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9903
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Gene-Targeted Cancer Fix Could Be a Breakthrough
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"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 been shown to work in humans""). To the average reader this would suggest that there was a treatment effect and that is a far cry from what actually was seen. At least the story ended with appropriate caution from one expert: ""This is the first qualitative ‘yes we can do it’ publication and it really has to be kept in that perspective."" (emphasis added)"
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mixture
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"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 researchers. ""The precision of the process is crucial to limiting side effects."" But it never discussed what even the potential side effects of this approach might be. It would have been relatively easy for the story to have included a few words about the potential downsides, including ""off target"" side effects during an exaggerated immune response or the shuttinf off of non-targeted genes resulting in adverse outcomes. The story stated that this was an ""early phase clinical trial"" but didn’t explain how early – that tissue samples of only three patients were tested. In addition, the results have not been subject to peer review, something the story didn’t mention. The story also crossed a line when it stated, ""The experiment proceeded just as planned, as biopsies later showed."" This would suggest that the study was in fact completed and the results were completely as expected. However, a more careful review of the letter does not support that view. Not applicable because no diseases were discussed in any detail. Two independent sources were quoted. There was no discussion of other targeted therapy research – something the Reuters story at least briefly described. Unlike the Reuters story, this story was very clear with this statement: ""Obviously the process will have to be refined and optimized before it’s actually used for treatment."" Good job on establishing the novelty of this approach – and reminding readers that this work lead to a Nobel Prize in 2006 for research in worms – ""a far cry from humans,"" as the story states. It’s clear the story didn’t rely solely on a news release."
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3531
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Third Illinois resident dies of vaping-related lung damage.
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A third Illinois resident has died after being hospitalized with a vaping-related lung injury the Department of Public Health reports.
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true
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Health, General News, Injuries, Vaping, Illinois, Public health
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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. Health Department director Dr. Ngozi Ezike says in a statement that more than 80% of the cases in Illinois report recent use of THC-containing products, primarily obtaining them from friends, family members or illegal dealers. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 1,888 confirmed and probable vaping cases have been reported in 49 states, with 38 deaths reported in 24 states.
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17964
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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.
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Have gun-related homicides, other serious crimes decreased dramatically in the last 20 years?
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true
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Oregon, Crime, Guns, Doug Whitsett,
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"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 something else about gun-related homicides and crimes that we thought merited its own analysis: ""Unfortunately, too many people are simply unaware of the facts regarding the possession of guns, and the commission of gun related crimes. In fact, most families have been convinced by media reports that gun related crimes are on the increase in America. That simply is not ! 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 … … All indicators point to the fact that our society becomes safer as more responsible families own guns."" We’ll be upfront: We have no idea if society is safer as a result of more responsible families owning guns. It’s not certain who owns firearms or how responsible they are. Also, some people would chalk up a decrease in firearm related homicides and crimes to better policing or to a decline in the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, or to other factors. Others would add that we should look at suicide and other statistics to get a fuller picture of how to address firearms policy. For example, more than 30,000 people die from firearms a year, including suicide. There are too many variables and opinions to make a definitive statement on safety and guns and society. But what we can fact check are the statistics Whitsett cites. Has the number of homicides committed with a firearm decreased by nearly 40 percent in the last two decades? Are other crimes involving firearms down nearly 70 percent? The Republican state senator from Klamath Falls said he based his remarks on a Bureau of Justice Statistics report from May 2013, which used statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were 11,101 firearm homicides in 2011, down from 18,253 in 1993, according to the BJS report. That is a 39 percent decline. Nonfatal crimes involving firearms declined 69 percent, from more than 1.5 million victims in 1993 to 467,300 victims in 2011. Those numbers back up Whitsett. The Pew Research Center released a separate report in May, also highlighting CDC numbers. It gives the same percentages and offers other calculations that back up the drops, including rates per 100,000 people. The Pew report noted that many Americans are unaware of the declines. The reports do not state definitive reasons for the decreases, but do point out that decreases were much steeper in the 1990s than in the 2000s. Apparently, 1993 was a peak year for homicides and the country has fared better since then. The numbers between 2000 and 2011 have gone up and down. Homicides and other violent crimes involving firearms have declined over the last two decades. Whitsett picked the numbers and years straight from a federal report issued in May, based on CDC statistics. The Pew Research Center, which is nonpartisan, used the same statistics. Readers can argue over what the declines mean, but they can’t take issue with the accuracy of his numbers."
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9376
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Ecstasy as PTSD Relief for Soldiers: ‘I Was Able to Forgive Myself’
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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 previous research in this area, the risk that such research might encourage DIY treatments, as well as the potential harms and benefits of an approach that’s recently been granted breakthrough therapy status by the FDA. Of note, we thought the issue of funding — usually ignored in about 70% of the stories we review — was handled in a very comprehensive and compelling way. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates the lifetime prevalence of PTSD to be about 7%. The duration and severity can vary widely, and successful treatment is a challenge. MDMA and psychotherapy to treat PTSD is just one example of an emerging area in psychiatry: Using non-FDA-approved psychoactive drugs (including LSD or hallucinogenic mushrooms), in conjunction with therapy, to treat everything from chronic pain to major depression. It’s a paradigm shift, to say the least, which means this type of research will undoubtedly generate substantial news coverage. Exercising caution and restraint — as this New York Times article did — will likely be more the exception than the rule.
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true
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ptsd
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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 largely unknown. We’re told that after two sessions of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy … … a majority of 26 combat veterans and first-responders with chronic PTSD (who had not been helped by traditional methods) saw dramatic decreases in symptoms. The improvements were so dramatic that 68 percent of the patients no longer met the criteria for PTSD. Patients taking the drug also experienced “drastic” improvements in sleep and become more conscientious, according to the study. This is enough to rate Satisfactory, but we think the story needed more details on how the study was designed to help readers understand this result (see evidence quality, below). The article states: Side effects including anxiety, headache, fatigue, muscle tension, and insomnia, were generally minor and limited to the days following the MDMA sessions. Readers might have concerns regarding the long-term consequences of pharmaceutical grade MDMA, but this is unknown. The article does make it clear that the MDMA-assisted psychotherapy model used in the study only involves taking the drug on 2-3 occasions. Also, the article anticipates that some people may (and already do) turn to street sources of MDMA (aka “Ecstasy” or “Molly”) to self medicate. It’s made clear that this could could be dangerous, or even fatal, since street sources can be laced with other psychoactive drugs. In an otherwise comprehensive article, there’s room for improvement here. We’re told a limited amount about the study design; in particular the questionnaire (called “CAPS-IV”) used to measure response in this small group of people. So we have little context with which to understand this outcome: Roughly 2 out of 3 subjects no longer meeting the criteria for PTSD. Also, there’s the issue of the reliability and reproducibility of questionnaires that rely upon the self-reporting of symptoms. Having said that, the article does well to ask: But does it actually work? Large-scale trials, which will include up to 300 participants at 14 sites, may not be able to replicate the success of previous trials, which were limited to a few dozen patients. Lastly, in an editorial that ran in the same issue of the Lancet, the editorialists also make the point that the participants were recruited via the internet and word of mouth, potentially skewing towards those “keen” on trying ecstasy. None. PTSD is fairly common and moderate to severe cases often prove difficult to treat. The unique funding for this project, as well as “who cashes in if MDMA becomes legal” is thoroughly covered and a very nice addition to the article. The lead authors appear to have no financial conflicts of interest, and multiple sources were tapped. The answer is revealing; essentially current interventions — mostly psychotherapy and/or drugs — have been mostly ineffective. It’s made clear that MDMA “is about to enter larger Phase III trials,” the FDA has granted pharmaceutical grade MDMA breakthrough therapy status, and that illegal sources exist but are potentially dangerous. It’s also mentioned that there have already been several other small-scale studies of the drug, and that if MDMA is eventually approved by the FDA it will only be administered by a licensed therapist. We did have one quibble–the story predicts that, if larger studies go well, the drug could be approved for this use “by 2021.” In reality, there’s really no way of knowing what year a drug will get approved. In the section “Is MDMA therapy new?” we learn that MDMA-assisted psychotherapy has been both formally, and informally, used in the past. The story did not rely on the news release.
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13717
|
"California’s marijuana legalization initiative, Prop. 64 ""allows marijuana smoking ads in prime time, on programs with millions of children and teenage viewers."
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Feinstein’s claim about marijuana ads on ‘prime time’ TV goes up in smoke
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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. Claims such as ""marijuana smoking ads will be legal on all broadcast primetime shows"" were dialed back to ""could be allowed."" On the Yes on 64 side, however, the judge ruled there should be ""No change"" to that campaign’s statement that ""Nothing in 64 makes it legal to show marijuana ads on TV. Federal law prohibits it!"" We continue to view Feinstein’s claim that Prop 64 ""allows"" recreational marijuana ads on TV as misleading. Had the senator said Prop 64 could open the door, someday, to recreational marijuana ads on TV, that might have been accurate. We continue to rate her statement . Californians will decide in November whether to legalize recreational marijuana through Proposition 64, a much-debated measure on the state’s ballot. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, who opposes Prop 64, says a green light for the initiative could strip away advertising rules and dramatically change what’s seen on TV. Prop 64 ""allows marijuana smoking ads in prime time, on programs with millions of children and teenage viewers,"" Feinstein said on July 12, 2016, in a No On Prop. 64 campaign press release. We know Prop 64 would allow Californians to legally smoke pot in their homes, yards and possibly in designated shops where it’s sold and regulated. But would it also lead to marijuana ads on ""prime time"" TV? Or is Feinstein blowing smoke? We decided to fact-check the senator’s statement. Half-baked claim? Prop 64 is backed by Democratic California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Democratic Party. Recreational marijuana is already legal in Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon and Washington D.C. Several states in addition to California are set to decide on legalizing pot in November. Feinstein’s office did not expand on her statement. Instead, it referred us to the No On Prop. 64 campaign. The campaign pointed us to Prop 64’s chapter on advertising and marketing restrictions, specifically Section 26151. It states: ""Any advertising or marketing placed in broadcast, cable, radio, print and digital communications shall only be displayed where at least 71.6 percent of the audience is reasonably expected to be 21 years of age or older, as determined by reliable, up-to-date audience composition data."" Wayne Johnson, spokesman for No On Prop. 64, said the 71.6 percent threshold is so low that only a few shows, such as Saturday morning cartoons, would be prohibited from airing marijuana ads. ""It’s a ridiculous standard,"" Johnson said. ""It only applies to the tiniest handful of shows."" In this photo taken on Thursday, May 26, 2016, Sarah Seiter, curator of the exhibit ""Altered State: Marijuana in California"" handles a cannabis leaf with gloved hands at the Oakland Museum in Oakland, Calif. Ben Margot / AP Claim ignores federal law TV and legal experts say Feinstein’s statement ignores federal law, which classifies marijuana as an illegal drug and prohibits advertising it on television. ""If Prop 64 passes, nothing will change in terms of what radio and television stations can legally broadcast,"" said Joe Berry, president of the California Broadcasters Association. ""The federal government licenses the radio and TV stations in California. The federal government’s position is that marijuana is an illegal substance. So, it’s illegal to advertise that substance."" Berry added: ""The stations themselves are federally licensed. So, there is a risk to the license for the station at license renewal."" Experts said cable and satellite television services would likely be subject to similar restrictions. They point to Section 843 of the Controlled Substances Act, which specifically prohibits using ""communications facilities"" to transmit advertisements for the sale of Schedule I drugs, which includes marijuana, heroin and ecstasy, among others. The law was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Nixon in 1970. It defines ""communications facilities"" as any and all public and private instrumentalities used or useful in the transmission of writing, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds of all kinds and includes mail, telephone, wire, radio, and all other means of communication."""
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3234
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Wendy Williams to take health-related break from TV show.
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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.
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true
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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 return to work but must focus on her “personal and physical well-being,” the family said, adding a request that her privacy be respected. Williams, 54, is married to Kevin Hunter. She is on the mend from another health problem, a shoulder fracture she suffered in December, the statement said. The host revealed the Graves’ disease diagnosis on her show last February, when she announced a three-week hiatus. Graves’ disease leads to the overproduction of thyroid hormones and can cause wide-ranging symptoms and affect overall health. In October 2017, Williams fainted on stage during her show, saying later she became overheated while wearing a bulky Halloween costume. Debmar-Mercury said that it “wholeheartedly” supports Williams’ decision to take the time she needs. She will be welcomed back when she is ready, the company said. Repeats of “The Wendy Williams Show” will air during the week of Jan. 21, to be followed by original episodes with guest hosts.
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23894
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"Fulton County has successfully reduced the number of pregnancies"" among 15- to 19-year-olds."
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Fulton County says teen pregnancy is down
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true
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Georgia, Women, Fulton County Government,
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"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. The number of teen pregnancies dropped from 2,608 in the year 2000 to 1,831 in 2006. ""In the spirit of the awareness campaign, we at PolitiFact Georgia decided to fact-check Fulton County's news release.Fulton County teen pregnancies are indeed down. Way down. Between 2000 and 2006, the number of pregnancies among Fulton County females age 15 through 19 dropped just as the news release stated -- about 30 percent.In fact, the figures Fulton County published downplay the decrease. Consider its pregnancy rate, a measurement that takes into account changes in population size. When you use this figure, the drop is even more dramatic. In 2000, the rate was 97.1. per 1,000 females in the specified age group. By 2006 it was 58.1 -- a decrease of about 40 percent. But is this truly a ""success,"" as the news release said? ""Success"" suggests to us that the decrease is unique or greater than average. For instance, if Fulton teenage pregnancy dropped 30 percent while the state's rate dropped by 90 percent, Fulton's decrease would look more like failure than success. ""Success"" also implies that county government had something to do with it. The claim was made in a Fulton County news release, after all. To determine whether Fulton's decrease in teen pregnancy is unusual, we looked at county, state and national statistics for females 15 through 19 between 2000 and 2006. Nationally, the pregnancy rate for teens dropped from 48 to 42 per 1,000, or 12.5 percent. Across Georgia, the drop was about 14 percent -- 81.3 to 67.6 per 1,000. For Georgia's nonrural counties, it fell from 79 to 66 per 1,000, or about 16 percent. In the metro area, Clayton County (at 83.4 per 1,000), DeKalb County (at 67.5 per 1,000) and Gwinnett County (at 62.1 per 1,000) all had higher pregnancy rates in 2006. And while Cobb County's pregnancy rate was lower than Fulton's at 51.5 per 1,000, its decrease between 2000 and 2006 was less than half of Fulton's, at about 17 percent.There you go. Fulton County's 40 percent drop was unique. Now, did Fulton County government have anything to do with it? Probably. We interviewed three experts who said it is extremely difficult to measure the exact effect of a community's teen pregnancy prevention efforts. However, it's reasonable to assume that a county that implements programs with a proven record of success has something to do with the drop in the pregnancy rate. Fulton does a share of that work. For years, it has provided pregnancy tests, contraceptives, counseling, health education classes, abstinence-based education, community outreach and five health centers that focus on adolescent health and development. Nongovernment organizations in Fulton do a lot, also. Grady Memorial Hospital, which is located in Fulton County, provides clinical services and outreach. Its clinic saw just under 2,000 teens in 2009. Its educational outreach program reached 3,000 teens. The Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health at Emory University develops and researches successful sex education methods and disseminates information to teens and professionals. While Grady, the Jane Fonda Center and other resources have likely played a major role in the reduction of teenage pregnancy rates, it's fair to give credit to Fulton County as well."
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3076
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Democrats release climate plans ahead of town hall spotlight.
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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.
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true
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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 Democratic primary. On Wednesday, 10 Democrats seeking the White House will participate in back-to-back climate town halls hosted by CNN in New York. A second set of climate-focused town halls will be televised by MSNBC later in the month. Liberals had demanded that the Democratic Party focus at least one debate on climate change, but a climate debate resolution was defeated at the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting last month. The issue is so urgent among Democratic voters that Washington Gov. Jay Inslee made action to limit the worst extremes of climate change the core of his presidential bid. But Inslee dropped out of the presidential race in August after failing to earn a spot in the September primary debate. Warren says Inslee’s ideas “should remain at the center of the agenda,” and she met with him in Seattle when she visited the state for a rally before Labor Day, according to two people familiar with the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting. Warren’s clean-energy proposal builds on Inslee’s 10-year clean-energy plan in seeking to implement 100% clean-energy standards in three key sectors of the American economy. Warren says she will increase her planned spending on research and investment to cut carbon emissions to $3 trillion. She embraces tough deadlines for sharply cutting or eliminating the use of fossil fuels by the U.S. electrical grid, highways and air transit systems, and by cities and towns. That includes making sure that new cars, buses and many trucks run on clean energy — instead of gasoline or diesel — by 2030 and that all the country’s electricity comes from solar, wind and other renewable, carbon-free sources by 2035. Booker’s $3 trillion plan includes nearly a dozen executive actions to reverse Trump administration moves. He says that by no later than 2045, he wants to get the U.S. economy to carbon neutral — a point at which carbon emissions are supposedly canceled out by carbon-cutting measures, such as planting new forests to suck up carbon from the atmosphere. Booker also urges massive restoration of forests and coastal wetlands as carbon sponges and as buffers against rising seas. He sets a 2030 deadline for getting natural gas and coal out of the electrical grid. He would get there partly by scrapping all subsidies for fossil fuels, banning new oil and gas leases, phasing out fracking and introducing a carbon fee. If elected, Booker says, he will propose legislation creating a “United States Environmental Justice Fund,” which — among its areas of focus — will replace all home, school and day care drinking water lines by the end of his second term. Castro’s $10 trillion plan aims to have all electricity in the United States be clean and renewable by 2035. He wants to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045 and at least a 50% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. And, like Booker, he focuses on environmental racism, in which people of color are disproportionately affected by environmental hazards. Castro says that within the first 100 days of his presidency he would propose new legislation to address the impact of environmental discrimination. Among Democrats seeking the presidency, there is little disagreement that climate change is a building disaster. Candidates’ primary differences are over how aggressively the U.S. should move now to cut fossil fuel emissions to stave off the worst of the coming climate extremes. Last month, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders toured a California mobile home park ravaged by wildfires as he introduced his $16 trillion plan to fight global warming, the costliest among the Democratic field. His plan declares climate change a national emergency, calls for the United States to eliminate fossil fuel use by 2050 and commits $200 billion to help poorer nations reckon with climate change. Former Vice President Joe Biden has proposed $1.7 trillion in spending over 10 years, on clean energy and other initiatives with the goal of eliminating the country’s net carbon emissions by 2050. Biden has been less absolute than some other Democratic candidates on stamping out consumption of oil, natural gas and coal, calling for eliminating subsidies for the fossil fuels rather than pledging to eliminate all use of them. The relatively minor differences among Democrats on climate change come in sharp contrast to President Donald Trump, who has dismissed and mocked the science of climate change and has reversed course on U.S. climate policy. Trump made pulling the country out of the Paris climate accord one of his administration’s first priorities, and his wholehearted support of the petroleum and coal industries has been one of the enduring themes of his presidency. Nationally, 72% of Democratic midterm voters said they were very concerned about the effects of climate change, and 20% were somewhat concerned. That’s according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 115,000 midterm voters nationwide. ___ Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
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13039
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Emboldened by election, Texas Republicans kill Medicaid funding for kids with disabilities.
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"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 services to certain children with disabilities--not killing all such Medicaid funding. Also, that action occurred more than 17 months before the November 2016 election. We find this claim incorrect and ridiculous. The statement is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim."
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false
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Health Care, State Budget, States, Texas, If You Only News,
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"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 Republicans kill Medicaid funding for kids with disabilities."" The next day, a debunker for Snopes.com said Republicans had cut some Medicaid funding, but they didn’t do so because they were emboldened by the 2016 general election. And when we emailed IfYouOnlyNews.com inquiring into the basis of its post, especially the headline, we didn’t hear back. Best we could tell, meantime, the site’s story didn’t back up its headline, instead piling on nonfactual wood: ""In an all-out assault on the social safety net, Texas Republicans have seized the opportunity to finalize and enact a series of brutal budget cuts."" Otherwise, the story drew on a Nov. 28, 2016, Texas news story quoting Carrie Williams, spokeswoman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, saying the agency would launch the legislated cuts in Medicaid rates starting Dec. 15, 2016, which was several months after the Texas Supreme Court agreed with an appeals court by declining to take up a challenge to the reductions. Plaintiffs had argued the cuts were so steep that providers would have to close their businesses and forgo seeing as many as 60,000 children. Not in the IfYouOnlyNews.com report: Williams further telling the Texas Tribune, ""We will monitor the reduction of rates to ensure access to care is not impacted and that Texans around the state receive the much-needed therapies required to improve their lives."" To our inquiry, Williams pointed out Rider 50, at the bottom of page II-99 of the 2016-17 state budget, which was passed into law in 2015. The rider directs the commission to reform ""reimbursement methodology to be in line with industry standards, policies, and utilization for acute care therapy services while considering stakeholder input and access to care."" The rider goes on to say that in each of the fiscal years through August 2017, the agency should achieve at least $50 million in state savings ""through rate reductions"" plus another $25 million a year through policy changes. But, the rider says, additional rate cuts should be imposed to the degree policy-related savings fall short. Overall, the budget builds in $373 million in reductions in state spending on Medicaid through the two years. For the fiscal year through August 2017, $26 billion in state money was budgeted for Medicaid. Williams also guided us to legislative records showing House and Senate votes on the budget; these show that a few Democrats joined ruling Republicans in voting for the final version of the budget -- including the fee-cut language. News organizations have widely tracked the results of the directive to reduce Medicaid payments to certain in-home child therapists. Those accounts show that no Medicaid funding was entirely killed and also that the reductions put in motion couldn’t have been connected to the November 2016 election results without time-machine trickery. An April 2016 Austin American-Statesman news story quoted state Sen. Jane Nelson, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, saying lawmakers made the reductions based on information showing Texas’ rates had considerably exceeded Medicaid reimbursement rates in other states, a point disputed by some. Nelson, R-Flower Mound, said in 2016: ""Forcing Texas taxpayers to accept billing rates that are in some cases double the rates in other states would be a terrible precedent. These are rate adjustments, not reductions in services, and the (budget) rider clearly directs the agency to preserve access to care as we bring these rates to an appropriate level."" To our inquiry, Bill Noble, spokesman for the Texas Association for Home Care and Hospice, which opposed the fee reductions, reminded us by email that advocates for providers vigorously challenged the quality of the research behind the fee reductions. An August 2015 American-Statesman news story quoted Jenny Jones, vice president for governmental and public affairs at the Texas A&M Health Science Center, saying she didn’t know if fee data collected by A&M researchers showed Texas therapists were overpaid compared to peers elsewhere; that was the state commission’s interpretation, Jones said. Noble also emailed us a brief association critique of the research stating, in part, that researchers erred by comparing Texas rates for certain services with rates in other states for other services. Debate persists. For instance, Joe Straus, the Republican House speaker, said shortly before IfYouOnlyNews.com posted its story that he expects the House in 2017 to reverse the fee cuts. In a Tribune interview, Straus said the cuts were ""well intentioned"" but that ""maybe they were a mistake."" Around the same time, the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute, which advises conservative House members, updated its report stating that a reversal of the fee cuts ""may not be prudent"" given an ""overabundance"" of therapy providers in the state. Our ruling 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 services to certain children with disabilities--not killing all such Medicaid funding. Also, that action occurred more than 17 months before the November 2016 election. We find this claim incorrect and ridiculous. ! PANTS ON FIRE – The statement is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim."
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5303
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Lifetime movie ‘Flint’ dramatizes city’s water crisis.
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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.
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true
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Queen Latifah, Betsy Brandt, Health, Michigan, Entertainment, Movies, North America, Flint, Marin Ireland, TV, Neil Meron
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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 “Flint,” debuting Oct. 28. Mays is played by Marin Ireland, who co-stars with Betsy Brandt, Jill Scott and Queen Latifah. Executive producer Neil Meron said the film is intended to spotlight what happened in Flint, including how a united community and “the voice of the people” can force officials to act. Mays said there have been successes, including the outcome of a lawsuit to get half of the service lines replaced, although not the main lines or interior plumbing. “So one of the things we hope come out of this is to let people know it’s still not over. It’s not even close to over,” she said. The movie is intended to honor Flint victims by telling the story “that even in a poor, broken, poisoned town, we banded together, and we fought. We fought, and we win.” In 2014, a switch of Flint’s water source and failure to add corrosion-reducing phosphates allowed lead from old pipes to leach into the water. Elevated levels of lead, a neurotoxin, were detected in children, and 12 people died in a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that experts suspect was linked to the improperly treated water. An ongoing investigation has led to charges against 13 current or former government officials, including two managers who Republican Gov. Rick Snyder appointed to run the city. Last January, state officials said Flint’s water system no longer has lead levels exceeding the federal limit. The announcement was promptly met by skepticism from some residents, Mays among them, maintaining the system still contains lead and continues to cause illness. Brandt, the former “Breaking Bad” star who’s a native of Bay City, Michigan, not far from Flint, said the person she portrays, LeeAnne Walters, was among those driven to act when authorities failed to heed complaints about their children becoming ill. “As a mom, it just shakes you, because there’s some things that we just should be able to count on,” Brandt said.
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7964
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U.S. death toll spirals amid rush to build field hospitals, find supplies.
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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.
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true
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Health News
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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 and deserted streets. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio pleaded for immediate reinforcements in the country’s biggest city from the Trump administration. “This is the point at which we must be prepared for next week, when we expect a huge increase in the number of cases. What I asked very clearly, last week, was for military medical personnel to be deployed here,” de Blasio said at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, where a field hospital was being hastily built. The sports complex is home to the U.S. Open Tennis Championship, set to begin on Aug. 24. It remains on the calendar despite reports that Wimbledon, the sport’s most prestigious event, is unlikely to go forward as scheduled in June. The U.S. Open and Wimbledon are two of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments. De Blasio, a Democrat who last year sought his party’s presidential nomination, said he had asked the White House for an additional 1,000 nurses, 300 respiratory therapists and 150 doctors by Sunday. Nearly 3,900 people have already died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, in the United States, more than the 2,977 who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The total confirmed U.S. cases rose to 187,000. White House medical experts say 100,000 to 240,000 people could ultimately perish from the respiratory disease in the United States, despite unprecedented orders by state and local governments largely confining Americans to their homes. In addition to the rules issued by at least 30 states, President Donald Trump, reversing course, said this week that most businesses and schools should remain shut at least through the end of April. Trump, speaking at the White House on Tuesday, said the next two weeks would be “very, very painful” for the country. “We want Americans to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. We’re going to through a very tough two weeks and then, hopefully, as the experts are predicting ... you’re going to be seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel,” the president said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sought hotels, dormitories, convention centers and large open spaces to build as many as 341 temporary hospitals, Lieutenant General Todd Semonite told the ABC News “Good Morning America” program. The corps has already converted New York City’s Jacob Javits Convention Center into a 1,000-bed hospital. In Los Angeles, the city’s massive convention center was being converted to a federal medical station by the National Guard, Mayor Gil Garcetti said on Twitter. In California, the most populous U.S. state, the number of coronavirus patients has surged over the past few days, with more than 7,600 cases confirmed as of Tuesday and 150 deaths. Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said on Tuesday the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile of medical supplies was now empty and the state was “on its own” trying to obtain medical equipment to fight the pandemic. A Dutch cruise ship with confirmed cases of the virus and four fatalities on board sought permission to dock in Florida, even as Governor Ron DeSantis said the state could not afford to take on any additional patients. The pandemic has taken a toll on doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, who are overworked and lack the medical devices and protective gear needed. “The duration itself is debilitating and exhausting and depressing,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told a news conference. The governor said his brother, 49-year-old CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, had tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday and would host his nightly show from his basement to avoid infecting family members or others. U.S. coronavirus-related deaths still trail those of Italy and Spain, which have more than 11,000 and 8,000 reported fatalities, respectively. China, where the outbreak is believed to have originated, has reported 3,305. Worldwide, there are now more than 800,000 cases of the highly contagious illness caused by the virus and more than 40,000 deaths reported. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2w7hX9T) An intensive-care-unit nurse at a major hospital in Manhattan said he had been shocked by the deteriorating condition of young patients with little or no underlying health issues. “A 28-year-old, healthy fellow ICU nurse is currently so sick that he has difficulty walking up a single flight of stairs without gasping for breath,” said the nurse, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
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22546
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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.
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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says he campaigned on his budget repair plan, including curtailing collective bargaining
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false
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Labor, State Budget, Wisconsin, Scott Walker,
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"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 conference. A reporter asked if the move to limit union power was payback for pro-union moves made by Democrats in the past. ""It’s not a tit for tat,"" Walker responded. ""The simple matter is I campaigned on this all throughout the election. Anybody who says they are shocked on this has been asleep for the past two years."" The statement echoed one at Feb. 17 news conference, in which Walker was even more emphatic that he campaigned on all the changes included in the entire budget-repair measure -- not just forcing employees to pay more for health and pension costs. Asked if he was ""ramming through"" the budget-repair bill, Walker said: ""We introduced a measure last week, a measure I ran on during the campaign, a measure I talked about in November during the transition, a measure I talked about in December when we fought off the employee contracts, an idea I talked about in the inauguration, an idea I talked about in the state of the state. If anyone doesn't know what's coming, they've been asleep for the past two years."" Now, we thought we were following the campaign pretty closely. It seemed to us like the first public hint Walker gave that he was considering eliminating many union bargaining rights was at a Dec. 7, 2010 Milwaukee Press Club forum, some four weeks after the election. So Walker’s claim he campaigned on all of this caught our attention -- and that of many readers, who have been e-mailing us asking us to check it out. There is no dispute that Walker campaigned on getting concessions on health and pension benefits from state employees. And, to be sure, that is an important part of the measure. But for Walker to be right, he has to be correct on the entirety of the plan. So we’ll look more deeply at the collective bargaining side of the equation, which has caused the ongoing firestorm in Madison. Here is a summary of the changes: For public employee unions except those covering public safety workers, the measure would narrow collective bargaining to wage issues, and only then within specific limits. It would end bargaining on such things as health care costs, pensions and working conditions -- rights granted to the public unions more than 50 years ago. Additionally: Wage increases would be limited to inflation or less. Employees would be able to opt out of paying union dues. An annual certification vote on the existence of each union would be required. And public employers would be barred from withholding union dues from worker’s paychecks. Walker’s proposal also repeals all rights to collective bargaining for more than 30,000 University of Wisconsin employees, something granted in 2009. For this item, we reviewed dozens of news accounts and various proposals on Walker’s campaign website to determine what he said about collective bargaining during the campaign. We talked to both campaigns in the governor’s race, and union officials. During the campaign, Walker prided himself on presenting many specific proposals to voters. Our Walk-O-Meter includes 60-plus specific promises. Indeed, his plans for the state Department of Natural Resources include at least seven specific elements, including appointment of a ""whitetail deer trustee"" to review deer counts. But nowhere in our search did we find any such detailed discussion of collective bargaining changes as sweeping as Walker proposed. We asked Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie to provide evidence that Walker raised those issues during the campaign. ""During the campaign he ran on giving local units of government the flexibility to manage their own budgets,"" Werwie said. ""That is what he is continuing to say and do right now."" He gave one example: a Walker proposal in July, 2010 to allow local units of government to switch from health plans that have high premiums to the state’s lower cost employee health plan. Walker’s camp said at the time that the switch would not have to be negotiated with unions; Walker would move to take the choice out of the collective bargaining process, they said. Labor officials disagreed and said they would fight attempts to change the collective bargaining law. Werwie also pointed to a campaign flier circulated by the American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin, a union representing 17,000 public employees in the state. In addition to criticizing Walker comments on benefit cuts, the AFT flier notes a Walker comment about freeing up local governments from being ""strangled"" by mediation. And it points out his comment on the health plan switch he proposed in July -- the one that would take the choice of health plans off the table for unions. Both of those are part of collective bargaining and were discussed. But they are a far cry from what was proposed. For instance, during the campaign Walker talked about who controls the choice of health care providers. After the election he proposed eliminating any negotiations on the subject of health care. Walker’s campaign proposal on mediation and arbitration offers a similar contrast: He told the Appleton Post-Crescent in a lengthy question and answer session in 2009 that ""you've got to free up local government officials to not be strangled by things like mediation and arbitration."" As his website made clear, he was talking about a specific, significant change in teacher’s union arbitration -- not the dramatic changes on the table now. His current plan would largely eliminate the dispute-settling function of the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission for all but public safety employees, according to Peter Davis, WERC’s general counsel. When it comes to the arbitration process, Davis characterized the changes Walker proposed in the campaign as a ""hand grenade"" and his proposal now as an ""atom bomb."" Another example: As the campaign rolled near a close, in late October 2010, Walker told the Oshkosh Northwestern that he would ""ask all state workers"" for wage and benefit concessions in the collective bargaining process. After the election, he proposed imposing concessions without negotiating and eliminating benefits as a topic of collective bargaining. Walker told the Oshkosh newspaper that if unions don’t give in on concessions, he would turn to furloughs to get cost savings. The use of furloughs was the approach taken by then-Gov. Jim Doyle, a fairly typical cost-savings tactic. After the election, Walker said he wanted to avoid furloughs in favor of the concessions on health and pension costs, and wanted to limit bargaining to wages. Before the election Walker talked about seeking concessions in the context of face-to-face negotiations -- as in the Oshkosh Northwestern interview. He is moving to impose health and pension cost-sharing through legislation, without having taken his proposal to the unions. He once talked about expanding a statewide cost control system -- using collective bargaining -- beyond teachers to all state employees. But now he proposes an approach that would let individual municipalities set their own benefit levels -- with little input from unions. A reminder: We are not evaluating the merits of the proposal. Just what was discussed in the campaign. In October, as Walker held a steady lead in opinion polls over his Democratic opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, rumors circulated in union circles about Walker favoring a major power grab from unions. That’s according to Richard Abelson, who heads District Council 48 of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, which had negotiated with Walker for eight years in his position as Milwaukee County executive. Abelson, whose union endorsed Barrett, said: ""We heard rumors he would remove pension and health as mandatory subjects of bargaining."" But at that time, nothing so direct was publicly stated. Jeff Stone, a Republican state representative from Greendale, was the source of the notion, Abelson said. The two had a meeting as Stone laid the groundwork for a run for Walker’s soon-to-be-vacant county job. Stone confirmed for us that he told Abelson before the election he thought Walker might propose the bolder course. He said Walker told him nothing; he guessed it from Walker’s emphasis on cost cutting and the deficits plaguing the state budget. ""This was the only way I could see he could do it,"" Stone said about balancing the state budget. But the sweep of Walker’s eventual proposal caught even Stone off guard. ""Yeah, I was a little surprised (he put it all in),"" Stone said. ""But I also understand if you don’t control those things you will have trouble controlling costs."" Abelson, the union leader, said Walker’s February announcement of his plan ""went far beyond what anybody thought he would do. He didn’t talk about it during the campaign. If he had said that, some people who supported him would have had some second thoughts."" Barrett’s campaign aide Gillian Morris also said they heard nothing in the campaign to suggest Walker would back sharp limits on union power -- and the repeal of all union rights for tens of thousands -- in his proposal. Bryan Kennedy, president of AFT-Wisconsin, the union that distributed the flier warning about Walker’s labor record, said he figured Walker would try to weaken collective bargaining and privatize a lot of state jobs. ""But we were actually quite surprised by this,"" he said. Immediately after the election, in mid-November, Walker successfully lobbied lawmakers not to approve labor contracts negotiated under the Jim Doyle administration. Walker did not say he wanted to renegotiate them, nor did he say at that time that he had plans to lay aside those deals and impose changes without bargaining. Let’s sum up our research. Walker contends he clearly ""campaigned on"" his union bargaining plan. But Walker, who offered many specific proposals during the campaign, did not go public with even the bare-bones of his multi-faceted plans to sharply curb collective bargaining rights. He could not point to any statements where he did. We could find none either. While Walker often talked about employees paying more for pensions and health care, in his budget-repair bill he connected it to collective bargaining changes that were far different from his campaign rhetoric in terms of how far his plan goes and the way it would be accomplished. (Editor’s note: After this item was posted, a conversation surfaced between Walker and a person impersonating Walker campaign contributor and industrialist David Koch. In an audiotape released Feb. 23, 2011, Walker compares his union plan to a history-making act and portrayed his union plan as a ""bomb."" Walker aides acknowledge the tape is real, but say Walker simply was saying privately what he has said publicly about his budget-repair bill. Of a meeting with his cabinet, Walker in the tape says: We talked about what we were going to do, how we were going to do it. We had already built plans up. This was kind of the last hurrah before we dropped the bomb."")"
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10467
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'Holy grail' of breast cancer prevention in high-risk women may be in sight
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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 significant flaws. For example, it refers to a “holy grail” of breast cancer prevention for high-risk women, only noting much lower in the release that the work has yet to be proven in clinical studies. Further, even if denosumab does prove to be effective in reducing breast cancer risk for women with the BRCA1 mutation, that would not mean that all “high-risk women” would benefit; there are other genetic mutations — such as BRCA2 and other less common mutations — that can increase breast cancer risk. The release also neglects to address well-known health risks associated with denosumab use. Breast cancer affects many women and, by extension, their loved ones. Men are also affected. According to the National Cancer Institute, approximately 12.3 percent of women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime, and approximately 1 in 1000 men will be diagnosed with the disease. For women with the BRCA1 gene mutation, that number jumps to between 55 and 65 percent. Men who inherit the BRCA1 mutation also have an increased risk of developing breast cancer. Women with the BRCA1 mutation often take preemptive steps to decrease their cancer risk, including — in some cases — preemptive mastectomies. This is a complex, highly personal decision and has been the subject of significant public debate in recent years. Breast cancer is a high profile disease, and concerns related to BRCA1 have had a particularly high profile. That means that research into breast cancer prevention, and BRCA1 in particular, is likely to garner public attention. It also means that research institutions have an obligation to promote such research fairly, accurately and responsibly. This release could have done much more to highlight the preliminary nature of the relevant findings.
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false
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Breast cancer,Independent research center news release
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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 the cost of clinical care to administer the drug). Benefits aren’t quantified at all. Clinical trials have not yet been conducted, so it’s impossible to determine how the drug may perform at preventing breast cancer in patients with the BRCA1 mutation. However, the release says that “RANK inhibition switched off cell growth in breast tissue from women with a faulty BRCA1 gene and curtailed breast cancer development in laboratory models.” (RANK proteins were found by the researchers to be markers associated with pre-cancerous cells.) However, the release doesn’t tell us about the amount of denosumab needed to inhibit these RANK proteins. Nor does the release offer any numbers related to these preliminary tests in laboratory models. For example, what does “curtailed breast cancer development in laboratory models” mean? Did it stop the development of cancerous growth completely? Slow it down a little? A lot? Details matter. This study was performed in laboratory animals and that must be considered when attributing benefits. As we’ve found with other cancer treatments, switching off a protein or blocking a pathway may be effective in killing cancer cells in laboratory or animal models, but does not always translate to clinical benefit when used in patients. The laboratory studies are an extremely important first step, but it is a huge leap to translate this to clinical benefit. The release doesn’t address potential harms at all. Again, this is particularly problematic given that denosumab is already on the market and has well-documented potential harms. For example, the websites for both XGEVA and Prolia (denosumab’s current trade names), note that the drug can cause a wide variety of problems, including (but not limited to): severe pain in muscles, bones and joints; serious infections that may require hospitalization; severe allergic reactions; osteonecrosis in the jaw; thigh fractures; and nausea. The release offers very little information about the study itself and doesn’t stress enough that this is pre-clinical data. As noted above, the release states: “RANK inhibition switched off cell growth in breast tissue from women with a faulty BRCA1 gene and curtailed breast cancer development in laboratory models.” But it’s not clear what sort of laboratory models they used. Was this purely in cell samples, or did they use animal models? What sort of dosage did they use? What was the timeframe for the study? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This release begins with some extremely optimistic language, but offers very little information about the study that this optimism is based on. This is borderline. Patients who have the BRCA1 gene mutation will not necessarily get breast cancer. However, they are at high risk of developing breast cancer. The release would have been stronger if it had given readers some numbers related to that elevated risk, rather than using vague language (i.e., “high risk of developing aggressive breast cancer”). But they offered enough of a qualifier to earn a “satisfactory” here. The release includes Amgen in the sections of the release that list all of the organizations that were involved with conducting the research and which supported the work financially. However, the release does not tell readers that Amgen is the company that currently markets denosumab (under the trade names XGEVA and Prolia). The release notes that: “This is potentially a very important discovery for women who carry a faulty BRCA1 gene, who have few other options. Current cancer prevention strategies for these women include surgical removal of the breasts and/or ovaries.” That’s enough to merit a satisfactory rating. However, the release would have been much stronger if it had mentioned other options for women with the BRCA1 mutation, such as enhanced screening or chemo-preventive drugs (such as tamoxifen), which may also reduce risk. The release makes clear that denosumab is already used to treat other conditions, but that clinical trials are needed to determine whether denosumab should be used to reduce breast cancer risk for women with the BRCA1 mutation. The release makes clear that researchers are targeting a specific protein (RANK), which they found is a marker of pre-cancerous cells. That finding may, in fact, be the real news here — but it is overshadowed in the release by the discussion of denosumab. The headline reads: “‘Holy grail’ of breast cancer prevention in high-risk women may be in sight.” Phrases such as “holy grail” are overused and, often, misleading. This was no exception. This is not only not a “holy grail,” we don’t know what it is yet. There are, to date, precisely zero results on human trials using denosumab to prevent breast cancer in women with the BRCA1 mutation. What’s more, the category of women who are at high risk of breast cancer extends beyond those women with the BRCA1 mutation. For example, according to the National Cancer Institute, women with the BRCA2 mutation have a 45 percent chance of getting breast cancer by the age of 70. And the research discussed in this release doesn’t have an apparent tie to BRCA2. In other words, the headline overreaches in two ways. Given that the headline is the first part of a release anyone sees, and sets the tone for the rest of the release, it’s important to get it right.
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26233
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Facebook post Says Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s family spent May 20 at her second home, breaking her own stay-at-home orders.
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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, Mich., site of a major flood.
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false
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Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
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"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 Cottage’ in Antrim County."" ""Evidently Gov. Whitmer's ‘Stay Home, Stay Safe’ executive orders DON'T apply to HER family!!!"" Bishop wrote. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) (Screenshot from Facebook) Since Whitmer, a Democrat, has been the target of several hoaxes about her handling of the coronavirus pandemic, we wanted to check out this Facebook post, too. We did not find definitive proof that the photo was taken on May 20, but the photo did not appear online prior to that date. The governor’s office says Whitmer was not at her second home on May 20. We reached out to Bishop for his evidence, but we haven’t heard back. An executive order signed by Whitmer that went into effect mid-April prohibited people from traveling between two residences. Although she has extended her stay-at-home order through June 12, the provision banning travel to second homes within the state has been dropped. ""Michiganders may travel between their residences, but I still strongly discourage people from doing so unless it is absolutely necessary,"" Whitmer said in late April. ""We ask that you consider not doing that."" Whitmer lives in the governor’s mansion in Lansing, but her primary residence is in East Lansing, according to her 2018 financial disclosure. The document also lists a ""family lake house"" in Elk Rapids, a town in northern Michigan. A May 20 article from the Gateway Pundit appears to back up Bishop’s claim that Whitmer’s family spent the afternoon at their lake house. The conservative website researched the license plate on the black Chevrolet Tahoe in the photo and found that it belongs to Marc Mallory, Whitmer’s husband. ""Gretchen and Marc were at their summer home today,"" the Gateway Pundit wrote. That’s inaccurate, according to the Michigan governor’s office. ""The governor was in Midland to tour the devastating flood damage and meet with first responders as they evacuated thousands of people to safety,"" a spokeswoman told PolitiFact in an email. ""She then returned to her home in Lansing."" Media reports confirm that Whitmer spent May 20 in Midland. The next day, she held a press conference in Lansing about the state’s coronavirus response. There is some evidence that Mallory could have been at the couple’s home in Elk Rapids. Using public records searches and Google Earth, we confirmed that the car in the Facebook photo belongs to Mallory and the house is the family’s property on Birch Lake. The Detroit News reported that the owner of NorthShore Dock LLC, a company near Birch Lake, said in Facebook posts that Mallory had called to try to get his boat in the water before Memorial Day weekend. The posts, which have since been deleted, attracted the ire of Republican state lawmakers, who say Whitmer’s family may not be following her own stay-at-home guidance. We asked the governor’s office about the veracity of the Facebook posts, but we haven’t heard back. Whitmer said Tuesday that Mallory’s call to the dock company, during which he asked if his status as the governor’s husband would help get his boat in the water, was a joke. ""He thought it might get a laugh,"" Whitmer said. ""It didn't, and to be honest I wasn't laughing either when it was relayed to me because I knew how it would be perceived."" Regardless, there is no evidence that Whitmer spent the afternoon of May 20 at her house in Elk Rapids. And even if she did, it would not have violated her current stay-at-home order. The Facebook post is inaccurate."
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32612
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Muslims assaulted a Denny's waitress for serving bacon during the holy month of Ramadan.
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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 everyone (as implied here), they should have been upset at seeing any food being served during the daytime, not just bacon.
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false
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Junk News, islam, pork
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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 that had just graduated high school, was working at a local Denny’s restaurant when she was reportedly insulted by two passers-by on Wednesday. The men are said to have started to abuse her when they saw she was serving bacon to customers, The Times reported. She said one of the men screamed she was a “whore” and slapped her across the face, leaving her with a black eye after she was knocked to the ground. Police said they had identified the men using CCTV but had yet to locate them. There was no truth to this story, however. There is no real radio or television outlet with the call letters JTXH; that identifier is purely the province of a fake news web site masquerading as a legitimate news outlet. JTXH News has previously published fabricated clickbait stories such as “Bernie campaign caught distributing LSD to youth” and “Chick-Fil-A is considering banning anyone who ‘can’t figure out their gender.’” Unfortunately, the fake news piece generated enough attention that Round Rock police and Denny’s had to deal with it, as reported by local press: An online news report described an incident involving two Muslims assaulting a Denny’s waitress in Round Rock for serving pork during Ramadan. The only issue is the story is a complete fabrication. The story, posted by JTXH News on June 9, states the 18-year-old waitress was called a “whore” and slapped across the face, causing a black eye. Police used camera footage to identify the two men, the story reads, but had yet to locate the suspects. The story refers to information from “The Times,” but does not include a hyperlink. Round Rock police spokesperson Angelique Myers said there is no truth to the story. “The website is not one bit credible,” she said by email. Alfonso Ruiz, an operating partner for the Denny’s restaurants in Round Rock and New Braunfels, said the corporate arm of the restaurant franchise made him aware of the story. “It’s unbelievable because I’m in my restaurant all the time,” he said. “I don’t know how they’d come up with a story like this.” Ruiz said he was attempting to contact someone at the news site, but could not reach anyone. The site does not include any contact information, and refers to its writers only by their first name. Ruiz noted that even the image used with the story is not the Denny’s in Round Rock.
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35371
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Thirteen Felician sisters from one convent died from COVID-19.
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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.”
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true
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Medical, COVID-19
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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 days of each other during an outbreak of the coronavirus disease between April 10 and May 10. Another sister died on June 27. Suzanne English, executive director of mission advancement for the Felician Sisters of North America — the congregation that the sisters belonged to — told us in a statement that although not all 13 sisters were tested, their symptoms were “inline with COVID” amid the outbreak at the convent.
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2509
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'Healthier' chocolates gives U.S. cocoa demand a shot in the arm.
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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.
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true
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Health News
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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 chocolate line that it launched in 2011 was one of its snack division’s best-ever debuts. A year later, Hershey Co brought out Simple Pleasures, a brand with almost a third less fat than average milk chocolates. The world leading maker of industrial chocolate for retail brand companies, Barry Callebaut, says products with health benefits now make up 5 percent of its sales. Rising demand for these products is increasingly apparent in a recent improvement in the North American cocoa market, where demand slowed throughout much of 2012. A surprising turnaround was seen in the first quarter when “grindings”, the term for processing cocoa beans which is shorthand for commercial demand, rose nearly 6 percent in North America, the biggest annual jump in nearly two years. In Europe and Asia, first quarter grindings tumbled. Also included in the supposedly better-for-you chocolate segment are bars that are gluten- or sugar-free, or that have additives like probiotics to help promote healthy digestion and other possible benefits. Francisco Redruello, Euromonitor International senior industry analyst for foods in London said these “healthier” products are already having an influence on grindings. “There’s really a concern about obesity in the U.S. and this is having an impact on demand for chocolate confectionery,” he said. “So 2012 has seen new concepts, new lines, trying to launch healthier chocolate with low fat.” The tonnage of reduced fat chocolates sold in the United States jumped 5 percent in 2012, outperforming the overall chocolate confectionary market, according to Euromonitor, an international consumer market research firm. Euromonitor expects U.S. chocolate confectionery retail volume sales will improve and be flat in 2013, and said volume fell roughly 15 percent over the past five years after many companies reduced treat sizes. The United States is the No. 1 chocolate-consuming country, though several European countries consume more per person. About 13 percent of the world’s annual cocoa production, just over 500,000 tonnes, is used for U.S. chocolate candy, according to U.S. Economic Census data analyzed by the National Confectioners Association (NCA). That accounts for two-thirds of total U.S. cocoa consumption. “Today, it is increasingly about consumers weighing not only the costs of goods, but the multitude of benefits they offer as well,” said Todd Hale, a senior vice president, consumer and shopper insights for Nielsen, which provides global consumer information and insights. Nestle USA, a subsidiary of Nestle SA, expanded on its low-fat Skinny Cow frozen snack line with Skinny Cow Candy in 2011. In March, it added Divine Filled Chocolates to their line: 130-calorie pouches of three chocolate candies. Tricia Bowles, communications manager for Nestle Confections & Snacks, Nestle USA, said this was one of the most successful new product launches in her 20 years with the division. “We do not view these products as being healthy but fantastic alternatives to what you might eat when we all know we love chocolate,” Bowles said. Hershey states that its Simple Pleasures line contains 30 percent less fat than the average leading milk chocolates. Swiss-based Barry Callebaut, which manufactures chocolate for large food companies like Hershey Co, Mondelez, Unilever, as well as bakeries and others, has also noticed the shift, said spokesman Raphael Wermuth. Wermuth said the company sees rising demand for chocolates with “health benefits”, such as chocolates with high flavonol content, which scientists have found to positively impact brain performance. Other chocolates that fall into this category include those with less fat or that are sweetened with refined sugar alternatives such as stevia. Meanwhile, a recent study by global market research provider Mintel showed U.S. consumer preferences shifted away from milk chocolate toward dark chocolate, which is considered to have more health benefits. Milk chocolate is still favored overall, and while Simple Pleasures and Skinny Cow have a small following among the diet conscious, they will remain a tiny niche. “In general, people don’t eat chocolate to feel well, they eat it to feel good,” said Marcia Mogelonsky, director of Innovation and Insight at Mintel. “The last thing on most chocolate eaters’ minds is health.”
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27901
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A letter highlighting fallacies in Biblical anti-homosexuality arguments was sent to radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger.
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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, the updated version addressed to the President continued “It must be really great to be on such close terms with God and his son, even better than you and your own Dad, eh?”
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true
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Politics
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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. Through her radio show, she dispenses advice to callers, usually from a conservative point of view. She was an Orthodox Jew at the time the letter quoted above was written (but she announced her renunciation of that faith on her show in July 2003) and often draws upon the Bible or religious teachings for guidance. She is blunt and forthright in her replies, viewing most situations as inherently black or white, right or wrong. Laura Schlessinger is neither a medical doctor nor accredited in a discipline one would traditionally look to for the dispensing of expertise in moral, societal, or spiritual matters (such as divinity, psychology, or sociology). She earned her doctorate in physiology from Columbia University and practiced as a licensed marriage, family, and child counselor for more than a decade (although her California Marriage Family and Child Counseling license has been inactive for many years now). In 1998 nude photos of Laura Schlessinger were published on the Internet. During the commotion over those pictures, their source was revealed to be veteran Los Angeles radio broadcaster Bill Ballance, a man who was pivotal in getting Schlessinger her start in radio. Ballance claimed he photographed her in 1978, while the pair of them were having an affair during Schlessinger’s first marriage. Some critics considered Schlessinger’s use of the title “Doctor” to be misleading and viewed her stance on the sanctity of marriage and the wrongness of adultery as hypocrisy in light of her decades-earlier affair. Others maintained the title of “Doctor” should not be restricted only to those in the medical field and held that people could change over time, even to the point of full repudiation of previous behaviors and beliefs. In 2000 the state of Vermont permitted homosexual couples to contract “civil unions,” an official recognition that imparted to same-sex partners the legal benefits of marriage, such as the right to be regarded by hospitals as their partners’ next of kin, to make medical decisions on behalf of their partners, and to file joint tax returns. This “everything that is marriage but the name” decision pleased some and angered others, resulting in many heated opinions about same-sex unions in specific, and homosexuality in general, to be bruited in countless public forums. Those looking for someone to crow at over Vermont’s recognition of same-sex unions quickly thought of Dr. Laura. As a counter to the “homosexuality is wrong because the Bible says so” argument Dr. Laura frequently offered, Kent Ashcraft penned and sent her a letter that became an Internet-circulated piece after its author e-mailed a copy to one friend whom he thought would find it amusing. She in turn forwarded the item to several of her friends, and the letter went viral within a couple of weeks: Dear Dr. Laura, Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the specific laws and how to best follow them. a) When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them? b) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her? c) I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense. d) Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians? e) I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself? f) A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an Abomination (Lev 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this? g) Lev 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here? h) Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev 19:27. How should they die? i) I know from Lev 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves? j) My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? (Lev 24:10-16) Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14) I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging. Your devoted disciple and adoring fan. While some online versions identified James M. Kauffman as the author of the piece, that gentleman denied authorship of it. In August 2003 a journalist for the Halifax Daily News presented the “Dr. Laura letter” as her own writing. For representing the piece in her column as her own by signing it “Yours truly, Jane,” reporter Jane Kansas was fired from that publication. (Her version also changed “Dear Dr. Laura” to “Dear Holy Father” and added some local references.) This piece struck a note with many people, and by June and July of 2000 it had made its way into a number of newspapers, including the Knoxville News-Sentinel (7 June), Seattle Weekly (8 June), OC Weekly (9 June), The [Syracuse] Post-Standard (11 June), [Madison] Capital Times (13 July), and the Modesto Bee (22 July). Most often the letter was acknowledged as an interesting item gleaned from the Internet, but in a few cases the readers who sent it to newspapers presented it as their own words. The key to this essay was its premise, not the pedantic details of it of how it was defended. Simply put, the letter pointed out a logical flaw in the “homosexuality is wrong because the Bible says so” argument: if homosexuality is wrong because it goes against God’s law as outlined in the Bible, why aren’t any number of activities now viewed as innocuous but proscribed as unacceptable in the Bible also offenses against God’s law? How can one part of Leviticus be deemed as etched in stone when other parts have been discarded as archaic? The essay completed with the sarcastic rejoinder “Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging.” While this sign-off was presented as a rebuke meant for just one person, it was a general reminder that many belief systems pick and choose their way through biblical teachings in determining what is right and what is wrong, with those assessments changing over time even within sects that pride themselves on strict adherence to the Bible. In early October 2000, Dr. Schlessinger ran a full-page ad in Variety offering an apology for what she called “poorly chosen” words about homosexuality. She had previously referred to gays as “biological errors” and “deviants,” as exemplified by her remarks of 8 December 1998: I’m sorry — hear it one more time, perfectly clearly: If you’re gay or a lesbian, it’s a biological error that inhibits you from relating normally to the opposite sex. The fact that you are intelligent, creative and valuable is all true. The error is in your inability to relate sexually intimately, in a loving way to a member of the opposite sex — it is a biological error. October 2000 was not Dr. Laura’s month. A few weeks after she issued her apology, a version of the “Letter to Dr. Laura” was incorporated into the 18 October episode of the political television drama The West Wing. In “The Midterms,” President Bartlet used his own detailed knowledge of the Bible to make a Schlessinger-esque character named Jenna Jacobs look ridiculous. Kent Ashcraft, the author of the Dr. Laura letter, received a modest sum from Lorimar Productions in payment for their use of parts of his letter in that episode): Just as the Internet piece gave the West Wing writers fodder for a memorable scene, so did the exposure on a popular television show boost the online circulation of the “Letter to Dr. Laura.” Similarly, a 2004 brouhaha over gay marriage sparked a renewal of this e-missive, causing it to once again be flung from inbox to inbox.
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31730
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President Trump signed an Executive Order banning childhood vaccinations for 90 days.
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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.
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false
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Junk News, executive order, houston leader, president trump
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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 an executive order placing a temporary 90-day ban on all childhood MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccinations. The executive order will require all pediatric doctors to refuse the administration of MMR vaccinations in all of their patients under the age of 18-years-old for the next 90-days or risk losing their medical license. Additionally, the executive order implements a mandatory freeze on all MMR vaccinations from pharmaceutical distributors to health care professionals during these 90-days. The articles included screenshots of two genuine tweets critical of vaccinations that were posted by President Trump years prior to his run for the presidency: Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn’t feel good and changes – AUTISM. Many such cases! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2014 I am being proven right about massive vaccinations—the doctors lied. Save our children & their future. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2014 Although the tweets were legitimate, the article’s claim was not. President Trump’s purported signing of a “90-day ban on childhood vaccinations” would constitute a highly newsworthy development, yet not a single additional source reported any such order was signed. And the site on which it was hosted was only recently established, one major hallmark of fake news sites: The Houston Leader web site is one of a series of fake news sites that masquerade as real news sites by emulating the appearance of big-city newspapers. This fake web site should not be confused with that of the legitimate Houston-based news outlet The Leader.
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35866
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Joe Biden's son Hunter was dishonorably discharged from the Navy for cocaine use.
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"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."
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mixture
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Politics, 2020 election
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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 service, the following exchange took place: BIDEN: And speaking of my son, the way you talk about the military, the way you talk about them being losers and being, and just being suckers. My son was in Iraq. He spent a year there. He got, he got the Bronze Star. He got the Conspicuous Service Medal. He was not a loser. He was a patriot. And the people left behind there were heroes … TRUMP: Really? You talking about Hunter? Are you talking about Hunter? BIDEN: … and I resent — I’m talking about my son, Beau Biden. You’re talking about … TRUMP: I don’t know Beau. I know Hunter. Hunter got thrown out of the military. He was thrown out, dishonorably discharged for cocaine use. BIDEN: That’s not true, he wasn’t dishonorably discharged. None of that is true. Joe Biden was speaking of his late son Beau, who as a member of the Delaware Army National Guard was deployed to Iraq in October 2008, where he remained for a year and received a Bronze Star Medal for his service (later passing away of brain cancer in 2015.) Trump, however, tried to shift the conversation to Biden’s other son, Hunter, who served in the Navy Reserve, claiming that he “got thrown out of the military” and was “dishonorably discharged for cocaine use.” As reported in 2014, Hunter Biden was commissioned as an ensign by the Navy Reserve in 2012, when he was 42 years old: Hunter Biden, an ensign, [was] selected for commission as a reserve officer through the Direct Commission Officer program in 2012, according to Cmdr. Ryan Perry, a Navy spokesman. He was commissioned into the Navy Reserve unit for Navy Public Affairs Support Element East in Norfolk, Va. Biden, who had no prior military experience, was one of six officers commissioned nationally into the Navy Reserve public affairs division. Applicants to the direct commissioning program for the Public Affairs Reserve must hold a baccalaureate degree or higher from an accredited institution, preferably in the fields of communication, English, journalism, broadcasting, public relations, rhetoric/speech, marketing, international studies or public administration. Applicants may not have passed their 42nd birthday at time of commissioning or an age waiver is required. The board meets twice annually and, on average, about 35 people apply, Ryan said. Hunter Biden sought and received a waiver to join the service because of his age. The Wall Street Journal also reported that Biden had “received a second Navy waiver because of a drug-related incident when he was a young man, according to people familiar with the matter.” Hunter Biden’s tenure in the U.S. Navy Reserve was a short one. In October 2014, the news broke that he had failed a drug test for cocaine in June 2013, and he was discharged in February 2014. So, it is true, as Trump claimed, that Biden was discharged from the Navy for drug use. But it is not true, as Trump also claimed, that Biden’s discharge was a “dishonorable” one. As the VA.org website (not affiliated with the U.S. government) observes, the U.S. military utilizes two forms of discharge — administrative and punitive. A dishonorable discharge is a form of punitive discharge: Many people are under the impression that military discharge comes in one of two forms: honorable or dishonorable. If an enlisted person received less than an honorable discharge they are often under the impression that they received a dishonorable discharge. However, to be clear, you would absolutely know if you received a dishonorable discharge … it is designed to ruin your life ever after and is often accompanied by an extensive visit to a military prison. THERE ARE TWO FORMS OF MILITARY DISCHARGE 1. Administrative – This form of discharge is given by the discharge authority, often a commanding officer of high rank. 2. Punitive – This form of discharge is imposed by a court-martial. Dishonorable Discharge: This type of discharge is the worst anyone in the military can receive. It can only be given by a general court-martial for the highest of offenses, which are often accompanied by a prison sentence in a military prison. However, Dishonorable Discharges are generally only rendered for the most serious of offenses (e.g., treason, espionage, desertion, sexual assault, murder), not for drug offenses, and they require conviction at a general court-martial, something which did not take place in Biden’s case. When news broke of his discharge, Biden acknowledged in a statement that it had been an administrative one: “It was the honor of my life to serve in the U.S. Navy, and I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge,” Hunter Biden said in a statement distributed through his lawyer. “I respect the Navy’s decision. With the love and support of my family, I’m moving forward.” [A] person familiar with the case said he “was treated no different than any other sailor.” Hunter Biden’s discharge was therefore certainly not a dishonorable one, but most likely a general discharge, or an other than honorable discharge: General Discharge (under honorable conditions) This is often referred to as a general discharge and is bestowed upon those whose serve was faithful and honest in spite of some trouble — as determined by the commander. You might receive this discharge if you were discharged on the basis of:
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7965
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'Sailors do not need to die,' warns captain of coronavirus-hit U.S. aircraft carrier.
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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.
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true
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Health News
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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 reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. Captain Brett Crozier, the ship’s commanding officer, wrote that the carrier lacked enough quarantine and isolation facilities and warned the current strategy would slow but fail to eradicate the highly contagious respiratory virus. In the letter dated Monday, he called for “decisive action” and removing over 4,000 sailors from the ship and isolating them. Along with the ship’s crew, naval aviators and others serve aboard the Roosevelt. “We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset - our sailors,” Crozier wrote. U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that nearly 80 people aboard the ship had tested positive for the coronavirus, a number likely to increase as all personnel on the ship are tested. Still, the Navy declined to confirm exactly how many people aboard the Roosevelt had been infected The carrier was in the Pacific when the Navy reported its first coronavirus case a week ago. It has since pulled into port in Guam, a U.S. island territory in the western Pacific. U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Tuesday it was not time to evacuate the carrier, adding he had not read the letter in detail. In an interview with CBS News, Esper did not comment directly on Crozier’s proposal, at least in the portions that aired. Asked if it was time to evacuate the carrier, Esper said: “I don’t think we’re at that point.” Admiral John Aquilino, head of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet, told reporters that the plan was to take some sailors off the ship, test and quarantine them, clean the ship and then rotate them with those on the carrier. He said that there would be some sailors who would be in quarantine and isolation on the vessel. Asked if he was following what the ship’s captain wanted to do, but was not able to do it at the pace the commanding officer wanted, Aquilino said: “That is absolutely the case.” Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said he had heard about the letter on Tuesday morning and that the Navy had been working for several days to get the sailors off the ship in Guam. Modly said Guam did not have enough beds and the Navy was in talks with the local government to use hotels and set up tents. “We don’t disagree with the (commanding officer) on that ship, and we’re doing it in a very methodical way because it’s not the same as a cruise ship ... that ship has armaments on it, it has aircraft on it,” he said on CNN. Reuters reported last week that the U.S. military had decided it would stop providing some of the more mission-specific data about coronavirus infections within its ranks, citing concern the information might be used by adversaries as the virus spreads. The Roosevelt is just the latest example of the spread of the virus within the U.S. military. Navy officials say that sailors onboard a number of ships have tested positive, including an amphibious assault ship at port in San Diego. The first U.S. military service member, a New Jersey Army National Guardsman, died on Saturday from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, the Pentagon said on Monday. As of Tuesday, 673 active-duty service members had tested positive for the coronavirus, an increase of more than 100 from the previous day, the Pentagon said in a statement.
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5005
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Health study related to chemical at Pease will go ahead.
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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.
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true
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Health, New Hampshire, General News, Portsmouth, Jeanne Shaheen
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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 almost $58 million to address the contamination that came from firefighting foam. The chemicals, which studies have linked to a range of health problems including thyroid disease and testicular and kidney cancer, were found in the tradeport’s drinking water.
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23416
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"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."
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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
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mixture
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Iraq, Texas, Ron Paul,
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"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, R-Surfside, who opposed the Iraq war from the start, was unimpressed, saying in a Sept. 1 statement that the war cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars and many casualties. ""Forty-four hundred Americans are dead, 30,000 severely wounded, and more than 100,000 are suffering from serious health problems related to post traumatic stress syndrome,"" Paul said. ""This alone should tell us that it was not worth the investment and the needless sacrifice of our young people and the taxpayers."" We're not weighing the worthiness of the investment. But we wondered whether Paul correctly recapped the conflict's toll of U.S. dead and wounded. Rachel Mills, Paul's press secretary, first pointed us to data on U.S. casualties in Iraq kept by GlobalSecurity.org, a nonpartisan company that specializes in information about defense, the military, weapons of mass destruction and homeland security. As of December 2009, 4,287 American troops were killed in Iraq, according to GlobalSecurity, which relies on the U.S. Department of Defense for such data. ""There are at least several hundred contractor deaths,"" Mills said, citing a Wikipedia web page. ""So, the 4,400 American dead is spot on."" We checked with the Defense Department, which updates daily the number of U.S. casualties and wounded military personnel as a result of the Iraq war. As of Sept. 3, 4,408 American troops had died as a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, including casualties that occurred in the Arabian Sea and Saudi Arabia, among related locations. Include civilian casualties and the department's death toll totals 4,421. Of them, 3,492 were killed in action. About 31,930 troops had been wounded in action by the same date, according to the Defense Department. But were those troops ""severely wounded,"" as Paul says? More than half — 17,953 — were returned to duty within 72 hours, according to department. John Pike, the director of GlobalSecurity, told us: ""I don't know if you can gauge the meaning of severe,"" but agreed that if a combatant returns to duty within 72 hours, their injuries probably aren't. Next, we turned to Paul's reference to post-traumatic stress disorder. Mills of Paul's office first cited a June 7 post on CNN.com per a study by Army researchers finding that up to 31 percent of soldiers returning from combat in Iraq experience PTSD or depression. The researchers analyzed mental health surveys taken from more than 13,000 Army and National Guard service members between 2004 and 2007, both three and 12 months after they returned to the United States. Mills also referred to a April 2005 Salon.com story — posted on GlobalSecurity.org — about how many U.S. soldiers have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11. ""Well over 1 million U.S. troops have fought in the wars since Sept. 11, 2001, according to Pentagon data released to Salon,"" according to the story. ""So if 31 percent came back with PTSD, than that would be over 300,000,"" Mills said. But that calculation includes U.S. troops who were deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, while Paul's statement is limited to returnees from Iraq. Elaine Lainez, a spokeswoman at the Defense Department, told us there have been 65,784 cases of PTSD among troops who served in both wars, far less than the total cited by Paul for Iraq alone. Lainez said that service members are diagnosed with PTSD after having ""at least two outpatient visits or one or more hospitalizations."" However, the Department of Veteran Affairs, which has a looser criteria for assessing PTSD cases, pegs the toll much higher. Jessica Jacobsen, a spokeswoman at the Dallas division of the department, told us that as of March 31, a total 162,050 veterans were seen at a VA clinic for potential PTSD following their return from Iraq or Afghanistan. Jacobsen said she couldn't tell how many are suffering from serious health problems, as Paul says, because the severity of each veteran's condition is a ""case-by-case account."" Evan Kanter, a psychiatrist at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System who specializes in the health effects of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the Defense Department's records are ""a very limited source."" He also called the VA's estimate — more than 100,000 — a ""very conservative number."" Pike agreed, because the VA doesn't count those who never report symptoms that could be related to PTSD. Kanter pointed us to a 2008 study by the RAND Corp., which estimates that approximately 300,000 of 1.64 million troops who deployed for the Afghanistan or Iraq wars suffer from PTSD. RAND based its conclusion on a telephone study of 1,965 previously deployed troops, finding that 14 percent screened positive for PTSD. The definitive number on how many troops have suffered from the disorder? ""Who knows?"" Pike said. ""If you think you've got yourself a hard and fast number, you haven't studied it long enough."" Pike said Paul is ""definitely in the ballpark."" Where does that leave us? True, more than 4,400 Americans are dead as a result of the Iraq War. Also true: about 30,000 military personnel had been wounded as of September — though Paul's statement that all of them were ""severely"" injured isn't supported by Department of Defense data indicating more than half returned to active duty within 72 hours. Paul's office had no immediate comment when we followed up on this point. Quantifying how many people are suffering from PTSD is trickier, and none of the numbers we saw — including the figure Mills pointed us to — separated the Iraq PTSD cases from those resulting from duty in Afghanistan. But given the wide range of the government's own measures, Paul's 100,000 figure shakes out as reasonable."
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8837
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China approves bird flu vaccine for humans.
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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.
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true
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Health News
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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 United States and the European Union both for safety and immune response,” Sinovac’s publicity supervisor Liu Peicheng told Reuters by telephone. China’s State Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday it had authorized production of the vaccine. The vaccine was used in amounts of 5, 10 and 15 micrograms but the 10 microgram dose was found to be ideal. “The 10 and 15 microgram doses met standards but we decided on 10 as it’s good enough. It would use less antigen,” said Liu. Antigens are substances like toxins, viruses and bacteria that stimulate the production of antibodies when introduced into the body. But they can be difficult to culture and scientists have been trying to fix that by using boosters, or adjuvants. Participants in the Chinese trial were between the ages of 18 and 60. Liu said only some minor side effects were recorded, in line with those sometimes seen with seasonal flu vaccines. He did not elaborate. For years now, experts have warned of a flu pandemic and many have held up the H5N1 virus as a prime candidate because people have no immunity against this bird virus, and because of the high mortality rate associated with it so far. The virus has infected 376 people in 14 countries since late 2003 and killed 238 of them, or 63 percent. An eventual vaccine to protect people against a flu pandemic can only be made 4-6 months after the start of such a disaster, when the culprit virus strain has been identified. But human populations still need some form of protection in those initial months of a pandemic, and drug companies are in a race to design what are known as “prepandemic” vaccines, which is what Sinovac is producing now. The company is conducting tests to see if the vaccine may offer cross protection against other strains of the virus found in Indonesia, Turkey and Anhui province in China, Liu said. “This vaccine is reserved for emergencies in the country and we have to get instructions on how much to produce,” he added. On March 2, GlaxoSmithKline company said a vaccine it designed to protect people against H5N1 may be effective in warding off a few different sub-types of the virus.
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5289
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Tony-winner and women’s health advocate Phyllis Newman dies.
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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.
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true
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Plays, Health, General News, Entertainment, Neil Simon, Womens health
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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 earned a second Tony Award nomination in 1987 for her performance in the Neil Simon play “Broadway Bound.” She played Aunt Blanche in the Neil Simon play, then began a brief role in the ABC soap opera “One Life to Live.” “I was supposed to do just five episodes of ‘One Life to Live,’” she told The Associated Press in 1988. “I played Renee Devine, an ex-madame from Las Vegas who dressed to kill. The character just took off.” Her other Broadway credits include “On the Town,” ″Awake and Sing!” and “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.” She was standby for Judy Holiday in “Bells Are Ringing” and replaced Barbara Harris in “The Apple Tree.” Her television credits include starring opposite Alan Arkin in “100 Centre Street,” ″Oz,” ”″Coming of Age,” ″Murder, She Wrote,” ″thirtysomething” and “The Jury.” She was the first woman to be a guest host for Johnny Carson on “The Tonight Show.” Her films include “The Human Stain,” ″It Had To Be You,” ″For the Time Being, “A Price Above Rubies,” ″The Beautician and the Beast,” ″Mannequin,” ″To Find a Man” and “Bye Bye Braverman.” In later years she focused on fundraising and founded the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative of the Actor’s Fund in 1996. Her work earned her the 2009 Isabelle Stevenson Award from the Tony Awards. She also hosted the annual benefit Breathless on Broadway to raise money for research to combat the lung disease pulmonary hypertension. She started writing her autobiography, “Just in Time: Notes From My Life” after being diagnosed with breast cancer. “I started writing it because I didn’t want to talk about it. Not that it was a secret. After I had 50 pages down, Simon & Schuster bought it,” she said in 1988. “Betty Ford was an example for me in talking about my illness. I’m getting some very terrific letters from women about it.” Newman underwent one mastectomy and then had to have her second breast removed. She described it as “no way to treat a lady.” Soon after her recovery she went back to work, first in a one-woman show, “The Madwoman of Central Park West” — which she co-authored with Arthur Laurents — then in “Broadway Bound.” In addition to her journalist son, Newman is survived by her daughter Amanda, a Tony-nominated songwriter.
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10490
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Blood injections may help chronic “tennis elbow”
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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 injections… is used” – should be “are used” “Whole blood treatment is a god alternative” – should be “good alternative” Even when writing about a topic as seemingly mundane as tennis elbow, stories should avail themselves of a broad range of expertise. Were this treatment to become widely available, it could be a boon for chronic pain sufferers, but we can’t make that assessment based on the limited amount of information provided here.
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mixture
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Reuters Health
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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 injections. This all would have been good information for the story. The benefits are essentially quantified, but we thought the story could have gone further in helping readers understand what the numbers mean. There’s no attempt to quantify harms here. After reading this story, one might assume that there’s nothing risky about this procedure. The story does say that the study was in 28 patients, but that’s about all the information readers are given about the potential limitations of the study. The story nicely avoids disease mongering and, right in the lead, explains that this treatment would work best in patients “where other treatment methods have failed”. The story only relied on a single source. The story mentions alternatives, which is why we give it credit here. It could have done a better job explaining why all other treatment methods should be exhausted, short of surgery, before turning to plasma injections. The true novelty is never established. The story does not rely on a news release.
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35111
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A new disease outbreak caused by the hantavirus has been detected in China.
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"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."
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false
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Medical, COVID-19
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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 pandemic caused by the spread of a novel coronavirus first detected in Wuhan, China, in the winter of 2019. Much of the hantavirus anxiety appears to have been sparked by a tweet from Global Times, an English-language publication based in China. The tweet sparked viral memes and fears that, even as hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 cases are being reported worldwide and illnesses and deaths caused by the coronavirus continue to rise in the United States, a second disease outbreak was looming. Here is an example of a meme spreading on Twitter in late March (the user’s name has been cropped out to protect privacy): However, a single reported case of hantavirus in China does not an outbreak make, and hantaviruses are hardly new. They go back decades and aren’t transmitted between humans like COVID-19. Instead, hantaviruses are spread from rodents to humans, and cases are extremely rare. The first strain of hantavirus was recorded during the Korean war, when it killed 190 American G.I.’s and sickened about 3,000. With rare exception, rodents are the hosts that transmit the disease to humans, through “urine, feces, and saliva, and less frequently by a bite from an infected host,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The most common type of hantavirus illness found in the United States is Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS), the CDC says, and again, it’s rare. HPS was first discovered by health professionals in 1993 in the Southwest region of the U.S. Researchers traced the earliest case to the death of a 38-year-old man in Utah in 1959. From 1993 to 2017, the U.S. had 728 known cases, per the CDC.
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18552
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"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."
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Same-sex marriage foe says latest research has “shattered” claims about children raised by same-sex couples
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false
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Rhode Island, Children, Families, Gays and Lesbians, Race and Ethnicity, Marriage, Susan Yoshihara,
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"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 doesn't make a difference whether a child is raised by a mother and father or whether she's raised by adults engaged in homosexual lifestyles,"" said Susan Yoshihara, director of research at the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, who testified against same-sex marriage. ""Some go even further and say that two lesbians might make better parents than a mother and a father, and there was a study that came out a few years ago that pointed to that effect as well. But any scholarly basis for those claims has been shattered by the latest and best social science and research."" We wondered what recent research she was referring to and whether it really ""shattered"" previous findings. First, some background. According to the 2010 Census, there were 131,729 same-sex married households and 514,735 unmarried same-sex households in the United States. Thirty-one percent of the married couples and almost 14 percent of the unmarried couples said they were raising children. Nearly 2 million children under age 18 were being raised by at least one gay or lesbian parent, the census estimated. There have been numerous peer-reviewed studies of same-sex couples raising children. Supporters of same-sex marriage say one of the best grew out of the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study, which, since 1986, has been following 154 lesbian mothers who had children through artificial insemination. Researchers questioned 39 boys and 39 girls raised by those couples and compared responses with those of equal numbers of boys and girls raised by a mother and father. Their findings were published in 2012 in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics. ""Our results revealed that the [children of the lesbian couples] rated themselves comparably to their counterparts in opposite-sex parent families in"" quality of life, the study concluded. In March 2013, the 60,000-member American Academy of Pediatrics announced it supports same-sex marriage. In its journal, Pediatrics, it said that ""extensive data from more than 30 years of research reveal that children raised by gay and lesbian parents have demonstrated resilience with regard to social, psychological, and sexual health despite economic and legal disparities and social stigma."" SO WHAT WAS the research that, according to Yoshihara, changed the landscape of scholarly thinking on the issue, shattering the past studies? We contacted Yoshihara, who provided links to two recent studies. One was by Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas-Austin. Regnerus’ study, published in July 2012 in Social Science Research, asserted that many previous studies finding ""no notable disadvantages"" and/or ""no differences"" for children raised in same-sex families relied on sample sizes that were too small or were biased. And he said they often relied on interviews of the same-sex parents, not the children. Regnerus’ New Family Structures Study used a questionnaire on a range of topics to interview just under 3,000 people ages 18 to 39 and asserted that some outcomes were worse for children of same-sex parents. It compared the children of ""lesbian mothers"" and ""gay fathers"" with the children of ""intact"" heterosexual couples. The study looked at everything from whether the children had thought about suicide to whether they voted in the last presidential election. It found, for instance, that the children of lesbian mothers were more likely to be have been in therapy, a link that was not true for children of gay fathers. Yoshihara also cited a paper by Loren Marks, a professor at Louisiana State University, which Social Science Research also published online in July 2012, which raised similar criticisms of previous studies. THE REGNERUS STUDY'S methods and conclusions touched off a firestorm of criticism from same-sex marriage supporters and from social scientists from around the country. Two hundred researchers signed a letter to Social Science Research, attacking the ""intellectual merit"" of the Regnerus study. James D. Wright, editor-in-chief of Social Science Research, asked yet another scholar on the journal’s editorial board to review the Regnerus study and determine whether it was proper to have published it. That scholar, Darren E. Sherkat, a Southern Illinois University sociology professor, found many shortcomings. Among them: the Regnerus study included among its gay parents people who had a same-sex relationship at any time, even if it was one experience and even if the people involved did not raise the child together. Sherkat was also asked to review the companion paper by Marks and he concluded it was essentially a review of other studies and ""inappropriate for a journal that published original quantitative research."" Sherkat also found that reviewers of both papers failed to disclose conflicts of interest, including being paid consultants on the Regnerus study. ""Both papers have serious flaws and distortions that were not simply ignored, but lauded in the reviews,"" Sherkat wrote. Meanwhile, 27 scholars from various universities signed a letter defending the Regnerus study. SO WHERE ARE WE in this academic free-for-all? Two things are clear: * There is a sharp division among scholars and advocates over the issue of same-sex parenting * The Regnerus study hasn’t been widely accepted as ""the best"" research on the topic and has not reordered the social-science world in the way Yoshihara suggests. Wright, the Social Science Research editor-in-chief, put it best: ""I would regard ‘shattered by the latest and best social science research’ as something of an overstatement,"" he said in an e-mail A prudent scholar, he said, would conclude that ""the question is by no means settled, either by the literature as a whole or by the Regnerus study, the latter having far too many problems and issues to be considered ‘definitive.’"" We rule Yoshihara’s claim ."
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10607
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Low-carb, low-calorie diets can both result in weight loss
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"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 to the issue of excess weight and they are often confused about which diet is ‘best’ for weight loss and for health."
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mixture
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"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 variable the weight loss was in the two groups. From what was presented, it isn’t possible to figure out whether most people in both groups may have lost about 24 pounds in one year or whether there was variability in the amount of weight loss. Although the story mentioned that this weight loss resulted in ‘improvement in many health measures’ the study was too short in duration to observe any differences in health outcomes. Part of the story here was that the low-carbohydrate diet approach to weight loss did indeed result in weight loss. Longer-term study is needed to understand whether there are health implications associated with either dietary approach. The story also mentioned ""those in the low-carb group had about two times better improvement in their good (HDL) cholesterol than people in the low-fat group."" This is an inadequate amount of information to judge whether this constitutes a meaningful difference between the groups. This result should have been reported as an absolute difference rather than a relative difference. See our primer on this topic. Rather than report simply on this surrogate end point, do we know anything about what these HDL changes mean in terms of their risk of heart attack? We’ve already graded the story unsatisfactory in the ""Evidence"" criterion so we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. There was no discussion about potential harms or any indication about the percentage of individuals who dropped out of the study. The story reported study found that the weight loss and maintenance of that weight loss was similar for the two groups. It provided the average weight loss in pounds giving readers a real sense of the magnitude of the weight being discussed. This aspect of the story was well done. But after all these years and all these debates, was the evidence sufficient enough to settle the debate once and for all? Do we no know, based on this study, that these diets are equivalent? Or is more research needed? These fundamental questions weren’t raised or answered. The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. The story did quote several seemingly independent experts on weight loss, along with a clinician involved with the study. However – they also allowed a clinician promoting his book to also promote one of the diets without challenging his assertions. It s unacceptable to allow him to make claims for greater weight loss in his experience without providing data to support his contentions. The story did not include a comprehensive list of evidence based methods for weight loss. The story lacked a discussion about the essential role of caloric intake, even within the low-carbohydrate diet group. The story reported on outcomes of a study that followed individuals assigned to either a low- carbohydrate or low-fat diet. Both of these dietary approaches to weight loss are well known and widely used. The story was clear about the fact that the dietary approaches for weight loss that were compared are not new or novel. Does not appear to rely exclusively on a news release."
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26985
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"Blogger Says China ""stole Coronavirus from Canada and weaponized it into a Bioweapon."
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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 evidence she gave China coronavirus samples to develop a biological weapon. Plus, the lab worked on MERS, not the Wuhan coronavirus. The Wuhan lab mentioned in the story does deal with dangerous pathogens like coronaviruses, but there is no evidence that it is the source of the latest outbreak. The story lacks evidence for its headline.
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false
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Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Bloggers,
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"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 a website called Great Game India. ""Last year a mysterious shipment was caught smuggling Coronavirus from Canada. It was traced to Chinese agents working at a Canadian lab,"" the story reads. ""Subsequent investigation by GreatGameIndia linked the agents to Chinese Biological Warfare Program from where the virus is suspected to have leaked causing the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak."" The story weaves together unrelated facts to construct a conspiracy theory. Officials are still trying to determine the exact cause of the outbreak, but there’s no evidence of it being created for use as a bioweapon. (Screenshot from Zero Hedge) The article was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The virus, which originated in the central China city of Wuhan, has infected more than 4,000 people worldwide, and China has restricted travel within the country amid a rising death toll. Great Game India claims that the current coronavirus outbreak can be traced to Chinese agents who infiltrated a Canadian lab to steal virus samples. But there’s no evidence for that. The story focuses on the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. In 2013, researchers there were investigating a new cluster of coronavirus infections that appeared to have originated in Saudi Arabia. Great Game India implies that disease is the same one that’s currently affecting China. But the lab was examining the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus. (There are seven kinds of coronaviruses that can infect humans.) One of the scientists mentioned in the Great Game India story, Xiangguo Qiu, is under investigation for a possible ""policy breach"" after she was invited to the Wuhan lab twice a year for two years. Qiu, her husband and her students from China were removed from the lab in July 2019. There are questions about what information Qiu shared with Chinese officials while visiting Wuhan, and the Canadian National Microbiology Laboratory has sent viruses to China in the past for research. But there is no evidence to support the claim that Qiu stole coronavirus samples and gave them to the Wuhan lab to create biological weapons. The assertion that the origin of the coronavirus outbreak is a Chinese lab near Wuhan also lacks evidence. The Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory is a maximum-security biolab that deals with some of the world’s most dangerous pathogens, such as Ebola and the SARS coronavirus. Some experts have linked the lab to China’s biological warfare program. The country denies having such a program, but the State Department has raised concerns about China’s potential noncompliance with the Biological Weapons Convention, which bans the production of such weapons. ""Coincidentally, the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory is located only 20 miles away from the Huanan Seafood Market which is the epicenter of the Coronavirus outbreak dubbed the Wuhan Coronavirus,"" the Great Game India story reads. As of now, however, the lab’s proximity to the seafood market is a coincidence, as there is no evidence that the lab is the source of the coronavirus outbreak. In its most recent situation summary, the CDC said that both it and Chinese authorities had isolated the genome of the Wuhan coronavirus. Their findings suggest ""a likely single, recent emergence from a virus related to bat coronaviruses and the SARS coronavirus."" Early reports suggested that the disease appeared to have originated at a seafood and animal market in Wuhan, and it spread from there to several Asian countries, Australia, France, Canada and the United States. 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 evidence she gave China coronavirus samples to develop a biological weapon. Plus, the lab worked on MERS, not the Wuhan coronavirus. The Wuhan lab mentioned in the story does deal with dangerous pathogens like coronaviruses, but there is no evidence that it is the source of the latest outbreak. The story lacks evidence for its headline, so"
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23381
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The stimulus has not created one private sector job.
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Rick Scott says the stimulus didn't create a single private sector job
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false
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Economy, Stimulus, Florida, Rick Scott,
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"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 from Alex Sink on job creation by mentioning Obamacare, the Bush tax cuts and the federal stimulus. When a reporter asked for specifics, he said: ""I think it's very simple. Higher taxes kill jobs. Regulations kill jobs. Obamacare is an unbelievable job killer. It's going to be devastating for our state. That by itself is going to make it very difficult for people to do business in our state. And the taxes, the increase in taxes for that is going to be devastating to our state. ""On top of that, my background is I put my money up. I took the risk. I stood up for what I believed in starting businesses. And that’s a whole different background than other people. But she clearly believes in higher taxes. She clearly believes in Obamacare. She clearly believes in the stimulus, and we know the stimulus has not created one private sector job."" We'll set aside for now his various claims about taxes, regulation and health care to focus on his parting blow: ""The stimulus has not created one private sector job."" He's treading dangerous ground. In February, PolitiFact looked at a similar statement by Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, that the stimulus bill ""didn't create one new job,"" and found it so ridiculous it earned a ruling. But Scott said ""one private sector job."" Does it help his case? Since Scott's running to govern Florida, we'll focus on the stimulus' impact in his state, familiar ground. By stimulus, campaign spokesman Joe Kildea confirms, Scott means the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. That federal money comes in three broad categories, such as funds to federal agencies spent through grants and contracts, funds for benefits such as unemployment and Medicaid, and tax relief, according to Don Winstead, the state’s stimulus czar. For funding in the first category, there's a federal reporting system. Those who get funds must report how much they spend, and how many jobs are created or saved. According to the latest figures on the federal Recovery.gov website — just roll your mouse over Florida — the number of full-time equivalent jobs created or saved in the state just for the April to June quarter is 40,604. That number represents 79,365 actual workers, a state summary says. While the reports don’t break out private sector jobs from public ones, it’s clear some of the jobs — and in some cases, most — end up with private sector contractors, said Winstead, special adviser to Gov. Charlie Crist on the economic stimulus. He produces the summary of Recovery Act information for the state. A table listing 2,951 full-time equivalent jobs created or saved under the U.S. Department of Transportation would largely represent private sector highway construction jobs, he said. On the other hand, the 27,815 listed under education would be largely public school employees. Public and private, the cumulative job impact for the state including tax relief is 167,000, his summary says. Meanwhile, a non-government analysis by data company Onvia at Recovery.org estimates the stimulus’ effect on jobs at 206,000. That's certainly more than one! But wait ... Scott campaign spokesman Kildea is quick to jump on such figures, pointing out that since the government tracks jobs ""created or saved,"" it's hard to say how many have been ""created,"" which is the word Scott used. Additionally, the Recovery.gov reporting has acknowledged flaws. A May report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office says that while data from recipients of stimulus money are improving, ""errors and reporting inconsistencies remain."" So we examined a specific stimulus-funded program, Florida Back to Work. It's paid for with funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program -- established by the stimulus bill -- which may be spent on subsidized employment. The program is operated by the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation, which administers other benefit programs and tracks the unemployment rate. It got its federal funding in March, and reimburses employers for most of the costs of a new employee through Sept. 30, 2010. As of Sept. 10, it had paid for jobs for 5,324 new employees. It has also worked with employers to create 4,053 positions posted at employflorida.com and open to job-seekers. So, are any of those private-sector jobs? A summary from the agency lists more than 1,000 Florida employers who've agreed to create jobs using the program. Some are public, such as the Department of Children and Families in Okaloosa County. Others are nonprofits, such as Goodwill Easter Seals of the Gulf Coast. And yes, there are plenty of private companies, for example, Riviera Beach pharmaceutical manufacturer Sancilio & Co. Alex Sancilio, a principal in the Palm Beach County company and director of human resources, has used the Back to Work program to make 27 new hires and keep 15 full-time employees. The company produces drugs and supplements, including children's vitamins and fish oil pills. She worked with the local workforce board to get resumes, and used the money to speed up hiring she might have otherwise spread out. That's how she came to hire Billy Weston as an account executive. Weston, 48, was a car salesman who had been unemployed two months, which helped qualify him for the program. Sancilio says she wouldn't otherwise have invested in retraining someone who didn't have a pharmaceutical background. ""If we hadn't had the funding, we never would have given him the time to learn the skills,"" she said. ""We're very, very happy."" So what does Scott's campaign have to say about Weston, a guy with a job in the private sector because of the stimulus? ""It's a ridiculous assertion that the stimulus has created jobs,"" Kildea said. ""That's exactly the reason Floridians are so upset with the direction of the economy. No matter what sort of intellectual gymnastics used by Obama liberals, the fact is that when the stimulus was first signed, Florida's unemployment rate was 9.2% and today it is 11.6% and the state lost a net of almost 200,000 jobs."" So, because more jobs were lost overall than gained, that's the same as saying not one job has been created? Not according to Rebecca Rust, senior economist for the Agency for Workforce Innovation. In fact, it's standard to talk about jobs gained, even when jobs lost may be greater. ""There's churning in the job market,"" she said. ""Employers are adding and cutting at the same time. … Just because we have a job loss, you can't say we haven't gained any stimulus jobs. What you could say is that the job losses could have been greater."" Sean Snaith, a University Of Central Florida economist who has been critical of the effect of the stimulus, agrees that saying ""the stimulus has not created one private sector job"" is inaccurate. ""I think that's an exaggeration of the reality, which is that it didn't do very much for private sector hiring,"" he said. ""But surprise, surprise, in politics there's hyperbole sometimes."" It's more than hyperbole to Billy Weston. Here’s his reaction to Scott’s statement: ""I disagree. I have to. Even though, you know, I'm a devout Republican, that's absolutely wrong,"" he said. ""I'm living proof that this helped out, tremendously. I couldn't agree with that statement whatsoever. I know, due to this program, I have a job at Sancilio & Co. That's the reality of it."" Beyond Florida, there are examples Scott ought to be familiar with. Take telecommunications company XFone, which announced in March that it received $63 million in federal stimulus money. Scott owns about 15 percent of the company, campaign spokesman Chad Colby said. On Sept. 13, 2010, a Louisiana subsidiary, Pride Network Inc., got approval for $36 million in additional stimulus funding — money it estimates will create 1,300 jobs. Colby says Scott’s a minority investor, doesn’t sit on the board, and doesn't control any operations of the company. ""His position on stimulus hasn't changed,"" Colby said. ""If the argument is that the stimulus is the only way to create jobs, it's false."" But that isn’t Scott’s statement. In the face of Billy Weston and now 1,300 jobs at a company Scott partly owns, his campaign still hasn’t moved from its stance that ""the stimulus has not created one private sector job."" He may disagree that the stimulus is the most effective use of funds, or argue as Snaith does that ""it didn't do very much."" But those aren’t the words he chose. With thousands of Floridians employed because of stimulus-funded programs — not to mention jobs for a company in which Scott owns stock —"
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386
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Search on for 1,276 now missing after California's deadliest wildfire.
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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.
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true
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Environment
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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 missing was due to his office’s efforts to comb through a backlog of emergency calls that came in during the first hours of the fire on Nov. 8. He said officials were sifting through the list of missing persons for duplications and people who fled. Some 380 people had been located and taken off the list since Friday, he said. “A lot of progress is being made with regard to that, but this is still raw data,” Honea told a news conference. The sheriff spoke after President Donald Trump visited Paradise, the small community that was home to nearly 27,000 people in the Sierra foothills, 175 miles (280 km) north of San Francisco, before being all but consumed by the blaze. “Nobody could have thought this would ever happen,” Trump told reporters amid the charred wreckage of the town’s Skyway Villa Mobile Home and RV Park. “This is very sad to see. As far as the lives are concerned, nobody knows quite yet,” Trump said. “Right now we want to take care of the people who have been so badly hurt.” Trump was flanked by California Governor Jerry Brown and Governor-elect Gavin Newsom. Brown said the federal government was doing what it needed to do, including supporting first responders and helping with clean-up and search for victims. The disaster already ranks among the deadliest U.S. wildfires since the turn of the last century. Eighty-seven people perished in the Big Burn firestorm that swept the Northern Rockies in August 1910. Minnesota’s Cloquet Fire in October 1918 killed 450 people. Trump has blamed the recent spate of fires on forest mismanagement, and he said he discussed the issue with Brown and Newsom on the ride into Paradise. Asked whether the scenes of devastation had changed his view on climate change, Trump said: “No. I have a strong opinion. I want great climate and we’re going to have that and we’re going to have forests that are very safe.” Authorities attribute the high death toll from the blaze - dubbed “Camp Fire” - partly to the speed with which flames raced through the town with little warning, driven by howling winds and fueled by drought-desiccated scrub and trees. More than a week later, firefighters have managed to carve containment lines around 55 percent of the blaze’s perimeter. Besides the toll on human life, property losses from the blaze make it the most destructive in California history, posing the additional challenge of providing long-term shelter for many thousands of displaced residents. With more than 12,700 homes and other structures up in smoke, many refugees have taken up temporary residence with friends and family, while others have pitched tents or were living out of their vehicles. Hundreds of evacuees were being housed in 14 emergency shelters set up in churches, schools and community centers around the region, with more than 46,000 people remaining under evacuation orders, authorities said. Several shelters are full and although authorities say they still have space for everyone, hundreds of people have been camping in tents and cars in the area. The names were being compiled from information received from a special hotline, along with email reports and a review of emergency 911 calls that came in on the first night of the fire, Honea said. Some listed have likely survived but not yet notified family or authorities. Others may not have been immediately listed because of delays in reporting them. Honea bristled at a Friday press conference when asked whether many of those listed, more than a week after the disaster, were expected at this point to end up either deceased or declared missing and presumed dead. “I don’t think it’s appropriate for any of us to sit and speculate about what the future holds,” he said. The sheriff on Saturday emphasized that authorities were largely relying on the public’s cooperation to determine who on the list of missing persons is alive. “I want to tell people that it’s really very important for you to take a look at the list and call us if you’re on the list and let us know.” Weather conditions have since turned more in the firefighters’ favor, though strong, gusty winds and lower humidity were expected through early Sunday ahead of rain forecast for mid-week. The outbreak of Camp Fire coincided with a series of smaller blazes in Southern California, most notably the Woolsey Fire, which is linked to three fatalities near the Malibu coast west of Los Angeles. Scientists have said the growing frequency and intensity of wildfires in California and elsewhere across the West are largely attributable to prolonged drought that is symptomatic of climate change. The precise causes of the Camp and Woolsey Fires were under investigation, but electric utilities have reported equipment problems in the vicinity of both blazes around the time they erupted.
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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.
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Did the U.S. Department of Defense Display an Image of a Nazi on the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge?
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true
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Fact Checks, Politics, Viral Content
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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 appeared to be retelling the story of the Battle of the Bulge — but from Peiper’s perspective:DECEMBER 16, 1944: “TODAY WE GAMBLE EVERYTHING” He paused at his desk. He hated to be alone with his thoughts, with the feeling of uncertainty he’d been trying to avoid for weeks. There was an atmosphere of heaviness. This was the way he always thought the end of the world would feel. The others were confident. They believed in der Führer. They believed in their Soldiers. Not him. He picked up the pen. “Today we gamble everything.” He wrote. “If this does not work, we are doomed.” He put down his diary. It was time. ********** 75 years ago today, Standartenführer Joachim Peiper knew that his German forces were running out of weapons, out of men, and out of ammunition. He also knew that the Soviets, the Americans, and the British could continue fighting for months. Five years after Germany began a war in Europe by invading Poland, this surprise western counteroffensive Peiper was set to launch was the only hope for the survival of Nazi Germany. The mission was called “Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein” (“Operation Watch on the Rhine”), and Joachim would lead it. The fate of his beloved nation rested on his ability to lead his men through the American lines. Joachim knew he had an advantage: the ferocious American airborne divisions – the 82nd, the 17th and the 101st, now consolidated under General Matthew Ridgway as the XVIII Airborne Corps – were out of the fight, resting in Wiltshire, England and Reims, France. He also knew that he would attack into the Ardennes region of Belgium at the weakest point of the Allied line, against American forces with little combat experience. The weather would help: daylight was shortest and the fog and snow would limit Allied air support. The moment had it arrived. It was the morning of December 16th, the time Adolf Hitler designated for the start of the attack. There was nothing left to do but give the order. “Forward to and over the Meuse!” Thus began the most critical moment in this Corps’ history. ********* While Joachim Peiper began his push, our heroes, the Soldiers of the XVIII Airborne, were hundreds of miles away, in a group of training camps. That morning they slept, unaware that the die of war had been cast. At approximately 4:30 on the morning of December 16th, the men of the XVIII Airborne Corps unknowingly became actors in a tragedy that would be told for the next 75 years. *******This post is the first in a series that will tell the entire story of the Battle of the Bulge through January 22nd.Reaction on social media was swift and puzzled by the decision to begin the series from the perspective of the notorious SS-Standartenführer and, later, convicted war criminal for his role in the Malmedy Massacre, which incidentally, was mentioned nowhere in the original posts:I am dumbfounded by the decision to prominently display a Nazi on military social media on the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. pic.twitter.com/Do0mB7Guvj— Brian Fickel (@USArmyPAO) December 16, 2019The Malmedy Massacre took place on December 17 1944, when Waffen SS soldiers shot and killed 84 American prisoners of war. Survivor Ted Paluch recalled the day in a 2007 article:Having dismounted the vehicles and taking cover in ditches alongside the road, Paluch recognized the troops as members of the vaunted SS by the distinctive skull and crossbones and lightning insignia on their collars. They represented the advance units of the 1st SS Panzer Division, known as Kampfgruppe (Attack Group) Peiper, after their leader, SS Lt. Col. Joachim Peiper, a highly decorated veteran of campaigns in France and Russia. […]Along with members of his unit and others caught off-guard at the crossroads, the group of prisoners was herded into a field at the crossroads to await their fate. They had no warning of what would transpire next.“Then one command car came up and took a couple shots, and every tank and halftrack that came around the corner shot into the group,” he said. “I was real lucky, as I was in the front end and only got hit slightly, but I think when they came around they fired into the center of the group.”Pausing to catch his breath, he glanced over his shoulder and hesitated, almost as if reliving the moment in slow motion, before beginning again.“This was their front line over here at one of these houses, and then anyone that moaned, they came around and they shot. I played dead and just lay there,” he said.Paluch and some of the other survivors, hearts racing, many wounded, listened motionless as the sound of a large German mechanized column sped past. After what seemed an eternity, but from survivor reports was probably more like an hour or two, “all the trucks and halftracks passed and it was a little quiet,” Paluch recalled, his profound relief still evident after the lapse of 63 years.“I didn’t know where they were headed, they didn’t tell me, and I just wanted to know how to get out of there,” he smiled.It was about 4:30 p.m. and starting to get dark. With the noise of the column fading in the ears of the survivors who lay in the field among their dead and dying comrades, many leapt to their feet and raced for the tree line. As survivors sprinted for cover, a number were engaged by German infantry still stationed in the vicinity of the crossroads, killing at least 10.After the end of World War II, the United States Army put 74 of the SS men on trial. All of the defendants were convicted and received sentences of either death or life in prison. However, there were attempts to discredit and overturn their convictions early on, as detailed in a 1949 investigation and subsequent report that was spurred by charges of unfair conduct by the prosecution:Through competent testimony submitted to the subcommittee, it appeared that there are strong reasons to believe that groups within Germany are taking advantage of the understandable efforts of the church and the defense attorneys as well as in other ways to discredit the American occupation forces in general. One ready avenue of approach has been through the attacks on the war-crimes trials in general and the Malmedy case in particular. The subcommittee is convinced that there is an organized effort being made to revive the nationalistic spirit in Germany through every means possible. There is evidence that at least a part of this effort is attempting to establish a close liaison with Communist Russia. These matters, of course, must be judged against the back drop of the current situation in Europe and their probable effect in the event of a war involving Russia and the United States. Everything done to weaken the prestige of the United States and our occupation policies will play an important part in any emergency.Many of the convicted in the various war crimes are former prominent Nazis, both civilian and military. In the Malmedy case alone there are three German generals, one an outstanding SS general, as well as officers of lesser rank who were excellent combat leaders. The desire of their former compatriots to have such persons released is undoubted. The implications are so serious that they cannot be disregarded by our country. In the event of the withdrawal of the American occupation forces, it is quite probable that there would be efforts made to have a general amnesty program to release these former Nazis and SS officers. That in itself is a most important consideration; but, in the event there is a larger plan to associate such individuals with the Communist forces of Europe, the problem is greatly aggravated. The subcommittee believes that such a situation presents dangerous possibilities.These early efforts to delegitimize and cast doubt on the trials was successful; by 1957, every convicted man had been released. Historian Steven Remy researched how successful those efforts were for his 2017 book, The Malmedy Massacre: The War Crimes Trial Controversy, noting the relevance of the disinformation around the trials to the “fake news” that has become a touchstone of the post-2016 world:Q: While you were certainly careful to resist that presentist impulse and let the story of the massacre and its aftermath unfold on its own terms, you also clearly highlight some ways in which The Malmedy Massacre can help us to understand aspects of contemporary political life. Do you worry at all that the resonance of the “fake news” phenomenon could obscure the particular contemporary relevance you had in mind?A. Not at all. I wrote The Malmedy Massacre because I had become fascinated by the post-trial controversy. The present moment was also very much on my mind. I believed we needed a more historically informed debate about both interrogation methods and military courts. Another purpose was to contribute to what I would call the “untangling” of modern German history. For several decades now, German, North American, and Israeli scholars have—often in the face of considerable resistance—revealed the extent to which our understanding of Nazi Germany has been shaped by former Nazis and their sympathizers. Yet another aim was to call attention to a strain of German and American anti-Semitism that became the lifeblood of the Malmedy case controversy.It has been encouraging to read thoughtful responses to the book—most recently by Gabriel Schoenfeld and Lawrence Douglas in The Weekly Standard and Foreign Affairs, respectively—that have engaged with these themes while also pointing out how the media generated a blizzard of fake news and how a small number of conscientious Army officials, Senators, intelligence operatives, and civil servants responded with diligence and honesty.The misdirection and propaganda has persisted among some known disinformation purveyors, however. Disgraced Fox News talk show host Bill O’Reilly has long pushed alternate versions of what happened at Malmedy, getting the circumstances completely reversed:In Malmedy, as you know, U.S. forces captured SS forces who had their hands in the air, and they were unarmed, and they shot them down. You know that. That’s on the record, been documented. In Iwo Jima, the same thing occurred. Japanese attempted to surrender, and they were burned in their caves.The social media posts were quickly taken down without explanation, but not before a discussion on the Department of Defense’s Facebook page turned to defending the decision:These posts have been deleted. What you missed was a comment thread with people defending Nazi soldiers and an Army acct arguing that the story of the Battle of the Bulge had to start with the German perspective. https://t.co/gVT4jrE9bG— Andrew Dyer (@SDUTdyer) December 17, 2019We have contacted the U.S. Department of Defense for more and will update this story with their response.
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8545
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Hungary prolongs coronavirus lockdown indefinitely as infections near 1,000.
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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.
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true
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Health News
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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 Easter weekend, when Hungarians traditionally visit family and men go around playfully spraying women with water or cologne in a fertility ritual. “This Easter will differ from the ones we know,” Orban said in a video recorded in his office and posted on his Facebook page. “The curfew restrictions have been reasonable and successful as they have slowed the spread of the epidemic.” The government would review the need to maintain the lockdown each week, Orban said, adding that municipal governments would be allowed to impose special restrictions that ensure local communities are protected. As spring weather arrived in recent days, Hungarians sought out leisure spots, prompting mayors and local councils to plead everyone to stay away. More than 100 people were infected in a Budapest retirement home, Surgeon General Cecilia Muller said. The state news agency MTI quoted Muller as saying five of those people have died.
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34057
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A woman in Brazil contracted HIV during a manicure.
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"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 — a description that caused largely unwarranted fears about visiting nail salons."
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true
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Medical
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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 Woman May Have Contracted HIV During a Manicure.” The article reported that: According to New York Daily News, a 22-year-old Brazilian woman was diagnosed with HIV after getting a manicure using shared equipment. Doctors say the case, which was first reported in the journal AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses last year, highlights a “new form of transmission for the virus.” She had none of the usual risk factors…The journal article says that when the woman was first diagnosed, she was found to have advanced HIV. However, she didn’t have any of the normal risk factors associated with contracting the virus, such as having sex without a condom, or sharing infected needles. When medical professionals probed further, they discovered that the woman had shared “manicure instruments years before with a cousin who was later found to be HIV-positive.” Blood analysis also suggested that the woman had first got the virus around 10 years ago. The article was originally published on TheAsianParent’s sister website in Singapore, on Nov. 2, 2015. The case attracted widespread media attention in 2014, including articles by Fox News and the New York Daily News. It’s not clear why it began to trend once again online in October 2019. The report is based on a November 2014 paper entitled “An HIV-1 Transmission Case Possibly Associated With Manicure Care,” which was published in the journal Aids Research and Human Retroviruses. That paper can be read in full here. It was written by researchers from the Santo André Aids Program, the Adolfo Lutz Institute, and the University of São Paulo, all located in São Paulo, Brazil. As the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains, HIV is typically transmitted through the exchange of certain bodily fluids during sexual contact or sharing syringes. Other modes of transmission exist, but they are less common. It is rare for HIV to be contracted through inanimate objects (an inanimate object that transmits an infectious disease is known as a “fomite”). However, the CDC notes: “It’s possible to get HIV from tattooing or body piercing if the equipment used for these procedures has someone else’s blood in it or if the ink is shared. The risk of getting HIV this way is very low …” The 2014 paper described a case involving a Brazilian woman suspected of having contracted HIV a decade earlier, when she was 12 years old, by using cuticle scissors and other manicure implements that had also been used by her cousin, a manicurist. The researchers came to the conclusion that this was probably (though not certainly) the way in which she contracted the disease, after performing what’s known as phylogenetic analysis of each woman’s strain of HIV. The following is a good explanation of how phylogenetic analysis works, from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health: “When a person becomes infected with HIV, their virus is similar to the virus of the person who infected them. Because HIV mutates quickly, each infected person’s virus evolves differently over time … HIV phylogenetics is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among transmitted viruses. A phylogenetic tree is an illustration of those relationships and HIV transmission dynamics.” After conducting phylogenetic analysis, the São Paulo researchers were able to conclude that the 22-year-old woman probably contracted HIV from her older cousin about 10.81 years earlier. At that time, the older woman knew she had HIV, but her family did not, and she had stopped taking zidovudine and lamivudine, a combination of antiretroviral drugs that can lower the risk of transmitting HIV. The woman at the center of the case denied any sexual abuse by a third party (an account corroborated by her family), and based on interviews with both women, the only remaining plausible method of transmission was their shared use of manicure implements while the younger woman was around 12 years old. The researchers summarized their findings as follows: A recently diagnosed 22-year-old female with no history of transmission risk factors prompted a thorough investigation of possible alternative risk factors. As the patient had evidence of advanced disease and laboratory data compatible with long-standing infection, past events were reviewed. About 10 years ago the patient shared manicure utensils with an older cousin, later known to be HIV infected; this prompted the phylogenetic analysis of the HIV sequences of both patients. Phylogenetic analyses of partial HIV-1 polymerase and envelope sequences from both patients revealed highly related sequences, with an estimated common ancestor date (about 11 years ago) that coincided with the putative sharing of manicure instruments, during a time in which the cousin was not virally suppressed. Taken together, the information about the infection of this patient suggests the use of shared manicure instruments as an alternative route of fomite HIV-1 transmission. Although the woman and her cousin shared manicure implements, the woman did not exactly contract HIV “during a manicure,” a description used by TheAsianParent that has engendered a degree of fear or concern, among some social media users, about visiting nail salons. Those fears appear to be largely unwarranted. The Brazilian case was scientifically notable precisely because it appears to be the first ever documented case of HIV transmission via manicure implements, and the already very low risk of transmission will diminish even further if members of the public visit properly licensed nail salons whose staff thoroughly sanitize all implements. Although TheAsianParent rightly stated that the woman “may have” contracted HIV from the manicure implements, reflecting the probability (rather than certainty) asserted by the researchers, other websites omitted that nuance in their headlines, with Fox News, for example, writing “Woman Contracts HIV Through Shared Manicure Equipment.”
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29066
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The Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are buying arms as preparation for civil unrest.
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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 use in the U.S.
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mixture
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Politics Guns
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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 the U.S., it was “not outlandish to suggest that the Social Security Administration is purchasing the bullets as part of preparations for civil unrest.” Examples: First it was the Department of Homeland Security, then it was the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and now the Social Security Administration is set to purchase 174,000 rounds of hollow point bullets that will be delivered to 41 locations across the country. A solicitation posted by the SSA on the FedBizOpps website asks for contractors to supply 174,000 rounds of “.357 Sig 125 grain bonded jacketed hollow point pistol ammunition.” The synopsis to the solicitation adds that the ammunition is to be shipped to 41 locations within 60 days of purchase. A separate spreadsheet lists those locations, which include the Social Security headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland as well as major cities across the country including Los Angeles, Detroit, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Denver, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Seattle. Hollow point bullets are designed to expand as they enter the body, causing maximum damage by tearing apart internal organs. It’s not outlandish to suggest that the Social Security Administration is purchasing the bullets as part of preparations for civil unrest. Social security welfare is estimated to keep around 40 per cent of senior citizens out of poverty. Should the tap run dry in the aftermath of an economic collapse which the Federal Reserve has already told top banks to prepare for, domestic disorder could ensue if people are refused their benefits. In fact, the spreadsheet showing the destination locations of the ammunition to be purchased by the SSA indicated that it was for “duty carry” purposes and was being procured for Field Division locations of the Office of Investigations (OI), part of the SSA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The OI “conducts and coordinates investigative activity related to fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in Social Security Administration programs and operations” and “conducts joint investigations with other Federal, State and local law enforcement agencies.” The OIG’s Office of External Relations posted a notice explaining that the reason behind the ammunition procurement was to supply the nearly 300 special agents who work for the OIG and are armed while on duty: Our office has criminal investigators, or special agents, who are responsible for investigating violations of the laws that govern SSA’s programs. Currently, about 295 special agents and supervisory special agents work in 66 offices across the United States. These investigators have full law enforcement authority, including executing search warrants and making arrests. Our investigators are similar to your State or local police officers. They use traditional investigative techniques, and they are armed when on official duty. Media reports expressed concerns over the type of ammunition ordered. In fact, this type of ammunition is standard issue for many law enforcement agencies. OIG’s special agents use this ammunition during their mandatory quarterly firearms qualifications and other training sessions, to ensure agent and public safety. Additionally, the ammunition our agents use is the same type used at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. Our special agents need to be armed and trained appropriately. They not only investigate allegations of Social Security fraud, but they also are called to respond to threats against Social Security offices, employees, and customers. (As for the question of why the SSA would need hollow point bullets for target practice and training purposes, many law enforcement agencies require their personnel train and practice with the same type of ammunition they use in the field.) A similar invitation for bids to supply 46,000 rounds of hollow point bullets along with 500 paper targets was issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That ammunition is destined for the NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which is tasked with protecting fish stocks from depletion, marine mammals from extinction, the livelihoods of commercial fishers, the hobbies of recreational fishers, and the health of seafood consumers.” NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen stated that the ammunition is “standard issue for many law enforcement agencies, and it will be used by 63 NOAA enforcement agents in their twice annual target qualifications and training.” In 2013 the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a number of different requests for quotes for various types of ammunition totaling hundreds of millions of rounds. However, those quotes represented the upper limits of options to buy ammunition over the course of several years, not a one-time mass purchase of that number of rounds. The purpose of the proposed buys was to supply ammunition for training and use by agents of the DHS and other federal law enforcement agencies: Federal solicitations to buy the bullets are known as “strategic sourcing contracts,” which help the government get a low price for a big purchase, says Peggy Dixon, spokeswoman for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga. The training center and others like it run by the Homeland Security Department use as many as 15 million rounds every year, mostly on shooting ranges and in training exercises. Dixon said one of the contracts would allow Homeland Security to buy up to 750 million rounds of ammunition over the next five years for its training facilities. The rounds are used for basic and advanced law enforcement training for federal law enforcement agencies under the department’s umbrella. The facilities also offer firearms training to tens of thousands of federal law enforcement officers. More than 90 federal agencies and 70,000 agents and officers used the department’s training center last year. The rest of the 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition would be purchased by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal government’s second largest criminal investigative agency. [DHS Secretary Janet] Napolitano said the numbers have been exaggerated. She said the contracts that have been reported represent an option to buy up to a certain limit over five years, and are not a one-time mass purchase. She said buying that way allows the department to save as much as 80 percent on the cost of each round. She also said it’s not surprising the number of rounds per law enforcement agent in her department may be high because some of them have to re-qualify with their weapons several times a year A March 2013 claim that the Department of Homeland Security had “purchased 2,700 tanks” for use in the U.S. was based on a year-old (i.e., March 2012) notice posted on the DHS web site announcing that a contractor had been engaged to install new chassis on a number of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles (not “tanks”) that were being returned from deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although similar vehicles have been used by DHS (and local police forces) for functions such as carrying Rapid Response Teams to disaster sites, the DHS did not “purchase” the MRAP vehicles referenced in that announcement, and the chassis work was contracted for by the Marine Corps Systems Command.
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41851
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"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."
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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.
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mixture
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Affordable Care Act, health insurance, insurance premiums,
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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 it very, very carefully.” One study disputes that, and experts say most administration actions in the past two years have driven premiums up.The actions the administration has taken “by and large have destabilized the market,” said Cynthia Cox, the director of the program for the study of health reform and private insurance at the Kaiser Family Foundation.Experts also espouse a longer view at the trajectory of premiums for the individual market, where people buy their own insurance, including on the Affordable Care Act exchanges, such as HealthCare.gov. The expected low average premium change for 2019 plans comes after a double-digit increase last year — which was also under the Trump administration and driven by the administration’s elimination of cost-sharing subsidies and uncertainty over the ACA’s future.This year, there was less policy upheaval.Many of the factors affecting premiums “have settled down this year,” Kelley Turek, the executive director of employer and commercial policy at the insurer trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans, told us. In addition, after several years under the ACA, “we are getting to a point where issuers are getting a better sense of this market,” she said, such as the population, their health costs and how to price plans.The president made his claim on Sept. 17 at an event at the White House to launch the National Council for the American Worker. Trump spoke about new regulations for association health plans, to be created by groups of employers, and then said, “we have the remnants of Obamacare.”Trump Sept. 17: “But the thing that I really am very happy to announce is that the rates are far lower than they would have been under the previous administration, or under a Democrat administration. We’re holding the rates down. So that remnant is being able to — the remnant of Obamacare is much less expensive than people thought. They were going up, before I got here, at 118 percent, in some cases; 150 percent, 160 percent, 55 percent. We have the percentage going up at a much lower level because we’re managing it very, very carefully. So we’re very proud of that.”In August, in a Fox News interview, the president similarly said, “You know, we’ve mostly got it killed … but we’re getting the remnants of Obamacare — the increase is much less than people thought. That’s because of us.”The average increase announced by the Department of Health and Human Services in October 2016 — before Trump became president — for the 2017 plan year was 25 percent for the second-lowest cost silver plan available on HealthCare.gov, which covered 38 states. Trump, as he did during the presidential campaign, cherry-picks particularly high increases in certain states or cities, though the highest we found was a 145 percent increase in Phoenix. The rate changes varied widely — Indianapolis saw a 12 percent decrease at the other end of the spectrum.It’s worth noting there have been high increases in some states and cities under Trump as well: For the 2018 plan year, the average increase was 133 percent in Cedar Rapids, for instance. And the average increase for the second-lowest cost silver plan across HealthCare.gov states for a 27-year-old was 37 percent. Silver level plans in particular increased due to the elimination of cost-sharing subsidies, as we’ll explain.After the president made his remarks, HHS Secretary Alex Azar announced on Sept. 27 that the “benchmark” silver plan, on which federal subsidies are based, is projected to decrease for HealthCare.gov states by 2 percent on average for 2019 plans. He gave credit for that to the president.Final rates will be released sometime in October.It’s true that the premium increases for 2019 plans are expected to be low.An analysis published in early September by the Associated Press and the consulting firm Avalere Health of state rate filings by insurers found a 3.6 percent average increase for 47 states and Washington, D.C., for 2019. Avalere Health has since updated that figure to 2.8 percent for 48 states plus D.C. The analysis looked at overall premiums in rate filings for 34 states and final rates for 14 states.The 2018 premium increase had been about 30 percent on average nationwide, the AP reported.HHS reported a 37 percent average increase in the second-lowest cost silver plan for 2018, and, as Azar announced, is now projecting a 2 percent average decrease for HealthCare.gov states for 2019.Why is there such a large drop in premium growth?“This year, there was an absence of disruption,” in terms of policy changes, Dan Mendelson, the founder of Avalere Health, told us in a phone interview. “In other words, markets were stable.” And the second factor is an expectation of slower growth in medical expenses, a factor he doesn’t think “any politician can take credit for.”Others say that low premium growth for 2019 might have been even lower yet were it not for some political disruption this year.“Individual market premiums will be higher in 2019 than they would have been without the administrations’ policies,” Matthew Fiedler, a fellow with the Center for Health Policy in Brookings’ Economic Studies Program, told us in an interview.Fiedler, who was the chief economist on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration, analyzed what premiums would have been in 2019 in a “stable policy environment,” which meant that the 2018 policies toward the individual market would remain in effect. This scenario, then, would keep the individual mandate penalty next year (which will be eliminated as part of the tax cut law) and wouldn’t include any new regulations on association health plans or short-term limited duration plans (as announced by the administration this year to expand these offerings that don’t have to meet all of the requirements of the ACA).“I estimate that the nationwide average per member per month premium in the individual market would fall by 4.3 percent in 2019 in a stable policy environment,” Fiedler wrote in the report.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office expects healthier individuals to join those association and short-term plans, which would then increase premiums for those remaining in the individual and small-group markets. CBO said in a May report that it expects premiums in those markets to increase by an estimated 2 percent to 3 percent “in most years” due to these measures.Mendelson, though, said it would be “a considerable amount of time” before markets form for those plans.Average premiums also may be going up more slowly for 2019 because some insurers increased premiums substantially last year.“There have been a lot of balls in the air in the policy realm and some uncertainty that really set into premiums last year,” Turek, with America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in an interview.Among that uncertainty: a debate over repealing and replacing the ACA in Congress, concern that the individual mandate would end, and the administration’s elimination of cost-sharing subsidies, or cost-sharing reductions, that were paid to insurers to reduce out-of-pocket costs for low-income policyholders. The ACA caps the amount policyholders have to spend out of pocket on deductibles, copays and coinsurance, and the cost-sharing subsidy lowers that cap. The insurers were still required to offer the lower-cap policies even though the administration ended the subsidy payments in October 2017.“Those are all factors that led to some larger premium increases for the 2018 year,” Turek said.Cox, with the Kaiser Family Foundation, similarly told us that premiums are growing more slowly this year than in the past because insurers have been overpriced this year. “Going into 2018 insurers raised their rates significantly in large part because of this political uncertainty. In some cases, I think it’s likely insurers guessed too high,” she said.In particular, insurers were encouraged in many states to increase premiums for silver-level plans, more so than bronze or gold plans, because of the loss of the cost-sharing subsidies, which applied only to silver-level plans.The Kaiser Family Foundation’s tracking of insurer rate filings for 2019 plans has found about a 5 percent increase in the second-lowest cost silver plans for a 40-year-old in cities for which there is complete data, Cox said in an interview. As we’ve seen in other years, the rate changes vary across the country, from a 24 percent decrease in Philadelphia to a 23 percent increase in Burlington, Vermont.Many insurers built in increases last year anticipating that the individual mandate would be eliminated. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ June brief on the drivers of 2019 premium increases acknowledges this as well, saying that the elimination of the mandate would drive premiums up next year to the extent that it “hasn’t already been incorporated into premiums.”But AHIP, in a brief it published earlier this year, still estimated a 9 percent to 10 percent increase in premiums for 2019 due to the repeal of the mandate penalty.That AHIP brief also estimated increases due to medical costs, and the regulations on association and short-term plans. However, it estimated a 3 percent decrease in premiums due to a one-year moratorium in 2019 on a tax on health insurers.Experts said that’s one move the administration has made that would drive premiums down.States also have taken actions to depress premium growth. Some states have proposed, and the administration has approved, waivers to create reinsurance programs, which will reimburse insurers for high-dollar medical claims. Seven states have received such waivers, according to the journal Health Affairs.Whether the states or the administration gets credit for those waivers is a matter of opinion. Azar gave credit to the president for the approval of the waivers in his remarks on Sept. 27.Azar also cast the administration’s actions on cost-sharing subsidies as a positive, even though experts say ending the subsidies drove premiums up. He said, “We took bold action to fix a lawless situation in which the previous administration made payments to insurers that Congress never funded.” Azar said the president supported a bipartisan bill to “fix this situation,” which was a measure to reinstate the cost-sharing payments for at least two years. It failed.The CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation have estimated, based on insurers’ rate filings, that premiums for silver-level plans are about 10 percent higher on average for 2018 due to the elimination of the cost-sharing payments, and the “agencies project that the amount will grow to roughly 20 percent by 2021.” Those receiving premium tax credits to buy insurance are also now receiving larger tax credits, since those are based on the silver plans.Larry Levitt, senior vice president for health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation, tweeted that there was a stabilizing effect from eliminating the cost-sharing payments. “Ironically, one of the most stabilizing actions the Trump administration has taken was cutting of cost-sharing subsidy payments to insurers. That led to an increase in ACA benchmark premiums this year, which in turn led to higher premium subsidies and more stable enrollment,” he said on Sept. 27.Overall, Levitt said, “ACA premiums are stable for 2019 because they went up so much this year due to an uncertain environment and regulatory actions by the Trump administration. Premiums would be going down a lot if not for repeal of the individual mandate penalty and expansion of short-term plans.”This year, the administration also ended, but then reinstated, payments to insurers for a risk-adjustment program that compensates insurers that cover more high-risk consumers. The program had been challenged in court, and the administration issued a new rule giving further justification for the financial formula the program uses. If the program had ended entirely, premiums would have gone up.The HHS secretary also cited an executive order that Trump signed his first day in office, which called for HHS and other agencies to “delay the implementation of any provision or requirement of the [ACA] that would impose a fiscal burden on any State or a cost, fee, tax, penalty, or regulatory burden on individuals or health care providers” and called for “greater flexibility to the States.”And he cited new rules issued by HHS in April 2017 to reduce the open enrollment period for the individual market by half, add documentation requirements for those buying plans under special enrollment periods — such as after getting married or having a child, allow insurers to require past-due premium payments before an individual could reenroll, and allow a little more variation for insurers in actuarial value requirements for plans. Actuarial value is the percentage of health care costs paid by a plan for the population of enrollees.In our interview with Cox, she noted that shortening the open enrollment period could be seen as a way to limit the enrollment of those with medical conditions, which would drive down premiums. But that began last year.Overall, experts talk about the long-term trajectory of these individual market premiums under the ACA.The ACA’s exchanges, and new individual market rules, launched in 2014. Among the major provisions: The law prohibited insurers from pricing plans based on health status or gender, required insurers to accept all consumers regardless of health status, set minimum benefit standards for plans, and required individuals to have insurance or pay a penalty.Here’s how premiums have increased each year since then, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, for plans on HealthCare.gov for a 27-year-old. (Individuals can buy plans directly from an insurer or through a broker as well, but those getting subsidies must buy through HealthCare.gov or a state-run exchange.) Note: “PY” stands for plan year. The 2018 plan year premiums would have been set in late 2017.Similarly, the Kaiser Family Foundation has measured the average premiums for the second-lowest cost silver-level plan for a 40-year-old, weighted by the plan selections in each county. That shows a 1 percent increase from 2014 to 2015, 8.3 percent increase from 2015 to 2016, 20 percent increase from 2016 to 2017, and 34 percent increase from 2017 to 2018.Cox told us there were some “growing pains” in the first few years of the ACA exchanges, as insurers learned how to operate in this market.The increase from 2016 to 2017, said Fiedler, was a “correction year,” as insurers had underpriced in the first few years of the ACA. And then, for the 2018 plan year, the increase was driven by uncertainty over the future of the health care law, and the administration’s decision to end the cost-sharing subsidies. Mendelson said it takes time for new markets to stabilize, and that’s finally happening in the post-ACA individual market as the political disruption has died down this year. The slowdown in premium growth for 2019 is “part of a natural process of stabilizing the market,” he said.
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This Test Can Determine Whether You've Outgrown A Food Allergy
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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 provided important context. It discussed the risks of oral food challenges, and why they are best done in a carefully monitored setting. The story would have scored stronger if it had better described what kind of research this was, and what made it novel. We also think a discussion of how much oral challenge tests typically cost–with and without insurance–would be useful information for parents. One minor quibble: The headline made it sound like this was a new test–it’s not. What’s new is the research findings and what they illuminate for doctors. It’s important to determine the effectiveness of oral food challenges because food allergies affect up to 6 million people, and cost in the aggregate $24 billion annually in medical and food costs and lost labor productivity. At a family level, finding foods their children can eat can be challenging for parents, and errors can have serious, even life-threatening consequences. This story will help people understand how often food allergies are likely to dissipate, as well as how best to find out that information.
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true
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allergies
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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 provide adequate supervision, families with inadequate or no insurance may not consider looking into the time-consuming procedure. However, families of patients on special diets spend thousands of extra dollars per year on groceries. Prior research suggests that in the end, having a food challenge earlier rather than later could save money for children assessed as low risk. The story provides the percent of patients who were categorized as having no response, mild allergic response, and anaphylaxis. Because this wasn’t a randomized controlled trial, those numbers summarize the important findings of the study. As the story explains, patients who experienced either mild or serious allergic reactions to the oral food challenge were treated with antihistamines or epinephrine respectively. For the 86% of patients who passed their food challenges with no adverse reactions, no harm was involved. This story is based on a study in which data were obtained via a physician survey in five food allergy centers across the United States. The researchers used a statistical procedure called meta-analysis to pool the proportion of reactions and anaphylaxis. The fact that this study used secondary data generated between 2008 and 2013, and that the data came from clinical records rather than controlled trials isn’t a bad thing, but it should have been mentioned in the story, as well as the limitations that stem from this kind of research (all research has limitations). No disease mongering is present in the story. Severe food allergies can be life threatening, but the story focuses on the daily experience of children who live with them. The story cites one expert not involved in the research, and we could find no potential conflicts of interest that should have been disclosed. The independent source provided a quote that we wished had been explored more in-depth: “But it’s also possible [some of them] never truly had a food allergy.” This is an important point–how much did the study help actually overturn incorrect diagnoses? In one sense, the only alternative to having an oral food challenge is not having an oral food challenge, and possibly not discovering that a child has grown out of an allergy. That issue is covered in this story. Another important point is that skin prick tests have been found to produce misleading results in a large proportion of patients. There is a growing conviction among researchers and practitioners that the only way to confirm beyond doubt that an individual has a food allergy is to conduct a food challenge. That alternative was mentioned in the story, but more emphasis would have presented a fuller picture of the significance of the study findings. The story doesn’t discuss how easy it is to find an allergy clinic that does oral food challenges, but it does refer parents to allergists for further discussion. The study on which this story was based is described by the researchers as being the largest national survey of allergic reactions of clinical open oral food challenges in a nonresearch setting in the United States. The story doesn’t note this, making it unclear what’s novel about the research. The story quotes one outside expert, so it appears not to rely on a news release.
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UK virus outbreak 'probably' peaking, but too soon to ease lockdown.
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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.
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true
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Health News
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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’s daily news conference. “We are not yet at the point where we can say confidently and safely ‘this is now past the peak and we can start thinking very much now about the next phases.’” So far, more than 12,868 people with COVID-19 have died in British hospitals, though new official data indicates the true death toll could be much larger. Whitty said the daily number of deaths could rise in coming days due reporting lags. The government is widely expected to announce on Thursday that it will extend the most far-reaching restrictions on daily life in Britain’s peacetime history. But Johnson had initially refrained from approving the stringent controls that other European leaders imposed. He later closed down the country when projections showed a quarter of a million people could die in the United Kingdom. The leader of the opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, said the prime minister had initially been too slow to impose the lockdown, signalling the political row that is likely to dominate the national discourse for years to come. “I am worried that it looks like we are going to have a higher death rate than any other country in Europe and there will obviously be searching questions about why that has happened,” Starmer told LBC radio. “I did think the government was going too slowly,” Starmer said. “We will have to look back in due course.” A widespread lockdown came into force on March 23. Prior to that the Conservative government had urged people not to make unnecessary journeys and to cut down on socialising, rather than closing establishments down. But Britons had still packed pubs and restaurants, and even the Cheltenham horse-racing event went ahead, bringing together thousands of punters. Johnson even joked about shaking hands with medical staff during a hospital visit. Starmer, a 57-year-old former prosecutor who won the Labour Party leadership earlier this month, also called on the government to publish its exit strategy from lockdown restrictions. Foreign minister Dominic Raab, who is deputising for Johnson while he recovers from COVID-19, will lead a cabinet meeting on Thursday morning, and in the afternoon chair an emergency response committee meeting to decide on extending the lockdown The United Kingdom’s hospital death toll from COVID-19 rose by 761 to 12,868 as of 1600 on April 14, the health ministry said. The toll had gone up by 778 the previous day. The official British death toll is the fifth-highest globally after the United States, Italy, Spain and France. The United States has reported more than 28,000 deaths while Italy has reported more than 21,000. Several European countries have announced plans or already begun to relax restrictions, balancing the risk of reversing gains against further damage to battered economies. Starmer said Labour supported extending the measures in Britain but that to “maintain morale and hope”, the public needed to have an idea of what is coming next. Government officials have defended their course of action regarding the start of the lockdown and said it would be a mistake to talk about how to end the lockdown before they were confident the peak had been reached. Amid the doom, though, there were rays of hope. A 106-year-old woman, thought to be the oldest patient in Britain to beat the novel coronavirus, was discharged from hospital. Connie Titchen, born in 1913, had battled suspected pneumonia and COVID-19. A 99-year-old war veteran, Tom Moore, has raised more than 8 million pounds ($10.03 million) for Britain’s health service with a walk around his garden.
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“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.”
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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 didn’t reopen.
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false
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States, Coronavirus, Mike Pence,
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"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 said during his Aug. 26 Republican National Convention speech. Clearly the federal government has provided supplies and funding to states led by both parties in response to the pandemic, and Pence himself has held regular conference calls with governors in both parties. But Pence was speaking about the actions of Trump, not his own. Pence’s comments ignore Trump’s multiple feuds, many times with Democratic governors, about state-federal responsibilities and pandemic response. A Trump campaign spokesperson sent us a list of dozens of tele-conferences and meetings that Trump or Pence had with governors including Democrats such as New York’s Andrew Cuomo, and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer. In March, Trump sent a letter to governors thanking them for ""stepping up to help America confront this unprecedented global pandemic."" The campaign pointed to actions by administration officials to brief governors about making available supplies, such as testing swabs, utilizing the National Guard, and reopening their state’s economies. Early in the pandemic, Trump traded barbs with governors, especially over where responsibility lay in securing medical supplies for the states. After declaring a national emergency over the health crisis on March 13, Trump directed governors to order their own ventilators, respirators and supplies, saying the federal government is ""not a shipping clerk."" Governors in both parties shot back that Trump’s stance, and the lack of coordination from Washington, left states bidding against one another and the federal government for access to critical equipment. Cuomo said it was akin to competing on eBay with 50 other states and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Whitmer and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican and then chair of the National Governors Association, were among those pleading for better coordination from FEMA to ensure that supplies were distributed based on need. ""The lack of any centralized coordination is creating a counterproductive competition between states and the federal government to secure limited supplies, driving up prices and exacerbating existing shortages,"" they wrote in a joint March 30 op-ed in the Washington Post. A couple days earlier, Trump said during a White House briefing that governors should be ""appreciative"" toward him and the federal government. Speaking of Pence, Trump said: ""He calls all the governors. I tell him — I mean, I’m a different type of person — I say, ‘Mike, don’t call the governor of Washington. You’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman in Michigan.’"" On Twitter, Trump said Whitmer was ""way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue."" In April, Trump said that testing ""is a local thing"" and that states should turn to commercial labs for help. After he was blasted by governors from both parties, Trump said the federal government would step up efforts to get testing supplies. Governors also called on Trump early on to enact the Defense Production Act, a law that gives the president authority to expedite the supply of materials for national defense, in order to ramp up production of personal protective equipment and COVID-19 testing supplies. While the president did eventually invoke the act to produce ventilators and medical equipment, he delayed efforts to do so and did it sparingly. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson called for him to broaden its use. Trump’s justification for slow-rolling the act was that he didn’t want the government to intervene in the private sector. ""You know, we’re a country not based on nationalizing our business,"" Trump said at a coronavirus task force press briefing on March 22. ""Call a person over in Venezuela, ask them how did nationalization of their businesses work out? Not too well."" In April, Trump said that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, had reopened Georgia ""too soon."" In May, he criticized Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, for keeping parts of his state closed that Trump said were ""barely affected."" Trump said in mid April that it was up to him — not the governors — about when to re-open states on lockdown. Frustrated with the responses from the Trump administration, some governors teamed up with each other to get needed supplies. In May, a coalition of governors from seven Northeastern states, including New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Delaware, teamed up to buy personal protective equipment and ventilators and to create a re-unified reopening strategy. As late as July, some governors were calling on the feds for help and not getting what they needed. There were shortages of testing supplies, as well as personal protective gear. Washington state asked for 4.2 million N-95 respirators. It got a bit under 500,000. It asked for about 300,000 gowns. It got about 160,000. On Aug. 18, a bipartisan group of governors — five Democrats and five Republicans — announced they would be teaming up with the Rockefeller Foundation to create a national testing strategy in the absence of federal action. The 10 states are Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, Utah, Arkansas, Rhode Island and Virginia. Their goal is to buy and deploy 5 million COVID-19 antigen tests. The Trump administration sought to pressure states to reopen in-person schools. In July, Trump threatened to cut off funding if schools didn’t reopen. This summer, the Trump administration reduced the federal share of National Guard assistance to the states to help with pandemic response, despite pleas from governors in both parties. An Aug. 3 memo said that the federal government would no longer continue to pay for 100% of the tab for most states and that it would be reduced to 75% as of Aug. 21. And when the CDC unveiled new testing guidelines that downplayed the need to test people who don’t show symptoms — about 40% of those infected — Cuomo and California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that they won’t follow it. Asymptomatic people are thought to be significant spreaders of the virus. Both governors at times praised certain responses by the Trump administration to help their states respond to the pandemic. Pence said, ""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."" Trump and top administration officials have communicated with governors of both parties for months in meetings, phone calls and written communication. But Pence’s comment ignores that Trump has feuded with governors over state-federal responsibilities, supplies and shutdown or reopen policies. He’s also suggested a lesser role for the federal government, and said that the handling of COVID-19 should be left to the states.ostly False."
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7257
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Tire company gives $5M to protect land around Bayou Pierre.
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A $5 million donation from the state’s newest major industry will help preserve an environmentally stressed waterway in southwest Mississippi.
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true
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MS State Wire, Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi River, Environment, Wildlife, Darts, Continental AG
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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 director of Wildlife Mississippi The waterway, which empties into the Mississippi River in Claiborne County, is the only home of a fish listed as federally threatened, the bayou darter. Cummins said his group plans to improve habitat by planting native hardwood trees on part of the land which is now planted in pines, and by removing invasive species from areas where there are now hardwoods. The initial restoration work is expected to take place over the winter and spring. Wildlife Mississippi already owns an adjoining 320 acres. “What we’re trying to do is build a larger conservation area around Bayou Pierre,” Cummins said. The stream is plagued by erosion because the channel of the Mississippi is deepening, and Bayou Pierre is carving out a deeper channel of its own to get down to the lower level of the river it feeds into. That’s causing erosion of Bayou Pierre’s banks, harming the stream’s water quality and further stressing the bayou darter. The problem has been going on for years, exacerbated by agriculture and gravel mining in the Bayou Pierre watershed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been trying to organize landowners to improve the situation, and Wildlife Mississippi’s entry is one response. Cummins said Wildlife Mississippi was approached by Continental even before the company announced its $1.45 billion tire plant near Clinton in February, and Continental said the transaction was completed in April. “It’s important for Continental to work with local environmental groups to conserve the areas where we’re investing,” Continental Project Manager Grant Bovim said in a statement. Continental ultimately plans 2,500 jobs at the Hinds County site. Wildlife Mississippi will retain the land and is considering public access to the tract in the future. Cummins said the group would like to encourage canoeing and kayaking in Bayou Pierre. ___ Follow Jeff Amy at: http://twitter.com/jeffamy . Read his work at http://bigstory.ap.org/author/jeff-amy .
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"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.”"
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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 President Donald Trump’s trade policies, which placed tariffs on imports from China. China is one of the biggest manufacturers of PPE.
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false
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Health Check, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
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"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. Alongside a photo of Obama, the text of the Facebook post says: ""Let me be clear. I 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 image piqued our interest because it combined a few hot-button issues. First, the concern that the U.S. is experiencing a shortage of ventilators and personal protective equipment, or PPE, like masks, gowns and gloves to help protect front-line workers from coronavirus. Second, issues related to trade imbalances and the outsourcing of American manufacturing abroad are likely to be frequent themes on the presidential campaign trail. So we decided to dig in. Though the image did not include sourcing or sponsorship information, its target — the ""medical appliance tax bill"" — seemed to be a reference to the medical device tax (more formally known as the medical device excise tax) that became law as part of the Affordable Care Act. Additionally, much of the social media post tracked closely to statements made by conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh during an April 2 episode of his talk show, which included a discussion of the medical device tax. Before we get into the specifics of the medical device tax, two critical elements of the post must be addressed. First, did Obama ever say anything like what the viral image claims? We checked with Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to the former president. In an email he wrote back: ""President Obama obviously didn’t say this!"" A key piece of evidence that supports Schultz’s statement is the use of the term ""medical appliance device tax bill."" Bottom line: We couldn’t find any other reference — either official or unofficial — to a piece of federal legislation bearing this name or nickname. And, though the experts we spoke with agreed the social media post was likely directed at the device tax included in the ACA, none had ever heard it referred to with that moniker — a point that adds more skepticism to the image’s claim. In order to pay for the ACA’s expansion of health coverage, taxes were increased for various industries — including the medical device industry — that would benefit from more people getting health insurance. The tax was controversial and triggered considerable pushback. The measure set a 2.3% excise tax on medical devices, sold in the United States beginning in January 2013. The tax applied to both domestic manufacturers and importers of medical devices. But, it did not apply to items made in the U.S. for foreign export, said John McDonough, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who also served as a senior adviser during the Obama administration and helped write the Affordable Care Act. ""The tax was designed deliberately"" to avoid forcing manufacturers to move their production overseas, McDonough wrote in an email. Opponents of the tax argued that it was a severe financial burden on medical device manufacturers. They also estimated that it would have resulted in the loss of more than 20,000 full-time domestic jobs in the industry. Joseph Antos, a health policy scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, said that the tax was punishing on the medical device industry because it was implemented on ""gross sales rather than profits,"" which raised issues for small device firms. However, a 2015 Congressional Research Service report said that the medical device tax seemed to have only ""fairly minor effects"" on jobs with ""output and employment in the industry falling by no more than two-tenths of 1%."" Antos said that though the tax ""clearly"" had an effect on the industry, he wasn't aware of any studies or statistics that showed production and sales moving overseas because of it. But Paul Van de Water, a senior fellow and expert in health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning think tank, took an even harder line on the social media image’s assertion. ""It’s absolutely false on the face of it,"" he said. ""There was no way the tax provided any incentive to shift production overseas."" Van de Water also said that while there was some shift of manufacturing overseas while the tax was in effect, there were other factors leading that push, such as competition and pressure to reduce costs. ""There’s no way to attribute that to the device tax itself,"" he added. And, there’s another complication. Congress acted to put the medical device tax on hold at the end of 2015 -- in part due to significant lobbying by the medical device industry, as well as opposition to it from both Republican and Democratic members of Congress who had medical device companies headquartered in their states. In December 2019, President Donald Trump permanently repealed the tax when he signed a bipartisan federal spending package. ""The tax was only in effect for three years, from 2013 to 2015,"" said Van de Water. ""Even if it [the medical device tax] had some effect, that effect would have ended in 2016. We’re now four years later."" So finally, does the now non-existent medical device tax have anything to do with our current PPE shortage in the face of the coronavirus pandemic? The answer to that is also no, said the experts. The current personal protective equipment shortage can be attributed to the lack of a stockpile reserve of PPE, an initial slow response by the U.S. and the tariffs imposed against Chinese goods by the Trump administration, said Peter Petri, a professor of international finance at Brandeis University outside Boston. AEI’s Antos considered it an issue of the huge demand for these items, which has made replenishing stockpiles more difficult. According to a recent report from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, in 2018 China was the source of 48% of U.S. imports of PPE. Seventy percent of the United States’ mouth and nose protective gear, such as masks, came from China in 2018. Overall, China is a major supplier of PPE to countries all over the world. Petri said this makes sense, since China is a low-cost manufacturer of these relatively simple products. But it also became a problem once the White House started implementing tariffs on Chinese products. ""For nearly a year, U.S. buyers have been moving their PPE business away from China to other countries because of the Trump tariff wall,"" Petri wrote in an email. But those manufacturers in other countries were not able to scale up their production to make up for the amount of supplies needed when the coronavirus hit. ""Meanwhile Chinese suppliers were turning to markets in Europe. The U.S. could not have chosen a worse time to turn its back on the world's largest PPE producer,"" said Petri. China’s massive manufacturing capacity did allow it to scale up production to account for the coronavirus pandemic, but because it had already established businesses in other locales and in response to the imposed tariffs, Petri suggested, it is unlikely now that China would be as receptive to U.S. requests for PPE. Nothing in this viral image is accurate. There is even a spelling error. Obama did not sign anything into law called the ""medical appliance tax bill."" A moratorium was placed on the medical device tax he did sign into law as part of the Affordable Care Act in late 2015. Therefore, that tax was put on hold in 2016 and eventually repealed by Trump in 2019. Instead, experts we consulted agreed that the current PPE shortage is more aptly linked to the inadequate national emergency stockpile of PPE, increased demand for the products and the Trump administration’s Chinese trade policies. Our ruling is !"
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J&J agrees to pay about $1 billion to resolve hip implant lawsuits: Bloomberg.
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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.
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true
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Health News
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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 suits by patients with artificial hips that were not made totally of metal or haven’t been surgically removed, Bloomberg added. In February, Reuters reported J&J’s DePuy Orthopedics unit, which made the products, was in settlement talks to resolve most individual lawsuits alleging the company’s metal-on-metal Pinnacle hip implants were defective and caused severe injuries. The implants were said to cause a build-up of metal ions in the blood, causing groin pain, allergic reactions, bone erosion and tissue death. In 2013, DePuy ceased selling the metal-on-metal Pinnacle devices after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration strengthened its artificial hip regulations. The Pinnacle system continues to be sold with other material combinations. Texas-based plaintiff lawyer Mark Lanier, one of the main attorneys for the consumers, declined to comment. Johnson & Johnson did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
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24460
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"When White House communications director Anita Dunn said that Mao Tse-tung was ""one of her favorite philosophers, only Fox News picked that up."
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O'Reilly accuses media of not following Fox's lead on Anita Dunn-Mao Tse-tung story
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false
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National, Pundits, Bill O'Reilly,
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"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 late Chinese communist leader who is blamed for the deaths of millions of people. The O'Reilly-Coulter exchange, aired on Oct. 23, 2009, came amid a war of words between the White House and Fox. Anita Dunn, the White House communications director and a longtime Democratic operative, emerged this month as one of the leading figures in a White House push to discredit Fox News, telling the New York Times ' Brian Stelter, ""We're going to treat [Fox] the way we would treat an opponent. ... We don't need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave."" Dunn's comments added heat to an already simmering feud, and it wasn't long before Glenn Beck — the conservative Fox host who frequently riles the White House and its allies — responded in kind. On the Oct. 15, 2009, episode of his Fox show, Beck aired a video of a speech Dunn made to high school students. In it, Dunn imparted a series of life lessons to the students, the third of which ""actually comes from two of my favorite political philosophers: Mao Tse-tung and Mother Teresa, not often coupled together, but the two people that I turn to most to basically deliver a simple point, which is, you're going to make choices. You're going to challenge. You're going to say why not. You're going to figure out how to do things that have never been done before."" Dunn then told an anecdote about how Mao triumphed as an underdog over his rival, nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek, during the Chinese civil war. Asked how he would win, Mao said, according to Dunn, ""You know, you fight your war, and I'll fight mine."" Dunn continued, ""And think about that for a second. You don't have to accept the definition of how to do things, and you don't have to follow other people's choices and paths, okay? It is about your choices and your path. You fight your own war. You lay out your own path. You figure out what's right for you. You don't let external definitions define how good you are internally."" Beck's discovery that a senior Obama White House official had said nice things about a Communist leader with a bloody place in history was catnip for Fox, and for a host of conservative bloggers. Let's explore whether O'Reilly is correct that ""only Fox News picked that up. Nobody else picked that up."" It's certainly true that Fox played the story to the hilt: In a 10-day span after the story broke, Fox shows mentioned the incident, either in depth or in passing, roughly two dozen times. As for other news organizations, we found they rarely treated it as a news story. But there was a fair amount of discussion about Dunn's remark, usually in commentaries or analyses of the Fox-White House feud: — In opinion columns . Two syndicated columnists based at the Washington Post wrote about Dunn's Mao comment. Kathleen Parker, a conservative with a maverick streak, wrote a pox-on-both-their-houses column, while Charles Krauthammer (a frequent panelist on Fox) penned one that was critical of Dunn and favorable to Fox. Both ran on the Post 's op-ed page and were reprinted in newspapers across the country. A handful of newspapers also wrote editorials that cited the episode. Meanwhile, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Dick Polman published a column in the paper (and later an expanded version online) that took Fox and Beck to task. ""How helpful is Beck, after all, when he morphs into Joe McCarthy on Fox News, and attempts to red-bait a top Obama aide by painting her as a communist sympathizer in thrall to Mao Tse-tung?"" Polman asked. ""Last week, Beck characterized Anita Dunn as a 'fan of a guy who killed millions of people.' He then aired a video clip that showed Dunn quoting Mao during a June speech. Shocking! What Beck naturally neglected to tell his credulous viewers is that politicians of all stripes have been quoting Mao for years. Such as: 'In the words of Chairman Mao, it’s always darkest before it’s totally black.' (That was John McCain). Such as: 'Mao said politics is war without bloodshed. Clearly there are some metaphors that sit nicely with politics.' (That was Christian conservative leader Ralph Reed.)"" — As media criticism . The Washington Post' s media critic, Howard Kurtz, made brief references to the Mao controversy as he dissected the Fox-White House feud in two of his daily Media Notes blog posts. — In remarks by TV commentators . On the Oct. 18, 2009, edition of CNN's State of the Union with John King , commentators discussed the war between the White House and Fox. Bill Bennett, a conservative, brought up the Dunn-Mao connection. Saying it ""isn't a small thing — it's a big thing,"" Bennett told the panel, ""Now, look, I am not a right-wing nut, and when people go after Obama and say 'socialism and Marxism,' I say, take it easy, you know, calm down. But when she stands up, in a speech to high school kids, says she's deeply influenced by Mao Tse-tung, that — I mean, that is crazy."" Meanwhile, Lou Dobbs, on his nightly news show on CNN, gave a brief hat tip to Beck's story (adding that Mao may have been responsible for ""as many as 100 million"" deaths) before proceeding into a plug for his syndicated radio show, where viewers could ""hear more of my thoughts on all the president's czars and their fascination with Mao Tse-tung."" On CNN (which has had its own war of words with Fox, its longtime cable news rival), the Situation Room put resident curmudgeon Jack Cafferty on the Mao story, asking viewers what they thought. ""T.J."" wrote to Cafferty, ""Enough already. Stop reporting anything about Glenn Beck. He is an insane nut job. His opinion is of no value to anyone, except other nut jobs. Stop enabling this psychotic fraud by constantly reporting what he has to say about, well, anything."" ""J.R. in Idaho"" wrote, ""When you report on the stories you have created, you have become illegitimate. Fox is 'balloon boy.'"" Others were critical of the White House for taking on a fight it was unlikely to win. — Only rarely as straight news . The day after Beck aired the video, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux and Ed Hornick posted a Web story in which Dunn said that the Mao quote ""is one I picked up from the late Republican strategist Lee Atwater from something I read in the late 1980s, so I hope I don't get my progressive friends mad at me."" She added that ""the use of the phrase 'favorite political philosophers' was intended as irony, but clearly the effort fell flat — at least with a certain Fox commentator whose sense of irony may be missing."" On Oct. 18, the Associated Press moved a story that recapped the controversy in a straightforward way. (It was written by the AP's television writer, David Bauder, not one of its national political writers.) A day later, the Los Angeles Times ' Top of the Ticket blog briefly mentioned the Mao-Dunn flap in an item about the larger Fox-White House conflict. And the New York Times ' Caucus blog took up the issue twice. The first time, on Oct. 16, 2009, Sheryl Gay Stolberg wrote a post explaining the Dunn-Mao controversy, saying that ""the war of words between the White House and Fox News is intensifying — and getting personal."" Two days later, the blog offered an update on the Fox-White House war, adding the following quote from Dunn: ""Let it be noted that I also quoted Mother Teresa, but no one is accusing me of being a saint!"" So let's recap. If O'Reilly's point is that few media outlets played the story as worthy of straight news coverage, he's probably right. With only a few exceptions, the media coverage we found consisted either of opinion columns (both pro and con), purposeful mentions of it by TV commentators or as a subject for laughs. However, if we stick to his precise wording, O'Reilly is certainly incorrect that ""only Fox News"" picked up the story. While Fox beat the drum more heavily than anyone — not surprising, since it was the network's story to begin with — CNN and the blogs of several major newspapers also mentioned it. In addition, syndicated versions of two Washington Post columns appeared in many newspapers around the country."
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987
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In border camps, Syrians rely on doctors in trucks and tents.
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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.
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true
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Health News
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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 from doctors,” said Abdelaziz, whose family was smuggled out of Raqqa city some three years ago. They wound up in Syria’s northwest corner, the country’s last major rebel stronghold. The camps are overflowing, the doctors are too few, and many hospitals have collapsed under government bombing. In the camps along the Turkish border, often the only healthcare for people like Abdelaziz comes from mobile doctors and makeshift clinics in tents. “Many just take pills and stay silent about the pain,” said Bassel Maarawi, 57, the dentist who goes around seven camps in the border strip held by Turkey-backed rebels. The dental mobile clinic stays at each camp a few months at a time, treating dozens of patients every day who can not go into town to see a doctor. It belongs to the Independent Doctors Association, a Turkey-based Syrian group also running a free camp facility including a clinic for women, children, and internal medicine as well as a pharmacy. Maarawi himself was uprooted in late 2016 from his city of Aleppo, where the army crushed rebels with Russia and Iran’s help after a bitter siege. The children he treats now, living in the dirt and drinking filthy water, often suffer from malnutrition. “Many people were displaced recently which really affected them mentally, you can see it when they come in,” he said. A new wave of fighting has sparked yet another exodus, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing an army offensive in northwest Syria since April. At a camp for some 14,000 people in the border village of Shamarin, Ammar al-Omar runs a physiotherapy clinic inside a large tent. The staff - a medical professional and three volunteers he trained - made most of the equipment themselves and get by on just a few donations. They treat everything from back pain to battle wounds for patients including rebel fighters and paralyzed children. “There are many injuries because of the fierce bombing,” Omar said. “The patients can’t afford food let alone transportation.” Um Mhamad, 29, has carried her son from another camp nearby and walked to the tent clinic for more than two years. An injury at birth had crippled the six-year-old boy, whose family was shuttled out of Aleppo in 2016. “He used to not move at all,” she said. “Today, he can crawl and turn on both sides and stand up.”
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7416
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Grand Forks outbreak has other North Dakota plants on alert.
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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.
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true
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Health, General News, Grand Forks, Business, Infectious diseases, Fargo, North Dakota, Virus Outbreak, Public health
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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 University, referring to the spread at the Grand Forks plant. Officials with two of the state’s largest plants, window and door maker Marvin and agriculture and construction components producer John Deere Electronic Solutions, say there are new rules of the road. And they’re doing more than the standard protocol of proper hygiene, high-tech protective gear, social distancing and stickers that say, “IF YOU CAN READ THIS YOU ARE TOO CLOSE.” Hallways, entrances, and exits are strictly one-way. Other changes have included temperature checks, unique equipment like “no touch” door openers, liberal leave policies and pay provisions, and an added emphasis on communication between management and workers. ’“The stakes are too high right now,” said Paul Marvin, CEO of Marvin, a century-old Warroad, Minnesota-based company with 6,000 employees in eight states, including 1,300 in the Fargo area. “We want to make people feel comfortable and build trust. It costs you a little money in the short term but it pays dividends in the long run.” The John Deere Electronic Solutions plant in Fargo employs about 750 people. A company spokeswoman said “one of the most impactful steps” they’ve taken is to assure employees that they will be paid if they have symptoms of the virus, don’t feel well or believe they could have been exposed. Marvin employees receive paid leave if they are sick and unpaid leave with health benefits if they just don’t feel comfortable going to work. Paul Marvin said employees don’t have to “prove how sick they are” with notes from their doctors. And their jobs will be waiting for them when they return. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has held up a Canada-based potato processing business as the gold standard for protecting employees from the coronavirus, stating that Cavendish Farms plants in North Dakota and elsewhere have not recorded a single COVID-19 case among thousands of workers. The company employs 250 people at its Jamestown plant. “It has been a family owned-business for decades, taking care of their people,” Burgum said. “They have a culture of safety that has been long established. It’s easy for them to take it up another level.” Cavendish Farms spokeswoman Mary Keith said the numerous safeguards include infrared cameras to monitor the temperatures of people entering buildings and hundreds of signs in multiple languages placed throughout the plants to make employees aware of social distancing and other guidelines. The company purchased 2,700 plexiglass face shields for all of its operations and has added floor-to-ceiling barriers made of plexiglass or wood, she said. “We feel that what we did very well is we reacted early and we reacted fast to the risk and escalated our measures,” Keith said, adding that workers awaiting testing or treatment for COVID-19 receive 10 paid days with health benefits. Meanwhile, the number of infected workers at LM Wind Power stands at about 150 at the Grand Forks plant that employs about 900 people. State and local health officials are undertaking a vigorous contact tracing effort, recruiting dozens of people to help find other COVID-19 cases related to the plant. Some LM employees have complained publicly about what they believed to be a lack of safety precautions, which the company has denied. Officials with the Department of Labor and Human Rights have not received any complaints from LM employees, according to Burgum spokesman Mike Nowatzki. Scott Weislow, Marvin’s director of enterprise risk management, said Marvin had a pandemic blueprint in its library after dealing with the Avian flu and that gave them a head start, he said. “I think we’re going to see an evolution in business; not just us but everybody,” Weislow said. “Working from home will be more acceptable. Some of these social distancing measures are probably going to stick around and you’re going to see other measures like voice activated lights and voice activated door openers.” Carson said when it comes to the coronavirus, even the most stringent measures may not be enough to dodge “the luck of the draw.” It only takes one infected person who’s not showing symptoms to start the spread, he said.
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5943
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Renewed battle over using fetal tissue in medical research.
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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.
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true
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Health, Politics, North America, Medical research, Mark Meadows, Science
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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 said that view is at odds with science. Each side called on expert witnesses. “Most of my constituents don’t understand when you harvest baby parts, why that is OK,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who chaired the hearing by the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Meadows, leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, is one of President Donald Trump’s biggest allies in Congress. But Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., responded, “The consensus in the scientific community is that there is currently no adequate substitute for fetal tissue in all of the cutting-edge research for which it is used today.” The government has funded research using fetal tissue for decades, under administrations of both political parties. Trump has gone out of his way to court social and religious conservatives among his staunchest supporters. The administration’s new review of whether taxpayer dollars are being properly spent on fetal tissue research has raised alarms among medical investigators, who fear their work will be stopped to satisfy anti-abortion activists. Under Secretary Alex Azar, the Health and Human Services Department says it is trying to balance “pro-life” and “pro-science” imperatives in its ongoing audit of fetal tissue research. Azar’s office said in a statement that the National Institutes of Health put a pause on procurement of new human fetal tissue in the fall, after the audit was announced. The department says research with fetal tissue already on hand was allowed to proceed, and that it never intended to stop research. The HHS statement left open the possibility of procuring new fetal tissue to prevent research projects from being interrupted. Research involving fetal tissue accounted for $98 million in NIH grants and projects during the 2017 fiscal year, a small fraction of the agency’s overall research budget. NIH said that $98 million figure represents the entire budget for the grants at issue, even if only a portion of a particular grant was devoted to fetal tissue research. HHS has not announced a timeline for completing its audit. Fetal tissue is used to produce research mice that model how the human immune system works. The tissue, from elective abortions, would otherwise be discarded. Biochemist Tara Sander Lee told the committee that alternatives to fetal tissue are available and can be used. “We do not need fetal body parts from aborted babies to achieve future scientific and medical advancements,” said Sander Lee, with the Charlotte Lozier Institute, which is opposed to abortion. Tissues from infants who have to undergo heart surgery are among the alternatives, she said. But neuroscientist Sally Temple, testifying on behalf of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, told lawmakers that alternatives to fetal tissue are simply not suitable for every disease and condition being studied. “The consensus opinion is that those alternatives are not sufficient,” she said. Temple explained that tissue samples from different stages of the life cycle are not interchangeable. “It is not the same material,” she said. “It is a different developmental stage. It has unique properties.” Temple said researchers would readily use alternatives to fetal tissue if that was suitable.
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10049
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Spinal Fluid Test May Diagnose Alzheimer’s
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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 question mark hanging over this approach. But the story does not try to run ahead of the actual evidence provided by the study. It would have been helpful to explain how this test is likely to be used by researchers testing experimental treatments.
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mixture
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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 researchers testing potential treatments. The story points out that this sort of test could be useful for screening once effective treatments are available. However, the story should have been more clear that the test as presented in this study, if used in isolation, could lead to many people being incorrectly labeled as having Alzheimer’s Disease. While noting that many people are reluctant to undergo spinal taps, this story includes only comments that downplay the potential harms, including pain or bleeding. The story fails to discuss the potentially serious consequences of using this sort of test before symptoms appear, such as insurance or employment discrimination.
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30598
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Production of the flu shot caused the influenza virus to mutate into a more virulent strain, driving the deadly 2017-2018 flu season.
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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.
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false
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Medical, anti-vaccine, epidemic, erin elizabeth
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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 carried the headline “ABC: Experts Say Flu Shot Potentially Caused the Flu Epidemic” despite not once mentioning or citing ABC News in its text, rested solely on a single quote from a Burnett County, Wisconsin, nurse which was found in an article published by the local newspaper the Burnett County Sentinel (described repeatedly in Elizabeth’s piece as an example of “the mainstream media”): While part of the blame lies with the dominant flu strain this year, H3N2, which tends to be more severe and causes more severe symptoms than most other strains, it also potentially lies with us: “I believe that the low effective rate of the vaccine this year is due to the mutations that the virus made in the processing of the vaccine itself,” said Anna Treague, nurse for Public Health. “That is at LEAST part of the reason that influenza cases are so widespread this year.” Elizabeth’s article strongly suggests that she believes the nurse intended this statement to imply that the H3N2 virus is a mega-bug created as a result of the production of a vaccine against it. This interpretation, however, represents a full-scale misunderstanding of the vaccine manufacturing process and is likely (though our request for comment from Treague has not been returned) a misrepresentation of what the nurse was trying to convey. To understand the confusion, it helps to know how the flu shot is typically manufactured. The most common process for the influenza vaccine is what the CDC terms an “egg-based manufacturing process.” Under this method, strains of influenza are injected into chicken eggs that sustain the virus, allowing it to proliferate and incubate before the antigens (chemicals formed by the virus that produce an immune response) produced in the egg are harvested: The egg-based production process begins with CDC or another laboratory partner … providing private sector manufacturers with candidate vaccine viruses (CVVs) grown in eggs per current FDA regulatory requirements. These CVVs are then injected into fertilized hen’s eggs and incubated for several days to allow the viruses to replicate. The virus-containing fluid is harvested from the eggs. For flu shots, the influenza viruses for the vaccine are then inactivated (killed), and virus antigen is purified. As we explained in a debunker of another Elizabeth post just one month ago, a leading hypothesis for why vaccination against H3N2 (the most virulent strain this season) is so ineffective is that during the fertilized egg portion of the production process, the virus may mutate at a faster rate in (or it may react differently to) the egg matrix in which it is grown. As described in a January 2018 New England Journal of Medicine perspective piece, many studies have demonstrated that H3N2 can adapt itself to the conditions of the (avian) egg, resulting in the creation of antigens (and therefore vaccines) that have little or no effect on humans: Another factor that may alter the effectiveness of influenza vaccines is the substrate used to produce them. In the United States, most influenza-vaccine viruses are propagated in eggs … During the egg-based production process, the vaccine virus acquires amino acid changes that facilitate replication in eggs … Since the influenza [hemagglutinin, HA] is the primary target of neutralizing antibodies, small modifications in this protein can cause antigenic changes in the virus and decrease vaccine effectiveness. Egg adaptation has been postulated to contribute to low vaccine effectiveness, particularly with influenza A (H3N2) viruses; however, the true impact is largely unknown. This means that, as Treague stated, a plausible reason discussed in the medical literature regarding the flu shot’s ineffectiveness “is due to the mutations that the virus made in the processing of the vaccine itself.” What this does not mean, however, is that a mutated superbug was created by humans, as suggested by Elizabeth. The problem is not that a new virus has been created that cannot be controlled; the problem is that the virus changed slightly while in the egg, producing a harvest of irrelevant antigens for vaccine production. The notion that a virus can mutate, while perhaps scary sounding, is far from revelatory. All strains of the influenza virus are in a constant state of relatively rapid mutation — this is why the flu shot changes every year based on the predictions of scientists monitoring the prevalence and drift of flu strains around the world. Elizabeth then goes on to suggest that, despite having to hunt for a vague quote in an obscure local paper to make her case, that “other experts agree”: The Health Department official says it’s at LEAST part of the problem, if not the whole problem, and other experts agree. Dr Mercola (his video is below), who has had the #1 health site — worldwide — for 20 years, agrees, “It’s no surprise at all”, he says. We have countless other MDs and PhDs who concur as well. As doctors continue to give the dangerous shot and the virus mutates, more people will get sick and the epidemic will worsen. It’s like a bad sci-fi movie. The primary expert she cites is Dr. Mercola, who — outside of being fined or warned by the FTC and FDA for making unsubstantiated or misleading medical claims — is Elizabeth’s partner. His views are well outside the mainstream, are oftentimes poorly researched and erroneous, and are strongly motivated by his anti-vaccine readership. Regardless, the premise of a “bad sci-fi movie” epidemic caused by vaccine production gone wrong is based on a willfully misleading or grossly incorrect interpretation of a vague quote highlighted to scare readers and generate clicks, not illuminate the issue. The notion that humans caused the most problematic strain in this year’s flu season is not only incorrect, it is not even what the nurse’s quote is likely suggesting. Another quote from the nurse in the Burnett County Sentinel story is less difficult to misconstrue:
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8997
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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
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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 fibrillation (NVAF). NVAF refers to irregular heart rhythm that is not caused by valvular heart disease. The 2-year study looked at insurance claims data to analyze patient outcomes from different drugs. According to researchers, the study showed that the patients experienced fewer strokes and systemic embolism when treated with rivaroxaban (brand name Xarelto, manufactured by Janssen) compared to those taking warfarin or other anticoagulants (apixaban and dabigatran). The news release neglected to mention potential biases in this type of research, such as the lack of randomization among compared medications. Importantly, the scientific paper this release is based on compared three of the newer anti-coagulants to warfarin but did not compare them to each other, thus making it hard to determine if one truly was “better” than the others. Ideally, research can help determine which, among several therapies, can reduce stroke or systematic embolism in frail patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. This type of research using matched cohorts of patients sounds very promising but also has many potential biases, mainly the lack of randomization. Appropriate caveats need to be considered about whether such a study can definitively determine the comparative value of these drugs.
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false
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blood clot,Janssen,stroke,Xarelto
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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 the risk of stroke and systemic embolism by 32 percent and ischemic stroke alone by 31 percent compared to warfarin, with no significant increase in major bleeding.” It’s a major omission in the release to not report the absolute numbers. According to Table 3 in the published study, out of 2,635 total patients, 39 of those on rivaroxaban suffered a stroke or systemic embolism compared to 49 patients on warfarin. This makes the absolute differences in these combined events to be 1.48% (for rivaroxaban) and 1.86% (for warfarin). The difference of 0.43% means that the number needed to treat to show a benefit is 233. In other words: If you switch 233 patients from warfarin to rivaroxaban, then at 1 year you would prevent one stroke whereas the other 232 patients would remain stroke-free regardless. At 2 years, the absolute risk reduction was a bit higher at 0.98%. The main risk with these anti-coagulants is bleeding and the release mentions bleeding as a main complication. It also comments on the data of major bleeds which was the main safety endpoint of the paper. The published study provides many appropriate cautions about the limitations of this research but unfortunately those details didn’t make it into the news release. For example: “As a retrospective analysis of claims data, this study has limitations worthy of discussion. First, both misclassification (measurement error) and selection bias (selection of patients in a nonrandomized fashion) are always important limitations in claims database studies and may impact a study’s internal validity.” Also: “propensity score matching can generate cohorts that are comparable in key characteristics, [yet] only those variables measured in MarketScan databases could be used for matching in this analysis. Therefore, regardless of the sophistication of the methodology and the number of variables used in developing propensity scores, residual confounding cannot be excluded.” Also there were helpful notes about possibly underpowering the study due to the small sample size of the patient groups. All of these factors should urge a cautious interpretation of results. There is no disease mongering here. The release provides appropriate context on the numbers of Americans affected by non-valvular atrial fibrillation. It’s assumed that this is a Janssen-sponsored drug trial since the company issued the release but it is not expressly stated. The study was all about using different drug therapy alternatives in trying to reduce the risk of strokes in certain frail patients. While the release didn’t provide the preferred absolute numbers (see Benefits criteria) it did cite some comparisons with some different drugs. Many people would know these drugs are available in the US but that point isn’t made explicitly in the news release. However, it does state that the patient data came from a company that sells insurance claims data so a savvy reader would know that the drugs are all FDA approved and on the market. The release doesn’t make any specific claim about novelty, nor does it acknowledge that there are many other studies, even some randomized trials, comparing these newer anticoagulant agents agents to warfarin. It was unjustified use of language to use the term “significant” when it’s not clear that the results of the study proved the performance of Xarelto compared to other anticoagulants was “statistically significant.”
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11591
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Experimental drug cuts rare, lethal cholesterol levels in patients
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"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. relative benefits of the new drug and describing the type of study the findings are based on and the strength of that evidence. 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 that this new drug will be cheaper than the ""dialysis"" process, which, of course, is not known. The story states that fatty liver is a potential serious harm of treatment and provides proportions of people in the very small study that experienced some form of this complication. Of course, given how small the study was, it's not possible to know what this may mean clinically. However, the story points that out, stating that more studies are needed to better understand how serious this complication may be. Plus, the story also discloses that the manufacturer shelved this particular drug because of safety concerns over this side effect. While the potential harms are not fully understood scientifically, this is discussed in the story and the potential safety issues around this are not minimized by the reporting."
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true
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"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 that this new drug will be cheaper than the ""dialysis"" process, which, of course, is not known. Benefits are reported in relative vs. absolute terms. See our primer on this topic. The story states that fatty liver is a potential serious harm of treatment and provides proportions of people in the very small study that experienced some form of this complication. Of course, given how small the study was, it's not possible to know what this may mean clinically. However, the story points that out, stating that more studies are needed to better understand how serious this complication may be. Plus, the story also discloses that the manufacturer shelved this particular drug because of safety concerns over this side effect. While the potential harms are not fully understood scientifically, this is discussed in the story and the potential safety issues around this are not minimized by the reporting. The type of study is not mentioned, and although some limitations in study design are pointed out, these are not discussed so that an average person would not know that these results are very preliminary and should be interpreted with great caution. No disease mongering. Familial hypercholesterolemia is described as a condition in which very few people who have it live beyond 30 years and that this condition affects very few people in the U.S. One researcher not affiliated with the research is quoted in the story. Of course, her statements are conditional on whether or not the treatment does what researchers claim it does (since she is not involved and the research is very preliminary), but given the very early nature of the research, it may not be reasonable to find an independent expert who knows any more about the findings. The article does describe the only other option for treating (or slowing progression of) this condition, which was some form of dialysis to remove fats. The story also describes the cost information for this alternate treatment. The article states the drug is ""experimental,"" which implies this is not available outside of research. The story states the drug is experimental, implying this is new. The story quotes an independent source, so it appears the story did not rely solely or largely on a press release."
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26475
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A photo shows two Italian nurses in a hospital a few days before they got COVID-19 and died.
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An AP photographer took this picture of a couple kissing at the Barcelona Airport in Spain in March.
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false
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Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Viral image,
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"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 ""day and night working at the hospital"" after the coronavirus outbreak. But they were both infected with COVID-19, the post claims, and ""a few days later they both died holding each other's hand, looking after each other, caressing each other."" The post says the picture ""was taken while they were working in hospital, few days before Antonio got infected, unaware that this might be their last kiss."" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We don’t know their names, but the photo was taken at the Barcelona Airport in Spain, not a hospital in Italy. ""A couple kiss,"" reads the caption of the moment captured by Associated Press photographer Emilio Morenatti, ""at the Barcelona Airport, Spain, Thursday (March 12). Airlines and travelers are still sorting out the new travel ban that President Donald Trump announced late Wednesday, barring most foreign visitors from continental Europe for 30 days."" Searching for news stories about Sofia and Antonio and nurses in Italy, we found none — just other posts sharing the same story that appears on Facebook. Dozens of doctors and nurses treating coronavirus patients have died in Italy. But this Facebook post does not accurately describe the photo it features."
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684
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WWF says it did not push for rhino relocation process where 11 died.
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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.
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true
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Environment
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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 embarrassment to Kenya, which sells itself as destination for wildlife tourism. The inquiry said WWF, which donated $1 million for the relocation in June 2018, applied pressure on KWS to speed up the process in a bid to generate positive publicity and secure funding for itself from Germany. WWF denied the allegations in the inquiry report, which was made public last week, saying KWS had carried out hydrological surveys and given assurances the park was safe and suitable. “At no point either before or during the translocations were any issues raised about the quality of the water on the site,” WWF said by email. “We would never push for a translocation to go ahead against the recommendations of the relevant experts. This was a tragedy we hope will never be repeated.” The parliamentary committee’s inquiry said the relocation took place during a period in 2018 when the term of one KWS board had ended and before a new one had begun, creating a lack of oversight. The report said KWS’s former board of trustees had rejected the relocation three times in part because of the high salinity levels of the drinking water in the park. The report said Najib Balala, the minister of tourism and wildlife, should take overall responsibility for the rhinos’ deaths because he delayed the appointment of the new KWS board. The minister’s spokesman declined to comment. The KWS could not be immediately reached to comment. However, Richard Leakey, former chairperson of KWS, told the inquiry: “WWF-Kenya, as the funding entity, was alleged to have had a major interference on the board resolution against the translocation, and consequently pushed for the exercise after the exit of the board.” WWF said it was saddened by the loss of the rhinos and it fully recognized the “serious failings of this operation”. “In response, we have strengthened existing practices and implemented brand new organizational guidelines to mitigate future risk as far as possible.” Kenya had a rhino population of 1,258 in 2017 of which 745 were black rhinos, 510 were southern white rhinos and three were northern white rhinos, having grown from less than 400 rhinos in the 1980s. Poaching has risen in recent years across sub-Saharan Africa where well-armed criminal gangs have killed elephants for tusks and rhinos for horns. Often the animal parts are shipped to Asia for use in ornaments and medicines.
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30308
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Undocumented immigrants have killed 63,000 U.S. citizens since 11 September 2001.
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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 the families who crossed during enforcement of Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy were charged with misdemeanors.
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false
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Politics, donald trump, immigration
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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 Americans since 9/11 have been killed by illegal aliens,” the president said. “This isn’t a problem that’s going away, it’s getting bigger.” Not only was evidence for that claim lacking, it would require a seemingly superhuman murder spree by the nation’s roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants to be true. The president’s statement came amidst a cascade of public outcry against internment camps established by the government for undocumented children, which prompted the Trump administration to quickly change course and order undocumented families to be held together. But while the president accused reporters of failing to cover this alleged rash of homicides, the numbers did not support this claim. According to data provided for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 260,743 homicides in the United States took place from 2002 through 2016 (the most recent year available). It thus seems mathematically impossible that undocumented immigrants, who make up roughly 3 percent of the population, could have committed just under a quarter of all homicides in the United States during that time period. The erroneous figure appears to have originated in a May 2006 post by Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa complaining about the “Day Without an Immigrant” campaign calling attention to the contributions of immigrants to U.S. community. Without undocumented immigrants, King said, no one would smuggle drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border, and non-immigrants would be safer: The lives of 12 U.S. citizens would be saved who otherwise die a violent death at the hands of murderous illegal aliens each day. Another 13 Americans would survive who are otherwise killed each day by uninsured drunk driving illegals. Our hospital emergency rooms would not be flooded with everything from gunshot wounds, to anchor babies, to imported diseases to hangnails, giving American citizens the day off from standing in line behind illegals. Eight American children would not suffer the horror as a victim of a sex crime. A rate of 33 “deaths” per day for the roughly 4.5 years between the 9/11 attacks and the publication of King’s unsubstantiated claim would come out to 48,180 deaths in total, a rate that would far surpass the 63,000 number by 2018 — if the original assumption were legitimate. During a 2013 event hosted by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), King — who has a history of racist public statements — misrepresented a report from the Government Accountability Office, claiming that 25,064 undocumented immigrants had been arrested for homicides between 2004 and 2008. In fact, the statistic covered the time period between August 1955 and April 2010, a difference of nearly 51 years. The first, misstated timeframe would work out to about 17 homicide arrests per day; the real timeframe works out to approximately 1.25 arrests of undocumented persons for homicide per day, or 456 arrests per year. If we multiply that figure by eighteen just to be generous (11 September 2001 to 22 June 2018), we get a final figure of about 8,218 arrests, as opposed to the faulty metric yielding a total of around 112,790 homicide arrests in the same timeframe. (We will, for now, ignore the fact that arrests are not the same as convictions, and note that we did not factor in leap days.) So the numbers in the claim fall flat on both the number of murders committed and the arrests and convictions associated with those murders. In March 2018 an Arizona woman, Mary Ann Mendoza, reportedly related to the president the claim that “63,000” United States citizens had been killed by undocumented immigrants. Mendoza’s son was killed in 2014 by an undocumented drunk driver. Although the president has attempted to cast immigrants as criminals since he first announced his candidacy in June 2015, various analyses have already undermined the notion that people in the United States without documentation were more likely to commit crimes in general than those born in the country. One of those studies, published in February 2018 by the libertarian group Cato Institute, examined data on criminal convictions in Texas for 2015 and found that: There were 951 total homicide convictions in Texas in 2015. Of those, native-born Americans were convicted of 885 homicides, illegal immigrants were convicted of 51 homicides, and legal immigrants were convicted of 15 homicides. The homicide conviction rate for native-born Americans was 3.88 per 100,000, 2.9 per 100,000 for illegal immigrants, and 0.51 per 100,000 for legal immigrants (Figure 2). In 2015, homicide conviction rates for illegal and legal immigrants were 25 percent and 87 percent below those of natives, respectively. Illegal immigrants made up about 6.4 percent of the Texas population in 2015 but only accounted for 5.4 percent of all homicide convictions. Legal immigrants made up 10.4 percent of the Texas population but accounted for only 1.6 percent of homicide convictions. native-born Americans made up 83 percent of the Texas population but accounted for 93 percent of all homicide convictions.
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7637
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Japan PM visits flood disaster zone, promises help as new warnings issued.
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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.
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true
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Environment
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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 mountainside community in Hiroshima prefecture that was hit by a landslide last week, Ken Kirioka anxiously watched rescuers toiling through mud, sand and smashed houses to find the missing, including his 76-year-old father, Katsuharu. “He is old and has a heart condition. I prepared myself for the worst when I heard about the landslide on Friday night,” he said, pointing at a pile of mud and rubble where he said his father was buried. “He is an old-fashioned father who is hard-headed and does not talk much,” Kirioka said, adding he would stay until his father was found. “It would be too bad for him if a family member were not around”. Rescuers working under a scorching sun combed through heaps of wood and thickly caked mud in a search for bodies, helped by sniffer dogs. In some cases only the foundation of homes remained as they cut through debris with chain saws. With temperatures of 33 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher in the devastated areas in Okayama and Hiroshima prefectures, attention turned to preventing heat-stroke among rescue workers and in evacuation centers where thousands of people have sought shelter. People sat on thin mats on a gymnasium floor in one center, plastic bags of belongings piled around them and bedding folded off to the side. Portable fans turned slowly as children cried. Abe, who canceled an overseas trip to deal with the disaster, was criticized after a photograph posted on Twitter showed Abe and his defense minister at a party with lawmakers just as the rains intensified. After observing the damage from a helicopter flying over Okayama, one of the hardest-hit areas, Abe visited a crowded evacuation center. He crouched down on the floor to speak with people, many of them elderly, and asked about their health. He clasped one man’s hands as they spoke. Later he told reporters the government would do everything it could to help the survivors. “We’ll cut through all the bureaucracy to secure the goods people need for their lives, to improve life in the evacuation centers - such as air conditioners as the hot days continue - and then secure temporary housing and the other things people need to rebuild their lives,” he said. Abe is up for re-election as party leader in September and has seen his popularity ratings edge back up after taking a hit over a cronyism scandal earlier this year. His government pledged an initial $4 billion toward recovery on Tuesday, and a later special budget if needed. Officials turned to social media to warn of the additional danger of food-borne illnesses, urging people to wash their hands and take other measures against food poisoning. Evacuation orders were issued for 25 households in the city of Fukuyama after cracks were found in a reservoir. Water accumulating behind piles of debris blocking rivers also posed a danger after a swollen river rushed into a Fukuyama residential area on Monday, prompting more evacuation orders. The intensifying heat was expected to trigger thunderstorms on Wednesday, with authorities warning new landslides could be set off on mountainsides saturated with water. Japanese media on Wednesday focused on the timing of evacuation orders issued in the hard-hit Mabi district of Kurashiki city just minutes before a levee broke and water poured into the residential area. A number of the dead in Mabi were found in their homes, suggesting they did not have enough time to flee, media reports said.
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2445
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Americans say they're creatures of simple, solo exercise habits.
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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.
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true
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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 type of exercise followed by lifting weights and biking/hiking/outdoor activities, according to the survey by the watch company Timex. “If it’s true, it’s good news for the fitness industry,” said Dr. Walter Thompson, who studies exercise trends for the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Thompson said the survey probably provides a “useful snapshot” into the behaviors of the responding age group. “Outside that group,” he said, “it’s a little dangerous.” Sixty one percent of people questioned in the poll during the last two weeks of August said they don’t exercise in a gym, and the average American is no early bird. Only 27 percent said they found time to get in a workout during the work day. Thompson cautions that people tend to exaggerate, at least a little bit. Some 29 percent of those surveyed said they spend between 30 minutes and one hour on their physical activities and 18 percent claim between one and two hours. “Ask people ‘How much do you weigh? How tall are you? And I’m pretty sure most people will tell you they’re taller,” he said in an interview. “We know that among the general population about 20 percent exercise regularly, not say they do but do, and about, 80 percent don’t exercise.” ACSM recommends adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio-respiratory exercise per week. As for the 26 percent of those polled who don’t exercise, Gregory Chertok, a sport and exercise psychology consultant for Telos Sport Psychology Coaching in New York, said the reason may be simply that they don’t think they can. “It’s called the concept of self-efficacy,” he said of the term coined by psychologist Albert Bandura in the 1970s. “When people doubt their ability to accomplish a task, when they don’t feel competent, motivation plummets,” he said. Conversely, he added, adherence to an exercise routine skyrockets when people consider it non-negotiable. Chertok said even the anonymous closeness of a gym environment can have a positive effect on the lone exerciser in it. Studies have shown that peoples’ happiness depends on the happiness of people in physical proximity to them. “The act of working out near or next to other health-minded gym goers can influence your own desire to be health-minded,” he explained. So how malleable are exercise habits and how can they be changed? “Many experts are jostling with that very question. While it’s tempting to say people aren’t exercising, people are becoming more educated, more influenced by social media,” he said. “Things are going to change. Slowly, over time.”
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31210
|
An investigation has proven the presence of feces in Starbucks beverages.
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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.
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false
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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. Samples of iced drinks from Costa Coffee, Starbucks and Caffe Nero contained varying levels of the bacteria, the BBC’s Watchdog found. […] At both Starbucks and Caffe Nero, three out of 10 samples tested contained the bacteria known as faecal coliforms. The news, unlike the bacteria that inspired it, went viral nearly immediately. Some people took this BBC report as evidence of a widespread feces problem in Starbucks coffee. Others somehow interpreted this finding as an indictment of Starbucks’s alleged liberal politics. Bizarrely, some purveyors of vitriol tried to connect the report both to Muslims and to Starbucks’s pledge to hire refugees. Importantly, however, what Watchdog found was not actually feces or fecal matter, but an extremely broad class of bacteria in 30 percent of the ten samples they took from a single Starbucks in the UK. If you are looking to promote a television show with a viral story, a tried and true method is to perform the test Watchdog used — a fecal coliform assay — on everyday objects. This same approach convinced the internet that beards were poop-infested sanitation risks back in 2015. In response to that fecal hysteria, the Washington Post’s Rachel Feltman had this calming response: The problem with this is that bacteria known to associate with poop is not necessarily literal poop. In fact it’s probably not. And saying that something is gross for being covered in bacteria is pretty ridiculous, because anything that exists in our physical realm is definitely going to be covered in bacteria. I have bad news for y’all: You’re covered in poo bacteria. COVERED. Look to your left, look to your right. There’s probably poo bacteria on both sides and also in front of you. It’s okay. It’s really fine. Embrace the poo bacteria, it is a part of you because you are a multitude of microorganisms, each more special than the last. These words were just as relevant to beards then as they are to Starbucks ice cubes now. Indeed, the bacteria identified by a fecal coliform assay is not specific to feces, as a 2006 editorial published by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) pointed out in a piece arguing against using the test as a sole indicator of fecal matter: Historically, the definition of fecal coliforms has been based on methods used for their detection. […] Several genera of bacteria [identified by a fecal coliform assay] are common contaminants of non-fecal sources (e.g., plant materials and pulp or paper mill effluents). Examples include Klebsiella, Enterobacter, and Citrobacter species. Moreover, these bacteria which are false-positive indicators of fecal contamination can grow under appropriate conditions in nonfecal niches such as water, food, and waste. In fact, the only bacteria included in the test that is exclusively found in feces is E. Coli., which the BBC’s Watchdog did not mention identifying (the ASM argues any fecal coliform test should be confirmed with a specific E. Coli test if one wants to demonstrate the presence of feces). The expert the BBC quoted to heighten the fear of Starbucks ice was Tony Lewis, the Head of Policy for the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, which is described as “a campaigning organisation [that aims] to promote improvements in environmental and public health policy.” While the brief excerpts of him included in the BBC segment sound alarming, his full comments are a bit more reassuring: It is important that those of us who enjoy our coffee and particular our iced drinks during the summer, do not panic. The issues identified in this case came from an extremely small sample and we have no reason to suspect that these findings will be the same everywhere.
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1502
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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.
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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. scientists, comes as the administration of President Donald Trump has proposed cutting funding for science research and expressed skepticism over climate change. That reflects skepticism among the broader American public, where a growing number of people reject scientific findings on issues from whether climate change is man-made to the safety of vaccines. “We live in an epoch where rational reasoning associated with evidence isn’t universally accepted and is in fact in jeopardy. That worries me a lot, said Rainer Weiss, an emeritus professor of physics at MIT, and part of the team honored on Tuesday. “If this gives people who are not me but others the credential to be able to stand out and say, ‘Listen to this,’ that is valuable,” Weiss, who won half the $1.1 million prize, said in a phone interview. Barry Barish of Caltech, also an emeritus professor of physics, sounded similar concerns. “Anything that makes us take more seriously scientists, or economists, or chemists, or physicists or biologists, I think is helpful in times when things get distorted because of people not paying attention to all the facts,” Barish said by phone. “It’s crazy that we happen to have a country where it depends on what political party you are in whether you believe in climate change or not,” Barish said. “We have an administration right now that so far seems to be very anti-science.” Efforts to reach the third of the team, Kip Thorne, also of Caltech, were unsuccessful. Polls of U.S. voters show that Democrats are about twice as likely as Republicans to believe global warming is caused by humans. One in three Republicans told a Reuters/Ipsos poll from Sept. 1 through 28 that they believed global warming is caused by mostly or totally by human activity. Nearly three out of four Democrats believe the same. The poll included 3,992 respondents and has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2 percentage points. Skepticism about science is not limited to climate. A 2016 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 10 percent of Americans believe the risks of vaccines outweigh their benefits, with 17 percent saying parents should be able to choose not to vaccinate their children even if doing so creates a health risk for others. During his election campaign, Trump described climate change as a hoax invented by the Chinese to make U.S. industry less competitive. As president he said he would pull out of the Paris climate accord, saying it was damaging to business. Weiss’ team was the second group of U.S. scientists to be honored by the Nobel committee this week, after another trio won the 2017 Nobel prize for medicine on Monday for unraveling molecular mechanisms that control our internal body clocks.
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4048
|
Officials: Maine sees decrease in Lyme disease cases.
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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 affected by changes in weather. Experts say hot, dry weather during the summer may have stressed tick populations. Researchers add that snow and colder weather in November probably deterred tick activity. According to biologist Chuck Lubelczyk, researchers are finding “much lower” numbers of ticks in field surveys. Lyme can cause flu-like conditions, neurological problems, joint paint and other symptoms. ___ Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com
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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 have questioned the safety of BPA have relied on animal studies. But the study by British researchers in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that among 1,455 U.S. adults, those with the highest levels of BPA were more likely to have heart disease, diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities than those with the lowest levels. U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said they would review the new findings, which were not yet published when the agency issued a draft conclusion in August that BPA is safe at current exposure levels. “We have confidence in the data that we’ve looked at and the data that we’re relying on to say that the margin of safety is adequate,” FDA official Laura Tarantino said at a meeting of experts advising the agency on whether it made the right call. “There are things you can do if you choose to reduce your level of bisphenol A,” Tarantino said. “But we have not recommended that anyone change their habits or change their use of any of these products because right now we don’t have the evidence in front of us to suggest that people need to.” Panel chairman Martin Philbert declined to say what the committee’s next move would be. BPA is used to make polycarbonate plastic, a clear shatter-resistant material in products ranging from baby bottles to medical devices. BPA can mimic the hormone estrogen in the body. People can consume BPA when it leaches out of the plastic into baby formula, water or food inside a container. Some retailers and manufacturers are moving away from products with BPA. Canadian officials have concluded BPA was harmful. Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council, an industry group, said the study’s design did not allow for anyone to conclude BPA causes heart disease and diabetes. “On the other hand, though, bisphenol A has been very intensively studied in a very large number of laboratory animal studies. And the weight of evidence from those studies ... continues to support the safe use of products containing bisphenol A,” he said in a telephone interview. The British researchers, who acknowledged their findings are not proof that the chemical is causing the harm, analyzed urine samples from a U.S. government health survey of adults ages 18-74 representative of the U.S. population. The 25 percent of people with the highest levels of bisphenol A in their bodies were more than twice as likely to have heart disease, including heart attacks or type 2 diabetes, compared to the 25 percent with the lowest levels. At the FDA panel meeting, several scientists and activists said the FDA ignored animal studies finding health concerns and some called for the chemical to be banned in food containers. Democratic U.S. Rep. John Dingell of Michigan, who heads the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said the FDA has “focused myopically on industry-funded research.” Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, ranking member of the Committee on Finance, released a letter he wrote to FDA Commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach asking why the agency has not appointed a safety panel to review BPA. Tarantino said nothing was ignored but industry-funded studies finding no harm were important in the conclusions. The panel is expected to present its advice to the FDA next month. Tarantino, head of the FDA’s office of food additive safety, said there is talk of government scientists doing their own BPA safety studies, but that could take years to conduct.
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3961
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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.
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true
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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. Courtney Wheeler, said they’re investigating how the disease might have reached the herd, which was owned by a hobbyist, including the herd’s history and the movements of animals to the property. Chronic wasting disease is caused by abnormally shaped proteins called prions, which can persist in the environment. It spreads from deer to deer. While it’s not known to infect humans, authorities advise against consuming infected meat.
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9248
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'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 patients who received only conventional chemotherapy. In addition, patients receiving conventional chemotherapy reported a more significant adverse impact on their quality of life than patients receiving nivolumab. The release does not address cost or offer insight into potential side effects of nivolumab. Perhaps most importantly, the release using sweeping language, such as “game changer,” to describe nivolumab. That sort of vague, and potentially misleading, language has little place in a news release like this one. [Editor’s note: Some of the concerns with the release are recurring ones we’ve seen in both news releases and news articles on immunotherapy drugs. They are discussed in more detail in our tips for writing accurately about cancer immunotherapy drugs.] According to the National Cancer Institute, approximately 52,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with head and neck cancer each year (though — worth noting — that estimate was made for 2012 in particular). Mortality varies widely, depending on the specific type of cancer and a patient’s background, but this is clearly a life-threatening disease. In addition to the impact of head and neck cancers on patients and their families, there is an economic cost as well: treatment of head and neck cancer-related costs can be upwards of $3.5 billion per year. All of this means that advances in treatment for patients with head and neck cancer — particularly for patients in whom conventional chemotherapy isn’t working — are important and worth highlighting. However, it’s important to offer detailed information, such as what side effects a new treatment may cause. Patients, their families, and their healthcare providers, should have a clear understanding of the potential risks and benefits associated with each treatment option. This release falls short in that department. It also builds up unrealistic expectations, using the term “game-changing” in the headline, and “game changer” in the opening paragraph. The study this release is focused on didn’t lead to remission for patients. Nor did it suspend the progression of cancer indefinitely. Based on this study, nivolumab bought some patients a little extra time. That’s not insignificant, and stating the facts should have been enough — the release didn’t need to oversell it.
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mixture
|
head and neck cancers,Institute of Cancer Research,nivolumab,Opdivo
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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 cancer, nivolumab costs, “by my estimate, around $65,000 for Medicare beneficiaries and up to twice that for commercially insured patients.” Other estimates are that nivolumab treatment — again, for cancers other than head and neck cancer — could cost more than $100,000 per patient. That is a huge factor in making treatment decisions, and needs to be addressed. There are two way of considering benefits in relation to this study: survival time and quality of life. The release addresses both of these. For example, the release notes that median survival time for patients receiving nivolumab was 7.5 months, as compared to 5.1 months for patients receiving conventional chemotherapy. The release also notes that fewer patients in the nivolumab group (13 percent) experienced “serious side-effects” than in the chemotherapy group (35 percent). The release states: “More than double the number of patients taking nivolumab were alive after one year as those treated with chemotherapy.” However, according to a table published as part of the study, the actual numbers of patients at that point had dwindled to 24 on the drug and five on conventional treatment, from the original group of 361 patients. Three months later this was down to five on the drug and one on conventional treatment, and 3 months after that (18 months into the trial), all patients had died. (as per Fig 1) It’s worth noting that the group receiving nivolumab was significantly younger than the control group; the majority were under age 65. Drug companies do many things to bias their studies in subtle ways–might having relatively younger, healthier people in their drug group be one? As noted above, the release does address side effects, stating: “fewer patients experienced serious side-effects from taking nivolumab than with conventional treatment – only 13 per cent compared with 35 per cent of patients who received chemotherapy.” However, it doesn’t explain what those “serious side-effects” might be. According to the website for one nivolumab drug, these side effects may include inflammation of the brain or nerve problems that lead to paralysis. Patients, families, and healthcare providers make decisions based on quality of life as well as length of life, and information like this is essential for anyone wanting to make informed decisions about treatment options. It’s not enough to refer to “serious side-effects,” you need to explain what those side effects may include. Vague language does a disservice to the reader. The release does an adequate job of describing the study design; however, the introduction of another disease — human papillomavirus (HPV) — added some unnecessary confusion. It stated: “The survival benefit was more pronounced in patients whose tumours had tested positive for human papillomavirus (HPV). These patients survived an average of 9.1 months with nivolumab and 4.4 months with chemotherapy. HPV-negative patients survived an average of 7.5 months with nivolumab and 5.8 with chemotherapy.” The release is noting a survival benefit in both HPV positive and in HPV negative patients. Biomarkers on tumors can be very helpful in directing which drugs a tumor may respond to, but that didn’t seem to be the case here in any definitive way. We’re not sure what to make of this post hoc exploratory analysis of HPV. This seems on the surface to be a subtle way to bias a cancer study. No disease mongering here. The release makes clear that the study was funded by Bristol Myers Squibb. That’s good. The release does not, however, tell readers that some of the study authors received personal fees from Bristol Myers Squibb, in addition to the grant funding. That information can be found in conflict-of-interest disclosure documents on NEJM‘s site. The study at issue was for patients who were seeing cancer progression despite the use of conventional chemotherapy treatments. In other words, as the release makes clear, the alternatives had been tried already. The release makes clear that nivolumab is not yet approved for use in head and neck cancer patients in Europe (including the U.K.). The release addresses this explicitly: “Nivolumab became the first treatment to extend survival in a phase III clinical trial for patients with head and neck cancer in whom chemotherapy had failed.” This is a weak point for the release. Vaguely exciting terms, such as “game changer,” have no place in a news release that is discussing the lives of human beings. “Game changer” is a term that has no objective definition. One person may think that the possibility of extending life by two months is a “game changer.” Another person may see the term “game changer” and think that it must mean they’ve found a new way to put head and neck cancer into remission. This could lead to disappointment when the findings are explained in detail. The release states that the drug “greatly improves survival” — and perhaps within the oncology community this may be appreciated as an improvement for this type of refractory cancer. But in patient terms we are talking months of survival. All of the study participants had died by 18 months.
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4318
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Study finds air pollution reaches placenta during pregnancy.
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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.
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true
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Health, General News, U.S. News, Air pollution, Pollution
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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 theory is that the particles lodge in mom’s lungs and trigger potentially harmful inflammation. Tuesday, Belgian researchers reported another possibility, that any risk might be more direct. A novel scanning technique spotted a type of particle pollution — sootlike black carbon — on placentas donated by 28 new mothers, they reported in Nature Communications. The placenta nourishes a developing fetus and tries to block damaging substances in the mother’s bloodstream. The Hasselt University team found the particles accumulated on the side of the placenta closest to the fetus, near where the umbilical cord emerges. That’s not proof the soot actually crossed the placenta to reach the fetus — or that it’s responsible for any ill effects, cautioned Dr. Yoel Sadovsky of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a leading placenta expert who wasn’t involved with the new research. And it’s a small study. Still, “just finding it at the placenta is important,” Sadovsky said. “The next question would be how much of these black carbon particles need to be there to cause damage.” Scientists already had some clues from animal studies that particles could reach the placenta, but Tuesday’s study is a first with human placentas. The Belgian researchers developed a way to scan placenta samples using ultra-short pulses from a laser that made the black carbon particles flash a bright white light, so they could be measured. The researchers included placentas from 10 mothers who lived in areas with high pollution and 10 others from low areas. The higher the exposure to pollution, the more particles the researchers counted in the placentas. “As the fetal organs are under full development, this might have some health risks,” said Hasselt environment and public health specialist Tim Nawrot, the study’s senior author. He is doing additional research to try to tell. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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11780
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Now it’s official: FDA announced that vaccines are causing autism.
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No, the FDA didn't hide information linking vaccine to autism
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false
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Autism, Children, Fake news, Health Care, PunditFact, truthcommand.com,
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"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 of autism have been dispelled by medical professionals, but this has all changed. Parents over the years have been criticized for abstaining from getting their child vaccinated over autism fears, but now it turns out they were right all along."" Facebook users flagged the post as being potentially fabricated, as part of the social network’s efforts to combat fake news. We found that the website misled readers about information related to the potential adverse side effects of the DTaP vaccine Tripedia manufactured in the past by Sanofi Pasteur. DTaP, a vaccine given to children in multiple doses, stands for Diphtheria and Tetanus Toxoids and Acellular Pertussis Vaccine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, getting those diseases is much riskier than getting the vaccine. Mild problems such as a fever or swelling are common, while severe problems such as a serious allergic reaction are so ""rare it is hard to tell if they are caused by the vaccine."" The internet has been fueled with misinformation for years about a vaccine-autism link. A 1998 article in a British medical journal, the Lancet, claimed to show a link between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and autism but in 2010, the Lancet retracted the study. Scientists have repeatedly debunked the myth that vaccines cause autism through peer-reviewed studies. And yet, the spread of misinformation continues -- including by Donald Trump before and during his race for president. Vaccine pamphlet on adverse side effects Truthcommand.com stated that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration admitted that autism is a potential side effect in an online pamphlet about Tripedia: ""Adverse events reported during post-approval use of Tripedia vaccine include idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, SIDS, anaphylactic reaction, cellulitis, autism, convulsion/grand mal convulsion, encephalopathy, hypotonia, neuropathy, somnolence and apnea. Events were included in this list because of the seriousness or frequency of reporting."" But that section also includes a disclaimer about adverse events: ""Because these events are reported voluntarily from a population of uncertain size, it is not always possible to reliably estimate their frequencies or to establish a causal relationship to components of Tripedia vaccine."" Through the federal government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), anyone can file a report: doctors, patients, family members -- and they don’t need proof that the event was caused by the vaccine. Government researchers examine the reports and turn over anything suspicious to outside groups, such as the Institute of Medicine for more research. Marie McCormick, an expert on child health at the Harvard School of Public Health, told PolitiFact that the reporting system can be gamed. When the measles-thimerosal-autism controversy first emerged, activists encouraged parents to report adverse events regardless of the duration of time since the vaccination and prior events such as previous indications of developmental problems. What happened to the pamphlet on FDA’s website Truthcommand.com suggested that the FDA had tried to hide the autism link by deleting this pamphlet from the FDA’s website. But the FDA told PolitiFact that the pamphlet written by Sanofi Pasteur in 2005 wasn’t actually deleted -- the FDA archived it and sent PolitiFact a link to the pamphlet. It’s no surprise that the pamphlet was archived on the FDA’s website because the vaccine hasn’t been available for many years. Cristine K. Schroeder, a spokeswoman for Sanofi Pasteur, told PolitiFact that the company’s last shipment of Tripedia occurred in 2012. ""Tripedia is not in use today,"" she said. The company’s pamphlets for current vaccines for DTaP, Daptacel, Pentacel and Quadracel, do not list autism as a potential adverse event. They do show data from clinical trials about side effects such as the percentage of children who got a fever, or became drowsy. Tripedia was originally licensed by the FDA in the early 1990s, FDA spokeswoman Megan McSeveney told PolitiFact. The drug maker had to follow what was at the time broad label requirements for adverse events. More recent federal regulations about drug labeling approved in 2006 are now more narrow and state that the only adverse events that have to be reported are those ""for which there is some basis to believe there is a causal relationship between the drug and the occurrence of the adverse event."" The scientific evidence does not support a link between any vaccine, including Tripedia (DTaP), and autism or other developmental disorders, McSeveney said. The truthcommand.com website states that it aims ""to raise awareness to issues ignored by the media."" We contacted the email address listed on the website and did not get a reply. Part way through our reporting the story was no longer accessible on the website. The misleading story has circulated at least since March 2016 when Snopes debunked it. Truthcommand.com stated ""Now it’s official: FDA announced that vaccines are causing autism."" But the FDA did no such thing. The evidence Truthcommand.com cited is taken out of context, inaccurate or out of date."
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21874
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"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."
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Will Multnomah County’s food plan make it harder for people to eat and pay for their food of choice?
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false
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Oregon, County Government, Government Regulation, Roxanne Ross,
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"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: ""onus on fearmongers to provide FACTS. | RT @ORlibertygal: MultCo plans to interfere w/food delivery. http://bit.ly/jFhTe5 #orpol #orleg"" Facts? We love facts. Multnomah County wants to mess with food delivery? We better look into this. (Thanks Barnhart!) It turns out that the tweet stemmed from an online post at Red County, a website for conservative politicos. Gresham resident and Tea Party activist Roxanne Ross accused Multnomah County of using its 2009 food action plan ""to artificially inflate the market"" for organic local produce while dampening the availability of cheaper mass produced foods. The county,writes Ross, ""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."" Some specifics cited by Ross (in our own words): Naturally, we had to study the plan for ourselves. We wondered if the county had visions of turning itself into a self-sustaining village with high taxes on out-of-county products. We turned to the Multnomah Food Action Plan 2025 and found that it’s not quite what Ross claims. The plan is aspirational and fuzzy, with backers saying it should lead to more collaboration and focus. From the document itself: ""The 15-year action plan offers four action areas containing 16 goals and 65 communitywide collaborative actions for local government, businesses, nonprofit organizations, faith communities, and learning institutions. This Plan also offers 40 actions for individual community members whose daily choices or lack of choices in what to eat, where to shop, and how to become an advocate for change greatly influence our community."" That’s a lot of partnerships and a lot of emphasis on individual choice. And frankly, it all sounds very pie-in-the-sky to PolitiFact Oregon. But we digress. Simply put, we bet that by 2025, shoppers will still be able to buy low-priced meats and potato chips from Fred Meyer. David Austin, spokesman for the county, agrees. He described the food plan as a promotional tool, a way to encourage residents and businesses to think of healthy food choices. (For example, sustainability staff just held its second ""food summit"" in June.) In 15 years, he said, as a result of the plan there might be healthier food choices in food-deprived neighborhoods currently served by convenience stores. Or, he said, there might be more community gardens with neighbors donating produce to the Oregon Food Bank. ""Multnomah County is not going to put a sign on every corner and demand that no chips are sold here. At the same time, we want to make sure all of our residents have equal access to healthy food,"" he said. In an email, Ross said she’s not saying the county will halt importation of food. But she insists that the ""market manipulations"" cited in the plan, such as zoning for urban farms, will protect local foods, meaning that ""for those people who prefer meat and food from outside the county, it will mean increased cost for food."" Since we’re not economists, we decided to ask Portland State University environmental economics professor David Ervin how a fuzzy food plan could result in higher prices for meat and other foods from outside the county. He was puzzled. ""Unless there’s regulations restricting the entry of food, of those foods she’s talking about, or there’s some additional costs imposed on those foods, then there’s not good economic logic on why their costs would go up,"" he said. ""Those prices are set in national markets."" Ervin explains that if more people choose to eat local food, that ""will reduce the demand for those other imported foods, but I doubt that would have much of a price effect because we’re such a small part of the market."" Just to make absolutely sure, we called the Cascade Policy Institute, a libertarian think tank that loves all things free market and hates government meddling. We got an earful from John Charles, the institute’s president and CEO, on both the meaninglessness of the plan, as well as its inconsistencies, and its poor writing. But the bottom line, he said, is that government already has the tools to encourage food choice: get rid of restrictive codes and high business taxes. ""Assuming that eating locally grown food is desirable -- I don’t care whether people eat imported food, it is not a function of government to even care... ,"" he said. ""... Assuming there’s some reason why local is good, we can accomplish that by relaxing some regulations, and giving producers and consumers the maximum choices."" We asked Charles specifically whether the county’s plan would result in higher prices of meat and non-local foods. He said no. In the end, we don’t see how encouraging urban gardening and healthy eating and supporting a communal kitchen and small farmers will lead to higher prices for meat and bulk foods. There’s no disruption to the free flow of goods in and out of the market. In fact, those points -- price and disruption -- are ridiculous."
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4613
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Is Ohio in play? GOP tilt working against Democrats.
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Chris Gagin says he hasn’t changed much politically, even as so much around him has.
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true
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Columbus, AP Top News, General News, Politics, Environment, Election 2020, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Ohio, U.S. News, Barack Obama
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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 extinct,” said Gagin, who served for a time as county Republican chairman. He’s among many former Democrats in blue-collar Ohio who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and for an all-GOP statewide ticket last year. Those ballots helped turn large swaths of territory along the Ohio River — places that supported Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — from blue to bright red. As Democrats bring their next primary debate to Ohio on Tuesday, they’re grappling with whether the new Republican dominance in those industrial and rural pockets has pushed Ohio out of their reach. Some Democratic presidential campaigns are contemplating once unheard-of White House victory scenarios that leave out Ohio. The storied swing state — a place that sided with the winning presidential candidate in all but one election since 1944 — seems likely to be eclipsed by Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania in next year’s election. “Ohio isn’t at the center of the political universe as it used to be,” said Kyle Kondik, an elections analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. At this same time during the last presidential campaign, in October 2015, presidential campaigning in Ohio was so vigorous there were fears it was drowning out that year’s elections. A group concerned about one of that year’s ballot issues, the American Policy Roundtable, even bought an online ad reminding voters the presidential election was still a year away. The run-up to the 2020 election has been quieter, with Ohio seeing only a handful of notable campaign events since spring. Trump won Ohio in 2016 by 8 percentage points — a larger margin than any winner since George H.W. Bush in 1988. While Democrats surged in many other swing states in 2018, they lost every statewide race in Ohio but one. Democratic presidential candidates will debate Tuesday in Westerville, a suburb outside Columbus replete with the college-educated women and young voters who Democrats see as representing the party’s best prospects of an Ohio comeback, along with minorities. “I think it’s totally winnable,” said Democratic political consultant Aaron Pickrell, an Ohio campaign director and adviser to Obama’s successful 2008 and 2012 campaigns. Any victory will depend on finding the right balance of supporters in urban, suburban, rural and former industrial communities, he said. Ohio was long a bellwether because its population resembled that of the United States as a whole. It hasn’t picked a losing presidential candidate since voting for Richard Nixon in 1960. But the state no longer mirrors the nation. It’s whiter and slightly older than the national average. Just 29% of Ohio residents have a college degree, compared with the national average of nearly 32.6%. That education gap has translated into lower earnings. The state’s median household income is $56,111, nearly $6,000 below the national median. Republicans run stronger with those groups. The GOP tilt is even more pronounced in places like Belmont County, which sits on the state line with Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Gagin said voters there are looking for politicians who channel their frustration. Trump took more than two-thirds of the county’s vote in 2016. In 2008, Republican John McCain lost narrowly to Obama. “Not to get racial about it, but lots of white folks feel others are either getting ahead or getting a handout, while they’re just having to go to work every day and just falling further and further behind,” Gagin said. “That’s how you get to the politics of aggrievement.” Republican consultant Karl Rove, who engineered President George W. Bush’s two wins in Ohio, said the numbers don’t tell the whole story. “I’m not one of these people who believes demographics is necessarily destiny, so I do think it has to do with things other than that it’s a blue-collar, white state,” he said. “Maybe it has to do with the quality of the arguments being made rather than simple demographics.” In a twist, one sign of hope for Democrats might be the type of Republicans Ohio elects to state office. The state’s last two Republican governors — John Kasich and now Mike DeWine — are politically pragmatic politicians who have embraced bipartisan ideas, including on health care and guns. Kasich is a vocal Trump detractor and DeWine walked a careful line with the president, appearing with him only at the finale of the 2018 campaign. Democrats also point to consistent statewide victories by Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of his chamber’s most liberal members and the sole Democrat to win statewide last year. The party looks to Brown’s straight-talking, dignity-of-work message as a model for regaining traction in blue-collar areas. “Ohio is in play,” said Gerald Austin, a Cleveland-based Democratic strategist. “The No. 1 way to beat an incumbent is on the incumbent’s record. Did Donald Trump bring back coal jobs? Have more steel plants opened up here? Did something happen on that infrastructure bill he was going to get done that I’m not aware of? You remind voters of what they said and what they haven’t done.” Pickrell said Democrats can win those disenfranchised voters by focusing on health care and the economy. He also argued that views on environmental policy may be shifting and climate change is no longer a fringe issue. “Now people understand the need and utility of solar panels,” he said. “They understand the utility of an electric car. They understand algae blooms in Lake Erie.” Pickrell added: “I don’t think it’s as polarizing as it once was. And in a lot of areas, it’s probably swinging people our way.” Mandi Merritt, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, said the party is not taking Ohio for granted. She said the GOP is prepared to hit Democrats for “radical” ideas like universal health care and the Green New Deal. They are too expensive and impractical for Midwestern voters, she said. “It’s a race to the left, and it’s not going to resonate with everyday Ohioans,” she said. She said impeachment proceedings in Washington are energizing, not alienating, Trump’s base. That is not the case with Gagin, who resigned as Belmont County GOP chairman last summer after the president appeared to accept Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denial that his country interfered in the 2016 election. Though Trump later said he misspoke, Gagin chose the moment to leave the party leadership. He now directs Defending Democracy Together, a group of Republicans pushing back against Trump. Gagin said he is the exception in Belmont County. He doesn’t believe most of rural Ohio has been turned off by the scandals over Russia or Ukraine that have dogged Trump. For him, 2020 remains an open question. But he said he won’t vote for Trump under any circumstances. Conservative Democrats and even card-carrying Republicans are “really in a no man’s land right now,” he said. ___ AP Economics Writer Joshua Boak in Washington contributed to this report.
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7972
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Thailand hit by African Horse Sickness, killing over 100 horses.
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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.
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true
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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, latest government data showed. “We have to investigate how this virus got to Thailand,” he said, adding that the government was notified in late March of AHS in the country. Horses suffering from the illness can have fevers of over 39 Celsius, difficulty breathing and bleeding in the eyes. There have been no reported cases of AHS in humans and it was not related to the outbreak of the new coronavirus, Sorawit said. The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) suspended Thailand’s status as an “AHS Free Country” on March 27. AHS is endemic in the central tropical regions of Africa, from where it spreads regularly to Southern Africa and occasionally to North Africa, according to the OIE. Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan had their AHS-free statuses suspended in 2018.
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33869
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Walt Disney received a dishonorable discharge from the military during World War I.
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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 overseas added up to a lifetime of experience. It was such a valuable experience that I feel that if we have to send our boys into the Army we should send them even younger than we do. I know being on my own at an early age has made me more self-reliant . . .” Presumably Disney’s image as a creative and inventive artist seemed at odds with the conformity required by military service, and people believed Walt was proud of not having fit in with such an organization. As the legend of Disney’s dishonorable discharge grew, the incident with the abandoned truck in France was dredged up as the reason for the discharge.
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false
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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 had ended, Disney’s outfit was shipped across the Atlantic to France. Walt Disney was assigned to an evacuation hospital in Paris, where he drove trucks and ambulances and ferried military officers from place to place. In February of 1919, Walt and another driver were selected to transport a load of beans and sugar from Paris to Soissons, but their truck broke down in the French countryside during freezing mid-February weather. Walt dispatched his assistant to return to Paris via train while he stayed with the truck, but after two days of waiting Disney finally made his way to the nearest village in search of food and shelter. After sleeping for nearly a day, young Walt returned to the site of the breakdown to find that the truck was gone. (Disney’s assistant, after taking time out for a two-day drunken binge, had finally notified authorities about the disabled truck, and it had been towed back to Paris.) When Walt returned to headquarters in Paris he faced a disciplinary board for having abandoned his truck, but the board found that Disney had taken reasonable steps to safeguard the vehicle and did not move to dismiss him from his volunteer duty. The legend about Walt Disney’s dishonorable discharge seems to have begun with the notion that he hung his release from the Red Cross upside-down behind his desk. Even though neither Walt’s Red Cross release nor anything else was hung upside-down in his office, the rumor of the upside-down certificate somehow got started and was taken as a sign of Disney’s displeasure with his experience in France; over time his volunteer duty with the Red Cross (a civilian organization) was mistaken for actual military service, and his release was transformed into a dishonorable discharge. Thus arose the legend that Walt Disney had not only been dishonorably discharged from the military, but that he was proud of it — so proud, in fact, that he hung his dishonorable discharge on the wall of his office for all the world to see on his weekly television show. (The “office” depicted in Disney’s television broadcasts was merely a soundstage mock-up, however — his real office was never shown.) The apocryphal story of Walt’s dishonorable discharge spread widely and was even repeated on official tours of the Pentagon and told to recruits in basic training. Some versions of the legend included the detail that an influential congressman had offered to “fix” Disney’s discharge and turn it into a honorable one, but Walt declined the favor.
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19837
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"Toothpaste contains ""the poison substance of fluoride."
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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.
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false
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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 month. But step into one of the slum areas in the inner city, or a giant disorganized housing estate on the outskirts and there is a daily struggle to get and pay for very limited supplies of water, which is delivered by tanker rather than pipe. And the price is soaring as supplies are fast depleting. India’s water crisis is far from even-handed - the elite in Delhi and most other parts of the country remain unaffected while the poor scramble for supplies every day. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official residence and those of his cabinet are in central Delhi, as are those of most lawmakers. That may help to explain why it took until this week for Modi to call for a massive water conservation program, the first big initiative by the government despite years of warnings about dry reservoirs and depleted water tables, policy makers and water industry experts said. Telecom sales representative Amar Nath Shukla, who lives in a giant unauthorized housing sprawl on the south side of Delhi, says he is now paying 700 rupees ($10) for a small tanker to bring him, his wife and three school-age children 2,000 liters of water, their weekly quota. A year ago, Shukla would buy two of the rusty, oval-shaped tankers a week for 500 rupees each but he cut back to one as the price climbed 40 percent. “Why should a densely populated settlement get so little of water and why should the sparsely-populated central district of New Delhi receive so much of extra supply?” asked Shukla. More than 30 other residents Reuters spoke to in his Sangam Vihar district also complained about the quality of water. “Until last year I was drinking the water sold by a few local suppliers but then I fell ill and the doctor asked me to buy water bottles made by only big, reputed companies,” said Dilip Kumar Kamath, 46, waving a prescription which listed abdominal pain and stomach infection as his ailments. Delhi’s main government district and the army cantonment areas get about 375 liters of water per person per day but residents of Sangam Vihar on average receive only 40 liters for each resident per day. The water comes from boreholes and tankers under the jurisdiction of the Delhi water board, run by the city government. But residents say some of the boreholes have been taken over by private operators associated with criminal gangs and local politicians. These gangs also have a major role in providing private tankers, which are all illegal, making people liable to price gouging. And all this when temperatures, and demand, are soaring. Delhi was the second driest it has been in 26 years in June, and recorded its highest ever temperature for the month at 48 degrees Celsius on June 10. Monsoon rains reached the capital on Thursday, more than a week later than usual, with only a light drizzle. Most private tanker operators in Delhi either illegally pump out fast depleting ground water or steal the water from government supplies, various government studies show. In Delhi, nearly half of the supply from the Delhi water board either gets stolen with the connivance of lowly officials or simply seeps out via leaky pipes, several studies show. The board’s 1,033 tanker fleet is well short of the city’s requirements. Hundreds of private water tankers are operating this summer, though there are no official numbers. The water scarcity is even more acute in the Bhalswa Dairy locality of northwestern Delhi, more than 30 km (20 miles) from Sangam Vihar. The water from a couple of community taps and hand pumps are too toxic to use, forcing people to queue up for a government tanker that comes just once a day. As a result, fights frequently break out when people, mostly can-carrying women and children, sprint towards the arriving tanker. Last year, at least three people were killed in scuffles that broke out over water in Delhi. “Fights over water supplies have gone up since May and these fights now constitute almost 50% of our daily complaints,” said a police official at the Bhalswa Dairy Police station, who declined to be named. Some tanker operators have also started selling bottled water, underlining concerns over the quality of water in their tanks and how costs for ordinary people can mount, said the police official. Nearly 200,000 people living in the Bhalswa area are vulnerable to liver-related disease such as jaundice and hepatitis, said Kamlesh Bharti, president of non-governmental organization Kamakhya Lok Sewa Samiti, which works in the areas of health and education. The Bhalswa area is next to a big waste landfill, which has contaminated both surface and groundwater in the area. According to UK-based charity WaterAid, about 163 million people in India, roughly 12 percent of the population, do not have access to clean water close to their homes, the most of any country. Almost all middle-class residents in the city have either water purifiers at home or they buy big cans of water from Bisleri, India’s top bottled water brand, Coca-Cola Co (KO.N) or PepsiCo Inc (PEP.O). Bottled water suppliers reported a nearly three-fold jump in sales in India between 2012 and 2017, according to market research company Euromonitor. India’s dependence on groundwater and the country’s failure to replenish aquifers have exacerbated the crisis, said V.K. Madhavan chief executive of WaterAid. Both individual households and myriad industries mostly use fresh water and the reuse and recycling of water “is almost an alien concept” in the country, Madhavan said. Still, Delhi authorities said the plan to build three dams in the upper reaches of the Yamuna river, which passes through the city, would help Delhi overcome the shortage. It will take 3-4 years to construct them, said S. K. Haldar, a top official of the Central Water Commission. But issues such as land acquisition, resettlement and environmental clearances could make such an aggressive timetable untenable, Madhavan said. (Graphic: The forecast and actual onset of monsoon along India's Kerala's coast - tmsnrt.rs/2Yj64GG)
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10441
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Chocolate May Cut Women’s Stroke Risk
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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 about how to describe observational studies; reading it could help prevent these problems. Other shortcomings include the use of relative rather than absolute risk comparisons, and lack of a clear description of potential harms. These problems overshadow the story’s bright spots, including the perspective of an independent expert and caveats about the differences between U.S. and Swedish chocolate. Overstating the results of observational studies is a big problem in health journalism, and it has serious consequences. Since the conclusions of observational studies are frequently overturned by more rigorous research, hyping the results of these early studies can contribute to the sense that researchers are always “flip-flopping” on their recommendations and that they essentially don’t know what they’re talking about. In reality, researchers are usually pretty careful to explain what their studies can and can’t tell us; journalists have to get better at communicating those caveats to readers.
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mixture
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health food claims,Stroke,WebMD,women's health
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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 rule this not applicable as most people probably have a general idea about the cost of chocolate. The story says that researchers observed a 20% reduction in strokes among participants eating the most chocolate relative to those eating the least — a statistic that conveys very little useful information. Compare this with the much more informative Reuters description that provides absolute risks from data contained in one of the study tables: “Among those with the highest weekly chocolate intake, more than 45 grams, there were 2.5 strokes per 1,000 women per year. That figure was 7.8 per 1,000 among women who at the least, less than 8.9 grams a week.” Although the story warns that milk chocolate may be “high in sugar, fat, and calories,” it doesn’t spell out the implications of eating too much milk chocolate in an attempt to reap health benefits. (To the contrary, the story suggests that eating larger amounts of U.S. milk chocolate with low cocoa content might yield the same result as eating less of the higher-cocoa Swedish chocolate.) Eating more than a modest amount of chocolate is likely to cause weight gain, which would probably negate any beneficial effects on stroke and increase the risk for other health problems. Starting with the headline, which claims that “Chocolate May Cut Women’s Stroke Risk,” the story consistently misstates this observational study’s conclusions regarding the relationship between chocolate consumption and stroke. Instead of reporting the study’s finding of an association between chocolate and stroke risk, the story repeatedly suggests that chocolate was responsible for the lower rate of strokes seen in those who ate more chocolate. For example: “The group eating the most chocolate got the most benefit, reducing stroke intake [sic] by 20%.” For comparison, see how the competing Reuters story handled this key limitation by soliciting a quote from one of the study authors, who said: “Given the observational design of the study, findings of this study cannot prove that it’s chocolate that lowers the risk of stroke.” The story did do a nice job of pointing out that milk chocolate in Sweden, where the study was conducted, is richer in cocoa solids than milk chocolate in the U.S., and so a study conducted here might not report the same findings on stroke risk. The story didn’t exaggerate the effects of strokes. The study includes comments from an expert source not affiliated with the study, who provides valuable context on the increased desirability of dark chocolate over milk chocolate. The story could have included a line about other, more established methods of preventing cardiovascular disease, but didn’t. The availability of chocolate bars is not in question. But it is important to note that the chocolate sold in Sweden typically has a higher concentration of cocoa solids — the likely source of any protective effect — than chocolate sold in the U.S. The story makes this clear. The story mentions other research suggesting that chocolate consumption is linked to reduced risk of strokes. Because the study includes comments from an independent expert, we can be sure it didn’t rely excessively on any press release.
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26501
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“Same little boy died of COVID-19 in three different countries. Still don’t believe the media is #fakenews?”
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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.
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false
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Fake news, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
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"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 media is #fakenews?"" The post, which contains three screenshots of what appear to be portions of three different news reports, 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.) The photo that is repeated in all of them, however, is of Conor Wilmot, a 13-year-old boy from County Clare, Ireland, who died after reportedly participating in a self-harm challenge. The story was covered by local media at the time after the boy’s loved ones spoke out. Let’s look at each image in the Facebook post: 1. Conor Wilmot The first screenshot includes a portion of a legitimate May 16, 2017, news article in the Irish Times about Conor’s death. The boy’s father said in the article his son died from playing a ""choking game"" he had found on the internet and did not intend to take his own life. The photo of Conor in that article, visible in the screenshot, is authentic. 2. Isaiah Gonzales The second screenshot includes the same photo of Conor. But the caption identifies the boy as Isaiah Gonzales and the photo credit is from a TV station in San Antonio, Texas. Isaiah Gonzales is the name of a 15-year-old boy from San Antonio who hanged himself on July 8, 2017, news reports show. According to his family, Isaiah’s suicide was possibly tied to a sometimes-dangerous online game known as the Blue Whale Challenge, the Washington Post reported. Both suicides occurred more than two years before the coronavirus first surfaced in China. 3. Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab The third screenshot also has the same photo of Conor. It includes the headline from an April 1, 2020, news article about the youngest person in the United Kingdom to die from COVID-19. That person is Ismail, who was 13 and lived in London. AFP Fact Check and other websites have reported that social media posts have falsely included a photo of Conor with news articles about Ismail’s death. The newspaper in Conor’s home area, The Clare Echo, published a news article April 6, 2020 about the misuse of Conor’s photos. It included a screenshot of the same images in the Facebook claim we’re checking. The article said Conor’s older sister, Melanie Wilmot, posted a message online that said: ""We’re devastated that they can do this, frankly had enough just let us be and leave Conor alone."" This Facebook post does not show that the media is falsely suggesting that the same boy had died of the coronavirus in three different countries. Rather, it shows that someone used doctored images of a child who reportedly killed himself to falsely suggest a media conspiracy over COVID-19."
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11251
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More teens undergoing weight-loss surgery
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"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 predicted to be lost, the essential component of limiting caloric intake to achieve any weight loss at all, and the possible harms that have been documented to occur as a result of the procedure, it is impossible for a viewer to make good use of the information provided about the trial at this time. The story didn’t provide any context for how this procedure fits within the framework of weight loss treatments for the adolescent population. The story could have made it clear that this device is currently approved for use in adults, and the study is simply trying to determine if it is safe and effective for adolescents. Costs weren’t discussed. And the story said that those who had the surgery had ""few side effects."" How few is few? And what kind? These are the kinds of questions viewers need answered."
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false
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"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 end of the piece, where the reporter mentioned that there were ""few side effects"" in this clinical trial, there was no mention of the harms associated with the gastric banding procedure. What does ""few side effects"" mean? How few? What kind? There was no evidence presented about amount or maintenance of weight loss following gastric banding or how this might compare to other approaches to weight loss. This is a story about a device undergoing an initial FDA trial. There is very little evidence on this, but they could have presented what is available. And they should have noted how little is known about the device in this population. There was no disease mongering about obesity. The story included interviews with a surgeon involved in the clinical trial and with an apparently independent bariatric surgeon. But the story failed to mention sources of funding for the study, or whether the the surgeon interviewed has potential conflicts of interest. No perspective is provided about why this might not be a good idea. There was no discussion of treatment options; the story should have mentioned alternative treatment approaches for this age group. This piece discussed a weight loss surgical procedure used for an adolescent in the context of an FDA-approved clinical. Though this might imply something to a viewer about the general availability of this procedure for people in this age group, it should have been clearer about this. However, there was no mention about whether or not institutions not participating in the clincial trial would do the procedure in this age group of patients; there was no discussion about what made such a trial an important thing to conduct. Although this was a story about the use of a specific weight loss surgery in a new population in which it is currently being assessed, this broadcast did not really provide any context for how this procedure fits within the framework of weight loss treatments for the adolescent population. The story could have made it clear that this device is currently approved for use in adults, and the study is simply trying to determine if it is safe and effective for adolescents. Does not appear to rely solely or largely on a news release, as there is a second source interviewed."
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6372
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Swarm of sea urchins wreaks destruction on US West Coast.
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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.
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true
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AP Top News, General News, Forests, Oregon, Business, California, Asia Pacific, U.S. News, Red Sea, Science
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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 hundreds of the spiny orbs — have spread to coastal Oregon, where kelp forests were once so thick it was impossible to navigate some areas by boat. The underwater annihilation is killing off important fisheries for red abalone and red sea urchins and creating such havoc that scientists in California are partnering with a private business to collect the over-abundant purple urchins and “ranch” them in a controlled environment for ultimate sale to a global seafood market. “We’re in uncharted territory,” said Scott Groth, a shellfish scientist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “You can’t just go out and smash them. There’s too many. I don’t know what we can do.” The explosion of purple sea urchins is the latest symptom of a Pacific Northwest marine ecosystem that’s out of whack. Kelp has been struggling because of warmer-than-usual waters in the Pacific Ocean. And, in 2013, a mysterious disease began wiping out tens of millions of starfish, including a species called the sunflower sea star that is the only real predator of the ultra-hardy purple urchin. Around the same time, the purple urchins had two excellent breeding years — and with no predators, those gametes grew up and are now eating everything in sight. “You can imagine all of these small urchins growing up, each one of them looking for food, desperate for food. They’re literally starving out there,” said Steven Rumrill, lead shellfish expert at Oregon’s wildlife agency. “I’ve seen some big-scale fluctuations in the populations of sea stars and urchins, but never on this magnitude.” Scientists are not yet sure if climate change is responsible for the sea urchin explosion, but they suspect it plays a role in the cascade of events that allowed the purple urchins to boom. And kelp, already under siege from warming waters, is not as resilient as it once was, said Norah Eddy, an associate director at the Nature Conservancy California’s oceans program. “We’re going to see climate change as a big driver of changes in kelp forest as we move forward, and we are already seeing that,” said Eddy, who is leading an effort to use drones to map and monitor Northern California’s last remaining kelp forests. The devastation is also economic: Until now, red abalone and red sea urchins, a larger and meatier species of urchin, supported a thriving commercial fishery in both states. But 96% of red abalone have disappeared from California’s northern coast as the number of purple sea urchins increased six fold, according to a study released this week by the University of California, Davis. Last year, California closed its red abalone fishery, which poured an estimated $44 million into the coastal economy per year, and Oregon suspended permits for its 300 abalone divers for three years. The commercial harvest of red sea urchins in California and Oregon also has taken a massive hit. “That’s a huge economic loss for our small coastal communities,” said Cynthia Catton, a research associate with the University of California, Davis Bodega Marine Lab. “In California, there were 30,000 to 40,000 participants in (the abalone) fishery every year for decades, and for the first time ever that fishery had to close.” And while the purple urchins have eaten themselves into starvation as well, unlike other kelp-dependent creatures, the species can go into a dormant state, stop reproducing and live for years with no food. That means the only way to restore the kelp is to remove or destroy the purple urchins. Scientists estimate that in Oregon alone, it would take 15 to 20 years to remove all 100 million pounds (45 million kilograms) of purple urchins recently surveyed on just one large reef. While urchins are in starvation mode, the edible part — known as roe — shrivels, making them commercially worthless. Against this backdrop, conservationists, commercial urchin harvesters, scientists and private interests are coming together with an unusual plan: Pay underemployed red sea urchin divers to collect the shriveled, but living, purple sea urchins and transfer them to carefully tended urchin “ranches” to be fattened up for sale to seafood markets around the world. One company, Urchinomics, is already working on urchin ranching projects in Japan, Canada and California and sees a future where the overwhelming demand for wild urchin roe is replaced by a taste for human-raised purple urchins collected from the seafloor, allowing kelp forests to rebound. “We’re turning an ecological problem into an ecological opportunity and an economic opportunity,” said Brian Takeda, the Urchinomics CEO. “It’s the first time we’ve ever had an economic incentive to get these destructive urchins out of the water.” In Oregon, red urchin divers are a tiny artisanal collective, but they are also exploring ways to try to turn the glut of destructive purple urchins to their advantage. Oregon’s urchin fishery had a boom year last year, when red urchins were scarce in California but before their purple cousins had spread north. Now, they too are hurting. Rumrill, the shellfish expert from Oregon, supports efforts to harvest excess urchins but strikes a less optimistic note when it comes to saving the kelp. “That’s a promising technique. But we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that we’re going to solve this large-scale ecological problem, this literal perfect storm of events, by eating our way out,” he said. “It’s just too big a problem.” ___ Chea reported from Mendocino County, California. ___ Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus .
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5712
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Oklahoma City mulls vote on MAPS 4 sales tax extension.
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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.
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true
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Mental health, Oklahoma City, Health, General News, Social services, Oklahoma
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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 includes $40 million for mental health and addiction services and $38 million for a family justice center offering services to victims of abuse. Another $50 million would be earmarked for affordable housing for the homeless.
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768
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Loch Ness monster might just be a giant eel, say scientists.
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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.
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true
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Science News
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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 had eels and the sheer volume of it was a bit of a surprise,” Gemmell said. “We can’t exclude the possibility that there’s a giant eel in Loch Ness but we don’t know whether these samples we’ve collected are from a giant beast or just an ordinary one - so there’s still this element of ‘we just don’t know.’” Gemmell noted however that despite the idea of a giant eel having been around for decades, nobody had ever caught a giant one in the Loch. The international team of scientists took their samples of so-called environmental DNA (eDNA) in June last year. The use of eDNA sampling is already well established as a tool for monitoring marine life like whales and sharks. Whenever a creature moves through its environment, it leaves behind tiny fragments of DNA from skin, scales, feathers, fur, faeces and urine. This DNA can be captured, sequenced and then used to identify that creature by comparing the sequence obtained to large databases of known genetic sequences from hundreds of thousands of different organisms. The first written record of a monster relates to the Irish monk St Columba, who is said to have banished a “water beast” to the depths of the River Ness in the 6th century. The most famous picture of Nessie, known as the “surgeon’s photo”, was taken in 1934 and showed a head on a long neck emerging from the water. It was revealed 60 years later to have been a hoax that used a sea monster model attached to a toy submarine. Countless unsuccessful attempts to track down the monster have been made in the years since, notably in 2003 when the BBC funded an extensive scientific search that used 600 sonar beams and satellite tracking to sweep the full length of the loch. The most recent attempt was three years ago when a high-tech marine drone found a monster - but not the one it was looking for. The discovery turned out to be replica used in the 1970 film “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes”, which sank nearly 50 years ago. Gemmell’s team included scientists from Britain, Denmark, the United States, Australia and France.
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11569
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New Tools for Helping Heart Patients
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"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. This is, unfortunately, often a fairy tale mainstay of health news journalism. It’s interesting that several leading journalists wrote to us with concerns about this story. One wrote, ""She didn’t interview a real skeptic. It is still quite possible that these devices will only yield minor results, since heart failure is, after all, an end stage disease, so it may just be rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."""
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false
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"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 but it painted the cost picture with really broad strokes. Information about the potential to increase longevity was presented from a study that has not yet been published. The information was presented as a relative increase rather than an absolute increase. The story didn’t contain sufficient information to quantify the benefit to any specific group of patients. The story did mention the problem of potential information overload however there was no discussion of actual harm such as inappropriate shocks from implanted defibrillator devices, for example. There was no questioning of the accuracy of the data potentially transmitted by devices. This was a far too rosy picture – almost as if all the data was so terrific that the only downside could be the volume of terrific data. Other things can go wrong as past experience shows when you try to regulate the heart. In our eyes, a red flag went up when the story cited ""a paper under review."" We don’t know the quality of the paper nor have peer reviewers completed their review yet. So that’s giving the researcher free rein to say whatever he wants about that study. We also must address the headline which stated ‘New tools for helping heart patients’ before we have concrete demonstration that the new tools actually do help. The story opened with an anecdote that implied that something terrible was avoided. That, of course, is always hard to know. The punch line is that without the device reporting in to a clinician, the situation was one in which it ""could have gone for months before the problem was discovered."" The story never considered the question of whether there is always value in immediate recognition of a situation. Clinicians who were involved with the makers of the devices discussed were quoted in this piece. The alternative of how things are currently done is not clear. Many involve the patient manually checking the device at home over a phone or going to the doctor. For many patients, this new technology may be of marginal benefit at unclear cost. In addition to the new devices, one needs a new system of ""non-visit"" based care and monitoring. This is something that isn’t routine in most doctors’ offices and would require changes in how they operate and in theory how they get paid. The story was a tapestry of information about devices that are currently available, devices in clinical studies, and the potential benefit from devices to be developed in the future. The story could have been clearer about products that are and are not readily available to patients. We had to read the piece several times in order to reflect on which device, from which company, was at which stage of research or development. The story wove together information from devices that available – through those used in clinical trials and those under development. Does not appear to rely on a news release."
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3944
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First flu death of season recorded in Utah.
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Utah health officials have confirmed the state’s first flu death this season.
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true
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Health, Utah, General News, Salt Lake City, Flu
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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 officials are calling a moderate flu season so far. This season has been unusual because of he high number of cases of Influenza B, a strain that typically isn’t seen until the end of the season, said Salt Lake County Health Department Epidemiology Bureau Manager Ilene Risk. Risk said it’s not too late to get a flu vaccine.
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26562
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Facebook post Says COVID-19 remains in the air for eight hours and that everyone is now required to wear masks “everywhere.”
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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 further research needs to be done, experts say. There is no evidence that the virus stays in the air for eight hours and there is no requirement for “everyone” to wear masks everywhere.
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false
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Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
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"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 headline and claims COVID-19 is now considered ""airborne"" and remains in the air for eight hours. The post shows part of a real CNBC headline before cutting off at an ellipsis: ""WHO considers ‘airborne precautions’ for medical staff after study shows coronavirus …"" Below that, the post’s text reads, ""COVID-19 is confirmed as airborne and remains 8 hrs (sic) in air! So everyone is required to wear mask (sic) everywhere!!"" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) First, the word ""airborne"" means different things to different scientists. Second, data about the nature of the coronavirus is evolving. But even in light those two considerations, this social media post distorts facts and presents exaggerated, alarmist information. Health officials are not recommending face masks for everyone ""everywhere."" Not yet, anyway. While the matter is being considered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so far the agency hasn’t advised face masks for healthy people. It did recently update its guidance to say that, when masks are available, sick people should wear them when they are around others and upon entering healthcare providers’ offices. The CDC also says that if a sick person is unable to wear a mask, their caregiver should wear one when in the same room. Public health officials have said that they don’t consider the virus to be airborne because its droplets are too large and heavy to remain in the air long, falling within a few seconds. ""The virus that causes COVID-19 is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or speaks. These droplets are too heavy to hang in the air. They quickly fall on floors or surfaces,"" the World Health Organization says. ""You can be infected by breathing in the virus if you are within 1 meter of a person who has COVID-19, or by touching a contaminated surface and then touching your eyes, nose or mouth before washing your hands."" The Facebook post’s claim that the virus can remain in the air up to eight hours is unsubstantiated. Furthermore, the CNBC article the post references makes no such statement. The article does refer to one recent study that suggests the virus might be able to stay in the air longer in some settings such as when medical staff are engaged in an ""aerosol-generating procedure."" Such procedures might include intubation, ventilation and airway suction. Under those circumstances, health officials are considering ""airborne precautions"" for medical staff, the story said. The study, published March 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that transmission by aerosol — defined as a suspension of tiny particles or droplets in the air — is plausible in this virus, technically called SARS-CoV-2, in some settings. The virus ""remained viable in aerosols"" for three hours, the study said. But this doesn’t mean the virus is now considered airborne. One researcher who participated in the study warns that the airborne question ""bedevils scientists trying to communicate with the public."" ""It combines a locus of substantial public fear with a question of true scientific nuance — a recipe for a misinformation mess,"" Dylan Morris, Princeton University researcher and co-author of the study, wrote in a post on his website. ""Many viruses — from measles to flu, and including SARS-CoV-2 — are ‘airborne’ in the sense that one way of getting sick is to inhale virus particles (‘virions’) sneezed or coughed into the air within respiratory secretions. Some secretions are on the bigger end, and we tend to call those ‘droplets.’ Others are smaller, and we tend to call them ‘aerosols,’"" Morris says. ""The tricky crux of the matter is that when people say ‘airborne,’ what they often mean is ‘you’re at risk from virus particles hanging in the air — or being kicked back up into the air after falling to the ground — long, long after an infectious person sneezed them out.’ That’s much more of a risk for smaller, ‘aerosol’-end-of-the-spectrum secretions. And it turns out that it’s more of a risk for some viruses than for others."" Measles, for example, is considered a truly airborne virus because it typically remains infectious in the air for hours. Even though measles and flu illnesses can both be found in aerosol-like and in droplet-like secretions, Morris says, the flu is less transmissible. So far, scientists think COVID-19 looks more like the flu. Linsey Marr, an expert in airborne disease transmission at Virginia Tech, told FactCheck.org that there isn’t enough evidence showing how exactly the new coronavirus is being spread between people, but said transmission is much more likely if you’re close to someone who is sick. She gave an example of being directly next to someone smoking a cigarette — the closer you are, the more off a whiff you could catch — but the farther away you are from someone releasing the virus into the air, the lesser the concentration. A Facebook post says the virus that causes COVID-19 remains in the air for eight hours, and everyone is now required to wear masks. This is inaccurate. There is no current evidence that the virus can remain in the air for eight hours. While the CDC is exploring its position on whether masks should be worn more widely in the general population, it doesn’t ""require"" everyone to wear masks ""everywhere."" As more studies are done on how the virus persists in various environments, there may be extra precautions put in place, especially for health care professionals treating COVID-19 patients. There is still not enough known to say definitively how this new virus behaves in every setting. Preliminary studies suggest the virus may be more ""airborne"" than initially believed. But the term ""airborne"" should not be applied loosely as current research doesn’t indicate that COVID-19 is comparable to highly transmissible airborne illnesses like measles. Experts say the biggest threat of transmission is close contact with an infected person. The post makes unsubstantiated claims and twists facts to give a different impression."
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440
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Samoa ends measles state of emergency as infection rate slows.
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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.
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true
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Health News
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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 the virus such as closing schools and restricting travel, put in place last month had ended. Measles cases are on the rise globally, including in wealthy nations such as the United States and Germany, where some parents shun life-saving vaccines due to false theories suggesting links between childhood immunizations and autism. Death and infection rates in Samoa started to slow in mid-December after a vaccine drive pushed immunization rates towards 95%, the level aid agencies say is effective in creating “herd immunity” that can contain the disease. Earlier in the year, an outbreak of measles hit the New Zealand city of Auckland, a hub for travel to and from small Pacific islands. The disease soon found a highly susceptible population in Samoa which had far lower vaccination rates than its neighbors.
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33467
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An Atlanta police officer killed a baby following a breastfeeding dispute with the child's mother.
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Other fake news stories published by the Gazette include “Islam Studies Added to Common Core Curriculum.”
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false
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Media Matters, baltimore gazette, national report, Not Necessarily The News
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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 Smith has been pronounced dead following an August sixth incident. This closely follows the July seventeenth death of NYC resident Eric Garner after the use of a prohibited choke hold by officers against him. Garners death was ruled a homicide by the NYC medical examiners office. Suzanne Smith, Layla’s mother, had been sitting on a bench in Queens waiting for the bus when Layla began to insistently cry. Knowing that her baby was hungry Ms. Smith began to breastfeed her daughter. Witnesses at the scene report that she was then approached by a NYPD Officer, later identified as Michael Fitzsimmons, who requested that she stop feeding the baby in public as it was “indecent”. Ms. Smith refused to comply with the directive and told Officer Fitzsimmons that she wasn’t doing anything illegal. Officer Fitzsimmons again insisted that she stop and threatened to arrest her for indecent exposure. Ms. Smith calmly responded to the Officer that he could not arrest her because breastfeeding in public wasn’t against the law. “He got so mad at her”, said Tyrone Webb, who witnessed the unfortunate altercation. “He started yelling at her, saying that he was the police, and that she didn’t know s**t about what was against the law. He got all red in the face, pointing his finger right at her nose. She just sat there and kept feeding the baby calm as could be, being real polite and reasonable. Someone else tried to chime in and tell him he was wrong and he told the lady to shut up and mind her business.” In September 2016, that article was recycled by the Baltimore Gazette, a recently established fake news site. The Gazette‘s version changed the locale from New York to Atlanta, the mother’s given name from Layla to Latoya, and posited that it was the mother herself rather than her child who was killed by a police officer following a breastfeeding dispute, but otherwise followed the same template as the previous fictional article: In a continuation of the ongoing police scandals rocking the country, 28-year-old Latoya Smith has been pronounced dead following an incident this afternoon in Atlanta, according to multiple local media outlets. This closely follows the recent shooting deaths of Tulsa resident Terence Crutcher and Charlotte resident Keith Lamont Scott which have thrown the nation into turmoil resulting in violent demonstrations. According to eyewitness accounts, Latoya was sitting on a bench in the neighborhood of Marietta Street (recently named one of America’s 25 most dangerous neighborhoods) waiting for the bus when her infant child began crying insistently. Knowing that her baby was hungry Ms. Smith began to breastfeed her daughter, Layla. She was then approached by a police officer, later identified as Michael Eaton, who requested that she stop feeding the baby in public as it was “indecent”. Ms. Smith refused to comply with the directive and told Officer Eaton that she wasn’t doing anything illegal. Officer Eaton again insisted that she stop and threatened to arrest her for indecent exposure. Ms. Smith calmly responded to the Officer that he could not arrest her because breastfeeding in public wasn’t against the law. “He got so mad at her”, said Tyrone Webb, who witnessed the unfortunate altercation. “He started yelling at her, saying that he was the police, and that she didn’t know s**t about what was against the law. He got all red in the face, pointing his finger right at her nose. She just sat there and kept feeding the baby calm as could be, being real polite and reasonable. Someone else tried to chime in and tell him he was wrong and he told the lady to shut up and mind her business.”
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8551
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China reclassifies dogs as pets, not livestock, in post-virus regulatory push.
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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.
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true
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Environment
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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 military. “As far as dogs are concerned, along with the progress of human civilisation and the public concern and love for animal protection, dogs have been ‘specialised’ to become companion animals, and internationally are not considered to be livestock, and they will not be regulated as livestock in China,” it said. The coronavirus is widely believed to have originated in horseshoe bats, and could have been passed onto humans by intermediary species on sale in the markets of the city of Wuhan, where the pathogen was first identified. China subsequently banned the breeding, trading and consumption of wildlife, and revoked all existing licenses. It has also promised to revise legislation to make the ban permanent. The draft guidelines published on Wednesday, which have been opened to the public for consultation, listed 18 traditional livestock species - including cattle, pigs, poultry and camels. It also added 13 “special” species that would also be exempt from wild animal trading restrictions, including reindeer, alpaca, pheasants, ostriches and foxes. Dog consumption has become increasingly unpopular in China, and the southern city of Shenzhen became the first to ban it last month. However, the Humane Society International, an animal welfare group, estimated that around 10 million dogs a year are still killed in China for meat, including stolen pets. The city of Yulin in the region of Guangxi holds an annual dog meat festival in June. “This draft proposal could signal a game-changer moment for animal protection in China,” said Wendy Higgins, a Humane Society International spokeswoman.
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7188
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State public health care plan clears Washington House.
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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.
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true
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Health, Washington, Universal health care, Bills, Jay Inslee
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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 more private companies to offer at least two plans. The state would determine the outlines of each, while the company would handle the work of enrolling customers and paying out claims. That plunges the state into a national debate over the future of health care, and especially the meaning of universal health care, a phrase used by many of the Democratic hopefuls in the 2020 presidential election. Inslee declared his candidacy in that race March 1. Broadly, conservatives have resisted calls to involve state or federal governments in providing health care, while moderates have called for making private health care more affordable. Some further to the left have advocated removing private insurers from the equation entirely. “The left thinks it doesn’t go far enough, but the right thinks it’s socialized medicine,” said Rep. Eileen Cody, the Seattle Democrat who sponsored the House version of the bill at Inslee’s request. Speaking at a news conference the day before the vote, Inslee called the bill an achievable goal, but he did not elaborate on the role of private insurers or the government. Although available to all residents, the cost of the public option — dubbed Cascade Care — would be based on sliding subsidies. Residents would buy Cascade Care on the state’s health plan website, just like any other plan. The plan doesn’t set exact premium costs, but rates paid to doctors and hospitals as well as administrative costs are capped, which Cody said would likely put Cascade Care premiums lower than those on a private-market individual plan, potentially by 20 percent or more. The expanded subsidies — which would be planned but not implemented — would also be tied to income, increasing an existing threshold to include individuals making up to about $62,000. In the state Capitol, the bill has provoked argument that mirrors the national debate. On the House floor Friday, Republican lawmakers warned that government intervention would destabilize the state’s health care market, and especially that the payment rates proposed for doctors treating Cascade Care patients were too low. “This is an illusion of care,” said Colfax Rep. Joe Schmick, ranking Republican on the House Health Care and Wellness committee. As it stands, he said, providers often take a mix of Medicaid or Medicare patients and patients with private insurance, with the higher-paying private plans balancing out the lower-paying public ones. Letting more people shift to lower-paying public plans would throw off that balance, and the lower rates could ultimately lead to fewer available doctors, he said. Meanwhile, a Democratic lawmaker had introduced an alternative plan on the other end of the spectrum: Single-payer health care, run by the state, an idea Cody and others have noted has some backers. After Friday’s vote, however, Cody resisted both arguments. Unbalancing the market shouldn’t be a problem, she said, because Cascade Care targets only people not already covered by employers’ plans or low-income subsidies, who instead buy individual insurance themselves, directly from insurers. Cody put that group at only about 4 percent of the state. At the same time, Cody also said she saw good reason not to shoot for a completely government-run plan right away. While plans run by private insurers — including a state-contracted plan — qualify for federal subsidies, a plan run by the state would not, which would mean the state would have to pay a much larger share of the costs. “It’s too much money,” Cody said.
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35366
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"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."
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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.
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true
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Viral Phenomena, COVID-19
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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 over Nagy’s death from COVID-19, but also anger, stating his death was needless and the result of negligence by others. A social media user took a photograph of the obituary published in the Jefferson Jimplecute, a small newspaper covering Marion County, Texas, that doesn’t appear to have a functioning website. The photograph went viral: Many who shared the image of the obituary did so with admiration for its raw emotion and forceful condemnation of not just political figures but members of the public who have failed to heed guidelines set out by public health officials. But some noted they were unable to independently locate it online and questioned whether it was authentic. It was real. We contacted Stacey Nagy by phone and confirmed with her directly that she wrote the obituary. Nagy, who lives in Jefferson, Texas, said she was glad the obituary is being seen widely because she wanted her message to get out: notably, that others’ failures to take precautions against COVID-19, like wearing face masks and social distancing, are causing people like her to experience hardship and grief.
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14904
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"Climate change is ""directly related"" to the growth of terrorism."
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"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 and ethnic tensions and political repression."
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false
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National, Climate Change, Terrorism, Bernie Sanders,
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"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 security is climate change. A day after the terrorist attacks, did he, asked moderator John Dickerson, still believe that? ""Absolutely. In fact, climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism,"" Sanders said on Nov. 14. ""If we do not get our act together and listen to what the scientists say, you’re gonna see countries all over the world — this is what the CIA says — they’re going to be struggling over limited amounts of water, limited amounts of land to grow their crops, and you’re going to see all kinds of international conflict."" A day later on CBS’ Face the Nation, Sanders doubled down on his statement, elaborating, ""When people migrate into cities and they don't have jobs, there's going to be a lot more instability, a lot more unemployment, and people will be subject to the types of propaganda that al-Qaida and ISIS are using right now."" We were curious about the link between climate change and terrorism that Sanders highlighted. While there is a body of literature backing his broader point that climate change contributes to the growth of terrorism, Sanders is overstating the ""direct"" connection. A complicated relationship The Sanders camp referred us to statements from President Barack Obama and leaders of the defense community, as well as a Defense Department report that suggests indirect links between climate change and terrorism: • Obama in a May 2015 speech: ""Understand, climate change did not cause the conflicts we see around the world. Yet what we also know is that severe drought helped to create the instability in Nigeria that was exploited by the terrorist group Boko Haram."" • The Defense Department in a 2014 report: ""In our defense strategy, we refer to climate change as a ‘threat multiplier’ because it has the potential to exacerbate many of the challenges we are dealing with today — from infectious disease to terrorism. We are already beginning to see some of these impacts."" • Adm. Samuel J. Locklear, then-commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, said in 2013 that the significant upheaval related to the warming planet ""is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen … that will cripple the security environment."" We found a few other federal and academic reports naming climate change a threat to national security, but that’s not the same thing as ""directly related to the growth of terrorism."" That’s not to say that climate change isn’t contributing to existing problems. Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley used more accurate language when he said, ""One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation-state of Syria and the rise of ISIS was the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that region, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis."". Sanders was more sweeping in his comments, though. ""I wouldn’t have said it as strongly, but (climate change) is an accelerant to conflict and helps produce instability,"" said Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior fellow at the national security think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. ""Within the national security sphere, more and more see climate change as a real problem. They would agree with the broader point."" Climate change, however, is not ""hermetically sealed from other risks,"" writes Francesco Femia and Caitlin Werrell of the Center for Climate and Security in a blog post. ""The impacts of climate change interact with other factors to make existing security risks worse."" That’s why experts and the Pentagon prefer the term ""threat multiplier."" Here’s how: Climate change can lead to food and water scarcity, which may in turn increase poverty, the spread of disease, and mass migration — in short, instability. In places with already weakened governments, this breeds the conditions for terrorism to thrive. Factors that contribute to terrorism Of course, there are myriad conditions that motivate terrorism. Ideology and political interests are much more direct factors, according to Michael Doran, who served on the National Security Council and in the Defense Department under President George W. Bush. The latest Global Terrorism Index report lists political, nationalist and separatist movements as well as weak political systems and a lack of political legitimacy as main drivers. It found that countries with high levels of terrorism share three ""statistically significant factors"": • Hostility between different ethnic, religious and linguistic groups; • State-sponsored violence such as extrajudicial killings, political terrors and high levels of group grievances; • Violence from organized conflict, demonstrations and crime, and perceptions of criminality. According to the Global Terrorism report, 66 percent of deaths from terrorist attacks in 2013 were caused by four extremist groups: ISIS, Boko Haram, the Taliban and al-Qaida. Their commonality is, obviously, religious extremism. Our ruling 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 and ethnic tensions and political repression."
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9004
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New research ranks the effectiveness of nonsurgical treatments for knee osteoarthritis
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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 absolute clinical benefits of the treatments, only their relative rankings. There is only a brief, general mention of potential harms of some of the drugs included in the analysis. The release says that almost half of Americans are at risk of developing knee osteoarthritis. This eye-catching number comes straight from the journal article, but it is far higher than other estimates and is based on a study of only the older residents of single rural county in North Carolina. Sophisticated statistical methods for combining the results of multiple clinical trials, such as the network meta-analysis used in this case, are powerful tools for discerning larger, more useful, conclusions from the results of many smaller research efforts. However, the very power of these methods imposes a substantial responsibility on the researchers to perform the work capably and carefully… and then a subsequent responsibility on journalists reporting the story to seek out independent sources who are qualified to comment on the work.
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mixture
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American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons,knee osteoarthritis
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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 the treatments need to be repeated, so the cumulative cost should be considered. The news release does not provide any specifics about the benefits of the treatments, referring only to their relative rankings. It should be noted that the researchers also did not address absolute clinical benefits in their journal article. The conclusions as stated may still be useful to patients who may have personal experience with at least some of the treatments. However, to satisfy this criterion the release should have provided some description of the absolute clinical benefit to patients. We note that the news release highlights the conclusion of the researcher’s analysis that the results of hyaluronic acid injections were not significantly different than placebo injections. The attention to a lack of benefit is important news for patients. The news release does refer to some potential harms of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, including naproxen and ibuprofen. However, it does not quantify these risks and it does not address any of the potential harms of the other treatments in the analysis. The news release includes key attributes of the methods the authors used to compare the results of clinical trials. These methods are what make this report potentially newsworthy. The sort of network meta-analysis the researchers used is a powerful method for combining the results of many individual trials. However, the sophistication and complexity of the method also mean that the conclusions depend on the skill, discipline and effort of the researchers. Indeed, the authors criticize an earlier network meta-analysis for including lower-quality studies. Journalists reporting on this study should seek out qualified independent sources in order to get informed perspectives about how well this meta-analysis was performed. The news release leads off with the statement that an “estimated 45 percent of people are at risk of developing knee osteoarthritis (OA) in their lifetime.” The journal article also leads with this statistic. However, the “45 percent” figure comes from a study of people living in one county in rural North Carolina. Another recent study estimates a far lower lifetime risk of about 14 percent. The authors of the latter report addressed the discrepancy, writing that the North Carolina study looked at an older population with different sex, race and weight distributions than the US population as a whole… and it noted that people without knee problems might have been less likely to stay in touch with researchers, which could lead to a higher estimate of lifetime risk. The news release identifies only where the authors work. It does not include the disclosures listed in the journal article. These disclosures should have been included in the news release. A comparison of existing alternatives is the point of the journal article. The news release highlights the comparisons in clear language. It is clear that all the treatments noted in the release are generally available. The release includes a quote from an author that, “This is the first comprehensive mixed-comparison analysis comparing best-evidence scientific research and excluding lower quality studies that can bias the outcomes.” A search of PubMed.gov did not find any other similar meta-analyses, except for one that the authors discussed in their journal article. They criticized that earlier meta-analysis for including lower quality studies that they said muddled the results. This news release clearly summarizes the main conclusions of the researchers’ journal article. Other than repeating the questionable estimate of lifetime risk of knee osteoarthritis noted above, the language of the release is moderate and useful.
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3558
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What’s so bad about processed foods? Scientists offer clues.
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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.
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true
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Health, Nutrition, General News, AP Top News, Science
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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 industrialized food supply may be affecting our health, they also underscore how difficult nutrition science and advice can be. Here’s what they say. WHAT DOES “PROCESSED” MEAN? Whether it’s curing, freezing, milling or pasteurization, nearly all foods undergo some type of processing. Even though processing itself doesn’t automatically make food unhealthy, “processed foods” is generally a negative term. To more precisely identify the processed foods of most concern, scientists came up with a system that groups foods into four categories. It’s far from perfect, but the system says highly processed foods are made mostly of industrialized ingredients and additives, with little to no intact whole foods. Sodas, packaged cookies, instant noodles and chicken nuggets are some examples of highly processed foods. But also included are products that can seem wholesome, like breakfast cereals, energy bars and some yogurts. WHAT’S WRONG WITH PROCESSED FOODS? Cheap packaged foods are everywhere including checkout lines, gas stations and vending machines, and a very small four-week clinical trial might deepen our understanding of why that’s likely fueling obesity rates. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health found people ate an average of 500 extra calories a day when fed mostly processed foods, compared with when the same people were fed minimally processed foods. That’s even though researchers tried to match the meals for nutrients like fat, fiber and sugar. The 20 participants were allowed to eat as much or as little as they wanted, and were checked into a clinic so their health and behavior could be monitored. That’s not all the bad news. In another study based on questionnaires, researchers in France found people who ate more processed foods were more likely to have heart disease. A similar study in Spain found eating more processed foods was linked to a higher risk of death in general. WHAT IS IT ABOUT PROCESSED FOODS? Beyond the fact they taste really good, there might other reasons why it’s so hard to stop eating foods like cheese puffs and ice cream. When fed minimally processed foods, people in the clinical trial produced more of a hormone that suppresses appetite, and less of a hormone that causes hunger. The reason for the biological reaction isn’t clear. Another finding: People ate processed foods faster. “Those foods tend to be softer and easier to chew and swallow,” said Kevin Hall, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health who led the study. Hall noted the source of nutrients might make a difference. Fibers from whole fruits and vegetables, for instance, may be better for making people feel full than the types of fiber added to packaged foods such as cookies, yogurt and even soda. For the French study, author Mathilde Touvier also noted the largely unexamined effects of the “cocktail” of additives used to make the various processed foods we eat. All three studies come with big caveats. The U.S. study was tiny and individual behavior varied widely: Some ate about the same amount of calories on both diets, and others ate far more on the processed diet. Meals in the two diets were rated as being similarly pleasant, but Hall noted it’s possible participants were saying what they thought they should. The processed food diet included foods like salted nuts and whole milk, compared with unsalted nuts and lower-fat milk for the unprocessed diet. With the French and Spanish studies, there could be other habits and environmental factors that explain the differences in health risks. The studies also didn’t reflect the broader population. In the Spanish study, participants were college graduates and relatively younger. And though processed food was tied to a greater risk of death, the total number of deaths was still relatively small. WHAT SHOULD YOU EAT? Even without the latest studies, advice to limit processed foods probably makes sense to most people. Minimally processed foods tend to be richer in nutrients and more difficult to overeat, since they’re not as widely available and convenient. Still, following that advice can be hard, especially if for people with limited time and money to spend on food. “What frustrates me is when the message is, ‘Change the way you eat,’ without thinking about why people eat the way they eat,” said Sarah Bowen, a professor who studies food and inequality at North Carolina State University. Another challenge is the broad spectrum of processed foods, and distinguishing which ones might be better or worse as companies continually re-engineer products to make them seem more wholesome. So while the newest studies may give us more reasons to avoid industrialized foods, they also underscore the difficulty of coming up with solutions. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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31179
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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.
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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.
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false
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Politics Conspiracy Theories, dinesh d'souza, george soros, glenn beck
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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 during World War II. That Soros was only nine years old (born in 1930) when the war broke out and all of 14 when Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945 hasn’t dampened his detractors’ enthusiasm for spreading these rumors, including the absurd claim, which first surfaced in November 2016, that Soros literally served as an officer of the paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) in Germany. Here are two examples via Twitter: George Soros. A SS in the National Socialist German workers party. Nazi party. He served under Hitler. The Democratic Party soul. pic.twitter.com/pLTfFtGtB1 — G.I. Joe 🇺🇸 (@toombstone) November 26, 2016 GEORGE SOROS- REMEMBER THIS THE NEXT TIME THE SOROS-FUNDED LIBERALS CALL YOU A RACIST, FACIST, OR NAZI! pic.twitter.com/qU7FwGzHcQ — Phx Ken (@PhxKen) June 15, 2017 This allegation continues to make the social media rounds in the form of a black-and-white photograph of a young man — supposedly Soros — wearing an SS uniform (see above), accompanied by some version of this caption: .. I give you George Soros. A SS in the National Socialist German workers party. Nazi party. He served under Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler. He said it was the best time of his life. The destruction and agony around him was euphoric to him. This man was making policy with Hillary Clinton. And some of you think Trump is dangerous. Wow! Wow, indeed. But given his age, Soros couldn’t have joined the SS (whose minimum age requirement was 17) even if he had wanted to. Moreover, as a Hungarian Jew he couldn’t have met the SS requirement for pure “Aryan” heritage. Quite to the contrary, Soros and his entire family were obliged to hide their identities and pose as Christians to avoid being forcibly housed in ghettos, interned in concentration camps, deported, or killed during the 10-month Nazi occupation of Hungary beginning in 1944. The miscaptioned photo is easily debunked using a reverse image search. The young man in the Waffen-SS uniform is actually Oskar Groening, a Nazi who served at the Auschwitz concentration camp from 1942 through the end of the war. More than 70 years after this photograph was taken, Groening was found guilty of being an accessory to the murder of at least 300,000 Jews. Was Soros a Nazi Collaborator? It is also claimed that Soros survived the German occupation of Budapest by becoming a Nazi “collaborator.” Fox News pundit Glenn Beck alleged in November 2010, for example, that the 14-year-old Soros “help[ed] the government confiscate the lands of his fellow Jewish friends and neighbors,” and, worse (in Beck’s view), was unrepentant about it: So when George Soros was 14, his father basically bribed a government official to take his son in and let him pretend to be a Christian. His father was just trying to keep him alive. He even had to go around confiscating property of Jewish people. Now, imagine you are Jewish and you have to go and confiscate the property of your fellow Jews. And you are pretending to not be a Jew and if anybody finds out, you’re dead. He actually had to endure watching people sent off to their eventual murders, watching people gathering their stuff, sending them off knowing that they were going to go to their death. “I don’t want to question the 14-year-old,” Beck disingenuously stated during a series of broadcasts devoted to painting Soros as an evil “puppet-master” of the left. “I would have, however, liked to question the 80-year-old man who has never once said he regretted it,” he added. Central to Beck’s case were quotes and clips from a 1998 60 Minutes interview (which can be viewed in its entirety here), an excerpt from which was also used as the centerpiece in a commentary on the conspiracist web site InfoWars.com in which host Alex Jones claimed that the teenaged Soros “helped round up thousands of people” and “stole hundreds of millions of dollars” from Hungarian Jews on behalf of the Nazi occupiers. Conservative author Dinesh D’Souza (who has gone so far as to compare the 14-year-old George Soros to Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele) revived the “Nazi collaborator” claim in his 2017 book The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left, doubling down on it in a social media campaign to promote book sales: . @georgesoros, now a principle financial backer of violent #Antifa thugs, admits his collaboration with Hitler and says he has no regrets: pic.twitter.com/P1Xl1vo87T — Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) September 2, 2017 Other conservative and alt-right media figures followed suit: Soros was Nazi collaborator. He laughed about it. https://t.co/N41dkcDG6y — Mike Cernovich ?? (@Cernovich) September 13, 2017 #Nazi collaborator #GeorgeSoros in his own words, while other Jews his age had died fighting Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto… pic.twitter.com/xXp9JYQZts — James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) August 18, 2017 Media Matters sugar daddy is George Soros, WHO IDENTIFIED JEWS TO THE NAZIS, as he admitted on 60 Minutes — http://t.co/lOUQKWnCqL — Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) June 12, 2015 Yet the simple truth is that George Soros neither said nor did anything resembling what he has been accused of. In no sense was Soros, who turned 14 years old not long after the Germans occupied Hungary in 1944, a “Nazi collaborator.” At no time did he confiscate (or help confiscate) the property of Jews, “identify Jews to the Nazis,” or help “round up” people targeted for deportation or extermination by the Germans (to answer just a few of the accusations leveled against him). And although Soros did attest during the infamous 60 Minutes interview that he regrets nothing about the time of German occupation, he also said it is precisely because he didn’t do any of the things attributed to him that his conscience is clear. The 60 Minutes Interview Kroft: “My understanding is that you went … went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.” Soros: “Yes, that’s right. Yes.” Kroft: “I mean, that’s — that sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?” Soros: “Not, not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don’t … you don’t see the connection. But it was — it created no — no problem at all.” Kroft: “No feeling of guilt?” Soros: “No.” Kroft: “For example, that, ‘I’m Jewish, and here I am, watching these people go. I could just as easily be these, I should be there.’ None of that?” Soros: “Well, of course, … I could be on the other side or I could be the one from whom the thing is being taken away. But there was no sense that I shouldn’t be there, because that was — well, actually, in a funny way, it’s just like in the markets — that if I weren’t there — of course, I wasn’t doing it, but somebody else would — would — would be taking it away anyhow. And it was the — whether I was there or not, I was only a spectator, the property was being taken away. So the — I had no role in taking away that property. So I had no sense of guilt.“ Soros’s biographer, Michael T. Kaufman, described Soros as “visibly dumbfounded” by Kroft’s “prosecutorial” line of questioning during the interview. Kaufman addressed the claim that Soros was involved in confiscating Jewish property in his book, Soros: The Life and Times of a Messianic Billionaire (Knopf, 2002). While it’s true, Kaufman wrote, that one of the jobs delegated to young George’s temporary protector (a Hungarian bureaucrat named Baumbach) was taking inventory of Jewish properties already confiscated by the Nazis, the extent of Soros’s participation was accompanying Baumbach on one of those assignments: Shortly after George went to live with Baumbach, the man was assigned to take inventory on the vast estate of Mor Kornfeld, an extremely wealthy aristocrat of Jewish origin. The Kornfeld family had the wealth, wisdom, and connections to be able to leave some of its belongings behind in exchange for permission to make their way to Lisbon. Baumbach was ordered to go to the Kornfeld estate and inventory the artworks, furnishings, and other property. Rather than leave his “godson” behind in Budapest for three days, he took the boy with him. As Baumbach itemized the material, George walked around the grounds and spent time with Kornfeld’s staff. It was his first visit to such a mansion, and the first time he rode a horse. He collaborated with no one and he paid attention to what he understood to be his primary responsibility: making sure that no one doubted that he was Sandor Kiss [Soros’s assumed identity]. Among his practical concerns was to make sure that no one saw him pee. George’s father, Tivadar Soros, provided a similar account of the incident in his 1965 autobiography, Masquerade: Dancing Around Death in Nazi Occupied Hungary (note: Tivadar Soros gave the name of the ministry official as “Baufluss,” but Soros confirmed to us that the correct name is Baumbach): Baufluss was charged by the ministry with inventorying confiscated Jewish estates. He was home only at weekends; the rest of his time he spent taking inventory in the provinces. During the week George passed his time alone in Baufluss’ s apartment. Lacking anything else to do, he caught the attention of some of his schoolmates, who lived in the building across the way. Communicating by hand signals, they seemed surprised to see him holed up in somebody else’s house. The following week the kind-hearted Baufluss, in an effort to cheer the unhappy lad up, took him off with him to the provinces. At the time he was working in Transdanubia, west of Budapest, on the model estate of a Jewish aristocrat, Baron Moric Kornfeld. There they were wined and dined by what was left of the staff. George also met several other ministry officials, who immediately took a liking to the young man, the alleged godson of Mr Baufluss. He even helped with the inventory. Surrounded by good company, he quickly regained his spirits. On Saturday he returned to Budapest. “He even helped with the inventory,” Tivadar Soros wrote. It’s a detail one doesn’t find in Kaufman’s book. Some may rush to cite this as proof that Soros was indeed a “collaborator,” but given that it occurred on only one occasion, and that Soros was under an imperative to play the part of Baumbach’s godson while in the company of actual Nazi collaborators, it demands stretching the meaning of “collaborator” beyond all reasonable limits. Moreover, these biographical passages demonstrate that Steve Kroft’s claim on 60 Minutes that Soros “accompanied his phony godfather on his appointed rounds, confiscating property from the Jews” is flat-out false. Tivadar Soros wrote that most of young George’s time under Baumbach’s care was spent alone in the latter’s apartment. Both Tivadar and Kaufman report that George only resided with Baumbach for a short time — a matter of weeks — before Tivadar, concerned that his son’s real identity was in danger of exposure, shipped him off to spend the summer of 1944 with his mother (who herself was living under an assumed name at a lakeside resort some distance from Budapest). George Soros spent no further time with Baumbach. Did Soros Serve Jews with Death or Deportation Notices? Another “Nazi collaborator” trope holds that young George Soros helped send fellow Jews to their deaths by delivering deportation notices on behalf of Budapest’s Jewish Council (Judenrat in German), an organization tasked by the Nazis with helping enforce Nazi policies on the Hungarian Jewish population: People Soros deported to Auschwitz Soros served Jews with “death notices” to go to Auschwitz https://t.co/mWVzcN2SlJ: — KellyLeeMedia (@jasian12345) August 23, 2017 YOUNG SOROS delivered notices for Nazis informing Jews of deportation Later promoted to listing their confiscated property ‘Happiest youth’ — armageddon #bluehand (@davis_blackwood) November 15, 2016 However, as in the case of the “confiscation” rumors already discussed, here we find innocuous facts about George Soros’s adolescence twisted and exaggerated into a grotesque lie. According to Soros’s father, school-age Jewish children were required to run errands for the council. Among those errands (he came to find out) was delivering deportation notices to prominent Jews. But although George did, in fact, spend all of two days as a Jewish Council errand boy, he didn’t perform his assigned tasks exactly as ordered, taking it upon himself to warn the recipients of the notices that they ought not to comply: As Jews couldn’t go to school any more and their teachers couldn’t teach, they were ordered to report to council headquarters. The children were enlisted as couriers under the command of their teachers. My younger son, George, also became a courier. On the second day he returned home at seven in the evening. ‘What did you do all day?’ ‘Mostly nothing. But this afternoon I was given some notices to deliver to various addresses.’ ‘Did you read what they said?’ ‘I even brought one home.’ He handed me a small slip of paper, with a typewritten message: SUMMONS You are requested to report tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock at the Rabbinical Seminary in Rokk Szildrd Street. Please bring with you a blanket, and food for two days. THE JEWISH COUNCIL ‘Do you know what this means?’ I asked him. ‘I can guess,’ he replied with great seriousness. ‘They’ll be interned.’ Children are often good guessers. I wondered whether he knew what being interned meant. Did this child of mine realize that these people would be deported to Germany and very possibly murdered? I felt too ashamed of the world I had brought him into to enlighten him. ‘The Jewish Council has no right to give people orders like that,’ I told him. ‘You are not to work there any more.’ ‘I tried to tell the people I called on not to obey,’ he said, clearly disappointed that I wouldn’t let him work any more. He was beginning to enjoy his career as a courier: it was all a big adventure. Did Soros Say Helping the Nazis was the Happiest Time of His Life? In a foreword George Soros wrote for a 2011 reprint of Masquerade, he described the ten months of the Nazi occupation as “the happiest times of my life”: I was fourteen years old. We were in great peril, but my father was seemingly in command of the situation. I was aware of the dangers because my father spent a lot of time explaining them to me but I did not believe in my heart of hearts that I could get hurt. We were pursued by evil forces and we were clearly on the side of the angels because we were unjustly persecuted; moreover, we were trying not only to save ourselves but also to save others. The odds were against us but we seemed to have the upper hand. What more could a fourteen-year-old want? I adored and admired my father. We led an adventurous life and we had fun together. Predictably, this statement has been repurposed by Soros’s political enemies, usually in tandem with the false claim that he was a Nazi collaborator, as an admission of moral bankruptcy: Soros =Funds BLM + Antifa + United Nations hate-fest NGO’s. “Happiest days of my life were helping the Nazi’s in Hungary in 1944” said Soros https://t.co/TbtZmNs833 — Lloyd (@pood57) September 9, 2017 George Soros: (Helping Nazis) “Was The Happiest Time of my Life” https://t.co/B8G1ZiY4Ze — California4TRUMP (@Tra777) September 5, 2017 But at no time did Soros say “helping Nazis” was the happiest time of his life. As he has reiterated on numerous occasions, what he was referring to was the exhilaration of surviving the most perilous situation he and his family would ever face, under the guidance and tutelage of his father, whom George Soros saw as a heroic figure. “It was his finest hour,” Soros said of his father in his 2007 book, The Age of Fallibility: 1944 became the formative experience of my life. I was fourteen and I had boundless admiration for my father. I absorbed and adopted his view of the world wholesale. As I have often said, the year of German occupation was a strangely positive experience for me. We were confronted by mortal danger and people perished all around us, but we managed not only to survive but to emerge victorious because we were able to help so many others. We were on the side of the angels and we triumphed against overwhelming odds. What more can a fourteen-year-old ask for? Anti-Defamation League Statement One of the ironies of these attacks on Soros based on his survival of the Nazi occupation is that they use his own (and his father’s) candid remembrances of the experience to vilify him. As Holocaust survivor and Anti-Defamation League Director Abraham Foxman stated in response to Glenn Beck’s attempted takedown of Soros in 2010, regardless of how one feels about the adult George Soros and his politics, the attacks are morally repugnant and unacceptable: Glenn Beck’s description of George Soros’ actions during the Holocaust is completely inappropriate, offensive and over the top. For a political commentator or entertainer to have the audacity to say – inaccurately – that there’s a Jewish boy sending Jews to death camps, as part of a broader assault on Mr. Soros, that’s horrific. While I, too, may disagree with many of Soros’ views and analysis on the issues, to bring in this kind of innuendo about his past is unacceptable. To hold a young boy responsible for what was going on around him during the Holocaust as part of a larger effort to denigrate the man is repugnant.
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5189
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Veterans Affairs medical center planned in Cape Girardeau.
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Federal officials are planning a new $47.4 million Veterans Affairs health care center in Cape Girardeau.
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true
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Michael Brown, Health, General News, Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff, Veterans, Veterans affairs
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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 and radiology, eye and audiology clinics, pharmacy and several specialty care services and procedures. The Southeast Missourian reports the center is expected to be complete by 2022. Johnson said the goal is to enroll 3,000 new veterans patients during the next two years. The new health center will replace the Veterans Affairs’ existing outpatient clinic in Cape Girardeau. ___ Information from: Southeast Missourian, http://www.semissourian.com
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10874
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Breast cancer screening test may find disease when mammograms miss
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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 cancer. What is not mentioned is that this test may not replace the need for a definitive surgical biopsy, where cells from breast tissue are examined more closely for cancer. The story reports only anecdotal experience of radioactive imaging, but no quantitative evidence on the benefits of this method of detection. (Currently, there is very limited evidence on the value of this type of screening.) The story also does not mention potential harms of this screening. We are not told if the radioactive liquid can cause side effects. We are also not told the rate of false negatives or false positives from this test. If a woman is not biopsied because she is told she does not have breast cancer she may miss an opportunity for early treatment. A false positive result may lead to unnecessary treatment and psychological suffering. The story does mention that this screening technique is available at 33 U.S. hospitals, however, this means the test is not widely available for many women. The story does not mention the cost of this screening or whether it is covered by Medicare or private health insurance.
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mixture
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"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 existing methods of detection for difficult to read mammograms or palpable breast masses with a negative mammogram. One women's anecdotal experience does not prove any benefit of this screening over existing, widely available methods of screening. And when the anecdote is framed as ""if she has breast cancer it will find it"" and ""finally she can relax"", there are no data given to support those claims. There is no mention of the harms of this screening. We are not told if the radioactive liquid can cause side effects. We are also not told the rate of false negatives from this test. If a woman is not biopsied because she is told she does not have breast cancer she may miss an opportunity for early treatment. False positives may result in unnecessary treatment and psychological distress. The story does not provide data on the false positive or false negative results of radioactive screening. The story also does not give quantitative data on the benefits of this secondary screening compared with combined mammogram and ultrasound, or mammogram and other imaging such as MRI or PET scans. The story does not engage in disease mongering, per se, however, the story offers an anecdote saying ""if she has breast cancer it will find it"" and ""finally she can relax."" That may not be overstating the issue of breast cancer, but it is overselling the potential solution. There is independent corroboration with physicians (presumably) not affiliated with the makers of the radioactive imaging device. We are not told if these physicans are radiologists or oncologists. It would be important to know if these physicians specialize in breast cancer detection and/or treatment as they could provide a more accurate perspective on the new screening in the context of other, more widely available methods of breast cancer detection for hard-to-read cases. The story mentions that this screening is not a replacement for clinical breast exams, mammograms and/or ultrasound. It is a screening used in difficult to call cases where a woman may have an unclear mammogram, and there is a suspicion of breast cancer. What is important, but not mentioned, is that this test may not replace the need for a definitive surgical biopsy, where cells from breast tissue are examined more closely for cancer. The story mentions that this imaging technique is available at 33 U.S. hospitals. The story also provides a website with resources about the screening and where the screening is available. The story mentions that that radioactive imaging is a new screening technique that is used in conjunction with mammograms in women who have dense breasts and/or difficult-to-read mammograms. Because the story used multiple sources, it does not appear to rely solely or largely on a news release."
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37730
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"Adhering a strip of medical tape at the top of a face mask will prevent glasses from fogging up ""for hours."
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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 prevent glasses from fogging. Also, the tip was restrictive (as wearers might not easily be able to remove and replace their masks), of unknown efficacy on the very common reusable cloth types of masks, and inconsistent with standard use of masks outside a surgical environment. Information from before the COVID-19 pandemic mentioned the use of tape among surgeons, but other efforts to direct exhaled air down instead of up would likely be similarly effective.
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mixture
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Fact Checks, Viral Content
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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. Over the bridge of her nose, a strip of medical tape affixed the mask to her skin and, presumably, prevented her exhaled breath from fogging up her glasses. Across the image was the following text:The world’s most important pro tip: a strip of medical tape on top of your mask will keep your glasses from fogging up for literally hours.Alongside the image, the poster wrote:EXCUSE ME I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT. The Snapchat response convinced me that this info should be shared widely.Broader Context for the Mask and Tape TipAs the COVID-19 pandemic worsened in the spring of 2020, use of cloth or disposable face masks became extremely commonplace across the globe.With that change in behavior, a new irritant for those wearing glasses (or sunglasses) emerged — the change in airflow when exhaling meant that almost immediately after donning a mask, they had a tendency to fog up.As for how many mask wearers were affected, firm numbers were difficult to pin down. According to an undated page from an eyeglass manufacturer, more than half of Americans might wear glasses to correct vision:It’s difficult to estimate how many people in the U.S. wear glasses because there are so many variables to consider. Some people only wear glasses to read, and others wear them only to drive. Many people only wear eyeglasses part of the time and contact lenses the rest of the time. Some sunglasses are prescription, and some are protection from the sun or simply a fashion accessory.According to the Vision Council of America, approximately 75% of adults use some sort of vision correction. About 64% of them wear eyeglasses, and about 11% wear contact lenses, either exclusively, or with glasses. Over half of all women and about 42% of men wear glasses. Similarly, more women than men, 18% and 14% respectively, wear contacts. Of those who use both contacts and eyeglasses, 62% wear contact lenses more often.Drugstores sell non-prescription glasses for reading; that is, anyone can buy them without seeing their eye doctor for an exam. Fourteen percent of Americans use these. The majority of people, about 85% of the American population, wear sunglasses. Some sunglasses are prescription and others are used only to protect the eyes from damage from the sun.A 2013 article from a Dutch news source noted that as people got older, they become likelier to wear glasses or contact lenses:A vast majority in the population wear glasses or contact lenses. For older people, it is extremely rare not to use glasses or contact lenses. Furthermore, nearly one third of over-75 men use hearing aids and more than one third of over-75 women use walking frames, wheeled walkers or mobility scooters.A majority of 61 percent in the population reported to wear glasses, contact lenses or other reading or visual aids occasionally in 2012, versus 57 percent in 2001. The percentage has steadily risen in recent years. More women than men wear glasses or contact lenses.Consequently, it stood to reason more people than not experienced the frustration described in the post.PracticalityIn the initial post, the user stated that the tape trick enabled wearing masks for hours with glasses, which does not seem implausible from a technical standpoint.However, if the trick worked as described, the recommendation might not be entirely convenient for a person required to wear a mask for “hours.” Affixing the mask with tape would prevent eating or drinking, and re-taping the mask seemed inconvenient — it would necessitate carrying tape everywhere, and possibly lead to mildly irritated skin from applying and removing the tape. (It also might disrupt makeup. )The high volume of people sharing the post suggesting that the issue was a widespread frustration. However, we didn’t notice much feedback on the practicality and efficacy of the recommended “mask hack.”Further, cloth face masks were as commonly used (if not more so) during the pandemic. Some cloth masks were made from synthetic fabrics, and it’s unclear whether medical tape would adhere as well as it can to paper masks.Masks Vs. Glasses in HistoryAlthough the routine adoption of face masks was fairly novel in 2020, segments of the population had always had to balance the need to wear masks with the need for glasses.In 2016, a user asked Reddit’s r/NoStupidQuestions about how surgeons (many of whom presumably wear glasses and masks for hours while doing incredibly detailed work) handled what had become a major problem in 2020:How do surgeons keep their glasses from fogging up when they wear masks? from NoStupidQuestionsIn a comment at the top of the thread, u/notapantsday described a different strategy to keep glasses unfogged during medical procedures:Surgical masks usually have two pairs of bands.The trick is to keep the lower pair relatively loose and the upper pair tight, so exhaled air will mostly exit at the bottom. There are also surgical masks specially for people wearing glasses that have a foam strip at the top to help keep it sealed.That description was similar in some ways — both methods involved intentionally directing exhaled breath away from glasses lenses — but it involved strategically tying the mask to accomplish that goal. In a separate comment, u/KosstAmojan described using medical tape as in the Facebook post:I (and many of my colleagues) will supplement the antifog strips by taking a piece of tape and putting it across the top part of the mask onto our nose. This prevents any air from blowing up and fogging up the glasses. Makes a big difference in a 5-hour case.But that context was surgeons doing surgery for hours at a time and not necessarily stopping to drink water or eat — a manner inconsistent with use outside the medical profession.In 2014, the issue was discussed in an article in the journal Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The use of tape was mentioned as one common approach, but strategically tying the mask was the focus of the piece.Other Advice for Glasses Wearers During the COVID-19 PandemicOn May 4 2020, the Philadelphia Inquirer addressed what was then a new and unexpected issue for many people.Acknowledging the problem had long plagued doctors and nurses, the news organization advised:Solution: Make a mask that fits your nose betterThe best way to keep your glasses from fogging is to limit the amount of hot air that can hit them, which means making sure your face mask has a snug fit along the edge that runs across the bridge of your nose. That way, more hot air will be driven into the mask itself, as well as out its sides. [Nicole Jochym, a third-year medical school student at Cooper Medical School] recommends making a cloth mask with a slot sewn in on the area that touches your nose so you can insert a moldable material like a pipe cleaner, paper clip, or twist tie. That way, you can shape the top edge of the mask to more snugly fit your face, similar to the metal nosepieces in N95 and some disposable surgical masks. And you will be able to remove the metal to clean the mask.Dr. Samir Mehta was quoted in an explanation of why masks caused glasses to fog up:“What happens is that as you breathe, air escapes from underneath the mask, and is directed under your glasses,” says Dr. Samir Mehta, chief of orthopedic trauma and fracture care at Penn Medicine. That causes your breath to condense on your comparatively cooler lenses, resulting in a fog on their surface.On June 25 2020, The Verge published an article with several mechanisms for preventing the problem. One involved selecting a mask with a specific shape to direct the flow of exhaled air, and another covered anti-fogging coatings for lenses. Tape was mentioned, but in a different method of prevention:If you tape a folded tissue under your mask at the bridge of your nose, it may absorb escaping moisture.A slightly longer list from a eye care business provided some of the same tips (as did a Boston-area news outlet and the magazine GQ), as well as additional strategies. Taping the mask was one of eight tips mentioned.Another frequently referenced solution was the use of soapy water to prevent the issue:“Washing the spectacles with soapy water leaves behind a thin surfactant film that reduces this surface tension and causes the water molecules to spread out evenly into a transparent layer,” the article reveals. “This ‘surfactant effect’ is widely utilised to prevent misting of surfaces in many everyday situations.” Antifogging solutions used for scuba masks or ski goggles also accomplish this.TL;DRAs 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 prevent glasses from fogging. Also, the tip was restrictive (as wearers might not easily be able to remove and replace their masks), of unknown efficacy on the very common reusable cloth types of masks, and inconsistent with standard use of masks outside a surgical environment. Information from before the COVID-19 pandemic mentioned the use of tape among surgeons, but other efforts to direct exhaled air down instead of up would likely be similarly effective.Comments
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14504
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We have a higher rate of tested lead in people in Cleveland than in Flint.
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"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, not water, and Clinton's initial phrasing made that unclear. With this caveat."
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true
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Environment, National, Public Health, Hillary Clinton,
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"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 lead, are way above what anybody should tolerate,"" Clinton said. ""We have a higher rate of tested lead in people in Cleveland than in Flint. So I’m not satisfied with just doing everything we must do for Flint. I want to tackle this problem across the board."" We were curious about Clinton’s claim that Cleveland has it worse. If you stopped listening there, you might have thought she was saying the tap water in Ohio’s second-largest city is also contaminated with lead — which is not the case. Later in the debate, Clinton made a point of mentioning lead coming from other sources, too: ""I want us to have an absolute commitment to getting rid of lead wherever it is because it's not only in water systems, it's also in soil, and it's in lead paint that is found mostly in older homes,"" she said. The Clinton campaign cited an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and we found other reports and data that back her point. Lead poisoning leads to serious neurological and behavioral effects ranging from shortened attention spans and developmental disabilities to coma and even death. While no level of lead is safe in children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses a reference level of 5 micrograms of lead per one deciliter of blood as an indicator of higher-than-usual blood lead levels. According to the CDC, 2.5 percent of American children age 5 and under — about a half million kids — test at this level. Residents of Flint have been consuming tap water with lead since 2014, when the city switched its water source to the polluted Flint River to save money. In 2015, 4 percent of all kids and 6.3 percent of kids in high-risk areas had elevated blood lead levels, according to an analysis by Monica Hanna-Attisha, a researcher at Flint’s Hurley Children’s Hospital. Clinton has a point that many other American cities are dealing with the toxin. Lead-contaminated tap water has run through faucets in Washington D.C., Durham, N.C., Lakehurst Acres, Maine, Jackson, Miss. and other places throughout the years. But in most places, lead poisoning elsewhere is mainly due to lead-based paint in older houses. That’s the case for Cleveland, where a whopping 14.2 percent of kids tested at the reference level in 2014, according to the Cuyahoga County Board of Health. In the county, 10.3 percent of kids had elevated blood levels. Cleveland and Cuyahoga County aren’t exactly outliers. Looking at 2014 CDC surveillance data for 1,425 counties in 29 states, 288 counties have higher rates of lead poisoning than Flint. (We should caution that the data is far from perfect; for example, 100 percent of kids in Colfax County, N.M., tested positive, but the sample size was just 33 kids.) What’s more, 15 counties had the same percentage or higher rates of poisoned children as Flint, but at double the reference blood-lead level: Our ruling 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, not water, and Clinton's initial phrasing made that unclear."
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33365
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The Obama administration has ordered $1 billion worth of 'disposable coffins' for use with 'FEMA camps.'
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(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.)
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false
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Politics Conspiracy Theories, disposable coffins, ebola, Fearbola
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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 “disposable FEMA coffins”: Examples: [Collected via e-mail, January 2014] Wondering if this outrageous rumor is true. I saw it on facebook:Obama Quietly Orders One Billion Dollars Worth of Disposable FEMA Coffins Obama has been operating behind the scenes to prepare an action in case of an American revolt that will not only squash a revolution, but kill many of its participants. The first step of this action would be to disarm the American people, and throw anyone that is, or might be, a threat into a detention center — a FEMA camp. During the course of the revolt, many will die, both in battle and in the camps — an inevitable circumstance Obama is already preparing for.The current President of the United States, amongst other things, has already ordered $1 Billion dollars worth of disposable coffin liners. Around the country is stored the 5 million, what will be, FEMA coffins in various locations. What’s shown in the photos displayed with the “FEMA camp” story are not “plastic coffins” or “disposable coffins,” but rather what’s known as burial vaults or grave liners. These liners don’t hold human remains in themselves; they’re a protective shell that coffins are placed into before interment in areas where water seepage or ground subsidence is an issue. As the Morgan County Citizen reported in 2008, tens of thousands of these liners were stored on leased land in Madison, Georgia, back in the 1990s by their manufacturer, the nearby Vantage Products Corporation (based in Covington, Georgia), for distribution to other areas on an as-needed basis. Since the coffin liners are made to withstand the elements, there was no need for Vantage to store them indoors, so they simply leased a large, unused outdoor field for use as a warehouse. Nonetheless, Vantage’s storage situation eventually gave rise to wild conspiracy theories which flared up in 2008, rumors that claimed some half million of the liners (about ten times the actual number being stored in Georgia) were the property of the U.S. government and were being stockpiled in anticipation of a biological disaster, the implementation of martial law, or the imprisonment of thousands of U.S. citizens in FEMA-run concentration camps: Type in “Madison, GA” under Google’s Blog Search, and it shows up on the first page. Search “Madison, GA” on YouTube, and it’s the first video that shows up. Web sites like Alex Jones’ Infowars.com and AboveTopSecret.com are talking about it.As of late, some of these sources have started to link the government, particularly the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to rows and rows of black, plastic “coffins,” 500,000 to be exact, currently being stored outdoor in a field within the city limits of Madison. Theories abound as to whether these are being stored near a major transportation hub (Atlanta) in an effort by the government to prepare for American victims of biological warfare, or whether they are being stored for a natural, or man-made, disaster. Even more sinister, some of these sources speculate that these “coffins” are part of a conspiracy on the part of the government that involves the institution of martial law, the separation of desirable and non-desirable citizens, according to government opinion, and the establishment of American concentration camps, some of which are currently functional, according to these sources. “Yep, these are cheap plastic coffins. Hundreds of thousands of them. Don’t believe it? Why coffins? Why in the middle of Georgia?” the entry “Half a Million Plastic Coffins?” on Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, dated July 18, states. “Well, apparently the Government is expecting a half million people to die relatively soon, and the Atlanta Airport is a major airline traffic hub, probably the biggest in the country, which means Georgia is a prime base to conduct military operations and coordination. It is also the home of the CDC, the Center for Disease Control. I don’t want to alarm anyone, but usually you don’t buy 500,000 plastic coffins ‘just in case something happens,’ you buy them because you know something is going to happen. These air tight seal containers would be perfect to bury victims of plague or biological warfare in, wouldn’t they?” While the origins of the theories are unclear, there are blog postings that date back to December 2007 (AboveTopSecret.com), although the majority of postings have come within the latter half of July. And, according to Vantage Products Corporation Vice President of Operations Michael Lacey, that’s exactly when the calls started pouring in. “It’s been going on for quite a while, about a week,” Lacey said. Lacey maintains that the theories regarding the property, and what’s on it, aren’t quite accurate. The “coffins” aren’t coffins at all, according to Lacey. Instead, they are burial vaults, “the outer container for caskets,” Lacey said, placed in the ground before the coffin to protect the coffin and maintain level ground above. There are currently 50,000 of these burial vaults on the property, according to Lacey. As the vaults were placed on the site around 1997 or 1998, there may have been as many as 70,000 or 80,000 to begin with. “It’s nowhere near the quantity they talk about on the Internet,” Lacey said. This quantity of burial vaults, Vantage’s Standard Air Seal model in black, also the least expensive model and the most in-demand, was made to cater to what Lacey calls the funeral industry’s “pre-need.” This “pre-need” occurs when people make arrangements for their funeral before they actually pass away, so that the family doesn’t have to go through the perceived stress of making the arrangements. When these arrangements are made, the products are paid for; obviously, though, they are not yet needed. So, Vantage stores the product until the person dies, and the product is needed. Further, pallets of the burial vaults are moved truckloads at a time, as there is space for a palate at the [destination]. Contrary to the beliefs of the theorists, then, the burial vaults aren’t owned by the government, or FEMA. Instead, they’re owned by individuals, or not yet sold. “They’re not owned by any one individual, company or the government,” Lacey said. Further, Vantage leases the land, located at 1200 Madison Industrial Boulevard, from Conyers Welding & Supply and has for four to five years, a fact confirmed by Conyers Welding & Supply. Conyers Welding & Supply took over the lease when the property was purchased from Robert Usury in 2000. Usury purchased the property in 1989, according to information provided by the Morgan County Tax Assessor’s Office and the Morgan County Online Public Property Portal. The answer as to why the vaults are being stored in Madison? To put it simply, the Covington-based manufacturer got a good deal close to home. “It was the most cost-effective place,” Lacey said.
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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 projected growth among similar-sized metro areas, less populous metro areas in Florida were projected to grow at even faster clips."
|
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 50%."" Watch out San Antonio and parts between, Austin's about to bulge worse than the perilous interstate that splits Texas. But hold on: We can’t fact-check whether predictions will come true. In this instance instead, we focused on whether Thomaides, who was elected mayor in 2016, had a solid factual basis for his claim about the Austin metropolitan area’s likely population. Mayor cites economist For starters, Thomaides told us by email that he jotted the information in his tweet while attending a panel discussion including economist Jim Diffley during the 2017 United States Conference of Mayors in Miami Beach. Diffley, who works for IHS Markit, a consulting firm that says it gives clients including governments and banks ""next-generation information, analytics and solutions,"" later confirmed that he’d delivered the numbers--including the firm’s expectation that from 2016 to 2046, metro regions nationally will gain 66 million added residents. Diffley emailed us a May 2017 IHS Markit report presenting the firm’s population-growth forecasts for metro areas coast to coast--including a chart in the report’s appendix stating that from 2016 to 2046, the five-county Austin-Round Rock area’s population will grow 87 percent--surging from 2,059,500 to 3,858,800. The five counties are Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell. That 87-percent forecast shouldn’t seem a shock. In 2014, we rated True a claim that the population of Austin alone had basically doubled every 25 years since its founding. Notably too, the report projects the greater Austin area will grow considerably more than what Thomaides said. As the report headed to print, Diffley told us by email, the firm acted on fresh U.S Census Bureau figures by reaching a new, slightly lower projected 2046 population for the Austin region of 3,780,000 residents, which it lately predicts would be up 83 percent from a new estimate of the region’s 2016 population, 2,064,000. Austin-Round Rock predicted to grow faster than every region? We kept our sights on the report behind Thomaides's claim. That report, we noticed, indicates the Austin area's population increasing far faster than other regions nationally--though not all other regions. Among big Texas metro areas, the report chart suggests the San Antonio area will grow 53 percent, from 2,431,700 residents to 3,727,100 people. Other big Texas metros and their projected 30-year growth rates: Dallas-Fort Worth, 57 percent; Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, 56 percent; McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, 59.8 percent; and El Paso, 30 percent. Nationally, the chart indicates, only three less-populous Florida metros will grow at a greater clip than the Austin area. Per the chart, The Villages will see 96.5 percent population growth, reaching 245,400 residents; Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island will see 88 percent population growth, reaching 694,300 residents; and Cape Coral-Fort Myers will experience 84 percent growth, becoming home to 1,339,000 people. We further inquired how the firm reached its regional projections. By phone, Karl Kuykendall, an IHS Markit regional economist, said that the company maintains econometric models for states and metro area that take into account historical growth including births, deaths and domestic migration--also factoring in economic determinants such as jobs and income changes. Kuykendall, noting the Austin region’s population about doubled from 1990 to 2010 in going from 856,000 to more than 1.7 million, said: ""Austin has been one of the fastest-growing areas over the last two to three decades."" And, he said, as long as key drivers drawing people to the region ""don’t fundamentally change, you can have a lot of confidence"" in its 2046 projections. He cited as factors the region’s ""highly educated"" workforce, attractive cultural amenities and its reputation as a hotbed for technology start-ups and expansions. Geographically too, Kuykendall said, ""there’s still a lot of room for growth."" Alternate growth scenarios We queried a pair of Austin experts on growth for takes on the IHS Markit projections. By email, Beverly Kerr of the Austin Chamber of Commerce called IHS Markit a solid source. ""I don’t think the projection that Austin will be at 3,858,800 by 2046 is too out there,"" Kerr said. Kerr otherwise noted that Ryan Robinson, the City of Austin demographer, has separately projected the Austin-Round Rock area having a 2045 population of more than 4.3 million, more than doubling an estimated 2 million residents in 2016, a forecast Robinson reaffirmed to our emailed inquiry. Kerr wrote that Robinson assumes the region’s rate of growth decreasing over time, which she said offers ""a reasonable middle ground between the aggressive and conservative versions of the state projections."" Kerr otherwise pointed out that the state demographer, Lloyd Potter, has said that assuming migration continues at the pace set in 2000-2010, the Austin-Round Rock metro area would be home to 4,651,780 people in 2046--for more than a doubling in residents. If that’s too aggressive an assumption, Kerr noted, the Potter-led Texas Demographic Center also provides a forecast of 3,081,305 residents in 2046, assuming a migration rate half the 2000-2010 rate. That would still be a 60 percent bump from this more conservative scenario’s estimate of 1,930,408 people living in the region in 2016. We also asked the census bureau about forecasts of regional population changes. By email, spokeswoman Virginia Hyer said the agency doesn’t produce metro-level population projections. Our ruling 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 projected growth among similar-sized metro areas, less populous metro areas in Florida were projected to grow at even faster clips. – The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information."
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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 Border Patrol gave as the main reason for their journeys the U.S. government issuing permisos, which the document defines as notices to appear in immigration court enabling recipients to stay in the country at least until then. But that’s not ""amnesty,"" as in an absolution enabling people to stay indefinitely without risk of penalty, and indeed ""amnesty"" goes unmentioned in the survey summary. Also, as unsaid by Cruz, the immigrants listed other reasons for coming, including crime and violence in home countries. The document, with its anonymous origins, doesn’t specify how many individuals singled out these other factors. Another study, in which the United Nations earlier surveyed twice as many immigrants, pointed to gang violence as the vital factor."
|
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 of over 200 people apprehended trying to enter the country illegally proves his point. Asked ""why are you coming here?,"" Cruz said, ""95 percent said we are coming because we’ve been promised amnesty. We are coming because if we get here, we were told that we are allowed to stay, that we will have a permiso."" We wondered if most recent arrivals are citing expectations of amnesty. Record crossings Tens of thousands of people, including children mostly from Central American countries, have been crossing the border, resulting in a record number of non-Mexicans getting apprehended. Accounts have varied on why more are coming than before. For instance, a June 16, 2014, National Journal news story quoted Leslie Velez, a senior protection officer at the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, as saying its 2014 interviews of 404 children revealed many were fleeing violence and crime in their home countries. Survey says... And what was Cruz citing? By email, Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier pointed out June 2014 news stories in The Washington Post and the Washington Examiner summarizing a Border Patrol survey reportedly brought to light in an undated document Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, placed into the records of the Senate Judiciary Committee at a June 2014 hearing. A copy of Grassley’s document, emailed to us by Texas Sen. John Cornyn’s office, describes May 2014 interviews of adults and children by Border Patrol officers in the agency’s Rio Grande Valley sector. By telephone, Grassley spokeswoman Beth Pellett Levine said the senator knows a whistleblower summarized the interviews, though she said that as of June 24, 2014, Homeland Security hadn’t confirmed or denied the document’s authenticity. By email, a Del Rio-based Border Patrol spokesman, Dennis Smith, declined to comment on the four-page document. According to the document, the agents interviewed 230 adults and unaccompanied children from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala on May 28, 2014. The focus, the document says, was to ""obtain a general consensus as to why"" the border crossers ""are migrating en masse"" into the country through the Rio Grande Valley. The word ""amnesty"" doesn’t appear in the summary of results. Also, the document says in many cases, ""the subjects mentioned more than one reason,"" including gang-related violence, extreme poverty, high unemployment, poor living conditions and subpar educational circumstances -- with many women mentioning domestic abuse. Still, the document says, the main reason interviewed individuals ""chose this particular time to migrate"" was to ""take advantage of the ‘new’ U.S. ‘law’ that grants a ‘free pass’ or permit (referred to as ‘permisos’) being issued by the U.S. government to female adult"" non-Mexicans ""traveling with minors and to"" unaccompanied children."" The document says the issue of ""permisos"" was the ""main reason provided by 95% (+/-) of the interviewed subjects."" The document doesn’t confirm any new law and we’re unaware of any. Confusingly, too, the document says the permisos are ""Notice to Appear"" documents, but it also says those documents aren’t free passes to stay in the country. Rather, the document says, the notices are routinely issued to undocumented entrants ""when they are released on their own recognizance pending a hearing before an immigration judge."" The document goes on to say the granting of permisos ""is apparently common knowledge in Central America and is spread by word of mouth, and international and local media. A high percentage of the subjects interviewed stated their family members in the U.S. urged them to travel immediately, because the United States government was only issuing ‘permisos’ until the end of June 2014,"" while several people said they’d heard they’d be issued only through May 2014, the document says. Most unaccompanied children, the document says, stated they were going to join a parent or parents or other family members already in the country. The children ""stated they wanted to take advantage of the ‘permiso’ being issued by the U.S. government to minors traveling alone."" Many children cited high crime in their countries and forced recruitment into gangs, the document says, with others mentioning educational opportunities in the U.S. Outside lawyers: ‘It’s not amnesty’ To our telephone inquiries, immigration lawyers who looked over the Grassley-publicized document offered different interpretations of the references to permisos. Each one also said it would be inaccurate to interpret the permisos as amnesty, as in passes to remain in the country without risk of being deported or other penalties. Elizabeth Lee Young of the University of Arkansas School of Law, who emailed us a ""Notice to Appear"" document, characterized it as an immigration court summons. ""Most of the people know it’s a notice to go to court,"" Young said. Anyone who doesn’t show up for their court date, she said, is subject to immediate deportation. Significantly, Young said, no one caught after crossing is given a work permit, which is how she said she usually interprets ""permiso."" Detainees given a notice near the border, the lawyers told us, can then be held in a government facility or released deeper into the country on personal recognizance -- as children and women with children often are, the lawyers said. Toni Maschler, a Washington, D.C., attorney, said generally, she considers a permiso a permit, like a driver’s license, and not the notice to appear for an immigration hearing. Maschler speculated the document’s references to permisos were really to the document that releases someone on their own recognizance. Lisa Brodyaga, a lawyer in San Benito, close to the Texas-Mexico border, similarly said the document’s references to permisos probably mean paperwork related to releases on personal recognizance, which she said clear the way for women and unaccompanied children to leave the border region; men, for the most part, she said, are kept in detention. Each release ""allows you to get out of detention, allows you to travel, it allows you to go be with your family,"" Brodyaga said, ""and, as long as you go to your hearings when you have them, it allows you to stay in the United States. It’s a ‘permit,’ until you get deported."" ""It’s nowhere near amnesty,"" Brodyaga said, which would mean ""you are forgiven for something. You’re not forgiven. You’re subject to the laws of the United States… This does not entitle them to remain indefinitely."" Similarly, Maschler said the release on personal recognizance is ""not amnesty. It doesn’t give anybody a permanent right to stay in the United States."" Young said: ""Amnesty would indicate some form of legal waiver of your undocumented presence or entry. That is not the situation."" Apprised of the lawyers’ assessments, Cruz’s spokeswoman said by email Cruz didn’t say that any legal papers deliver amnesty to border crossers. The point is people are coming because they think they’ll be allowed to stay, as they have been, Frazier said. Our ruling 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 Border Patrol gave as the main reason for their journeys the U.S. government issuing permisos, which the document defines as notices to appear in immigration court enabling recipients to stay in the country at least until then. But that’s not ""amnesty,"" as in an absolution enabling people to stay indefinitely without risk of penalty, and indeed ""amnesty"" goes unmentioned in the survey summary. Also, as unsaid by Cruz, the immigrants listed other reasons for coming, including crime and violence in home countries. The document, with its anonymous origins, doesn’t specify how many individuals singled out these other factors. Another study, in which the United Nations earlier surveyed twice as many immigrants, pointed to gang violence as the vital factor. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context."
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27958
|
A New York City Starbucks outlet charged 9/11 rescue workers $130 for three cases of water.
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Did a New York Starbucks charge rescue workers $130 for three cases of water?
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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 know, shock victims are supposed to drink a lot of water. My uncle went to the Starbucks down the street to get bottles of water for the victims he was treating. Can you believe they actually charged him for it!! He paid the $130 for 3 cases of bottled water out of his own pocket. Now, I would think that in a crisis such as this, vendors in the area would be more than happy to lend a little help by donating water. Well, not Starbucks! As if this country hasn’t given them enough money! Anyway, the point of this story wasn’t to glorify my uncle’s actions but to suggest a boycott on Starbucks. Now, I love Frappaccinos as much as anyone, but any company that would try to make a profit off of a crisis like this doesn’t deserve the American public’s hard earned money. Please forward this e-mail to any one you know and encourage them to do the same. Times of crisis can bring out the best and the worst in people and, it appears, in businesses as well. On 11 September 2001, employees of the Midwood Ambulance Service were on hand at what has come to be known as “Ground Zero,” the rubble that once was the World Trade Center. They approached a Starbucks near the disaster site because they needed water to treat the victims of the terrorist attack. Starbucks was willing to help … for a price. It sold the rescue workers three cases for $130 cash on the barrelhead, with the money needed to complete the transaction coming out of the workers’ pockets. Later, suspecting the workers had been overcharged, ambulance company officials called Starbucks and sent e-mail to the company but said their queries were ignored. One described his call to Starbucks thus: “When I called … to inquire about this at your ‘contact us’ phone number from your Web site, I was told in a rather rude way that this could not have happened and abruptly thanked for my call and dismissed.” Only after the text quoted above became circulated on the Internet did Starbucks address this matter. The company eventually delivered a $130 check (via messenger) to the ambulance company, and its president, Orin Smith, called them to apologize personally. Apology and check notwithstanding, lingering and disquieting doubts remain. True, an employee of any firm can act in an unthinking manner that will bring embarrassment upon his employer (and in this case one can’t necessarily fault the low-level Starbucks worker who was unsure about handing over his employer’s merchandise for free without authorization), but that is not the real shame here; it’s the non-action of Starbucks management in the face of such an incident. Perhaps a Starbucks employee was fault for messing up, but even if so, his error was the act of a lone individual. All it would have taken to set things right at that point would have been for someone a bit higher up in the company to pony up a prompt apology and reimbursement of the money paid for the water. The measure of a business is often found not in what it does right, but in how well and how quickly it handles matters when things have gone wrong. Unfortunately, Starbucks’ customer relations and management committed the real offense in that no one at any of these higher levels did anything to address the wrong until the incident became public. When the ambulance workers called the company to inquire about the possibility of having been overcharged, they were told what they had described couldn’t have happened, so thank you and good-bye. Their letter to the president of Starbucks detailing the event went unanswered. Calls from a Seattle journalist to Howard Schultz (Starbucks chairman and chief global strategist) and Orin Smith (president and CEO) weren’t returned. (Only after that journalist’s piece about the $130 water ran on 25 September 2001 did Smith meet with the newsman.) At each point where a correction could have been made, the ambulance workers were brushed off. It took the attraction of cyberspace and media attention to prompt an offer of redress that should have been made the moment Starbucks was made aware of the incident. The ambulance workers did eventually get their $130 back, but they had to jump through hoops for what should have been freely and promptly tendered. Starbucks isn’t heartless — they did provide free coffee to rescue workers, gave $1 million to the September 11th Fund (a national relief endeavor to help victims of the tragedy), and collects further contributions for the fund from its customers and friends. (Other companies have made similar contributions, including $10 million each from Microsoft and Lilly Endowment, $5 million from IBM, and $4 million from UPS.) It’s thus not an unfeeling company, merely one that fell down badly on problem resolution. Yet the question still begs to be asked: Had the story about the ambulance workers not gotten out and had it not given Starbucks a black eye, is there reason to suppose that a check would have been written or an apology made?
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35048
|
Amazon solicited donations from the public to pay sick leave to contractors and seasonal workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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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.
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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 coronavirus. The $25 million fund established by Amazon sparked an online backlash after a liberal newsletter pointed out that seasonal and contract workers would have to file an application to receive the funds, and that Amazon, a behemoth corporation whose founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest person in the world, solicited public donations for the program. Anger over the idea that a famously profitable corporation was soliciting donations from the public to fund sick leave for some of its workforce during a pandemic was initiated by reporting from Popular Information, described as a “newsletter about politics and power.” The letter’s founder, Judd Legum, posted this Twitter thread on March 24, 2020: We reached out to Amazon for comment and received the following statement: We are not and have not asked for donations and the Amazon Relief Fund has been funded by Amazon with an initial donation of $25 million. The structure to operate a fund like this, which hundreds of companies do through the same third-party, requires the program to be open to public contributions but we are not soliciting those contributions in any way.
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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.
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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 GOP, in 2018 when she defeated incumbent Dave Brat. Freitas, in the days leading up to his nomination, said Spanberger has broken her promise to be an independent, moderate Democrat. He repeatedly said that Spanberger has voted to the left of most Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a self-described democratic socialist. ""Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez votes with President Trump more than Abigail Spanberger does,"" Fretias said during a July 11 interview on Breitbart radio. He repeated the claim during a July 16 radio interview on WRVA. We wondered if he’s right. Freitas said his claim is based on information published by FiveThirtyEight, a website focused on statistical analyses of politics, economics and sports. It keeps a chart gauging how many times each member of Congress votes with and against President Donald Trump. Neither Spanberger nor Ocasio-Cortez has offered much support to Trump. They voted to impeach Trump and opposed the president on major issues such as health care, border security, environmental regulations and gun control. According to the chart, Trump has staked out positions on 80 of the bills the full House has voted on since the start of 2019. Spanberger has voted with the president six times; Ocasio-Cortez has 10 times. Spanberger’s 7.5% presidential support is the 55th lowest among 233 House Democrats. Ocasio-Cortez’ 12.5% support is the 71st lowest. So raw statistics indeed show Ocasio-Cortez has voted with the president more often than Spanberger. But numbers don’t tell the whole story. A deeper look at the votes undercuts the theory that Ocasio-Cortez has been more supportive of Trump than Spanberger. On many of the occasions when Ocasio-Cortez voted with Trump, she was expressing polar disagreements with the president on the issues at hand. For example, in June 2019, Trump opposed a government funding bill in part because it didn’t ban U.S. funds to be spent overseas on abortions. Ocasio-Cortez, in contrast, voted against the bill because it continued a ban on federal funds to being used for abortions in the U.S. In January 2019, Trump threatened to veto three funding bills that would have ended a government shutdown because they didn’t contain money to combat illegal immigration by expanding the southern border wall. Ocasio-Cortez opposed the bills in part because she thought they had too much money to battle immigration and didn’t abolish the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. Here’s a breakdown of the instances when Ocasio-Cortez or Spanberger voted with Trump: Spanberger and Trump vs. Ocasio-Cortez May 15, 2020: Spanberger voted against the Heroes Act, a $3 trillion tax cut and spending bill aimed at easing the economic downturn from the coronavirus. The bill includes nearly $1 trillion for state, local governments; direct payments to individuals, up to $6,000 per family; $200 billion for hazard pay for essential workers; $75 billion for coronavirus testing and student loan forgiveness. But the Democratic-led House also put in the bill several measures not directly aimed at COVID-19 that Trump vehemently opposes: more funding for the U.S. Postal Service and a requirement that all voters be allowed to cast ballots by mail this November. Spanberger said she opposed the legislation because lawmakers ""have decided to use this package as an opportunity to make political statements and propose a bill that goes far beyond pandemic relief and has no chance at becoming law…"". The bill passed the House and is pending in the Senate. Feb. 28, 2020: Spanberger voted against a bill that would ban the manufacture and sale of flavored e-cigarettes, menthol cigarettes and tobacco flavors. She joined lawmakers from rural districts with a history of tobacco farming in opposing the measure. Trump said the legislation would hurt the economy. The bill passed the House and is pending in the Senate. Dec. 19, 2019: Spanberger joined Trump in backing a trade deal between the U.S., Canada and Mexico that will make it harder for other countries to send goods into North America tariff-free. Trump has signed the bill. July 17, 2019: Spanberger joined a majority of House Democrats and Republicans in killing an impeachment resolution against Trump for telling four congresswomen to ""go back"" to their home countries. (Spanberger supported two different impeachment articles against Trump in December 2020). Trump and Ocasio-Cortez vs. Spanberger Nov. 15, 2019: Spanberger voted to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, which offers financing to foreign nations importing U.S. products. Although Trump supports the bank, he threatened to veto this bill amid GOP complaints that it wouldn’t ban the bank from helping state-owned enterprises in China. Ocasio-Cortez opposed the bill for a different reason, saying it lacked environmental safeguards for energy projects financed abroad. The bill passed the House but stalled in the Senate. In December 2019, Trump signed an appropriations bill that, among many other things, reauthorized the bank for seven years. July 25, 2019: Ocasio-Cortez voted for a Trump-backed budget deal that raised domestic and defense spending. It also suspended caps on government borrowing. Spanberger voted against the bill, saying it would increase national debt by at least $1.5 trillion over 10 years. Trump signed the deal. July 12, 2019: Spanberger voted to authorize $733 in defense spending for the budget year that started Oct 1, 2019. She praised the bill for offering a 3.1% raise to service members, addressing military housing issues and reaffirming support for soldiers stationed on the Korean peninsula. Trump and Ocasio-Cortez opposed the bill for different reasons. Trump wanted a $750 billion appropriation and objected to an amendment that would have required him to get congressional approval before waging war with Iran. Ocasio-Cortez opposed it after failing to gain support for an amendment that would have barred the president from deploying troops at the Mexican border to enforce immigration laws. The amendment also would have prevented the Defense Department from housing migrants at its centers. Trump eventually signed a $738 billion compromise. June 25, 2019: Spanberger voted to send $4.5 billion in humanitarian aid to the Mexican border to help immigrants. Trump threatened a veto, saying the bill had provisions that would restrict his ability to control the flow of immigrants. Ocasio-Cortez said she voted against the bill at the request of constituents who are opposed to Trump’s immigration policies. June 19, 2019: Spanberger voted for a $983 billion funding bill that would keep much of the federal government open through September 2019. Trump and Ocasio-Cortez opposed the bill, but for different reasons. Trump objected to provisions that would have blocked the administration from diverting funds to build the border wall and allowed U.S. aid to be used for aborrtion services overseas. Ocasio-Cortez voted against the bill after failing to pass an amendment that would have ended a ban on federal funds being used for U.S. abortions. Jan. 23-24, 2019: Spanberger voted for three funding bills that would have ended what became a 35-day government shutdown. Trump threatened to veto the bills because they didn’t include money to build the border wall. Ocasio-Cortez opposed the bills in part because they funded the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, which she campaigned on eliminating. All together On two bills, both Spanberger and Ocasio-Cortez voted in accordance with Trump. March 14, 2020: They backed a successful bill that provided enhanced unemployment benefits, free virus testing, tax credits to small- and medium-size businesses, and additional funds for food assistance and Medicaid. Dec. 19, 2019: They opposed increasing the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes in 2019. The bill passed the House and has not been taken up in the Senate. Our ruling Freitas says, ""Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez votes with President Trump more than Abigail Spanberger does."" In raw numbers, his statement certainly holds up. Trump has taken a position on 80 of the bills that have come up for vote in the full House since the start of 2019. Ocasio-Cortez voted in accord with him 10 times and Spanberger did six times. Neither congress member can be listed as a Trump advocate. But the suggestion that Ocasio-Cortez was somewhat friendlier to the president withers when we look behind the numbers. When Ocasio-Cortez voted with Trump, it was usually for reasons that were antithetical to his agenda. The same pattern isn’t visible in Spanberger’s record. So Freitas’ statement tells half the story, and"
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517
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Climate change hits health, yet funds lacking: WHO.
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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.
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true
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Environment
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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, our brains, our cardiovascular system is very much suffering from the causes of climate change which are overlapping very much with the causes of air pollution,” Maria Neira, Director of WHO’s Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, told a news briefing. Yet less than 1% of international financing for climate action goes to the health sector, she said, calling it “absolutely outrageous”. Global temperatures could rise sharply this century with “wide-ranging and destructive” consequences after greenhouse gas emissions hit record levels last year, international climate experts warned last week. “WHO considers that climate change is potentially the greatest health threat of the 21st Century,” said WHO expert Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum. “The reason for that is that unless we cut our carbon emissions, then we will continue to undermine our food supplies, our water supplies and our air quality - everything that we need to maintain the good health of our populations,” he said. The same sources cause air pollution and climate change, Campbell-Lendrum said, adding: “So about two-thirds of the exposure to outdoor air pollution is from burning of fossil fuels.” “WHO estimates that over 7 million people a year die from indoor and outdoor air pollution. That is where the big win is,” he said. Some 101 countries responded to WHO’s survey about the risks from climate change - but not big players including India and the United States. “Over two-thirds have assessed that they have increased risks from heat stress, from injury and death from extreme weather, from food, water and vector-borne diseases and those range from everything from cholera to malaria,” Campbell-Lendrum said.
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11171
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New stem cell study promises to heal the heart
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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; however, the story could have been improved in a number of ways. For example, it would have been helpful had the writer provided more information on the safety outcomes of the study, included quotes from independent experts, and identified potential conflicts of interest. Furthermore, given the preliminary nature of this research and the fact that the purpose of the study was to evaluate safety rather than clinical efficacy, the story should not have included a quote from a study participant claiming that the stem cell treatment “almost certainly” saved his life. Stem cells are a very promising area of research for a range of disease, but, so far, treatments for conditions such as heart failure remain elusive. A study this small should not be reason to give readers the false sense that therapies are right around the corner, and this story does a great job explaining the long road ahead. At the same time, very early studies like this should be presented with more critical analysis of the evidence and less effusiveness, especially a company that stands to benefit is involved in the study.
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false
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heart disease,The Dallas Morning News
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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 numbers. In addition, the story should have pointed out that the reduction was measured by comparing the patients’ baseline volume to their volume at the end of the study, as opposed to comparing their results to a similar group who did not receive the therapy. As the story indicates, none of the participants experienced “significant side effects,” but it would have been helpful to define what “significant” means. For example, the study authors define serious side effects as death, non-fatal heart attack or stroke, hospitalization for worsening heart failure, blood flow compromise, or atrial fibrillation. While none of the subjects experienced these more serious side effects, the study did report that people had other issues such as premature ventricular complex, increased heart rhythm, and fluid buildup around the heart. Even when describing a study this small, the story should quantify the harms. We always appreciate it when the lead of the story makes the small size of a study clear. This one described the study as “a small, preliminary human clinical trial.” It also does a nice job of describing the clinical trial phases that a drug or treatment must undergo before it can receive approval by the FDA. However, the story could have provided more information about the study participants, particularly that they were all men with a mean age of 57 years. The story does not exaggerate the seriousness or prevalence of cardiomyopathy; however, it does include a quote from a study participant that makes an unsubstantiated claim regarding the treatment: “Almost certainly, I would be deceased or in much worse shape had I not had the opportunity to be in this program.” This story does not interview any independent sources, nor does it reveal that some of the study authors received funding from BioCardia, the company that manufactures a device used to inject the stem cells into the participants’ hearts. In addition, the story should have noted that the study was funded in part by BioCardia. The story compares the efficacy of stem cell therapy to medication and pacemakers, however, the comparisons are not adequately made and are done through the filter of the study authors, who may be biased given their financial ties to the industry. This story stands out for taking readers through the application and approval process instead of just leading readers to believe that a therapy is around the corner. It says: “The next step is two more near-term studies. The first, which started in 2009, is a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 60 patients designed further to test the safety of the procedure, but primarily its efficacy, or how well it works. Another study about to get underway will see whether bone marrow from a donor can work as well as the patient’s own bone marrow. Later, researchers will conduct a study involving 50 to 100 hospitals and many hundreds of patients aimed at winning final FDA approval.” The story quotes the study author as saying that researchers have been investigating stem cell therapy for the treatment of cardiomyopathy for “close to a decade,” but to establish the novelty, the story should have explained why this tiny trial was a significant milestone in this field of research. This piece does not rely on a press release.
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18282
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"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."
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"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 money was the state’s insurance commissioner, a political appointee who answers to Scott as part of his role on the Financial Services Commission. Still, he did so shortly after Scott took office and Scott’s office claimed some amount of credit back in 2011."
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true
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Health Care, Florida, Bill Nelson,
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"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 plans in 2014 and 2015 as the federal health care law is implemented. ""Given the governor’s recent decision to return $1 million in federal funding that would have helped the state cover the cost of overseeing insurance rates under the new health care law, and the fact that he has not even applied for another $5 million in federal funding that is available to help states control their insurance markets, I’m not holding my breath,"" he wrote in an op-ed. As Nelson predicted, Scott signed the bill. ""Rates for new plans will be reviewed by the same federal government that will be enforcing and updating the new rules and regulations throughout this very fluid and uncertain transition period,"" Scott wrote in a message. In Nelson’s view, Scott and Republican legislators are setting up the federal government to take the fall for increased rates. His column left us wondering whether Scott really rejected $1 million for overseeing insurance rate hikes. Scott didn’t want fed money The task blasted us back to 2011, when the novice politician took office on a tea party-infused platform against Obamacare and big government. He and Republican leaders made a name for Florida by spurning million-dollar grants for the health care law despite having one of the highest uninsured populations and a $3.7 billion budget hole in 2011-12. State leaders yearned for the law to be overturned or repealed, and their hopes heightened when a federal district judge in Pensacola ruled the law unconstitutional shortly after Scott took office. Scott explained to the New York Times in July 2011 that it did not make sense to ""waste either federal money or state money on something that’s unconstitutional."" We found news accounts saying Scott ordered state agencies to reject health care money. We could not turn up such a directive via public record requests, but we found lots of evidence of Scott talking about rejecting health care money. Among the grants Florida rejected: $8.3 million for a community health center, $4.2 million for moving long-term care patients out of nursing homes, $2.8 million for prevention of teen pregnancy and STDs, $1 million for insurance exchange planning grants and, yes, $1 million for beefing up reviews of insurance premium increases. ""Things that are simply implementing the Affordable Health Care Act, or Obamacare, I’m not going to support because I believe this: It’s the biggest job killer in our state, we can’t afford it and it’s going to be bad for patients,"" Scott said in a 2011 AP story. Scott elaborated on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. The grant Now let’s get into the rate review grant, among the smaller grants the feds tried to award Florida to prepare for the health care law. The health care law set aside $250 million over five years to help states beef up their scrutiny of rate hike requests. Under the law, any double-digit proposed rate increase by individual or small group market insurers must be closely examined ""to make sure it is justified."" Florida intended to use its $1 million award to expand its rate review coverage to large group and out-of-state companies; create new premium filing requirements; hire more actuaries; and make it easier for consumers to search premium increase filings on the state insurance regulators’ website. (Read a summary of Florida’s application here.) The state got the money in August 2010, when Florida’s governor was Charlie Crist. In an acceptance letter, Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty wrote, ""The Office looks forward to our collaboration with the Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight as we move forward to use the grant funds to enhance the rate review process in Florida."" McCarty addressed the letter to Jay Angoff, director of the federal Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight within the Department of Health and Human Services. McCarty made personal touches to the letter, crossing out the typed ""Director Angoff"" and writing ""Jay."" At the bottom, he scrawled, ""Great to visit with you in Vermont!"" McCarty’s next letter to Angoff on the subject on Feb. 1, 2011, lacked congeniality and an explanation. It came after the November 2010 elections that saw Crist out of office and Scott in, and after a Florida district judge ruled that the health care law was unconstitutional (the judge, Roger Vinson, said states should keep implementing the law because the matter would be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court). McCarty’s letter contained two sentences: ""The purpose of this letter is to inform you that after deliberate consideration, I hereby rescind acceptance of the above-referenced $1 million rate review grant, which occurred in a letter to you dated September 15, 2010. No drawdown of any of the $1 million will occur."" Angoff, who left his post at HHS in December 2012 to work for the D.C. law firm Mehri Skalet, told us the change of heart did not surprise him ""once it became clear that many of the Republicans were just so maniacally opposed to cooperating with the Affordable Care Act."" Florida, Idaho and Oklahoma were the only states to return rate review grants, and four others did not apply. What changed? We were left with simple questions: Why did OIR return the money, and who ordered it? Let’s start from the top -- of the rejection letter’s masthead. McCarty’s office is overseen by the Financial Services Commission, a four-person body comprised of the governor and Cabinet. The 2010 election kicked out moderate-to-liberal members Crist and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and ushered in Scott and three anti-Obama Republicans. McCarty, who took over for Nelson as commissioner in 2003, is appointed by the commission. Asked directly if Scott rejected the grant or told McCarty to return it, both the governor’s office and Office of Insurance Regulation sidestepped the question. Spokesmen initially sent a 2010 letter from then-House Speaker Dean Cannon to Crist regarding agencies implementing the federal health care law without ""waiting for clear and comprehensive guidance from the Legislature."" Cannon’s greatest concern was the Office of Insurance Regulation. The federal government was ""commandeering"" the office, he wrote, which was was developing a system for enforcing new regulations. ""Although OIR used routine budget mechanisms to commence these actions with federal grant money, the substantive actions must be subject to more thorough legislative scrutiny,"" he wrote. Cannon told agencies to submit a detailed list of activities related to the health care law and not to take any more actions to implement the law after Nov. 15, 2010. He did not say OIR needed to return the grant. OIR spokeswoman Amy Bogner sent us a vague statement that did not explain the reason: ""The Office had the authority to draw down funds. The Office did not draw down the funds. The Office was not directed to take this action. We do not have any further comment."" We searched news clips. The grant did not generate much attention at the time, often lopped in with more expensive ones. McCarty was quoted by the Tampa Bay Business Journal as saying part of the reason he rescinded acceptance of the grant was the federal government’s criticism of a Connecticut regulator approving a rate increase of as much as 47 percent. ""We hadn’t drawn down the money, we were concerned about its encroachment on state sovereignty, and yesterday’s decision just made it a cinch,"" McCarty said in the April 1, 2011 story, referring to the district judge’s ruling. Former Scott spokesman Lane Wright told us for a 2011 fact-check that the governor’s staff examined each grant to determine whether it was intended to implement health care reform. ""Some grants were not applied for and some grants applied for under the Crist administration were returned because they were meant specifically for the implementation of Obamacare,"" Wright wrote. Listed as an example: the premium review grant. Our ruling 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 money was the state’s insurance commissioner, a political appointee who answers to Scott as part of his role on the Financial Services Commission. Still, he did so shortly after Scott took office and Scott’s office claimed some amount of credit back in 2011."
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