus, Facebook posts, | "A social media post, which in April was shared widely on Facebook and made appearances on a conservative online discussion forum, asserts that former President Barack Obama signed legislation that caused companies to manufacture medical devices overseas, including items essential for the current coronavirus pandemic.... |
339 | J&J agrees to pay about $1 billion to resolve hip implant lawsuits: Bloomberg. | Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay about $1 billion to resolve the bulk of lawsuits claiming the company sold defective metal-on-metal hip implants that ultimately had to be removed, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. | true | Health News | The agreement resolves over 95 percent of the 6,000 cases in which surgeons extracted the company’s Pinnacle implants because they left patients unable to walk and in pain, according to the report. The $1 billion total includes an earlier settlement for more than $400 million and there are still about 4,500 pending sui... |
24460 | "When White House communications director Anita Dunn said that Mao Tse-tung was ""one of her favorite philosophers, only Fox News picked that up." | O'Reilly accuses media of not following Fox's lead on Anita Dunn-Mao Tse-tung story | false | National, Pundits, Bill O'Reilly, | "In a recent segment with conservative commentator Ann Coulter, Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly slammed other media outlets for failing to cover a story — unearthed by Fox — that a senior aide to Barack Obama had told high school students that one of her ""favorite political philosophers"" was Mao Tse-tung, the lat... |
987 | In border camps, Syrians rely on doctors in trucks and tents. | The Syrian war has inflicted all kinds of hardships on Najwa Abdelaziz but she still manages to make light of one of them. “The uprising ruined my teeth,” she jokes while getting dental care for the first time in years in the back of a truck. | true | Health News | The 33-year-old could not find help for her toothache even after she fled Islamic State rule and took refuge in northwest Syria. But a dentist in a mobile clinic has now arrived at the Rayyan camp where she lives with her husband and four children in a tent among the trees. “We kept getting uprooted, so we were cut off... |
7416 | Grand Forks outbreak has other North Dakota plants on alert. | A widespread outbreak of the coronavirus that has shuttered a wind turbine plant in northeastern North Dakota and initiated a massive contact tracing effort has led many of the state’s largest manufacturers to review and relay their safety measures. | true | Health, General News, Grand Forks, Business, Infectious diseases, Fargo, North Dakota, Virus Outbreak, Public health | No company wants to be the next LM Wind Power. “All it takes is to see something like that happen in a neighboring business or a business similar to yours and everyone gets a lot more fastidious with control measures,” said Dr. Paul Carson, a public health and infectious disease specialist at North Dakota State Univers... |
5943 | Renewed battle over using fetal tissue in medical research. | Lawmakers clashed over science, ethics and politics at a House hearing Thursday on using fetal tissue in critically important medical research, as the Trump administration reviews the government’s ongoing support for such studies. | true | Health, Politics, North America, Medical research, Mark Meadows, Science | Research fields in which fetal tissue is used include HIV, childhood cancers, treatments that enlist the body’s immune system to battle cancer, and the hunt for a vaccine against the Zika virus, a cause of birth defects. Republicans said alternatives to fetal tissue are available and should be used instead. Democrats s... |
10049 | Spinal Fluid Test May Diagnose Alzheimer’s | This story does not explore the potential implications of Alzheimer’s Disease testing to the extent that the (much longer) New York Times story on this study does. It also downplays the relative lack of specificity with this approach – that up to a third may be falsely labeled as having the disease. This is a huge ques... | mixture | The story does not mention direct costs or potential financial consequences of such a test. This story appropriately characterizes this spinal fluid test as something that could help improve the confidence of Alzheimer’s diagnoses. It would have been helpful to point out that the test is most likely to be used first by... | |
30598 | Production of the flu shot caused the influenza virus to mutate into a more virulent strain, driving the deadly 2017-2018 flu season. | If you are able, get the flu shot. Even if the flu vaccine isn’t as effective as it has been in year’s past it does help. Some protection is better than no protection. | false | Medical, anti-vaccine, epidemic, erin elizabeth | On 8 February 2018, Erin Elizabeth, the founder of the reality-adjacent website “Health Nut News,” published an article claiming that a public health official had stated her belief that this year’s flu epidemic was the result of a virus mutated by the production of influenza vaccines. Her piece, which inexplicably carr... |
8997 | New Real-World Study Finds Long-Term XARELTO® (rivaroxaban) Use Resulted in Fewer Strokes and Systemic Emboli Compared to Warfarin in Frail Patients with Non-Valvular Atrial Fibrillation | This release summarizes a study comparing how three newer anticoagulants performed in preventing stroke and systemic embolism among frail patients compared to warfarin. Systemic embolism refers to a blood clot that causes blockage of blood flow. The 2,600-plus patients analyzed in the study all had non-valvular atrial ... | false | blood clot,Janssen,stroke,Xarelto | No costs were mentioned and it is a significant factor, seeing as warfarin is very inexpensive and produces an anticoagulant effect that is reversible, a characteristic not available with the other anticoagulants. The release relies solely on relative numbers in describing the benefits: “long-term XARELTO® use reduced ... |
11591 | Experimental drug cuts rare, lethal cholesterol levels in patients | "The story describes very preliminary research on an experimental drug that may reduce cholesterol levels in people with a familial form of high cholesterol, which affects very few people in the U.S. While the story adequately addressed many of our criteria, it could have been improved by reporting absolute benefits vs... | true | "Since the story mentioned the high cost of alternative treatment (weekly ""dialysis"" type of process costing $3,000/week and ""most health plans won't cover""), it could have at least commented on the potential cost of this new approach, even if to simply say that the cost is not yet known. The implicit suggestion is... | |
26475 | A photo shows two Italian nurses in a hospital a few days before they got COVID-19 and died. | An AP photographer took this picture of a couple kissing at the Barcelona Airport in Spain in March. | false | Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Viral image, | "The photo shows a man and woman, their lips almost touching, their eyes closed — and their medical masks below their chins. Their names, according to a recent Facebook post, are Sofia and Antonio — two nurses in Italy who left their small children, Cara and Lia, in the care of grandparents so that they could spend ""d... |
684 | WWF says it did not push for rhino relocation process where 11 died. | The World Wildlife Fund has rejected the findings of a Kenyan parliamentary inquiry that said the conservation group pushed Kenyan authorities to speed up a botched relocation of 14 rhinos last year that led to the deaths of 11 animals. | true | Environment | The black rhinos died of salt poisoning following the decision by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to ignore water test results in Tsavo East National Park, the committee’s report said. The deaths of the endangered animals, being moved to a more secure home in the face of the threat from poachers, were a major embarras... |
30308 | Undocumented immigrants have killed 63,000 U.S. citizens since 11 September 2001. | Although the Trump administration has called immigration at the southern U.S. border a “crisis” that has a deleterious effect on public safety, unauthorized border crossings are currently the lowest they have been in decades and studies have consistently disproved links between immigration and crime. Further most of th... | false | Politics, donald trump, immigration | On 22 June 2018, in the middle of a family separation controversy stemming from the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, U.S. President Donald Trump himself recycled a claim that undocumented immigrants had committed a disproportionately large number of homicides in the United States. “Sixty-three thousand A... |
7637 | Japan PM visits flood disaster zone, promises help as new warnings issued. | Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited flood-stricken parts of Japan on Wednesday as the death toll from the worst weather disaster in 36 years reached 176 and health concerns rose amid scorching heat and the threat of new floods. | true | Environment | Torrential rain caused floods and triggered landslides in western Japan last week, bringing death and destruction to neighborhoods built decades ago near steep mountain slopes. At least 176 people were killed, the government said, with dozens missing in Japan’s worst weather disaster since 1982. In Kumano, a mountainsi... |
2445 | Americans say they're creatures of simple, solo exercise habits. | Exercise trends come and go as step aerobics yield to interval training, weight machines are tossed for medicine balls and Pilates falls in and out of fashion. | true | Health News | But when it comes to exercise habits, Americans say they prefer to stick to what’s simple, solo and short. Nearly 75 percent of 1,200 adults, aged 24 to 44, questioned in an online survey about exercise habits said they worked out at least once a week and 77 percent prefer to do it alone. Running was the most popular t... |
31210 | An investigation has proven the presence of feces in Starbucks beverages. | Far from being definitive proof of poop in your Starbucks iced coffee, this “investigation” is more of a how-to on how to make a vague finding sensational in the lead up to a television episode. | false | Medical | On 28 June 2017, the BBC teased an upcoming episode of their program Watchdog, an investigative series into consumer-related issues, with some scary-sounding revelations about coffee shops: Ice from three of the UK’s biggest coffee chains has been found to contain bacteria from faeces, according to a BBC investigation.... |
1502 | Respect for science in jeopardy in polarized U.S., Nobel winners say. | Two of the U.S. scientists awarded the Nobel prize on Tuesday for opening up a new era of astronomy by detecting gravitational waves said they hoped the attention would make Americans less inclined to dismiss scientific consensus in favor of politics. | true | Science News | A trio of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) won the Nobel prize for physics for a half-century of work that confirmed the presence of the ripples in space and time predicted by Albert Einstein. The win, the second of the week by U.S. sc... |
4048 | Officials: Maine sees decrease in Lyme disease cases. | Maine health officials say Lyme disease cases in the state dropped in 2018. | true | Lyme disease, Health, Ticks, Maine | The Portland Press Herald reports the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 1,310 Lyme disease cases through Dec. 27. That’s a 29 percent from 1,852 reported cases in 2017. Lyme disease is spread by ticks. Maine Medical Center Research Institute research associate Susan Elias says ticks are easily af... |
8749 | Common plastics chemical linked to heart problems. | A major study links a chemical widely used in plastic products, including baby bottles, to health problems in humans like heart disease and diabetes, but U.S. regulators said on Tuesday they still believe it is safe. | true | Science News | A nurse prepares a bottle of donated milk for a baby at Son Dureta's Hospital in Palma de Mallorca, Spain March 10, 2006. REUTERS/Dani Cardona The chemical bisphenol A, or BPA, is commonly used in plastic food and beverage containers and in the coating of food cans. Until now, environmental and consumer activists who h... |
3961 | Chronic wasting disease found in 2-deer Douglas County herd. | A case of chronic wasting disease has been confirmed in a captive deer in Douglas County of west-central Minnesota, marking the first appearance of the fatal brain disease in that county, the Board of Animal Health announced Tuesday. | true | Animals, Health, General News, Deer, Minnesota, Animal health, Environment | The board said an 8-year-old white-tailed doe tested positive after it was killed by its pen-mate, a white-tailed buck, the only other deer on the site. Test results are pending on the buck, which was euthanized. No deer remain on the site, which has been quarantined, the board said. The board’s senior veterinarian, Dr... |
9248 | 'Game-changing' immunotherapy doubles head and neck cancer survival | This news release focuses on a study published in NEJM that evaluated the use of the immunotherapy drug nivolumab (marketed as Opdivo) to treat patients with head and neck cancers whose cancer has progressed despite receiving conventional chemotherapy. Patients receiving nivolumab tended to live slightly longer than pa... | mixture | head and neck cancers,Institute of Cancer Research,nivolumab,Opdivo | The release doesn’t address costs at all. This may be because the study was done in the U.K., where public health care mitigates the cost for patients. However, it is definitely an issue for patients in the U.S. In an NEJM piece published last year, one doctor stated that, when used for treating metastatic renal-cell c... |
4318 | Study finds air pollution reaches placenta during pregnancy. | A new study suggests when a pregnant woman breathes in air pollution, it can travel beyond her lungs to the placenta that guards her fetus. | true | Health, General News, U.S. News, Air pollution, Pollution | Pollution composed of tiny particles from car exhaust, factory smokestacks and other sources is dangerous to everyone’s health, and during pregnancy it’s been linked to premature births and low birth weight. But scientists don’t understand why, something that could affect care for women in highly polluted areas. One th... |
11780 | Now it’s official: FDA announced that vaccines are causing autism. | No, the FDA didn't hide information linking vaccine to autism | false | Autism, Children, Fake news, Health Care, PunditFact, truthcommand.com, | "The federal government tried to hide that a common vaccine given to children causes autism, according to a misleading viral story on Facebook. ""Now it’s official: FDA announced that vaccines are causing autism,"" stated a headline on truthcommand.com. The story stated: ""For years, fears over vaccines and the onset o... |
21874 | "Multnomah County’s food action plan ""clearly plans to disrupt the free market system in terms of food choices making it harder and more expensive for many residents to eat their food of choice." | Will Multnomah County’s food plan make it harder for people to eat and pay for their food of choice? | false | Oregon, County Government, Government Regulation, Roxanne Ross, | "A tweet came to our attention recently, courtesy of the lively left-leaning and right-leaning twitterati who use the #orpol hashtag. ORLibertyGal tweeted: ""Multnomah County plans to interfere with your food delivery. Oh goodie http://bit.ly/jFhTe5"" Minutes later, BlueOregon contributor T.A. Barnhart responded: ""on... |
4613 | Is Ohio in play? GOP tilt working against Democrats. | Chris Gagin says he hasn’t changed much politically, even as so much around him has. | true | Columbus, AP Top News, General News, Politics, Environment, Election 2020, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Ohio, U.S. News, Barack Obama | The attorney from rural Belmont County, Ohio, became a Republican in 2013 after Democrats embraced environmental policies that he believed were detrimental to the area’s coal mining and fracking industries. As an anti-abortion-rights, pro-gun conservative, he felt unwelcome. “Conservative Democrats have become all but ... |
7972 | Thailand hit by African Horse Sickness, killing over 100 horses. | More than 100 horses have died from African Horse Sickness (AHS) in Thailand, government data showed, in the Southeast Asian country’s first instance of the illness that only affects animals. | true | Health News | “This disease has just occurred in Thailand. We’ve never had it in the past,” director-general of the Department of Livestock Development, Sorawit Thanito, said on Thursday. The government has quarantined sick horses to limit the spread of the disease, Sorawit said. At least 131 horses have died across four provinces, ... |
33869 | Walt Disney received a dishonorable discharge from the military during World War I. | Why people believe that Disney would have been proud of a dishonorable discharge is rather puzzling. In the closest thing Walt left to an autobiography (The Story of Walt Disney, putatively written by his daughter Diane), he spoke only positively of his time in France: “The things I did during those eleven months I was... | false | Disney, Walt Disney | In 1918, sixteen-year-old Walt Disney was eager to take part in the war in Europe but was too young to join the military. After a plan to enlist in the Canadian Army fell through, Walt signed up with the American Ambulance Corps, a division of the Red Cross, by lying about his age. In November of 1918, after the war ha... |
19837 | "Toothpaste contains ""the poison substance of fluoride." | In this teeming capital city of more than 20 million people, a worsening drought is amplifying the vast inequality between India’s rich and poor. | false | Public Health, Science, Wisconsin, Jim Bohl, | The politicians, civil servants and corporate lobbyists who live in substantial houses and apartments in central Delhi pay very little to get limitless supplies of piped water – whether for their bathrooms, kitchens or to wash the car, dog, or spray a manicured lawn. They can do all that for as little as $10-$15 a mont... |
10441 | Chocolate May Cut Women’s Stroke Risk | This WebMD story repeatedly uses language that suggests an active, causal link between chocolate and stroke (e.g. reduce, protect, benefit), when the study — as with all observational studies — was not capable of determining whether chocolate in fact prevents strokes. We provide a primer for journalists and others abou... | mixture | health food claims,Stroke,WebMD,women's health | The story does a good job of emphasizing that health benefits are more likely with chocolate that has a higher concentration of cocoa solids. However, these premium chocolates come with a corresponding increase in price compared with your average Hershey Bar– something the story could have explained. Nonetheless, we’ll... |
26501 | “Same little boy died of COVID-19 in three different countries. Still don’t believe the media is #fakenews?” | Three screenshots using doctored images falsely suggest that there were reports of the same boy’s death in three countries. The boy pictured in the claim died in 2017 from an apparent suicide. | false | Fake news, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts, | "Stirring new grief for the family of a boy who committed suicide in 2017, people are sharing doctored images of the child in an apparent attempt to cast doubt on the coronavirus pandemic. ""Same little boy died of COVID-19 in three different countries,"" a Facebook post says facetiously. ""Still don’t believe the medi... |
11251 | More teens undergoing weight-loss surgery | "This story reported on a clinical trial of gastric banding in adolescents. The story didn’t provide a framework for viewers to understand the pros and cons that a patient should factor into their decision about weight loss surgery. Without information about realistic expectations for amount of weight that can be predi... | false | "There was no mention of costs. Although this broadcast did provide the weight loss information for one patient (who went from 250 to 145 lbs) and experienced a self-assessed improvement in social interactivity, it failed to quantify for the viewers a reasonable benefit to expect from the treatment. Other than at the e... | |
6372 | Swarm of sea urchins wreaks destruction on US West Coast. | Tens of millions of voracious purple sea urchins that have already chomped their way through towering underwater kelp forests in California are spreading north to Oregon, sending the delicate marine ecosystem off the shore into such disarray that other critical species are starving to death. | true | AP Top News, General News, Forests, Oregon, Business, California, Asia Pacific, U.S. News, Red Sea, Science | A recent count found 350 million purple sea urchins on one Oregon reef alone — more than a 10,000% increase since 2014. And in Northern California, 90% of the giant bull kelp forests have been devoured by the urchins, perhaps never to return. Vast “urchin barrens” — stretches of denuded seafloor dotted with nothing but... |
5712 | Oklahoma City mulls vote on MAPS 4 sales tax extension. | The Oklahoma City council is expected to set a citywide vote for a one-cent sales tax that would generate nearly $980 million over eight years to fund dozens of city projects, including money for social services like mental health and homelessness. | true | Mental health, Oklahoma City, Health, General News, Social services, Oklahoma | The proposal outlined on Friday is the fourth iteration of the Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS), a comprehensive capital improvement program first approved by city voters in 1993. The council is expected to consider a resolution on Tuesday that calls for a special election on Dec. 10. Funding in the MAPS 4 proposal in... |
768 | Loch Ness monster might just be a giant eel, say scientists. | Scotland’s fabled Loch Ness monster could possibly be a giant eel, scientists said on Thursday after an intensive analysis of traces of DNA in the Loch’s icy waters. | true | Science News | The results ruled out the presence of large animals such as dinosaurs, they said. But there was a lot of eel DNA in the Loch, Professor Neil Gemmell, a geneticist from New Zealand’s University of Otago, told reporters. “Eels are very plentiful in the loch system - every single sampling site that we went to pretty much ... |
11569 | New Tools for Helping Heart Patients | "This is a classic story of the potential promise of a new technology for the health care sector. A nice anecdote sets the stage and then a number of preliminary findings are used as proxies for real evidence. It is implied that the technology will keep people healthier, happier and at less cost to our costly system. T... | false | "Mixed bag. The story explained that the devices ""can cost as much as $30,000."" And there was one data point from one study on one device that users’ hospital costs were $1,600 less per admission. But the device costs are variable and device performance will be variable. We’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt ... | |
3944 | First flu death of season recorded in Utah. | Utah health officials have confirmed the state’s first flu death this season. | true | Health, Utah, General News, Salt Lake City, Flu | The person died recently, was under the age of 65 and lived in one of five southern counties: Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane or Washington, Southwest Utah Public Health Department officials said. They did not release additional information out of privacy concerns. Another 172 people have been hospitalized in what officia... |
26562 | Facebook post Says COVID-19 remains in the air for eight hours and that everyone is now required to wear masks “everywhere.” | There are different definitions of what is considered “airborne,” and while COVID-19 is spread through the air via droplets, it isn’t believed to be as transmissible as typical airborne illnesses, such as measles. One study found COVID-19 may remain in the air longer in some settings but environment plays a role and fu... | false | Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts, | "Since the novel coronavirus hasn’t been around that long, public health information about the virus and how it behaves is constantly changing. That’s why social media posts that make sweeping medical claims about COVID-19 should be viewed with skepticism. Like this Facebook post, which displays a screenshot of a CNBC ... |
440 | Samoa ends measles state of emergency as infection rate slows. | The South Pacific island nation of Samoa has lifted a six week-state of emergency after the infection rate from a measles outbreak that has swept the country started to come under control. | true | Health News | Samoa’s island population of just 200,000 has been gripped by the highly infectious disease that has killed 81 people, most of them babies and young children, and infected more than 5,600 people. The government said in a statement late on Saturday that the emergency orders, which included aggressive measures to contain... |
33467 | An Atlanta police officer killed a baby following a breastfeeding dispute with the child's mother. | Other fake news stories published by the Gazette include “Islam Studies Added to Common Core Curriculum.” | false | Media Matters, baltimore gazette, national report, Not Necessarily The News | On 7 August 2014, the National Report fake news site published a hoax article reporting that a NYPD police officer had killed a baby following a breastfeeding dispute with the child’s mother: In a continuation of the ongoing police scandals rocking the New York City Police Department, three-month old infant Layla Smi... |
8551 | China reclassifies dogs as pets, not livestock, in post-virus regulatory push. | China has drawn up new guidelines to reclassify dogs as pets rather than livestock, the agriculture ministry said, part of a response to the coronavirus outbreak that the Humane Society called a potential “game changer” in animal welfare. | true | Environment | Though dog meat remains a delicacy in many regions, the Ministry of Agriculture said in a notice published on Wednesday that dogs would no longer be considered as livestock. It uses that designation for animals that can be bred to provide food, milk, fur, fibre and medicine, or to serve the needs of sports or the milit... |
7188 | State public health care plan clears Washington House. | Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s proposal for a limited public health care option cleared the state House of Representatives Friday, advancing what he has called the most practical option for expanding health coverage — and bringing to his state a national debate over what universal health care means. | true | Health, Washington, Universal health care, Bills, Jay Inslee | The proposal would create a state insurance option with capped costs and likely competitive premiums. It would also require officials to plan expanded state subsidies for private insurance. The bill calls for state plans by 2021, but rather than providing them directly to consumers, the state would contract with one or... |
35366 | "The obituary for David W. Nagy blamed his death on U.S. President Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and ""other politicians who did not take this pandemic seriously." | Nagy said she has seen a lot people around her town failing to wear face masks, from drugstore employees to deputies at the Marion County Sheriff’s Department, even though Marion County is now under Abbott’s mask mandate. | true | Viral Phenomena, COVID-19 | Texas resident David W. Nagy, 79, died of COVID-19 on July 22, 2020, and his wife Stacey Nagy published a fiery obituary in the local newspaper condemning politicians she said failed to take the pandemic seriously, including U.S. President Donald Trump and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. The obituary expresses not just grief o... |
14904 | "Climate change is ""directly related"" to the growth of terrorism." | "Sanders said, ""Climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism."" We couldn’t find any evidence of a ""direct"" relationship between climate change and terrorism, though many reports have noted an indirect link. There are, of course, many other factors that contribute to terrorism, including religious a... | false | National, Climate Change, Terrorism, Bernie Sanders, | "The Democratic debate in Iowa began with a moment of silence for the victims of the Paris terror attacks before pivoting to a discussion on how to address terrorism. Bernie Sanders, who vowed to ""rid our planet"" of ISIS in his opening statement, also said at a previous debate that the greatest threat to national sec... |
9004 | New research ranks the effectiveness of nonsurgical treatments for knee osteoarthritis | This news release clearly describes the key findings of a comparison study of several nonsurgical treatments for knee osteoarthritis in a way that is likely to be useful to patients. However, the brevity of the release and the methods of the underlying meta-analysis mean that readers are not given specifics about the a... | mixture | American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons,knee osteoarthritis | Although the news release does refer to the low-cost of naproxen (brand names including Aleve and Naprosyn), it does not discuss the costs of other treatments that were ranked highly by this meta-analysis. Injections of corticosteroids may cost about $100, not including associated clinic and provider charges. All of th... |
3558 | What’s so bad about processed foods? Scientists offer clues. | Chips, soda and frozen pizzas tend to be full of salt, sugar and fat, but now scientists are trying to understand if there’s something else about such processed foods that might be bad for us. | true | Health, Nutrition, General News, AP Top News, Science | Already, the spread of cheap, packaged foods has been linked to rising obesity rates around the world. Yet advice to limit processed foods can seem unhelpful, given how convenient they are and the growing array of products that fall into the category. While three recent studies offer more clues on how our increasingly ... |
31179 | During World War II, George Soros was a member of the SS (a Nazi paramilitary organization) or a Nazi collaborator who helped confiscate property from Jews. | The Holocaust was a horrific time, and many people had to make excruciating choices to ensure their survival. George Soros has been forthright about his childhood experiences and his family’s history, and there the matter should rest. | false | Politics Conspiracy Theories, dinesh d'souza, george soros, glenn beck | As a prominent political activist and supporter of left-wing causes, Hungarian-born billionaire financier George Soros has frequently been the target of smear campaigns, and none more odious than the persistent — and false — claim that Soros, a Jew, was a Nazi sympathizer, collaborator, and/or paramilitary officer duri... |
5189 | Veterans Affairs medical center planned in Cape Girardeau. | Federal officials are planning a new $47.4 million Veterans Affairs health care center in Cape Girardeau. | true | Michael Brown, Health, General News, Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff, Veterans, Veterans affairs | Officials at the John J. Pershing VA Medical Center in Poplar Bluff announced plans for the cente on Friday. The 43,000-square-foot health care center will be on a 7-acre site near SoutheastHEALTH’s cancer center. Libby Johnson, center director, said in a news release the clinic will house eight primary care teams, lab... |
10874 | Breast cancer screening test may find disease when mammograms miss | The story appropriately notes that radioactive imaging for detection of breast cancer is not a replacement for clinical breast exams, mammograms and/or ultrasound. This is a newer screening technique used in difficult-to-call cases where a woman may have an unclear mammogram result or there is a suspicion of breast can... | mixture | "The story does not provide the cost of this screening and does not explain whether it is covered by Medicare or private health insurance. The story implies that this new screening is the best method of detecting cancer in difficult to read cases, but we are not provided with the benefits of this screening over existi... | |
37730 | "Adhering a strip of medical tape at the top of a face mask will prevent glasses from fogging up ""for hours." | As people across the world adjusted to wearing face masks in public, the use of medical tape became a viral “pro tip” for people who discovered that face masks caused their eyeglasses to fog up. The original post indicated that tape could prevent the issue for hours, but tape was only one of several approaches to preve... | mixture | Fact Checks, Viral Content | On July 17 2020, a Facebook user shared a very popular tip for people who wear glasses and face masks — advising them that introducing a strip of medical tape at the top of the mask would prevent glasses from fogging up for hours:In the photograph, a woman is wearing large glasses and a blue disposable surgical mask. O... |
14504 | We have a higher rate of tested lead in people in Cleveland than in Flint. | "Clinton said, ""We have a higher rate of tested lead in people in Cleveland than in Flint."" In Flint, 4 percent of all kids and 6.3 percent of kids in high-risk areas in Flint tested positive for lead poisoning in 2015. In Cleveland, that rate was 14.2 percent in 2014. However, the lead in Cleveland came from paint, ... | true | Environment, National, Public Health, Hillary Clinton, | "The Democratic debate in Flint, Mich., opened with a discussion of the city’s lead poisoning crisis, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Flint isn’t the only place where serious action is needed. ""We have a lot of communities right now in our country where the level of toxins in the water, including le... |
33365 | The Obama administration has ordered $1 billion worth of 'disposable coffins' for use with 'FEMA camps.' | (Images from Google Maps show that the liners are now gone from the Madison location; the last of them was apparently removed sometime around 2010.) | false | Politics Conspiracy Theories, disposable coffins, ebola, Fearbola | A several-year-old conspiracy rumor about the U.S. government’s supposedly having stockpiled thousands of plastic coffins (or coffin liners) for use in conjunction with “FEMA internment camps” was resurrected in January 2014 by an article positing that the Obama administration had “quietly ordered $1 billion worth” of ... |
12082 | "John Thomaides Says the Austin metro region ""will lead"" the nation ""with population growth over 50%"" over the next 30 years." | "Thomaides said the Austin metro region ""will lead"" the nation ""with population growth over 50%"" over the next 30 years. That ""over 50%"" is actually an understatement, based on what experts including the Texas state demographer predict. And while the report behind the mayor’s claim showed Austin No. 1 in projecte... | true | Population, Texas, John Thomaides, | "San Marcos Mayor John Thomaides floated big numbers in a tweet suggesting the Austin area is on pace to outgrow all other places nationally in coming decades. ""Metro population will grow by 67 million people over the next 30 years,"" Thomaides wrote in June 2017. ""Austin metro will lead with population growth over 5... |
16837 | "Ted Cruz Says 95 percent of people caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border said in a survey ""we are coming because we’ve been promised amnesty." | "Cruz said a survey indicates 95 percent of people caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border said ""we are coming because we’ve been promised amnesty."" This statement accurately recaps a statistic in a document made public by another senator: 95 percent of 230 adults and unaccompanied children interviewed recently by the... | mixture | Immigration, Texas, Ted Cruz, | "People have increasingly crossed into Texas over the Rio Grande because they think Uncle Sam has open arms, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said the other day. Cruz, at a San Antonio press conference with fellow Republicans Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, said a May 2014 government survey... |
27958 | A New York City Starbucks outlet charged 9/11 rescue workers $130 for three cases of water. | Did a New York Starbucks charge rescue workers $130 for three cases of water? | true | September 11th | My family owns an ambulance service in Brooklyn NY. Midwood Ambulance if anyone knows it. Anyway, my uncles were at “Ground Zero” during the attack to help the victims. They donated their time to help with this crisis as many New Yorkers did. A great deal of people were in shock from the devastation. As many of you kno... |
35048 | Amazon solicited donations from the public to pay sick leave to contractors and seasonal workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. | Amazon truly did launch a $25 million fund to provide sick leave for contract workers and seasonal employees through a grant program to which those workers must file applications before receiving benefits. | true | Business, COVID-19 | In early March 2020, amid the COVID-19 coronavirus disease outbreak that would later grow into a pandemic, the massive retail and delivery company Amazon launched the Amazon Relief Fund, which among other things, offers grants to contract and seasonal workers so they can receive sick pay if they contract the coronaviru... |
25924 | “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez votes with President Trump more than Abigail Spanberger does.” | Both Spanberger and Ocasio-Cortez rank in the bottom one-third of House Democrats in supporting Trump. Spanberger has voted in accordance with Trump on 7.5% of bills; Ocasio-Cortez has on 12.5. Ocasio-Cortez often votes with Trump for reasons that are antithetical to his agenda. | mixture | Voting Record, New York, Virginia, Nick Freitas, | "Del. Nick Freitas will try to convince voters in the 7th Congressional District that they were fooled in 2018 when they elected Democrat Abigail Spanberger to the U.S. House of Resentatives. Freitas on July 18 won the Republican nomination to challenge Spanberger this fall. Spanberger won the seat, long held by the GO... |
517 | Climate change hits health, yet funds lacking: WHO. | Climate change is harming human health as more people suffer from heat stress, extreme weather and mosquito-borne diseases including malaria, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. | true | Environment | The U.N. agency, in a report issued a day after a climate summit began in Madrid, urged governments to meet ambitious targets to reduce heat-trapping carbon emissions saying it could save a million lives a year through lower air pollution alone. “Health is paying the price of the climate crisis. Why? Because our lungs,... |
11171 | New stem cell study promises to heal the heart | Reporting on a very small (8 participants), very preliminary study evaluating the safety of stem cell therapy for cardiomyopathy (or heart failure), this story does a nice job describing the study and provides a good overview of the evaluation process a drug or treatment must undergo before it obtains FDA approval; how... | false | heart disease,The Dallas Morning News | Since this treatment is not available, a discussion of costs is not warranted. We appreciate that this is the rare story to point out that clinical significance was not considered, but we think the story leads readers down the wrong path by comparing a 25% reduction to a 5% reduction and not providing the absolute numb... |
18282 | "Bill Nelson Says Gov. Rick Scott returned ""$1 million in federal funding that would have helped the state cover the cost of overseeing insurance rates under the new health care law." | "Nelson said Scott returned ""$1 million in federal funding that would have helped the state cover the cost of overseeing insurance rates under the new health care law."" It is undeniable that a grant for that purpose in that amount was sought, and a grant was returned. But the official who technically returned the mon... | true | Health Care, Florida, Bill Nelson, | "Sen. Bill Nelson did not have high hopes when he pressured Gov. Rick Scott to veto an insurance regulation bill that Nelson said could harm consumers. Nelson, a Democrat who used to be the state’s insurance commissioner, asked Scott to veto SB 1842, which prevents state regulators from reviewing rate hikes for new pla... |
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