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1802	Tech investor gets five towns to join social-health experiment.	Technology investor Esther Dyson thinks she has found the answer to America’s growing health concerns, and has enlisted five smaller cities across the country to try and prove it.	true	Health News	Dyson, an early investor in Square and board member for Yandex, Russia’s answer to Google Inc, has drafted five towns to participate in a five-year long test, or what she calls a “healthy living challenge.” By introducing programs and urban planning initiatives, such as wholesome school lunches, corporate wellness programs and more bike paths, Dyson hopes to reduce overall rates of obesity and chronic disease in these towns. Dyson calls this the “Way to Wellville,” where such programs reinforce each other, promote awareness, and hopefully avert expensive healthcare costs over the long term. Its sponsor is a nonprofit organization called the Health Initiative Coordinating Council, or HICCup, which Dyson founded. HICCup will help local officials find funding from social investors, local businesses and philanthropic organizations. Each of the towns expects to spend between $20 million and $80 million over the next five years. HICCup, run by former insurance executive Rick Brush, has set aside some $5 million for administrative costs. The five towns are: Muskegon, Michigan; Lake County, California; Spartanburg, South Carolina; Clatsop County, Oregon; and Niagara falls, New York. These communities all have populations of less than 100,000 people, and their local officials are fully on board with the initiative, Dyson said. Dyson hopes to establish a model for other communities and provide direct feedback to policymakers in government. Her experiment is timely, given the Obama Administration’s support for “population health” initiatives as a means to cut spiraling costs. Population health advocates push for increased funding for preventative measures for groups of patients to reduce rates of chronic illness. For instance, if a town invests a small sum into programs to inform citizens about the health risks associated with fast food, as well as counseling for pre-diabetes, it could avoid thousands of dollars in medical care and reduced work productivity. “The programs by and large won’t be remarkable,” Dyson said. “What’s remarkable is doing them together, reinforcing one another, and critical density, in small self-contained communities where they will have maximum impact.”
3860	New Mexico to bolster Medicaid spending on mental health.	New Mexico is seeking to bolster access to a variety of health care services, including mental health treatment, in rural areas with a $78.5 million proposed increase in annual Medicaid spending, the Human Services Department announced Tuesday.	true	Mental health, Health, General News, Medicaid, New Mexico, Health care services, Health care industry	The agency already increased federally subsidized Medicaid payments earlier this year by roughly $230 million to hospitals, physicians and other providers. Slated to start Oct. 1, the newly proposed rate increases rely heavily on federal matching funds, leveraging a state general fund appropriation of $16 million to inject $78.5 million into the health care sector. The proposal is open to public comment through the agency’s website . More than 800,000 residents are enrolled in the state’s federally subsidized Medicaid program, which was expanded substantially in 2014 to include more individuals living just above the federal definition of poverty. The proposed increase in payments to medical professionals is directed primarily toward behavior health services, as the state reconstructs its networks for treating mental ailments and addiction. Former Gov. Susana Martinez in 2013 froze payments to 15 nonprofit mental health service providers over concerns about fraud — driving many out of business. Prosecutors found only regulatory violations. The new Medicaid rates for behavioral health care apply to most outpatient services that don’t require a hospital stay and represent an average payment increase of 30 percent. In a news release, Human Services Secretary David Scrase described those increases as “substantial and designed to form the foundation for significant rebuilding of our New Mexico network.” Randy Marshall, executive director of the New Mexico Medical Society, said many Medicaid reimbursement rates were slashed in 2016 as the state grappled with a budget shortfall and approved financial austerity measures. State government income is now surging amid record-breaking oil and natural gas production in southeastern New Mexico. The state Medicaid rate increases are likely to have an outsized effect on rural clinics and practices where Medicaid coverage can account for a 90% share of patients, Marshall said. The state also is seeking to shore up Medicaid funding for dental care, increasing the minimum payment for each encounter with a patient to $200. More annual Medicaid spending — an estimated $900,000 — also would be dedicated to a program called Project ECHO that allows medical providers in remote areas to consult by videoconference with far-away medical specialists.
8046	Swiss tap pharmaceutical reserves as coronavirus deaths rise.	Switzerland has begun tapping its strategic stockpile of pharmaceuticals to cover rising demand caused by the coronavirus epidemic, the government said on Friday amid a “vigorous” rise in the country’s death toll and number of infections.	true	Health News	Switzerland, headquarters for pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis and Roche, released medicines including powerful painkillers from stores that it sets aside for crises, said an official in the Federal Office for National Economic Supply. The government has already rationed some common painkillers and anti-fever drugs to halt panic buying. Health Minister Alain Berset told a news conference in Bern that emergency measures introduced last week to ban gatherings of more than five people and shutter some businesses were beginning to work. However, he added that “the wave of infections is still rising, even vigorously rising, so it is very important that we all keep respecting the measures”. The number of cases increased to 12,161 from 10,714 on Thursday, while the death toll rose to 197 from 161. The southern canton of Ticino, which borders Italy, has been especially badly hit, with 470 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, three times the national rate. Berset appealed to people to cancel Easter holidays, particularly in Ticino, describing the situation there as “fragile”. “I don’t want to see traffic jams outside the Gotthard Tunnel this year,” he said, referring to the popular route under the Alps that many Swiss use to drive south to the canton, which has a mild Mediterranean climate. In concert with companies like food giant Nestle SA and supermarket retailers such as Coop and Migros, Switzerland keeps supplies of between three and six months of commodities like edible oils, grains and coffee on hand. So far, other parts of its reserves have not been tapped. Hans Haefliger said the strategic stockpiles that his reservesuisse agency oversees - sugar, rice, edible oils, coffee, grains and animal feeds - were fine. “The goods that must be consumed now, they’re in Switzerland,” Haefliger said, adding he was watching closely products like rice that must be brought in from Asia and remain in ports in places like India. “What will be consumed in the coming months is either here or on its way already. We’re talking about what we may need in June,” he said. The federal government, which has drafted army units to secure its borders, also gave regional authorities the right to shut down sectors of the economy temporarily if needed to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
3338	Oakland County health officials confirm rabies in pet cat.	Health officials in suburban Detroit have confirmed rabies in a pet cat.	true	Animals, Rabies, Health, General News, Detroit, Cats, Pets	The confirmation in Birmingham Friday follows verification so far this year of the disease in four bats and 11 skunks in Oakland County. Officials said last month that a dead skunk found in nearby West Bloomfield tested positive for rabies. Other Oakland County communities with rabies confirmed in skunks include Southfield, Rochester Hills and Troy. Health officials say pet owners should have their dogs and cats vaccinated against the rabies virus. Symptoms in animals include general sickness, swallowing problems and excessive drooling, slow and unusual movement, no apparent fear of humans and aggression. Rabies can be fatal to humans after symptoms begin to occur. Deaths can be prevented with a vaccine administered immediately after exposure.
13412	A rural hospital in Missouri closes every 8 months. The legislature’s failure to expand Medicaid has brought crisis to many of Missouri’s rural health care providers.	"Our ruling Koster said, ""A rural hospital in Missouri closes every 8 months. The legislature’s failure to expand Medicaid has brought crisis to many of Missouri’s rural health care providers."" Koster said, ""A rural hospital in Missouri closes every 8 months. The legislature’s failure to expand Medicaid has brought crisis to many of Missouri’s rural health care providers."" Koster’s claim is a bit of stretch. Four small Missouri hospitals have closed entirely or in part since September 2014, three of which are rural. In half those cases, patients being unable to pay their bills was cited as a reason for the closure. And many of those patients likely would have been covered had Missouri expanded Medicaid."	mixture	Medicaid, Missouri, Chris Koster,	"As we move into the final weeks before the Nov. 8 election, Democratic gubernatorial nominee and Attorney General Chris Koster is making a point to separate his political stances from the actions of the Missouri General Assembly. In a graphic posted on Instagram, Koster’s campaign wrote, ""The legislature’s failure to expand Medicaid has brought crisis to many of Missouri’s rural health care providers."" That sounded pretty dramatic, so we decided to look into the claim. The post referred to research done by the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Koster campaign also directed us to an article from the Springfield News-Leader. What we found in examining the evidence is that not every hospital Koster cited is ""rural,"" and the hospitals closed for a variety of reasons. Cecil G. Sheps Center Report The Sheps Center has tracked hospital closings in the continental United States since 2010. In that amount of time, three rural Missouri hospitals have closed, the center reports. The Sac-Osage Hospital in Osceola closed in September 2014, the Parkland Health Center Weber Road in Farmington closed in January, and the SoutheastHEALTH Center of Reynolds County in Ellington closed in March. Koster’s campaign also directed our attention to the Ozarks Community Hospital in Springfield, which closed its surgery department and emergency room in July. The Ozarks Community Hospital is not considered a rural hospital because it’s located in Springfield, population 160,000. The hospital contained 45 beds, plus 10 more in its geriatric psychiatry unit, a small number for a city of that size. If we start counting in September of 2014, these four closings work out to approximately one every eight months. But, again, while the Ozarks Community Hospital is small, it’s not rural. Medicaid According to Ryan Barker at the Missouri Foundation for Health, Missouri could have expanded Medicaid starting Jan. 1, 2014, before any of the hospitals closed. Expanding Medicaid would have had a significant impact on the reimbursement of health care providers. Dave Dillon, a spokesman for the Missouri Hospital Association, told St. Louis Public Radio that the legislature’s decision to not expand Medicaid will cost Missouri $4 billion in federal payments over the next six years. Under the Affordable Care Act, states were given the opportunity to expand the pool of citizens covered by Medicaid, a subsidized insurance for citizens living in poverty. The federal government would have covered the entire costs of the broadened coverage for the first three years, but the level of federal subsidy would decline after that. Legislators in Missouri and 18 other states chose not to expand Medicaid, in part because of the greater costs to the state, but also because of ideological opposition to subsidized insurance and Obamacare. Since many rural hospitals were already in crisis before 2014 because of a large burden of uninsured patients, the failure to expand Medicaid isn’t the direct cause for closings. However, Medicaid expansion was a missed opportunity to lessen the load on those affected hospitals. Why the hospitals closed In an article from the Kansas Health Institute News Service, Chris Smiley, the CEO of the Sac-Osage hospital, said the hospital was forced to close because of a large amount of uninsured patients and shrinking payments from Medicare. ""Hospitals expected to see millions of newly insured customers thanks to federal subsidies enabling people to buy health insurance and the expansion of state Medicaid programs,"" explained the article. ""In exchange, they agreed to accept reduced Medicare payments and a huge cut in disproportionate share hospital, or DSH, funding, which the federal government pays to offset the costs of uncompensated care."" Since Missouri opted out of Medicaid expansion, this left the hospital with a gap in reimbursement. The closest hospital to Osceola is now Ellett Memorial Hospital in Appleton City, 30 minutes away. Parkland Health Center Weber Road officials were much less specific in their explanation, but said that concerns about building safety and regulations factored in the decision to close. Most of the hospital’s services, including emergency care, have since been relocated to other Parkland Health facilities, also located in Farmington. SoutheastHEALTH was forced to close because of a $6 million debt owed by Advanced Healthcare, the previous owner of the hospital. As the owners of the property, state Medicaid officials informed the company that it was liable for the debt. The nearest hospital to Ellington is now the Iron County Hospital in Pilot Knob. Ozarks Community Hospital was forced to close its ER and surgery center because the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services determined it did not have a large enough inpatient population to be considered a hospital. Since approximately 40 percent of the hospital’s patients were uninsured and it was being paid less money to treat them, the hospital was only able to admit patients following surgery by 2015, according to OCH Health System owner and CEO Paul Taylor in a Springfield News-Leader article. He said there is ""no doubt in my mind"" that the hospital would have stayed open if Missouri had expanded Medicaid. The Ozarks Community Hospital now functions as a clinic. Our ruling Koster said, ""A rural hospital in Missouri closes every 8 months. The legislature’s failure to expand Medicaid has brought crisis to many of Missouri’s rural health care providers."" Koster’s claim is a bit of stretch. Four small Missouri hospitals have closed entirely or in part since September 2014, three of which are rural. In half those cases, patients being unable to pay their bills was cited as a reason for the closure. And many of those patients likely would have been covered had Missouri expanded Medicaid. Koster’s statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details.
15925	The 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that up to half of daily marijuana smokers become addicted -- an estimated 2.7 million people in the U.S.	"Susan Shapiro wrote ""The 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that up to half of daily marijuana smokers become addicted -- an estimated 2.7 million people in the U.S."" The survey found that 5.4 million people reported using marijuana daily or almost daily. A more detailed table from the same survey shows 2.69 million people -- just shy of 2.7 million -- with dependence on marijuana and hashish. Based on that number, and the definitions of addiction from SAMHSA, Hall and Gitlow. (Correction: Susan Shapiro says she is ambivalent about legalizing marijuana. The original version of this item and the headline incorrectly said she opposes legalization.)"	true	Rhode Island, Drugs, Marijuana, Susan Shapiro,	"Vigorous debate surrounds efforts to legalize marijuana around the nation and in Rhode Island, where advocates are pushing legalization proposals in the General Assembly. (In 2013, the state decriminalized possession of small amounts of non-medical marijuana.) Author Susan Shapiro, who says she is ambivalent about legalizing marijuana, shared her story about what she called her ""extreme addiction"" to marijuana in a commentary published Jan. 10, 2015, in The Providence Journal entitled ""Susan Shapiro: My pot addiction nearly ruined my life."" She told of marijuana’s ""dark side,"" and included statistics to reinforce her point. ""The 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that up to half of daily marijuana smokers become addicted -- an estimated 2.7 million people in the U.S,"" she wrote. We wondered if the figure Shapiro used is . We called her to find out how she backed up her claim. She referred us to a story that ran July 14, 2014, in USA Today entitled ""Marijuana poses more risks than many realize"" by reporter Liz Szabo. She took the information from that piece, she said. The story quoted Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, a federal agency that supports research on drug abuse and addiction. The relevant section in the story Shapiro cited reads: ""Up to half of people who smoke marijuana daily become addicted. According to the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2.7 million people over age 12 meet criteria for addiction to marijuana."" We contacted the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which produced the survey cited by Shapiro and Volkow. We also reached out to Volkow’s organization, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The SAMHSA survey found that 5.4 million people said they used marijuana daily or almost daily in 2012. Almost daily was defined as 300 or more days in the past year. (Another 18.9 million said they had used marijuana at least once in the past month.) NIDA forwarded us a detailed table from the SAMHSA’s 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. It showed that 2.69 million people over age 12 with dependence on marijuana and hashish in the past year. That’s roughly half the number of daily marijuana smokers, as Shapiro said. Tamara Ward, a SAMHSA spokeswoman, told us that dependence on illicit drugs or alcohol is defined as meeting three out of seven criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV, including the need for markedly increased amounts of the substance, withdrawal symptoms, and reduction or abandonment of social, work or recreational activities because of use. That sounded like addiction to us, but to be sure, we also reached out to Wayne D. Hall, a professor and director of the Centre for Youth Substance Abuse Research at the University of Queensland, in Australia. We asked Hall if dependence amounted to addiction. He said he used the words interchangeably but that not everyone does, especially not in the case of opioid drugs. We also contacted Dr. Stuart Gitlow, an addiction medicine specialist in Woonsocket and president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. He agreed. ""Clearly, all those who have dependence also have addiction, but it's not as clear that all those with abuse also have addiction. Some probably do not,"" Gitlow said. Our ruling Susan Shapiro wrote ""The 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that up to half of daily marijuana smokers become addicted -- an estimated 2.7 million people in the U.S."" The survey found that 5.4 million people reported using marijuana daily or almost daily. A more detailed table from the same survey shows 2.69 million people -- just shy of 2.7 million -- with dependence on marijuana and hashish. Based on that number, and the definitions of addiction from SAMHSA, Hall and Gitlow. (Correction: Susan Shapiro says she is ambivalent about legalizing marijuana. The original version of this item and the headline incorrectly said she opposes legalization.)"
9030	Scorpion venom component can reduce severity of rheumatoid arthritis	This news release reports on a study that found a component of scorpion venom — called iberiotoxin — reduced the severity of rheumatoid arthritis in rats without producing adverse effects associated a with a similar treatment. The study was published in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. The release’s strong suits were its descriptions of why the research is novel and how the substance works by blocking a potassium channel on cells associated with the disease. The news release would have been stronger with more information on the limitations of the research and potential harms, as well as a less misleading headline. The release at a minimum should have added ‘…in rats’ to the headline. Rheumatoid arthritis affects about 1.3 million people in the U.S., according to data cited by the American College of Rheumatology. It causes pain, swelling, stiffness and loss of joint function. Better treatment options would be important news. Disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, biologics and steroids are available to arrest rheumatoid arthritis and help protect joints but they come with significant side effects and risk of infection. Anti-inflammatory medication, physical and occupational therapy, and exercise are also used to relieve symptoms. The irony of potentially harnessing a natural poison to treat disease makes an enticing headline, but news releases should not exaggerate the state of the evidence. It also helps readers when news releases give some indication of the stage of the research.	mixture	Baylor College of Medicine,rheumatoid arthritis,scorpion venom	There’s no discussion of how much a product like this might cost or how the cost might compare with other treatments. Peptides International (funders of the study) lists iberiotoxin at $295 per 0.1 ml vial on its website. However, we’re never told how much toxin is used when applied as a treatment so it’s impossible to estimate what costs for a patient might run. The news release says treatment with iberiotoxin “stopped the progression of the disease. In some cases they reversed the signs of established disease, meaning that the animals had better joint mobility and less inflammation in their joints.” There’s no data to quantify the amount of improvement that was observed. The abstract of the study also lacked any information about the degree of the improvement in rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. The main point readers should keep in mind is that this is an early animal study and it would be inappropriate to make projections about its usefulness in humans. The news release reported that treatment of rats with iberiotoxin “did not induce side effects, such as tremors and incontinence, observed when treating with another channel blocker called paxilline. That’s not quite right. The study itself says it only examined tremors and incontinence, and other adverse effects couldn’t be ruled out. Also, just because a particular adverse effect wasn’t observed in rats doesn’t mean it is safe for humans. The news release offers this researcher’s quote: “Although these results are promising, much more research needs to be conducted before we can use scorpion venom components to treat rheumatoid arthritis.” That’s important, but the news release would have been stronger with more specifics on the size and length of the trial, and a strong caution about the fact that animal studies rarely translate into successful human treatments. Also, the study said that the treated rats still “exhibited a significant amount of paw inflammation,” suggesting that a potential treatment, if developed, might have to be used in tandem with another treatment for inflammation. There’s no disease-mongering but the news release cuts corners when offering context about the impact of rheumatoid arthritis. It mentions “1.3 million people with rheumatoid arthritis,” but doesn’t say where that number comes from or whether it’s a U.S. or worldwide figure. The news release reports that the study was supported by Peptide International, makers of the peptide iberiotoxin, the Arthritis Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. We didn’t find any undisclosed conflicts of interest. The news release does the bare minimum here, stating, “Current treatments target the immune cells involved in the disease and none are specific for FLS.” The news release makes it clear that scorpion venom isn’t available yet as a treatment with this researcher’s quote: “We think that this venom component, iberiotoxin, can become the basis for developing a new treatment for rheumatoid arthritis in the future.” But since the drug is available through Peptide International it is possible that some people may try to get it from the company and try it. The news release does a good job here, stating in the first paragraph that “one of the hundreds of components in scorpion venom can reduce the severity of the disease in animal models, without inducing side effects associated with similar treatments.” The headline overreaches when it wrongly declares that scorpion venom “can reduce severity of rheumatoid arthritis” without alluding to the lack of testing in humans. It would have been better if it included “in rats” in the title.
35851	In late September 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture distributed millions of federally funded aid boxes that included a letter from President Donald Trump crediting his administration for their distribution.	Democratic lawmakers argue that the letter violates the federal Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from using taxpayer resources to campaign or engage in other electioneering activities. While the president himself, who is up for reelection, is exempt from the law, the law does apply to White House staff, such as Ivanka Trump, and federal agencies like the USDA. Rep. Marcia L. Fudge, D-Ohio, and dozens of other congressional members signed an Aug. 14 letter in response to the inclusion of the letters in federal aid boxes:	true	Politics, COVID-19	Letters written on behalf of U.S. President Donald Trump and printed on White House letterhead were included in millions of federally funded food aid boxes distributed across the nation to families in need, sparking controversy over whether the move violated federal law prohibiting certain political activities by U.S. federal employees. In response to growing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration launched the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. That program gives the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) authority under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to purchase agricultural products from American vendors and transport the products in “family-sized boxes” to food banks and other aid organizations for distribution to families in need. As of Sept. 29, 2020, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced that more than 100 million of the government-funded boxes had been distributed across the country through the Farmers to Families Food Box Program. Included in millions of these aid boxes were letters purportedly written by Trump crediting his administration for their distribution. Both English and Spanish versions of the letters reportedly were included in the boxes, which read the following: As President, safeguarding the health and well-being of our citizens is one of my highest priorities. As part of our response to the coronavirus, I prioritized sending nutritious food from our farmers to families in need throughout America. We are partnering with local organizations, farms, and ranches to ensure that you receive locally-sourced fresh fruits and vegetables as well as dairy and meat products. The letter went on to refer readers to the president’s coronavirus guidelines. A full version of the letter had been uploaded to a document cloud by ProPublica, a nonprofit news publication. It is unclear whether the letters were mandated by the USDA or by the president himself. Snopes contacted both the federal agency and the White House but did not receive a response at the time of publication. Fox News first reported in July that the letters were to be included in some boxes beginning in Summer 2020 and credited the idea to White House adviser — and daughter to the president — Ivanka Trump, who tweeted a photo of the letter in food boxes on Aug. 14. The White House letter was touted in an Aug. 24 news release that claimed Trump “swiftly launched” the Farmers to Families Food Box program with his administration’s purchase of $3 billion in produce, dairy, and meat for families in need, and had approved an additional $1 billion for the program. “In addition, President Trump is including a letter that reinforces COVID-19 safety guidelines and how Americans can best protect themselves and their families,” read the news release.
10621	Spinal fluid proteins can help diagnose Alzheimer’s	"While the headline and the lead sentence emphasize the potential usefulness of spinal fluid testing for confirmation of Alzheimer’s Disease diagnoses, the story incorrectly states that the test predicted disease progression. It says the test was ""able to detect 100 percent of people with memory impairments who would progress to Alzheimer’s disease within five years."" But rather than predicting the future, what the researchers actually reported was that looking backwards they found that the participants who developed Alzheimer’s during the study period all had the pattern of biomarkers linked to the disease. That distinction is important, as demonstrated by the fact that less than half of the study participants who already had memory problems and had a biomarker pattern linked to Alzheimer’s actually progressed during the course of the study. See our reviews of New York Times story and of WebMD story."	false		This story mentions neither estimates of the direct costs of such a test nor the indirect financial implications of testing before symptoms appear. Although this story does a generally careful job of highlighting the potential use of spinal fluid testing to help diagnose Alzheimer’s Disease in people who are already experiencing severe memory problems, it states that the results “predict” which patients with memory problems will develop the disease. What the researchers actually reported was that all of the patients who progressed from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer’s Disease during the study period had the disease-associated biomarker pattern. They did not state that having the “disease” pattern predicted progression. Indeed, while 142 participants with impairment had the “disease” pattern, only 57 (less than half) progressed from impairment to Alzheimer’s during the study. The story does not mention any potential harms of either the spinal tap procedure itself or from the interpretation of the test results. The spinal tap harms include pain and bleeding. The harms of the test could include insurance or employment discrimination, as well as the consequences of mistaken diagnoses. This brief story includes the key results of the study, including the percentage of study participants who had a biomarker pattern associated with Alzheimer’s Disease. However, while the story reports that the participants who had severe memory impairment at the start of the study and then developed Alzheimer’s Disease within five years all had the “disease” biomarker pattern, it does not make clear that there were also participants who had the “disease” pattern and yet did not develop Alzheimer’s during the course of the study. The failure to note the relative lack of specificity of the test methods detracts significantly from the quality of the story. Without attribution, this story states that 26 million people worldwide have Alzheimer’s Disease. By contrast, the World Health Organization puts the global figure at 18 million people. The Alzheimer’s Association says that 5 million American’s have the disease. Some caution should be used when considering estimates by advocacy organizations. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that the number of cases will increase by more than 50 percent over the next two decades, but it should be noted that two decades ago the group estimated the disease affected more than 4 million Americans. Reference: ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE : The Brain Killer http://www.searo.who.int/en/Section1174/Section1199/Section1567/Section1823_8066.htm The story does not include comments from an independent source and it fails to tell readers that several of the study authors are or were employees of the company that developed key components of the test. It also does not mention that the study was funded by an institute that receives funding from pharmaceutical companies, including the company that makes the test. This story does not mention that brain scans are also being tested for their ability to aid in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease. This story does not point out the hurdles that need to be cleared before this sort of spinal fluid test for Alzheimer’s Disease could be considered for use outside of research trials, so readers may get an unrealistic sense of how soon it might enter routine clinical use. The story notes that this study is the latest to show that spinal fluid testing “is useful in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease,” thus indicating it is not the first such report. Not applicable because we can’t be sure of the extent to which the story may have relied on a news release. No quotes from an interview were included – only a quote from the journal article.
26414	Veronica Escobar Says Texas “either is near the bottom or at the very bottom when it comes to testing per capita.”	Texas is one of the states that has administered the fewest coronavirus tests per capita. At the time of Escobar's statement, only Virginia and Kansas had tested fewer people per capita than Texas.	true	Texas, Coronavirus, Veronica Escobar,	"As state leaders in Texas look to ease restrictions implemented to slow the spread of coronavirus in the state, some people have raised concerns about the number of tests the state has administered. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, raised the issue during a webcast with the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute and the Migration Policy Institute on Wednesday. ""Texas, I believe, either is near the bottom or at the very bottom when it comes to testing per capita, so the numbers are probably far greater than what is being reported,"" she said. ""I believe we don’t have an adequate idea of just how many cases and how many deaths are being reported."" At the time of Escobar’s remark, Texas had administered 216,783 tests for the coronavirus, with 21,069 positive results, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The state was reporting 542 coronavirus fatalities with an estimated 7,341 recoveries. Escobar’s spokeswoman Elizabeth Lopez-Sandoval pointed to the COVID Tracking Project as the source of Escobar’s claim comparing Texas testing to other states. The COVID Tracking Project was launched by The Atlantic and tracks and publishes data from each state about testing, deaths and hospitalizations related to the coronavirus. Looking at the numbers With a population of more than 27.8 million in 2018 and 216,783 tests administered, Texas had administered about 777 coronavirus tests per 100,000 people as of Wednesday, ranking 48th among states in testing per capita. Here’s a look at the five states that had administered the fewest coronavirus tests per capita, as of Wednesday: The total number of tests administered in Texas is significantly higher than other states at the lower end of the list, but testing per capita remains low. Here’s how other states with large populations compare to Texas in the number of tests administered per capita, as of Wednesday: And here’s how Texas compares to its neighbors in testing per capita, from lowest to highest, as of Wednesday: Efforts to increase testing Public health experts say a dramatic increase in testing is needed to ensure it’s safe to reopen sectors of the economy, as limited testing data means there are significant unknowns when it comes to the scope of the virus spread. The data that does exist is incomplete, as some private laboratories have not reported the number of negative tests they have administered. And there are clear discrepancies in some county-level data. For example, one small West Texas county reported 12 positive cases of the virus but only reported administering one test as of April 13, according to the American-Statesman. During a news conference on April 17, Gov. Greg Abbott said he spoke with the White House and was told Texas would receive ""a dramatic increase"" in testing — ""not just testing those who may show symptoms, but also being able to test entire communities so that we have better information."" California and Arizona have both expanded which individuals meet the criteria required for testing, allowing individuals with no symptoms to be screened. Abbott told reporters that this increase in testing capacity is expected by ""late April or early May."" He declined to offer specifics, but said new testing will be coming from the private sector. Texas Department of State Health Services Commissioner John Hellerstedt said the private sector will play a role, but public health authorities also are working to grow their capacity. Our Ruling Escobar said that Texas ""is near the bottom or at the very bottom of COVID-19 testing per capita."" Data supports Escobar’s statement and shows that Texas has lagged behind other states in terms of coronavirus testing per capita."
6785	94 deaths from plague in Madagascar, UN health agency says.	An unusually large plague outbreak in Madagascar has taken 94 lives, the World Health Organization said Friday.	true	World Health Organization, Madagascar, Geneva, Health, Africa, Plague, Travel, Indian Ocean	The number of suspected cases has reached 1,153, Dr. Ibrahima Soce Fall, Africa emergencies chief for the U.N. health agency, told reporters in Geneva. More cases are expected, “but we think we can affect the curve very quickly thanks to the deployment of human resources and all types of intervention,” he said. International agencies have sent more than one million doses of antibiotics and deployed medical teams. Plague is endemic in Madagascar, but this year’s outbreak is unusual because for the first time the disease has affected the Indian Ocean island’s two biggest cities, Antananarivo and Toamasina. More than 70 percent of the cases are pneumonic plague, a more virulent form that spreads through coughing, sneezing or spitting and is almost always fatal if untreated. In some cases, it can kill within 24 hours. Like the bubonic form that often is found in Madagascar’s remote highlands, it can be treated with common antibiotics if caught in time. WHO has said the risk of global spread of the outbreak is low and it advises against travel or trade restrictions. It seeks $5.5 million to support the plague response. The Red Cross is sending its first-ever plague treatment center.
10515	Scientists back brain drugs for healthy people	"This story covers a provocative commentary on the use of cognition-stimulating medications by healthy people. The commentary, published in the journal Nature, raises a topic that’s significant to people as individuals and to society as a whole. While clearly biased in favor of wider use of the drugs, the commentary clearly meets the test of ""reportability"" in mainstream media. The news report does a credible job of summarizing the authors’ main points and gathering independent assessment to put it in context. It included an important balancing perspective from a bioethicist, who said: ""It’s a nice puff piece for selling medications for people who don’t have an illness of any kind."" The report’s most significant shortcoming is that it never made clear that there is no good data to support the assumption that the drugs improve cognitive outcomes. As the ratings below show, the report would have been better if it had mentioned costs more explicitly, and put the issue in the context of other methods people can and do use to enhance brain function. The article does a reasonable job in covering the major points made in the commentary. Unfortunately almost 20% of the article is devoted to specific information about the drugs rather than the myriad of issues raised by the commentary. The space would have been better used with a more complete discussion of the ethical and societal issues raised by the commentary."	mixture		"The article fails to report the prices of these drugs, which range from negligible [generic stimulants] to very high [Provigil]. The commentary itself does not cite data about the benefits. Indeed, the paper is in part a call for more research to determine the benefits and harms of various brain-boosting drugs. Having said that, there is a significant flaw on the reporter’s part. The authors of the commentary are clear in their view that the drugs provide a valuable enhancement to cognitive function in healthy individuals. The reporter mirrors that view with statements such as ""[the drugs] can help other people focus their attention and handle information in their heads"" and ""Lab studies show it can also perk up the brains of well rested people."" While it is true that the benefits of drug use are not quantified in the commentary, the reporter actively provides the readers with qualitative information on the value of drug use. The reporter does an excellent job of mentioning the potential harms, including addiction and the heart problems linked to amphetamines. It also discusses the potential harm of social inequality, if these drugs become easily available to those who can afford them but not to others. On the one hand, the reporter earns points for mentioning the 2001 [!] research which the authors of the commentary cite. But the reporter loses points for failing to emphasize that this commentary, which clearly advocates wider use of these drugs, is based on very little research. We give it a satisfactory score because of the weight of the balancing quote from a bioethicist: ""It’s a nice puff piece for selling medications for people who don’t have an illness of any kind."" The story does a good job resisting the temptation to use anecdotes that dramatize the benefits of brain-boosting drugs used by healthy people. The reporter also refrained from implying that ""everybody is going to want to take these drugs."" The reporter interviews two of the paper’s authors and three independent sources, one of whom is sharply negative about the paper and two of whom have more nuanced, ambivalent responses. The reporter cites the potential conflict of interest of two authors, who have received money from pharmaceutical companies. While this news report is a summary of a provocative commentary, a more creative and complete approach would have been to look at other ways healthy people stimulate their brains. One interview subject refers to caffeine, which is obvious and worth mentioning. Indeed, it opens the question of how to draw lines of acceptability when a drug like caffeine is so widely used and unregulated. Other approaches to brain-boosting that might have been mentioned include those that are common, harmless and based on at least limited data [physical exercise, social relationships, doing puzzles], experimental but commercially oversold [neuroelectric stimulation] and uNPRoven, widely promoted supplements and nostrums, including the many mainstream beverages that include herbs and other purportedly stimulating nutrients. The article makes clear that a variety of cognition-enhancing drugs are widely available. But it neglects to say that stimulants have additional controls to prevent abuse, including limited supplies per prescription The article also neglects to say explicitly these drugs are not paid for by insurance companies when used for non-indicated purposes. A brief mention in the last paragraph suggests this, but the article should have stated this plainly. The reporter does a good job parsing the difference between medical use of these drugs, which is well established, and their use for cognitive enhancement, which is more recent and less widespread. Because of the number of sources interviewed, it is clear that this story did not rely solely or largely on a news release."
23445	"Georgia's U.S. senators voted for legislation that would ""gut clean air protections and increase oil dependence."	"Senators side with ""big oil,"" critic says"	mixture	Georgia, Environment, Energy, Stephen Kretzmann,	"Are Georgia's two U.S. senators too beholden to ""Big Oil"" companies? That's the claim on a website created by Oil Change International, critical about the positions of some U.S. senators on some oil and energy issues. The site, www.bobbinginpetroleum.org, has images of 46 senators, including Georgia's Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson. Make no mistake, Oil Change International has an agenda. It identifies itself on its website as ""a research and advocacy organization that exists to force progress in the energy industry towards an environmentally and socially sustainable energy future."" The website also proclaims that the tax-exempt organization ""campaigns to expose the true costs of oil and facilitate the coming transition towards clean energy. We are dedicated to identifying and overcoming political barriers to that transition."" The website says Chambliss and Isakson have accepted a combined $331,000 in what it dubbed ""dirty energy contributions."" The largest contributor, about $128,000, was Atlanta-based Southern Co. For visual effect, the heads and torsos of the two senators are floating in rubber duckies in oil-stained water. An oil barrel is in the background. AJC PolitiFact Georgia certainly could not ignore an opportunity to dive deeper into this website. We also wanted to know if Chambliss and Isakson voted for legislation that ""gut clear air protections and increase oil dependence."" We reached out to the offices of both senators to see if they disputed the claims against their bosses. Both defended their votes in favor of legislation the website criticized. Isakson's Senate seat is up for re-election on Nov. 2. We decided to dig deeper into the claim about the resolution, since the staff of both senators seemed to have a larger beef with that. The legislation in question was written by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska. It aimed to prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from formulating regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The first of the new regulations could take effect in 2011. Murkowski argued Congress needs more input in the process, but her bill failed by a 53 to 47 vote. If Murkowski's resolution had been approved, some activists argued it would have a negative impact on clean air regulations. Bobbing in Petroleum called the legislation the ""Big Oil Bailout."" Chambliss and Isakson argued in support of the legislation largely on economic grounds. The legislation was a skirmish in the ongoing battle in Washington over efforts to pass sweeping energy legislation. The House passed a bill last year to establish a cap on carbon emissions, but the legislation has run into firm opposition in the Senate. Many Republican leaders say the so-called ""cap and trade"" legislation would become a job-killing tax. Pass the legislation, they argue, and you put Americans out of work. ""This backdoor attempt to regulate greenhouse gases will have dramatic negative effects on our manufacturing sector while also causing significant increases in the cost of power generation,"" Isakson said in a statement after the June 10 vote. Chambliss said in a speech on the Senate floor that day that the EPA's actions would require more cash-strapped farmers to get federal Clean Air Act permits, hurting many of them financially. So would the Murkowski bill ""gut clean air protections and increase oil dependence""? First, we must go back to 2007. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 vote that the EPA must consider putting controls on carbon dioxide and other gases in automobile exhaust. The majority rejected arguments by the administration of then-President George W. Bush, a Republican, that the Clean Air Act does not treat carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases as ""pollutants,"" and thus does not give the EPA the authority to regulate them. In September 2009, the EPA, under the administration of President Barack Obama, a Democrat, announced plans to require better gas mileage for cars and trucks and the first-ever rules on vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson wants to establish a greenhouse gas emission for cars and light trucks in model years 2012 to 2016. Murkowski introduced her legislation in January to stop the EPA effort. Stephen Kretzmann, who created the Bobbing in Petroleum site, said the EPA regulations would reduce automotive oil consumption by more than 1.8 billion barrels, citing comments Jackson made in a statement to a House of Representatives energy subcommittee. ""Eliminating the EPA standard would forfeit ... one-third of its greenhouse gas emissions reductions,"" Jackson said. Kretzmann also noted a letter by former EPA Administrator Russell Train urging the Senate to vote down the Murkowski bill. Train said the legislation would roll back Clean Air Act protections. ""If Congress had removed EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gases, industry would have been on more solid ground to challenge them in the future. And I have no doubt that they will, if given the chance,"" said Kretzmann, who said he's worked on energy and oil issues for nearly two decades. Jonas Monast, who has expertise in federal climate protection policies, agreed Murkowski's legislation would adversely impact the EPA's ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. However, he said it would not impact U.S. Department of Transportation's ability to increase vehicle efficiency, a point that's been made by other nonpartisan observers. Cars, buses and trucks account for about half of all cancers attributed to outdoor sources of air toxins, federal officials say. The EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are working on a new rating system that rates the overall fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions of different vehicles to help consumers before buying a new car, SUV, truck or van. Would the bill increase oil dependence? ""I don't think it's possible to predict at this point,"" said Monast, senior policy counsel at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Studies at Duke University. Obama announced in May a plan to impose mileage and pollution limits on vehicles, particularly SUVs and trucks. Obama used the BP oil spill to highlight the need to rely less on fossil fuels. The EPA argued Murkowski's resolution would hurt the president's plan and continue America's dependence on foreign oil. Murkowski argued her resolution would not impact the federal Department of Transportation's ability to regulate fuel efficiency. Every expert we talked to said the Murkowski legislation would hurt the EPA's efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. But the experts also said it would not impact federal transportation officials from moving forward with efforts to increase vehicle efficiency. Whether or not the bill would increase oil dependence is still debatable."
8208	Germany confirms case of H5N8 bird flu in poultry farm.	A case of H5N8 bird flu has been confirmed in a poultry farm in the eastern German state of Saxony, German authorities said on Monday.	true	Health News	The social affairs and protection ministry in the state of Saxony said the case involved bird flu of type H5N8 found on a farm in Bad Lausick near Leipzig. All poultry on the farm has been slaughtered and a quarantine area set up around it. A series of outbreaks of the disease, which in the past has led to major disruptions and slaughtering programs in Europe’s poultry industry, have been reported in Europe in past months. Bird flu cases have appeared in the four central European countries of Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic since the end of last year. A previous case was found in a wild bird in Germany in January.
25987	Facebook post Says Democratic leaders aren’t wearing masks or social distancing in private	House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been a strong supporter of masks, wearing them in her many public appearances. The picture cited as proof that she isn’t wearing the masks “in private” is from December 2019. At that point, it was still a month before the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the U.S., and several months before stay-at-home orders began requiring social distancing.	false	Congress, Wisconsin, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,	"One of the many COVID-19 conspiracies circulating on Facebook focuses on the supposed benefits Democrats get from the presence of the virus. A June 30, 2020, post in a conservative Facebook group said ""hype"" about COVID-19 allows Democrats to limit President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies, minimize public attention on former Vice President Joe Biden and to cancel the national convention scheduled for Milwaukee to block Bernie Sanders from gaining support there. The post includes a picture of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talking with several other Democratic leaders in Congress. In addition to facebook, the picture and claim were posted on an array of conservative websites, all implying a conspiracy while asserting COVID-19 hype benefits Democrats. But the Facebook post added one other element. The text above the list of supposed benefits says in bold letters, ""NO MASK in private. NO SOCIAL DISTANCE."" Let’s take a closer look at that part of the claim. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook). Did Democratic leaders including Pelosi huddle up as pictured without standard COVID-19 precautions? Pelosi has been a strong proponent of mask-wearing (in contrast to Trump’s refusal to wear one in public). Two days before this Facebook post, CNN quoted her as saying a federal mandate on mask wearing is ""long overdue."" A New York Times story from a month earlier said Pelosi has ""relentlessly, and strategically, made masks a part of her platform."" So the allegation of hypocrisy here is noteworthy, particularly with the supposed photographic proof. But the picture is not what it seems. The image, taken by Andrew Harnik of the Associated Press, dates to Dec. 18, 2019. It shows Pelosi speaking with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal after the House voted to impeach President Trump, the original caption says. At that point, the COVID-19 outbreak was just beginning in Wuhan, China. The first case in the U.S. wasn’t confirmed until more than a month later. The first stay-at-home order enforcing social distancing wasn’t imposed until March 2020, in California. So, of course, Pelosi and the others pictured would not be social distancing or wearing masks. And we’ll note, Pelosi has been very conscious of mask and social distancing recommendations. When joined by other Democrats at a recent news conference, the dozens of lawmakers were spaced for social distancing. House committee meetings have been held virtually, and for in-person meetings, masks have been the norm. What’s more, Pelosi consistently wears a mask when appearing in public. A Facebook post shows Pelosi and other Democratic leaders huddled together, criticizing them for not wearing masks or following social distancing guidelines. But the image is from December 2019, months before masks and distance became part of the national response to the coronavirus pandemic. Citing it as proof in a dramatically different landscape eight months later is ridiculous, particularly when Pelosi has actually been a strong supporter of mask-wearing and social distancing for herself and the Congressional body she oversees."
1537	Adult swaddling therapy fad hits Tokyo.	Wrapped up from head to toe in a white bag and gently rocking from side to side, five Japanese mothers are hopeful Tokyo’s latest health trend can cure their post-pregnancy aches and pains.	true	Health News	According to its exponents, Otonamaki, which translates as “adult wrapping”, was devised by a Kyoto midwife who thought replicating how children are swaddled at birth could help mothers overcome post labor shoulder and hip pain. The five mothers at a recent session in Tokyo lay on their backs with their knees on their chests bundled up in white cloths. Staff then helped them rock over cushions. “It felt warm and there was this feeling with my body,” said one mother who tried the 20 minute session. “I have never experienced this before so its quite hard to describe properly.” Not everyone is a fan. Chiropractor Shiro Oba was skeptical about its powers of healing and encouraged mothers with back pain to visit a physician. “There may be cases where people with asthma may find it easier to breath (in that position), but once the cloth is off it’s the same thing,” said Oba. “But apart from that, I just can’t think of how people can benefit from this even as a form of reflexology or exercise.”
9711	Medical First: Brain tumor breached with ultrasound	The story from STAT, an affiliate of Boston Globe Media, reports on the first patient to have a drug delivered into her brain facilitated by ultrasound waves, which work to open up the blood brain barrier. The procedure was carried out only to evaluate safety, with no therapeutic goal for the patient involved. A brain cancer patient, she had her tumor removed after the ultrasound procedure. This is interesting science and the story does a great job of explaining what happened in this innovative procedure and why it’s potentially important. But our review raises a number of questions about the way the story was reported and whether it could have been more balanced. Costs aren’t mentioned and potential harms are glossed over. And despite the fact that many experts are quoted, there is no one to offer a restraining hand against the story’s overt enthusiasm. This was, after all, only a single patient whose results were presented at a news conference and haven’t been published or peer reviewed. Bottom line: It’s far from clear that this technique will ever be used clinically, and the story doesn’t do enough to underscore how preliminary the findings are and how much work remains to be done. Many drugs that may be helpful for disease cannot get into the brain because of the blood brain barrier, which normally protects the brain against toxins and infections. To have a safe method to deliver such drugs could be a significant therapeutic advance for brain tumors and other other brain pathology.	mixture	chemotherapy,focused ultrasound,interventional radiology	The article doesn’t mention costs at all. It’s likely a very expensive procedure since interventional radiologists are involved. Since this is a single patient there is no quantification involved, so N/A. This is a single patient and the story does mention that “no damage from the ultrasound was visible inside her brain.” But breaching the blood brain barrier is a big deal and likely would entail harms, especially if done repeatedly as would need to be done in many clinical treatments. There’s certainly a risk of bleeding as the news release mentions in a related Q&A. Some discussion of harms/tissue damage or lack thereof seen in animal studies would have been informative. The story does contain information from someone who appears to be an independent voice–Dr. Gordon Li–cautioning the reader that the ability to get drugs into the brain now requires effort to determine “safe doses” of those drugs. But that issue is given just a glancing blow — not enough for a Satisfactory grade here. This single case described at a news conference rates very low on the evidence hierarchy. And therefore the sentence: “Proving that the procedure works in people is ‘a big step forward,’” overstates what happened here. We can hardly conclude that the procedure “works” based on a single patient’s case that hasn’t been published or reviewed by other experts. And there weren’t any voices in this story who spoke up forcefully to make that point. None detected. Several experts who, according to the story, were outside of the group that did the research were quoted. However, two of these sources are involved with the funding organization — the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. These individuals are listed as experts on the foundation website. Although the funding source is a foundation, it receives support from numerous industry sources (as well as individuals and other sources). In addition, at least one of these experts (Ghanouni) leads other foundation-support research efforts. It’s possible that experts associated with this foundation may have an incentive to cast this foundation-supported research in a positive light. The story could have alerted readers to these links or, even better, tapped into a wider network of independent experts to provide a more critical evaluation of the research. The article doesn’t discuss other research underway that may be trying to get drugs across the blood brain barrier. However, we think this would be beyond the scope/focus of this single case article, so we’ll rate it Not Applicable. The article notes this is a very new, very experimental technology, and several other patients are lined up for testing. Even after that testing, further testing will be necessary to establish appropriate doses etc, so we think it’s pretty clear that this won’t be available any time soon. The article notes this is a first-in-human case, using a creative way to use ultrasound waves. The novelty is apparent. Although a news conference and news release were clearly what sparked the story, the author interviewed outside experts, so we can be sure there was some original reporting done.
36035	"A meme shows a number of Soviet ""Space Race"" firsts, achievements of which many Americans are unaware."	‘Americans are So Brainwashed, They Think They Won the Space Race’ Meme	mixture	Fact Checks, Viral Content	On November 9 2019, a post to Reddit’s r/socialism made a titular claim that Americans “think they won the space race”:Americans are so brainwashed that they think they won the space race. from socialismAnother meme had previously appeared on Reddit, and it was shared to r/HistoryMemes on May 12 2019:The Space Race from HistoryMemesIdentical memes featured Excel or spreadsheet-style lists of the purported events of “the Space Race,” with a description and image in the left column and a flag on the right. Of its eleven Space Race events, ten are credited to the USSR and one (first man on the moon) to the United States.At the bottom of the meme, text read “Winner of the space race” alongside a smiling U.S. President Richard Nixon and an American flag. In essence, the meme argued that Americans were broadly unaware of the USSR’s many achievements in terms of space exploration, believing that the moon landing was the sum of that “race.”In order, the events were listed:On a “Space Race” page hosted by the (American) Smithsonian Institute, the Space Race is described as “the space rivalry between the United States and Soviet Union and its aftermath” at the beginning of a gallery of photographs commemorating space exploration:Soon after World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became locked in a global conflict pitting democracy against communism. Space became a critical theater in this Cold War, as each side competed to best the other’s achievements in what became known as the Space Race.This gallery tells about that U.S.-Soviet space rivalry and its aftermath, from the military origins of the Space Race, through the race to the Moon and the development of reconnaissance satellites, to cooperative ventures between the two former rivals and efforts to maintain a human presence in space. Some of the many highlights include a German V-1 “buzz bomb” and V 2 missile, Soviet and U.S. spacecraft and space suits, a Skylab Orbital Workshop, and a full-size test version of the Hubble Space Telescope.The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (better known as NASA) hosts a timeline of space exploration on its site, but it was focused solely on American achievements in space. Nevertheless, NASA’s shift in focus from terrestrial aeronautics to a nascent space program was, according to NASA, was catalyzed by the Soviet Sputnik launch in 1957:Abe Silverstein becomes manager of the lab’s research activities and reorganizes to explore high energy rocket propellants and nuclear propulsion. The launch of Sputnik in the fall of 1957 led to an almost complete redirection into space-related studies.That tracked with the “Space Race” meme seen on Reddit, where Sputnik’s October 4 1957 launch was the first item. Sputnik’s launch date was included on the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)’s timeline of space exploration, and was also the first plotted point on the broader timeline of space exploration.NARA’s timeline for the dates in question in large part agrees with with the meme, listing the same order of achievements up through the 1969 moon landing. NARA’s list made note of subsequent American achievements, and we have bolded the points of convergence with the meme:1957 October 4 – The Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik, into space. November 3 – The Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 was launched with a dog named Laika on board. Laika did not survive the voyage.1960 August 19 – The Soviet craft Sputnik 5 was launched, carrying the dogs Strelka and Belka. They became the first living beings to survive a trip into space.1961 April 12 – Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. May 5 – Astronaut Alan Shepard became the first American in space. May 25 – President Kennedy challenged the country to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.1962 February 20 – Astronaut John Glenn became the first American in orbit. June 16 – Valentina Nikolayeva Tereshkova became the first woman in space.1965 March 18 – While tethered to his spacecraft, cosmonaut Alexi Leonov became the first man to walk in space. June 3 – Astronaut Ed White became the first American to walk in space. July 14 – The spacecraft Mariner 4 transmitted the first pictures of Mars.1966 February 3 – The Russian spacecraft Luna 9 became the first spacecraft to land on the moon. June 2 – Surveyor 1 became the first American spacecraft to land on the moon.1967 January 27 – Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee were killed in an accidental fire in a command module on the launch pad. April 24 – Cosmonaut Vladimir M. Komarov was killed in a crash when the parachute on his Soyuz 1 spacecraft failed to deploy. October 18 – A descent capsule from the Soviet probe Venera 4 collected data about the atmosphere of Venus.1968 September 15 – The Soviet spacecraft Zond 5 was launched and later became the first spacecraft to orbit the moon and return to Earth. December 21 – Apollo 8 was launched, and later her crewmembers became the first men to orbit the moon.1969 July 20 – Neil Armstrong and “Buzz” Aldrin became the first men on the moon.After the moon landing, USSR achievements were again listed alongside those of the United States:1970 April 11 – Apollo 13 was launched. September 12 – The Soviet craft Luna 16 was launched and became the first automatic spacecraft to return soil samples of the moon. November 17 – The Soviet automatic robot Lunokhod 1 landed on the moon with Luna 17. December 15 – The Soviet Venera 7 became the first probe to land on Venus.1971 April 19 – The Soviet space station Salyut 1 was launched. July 30 – The moon rover was driven on the moon for the first time. November 13 – The Mariner 9 probe became the first craft to orbit another world – Mars.A point of divergence between the meme and various lists was the December 1971 Mars 3 entry, “first spacecraft landing on Mars.” It did not appear on NARA’s list, and Space.com’s list of Mars explorations describes concurrent missions from both the USSR and the United States throughout 1971:Also in 1971, the Soviet Union finally met with success after several attempts to reach the Red Planet. Its Mars 2 orbiter, which launched May 19, 1971, arrived on Nov. 2. However, the Mars 2 lander crashed on the surface and was no longer operable. Mars 3, a lander and orbiter mission, launched on May 28, 1971, and arrived on the Red Planet Dec. 3. The lander worked for only a few seconds on the surface before failing, but the orbiter worked successfully.The image of Mars changed with the arrival of NASA’s Mariner 9 in November 1971. The spacecraft, which launched on May 30, 1971, arrived at Mars when the entire planet was engulfed in a dust storm. What’s more, something mysterious was poking above the plumes of dust. When the debris settled to the surface, scientists discovered those unusual features were the tops of dormant volcanoes. Mariner 9 also discovered a huge rift across the surface of Mars, later called Valles Marineris — after the spacecraft that discovered it. Mariner 9 spent nearly a year orbiting the Red Planet, and returned 7,329 photos.Both NARA and Space.com were cagey about who landed on Mars first. According to CNN, that particular achievement belonged to the USSR, and the provided date matched the meme:December 2, 1971 — The USSR’s Mars 3 lander makes the first successful landing on the planet’s surface. It transmits data for 20 seconds before failing.An ancillary point of debate in discourse around the meme held that Soviet cosmonauts were sent into high-risk situations, with at least one (Vladimir Komarov) famously dying under horrific circumstances, which was true. But as Space.com’s “Space Race” page and NPR noted, Americans died too:The program got off to a horrific start on Jan. 27, 1967, when all three astronauts in the Apollo 1 capsule were killed during a launch rehearsal test that sparked a huge fire. But that catastrophic failure generated extensive redesigns of the spacecraft and a commitment to ensuring that the crew did not die in vain.Among artifacts of the successful moon landing, courtesy of NARA, was a prepared statement for President Nixon in the event it ended in tragedy:That document, prepared by Nixon speechwriter William Safire (and known as the “Safire Memo”) [PDF] read:IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER:Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.These two men are laying down their lives in mankind’s most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding.They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.PRIOR TO THE PRESIDENT’S STATEMENT:The President should telephone each of the widows-to-be.AFTER THE PRESIDENT’S STATEMENT, AT THE POINT WHEN NASA ENDS COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE MEN:A clergyman should adopt the same procedure as a burial at sea, commending their souls to “the deepest of the deep,” concluding with the Lord’s Prayer.Instructions that the astronauts’ “widows-to-be” first be notified via a phone call from President Nixon, and plans for a form of “burial at sea … commending their souls to the ‘deepest of the deep'” were included with the prepared statement.A long-circulating meme about Soviet achievements in the “Space Race” was shared to Reddit in November 2019, with a new title claiming that “Americans are so brainwashed,” they believed the United States “won” that long-sought honor between two Cold War adversaries. Both the “brainwashing” of Americans as well as the “winner” of the Space Race were subjective metrics, leaving what might have been a cherry-picked list of achievements to check. The United States government’s NARA maintained a timeline of space achievements, which broadly aligned with the meme and featured no major disputes. Neither did the list leave off any noteworthy American achievements in its presentation. Although the United States was first to put a man on the moon, a number of earlier and subsequent firsts were achieved by the former USSR. The meme is in essence true, although elements of its framing are definitely subjective.
8087	As virus explodes, world races to mask up.	Spiez Lab, a government-run institute in the Swiss mountains, was set up to protect the nation from nuclear, biological and chemical threats. “For a world without weapons of mass destruction,” runs its slogan.	true	Health News	It is now fighting another global menace - the coronavirus - by providing face masks, the demand for which is growing faster than the disease they’re meant to fend off. Hospitals treating COVID-19, the pandemic caused by the virus, can need up to nine times the protective equipment they do when dealing with normal flu, according to the American Hospital Association. The Swiss lab acquires masks that are past their expiry dates, then tests them to see if they still work. “If yes, they’re being distributed to the health care system via military pharmacies,” said spokesman Andreas Bucher. So far, he said, Spiez Lab has distributed 10.2 million masks. That’s a lot for an institute better known for its expertise on deadly nerve agents. But globally, it’s a drop in an ocean of need. In Switzerland, whose population of 8.2 million is about the size of New York City, it would amount to less than 10 days’ supply, based on estimates by the Swiss government. Across the world, frontline medical staff are clamoring for face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE). Even as China, the world’s main supplier, comes back onstream, companies around the globe are battling a host of obstacles, from illness to freight costs, from hoarding to a supply squeeze on filter fabric. In the United States, the new epicenter of the pandemic, shortages are so acute that health workers have taken to social media to appeal for help under the hashtag #GetMePPE. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has said that over the next 18 months it aims to buy 500 million masks for the Strategic National Stockpile, the nation’s supply of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is distributing masks, but it’s “not easy” for the federal government to help states obtain the equipment, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday. Frontline medical staff in many countries say shortages of masks and other equipment have left them vulnerable to catching the virus - which forces them into isolation and reduces staff numbers. Madrid’s doctors’ union has filed a lawsuit to try to force the regional health authority to deliver scrubs, masks and goggles to hospitals and other health centers. A spokesman for the authority declined to comment. Medical staff in the Netherlands blame the lack of masks for the high rates of coronavirus infection among them - the health ministry disputes that but acknowledges the shortage. Almost a quarter of the 2,994 people infected as of March 20 worked in health care, according to the last available data from the National Institute for Health. Switzerland alone, a country of 8.6 million, needs 1.2 million masks a day, said Daniel Koch, head of the Swiss Federal Office of Health’s communicable diseases division. There are two main kinds of mask: The surgical masks worn routinely on many Asian streets, which can provide some protection; and the higher-standard respirators, often known by designations such as N95 or FFP (“filtering facepiece”), which are meant for medical procedures to protect workers from the droplets through which the virus spreads. Demand for all of them has skyrocketed. U.S. hospitals are rapidly running down their supplies despite efforts to procure more masks from private and government sources, healthcare executives and industry spokespeople say. Major providers of medical masks - including 3M Co., Owens & Minor Inc, Cardinal Health Inc, and Medline Industries Inc. - say they are working multiple shifts a day and producing as much as four times their typical output, said David Gillan, a senior vice president at Vizient Inc, which helps healthcare providers manage their supply chains. But many hospitals say they only have enough masks for several days, Gillan said. As unused masks age, the materials they are made of degrade so they offer decreasing protection: Spiez Lab identifies those that are still safe. Other institutions and companies across the world have also retooled their operations to produce face masks. The effort resembles the Allied munitions drives of World War Two. Masks are being made in Germany by Zettl Automotive, a car supplier that usually makes seat covers for BMWs and Porsches; in Italy and Spain, by Prada and other fashion companies; and in the Czech republic, by a producer of boxer shorts and panties called Styx. “We have completely switched production from underwear to masks,” said its executive director Ruslan Skopal. Such surgical masks, while they may help meet consumer demand, are not always helpful in hospitals. “Everything we use in hospitals must be regulated,” said Benito Almirante, head of infectious diseases at the Vall D’Hebron hospital in Barcelona. “The masks made in all these altruistic projects cannot be used in hospitals because they are not regulated. ... It’s better these kinds of masks are used for going to the supermarket, leaving the regulation material for health workers.” The real boost to global supply of such masks will come from China, the world’s largest mask manufacturer which makes about half global production. It is now emerging from its own epidemic and ramping up production for both the domestic and international market. By Feb. 29, the country was producing 116 million masks a day, China’s state media CCTV reported on March 2, citing data obtained from National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The NDRC told companies that it would buy and store any surplus output after the outbreak. Even the China National Petroleum Corporation has joined the effort to produce face masks. It expects to be able to make 1.5 million a day by the end of March, Xinhua reported on Wednesday. In February, at the peak of China’s outbreak, the entire output of Shenzhen-based Allmed Medical Products’s N95 masks was bought by the government. Since resuming commercial export orders last week, Allmed has been flooded with overseas requests, but has only signed deals from North American and only with clients the company is familiar with or which are backed by governments, said a company representative. Its factories in Hubei province, the epicenter of the virus, can produce up to 250,000 N95-standard masks a day, which is “much higher” than the pre-outbreak capacity, said the representative. Other problems remain. In some countries, manufacturing and distribution has been hampered by supply chain problems, a precipitous drop in available air freight, and export restrictions by governments desperate to hang on to dwindling supplies. Other countries including India, South Korea, Taiwan, France and Germany have restricted or temporarily banned exports of medical equipment. Turkish authorities carried out simultaneous raids on the depots of face mask producers earlier this week to demand they sign contracts with the Health Ministry and stop hoarding stock, local media reported. In Ukraine, which has banned mask exports, border guards last week arrested a man in a wetsuit who they said was trying to smuggle masks across a river into Romania. They have also seized thousands of masks at border checkpoints. Some governments and multinational companies are donating shipments of masks to countries in need. But industrial mask-makers also face a bottleneck of a key component: Melt-blown polypropylene, the non-woven polymer fabric that forms the filter in most masks, which is made by smaller companies with limited capacity. “Trying to find a supplier who hasn’t sold out for the next six months is hard,” said Christopher Dobbing, the CEO and founder of Cambridge Mask Co., a small producer in Britain. Prices were up to 15 times higher than when the pandemic began, said Dobbing. Demand for his firm’s masks had increased twelvefold, he added, “and that is for people willing to buy a mask now for delivery in 8 to 10 weeks time.” RE-USING MASKS In one sign of the strain many countries face, the Dutch minister for medical care, Bruno Bruins, collapsed from exhaustion last week during questioning in parliament about face masks, and resigned the next day. In the Netherlands as elsewhere, acute shortages have forced medical staff to use one mask with multiple patients or to buy masks usually used for construction work. “Everyone just took matters into their own hands,” said a doctor in the capital, Amsterdam, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. In a statement to Reuters, a spokesman for the Dutch Health Ministry said it was “working around the clock” to address the shortage, which he blamed on the surge in demand. The country’s National Institute of Health, which sets the guidelines for safety gear, has asked doctors to keep used masks for re-use after cleaning.
37361	eRumor stating that Joe Biden will make an announcement that owing to health problems that he will step down as the Vice Presidential candidate and name Hillary Clinton as his replacement.	Joe Biden To Step Down October 5	unproven	Politics	This is a widely circulated eRumor that started in September, 2008, during the presidential campaign. There is no source cited and there has been nothing to substantiate it. The email builds upon hopes that Hillary Clinton could still end up on the Democratic ticket and speculation that presidential hopeful Barack Obama regrets not putting Clinton in the vice presidential slot, especially after the appearance of Sarah Palin as the running mate of Republican John McCain. Although there are no known grounds for the rumor, it has been noted that nothing about it has appeared on Senator Obama’s “Fight the Smears” web site. That is a portion of his campaign site that was set up to battle Internet rumors that have circulated about Obama, most of which have not been true. That has led to questions about whether there may be some truth to it. Biden has surgery in 1998 to repair two brain aneurysms. updated 09/18/08
27651	A Harvard Study showed that Tibetan Monks can significantly raise the temperature of their fingers, toes and other extremities through meditation alone.	We were able, for the first time, to document reliable [core body temperature] increases during the FB type of g-tummo practice, all within the slight to moderate fever zone, validating the legends of the extraordinary capacity of g-tummo meditators to elevate their body temperature beyond normal. However, the results also suggest that temperature increases during g-tummo meditation are neither solely a by-product of meditation nor its goal, but instead may be a means to facilitate the achievement of “deep meditative states”.	true	Science	In 1981, Harvard Medical School researcher Herbert Benson traveled to Tibet to meet with three Buddhist monks expertly trained in a form of yoga named g-tummo, a practice that is popularly associated with the ability to warm your body temperature through concentration. His academic interest in the practice lies in his research focus on “mind body medicine”, described in his official biography: Dr. Benson is the Director Emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute (BHI), and Mind Body Medicine Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. At BHI, Dr. Benson continues to lead the field with research into the efficacy of Mind Body Medicine to counteract the harmful effects of stress. The impetus for his research was to see if subjective reports of g-tummo practitioners raising their body temperature could be validated scientifically. A 2013 review of research on the topic described g-tummo as a specialized practice whose methods are known to few: The g-tummo meditative practice targeted at controlling “inner energy” is described by Tibetan practitioners as one of the most sacred spiritual practices in the Indo-Tibetan traditions of Vajrayana Buddhism and Bon. It is also called “psychic heat” practice since it is associated with descriptions of intense sensations of bodily heat in the spine. Little is known about the specifics of the g-tummo technique. Monasteries maintaining an extensive practice of g-tummo are quite rare and located mostly in the remote Chinese provinces of Qinghai and Sichuan (also known as eastern Tibet). Benson’s aims, as well as the results of his investigation, are described in the abstract to his study, published in Nature in 1982: Since meditative practices are associated with changes that are consistent with decreased activity of the sympathetic nervous system, it is conceivable that measurable body temperature changes accompany advanced meditative states. With the help of H.H. the Dalai Lama, we have investigated such a possibility on three practitioners of the advanced Tibetan Buddhist meditational practice known as g Tum-mo (heat) yoga living in Upper Dharamsala, India. We report here that in a study performed there in February 1981, we found that these subjects exhibited the capacity to increase the temperature of their fingers and toes by as much as 8.3°C. In that study, Benson concluded that “the most likely mechanism to account for the increase in finger and toe temperature is vasodilation,”—the widening of blood vessels to reduce blood pressure. A follow-up study also completed by Benson’s research group in 2000 lent some credence to this notion when they found that portions of the brain responsible for some autosomatic aspects of your body — like vasodilation — appear to be activated when subjects practiced g tummo. All that said, other researchers feel as though the results of Benson’s research have been exaggerated in the popular media, as discussed in a 2013 study looking to reproduce the work of Benson and his colleagues: Unfortunately, [Benson’s] findings have subsequently been distorted in reports in other sources, possibly due to confusion between Fahrenheit and Centigrade scales or lack of clear specification regarding the anatomical sites of temperature measurement, leading to general claims of temperature increases during g-tummo ranging from “… up to 15 degrees only within a few moments of concentration” to “17 degrees in peripheral body temperature”. In that study, researchers broadly confirmed the findings of Benson’s group, with the added observation that two specific types of g-tummo exercises — Forceful Breath (FB) and Gentle Breath (GB) — act in different ways to increase body temperature: The findings of our research indicate that there are two distinct types of g-tummo practice, FB and GB, each characterized by different temperature patterns and neural (EEG) correlates. The temperature data bear out the practitioners’ claims that FB meditation is used to increase body heat, while GB meditation seems to facilitate the maintenance of an elevated body temperature. They concluded that the Forceful Breath method can indeed raise core body temperatures into the mild fever range:
14625	People think AIDS is done -- it’s not done.	"Bono said that the ""public thinks AIDS is done -- it’s not done."" There's an obvious bit of rhetorical flourish in Bono's comments, but independent polling does show that the public sees AIDS as less of a threat both at home and overseas than it once did. However, people still rank it rather high on the global health agenda and believe America should continue to help developing nations deal with it. Bono’s broader point is well founded, but his specific claim slightly overstates the situation."	true	Global News Service, Public Health, Bono,	"Paul David Hewson is best known as Bono, the lead singer of the band U2. But he also is famous for his work to reduce poverty and disease, particularly in Africa. Over the years, Bono has met with presidents and billionaires and has enlisted mainstream retailers to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to combat AIDS. Bono was at the exclusive world economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month and pressed the need to continue making progress against AIDS. ""The battle against AIDS is not a last decade issue,"" he told the Irish Times. ""It’s going to be the next decade issue. We need to finish the job, get new companies, new interest. It’s kind of annoying and sometimes upsetting that these global health issues can become creatures of fashion. People think AIDS is done – it’s not done."" That last sentence caught our eye. Does the wider public believe the deadly virus is ""done"" or anything approximating it? Kathy McKiernan, a spokeswoman for Bono’s One group, said Bono was being rhetorical, an argument we can see given the context of his remarks. ""The comment was intended as a wake-up call that there is declining concern about the disease,"" McKiernan said. ""It was not intended to be a literal, global comment that all people think the AIDS crisis is over."" She added that Bono isn’t the only person to worry about shifting public attitudes. In 2009, Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said ""many people think it (HIV) is no longer a problem."" Polling trends are mixed The Kaiser Family Foundation, widely seen as a neutral source of health data, has followed American thinking on HIV/AIDS for many years. In 2012, Kaiser asked people to name the most urgent health problem facing the world. The largest number of people -- 41 percent -- said cancer. But then there was a second-tier group of diseases -- heart disease, HIV/AIDS, obesity and diabetes -- that were named by between 15 to 17 percent of the public. So HIV/AIDS ranked high but not the highest. In earlier surveys, more Americans thought AIDS was a bigger issue. In Kaiser’s 2004 poll, 36 percent picked HIV/AIDS as the most urgent problem, just a few percentage points behind cancer. In 2009, the fraction was 21 percent. To Jennifer Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at Kaiser, the trend is clear. Source: Kaiser Family Foundation/Roper Center for Public Opinion Research ""The share of the public expressing concern about the epidemic has significantly declined over time,"" Kates told us. ""This may be a function of three decades of HIV, of having successful treatments, of not seeing death as a constant, etc., but given that HIV is still a major global health challenge in low and middle income countries -- particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa -- and significantly impacts some groups in the U.S., this can also be seen as a potential disconnect and cause for concern."" Work done by the Pew Research Center generally shows the same pattern. Pew put a broader question to Americans, as well as people in scores of other countries, about five dangers facing the world -- the spread of nuclear weapons, ethnic violence, AIDS and other infectious diseases, pollution, and the gap between rich and poor -- and had people pick the greatest one. In 2014, AIDS ranked at the bottom with just 7 percent. On the other hand, in the years that Pew has asked this question, AIDS had never placed high. In 2002, 11 percent of Americans said it was the greatest threat, slightly above pollution. As with all polling, everything depends on the question you ask. In 2014, when Kaiser asked people how important it was for the United States to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS in developing nations, 39 percent said it was a top priority and 47 percent said it was important, but not the most important. Compared with other health issues, HIV/AIDS ranked a few points behind improving children’s health, providing clean water and reducing hunger. To sum it up, Americans see HIV/AIDS as less of a threat than they once did, but they still recognize it as a global health challenge. Internationally, European countries such as Germany, France and Italy generally echo trends in America. They see other threats as more pressing, but HIV/AIDS has never ranked high compared to ethnic violence or the gap between the rich and the poor. Kates at the Kaiser Family Foundation noted that the media runs fewer stories about HIV/AIDS today. She said that likely drives down the sense that the virus is a threat. Our ruling Bono said that the ""public thinks AIDS is done -- it’s not done."" There's an obvious bit of rhetorical flourish in Bono's comments, but independent polling does show that the public sees AIDS as less of a threat both at home and overseas than it once did. However, people still rank it rather high on the global health agenda and believe America should continue to help developing nations deal with it. Bono’s broader point is well founded, but his specific claim slightly overstates the situation."
10105	Study adds evidence that bone drugs work, are safe	Although these drugs are supposed to strengthen bone, some reports have raised the possibility that they actually may increase the likelihood of an unusual type of fracture for some women. For the most part, this story provides a thorough look at new research suggesting that these fractures are extremely rare and do not offset the drugs’ benefits. The story would have been better had it included some discussion of the other potentially serious harms associated with the use of these drugs. Hip fractures are a common and often devastating result of osteoporosis. While bisphosphonates are proven to help prevent osteoporotic fractures, recent reports have raised concern about whether a rare type of thigh fracture might be more common in women taking these drugs.Women need to know whether bisphosphonate drugs work as advertised, and whether the harms outweigh the benefits.	true		"Treatment costs for both Fosamax and Reclast are provided. The story characterizes the benefits of these drugs in a way that is accurate and easy for readers to understand. It notes that treating 1,000 osteoporotic women for three years would prevent 100 fractures at a possible cost of only one or fewer thigh bone fractures. The major thrust of the story was the discussion of increased fracture risk associated with use of some bisphosphonates. While the story did an excellent job of discussing the evidence for this particular harm, it didn’t mention any of the other adverse effects that have been associated with the use of these drugs. These range from common but minor problems such as gastrointestinal upset to rare but potentially serious conditions such as chronic severe muscle pain and kidney damage. The story provides enough detail for readers to make reasonable judgments about the quality of the evidence. It notes that the study included data from three controlled trials involving more than 14,000 women. It also discusses some limitations in the data, including the fact that many users hadn’t taken the drugs for very long or used a lower dose of the drug than is commonly used today. The story gives the appropriate impression that the study was strong but that it can’t definitively rule out increased risk of these fractures in bisphosphonate users. No disease-mongering in this story. The story quotes from an editorial by a researcher not affiliated with the study. It also does an excellent job of discussing the various financial conflicts that might complicate interpretation of the results. It notes that several authors of the study consult for the drugmakers who sponsored the research. It also notes that the editorial writer’s institution received research grants from drugmakers, even though she herself did not have any financial ties to these companies. The story could have discussed the role of calcium, vitamin D, and weight-bearing exercise for preventing osteoporosis-related fractures. However, we thought it was acceptable for the article to focus exclusively on bisphosphonates, since its point was to discuss risks associated with these agents. The story states that the drugs are taken by millions of American women, so readers can assume that they are widely available. The story makes it clear that these drugs have been in use for some time and should not be considered ""new."" It’s clear the story didn’t rely on a news release."
29765	As of June 2019, the United States was ranked as having the cleanest air in the world.	Clearly, the United States performs superbly well by several measures of air quality, as evidenced by its ranking among the top 10 out of almost 200 countries. However, President Trump quite definitively and specifically claimed in October 2018 and June 2019 that the U.S. had “the cleanest air in the world.” This is demonstrably false based on the most recent and reliable data available. Those rankings could change in future years, but such changes would not alter the fact that Trump’s sweeping claim was false when he made it, in both 2018 and 2019.	false	Politics	During a visit to Ireland on 5 June 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump was confronted by a reporter with remarks made by Irish President Michael D. Higgins, who had said Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement was “regressive and pernicious.” In response, Trump made a series of claims about the state of the environment in the United States under his presidency: “Well I haven’t heard those comments, but we have the cleanest air in the world, in the United States, and it’s gotten better since I’m [sic] president. We have the cleanest water, it’s crystal clean, and I always say ‘I want crystal clean water and air.’ So, I haven’t heard his [Higgins’] comments, but we do have — we’re setting records, environmentally.” We asked the White House what the evidentiary basis was for the president’s claim that the U.S. has the world’s cleanest air, but we did not receive a response of any kind in time for publication. It’s a claim Trump has made before. In October 2018, he tweeted “America: the Cleanest Air in the World — BY FAR!” along with a graphic that purportedly originated with World Health Organization (WHO) data: “America: the Cleanest Air in the World – BY FAR!” pic.twitter.com/rMtxHSnof4 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2018 The very source cited by Trump in October 2018 actually contradicted his claim, and other reliable rankings of air quality place several countries ahead of the United States. As such, Trump’s claim was false. The map that Trump tweeted out in 2018 showed “annual average concentrations of ambient (outdoor) fine particulate matter.” It originated in an April 2018 report published by WHO but showed measurements that were taken in 2016, a time when Trump was not president and had no influence over U.S. environmental policy. Trump was therefore, perhaps unknowingly, celebrating a level of air quality achieved under the presidency of his predecessor, Barack Obama. Specifically, the map showed concentrations of a type of air pollutant known as PM 2.5 — particulate matter (PM) with a diameter of around 2.5 micrometers. (A micrometer is one-thousandth of a millimeter.) As the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) explains, a PM 2.5 particle is around 30 times smaller than the diameter of a strand of human hair. Scientists and environmental authorities track the open-air levels of PM 2.5 and PM 10 (particulate matter with a diameter of around 10 micrometers) as two major measures of air pollution. So the map that Trump posted in 2018, alongside his claim that the U.S. had the world’s cleanest air, was based on data that actually found in 2016 the U.S. had the 10th-lowest annual average concentration of PM 2.5., with 7.4 micrograms of PM 2.5 per cubic meter. In urban areas the U.S. ranked ninth, and in rural areas the U.S. also ranked 10th for PM 2.5 exposure: 2016 Concentration of PM 2.5 (Micrograms/cubic meter) According to another robust ranking, the United States also falls 10th among nations for air quality. The 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) report on air quality, produced by Yale University and Columbia University, measures air quality in three ways: The EPI aggregated these three measures and arrived at a list of 10 “Leaders in Air Quality,” with Australia and Barbados each ranked first and the United States ranked 10th:
29541	Ted Cruz tried to ban dildoes while serving as solicitor general of Texas.	"What's true: While Ted Cruz was serving as solicitor general of Texas, his office defended an existing law banning the sale of ""obscene devices."" What's false: Ted Cruz banned (or attempted to ban) the sale of dildoes in Texas, or personally supported a law that enforced such a ban."	false	Politics Politicians, ted cruz	Back in the 1970s, state of Texas banned the promotion of “obscene devices,” which were defined to be items “designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs,” including “a dildo or artificial vagina.” In the 1985 criminal case Yorko v. State (brought by an appellant who pled not guilty to a misdemeanor information charging possession with intent to sell an obscene device, namely a dildo), the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that the statute did not violate an individual’s right to privacy, concluding that there was no constitutional right to “stimulate another’s genitals with an object designed or marketed as useful primarily for that purpose.” In 2004, retailers wanted to sell such devices mounted a challenge to overturn the law, and in 2008 a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of Appeals’ Fifth Circuit struck down the Texas law, concluding that it did indeed violate the 14th Amendment to privacy. On 13 April 2016, a blogger for Patheos reported lawyer Ted Cruz, who was then serving as solicitor general of Texas (and is now a senator representing Texas in the U.S. Congress and a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination), had once argued a case that (in part) held that Americans have no inherent right to engage in masturbation: Thus it should come as no surprise that as Texas solicitor general, a post he held from 2003 to 2008, Cruz defended … a Texas ban on the sale of dildos and other sex toys, and in so doing made the absurd claim that Americans have no right to masturbate: “There is no substantive-due-process right to stimulate one’s genitals for non-medical purposes unrelated to procreation or outside of an interpersonal relationship.” Patheos cited a 13 April Mother Jones article touching on the fact that Cruz had once “defend[ed] a law criminalizing the sale of dildos”: Yet one case[Cruz] does not mention is the time he helped defend a law criminalizing the sale of dildos. The case was actually an important battle concerning privacy and free-speech rights. In 2004, companies that owned Austin stores selling sex toys and a retail distributor of such products challenged a Texas law outlawing the sale and promotion of supposedly obscene devices … In 2007, Cruz’s legal team, working on behalf of then-Attorney General Greg Abbott (who now is the governor), filed a 76-page brief calling on the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to uphold the lower court’s decision and permit the law to stand. The filing noted, “The Texas Penal Code prohibits the advertisement and sale of dildos, artificial vaginas, and other obscene devices” but does not “forbid the private use of such devices.” The plaintiffs had argued that this case was similar to Lawrence v. Texas, the landmark 2003 Supreme Court decision that struck down Texas’ law against sodomy. But Cruz’s office countered that Lawrence “focused on interpersonal relationships and the privacy of the home” and that the law being challenged did not block the “private use of obscene devices.” Cruz’s legal team asserted that “obscene devices do not implicate any liberty interest.” And its brief added that “any alleged right associated with obscene devices” is not “deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions.” In other words, Texans were free to use sex toys at home, but they did not have the right to buy them. One of the more popular tidbits to emerge from that article pertained to the assertion that Cruz (via his legal team) had maintained: In perhaps the most noticeable line of the brief, Cruz’s office declared, “There is no substantive-due-process right to stimulate one’s genitals for non-medical purposes unrelated to procreation or outside of an interpersonal relationship.” That is, the pursuit of such happiness had no constitutional standing. And the brief argued there was no “right to promote dildos, vibrators, and other obscene devices.” The plaintiffs, it noted, were “free to engage in unfettered noncommercial speech touting the uses of obscene devices,” but not speech designed to generate the sale of these items.” It’s important to note here that as solicitor general, Ted Cruz was in charge of the office tasked with representing the government’s side of cases brought against the State, an office that was obligated to defend the law currently in place (i.e., argue in favor of upholding the state’s ban on “obscene devices”) as directed by the state’s attorney general, Greg Abbott. The case in question did not create a “ban on the sale of dildoes” (it was a challenge to an existing law to that effect), and the fact that the task of defending the law fell to the solicitor general’s office (which was headed by Ted Cruz) does not mean that Ted Cruz personally approved of the law, or that he personally prepared or argued the case defending it. (As shown in court records, the State’s side of the case was presented before the United States Court of Appeals by Bill L. Davis, not Ted Cruz.) It is true that the controversial line quoted above (regarding there being no “right to stimulate one’s genitals for non-medical purposes”) appears in the Court of Appeals ruling as something referenced by the State (as corroborated here): To determine the constitutional standard applicable to this claim, we must address what right is at stake. Plaintiffs claim that the right at stake is the individual’s substantive due process right to engage in private intimate conduct free from government intrusion. The State proposes a different right for the Plaintiffs: “the right to stimulate one’s genitals for non-medical purposes unrelated to procreation or outside of an interpersonal relationship.” However, as noted above, that statement flowed from a much earlier case, Yorko v. State (brought in 1985, long before Ted Cruz served as solicitor general), in which the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had held that that there was no constitutional right to “stimulate another’s genitals with an object designed or marketed as useful primarily for that purpose,” as well another case brought in a different state, Williams v. Attorney General of Alabama, regarding a statute prohibiting the sale of “sex toys.” The most that one can make of this issue is to say that Ted Cruz once, in accordance with his job duties and the requirements of his office, oversaw lawyers who were obliged to argue in favor of an existing Texas state law that prohibited the sale of “obscene devices” (which included some sexual aids).
8353	'Unprecedented' mental health issues seen in Hong Kong amid virus fears.	As Hong Kong tries to contain the coronavirus outbreak, medical experts say many in the Asian financial hub are reeling from increased anxiety and an unprecedented level of mental health issues.	true	Health News	The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic came after months of tumultuous anti-government protests that had already led to a sharp increase in depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), they said. It also touches on fears of the 2003 SARS epidemic, which killed nearly 300 people in the city. “Hong Kong is in a unique position, due to changes to our routine, previous months of social unrest and deep memories of SARS,” said Carol Liang, an executive at Mind Hong Kong, a mental health charity in the former British colony. A University of Hong Kong survey found that a third of adults in the special administrative region reported symptoms of PTSD, up from 2 percent in 2015, while 11 percent reported depression, up from 2 percent during the Occupy protests in 2014. Since January, tens of thousands have been working from home, many cooped up in tiny apartments, while the stockpiling of basic food and cleaning products has become common. Children stuck at home must grapple with online learning while many families, particularly the poor, are unable to get protective gear. “Hoarding tissue, bags of rice, are measures to cope with the anxiety rather than fulfilling needs of daily life. They are hoarding way beyond their only needs,” said Eliza Cheung, a clinical psychologist at Hong Kong Red Cross. Hong Kong has about 100 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and has reported two deaths. A mental health hotline the government opened in January has received about 25,000 calls, authorities said, while voluntary groups have sprung into action to help counsel people, particularly those quarantined at home. “We have everyone calling from the entire spectrum, elderly from the nursing home to teenagers. We are just trying to hang onto each day as it is at the moment,” said Karman Leung, chief executive of Samaritans Hong Kong, a local non-governmental organization that assists people in distress. Low-income residents have been particularly hurt by a deepening slowdown in Hong Kong’s economy, battered by protests and the Sino-U.S. trade war. The Society for Community Organisation (SoCO), a local organization that works on poverty alleviation, said 70 percent of poor families can’t afford masks and disinfectant. Authorities have pledged cash handouts to residents and tax breaks to businesses. Last week, the city’s finance secretary unveiled measures to allocate “sufficient resources” to help with mental health problems. Some residents remain optimistic. “This virus, I thought it came at a good time, where we are so divided. Hopefully it will bring us together again. Each one of us hopefully trying to fight this disease,” said Derek Au, 46, a Hong Kong resident. (This story deletes extraneous word in paragraph seven.)
11621	FDA allows marketing of cooling cap to reduce hair loss during chemotherapy	Credit: DigniCapThe Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued this news release following its approval of the first cooling cap for the U.S. market. While undergoing chemotherapy, breast cancer patients may pursue courses of treatment with the DigniCap scalp cooling device to prevent hair loss. The release does a few things well. It uses appropriate wording to describe hair loss, addresses the harms of the cooling system and establishes high up in the story the novelty of the medical device. But the report lacks crucial details when quantifying benefits, evaluating the quality of evidence and discussing costs. We don’t know if there was a control group in the study, what its limitations are and how much a course of treatment is. Another problematic point that was overlooked was the conflict of interest present in the clinical trial: DigniCap’s manufacturers collaborated with a private organization to conduct the research and to submit the FDA application. Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women, with about 230,000 new cases each year. Many of these patients undergo chemotherapy to treat their breast cancers, in which hair loss is a common side effect. This, in turn, could negatively impact a woman’s self image. Mitigating the side effects of chemotherapy is a worthy goal. Clinicians often focus on side effects that may be associated with compromising the ability to complete treatment or lead to physical harm. Here the focus is more on psychological harm and quality of life during treatment. It isn’t clear how many women may elect not to undergo chemotherapy who could otherwise benefit from it if they were less worried about hair loss. A non-invasive, effective therapy preventing hair loss from chemotherapy could be newsworthy, since current interventions include medications and hair transplant or restoration surgery. A cooling cap is not yet on the US market and may provide a viable alternative for women, especially for those who have already responded poorly to existing treatments.	mixture	Breast cancer,FDA,medical devices,Women's health	The cost of therapy is not mentioned in the news release. Media reports have said prices will depend on how often the cap is used during chemotherapy, but it’s likely a course of treatment will cost between $1,500 and $3,000. According to DigniCap’s website, the company is working toward getting the treatment covered by health insurance. It also states, “Dignitana is in the process of setting up a Patient Assistance Program to help subsidize DigniCap® treatment costs for patients with financial need.” Since there is no discussion of costs in the FDA news release, we give it a Not Satisfactory rating here. We would have liked some more information here. Although the news release says: “More than 66 percent of patients treated with the DigniCap reported losing less than half their hair,” we don’t have a comparison to the control group. Without treatment, how much hair do patients actually lose? There are other unanswered questions: How many times throughout the month did patients have to wear the caps to prevent hair loss? How long will patients have to undergo this therapy? And how long will the benefits last? How did the rate of hair loss compare with women who didn’t use the cap? In addition, the patients themselves assessed how much hair they actually lost based on photographs and questionnaires, making this step prone to recall bias. Since this also was not a double-blind trial, this could have also introduced other biases into the data. The news release addresses the most common known side effects of the cooling system, which included cold-induced headaches, as well as neck and shoulder discomfort, chills and pain associated with wearing the cooling cap for an extended period of time. It also mentioned another risk: the cold cap could cause chemotherapy drugs to “miss” an isolated grouping of breast cancer cells in the scalp. However, the release points out that this is “extremely rare.” Although we would have liked some evidence-backed explanations on the latter harm, we feel the news release does a Satisfactory job here. In the “Quantify Benefits” section, we touched upon some biases that may have been present in the trial. And since patients knew which treatments they were receiving, this could have also skewed the results. Other study limitations included short follow-up time, small study size and variability in size between the treatment versus no treatment groups. Patients determined how much hair loss they experienced between three to six weeks after their last chemotherapy cycle. There were 101 patients in the cooling cap group, while only 16 women were in the control group. It may have also been helpful to compare the cooling cap group to another established therapy, such as minoxidil (brand name Rogaine). The news release also does not mention whether certain chemotherapy regimens were more likely to respond to treatment. According to DigniCap’s website, success was documented in 83.3% (p=0.022) of patients receiving docetaxel/carboplatin, 60.2% (p<0.001) of those treated with docetaxel/cyclophosphamide and 83.3% (p=0.066) of patients treated with a taxane alone. For all these reasons here. The news release does not engage in disease mongering. It talks about how hair loss is a common side effect of chemotherapy and how minimizing side effects is considered important to overall treatment. No funding sources are mentioned in the news release regarding the DigniCap clinical study. We find this problematic, since the makers of DigniCap collaborated with Target Health, a clinical research organization (CRO), to conduct the clinical trial and prepare the FDA application. According to its website, Target Health is a privately held, New York City-based full-service contract research organization (CRO) committed to serving the pharmaceutical community with knowledge regarding regulatory affairs, clinical research, biostatistics, data management and Internet-based clinical trials. The news release does not touch upon other hair loss therapies, including how they compare to the new cooling cap. To treat hair loss doctors can recommend drugs, such as minoxidil (better known as Rogaine), which is an over-the-counter liquid or foam that patients can rub into their scalps to regrow hair and to prevent further hair loss. Physicians can also suggest hair transplant or restoration surgery to treat permanent hair loss. In laser therapy, a low-level laser device is used to treat men and women with pattern baldness. If patients don’t respond to the above treatments, they can try wearing hairpieces and wigs, whose costs may be covered by insurance. It’s also important to note that hair loss from chemotherapy is temporary for many women so more information about the duration of benefit may lead some women to conclude that short-term hair loss is an acceptable alternative. It’s clear from the first sentence that the device is not yet available and that the FDA just approved the device for marketing to breast cancer patients. DigniCap wrote on its website: “We will be finalizing agreements with major cancer centers and community oncology groups across the country so that they will be able to offer DigniCap® treatments to patients as soon as possible.” The novelty of the medical device is established in the first sentence. The news release reports DigniCap is the first cooling cap cleared for marketing in the United States to reduce hair loss in female breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Overall, the news release uses neutral, appropriate language and does not sensationalize the device. The following phrase did raise a red flag, though. “The risk of the chemotherapy drug missing an isolated grouping of the breast cancer cells in the scalp because of the cold cap is extremely rare.” The small trial size and brief followup timeline don’t warrant such a definitive statement. It would have been more justifiable to state that this is a theoretical risk that is likely rare but conceivable based upon the purported action of the device.
3384	3 flu-related deaths reported in Connecticut.	Three people have died of flu-related complications in Connecticut this season, state public health officials said.	true	Health, General News, Connecticut, Flu, Public health	The three people who died as of Dec. 7 were all age 65 or older, the state Department of Public Health said Thursday. In addition, 29 people were hospitalized last week with the flu, bringing the total number of people hospitalized with the flu to 120 for this season, the agency reported. The flu is considered to be widespread with 400 positive flu tests reported to the state since August. “I advise all Connecticut residents to take the proactive step to protect their health during flu season by getting a flu shot,” public health Commissioner Renee Coleman-Mitchell said. “Flu vaccines are safe and effective, and can either help prevent you from becoming infected by this serious virus, or help lessen your symptoms if you do get sick.” The agency reported 3,506 people hospitalized with influenza-associated illness in Connecticut, and 88 influenza-associated deaths during the 2018-2019 flu season.
4358	Testing urged for students exposed to tuberculosis case.	County health officials are urging some middle school students and teachers outside of Portland, Oregon to get tested for tuberculosis.	true	Health, Washington, Oregon, Vancouver, Tuberculosis, Infectious diseases, Portland	The Clark County Public Health department said it sent letters to those who may have been exposed to a case. The unidentified person at Wy’East Middle School in Vancouver, Washington was recently found to have the infectious disease. Those who were in proximity to the affected person should get screened and evaluated as a precaution but health officials also said chances of the tuberculosis spreading at the school are low because it isn’t very contagious. The disease is treatable but may not show symptoms.
25889	On home health workers’ low pay and limited benefits, “40% are still on SNAP or Medicaid.”	Forty-two percent of direct care workers, a category composed of personal care aides, home health aides and nursing assistants, received some form of public assistance. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for home health workers is about $24,060 a year. The two programs Biden mentioned by name peg eligibility to income limits based on the federal poverty level. That eligibility varies by program and state.	true	Health Check, Joe Biden,	"In a speech this month, former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, offered the third installment of a four-part economic plan being rolled out in advance of the Democratic National Convention in August. This set of proposals focused on caregivers — whether for children, older adults or people with disabilities — and is about ""easing the squeeze on working families who are raising their kids and caring for aging loved ones at the same time,"" Biden said. His campaign’s sweeping set of initiatives, which represent a $775 billion expenditure in a variety of programs, aims to get significant traction among middle-class voters, whose struggles with caregiving issues have been exacerbated during the coronavirus pandemic. When it came to home health workers, Biden zeroed in on their paychecks. ""They’re doing God’s work,"" he said. ""But home health workers aren’t paid much, they have few benefits. Forty percent are still on SNAP or Medicaid. So my plan is direct. It gives caregivers and early childhood educators a much-needed raise."" That 40% is a striking number. After all, there are an estimated 3.3 million home health and personal care aides in the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These workers provide a range of daily living services to millions of older Americans and people with disabilities, chronic illness or cognitive impairment — making them an important part of the health care continuum. As the baby boom population ages, demand for home health workers is expected to increase rapidly. And, because Biden put a spotlight on the role caregivers could have in boosting the economy, we decided to investigate further. We contacted the Biden campaign to find out the source for the 40% statistic. A spokesperson pointed us to information from PHI National’s Workforce Data Center. PHI is a New York-based advocacy organization that studies the direct-care workforce, which is frequently cited as a source on this topic. The group indicated that in 2017 42% of direct care workers, a category composed of personal care aides, home health aides and nursing assistants, received some form of public assistance — defined by PHI as food and nutrition assistance, public health insurance or cash assistance. A further breakdown of this broad job category showed that 53% of home care workers received public assistance, with 30% having received food and nutrition assistance and 33% Medicaid insurance coverage. Based on these figures, Robert Espinoza, PHI’s vice president of policy, said Biden was certainly in the ballpark. But there’s more. The two programs Biden mentioned by name — SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, and Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people — peg eligibility to income limits at or near the federal poverty level, which for an individual is $12,760. Those eligibility limits vary by program and state. Medicaid eligibility for adults depends on where they live, and ranges from 138% of poverty in states that chose to expand the program under the Affordable Care Act to a median of 40% of poverty in those states that didn’t. For SNAP, those limits are set at 130% percent of the poverty level for gross monthly income and 100% for net monthly income. For an individual, that’s $1,354 and $1,041, respectively. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for home health workers is about $24,060 per year, and a 2019 report by PHI concluded that 47% of home health workers have incomes at or below 138% of the poverty level. These numbers further back up Biden’s assertion about the number of home health workers on Medicaid or SNAP. If anything, they suggest his 40% figure may be a lowball estimate. And one more bit of evidence that Biden was on the right track: The National Employment Law Project noted that many of these workers ""supplement their home care work with other jobs to make ends meet."" That PHI report asserted that half of home care workers have only a high school education and often work part time or inconsistent schedules. These jobs are also marked by high turnover rates. Biden said home health workers were paid very little, citing a statistic that 40% of these workers relied on public assistance programs like SNAP and Medicaid as evidence. According to the experts with whom we spoke, and the documents we consulted, Biden accurately described home health workers’ income and their reliance on these programs. His number appears to represent the low end of the spectrum."
8635	Number of coronavirus intensive care patients in Italy drops for first time.	Italy reported its lowest daily rise in COVID-19 deaths for nearly two weeks on Saturday and said the number of patients in intensive care had fallen for the first time.	true	Health News	Officials urged the country not to flout strict lockdown measures they said were starting to show results, although new cases rose by 4,805 on Saturday which was slightly higher than recent daily increases. The Civil Protection department reported 681 deaths, bringing the total to 15,632 since the outbreak of the new coronavirus epidemic in northern Italy on Feb. 21. It was the lowest daily rise in deaths since March 23. The total number of confirmed cases rose to 124,632 from 119,827 reported on Friday but for the first time, the number of patients in badly stretched intensive care units fell, with 3,994 patients being treated, down 74 from 4,068 on Friday. “This is an important piece of news because it allows our hospitals to breathe,” Civil Protection head Angelo Borelli told a regular daily briefing where he has announced the grim daily tally of the world’s most deadly outbreak of the disease. For days, Italian officials have said that broadly stable rises in the number of cases suggested that the outbreak had reached a plateau and that the numbers would begin to go down - if strict lockdown measures were respected. But with Easter approaching and video footage circulating on social media of groups walking outside in cities including Naples, Rome and Milan, there were fears that the signs of progress were leading more people to flout the rules. “Some images spread on social media, which show a relaxation in the behaviour of some people - fortunately only a few - , should not be taken as an example, they should be deplored,” said Domenico Arcuri, the government’s special commissioner for the coronavirus emergency. “We can’t have the idea that we’ve already reached the moment to return to normal,” he said. The government of Lombardy, the northern region at the epicentre of the crisis where more than 49,000 cases have been recorded, made a similar plea and issued a directive ordering people to cover their mouth and nose whenever they go outside. Italy is still one of the countries worst affected by the new coronavirus, accounting for almost a quarter of worldwide deaths from COVID-19, the highly infectious disease associated with the virus. But as more countries in Europe have reported severe outbreaks of their own, it has become less of an outlier. As the case numbers have flattened in Italy, there has been increasing discussion about eventually rolling back a lockdown that has closed most businesses and slammed the brakes on an already fragile economy. With the government looking at ways to protect the economy, a senior official said it planned to extend its powers to protect key companies from foreign takeover.
What's false: However, these guidelines affected all places of worship and providers of religious services, not just churches or Christian organizations. Additionally, there is no penalty from the state for violating the guidelines.	Bethania Palma		snopes		Politics, COVID-19
36387	"A photograph of a sneaker renders in pink and white or gray and green depending on whether you're ""left-brained"" or ""right brained."	Do the Colors You See in a Photograph Reveal Left or Right Brain Dominance?	false	Fact Checks, Viral Content	On May 3 2019, @CNYcentral shared the following tweet featuring a photograph of a shoe with a claim that the colors in which it appeared to render revealed whether a reader is either “left-brained” or “right-brained”:WHAT COLOR DO YOU SEE? 👀 Apparently, If the right-half of your brain is dominant, you will see a combination of pink and white, and if your left half is dominant, you will see it in grey and green color. Tell us what you see! pic.twitter.com/Ey3BlP85fX— CNYCentral (@CNYCentral) May 3, 2019In the tweet @CNYcentral claimed that if “the right-half of your brain is dominant, you will see a combination of pink and white, and if your left half is dominant, you will see it in grey and green color,” a form of content-sharing that appears to be “engagement bait.” That information was presented not with corroborating information about its claims, but instead asking readers to interact with the post.It is worth pointing out that when the image of the shoe first became a viral sensation in October 2017, there was no “left-brain/right-brain” quiz aspect attached to it. Users simply debated whether the image was gray and green or pink and white.In comments under the original tweet, science journalist Erin Biba pointed out that the entire premise of the left/right brain claim was faulty, adding that spreading scientifically inaccurate statements in exchange for likes and retweets was unbecoming for a news organization:There’s no such thing as dominant brain sides, that’s a pseudoscience myth and research has proven it to be false – we use all sides of our brain. https://t.co/HDX9yb92d3— Erin Biba (@erinbiba) May 5, 2019You are a news organization it is highly irresponsible to be spreading this myth that has absolutely no scientific basis whatsoever.— Erin Biba (@erinbiba) May 5, 2019If you were responsible and ethical in any way you’d delete this and fact check it but RTs amiright?!?! Who cares about blatant lies when you can go viral!!! !— Erin Biba (@erinbiba) May 5, 2019Biba linked to an article explaining that the notion of “left brain” or “right brain” dominance was itself a myth:Recent research using brain imaging technology hasn’t found any evidence of right or left dominance. One of the myth’s fatal flaws is that it relies on vague conceptions of the abilities it purports to explain. Math, for example, requires logical thought and, thus, is generally said to reside in the left brain, far away from all those artsy right-brain abilities. But mathematics is a profoundly creative endeavor in addition to being a logical one. So would a gifted mathematician be a right-brained person or a left-brained person? Likewise, artistic creativity isn’t just unbridled emotion. Many of the greatest works of art are products of rigorous, precise thought.As a June 2012 piece about the left-and-right-brained myth points out, the origin of the belief has its foundation in neuroscience, but the manner in which it is applied in pop science is flawed:There is more than a grain of truth to the left-brain right-brain myth. While they look alike, the two hemispheres of the brain do function differently. For example, it’s become almost common knowledge that in most people the left brain is dominant for language. The right hemisphere, on the other hand, is implicated more strongly in emotional processing and representing the mental states of others. However, the distinctions aren’t as clear cut as the myth makes out — for instance, the right hemisphere is involved in processing some aspects of language, such as intonation and emphasis.Much of what we know about the functional differences between the hemispheres comes from the remarkable split-brain studies that began in the sixties. These investigations were conducted on patients who’d had the thick bundle of fibres connecting their hemispheres cut as a last-resort treatment for epilepsy. Researchers, including the psychologists Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga, could present stimuli to just one hemisphere or the other at a time, and they discovered that the two halves of the brain acted like independent entities with contrasting processing styles.But it’s important to remember that in healthy people the two brain hemispheres are well-connected. The fictional doctor Gregory House called the corpus callosum that joins the hemispheres the “George Washington Bridge” of the brain, and in most of what we do, the hemispheres have evolved to operate together, sharing information across this bridge. Neuroscientists working in this field today are interested in how this coordination occurs.Northrup-Grumman’s Now notes that despite its prevalence, the underlying notion is simply unfounded, stemming from misinterpreted and centuries-old research:The left-brain right-brain myth stems from the common idea that your dominant personality traits are related to which side of your brain has more control. Supposedly, left-brained people are more logical, while right-brained people are more creative. This popular idea has been around for more than 200 years and has proliferated in the age of BuzzFeed personality quizzes, but it simply isn’t true. In reality, people use both sides of the brain equally, and logic and creativity are not mutually exclusive.A 2017 Harvard Health Publishing blog post explained modern research revealed “no evidence of ‘sidedness'” using modern equipment such as CT scans or MRIs:According to a 2013 study from the University of Utah, brain scans demonstrate that activity is similar on both sides of the brain regardless of one’s personality.They looked at the brain scans of more than 1,000 young people between the ages of 7 and 29 and divided different areas of the brain into 7,000 regions to determine whether one side of the brain was more active or connected than the other side. No evidence of “sidedness” was found. The authors concluded that the notion of some people being more left-brained or right-brained is more a figure of speech than an anatomically accurate description.So why do some people see the shoe as pink and white, while others see it as gray and green? Another commenter had insight into the mystery:It’s called white balance. You’re welcome. pic.twitter.com/V6eY3S23E8— Pepillogrito 🇦🇴 (@PepilloGrito) May 4, 2019No, this is an edited version (i edited myself in my mobile). What happens is that the OP whas shooted with a wrong color temperature setting (maybe daylight set and shooted with 3200°K light bulb illumination), and the camera does the light temperature (white balance) wrong— Pepillogrito 🇦🇴 (@PepilloGrito) May 5, 2019That explanation was in line with a similar color debate involving a dress in February 2015. Not long after “the dress” spread virally across many social media, explanations involving its white balance and overexposure appeared:Sure, we’ve all seen overexposed photos — they look washed out and too bright. But maybe we’ve never seen one this bad. The original colors of the dress are now known to be dark black and a deep royal blue, but you wouldn’t know it from this photo.And yet, if you’re seeing the dress as white and gold, simple Photoshop techniques to correct overexposure will show you what the dress looked like in the first place. These techniques don’t intentionally add blue or black to the image — they’re just designed to correct overexposure.It is true that some people see the shoes in the above tweet as gray and green, while others see it as pink and white. But originally, no one suggested that perceived colors of the image revealed whether a person was “left-brained” or “right-brained.” Those particular classifications are scientifically unsound, and the disparity came largely from device settings and warped color balance.
34208	In late 2018 or early 2019, a pattern of druggings and abductions took place in Arizona and Texas whereby human traffickers used breath mints	The warning was posted to Facebook by a single individual who did not cite any source, and its claims were not corroborated by any local, regional or national news reports, statements by law enforcement agencies, or the findings of any criminal investigations.	unproven	Crime, human trafficking, immigration	Personal safety warnings are a frequent subject of viral social media posts, and in recent years human trafficking and sexual assault have increasingly become the focus of widespread fear among internet users in the United States — a phenomenon which we have examined in detail on several occasions. Many such warnings are no more than urban legends or unsubstantiated rumors, but they spread widely due to the fear they engender as well as the good intentions of many who pass them along. In February 2019, yet another such alert emerged on Facebook, warning readers of “the newest thing” — men in Texas and Arizona administering date rape drugs to unsuspecting women by giving them tainted breath mints before trafficking them across the southern border of the United States, and into Mexico: OK..LISTEN UP! ITS IMPORTANT. WARN YOUR WIVES, DAUGHTERS, SISTERS, GRANDKIDS the newest thing it [sic] striking up an innocent conversation. the guy then says “hey. no offense, but you have bad breath and offers a mint or lifesaver. looks like the real deal even in a new package BUT they are the new date rape drug and also laced with fentanyl for the sex trafficking trade. yes, it’s happening and they are slick. please warn all, particularly young kids and females as once across the border, you are done. it’s a living nightmare. keep it cool, use your head but it’s getting so bad here in Arizona and in Texas its scary. No evidence corroborated the claims contained in the Facebook post, that in early 2019 or late 2018 a pattern of incidents took place in Texas or Arizona whereby human traffickers drugged unsuspecting women using breath mints before transporting them against their will into Mexico. A spokesperson for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) told us by email that “We were not aware of the Facebook warning you have shared, and we are not familiar with any cases of the behavior described,” adding that “the warning described does not seem credible” and also “perpetuates many misconceptions about sexual assault”: “For instance, it suggests only women and female-identified individuals are targets of sexual assault. It also focuses on stranger danger, and we know that most people are sexually assaulted by someone they know. Additionally, drug-facilitated sexual assault can be committed by someone you know and trust –- such as a friend or date. The most commonly used ‘date rape drug’ is actually alcohol, and in many cases it is voluntarily consumed by the victim who feels safe or trusts the person they are drinking with.” Similarly, a spokesperson for the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault (SACASA) told us that “In Southern Arizona, we have not heard this come up from our hospital response advocates or crisis hotline staff,” and a spokesperson for the SAFE (Stop Abuse for Everyone) Alliance in Austin, Texas provided this statement: “… Our sexual assault forensic nurses have not anecdotally heard anything related to that Facebook post. They also mentioned that drugged patients aren’t likely to recall the delivery mechanism. While kidnapping does occur, most often traffickers target vulnerable or at-risk youth by pretending to love or care for them before turning and exploiting them and forcing them into prostitution.” A spokesperson for Polaris, the non-profit organization that runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline, told us by email that traffickers do sometimes create or cultivate drug or alcohol dependency in their victims as a method of control, but that the organization did not have any evidence that would corroborate the specific claims made in the Facebook post: “We haven’t seen any recent changes nationally or in Texas and Arizona that would suggest a shift in how substances like date rape drugs are being used. I haven’t seen anything that would necessarily disprove the post, but we also haven’t heard anything to validate the post either. As far as I’m aware, we have not received any recent reports of drugs disguised as breath mints being used in such a way as to facilitate trafficking across the border.” In response to the contents of the viral Facebook post, a spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Public Safety told us that its Criminal Investigations Bureau was “unaware of any such investigation.” Beyond the specific context of Texas and Arizona in early 2019, it’s not implausible for “date rape” drugs such as Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) or Rohypnol to be surreptitiously administered via breath mints, but we found no evidence of a widespread pattern of such usage. GHB is usually taken or administered as an odorless and tasteless liquid, which means it could in principle be applied to breath mints or lozenges and given to an unsuspecting victim. But in a “date rape” scenario GHB is usually added to a victim’s beverage, typically in the context of a bar or nightclub setting. Rohypnol is often administered as a pill, meaning that it could conceivably be presented as a breath mint to an unsuspecting victim — but again, it is typically dropped into an unsuspecting victim’s drink. We found several reliable sources that outlined the fact that recreational users of drugs such as ecstasy, Rohypnol, GHB and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) — that is, those who self-administer the drugs rather than “spiking” others for the purpose of incapacitating and sexually assaulting them — do sometimes use breath mint vials and containers to carry the drugs around in liquid or tablet form. However, this practice is not for the ultimate purpose of falsely presenting the drugs as breath mints to unsuspecting victims, but rather simply for disguising the drugs from law enforcement officers or nightclub bouncers. Despite conducting an extensive search of news archives stretching back decades, we found only one criminal investigation that bore a similarity to the “breath mint” incapacitation ruse described in the February 2019 Facebook post. In 2006, police in Tampa, Florida, investigated the claims of a woman who said she had been subjected to a gang rape at a house in the city after being given “gum that dissolved in her mouth.” The following newspaper account of the incident might be disturbing to some readers: Police have accused three men and a woman of drugging and raping a Sarasota woman at 2919 N. 16th St. on May 13. Detectives are investigating whether other people may have been victimized. Police executing a search warrant May 26 seized two bottles marked “breath mint” and six bottles marked “sweet breath” and Ciloxan, an anti-bacterial eye solution, court papers say. Each was to be tested at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for GHB … In a search warrant affidavit, the woman was quoted as telling police she accompanied [one of the suspects] to the house after drinks in Ybor City. She described repeatedly being given gum that dissolved in her mouth and having liquid rubbed on her neck between being raped and sodomized. An examination at Sarasota Memorial Hospital revealed she had amphetamines, cocaine and marijuana in her system, according to [an] arrest affidavit. However, Thirteenth Judicial Circuit Court records show that the charges of kidnapping and sexual battery were dropped against all four suspects and no trial or conviction resulted from this case, so we cannot verify the claim that the woman was drugged using gum. We cannot definitively disprove the specific claims made in the February 2019 Facebook post, and as we have demonstrated, the use of a breath mint as a surreptitious delivery mechanism for an incapacitating drug is plausible in principle. We found no evidence of a widespread pattern of such behavior, though, and as a result we issue a verdict of “Unproven” in this case. However, it is highly unlikely that a spate of incidents in Texas and Arizona took place whereby human traffickers drugged and kidnapped women by offering them breath mints, all without the knowledge of several non-profit organizations dedicated to providing services to victims and survivors of human trafficking and sexual assault, as well as the state of Arizona’s chief law enforcement agency.
37921	A reported .04 percent death rate for COVID-19 is inaccurate, and a death rate cannot be calculated by dividing the number of deaths by a country's population size.	‘You do NOT DIVIDE the deaths into the total population. EVER! NEVER!’	mixture	Fact Checks, Viral Content	A popular Facebook post in August 2020 was not alone in taking issue with one estimate concerning the COVID-19 virus’ mortality rate, but might also mislead readers looking for an easy answer.The post, first published on August 20, 2020 and shared more than 14,000 times since, calls reports that the virus has a 0.04 percent death rate “dead wrong”:To get an accurate death rate for the disease, you divide the deaths by the total cases that HAVE AN OUTCOME. Let’s walk this through.As of right now, there are 5,671,984 COVID cases in the US. 175,617 people have died because of COVID. 3,028,393 people have recovered.You do NOT DIVIDE the deaths into the total population. EVER! NEVER! Certainly NOT to determine the death rate. To get an accurate number, it’s really simple.Add the total recovered to the total deaths: 3,204,010.Now, divide 175,617 by that number: 5.48 percent.If you get COVID, you have a 5.48 percent chance of dying.By comparison, Influenza has infected around 39,000,000 people this last season, with around 50,000 deaths. That’s a 1.28 percent death rate.You are five times more likely to die from COVID if you get it than you would if you got the flu. It’s not the flu. It’s not even a cold.Dr. Stephen Kissler, a research fellow for the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard University, told us that calculating the death rate for COVID-19 is not as simple as the post makes it out to be. While it is easier to determine posthumously whether someone was killed because of the virus, researchers “probably have a very big underestimate” of how many COVID-19 cases have actually ocurred.“If we were to adjust the number of COVID-19 cases that were cited in that graphic to reflect what we think is probably closer to the true number, then we’d be dividing the same number of deaths by a larger fatality number, which would make the infection fatality rate decrease somewhat,” he said.One factor that can influence calculating the virus’ infection fatality rate (IFR), Kissler explained, is that COVID-19 does not claim its victims quickly. Because of that, death figures could reflect infections that took effect up to a month earlier.“You have these opposing forces,” he said. “First, we’re probably undercounting the number of cases that are occurring. But just due to the trajectory of the epidemic itself — that can also cause us to underestimate the infection fatality rate, and that’s why this is so complex.”The complexity of the issue, Kissler said, is why there have been arguments concerning the virus’ IFR.The post’s premise that the death rate for the virus has been inaccurately reported as being .04 percent has also been explored independently. The statistic itself originated from a scientific pre-print — a study that has yet to be published or peer-reviewed. As the Associated Press reported, the figure first appeared in a study by Dr. John Ioannidis, a Stanford University professor of medicine.According to Ioannidis, the infection fatality rate (IFR) for the virus “ranged from 0.00 percent to 0.57 percent” with a corrected median rate of 0.04 percent. He based his findings on the results of twelve separate studies measuring the prevalence of antibodies for the virus in separate population centers.“At a very broad, bird’s eye view level, worldwide the IFR of COVID-19 this season may be in the same ballpark as the IFR of influenza,” he wrote.But Ioannidis and his work have come under criticism throughout 2020. In March, he predicted — incorrectly — that around 10,000 people in the United States would die from COVID-19. And in May, Buzzfeed reported that he failed to disclose that a previous pre-print examining COVID-19 antibodies was partially funded by JetBlue Airways founder David Neeleman, who has argued against protective measures like remaining at home during the pandemic.Similarly, other researchers questioned the methodology Ioannidis employed for his latest pre-print.“A lot of the included studies had issues, and contradicted evidence from numerous places in the world, making the review itself a bit problematic,” Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz of the University of Wollongong in Australia told the San Jose Mercury News.Andrew Noymer, an associate professor of public health at the University of California-Irvine, also took issue with the study, particularly because — unlike COVID-19 — the flu is already treatable because of the presence of annual vaccinations.“Not everyone is susceptible to the flu. Everyone is susceptible to COVID-19,” Noymer told the newspaper. “These flu comparisons are missing the forest for the trees.”The AP also cited another pre-print in its reporting, a study by researchers at Dartmouth College calculating that the virus’ IFR was “close to zero for younger adults but rises exponentially with age.” That analysis, based on findings from separate types of studies including 15 conducted in “specific locations in Europe and the United States,” estimated an IFR of 0.3 percent for people between the ages of 50 and 59 and 10 percent for those aged 80-89.The World Health Organization has also disputed comparisons between COVID-19 and the flu:Mortality for COVID-19 appears higher than for influenza, especially seasonal influenza. While the true mortality of COVID-19 will take some time to fully understand, the data we have so far indicate that the crude mortality ratio (the number of reported deaths divided by the reported cases) is between 3-4 percent, the infection mortality rate (the number of reported deaths divided by the number of infections) will be lower. For seasonal influenza, mortality is usually well below 0.1 percent. However, mortality is to a large extent determined by access to and quality of health care.Kissler took issue with another claim made in the post — that one should “never” divide the number of deaths by a country’s total population; that statistic, he said, is called the population mortality rate, which covers an entirely different question than the one covered in the Facebook post.“Whereas the question in the post is basically, ‘What’s the probability of dying given infection with COVID-19?’ the question that you’re trying to answer when dividing deaths by the population is, ‘How bad is this epidemic in this particular location — say, in the United States vs in other countries? '” he said. “That gives you an estimate of how many fatalities there are [and] you’re basically adjusting by the population size.”As of August 25 2020, the Centers for Disease Control listed 176,617 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the U.S. and 5,715,567 total cases.Comments
10855	For Teens, The Depression Test	"This story grapples with a complex issue – screening and treatment of major depressive disorder in adolescents. The case study is useful in stimulating reader interest but ends up muddying the waters – focusing on the specifics of this individual’s treatment, the notion of parental informed consent for screening, and a fairly blanket condemnation of antidepressants. The story would have better served the interests of readers if it had informed about the strength of the evidence about screening and treating this particular vulnerable population. What was the evidence that steered the US Preventive Services Task Force – normally slow to endorse screening recommendations – to promote it in this case? To find out if screening ""works,"" the best quality evidence would come from randomized clinical trials of screening versus no screening. But the USPSTF created an analytic framework that coupled the performance of screening instruments with the separate data on the effectiveness of treatments. The article doesn’t give any data/evidence used to support the recommendation."	false		"There was no indicating of treatment costs or whether it was commonly covered by insurance. The story did not provide any information about the success rates associated with any of the treatments discussed. A number needed to screen should be available. Is it 100 that need to be screened to achieve one additional depression remission? Or what is it? While indicating that the use of SSRI medication by adolescents has been associated with increased risk of suicide, the story provided no quantitative information about how likely this is to occur. The story did mention the potential for over-prescribing of antidepressants. However, it did not mention other potential harms such as stigma, mis-diagnosis, distracting from more important health problems, and treatment without adequate follow-up potentially leading to net harm. This article did not accurately report on the recommendations by the USPSTF on mental health screening for adolescents. The text of the story said that ‘Screening made sense only if the children then had access to the kind of specialized and individualized care that Caroline Downing received’. Given that the story mentioned that the treatment of this individual involved art therapy, one could logically conclude that the USPSTF recommendation was for art therapy. The USPSTF guidelines recommended screening for major depressive disorder was for adolescents, ages 12 -18, and there was insufficient evidence to evaluate the balance of risks and benefit for screening children, ages 7-11. Secondly – the recommendation is for screening only when there are systems in place to ensure accurate diagnosis, psychotherapy (cognitive behavioral or interpersonal) and follow-up. It goes on to indicate that there is adequate evidence for treatment in adolescents with selective serotonin inhibitors, psychotherapy, or a combination of the two. Thus, while the story appears to suggest that Caroline’s sister did not receive currently recommended therapy, while Caroline did receive appropriate therapy, this is not supported by the language of the current guidelines. In addition – to know if screening ""works,"" the best quality evidence would come from randomized clinical trials of screening versus no screening. Beyond giving us the name of the group promoting the guidelines, it should have explained the nature of the data supporting the recommendation. The story mentions that mental health problems are a major health issue in adolescents. The article reports rates of positive tests from the Teen Screen project and these numbers are high. The story could have been strengthened if it discussed that diagnostic certainty for depression in childrenis a bit less than for adults and that the screeners are not as accurate. A number of mental health experts, several of whom served on major organization review panels on this topic. The story did not clearly delineate the treatment options for managing major depressive disorder in adolescents. It should have indicated that serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, psychotherapy, and a combination of the two are all currently recommended for this age group. Omitting combination treatment is especially problematic. The story failed to provide information about the availability of recommended treatments for major depressive disorder in adolescents. It provided some information about vendors that provided testing for this target population, but it was unclear from the piece where someone ought to turn for help with this. It would have been worth mentioning that therapists specializing in adolescents are in short supply. The story discussed treatments that are not novel; it did not portray them as such. A novel aspect is extending screening to adolescents. Does not appear to rely on a press release."
2322	California residents support soda tax to fight obesity, health study shows.	Fighting obesity by taxing sugary drinks and restricting junk food advertisements aimed at children has support from a wide majority of residents surveyed in a Southern California public health study released on Thursday.	true	Health News	The findings from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health come as friction mounts between the beverage industry and health advocates over the best way to fight obesity and diabetes, tied by studies to over-consumption of soda, sweets and junk food. “There have been a lot of arguments against this sort of policy,” including claims it will cost the poor more to buy food, said Paul Simon, head of chronic disease prevention for the county and lead author of the study. But Simon said nearly two-thirds of those surveyed by the county in a broad 2011 assessment of public attitudes toward health issues, said they supported a soda tax, and three-quarters favored limiting junk food advertising. Public health advocates across the country have clamored for ways to reduce consumption of sugary drinks and junk food, but lawmakers and voters have generally opposed enacting taxes or other regulations. Lawmakers in Illinois rejected a measure in late May that would have taxed soda purchases at one cent per ounce, and a tax proposed for California failed in the state Legislature last year. On Wednesday, an attorney for New York City asked the state’s top court to revive the city’s ban on large sugary drinks, which was overturned by a lower court last year. In California, a measure to require warning labels on sodas passed the state Senate last week. The industry association CalBev downplayed the Los Angeles survey and other polls showing support for such restrictions. “A polling question asked in a vacuum without any context often gives the impression that voters support these types of taxes, but the reality is when you put it directly to the voters they always go down in defeat,” the association said Thursday. Simon and his colleagues analyzed data from a survey of about 1,000 Los Angeles County adults called randomly by telephone. They found support for such restrictions to be highest among low-income residents, whose obesity and diabetes rates are highest. “It’s described as regressive, that it would discriminate against poorer people because they have less money,” Simon said. “Nonetheless we found in our study that there is more support among those groups.”
26684	“It’s actually the safest time to fly.”	Older Americans and those with chronic conditions are advised to reconsider all travel plans to avoid COVID-19. The State Department is advising all citizens to reconsider travel abroad. China and Iran have been issued Level 4 travel advisories because of the virus. If you do have to travel via airplane, you’re unlikely to get sick on board as long as you practice good hygiene.	false	Public Health, PunditFact, Coronavirus, Ainsley Earhardt,	"Since the outbreak of COVID-19, airline stocks have plummeted. Companies like Delta, American and United have cut or reduced flights. Photos show empty airport terminals around the world. On March 13, Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt took those signs to mean that now is a great time to take a trip. ""It’s actually the safest time to fly,"" she said during the Fox News morning show. ""Everyone I know that’s flying right now, terminals are pretty much dead — ghost towns."" As of March 12, more than 125,000 people have been infected with COVID-19 in 117 countries, with 4,613 deaths. In the United States, there have been 1,629 confirmed cases in 46 states, with 41 deaths. In a March 11 address, President Donald Trump announced a sweeping ban on travel from 26 European countries. While the White House maintains the move will slow the spread of the coronavirus, some experts doubt the restrictions will have much of an effect. PolitiFact wanted to know whether Earhardt was correct to say that now is the safest time to fly. We reached out to Earhardt for evidence, but we haven’t heard back. Official guidance on COVID-19 contradicts what she said on Fox News. Officials are advising older Americans and those with chronic health conditions to reconsider their domestic and international travel plans to avoid COVID-19. On its website, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are ""several things you should consider when deciding whether it is safe for you to travel"" in the U.S., including: Is COVID-19 spreading where you’re going? Will you or someone you’re traveling with be in close contact with others during your trip? Are you or someone you’re traveling with at risk of severe illness if you get COVID-19? Do you live with someone who is older or has a severe chronic health condition? Is COVID-19 spreading where you live? If the answer to any of those questions is yes, then you may want to reconsider your travel plans to avoid potentially spreading or contracting the virus. ""CDC’s recommendations differ depending on the location,"" said agency spokeswoman Leslie Dorigo in an email. ""CDC recommends that older adults and people of any age with serious chronic medical conditions should consider postponing nonessential travel because they are at increased risk for severe disease."" That’s because older and immunocompromised people, as well as those with chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension, are more at risk of suffering complications from COVID-19. Younger people, even though they may not be as susceptible to the coronavirus, can still serve as carriers for the virus, potentially infecting new communities through travel. ""It is prudent for travellers who are sick to delay or avoid travel to affected areas, in particular for elderly travellers and people with chronic diseases or underlying health conditions,"" read its recommendations. ""General recommendations for personal hygiene, cough etiquette and keeping a distance of at least one metre from persons showing symptoms remain particularly important for all travellers."" The U.S. State Department is advising all citizens to reconsider travel abroad due to the spread of COVID-19. Other countries have issued similar travel warnings. Since January, the State Department has issued several travel advisories related to the COVID-19 outbreak. As of March 13, China and Iran had ""Level 4: Do Not Travel"" advisories — the highest issued by the State Department — while countries like Azerbaijan, Italy and South Korea were labeled as ""Level 3: Reconsider Travel."" On March 11, the State Department also issued a global health advisory asking Americans to reconsider traveling abroad. Source: WHO ""Many areas throughout the world are now experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks and taking action that may limit traveler mobility, including quarantines and border restrictions,"" reads the Level 3 advisory. ""Even countries, jurisdictions, or areas where cases have not been reported may restrict travel without notice."" Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Australia, have issued similar travel advisories. ""It may not be safe to fly, especially if you’re going to one of the COVID-19 hotspots,"" said Richard Watanabe, professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, in an email. ""Generally speaking, it is just unwise to be traveling in any form right now."" If you do have to travel via airplane, you’re unlikely to get sick while on board, officials say — as long as you practice good hygiene. The WHO says there is little risk of disease transmission during a flight, mostly due to the way cabin air is filtered. During the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), another human coronavirus, in 2003, the risk of disease transmission on airplanes was found to be very low. Plus, airlines are taking extra steps to clean airplanes and slow the spread of COVID-19. ""Airlines are being more cautious about passengers, they’re doing extra cleaning and disinfecting and they are restricting flights,"" Watanabe said. ""So one might consider flying to be safer than ever."" Still, it is possible to catch something from an infected person seated in the same area as you. Here are 4 real ways to protect yourself According to the CDC, COVID-19 spreads in two primary ways: close person-to-person contact (within about six feet) and respiratory droplets in coughs and sneezes. If someone with the virus sneezes, those germs could land on surfaces around them, such as airplane seats and armrests. Then, an uninfected person who touches that same surface and then touches their nose, eyes or mouth could contract the virus. If you do need to travel by plane, public health officials advise practicing good personal hygiene. The ways to prevent the spread of the coronavirus include washing your hands with soap and water, covering coughs and sneezes, disinfecting frequently touched surfaces, and avoiding people who are sick. ""We are trying to understand the ‘rules’ that govern transmission of COVID-19 and relative risk from people at different stages of disease, and/or contaminated surfaces and more,"" said Dr. Myron Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina, in an email. ""It seems unwise for commentators to offer travel advice until we who are more expert know far more."" Earhardt said that ""it's actually the safest time to fly."" Officials from the CDC and WHO are advising older people and those with chronic health conditions to reconsider travel in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The State Department has issued travel advisories for several individual countries, as well as a global health advisory, related to the disease outbreak. Other countries have taken similar steps. While the disease transmission on airplanes is thought to be a low risk, it is still possible to contract the coronavirus through close personal contact and respiratory droplets. Earhardt’s statement is inaccurate."
37661	"In response to a ""no one should live in a closet"" tattoo tweet, JK Rowling responded, ""Yes they should."	Did JK Rowling Respond to ‘No One Should Live in a Closet’ Tattoo with ‘Yes They Should’?	false	Disinformation, Fact Checks	"On January 25 2020, Twitter user @iknownaama tweeted the following image, a purported screenshot of JK Rowling reacting to a pro-LGBT tattoo (“no one should live in a closet”) by saying “yes they should”:so did the simulation glitch or does JK Rowling genuinely never think twice about what comes out of her mouth pic.twitter.com/KGp7uwuJCt— na'ama⁷ (@iknownaama) January 26, 2020In the tweet, @iknownaama wrote:so did the simulation glitch or does JK Rowling genuinely never think twice about what comes out of her mouthAn image with the tweet showed a pride rainbow-colored set of eyeglasses, and the words “no one should live in a closet.” The tattoo’s text was rendered in a font associated with the Harry Potter series known as “Lumos.”“No one should live in a closet” had a double meaning in the context of the tattoo. In Harry Potter books and films, the titular character lives with “Muggle” family members, but instead of a bedroom, is confined to a closet — the “cupboard under the stairs”:The Cupboard Under the Stairs was Harry Potter’s room in the Dursley household until he was given Dudley Dursley’s old room, at 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey. The cupboard was described as small and dusty, with lots of spiders.To be “in the closet” or be “closeted” is also a widely-used metaphor for LGBTQ people forced not to identify as such:A person who is hiding the fact that they [sic] are gay has been described as in the closet, or as a closet homosexual, since the late 1960s. To out someone, meaning to reveal that they [sic] are gay, is a shortened way of saying “to force them out of the closet”. Closet comes from close, which both in the sense “near” and “shut” goes back to Latin claudere “to shut,” also the source of recluse, someone who shuts themselves [sic] away.As such, the tattoo referenced Potter’s “closeted” nature as a wizard with his non-magical relatives, likening it to scenarios wherein a LGBT person is “closeted.” Rainbows are sometimes a symbol for gay pride, and the imagery together decries “closeting” of one’s nature.Roughly a month prior to the January 25 2020 tweet above, Rowling caused international controversy with the following tweet:Dress however you please.Call yourself whatever you like.Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 19, 2019On December 19 2019, Rowling expressed her support for an anti-transgender position, using a popular anti-trans hashtag — #ThisIsNotADrill. Rowling’s full-throated embrace of those viewpoints upset and disappointed many of her fans, particularly LGBTQ adults who grew up reading the series of books and watching the film adaptations.Even the first tweet initially caused some confusion about whether it was real and what it meant, matters that we addressed on our page about the tweet and controversy. Based on the abnormally high share count on the “no one should live in a closet/yes they should” tweet, users were similarly confused about whether Rowling made the comment shown.Typing “@jk_rowling” (her Twitter handle) into the search bar immediately populated “yes they should” afterwards, indicating users were searching for evidence of the tweet with frequency. Rowling had a high follower count and tweeted infrequently; one of her most recent tweets caused a frenzy of news articles worldwide.Readers also referenced the tweet as if it were self-evidently authentic:Ok but Harry only lived in a closet bc of his abusive family. So it’s still not good to say “yes they should”— Nic (@thatARTSYb1tch) January 26, 2020@jk_rowling literally means ""yes they should"" live in closet like Harry Potter. Not metaphorically ""don't go out of the closet"" or ""don't come out"". I don't know what worse, JKRowling not realizing the metaphor or these people that didn't get the joke and quickly attack JK. 🤦🏻‍♀️— Z (@khaleesizelle) January 27, 2020In the end, the tweet was clearly fake for a number of reasons:A “yes they should” tweet attributed to JK Rowling (@jk_rowling) in response to a “nobody should have to live in a closet” tattoo was fabricated, but the intent behind that fake screenshot was unclear. Although it was possible someone sought to attribute the commentary to Rowling, it was just as likely a satirization of her actual, admitted opinions about transgender women. Nevertheless, Rowling did not tweet “yes they should” as depicted in the image."
16825	Hobby Lobby provided this (birth control) coverage before they decided to drop it to file suit.	"On CNN, Kohn said, ""Hobby Lobby provided this coverage before they decided to drop it to file suit."" The Christian-owned company did previously offer insurance plans that included coverage of a few contraceptives at issue in the case, namely morning-after pills, but reports suggest owners weren't aware they offered that coverage. When the company found out -- in the wake of the contraceptive requirements that came out after the health care law -- the company stopped offering the drugs and took the contraceptive mandate to court. Kohn’s statement is accurate but leaves out that Hobby Lobby says it unwittingly offered this kind of birth control coverage."	true	Health Care, Supreme Court, PunditFact, Sally Kohn,	"Hobby Lobby’s Supreme Court victory over the federal government’s contraception rule set off a fast-breaking wave of punditry on national TV. CNN brought in liberal pundit and contributor Sally Kohn, who panned the court’s 5-4 decision as disastrous and Hobby Lobby’s intentions as disingenuous. ""Hobby Lobby provided this coverage before they decided to drop it to file suit, which was politically motivated,"" she said. We can’t determine if politics motivated the company, but we did wonder whether Hobby Lobby covered the types of birth control at issue in its lawsuit but dropped the coverage before filing its complaint. The short answer: Yes. The Green family, which founded Hobby Lobby in Oklahoma City in 1972, said as much in its original complaint. The Greens re-examined the company’s health insurance policy back in 2012, shortly before filing the lawsuit. A Wall Street Journal story says they looked into their plan after being approached by an attorney from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty about possible legal action over the federal government’s contraceptives requirement. That was when, according to the company’s complaint, they were surprised to learn their prescription drug policy included two drugs, Plan B and ella, which are emergency contraceptive pills that reduce the chance of pregnancy in the days after unprotected sex. The government does not consider morning-after pills as abortifacients because they are used to prevent eggs from being fertilized (not to induce abortions once a woman is pregnant). This is not, however, what the Green family believes, which is that life begins at conception and these drugs impede the survival of fertilized eggs. At any rate, Hobby Lobby stopped covering those drugs in its plan and took the health care contraceptive mandate to court, represented by the Becket Fund. The only caveat here is Hobby Lobby said it didn’t know it was covering the drugs. ""Coverage of these drugs was not included knowingly or deliberately by the Green family. Such coverage is out of step with the rest of the Hobby Lobby’s policies, which explicitly exclude abortion-causing contraceptive devices and pregnancy-terminating drugs,"" the company stated in its court filing. Of note, company leaders do not have religious problems with other forms of birth control, such as the pill, condoms, diaphragms and sterilization, according to the family’s legal representation, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Our ruling On CNN, Kohn said, ""Hobby Lobby provided this coverage before they decided to drop it to file suit."" The Christian-owned company did previously offer insurance plans that included coverage of a few contraceptives at issue in the case, namely morning-after pills, but reports suggest owners weren't aware they offered that coverage. When the company found out -- in the wake of the contraceptive requirements that came out after the health care law -- the company stopped offering the drugs and took the contraceptive mandate to court. Kohn’s statement is accurate but leaves out that Hobby Lobby says it unwittingly offered this kind of birth control coverage."
3764	Lincoln council adds e-cigarettes to ban on indoor smoking.	The Lincoln City Council has voted to ban vaping in public spaces and work sites, adding e-cigarettes to the city ban on indoor smoking of tobacco products.	true	Lincoln, Health, General News, Nebraska, Smoking, Vaping	The council voted 7-0 for the ordinance Monday, which takes effect in two weeks. The council rejected an attempt to delay to delay implementation so vape shops could seek exemptions. “This is a small change,” City Attorney Jeff Kirkpatrick said at the meeting. “It’s not putting them (vape shops) out of business.” Sarah Linden, president of the Nebraska Vape Vendors Association, argued the ordinance conflates the dangers of smoking cigarettes with vaping, which she said is less harmful and a safe measure to help people quit smoking. The Lincoln-Lancaster County Board of Health endorsed the idea last month and introduced the ordinance. Worker safety, cancer prevention and heart health advocates testified in support of the ordinance. E-cigarette aerosol can contain potentially harmful substances, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The death toll in the outbreak of a mysterious lung illness linked to vaping has reached 52, the center said last week.
3999	Denver, Los Angeles airport measles cases connected.	U.S. health officials have confirmed that three children recently hospitalized with measles in Colorado traveled from New Zealand to Los Angeles International Airport before arriving in Denver.	true	Colorado, Health, Measles, General News, Denver, Travel, U.S. News	The Denver Post reported Tuesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued warnings at airports in Denver and Los Angeles involving the same airline passengers. Travelers who passed through Denver International Airport or Los Angeles International Airport on Dec. 11 are at risk for measles after the children tested positive for the disease, public health officials said. The children who contracted the highly contagious disease did not have the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and are receiving treatment at Children’s Hospital Colorado, officials said. People who were at the hospital Dec. 12 between 1 and 7:30 p.m. could have also been exposed, health officials said. It is unclear how many people are at risk of exposure to measles. Symptoms include high fever, cough, runny nose, watery eyes and a rash, health officials said. The illness can lead to pneumonia and swelling of the brain.
28397	A meme accurately compares police training and police killings in the United States and three Nordic countries.	We counted the total number of police killings in each country between 2002 and 2017 (using Fatal Encounters’ data for the U.S.), then adjusted for each country’s average population over the course of that 16-year period. That method equated to 71 police killings per million people in the U.S., over that time period; 3.2 per million people in Iceland; 1.5 per million people in Finland, and 0.8 police killings per million people in Norway.	mixture	Politics, police shootings	The use of deadly force by police officers is the subject of long-standing concern in the United States, and the internet is often the venue for debates about the causes of fatal encounters between law enforcement agents and members of the public. In September 2018, a meme shared on Facebook pointed the finger at one cause in particular for the relatively high rate of police killings in the United States: the length of time required to become a police officer. The meme compared the duration of police academy training and the number of police killings in recent years, in each of three Nordic countries (Norway, Finland, and Iceland) and the United States: This is our overview of the accuracy of those claims: Candidates become police officers in Norway after completing a three-year Bachelor’s degree in Police Studies, administered centrally by the Norwegian Police University College in the capital city Oslo. The college’s web site describes the training as follows: The training is professionally orientated and is intended to provide a broad theoretical and practical foundation for police work. The training is based on the principle that all newly qualified policemen/women must be generalists. A generalist is a policeman/woman who possesses basic knowledge and skills pertaining to the police’s preventative, crime prevention and civil order work. In solving assignments, generalists shall be able to perform basic police duties, make overall assessments of situations, view their work in a broader social context and engage relevant specialist expertise and partners as required. Generalists shall acquire a basis for continued learning and development through the execution of their profession. In order to be accepted into training, the applicant must meet certain requirements: must be a Norwegian citizen, speak good Norwegian, have a high school degree, and be physically fit and healthy. According to multiple sources, Norwegian police fatally shot four people between 2002 and 2016. In their 2014 annual report, the Norwegian Bureau for the Investigation of Police Affairs wrote that: Since 2005, the Bureau has investigated 15 cases where injury to a person has occurred as a result of the use of firearms by the police. A total of 16 persons have been injured in such incidents and, in two of these cases, the injuries resulted in death. A further two fatal shootings took place in 2015 and 2016, as detailed by the English-language news website The Local in November 2016: Norwegian police shot and killed a 35-year-old man in Kristiansand, an incredibly rare incident in a nation where fatal police shootings are nearly non-existent … [The] incident marked just the fourth time that police in Norway have been involved in a fatal shooting since 2002. The most recent incident was in September 2015 when police killed a man in Stange Municipality who shot at officers. That marked the end of a nine-year stretch with no police killings. We did not find any evidence of another police killing in Norway since November 2016. In fact, a three-year Bachelor’s degree is required to become a police officer in Finland. The country’s Police University College (“Poliisiammattikorkeakoulu” in Finnish) outlines the course of study on their web site: The 180 credit point qualification qualifies a person to the positions of police officer, such as a Senior Constable. It takes about three years to complete the studies. Students learn practical knowledge and skills needed in police work. Upon graduation, the student has the skills to act as an expert in police work both independently and as a member of multiprofessional teams and has the necessary skills to develop police operations. Although this particular claim in the meme is not fully true, the reality (i.e., a three-year college degree is required, not just a two-year course) even more strongly supports the underlying argument in the meme, that police officers in the Nordic countries undergo longer training programs than their American counterparts. A spokesperson for the National Police Board in Finland provided us a list of nine fatalities attributed to police actions between 2000 and 2018. However, one of those nine deaths involved a tazer, and another involved a police officer’s accidentally shooting a prison guard, so seven members of the public were killed (all shot dead) due to actions taken by police since 2000 in Finland. The National Police Board spokesperson also provided somewhat extraordinary figures for the use of firearms in Finland in recent years: “Between 2003 and 2013, there were a total of 385 gunfire situations where 122 rounds where fired altogether. The number of weapon use situations ranged from 26 to 44 on an annual basis.” So in the decade between 2003 and 2013, the entire national police force in Finland fired an average of 12 bullets per year, between them. Up until 2016, police training in Iceland was conducted at the country’s police academy, but for the past two years becoming a member of the Icelandic police requires a two-year college diploma in Police Science from a program run exclusively by the University of Akureyri in the northern part of the island. The university’s web site describes the two-year program as follows: Police Science is a practical academic discipline that studies the foundations, nature, and practice of policing. Students learn about the sources of consensus, conflict, and crime; personal freedom, diversity, and human rights; ethics, social control, and laws; the structure of the criminal justice system and its connection to other institutions; the aims, organizations, and tasks of the police; knowledge-based police approaches and techniques; police investigations; prioritizing of daily tasks; communication with other first responders and suspects, victims, witnesses, and the public. In addition, prospective police officers receive extensive practical training with the Centre for Police Training and Professional Development in cooperation with the University of Akureyri. The practical training involves, among other things, learning how to deal with difficult and dangerous individuals, unarmed police tactics and arrest techniques, the use of firearms and other police equipment, first on scene help and emergency driving of police vehicles. The training also involves fieldwork where students become familiar with the day-to-day work of the police under the guidance of tutors who are also active police officers. Multiple news articles corroborate this claim, that only one person in Iceland has ever been killed by police there. The English-language Iceland Review reported in 2013 that Icelandic police had shot dead a member of the public for the first time on record, citing the Dagblaðið Vísir newspaper. Of that death, the Guardian wrote: The 59-year-old was reported to have been shot after firing on police as they entered [a] building in the east of the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik. Teargas canisters had initially been fired through the windows after the man continued shooting and two police officers are reported to have been slightly injured after they entered. The gunman was brought to hospital but was pronounced dead there at around 10am local time. The case will be investigated by Iceland’s state prosecutor. The country’s national police chief, Haraldur Johannessen, told a press conference in Reykjavik that the incident was “without precedent”. Unlike the centralized national training and accreditation used in Norway, Finland, and Iceland, policing in the United States is broken up into semi-autonomous federal, state, and local forces, with training length and requirements varying across the country. However, according to data compiled by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, the average basic training for a police officer in the U.S. in 2013 was 843 hours, or around 21 weeks (based on a 40-hour work week). However, this figure encompasses only classroom instruction, with the average field training consisting of another 521 hours, or about 13 weeks. This means that, on average, the training time required to become a police officer in the United States in 2013 was 34 weeks, or just short of nine months. The figure of “21 weeks” training appears to derive from the classroom instruction component, but that measurement misses field training, which increases the total training time required significantly. Furthermore, it’s unclear whether these numbers have changed significantly since 2013, which is the most recent year for which the Bureau of Justice Statistics has data. The U.S. does not maintain an official national database of incidents in which police officers’ actions have led to the death of civilians, so we can’t know for certain the number of people killed by police between 2001 and 2018, as Vox noted in 2015: Criminal justice experts have long known that these measures are flawed. [Bureau of Justice Statistics’s Arrest-Related Deaths] collects police-caused homicide data through state reporting coordinators, but the methods of collecting data can greatly vary from state to state, often depend on differing access to technology, and sometimes don’t directly involve police departments or coroner’s offices. [FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports] relies on reports submitted by police agencies, but these reports are voluntary — and some states, like Florida, don’t participate. “The available data (FBI, Vital Stats, Bureau of Justice Statistics) are worse than miserable,” David Klinger, a criminologist at the University of Missouri St. Louis, wrote in an email. “They suck and no one should do any sort of analysis with them beyond using them to say that we have some floor [regarding] shootings and perhaps note that there are all sorts of circumstances involved when shootings occur.” However, commendable and methodologically rigorous efforts have been undertaken to create an unofficial database, notably by the Fatal Encounters website, which has been used as a data source in academic research. According to the Fatal Encounters database, 23,977 deaths took place at the hands of police between 2001 and 2018, which suggests that the figure of “more than 8,000” may be a significant underestimation. The factual claims in the meme are mostly accurate, but the underlying implication behind the meme, that shorter training programs cause the relatively high number of police killings in the United States, is questionable. Several unmentioned factors are likely to be more relevant and prominent as causes. According to a 2015 article by the sociologist and criminal justice professor Paul Hirschfield, these include: the arming of police (which is not routine in Norway, Finland, and Iceland), a higher prevalence of guns among the general public (“American police are primed to expect guns”), decentralized and under-resourced police training (although Hirschfield does not mention the duration of training as a factor), and racial biases (whether conscious or unconscious) among law enforcement officers. Although it’s true that the United States has a vastly higher population than any of the Nordic countries mentioned in the meme, it has a much higher prevalence of police killings, even when population is taken into account.
9157	New eye test detects earliest signs of glaucoma	This safety trial to determine early signs that may lead to glaucoma was carried out on a small number of patients who already had glaucoma and a control group of healthy people. The trial found the test safe in this small group of volunteers but is described in the release with much more enthusiastic language than is perhaps warranted. The release implies earlier detection will reduce blindness but doesn’t explain how. We also take exception to the claim that “a simple test” could reverse course on glaucoma worldwide. The eye is not a simple organ and there’s no such thing as a simple test. As we’ve been saying for years, whenever you hear the words “simple test” in relation to any serious disease or condition — run for the hills. Developing a means to detect individual cell death that may be the earliest signs of glaucoma could be an exciting discovery, if there is a strong rationale for early detection. We cannot assume that early detection automatically translates into better treatments and better outcomes. It can lead to over-diagnosis and over-treatment, and in many cases, the outcome after detecting a disease early is the same as detecting it later on. Finding early signs of disease in healthy people (before symptoms begin) of glaucoma and other neurodegenerative diseases may not lead to a true medical advance and may just medicalize a patient’s condition without any hope of a cure.	false	eye test,glaucoma,Wellcome Trust	There is no discussion of the costs of the test and the potential costs or cost savings of identifying patients earlier than they otherwise would be identified. The news release claims that “our developments mean we could diagnose patients 10 years earlier than was previously possible” but what does that mean in terms of disease prevention or reversal? The release could have put the benefits in context by telling us more about what was involved with the test and how many people were diagnosed with early signs of glaucoma. What were these signs? The release states only that the initial trials established the safety of the test in patients. The published research says that “ANX776 [the florescent marker or dye injected into patients] was found to be safe and well-tolerated with no serious adverse events, and a short half-life (10–36 min).” If there were non-serious side effects, readers deserve to know what they are. The release doesn’t tell us very much about the study design. We had to go to the published research findings to learn that the trial involved just eight people with diagnosed glaucoma and eight healthy controls. It is a real leap from this small open-label safety study to the researcher’s suggestion that “the test also has potential for early diagnosis of other degenerative neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and multiple sclerosis.” It has barely established the ‘proof of concept’ in testing glaucoma, so suggesting its potential in other neurological conditions is premature. There is no disease mongering here. The release provides context on the prevalence of glaucoma and what causes the condition. The funder is named and we are told that “UCL Business, the commercialisation company of UCL, holds the patents for the technology.” There are no mentions of alternative methods to screen for early signs of glaucoma. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the test for glaucoma is not one test but several including measuring eye pressure and cornea thickness, examining the optic nerve and testing peripheral vision, among other steps. Despite the enthusiasm about its future uses, it’s pretty clear this test is in early trials and unavailable to the public. The release refers to the tool under development as a “pioneering diagnostic.” A researcher is quoted saying, “Now, for the first time, we have been able to show individual cell death and detect the earliest signs of glaucoma. While we cannot cure the disease, our test means treatment can start before symptoms begin. In the future, the test could also be used to diagnose other neurodegenerative diseases.” We’ll give the release the benefit of the doubt that the test may potentially be novel for glaucoma but not for any neurological disease for which it hasn’t even been tested. There is some credulity-stretching language, such as when Bethan Hughes, from Wellcome’s Innovation team, said: “This innovation has the potential to transform lives for those who suffer loss of sight through glaucoma, and offers hope of a breakthrough in early diagnosis of other neurodegenerative diseases.” The suggestion that early detection leads to prevention in sight loss is also unwarranted. The study was to test the safety of the test, not to measure outcomes in terms of preventing blindness.
27802	Donald Trump's jet private carried a critically ill 3-year-old Jewish boy from California to New York for medical treatment.	"""The problem was that the commercial airlines refused to fly the child."""	true	Politics, donald trump	In mid-August 2015, a number of web sites reproduced a story about business magnate (and 2016 Republican presidential hopeful) Donald Trump’s having responded to the pleas of the parents of a critically ill 3-year-old Jewish boy, using his private jet to ferry the child from Los Angeles to New York for medical treatment after commercial airlines declined to carry the boy: Airlines Refuse to Fly Critically Ill 3-Year-Old to Doctors … So Parents Call Trump An incredible story involving Donald Trump has just come to light, and virtually no one knows about it because, unlike what almost any politician would do, the billionaire hasn’t used it to boost his public image. Years ago, now Presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s private 727 took off from Los Angeles and landed in New York City, much as it had for years. But this time one thing was different. While Trump wasn’t on board, three other passengers were — 3-year-old Andrew Ten and his parents. What led to this trip is a story that’s both heartbreaking and heartwarming. The story was factual, although many websites that reproduced versions of it in August 2015 did not provide the timeline behind it, leaving readers with the impression that it related a recent occurrence. However, those accounts described an event that took place 27 years earlier and were all based on an archived article published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency back on 20 July 1988: Orthodox Child with Rare Ailment is Rescued Aboard Tycoon’s Jet The private Boeing 727 of real estate tycoon Donald Trump arrived from Los Angeles at LaGuardia Airport, carrying aboard an Orthodox Jewish child with a rare and still undiagnosed breathing illness. The child, Andrew Ten, age 3, arrived with his parents — accompanied by three nurses who attend to him around the clock — to try to seek medical help in the New York area. Trump made his plane available for the special trip to New York after the boy’s parents, Judy and Harold Ten, called Trump and told him of their plight. Commercial airlines refused to fly the child because he could not travel without an elaborate life-support system, which includes a portable oxygen tank, a suction machine, a breathing bag and an adrenaline syringe. “Mr. Trump did not hesitate when we called him up. He said ‘yes, I’ll send my plane out,'” 29-year-old Harold Ten recalled shortly after he landed here. Asked why he thought Trump made his private jet available, Ten replied, “Because he is a good man. He has three children of his own and he knows what being a parent is all about.” Ten said he believes that Trump fulfilled the Talmudic saying that “he who saves one person’s life is as if he saved the entire world.” Among the relatives at the airport to greet the child and his parents were the paternal grandparents of the sick boy. “Donald Trump is a miracle, just a miracle,” said grandmother Feigy Ten, who came to the airport with her husband, Phillip Ten. Both grandparents thanked Trump’s generosity over and over again. Andrew, who is called by his Hebrew name, Avraham Moshe, was taken from the airport to the Schneider Children’s Hospital of Long Island Jewish Medical Center for treatment and evaluation. Andrew was healthy at birth, but one morning when he was 10 months old he suddenly stopped breathing. The second incident occurred six months later. Doctors had no explanation and to date have not determined what is causing him to stop breathing. Andrew has not cried in the last two-and-a-half years. He now eats with a feeding tube since he lost his gag reflex and the ability to swallow. He is monitored around the clock by nurses, and sleeps with an apnea alarm. Harold Ten said he and his family “are determined to do anything possible to save Andrew. We believe in God and we have hope,” he said. It isn’t quite true, though, to say that Trump “hasn’t used the story to boost his public image.” Although (as far as we know) Trump himself hadn’t yet brought it up during the 2016 presidential campaign cycle, he touted it as one of his accomplishments in his 2000 book The America We Deserve, which he put out as he was flirting with seeking the presidential nomination of the Reform Party: Another case that was a perfect fit [for my organizational talents] was Andrew Ten, who lived in California. He needed desperately to come to the East Coast because a very rare and very dangerous medical condition threatened his life. His parents felt that they had exhausted the medical options in the West and wanted this brave three-year-old to have the best shot possible at overcoming his challenge. They wanted him to be seen by doctors at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center. The problem was that the commercial airlines refused to fly the child. He couldn’t leave his home without a portable oxygen tank, a suction machine, a device to help him breathe, and other medical gear. Like all good parents, Andrew’s searched high and low for a solution. Eventually they called me. Though I had never heard of this family, my heart immediately went out to them. And when it was time, so did my Boeing 737, with three nurses on board. This is also a story Donald Trump might now want to distance himself from because in 2014 the sick boy’s father, Harold Ten, was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of taking part in a scheme that “allowed a ring of brokers, investment advisers and their clients to profit from the deaths of terminally ill patients”: Since the 1990s, Rabbi Harold Ten has been helping gravely ill Jews and their families navigate the health care system. Ten is the president of Bikur Cholim, a nonprofit that can get patients kosher meals in their hospital rooms or provide them with free loans of medical equipment. He’s known for calling local rabbis each week to find out which of their congregants are sick and then organizing volunteers to visit those individuals. But in 2007, Ten, who also goes by Heshy or Hershy, is alleged to have also been using his knowledge of the healthcare system to enrich himself in a highly unusual way. According to charges released by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on March 13, Ten played a key role in an alleged scheme that allowed a ring of brokers, investment advisers and their clients to profit from the deaths of terminally ill patients. The process involved the purchase of variable annuities, an investment vehicle typically made on a long-term basis and used by investors to provide them with income after retirement, and to provide their heirs with a death benefit. In the alleged scheme that the SEC says was orchestrated by Los Angeles-based broker Michael A. Horowitz, however, Horowitz’s investor clients purchased annuities that named terminally ill patients as the annuitants — allowing the investors to collect the death benefit payout very quickly and reap large profits at the expense of the insurance company that issued the annuities. Horowitz himself allegedly earned more than $300,000 in commissions on the sales of the annuities. Ten, as described in detail in a July 31 SEC report, assisted Horowitz in identifying, meeting with and obtaining personal information from terminally ill Jews, with whom he likely came into contact through his role at Bikur Cholim.
8319	Explainer: Do men fare worse with COVID-19?.	Death and infection tolls from the COVID-19 pandemic spreading around the world point to men being more likely than women to contract the disease and to suffer severe or critical complications if they do.	true	Health News	Here are some insights from research and experts: ARE MEN MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO INFECTION WITH THE NEW CORONAVIRUS? It looks that way, yes. In Italy, an analysis of more than 127,700 COVID-19 cases found that 52.9% of all infected people were men and 47.1% women. Among Italy’s first 14,860 deaths, almost 68% were men. A Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention report found that in a dataset of 44,672 confirmed cases, there was a 1.1% higher COVID-19 fatality rate in men compared to women. “Evidence is mounting that men are experiencing more severe symptoms and have a higher mortality rate when compared to women,” said James Gill, a specialist at Warwick Medical School. There are still many outstanding questions around why men are more frequently and harder hit by COVID-19 infection, but health specialists point to a number of possible factors. These include both behavioural and biological risks: * Unhealthy habits, smoking, and their impact Experts say one influence may be that men, in general, don’t look after their bodies as well as women do - with lower levels of handwashing and hygiene, and higher levels of smoking, alcohol use, obesity and other unhealthy behaviours. In many countries, smoking rates are higher among men than women, and smoking is a known risk factor for many other life-threatening conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, lung disease and cancer. The sex differential in smoking is particularly marked in China, where 50% of men smoke, compared to 5% of women. In Italy, a 2018 analysis found smoking was more common among men than women across all adult age groups. * Women’s “aggressive” immune response Another factor is the relative strength of the male and female immune responses. Research shows that immune response throughout life - to everything from vaccines and infections to autoimmune diseases - is typically more aggressive in women than in men. With COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by a coronavirus, this may be a particularly significant factor. Philip Goulder, a professor of immunology at Oxford University, says several factors contribute to women having more aggressive immune systems, including that females have two X chromosomes compared to one in males, and that a number of critical immune genes are found on the X chromosome. “In particular, the protein by which viruses such as coronavirus are sensed is encoded on the X chromosome,” Goulder said. That means this protein is expressed at twice the dose on many immune cells in women compared to men, which in turn could well be boosting females’ ability to ward off COVID-19.
1868	Working out in the early hours.	Night owls, insomniacs, shift workers and other denizens of the dark are finding less need to fit their workout time into the nine-to-five world.	true	Health News	Performance specialist David Delgado, 27, demonstrates a rope exercise in the company gym which is open 24 hours a day at the Google campus near Venice Beach, in Los Angeles, California January 13, 2012. The 100,000 square-foot campus was designed by architect Frank Gehry, and includes an entrance through an iconic pair of giant binoculars designed by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Around 500 employees develop video advertising for YouTube, parts of the Google+ social network and the Chrome Web browser at the site. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson More gyms are remaining open round the clock, experts say, spurred by advances in surveillance and security technology, clients’ ever more fluid work habits and a generation of multi-tasking consumers. “A lot of people work untraditional times and they take advantage of clubs open at all hours,” said Carl Liebert, CEO of 24 Hour Fitness, an international chain of health clubs, most of them open around the clock. Liebert said his 30-year-old chain has seen an increase in after-hours traffic, with five to 15 percent of clients, depending on location, working out between midnight and 5:00 a.m. “I think people have changed,” he said. “They’re online; they’re connected day and night. When I grew up I went to bed at night and got up in the morning. Between those times I wasn’t multitasking.” Liebert said common night visitors include people who work out to relieve stress, insomniacs, and hard-core fitness fanatics who wouldn’t miss a workout and prefer a gym less crowded. The number of health clubs open 24 hours has soared from just couple hundred five years ago to more than 2,000 today, according to IHRSA, the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association, a trade association of fitness facilities. Spokesperson Meredith Poppler said while most club goers still work out during regular hours, technology has enabled small, often rural, clubs to operate overnight, and sometimes unstaffed. “Cameras on the doors, cameras in the clubs, safety buttons each member carries set them apart,” said Poppler. “Many of the operators are in the clubs at certain times of days, but other times the clubs are truly unstaffed.” Access is granted via a swipe card or key fob. Poppler said the largest franchising company of 24-hour key clubs is Anytime Fitness, based in Hastings, Minnesota. Earlier this year the chain reported that late-night workouts from midnight to 3:00 a.m. totaled 1.2 million in 2011, up from 900,000 the previous year. “Anytime Fitness finds that 24/7 access caters to everyone from your typical night owls, to doctors and nurses, and other public service officials who work odd hours,” said spokesperson Tara Dosh. Liz Neporent, spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise, belongs to a 24-hour gym in New York City. She said physiologically it doesn’t matter when you choose to work out, although some studies suggest that morning exercisers may be more likely to stick with their program. More important is finding a time that’s convenient. Neporent, who has experience operating health clubs, said while she prefers to see staff on duty at night, sometimes it’s not economically feasible. “A lot of residential gyms in apartment buildings are lightly manned or unmanned,” she said, adding that for turnkey gyms, cameras are a must. Neporent said when she does hit the gym at 3:00 a.m., the crowd’s different. “At 6:00 a.m. you get the professionals going to work. Late morning you see a lot of stay-at-home moms. Overnight I tend to see more creative types,” she said. “More piercings, more tattoos. I have met interesting people at three or four in the morning.”
31880	The modern image of Santa Claus was created by the Coca-Cola Company.	The image of Santa Claus as a jolly large man in a red-and-white suit was the standard long before Coca-Cola co-opted it for their advertising.	false	Holidays, christmas, coca-cola, santa claus	Among the pantheon of characters commonly associated with the Christmas season (both the religious holiday and the secular wintertime celebrations), the beloved persona of Santa Claus is somewhat distinctive in that his appearance is neither one that has been solidified through centuries of religious tradition nor one that sprang fully-formed from the imagination of a modern-day writer or artist. Santa Claus is instead a hybrid, a character descended from a religious figure (St. Nicholas) whose physical appearance and backstory were created and shaped by many different hands over the course of years until he finally coalesced into the now familiar (secular) character of a jolly, rotund, red-and-white garbed father figure who oversees a North Pole workshop manned by elves and travels in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer to deliver toys to children all around the world every Christmas Eve. Although we can identify some of the most influential sources who contributed to the formation of the modern Santa Claus figure (such as writers Washington Irving and Clement Clarke Moore, historian John Pintard, and illustrator Thomas Nast) no single person or institution can lay claim to having created him. Nonetheless, we humans prefer definitive answers: We want details about time, place, and source and tend to eschew ambiguous, indefinite, open-ended explanations. We don’t find satisfying the notion that Santa Claus is an evolutionary figure with no single, identifiable point of origin, so instead many of us have clung to the more satisfying, pat (and somewhat cynical) explanation that the modern appearance of Santa Claus was a commercial creation of the Coca-Cola company, who cannily promoted a version of Santa garbed in their red-and-white corporate colors. It is true that, since Santa Claus is an evolutionary figure, he did not suddenly appear fully-formed one day and immediately supplant every other character traditionally associated with Christmas. However, it is not true in any realistic sense that Coca-Cola “created” the modern Santa Claus: they did not invent the now-familiar rotund, bearded fellow clothed in red-and-white garb, nor did they pluck him from a pantheon of competing, visually different Christmastime figures and elevate him to the supreme symbol of Christmas gift-giving. The red-and-white Santa figure existed long before Coca-Cola began featuring him in print advertisements, and he had already supplanted a bevy of competitors to become the standard representation of Santa Claus before he began his tenure as a pitchman for Coke. At the beginning of the 1930s, as the burgeoning Coca-Cola company was looking for ways to increase sales of their product during winter (then a slow time of year for the soft drink market), they turned to a talented commercial illustrator named Haddon Sundblom, who created a series of memorable drawings (inspired in large part by Clement Clark Moore’s 1822 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”) that associated the figure of a larger than life, red-and-white garbed Santa Claus with Coca-Cola and the slogan “The Pause That Refreshes,” such as the following: However, illustrations of lavishly bearded Santas (and his predecessors), showing figures clothed in red suits and red hats with white fur trimming, held together with broad black belts, were common long before Coca-Cola’s first Sundblom-drawn Santa Claus advertisement appeared in 1931, as evidenced by these examples from 1906, 1908, and 1925, respectively: There was a period of overlap during which the modern Santa Claus character coexisted with other Christmas figures and other versions of himself, as his now-standard appearance and persona jelled and his character grew in popularity to become the dominant (secular) Christmas figure in the western world. However, that period had ended before Coca-Cola began utilizing Santa for their holiday season advertisements. As noted in a New York Times article published in 1927, four years before the appearance of Sundblom’s first Santa-based Coca-Cola ad, the Santa Claus figure rendered by Sundblom was based upon what had already become the standard image of Santa: A standardized Santa Claus appears to New York children. Height, weight, stature are almost exactly standardized, as are the red garments, the hood and the white whiskers. The pack full of toys, ruddy cheeks and nose, bushy eyebrows and a jolly, paunchy effect are also inevitable parts of the requisite make-up. Coke’s annual advertisements featuring Sundblom-drawn Santas holding bottles of Coca-Cola, drinking Coca-Cola, receiving Coca-Cola as gifts, and enjoying Coca-Cola became a perennial Christmastime feature which helped spur Coca-Cola sales throughout the winter (and produced the bonus effect of appealing quite strongly to children, an important segment of the soft drink market). One might therefore fairly grant Coca-Cola some credit for cementing the modern image of Santa Claus in the public consciousness, as in an era before the advent of television, before color motion pictures became common, and before the widespread use of color in newspapers, Coca-Cola’s magazine advertisements, billboards, and point-of-sale store displays were for many Americans their primary exposure to the modern Santa Claus image. But at best what Coca-Cola popularized was an image they borrowed, not one they created.
33279	Giving your dog ice or ice water on a hot day is likely to cause your pet to die from bloating and spasms.	Giving your dog ice or ice water on a hot day is not likely to cause your pet to die from bloating and spasms.	false	Critter Country, Crusader Habit	Humans often treat their canine companions as if they were fellow human beings, and when one sees a dog panting or displaying other signs of being overheated on a warm day, a natural inclination is to provide the animal with something we people find cool and refreshing, such as ice-cold water or pieces of ice (or both). According to widespread lore, however, this is a dangerous practice: providing pooches with ice or ice water can supposedly produce bloating that can lead them to develop acute gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV), a life-threatening condition: Acute gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV) is a life-threatening condition, with fatality rates ranging from 10% to 60%. The animals most commonly affected by GDV include older, large or giant breed, deep-chested dogs, including Great Danes, German Shepherds, Standard Poodles, and large mixed breed dogs. Early diagnosis, medical stabilization, surgical intervention and post-operative monitoring are important factors in reducing the mortality rate. Gastric dilatation-volvulus is the result of accumulation of gas, fluid, or a combination of the two in the stomach. Factors responsible for causing dilatation include aerophagia, exercise after ingesting a meal, and overeating. The stomach distends with gas or fluid, and rotation along the axis of the esophagus and cardia follows. But, as various sources have noted, it’s unlikely a dog would develop GDV simply from being provided with ice or ice water — the real danger to your dog is more likely to come from the animal’s consuming too much water and/or consuming water too quickly: GDV is indeed a very serious condition, but can it be caused by ice water? According the vets we interviewed, no. The reality is, it’s more likely that the dog has ingested too much water too quickly, swallowing a fair amount of air along the way. We can see the need to give your pup loads of ice water after a heavy play session, especially if they tend to be hot when they’re inactive, but despite the lack of danger of GDV, we don’t recommend it. First, giving your dog too much water really can be dangerous. Usually, dogs who drink too much water too fast just vomit it up, but if they don’t, bloat is a real concern. As for it being ice water, consult your vet. But think about it: If you’re hot and reach for a cold glass of ice water and sip it down too quickly, what happens? What should be cooling leads to pain and discomfort. It may not be harmful, but why make yourself (or your dog) miserable. Veterinarian Dr. Audrey Harvey concurred, writing of this topic in July 2011 that: There have been rumors that ice and ice water causes a spasm of the stomach muscle in dogs, leading to a swollen stomach, and potentially fatal bloat. These rumors are not true, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, while ice may cause a muscle spasm, this is more likely to cause vomiting. Secondly, if ice caused bloating, then we’d see more cases of bloat during winter in dogs that live outdoors in cold parts of the country, where their water bowl ices over, and this isn’t the case. I think that what is more likely is that dogs are given ice or iced water to drink when they are hot and thirsty, for example after heavy exercise. Under these circumstances, they are very likely to drink a lot of water very quickly, and this is a known risk factor for bloat. To prevent your dog getting bloat, feed several small meals a day instead of one or two large ones, don’t let them drink lots of water at once, and avoid exercise for an hour or so after mealtime. Likewise, Dr. Page Wages of the Oberlin Animal Hospital wrote said of this subject in August 2007 that: Q: Can bloat be attributed to feeding your dog ice or ice water? A: Not directly. If your dog drinks the ice water or eats the ice cubes too fast, there is a potential to lead to bloat. Bloat is a condition in a dog or cat when they eat too much or too fast, and suck in air with the food or water, allowing the stomach to fill with gas. Most often, dogs will eat their meal very fast and then run or play, sucking in air as they bounce around, filling their stomach. Some dogs will bloat by eating too much too fast. Regardless, the stomach fills with gas and is at risk for flipping, causing a GDV (Gastric Dilatation and Volvulus), which is an emergency condition and required immediate surgery. Dogs with bloat or a GDV can very quickly go into shock and if stretched too far can potentially slough part of their stomach, which is life threatening. Most common breeds susceptible to bloat are the deep chested dogs, like Bassett Hounds, Standard Poodles, Labradors, Weimaraner, Shepherds, etc. And veterinarian Dr. Patty Khuly wrote in July 2010 of the second example reproduced above (which has been circulating since at least 2007), these types of warnings about dogs and ice water are examples of “web-based misinformation [that] will just not die”: Though undoubtedly well-intentioned, the problem is obvious: The writer is misguidedly offering up her story as a helpful truth. When, in fact, the information is unproven, unreliably sourced, unverified, and utterly unnecessarily disseminated to the public — to the potential detriment of dogs who may indeed benefit from drinking cold water or getting ice cubes in their water to brake their drinking binges. Frigid water gastric “cramping” is a falsehood akin to those that inform you that your hair will grow back coarser if you shave it (myth), or that you shouldn’t go swimming for 30 minutes after eating lest you drown in a fit of cramps (myth). And though it’s not a big deal to warn people about something that will at the very least do no harm should they avoid it, it drives me crazy to get these e-mails, nonetheless. Since 2007, when this message started making the rounds, I’ve received this ice water e-mail ten times over — at least. It even once served as an impetus for a post I wrote on the truth behind bloat risks, and on another occasion, it inspired a piece I wrote for The Bark (Sept/Oct 2009), treating current veterinary thinking on the subject. Why so sensitive? Because the story needed to be outed for what it was: a simple tragic anecdote. Because it annoys me when people feel the need to pass along their personal tales of woe without consulting the science behind the tragedy. And because people should probably think before playing a viral game of online Cassandra with respect to everyone else’s pets.
1764	Defying stigma, survivors join the Ebola fight in West Africa.	High school teacher Fanta Oulen Camara spent two weeks in March fighting for her life against the deadly Ebola virus but her darkest days came after she was cured of the disease and returned to her home in Guinea.	true	Health News	“Most of my friends stopped visiting. They didn’t speak to me. They avoided me,” the 24-year-old said. “I wasn’t allowed to teach anymore.” The worst outbreak of Ebola on record has killed 5,000 people in West Africa, mostly in Guinea and neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. But thousands more have survived, ostracized by fearful communities ravaged by the disease. In the face of such stigmatization, Ebola survivors like Camara are joining an association in Guinea that assists the growing number of people who recover and seeks ways for them to help combat the disease. Survivors are believed to have immunity from Ebola thanks to antibodies in their blood, making them a powerful weapon in a fight against the virus. A shortage of healthcare workers means weak West African governments are losing the battle to contain Ebola, despite pledges of hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid. The virus is spread by the bodily fluids of victims, who bleed, vomit and suffer diarrhea in its final stages. Ordinary medical and sanitary staff must wear heavy Personal Protective Equipment to prevent infection, denying scared patients the chance for human contact — but survivors do not have to. Camara, who lost six members of her family to Ebola, works with medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres at a clinic in Guinea’s dilapidated ocean-front capital Conakry. “We share our own experience with those people, explaining that we were sick but now we have been cured,” Camara said. “We give them hope.” In Liberia and Sierra Leone too, survivors are signing up to work in Ebola Treatment Units, to care for children orphaned by the disease, and to provide counseling to victims in an attempt to break the taboo surrounding the outbreak. There is hope that blood from survivors can also be used as a serum to treat the disease. In Liberia, plans are underway to store survivors’ blood and the World Health Organization has said that treatment could start as early as December. For Dr Oulare Bakary, who set up the survivors association three months after he beat Ebola, people who recover have an role to play in demystifying a virus that has caused a violent backlash, partly because it has never before struck West Africa. Bakary was infected while treating patients in March, days before the mysterious virus in the forests of Guinea was confirmed as Ebola. “Everyone has been facing stigma and rejection,” he said. “We needed to send a message to the people about the epidemic and also the possibility to be cured.” He said that Camara’s story was all too common: not only had she lost her job, but when her brother went to his office, he was told to never come back as well. “It’s not only the survivors of Ebola, it’s their friends and families who are the collateral damage.” The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, who is touring the region to assess the global response, said dealing with the stigma and fear of Ebola was central to fighting it. This was equally true in the United States, she said, where several states have implemented mandatory 21-day quarantine periods for healthcare workers returning from West Africa after four cases were diagnosed on U.S. soil. “You’re actually a real asset because you uniquely know the human stakes of what others are going through,” Power said, at a meeting with survivors in Conakry’s Grand Mosque. “These people could be integrated into the solution and instead they feel sadly like part of the problem,” she said. In Liberia, where more than half the deaths have been registered, U.N. child agency UNICEF is enlisting survivors to help care for the rising number of children whose parents have either been killed or isolated in treatment units. UNICEF estimates that 3,700 children have been orphaned by Ebola. Many of those who survive are deeply traumatized and terrified by anyone wearing protective equipment. Only people who have survived the disease already can bring personal care to these terrified, yet possibly contagious, kids. “Survivors can provide that kind of human touch that is so important,” said Sheldon Yett, Liberia country director for UNICEF. “They are the key ingredient to providing support to children.” Kpetermeni Meinu and eight other survivors work with Ebola orphans at the Willing Heart Interim Care Center in Monrovia, supported by UNICEF. They bathe children, wash their clothes and monitor for signs of the virus. Since he has been working there, five of the 17 children have developed symptoms of the virus and been taken to a treatment unit, he says. One young boy who remains, Anthony Sheriff, is terrified of strangers and medical staff. “He saw someone spraying his mother before going into the Ebola treatment unit and his mother died. Someone sprayed his father before taken into the ETU and his father also died,” said Meinu. “So he now thinks that whenever he sees spray with anyone, they want to kill him.”
27933	A dying child was made an honorary fireman by the Phoenix Fire Department.	Was a dying child made an honorary fireman in Phoenix?	true	Viral Phenomena	Though the story circulated in email identifies the dying child as “Billy” instead of by his actual name, this Internet tale is a relatively truthful, if overwritten, account. It’s also (with the exception of the child’s name) lifted word-for-word from the original Chicken Soup for the Soul book. Example: The 26-year-old mother stared down at her son who was dying of terminal leukemia. Although her heart was filled with sadness, she also had a strong feeling of determination. Like any parent she wanted her son to grow up and fulfill all his dreams. Now that was no longer possible. The leukemia would see to that. But she still wanted her son’s dreams to come true. She took her son’s hand and asked, “Billy, did you ever think about what you wanted to be once you grew up? Did you ever dream and wish what you would do with your life?” “Mommy, I always wanted to be a fireman when I grew up.” Mom smiled back and said, “Let’s see if we can make your wish come true.” Later that day she went to her local fire department in Phoenix, Arizona, where she met Fireman Bob, who had a heart as big as Phoenix. She explained her son’s final wish and asked if it might be possible to give her six year old son a ride around the block on a fire engine. Fireman Bob said, “Look, we can do better than that. If you’ll have your son ready at seven o’clock Wednesday morning, we’ll make him an honorary fireman for the whole day. He can come down to the fire station, eat with us, go out on all the fire calls, the whole nine yards! “And if you’ll give us his sizes, we’ll get a real fire uniform for him, with a real fire hat — not a toy one — with the emblem of the Phoenix Fire Department on it, a yellow slicker like we wear and rubber boots. They’re all manufactured right here in Phoenix, so we can get them fast.” Three days later Fireman Bob picked up Billy, dressed him in his fire uniform and escorted him from his hospital bed to the waiting hook and ladder truck. Billy got to sit on the back of the truck and help steer it back to the fire station. He was in heaven. There were three fire calls in Phoenix that day and Billy got to go out on all three calls. He rode in the different fire engines, the paramedic’s van, and even the fire chief’s car. He was also videotaped for the local news program.Having his dream come true, with all the love and attention that was lavished upon him, so deeply touched Billy that he lived three months longer than any doctor thought possible. One night all of his vital signs began to drop dramatically and the head nurse, who believed in the hospice concept that no one should die alone, began to call the family members to the hospital. Then she remembered the day Billy had spent as a fireman, so she called the Fire Chief and asked if it would be possible to send a fireman in uniform to the hospital to be with Billy as he made his transition. The chief replied, “We can do better than that. We’ll be there in five minutes. Will you please do me a favor? When you hear the sirens screaming and see the lights flashing, will you announce over the PA system that there is not a fire? It’s just the fire department coming to see one of its finest members one more time. And will you open the window to his room? About five minutes later a hook and ladder truck arrived at the hospital, extended its ladder up to Billy’s third floor open window and 16 firefighters climbed up the ladder into Billy’s room. With his mother’s permission, they hugged him and held him and told him how much they loved him. With his dying breath, Billy looked up at the fire chief and said, “Chief, am I really a fireman now?” ” Billy, you are,” the chief said. With those words, Billy smiled and closed his eyes one last time. Not that we’re going to swear that all Chicken Soup stories are necessarily true, but this one is. In 1981, Frank “Bopsy” Salazar, a 7-year-old dying of leukemia, became the first “wish child” helped by the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This boy from Phoenix had three wishes: to be a fireman, to ride in a hot air balloon, and to go to Disneyland. He ultimately achieved all three; the fulfillment of his first wish, the fireman one, was described by the Make-A-Wish Foundation in their account of events: The Phoenix Fire Department made sure Bopsy had an experience truly befitting a fireman — making him the first honorary fireman in Phoenix history. A full uniform, complete with a yellow coat and a helmet, was custom made just for him. Bopsy scrambled around the back of Engine 9’s ladder truck, and turned on the horn. Following the ride, he doused a few cars with water from a 75-pound hose. At the end of the day, Bopsy was pinned with an official firefighter’s badge. Bopsy went on to experience his hot-air balloon ride and a trip to Disneyland. While in Anaheim, he was treated with every courtesy a visiting fireman could wish for from his Southern California colleagues, including being chauffeured to and from the Los Angeles airport in a fire truck and escorted around the park by two of his fellow firefighters from the Anaheim fire department. As for the more fantastic claim made in the e-mail — that Phoenix fireman climbed through the child’s hospital window on the night Bopsy died — this too holds true. It was only five firemen instead of the sixteen of the Chicken Soup version, but they did indeed park the hook and ladder below his window, then climb up the ladder and into his room: Bopsy’s condition worsened not long after returning from California, and he had to return to the hospital. As he slept in his third floor room, someone suddenly knocked on his window and opened it, and in came five of his fellow Phoenix firemen. They had parked their ladder truck below. As his colleagues continued to crawl through the window, Bopsy — now fully awake — could not contain his laughter. Bopsy shared a few laughs and stories with his friends before going back to sleep, with a smile on his face. Later that evening, Bopsy passed away — but not before seeing all three of his fondest wishes come true.
8741	Exercise reduces fat in livers of diabetics: study.	Regular moderate exercise helps people with diabetes to reduce fat in their livers, in turn potentially preventing liver failure and heart disease, U.S. researchers said on Friday.	true	Health News	People with type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease and one closely tied to obesity, often have elevated liver fat levels and are at high risk for a condition called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Diabetics who did a six-month program of cardiovascular exercise and weight lifting three times a week cut the fat in their livers by about 40 percent in the study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. They said the study, which used magnetic resonance imaging scans, is the first to show exercise can get fat out of the livers of people with type 2 diabetes. “What we were able to demonstrate pretty definitively is that yet another benefit of exercise is to help reduce liver fat,” Johns Hopkins exercise physiologist Kerry Stewart said in a telephone interview. Stewart presented the findings at an American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation meeting in Indianapolis. The condition, also known as hepatic steatosis, can lead to cirrhosis of the liver, liver failure, liver cancer and a higher risk for diabetes-related heart problems. Seventy-seven men and women with diabetes, most of whom were overweight or obese, took part in the study. About half were assigned to moderate exercise including 45 minutes of running on a treadmill, using a stair-climbing machine or riding a bicycle for 45 minutes three times a week, along with 20 minutes of lifting weights. The others were not placed in any formal fitness program, and most got little physical activity. At the end of six months, they had no improvement in liver fat. Those in the exercise group also improved their overall fitness, shedding weight, gaining muscle strength and losing abdominal fat. Type 2 diabetes is a growing problem in the United States and many other countries, fueled by increasing obesity. The American Diabetes Association said about 24 million people in the United States have diabetes, mostly type 2.
9585	Striking' Results from Early Zika Vaccine Trial	This is a story about several vaccines in development for the mosquito-transmitted Zika virus. An unfortunate headline notes “striking” results from “early Zika vaccine trial,” suggesting a human clinical trial of this particular vaccine had already begun, when in fact the reference is to a pre-clinical trial in monkeys. But the news story is more balanced with a good summary of another vaccine–being developed at the National Institute of Health–that has just begun testing in humans. However, the story should have included an independent vaccine expert to provide perspective on the long development road ahead for any of these vaccines. Zika virus infections continue to spread across certain parts of Latin American, the Caribbean and Florida, and public health/infectious disease researchers have advanced the development of a vaccine at something approaching warp speed for scientific achievement of this sort. Even at the current pace, however, a vaccine ready for general use is still several years away at the very least, and news reports like this one serve a public interest role in keeping people aware of this serious public health threat.	mixture	Zika virus	Putting a cost estimate on experimental vaccines would be difficult to do, so we’ll rate this N/A. However, there is an opportunity in any story about Zika interventions to address the overall costs and financial needs. Congress, for example, has been in the news for months over its failure to earmark funds for Zika control requested by the White House and federal public health officials–how would vaccine funding be affected by that? Mixed bag. We could have gone either way with this grade but give the story the benefit of the doubt. The story does detail the findings of one of the four vaccines being tested: That 16 monkeys appeared to become immune to Zika. More information about the three other vaccine trials should have been given, though. The news story notes that the killed-virus vaccine is safer than another line of vaccines under development, but it does not address the presence or absence of any side effects or potential harms/shortcomings of the new experimental vaccine if and when this vaccine is tested in humans. One extremely important safety concern, for example, will be how it affects pregnant women and fetuses. The story should have let readers that the current evidence for the “striking results’ is low quality, in that it’s only only a small study conducted in animals. We’re far, far away from knowing if this vaccine will safely protect, say, pregnant human women and fetuses. Words matter in such stories and there was an unfortunate flaw in this sentence: “Three experimental vaccines being developed by researchers at Harvard’s Beth Israel Hospital and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research had already shown promise in mice — but monkeys are a much better model of how the medicines will work in humans.” Those two verbs convey a certainty that does not exist. Monkeys can be a better model of how the medicines might work in humans. It does not disease monger. The story quotes only sources directly involved with the research. The story does a good job of noting other vaccine types and the clinical testing of a competing vaccine. The story offers information about possible timetables for clinical testing and availability. It could have been more emphatic that there are a lot of unknowns here, though. The news story does a good job of explaining how the Harvard-Walter Reed vaccine differs from another one further along in development. The news story does not appear to be based on a news release.
136	GSK recalls popular heartburn drug Zantac globally after cancer scare.	GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) on Tuesday said it is recalling the popular heartburn medicine Zantac in all markets as a “precaution”, days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found “unacceptable” levels of probable cancer-causing impurity in the drug.	true	Health News	Zantac, also sold generically as ranitidine, is the latest drug in which cancer-causing impurities have been found. Regulators have been recalling some blood pressure and heart failure medicines since last year. Britain's medicines watchdog said GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was recalling four prescription-only Zantac medicines: a syrup, an injection and tablets of 150 and 300 milligram (mg) dosages. (bit.ly/2IATooO) Over-the-counter 75 mg dosage Zantac products are produced by a different company and are not affected by the recall, it added. “GSK informed the MHRA of our decision to suspend the release, distribution and supply of all dose forms of Zantac products,” a company spokesman confirmed to Reuters. “GSK is continuing with investigations into the potential source of the NDMA,” he said, adding that the investigations include continued engagement with its suppliers and with external laboratories to conduct tests on finished product batches of Zantac. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said healthcare professionals were told on Monday to “stop supplying the products immediately, quarantine all remaining stock and return it to their supplier”. “We are advising that patients should not to stop taking their medication, and do not need to see their doctor until their next routine appointment but should seek their doctor’s advice if they have any concerns,” the MHRA said. U.S. and European health regulators said last month they were reviewing the safety of ranitidine, after online pharmacy Valisure flagged the impurities. The FDA said Valisure’s higher-temperature testing method generated very high levels of NDMA from the ranitidine drugs. NDMA had previously been found in some blood pressure medicines from a class of drugs known as angiotensin II receptor blockers, or ARBs. After checking the over-the-counter drugs using a low-heat method of testing, the FDA said it found much lower levels of NDMA than was discovered with a higher temperature test employed by Valisure. The U.S. regulator has asked ranitidine makers to conduct their own testing to assess levels of the impurity and to send samples of their products for testing by the agency. Swiss drugmaker Novartis (NOVN.S) halted global distribution of its ranitidine drugs last month. Last week, Walmart Inc (WMT.N) joined pharmacy chains CVS Health Corp (CVS.N), Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA.O) and Rite Aid Corp (RAD.N) in suspending the sale of over-the-counter heartburn drugs containing ranitidine. Canada’s health authorities have asked makers of the drugs to halt distribution as they gather more information. Last month, regulators in Hong Kong pulled four products, while in Ireland 13 products containing ranitidine were recalled. The impurity was believed to have been introduced by changes in the manufacturing process.
22500	There are nearly 500,000 registered sex offenders across the country and at any one time about 100,000 are unaccounted for.	Palumbo says there are 500,000 registered sex offenders in U.S. and 100,000 are unaccounted for	false	Rhode Island, Children, Crime, Peter Palumbo,	"For several years, state Rep. Peter G. Palumbo has worked to revise the way Rhode Island registers and monitors convicted sex offenders. This year he introduced legislation to consolidate the state’s sex offender registry under the supervision of the state police and revamp it to comply with federal guidelines. A General Assembly news release announcing the new bill cites the reason such legislation is needed, attributing the statement to Palumbo: ""Across the nation, there are nearly 500,000 registered sex offenders and at any one time about 100,000 of them are unaccounted for. As long as there is one sex offender out there that we cannot account for, there is the potential for great harm, the potential for another victim."" We wondered if that many sex offenders were really missing, so we asked Palumbo where he got those figures. He cited one source: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, a nonprofit based in Alexandria, Va. According to its annual report, the center was created by Congress in 1984, following the highly publicized disappearance of 6-year-old Etan Patz in New York City. The center created a national missing children’s hot line and serves as a clearinghouse for information on missing and exploited children. It also collects data twice a year from every state on registered sex offenders. Carolyn Atwell-Davis, the center’s director of legislative affairs, says the group arrives at its figures by calling law enforcement officials in each state and requesting the totals. It uses the information to periodically publish a national map showing the number of registered sex offenders in each state. Using similar data, and what it calls conservative estimates, the center tallies offenders who are unaccounted for. Atwell-Davis said the number of registered sex offenders, based on the most recent survey, in December, is actually 728,435 -- 46 percent more than the number Palumbo cited. Atwell-Davis said the last time the total number of sex offenders nationally was close to 500,000 was about 2002. The group’s estimate of the number of unaccounted for is 100,000 -- a number that hasn’t changed in years. NCMEC receives nearly $50 million annually in government grants and charitable contributions to fight child pornography, track sex offenders, maintain a missing children’s hot line and train police and prosecutors. Its data on sex offenders are cited routinely by politicians and the Justice Department. Because Palumbo’s underlying point is that a substantial number of registered sex offenders is missing, we decided to examine that premise. First, we checked Rhode Island, where the sex offender registry lists 569 offenders. Of that total, 119 are so-called Level 3 offenders, who have been convicted of sexual assaults, child molestation or kidnapping a minor. Ten of those were identified as being deported, moved out of state, incarcerated out of state or whereabouts unknown. Another 225 are so-called Level 2 offenders, those who had committed less serious felony sex offenses. A total of 12 were identified as whereabouts unknown. So, 22 of the 569 registered offenders in Rhode Island are unaccounted for -- about 4 percent. We checked with some neighbors. One problem is that many use different criteria in entering offenders on their registries. Connecticut, for instance, does not have tiers of offenders. All are lumped together, for a total of 5,279. Rather than having various categories of missing, public information officer Lt. Paul Vance says the state uses a category of ""not in compliance."" That includes everyone from those who haven’t supplied their addresses to those who have fled. The total is 372 or about 7 percent. New York State identifies 31,972 offenders in three tiers. But only 490 are identified as location unknown. That is 1.5 percent of the total. Massachusetts has a total of 8,166 registered sex offenders. Those who haven’t properly registered or who are otherwise unaccounted for are termed violators. As of Wednesday, there were 227 violators - or less than 3 percent. We aren’t the only ones wondering about NCMEC’s numbers. Jill Levenson, chairwoman of the Department of Human Services at Lynn University, in Boca Raton, Fla., has been studying sexual offender registries, with other researchers from the University of Massachusetts, the University of California and the New Jersey Department of Corrections. She disagrees with the number of 100,000 ""missing"" offenders reported by NCMEC. Levenson said the highest number her group could determine was 17,688. ""When they (NCMEC) say missing, part of the question is what does that mean?"" said Levenson. She said her group found many of the ""missing"" were homeless, in transit or simply the result of data entry errors. A study of the Florida registry found nearly a third of the people listed had died, moved or been deported. Levenson said she feels it’s important to make the proper data available so that resources may be allocated most efficiently to deal with social problems such as sexual offenses. She argues the current emphasis on ""publicly identifying and tracking known offenders may do a disservice to the public, since over 90 percent of sexually abused children are victimized by someone well known to them with no previous sex crime record, not a stranger found on a registry."" We asked Atwell-Davis about Levenson’s conclusions. As for the missing offenders, Atwell-Davis said, ""We’ve always said that was an estimate and that it was conservative."" She said several studies suggest the true number is higher. For example, she said she believes California is missing 20 percent of its offenders. The official figures from California, as of March 1, are 71,803 registered offenders, with 17,544 in violation of the registration law. That is 24 percent. Atwell-Davis said she believes the discrepancy is due to the fact that Levenson gets her figures from public registries while NCMEC gets data directly from law enforcement agencies in each state and territory. ""We don’t want to create fear where it is unnecessary,"" said Atwell-Davis. ""We believe it is important for communities to have good information."" So where are we? * The 500,000 figure Palumbo cites for the total number of sex offenders in the United States was, by NCMEC’s count, off by more than 228,000. The last time it was 500,000 was nine years ago. * If NCMEC’s numbers are accurate, the ratio of unaccounted for sex offenders nationwide is 1 of 7, not the 1 of 5 Palumbo’s statement suggests. * NCMEC’s numbers are in dispute. A team of academics says they’re substantially overstated. Data from Rhode Island and nearby states supports that view. Clearly, when even one registered sex offender is missing, that’s a serious problem -- a problem Palumbo is trying to fix. But public officials owe it to their constituents to get the facts right when they’re trying to address such issues. Palumbo’s statement contains some element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression."
12058	The current city mayor (Kasim Reed) has been virtually absent in terms of regional cooperation the last eight years.	Eaves said Reed has been virtually absent from regional cooperation over his eight years in office. This seems to be rooted in Reed’s attitude toward a mayors’ initiative led by Eaves. There is also some evidence that Reed failed to faithfully attend meetings of Atlanta’s Regional Commission. However, in terms of promoting major development activity that boosted jobs across the region, Reed was deeply involved and can take credit for playing a key role. Reed might have rubbed some local officials the wrong way, but for residents, tangible results matter more than style. There’s a sliver of truth.	false	Georgia, City Government, John Eaves,	"At a recent candidate forum in Atlanta’s mayoral race, John Eaves touted his credentials as a force for broad economic development. The former Fulton County chairman said he understands what the job requires. ""I’ve been there, done that,"" Eaves said. ""The current city mayor has been virtually absent in terms of regional cooperation the last eight years. As mayor of Atlanta, I’ll continue to work with regional partners."" Term limits have the current mayor Kasim Reed stepping down after two terms. During his time in office, Atlanta proper has attracted new jobs. But did Reed aim to advance the city’s future without regard for the surrounding cities and counties? A 2013 blog post faulted Reed for failing to attend many meetings of the Atlanta Regional Commission. Between 2010 and August 2013, he missed 24 meetings out of 36 total. Only one other member of the commission board had a worse attendance record. That is one yardstick, but there are others to measure Reed’s presence in regional issues. One of Reed’s top priorities has been the deepening of the Port of Savannah, about 250 miles from the city. In 2015, the Georgia Port Authority said the port supported about 370,000 jobs across the state. Reed is credited for working with Republican lawmakers and the state’s Republican governor to push the project forward. The Trump administration has included $50 million for the nearly $1 billion effort, far short of what state and local officials sought, but a modest victory in a budget cutting environment. Reed has also promoted expansion of Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport, an anchor for economic development in the region. Reed struck an agreement with Delta Airlines to keep the company in Atlanta for the next two decades. In the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the Atlanta region led among the nation’s 12 largest metropolitan areas in the rate of job growth, and ranked third overall for the number of jobs added in the past year. Companies that have moved to the region include Mercedes-Benz and State Farm, both of which located just outside the city of Atlanta. Symbolic of regional cooperation, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Mercedes-Benz headquarters building featured Gov. Nathan Deal, Reed and Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul. Reed touts his push for half-a-cent increase in the Atlanta sales tax to finance a $2.6 billion expansion of the regional subway system, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. While the work would take place inside the city, the MARTA system extends out to the surrounding cities. His work on regional transportation links to Eaves’ criticism of Reed. Eaves led a group of Fulton County mayors to craft a joint transportation investment plan. According to one news report, Reed chafed at having a vote that was equal to that of mayors from much smaller communities. Through a spokeswoman, Eaves said, ""Over the course of my tenure establishing the Mayors’ Council, Reed did not really play a role, giving off the general sense that he was more important than the other 14 mayors."" But Reed did participate and remained open to a compromise approach hammered out by the group. Eaves said Reed has been virtually absent from regional cooperation over his eight years in office. This seems to be rooted in Reed’s attitude toward a mayors’ initiative led by Eaves. There is also some evidence that Reed failed to faithfully attend meetings of Atlanta’s Regional Commission. However, in terms of promoting major development activity that boosted jobs across the region, Reed was deeply involved and can take credit for playing a key role. Reed might have rubbed some local officials the wrong way, but for residents, tangible results matter more than style. There’s a sliver of truth."
9917	IU researchers find magnesium intake may be beneficial in preventing pancreatic cancer	This news release from Indiana University summarizes findings from a large database of health data gathered through a public survey of vitamin and supplement use — the VITamins and Lifestyle study. The aim of the study is to help ascertain whether supplements have any impact on reducing cancer risk. This news release focuses on the main findings which are overstated in the British Journal of Cancer article (shame on the editors of that journal for not asking the authors to state the limitations of the study more clearly). There are many limitations of this cohort study, including that there were relatively few cancer cases overall (151), that there were substantial baseline differences in smoking and alcohol use according to magnesium intake (two of the most clear risk factors for pancreatic cancer), and that when the statistical analysis excludes cases in the first 2 years of the study (those who may have already had a cancer growing), the findings became statistically non-significant. Moreover, the difference in absolute risk between groups was tiny. Somewhere along the line of this study’s journey from manuscript to news release, someone should have taken it upon themselves to scrutinize the findings more carefully and present a balanced report on the results. Pancreatic cancer represents just 3% of all new cancer cases in the United States (or about 49,000 new cases annually) but it has one of the worst outcomes. Only about 7.2% of those who develop the cancer survive longer than 5 years after diagnosis, according to the National Cancer Institute. Emerging evidence of any potential preventative measures people can take to reduce their risk is newsworthy and should be discussed, but with the understanding that the recommendations are speculative. It would be wonderful if a supplement prevented cancer, but it probably won’t.	false	Academic medical center news release,Cancer	No cost information is provided but there are cost implications to following the recommendations. The release concludes that everyone “should strive to get the daily recommendations of magnesium through diet” and “adding a magnesium supplement to their diet may prove beneficial in preventing this disease.” There’s very little quantification offered in the release. The release states that the 66,000 people who missed the recommended daily intake for magnesium by 100 mg were at a 24% increased risk for developing pancreatic cancer. Then it makes a strong recommendation to increase magnesium through diet and supplements. The release would have been much stronger had it included measures of absolute risk. Unfortunately, the abstract and paper both make it difficult to calculate the absolute numbers. From Table 2, we can see that 44/14395 (0.30%) people in the cohort who were in the <75% of the RDA group developed pancreatic cancer, compared with 64/35348 (0.18%)people in the >100% of RDA group. The absolute risk difference is 0.12%. That is extremely small. Giving only relative reductions is very, very misleading. And, when the appropriate exclusions are done (the people who had cancers diagnosed in the first two years of the study), the results are not statistically significant anyway. The release encourages people to add magnesium through their diets and through supplementation but doesn’t tell them what the recommended daily allowance is. In the United States, the current magnesium recommended intakes are 400-420 mg/day for men and 310-320 mg/day for women. Exceeding the recommended levels of magnesium through supplementation can cause side effects. Although these are not likely to be life-threatening, excessive intake of supplemental magnesium is harmful to individuals with impaired kidney functions. In addition, magnesium can interfere with certain medications so patients should always consult with their doctor before adding a supplement. From WebMD: “Doses less than 350 mg per day are safe for most adults. When taken in very large amounts, magnesium is POSSIBLY UNSAFE. Large doses might cause too much magnesium to build up in the body, causing serious side effects including an irregular heartbeat, low blood pressure, confusion, slowed breathing, coma, and death.” The study is longitudinal in that data is collected and then tracked over several years. It doesn’t show causation but a trend. One of the major drawbacks of studies based on questionnaires, including this one, is that it relies on individuals’ ability to accurately recall and record their own data, which can lead to lots of inaccuracy. In this case, participants were asked to describe their supplement use for the previous 10 years. Moreover, this observational study shows a very weak association only. One of the main shortcomings is likely to be that the baseline differences observed in the groups (low, medium, high magnesium use) , although accounted for in the regression analyses, are probably still driving the findings. This problem of residual confounding (not being able to fully account statistically for differences in the people according to what their nutrient intake was) is common in this type of study. The authors of the paper should have spent some time in their discussion on this, but they did not. The news release authors also would have done well to put more emphasis on limitations. The release calls pancreatic cancer “the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in both men and women in the United States.” But this statement should have been accompanied by some statistics that demonstrate the relative rarity of the disease. According to the National Cancer Institute, the lifetime risk of developing pancreatic cancer is approximately 1.5 percent. Funders of the study aren’t named in the release. According to the published findings, the research was supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Health Office of Dietary Supplements. The focus of this release is on a study that tries to compare the effect of meeting RDAs of magnesium and not meeting that daily target. But the release doesn’t mention any other suspected risk factors for pancreatic cancer such as obesity, smoking, alcohol abuse, inactivity, genetics, and so on, which might have been helpful. The release briefly mentions dietary magnesium can be found in “dark, leafy greens or nuts” but a longer list of dietary sources might have been helpful. It’s generally understood that magnesium supplements are widely available on any grocery or drug store shelf. The release acknowledges that previous work has examined the relationship between magnesium intake and risk for pancreatic cancer. Previous studies have found that magnesium is inversely associated with the risk of diabetes, which is a risk factor of pancreatic cancer. But few studies have explored the direct association of magnesium with pancreatic cancer; of those that did, their findings were inconclusive, said Daniel Dibaba, a Ph.D. student at the School of Public Health-Bloomington, who led the IU study. Of course, the implication seems to be that while other studies were “inconclusive,” this study has put the matter to rest. That’s certainly not the case, but we’ll give the benefit of the doubt since the release later states that more study is needed. The release doesn’t come right out and say that taking magnesium will reduce pancreatic cancer risk but it comes close. Instead, it hedges on making that claim with phrases like “may be beneficial” and “may prove beneficial.” Based on limited available knowledge, it’s appropriate to share the information that getting the recommended daily allowance of magnesium may have specific health benefits.
1070	Global obesity rising faster in rural areas than cities, study finds.	Global rates of obesity among people who live in the countryside are rising faster than those among city dwellers, in part due to greater access in urban areas to healthier foods and places to exercise, researchers said on Wednesday.	true	Health News	In a study of 33 years of trends in body mass index (BMI) across 200 countries and territories, the scientists found that people worldwide are getting heavier - with average weight rising by 5 to 6 kg (11 to 13 pounds) over the period of the study - and that most of the rise is due to gains in BMI in rural areas. “The results of this massive global study overturn commonly-held perceptions that more people living in cities is the main cause of the global rise in obesity,” said Majid Ezzati, a professor at Imperial College London who co-led the work. He said the findings showed “that we need to rethink how we tackle this global health problem”. The study, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, analyzed height and weight data from around 112 million adults across urban and rural areas of 200 countries and territories between 1985 and 2017. BMI is an internationally recognized scale that gives an indication of whether someone is a healthy weight. BMI is calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kg by their height in meters squared, and a BMI of between 19 to 25 is considered healthy. The study found that between 1985 to 2017, average rural BMI increased by 2.1 in women and men. In cities, however, the gain was 1.3 and 1.6 in women and men respectively. The researchers described “striking changes” in the geography of BMI. In 1985, urban men and women in more than three quarters of the countries studied had higher BMIs than their rural counterparts. But 30 years later, the BMI gap between urban and rural dwellers in many countries had shrunk dramatically, or even reversed. This may be due to some disadvantages for people living in the countryside, the researchers said, including lower levels of income and education, limited availability and higher costs of healthy foods, and fewer sports facilities. Ezzati said that while discussions around public health often focus on negative aspects of city living, these findings show there are some benefits. “Cities provide a wealth of opportunities for better nutrition, more physical exercise and recreation, and overall improved health,” he said. “These things are often harder to find in rural areas.”
30779	A U.S. surgeon who exposed “Clinton Foundation corruption in Haiti” was found dead in his home under suspicious circumstances.	By this standard — and this does appear to be the standard Your News Wire is working with — anyone who dies an unexpected death who also held a negative view of any aspect of Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State would implicate the Clintons as a suspect in their death. This is not a reasonable standard, and the additional evidence to support a nefarious connection was fabricated. Therefore, we rank this claim as false.	false	Junk News, bill clinton, clinton body bags, clinton body count	On 12 December 2017, frequent purveyor of misinformation Your News Wire published a paranoid, gratuitous account of a well-known surgeon’s suicide, apparently geared to play into two widespread anti-Clinton conspiracy theories: that the Clinton family has killed (and continues to kill) their political and personal enemies, and that the Clinton Foundation’s development work in Haiti, which has been both praised and criticized, exposed widespread corruption on the part of the Clintons. While the story never explicitly makes the claim that the Clintons were responsible for his death, that is the conclusion it heavily implies through factually dubious innuendo. A common tactic for Your News Wire and other conspiracy-geared clickbait outlets obscures demonstrably false or scandalous claims by presenting them alongside factual reporting, blurring the lines between news and hysterical propaganda. This story is no exception to that formula: Dr. Dean Lorich, an orthopedic surgeon who volunteered in Haiti and exposed Clinton Foundation corruption and malpractice on the island, has been found dead in New York. He was 54. […] One of the United States’ leading surgeons, Dr. Lorich was part of the relief effort sent by the U.S. to assist the relief effort led by the Clinton Foundation in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake. However Dr. Lorich was disgusted by the “shameful” Clinton Foundation operation, and voiced his concerns to Hillary Clinton directly. The first factual element of the Your News Wire story is the death of a surgeon named Dean Lorich, who was found dead from a self-inflicted knife wound in his Manhattan home on 10 December 2017. His death was widely reported, as he was prominent in the field of orthopedic trauma surgery; after singer Bono suffered a cycling accident in New York in 2014, Lorich operated on the rock star, which led to an interview in Rolling Stone. (At the time of his death, Lorich was being sued by former New York Giants runningback Michael Cox, who had accused him of career-ending malpractice.) The second factual element of the Your News Wire story is that Lorich was part of a team of doctors volunteering their time in Haiti after the 12 January 2010 Earthquake. The group was primarily focused on providing emergency surgeries to save children’s limbs from amputation. He found his time there disturbing and frustrating due to the United State’s poor on-the-ground logistics, and cowrote an opinion piece for CNN on 25 January 2010 expressing this sentiment. These facts provide the spartan structure by which Your News Wire supports a thin veneer of false statements or deliberate mischaracterizations. Most glaring, perhaps, is their characterization of Lorich as part of an effort associated with the Clinton Foundation. While the Clintons have had a long history with Haiti, the Foundation played no role in Lorich’s trip, and they had no formal role in Haitian relief efforts at that time. The Clinton’s contacts in Haiti are mentioned briefly in Lorich’s CNN piece from 2010. The politically connected and noted surgeon who organized the volunteer trip — David Helfet, not Lorich — had reached out to “Bill and Hillary Clinton” for advice on conditions on the ground. Though the foundation had no formal role in Haiti at this time, former President Bill Clinton had been serving as the United Nations’ special envoy to Haiti since May 2009. Your News Wire takes this faulty “exposing corruption” premise a step further, going so far as to suggest that the CNN opinion piece was a response to the Clinton Foundation specifically: One of the United States’ leading surgeons, Dr. Lorich was part of the relief effort sent by the U.S. to assist the relief effort led by the Clinton Foundation in Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake. However Dr. Lorich was disgusted by the “shameful” Clinton Foundation operation, and voiced his concerns to Hillary Clinton directly. In fact, the piece (which did describe the conditions as “shameful”) did not mention the Clinton Foundation at all, making Your News Wire’s description that it “exposed Clinton Foundation corruption” patently false. The piece instead directed its criticism more broadly toward the United States’ overall presence in Haiti: The lack of support for our operation by the United States is shocking and embarrassing and shows how woefully unprepared we are for the realities of disasters. We came to understand that our isolated operation may work in a mission, but not in a disaster. The implication that Lorich “voiced his concerns to Hillary Clinton directly” or reached out to anyone at the State Department personally is, as well, false. In a 24 January 2010 e-mail to Hillary Clinton published by WikiLeaks, chief of staff Cheryl Mills forwarded a chain of messages sent to her by a friend and fellow surgeon, that had, itself, been forwarded as part of a long e-mail chain that originated with Lorich. The message Lorich sent contains the same details that eventually became the CNN piece. However, his CNN story and the forwarded messages contain no allegations of corruption, and Lorich never sent the e-mail to either Mills or Clinton directly. Instead, he sent the account to fellow orthopedic surgeon Christopher Born with an encouragement to share it “with everyone and anyone you find might help.” Lorich’s death, while a tragic and sudden suicide, comes with no evidence of any foul play. Reports of the death as suspicious are based only on the initial report from Lorich’s 11-year-old daughter, who found his body, to the building’s doorman, who called police and described the incident as an “assault.” Neither individual was in a position to determine the circumstances of his death at the time. Framing Lorich’s death as related to his contact with the Clintons, then, is based only on the false statements that he worked for the Clinton Foundation while in Haiti, and that he personally was in touch with Hillary Clinton about his problems with the U.S. response to the earthquake. In reality, he had no direct contact with the Clinton Foundation, the Clintons, or their staff. The implication that Lorich was somehow targeted by the Clintons or their foundation because of this criticism of America’s work in Haiti is based solely on the fact that he had publicly disagreed with aid decisions made by United States in the immediate response to a catastrophic natural disaster.
10347	Biosynthetic Corneas Show Promise in Transplants	This story establishes the small scope of the story up high. It brings in one outside voice and is more cautious than the other two stories in describing the number of people affected by corneal conditions. It also is the only story to use a dollar figure when discussing the costs and to put an actual number to the degree of improvement in people’s vision. The story would have received a higher score had it explained a little bit more about the study’s limitations and explained how this procedure likely will not be available for many years, if ever. This story was similar to the Reuters story but packed in more information and did not rely largely on the press release. It shows that even with limited space and time, a reporter can pull together the relevant facts to present readers with most of the context they need.	true		"This is the only story of the three reviewed to discuss costs. As for cost, Griffith said the biosynthetic corneas ""in theory"" should be cheaper than donated corneas. Griffith said a German study recently found that donated corneas cost about $2,500. The benefits are quantified about as well as in the other two stories, and the story avoids putting the benefits in relative terms. The one big advantage of this story is that it puts a number to the vision improvement. ""We were pleasantly surprised that in six patients, vision improved from about 20/400 to 20/100, meaning that these patients could see objects four times farther away than before the operation,"" said Griffith, director of the Integrative Regenerative Medicine Center at Linkoping University in Sweden. The story explains that there were no adverse side effects. It should have been clear that the patients were followed for two years. The story does a better job than the Reuters story but not as good a job as WebMD in evaluating the quality of the evidence. It could have provided more details about the limitations of the study. The story avoids disease mongering and actually presents a more conservative estimate of the number of people affected by corneal disorders. An estimated 5 million people in the world have an eye disease called trachoma that affects the cornea, and another 1.5 million to 2 million are thought to have developed cornea-related blindness through other diseases or trauma. The story includes one independent source who is basically a booster for the research. He also, though, raises an issue that underscores some of the information lacking in the story. The story also could have explained what the funding sources were. The story does compare the treatment to human corneal transplants. It could have talked about plastic corneas, too. Dr. Mark J. Mannis, the one independent source in the story refers to a ""repertoire of corneal transplant surgeons."" What else is in that repertoire? It would be nice to know, and it would be even nicer to know how this procedure stacks up against the other options in terms of costs and benefits. The only hint that this research is preliminary is toward the end when the story says, The next step in research, Griffith said, is to create a ""new generation"" of cornea implants and test them on a wider variety of patients. This actually sounds actually more optimistic than the comments from Griffith in the press release, leading one to believe that she was more cautious than this sentence implies. The novelty of the procedure is not established. The story goes beyond the news release, but, like the Reuters story, does not actually present the evidence with the same caveats and caution that come through in the news release and in the WebMD story."
1314	UK government launches plan to curb air pollution.	The British government announced on Tuesday it was launching a new plan which aims to reduce air pollution and its costs on society by 1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) a year by 2020.	true	Environment	The new plan comes just days after the European Commission said it would take Britain and five other European Union member states to the EU Court of Justice for failing to respect air quality limits. Under the EU’s Air Quality Directive, member states were supposed to comply with nitrogen dioxide emission limits in 2010 - or by 2015 if they delivered plans to deal with high levels of the gas, which is produced mainly by diesel engines. The Commission said Britain had failed to respect curbs on nitrogen dioxide which is associated with respiratory and other illnesses. The government said its plan was on top of a 3.5 billion pound plan to reduce air pollution from road transport and diesel vehicles set out in July last year. It would aim to halve the number of people living in locations where concentrations of particulate matter are above World Health Organisation limits, the government said. In addition, legislation will be introduced to give local authorities powers to improve air quality and ensure only the cleanest domestic fuels were available for sale. The government will also take action to tackle ammonia from farming by requiring farmers to invest in infrastructure and equipment that will reduce emissions. It said it would reduce the costs of air pollution to society by an estimated 1 billion pounds a year by 2020, rising to 2.5 billion pounds a year from 2030. The new strategy drew criticism from some lawmakers and environmental groups. Caroline Lucas, co-leader of the Green Party, said the details of the plan looked “extremely underwhelming” and failed to be backed up with cash.
9061	Abbreviated breast MRI may be additional screening option for dense breasts	This news release describes preliminary results of a study in 195 women with dense breast tissue subsequently having cancers detected from an abbreviated breast MRI after screening negative with a mammogram. The release states that this type of screening has a much higher rate of cancer detection than mammography or 3D mammography. The release also emphasizes that abbreviated breast MRI might be better than current supplemental screening of whole breast screening ultrasound which appears to have a high rate of false positives. Unfortunately, the release doesn’t say what the rate of false positives are with abbreviated MRI. The study was presented at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting and to our knowledge has not been published. A request for a copy of the study abstract went unanswered. This release throws yet another iron into the fire of mammography screening. Because of recent media attention relating to problems with mammography screening for women with dense breasts and because 30 states require that women receive a letter after screening informing them of their breast density, adding to women’s fear and anxiety about breast cancer, institutions should be even more careful when announcing results of a study that involves mammography screening and breast density.	false	breast MRI,cancer screening,dense breasts,University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine	There was no discussion of costs of the abbreviated breast MRI and it was unclear if this type of procedure is commonly covered by insurance for asymptomatic women. The release also refers to women who “…request additional screening after a negative mammogram….” Requesting additional costly screening adds to overall healthcare costs and may also lead to over-diagnosis. The release described better cancer detection rates using the abbreviated breast MRI compared with mammography and 3D mammography. Unfortunately, the release didn’t compare the cancer detection rate of the abbreviated breast MRI with whole breast screening ultrasound which is the current standard supplemental screening tool to use for women who are asymptomatic. It remains unclear if the abbreviated breast MRI is better than ultrasound, the current standard of care. While calling out ultrasound screening for having a high number of false positives, the release offers no details on the number of false-positives for abbreviated MRI screening. Further, the release offers no information about the stage of the cancers diagnosed with abbreviated MRI. Readers deserve to know how many cancers identified in the study were ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). Many healthcare professionals believe DCIS should be re-named because this condition refers to abnormal cells inside a milk duct in the breast, is not invasive, and there’s a debate over whether it is breast cancer. Although the study authors mentioned that whole breast screening ultrasound produces high rates of false positives, there was no information provided about the rate of false positives for the abbreviated breast MRI. The findings are preliminary and there was no data presented that compared abbreviated breast MRI with whole breast ultrasound. The only evidence was the following quote: “Based on the literature and our results, women with dense breast tissue who desire supplemental screening, these results suggest that AB-MR may be a better option than other supplemental screening test such as whole breast ultrasound.” The release veers into disease mongering when it drops in the comment that “One in eight women in the United States will develop breast cancer at some point during their life.” That’s a jarring statistic that rarely fails to get attention. But to add perspective, consider what the National Cancer Institute notes about a woman’s lifetime risk of developing breast cancer: “a woman born today has about a 1 in 8 chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer at some time during her life. On the other hand, the chance that she will never have breast cancer is 87.6 percent, or about 7 in 8.” [Emphasis added.] And as noted above, it would have been helpful if the release had stated how many cancers versus DCIS were found through the abbreviated MRI. The release did not mention any source of funding for the study. Nor did it address whether there were any conflicts of interest among the researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. The release compares the cancer detection rates of abbreviated breast MRI with mammography and digital tomosynthesis (DBT), or 3D mammography. However, it didn’t compare it with the most common screening alternative for these types of breasts — whole breast screening ultrasound — since as the release said, ultrasound carries “higher rates of false positives.” As noted above, we wish the release would have noted the rate of false positives associated with abbreviated MRI screening. There was no mention of the availability of abbreviated breast MRI. It’s unclear how abbreviated breast MRI is different from full breast MRI. The difference is not explained in the release. It’s also unclear if the abbreviated breast MRI is novel for screening versus diagnostic testing. The release didn’t appear to use unjustifiable language.
11119	New Test for Brain Injury on Horizon	There’s a lot of optimism in this story for a study that hasn’t even been funded yet. Read the full point-by-point review below. While one could piece together the information in this article to see a picture of preliminary research, it might not be clear to a reader that there is no evidence yet for the use of this technique to diagnose brain injury. It’s a classic storyline: Potentially dangerous problem. Hope (or hype) for a new test to identify the problem early so that appropriate treatment can be started quickly. And yet, there are no data that the test can do what it says or that earlier identification leads to better outcomes. It’s easy to talk about hopes for a world with less suffering and a new technology that could save lives. It’s much harder to talk about science’s slow and usually unsuccessful efforts to realize laboratory dreams. That balance is missing in this story.	mixture		"Not applicable in this case because we understand that It’s too early to discuss costs. There is no specific test mentioned, nor are we told which biomarkers would be included in the pivotal study of that test. Once a test has been created, costs will be relevant (and that’s a point the story could have made.) If the test is exorbitantly expensive to perform, its utility would be limited. We could send a helicopter to rush everyone who has a skiing accident to a neuro-intensive care unit, but that would be prohibitively expensive. It’s worth noting that in practice few if any tests lower the cost of care. In routine use, they can be applied more indiscriminately, including situations where their use is unlikely to contribute to outcomes that lower downstream costs. Although it’s too early to quantify the technique’s benefits, this story does that. We’re told that the study of 66 patients found that those with the most severe brain injury had 16 times the level of UCH-L1 as those without brain injury. What is the true clinical significance of that result? The benefits of using biomarkers wouldn’t be just they can detect brain injury but they can do so better and more usefully than the methods we have now. Otherwise, how does it benefit us? What’s the clinical meaning of the 16x difference for this one biomarker? What about the other biomarkers in the panel alluded? Could the researchers use this result to distinguish mild from severe, or mild from normal, or cases that are hard-to-catch vs those that are obvious? (Dr. Hall suggests there are questions about mild cases.) We’re given the analogy to troponin tests for heart attacks, which is ""more precise than having a patient describe symptoms."" The implication, thus, is that this 16x difference is a hugely superior signal to the standard cues we use to diagnose severe brain injury. But the researchers didn’t compare this new technique to current diagnostic ones. In short, the story does a poor job of describing how such a test will lead to improved care. The analogy to troponin is a good point, because early identification of a heart attack leads to treatments that have been shown to be lifesaving. A similar evidence base would be needed for biomarker identification of brain injuries. That’s a big problem with reporting on laboratory research like it’s clinical research: we don’t have hard outcomes to look at, only surrogate ones. The true benefits would be the test’s specificity, sensitivity, and speed, and its effects on actual people’s lives comparative to the standard approach. It’s too early to quantify harms, as it’s not clear there’s a physical test yet, no matter a final roster of biomarkers. You might say the potential harms of a blood test are low, but what about the odds that the test will screw up? Not all tests are created equally, and some test results can be equivocal, inconsistent, or wrong. That’s why we need to study the test’s reliability in the DOD trial. We don’t know how many people with severe brain damage will slip past this test (its sensitivity) and how many it will wrongly diagnose (its specificity). Poor sensitivity or specificity cause harms when warning signs are missed and when people get treatments or follow-up tests, sometimes invasive ones, they don’t need. On a fact-by-fact basis, the article states several good points about the evidence. The major, ""first-of-its-kind"" study with 1000 patients hasn’t been funded yet. If it is funded, it would start next year and take 18 months from then to bear results. Most of the evidence is in rats. The study of 66 humans involved (in part) people already known to have brain injuries. FDA approval of the test is conditional on the completion (and funding) of the Defense Department study, which implies that the study is a late-stage, pivotal investigation of the technique in a clinical setting. The trouble is, the article doesn’t evaluate any of these points. Laboratory studies in rats and humans don’t prove ideas but generate ideas. We don’t know whether some future blood test will reliably identify serious cases that are missed by conventional techniques, change treatment plans, save lives, reduce long-term rehabilitation, or prevent what happened to Natasha Richardson. No one can say this technique will be better than what doctors already do, which is why the FDA won’t touch it yet. Not only do we not know the answer, we’ve yet to ask the question. None of the evidence mentioned has tested a diagnostic technique prospectively or compared it to another approach. That context won’t be clear for a lay reader, who won’t see that the claims are remarkably premature. The presumably independent source, Dr. Hall, explains that ""the Banyan work"" does show that these biomarkers can reliably track brain injury and are copious enough to be reliably detected. That statement, which seems to be about a panel of multiple biomarkers, comes before we learn about UCH-L1 and its particular evidence base. So we’re not sure whether Dr. Hall’s contextual explanation applies to the specific, quantitative evidence we’re given later, such as the 16-fold increase in UCH-L1. In other words, we’re not told what that number means. The article is also vague about evidence from ""more than 300 human brain-injury patients"" regarding ""certain biomarkers."" On its face, in a sea of rat research, that could be the highest-quality aspect of this evidence…if we know anything about them. We presume from the detail about the study of 66 people that the 300 are all laboratory research. But of what biomarkers? All UCH-L1? Several other biomarkers of brain injury have been studied in the past. Which biomarkers would the DOD study look at — is it all about UCH-L1? Maybe no one knows because the study hasn’t even been funded — which is the point. The tone doesn’t match the facts, and pale inks were used to draw a very bold picture. The narrative of the story is that many cases of brain injury go undiagnosed. If the laboratory research only involved people who were already diagnosed, what does that tell us about the technique’s ability to identify people who often aren’t currently diagnosed? In other words, does any of the evidence, including the UCH-L1 signal that’s quantified for us, address the problem posed by the story at the outset, the one that is blamed for Natasha Richardson’s death? Of course, the story’s ebullient tone makes these caveats seem moot. We think this article does engage in disease-mongering. The statistical sidebar cites some grim outcomes of head trauma. These numbers cloud the point of the story, which is about undiagnosed or slow-to-diagnose cases. How many of the 3 million people who need long-term care and the 52,000 who died had undiagnosed severe brain injuries? How many died on contact? How often does the current diagnostic approach fail? In other words, who exactly might this new technique benefit? While perhaps no one knows those answers, we think the overly general sidebar inflates the expectations balloon too much. Another point that was easy to miss: the tests in humans measured UHC-L1 in spinal fluid. That requires a spinal tap. While it’s something one might consider in the first scenario, it’s unlikely to be practical for the second. One would expect that the test characteristics of a CSF level are different from a blood level. One source works for the DOD, but it’s not clear whether he’s involved with the funding of biomarker research. The story, as written, colors it that way. Another source is the president of a company investigating the biomarkers. Dr. Hall is presumably an independent source not involved with the Banyan research or any competitive research, but that’s an assumption and preferably should’ve been stated explicitly. Dr. Hall evaluates the Banyan work and describes an open question with this research. This cautionary point is, however, immediately countered by an anonymous citation that ""Other scientists say that Banyan’s work may help doctors distinguish between different types of brain injury."" We give the story credit for using a seemingly independent source and identifying conflicts of interest, at least in large strokes. There was room for improvement, though. The story mentions some normal diagnostic techniques for brain injury, and their limitations. It compares the new approach to the old one in a procedural way, i.e., blood tests and the DOD’s dream of a portable battlefield device compared with checking vitals and pupils etc. There is, as yet, no evidence available that can compare the two approaches on the basis of their effectiveness in diagnosing brain injury, which is what mankind ultimately cares about most. The article therefore isn’t missing such a comparison, but we would’ve liked to see the point made more clearly. The article is clear that these tests aren’t available in your local hospital, and that the FDA hasn’t approved a blood test. But the overall tone is so unchecked that it seems like a foregone conclusion that it will be available ""soon."" If researchers are close, why does the article lead with the evidence from rats? Again, the article is clear that the technique is not available, but we think it needed context about how preliminary this research is. Many readers would be shocked to learn how many techniques with promising preliminary results in the lab fail when tested in clinical trials. The story is also unclear about the pivotal DOD trial. Will it specifically study UCH-L1, the biomarker investigated by Banyan Labs, or is it about a panel of biomarkers? Are they all Banyan biomarkers? Is UCH-L1 even in there? We don’t know how much of the research discussed in this article will even be investigated in the future study and, thus, potentially available. Though the story could have commented about other biomarkers besides the Banyan one(s), it’s clear that this is a novel diagnostic test. We don’t see evidence that the article relies on a news release."
11370	Study finds mammograms offer modest benefit	The strengths of this story include a good overview of the study design that helps readers understand how the new information contributes to our understanding of the effects of mammography. It is also one of the few stories to list the funders of the study. On the other hand, it failed to mention any of the harms of screening and it gave readers only cursory comments from independent sources. Millions of women undergo mammography each year based on what they are told about its potential benefits. This story plainly states the results of a study that concludes those benefits appear to be smaller than generally believed. But this story offers less than some other reports in the way of perspectives that would help readers make use of the results in their personal decision-making.	mixture		The story does not mention the costs of screening or follow-up testing or treatment – and those costs can be significant to the individual and are significant, collectively, to society. This story features an accurate description of what the researchers reported: that mammography offers modest benefits that appear to be smaller than previously believed. It not only referred to the relative reduction in breast cancer deaths, but also reported the calculation that 2,500 women would have to be screened every other year for a decade in order to prevent one additional breast cancer death. However, the story is rated as Unsatisfactory because of an error in a description of the study results. The story says that women who were screened had a 10 percent lower rate of breast cancer death, with only a third of that reduction due to mammography. Actually, the researchers said the women who were screened had a 28 percent reduction in breast cancer death, while women who were not screened had an 18 percent reduction in breast cancer death, thus leading to the conclusion that screening could account for the 10 percent difference, which is a third of the reduction seen among women who were screened. This story does not discuss harms related to screening, which include false alarms, but also treating women when their tumors would not have becoming life-threatening. This story does a good job of briefly describing the main strength of the study design: that it allowed for a comparison of the effects of improved treatment with the effects of offering mammography screening. The story also mentions one criticism of the study: that it may not have lasted long enough to capture the full benefit of screening. However, the story could have more clearly pointed out that this study was observational and that unlike a randomized trial it cannot prove that changes in breast cancer death rates were caused by screening and treatment, only that the changes happened at the same time that screening and treatment were changing in Norway. The story does not exaggerate the risk of breast cancer or the need to be screened for it. This story is one of the few that told readers that the study was funded by the Cancer Registry of Norway and the Research Council of Norway. It also includes a quote from an independent source and cites a statement released from the American Cancer Society. As with much of the other coverage of this mammography study, this story does not explain the alternatives. Other stories included some discussion of a woman’s ability to make a choice about whether to be screened. This story didn’t explicitly acknowledge that option. The availability of mammography is not at issue. This story would have been better if it pointed out that while Norway built a system connecting mammography screening with multidisciplinary treatment teams, that sort of follow-up support may not be available to all women who get mammography screening in the United States. While mammography is not new, this story clearly explains what is different about this study and how it offers a new perspective on mammography and breast cancer treatment. The story does not appear to rely on a news release.
29610	Texas is about to legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational use.	What's true: Texas has tentatively legalized the use of marijuana for the treatment of a form of epilepsy. What's false: Texas has not announced plans to legalize marijuana for general medicinal and recreational use.	false	Media Matters, marijuana, Not Necessarily The News	In September 2014, the NewsBuzzDaily web site published an article reporting that Texas was about to follow in the footsteps of the states of Colorado and Washington and legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational use: On September 29, 2014, Texas Governor Rick Perry will be signing a new bill into law, legalizing medicinal and recreational use of marijuana for adults ages 21 or older. Bill HB 2412 will go into effect January 1, 2015. Texas is the first southern state to legalize any recreational drug. The state of Texas is expected to profit $50 million in tax revenue from marijuana sales. A state tax of 11% will be implemented on sales. In addition to the profit in tax revenue, with the legalization of the drug Texas is expected add more than 5,000 job openings ranging from farmers to dispensary agents. Soon afterwards links and excerpts referencing this item were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered it mistaking it for a genuine news article. However, Texas has no bill to legalize any form of marijuana use pending in its legislature; the last bill numbered HB 2412 presented to that body was on a completely different subject. The article was just a spoof from NewsBuzzDaily, a fake news web site whose stock in trade is publishing fabricated clickbait stories. The site’s About Us page states that: NewsBuzzDaily.com is a combination of real shocking news and satire news. Please note that articles written on this site are for entertainment and satirical purposes only. In January 2016, however, life began to overtake satire when Texas agreed to allow select dispensaries to sell low-level THC products to people suffering from intractable epilepsy, whose seizures are not controllable with traditional drugs. And in June 2016, Texas news outlets began reporting that some state officials were hoping to expand the law to include more allowable uses for medical marijuana. However, as of now, the use of marijuana for recreational purposes and most medicinal purposes remains illegal in Texas.
1384	UK online carer-patient matchmaker HomeTouch expands nationwide.	A British online service that matches elderly and disabled patients with home carers is expanding nationwide by adding another 25,000 care professionals to its database, founder Jamie Wilson said on Monday.	true	Health News	The expansion comes as British government, at both the national and local level, seeks to increase the provision of home care to take the pressure off hospitals run by the state-funded National Health Service in looking after an ageing population. Finance minister Philip Hammond will announce 1.3 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) of additional funding for social care over two years in his budget statement on Wednesday, according to media reports. HomeTouch, which is backed by venture capital firm Passion Capital and the Nominate Trust, which invests in digital companies that tackle social problems, enables users to find carers by filtering for skills such as dementia expertise, driving ability or an interest in gardening. “This business was born out of my frustration as a dementia physician,” Wilson said in an interview. “I saw many, many of my patients and their families reporting that the most troublesome problem for them was finding reliable home care.” He said that home care agencies often pay low wages, resulting in a high turnover of staff and inconsistency in the level of service delivered to patients. HomeTouch, which includes private health provider Bupa amongst its partners, matches carers directly with patients’ families, enabling the professional to manage the relationship and typically earn 50-75 percent more than they would earn through an agency, he said. The platform uses some of the techniques pioneered by other online marketplaces, he said, such as client reviews, video profiles and advanced search. HomeTouch takes a 20 percent commission on transactions through the platform, Wilson said, adding that the number of transactions on the site had grown fivefold every year since it launched in 2015. More than 100,000 hours of care had been contracted on the platform in the third quarter of last year, he said. HomeTouch’s nationwide expansion from its current base in southern England comes after it acquired the database of a rival site for a disclosed amount. Wilson said the details of the 25,000 carers acquired in the deal will be transferred to the HomeTouch site once they had been fully vetted. ($1 = 0.8157 pounds)
5284	MTV launches ‘Save Our Moms’ campaign to combat mortality.	MTV is launching a campaign aimed at stemming the rise of maternal mortality in the U.S.	true	Health, Lena Waithe, Minhal Baig, North America	Thursday’s launch of “Save Our Moms” comes as Mother’s Day approaches and will feature original content and educational resources across all MTV platforms. The centerpiece will feature a video produced by actress Lena Waithe’s Protest Art Productions and directed by “HALA” filmmaker Minhal Baig. Waithe says in a statement every mother deserves the right to go home with their child. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds about 700 women die of pregnancy-related problems in the U.S. each year. However, black women were more than three times more likely to die than white women. Researchers have found 60% of all pregnancy-related deaths can be prevented with better health care and support.
28815	Bernie Sanders was forced to endorse Hillary Clinton under DNC rules, but can go on to win a contested convention like FDR (who also endorsed his opponent before winning).	What's true: Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton on 12 July 2016, but did not suspend his campaign. What's false: FDR had a majority of delegates heading into the 1932 convention, just not enough to secure the nomination without a fight. Roosevelt's endorsement of a rival candidate is undocumented.	mixture	Politics Ballot Box, 1932, bernie sanders, DNC	On 12 July 2016, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders formally endorsed rival Hillary Clinton at a New Hampshire event, causing consternation among supporters who were confident he still planned to take his candidacy for the nomination to the convention in Philadelphia later that month. A number of interlinked rumors appeared on social media following the Clinton/Sanders event, roughly outlining a larger general claim. According to many social media users, Sanders’ pre-convention endorsement was a requirement under Democratic National Committee (DNC) rules as a condition of bringing his delegates to the convention, just as Franklin Delano Roosevelt had similarly been forced to endorse an opponent before going on to win at a contested convention: I have contacts within both campaigns. Here’s what I was told yesterday and today. Clinton’s campaign “threatened” to vote down every concession made to Bernie on the platform if he did not endorse her prior to the convention. Knowing that Superdelegates were not going to switch to his side without something major happening, the best he could do was hold on to the progressive concessions he won for US on the platform. He could not, in good consciousness let the GOP and Trump win, especially when we have a potential half of the Supreme Court Justices that will be replaced within the next 4-8 years. He was looking out for the future of our movement and our nation in this very hard decision he made. This post is not to tell you to vote for Hillary, or to not leave the Democratic Party, etc. this was just to throw a little light on why Bernie did what he felt he HAD to do, rather than what he wanted to do. A sign of a great leader is someone who makes the hard decision to sacrifice themselves for the people and movement behind him. He is counting on us to continue the fight. Contacted later in the day by phone, Wolthuis clarified her comments about the use of force and Sanders’ endorsement of Clinton: [A]fter reaching out to many of the people who had either posted or tweeted this statement, I tracked down the original source, Ashley Wolthuis, a Sanders delegate from Utah, who was kind enough to return my “cold call” to her cell phone. Here is what she told me. The basic thrust of the post shown above is accurate, she said, but the use of the term that Bernie was “threatened” she explained was overblown. She did indeed have conversations with various delegates associated with both campaigns, and she said it was “common knowledge” among most delegates that the Clinton campaign was insisting on Bernie making an endorsement prior to the convention if the more progressive parts of the platform would be retained. The talk among her the those with whom she associated, both Clinton and Sanders supporters, was that Bernie understood Hillary needed Sanders’ supporters and that was the only reason she made any concessions at all regarding the positions on the DNC platform for which the Sanders campaign fought. Wolthuis also referenced a Washington Post article published after Sanders’ 12 July 2016 comments, surmising that Sanders in part intended to tack Clinton to promises of a progressive platform: The speech today was, ostensibly, an endorsement of Clinton’s presidential campaign … But, really, it wasn’t. Yes, I know that’s how it was billed by the Clinton and Sanders camps. And, yes, he did say this: “I have come here to make it as clear as possible as to why I am endorsing Hillary Clinton and why she must become our next president.” (It was the only time that Sanders used the words “endorse” or “endorsing” in a speech that ran 2,161 words. You can read the whole thing here.) But, surely, Sanders was simply touting his successes as a way of winding up to the big moment when he acknowledged — even subtly — that Clinton’s more moderate, cautious and pragmatic definition of “Democrat” had trumped (ahem) his more liberal, populist one? … Nope! Not really. What followed in the speech was a laundry list of Sanders’s talking points and policies supplemented with the phrases “Hillary believes” or “Hillary understands” or “Hillary knows” stuck in front of them … On and on it went, Sanders touting a much-beloved policy of his and then noting that Clinton agreed with it. We reviewed the oft-cited DNC 2016 rules [PDF] but were unable to locate any specific verbiage mandating that any candidate endorse any other candidate in order to fully participate in the convention. It is possible (but not necessarily likely) that the endorsement was an agreed upon concession made outside formal rules or quietly between the campaigns. Confusion over the meaning of Sanders’ endorsement was exacerbated following the release of the contents of a conference call he held with his nearly 1,900 pledged delegates hours after his public appearance alongside Clinton: During the 38-minute long call, Sanders maintained the campaign won 22 states and lost several more “by a hair,” stating that a majority of voters under 45 from all demographics overwhelmingly voted for him in primaries and caucuses. Sanders held that the “superdelegate issue” impeded his campaign, noting that Clinton earned 2,205 pledged delegates to his 1,845 and that she received “a hell of a lot” more superdelegate support: In a portion of the call regarding his endorsement of Clinton, Sanders did not say that doing so was a condition of bringing his delegates to the convention. He did, however, discuss ongoing negotiations between the campaigns to ensure that planks of Sanders’ campaign were adopted and Clinton was “on record” making such agreements. Compromises cited by Sanders included the candidates’ differing plans on college tuition and single payer healthcare (including dental and mental health coverage) expansions for millions of Americans. In a significant portion of the call Sanders addressed questions about delegates’ traveling to Philadelphia for the convention, asserting the campaign “[needs its delegates] to vote for Bernie Sanders for President, and [his] hope is we can get 1,900 votes on the first ballot.” Sanders addressed rumors of challenges to credentials without further detail, presumably referencing concerns that Sanders delegates would face opposition at the convention. The senator stated he didn’t believe the rumors had merit, adding that the campaign would arrive with “a bunch of lawyers” in Philadelphia and “make sure every [delegate takes their] seat.” Sanders also addressed questions about whether he had been offered a “significant role” in a potential Clinton administration, to which he said “no.” Towards the end of the call, Sanders stated that his campaign was not suspended, but that he expected Clinton to emerge as the nominee following the convention. Overall, the conference call represented the most in-depth look regarding Sanders’ motivation in endorsing Clinton prior to the convention. No portion of the call hinted or suggested that his endorsement was due to tacit threats or coercion with respect to negotiated agreements between the campaigns. A second portion of the rumor held that Sanders was heading into a contested convention having endorsed his rival, just like FDR before him. Rumors to that effect didn’t specify when or under which circumstances Roosevelt made such an endorsement before going on to win the nomination (if a year was cited for this occurrence, it was typically 1932). A 2007 New York Times article about FDR’s 1932 convention win did demonstrate many parallels to the contest between Clinton and Sanders: In 1932, the leadership of the Democratic National Committee was firmly in the hands of Al Smith loyalists. Convention rules required a two-thirds majority for nomination, and the party’s last three presidential candidates — James Cox of Ohio, the Wall Street lawyer John W. Davis and Al Smith — in addition to House Speaker John Garner and Senate minority leader Joe Robinson, were on record supporting the stand-aside economic policies of the Hoover administration and the ill-conceived and exorbitant Smoot-Hawley tariffs on imported goods. Roosevelt was an outsider. Serving his second term as governor of New York, he could not even count on the solid support of the Empire State’s delegation at the convention … all of F.D.R.’s rivals were from the pro-business, hard-money, establishment wing of the Democratic Party and decried the possibility of government intervention to revive the economy. “Let natural forces take their course, as free and untrammeled as possible,” said Governor Ritchie. “Modern society, acting through its government,” said F.D.R., “owes the definite obligation to prevent the starvation or dire want of any of its fellow men and women who try to maintain themselves but cannot.” The conservative wing of the Democratic party was aghast. “I will take off my coat and fight to the end against any candidate who persists in any demagogic appeal … setting class against class and rich against poor,” rasped Al Smith. However, a substantial difference existed between Roosevelt in 1932 and Sanders in 2016. In addition to facing a three-way runoff requiring a two-thirds majority, Roosevelt (unlike Sanders) went into the convention with a majority of delegates (but no superdelegates, as that concept was not introduced until 1984): When the convention opened on June 27, Roosevelt held a clear majority of delegates but was still 100 votes shy of the two-thirds required for nomination. If the establishment forces could deny F.D.R. a first-ballot victory, they might deadlock the convention and force a compromise choice. The Democratic party’s two-thirds rule was the nemesis of presidential front-runners, and in the eyes of the party’s old guard, Roosevelt was ripe for a fall. Nevertheless, F.D.R.’s majority gave him control of the convention. His candidate for presiding officer, Sen. Thomas Walsh of Montana, was elected, and the credentials of three pro-Roosevelt delegations (Louisiana, Minnesota and the Virgin Islands) were accepted. No portion of that article mentioned Roosevelt “endorsing” his rival, merely tensions between “establishment” Democrats and an “outsider” candidate. Another article described aspects of the nominating process with which Clinton had more in common with Roosevelt than Sanders did: The vote was split enough to guarantee a brokered convention; FDR’s camp arrived in Chicago with a majority of delegates but not enough to guarantee him the nomination. Given FDR’s majority of delegates and votes, it was exceedingly unlikely he at any point endorsed either of his rival candidates (of whom there were two). Moreover, journalism and political news operated far differently in 1932 than 2016, making an “endorsement” tendered by FDR for a rival far less relevant than in the era of social media. It was true Sanders in some respects evoked Roosevelt’s position at the contested convention of 1932, but the material difference between Sanders in 2016 and FDR in 1932 boiled down to a majority of delegates. (We contacted archivists at the FDR Presidential Library & Museum for confirmation that Roosevelt did or did not endorse a candidate in 1932 prior to winning what was a hotly contested convention. An individual with whom we spoke indicated that detailed information was not to hand, adding that an archivist would look into the claim and respond to our query.) In short, it isn’t precisely clear why Sanders opted to endorse Clinton weeks before the convention without suspending his campaign. Many Sanders supporters maintained that the DNC or Clinton campaign threatened to rescind platform promises had Sanders not endorsed, but the senator made no such claim himself in a 12 July 2016 delegate conference call. During that call, Sanders did urge all delegates to appear in Philadelphia and vote for him on the first ballot. As for claims that Sanders (like FDR before him) was heading into a contested convention after endorsing a rival, there was scant truth to that claim. FDR headed into the convention with a majority of pledged delegates, prior to the advent of superdelegates. While FDR needed a hard-won two-thirds majority to seize his nomination, he also started with more delegates than his competitors. And the process of formally endorsing a rival didn’t appear to be exceptionally relevant (if at all common) in the 1932 presidential nominating process.
11468	Deciphering the Results of a Prostate Test	"This article describes the history and some of the current dilemmas of PSA screening for prostate cancer. Although it does a nice job of discussing some of the current controversies in PSA testing for prostate cancer, it does not discuss the real controversy of PSA testing, that is, there is no convincing evidence that PSA testing saves lives. The story also introduces some inaccuracies around PSA testing. These include stating that the decline in prostate cancer death rates is due to PSA testing (we don't know this for sure), that ""guidelines"" recommend all men have annual PSA testing beginning at age 50 (most guidelines do not say this and instead encourage individualized decision making), and that PSA velocity used in screening is a better indicator of cancer than a one-time measurement (we don't yet know the precise usefulness of PSA velocity in screening). Other notable areas that are missing include the option of not screening at all and a discussion of treatment options, including their potential harms."	false		"No costs are mentioned. The article doesn't provide any evidence of the potential benefits of PSA screening. Specific harms of screening and its downstream consequences are not mentioned. For instance, the article only states prostate cancer surgery is debilitating, without stating why or how and without recognizing that other prostate cancer treatments, like radiation, can also have debilitating side effects, like problems with erections, leaking urine, and problems with bowel function (which is not stated). The article doesn't tell readers how severe these problems could be or how frequently they might occur. There is also harm in managing the many false positive test results that occur, which is not mentioned; the biopsies can be painful, are often not definitive because they are random, and there are psychological consequences, like anxiety, that men endure. The sources of the data cited are not given, and there is no mention of the strength of any of the data quoted from studies. Readers don't know whether information is based on trial data or something else that is less robust. For instance, the article claims a new study by one of the sources shows that using PSA velocity is a better indicator than one PSA test. However, readers don't know what type of study this is based on and that more studies are needed to know this for sure. The article also states the PSA test is controversial but does not even mention the crux of the controversy, which is the absence of convincing evidence that prostate cancer screening saves lives. The article makes this sound as if the controversy is only about fluctuations in PSA readings. What's more, it's not even clear that aggressive treatment of early detected cancers is effective, none of which is mentioned. There are several inaccuracies in the description of prostate cancer and prostate cancer screening. One, the story quotes a source who attributes the drop in prostate cancer deaths to PSA screening, which is not known for sure (and there were advances in medical treatment at the same time even though this source states there weren't). There could be other reasons for the drop in prostate cancer deaths. Another inaccuracy is that the story states ""guidelines"" (without explaining which guidelines) recommend all men have an annual PSA test beginning at age 50. This is not true; in fact, major guideline-issuing organizations like the American Urological Association, the American Cancer Society, and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommend a shared decision making approach which individualizes this choice based on personal preferences and values. Third, the idea of using PSA velocity in prostate cancer screening has not been well-studied and there is not a lot of evidence to prove the value of this approach. The article states using PSA velocity is a better approach than using a single test for prostate cancer screening, which has not yet been proven (although this approach is often used in monitoring advanced disease after diagnosis). Although a minor inaccuracy, the article also quotes a source who states that PSA does not fluctuate based on sexual activity. However, the evidence for this is mixed and not conclusive. Several sources are quoted. The article does not describe the option of no screening, nor does it describe all treatment options if prostate cancer is diagnosed, such as watchful waiting or radiation (in addition to surgery that it does breifly mention). The article states that most men over 40 know that the PSA test is widely used for prostate cancer screening. The article describes the time PSA testing began to be used – in the early 1990's. It also talks about several variations of PSA testing (PSA velocity, free-PSA, complexed PSA), which are relatively new. Because the article cites several sources, it is unlikely that it relied solely or largely on a news release."
7485	Probe sought in Trump administration’s ouster of scientist.	Calls mounted Thursday for an investigation into the ouster of a senior government scientist who says he’s being punished for opposing widespread use of an unproven drug President Donald Trump touted as a remedy for COVID-19.	true	AP Top News, Frank Pallone, Malaria, Health, General News, Politics, Pandemics, Virus Outbreak, Donald Trump	Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, says he was summarily removed from his job earlier this week and reassigned to a lesser role because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug favored by Trump. On Thursday, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., joined in calling for an investigation by the Health and Human Services inspector general. “Removing Dr. Bright in the midst of a pandemic would raise serious concerns under any circumstances, but his allegations that political considerations influenced this decision heighten those concerns and demand full accountability,” Pallone said. The inspector general’s office had no immediate response. Bright is seeking to be reinstated as head of the research agency, said his lawyers Debra Katz and Lisa Banks. A performance review shows he received a top rating. Controversy has swirled around hydroxychloroquine since Trump started promoting it from the podium in the White House briefing room. BARDA, the agency that Bright formerly headed, is a unit of HHS created to counter threats from bioterrorism and infectious diseases. It has recently been trying to jump-start work on a vaccine for the coronavirus. “I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way,” Bright, who has a doctoral degree in immunology, said a statement released Wednesday by his lawyers. “Specifically, and contrary to misguided directives, I limited the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, promoted by the administration as a panacea, but which clearly lack scientific merit,” Bright said. “I also resisted efforts to fund potentially dangerous drugs promoted by those with political connections,” he added. Asked about Bright at Wednesday’s briefing, Trump said he “never heard of him.” “The guy says he was pushed out of a job,” Trump said. “Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn’t. ... I don’t know who he is.” Bright’s lawyers said Thursday they will soon file formal complaints with the HHS inspector general and the Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency that has as part of its charge the protection of government whistleblowers. “While I am prepared to look at all options and to think ‘outside the box’ for effective treatments, I rightly resisted efforts to provide an unproven drug on demand to the American public,” Bright wrote in his statement. He also alluded to “clashes with HHS political leadership” over his efforts to “invest early in vaccines and supplies critical to saving American lives.” One of the major criticisms of the Trump administration’s pandemic response is that little was done in the month of February to stockpile needed equipment. “Science, in service to the health and safety of the American people, must always trump politics,” Bright said. Trump has repeatedly touted the malaria drug during his regular coronavirus briefings, calling it a “game changer,” and suggesting its skeptics would be proved wrong. He has offered patient testimonials that the drug is a lifesaver. But a recent study of 368 patients in U.S. veterans hospitals found no benefit from hydroxychloroquine — and more deaths. The study was an early look at the medication, which has prompted debate in the medical community, with many doctors leery of using it. In a statement, HHS confirmed that Bright is no longer at the BARDA agency, but did not address his allegations of political interference in scientific matters. HHS said it was Bright who had requested an emergency use authorization for chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. For his part, Bright said he had insisted that the authorization be limited to a restricted group of patients, those hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 under the supervision of a doctor. Hydroxychloroquine was given to patients in the New York area, the nation’s most intense COVID-19 hot spot. It is usually administered in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin. An official biography describes Bright as a flu and infectious-disease expert who joined the agency 10 years ago and was focused on vaccine development. He also held the title of HHS deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response, reporting to Dr. Robert Kadlec. Bright’s performance review shows he got the highest rating — “Level 5 - Achieved Outstanding Results” — in federal fiscal year 2019. “Dr. Bright continues a very successful tenure in leading BARDA performing an essential (HHS) mission of developing and acquiring medical countermeasures for the Strategic National Stockpile,” wrote Kadlec, his boss, adding, “I have confidence” that Bright would meet future challenges facing the agency. A copy of Bright’s performance review was provided to The Associated Press. HHS said Bright is now assigned to the National Institutes of Health, working on new approaches to testing. His allegations were first reported by The New York Times. ___ Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani, Deb Riechmann and Dustin Weaver contributed to this report.
37754	On July 7 2020, new cases of coronavirus numbered 298 in Germany, 10 in Denmark, 11 in Norway, 57 in Sweden, and 55,442 in the United States.	A tweet from political scientist Brian Klaas correctly transposed COVID-19 figures for four of the five countries as they appeared on Worldometers.info — the United States, Germany, Denmark, and Norway. The figures for Sweden were inaccurately transcribed as 57, versus the site’s claim of 295. However, the veracity of Worldometers.info’s statistics was unclear, and its number of new cases listed for United States on July 7 2020 undercounted them by about 5,000. In actuality, we know of no centralized source providing completely vetted figures by date and by country.	unproven	Fact Checks, Viral Content	On July 8 2020, Twitter user Brian Klass shared the following post in response to President Trump’s tweets about reopening American schools — purportedly demonstrating the number of new cases on July 7 2020 in the United States and four European nations:New cases, yesterday:Germany: 298Denmark: 10Norway: 11Sweden: 57United States: 55,442 https://t.co/g7SlEt4exo— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) July 8, 2020Klaas did not select the four European nations at random; he retweeted President Trump’s July 8 2020 tweet below:In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2020Trump began by stating that in “Germany, Denmark, Norway, [and] Sweden,” “SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS.” Trump contended Democrats sought to keep schools closed for unspecified political reasons, mentioning the November 2020 election.In response, Klaas claimed that the following statistics represented new diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in the same countries versus the United States on July 7 2020:New cases, yesterday [July 7 2020]:Germany: 298 Denmark: 10 Norway: 11 Sweden: 57United States: 55,442Source of Figures New COVID-19 Cases on July 7 2020Klaas didn’t provide a source for his numbers, but they were relatively easy to find on Worldometers.info.We first noticed that the page itself had been archived repeatedly on the Wayback Machine, and that archives of the site’s pages did not consistently display figures as they appeared on the dates.As of July 9 2020, the site’s figures were available under a tab “2 days ago.” The exact figure in Klass’ tweet was visible for the United States (which, when sorted by volume, was in the first spot):Germany and Sweden were side by side, numbering 49 and 50 respectively. Although the tweet’s count for Germany matched Worldometers.info’s data, Sweden’s numbers were off, with 295 new cases — not 57:Norway and Denmark were similarly nearly adjacent, at numbers 114 and 116 on the list sorted by case count. Norway was listed at eleven new cases, and Denmark, ten:In that respect, the tweet correctly transposed four of the five countries listed — the United States, Germany, Norway, and Denmark. However, according to the same source, Sweden was listed as having 295 new cases on July 7 2020 — not 57.We located a number of articles from sources in the United States reiterating the figure of 55,442 new cases on July 7 2020, but all in turn cited Worldometers.info as their source.Is Worldometers.info a Reliable Source for COVID-19 Case Counts and Deaths?Worldometers.info seemed to emerge from the ether at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as we noted above, had been archived repeatedly as COVID-19 developed into a global pandemic.The Wayback Machine indicates that the site had no archived pages at any point before late January 2020:On May 19 2020, CNN published an in-depth look into whether Worldometers.info’s reliability matched its new global prominence as a source for to-the-minute information about the COVID-19 pandemic.The outlet’s findings were mixed. Citing traffic metrics site BuzzSumo, CNN described a meteoric rise for the newly popular site — finding that in the previous “six months, its pages [had] been shared about 2.5 million times — up from just 65 shares in the first six months of 2019.” CNN noted that for all the credence given Worldometers.info in the news and on social media, little was known about the scope or credibility of its data:The website claims to be “run by an international team of developers, researchers, and volunteers” and “published by a small and independent digital media company based in the United States.”But public records show little evidence of a company that employs a multilingual team of analysts and researchers. It’s not clear whether the company has paid staff vetting its data for accuracy or whether it relies solely on automation and crowdsourcing. The site does have at least one job posting, from October, seeking a volunteer web developer.The network also examined the site’s source code, unearthing a cluster of related sites with myriad purposes. Often, the sites revolved around “live stats” counting:IDs in the source code for Worldometer and the US Dadax’s websites link them to at least two dozen other websites that appear to share ownership. Some appear to be defunct. Others, such as usalivestats.com, italiaora.org and stopthehunger.com, share the same premise: live stats counters. Most of the sites have a rudimentary aesthetic, reminiscent of a 1990s or early 2000s internet. Some seem quite random. One Italian site displays Christmas poems and gift suggestions, like a bonsai plant (for her), or a plot of land on the moon (for him). Another site is dedicated to Sicilian puppet shows.Attempts to verify the validity of the wide-ranging, multinational information hosted on the site each day were similarly unsteady and nebulous. One Wikipedia editor cited specific errors, and further observed that the data appeared to be biased in favor of larger figures:According to Worldometer’s website, its Covid-19 data comes from a multilingual team that “monitors press briefings’ live streams throughout the day” and through crowdsourcing.Visitors can report new Covid-19 numbers and data sources to the website – no name or email address required. A “team of analysts and researchers” validate the data, the website says. It may, at first, sound like the Wikipedia of the data world, but some Wikipedia editors have decided to avoid Worldometer as a source for Covid-19 data.“Several updates lack a source, do not match their cited source or contain errors,” one editor, posting under the username MarioGom, wrote on a discussion page for Wikipedia editors working on Covid-19-related content last month. “Some errors are small and temporary, but some are relatively big and never corrected.”The editor, whose real name is Mario Gómez, told CNN in an email, “Instead of trying to use a consistent criteria, [Worldometer] seems to be going for the highest figure. They have a system for users to report higher figures, but so far I failed to use it to report that some figure is erroneous and should be lower.”Edouard Mathieu, the data manager for Our World in Data (OWID), an independent statistics website headquartered at Oxford University, has seen a similar trend.“Their main focus seems to be having the latest number wherever it comes from, whether it’s reliable or not, whether it’s well-sourced or not,” he said. “We think people should be wary, especially media, policy-makers and decision-makers. This data is not as accurate as they think it is.”A FAQ page on the site itself reflected that ambiguity. Worldometers.info seemed to indicate at least some of its information was crowdsourced, before pivoting to a portfolio of outlets which had referenced its data:Official reports, directly from Government’s communication channels or indirectly, through local media sources when deemed reliable. We provide the source of each data update in the “Latest Updates” (News) section. Timely updates are made possible thanks to the participation of users around the world and to the dedication of a team of analysts and researchers who validate data from an ever-growing list of over 5,000 sources.Worldometer’s Covid-19 data is trusted and used by Johns Hopkins CSSE, Financial Times, The New York Times, Business Insider, and many others.Over the past 15 years, our statistics have been trusted by: Oxford University Press, Wiley, Pearson, CERN, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), The Atlantic, BBC, Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology, Science Museum of Virginia, Morgan Stanley, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Kaspersky, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Amazon Alexa, Google Translate, United Nations Rio+20. and many others.At the end of the paragraph was a “Learn More” link, leading to a page titled “Worldometer COVID-19 Data.” Much of the page’s content was identical to the above excerpt, leaning on purported citations used by other institutions and outlets:Worldometer manually analyzes, validates, and aggregates data from thousands of sources in real time and provides global COVID-19 live statistics for a wide audience of caring people around the world.Our data is also trusted and used by the UK Government, Johns Hopkins CSSE, the Government of Thailand, the Government of Vietnam, the Government of Pakistan, Financial Times, The New York Times, Business Insider, BBC, and many others.Over the past 15 years, our statistics have been requested by, and provided to Oxford University Press, Wiley, Pearson, CERN, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), The Atlantic, BBC, Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology, Science Museum of Virginia, Morgan Stanley, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Kaspersky, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Amazon Alexa, Google Translate, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), the U2 concert, and many others.Worldometer is cited as a source in over 10,000 published books and in more than 6,000 professional journal articles and was voted as one of the best free reference websites by the American Library Association (ALA), the oldest and largest library association in the world.A sample of sources for data was provided for twelve countries on the COVID-19 case pages, from Afghanistan to Azerbaijan. However, the site provided no information about its number of paid employees, how much of its data was supplied by anonymous volunteers, or what sort of fact-checking mechanisms they have in place.Other Figures for New Cases on July 7 2020 in the United StatesCiting data compiled by Johns Hopkins University for July 7 2020, CNBC reported:The United States reported more than 60,000 new Covid-19 cases on [July 7 2020], setting a fresh record for new cases reported in a single day, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.The country reported 60,021 newly confirmed cases over the previous 24 hours as outbreaks continue to expand across a number of states, mostly across the American South and West. Arizona, California, Florida and Texas have accounted for nearly half of all new cases in the U.S. in recent days.As of July 9 2020, Worldometers.info’s July 7 2020 data differed from the data provided by Johns Hopkins University, listing 55,442 new cases on that date versus 60,021. Johns Hopkins’ coronavirus tracker did not appear to provide information by date and country to contrast their numbers with the numbers in the tweet.TL;DRA tweet from political scientist Brian Klaas correctly transposed COVID-19 figures for four of the five countries as they appeared on Worldometers.info — the United States, Germany, Denmark, and Norway. The figures for Sweden were inaccurately transcribed as 57, versus the site’s claim of 295. However, the veracity of Worldometers.info’s statistics was unclear, and its number of new cases listed for United States on July 7 2020 undercounted them by about 5,000. In actuality, we know of no centralized source providing completely vetted figures by date and by country
35139	A photograph shows a railroad tank car identified as carrying 'COVID-19.'	Clearly, ‘COVID-19’ is not a designation that conforms to any legitimate reporting mark, nor to any other standard form of marking or identification one would expect to find on a railroad tank car:	false	Fauxtography, COVID-19	The COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic of early 2020 — as all such outbreaks do — generated conspiracy theories that the virus was man-made, and even possibly deliberately released onto a defenseless population. The following examples provide just a small sampling of theories that followed in the wake of the disease’s spread: Obama sold the virus to Chinese president Xi Jinping during his administration, as Jinping wanted to “experiment” with it. Obama would have HAD to know about it, as he would have had to sign the paperwork allowing such a lethal virus to leave the USA. One popular social media post of mid-March 2020 played on such conspiracy theories by purporting to show a railroad tank car with the designation COVID-19 stenciled on its side, as if it were carrying a load of the disease-causing virus: In the U.S., railroad cars bear reporting marks assigned by the Association of American Railroads which consist of two to four letters followed by a number of up to six digits and indicate ownership of the car, as shown in the following example:
8693	UK cancels order for simple ventilators, needs more complex ones: source.	Britain has cancelled an order for thousands of units of a simple model of ventilator developed by industrial companies to treat COVID-19 because more sophisticated devices are now needed, a source involved in the project said on Sunday.	true	Health News	The government confirmed it no longer required that particular model, known as BlueSky. “We are no longer supporting the production of the BlueSky device following a reassessment of the product’s viability in light of the ever developing picture around what is needed to most effectively treat COVID-19,” said a spokesman for the Cabinet Office, which is coordinating ventilator orders. “We are continuing to work at unprecedented speed with a number of other manufacturers to scale up UK production of ventilators,” the spokesman said. The government has appealed to industry to come forward with new models of ventilator that could be produced on a large scale at short notice to help the National Health Service deal with a surge in patients infected with the new coronavirus. More than 30,000 ventilators in total have been ordered from various consortia of firms from sectors including aerospace, engineering and Formula One. The source, who did not wish to be named because they were not authorised to disclose sensitive details to the media, said the group involved in the BlueSky project had been preparing to deliver thousands of units. The source said the reason given by the government to the BlueSky team for cancelling the order was that while the overall number of new UK coronavirus infections was slowing, cases seen in hospitals were more complex than expected. With several projects competing for the same components, which are in limited supply, the government decided to prioritise more sophisticated devices and cancel the BlueSky order with immediate effect, the source said. The government is going ahead with the production and delivery of other devices as part of its initiative with industry. The first paraPac devices from Smiths Group were delivered to hospitals on Sunday. Other devices are currently going through testing, including newly designed products. The government has said it will confirm orders once the new devices pass approvals and have confirmed delivery schedules.
33452	" During the 1987 Iran-Contra hearings, Oliver North warned Congress that Osama bin Laden was ""the most evil person alive"" and that ""an assassin team [should] be formed to eliminate him and his men from the face of the earth."	Did Oliver North warn Congress about Osama bin Laden during the Iran-Contra hearings?	false	September 11th, 9/11, 9/11 attacks, ASP Article	For most of us who watched the televised Joint Hearings Before the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition and the House Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran (better known as the “Iran-Contra hearings,” held by Congress to determine whether the Reagan administration had secretly and illegally sold arms to Iran in order to secure the release of American hostages, then used the profits from those sales to fund the contra rebels in Nicaragua) in 1987, the enduring image we came away with was a memory of an unapologetic and resolute Lt. Col. Oliver North delivering testimony in a Marine uniform. North, who was a central figure in the plan to secretly ship arms to Iran despite a U.S. trade and arms embargo, and who as a National Security Council aide directed efforts to raise private and foreign funds for the contras despite a Congressional prohibition on U.S. government agencies’ providing military aid to the Nicaraguan rebels, testified before Congress under a grant of limited immunity in July 1987. Although North had been granted limited immunity for his testimony, he was later convicted of criminal charges related to Iran-Contra activities (a conviction that was eventually overturned on the grounds that witnesses had been influenced by his immunized testimony). One of the charges against North was that he had received a $16,000 home security system paid for out of the proceeds of the Iran-Contra affair and had forged documents to cover his receipt of an illegal gratuity. North admitted that he knew the security system was a “gift” but maintained he never inquired about who had paid for it or how it was financed, and he was insistent that he needed the security system because the government had failed to provide adequate protection against international terrorists for him and his family. The terrorist North mentioned in his testimony was not Osama bin Laden, however. To the extent that bin Laden was known to the western world in 1987, it was not as a “terrorist” but as one of the U.S.-backed “freedom fighters” participating in the war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden’s hatred of the U.S. and conversion to “terrorist” status is not believed to have come about until the Gulf War of 1990-91, when he was outspokenly critical of Saudi Arabian dependence upon the U.S. military and denounced U.S. support of a “corrupt, materialist, and irreligious” Saudi monarchy. (The Saudi Arabian government stripped bin Laden of his citizenship in 1994 for his funding of militant fundamentalist Islamic groups.) Oliver North did not testify about or mention the name Osama bin Laden during the Iran-Contra hearings. He claimed that threats against his life had been made by terrorist Abu Nidal, telling a congressional committee: Abu Nidal is, as I am sure you on the Intelligence Committee know, the principal, foremost assassin in the world today. He is a brutal murderer. And I would like to just, if I may, just read to you a little bit about Mr. Abu Nidal … “Abu Nidal, the radical Palestinian guerrilla leader, linked to last Friday’s attacks in Rome and Vienna” — that was the so-called Christmas massacre in which 19 people died and 200 were wounded — “is the world’s most wanted terrorist.” That is the Christian Science Monitor. When you look at his whole career, Abu Nidal makes the infamous terrorist Carlos [the Jackal] look like a Boy Scout. Abu Nidal himself, quoted in Der Spiegel, “Between America and us, there exists a war to the death. In the coming months and years, Americans will be thinking about us.” “For sheer viciousness, Abu Nidal has few rivals in the underworld of terrorism.” Newseek. Our own State Department, and we have copies of these that we can make available for insertion in the record, but the State Department summary on Abu Nidal, not exactly an overstatement, notes that his followers, who number an estimated 500, have killed as many as 181 persons, and wounded more than 200, in two years. Abu Nidal does not deny these things. We also have an exhibit that we can provide for you that shows what Abu Nidal did in the Christmas Massacres. One of the people killed in the Christmas Massacre — and I do not wish to overdramatize this — but the Abu Nidal terrorists in Rome who blasted the 11-year-old American Natasha Simpson to her knees, deliberately zeroed in and fired an extra burst at her head just in case. I want you to know that I’d be more than willing … to meet Abu Nidal on equal terms anywhere in the world. There’s an even deal for him. OK? But I am not willing to have my wife and my four children meet Abu Nidal or his organization on his terms. To emphasize his point, North showed the committee a blow-up of a newspaper article detailing the atrocities of Abu Nidal and recalled that an 11-year-old girl named Natasha Simpson, the daughter of an Associated Press news editor, had been gunned down (along with four other Americans) during an attack by an Abu Nidal group on the El Al terminal at the Rome airport in December 1985. North also later claimed that an attempt on his life had been made five months before his congressional testimony at the instigation of Libyan leader Mohmmar Qadaffi: In February 1987, Muammar Ghadaffi ordered his thugs to carry out a threat made against me in 1986. Thankfully, the FBI intercepted the well-armed perpetrators on the way to our home, and my family and I were sequestered for a time on a military base. The orders from Tripoli were delivered to a terrorist cell in Virginia — at the offices of The People’s Committee for Libyan Students. So no, Oliver North didn’t warn us back in 1987 about Osama bin Laden’s “potential threat to the security of the world” or suggest that bin Laden be hunted down by “an assassin team,” nor was he given the brush-off by a clueless senator “who disagreed with this approach.” Eventually, Col. North drafted his own response to this piece of misinformation: A COPY OF ONE OF THOSE E-MAILS IS ATTACHED BELOW. AS YOU WILL NOTE, THE ORIGINATOR ATTRIBUTES TO ME CERTAIN STATEMENTS REGARDING USAMA BIN LADEN AND OTHER MATTERS THAT ARE SIMPLY INACCURATE. THOUGH I WOULD LIKE TO CLAIM THE GIFT OF PROPHESY, I DON’T HAVE IT. I DON’T KNOW WHO SAW WHAT VIDEO “AT UNC.” (OR ANYWHERE ELSE) BUT, FOR THE RECORD, HERE’S WHAT I DO KNOW: 1. IT WAS THE COMMITTEE COUNSEL, JOHN NIELDS, NOT A SENATOR WHO WAS DOING THE QUESTIONING. 2. THE SECURITY SYSTEM, INSTALLED AT MY HOME, JUST BEFORE I MADE A VERY SECRET TRIP TO TEHRAN, COST, ACCORDING TO THE COMMITTEE, $16K, NOT $60K. 3. THE TERRORIST WHO THREATENED TO KILL ME IN 1986, JUST BEFORE THAT SECRET TRIP TO TEHRAN, WAS NOT USAMA BIN LADEN, IT WAS ABU NIDAL (WHO WORKS FOR THE LIBYANS — NOT THE TALIBAN AND NOT IN AFGHANISTAN). 4. I NEVER SAID I WAS AFRAID OF ANYBODY. I DID SAY THAT I WOULD BE GLAD TO MEET ABU NIDAL ON EQUAL TERMS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD BUT THAT I WAS UNWILLING TO HAVE HIM OR HIS OPERATIVES MEET MY WIFE AND CHILDREN ON HIS TERMS. 5. I DID SAY THAT THE TERRORISTS INTERCEPTED BY THE FBI ON THE WAY TO MY HOUSE IN FEB. 87 TO KILL MY WIFE, CHILDREN AND ME WERE LIBYANS, DISPATCHED FROM THE PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE FOR LIBYAN STUDENTS IN MCLEAN, VIRGINIA. 6. AND I DID SAY THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAD MOVED MY FAMILY OUT OF OUR HOME TO A MILITARY BASE (CAMP LEJEUNE, NC) UNTIL THEY COULD DISPATCH MORE THAN 30 AGENTS TO PROTECT MY FAMILY FROM THOSE TERRORISTS (BECAUSE A LIBERAL FEDERAL JUDGE HAD ALLOWED THE LYBIAN ASSASSINS TO POST BOND AND THEY FLED). 7. AND, FYI: THOSE FEDERAL AGENTS REMAINED AT OUR HOME UNTIL I RETIRED FROM THE MARINES AND WAS NO LONGER A “GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL.” BY THEN, THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT HAD SPENT MORE THAN $2M PROTECTING THE NORTH FAMILY. THE TERRORISTS SENT TO KILL US WERE NEVER RE-APPREHENDED. SEMPER FIDELIS, OLIVER L. NORTH Variations: One variant of this item concluded with the statement “The senator disagreed with this approach and that was all that was shown of the clip. If anyone is interested, the Senator turned out to be none other than … Al Gore.” Senator Al Gore of Tennessee was not a member of the United States Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition and therefore did not take part in the questioning of any witnesses before the Committee. Additional information:
739	Egyptian masseur plays with fire to ease muscle pain.	An Egyptian masseur plays with fire to relieve his clients’ muscle pain at his spa in the Nile Delta governorate of Gharbeya.	true	Health News	Abdel Rehim Saeid, 35, applies the ancient Pharaonic technique, known as the “fiery towel” by starting with a standard massage, using oil and camomile, to stimulate blood circulation and alleviate some of the pain in affected areas. Then comes the heat. Saeid places several layers of towels and other isolating materials on the client’s back. Then a towel soaked in alcohol is placed on top and set on fire. It burns for roughly a minute before the flames are put out with a wet towel. “It is ...called a fiery massage,” Saeid said, that works by sucking moisture out of the body. “I communicate with the human body, coming into close contact with the body of the human in front of me,” he said. Saeid said he cannot use the technique with people suffering from high blood pressure, kidney failure or haemophilia. He said he trained under an expert in the fiery towel technique in Morocco, and had earned several massage certifications from institutions in Egypt. Mohammed al-Shaer, a client in his 30s, said his pain had improved “100%” after the fiery treatment. “Before, I could not stand to pray. I couldn’t stretch my back when I got out of a car,” he said. “Now, after the second session, my body is getting better and my movement is better. I used to be very lazy but this is no longer the case.”
11575	Drug may work in melanoma tumors in brain	This story offers tantalizing hints of potential benefits of an experimental drug for melanoma, ipilimumab, but without any substance that would allow readers to judge the merits of the claims. It relies on readers to know that medical meeting presentations do not go through the sort of peer review required by leading journals. It expects readers to know what a “phase II” trial is and what sort of limitations that fact implies about the value (or lack thereof) of the study conclusions. The story fails to provide context or interpretation. Indeed, the reporter did not include any comments from anyone; the story is essentially a summary of a summary. The story highlights a trial that is claimed to be a “first;” specifically the “first to test ipilimumab in patients whose skin cancer had spread to the brain.” How significant is that step? Other than saying that brain tumors are difficult to treat, the story doesn’t explain what is newsworthy about this trial. A more serious failure is lack of disclosure that the trials and researchers received funding from companies developing the experimental drug. The story also appears to misstate the design of the second trial that it mentions. Medical meeting abstracts lack context and key information on methods, patients and study limitations. Stories based on these abstracts suffer the same inadequacies.	false		Although the cost of this experimental therapy may not be known, it would have been useful to point out whether this drug is similar to other drugs that carry extremely high price tags (some are thousands of dollars per dose) or might be something that might be offered at a lower cost. These trials did not compare the experimental drug ipilimumab to standard therapy. Although the story accurately transcribes what the researchers wrote about the potential use of the drug, it should have pointed out to readers that this sort of experiment is usually not designed to be able to answer questions about the relative benefits of the experimental intervention. The story does not give any details about side effects. It is worth noting that the abstracts themselves fail to provide much details about treatment harms, which is one of the problems with basing a news story on medical meeting abstracts. Actually, it is difficult to assess how well this story conveys the quality of the evidence, since it is based entirely on abstracts of upcoming medical meeting presentations. By their very nature, these abstracts lack critical information about methods, patients, limitations and other key features. The story does point out that one of the abstracts is based on a phase II trial; however it does not tell readers what a phase II trial is. It would have been helpful to note that the trial did not include any comparison to standard therapies. There is no information about what phase the second trial represented. This story did not mention that a randomized, double-blind, multicenter trial of ipilimumab by the same group of researchers will also be presented at the same medical meeting, perhaps because the abstract details are being withheld for a few more days. Another trial of ipilimumab treatment for metastatic melanoma that has longer follow-up also was not mentioned. It is hard to understand why the reporter chose to highlight some abstracts, but not others on the same treatment. Also, it appears that the story may misstate the type of patient included in the second trial. The story says, “A separate study of the drug also showed signs it could work in people who first appeared not to respond to the drug.” However, the abstract itself says the trial included patients who initially did have stable disease or a partial or complete response after treatment, who were then re-treated when their melanoma showed signs of progressing. The descriptions do not match. Indeed, it appears that the reporter considered stable disease to be evidence of benefit in the first trial, but then evidence of a failure to respond in the second trial. There is a mismatch in this story between the specific experimental intervention and the background on the extent of the disease. The trial highlighted in the lead included only patients with melanoma that had spread to the brain… but then the story quotes total incidence and death statistics for all cases of melanoma… certainly a far larger number. We’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt but wish this distinction had been made clear. Not only were there no independent sources, the reporter did not include comments from any experts at all. The story appears to be based entirely on reading presentation abstracts. Even though disclosures about study funding and other potential conflicts of interest are posted on the same web site as the meeting abstracts, this story failed to report that both trials and the study authors received funding from Bristol-Myers Squibb, the company developing the drug, and that one of the trials was also supported by a second company, Medarex. The abstracts themselves also mention that some of the researchers are employees of Bristol-Myers Squibb or Medarex. Readers deserve to be told about these financial relationships. The story does not mention existing treatments, nor does it mention other experimental treatments for advanced melanoma that are also being presented at this same meeting. The story notes the drug is experimental. The story points out that what is new about the highlighted trial is that it looks at using this experimental drug in a subset of patients, those with melanoma that has spread to the brain. However, readers might be misled by the apparently inaccurate description of the second trial in the story, as noted above. This story appears to be based entirely on abstracts posted on the asco.org web site. Although meeting abstracts are not the same as news releases, they do not provide details that are vital to providing readers with a clear understanding of both the benefits and harms of the treatment being studied.Abstract links: Abstract 1: Phase II trial of ipilimumab monotherapy in melanoma patients with brain metastases. http://abstract.asco.org/AbstView_74_50834.html Abstract 2: Re-induction with ipilimumab, gp100 peptide vaccine, or a combination of both from a phase III, randomized, double-blind, multicenter study of previously treated patients with unresectable stage III or IV melanoma. http://abstract.asco.org/AbstView_74_47740.html
10883	Replacing Recalled Heart Devices a Risk	This article does an excellent job of providing both the details and the broader context for new findings about the risk of replacing implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) that are the subject of safety advisories or recalls. By explaining what the devices do, what can go wrong if they malfunction, and what malfunctions might mean for patients, the article helps readers understand why it is helpful to know what can happen if a recalled device is replaced instead of left in the body. The article makes it clear that while some malfunctions are deadly, others are minor–and that patients and their doctors have to decide whether to leave a device in place or to replace it based in part on the patient’s situation and what failure might mean. The role of these new data on the risks of replacement is made clear in the article. Another helpful aspect is the statement that the findings of the Canadian study also apply to the U.S. The article also acknowledges that a quoted expert has received funding from device makers. Potential confusion over the term ‘recall’ is also noted, although not clarified. One big issue that is not dealt with well is that the initial decision threshold for putting these devices in place may change now, based on the higher failure rates and the higher rates of complications with replacement. This would be a good followup story. This story accomplished a lot in less than 800 words.	true		The article notes that surgery to replace devices that are the subject of safety advisories can cost thousands of dollars. The article includes the numbers of patients who had serious complications after replacement surgery, as well as how many had minor problems. Data are also included that would help readers assess how the risks of replacing a device compare with the device manufacturers’ estimates of how often something could go wrong if it was left in place. Article lists all harms noted in the study, both serious and less serious, and explains that the authors did not track what happened to patients who did not have devices replaced. The story did note that untreated abnormal rhythms can be ‘potentially deadly’. However, the article notes that manufacturers estimate the rate of failure for devices that are subject to safety advisories, and also lists both the minor and serious things that can go wrong with them. One big issue that is not dealt with well is that the initial decision threshold for putting these devices in place may change now, based on the higher failure rates and the higher rates of complications with replacement. None noted. Article notes that the quoted expert has financial ties to device manufacturers, and that he asserts that this research was done without funding from the industry. It is clear from the article that leaving a ‘recalled’ device in place is an option. Other options for treating heart rhythm problems are not noted. However, there are often not good options. It is clear from the article that defibrillators are available. It is clear from the article that defibrillators are not a novel treatment.
8408	In run-down Caracas institute, Venezuela's coronavirus testing falters.	As coronavirus explodes across Latin America, Venezuela’s leaders have taken to the airwaves to laud the nation’s efforts to control the spread.	true	Health News	Since it confirmed its first case on March 13, the socialist government says it has performed almost 270,000 tests and is carrying out 25,000 more a day. Caracas claims that robust testing, along with tough lockdown measures, have given Venezuela one of the lowest incidences of coronavirus in the world - just 204 reported cases and 9 deaths in a country of 29 million people. “We are holding Venezuela’s curve steady, thank God,” President Nicolas Maduro said earlier this month. The exemplary performance touted by Maduro bears little relation to what some public health workers told Reuters they are seeing on the ground in Venezuela. They said the nation’s rickety health care system, where some hospitals lack basics like soap and running water, is ill-prepared to confront the deadly pandemic. Coronavirus has infected more than 2 million people worldwide and killed more than 138,000. Reuters spoke with nine senior medical workers and advisors involved in Venezuela’s national coronavirus response, as well as a dozen doctors working in facilities in seven of the country’s largest states. All requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. They described a nationwide testing program that is dependent on a single, overstretched Caracas lab to verify positive test results obtained from 500,000 rapid test kits being deployed in the field. Only positive tests certified by that public facility - the National Institute of Hygiene - are included in the government’s official coronavirus case count, the people said. The fast blood tests, which were donated by the Chinese government and give results within 15 minutes, have allowed Maduro’s government to claim widespread testing, the people said. But they said the Institute can’t keep pace with the retesting workload, creating a backlog that has kept Venezuela’s coronavirus case count artificially low. The once-vaunted Institute, hobbled by aging equipment and a shortage of trained staff, can test a maximum of 100 samples per day, according to four of the people with knowledge of the facility. They said the lab performs the type of molecular tests recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to scan nasal sputum for the virus, and which are considered more reliable than the rapid blood tests. In contrast, in neighboring Colombia, the national health institute there said it has carried out more than 52,000 molecular tests across 38 labs nationwide, averaging about 2,550 tests daily in April. The people who spoke to Reuters said a number of other Venezuelan labs, including those at universities and private hospitals, have the ability to perform this molecular testing. They claim the government has sidelined these facilities in an effort to centralize control over testing as well as the flow of information about infections. Venezuela’s Health and Information ministries did not respond to requests for comment. The office of the Institute’s director, Lesbia Muro, did not respond to phone calls. Muro said in a March news conference that “no other public or private body has the authority” to diagnose coronavirus. Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said in early March that the Institute was “prepared to carry out all tests necessary.” (For a graphic on coronavirus cases worldwide, see: here) When the Institute completes a molecular test, it sends the result directly to a presidential commission led by Maduro’s top aides and generals, the body in charge of issuing public updates on COVID-19 cases in Venezuela, according to a person advising that commission and the four people familiar with the Institute’s operations. They said the lack of transparency on case counts and fatalities means even top public health officials don’t know how far or how fast the virus is spreading in Venezuela. Authorities have detained medical workers and opposition politicians who publicly criticized the readiness of their local hospitals. “They are keeping this information very close, and we never know the real figures,” said a senior medical worker at a top Caracas health body. “But you can’t cover the sun with a single finger, and this will reach a point when they can’t hide it.” In addition, eight of the medical workers who spoke to Reuters claim politics plays a role in distribution of the rapid tests. They said the government is prioritizing the issuance of the rapid tests to Socialist Party health clinics operated by Maduro loyalists and staffed by doctors on loan from Cuba. Reuters was not able to independently verify where all the rapid tests are being shipped. Caracas’ University Hospital, the public medical center considered to have the most experienced staff in the country, had received just 20 kits as of April 10, two health workers told Reuters. The hospital’s director, Earle Siso, did not respond to phone calls and messages. A surge in coronavirus cases would easily overwhelm Venezuela’s public health care system, which is on the verge of collapse, thanks to a shattered economy and what critics say is years of mismanagement - a claim the Maduro government denies. Public hospitals possess only 80 intensive care beds for the entire country, some senior doctors told Reuters. The government has given varying figures: In March, Information Minister Jorge Rodriguez said it had 1,200 beds; on Monday, Maduro put the number at 4,800. Many countries worldwide have seen their COVID-19 cases grow rapidly, particularly populous nations that are testing aggressively. Venezuela has reported an uptick of only a few additional cases each day since confirming its first infection. Martin Llewellyn, an infectious diseases researcher at the University of Glasgow, who has studied Venezuela’s troubled health care system, told Reuters the official numbers don’t add up. “I’m deeply skeptical of the government’s testing figures,” Llewellyn said. Maduro imposed a nationwide quarantine on March 17, ordering people to stay at home and nonessential businesses to close. Still, people in poor Caracas neighborhoods are flouting the lockdown to search for food and supplies in crowded markets. Venezuela was once at the forefront of healthcare in the developing world. In 1961, the WHO certified that Venezuela had all but eradicated malaria, the first tropical country to do so. University Hospital physicians and Institute of Hygiene researchers were regarded as some of the finest in Latin America. Changes came with the 1998 election of Hugo Chavez whose “Bolivarian revolution” aimed to help the downtrodden. Chavez expanded healthcare in poor neighborhoods. But his government also appointed Socialist Party operatives to lead medical institutions and cut doctors’ salaries. Many skilled physicians moved abroad, replaced by health workers sent by the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro, a Chavez ally. Malaria began spreading again, health organizations reported. By the time Venezuela’s economy imploded under Maduro, who took over in 2013 upon Chavez’s death, there had been an exodus of top talent from the Institute, medical workers familiar with the situation told Reuters. The current virology team consists of three technicians, down from about 20 before the economic slump, the people said. Working on aging equipment, they detect the coronavirus’s genetic fingerprint using a technique called real time RT-PCR. They use samples taken from swabs inserted into patients’ noses and throats. The technicians conduct original testing on samples sent from medical facilities around the country, and also retest samples from the Chinese rapid tests to confirm the diagnosis. Two of the medical workers said the Institute had the capacity to test only a tenth of the samples received each day. Widespread fuel shortages have prevented hospitals around the country from getting swabs to the Institute within the two-day to three-day window for an accurate diagnosis, according to the doctors who spoke with Reuters. The government, they said, has leaned heavily on the rapid tests from China, but distribution of those tests is uneven. In western Tachira state, the opposition-run state government told Reuters it has not received a single rapid test. To the north, in Zulia state, doctors there said local pro-Maduro authorities were only testing state employees. Out of 70,000 rapid tests the Zulia government says it has received, just 400 were sent to the state’s largest hospital, according to a senior health worker there. Representatives for the Maduro government’s appointee to run the Socialist Party’s affairs in Tachira, Freddy Bernal, did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Zulia’s governor, Omar Prieto, said the rapid tests were available in all medical centers. In the western Caracas barrio of Lidice, there is no shortage of tests at the Victorio Orlando Medina clinic, a Socialist Party medical facility. Its Cuban director, Gissell Enriquez, said the government had provided staff with 600 rapid tests, and the clinic is carrying out about 50 tests each day. “If we run out, we can just ask the Health Ministry for more,” Enriquez said. The clinic has been dispatching teams of Cuban medical workers on foot into the surrounding area to track down residents who had reported potential COVID-19 symptoms on a state-run website, Enriquez said. Wearing fabric masks, and no gloves or eye protection, the doctors recently went door-to-door through densely populated housing projects to question locals. Anyone complaining of a bad cough or a fever is sent to the clinic for a rapid test, doctors at the facility said. When Reuters visited the clinic on April 8, it had registered one positive case - an asymptomatic man in his 30s who had been in contact with people who had fallen ill with flu-like symptoms after traveling abroad. Enriquez said the patient was isolated in a ward there after arriving the week before. She said the clinic had been waiting several days for a motor-bike to take his sample to the Institute for the mandatory review. Reached on Thursday, Enriquez said the retest came back negative and that the patient was discharged after spending 14 days in quarantine. She said the grassroots healthcare practiced at Socialist Party facilities such as hers has been key in limiting the spread of coronavirus. “We’re the most accessible to the population, especially to the most vulnerable,” she said.
15781	More than 7,000 Americans lost their lives to climate change-fueled events last year.	"Beyer wrote, ""More than 7,000 Americans lost their lives to climate change-fueled events last year."" The congressman lacks documentation and admits he got his facts wrong. That makes our work easy:"	false	Environment, Climate Change, Virginia, Don Beyer,	"After a long career as a car dealer, lieutenant governor and ambassador, Democrat Don Beyer was elected to the U.S. of House Representatives last year with a focus on protecting the planet against climate change. Beyer, D-8th, reiterated his goal in a March 4 column for the Falls Church News-Press, calling global warming the ""existential crisis of our generation, and of course the preeminent environmental issue."" ""More than 7,000 Americans lost their lives to climate change-fueled events last year,"" he wrote. Beyer posted a similar statement on his congressional website on Feb. 4, saying climate change caused ""almost 7,000"" U.S. deaths last year. We wondered whether his claim is correct and asked for the source of Beyer’s information. Thomas Scanlon, a spokesman for Beyer, said the congressman’s office had made a mistake about the 7,000 deaths. ""That number should be globally, not just in the United States,"" he emailed. ""We made an error in editing this column for FCNP."" That said, we wondered if there was even proof that 7,000 worldwide deaths were caused by climate change last year. Scanlon referred us to a two-page report on global warming issued in January by the American Academy of Actuaries. It said ""global natural loss events"" caused 7,700 fatalities last year. The academy attributed the number to Munich RE, a global insurance company based in Germany that issues an annual report on worldwide losses from natural catastrophes. In a study released in January, the company said 7,700 deaths were caused by global disasters -- including earthquakes, storms, floods, landslides, drought, extreme temperatures and wildfires. But Munich RE doesn’t assess whether whether the natural catastrophes -- resulting in $110 billion in financial losses last year -- were caused by climate change. ""We do not have the ability to identify the direct impact of global warming on fatalities caused by natural catastrophes, other than to say any fatality caused by the earthquake peril are not due to global warming,"" emailed Peter Hoeppe, Munich RE’s head of geo risks research. ""Our data indicate an upward trend in regard to losses from weather catastrophes which, over time, have increased in both frequency and severity."" Of the 7,700 deaths, Munich RE estimated 850 were caused by earthquakes. The remaining 6,850 deaths, the company wrote, were caused by ""weather-related"" events. While there’s no precise way to measure the number of deaths caused by global warming, we should note that many experts believe it will be the root of many fatalities in coming decades. The World Health Organization predicts that an additional 250,000 people -- largely in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa -- will die annually between 2030 and 2050 because of conditions caused or exacerbated by climate change. Our ruling Beyer wrote, ""More than 7,000 Americans lost their lives to climate change-fueled events last year."" The congressman lacks documentation and admits he got his facts wrong. That makes our work easy."
4054	Officials report high number of ticks carrying Lyme disease.	Connecticut officials are warning of unusually high numbers of disease-carrying ticks, especially ones that carry Lyme disease.	true	Lyme disease, Connecticut, Health, Ticks	Goudarz Molaei, director of the state Agricultural Experiment Station tick testing program, tells the Hartford Courant about 40 percent of the 2,600 ticks tested so far are carrying Lyme disease. Molaei said Monday that is a 10 percent increase over results from the past five years. A spokesman for the state Department of Public Health says June and July are peak months for Lyme disease, and about 2,022 cases were reported in Connecticut last year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 300,000 people a year are infected with Lyme disease nationwide. ___ Information from: Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.com
25949	Photo shows “Dr. Fauci, Melinda Gates and Barack Obama at the Wuhan Lab in 2015.”	This photo shows Barack Obama and Anthony Fauci at the National Institutes of Health in 2014. Melinda Gates is not pictured.	false	Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Viral image,	"Part of a photo showing former President Barack Obama with Anthony Fauci and two women has been furiously circled in black with a description that suggests the men are behind the coronavirus pandemic. ""Dr. Fauci, Melinda Gates and Barack Obama at the Wuhan Lab in 2015…!!!!"" reads the circled text atop the image in a well-shared Facebook post. It 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 new coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, and we’ve already debunked claims implying Obama funded the creation of COVID-19 in a lab there. But the photo in this Facebook post was taken in 2014 in Bethesda, Md., outside Washington, not China. Obama, then president, was visiting the campus of the National Institutes of Health ""to see first-hand the progress that biomedical research is making against Ebola virus disease,"" according to a blog post by Francis Collins, the agency’s director. In the photo, Obama can be seen talking with Nancy Sullivan, chief of the biodefense research section of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci, director of that institute, is standing behind them alongside Sylvia Burwell, then the Health and Human Services secretary, not philanthropist Melinda Gates."
11324	Studying Acupuncture, One Needle Prick at a Time	Let’s be clear: this is a difficult topic. But this article provided an overly optimistic view of acupuncture’s therapeutic effects by selectively reporting the results of four clinical trials. These included two sham-controlled trials on the treatment of chronic knee pain and one sham-controlled trial on the management of chronic back pain. Curiously, it also included discussion of a small study comparing acupuncture to an antidepressant for hot flashes among breast cancer patients. By its design, this study wasn’t capable of separating the specific treatment effects of acupuncture from placebo responses. Yet it is presented as if it were relevant to this issue. The column offered a variety of rationales on why acupuncture might not produce optimal results in conventional, sham-controlled clinical trials. But it didn’t balance out this discussion by considering whether the growing number of trials questioning acupuncture’s treatment impact might simply be correct. The story included quotes from four researchers or independent experts. However, three of the four appeared to be proponents of acupuncture. Revising Study Results An example of the article’s apparent tilt towards acupuncture came in discussion of a recent trial on the treatment of painful knee osteoarthritis from Texas. That study concluded that both acupuncture and sham acupuncture produced identical improvements in pain scores: roughly one point on a seven-point scale (J-MAP). However, the New York Times article proposed altering that conclusion through sleight-of-hand. It noted that the patients would have received a different, non-standardized program of acupuncture in the “real world.” And that the study conclusions could be revised to suggest that acupuncture “works even when administered poorly.” The columnist didn’t discuss the possibility that acupuncture might actually perform worse in a real-world setting where patients don’t have to meet strict study inclusion criteria. And the article didn’t consider whether a one-point improvement on a seven-point pain scale would be considered evidence that a treatment “works”. Overall, the article did not provide a clear view of the larger body of evidence on the risks, benefits, availability, or costs of acupuncture for any condition. And it did not adequately stress the key take-home message in this area: that sham-controlled clinical trials have not yet documented that acupuncture has a clinically important treatment effect—and that this is a gaping hole in its evidence base. (Manheimer et al., 2007; Sherman et al., 2009). Acupuncture is a widely publicized complementary/alternative therapy for pain and other physical and psychological symptoms. However, acupuncture is not widely utilized in the United States. Only about 4% of the U.S. population had ever tried acupuncture, according to a nationwide study in 2002, and only about 1% had utilized it recently. One of the major obstacles to broader use of acupuncture is a lack of scientific evidence that it is superior to sham or fake acupuncture. In several areas of medicine—such as the treatment of knee pain, headache, and chronic back pain—acupuncture appears to be superior to usual treatment or no treatment. However, it does not appear to offer any clinically significant benefit over a sham procedure—according to recent reviews of the evidence. (Manheimer et al., 2007; Sherman et al., 2009). Proponents of integrative medicine argue that patients shouldn’t be denied these needling treatments, whether the benefit comes from a placebo effect or not. However, insurers and other third-party payers generally will not provide reimbursement for drugs, devices, or medical procedures that don’t provide a specific therapeutic benefit. They would conclude that these therapies are uNPRoven. So determining whether acupuncture is superior to sham acupuncture is a key scientific question that may determine the future of this highly publicized treatment.	mixture		"The article didn’t address costs or reimbursement issues. If acupuncture could be shown to be efficacious for common health conditions, its relatively low cost could be viewed as a major selling point in a world of spiraling treatment expenditures. Mixed bag. On the knee arthritis study, the story didn’t explain what ""an average reduction of one point on a scale of 1 to 7"" for pain relief really meant to people. It says ""critics contend that the study was poorly designed"" but didn’t explain how it was poorly designed. That could be letting critics get away with potshots without explaining whether their criticism was well-founded. On the NIH knee arthritis study, it said ""acupuncture significantly reduced pain and improved function"" but that doesn’t meet our standard for quantifying the benefit. What does ""significantly"" mean in their lives? Again, in this case, the story said ""that result has been called into question"" but this time the story explained why. On the Henry Ford Hospital study of hot flashes in breast cancer patients, the story said the results were ""striking"" but again didn’t quantify what that meant. So we can’t give this a satisfactory score but it didn’t meet the true spirit of our criterion. The article didn’t discuss or quantify potential harms associated with acupuncture. However, potential adverse effects would not likely serve as an obstacle to wider utilization of this treatment. When performed with sterile disposable needles by competent practitioners, acupuncture appears to be a relatively safe treatment approach. The article discussed the use of acupuncture for three clinical indications: chronic knee pain, chronic back pain, and hot flashes after radiation therapy for breast cancer. The article didn’t provide a satisfactory overview of the evidence in any of those areas. Prospective patients could very well come away from reading this article with the impression that acupuncture is an effective treatment for all three conditions. Yet the scientific evidence is inconclusive. The health conditions discussed in this article are vexing and real. There was no suggestion of disease mongering. The article quotes many sources – most of them involved in the research in question. One interviewee appeared to be independent of any of the studies being discussed. The article mentions several alternative treatments for the three conditions discussed in the article—and, in the online version at least, the study links can lead readers to further information. The article does not discuss the availability of acupuncture in the United States. This is an important question. There appear to be significant obstacles—relating to geography, licensing, and reimbursement— to the widespread availability and utilization of acupuncture. The article stated in the first sentence that acupuncture has a 2000-year history. The article clearly did not rely on a news release."
11624	Mental Activity Seen in a Brain Gravely Injured	This story reports on the brain activity of a single patient in a vegetative state. That the patient had more brain activity than anticipated has raised many questions about the quality of our existing diagnostic abilities and the meaning of conciousness. This research study is relevant for two separate but important reasons. First, our ability to assess patients in deep states of unconsciousness is far from perfect. Better assessment techniques are needed to help clinicians care for these patients and provide guidance to loved ones. The goal would be to better identify those who may improve over time and to predict the extent of improvement expected. To help in this endeavor, functional MRI will need to be prospectively studied in larger, more diverse groups of patients and the results of the studies correlated with outcomes over time. It would be extremely premature to view this as a new standard of care for such patients, but one can imagine that this will be strongly advocated by the loved ones of affected patients. The second issue relates to how such testing will influence a societal debate about what constitutes meaningful life, as reflected in the Schiavo case. One can suppose that individuals who argued that Ms. Schiavo should have remained on life sustaining measures will use the results of this study to support their point of view. Given the nature of this societal debate, it is likely that the scientific assessment of such testing will be influenced by those with strongly held beliefs. The story adequately describes the nature of the evidence. In several places, the story reminds the reader that the results should not be generalized to all vegetative patients. Furthermore, by accurately describing the woman’s mental state, the story avoids disease mongering. Because the story quotes multiple, independent researchers and clinicians who were not involved in the research study, the reader can safely assume that the story does not rely on a press release as the sole source of information. The story does mention standard bedside methods of diagnosis, but does not mention other imaging techniques such as PET. The story could have also provided more detail about the pros and cons of the different methods. The story does not mention harms of the imaging technique, either from the risks of the technique itself or from the implications of false positive or negative results. The article does imply that it isn’t clear whether such findings would predict long-term cognitive improvement and the degree of improvement. However, little information is given about the test itself. It involves the use of a short-acting radioactive substance but is probably safe. The greater harm would be around providing false hope of recovery to family members. The story does not mention the costs of the imaging test, nor does it mention if functional MRI is available and in use for clinical practice or if it is simply a research tool. Functional MRI is an established imaging technique but is not widely available at the present time like standard imaging studies including MRIs and CTs. Functional MRI is mainly used for research purposes, but its potential role in clinical care is likely to increase over time.	true		The story does not mention the costs of the imaging test. Until it has been more systematically evaluated, there is no way to quantify the benefits of the imaging technique. The story does not mention harms of the imaging technique, either from the risks of the technique itself or from the implications of false positive or negative results. The article does imply that it isn’t clear whether such findings would predict long-term cognitive improvement and the degree of improvement. However, little information is given about the test itself. It involves the use of a short-acting radioactive substance but is probably safe. The greater harm would be around providing false hope of recovery to family members. The story adequately describes the nature of the evidence. In several places, the story reminds the reader that the results should not be generalized to all vegetative patients. By accurately describing the woman’s mental state, the story avoids disease mongering. The article also accurately states that the observed finding was in a single patient. It is unclear how common it would be when applied more broadly to patients with severe cognitive impairment. The story quotes multiple, independent sources who were not directly involved in the research study and who provided valuable perspectives. The story does mention standard bedside methods of diagnosis, but does not mention other imaging techniques such as PET. The story could have also provided more detail about the pros and cons of the different methods. The story does not mention if the functional MRI imaging is available and in use for clinical practice or if it is simply a research tool. Functional MRI is an established imaging technique but is not widely available at the present time like standard imaging studies including MRIs and CTs. Functional MRI is mainly used for research purposes, but its potential role in clinical care is likely to increase over time. Clearly the functional MRI technique is new for people in a vegetative state. Because the story quotes multiple, independent researchers and clinicians, the reader can safely assume that the story does not rely on a press release as the sole source of information.
28864	Cocktails are a wholly American invention, popularized by Prohibition.	I actually know where “cocktail” came from, pretty solidly. It’s in the book. Ginger was used in the horse trade to make a horse stick its tail up. They’d put it in its ass. If you had an old horse you were trying to sell, you would put some ginger up its butt, and it would cock its tail up and be frisky. That was known as “cock-tail.” It comes from that. It became this morning thing. Something to cock your tail up, like an eye-opener. I’m almost positive that’s where it’s from.	mixture	Business, American History, cocktail, drinks	The Prohibition era lasted little more than a decade — from 1920 to 1933 — but its effects stretched far beyond those years. Speakeasies and saloons are still lionized by historical fetishists, and slang from that era is still in American English today. One popular story about Prohibition is that the cocktail (using both the general definition of a “mixed drink” and the specific one of spirits, bitters, and sugar) emerged as a wholly American invention, straight from the alcohol ban. The popular mixed drinks, or so the story goes, were created to dilute or mask the pungent (if not outright nasty) taste of moonshine or bathtub brew: Where beer and wine had previously been the drinks of choice, now alcohol was drank much more frequently, as it was easier to transport and took up less space, making it cheaper for speakeasy patrons. It was at this time that the “cocktail” was born, which had virtually been non-existent prior to Prohibition…. This sounds plausible, bolstered by a mixology recipe book a bit later in the century, penned by a bartender named “Professor” Jerry Thomas and advancing the claim that cocktails came straight from the States. But human nature being what it is, how plausible is it that humanity has been consuming fermented drinks for thousands of years and only stumbled onto cocktails in the past few hundred? As it turns out, not very. Despite “Professor” Thomas’s valuable contributions to cocktail culture, not even the word is American: the first time the word can be found in print (at least where the drinks are concerned) is in 1798 — in a London newspaper. (Thomas worked in London before returning to the United States.) So Americans didn’t invent the cocktail, after all. But they did help popularize it — just not during Prohibition. Mixed drinks actually showed up long before the 1920s; they were already well known in colonial times, an era in which alcohol was consumed routinely and enthusiastically. A 1991 article in the Organization of American Historians Magazine of History has alcohol consumption in the late 1700s at about three and a half gallons per person a year, or double today’s rates: By 1770 Americans consumed alcohol regularly with every meal. Many people began the day with an “eye-opener” and closed it with a nightcap. People of all ages drank, including toddlers who finished off the heavily sugared portion at the bottom of a parent’s mug of rum toddy. That alcohol was often in the form of various mixed drinks, but they didn’t officially evolve into the cocktail (officially, a mixture of “aromatic bitters” mixed into spirit with water and a dash of sugar) until a bit later. Bitters, which are highly concentrated plant extracts, were used medicinally for centuries, but became famous in the 1800s in Venezuela (home of Angostura) when they were used to treat Simon Bolivar’s army. As bitters were often taken with spirits and sugar to make them more palatable, they quickly went from medicinal to recreational use. Back in the United States, the rate of alcohol consumption was rising quickly. Historian W.J. Rorabaugh writes that by the 1830s, the average person drank around four gallons of alcoholic beverages per year: …after 1800, as the quantity of spirits consumed increased, the total quantity of alcohol consumed from all sources until it reached a peak of nearly 4 gallons per capita in 1830. This rate of consumption was the highest in the annals of the United States. After reaching this peak, consumption fell sharply under the influence of the temperance movement, and since 1840 its highest levels have been under 2 gallons — less than half the rate of consumption in the 1820s. According to cocktail historian David Wondrich, bitters were an easy addition to the ferment, with the added bonus of being medicinal (early advertising sold bitters as hangover cures). It was an addition to which both Europeans and Americans took enthusiastically: In any case, by the middle of the 1700s, gin and bitters, brandy and bitters, and wine and bitters all appear frequently on both sides of the Atlantic. Indeed, in May 1783, when British officers were meeting with George Washington and his staff to arrange the British surrender of New York, “Washington pulled out his watch,” as the Loyalist William Smith recorded in his diary, “and observing that it was near Dinner Time, offered Wine and Bitters.” With this we should bear in mind the New Orleans Daily Picayune‘s 1844 observation that “although the term of ‘wine-and-bitters’ be in appearance specific, it is indeed one of the most generic which the wealth of the English language furnishes,” and it is easily comprehended as the cocktail itself. Was the Father of His Country the host of the first cocktail hour on record? It’s possible. Alcohol use continued to grow until Prohibition cut it, but not by as much as temperance proponents thought it might. Speakeasies quickly sprang up like mushrooms after a rain; a thriving black market brought in beer, wine, and liquor; and everyone knew someone with a still somewhere. But speakeasies, where the threat of raids loomed every moment, weren’t a place to nurse your elegant and sophisticated mixed drink, no matter what you might have heard. They were instead a place to bolt down alcoholic drinks as quickly as possible, writes Wondrich: So if you desire a real speakeasy tipple, you can have either a glass of Champagne or a whiskey-and-ginger-ale highball. That’s about it. All that talk of the fabulous cocktails made in the midst of Prohibition in order to mask the flavors of badly made alcohol is wrong. When your drinking experience is an illegal one, you just want to get down to drinking. After Prohibition ended, “Americans didn’t know a damn thing about drinking,” Esquire lamented. (The magazine was launched in 1933, the same year Prohibition was repealed.) The elegant tastes of medicinal bitters and delicately mixed drinks were all but forgotten: Fourteen years of adulterate alcohol and literally criminal bartenders had turned us into a nation of indiscriminate liquor swillers, people who thought the right wine for filet of sole was gin and orange juice. So clearly, cocktail culture had to be built up again from scratch. Luckily, the Old World had never even considered an alcohol ban and so the recipes were there, waiting to return to the United States, once Prohibition was repealed. And what of the word “cocktail?” How did a drink that began as a hangover cure and medicinal morning pick-me-up get its name? Its history is murky and its etymology difficult to pin down, but cocktail historian David Wondrich says he thinks his theory is “pretty solid”:
4114	Study: Safe to transplant hepatitis C-infected hearts, lungs.	Doctors can safely transplant hepatitis C-infected lungs and hearts into people desperate for a new organ, say researchers who may have found a way to protect those patients from getting the risky virus.	true	Health, Infectious diseases, Hepatitis, North America	The experiment, reported Wednesday, is the latest attempt to put a dent in the nation’s long transplant waiting list by using organs that otherwise would be wasted, often ones from victims of the opioid epidemic. The new twist: Instead of trying to cure hepatitis C after it took hold in transplant recipients, researchers at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital say a faster, cheaper treatment seems to prevent infection in the first place. “This is about not discarding organs that are medically suitable,” said Dr. Ann Woolley, a Brigham infectious disease specialist who co-authored the study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Transplanting organs that could infect someone with a liver-damaging virus sounds drastic, but the organ shortage has more hospitals giving it a try. More than 113,000 people are on the national waiting list for a transplant; just 36,529 people got one last year. For heart or lung transplants, about 1,000 people a year die waiting. “I knew that time was getting shorter for me,” said Rexford Kelley, 71, of Searsport, Maine. So he sought out the Brigham study in hopes that accepting a lung infected with hepatitis C would mean a speedier transplant. “I’m thankful I got the lung,” said the retired state trooper, who now breathes easy enough to get back on the golf course. Until recently, doctors tended to transplant hepatitis C-infected organs only into patients who already had that virus. But in 2016, spurred by powerful new drugs that promised to cure hepatitis C, surgeons began experimenting with so-called mismatched transplants — giving infected kidneys to hepatitis-free recipients. If those patients showed signs of infection, they got three months of medicine to beat it back. Last year, small studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University showed not only were patients cured of their hepatitis, the new kidney worked fine. It was time to test more scarce transplants of lungs or hearts. Among the questions: Would hepatitis C make it harder to transplant those more fragile organs? And because the hepatitis medicine costs tens of thousands of dollars, could patients fare as well with a shorter — and cheaper — course of treatment? In February, Penn researchers reported the standard three-month treatment cured 10 recipients of a hepatitis C-infected heart. One eventually died of organ rejection but the others were faring well. Brigham researchers took a different approach. Within hours of either a heart or lung transplant, participants started taking medicine for a month in hopes of blocking hepatitis C infection rather than having to treat it. The study detailed how about half of the 69 transplant recipients so far are faring. Six months after transplant, none showed signs of hepatitis C and their organs were functioning well. One died eight months after transplant from a bacterial infection unrelated to the hepatitis but 15 are doing well a year later. Woolley said researchers might test even shorter treatment, noting the virus was undetectable at two weeks. It might work “because maybe the virus hasn’t had the chance to establish itself,” said Dr. Peter Reese, a Penn kidney specialist who helped pioneer hepatitis C mismatch transplants but wasn’t involved in the latest research. But, “if the short course doesn’t work, it’s incumbent to be up front with patients about what they would do.” Larger and longer studies are key for all hepatitis C-infected transplants, Reese added. Many hospitals aren’t waiting for more evidence. Last year, there were 1,274 hepatitis C-infected transplants in people without the virus compared to several hundred the year before, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation’s transplant system. “It’s not established that cure rates are 100 percent,” cautioned UNOS chief medical officer Dr. David Klassen. “To believe they would be, would be a little naive.” But one Penn heart recipient said patients should know this option could cut their waiting time. Tom Giangiulio Jr., 59, of Waterford Township, New Jersey, was steadily deteriorating after two years awaiting a transplant when doctors asked if he’d be their study’s first volunteer. He was transplanted in June 2017. “My first thought was saving my life,” he recalled. “My next thought was, ‘I’m the front-runner here. What I’m doing could open up a tremendous number of hearts to other recipients.’” ___ The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
26336	Illinois “got into fiscal problems because of a Republican governor who was governor there” before Gov. J.B. Pritzker.	Pelosi is referring to former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who served as the state's chief executive for one term. Rauner and the Democrats who control the Illinois General Assembly reached an impasse over how to run the state that left Illinois without a spending plan for two years. But Rauner wasn't solely responsible for the budget crisis and the damage it caused. What’s more, the state was already teetering on the brink when he took office because of financial decisions made by leaders from both parties dating back decades.	false	State Budget, Illinois, Nancy Pelosi,	"President Donald Trump frequently cites Illinois’ fiscal mismanagement as a reason for potentially withholding federal assistance amid the national crisis caused by the outbreak of COVID-19. In a May 4 interview with CNN, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shot back with her own assessment of Illinois’ financial straits. ""Look at him saying these states want to be bailed out,"" Pelosi told host Wolf Blitzer. ""The state that he used as an example was Illinois, which got into fiscal problems because of a Republican governor who was governor there until Gov. Pritzker has come to pull it out."" The National Governors Association sent a bipartisan letter to Congress in April that made clear the financial pressure caused by COVID-19 is being felt by states nationwide, not just in blue states as Trump has said. But what about Pelosi’s assessment of how Illinois got itself into a financial bind? Her comment suggests Illinois’ hardships are a matter of recent history, dating back just a few years to the time of Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Republican predecessor. State finance experts say that’s misleading. Understanding what Pelosi was referencing requires a brief detour into recent state history. In November 2014, Illinoisans elected Republican Bruce Rauner as governor. Rauner, a private equity investor and political newcomer, reached an impasse with Democrats who control the legislature over how to run the state. This left Illinois without a spending plan for two years. With government spending left operating largely on autopilot, social services suffered, public universities laid off thousands of employees and the state’s pile of unpaid bills tripled, causing credit rating agencies to reduce Illinois’ rating to near-junk status. As the state’s chief executive, Rauner played a starring role in the showdown that caused the budget crisis. But he had plenty of co-stars among the state’s leading Democrats, including longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan, who has exerted influence over every state budget for the past four decades. Democratic leadership also allowed a temporary state income tax increase to expire days before Rauner was sworn into office in 2015, leaving the state with even less cash to make ends meet during the crisis. Rauner had urged the legislature to let it lapse before taking office, and Madigan along with then Senate President John Cullerton obliged despite warnings from then Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn, who lost to Rauner in 2014. Foisting all the blame for the state’s unprecedented budget crisis on Rauner isn’t the only problem with Pelosi’s narrative. That’s because the tale of how Illinois dug itself into a fiscal hole dates back much further than his single term in office. When we raised this with Pelosi’s office, a spokesman responded with an email saying she was ""clearly referencing the fact that Illinois’ situation greatly worsened"" under Rauner — not that he alone was responsible for the state’s fiscal woes. But experts interpreted her statement differently. ""To claim that this is a problem created by Gov. Rauner is clearly misleading,"" said David Merriman, an economist who heads the Fiscal Futures Project at the University of Illinois’ Institute of Government & Public Affairs. ""It's a problem that's developed over decades."" Illinois governors and lawmakers from both parties have long managed to increase government spending without raising the revenue needed to support it. ""For many, many years we’ve provided more goods and services … than our revenues would support,"" said Charles N. Wheeler III, who has studied decades of state budgets as both a journalist and professor at the University of Illinois Springfield. ""It’s always easier for lawmakers to fund programs than it is to raise the revenues to cover it."" Indeed, the alarm bells began sounding long before Rauner took office. A 2011 report from the state comptroller’s office warned of a looming financial crisis created by many years of rampant spending. The report cautioned that the recession at the time had exacerbated the state’s ongoing failures to reduce its debt, build up its emergency reserves, or contribute enough to state employee pension funds. And when it comes to pensions, Illinois’ problems date back even further. In 1917, a report commissioned by the General Assembly was already warning the funds were ""moving toward crisis"" due to inadequate payments from the state. ""We’ve been shortchanging the pensions for more than a hundred years,"" Wheeler said. Pelosi said Illinois ""got into fiscal problems because of a Republican governor who was governor there"" before Pritzker. Illinois’ financial situation did worsen during Rauner's term while the state operated without a spending plan for an unprecedented two years, but he wasn’t solely to blame. What’s more, the state was already teetering on the brink when he took office because of decisions made by leaders from both parties dating back decades. The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression."
34402	Banana Boat brand sunscreen is causing severe burns, particularly on toddlers and young children.	We encourage people who have concerns about a type of burn to visit a dermatologist who can determine the differences between a chemical burn, a sun burn, or a reaction to sunscreen itself.	unproven	Medical, banana boat, children's health, health	In May 2017, Rebecca Cannon, a Canadian woman, published a series of posts on Facebook, describing the second-degree chemical burns her 14-month-old daughter Kyla purportedly suffered after Cannon sprayed her with Banana Boat Kids SPF-50 sunscreen. Photos accompanying the posts appear to show significant burns, blisters and swelling on her daughter’s face. Cannon, who lives in the Newfoundland and Labrador province, recounted the experience in an interview with CBC on 9 May 2017: As the day went on, she got a little redder and redder and the next morning she woke up and was swollen, she was bright red, there were blisters starting to pop up. We immediately took her up to the doctors and found out she has second degree burns. In a Facebook post two days later, Cannon said: …It has been verified and confirmed 3 times now a 2nd degree caustic burn (chemical burn). The episode resembles another from 2016, which also attracted some media attention. In May 2016, Virginia resident Jennifer Bradford Sayers posted an account of her sons’ experience after purportedly using the Banana Boat Kids SPF-50 aerosol spray. Our family spent a fantastic day at the local beach Saturday. We were there for aproximately 5 hours [sic]. We used Banana Boat Kids SPF 50 spray sunscreen thirty minutes prior to hitting the beach to allow it to soak in (as recommended) and re-applied at intervals while at the beach (towel drying prior and allowing for time for the product to soak in, again as recommended by the manufactors.) [sic]. Both boys wore rash guards for about half of the day. We left the beach sporting slight sunburns but nothing could prepare us for how Liam looked only 24 hours later. Liam has 1st, 2nd and possible 3rd degree burns on his nose and cheeks [sic]. Caleb has blistering on his shoulders but no where near as bad as Liam has on his face. The post was accompanied by several photos appearing to show significant burns, blisters and swelling to Liam’s face. We have no reason to doubt the veracity of either Rebecca Cannon and Jennifer Bradford Sayers’s accounts. There are no obvious implausibilities, logical gaps or incidental inaccuracies that would indicate their stories might be exaggerated or untruthful. That said, however, we obviously cannot verify the sequence of events described in both accounts, nor confirm that what is shown in the photos is, in fact, the result of what both women claim — that is, the application of Banana Boat Kids SPF-50. Banana Boat Kids SPF-50 is approved by the Skin Cancer Foundation. However, the FDA advises that “Spray sunscreens should never be applied directly to your face.” The FDA also says that certain chemicals in sunscreens can provoke an allergic reaction, when exposed to sunlight on a person’s skin, and that this can result in “sunburn-like symptoms, a rash or other unwanted side effects.” However, an FDA spokesperson told us this is rare: The FDA is aware of rare cases of serious allergic reactions that have been reported with the use of sunscreen products. Over-the-counter sunscreen products include a warning to watch for skin rashes as a possible adverse event related to the use of the product. Although consumers occasionally experience a skin reaction, the overall benefits of sunscreen use far outweigh the risks of these reactions. We got an expert assessment from Dr. Joyce Teng, Clinical Professor of Dermatology and Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, who reviewed the photos posted to Facebook by both Rebecca Cannon and Jennifer Bradford Sayers: The photos shown for both cases suggest that the children had allergic contact dermatitis that is exacerbated by photo exposure [exposure to sunlight]. Dr Teng said both sets of photos appeared to show “severe” examples of “allergic contact reaction” to the sunscreen, and added: As a pediatric dermatologist, I do not recommend the use of aerosol sunscreen on children, as it is very difficult to control the quantity and quality of the sunscreen application. Banana Boat Kids SPF-50 was one of a range of Banana Boat Ultra Mist products withdrawn from the market in 2012, “due to a potential risk of product igniting on the skin if contact is made with a source of ignition before the product is completely dry.” In a statement, Edgewell Personal Care, the company that manufactures Banana Boat products, told us this was done “out of an abundance of caution after an issue with the delivery system of the affected products, specifically the size of the spray valve opening, was reported.” They added: “Currently marketed Banana Boat products have a different valve and remain safe to use as directed.” In relation to concerns that the children’s sunscreen spray may be causing burns, the company said: We take all of our consumer’s concerns seriously and investigate all cases when we are contacted directly about someone who has encountered a reaction when using our products. However it is difficult to determine what may have caused reported problems as described without examining the product or determining the specific type of reaction. With that said, our quality assurance team will look into reported cases and assist consumers reporting concerns in any way we can. As part of this commitment, we have engaged with the families associated with the cases you mention. Importantly, all Banana Boat products, including Banana Boat SPF-50 Kid’s spray, undergo rigorous testing to ensure they are appropriately labeled and meet all relevant health regulations, including SPF tests. All Banana Boat sunscreens fall within a neutral PH range, which means they are safe for human skin, topical use, and cannot cause chemical burns, which are sometimes mistakenly linked to personal care products or confused with sunburns, or tissue damage.
12820	"Political activists are ""being paid"" to protest members of Congress."	"Gohmert said political activists are ""being paid"" to protest members of Congress. His office didn’t provide any evidence of this, and neither did several other Republican officials we asked. It’s possible some protesters somewhere may be paid, but there’s zero evidence of a wide-ranging conspiracy to bring in paid activists to disrupt meetings."	false	National, Congress, Louie Gohmert,	"Several Republican lawmakers have accused protesters at recent town hall-style meetings of being the tools of deep-pocketed benefactors pushing a liberal agenda. They’re being paid to demonstrate, some GOP officials say, with some activists being shipped in from out of state to Republican-led congressional districts to kick up an artificial fuss. U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas was one Republican who leveled the charge in a Feb. 21 statement. Gohmert was refusing to hold any constituent meetings because of protests elsewhere. ""Unfortunately, at this time there are groups from the more violent strains of the leftist ideology, some even being paid, who are preying on public town halls to wreak havoc and threaten public safety,"" the statement read. His statement noted former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords ""was shot at a public appearance,"" prompting Giffords to release a statement excoriating members of Congress who ""have abandoned their civic obligations"" to ""have some courage"" and ""hold town halls."" While Gohmert is not the only official to claim protesters are being paid, nothing has yet turned up to support those claims. The burden of proof still lies with the accusers, however, and Republicans haven’t been offering any evidence (and neither did Democrats when they made similar claims about the tea party a few years ago). Nothing proven First thing about these town hall protests: Crowds have been pretty raucous and confrontational, but not violent. Gohmert spokeswoman Kimberly Willingham did not provide evidence that protesters had been paid. Also silent when we asked for proof was Jim DeMint, a former senator from South Carolina who now is president of the conservative Heritage Foundation. He told Greta Van Susteren on MSNBC on Feb. 22 that’s he’d been reading the Indivisible Guide, a handbook for grassroots protest compiled by several Democratic former congressional staffers. DeMint tried to draw a contrast between Indivisible’s protesters and the tea party, saying Indivisible’s activists were ""very well-financed, very well-organized"" and were ""being bused around to go to these different town halls to disrupt them."" That was news to the leaders of Indivisible, who have said they only tried to provide resources — how to found an activist group, how to reach members of Congress, how to hold meetings and form talking points, etc. — to groups unhappy with leaders in their districts. ""It’s easier to say all these protests are paid than to admit there are wide swaths of people in your district who disagree with how they are represented in Congress,"" Sarah Dohl, a spokeswoman for Indivisible told PolitiFact. Dohl said there were only a handful of people behind Indivisible, which offers a website that has registered more than 5,300 different activist groups in order to help them organize. The group was conceived over Thanksgiving 2016, she said, actually drawing from some tea party principles (keeping groups relatively small and committed to local issues, for example). While they have received some donations, none of the board members draw a salary. Most of the people Indivisible helps have not been politically active before, Dohl said, but President Donald Trump’s election had sparked them into action. One such protester is Caitlynn Moses, a 23-year-old from Fayetteville, Ark. She told us she had never gotten involved in politics, but helped organize her group Ozark Indivisible to convince Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., to hold a town hall meeting in Springdale on Feb. 22. U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., faced a large crowd at a meeting in Springdale, Ark. Cotton acknowledged the paid protester controversy at the meeting, which Moses said attracted more than 2,000 people. ""I don't care if anybody here is paid or not,"" Cotton said. ""You're all Arkansans and I'm glad to hear from you."" Moses was glad Cotton was willing to come out, although she laughs at the idea that her group — or anyone other activist — is paid to attend forums. ""I would say the majority of us are losing money to do this,"" she said. ""It's so important for us to stand up for what we believe that we are willing to sacrifice for it. The rumor that we're paid protestors is absolutely despicable. It's just something someone came up with so they could write us off."" The backlash against protests has roots in the current White House, which has questioned their legitimacy since before Trump took office. Press secretary Sean Spicer said on Feb. 22 that he thought ""some people are clearly upset, but there is a bit of professional protester manufactured base in there."" This after Spicer earlier this month on Fox News accused protesters opposing Trump’s executive order on immigration of being ""a very paid, ‘AstroTurf’ type movement."" Nothing new If that term sounds familiar, it’s because liberal pundits and politicians used it to describe the tea party in 2009. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said in April 2009 that ""the tea parties don’t represent a spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment. They’re AstroTurf (fake grassroots) events, manufactured by the usual suspects."" Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi also used the term, saying of the tea party a few days later: ""This initiative is funded by the high end; we call it AstroTurf, it's not really a grassroots movement. It's AstroTurf by some of the wealthiest people in America to keep the focus on tax cuts for the rich instead of for the great middle class."" Trump addressed the protests last week, tweeting, ""The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists."" The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad! That echoes a common fallback position for politicians who can’t prove that protesters are paid, University of California-Irvine sociology and political science professor David Meyer told us. ""It's a little interesting that some of the Republican targets, unable to substantiate the paid professionals charge, retreat to making the claim that the protesters are organized,"" said Meyer, who wrote the book The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America. ""Of course they are. Someone distributed information about the time and place of each town meeting and encouraged people to show up and ask tough questions. That's how politics works."" Meyer has looked into several activist groups, with no evidence yet of protesters being paid. The closest some aides have come is suggesting that Planned Parenthood, with its paid staff, have supported activist meetings, he said. Trump has been suspicious of protesters since the campaign trail, when he accused Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama of paying people to incite violence at rallies, without ever providing proof. The Internet also has spread unproven or outright faked claims that protesters raked in thousands of dollars or that George Soros paid Women’s March participants. Soros has denied such reports; his foundation has recently denied paying town hall protesters. Town hall attendees have taken to holding up their drivers licenses and signs with their ZIP codes in order to prove that they live in the districts in which they are protesting. ""Not a single member has challenged the authenticity of a town hall questioner to their face,"" said Nathan Williams, a spokesman for volunteer-based forum organizers the Town Hall Project. ""Because they all know these claims of ‘paid protesters’ are ridiculous."" Williams said the Town Hall Project has no paid employees, even its full-time staff. Our ruling Gohmert said political activists are ""being paid"" to protest members of Congress. His office didn’t provide any evidence of this, and neither did several other Republican officials we asked. It’s possible some protesters somewhere may be paid, but there’s zero evidence of a wide-ranging conspiracy to bring in paid activists to disrupt meetings.
2387	Passion for vodka kills Russian men in their thousands.	A quarter of all Russian men die before they reach their mid-fifties and their passion for alcohol - particularly vodka - is largely to blame, according to research published on Friday.	true	Health News	A study of more than 150,000 people found extraordinarily high premature death rates among male Russians, some of whom reported drinking three or more bottles a week of the potent clear spirit. Perhaps unsurprisingly, deaths among heavy drinkers were mainly due to alcohol poisoning, accidents, violence and suicide, as well as diseases such as throat and liver cancer, tuberculosis, pneumonia, pancreatitis and liver disease. “Russian death rates have fluctuated wildly over the past 30 years as alcohol restrictions and social stability varied under presidents Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin, and the main thing driving these wild fluctuations..was vodka,” said Richard Peto of Britain’s Oxford University, who worked on the study. The researchers, including David Zaridze from the Russian Cancer Research Centre in Moscow, noted that whereas British death rates between age 15 and 54 have been falling steadily since 1980, mainly because so many people there have stopped smoking, Russian death rates in this age range have fluctuated sharply - often approximately in line with alcohol consumption. Under Mikhail Gorbachev’s 1985 alcohol restrictions, alcohol consumption fell by around 25 percent - and so did the death rates, they said. And when communism in Russia collapsed, alcohol consumption went up steeply, as did death rates. More recently, since Russian alcohol policy reforms were introduced in 2006, consumption of spirits has fallen by about a third and so has the risk of death before age 55, the researchers said - although that risk is “still substantial”. For this study, published in the Lancet medical journal, researchers asked 151,000 people how much vodka they drank, and whether they smoked, then monitored them for up to a decade. Around 8,000 of them died during that time, and the results showed much higher risks of death in men who smoked and who also drank three or more half-liter bottles of vodka a week than in men who smoked and drank less than one bottle a week. Zaridze described the relationship between vodka and deaths as a “health crisis” for Russia, but stressed it could also be turned around if people were to drink more moderately. “The significant decline in Russian mortality rates following the introduction of moderate alcohol controls in 2006 demonstrates the reversibility,” he said. “People who drink spirits in hazardous ways greatly reduce their risk of premature death as soon as they stop.”
22246	Full marriage equality [would provide same-sex couples] with about 1,700 rights.	Same-sex marriage advocate says full marriage equality offers 1,700 rights	false	Rhode Island, Civil Rights, Gays and Lesbians, Marriage, Bill Fischer,	"In the debate over same-sex marriage, proponents have argued that proposals to create civil unions and other arrangements to mimic marriage are unacceptable. They contend that such measures fail to provide for the same rights and benefits received by couples in traditional marriage. One such proposal, which would allow any two unmarried persons in Rhode Island to establish ""reciprocal beneficiary agreements"" received a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee April 5. Bill Fischer, spokesman for the advocacy group Marriage Equality Rhode Island, said in an interview with The Journal that the proposal wouldn't come close to providing the full benefits of marriage to gay couples. And, he said, there are lots of benefits. ""We've been asked a lot lately regarding full marriage versus civil union versus reciprocal benefits, what it actually means. And I think it’s important to note [that] reciprocal benefits would provide same-sex couples with approximately 15 rights, civil unions with about 600 rights, and full marriage equality with about 1,700 rights. There is a real distinction in approach,"" he said. Supporters of same-sex marriage often cite a large number of federal rights -- usually 1,100 or so -- that they say are denied to same-sex couples because gay marriage is not recognized under federal law. Many examples are substantive and well-documented. Gay couples lose out on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits that would normally go to a spouse. They can't transfer property between themselves without possibly incurring a tax penalty, a concern married couples don't face. They aren't protected by the COBRA law or the Family Medical Leave Act the way the spouse of an unemployed person is. Death benefits don't automatically go to the partner in a gay marriage the way they go to a widow or widower. But when we heard Fischer cite the 1,700 figure, we wanted to know if there really are 1,700 rights to be gained by being married. So we asked for the list. He said it was the combination of about 600 state and roughly 1,100 federal rights denied to gay couples in Rhode Island. To prove it, he sent us three documents. The first was a 1997 report from the U.S. General Accounting Office that, in the wake of the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, identified ""1,049 federal laws classified to the United States Code in which marital status is a factor."" Given the number of times the 1,100 number has been tossed around, we expected to see a specific analysis of each law cited, or at least some indication of what ""right"" was at stake. Instead, we were surprised to discover that the GAO had simply done a search of the U.S. Code to identify laws that use words or word fragments like ""marr"" (for marriage), ""spouse,"" ""widow"" or ""survivor."" In fact, the report itself cautions that ""some of these laws may not directly create benefits, rights, or privileges."" It also warns that ""no conclusions can be drawn … concerning the effect of the law on married people versus single people. A particular law may create either advantages or disadvantages for those who are married, or may apply to both married and single people."" The second document was a 2004 update to that GAO report, which used the same methodology. The new tally: 1,138. So already, given the GAO’s methodology and multiple caveats, we were skeptical. But we decided to examine a sample of the laws the GAO identified. For this item, we are loosely defining ""rights"" to include benefits and privileges that people enjoy as a result of a law. We looked at 35 laws -- particularly the ones where their titles made us wonder whether the statute offered a real right, benefit or privilege for being hitched. We discovered that the GAO's cautionary language was well warranted. In most of the cases, 26 of the 35, the language, by our reading, does in fact give rights to people who are married, although some of the rights were pretty obscure: * A section of Title 2, Chapter 16 gives surviving spouses of current, past or future members of the U.S. House of Representatives, and other officials, the right to ask for an advisory opinion from the House Commission on Congressional Mailing Standards. * Title 15, Chapter 22, which deals with federal trademark law, does not allow anyone to trademark of the portrait of a deceased U.S. president as long as his widow survives, unless the former first lady gives permission. On the other hand, our spot check identified three laws that limited the rights of married people. For example, when considering eligibility for free or reduced-price school lunches, the government must, under Title 42, Chapter 13, consider the income of the spouse, if there is one. And six statutes, even if they mentioned marriage or spouses, didn’t seem to deny rights or benefits. Some examples: * A section under Title 42, Chapter 7, which outlines that an abstinence education program should teach, among other things, that ""abstinence from sexual activity outside marriage [is] . . . the expected standard for all school age children."" * The section under the immigration section of Title 8, which allows immigration officers to record whether a U.S. resident is married or single when they leave the United States via the border with Canada or Mexico. The provision also allows for the recording of whether the person can read or write, their occupation and other facts. Next, we turned to the third document supplied by Fischer: a listing prepared by Karen Loewy, a senior staff attorney at GLAD, Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, citing 669 provisions in Rhode Island law and court rules. Here again, the list was compiled by searching for key words; in this case, the phrase ""next of kin"" and 16 marriage-related words. This time we randomly selected 10 items to check and applied the same standard. Five appeared to offer no special benefits to married couples. One law says there is no right of patient confidentiality in suspected cases of child abuse or neglect. A second requires the state registrar of vital records to send copies of marriage certificates to municipal clerks before the 10th day of the month. A third outlines how people can recover money from claims made in probate proceedings, and a fourth prohibits the sale, foreclosure or transfer of property in divorce proceedings without court approval if a child is receiving public assistance. The fifth law wasn't even a law at all. It had been repealed. It was included in the list because it had the word ""divorce"" in the original title. So out of the 45 federal and state laws we examined, 31 clearly offer a benefit for someone who is married. But under 3 other laws, a married person may actually face a disadvantage. And in the remaining 11 cases, it doesn't appear that the distinction affects people's rights at all, a fact the GAO itself acknowledged when listing federal statutes. When we informed Fischer about what we were finding, he referred us to Loewy, who said: ""In every one of these statutes there's an equal protection violation."" For example, the federal abstinence eduction program that talks only about traditional married couples could be jarring to the children of same-sex couples, she said. The fact that immigration officials aren't recognizing same-sex couples on a form (as they would traditional married couples) constitutes a difference in treatment. In fact, Loewy said, the laws that impose restrictions on the spouses in a traditional marriage also reflect a denial of rights to same-sex couples. We disagree. To assert that any law referring to ""marriage"" or ""spouse"" or ""divorce"" or a comparable term marks a point of discrimination and, as a result, warrants inclusion on the list strikes us as a stretch. If gay marriage proponents simply stated that marriage-related terms appear in 1,700 (or even 1,807) sections of state and federal law, there wouldn't be any debate. Instead, they cite each reference to marriage, spouse or a similar term as an example of a right denied to a gay couple. Fischer, in his defense, points out that he spoke of ""about 1,700 rights,"" leaving him some wiggle room, since we checked only a fraction of the statutes. But because we could validate only 31 of the 45 items we did check, that suggests the number of lost rights could be significantly less than 1,700. Clearly, couples in a traditional marriage have benefits -- both significant and obscure -- that same-sex couples in a civil union or other arrangement do not. And even our spot-check of 45 statutes confirmed that in the majority of laws we checked. But when numbers like these are thrown around, we expect advocates to have more to back them up than a rudimentary word search that fails to say what right or benefit might be at stake. The assertion that federal law denies gay couples 1,100 federal and 600 state rights has not been proven because the technique used to reach the claim produced an unreliable total."
9346	KETAMINE SHOWS PROMISE AS TREATMENT FOR ADOLESCENTS WITH DEPRESSION	This story reported on a preliminary study looking at whether the drug ketamine might be a potential treatment for adolescent depression. The story refrained from disease-mongering and quantified the scope of the observed benefits. However, the headline and lead were misleading in stating that teens who took the drug had improvements in their depression. The word “promise” used in the headline wasn’t borne out by the data. In fact, the study wasn’t designed to offer reliable evidence that the drug offers a benefit. Caveats about the study were included only toward the end of the story, and readers were left in the dark about ketamine’s potential for misuse and its potential side effects. Costs were also missing. Adolescent depression is a widespread problem, and a substantial number of adolescents don’t respond successfully to drugs that are currently available. Given high public interest in an effective alternative, news reports should refrain from encouraging false hopes when it comes to early-stage research. That means emphasizing appropriate caveats with the quality of evidence and refraining from making claims that aren’t borne out by the data. In addition, potential harms should be spelled out, particularly when it comes to the unknown effects of long-term use on developing brains and bodies.	mixture	adolescents,depression,ketamine	There was no mention of the costs of ketamine infusions, which can be expensive. A quick internet search yields costs of between $400 to $800 per infusion. Therefore, the six infusions used in this study would cost a family $2,400 to $4,800. And since ketamine is not FDA-approved for treating depression, insurance companies probably wouldn’t cover it. Given the heightened concern that parents feel for their adolescents suffering from depression that doesn’t respond to conventional drug treatments, information on the costs presented by this new approach is warranted. The story did the bare minimum, pointing to “an average decrease of 42 percent” in criteria contained in a depression assessment tool. It also stated that five of the 13 participants “met the criteria for response and remission” and three of those were still in remission after six weeks, with the remaining two relapsed within two weeks. The story would have served readers better by emphasizing those figures higher up and spelling out what “response and remission” mean in terms of a patient’s symptoms. The story brushed over significant potential harms, including the potential for misuse. It stated that researchers “found that the treatment was well tolerated,” and contained a quote stating “we still don’t know about the long-term safety.” According to the research paper, there were some issues the story ignored. Three participants became nauseous during the infusions, while two others experienced dysphoria (profound unease). One participant reported hand pain from the intravenous site that persisted for several days. Also, with any invasive procedure — even infusions — there is always the risk of infections. But most importantly, ketamine use requires considerable caution. It is now considered a misused recreational drug and some research indicates it can cause complications when used long-term. It seems such cautions are particularly warranted due to the existence of clinics where ketamine is used off-label to treat depression. Caveats about the weaknesses of this study should have been far higher. Instead, they were relegated to the second half. Only halfway down were readers finally told that the drug was tested on just just 13 adolescents. Even further along were readers told that the study “was limited by its small sample size, so future research will be needed to confirm these results.” The story didn’t mention that the study wasn’t blinded and didn’t include a control group taking a placebo. The study itself reported that its design “precludes conclusion that the results are due to drug effect,” and yet that is exactly the suggestion the headline and the lead made to readers. No apparent disease mongering here. The story quoted a researcher unaffiliated with this study. We could find no conflicts of interest. The nature of this study was to investigate the potential use of ketamine as an alternative to other drug treatments. Participants had to have tried at least two previous drug approaches without success before they could qualify for inclusion in this study. So therefore, there clearly were alternatives considered and the story mentioned them. The story would have benefited from a wider discussion of the treatment of adolescent depression, including the role of psychotherapy. The story called ketamine “a popular recreational drug and a useful medical anesthetic.” It could have added that while ketamine is an FDA-approved drug for years and is widely available at medical facilities, it hasn’t been approved by regulators for use as an antidepressant. In addition, Johnson & Johnson has said it is close to seeking FDA approval of a ketamine derivative called esketamine, which would be taken as a nasal spray. The story missed the real significance of this study, which is that it appears to be the first published on the use of ketamine for depressed teens. At least one other study on this topic is underway. Unfortunately, the headline and lead wrongly focused on a possible benefit — which is impossible to show from this extremely skimpy data — rather than the fact that this is an initial glimpse of an area of emerging research. In sum, using ketamine for adolescent depression is definitely novel and bears coverage, but the optimistic assertions in the headline and lead aren’t supported by the data. It does not appear that the story relied on a news release.
1863	Europeans are world's heaviest drinkers: WHO report.	People in Europe drink more alcohol than in any other part of the world, downing the equivalent of 12.5 litres of pure alcohol a year or almost three glasses of wine a day, according to report by the World Health Organisation and the European Commission.	true	Health News	A barmaid pours a pint of beer at The Builders Arms pub in east London in this February 2, 2012 file photograph. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh But while the title of world’s heaviest drinkers goes to the European Union as whole, where consumption is almost double the world average, there are also wide variations in drinking levels between sub-regions, as well as big differences in how frequently, where and when people drink. Zsuzsanna Jakab, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, said Europe’s “dubious honour” of having double the global average alcohol consumption has “clear, recognized health consequences for drinkers, those around them and society.” In a breakdown of drinking by sub-region, the heaviest drinkers were in central-eastern and eastern Europe - consuming 14.5 litres of pure alcohol per adult per year compared to 12.4 litres in central-western and western Europe, 11.2 litres in southern Europe and 10.4 litres in Nordic countries. But the report found a different picture when it analysed these data weighted against indicators of so-called hazardous drinking - such as drinking outside mealtimes, drinking in public places and irregular, heavy so-called “binge” drinking. In this context, Nordic countries clocked a hazardous drinking score of 2.8 - in a range where 1 is least detrimental and 5 is most detrimental - while central-eastern and eastern Europe scored only slightly higher at 2.9. Central-western and western Europe and southern Europe had hazardous drinking scores of 1.5 and 1.1 respectively. The report noted that there are more than 40 alcohol-related illnesses and disorders, including alcohol dependence and harmful alcohol use, liver disease, alcohol-induced chronic pancreatitis, alcohol poisoning, and fetal alcohol syndrome. There are also many more problems where alcohol can be a contributing factor, such as injuries and deaths from road crashes as well as illnesses like cancer and heart disease. The report found that in the European Union (EU), almost 12 percent of all deaths in 2004 among people aged 15-64 were due to alcohol - equivalent to 1 in 7 deaths in men and 1 in 13 deaths in women. Just over 3 percent of deaths were due to alcohol consumed by others. Worldwide, some 2.5 million people die each year from the harmful use of alcohol, accounting for about 3.8 percent of all deaths, according to previous WHO data. Steps to curb alcohol use also feature three times in the WHO’s top 10 “best buys” for public health policies to reduce the burden of chronic diseases, which kill 36 million people a year worldwide. The WHO backs policies such as regulating alcohol pricing, targeting drink-driving and restricting alcohol marketing which it says have been shown to be effective in cutting drinking levels. “The alcohol-related burden on health in Europe is avoidable,” Jakab said.
34055	A cuckolded husband presented his wife with the head of her lover.	Stephan Schap was courtmartialed for the murder of Gregory Glover in April 1994. He was found guilty and given a mandatory life sentence.	true	Horrors, Gruesome Discoveries	Our grisly tale begins with this newspaper clipping from December 1993: FULDA, Germany, Dec 8 (AFP) – An American soldier cut off the head of his pregnant wife’s lover and put it on her bedside table in the hospital here where she was about to give birth, a spokesman at the German public prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday. The angry husband struck on Tuesday when his rival, a fellow GI in the American 11th cavalry regiment, was phoning the woman from nearby Sickels military airfield. The first soldier cut off the second one’s head with a knife, then drove to the hospital and showed it to his wife and left it there. The victim just had time to call down the telephone, “Your husband is coming,” the German sources said. An American army spokesman confirmed a decapitated body had been found in a telephone box at the military airfield. U.S. military police held the first man for questioning. He was not immediately named. You might think that so gruesome a tale couldn’t get worse, but you’d be wrong. In December of 1993, Gregory Glover paid the ultimate penalty for messing with another fellow’s wife. His friend, Stephen Schap, didn’t take the news of Glover’s wrongdoings all that gracefully, coming as it was from his pregnant wife’s lips with her about to give birth to this other man’s child. Leading up to this gruesome event was the breakdown of the Schaps’ marriage. Posted to a U.S. Army airfield in Germany, Sgt. Schap and his wife grew apart over time, a condition Schap was seemingly unaware of, but one with which his wife was all too painfully in touch. Communication broke down, loneliness set in, and a friendship with one of her husband’s army buddies progressed from the platonic to the physical. Diane Schap asked for a divorce at various times, citing marital breakdown as her reason, but her husband always managed to talk her into trying again. He was unaware (or perhaps uncaring) of the depth of her dissatisfaction and completely in the dark about her involvement with another man. As well, there was the coming child to consider, a child Schap did not know was not his. And so the stage was set in early December of 1993. Schap discovered indications of his wife’s infidelity from reading her diary while she was away for a weekend visiting a girlfriend. Though she’d previously asked for a divorce, she’d never mentioned her relationship with Glover. The news in her diary came as a shock to Schap; upon her return he asked her pointblank if she’d been sleeping with his friend. She assured him she had not been, and this assurance appeared to satisfy her husband. He contacted the base chaplain the next day to make arrangements for Diane to return to the States; the two of them had finally reached agreement on a divorce. Diane was hospitalized on December 7 for complications relating to her pregnancy. It was then that she decided that her husband must be told about the parentage of the child she was carrying. She shared her news with him from her hospital bed, and he initially appeared to take it well. (Since Schap had already resigned himself to the marriage’s being over, perhaps this wasn’t all that unexpected a response.) Within the hour he returned in an agitated state, demanding to know details of who her lover was and where they’d made love. After this confrontation, Schap left “to pack his things.” In reality he went to seek out Glover. Schap found him in a phone booth on the base, in the process of conversing with Diane. The lovers had been speaking for 5 or 10 minutes, Diane testified, when Glover suddenly swore twice. The second expletive was “cut off mid-breath,” she said. “Then all I heard was the dial tone.” Glover suffered slight knife wounds in the telephone booth, then tried to escape on foot. He ran a short distance but slipped and fell, and Schap was quickly on top of him, according to witnesses. Schap stabbed his victim 10 to 15 times before beheading him. We quote Diane Schap’s recollection of the events from her description of them at Schap’s trial: After checking into a German hospital in Fulda that day, she had been obliged to confess to her husband that she was pregnant by another man. A few hours later she was speaking by phone with that other man, Glover, a personable 21-year-old soldier who was a friend to both the Schaps. The line suddenly went dead. Now, around a half-hour later, she heard footsteps coming quickly down the hospital hallway. She recognized them as her husband’s. The door burst open, and there stood Stephen Schap, according to her testimony, his chest heaving, clothes speckled with blood. He was carrying a Head gym bag. “He had the sports bag over his shoulder, and it looked like it was full,” she said. It was. Her husband reached into the bag, she said, and pulled out Glover’s head. “He grasped the head in both hands and he tried to push it in my face. I kept screaming and screaming,” she said, sobbing as she testified. “Look, Diane — Glover’s here! He’ll sleep with you every night now. Only you won’t sleep — because all you’ll see is this,” Stephen Schap told her, according to her testimony. Doctors who had heard the terrified screams ran to the room. There they found Diane Schap, her face pale with shock, bedclothes spattered with blood. Stephen Schap sat at the foot of the bed, across his wife’s legs. And on the night stand, facing Diane Schap, was Glover’s head.
456	Eleven dead, 300 treated after drinking coconut wine in Philippines.	At least 11 people have been killed and more than 300 treated in hospital after drinking coconut wine in the Philippines, including some who were celebrating at a Christmas party, health and local authorities said on Monday.	true	Health News	The poisoning occurred in Laguna and Quezon, two provinces south of Manila, and all had consumed lambanog, a drink popular in provinces and consumed widely during holidays and celebrations. Many were admitted to hospitals on the urging of mayor Vener Munoz in Rizal, Laguna, where the deaths occurred between Thursday and Sunday. Two people who had been in critical condition were improving, he told local radio. The coconut wine that was consumed had been made in his town, he added. Blood tests and samples of leftover lambanog would be collected and analyzed on Monday, the Department of Health said. “All had a sad history of lambanog ingestion,” the department said, referring to those poisoned. “Some bought for leisure drinking and birthday party, while others were donated by local officials during their Christmas party.” Unregulated production and sales of lambanog are common in the Philippines, and it is often made illegally with dangerous additives. The country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has previously warned about the dangerous and prohibited use of methanol as an additive in home brews. A year ago, the FDA and police were deployed to locate and confiscate unregistered lambanog that was being openly sold to the public, and threatened to prosecute sellers. Twenty-one people died after consuming lambanog last year, media reported.
7113	Farmers use tech to squeeze every drop from Colorado River.	A drone soared over a blazing hot cornfield in northeastern Colorado on a recent morning, snapping images with an infrared camera to help researchers decide how much water they would give the crops the next day.	true	Colorado River, AP Top News, Colorado, Technology, Greeley, Business, Science, U.S. News, Agriculture, General News	After a brief, snaking flight above the field, the drone landed and the researchers removed a handful of memory cards. Back at their computers, they analyzed the images for signs the corn was stressed from a lack of water. This U.S. Department of Agriculture station outside Greeley and other sites across the Southwest are experimenting with drones, specialized cameras and other technology to squeeze the most out of every drop of water in the Colorado River — a vital but beleaguered waterway that serves an estimated 40 million people. Remote sensors measure soil moisture and relay the readings by Wi-Fi. Cellphone apps collect data from agricultural weather stations and calculate how much water different crops are consuming. Researchers deliberately cut back on water for some crops, trying to get the best harvest with the least amount of moisture — a practice called deficit irrigation. In the future, tiny needles attached to plants could directly measure how much water they contain and signal irrigation systems to automatically switch on or off. “It’s like almost every month somebody’s coming up with something here and there,” said Don Ackley, water management supervisor for the Coachella Valley Water District in Southern California. “You almost can’t keep up with it.” Researchers and farmers are running similar experiments in arid regions around the world. The need is especially pressing in seven U.S. states that rely on the Colorado River: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The river has plenty of water this summer after an unusually snowy winter in the mountains of the U.S. West. But climatologists warn the river’s long-term outlook is uncertain at best and dire at worst, and competition for water will only intensify as the population grows and the climate changes. The World Resources Institute says the seven Colorado River states have some of the highest levels of water stress in the nation, based on the percentage of available supplies they use in a year. New Mexico was the only state in the nation under extremely high water stress. The federal government will release a closely watched projection Thursday on whether the Colorado River system has enough water to meet all the demands of downstream states in future years. The river supplies more than 7,000 square miles (18,000 square kilometers) of farmland and supports a $5 billion-a-year agricultural industry, including a significant share of the nation’s winter vegetables, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages most of the big dams and reservoirs in the Western states. The Pacific Institute, an environmental group, says the river also irrigates about 700 square miles (1,820 square kilometers) in Mexico. Agriculture uses 57% to 70% of the system’s water in the U.S., researchers say. The problem facing policymakers is how to divert some of that to meet the needs of growing cities without drying up farms, ranches and the environment. The researchers’ goal is understanding crops, soil and weather so completely that farmers know exactly when and how much to irrigate. “We call it precision agriculture, precision irrigation,” said Huihui Zhang, a Department of Agriculture engineer who conducts experiments at the Greeley research farm. “Right amount at the right time at the right location.” The Palo Verde Irrigation District in Southern California is trying deficit irrigation on alfalfa, the most widely grown crop in the Colorado River Basin. Alfalfa, which is harvested as hay to feed horses and cattle, can be cut and baled several times a year in some climates. The Palo Verde district is experimenting with reduced water for the midsummer crop, which requires more irrigation but produces lower yields. Sensors placed over the test plots indirectly measure how much water the plants are using, and the harvested crop is weighed to determine the yield. “The question then becomes, what’s the economic value of the lost crop versus the economic value of the saved water?” said Bart Fisher, a third-generation farmer and a member of the irrigation district board. Blaine Carian, who grows grapes, lemons and dates in Coachella, California, already uses deficit irrigation. He said withholding water at key times improves the flavor of his grapes by speeding up the production of sugar. He also uses on-farm weather stations and soil moisture monitors, keeping track of the data on his cellphone. His drip and micro-spray irrigation systems deliver water directly to the base of a plant or its roots instead of saturating an entire field. For Carian and many other farmers, the appeal of technology is as much about economics as saving water. “The conservation’s just a byproduct. We’re getting better crops, and we are, in general, saving money,” he said. But researchers say water-saving technology could determine whether some farms can stay in business at all, especially in Arizona, which faces cuts in its portion of Colorado River water under a drought contingency plan the seven states hammered out this year. Drone-mounted cameras and yield monitors — which measure the density of crops like corn and wheat as they pass through harvesting equipment — can show a farmer which land is productive and which is not, said Ed Martin, a professor and extension specialist at the University of Arizona. “If we’re going to take stuff out of production because we don’t have enough water, I think these technologies could help identify which ones you should be taking out,” Martin said. Each technology has benefits and limits, said Kendall DeJonge, another Agriculture Department engineer who does research at the Greeley farm. Soil moisture monitors measure a single point, but a farm has a range of conditions and soil types. Infrared images can spot thirsty crops, but only after they need water. Agricultural weather stations provide a wealth of data on the recent past, but they can’t predict the future. “All of these things are tools in the toolbox,” DeJonge said. “None of them are a silver bullet.” ___ Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP
36023	"Nancy Gavin penned a real-life story of a ""man who hated Christmas"" and the significance of a ""little white envelope"" for their family."	‘The Little White Envelope for the Man Who Hated Christmas’ Posts	mixture	Fact Checks, Viral Content	In November 2019, a nearly year-old “Maui 24/7” post titled “THE LITTLE WHITE ENVELOPE” (alternately: “the Man Who Hated Christmas”) circulated virally on social media:Text attached to an image told a heartstrings-tugging tale of the meaning of Christmas, a bit like a Hallmark Movie Channel effort in Facebook post form. In its common form, the story is a recognizable example of “glurge,” a word coined years before on a nascent internet newly introduced to the saccharine forwards intended to read as uplifting.Glurge is a “super-trope … meant to be purely sentimental parables, touching hearts and teaching morals.” The Chicken Soup for the Soul genre book series is often cited as a meta-example of glurge, and appropriately enough, the “little white envelope” story was referenced in a 2018 Christmas edition of the series. Glurge of that type continues to be regularly shared after moving from email to forums, which is sometimes appreciated but often considered unpleasant by many readers due to its one-dimensionality:The problem is, they accomplish this by simplifying their message to the point of complete uselessness to any reader who thinks about it seriously. All shades of grey between the black and white of good and evil are wholly overlooked, meaning potentially more valuable lessons about actual hard work, understanding, personal growth and sacrifice are completely ignored in the rush to present a universe in which everything happens for a satisfying reason.Credited to as a “true Christmas Story by Nancy W. Gavin” in December 2015, it read:THE LITTLE WHITE ENVELOPE: “It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past ten years.It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas. Oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it — overspending and the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma — the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was on the wrestling team at the school he attended. Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes.As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford.Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.” Mike loved kids — all kids. He so enjoyed coaching little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came.That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes, and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed a small, white envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done, and that this was his gift from me.Mike’s smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year. And that same bright smile lit up succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition — one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.The white envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning, and our children — ignoring their new toys — would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents. As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the small, white envelope never lost its allure.The story doesn’t end there. You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree. And the next morning, I found it was magically joined by three more. Unbeknownst to the others, each of our three children had for the first time placed a white envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing to take down that special envelope.Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit will always be with us.” For the Man Who Hated Christmas(A true Christmas Story by Nancy W. Gavin, December 2015)In the appended text as told by Nancy Gavin, a pre-Christmas wrestling match between her son’s school and an underprivileged competing team with no protective headgear inspired a tradition which upended her husband Mike’s distaste for the holiday. An “anonymous gift” to the opposing team of protective gear was announced via a little white envelope hidden in the tree’s branches, kicking off an annual tradition in the family.Sadly, Mike died of cancer “last year,” presumably 2014 if the date was correct. A newly-widowed Nancy was unprepared for that year’s Christmas, but still she managed to place the small white envelope on her tree. On Christmas morning, she said she discovered three more envelopes placed by the couple’s children, and said she expected the tradition to carry on in their family.Iterations of the tale also appeared on Twitter:This inspirational story will absolutely and wonderfully impact your heart! Be blessed! SHORT INSPIRATIONAL READ: “Christmas Story: For the Man Who Hated Christmas” #InspirationalStory #Christmashttps://t.co/XBjddJb5sD pic.twitter.com/gOdSrSWuSF— Tim Burt (@TimBurt) December 24, 2018Between November 17 and 18 2019, the post went from around 240,000 shares to more than 300,000, the Gavins’ Christmas tradition of a little white envelope clearly still touching readers on Facebook. The “Maui 24/7” pag didn’t include any source for the story or its provided dates, and a reverse image search showed that the photograph with the Facebook post was from 2014 or earlier:A version shared on the blog TwoSouthernSweeties.com included no contextual information about the little white envelope story. According to that site, the post “literally went viral and broke our website” when it was shared in 2016.Although the tale was dated 2015 on Facebook, it appeared in large part in an archived [PDF] sermon from December 2012. It made appearances even earlier than that, appearing on a casting call in 2010, two blogs in December 2008, a forum in December 2007, and on Bible.org in 2005.In December 2009, the Woman’s Day magazine website published Gavin’s story. The magazine said that it had first appeared in print on December 14, 1982.Many of those early iterations included information about a related website (WhiteEnvelopeProject.org) and a verbatim post script indicating that Nancy Gavin died not long after her husband Mike:This story is indeed a true story and inspired four siblings from Atlanta, GA to start The White Envelope Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting this tradition and charitable giving. The White Envelope Project founders are regularly in touch with the family in the article and are thrilled to have their support. Sadly, Nancy Gavin (the author) died less than two years after her husband – also of “the dreaded cancer.” Her legacy lives on as the Gavin family and now thousands of others continue to celebrate the “white envelope” tradition each year. For more information about The White Envelope Project or to honor a loved one through a “white envelope” gift this year, please visit their website www.WhiteEnvelopeProject.orgLinks to WhiteEnvelopeProject.org redirected to a different domain, Giving101.org, and a sub-page on that site, as well as on a PDF page. (At the bottom appeared a link to a Facebook page for the White Envelope Project.) An “Editor’s Note” section at the bottom of a version of the story explained:This true story was originally published in the December 14, 1982 issue of Woman’s Day magazine. It was the first place winner out of thousands of entries in the magazine’s “My Most Moving Holiday Tradition” contest in which readers were asked to share their favorite holiday tradition and the story behind it. The story inspired a family from Atlanta, Georgia to start The White Envelope Project and Giving101, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating youth about the importance of giving.According to Giving101.org’s landing page, the White Envelope Project grew into a larger organization:Giving101 is a nonprofit that is passionate about unleashing the amazing power of contagious giving.We were founded by four siblings in 2006 under the name of our flagship program, White Envelope Project. Since its inception, the program has attracted national media attention that has resulted in exposure to more than 5 million people in over 100 countries.We have launched a handful of other programs, most notably Expedition Give, a unique twist on a city wide scavenger hunt powering good in Atlanta. While it was extremely successful and saw hundreds of people, charities, and volunteers participate, it required more resources than available to us to execute to our levels of satisfaction. Please contact us if you would like to lead restarting this program.We continue to be entirely volunteer-run and donor-supported and are proud to be able to spread this message of giving around the world without any permanent staff, office space, etc.In February 2007, the Gavins’ son Kevin submitted additional information about his parents, the tradition, and the project that had sprung up out of it. According to Kevin Gavin, friends alerted him to the fact his mother’s story leapt from print to the internet and grew in popularity as it began spreading, and he was saddened to see versions credited to “anonymous” rather than Nancy Gavin:Thanks for putting my mother’s story on the web. Her name is Nancy W. Gavin. The story first appeared in Woman’s Day magazine in 1982. She had sent the story in as a contest entry in which she subsequently won first place. Unfortunately, she passed away from cancer two years after the story was published.Our family still keeps the tradition started by her and my father and we have passed it on to our children. I had not really thought about the publication of the story for many years but I was contacted a few days ago by a gentleman from Atlanta who has started a charitable foundation called the “White Envelope Project”. He had sent out over 190 letters to people with the surname Gavin looking for my mother or her relatives so that he could learn more about the story. You can view his web site at www.whiteenvelopeproject.org.I had heard from some friends that the story had circulated in e-mail form but it never occurred to me to google it and see what popped up. Quite a few hits some of which have credited my mother and others listed the author as anonymous. I thought I would try to contact those with anonymous to get the omission cleared up.Feel free to use the story. It gives me and my sisters great joy to know that it lives on and has hopefully inspired others to reach out in a way that truly honors the spirit of Christmas.Kevin P. GavinThe story alternately titled “The Little White Envelope” or “The Man Who Hated Christmas” in circulation on Facebook was accurately credited to Nancy W. Gavin, but it was misdated as having taken place in 2015. Gavin’s piece was printed in Woman’s Day in December 1982, and she died not long after her husband.At some point, the story re-emerged on a pre-social internet, spreading on blogs, forums, and via email (often credited to “anonymous.”) Gavin’s son endeavored to amend that omission in 2007, one year after he and three siblings founded the White Envelope Project, which is now part of the nonprofit group Giving101.
17620	I have cut taxes 63 times, including a 2006 property tax reduction that ranks as the largest in state history.	"Dewhurst said: ""I have cut taxes 63 times, including a 2006 property tax reduction that ranks as the largest in state history."" This statement paints an incomplete picture. About 63 (or 54) measures giving someone a tax break passed into law on Dewhurst’s watch, but it's not like Texans are less tapped by such taxes of late than before. Notably, too, most of the touted laws targeted particular beneficiaries. Also, Dewhurst didn't personally cut any taxes; those decisions involved the House, Senate and governor, though Dewhurst was a leader. The 2006 school property-tax-rate reduction was historic. But this statement fails to acknowledge that actions Dewhurst helped usher into place the same year led to hundreds of millions of dollars in lesser tax increases. All told, this claim contains an element of truth, but overlooks critical facts that would give a full, accurate impression."	false	Candidate Biography, Education, Small Business, Taxes, Texas, David Dewhurst,	"David Dewhurst, seeking his fourth term as lieutenant governor of Texas, consistently talks up the state’s economy while simultaneously noting tax cuts. The Houston Republican, who presides over the Texas Senate, touted 54 tax cuts in a recent video ad. A bit earlier, in an Oct. 1, 2013, post on his campaign website, he took credit for even more. ""Under my leadership, the Texas Senate has helped strengthen our state’s foundation with essential conservative legislation,"" Dewhurst said. His post singled out actions to balance budgets, address border security and tort reform, stop Medicaid from expanding, restrict abortions--and to cut taxes. The Senate passed legislation to cut ""taxes for all Texans,"" Dewhurst’s web post continued. ""I have cut taxes 63 times, including a 2006 property tax reduction that ranks as the largest in state history."" Dozens of Dewhurst-provided cuts? We were curious. Big picture, Texans paid about the same level of taxes in 2010 (the latest year of available data) as they did when Dewhurst took over as lieutenant governor in 2003, according to calculations by the non-partisan Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C. Foundation figures indicate that on average, Texans ponied up 5.7 percent of their personal income for state and local taxes in Texas both of those years. Still, in between that percentage dropped to as little as 5.1 percent, in 2006 and 2008, the figures suggest. After we inquired into Dewhurst’s reference to cutting taxes 63 times, Dewhurst’s campaign blog post was amended to say 54 cuts. We stuck with checking what was posted for about two months. Earlier, to our request for backup information, Dewhurst campaign spokesman Travis Considine emailed a document headlined ""David Dewhurst Tax Cuts"" stating that since becoming lieutenant governor, Dewhurst ""has cut taxes by more than $15 billion through 63 pieces of legislation."" Among the listed measures, a 2006 measure setting in motion one-third reductions in school district maintenance and operation property tax rates is credited with ""savings"" of more than $12.6 billion, accounting for 84 percent of Dewhurst’s total declared savings. A convention of Texas state government is to estimate costs and savings in one- or two-year increments. That's probably because lawmakers almost always budget two years at a time. By email, Considine told us the campaign chose to list five-year savings figures when they were available from fiscal notes written by budget board staff at the time the cited measures passed into law. He didn’t say why. Not noted on Dewhurst's backup: The 2006 reduction was partly funded by tax increases. According to a chart emailed to us Dec. 3, 2013, by John Barton, a staff spokesman for the Legislative Budget Board, the various increases were initially projected to raise nearly $4.7 billion in the fiscal year that ran through August 2011. In that year, the chart indicates, the property-tax reductions were expected to cost the state about $7 billion--while in reality, the tax hikes generated about $2.5 billion less in 2011 than initially predicted. We took a long look at the campaign's list of tax-cut measures, finding the vast majority to be carefully targeted, that is, not necessarily benefiting every Texan. By our count, about 40 of the changes in law related to exempting particular entities or transactions from sales or property taxes, many of them not lacking a precise savings estimate. Dewhurst’s document lists about 10 sales tax-cut measures. The largest, at a value of about $700 million through five years, is a 2013 law exempting from the sales tax through 2026 ""depreciable tangible personal property directly used in qualified research,"" the legislation’s fiscal note states. Another 2013 law provided for sales tax refunds to providers of cable or Internet access was projected by the budget board at a value of $250 million over five years. Dewhurst’s document also specifies a 2009 law placing backpacks among items subject to the state’s annual three-day ""sales tax holiday,"" a change projected to save affected taxpayers more than $40 million over five years, according to the proposal’s fiscal note. Also noted: A 2007 law exempting pay-phone calls from the sales tax at a projected five-year value of more than $6 million, per the relevant state fiscal note. Among about 30 listed measures touching on property taxes, a 2013 law exempted equipment in certain data centers from property taxes at a projected five-year value of $58 million. A 2007 law protecting elderly and disabled homeowners with homestead exemptions from being stuck with potentially higher school taxes was projected by the state to save beneficiaries (and cost the state) $745 million over five years, while a 2009 law giving full homestead exemptions to fully disabled veterans was predicted to be worth more than $50 million over five years. Dewhurst’s document lists a half-dozen laws related to the business franchise tax, though there appears to be a little duplication in that an exemption of small businesses was simply extended. A 2013 law changing who pays the tax, extending a small business exemption and temporarily lowering the tax rate was projected to reduce such tax collections by $1.3 billion over five years. By far, though, the stand-out measure on Dewhurst’s list is House Bill 1, signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry in May 2006 and described by Dewhurst as cutting school property taxes by more than $12.6 billion over five years. We couldn’t confirm that figure, but the budget board chart shows more than $30 billion in state expenditures from 2007 through 2011 to cover the state costs of the tax cuts. Separately, it’s been disputed whether the 2006 actions whittled taxes as much as some ballyhooed. In 2010, we rated as a Perry claim that ""we cut property taxes by one third."" The tax-rate mandate did reduce school property taxes at first. School tax collections declined 6.4 percent between 2005 and 2007, the year the cuts were fully implemented, according to the Texas Education Agency, which also offered us data showing that collections for school maintenance and operations taxes were 30.2 percent lower in 2007 than the state projected they would have been without the tax cut. A business group, the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, reached a similar conclusion by comparing 2007 school property taxes with what it calculated Texans would have paid without the mandated cut. The related savings were about $7 billion, it said. ""The average Texan's total property tax bill in 2007 was 20 percent lower than what it likely would have been had there been no tax relief initiative,"" the group concluded. Then again, school property tax collections ultimately increased partly because districts had leeway to inch up their rates over the years and benefited, in many cases, from increasing property values. In both 2006 and 2007, the total taxable value of property in Texas rose more than 10 percent each year. The taxpayer association identified other reasons that the overall reduction in property taxes did not meet expectations: increases in the portion of school taxes dedicated to bond debt, as well as increases in taxes paid to cities, counties and other taxing districts. As we noted above, Dewhurst’s declared tax cuts were accompanied by some tax hikes intended to make up a portion of the school revenue lost due to the rate reductions. As described in a TTARA guide to Texas school funding, revised in January 2012, legislators created a tax-relief fund to reimburse districts by drawing on revenue gains from a revised and expanded business franchise tax and increases in state cigarette and tobacco taxes, plus a change in how the state calculates the taxable price of used cars and trucks. According to the guide, some $2.2 billion was to be pulled from the fund in the 2011-12 school year. A May 19, 2006, Austin American-Statesman news article called the expansion of the state’s business tax the ""centerpiece"" of Perry’s plan to cut school property taxes. As he signed the business-tax measure into law, Perry said: """"Today I am proud to sign into law landmark business tax reforms that will provide greater fairness for employers, reliable funding for our school classrooms and revenue that will help deliver a record $15.7 billion property tax cut for the people of Texas."" The Statesman story continued: ""The plan cuts property tax rates for school operations by one-third over two years. It adds $1 per pack to the cigarette tax. The plan will cut more in taxes than it brings in, and it includes $1.5 billion in increased school spending, including $2,000 pay raises for teachers."" Considine stressed to us by email that there was still a net tax decrease thanks to the 2006 actions. The record-breaking part of Dewhurst's blog-post claim rings true. We recalled only one other substantial statewide property-tax break. The 1997 Legislature sent voters a proposed constitutional amendment, subsequently adopted, increasing from $5,000 to $15,000 the residential homestead exemption from school property taxes, a change then estimated to save a typical Texas homeowner about $12 a month, according to a July 1997 report by the House Research Organization. That report also said: ""The net result would be one of the largest tax reductions in state history."" By email, school finance expert Joe Wisnoski of Austin offered his ballpark estimate that the 1997 actions have a current-day annual value of about $$650 million to $700 million with the annual value of the 2006 tax-rate actions being far more--at least $6 billion, he said. Finally, we identified no reason to believe Dewhurst didn’t support all the tax-cut proposals passed into law on his watch. He’s a long-time Republican leader in the Republican-steered Capitol. But he didn’t personally cut any taxes. He had no vote on the listed measures--those belonged to senators and House members. On the other hand, his powers include the appointment of pivotal Senate committees, the reference of individual proposals to particular committees and the setting of the Senate's floor agenda. He was a gavel-wielding player. Our ruling Dewhurst said: ""I have cut taxes 63 times, including a 2006 property tax reduction that ranks as the largest in state history."" This statement paints an incomplete picture. About 63 (or 54) measures giving someone a tax break passed into law on Dewhurst’s watch, but it's not like Texans are less tapped by such taxes of late than before. Notably, too, most of the touted laws targeted particular beneficiaries. Also, Dewhurst didn't personally cut any taxes; those decisions involved the House, Senate and governor, though Dewhurst was a leader. The 2006 school property-tax-rate reduction was historic. But this statement fails to acknowledge that actions Dewhurst helped usher into place the same year led to hundreds of millions of dollars in lesser tax increases. All told, this claim contains an element of truth, but overlooks critical facts that would give a full, accurate impression. The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression."
41016	Plasma from newly recovered patients from Covid -19 can treat others infected by Covid-19.	This is being used as a treatment in some countries, but clinical trials have not yet proved that this is effective.	true	online	Doctors in India have been successful in treating coronavirus with a combination of drugs (Lopinavir, Retonovir, Oseltamivir along with Chlorphenamine) and are going to suggest the same medicine globally. India’s ministry of health has advised that the anti-HIV drugs, Lopinavir and Retonovir, are used in some groups of Covid-19 patients. But it is unclear how successful this treatment has been. The other two drugs from the claim are not mentioned in their guidance. Researchers at the Erasmus Medical Center claim to have found an antibody against coronavirus. Researchers in the Netherlands have released research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, on an antibody against the new coronavirus. A 103 year-old Chinese grandmother has made a full recovery from Covid-19 after being treated for 6 days in Wuhan, China This has been widely reported in the media. Apple has reopened all 42 China stores. Correct. On 13 March 2020, Apple announced that it had reopened all 42 stores in mainland China after a closure of almost six weeks. Cleveland Clinic developed a Covid-19 test that gives results in hours, not days. The number of new cases in South Korea is declining. Italy is hit hard, experts say, only because they have the oldest population in Europe. Whilst it is true that an older population has contributed to a high number of deaths in Italy, it may not be the sole reason. Scientists in Israel are likely to announce the development of a coronavirus vaccine. Scientists in Israel and elsewhere are working on developing a vaccination to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, but it won’t be ready for the public for over a year. Three Maryland coronavirus patients fully recovered and are able to return to everyday life. Correct. On 13 March 2020, Montgomery County, Maryland confirmed that three residents who previously had the virus no longer tested positive. A network of Canadian scientists are making excellent progress in Covid-19 research. At least one group of Canadian scientists has recently announced some progress in understanding Covid-19. A San Diego biotech company is developing a Covid-19 vaccine in collaboration with Duke University and National University of Singapore. Tulsa County's first positive Covid-19 case has recovered. This individual has had two negative tests, which is the indicator of recovery. Correct, this patient has recovered according to official Tulsa County sources. Two negative tests is one of three official indicators of recovery among people with Covid-19 (who showed symptoms). All seven patients who were getting treated for Covid-19 at Safdarjung hospital in New Delhi have recovered. There is a news story reporting that seven patients in this hospital in New Delhi had recovered. However, these were not the only Covid-19 patients in the city. Plasma from newly recovered patients from Covid -19 can treat others infected by Covid-19. This is being used as a treatment in some countries, but clinical trials have not yet proved that this is effective. Claim 1 of 15
8866	Glaxo antibody drug combats rare blood disorder.	An experimental antibody drug from GlaxoSmithKline Plc has proved effective in tests for treating a rare disorder known as hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES), researchers said on Sunday.	true	Health News	A staff member works at the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) laboratory works in Singapore March 21, 2007. REUTERS/Nicky Loh A Phase III study found significantly more patients who were given Bosatria, also known as mepolizumab, were able to maintain control of their disease with a reduced dose of a corticosteroid, compared to those who received placebo. The results of the study, involving 85 patients, were presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology in Philadelphia and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine. HES is characterized by persistent elevated levels of eosinophils — a type of white blood cell — leading to respiratory, cardiac, skin and gastrointestinal problems. It can cause heart failure and death. Worldwide prevalence of the condition has not been established but it is estimated to affect between 2,000 and 5,000 patients in the United States. The number of individuals with eosinophilic disorders has been increasing rapidly in recent years, especially in patients with gastrointestinal symptoms. Corticosteroids are frequently used in the condition but their prolonged use is often associated with serious side effects. Glaxo’s drug works by inactivating a messenger protein, called interleukin-5, linked to eosinophils levels in the blood. Dr Marc Rothenberg, director of allergy and immunology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and the leader of the study, said the new drug offered a promising steroid-sparing treatment strategy. “We found that mepolizumab enabled study patients to significantly reduce their doses of steroids and, often, even withdraw from steroid use,” he said. Bosatria has been granted orphan drug status by regulatory authorities in the United States and Europe.
25799	President Donald Trump “put a hold on ALL EVICTIONS through December.”	An eviction moratorium for properties linked to federal housing financing was included in the CARES Act, a major coronavirus relief bill. The moratorium expired in late July. Trump’s executive order doesn’t extend the moratorium. Instead, it takes a softer approach by telling executive branch officials to think about possible solutions to evictions during the coronavirus pandemic and its related economic downturn. The executive order also says nothing about any December deadline.	false	Housing, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,	"Some Facebook users jumped the gun on a series of executive actions signed by President Donald Trump after bipartisan negotiations on a new coronavirus relief bill ground to a halt. One of the four orders Trump signed on Aug. 8 addressed eviction policy, an urgent matter given the coronavirus pandemic, which has prompted a severe economic downturn and caused many renters to lose their jobs. An eviction moratorium that had been included in the coronavirus relief bill known as the CARES Act expired on July 24 and has not yet been extended. Between 30 million and 40 million people could be at risk of eviction over the next few months without an extended moratorium, the National Low-Income Housing Coalition estimated. The Aug. 8 Facebook post said lawmakers wasted time on negotiations when Trump was taking forceful actions. Trump, the post said, ""put a hold on ALL EVICTIONS through December."" It went on to say that Trump ""is for the people whether you like him or not. This executive order he just signed is going to save a lot of y’all asses."" But it is not accurate to say Trump extended eviction protections until December. 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.) First, some background on the previous eviction moratorium from the CARES Act. That law, which was passed with almost universal bipartisan support and was signed by Trump on March 27, 2020, provided a 120-day eviction moratorium for renters in specific categories. Those categories included renters who received federal housing assistance (such as by living in public housing or receiving federal financial assistance or tax credits), as well as renters who lived in properties in which the landlord’s mortgage is backed by the federal government, including the mortgage-bundling entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However, the ban in the CARES Act expired on July 24, and to date, it has not been extended. A different federal eviction moratorium is still in place, but it is set to end on Aug. 31. That one, imposed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, pauses mortgages and evictions for single-family homes that have mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Separately, renters may have protections under state or local policies. Trump’s executive order falls well short of extending the moratorium from the CARES Act. Instead, it tells executive branch officials to think about possible solutions rather than formally imposing a moratorium. (The executive order also doesn’t mention extending anything ""through December."") Here are the key provisions of Trump’s order: • It tells the Health and Human Services secretary and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ""consider whether any measures temporarily halting residential evictions of any tenants for failure to pay rent are reasonably necessary."" • It tells the Treasury secretary and Housing and Urban Development secretary to identify federal funds that can be applied to ""temporary financial assistance to renters and homeowners."" • It tells the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency to identify ""resources that may be used to prevent evictions and foreclosures for renters and homeowners"" caused by the pandemic. (As an independent agency, it’s unclear whether the president can order the agency to do anything.) Unlike the CARES Act eviction ban, ""the executive order does not ‘put a hold’ on evictions at all,"" said Andrew Scherer, the policy director of New York Law School’s Impact Center for Public Interest Law. The Facebook post said that Trump ""put a hold on ALL EVICTIONS through December."" That’s incorrect. The executive order tells executive branch officials to think about possible solutions, rather than formally imposing a moratorium, as the now-expired CARES Act language did, at least for properties with a linkage to federal housing finance. The executive order also says nothing about a December deadline."

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