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14108
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There are places in America that are among the most dangerous in the world. You go to places like Oakland. Or Ferguson. The crime numbers are worse. Seriously.
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"Trump said, ""There are places in America that are among the most dangerous in the world. You go to places like Oakland. Or Ferguson. The crime numbers are worse. Seriously."" Four American cities — though not Oakland or Ferguson — have some of the highest murder rates in the world. However, experts told us homicide rates alone are not enough to gauge whether a city is dangerous or not. In considering other security threats like war, terrorism, kidnappings, and other violence as well as the ability to mitigate risks, U.S. cities are nowhere near the most dangerous in the world."
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false
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National, Crime, Donald Trump,
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"Donald Trump named Oakland and Ferguson among the ""most dangerous"" cities in the world in a recent New York Times magazine interview. Reporter Robert Draper asked Trump to name the most dangerous place in the world he’s been. ""Brooklyn,"" the Queens-native-turned-Manhattanite joked. Then he said. ""There are places in America that are among the most dangerous in the world. You go to places like Oakland. Or Ferguson. The crime numbers are worse. Seriously."" Seriously? Trump’s right that a few places in the United States have some of the highest murder rates across the globe — but Oakland and Ferguson are not among them. Experts also pointed out that homicide and other crimes in these cities disportionately affect certain demographics, so it’s not a one-danger-fits-all scenario. Factoring in other security concerns, such as war, terrorism, kidnappings, natural disasters, and other types of violence, even high-crime American cities start looking pretty safe compared to the rest of the world. Murder he tweeted Before we dive into the data, we should note that comparing crime across countries is difficult and discouraged due to disparities in legal definitions, incident reporting and data collection, and social and political contexts. Homicide rates, however, are generally safe to compare. By that metric, four American cities crack the top 50 most dangerous places in the world, as others have noted. The Mexico-based nonprofit Consejo Ciudadano para la Seguridad Publica y la Justicia (CCSP) compiles an annual list of the highest murder rates in the world in cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants. Out of the 50 cities in its 2015 rankings, 21 are in Brazil, eight are in Venezuela (including the murder capital of the world, Caracas), and five are in Mexico. At No. 15, St. Louis is the top-ranking U.S. city in 2015 with a rate of 59.23 per 100,000 inhabitants. Baltimore comes in at No. 19, Detroit is No. 28 and New Orleans is No. 32. Though Trump highlighted one specific murder near Oakland last year on Twitter (the shooting death of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco) and repeatedly warned of riots in Ferguson following the shooting death of Michael Brown in 2014, the homicide rates in both places are nowhere near as high as the places listed by CCSP. According to FBI data from 2014 (the latest complete year on record), Oakland reported 80 murders for a population of 410,000 for a rate of 19.51. Ferguson, with two murders for 21,000 people, had a rate of 9.48. Oakland and Ferguson do not appear in the CCSP ranking of the highest murder rates in the world. Here’s how the two cities cited by Trump stack up next to the top 50: Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf blasted Trump’s claim on Twitter, writing, ""The most dangerous place in America is Donald Trump's mouth."" But Trump would have actually been right about Oakland in 2012, when it placed at No. 43 on CCSP’s list with a homicide rate of 33.10. That was a peak year for Oakland though, and the city didn’t rank in 2011, 2013 or 2014 either. In 2012, four more U.S. cities (Flint, Mich.; Jackson, Miss. ; Newark, N.J.; and Birmingham, Ala.) with populations of 100,000 or more had a higher murder rate than the No. 50 city of Barranquilla, Colombia, with its rate of 29.41. Ferguson’s crime rates, meanwhile, are nowhere near the higher reaches of violent crime in the United States, let alone the world. Because of its small population size, its murder rates vary wildly from any given year. For example, there were five murders in 2011 giving it a rate of 23.5 but the town reported no murders in 2010 for a rate of 0. Ferguson is also part of the greater St. Louis area. Frank Zimring, a crime expert at the University of California, Berkeley, noted that most high-crime American cities have a high concentration of African-Americans, who are also the vast majority of the victims. At its peak in 2006, Zimring noted, only six of Oakland’s 149 homicide victims were non-Hispanic whites. ""Whether or not a city is dangerous to you because of the homicide rate, you have to look at who’s being killed,"" said Matthew Bradley, the regional security director for the Americas at the travel security company, International SOS. ""It is the profile of the person who’s there that matters."" Make America Safe Again? Of course, murder isn’t the only danger people face. Overall, no American city is ""among the most dangerous in the world."" International SOS is the world’s largest travel-security firm and operates in around 1,000 cities in 90 countries including conflict zones like Baghdad, Iraq, and high-crime cities like Caracas, Venezuela. ""We don’t have any city in the United States rated as high or even medium risk — all are low risk,"" Bradley said. ""I can name at least 20 cities more dangerous than St. Louis."" It’s not just about risk; it’s also about the ability to mitigate risk, Bradley explained. So International SOS looks at a variety of factors beyond crime rates like anecdotal evidence, news and social media reports and the capabilities of local authorities. For example, after the Paris terrorist attacks in November 2015, the likelihood of more bombings was still very low because French authorities responded swiftly with hundreds of raids. However, International SOS raised Istanbul’s risk to medium after a series of bombings in the city that authorities had not been able to deter. Despite high crime rates in certain hotspots in specific U.S. cities, police and other authorities are typically responsive and able to contain emergencies. ""The national security apparatus of the United States provides resources that can’t be matched by any place in the world. No country can match that,"" Bradley said. Global consulting firm Mercer, which releases an annual ranking of quality of life standards around the world, shared its safety rankings with PolitiFact. Out of 230 cities, the lowest-ranked U.S. cities were Atlanta, Detroit and St. Louis, all tied at No. 107. Meanwhile, San Francisco tied with Chicago, Honolulu and Houston as the safest U.S cities at No. 54. So where are the most dangerous places in the world? Mercer named Baghdad as the least-safe city in the world. Other war-torn and terrorized cities like Damascus, Syria, Nairobi, Kenya, and Tripoli, Libya, rounded out the 20 least-safe places. The consulting firm’s list matches up with the U.S. State Department’s list of travel warnings. As of May 25, the State Department is discouraging visiting 37 countries for a number of security reasons, from pervasive violence in Venezuela and the Congo to war zones in Syria and Iraq. International SOS, meanwhile, currently has an evacuation status in place for Syria, Yemen, Libya and a few other countries ravaged by conflict. Unlike Caracas, Baghdad and Johannesburg, mitigating risk in a city like Damascus is difficult if not near impossible. Travelers there face improvised explosive devices and other unpredictable threats. In short, there are definitely more dangerous places than Oakland, Ferguson and other American cities. ""I don’t have my head on a swivel in Doylestown, Pa.,"" Bradley said. ""If I ever walked outside my house in Honduras — well, I never did."" Our ruling Trump said, ""There are places in America that are among the most dangerous in the world. You go to places like Oakland. Or Ferguson. The crime numbers are worse. Seriously."" Four American cities — though not Oakland or Ferguson — have some of the highest murder rates in the world. However, experts told us homicide rates alone are not enough to gauge whether a city is dangerous or not. In considering other security threats like war, terrorism, kidnappings, and other violence as well as the ability to mitigate risks, U.S. cities are nowhere near the most dangerous in the world.
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4174
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Rhode Island officials lift advisories for blue-green algae.
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Rhode Island health and environmental officials have lifted recreational advisories that have been in place for a number of bodies of water because of a blue-green algae known as cyanobacteria.
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true
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Environment, Rhode Island, General News, Algae, Providence
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The Rhode Island Department of Health and the state Department of Environmental Management earlier this week announced that seasonal cooling and declining daylight have signaled a great reduction in risk. However, officials said there's no guarantee the toxins are absent, warning that a warm spell could trigger an algae bloom during the winter or spring. While the seasonal monitoring of cyanobacteria in 2019 is complete, the public is reminded to avoid contact with any body of water that appears to be bright green or has a dense, floating mass on the surface. Blue-green algae blooms may also look like green paint or thick pea soup and the toxins may still persist in the water even if the bloom is no longer visible. Advisories have been lifted for Paradise Pond in Middletown, Sisson Pond in Portsmouth, Slack Reservoir in Smithfield-Johnston, Carbuncle Pond in Coventry, Almy Pond in Newport, Elm Lake in Providence, JL Curran Resevoir in Cranston, Mashapaug, Pleasure and Roosevelt ponds in Providence, and Melville Pond in Portsmouth. As of earlier this week, an advisory was still in place for Watson Reservoir in Little Compton, where there were still visual signs of a cyanobacteria bloom. People who come into contact with potentially affected waters should rinse their skin and wash their clothes with clean water as soon as possible. Meanwhile, people with pets that exhibit adverse health symptoms after coming in contact with potentially affected waters should contact their veterinarians.
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7838
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Irish PM says won't be rushed on abortion issue.
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Ireland’s prime minister said on Friday he would not be rushed into making a decision on the issue of abortion, after an Indian woman who was refused a termination died from blood poisoning in an Irish hospital.
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true
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Health News
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“This is a matter that has divided Irish society now for a great number of years, and I am not going to be rushed into a situation by force of numbers on any side,” Prime Minister Enda Kenny told state broadcaster RTE. The Irish government pledged on Thursday to clarify its abortion laws. A wave of protests have taken place across Ireland in recent days in response to the death of 31-year old Savita Halappanavar who died of septicaemia following a miscarriage 17 weeks into her pregnancy. Activists in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country, which has some of the world’s most restrictive laws on abortion, say the refusal by doctors to terminate the pregnancy earlier may have contributed to her death. “This is something that has to be dealt with rationally, and openly and truthfully and that is what will happen,” said Kenny. A delayed expert report on abortion was submitted to the Health Ministry this week and will be published after being discussed by government, Kenny added. Halappanavar was admitted to hospital in severe pain on October 21 and asked for a termination after doctors told her the baby would not survive, according to her husband Praveen. The fetus was surgically removed when its heartbeat stopped days later, but her family believes the delay contributed to the blood poisoning that killed Halappanavar on October 28.
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27540
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Filmmakers staged lemming death scenes for the Disney nature documentary White Wilderness.
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“It’s a frequent question,” he said “‘Do they really kill themselves?’ No. The answer is unequivocal, no they don’t.”
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true
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Disney, lemmings, white wilderness, Wild Inaccuracies
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Some of the most memorable scenes in White Wilderness, Disney’s 1958 Academy Award-winning “True-Life Adventure” nature documentary about wildlife in the snowy northern portions of the North American continent, were ones featuring the death of lemmings who drowned after jumping off cliffs and into the sea. But the scenes shown in the documentary were staged by filmmakers in order to replicate supposed real-life behavior of lemmings that could not be captured on film, and thus did Disney perpetuate for generations to come the legend of periodic, inexplicable mass suicides by lemmings who die by hurling themselves off of cliffs. The narration in the film accompanying the lemmings scenes begins as follows: It is said of this tiny animal that it commits mass suicide by rushing into the sea in droves. The story is one of the persistent tales of the Arctic, and as often happens in Man’s nature lore, it is a story both true and false, as we shall see in a moment. What the audience then sees is what appears to be a horde of lemmings entering the Arctic sea by jumping off cliffs and scampering across rock-covered beaches to enter the water from the shore, whereupon they swim out to sea and (we’re told by the narrator) eventually drown — not quite because they’re simply committing suicide, the film states, but because they’ve supposedly mistaken the vast expanse of the Arctic sea for a lake and assumed there’s a reachable shore just across the water. A kind of compulsion seizes each tiny rodent and, carried along by an unreasoning hysteria, each falls into step for a march that will take them to a strange destiny. That destiny is to jump into the ocean. They’ve become victims of an obsession — a one-track thought: ‘Move on! Move on!’ This is the last chance to turn back, yet over they go, casting themselves out bodily into space … and so is acted out the legend of mass suicide. None of what was shown in the film was realistic lemming behavior, however. Disney’s White Wilderness was filmed the Canadian province of Alberta, which is not a native habitat for lemmings and is landlocked with no outlet to the sea. The filmmakers had to import lemmings to Alberta for use in the documentary (reportedly by purchasing them from Inuit children who had caught them in other provinces); through the use of carefully controlled camera angles and tight editing, the filmmakers made no more than a few dozen lemmings look like a much larger number, placing them on turntables to create a frenzied migration effect and then herding them off a cliff and into the water (which was actually the Bow River, not an Arctic sea). Nine different photographers spent three years shooting and assembling footage for the various segments that comprise White Wilderness, and it is not known whether Walt Disney approved or was aware of the activities of James R. Simon, the principal photographer for the lemmings sequence. Certainly nature documentaries are notoriously difficult to film as wild animals are not terribly cooperative, and many nature shows and films of this era (including Disney’s “True-Life Adventure” movies and the Wild Kingdom television series) staged events to capture exciting footage for their audiences. Nonetheless, in this case what was depicted on screen was a complete fabrication, not a recreation of real animal behavior that filmmakers were unable to capture on film. Lemmings do not periodically hurl themselves off cliffs and into the sea. Cyclical explosions in population do occasionally induce lemmings to attempt to migrate to areas of lesser population density, and when such migrations occur, some lemmings do die by falling over cliffs or drowning in lakes or rivers. These deaths are neither acts of “suicide” nor the result of compulsive unreasoning behavior, however; they’re accidental deaths resulting from lemmings’ venturing into unfamiliar territories and being crowded and pushed over dangerous ledges or venturing into the water in a quest to reach new territory. As the Alaska Department of Fish and Game noted in an article about this myth: “Disney had to have gotten that idea from somewhere,” said Thomas McDonough, the state wildlife biologist. Disney likely confused dispersal with migration, he added, and embellished a kernel of truth. Lemming populations fluctuate enormously based on predators, food, climate and other factors. Under ideal conditions, in a single year a population of voles can increase by a factor of ten. When they’ve exhausted the local food supply, they disperse, as do moose, beaver and many other animals. Lemmings can swim and will cross bodies of water in their quest for greener pastures. Sometimes they drown. Dispersal and accidental death is a far cry from the instinctive, deliberate mass suicide depicted in “White Wilderness,” but [the White Wilderness narrator] explains that life is tough in the lemmings’ “weird world of frozen chaos.” The voice-over implies that lemmings take the plunge every seven to ten years to alleviate overpopulation. “What people see is essentially mass dispersal,” said zoologist Gordon Jarrell, an expert in small mammals with the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “Sometimes it’s pretty directional. The classic example is in the Scandinavian mountains, where (lemmings) have been dramatically observed. They will come to a body of water and be temporarily stopped, and eventually they’ll build up along the shore so dense and they will swim across. If they get wet to the skin, they’re essentially dead.” Jarrell said when people learn that he works with lemmings, the mass suicide issue often comes up.
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7843
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Online tool helps beachgoers avoid dirty waters.
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If you plan on hitting the beach this summer, a new report recommends first checking your local water quality online before packing your bags - or risk bringing home more trouble than wet bathing suits and sand-filled shoes.
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true
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Health News
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People swim and play in the Atlantic Ocean at Coney Island in the Brooklyn borough of New York July 21, 2011. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton Last year was one of the worst on record in terms of bacterial pollution from human and animal waste, according to the nonprofit Natural Resource Defense Council’s (NRDC) 22nd annual survey of water quality at over 3,000 U.S. beaches. State and local beach officials reported the third-highest number of closings and advisory days in over 20 years. The impact of sewage and stormwater runoff on swimmers include diarrhea, pink eye, ear, nose and throat problems, respiratory ailments and several neurological disorders. To make the information easier to access, NRDC debuted a new online tool at www.nrdc.org/beaches that allows the public to search beaches by postal zip code. An application for mobile devices is also in the works. “Having that information when you’re planning the trip is far more important than when you’ve taken the trip,” said Steve Fleischli, Director of NRDC’s Water Program. The report shows how water quality levels vary significantly across the country. Delaware, not usually the first state that jumps to mind for many when thinking of fun in the sun, nonetheless had beaches reporting the lowest water contamination levels in the country, while Louisiana pollution has for consecutive years violated federal beach water standards. In California, the picture was mixed. Five beaches, including Newport and Huntington State Beaches in Orange County, for example, were awarded NRDC’s 5-star rating out of the dozen others, nationally, that received the top honor. However, eight of the state’s beaches appeared on a list of the nation’s 15 worst “Repeat Offenders” for violating public health standards. Evaluation criteria included monitoring frequency, indicators of beach water quality and whether the public was notified of contamination. Small children, senior citizens and people with weak immune systems are most at risk from exposure. NRDC has urged the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to modernize and raise water-quality standards, last set in 1986. The EPA is currently reviewing them. “We know that much of this filth is preventable and we can turn the tide against water pollution,” said NRDC attorney Jon Devine. NRDC also advocates investment in preventive efforts — from green roofs to porous pavement — that allow stormwater to filter back into the ground naturally rather than carrying waste from dirty streets into local beaches. More than 10 trillion gallons of untreated stormwater make their way every year into surface waters, according to EPA estimates. Over the next several months, Congress will debate whether to continue funding The Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health (BEACH) Act of 2000. It set national water quality monitoring and reporting standards and authorized $30 million dollars in funding. But lawmakers have only set aside about one-third of that amount in any fiscal year. Earlier this year, citing a “difficult financial climate,” the EPA recommended cuts to the near $10 million in annual grants it gives to states to support their test and monitoring procedures. “People are talking about billions of dollars in the budget and when you’re talking about $10 million dollars, it seems like a rounding error,” NRDC’s Fleischli said. “But if you make this kind of budget cut it’s going to have significant ramifications for the public and the information that the public has.”
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35791
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"The CDC ""quietly updated"" its COVID-19 mortality statistics in summer 2020 to show only 6% of previously reported deaths were actually due to the coronavirus, while the remaining 94% died from preexisting health conditions. "
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The point that the CDC was trying to make was that a certain percentage of [COVID-19 deaths] had nothing else but just COVID. That does not mean that someone who has hypertension or diabetes who dies of COVID didn’t die of COVID-19 — they did. So the numbers that you’ve been hearing — the 180,000-plus deaths — are real deaths from COVID-19. …It’s not 9,000 deaths from COVID-19.
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false
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Politics, COVID-19
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"In attempt to ring the alarm on supposed deceptive practices by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hard-line conservatives including U.S. President Donald Trump promoted the idea in August 2020 that the public health agency suddenly changed its methods for reporting COVID-19 mortality statistics. And as a result, viral social media posts alleged, America only tallied about 9,000 COVID-19 fatalities, or roughly 6% of the more than 150,000 deaths widely reported by politicians, scientists, and news reporters. Many believers, including conspiracy theorist Jeff Berwick, dubbed the alleged change by the CDC evidence that people other than his followers were exaggerating the seriousness of the pandemic, and that everyone should be skeptical of rules on social distancing that halt the economy. In a Sept. 1 video, for example, he said: “It’s been proven by the CDC — [the pandemic] is nothing, it was absolutely nothing. Zero. 9,000 people? That’s nothing.” Numerous readers asked Snopes to investigate the matter. Several inquiries included a link to the hyperpartisan, junk news website The Gateway Pundit, or a link to another conspiratorial web page that phrased the alleged revelation like this: “The CDC quietly released new covid numbers showing those who solely died from the virus was only 6% (9,210) of the total deaths (153,504). 94% of those who died, did so because they had existing health conditions.” Additionally, The Gateway Pundit page claimed, “the overwhelming majority” of reported COVID-19 deaths were among “very old Americans” — without going into specifics on what age population that meant — and suggested nefarious intentions on the part of the CDC to try to change its guidance without anyone noticing. Versions of this notion circulated widely online in summer 2020, in part because of support from American politicians such as Trump. In two retweets — one by his campaign adviser that linked to the Gateway Pundit page and another by a supporter of the unfounded QAnon conspiracy theory (screenshot below) — Trump endorsed the claim, essentially denigrating scientific evidence by his own health advisers, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx. However, as of this writing, Twitter had removed the below-displayed post for violating its terms of service. First, to unpack the claim, let’s be clear about how COVID-19 — which is the disease caused by the coronavirus dubbed SARS-CoV-2 — attacks the body and can become deadly. According to an article in the journal Science, a highly credible scientific publication: Once inside, the virus hijacks the cell’s machinery, making myriad copies of itself and invading new cells. As the virus multiplies, an infected person may shed copious amounts of it, especially during the first week or so. Symptoms may be absent at this point. Or the virus’ new victim may develop a fever, dry cough, sore throat, loss of smell and taste, or head and body aches. If the immune system doesn’t beat back SARS-CoV-2 during this initial phase, the virus then marches down the windpipe to attack the lungs, where it can turn deadly. In other words, SARS-CoV-2 attacks lung cells, and that assault on a person’s respiratory system can greatly exacerbate other preexisting conditions. That means COVID-19 patients run the risk of previously manageable health problems turning fatal — including cardiac arrest, liver failure, or lung scarring — after they’re infected with SARS-CoV-2. Put another way, Ryan McNamara, a virologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in a series of tweets compared the SARS-CoV-2 virus with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which causes AIDS. He wrote: After years of (HIV) virus spread, and in the absence of treatment, a patient infected with HIV will develop AIDS. […] During this state of HIV progression, white blood cells called T-cells are depleted. This can allow co-infecting pathogens to spread unchecked or tumor cells to grow & metastasize. Hence pneumonia & AIDS-associated cancers are leading causes of death in HIV+ patients. Those saying ""only 6% die from COVID-19 alone"", or some derivation thereof, don't understand how infectious diseases work. Many are not operating in good faith, & are the same people who have downplayed this pandemic since February. (4/4) — Ryan McNamara 🧬 (@Ryan_Mac_Phd) August 31, 2020 Next, we investigated how the CDC compiles COVID-19 death toll data. Since the viral posts did not specify what “numbers” by the CDC to which they were alleging nefariousness, we considered the CDC’s Provisional Death Counts for Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) web page, which is a compilation of death certificates updated weekly by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). Additionally, we obtained an April 2020 document by the World Health Organization titled, “International Guidelines For Certification and Classification (Coding) of COVID-19 As Cause of Death,” which stated that medical examiners must include as much detail as possible based on records and lab testing when they’re filling out death certificates. For example, a death certification for a patient who was infected with SARS-CoV-2 and afterwards developed pneumonia and fatal respiratory distress would list all three conditions as causes of death (see example below). The document also said death certificates for people who suffered from chronic conditions, such as coronary artery disease or diabetes, before their exposure to the coronavirus would list those conditions in addition to COVID-19. The coronavirus would still be labeled the underlying cause of death — or the disease that “initiated the train of events leading directly to death,” per the WHO’s definition — since the preexisting health issues were likely exacerbated by the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Next, we considered the CDC’s process for analyzing those death certificates that list COVID-19. Its website explained: When a person dies, the cause of death is determined by the certifier — the physician, medical examiner, or coroner who reports it on the death certificate. States register all death certificates and send them to [NCHS], where they are used to produce the nation’s official death statistics. […] When COVID-19 is reported as a cause of death on the death certificate, it is coded and counted as a death due to COVID-19. COVID-19 should not be reported on the death certificate if it did not cause or contribute to the death. […] Complete means describing a clear chain of events from the immediate to the underlying cause of death, reporting any other conditions that contributed to death, and providing information that is specific. In short, the CDC compiles mortality statistics that are based on all possible causes of death for one individual. So if a diabetes patient with high blood pressure was infected with COVID-19 — which can target blood vessels — and they die because their blood vessels were already so damaged, the CDC would consider their death related to both the coronavirus and diabetes. (According to the CDC database of death certificate data, that was the case for more than 27,500 people.) As of this writing, the CDC last updated its mortality statistics on Sept. 3, 2020. At that point, the agency said 171,787 death certificates included COVID-19 since the beginning of the U.S. outbreak in February 2020. And alongside the coronavirus, the majority of documents also listed comorbidities, or additional health issues that can either worsen or develop after the initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. For instance, 71,700 included influenza or pneumonia and COVID-19 as potential causes of death. However, fueling the conspiracy theory, the CDC web page stated: “For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause [of death] mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death.” That meant, yes, medical investigators believed only 6% of COVID-19 patients died from the coronavirus alone. Those patients had no reported comorbidities. However, it was dangerously wrong to misinterpret that fact to mean that the remaining fatalities (or 94 percent) died from health issues other than the coronavirus. Rather, most people’s underlying cause of death was COVID-19 and the virus either intensified or caused other illnesses that contributed to patients’ death. Note: The “6%” claim was not the first attempt by COVID-19 conspiracy theorists to allege without any substantial evidence that the CDC was nefariously compiling data to trick people into thinking the coronavirus was more serious than it actually is. In spring 2020, for instance, they attempted to ring the alarm on the agency supposedly inflating COVID-19 death numbers for political reasons, but in reality the alleged discrepancy was a result of comparing two separate data sources that report different measurements. (See our analysis into that claim here.) The death certification statistics, in short, prove that people with preexisting health problems — such as asthma or hypertension — face higher risk for serious illness, or dying, if they’re infected with COVID-19, according to Bob Anderson, lead mortality statistician at NCHS. He said in a statement to NBC News: “These data are consistent with CDC guidance that those with underlying medical conditions are at greater risk for severe illness and death from COVID-19.” Additionally, Fauci explained the phenomena in a Sept. 1 interview on the ABC program “Good Morning America:"
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5746
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Polis seeks to boost child vaccinations, respect exemptions.
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Colorado’s governor issued an executive order Thursday designed to address the state’s poor vaccination rates for children, but he insisted that he will respect existing religious and personal exemptions for parents unwilling to inoculate their children against communicable diseases.
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true
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Immunizations, Colorado, Measles, General News, Jared Polis, Denver, Public health
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Democratic Gov. Jared Polis’ order on Thursday came as new state data suggest Colorado ranks near the bottom for immunization rates among U.S. states. It also comes amid a national resurgence of measles that has affected more than 1,000 people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some 87.4% of Colorado kindergarten students had vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella in the 2018-19 school year, down 1.3% from the previous year, according to the state Department of Public Health and Environment. For highly-contagious measles, the CDC recommends a 92% threshold to maintain herd immunity. More than 9,400 children were hospitalized or treated at emergency rooms for vaccine-preventable diseases in 2017, the state Department of Public Health and Environment says. The state needs to better inform residents about the benefits of vaccines, make parents aware of low-cost vaccination programs, seek out underserved residents and develop a strategy to confront an anti-vaccination movement that contends some shots are unsafe despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, said Tony Cappello, director of the department’s Disease Control and Environmental Epidemiology division. “We need to provide fact-based information to parents so they can make educated, informed decisions,” Cappello told a news conference at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Denver. “This means dispelling misinformation about vaccinations and having correct information in the hands of parents,” he said. Polis’ order focuses on the education and information front. It calls for state officials to work more closely with local health specialists to promote vaccination; studying the reasons for what the governor calls “vaccine hesitancy” among parents, and developing information strategies to address those concerns; and helping families on Medicaid and residents in rural and other underserved areas gain access to and pay for recommended vaccines. The state allows parents to opt out of required school vaccinations for medical, religious and philosophical reasons. Polis, who’s described himself as a libertarian Democrat, stressed Thursday he won’t change that policy. “We believe that Colorado families should be making their own health care decisions,” he said. “We really view this as the third way between the government forcing people to get shots, which is counterproductive, and simply allowing these rates to go down, which is counterproductive to the public health and results in people dying.” This spring, hundreds of parents, their children in tow, swarmed the state Capitol to oppose a bill that would have made it harder to qualify for religious or personal exemptions. The bill stalled in the Legislature. Lawmakers in Oregon, which has one of the highest rates of unvaccinated kindergartners in the country, also killed a bill this year to make it harder for families to opt out. But next-door Washington state ended most exemptions for the measles vaccine. Maine eliminated religious and philosophical exemptions, and New York legislators were poised Thursday to eliminate a religious exemption.
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8626
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Indians light lamps to heed Modi's call for coronavirus comradeship.
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Millions of Indians turned off their lights and lit up balconies and doorsteps with lamps, candles and flashlights on Sunday, in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to “challenge the darkness” spread by the coronavirus crisis.
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true
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Health News
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Modi, who imposed a three-week long nationwide lockdown on March 25, asked all citizens to turn out their lights for nine minutes at 9 p.m. local time on Sunday, and to display lamps and candles in a show of solidarity. Modi’s call was met with a huge response, with many people lighting up their balconies. Others lit firecrackers, played musical instruments, and sang patriotic songs. Grid data showed India’s national power consumption plunging more than a quarter in a matter of minutes. The show of unity came as the total number of coronavirus cases in India increased to 3,577, while the death toll rose to 83. Some officials have warned that lockdowns could continue beyond April 14 in parts of India where new cases have been detected. With the number of cases continuing to increase daily, India restricted the export of most diagnostic testing kits. The government, which in recent weeks already banned the export of certain medicines, along with ventilators, masks and other protective gear needed by both patients and medical staff, issued the latest directive late on Saturday. The move came even as U.S. President Donald Trump urged Modi in a phone call to release supplies of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which is being tested as a possible treatment for patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. “The two leaders agreed to remain in touch on the issue of global supply chains for critical pharmaceuticals and medical supplies and to ensure they continue to function as smoothly as possible during the global health crisis,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said on Saturday. In a briefing note on the conversation, India said the two leaders “agreed to deploy the full strength of the India–U.S. partnership to resolutely and effectively combat COVID-19.” The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Asia, home to roughly 1.9 billion people, topped 7,000 on Sunday, even as the death toll from the respiratory disease rose to 149 in the region. While the figures are relatively low in comparison with the United States, China, Italy and Spain, health experts fear that the spread of the pandemic in South Asia could overwhelm already weak public health systems in the region. Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday unveiled a 727.50 billion taka ($8.56 billion) stimulus package to help the economy weather the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. “The amount is equivalent to 2.52 percent of gross domestic product,” Hasina said in a televised address. Reuters reported earlier this month that Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest apparel producer after China, was set to lose roughly $6 billion in export revenue this financial year amid order cancellations from some of the world’s largest brands and retailers. Bangladesh has recorded 88 cases of the disease, with nine deaths. Following are government figures on the spread of the coronavirus in South Asia: * India has 3,577 cases, including 83 deaths * Pakistan has 3,059 cases, including 45 deaths * Afghanistan has 349 cases, including 7 deaths * Sri Lanka has 175 cases, including 5 deaths * Bangladesh has 88 cases, including 9 deaths * Maldives has 19 cases and no deaths * Nepal has nine cases and no deaths * Bhutan has five cases and no deaths
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5796
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Proposed hospital merger gets key state approval.
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A proposed merger that involves 13 Massachusetts hospitals has received approval from a key state board, but hurdles remain.
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true
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Health, Boston, Access to health care, Massachusetts
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The state Public Health Council on Wednesday endorsed the merger of Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Burlington-based Lahey Health System and several other hospitals. If it goes through, it would create a health network to compete with Partners HealthCare, the parent company of Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s hospitals. The deal also includes New England Baptist Hospital in Boston, Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, and Anna Jaques Hospital in Newburyport. The merger still needs approval from the state Health Policy Commission and the state attorney general’s office. Proponents say the merger would benefit patients, but opponents worry it would increase costs and reduce access to health care.
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3127
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Juul Labs facing scrutiny from federal and state officials.
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With e-cigarette giant Juul Labs facing a mounting number of state and federal investigations into its marketing and sales practices, a top Trump administration official pledged Friday to use all of the government’s regulatory and enforcement power “to stop the epidemic of youth e-cigarette use.”
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true
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District of Columbia, Health, General News, Politics, Illinois, Epidemics, Business, AP Top News, Marijuana, Public health
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The Associated Press has learned that the attorneys general in Illinois and the District of Columbia are examining how Juul’s blockbuster vaping device became so popular with underage teens. The company’s rapid rise to the top of the multi-billion dollar U.S. e-cigarette market has been accompanied by accusations from parents, politicians and public health advocates that Juul fueled a vaping craze among high schoolers. In addition to the ongoing inquiries in Illinois and the district, which had not been publicly disclosed before, four other state attorneys general are probing or suing Juul. Juul’s top executives have disputed allegations that they’ve marketed their products to teens, declaring that they’ve taken unprecedented steps to combat underage use of its e-cigarettes. The company has shut down its Facebook and Instagram pages and pulled several of its flavored products out of retail stores. Juul also backs federal legislation to raise the minimum age to purchase all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, to 21 nationwide. Juul spokesman Ted Kwong declined to answer specific questions about the investigations in an emailed statement but reiterated past company steps to prevent youth use. Juul announced Thursday that 50 retail chains have pledged to adopt the company’s age-verification system, which requires sellers to scan a customer’s ID before selling Juul products. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement Friday the Trump administration “will continue using every regulatory and enforcement power we have to stop the epidemic of youth e-cigarette use.” A senior Illinois law enforcement official described to AP a wide-ranging inquiry being conducted by the office of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul that is centered on whether Juul violated state consumer fraud laws and other statutes by designing and marketing its products to appeal to underage teens. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity. Marrisa Geller, a spokeswoman for District of Columbia Attorney General Karl Racine, confirmed in an emailed statement an investigation of Juul is underway. She said Racine is concerned about “the dramatic increase in the use of vaping products by district youth” as well as the policies and practices employed by e-cigarette manufacturers to prevent minors from using their products. The attorneys general in Colorado, Connecticut and Massachusetts have announced investigations of Juul related to concerns over underage use of its products. North Carolina’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against Juul in May, asking a court to limit the company’s sales and marketing in the state. All six attorneys general are Democrats. The Food and Drug Administration said last October it seized thousands of documents from Juul’s San Francisco headquarters relating to the company’s marketing. The agency has been investigating whether the company targeted youth with the flavors, design and ingredients of its products. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the Federal Trade Commission is investigating Juul’s early marketing campaign and use of social media to promote its products. The FTC declined to comment. Juul has repeatedly stated that it understands the concerns about youth vaping and has taken “the most aggressive actions” of any company in the industry to combat the problem. It has spent millions of dollars on newspaper, radio and online advertisements pledging to keep its products out of the hands of young people. The company also has denied it ever marketed to anyone underage. Kwong said Juul’s earliest marketing campaign, in 2015, was aimed at adults between 25 and 34. Based on the sales and revenue, he said, “there is no evidence that it drove use, youth or otherwise.” Kwong said the company’s paid social media “influencer” program was as a small, short-lived program that ended in 2018. Electronic cigarettes, which have been available in the U.S. since about 2007 and have grown into a more than $6 billion-a-year industry, are battery-powered devices that typically heat a flavored nicotine solution into an inhalable aerosol. Juul, which launched in 2015, now controls roughly three-quarters of the U.S. retail market for e-cigarettes. Last year, one in five U.S. high school students reported vaping in the previous month, according to government survey figures. Most experts agree the aerosol is less harmful than cigarette smoke since it doesn’t contain most of the cancer-causing byproducts of burning tobacco. But there is virtually no research on the long-term effects of the vaping chemicals, some of which are toxic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that 215 teens and adults in 25 states including Illinois have contracted severe respiratory illnesses after vaping. However, the agency said a clear-cut common cause of the illnesses hasn’t been identified and they are being called “potential cases” that are still under investigation. The CDC said in many of the cases patients had acknowledged they’d recently vaped a substance containing THC, the high-inducing ingredient in marijuana. The agency did not say how many of the patients were teens. Kevin Burns, Juul’s chief executive officer, told “CBS This Morning” on Wednesday the illnesses are “worrisome” for the industry and for Juul “if we contributed to it.” He said the company is in close contact with the CDC to get as much information as it can “so if there’s any issue that was ... associated with us, that we can get to the root cause and understand that.” In Illinois, the state’s Department of Public Health has called e-cigarette use among teens an “epidemic” and said there is an alarming lack of understanding about the risk for nicotine addiction. Other areas being investigated by Raoul’s office include: how Juul verifies the ages of people who make online purchases from the company’s website; the amount of nicotine in the flavored solution and how safe those levels are; and whether Juul has improperly advertised its e-cigarette as a smoking-cessation tool. Kwong said the Juul system is designed to help adult smokers switch from combustible cigarettes and is not intended to be used as a cessation product. Neither Juul nor any other e-cigarette has yet been approved by the FDA to help people who smoke traditional paper-and-tobacco cigarettes quit. The Illinois probe began in the spring. Raoul’s office is not coordinating its investigation with other attorneys general, the official said. Geller, the spokeswoman for Racine, declined to discuss the scope of the district’s inquiry. However, a senior official in Racine’s office wrote to a Juul representative in early February and asked for a trove of information about how district residents purchase the company’s products. Among the data sought by Benjamin Wiseman, director of consumer protection, was a list of authorized retail stores and third-party online retailers that failed to comply with Juul’s rules for preventing minors from buying and using its products. Wiseman also asked that the company “describe in detail the nature of the retailer’s failure to comply” and what action Juul took in response. Racine’s office, Wiseman wrote, learned from news reports and conversations with community members and other government officials that use of Juul’s products by young teenagers in the district has increased dramatically in recent years. “Remarkably, one district high school principal estimates that half of the juniors and seniors at her school are using e-cigarettes, many of which we believe are Juul’s products,” Wiseman told Patrick Lynch, a former attorney general of Rhode Island who runs a lobbying and consulting firm that represents Juul. Lynch’s firm arranged for a meeting in the attorney general’s office last November that included himself, Juul chief administrative officer Ashley Gould, Wiseman and Assistant DC Attorney General Brian Caldwell, according to emails obtained through an open records request. Lynch is not registered as a lobbyist in the District of Columbia. The agenda for the meeting isn’t described in the records, although one email from Lynch said they discussed Juul’s efforts “to dramatically diminish youth access to their product.”
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29561
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A Carbon Monoxide spike on the west coast indicates that a massive earthquake will soon hit.
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Superstation 95, the web site that first propagated and promulgated this rumor, has a habit of creating dire-sounding stories out of half-truths and misinformation, such as a claim that cargo ships had ceased travel (in “a horrific economic sign”), an article which heavily exaggerated the effects the Fukushima nuclear disaster had on marine life (using photos stolen from other, unrelated sites), and a prediction that World War III would break out by 28 February 2016 (it didn’t).
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false
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Politics, carbon monoxide, earthquake, superstation95
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In late February 2016, several conspiracy theory-type web sites reported that carbon monoxide levels had spiked on the West Coast, and that these “unprecedented” levels signaled the arrival of a massive earthquake: “Unprecedented” and “dangerous” levels of Carbon Monoxide are being released into the atmosphere from seismic faults. The levels are so bad, they’re dangerous! People on the West coast may find they are having trouble breathing and feel strangely tired. Some folks may notice the surface of their skin taking on a bright red appearance; the signs of Carbon Monoxide poisoning. […] Earth emits a burst of carbon monoxide (CO) a few days before an earthquake, according to geophysicist Ramesh Singh, pictured left. He and co-workers from France and the United States report that this gas could be used as one of the precursor signals for an earthquake early warning system. The above-quoted article was primarily based on data from earth.nullschool.net, a site that gleans and compiles data from various sites to make a visual map of global weather. While it did show an unusual amount of carbon monoxide along the West Coast in February 2016, the site warned that its data is not always correct: Please note that these predictions are experimental and are produced for research purposes only. Use of these forecasts for purposes other than research is not recommended. Articles claiming that there was a major spike in carbon monoxide levels on the West Coast are all based on the same set of data from NASA’s GEOS-5 software. On 1 March 2016, NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office released a statement explaining the unusual uptick in carbon monoxide levels: IMPORTANT NOTICE: Elevated carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations over California in the GEOS-5 products since February 25, 2016, are incorrect. They are a consequence of unrealistic emissions derived from satellite observations of fires, which led to elevated concentrations of atmospheric CO (as well as other species). NASA’s EOS-Terra spacecraft entered safe mode on February 18, 2016, during an inclination adjustment maneuver. This caused the MODIS instrument to enter safe mode, with the nadir and space-view doors closed. When the Terra MODIS transitioned back to science mode on February 24, 2016, the operating temperatures for the SWIR and LWIR (Short-wave Infrared and Longwave infrared) focal planes have not yet stabilized. As a consequence, some data products have been severely degraded. This includes the “Fire Radiative Power” fields that are used by GEOS-5 to compute emissions of CO, CO2, and carbonaceous aerosols by biomass burning. GMAO is working to correct this problem. The GEOS-5 analyses will be re-run from February 24, 2016, using only the EOS-Aqua MODIS data, in order to exclude the unrealistic CO emissions. EOS-Terra observations will be re-introduced once the instrument has stabilized. The perception of higher carbon monoxide levels was, then, caused by faulty equipment. But even if the spike had been real, a rise in carbon monoxide levels is not a clear indication of a future earthquake: The chance of a major earthquake striking the west coast has not changed in the past week. There are no scientific models that can reliably predict earthquakes, especially based on carbon monoxide emissions. More importantly, there was no sudden spike in carbon monoxide emissions, natural or otherwise. Many of the web sites claiming that an earthquake was imminent pointed to a February 2010 article in Nature Asia, which paraphrased an academic paper published by geophysicist Dr. Ramesh Singh (et al) to explain how carbon monoxide levels rose just before a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in western India in 2001: He and co-workers from France and the United States report that this gas could be used as one of the precursor signals for an earthquake early warning system. The scientists used data from an American satellite and analysed changes in carbon monoxide at different altitudes. “The carbon monoxide shows enhancement in concentration a few days prior to the earthquake,” Singh said. “GEOS-5 is a NASA chem model, showing a high concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) along the west coast of California since Feb. 26,” Singh told us in an e-mailed statement: These websites have included my research paper on their own volition — unrelated to the CO readings — and as such, have created misleading stories causing anxiety in some readers. The facts are that the CO image showing high concentrations is associated with the Aliso Canyon ground storage emissions of methane gas. Depending upon the wind, the CO is getting dispersed in all directions. Due to south-west wind, the CO plume is moving over the ocean. You might be aware that no one can predict an earthquake and we do not have an indicator on the basis scientists can say that earthquakes may occur. While atmospheric fluctuations and perturbations have indeed been recorded before major earthquakes, this is still very much research in progress. In fact, seismologist John Vidale (director of the University of Washington’s Pacific Northwest Seismic Network) took issue with these web sites connecting Singh’s data with the alleged carbon monoxide rise, calling it “alarmist nonsense”: “Back in the 1970s, when we were looking all possible ways to predict earthquakes, there was an idea that the Earth cracks up in the area about to have an earthquake. And when that cracks, fluid and gases might come out of the ground,” he said, noting that back then a theory emerged that watching for those gases could indicate where an earthquake was about to hit. “But that was back in the ’70s. Now we know the ground doesn’t crack across the entire area and that idea just doesn’t work,” he said. “In the 40 years just then we’ve been watching faults we have tremendously improved measurements and that kind of signaling just doesn’t come before big earthquakes.” […] “We can’t predict earthquakes,” Vidale said. “We are not saying we can predict better than these ways that don’t work, we’re saying that there is no way that works well to predict earthquakes.” “A lot of websites have stories that aren’t true and some websites just put up unlikely stories in the hopes that the public looks at them,” he said Vidale also said that the data from NASA’s GEOS-5 modeling software could be explained by slow-moving air and smoke pollution from forest fires: This diary should be deleted. It is alarmist nonsense. There is a large surface high pressure located over the west coast. The air is almost stagnant. Smog, which is rich in CO and pollution from fires, which is rich in CO, have built up over the west coast and western Canada … There is no connection of the general pollution pattern today to the San Andreas fault. The patch of high CO over western Canadian fires is a clue.
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8401
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French nursing home learns costly lessons on containing coronavirus.
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When managers at La Riviera nursing home on France’s Cote D’Azur found out a resident had the COVID-19 virus, they put into action a standard playbook they believed would contain the spread. It did not.
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true
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Health News
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“We kept on seeing new cases and we could not understand why,” said Antoine Ruplinger, an executive with the company that runs the home. Since then 36 residents at the home have died of coronavirus-related conditions, according to the local mayor’s office, which registers the deaths. There were 109 residents before the coronavirus crisis broke. Death rates from COVID-19 in old people’s homes around the world have been high, in part because the disease hits the elderly disproportionately and because testing at care homes has been patchy. What happened at La Riviera underlines the potential value of blanket testing at an early stage, some French officials said. “Maybe if we had been able to test from the beginning, everything would have been different,” said Florence Arnaiz-Maumé, an official with the National Union of Private Homes and Facilities for the Elderly (SYNERPA). The response by staff at La Riviera was centred around checking who was showing symptoms of infection and isolating them from the rest of the home. That was in line with national guidelines at the time, which were for only the first three suspected cases to be tested. But for over two weeks after the first case, residents in the home were not tested for COVID-19. That meant people who had the virus yet showed no symptoms were still part of the general population in the home and potentially transmitting infection. “No one had been tested, so we did not know who was infected and who wasn’t,” said Richard Galy, a medical doctor and mayor of the town of Mougins where the home is located. France last week changed its policy, so that all nursing home residents and staff are tested at those homes where a COVID-19 case has been detected, whether or not they are showing symptoms. Twenty days after the first case, systematic testing of residents for COVID-19 began at La Riviera on April 4. Thirty-three residents were found to be carrying the virus, as well as 14 staff, who were sent home. The testing allowed the home to put in place a new virus containment plan, guided by an infectious disease specialist from a nearby hospital. Those who tested positive have been put on the first and second floors of the complex. They are cared for by staff who do not mix with other patients, and who use their own dedicated elevator, changing rooms and break rooms. Engineers have visited to make sure there is negative pressure inside rooms with coronavirus patients, so when a door is opened, air does not stream out, spreading the infection. By the time it became clear that the virus was spreading after the first case of COVID-19 at the home was identified in mid-March, Galy had been in touch for days with staff at the home, public health officials, and regional officials. Galy said he knew about the deaths, and was urging immediate testing. But tests were not available. The company that usually does testing for the Riviera, laboratoire de L’Esperance, only had enough kits to do 80 tests per day and priority was given to hospitals, healthcare workers, and people with symptoms, said the head of the laboratory, Dr Françoise Duhalde-Guignard. “So at the time, we couldn’t test,” she told Reuters. The regional public health authority said it has launched an investigation into why so many people died at the home. The authority has said the home’s managers waited too long to seek help. The home’s operator, Korian SA, said its staff acted in line with official guidance, and sought help when it was necessary. The mayor and four families of La Riviera residents have joined a legal case brought by some of the families against unidentified individuals alleging involuntary homicide, endangerment of life, and failure to assist a person in danger. The mayor said he was joining because he wanted to understand better what happened and where the responsibility for what happened lay. Korian and the public health authority both declined to comment on the legal case. The first case at the home was identified on March 15, when a local hospital treating a resident informed the home that the person had tested positive for COVID-19. Ruplinger, the executive with the home’s operator, received a call about the case just before midnight. The next morning, he arrived at La Riviera. He ordered that staff were to wear protective gear at all times, cleaning was to be stepped up and residents were to be confined to their rooms. Residents suspected of having the virus were moved to an 11-bed unit on a separate floor. Within three days of opening, the segregation unit had run out of beds. Several residents had already died, according to Magali Lamoureux, who runs a local funeral home and was called by the home to collect some of the bodies. She said death certificates listed COVID-19 as the cause of death. By the time testing did happen, it was too late for patients like Odette Noyer, who arrived there around 18 months ago from the town of Romans-sur-Iseres, about 400 km (250 miles) north. On March 24, she marked her 94th birthday and her family, who lived nearby, spoke to her by telephone to congratulate her. Six days later, her grandson rang the home at 5 pm to ask after her, according to a legal complaint filed by the family of Noyer and several other residents, which was seen by Reuters. A member of staff said she was being administered oxygen, but was fine. At 10 pm the same night, she died.
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6614
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Case stirs question of school liability for student suicides.
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Han Nguyen was consumed by depression and struggling to stay afloat at one of the world’s most prestigious universities. His mental health continued to decline until one day, moments after a professor confronted him about an offensive email, the 25-year-old jumped from the top of a campus building to his death.
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true
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U.S. News, Mental health, Health, Massachusetts, U.S. News, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Nguyen’s suicide has sparked a contentious legal battle headed to Massachusetts’ highest court over whether schools can be held responsible when students take their own lives. The case is being closely watched by colleges and universities, who say a decision against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology would place an unreasonable burden on untrained employees to stop suicides. “It would be groundbreaking,” said Gary Pavela, a consultant on law and policy issues in higher education and author of a book about legal questions surrounding student suicides. “It would cause alarm in higher education,” he said. The student’s family says his death was preventable and that the school had a legal duty to use reasonable care to protect him from harm. Nguyen’s professors and other MIT officials knew he was a suicide risk, but failed to get him the help he needed, an attorney for Nguyen’s family argues. Months before Nguyen’s death, a professor encouraged his colleagues to pass him or they might have “blood on their hands.” Moments before Nguyen jumped, the professor “read him the riot act” over an email Nguyen sent to another MIT official that they deemed inappropriate, court records say. “Academic freedom is not a license to needlessly and recklessly endanger students known to be at risk of death with impunity; and this court should not allow it to become one at institutions that routinely admit students — many with mental health issues — as young as their mid-teens,” attorney Jeffrey Beeler wrote in court documents. Beeler declined to comment and said Nguyen’s family didn’t want to speak to the media. MIT says the school wasn’t aware of the severity of his condition and he was treated by outside professionals and refused on-campus resources. None of the nine professionals who treated Nguyen while he was at MIT believed he was an imminent risk of killing himself, the school says. “Mr. Nguyen’s suicide was a tragedy. That does not warrant a legal conclusion that MIT or any individual associated with MIT had a legal duty to prevent it,” attorneys for the school, two professors and one dean named in the lawsuit say in court documents. MIT, which refused to answer questions about the case, said in a statement it “remains committed to the well-being of its students, offering a robust network of support resources, including comprehensive mental health services.” Nguyen’s family attorney disputes the idea that the man didn’t want help and has accused MIT of blaming the victim. No state supreme court has ever found that colleges and universities have a legal duty to prevent student suicides, MIT’s attorneys say. Courts have generally been reluctant to do so because, among other things, suicide is an impulsive act that’s difficult to predict, Pavela said. A Massachusetts trial court judge ruled in 2005 that an MIT housemaster and dean could be held responsible for the death of a woman who lit herself on fire in her dorm room. But Elizabeth Shin’s case, which was later settled for an undisclosed amount, never reached the state’s highest court. The Supreme Judicial Court will hear arguments in Nguyen’s case on Tuesday after a lower court judge tossed the lawsuit last year. A group of 18 colleges and universities — including Harvard University and Boston College — is urging the court to reject the case, saying a decision in favor of the family could have devastating consequences. Fear of liability may cause professors and others without mental health expertise to overreact to concerns, which in turn could discourage students from coming forward with their problems, the schools say. Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a psychiatry expert at Columbia University, agrees. “To the extent that you heighten every resident assistant’s sensitivity to the risk of suicidality, with the threat of liability hanging over them, they are far more likely to over predict, over intervene, see it where it’s not,” Appelbaum said. The Nguyen family attorney and their supporters — including the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys — say the schools’ concerns are baseless. Beeler, in his filing, said he merely wants the court to affirm that the duty to provide reasonable care “extends to the ivory tower as it does every other civilized corner of the Commonwealth.” Thomas Murphy, chair of the amicus committee of the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, says a jury should get to decide whether MIT was negligent and caused Nguyen’s suicide. “Maybe the school can convince them that they didn’t cause (Nguyen’s suicide) and it was going to happen anyway,” he said. ___ Follow Alanna Durkin Richer at http://twitter.com/aedurkinricher. Read more of her work at http://bit.ly/2hIhzDb
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37952
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"Images show former ""a wire"" or ""an IV"" on former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's wrist as he coughed into his sleeve during a presidential debate."
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Myriad social media posts claimed the reddish-brown object on Joe Biden’s wrist during the his September 29 2020 presidential debate with Donald Trump was “a wire.” However, Biden’s habit of wearing son Beau Biden’s rosary at all times on his wrist is well-documented both in news articles and in images and video. Further, wireless technology is so common in 2020 as to be ubiquitous, making the need for “a wire” completely obsolete; we consider the “IV” claim to be so ridiculous (as there are many far less obvious places to hide an IV than out in plain view on one’s wrist during a debate on a stage from behind a podium) as to not even be worth fact-checking.
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false
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Disinformation, Fact Checks
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During the September 29 2020 presidential debate, a purported “wire” seen on Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden’s wrist as he coughed into his sleeve predictably became a hot topic on social media, with increasingly conspiratorial and hysterical rumors pushed along by the usual disinformation purveyors:pic.twitter.com/nsN3Xn9d5C— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 30, 2020In the above tweet, actor James Woods simply shared an image of an object visible on Biden’s wrist, concealed by his sleeve. Other iterations were shared on Twitter, as well as Facebook:So Biden has a mysterious wire in his coat and what looks like an IV port in his wrist. pic.twitter.com/pDrEFAtcHF— Nova der Mondführer (@SpaceWarNow404) September 30, 2020Although the reddish-brown object on Biden’s wrist was typically described as a “wire,” others suggested it was an intravenous port, or IV. None of the posts we located explained any mechanism by which such a “wire” might work, how it might provide Biden with an advantage in the debate, or why, in 2020, Biden wouldn’t simply rely on wireless technology.‘Wearing a Wire’In popular culture, the concept of surreptitiously wearing a wire is commonplace in film and on television — typically in plotlines in which a character is fitted with recording equipment to capture evidence that another character is engaging in criminal behavior.Normally, wearing a wire is associated with transmitting a recording versus receiving it. We located no variations on the rumor in which anyone described the manner in which they believed Biden was receiving assistance via a “wire,” nor did anyone seem to explain why he might be fitted with an IV.Woods seemed to heavily imply that Biden managed to evade the microphone with which he was also wired, and feigned a cough to request assistance through the device on his wrist. But such a gambit also seemed risky, as a sensitive microphone could pick up a request whispered into a sleeve cuff.We are unaware of any indication that Biden signaled for off-camera help during the September 29 2020 debate.‘Biden’s Wrist’ Search Interest SpikesOn September 29 2020, the debate commenced at 9 PM Eastern, 6 PM Pacific; twelve minutes after the debate started, searches for “Biden’s wrist” spiked, along with related terms:What’s On Joe Biden’s Wrist?It is true grainy screenshots showed an object partly obscured by Biden’s sleeve cuff during the debate.As for what’s it is, the answer just so happened to be widely covered prior to the debate. In November 2017, Biden appeared on Megyn Kelly’s talk show and discussed the object he wears on his wrist at all times:Biden appeared on “Megyn Kelly Today” [in November 2017] to discuss his new book, Promise Me, Dad, which recounts [son Beau Biden’s] brain cancer diagnosis and eventual death.Sitting beside wife Dr. Jill Biden, the former vice president opened up about the [rosary] he wears around his wrist, which he said connects him to his late son.“I have not taken off the rosary Beau was wearing when he passed, since then. It is my connection with him,” Biden said.Joseph “Beau” Biden III died at the age of 46 after a two-year battle with brain cancer. The younger Biden had served as Delaware’s attorney general from 2007 to 2015 and had planed to run for governor of Delaware in 2016.An August 24 2020 Wall Street Journal editorial about Biden’s faith began by describing the former Vice President’s rosary as possibly the “most famous beads in the world”:By now Joe Biden’s rosary must be the most famous beads in the world.“The cradle Catholic who carries a rosary wherever he goes,” reports the Jesuit magazine America. “Biden almost always has rosary beads in his pocket,” says the Washington Post. Even Rolling Stone piously chimes in, presenting the former vice president as a “practicing Catholic” who “wears his late son Beau’s rosary on his wrist.”It all feeds Mr. Biden’s image as the scrappy Irish Catholic kid from Scranton, Pa.Just before and after the two-minute mark in a video of Biden on Kelly’s show, he discusses the rosary on his wrist. During that portion of his appearance, the camera zooms in on Biden’s rosary — which on the same wrist and is the same reddish-brown color as the object briefly spotted during the break:In candid images where Biden is wearing a short sleeve shirt, Beau Biden’s rosary is typically visible on his wrist:TL;DRMyriad social media posts claimed the reddish-brown object on Joe Biden’s wrist during the his September 29 2020 presidential debate with Donald Trump was “a wire.” However, Biden’s habit of wearing son Beau Biden’s rosary at all times on his wrist is well-documented both in news articles and in images and video. Further, wireless technology is so common in 2020 as to be ubiquitous, making the need for “a wire” completely obsolete; we consider the “IV” claim to be so ridiculous (as there are many far less obvious places to hide an IV than out in plain view on one’s wrist during a debate on a stage from behind a podium) as to not even be worth fact-checking.
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33294
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Bugs crawl into a person's ear, make their home there, then slowly eat their way through the brain.
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Bugs do wander into people's ears sometimes. But where can they go from there?
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false
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Horrors, human body, Insect Infestations, insects
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Regarding all the nonsense about bugs in the ear: it is patently impossible for insects and/or other arthropods to enter one ear and chew through to the other; a little logic should tell us so. (Try to trace a straight course for such a journey, without going through bone.) Examples: [Collected via e-mail, July 2009] Incident One: A little boy died because surgeons found ants in his brain! Apparently this boy fell asleep with some sweets in his mouth or with some sweet stuff beside him. Ants soon got to him and some ants in fact crawled into his ear which somehow managed to go to his brain. When he woke up, he did not realize that ants had gone to his head. After that, he constantly complained about itchiness around his face. His mother brought him to a doctor, but the doctor could not figure out what was wrong with him. He took an X-ray of the boy and to his horror; he found a group of live ants in his skull. Since the ants were still alive, the doctor could not operate on him because the ants were constantly moving around. The boy finally died. So please be careful when leaving food stuff near your bed or when eating in bed. This might attract ants. Most importantly, NEVER you or your child eat sweets before going to bed. You or your child might attract ants while you are asleep. Incident Two: Another similar incident happened in a hospital in Taiwan. This man was warded in the hospital and was constantly warned by the nurses not to leave food stuff by his bedside because there were ants about. He did not heed their advice. Ants finally got to him. His family members said that the man constantly complained about headaches. He died and a postmortem or autopsy was done on him. Doctors found a group of live ants in his head. Apparently, the ants had been eating bits of his brain. So friends, better be safe than sorry. Never leave food stuff beside your bed you when you go to sleep. There are a number of flies that feed as maggots in the living tissues of vertebrates. While none seek out humans as their normal host, people are occasionally parasitized by accident. Usually their entry is through wounds, or the mucous membrane of bodily orifices. I have yet to find a reference for fly maggots in human ears. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t or hasn’t happened, but such an infestation would be limited to soft tissue around the outer ear. (Check out any medical entomology textbook for this information: I’m going by the 6th ed. of Herms’s Medical Entomology, by James and Harwood, 1969, Macmillan, New York.) Yes, insects and other arthropods do wander into people’s ears, but not to lay eggs. The human ear can be an effective trap for small critters; the poor little dears simply blunder in and are trying to find their way out by frantically scratching around. The effect to the owner of the ear can be quite maddening, however. As an example, I offer a documented case of a fairly famous explorer getting a “bug in his ear” to suggest it as a possible source for the explorer part of the legend. John Hanning Speke, remembered for tracking down the source of the Nile River, recorded that the interior of his tent “became covered with a host of small black beetles, evidently attracted by the glimmer of the candle.” Exhausted, Speke went to sleep with them crawling over his person, only to be awakened by one of the “horrid little insects” struggling into his ear. Trying to remove the beetle only pushed it in further. The beetle continued into Speke’s ear as far as possible, and then “he began with exceeding vigour like a rabbit in a hole, to dig violently away at my tympanum. The queer sensation this amusing measure excited in me is past description . . . What to do I knew not.” After trying to flush the critter out with melted butter, Speke tried to dig it out with his penknife, succeeding only in killing it and increasing the damage to his ear. Infection followed, distorting his face and causing boils. “For many months the tumour made me almost deaf, and ate a hole between the ear and the nose, so that when I blew it, my ear whistled so audibly that those who heard it laughed. Six or seven months after this accident happened, bits of the beetle — a leg, a wing, or parts of the body — came away in the wax.” (Quotes are from Speke’s journals, as referred to in Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton by Edward Rice, 1990, Scribner’s, New York.) Speke obviously survived his ordeal, and just as obviously, the beetle didn’t burrow through to the other side. The incident was given a fairly prominent place in the movie Mountains of the Moon. I know the legend predates the movie, so I’m not suggesting it as a source. The story was probably better-known to Speke’s contemporaries, because of the explorer’s popularity. This may have been a source for at least part of the legend. Sticking bug-like in many people’s minds is the memory of this legend forming the plot of a long-ago episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery. Titled “Caterpillar,” it aired on 1 March 1972. In typical Night Gallery fashion, the fellow plotting someone else’s downfall ended up stuck with the bug (and a pregnant one she was, too). Greatly predating Night Gallery, the Oxford English Dictionary dates the notion that an earwig penetrates into the head through the ear to as early as the year 1000.
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41315
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Human and animal cells from sources like aborted foetuses are in vaccines and are linked to childhood leukaemia and diabetes.
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They may be used in certain vaccines’ production, but are unlikely to make it to the final product.
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unproven
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online
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Beta-Propiolactone is in vaccines and is known to cause cancer, suspected gastrointestinal, liver, nerve and respiratory, skin and sense organ poison. It may be present in trace amounts of some vaccines. It is potentially carcinogenic, but only in much larger amounts than would be in a vaccine. The antibiotics gentamicin sulfate and polymyxin b are in vaccines and can cause allergic reactions ranging from mild to life-threatening. Traces of these antibiotics can end up in certain vaccines, but would only cause a reaction in someone severely allergic. Genetically modified yeast, animal, bacterial and viral DNA in vaccines can be incorporated into the recipient’s DNA causing unknown genetic mutations. Modified DNA can be used in the production of some vaccines, but is very unlikely to end up in the final product. Even if it did, there’s no evidence it can cause mutations. Glutaraldehyde is in vaccines and is poisonous if ingested and causes birth defects in animals. There are trace amounts in some vaccines from manufacturing, and not enough to cause harm. Formaldehyde is in vaccines and causes cancer in humans among other issues and is banned from vaccines in most European countries. It’s not banned in Europe. There are only trace amounts in certain vaccines and not enough to be carcinogenic. Latex rubber is in vaccines and causes life-threatening allergic reactions. Latex is used in the packaging of some vaccines, which could potentially cause harm if someone’s strongly allergic to it. Human and animal cells from sources like aborted foetuses are in vaccines and are linked to childhood leukaemia and diabetes. They may be used in certain vaccines’ production, but are unlikely to make it to the final product. Mercury (aka thimerosal or thiomersal) is in vaccines and can damage brain, gut, liver, bone marrow, nervous system and kidneys, is linked to autoimmune disorder, autism. Thiomersal isn’t in any UK vaccines any more. This is down to concern around a slightly different mercury-based chemical. MSG is in vaccines and is linked to birth defects, developmental delays, infertility and is banned in Europe. It’s not banned in Europe. It’s used in some vaccines to stabilise them. There’s no strong evidence it causes these problems in humans. Neomycin sulphate, an antibiotic, is in vaccines and can lead to epilepsy, brain damage and allergic reactions. Trace amounts of this antibiotic may end up in certain vaccines. If you are allergic to it could cause an allergic reaction. Phenol / phenoxyethanol is in vaccines and is used as antifreeze. It is toxic to all cells and can destroy the immune system. These chemicals have been used in vaccines as preservatives. They are not in antifreeze. Polysorbate 80 and 20 are in vaccines and cause cancer in animals and are linked to autoimmune issues and infertility. Tiny amounts of Polysorbate 80 is in a type of flu vaccine. There isn’t evidence ingesting it is linked to these issues in humans. Tri(n) butylphosphate is in vaccines and is potentially damaging to the kidneys and the nervous system. We can find no evidence of this being used in vaccines in the UK. Claim 1 of 14
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4008
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Measles saps kids’ ability to fight other germs.
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Measles has a stealth side effect: New research shows it erases much of the immune system’s memory of how to fight other germs, so children recover only to be left more vulnerable to bugs like flu or strep.
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true
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Netherlands, Health, Measles, Public health, Michael Mina, Science, U.S. News, General News
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Scientists dubbed the startling findings “immune amnesia.” The body can rebuild those defenses — but it could take years. And with measles on the rise, “it should be a scary phenomenon,” said Dr. Michael Mina of Harvard’s school of public health, lead author of research published Thursday in the journal Science. “This goes under the radar” because doctors wouldn’t necessarily connect a child’s pneumonia to measles they suffered a year earlier, Mina explained. “But would they have gotten it if they hadn’t gotten measles?” The Harvard team analyzed blood samples taken from 77 children before and after a measles outbreak in an unvaccinated community in the Netherlands. They looked for antibodies, which remember viruses and bacteria they encounter to guard against a repeat infection. After recovering from measles, the youngsters were left with plenty of antibodies against that virus — but ones they’d previously harbored against other germs had plummeted. In the most severe cases, “they’re just as vulnerable as if they were infants,” said study senior author Stephen Elledge, a Harvard geneticist. Elledge is paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which also supports AP’s Health & Science Department. A separate study, published Thursday in Science Immunology, supported the findings. Researchers from Britain’s Wellcome Sanger Institute used the Dutch blood samples to genetically test antibody-producing cells, and concluded measles is eliminating enough to re-set the immune system to a baby-like state. If protection against the misery — and sometimes life-threatening effects — of measles isn’t enough reason to vaccinate children, specialists said the two studies offer a powerful new rationale. “There really are profound gaps and holes” in someone’s immunity after measles, said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, which helped fund the Harvard work. “You ultimately recover but after a year or two or sometimes more.” “It’s doubly important to vaccinate children,” agreed Dr. Mark Mulligan of NYU Langone Health, who wasn’t involved with the new research. “It’s a vaccine that protects against the specific target, measles virus, but also against immune suppression.” Measles is one of the world’s most contagious viruses, able to spread through coughs and sneezes for four days before someone develops the characteristic rash. It sometimes leaves children with brain damage or hearing loss, and while deaths are rare in the U.S., measles killed 110,000 people globally in 2017. The vaccine offers powerful protection but a lack of access means measles remains rampant in many lower-income countries. Even the U.S., where most children are immunized, has seen a resurgence fueled by outbreaks in unvaccinated communities that in turn threaten people too young or sick to be immunized. So far this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has counted more than 1,200 U.S. measles cases, the most since 1992. Doctors have long known that people temporarily experience weakened immunity after measles. Using decades of health records, Mina previously reported that child deaths from other infections jumped after a measles outbreak, increases that lasted two or three years. But no one knew why, until the new study. The Dutch children started out pretty healthy: Technology developed in Elledge’s lab found antibodies in their blood against typical childhood germs. But two months after recovering from measles, the children had lost on average 20 percent of their usual antibody mix. Some lost up to 70 percent of protection against specific bugs, limiting their ability to respond if they encounter that germ again. Importantly, researchers didn’t find loss of antibodies in “control” populations that didn’t get infected with measles — or in children after they received the measles vaccine. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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25554
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Each year, 18,000 people die in America because they don't have health care.
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Indeed, uninsured people have higher mortality rate
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true
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National, Health Care, Hillary Clinton,
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"The full quote from Sen. Hillary Clinton's speech on her health care plan: ""Each year, 18,000 people die in America because they don't have health care. Let me repeat that. Here in America, people are dying because they couldn't get the care they needed when they were sick."" Clinton used the number to dramatize the need for universal coverage. The number comes from a report called ""Care Without Coverage: Too Little, Too Late,"" produced in 2002 by the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine. The National Academy of Science is a private, nonprofit society of scholars. It was granted a charter by Congress in 1863 and has a mandate to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. The report found that people without health care coverage: • received less frequent or no use of cancer screening tests; • received inconsistent care for the management of chronic disease; • received fewer diagnostic and treatment services for trauma or heart attacks, and had an increased risk of death when in the hospital. The report concluded that ""excess deaths among uninsured adults ages 25–64, based on a 25 percent higher mortality risk, can be estimated to be in the range of 18,000 each year."" The report was independently reviewed. Its findings controlled for an individual's health insurance status as an independent variable, ruling out issues of income, for instance."
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2099
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Study identifies best tests to predict Alzheimer's.
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Combining a specific imaging test of the brain with a memory recall test appears to be the best predictor so far of Alzheimer’s disease, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday.
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true
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Health News
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The findings were culled from a large, ongoing study testing various brain imaging tests and biomarkers that aims to identify which patients with cognitive problems will progress to Alzheimer’s disease. “When you look at them all independently, they are all useful for predicting conversion (to Alzheimer’s disease) and decline,” said Susan Landau of the University of California, Berkeley, whose study appears in the journal Neurology. “The novel thing we did was put them all together in the same statistical model and compared them to see which were the most useful,” she said in a telephone interview. For the study, researchers did memory and brain scan tests on 85 people with mild cognitive impairment who were part of the larger Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative study. The tests included an episodic memory test, in which the patient must correctly remember a list of words. People were also tested to see if they had a variant of the APOE gene linked with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers did magnetic resonance imaging or MRI scans to measure brain volume in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory. They also measured proteins called tau and beta-amyloid linked with Alzheimer’s disease. And they did an imaging test called positron emission tomography or PET to test for brain function by looking to see how well the brain uses glucose or sugar. When they compared the effectiveness of each test in predicting conversion to Alzheimer’s disease, two emerged as the best predictors. “People who had poorer scores on both of those tests were almost 12 times more likely to convert to Alzheimer’s disease than people who were normal on those two,” Landau said. Patients in the study were between the ages of 55 and 90 and were followed for an average of 1.9 years. During that time, 28 of the 85 participants developed Alzheimer’s disease. Landau, who wants to expand the study to confirm the findings, said she thinks they may be useful in helping doctors pick the best tests to predict which patients are most likely to progress to Alzheimer’s disease within two to three years of testing. Several teams are working on better ways to detect early-stage Alzheimer’s disease in hopes of developing drugs that can fight it before it causes too much damage. Current treatments cannot reverse the course of Alzheimer’s, a mind-robbing form of dementia that affects more than 26 million people globally.
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10249
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Fish Oil Seems to Help Cancer Patients Preserve Muscle
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The story used quotes given in a news release – and was wrong in stating that the findings were already published in the Feb. 28 online edition of Cancer. The story was published early this morning – but at 2 pm Central time, we checked with the editorial office of the journal and the study had not yet been posted online. That’s not the journalists’ responsibility but it is their responsibility to be accurate and for hours the story was inaccurate because it said the study was online when it was not. So any reader who may have wanted to track down the article couldn’t – for hours at least. at 4:30 pm Central time, we see that the study is now posted online. This obviously raises issues not only about the journalism process but about the journal and its news releases processes, since the journal’s news release also erroneously jumped the gun in stating that the study was posted online far before it had been. More importantly, the story never discussed the limitations of a small (16 people in the active arm of the trial), short-term (10-week) study. This is an important area of research. The researchers wrote: “more than 65% of advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer cases do not respond to first-line chemotherapy, and 1-year survival rates are low.” But this story didn’t evaluate the quality of the evidence, didn’t give enough context on other research in this field, and didn’t report on limitations of such prelminary work. Yet it said this “raises hope.” That’s the kind of statement that should probably await more evidence in bigger, longer studies.
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false
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Cancer,HealthDay
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No discussion of cost for the mega doses of fish oil used in the study. The weight loss figures for the two groups were given. But the muscle mass figures were given in percentages, which is clumsy. Rather than 70% in the fish oil group kept their pre-chemo muscle mass, why not say 11 out of 16. And rather than less than 30% in the standard care group, why not just say 7 of 24? (Or whatever the actual numbers were.) But let’s drop back to the big picture. Rather than merely reporting numbers, why didn’t the story report on what difference these results may have had in peoples’ lives, if any? Or is that impossible to gauge after just a 10-week study? If so, perhaps that, too, should have been discussed because it again reflects on the limitations of such a small, short-term study. The independent perspective from the Texas dietitian did include this: “But I would caution that the amount of pure concentrated fish oil supplement the people in this study were given is a lot. Much much more than any recommended dietary allowance, along the lines of two to three servings of fish per week.” But neither that comment nor any other line in the story explicitly mentioned the possibility of harm from the mega doses. Is it possible there could be interactions with drugs the lung cancer patients were taking? Inadequate. There is no discussion of the limitations of such a small (only 16 people in active arm of the trial), short-term (10-week) study. Instead, the story goes right on to talke about “it raises hope.” People with cancer will often ask for the facts and will decide themselves where they invest their hope. No disease-mongering. If anything, the story should have provided more background on nonsmall cell lung cancer. Despite what we just said in the “news release” criterion above, we will give the story a satisfactory score for seeking an independent perspective, but we wonder what that dietitian reacted to: the study itself or just a news release? Barely satisfactory. The story quoted the researcher from a news release saying “This holds great promise, because currently there is no effective treatment for cancer-related malnutrition.” But there was no discussion of any other research or any other approaches to cancer-related malnutrition. So this claim of novelty by the researcher was never explored or substantiated. This is NOT the only research in this field, and the story could have included at least a line about other work. There isn’t any question about the availability of fish oil supplements. More importantly, the independent perspective from dietitian Lona Sandon pointed out that the amount of concentrated fish oil supplement used in the study was much more than any recommended dietary allowane. The story quoted the researcher from a news release saying “This holds great promise, because currently there is no effective treatment for cancer-related malnutrition.” But there was no discussion of any other research or any other approaches to cancer-related malnutrition. So this claim of novelty by the researcher was never explored or substantiated. Mixed bag but we must give an unsatisfactory score because the story lifted researcher quotes from a news release and apparently didn’t interview any of the researchers. Granted, the story sought an independent perspective, but the entire story was apparently based on a news release, not on any independent interviewing of the research team.
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27707
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A tweet reproduces a 90-second long sentence from a Donald Trump speech.
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“My uncle used to tell me about nuclear before nuclear was nuclear” and “He would tell me, ‘There are things that are happening that could be potentially so bad for the world in terms of weaponry,'” Donald Trump has claimed, even though the U.S. had already developed and used nuclear weapons before he was born (1946). Could anyone have really been unaware or doubtful that “nuclear is powerful” in the 1980s, when Dr. Trump supposedly informed his nephew of that fact?
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true
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Politics, donald trump
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This is a sentence spoken by Trump, not a piece of modernist stream-of-consciousness pastiche. pic.twitter.com/vfhdKzg9Uy — Stig Abell (@StigAbell) August 9, 2016 On 19 July 2016, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump appeared at Sun City’s Magnolia Hall in South Carolina to deliver a noontime speech. The event was an otherwise unremarkable campaign stop, save for one portion of Trump’s speech (transcribed below) in which he apparently started out attempting to criticize the nuclear deal that the Obama administration negotiated with Iran but veered into a minute-and-a-half long sentence that spanned his uncle’s academic qualifications, his own education, Democrats’ denying Republicans’ credentials, the power of nuclear technology, the number of American prisoners freed by Iran in conjunction with the nuclear deal, and the adeptness of “Persian” negotiators (particularly women), before circling back to how the Iranians “killed us” in the nuclear deal: “Look, having nuclear — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world — it’s true! — but when you’re a conservative Republican they try — oh, do they do a number — that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune — you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged — but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are — nuclear is so powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right, who would have thought? — but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it’s four — but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years — but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us, this is horrible.” The one thing that puzzles us the most about this sprawling statement is this: Donald Trump’s late uncle, Dr. John Trump, was indeed a renowned professor at MIT, and among his many notable contributions to science were developing methods for treating cancer through radiation and studying how to radiate deep tumors without harming nearby healthy tissue. But what did he reveal to his nephew about “nuclear” 35 years ago that it would have been surprising for anyone to think of?
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15524
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Fox News barely covered (the Duggar family) scandal until Megyn Kelly was able to secure this interview.
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"Stelter said, ""Fox News barely covered this scandal until Megyn Kelly was able to secure this interview."" Our review of media mentions of the Duggar story among CNN, MSNBC and Fox supports his statement. Fox News’ coverage was fleeting before Kelly’s interview was announced."
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true
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Pop Culture, Pundits, PunditFact, Brian Stelter,
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"It’s been a big week for Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, chosen by the famous Duggar family of TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting to exclusively air their side of the story involving the oldest Duggar son molesting five minors, including his sisters, a decade ago. But to some observers, Fox’s intense promotion of Kelly’s June 3 interview with parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and her later sit-down with two daughters molested by Josh Duggar marked a drastic shift in the network’s coverage of the story. ""It’s slightly amusing that Fox News barely covered this scandal until Megyn Kelly was able to secure this interview,"" said CNN senior media correspondent and Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter on June 2. ""Now they’ll be covering it a lot more."" We wanted to double-check Stelter’s analysis. Was Fox News essentially mum about the story until Kelly scored the at-home exclusive? Stelter told PunditFact that he first started thinking about the coverage disparity when he saw a story by liberal site Media Matters for America that compared light coverage by Fox with intensive coverage by MSNBC and CNN. He and CNNMoney media reporter Tom Kludt did their own research and reached a similar conclusion for a story about the interview. ""Along with the amount of time spent, we took into account the type of Fox's coverage,"" Stelter said. ""Early on, the mentions of the controversy were fleeting, not substantive at all."" The controversy went public when In Touch Weekly published the first story May 19 about Josh Duggar being the suspect in a 2005 underage sexual abuse investigation. In Touch and the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published more stories May 21 based on a police report that said the father did not go to law enforcement until a year after the fondling incidents took place. After the stories appeared, Josh Duggar resigned his position as executive director of the Family Research Council and apologized in a statement, saying, ""Twelve years ago, as a young teenager I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends. I confessed this to my parents who took several steps to help me address the situation."" TLC pulled all episodes of 19 Kids and Counting the next day, May 22. Fox first told its viewers about the situation in a 30-second segment on May 22, followed by a 20-second segment on May 23. On May 26, the Duggars were mentioned on The Five in the context of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee defending the family. ""You don’t go around defending the Duggar family when you’ve got bigger issues going on,"" said pundit Greg Gutfeld. Fox analyst Howard Kurtz criticized the media’s focus on the Duggar family in a May 24 segment. Those are the only references we could find before May 30, when Kelly’s interview was announced. Needless to say, those mentions of the story were super-brief — especially when you compare how the other networks handled it. CNN and MSNBC anchors devoted considerably more time to the controversy from the start. We used Critical Mention, which searches closed-captioning transcripts, to look for mentions of the Duggars on the three networks from May 19 to noon on May 30, roughly when the interview was announced. This method isn’t perfect — misspellings aren’t captured, for instance — but it does provide a rough snapshot of how often each network discussed the family. Fox News personalities mentioned ""Duggar"" four times. Within the same timeframe, the family name came up 99 times on CNN and 72 times on MSNBC. On Stelter’s home network of CNN, the story was brought up on five different shows on May 22, with Erin Burnett OutFront and Anderson Cooper 360 devoting substantial chunks of air time to interviews with an In Touch staffer and child psychiatry professionals, as well as going into other TLC shows with stars that fell from grace. CNN Tonight host Don Lemon continued to explore the story in his May 26-28 shows. On MSNBC, nearly every show on May 22 talked about the story, including hosts Alex Wagner, Ed Schultz, Al Sharpton and Chris Hayes, often bringing in experts to dissect some of the story’s finer points. The network continued to cover the story on May 26, 27 and 28. Fox began to report the story in more depth on June 1, when Kelly criticized the media’s handling of the story with Fox media analyst Howard Kurtz. She equated the rush to cover the story as feasting on a carcass, going after CNN specifically for bringing up how GOP presidential candidates had taken pictures with Josh Duggar before the scandal broke. Kelly’s coverage of the story has also focused on the release of police records, which she and the Duggars say should have never been made public. Other shows on the network, including The O’Reilly Factor, Outnumbered, Your World and Fox and Friends, started talking about the Duggars in the context of Kelly’s interview. From noon on May 30 to about 5 p.m. on June 5, there have been 134 mentions of ""Duggar"" on Fox, according to Critical Mention. Fox News spokespersons did not offer comment for the story. Our ruling Stelter said, ""Fox News barely covered this scandal until Megyn Kelly was able to secure this interview."" Our review of media mentions of the Duggar story among CNN, MSNBC and Fox supports his statement. Fox News’ coverage was fleeting before Kelly’s interview was announced."
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9996
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New guidelines define pre-Alzheimer’s disease
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This report tells readers the stark reality, that lab tests and brain scans for Alzheimer’s are not ready for clinical use and even when the tests are validated, they will have limited value to patients until effective treatments are developed. This story includes a comment about how early diagnosis could help patients and families plan for the future; but it would have been nice to see an acknowledgment of the potential psychological and social consequences. Like the NPR story, this report fails to tell readers about the ties between quoted experts and companies that are developing tests and treatments, even though those ties were disclosed. This story quoted several experts, but none who are independent of the panel that issued the revised diagnosis guidance. It is more than just validation of the new diagnostic approaches being described that will be needed before these can influence clinical practice. All of the diagnostic test characteristics will need to be examined, including the ability of the test results to accurately predict which patients are likely to develop AD (the false positive, false negative, positive and negative predictive value, etc). Additionally, the reliability of the measures will need to be determined. From a clinical perspective, until there are treatments that can alter progression, other than helping patients understand what to expect in the future, currently there is not a lot of benefit and there are potential harms for knowing early on if a patient has this condition.
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true
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Alzheimer's,Associated Press
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The story clearly points out that brain scans and biomarker tests are not ready for clinical use. Since there are no recommended changes that directly affect readers today, and since it is not known which diagnostic tests may eventually prove useful, it is reasonable to put off discussions of cost. As noted above, the story points out that brain scans and biomarker tests for early signs of Alzheimer’s disease are currently useful to researchers, not doctors in routine clinical practice. The story also reports that, “Current treatments do not alter the course of Alzheimer’s, they just ease symptoms,” thus limiting the benefit of early diagnosis. However, as we mentioned in the section on harms, the story would have been better if it offered more context with the comments of one expert who said that early diagnosis can help patients and families cope with the disease. Since the story reports that the diagnostic tests for Alzheimer’s are not ready for clinical use and it points out that diagnosis is of limited value now because the available treatments are only able to ease some symptoms in some patients, not treat the underlying disease, we understand why discussion of potential harms is deferred. However, the story does include comments about perceived benefits of early diagnosis for patients and families. It would have been nice to see comments about why people might reasonably choose to defer diagnosis because of the psychological and social effects of being defined as an Alzheimer’s patient when there may be no medical benefit to early diagnosis. This story is careful to point out the limitations of the brain scans, spinal fluid tests and other diagnostic tools being explored by researchers. It summarizes some of the key challenges that researchers need to address before trying to use scans or lab tests to diagnose patients in routine clinical practice. The story specifies the estimated size of the patient population: “About 5.4 million Americans and more than 26 million people worldwide have Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia.” It does not exaggerate the relevant population. This story summarizes the point of view of the panel of experts that developed these new guidelines for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease. However, it does not tell readers whether there are dissenting opinions. More importantly, the story fails to report relationships between some of the quoted experts and pharmaceutical or testing companies. For example, the disclosure statements with the journal articles announcing the guidelines state that “Marilyn Albert serves as a consultant to Genentech and Eli Lilly and receives grants to her institution from GE Healthcare” and “Guy McKhann serves on a Data Safety Monitoring Board for Merck.” Readers should have been alerted to these industry ties. The story implicitly recognizes the option of foregoing testing by listing the limitations and uncertainties of not only experimental scans and lab tests, but also the limited utility of clinical diagnosis given the lack of effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease. The story alerts readers to not expect immediate changes in how doctors diagnose patients with signs of dementia: “Yet the guidelines do not advise doctors to change how they evaluate and treat patients now. Despite the hoopla about new brain scans and blood and spinal fluid tests that claim to show early signs of Alzheimer’s, they are not ready for prime time and should remain just tools for research, the guidelines say.” The story distinguishes between experimental diagnostic tools and the clinical features of dementia that doctors can use today when trying to determine whether a patient’s symptoms indicate Alzheimer’s or some other neurologic disease or injury. The story explains to readers key differences between the new guidelines and those released in 1984. It notes that the scans and lab tests that have been developed in recent years are useful to researchers trying to understand Alzheimer’s disease, especially early in the disease process, and the effects of experimental treatments. The story does not appear to rely on a news release.
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11620
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More Aggressive Treatment for Weekend Stroke
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This story about the clot-dissolving drug tPA emphasized the importance of getting to the hospital quickly in cases of suspected stroke. However, it didn’t add much to a press release issued by the AMA, and in some ways was less informative. The story provided no detail on costs or potential harms of tPA treatment, and didn’t do a very good job of explaining the benefits we can expect from the drug. It buried an important finding about mortality rates far down in the story, whereas the press release from the AMA included it in the second sentence. Treatment with tPA can increase the likelihood of a full recovery from stroke if administered early enough. So if patients are more likely to receive tPA on the weekends than during the week, this is a potentially important finding that deserves to be explored. That being said, coverage of tPA needs to provide context regarding the significant risks and costs associated with this treatment.
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true
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The story does not discuss the costs or potential savings associated with the use of this drug. On the cost side, there are the direct costs of the drug itself as well as the diagnostic testing which must be conducted prior to administering the drug. In addition, hospitals incur significant costs to become certified as a primary stroke treatment centers, which is where candidates for tPA therapy are most likely to be taken by ambulance teams. On the savings side, successful treatment with tPA would potentially prevent significant expenditures on the care of disabled stroke patients. The story doesn’t do a good enough job explaining what they observed in the study or the benfits of tPA in general. In discussing the differences between weekday and weekend treatment, the story reports that there was a 20% difference in the likelihood of receiving tPA. In absolute terms, however, the difference between weekdays and weekends is very small (1.1% vs 0.9%). In addition, there is some discussion about why the study did not detect a reduction in deaths among patients treated on the weekend and who were more likely to receive tPA. The study could have noted that tPA has never been shown to reduce mortality in randomized clinical trials. The primary benefit of tPA—which is never explained in the story—is that it may increase the likelihood of a patient’s recovery from stroke without disability. The story was primarily about weekday vs. weekend use of tPA. While it could have mentioned other stroke treatments with proven benefits, such as aspirin, it would probably be unfair to dock points for not including this information. The story explains that the tPA is only used within 3 hours of the onset of stroke symptoms. It also hints at the fact that tPA is effective only for ischemic strokes, and that treatment is more likely to be available at certified stroke treatment centers. While it could have done more to make the limitations on tPA’s use explicit, the reader will probably come away with the sense that tPA is available only for certain patients where it can be used early. This is a satisfactory outcome.
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29509
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"Washington state has updated their curriculum standards to include teaching ""transgenderism"" to Kindergarteners."
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What's true: Washington State has released updated curriculum guidelines in 2016 that include directives regarding gender and gender expression. What's false: Washington state Kindergarten students will be taught about transgender issues.
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false
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Politics Sexuality, daily caller, gender identity, kindergarten
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On 1 June 2016 the web site Daily Caller published an article reporting that schools in Washington state planned to begin teaching “transgenderism to Kindergartners, based on updated state curriculum guidelines released online. The article didn’t quite manage to connect the dots between the linked curriculum update and “teaching transgenderism” to Kindergarten students, save for a reference to an expectation that Kindergarten students would “understand there are many ways to express gender”: By fall 2017 Washington state public schools will begin teaching gender expression to kindergarteners under newly-approved health education learning standards that designate sexual health a “core idea” of public K-12 education … While some aspects of sexual health aren’t taught K-12 (HIV prevention begins in fourth grade), one component of sexual health titled “Self-Identity” begins in kindergarten, where students will be expected to “Understand there are many ways to express gender.” As part of an aspect of sexual health titled “Healthy Relationships,” kindergarteners will learn to distinguish between “safe and unwanted touch.” They will also learn to “Recognize people have the right to refuse giving or receiving unwanted touch.” OSPI did not answer a question about whether this lesson plan amounts to teaching consent to kindergarteners. Subsequent portions of the article hinged on the selective quoting of responses from Nathan Olson, communications manager for Washington’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to Daily Caller. Olson was quoted only in part, and the precise wording of the questions posed to him was not provided by the Daily Caller: By third grade, students will be expected to “Explain that gender roles can vary considerably” and “Understand [the] importance of treating others with respect regarding gender identity,” as part of the “Self-Identity” component of sexual health. Gender identity is defined by the state as “Someone’s inner sense of their gender.” “The standards don’t define ‘gender spectrum.’ But self-identity is a key component,” Olson said when asked whether learning that gender is a “spectrum” is considered part of learning about “gender identity.” We contacted Nathan Olson ourselves, and unlike the Daily Caller, we’re reproducing his response in full rather than selectively editing it to support a preconceived bias: I’ll start with the Daily Caller, headline. First, what does “transgenderism” mean? We don’t define that term in the standards; I’ve never seen the word before this article. Second, the headline itself is simply false: The “state” doesn’t “teach” transgenderism. A simple reading of the standards shows that the state — because of state law — is responsible for establishing and periodically revising state learning standards. It’s up to districts to adopt curricula, and it’s up to teachers in schools to teach the material. Third, “transgender” — let alone “transgenderism” — only appears in the glossary; it doesn’t appear in any of the standards or topics or outcomes. The mistake regarding what will be taught is repeated in the first sentence of the story. Districts decide which topics will be taught: A district can decide that its community norms don’t include self-identity, and thus it won’t be taught. He cannot know that every school will be teaching gender expression any more than I can know that. He’s right that we didn’t issue a press release. Typically we don’t when we update standards. We did with the adoption of the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards. Those were special cases involving standards adopted by multiple states. In contrast, we didn’t put out releases when we adopted arts standards in Spring 2011, nor when we adopted world language standards in Summer 2010. The sentence, “OSPI did not answer a question from TheDC about whether this lesson plan amounts to teaching consent to kindergarteners” — while technically correct — was one question of at least a half-dozen in an email. It was an honest oversight that we missed the question. If he’d really wanted an answer, he could have asked the question a second time. The next paragraph, which begins, “By third grade, students will be expected to ‘Explain that gender roles…'” again confuses the standards and the topics and outcomes. Standards are required to be taught. There are eight in health and five in physical education Topics aren’t required to be taught (with three exceptions: HIV prevention, CPR instruction and use of automated external defibrillators). Not all third graders in the state will be expected to explain anything about gender roles: It will be up to each district to determine that. The mistake is repeated in five straight paragraphs, which begin, “By fourth grade …,” “In fifth grade,” “By the end of elementary school,” “In seventh grade” and “This education continues through high school…” The reporter also correctly but selectively quotes me about what the possible penalties could be for a student that doesn’t want to learn material about self-identity. My full quote, which I am pasting from my email to him, reads as follows: “So we don’t exactly know what a school would do if a student failed to complete an assignment because he/she opposed the materials being taught. From a practical standpoint, though, it seems highly unlikely that a student would fail a class because of that issue. No individual learning outcome holds that much weight, given how extensive the range of outcomes is and how few hours of health instruction — and especially sexual health education — students receive. Besides, I think if a student failed for that specific reason, the student (and parent) would be well within his/her rights to file a grievance.” The Daily Caller linked to Washington State’s “Health and Physical Education State K-12 Learning Standards” [PDF] as evidence in support their reference to “teaching transgenderism to Kindergartners.” Page 29 of that document contains the state standards for sexual health, and for Kindergarten and First Grade students the listed benchmarks are “Understand there are many ways to express gender” and “Explain that there are many ways to express gender” respectively. The word “transgender” isn’t mentioned in the guidelines until the “Glossary” portion: At the Grade Five point in the table, “Identify trusted adults to ask questions about gender identity and sexual orientation” appears as part of the sexual education curriculum standards, but no wording suggests that “teaching transgenderism” is part of those guidelines. A 2 June 2016 press release from anti-LGBT group Family Policy Institute of Washington cited the Daily Caller article in a piece that jumped to numerous imaginative conclusions about what young schoolchildren in Washington might be learning about gender under the purported new standards: Kindergarten used to be a place for children to learn how to add, subtract, and read. Next year, Washington schoolchildren as young as five years old will instead be learning about gender fluidity and the differences between gender and sexual identity. The newly-minted health and physical education standards, released by the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), will be implemented in schools across the state for the 2017-2018 school year. ♦ Beginning in Kindergarten, students will be taught about the many ways to express gender. Gender expression education will include information about the manifestations of traits that are typically associated with one gender. Crossdressing is one form of gender expression. ♦ Third graders will be introduced to the concept of gender identity. These children will be taught that they can choose their own gender. ♦ Fourth graders will be expected to “define sexual orientation,” which refers to whether a person identifies as heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual; they’ll also be taught about HIV prevention. Children in fourth grade will be told that they can choose their sexual orientation. Much like a previous controversy pertaining to gender identity and curriculum in Fairfax County, Virginia, the claims about Washington State’s OPSI, gender, and curriculum hinged on unsupported assertions that changes had been made to existing guidelines to more assertively include transgender topics in education for very young children.
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10885
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At-home gene test stirs up debate
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This is an excellent story that used a concrete example (i.e. bipolar disorder) to highlight the pitfalls involved with the use of genetic test kits for gene alleles. Rather than write a story heralding the first commercial availability of a test to identify genetic markers associated with risk of bipolar disorder, this was a thoughtful piece that presented both the hope and the hype associated with the product. While failing to provide concrete estimates for the benefit from the product or diagnostic alternatives, the story painted an accurate picture of the uncertainty for deriving benefit.
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true
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"The story mentioned that the test carried a $399 price tag. Of course there are larger cost perspectives. If this diagnostic test truly has value, it might lead to more targeted therapy – perhaps decreasing overall medical costs. If it is a poor test, it may increase medical costs beyond the initial $399 for the test itself. The story included discussion about how this test might be of benefit; it did not include quantification of benefit (i.e. :how much faster could it enable a clinician to make a diagnosis?) though one of the points of the story was that the actual benefit of this test was somewhat imprecise. Lastly – the statement that any information is good is a red herring. However, we’ll again give the story the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. The story discussed problems associated with false positive or false negative results. It mentioned that physicians might not have the appropriate training to understand what to do with the results of the test and could make, what an expert quoted in the story described as ""foolish decisions"" The story mentioned that this and other genetic test kits prey on individuals’ deepest anxieties. That said – there are many more harms possible. Creating the precedent for direct marketing of lab tests – even if the results go to the doctor carries significant risks. It could prey on peoples’ insecurities, cause financial harm, adversely affect the patient-clinician relationship, and lead to other family members of test positive patients (family members without symptoms) getting a meaningless test due to worry. It was good that the story pointed out that there is little oversight for the accuracy of genetic test kits. Overall the story did a good job; it gave data such as 1% rate of genetic abnormality in unaffected vs. 3% in bipolar patients. It said, ""The report that accompanies those results instructs doctors that a positive test means patients are two to three times more likely to have bipolar disorder."" If the reporter had gone the next step, it would have been even better. For example, if someone has no symptoms of bipolar disorder, then the likelhood of current bipolar is 0% – so a 2-3 time increase in risk is still 0. For someone with many symptoms, the risk of bipolar disorder might be 50-60% (rough estimate) and an abnormal test might increase that substantially. Granted, interpreting the quantitative data for readers may be difficult but it would have been helpful to put it into terms that were easier to understand. But in discussing why the test was useful, the company founder said that it was important ""even if it just helps a little bit"". The story should have noted that this lack of quantification of benefit is problematic. We’ll give the story the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. The story included quotes not only from the scientist who developed the test discussed, but from several experts in the field. The story did not make clear how diagnosis of bipolar disorder with the test vs. without the test differed. However it would appear that this may have been intentional as it isn’t actually clear how diagnosis of this disorder is dramatically altered in the era where this test is available. The story mentioned that this was a commercially available product. (Though it failed to mention that this test would likely not be covered by insurance, it also did not imply that it would. This, of course, will affect availability.) The story was clear that the test for bipolar disorder it described had been commercially available for about a month. It also mentioned that there about 1000 other test kits (for other genetic traits) which are available. Does not appear to rely on a press release."
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28343
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Four quotations attributed to PETA president and co-founder Ingrid Newkirk in a viral November 2018 meme are authentic.
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So the fourth quotation included in the meme did not actually originate with Ingrid Newkirk, although it was written by one of her colleagues. Perhaps more important, it was not intended as a comprehensive summary of PETA’s entire mission, but rather as a more nuanced description of the organization’s specific function in contracting with Northampton County, North Carolina, during the mid-2000s.
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mixture
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Politics, animal rights, peta
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Ingrid Newkirk, the president and co-founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), is one of the most high-profile animal rights activists of the past few decades. She is also a controversial figure, frequently attracting criticism over the group’s famous publicity stunts and advertising campaigns, but also for allegations of cruelty and hypocrisy over PETA’s policy on euthanizing animals in their care. Against that background, in November 2018 a meme containing four separate statements attributed to Newkirk on the subject of killing and caring for animals gained popularity on Facebook, as posted by the Florida Greyhound Association: “I would go to work early, before anyone got there, and I would just kill the animals myself…I must have killed a thousand of them, sometimes dozens every day.” “Euthanasia is the kindest gift to a dog or cat unwanted and unloved.” Ingrid Newkirk, PETA President and Co-Founder. PETA IS NOT ABOUT SAVING ANIMALS “We do not advocate right to life for animals.” “We are not in the home finding business. Our service is to provide a peaceful and painless death to animals who noone wants.” Ingrid Newkirk, PETA President. The meme was no longer publicly available, as of 16 November. “I must have killed a thousand of them, sometimes dozens every day”: MISSING CONTEXT This is an authentic quotation by Newkirk, taken from a 2003 interview she gave to the New Yorker magazine. However, the meme presents it without proper context, grossly misrepresenting the full sense of her remarks. In the relevant section of the article, Newkirk was outlining how she first became an animal rights activist, after dropping off some abandoned kittens at an animal shelter near her home in Maryland, only to find, to her profound shock, that they were immediately euthanized. She switched careers from studying to become a stockbroker to working in that very shelter, but she became even more dismayed by what she claimed was the treatment of animals there, setting her on a path to founding PETA: What she saw at the shelter affected her profoundly. “I went to the front office all the time, and I would say, ‘John is kicking the dogs and putting them into freezers.’ Or I would say, ‘They are stepping on the animals, crushing them like grapes, and they don’t care.’ In the end, I would go to work early, before anyone got there, and I would just kill the animals myself. Because I couldn’t stand to let them go through that. I must have killed a thousand of them, sometimes dozens every day. Some of those people would take pleasure in making them suffer. Driving home every night, I would cry just thinking about it. And I just felt, to my bones, this cannot be right. I hadn’t thought about animal rights in the broader sense. Not then, or even for a while after. But working at that shelter I just said to myself, ‘What is wrong with human beings that we can act this way? '” It’s true that Newkirk did once recount having euthanized many animals every day during a certain period of her life, but the quotation included in the meme left out some important context: spurred into action by a desire to care for vulnerable animals, Newkirk was working at an animal shelter where her colleagues allegedly mistreated the animals very badly and put them down without proper reverence. It was in this context that she took it upon herself to euthanize the animals. The meme also selectively excerpted from Newkirk’s remarks, leaving out the line “Because I couldn’t stand to let them go through that.” “Euthanasia is the kindest gift to a dog or cat unwanted and unloved”: UNPROVEN We were not able to verify that this is an authentic, direct quotation from Newkirk, despite its having been widely shared online as such for around a decade. The earliest instance of it we could find was from a June 2005 editorial in the newsletter of the Best Friends Animal Society. There, the statement was not attributed to Newkirk as a direct quotation but rather as a summary of her alleged remarks. The context of the article was the high-profile arrest on charges of animal cruelty of two PETA employees in North Carolina, after they were caught disposing of the corpses of euthanized dogs and cats in garbage bins. (The two employees were later acquitted of animal cruelty but fined for improperly disposing of the corpses.) This is how the Best Friends Animal Society reported on the arrests in June 2005: Since these two people will be going to trial, it would be inappropriate for us to comment on their particular situation. However, we can certainly comment on the policies of PETA and their public remarks and actions. PETA runs some very effective campaigns and we support much of what they have done to help bring an end to some of the worst abuses of animals in laboratories, factory farms, at sporting events, and fur farms. But in the area of companion animals, we have some fundamental disagreements. At a press conference following the arrest of those two employees, PETA president Ingrid Newkirk said that PETA believes euthanasia is the kindest gift to a dog or cat unwanted and unloved. We simply couldn’t disagree more. The kindest gift to a homeless animal is a good home. The kindest gift to an unloved dog or cat is a loving, caring place to go. The Best Friends editorial did not link to any video or transcript of the press conference, and we were unable to find any source material which would support this characterization of Newkirk’s remarks. A spokesperson for PETA told us in a statement: “We don’t have a source for this quote.” Furthermore, other newspapers and agencies did cover PETA’s response to the arrests (including a 17 June 2005 press conference), but none of their reports included Newkirk’s professing her belief that euthanasia was “the kindest gift” for an unwanted animal. For example, the Associated Press reported: Dumping the bodies of dead dogs and cats in the garbage is wrong, but the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said Friday that animal cruelty charges against two employees won’t stick. “It’s hideous,” Ingrid Newkirk, president of the animal rights group, said of the dumping. “I think this is so shocking it’s bound to hurt our work.” But she told a news conference there was no indication of “pain or suffering” among the 18 animals that police in Ahoskie, N.C. found in a shopping center garbage bin or the 13 found in a van registered to PETA. The animals received lethal injections, Newkirk said. While we could not find proof of Newkirk saying euthanasia was the “kindest gift” for an unwanted animal, it’s clear that she, PETA, and some other animal rights activists and veterinarians do support a policy of putting down animals who would otherwise face severe neglect or cruelty, or for whom a stable home or space in a shelter cannot be found. On their web site, PETA explains their policy: More than 6 million animals are handled by animal shelters in the United States each year. Even though some are reclaimed or adopted, nearly 4 million unwanted dogs and cats are left with nowhere to go. Shelters cannot humanely house and support all these animals until their natural deaths—they would be forced to live in cramped cages or kennels for years, lonely and stressed, and other animals would have to be turned away because there would not be room for them. Turning unwanted animals loose to roam the streets is not a humane option. If they don’t starve, freeze, get hit by a car, or die of disease, they may be tormented and possibly killed by cruel juveniles or picked up by dealers who obtain animals to sell to laboratories. Because of the high number of unwanted companion animals and the lack of good homes, sometimes the most humane thing that a shelter worker can do is give an animal a peaceful release from a world in which dogs and cats are often considered “surplus” and unwanted. PETA, The American Veterinary Medical Association, and The Humane Society of the United States concur that an intravenous injection of sodium pentobarbital administered by a trained professional is the kindest, most compassionate method of euthanizing animals. The American Humane Association considers this to be the only acceptable method of euthanasia for cats and dogs in animal shelters. This policy is vehemently opposed by other animal rights activists who strongly support what are known as “no-kill” shelters, where animals are only euthanized if they face irreversible pain or illness. This philosophical conflict has given rise to something of a schism between animal rights activists, and PETA’s failure to adopt a universal “no-kill” approach at their animal shelters has attracted fierce criticism. “We do not advocate right to life for animals”: CORRECT ATTRIBUTION The source of this quotation is a postcard published online by Nathan Winograd, an animal rights activist and long-standing, outspoken critic and opponent of PETA and Ingrid Newkirk. The postcard, dated December 1994, was addressed to Winograd and has the insignia of PETA on it as well as that of Newkirk. The postcard contains the following message: Mr Winograd — 1. We do not advocate “right to life” for animals 2. There are always exceptions. A spokesperson for PETA acknowledged that the postcard was authentic and had been written and sent by Newkirk: Ms. Newkirk was apparently answering Nathan Winograd’s claim that all animals have the right to life, no matter what condition they’re in. PETA’s is a “shelter of last resort,” which takes in animals who are dying, broken, injured, and otherwise unwanted and whom the “no-kill” shelters will not accept, providing them with a merciful release. “We are not in the home finding business”: MISATTRIBUTED This is an authentic quotation, but a spokesperson for PETA told us that it has been falsely attributed to Ingrid Newkirk. The remarks were taken from a letter that Daphna Nachminovitch, now a senior vice-president at PETA, sent to officials in Northampton County, North Carolina, in 2005 after the aforementioned arrest of two PETA employees on animal cruelty charges. At the time, PETA had contracts with Northampton and Bertie counties to assist with euthanizing unwanted animals, but officials severed links with the organization when the corpses of more than 30 animals were found dumped in garbage bins in the town of Ahoskie. The Virginian-Pilot newspaper attributed the remarks in question to Newkirk in a 20 July 2005 report: PETA started picking up animals in northeastern North Carolina in 2001 when a caller informed the group of poor conditions in shelters, according to a written apology PETA president Ingrid Newkirk sent to Bertie County officials. Bertie and Northampton County officials and one Ahoskie veterinarian who said he gave PETA three healthy cats that were found dead in Ahoskie on June 15 said they believed that adoptable animals would find new homes, while sick, injured and wild animals would be euthanized. In an apology letter to Northampton County officials, Newkirk wrote that dumping animals in trash bins “is wrong and in violation of PETA policy.” PETA typically puts down animals in Norfolk and cremates the carcasses, Newkirk said in a June 17 press conference. “We are not in the home finding business, although it is certainly true that we do find homes from time to time for the kind of animals people are looking for,” Newkirk wrote to Northampton County officials. “Our service is to provide a peaceful and painless death to animals who no one wants.” Although Newkirk sent apology letters to Bertie and Northampton officials, both counties cut ties to PETA pending the trials of Cook and Hinkle. The counties are now euthanizing animals without help from PETA. PETA told us that the letter to Northampton County was sent by Nachminovitch, not Newkirk, and provided a more extensive excerpt from it: As Ms. Gay will tell you, the animals we’ve picked up were already scheduled for euthanasia, having been held the required 72-hour timeframe. We are not in the home finding business, although it is certainly true that we do find homes from time to time for the kind of animal people are looking for, but not for the animals who are sick, injured, old, aggressive, and so on—the majority that are turned in to, or picked up by, Mr. Person. Our service is to provide a peaceful and painless death to animals who no one wants.
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1850
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Surf's up in the fitness studio.
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Spun out on spinning? Bored in barre class?
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true
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Health News
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A SurfSET Fitness class in New York in an undated photo. REUTERS/SurfSET Fitness/Handout Group fitness gadflies can rejoice. Indoor surfing is a new workout, born of the sea but carving out a place in the center of town. “It’s actually harder than surfing,” Sarah Ponn, co-founder and fitness director of SurfSET Fitness, said of the class, which claims to squeeze about three hours’ worth of surfing-based movement into the 45-minute indoor workout. “Our primary goal is fitness,” she said. “We burn a lot of calories. There’s a lot of paddling, a lot of standing on an unstable board. It’s very athletic.” The class revolves around a piece of equipment called the RipSurfer X, which was developed by SurfSET’s CEO Mike Hartwick, as a way to stay fit after he retired from professional hockey in 2010. “A surfboard, a real one, is mounted on an unstable surface of inflatable bladders. It moves based on where you place your weight,” Ponn explained. “It’s like being on water. (In surfing) if you step down with your right foot it will displace the water. Here it’s not water, it’s air.” The class is sequenced like a surfing session on the sea, even as it draws from many disciplines, from interval training to resistance training to Pilates. “We do what you would do during a surf session,” Ponn said. The warm up is an intense cardio interval that mimics a sea surfer’s paddling out to beyond the break. Then the abdominal work kicks in. “We incorporate a lot of core strength training,” Ponn said. “Then we move into sprint segment.” Woven into the workout are indoor versions of such surf staples as duck dives, pushing under a wave, and pop ups, going from lying to standing on the board in one jump. Ponn said a session can burn up to 1,000 calories. It also cultivates the traditionally long, lean, well-defined surfer-type body. “It’s not a body builder mentality,” Ponn said. “It’s not about bulking up.” For months the class has been popping up temporarily in venues around New York City, Los Angeles, Atlantic City, New Jersey and the Hamptons. A flagship studio is set to open in New York in September. Florida-based fitness and wellness expert Shirley Archer thinks SurfSET is particularly suitable for sports enthusiasts, especially surfers, seeking a fun and different total body workout. “It challenges balance, endurance, upper, lower and core body muscles, and co-ordination,” said Archer, who is a spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise, after observing a session on the company’s website. She cautions that the risk-averse, the beginning exerciser, or the injury-impaired might want to look elsewhere. “The exercises — duck dips, deep squats, etc. — are fairly challenging and may be too difficult for people who need to move more slowly and with smaller ranges of motion,” said Archer, who is impressed by the apparatus and the creativity of the workout. Ponn said the company is developing a class for older people. A home version of the RipSurfer X is also in the works. A SurfSET Fitness class in New York in an undated photo. REUTERS/SurfSET Fitness/Handout “The machine is highly adjustable,” she explained. “You can tighten it down so that it barely moves.” The only counter-indication she mentioned was pregnancy. “You can’t lie on your stomach and paddle when you’re pregnant,” she said. “It’s kind of sad.”
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3564
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Police seize ‘Catnip Cocktail’ during nutrition store raid.
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Police arrested the manager of a health and nutrition store after a raid turned up dozens of bottles of a cat sedative linked to bizarre behavior in humans.
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true
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Health, Arrests, Nutrition
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John Sirico, of Tafton, Pennsylvania, was charged with multiple drug offenses and one weapons charge after the raid Thursday at Nutrition Zone in Fairfield. He was being detained pending a court hearing. Officials did not know whether he had retained an attorney. Officers seized 61 bottles of “Catnip Cocktail” from the store. They also recovered 29 bottles of human growth hormone, 20 bottles of a mixing agent, and seven high-capacity handgun and rifle magazines. According to police, the drug was hidden from view and no advertisements reflected that the store sold it. Fairfield Police Chief Anthony Manna said officers first became aware of the drug’s effects last summer when they found a man dancing and yelling near the store and exhibiting mood swings. Last month, a different man was seen driving erratically on a highway near the store. When police stopped him, he appeared confused and unaware of his surroundings. In both instances, officers recovered bottles of “Catnip Cocktail.” “This is a very dangerous product, and it appears its improper use is on the rise,” Manna said in a statement. The drug is not linked to the catnip plant. When the drug is metabolized by humans, police say it is similar to GHB, which is sometime used by partygoers but also known as the “date rape” drug.
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6797
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Wisconsin manufacturer finds groundwater pollution at plant.
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A manufacturer in northeastern Wisconsin has discovered new evidence of groundwater pollution near Lake Michigan involving a chemical that has raised national health concerns.
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true
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Marinette, Lake Michigan, Wisconsin, Lakes, Environment, Water pollution, Pollution
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Tyco Fire Products said this month that it discovered perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, in well samples at its manufacturing plant in Marinette. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had directed Tyco to test for PFCs at the wells, which are part of a separate cleanup of arsenic. Tyco produces specialized firefighting foams that can extinguish gas and oil fires. PFCs are used in products like the firefighting foam and have been linked with increasing cancer risks and development problems in fetuses, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported . Tyco, which is a unit of Johnson Controls International, said it’s investigating the source and extent of the groundwater contamination by testing soil, ditches and surface water. Elevated levels of PFCs appeared in Marinette’s wastewater treatment system during November and May testing, according to records from the city and the Department of Natural Resources. Effluent is released into the river after waste is treated. The leftover sludge has typically been spread on farm fields. The DNR has directed the city to test the sludge samples and officials are waiting for the lab results. It’s uncertain if Tyco is the source of the wastewater contamination and it’s too early to determine the impact of the sludge on soil, crops and livestock, according to DNR officials. Trace amounts of the chemicals have also been found in the city’s municipal drinking water, according to records from the city and the DNR. The levels are low and aren’t considered a danger to public health, city and DNR officials said. Johnson Controls spokesman Fraser Engerman said since PFC compounds are often used in consumer and commercial products, “it is difficult to determine all potential sources of these compounds.” ___ Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com
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37650
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The same 3 companies make insulin for every country on Earth. These same 3 companies charge $20 a vial in every other country and $300+ per vial, for the exact same insulin, in the United States alone.
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Do Only Three Companies Make All the World’s Insulin (Charging $20 Outside the United States and $300+ in the United States)?
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mixture
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Fact Checks, Viral Content
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On January 28 2020, the Facebook page “Drug Prices are Too High” shared the following Twitter screenshot, about the purported price of insulin outside the United States (USD$20) versus its cost in the U.S. (USD$300+) per vial:That tweet referenced three companies, and an attached status update named Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi as the primary manufacturers of insulin worldwide. The tweet was sent on the same day by Laura Marston (@Kidfears99):The same 3 companies make insulin for every country on Earth. These same 3 companies charge $20 a vial in every other country and $300+ per vial, for the exact same insulin, in the United States alone.— Laura Marston (@Kidfears99) January 28, 2020Although it was short, the tweet contained a few claims::According to an editorial on insulin pricing in the United States in medical news outlet STAT News, the first claim — that three companies “make insulin for every country on Earth” — was largely accurate. It began:When Frederick Banting, Charles Best, and James Collip filed for a U.S. patent on insulin in 1923 and sold it to the University of Toronto for $1 each, they did it because, as Best once said, “insulin belongs to the world.”They also believed that securing the patent was a form of publication, and wrote to the university president, “When the details of the method of preparation are published anyone would be free to prepare the extract, but no one could secure a profitable monopoly.”Sadly, they were mistaken.Today, three companies — Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi Aventis — control virtually the entire global market for insulin. This oligopoly, which may have colluded to fix insulin prices, charges exorbitant amounts for a medicine that people with type 1 diabetes cannot live without. Since the 1990s, they have raised the price of insulin more than 1,200%.A BBC report in November 2018 about a projected global shortage of insulin indicated that Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi Aventis controlled 99 percent of the global market for insulin (96 percent by volume), and 100 percent of the United States market:One reason, say scientists, is that three multinational companies — Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly and Company, and Sanofi — control 99% of the $21bn (£16bn) global insulin market in terms of value and 96% in terms of volume. (The same companies control the entire US market. )That reporting suggested that some insulin outside the United States came from elsewhere, but in a share small enough to total one to four percent of insulin (depending on whether the measure was volume of money or volume of insulin). And outside the U.S., most insulin-dependent diabetics relied on products from Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi.In a separate article, we examined a viral meme about the cost of insulin pens in particular in and outside the United States; an expert explained that the claim was accurate in its basis, but the numbers were exaggerated. Further complicating direct comparisons was that the price of insulin was only one metric in terms of its availability to insulin-dependent diabetics.A 2019 study of 13 low and middle-income countries published in the medical journal BMJ found:Mean availability was higher for human (55%–80%) versus analogue insulins (55%–63%), but only short-acting human insulin reached 80% availability (public sector). Median government procurement prices were $5 (human insulins) and $33 (long-acting analogues). In all three sectors, median patient prices were $9 for human insulins. Median patient prices for analogues varied between the public sector ($34) and the two private sectors ($44). Vials were cheaper than pens and cartridges. Biosimilars, when available, were mostly cheaper than originators. A low-income person had to work 4 and 7 days to buy 10 mL human and analogue insulin, respectively. For isophane human insulin, only three countries meet the WHO target of 80% availability of affordable essential medicines for non-communicable diseases in any sector.The tweet’s second claim was that outside the United States, the three companies (Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi) charged a static USD$20 for an insulin ampoule. An extensive joint April 2016 study [PDF] between Health Action International (HAI) and Addressing the Challenge and Constraints of Insulin Sources and Supply (ACCISS), titled Insulin Prices Profile, endeavored to “to identify the causes of poor availability and high insulin prices and develop policies and interventions to improve access to this essential medicine, particularly in the world’s most under-served regions.”Its introductory paragraphs again indicated that the cost of insulin was one of several factors in terms of global insulin access, and the prominence of those factors appeared to vary between countries and cultures. For instance, American insulin-dependent diabetics might struggle with retail pricing in their country, but not access to an insulin-dispensing pharmacy. People in rural areas of underdeveloped countries might or might not be better able to afford insulin, but struggle to obtain supplies from far-away supplies.This sort of disparity was described in example form on pages nine and ten of the report, where United States dollars are the metric used for other countries:Work by the International Insulin Foundation (IIF) in Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Mozambique, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Vietnam and Zambia found a variety of barriers to insulin access, one of which was its overall price in comparison to other medicines. Insulin costs on average US$ 4.20 per month for treatment, which is up to 74 times higher, priced than for other treatment courses of medicines for NCDs. (4-14) In addition, for example, in Mali and Mozambique insulin was present at only 20 percent of the facilities where it should have been meaning that availability was an issue as well as affordability. The factors causing poor insulin availability are present both at global and national levels and cannot be addressed in isolation. Therefore it is important to understand the path of insulin from “production” to “administration” in order to improve access.Another large element of the report involved the kind of insulin dispensed — vials, pens, disks among them. Cost of insulin was dependent in part on its form.The report was extensive and involved several different comparisons regarding insulin costs, availability, accessibility, and reimbursements. It would be virtually impossible to compress the breadth of those figures into a static sum. It was true that almost all countries had adjusted and raw costs for insulin far below the $300 cited as the United States cost in the tweet, but they fluctuated up to nearly $40 in some calculations.The third claim was that insulin was essentially price-fixed in the United States, retailing at $300 a vial regardless of manufacturer — Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, or Sanofi. For that, we looked at an August 2018 study published by Diabetes Care, which read in part:Another important trend affecting overall costs for insulin in the last decade is the shift in insulin utilization from the less expensive human insulins to more expensive human insulin analogs. While the prices of both types of insulin have increased, the difference in pricing between them has substantially added to insulin costs — both to the health care system and to many patients (human insulins are available at the pharmacy for $25 to $100 per vial compared with human insulin analogs at $174 to $300 per vial. )That excerpted portion addressed the disparity in cost between types of insulin. It was also published in mid-2018, a year and a half prior to the January 2020 tweet. In the intervening 17 months (not counting the passage of time between collection of data and publication), insulin prices might have fluctuated and even increased.All that said, the $300 a vial figure appeared to be the higher end of a range, and it was further possible that those paying $300 a vial for insulin did not have the option of “selecting” a cheaper insulin analog. As noted, those decisions were made between manufacturers of insulin analogs and pharmacy benefit manufacturers without input from most patients:Based on the Working Group’s review of the insulin supply chain, it is clear that the insulin manufacturers still control the list price of insulin, but a meaningful share of the negotiating power has shifted from manufacturers to the PBMs. PBMs attempt to keep medication costs down by moving market share between competing products, and their market power is directly related to their ability to provide exclusive formulary coverage for particular brands of medications.The study in Diabetes Care referenced the ACCISS/HAI study, noting that while its scope concerned the United States, the prior study examined insulin costs and access worldwide:Insulin affordability and accessibility issues, however, are not restricted to the U.S. Data from the global ACCISS (Addressing the Challenges and Constraints of Insulin Sources and Supply) study found several overarching trends. First, even for the same insulin product, there is a wide range of prices across the world. Second, there is a large price differential between the lower prices of human insulin formulations and the higher prices of human insulin analog formulations on a global level. Third, there has been increasing use of human insulin analogs compared with normal human insulin over the recent past, which is greater in more developed parts of the world. This study also reported that the global insulin market is dominated by the same three large multinational corporations that manufacture and sell insulin in the U.S. Those companies represent 99% of the total insulin by value, 96% by total market volume, and 88% of global product registrations.The $300 a vial cost is only part of a larger financial burden placed on insulin-dependent diabetics, for whom access to insulin can be a life-or-death matter. A June 2019 AMJC editorial first mentioned various limited initiatives to lower the cost of insulin, but added:These proposals and others like them are coming about simply because the price of insulin doesn’t make sense logically, financially, or morally.The piece continued, citing costs for insulin in the United States:What about the other 29.3 million patients who are paying anywhere from $300 to $800+ a month for their necessary insulin?Back in 1996, when Eli Lilly’s Humalog first came out, the price for a 1-month supply of insulin was $21. As of 2001, that exact vial’s price increased by $14 to $35. Now, in 2019, that vial is said to be around $275. That is a 1200% increase on the original price.Since 1996, the value of the dollar has only decreased by roughly 62%. So, why has the price of insulin increased so much over the years? The world may never know since pharmaceutical companies continue to hold their tongue when asked about it.Although twenty-year increases were often cited in the articles and studies, the problem was not just one of slow escalation. One study found that insulin’s cost to the patient nearly doubled between 2012 and 2016. Researchers said that spike had nothing to do with new, better drugs or higher rates of usage in patients:“It’s not that individuals are using more insulin or that new products are particularly innovative or provide immense benefits,” Jeannie Fuglesten Biniek, a senior institute researcher and the report’s co-author, said in a phone interview.“Use is pretty flat, and the price changes are occurring in both older and newer products. That surprised me. The exact same products are costing double,” she said.It is true that insulin-dependent Americans were faced with an atypically high financial burden compared to their peers in Europe, and that in many countries, the same exact insulin products retailed for a fluctuating tiny fraction of its cost in the United States. It is further accurate to say Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi maintained what was essentially a monopoly on insulin worldwide, and thus had a large hand in its pricing. But the underlying information was a bit more complex, and the $300 versus $20 figures cited were a bit more variable.
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10650
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Drugs as good as stents for many heart patients
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This story reported on the results of a recent study which found that the relief of chest pain from heart disease was only transiently better in those who had an angioplasty along with medical therapy as compared to those who only received medical therapy. It indicated that angioplasty is still indicated for the treatment of a heart attack or for those whose symptoms of heart disease was worsening. The story did a good job communicating that medical therapy may not be a simple thing to accomplish and likely would involve many interactions between patient and clinician in order to get it right.
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true
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The story included an estimate for the cost of an angioplasty. Although mentioning that it may take many office visits to get medical therapy right, the story should have included an estimated cost for this as well. The story reported on the percent of individuals in the two treatment groups who reported relief of chest pain and that by 3 years, there was no difference between the groups. The story mentioned that one of the harms of this report might be that patients may now be given medication without adequate testing to show that angioplasty can be safely delayed. While the story mentioned that currently 1/3 of people receiving an angioplasty may not need it, it failed to mention the harms of angioplasty. Although the story did not adequately describe the type of study the information came from, it did indicate the number of individuals studied and provided results in terms of absolute benefit. It also indicated that individuals in the study were stable and that this contrasts with those who are having a heart attack or experiencing worsening of symptoms. The story also mentioned where the study had been published so that an interested reader could follow-up on the story if they were interested. The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. The story included quotes from 5 clinicians, one of whom was identified as one of the study co-authors. Ideally, the story would have clearly identified whether or not the remaining 4 clinicians were involved in the study. The story provided readers with the results of the study indicating that enhanced relief of chest pain from coronary heart disease was only temporarily better in people who received angioplasty than in those who received optimal medical therapy. There is no doubt in the story about how widespread both angioplasty and angina medications are in use. The story captured the novelty of a new study’s observation that the size of the benefit of angioplasty was surprisingly not as large as was thought and that even that was transient. It gave appropriate context on the use of both angioplasty and medications for angina. The story does not rely exclusively on a press release.
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26510
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Facebook post Says a pandemic occurs exactly every 100 years.
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The post suggests pandemics occur with synchronicity every 100 years, in 1720, 1820, 1920 and 2020. There wasn’t a pandemic in 1720. The years listed for the next two pandemics are wrong. Many more pandemics have occurred outside of a neat timeline.
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false
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Public Health, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
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"According to this post on Facebook, pandemics like COVID-19 strike with eerie precision, every 100 years: ""1720 — Plague; 1820 — Cholera outbreak; 1920 — Spanish flu; 2020 — Chinese coronavirus. What’s happening? There is a theory that every 100 years, a pandemic happens. At first glance, nothing seems strange, but the accuracy with which these events take place is scary."" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The plague cited wasn’t a pandemic; two of the other examples didn’t occur neatly in the years cited; and, most importantly, numerous other pandemics have occurred without such synchronicity. ""I am suspicious of the idea that pandemics operate to a railroad timetable,"" Yale University history professor Frank Snowden, author of ""Epidemics and Society,"" told PolitiFact, noting several problems with the post. The World Health Organization defines pandemic as: ""The worldwide spread of a new disease."" The definition from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is nearly the same: ""A pandemic is a global outbreak of disease. Pandemics happen when a new virus emerges to infect people and can spread between people sustainably."" The Facebook post suggests that pandemics only occur every 100 years. But that ignores numerous pandemics, including the Great Plague of London, in 1665; yellow fever in the late 1800s; the H2N2/Asian flu in 1957-1958; the H3N2 flu virus in 1968; and the H1N1/swine flu in 2009. Now, a breakdown of the four outbreaks cited in the post: Plague, an infectious fever caused by a bacterium transmitted from rodents to humans by the bite of infected fleas, caused some of the worst pandemics in history, according to Britannica.com. What was known as Great Plague of Provence, or Great Plague of Marseille, killed as many as 126,000 people in southern France starting in 1720, according to an article by Cindy Ermus, a history professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio who is writing a book on the outbreak. But because this particular episode of plague happened largely in France, it wasn’t a pandemic. The first pandemic of cholera began three years before the post claimed. ""Since first spreading from Calcutta along the Ganges Delta in 1817, it has killed millions,"" says the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which supports health research and programs. During the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak in the Soho district of London, according to the foundation, English physician John Snow had, based on his theory that cholera was transmitted by exposure to contaminated water, ""used extensive interviews and intricately plotted maps to trace the source of the outbreak to a single water pump. Disabling the pump ended the outbreak almost immediately, in a poignant example of an early, effective public health intervention."" This influenza pandemic started two years before what the post claims and is more accurately called ""The Great Influenza"" by modern historians. The pandemic ""was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919,"" according to the CDC. ""In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918. It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States."" It was called the Spanish flu ""not because it originated in Spain but because it was World War I, and Spain was the only country being honest about the toll the pandemic took on the country,"" according to a Washington Post article on the deadliest pandemics in history. The post is more or less correct in saying this pandemic is from 2020. COVID-19 can be traced back at least to Dec. 31, 2019, when the government in Wuhan, China, confirmed that health authorities were treating dozens of cases of pneumonia from an unknown cause. Eight days later, China identified a new type of coronavirus. The first coronavirus case in the United States was confirmed on Jan. 21, 2020. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, saying it is the first pandemic caused by a coronavirus. A claim on Facebook that a pandemic occurs exactly every 100 years cites four outbreaks that it says occurred in 1720, 1820, 1920 and 2020. But the first example was not a pandemic and the second and third started a couple of years before 1820 and 1920. More importantly, the claim ignores many other pandemics over several centuries that did not occur in such a neat pattern."
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10355
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Hormone replacement tied to lower colon cancer risk
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In only 546 words, this story covered most of the bases – providing absolute data from a big trial, saying that the findings support earlier theories, but warning that this does not change earlier advice about HRT. This story was judicious and cautious – two important characteristics in discussing hormone replacement therapy and colon cancer.
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true
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The cost of hormone replacement therapy is not in question. Of the 34,433 HRT users, 193 were diagnosed with colon cancer during the study period; that compared with 151 cases among the 13,778 women who had never used hormone replacement. HRT — with either estrogen alone or a combination of estrogen and progestin — was linked to a lower colon cancer risk even when the researchers accounted for the women’s age, weight, exercise levels and race.
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530
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China reports fourth case of plague this month.
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Chinese health authorities on Thursday reported a fresh case of bubonic plague in the country’s northern Inner Mongolia region, bringing the total number of plague cases to four since the beginning of the month.
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true
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Health News
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A rural herder in Siziwang county was diagnosed with the disease in a local hospital, according to a statement released by the Inner Mongolian health commission. Prior to the diagnosis the herder had been active in an area where plague sources had been identified, it said. The person is in a stable condition after treatment at a local hospital and four other people have been quarantined. The bubonic plague, known as “Black Death” in the Middle Ages, is a highly-infectious and often fatal disease that is spread mostly by rodents. It also has a deadlier variant called pneumonic plague. Earlier this month three people from Inner Mongolia were hospitalized for plague in two separate cases that were linked to eating wild animals. Two of the people were diagnosed with pneumonic plague and one with bubonic plague. Authorities previously said the two cases were unrelated. The latest reported case is not in the same region of Inner Mongolia as either of the two earlier cases, and so far there have been no fatalities reported. Plague cases are not uncommon in China, but outbreaks have become increasingly rare. From 2009 to 2018, China reported just 26 cases and 11 deaths. (This story corrects headline from ‘bubonic plague’ to ‘plague’, and clarification of pneumonic v. bubonic plague in story)
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27812
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A photograph shows a large blood clot removed from a patient's lung.
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A photograph purportedly captured a huge blood clot removed from a patient's lung.
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true
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Fauxtography
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A photograph popped up on social media in May 2015, described as a picture of a blood clot removed from an 80-year-old patient after he presented with a 2-day-long nosebleed. According to the accompanying text, the patient coded shortly after arrival at an emergency room, and a blood clot that went “from his nose down his airway and into his lungs” was removed via intubation: 80 yr old male with nose bleed for 2 days. Refused to go to ER. Wife finally talked husband to go to ER. He coded shortly after arriving. Medical doctor went to do intubation and found this. Pulled it out in one piece. It a blood clot that goes from his nose down his airway and into his lungs. It an amazingly beautiful blood clot. The photograph was shared by Kevin Kimberlin, an EMT who told us that the patient was treated at a hospital he transports to and that he picture was taken by a friend of his who worked on the patient. In November 2018, the New England Journal of Medicine website posted a similar photograph of “an intact cast of the right bronchial tree” that was “spontaneously expectorated” by a patient “during an extreme bout of coughing”:
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9986
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Stomach stapling may lower cancer risk in women
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"This story gets the broad brushstrokes right on a new study about bariatric surgery and cancer: It conveys that women who get bariatric surgery appear to have reduced risk of cancer, while men don’t. It puts the findings in context of previous research. Its greatest strength is the use of two solid quotes, from different sources, indicating that this study leaves a lot of questions unanswered about the obesity-cancer link. Still, the story fails on some very basic practices: It fails to mention the treatment’s costs, harms or alternatives. These could easily have been added; they should be included in nearly every story about the benefits of a medical treatment. An additional shortcoming: It fails to put what appears to be a large percentage risk reduction into terms a reader can understand. A 40 percent reduction in cancer risk is a big deal. A drop in risk in this population from 8 percent to 6 percent–that’s still a big deal, but easier for a reader to understand. The question that leaps to mind for many readers will be: Can a lower cancer risk be a ""tie-breaker"" for women considering bariatric surgery? It would have been very useful to hear clinicians’ thoughts on that. Which brings us to this: Take a look at the report on this study that appeared in the Guardian newspaper in the UK, published in partnership with BMJ. It’s a careful, plain-English description of the findings and their implications for the public. It directly addresses that question of applicability. The AP report is 556 words. The Guardian’s is 676. It’s true that the AP story is 18 percent shorter. But it carries an elevated risk of reader misunderstanding. That’s a risk-benefit tradeoff worth pondering."
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mixture
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"The story fails to mention price. Bariatric surgery usually costs $20,000 to $30,000. At a time when interest is high in health care reform–and where treatments are increasingly viewed in terms of cost vs. benefit–it’s important for health journalists to cite a procedure’s cost as a matter of course. This is especially true when findings suggest a benefit. Hits and misses here, with the misses outweighing the hits. Hits: The report uses absolute numbers of cancers to demonstrate the differences in risk between the surgery and control groups in women–and the lack of differences in men. Misses: It fails to say what percentage of people in the two groups got cancer during the study period. Answer: About 8 percent of controls got cancer, compared to 6 percent in the surgery group. That helps put in context the 40 percent risk reduction mentioned in the lede. Big failure here. The study in question finds a reduction in cancer risk among women who get bariatric surgery. Yet it fails to mention that the surgery itself carries significant risks, among them: Bariatric surgery is seen as the most effective treatment for the severely obese–but risky enough to be considered the ""last resort."" The story should have said so. The story does an adequate job describing the quality of evidence. It mentions the fact that the finding about men–that they didn’t have the same reduction in cancer risk after bariatric surgery as women–may be due to the low numbers of men in the study. It also mentions that the study was funded by makers of diet drugs. For extra points, the reporter might have mentioned that the study wasn’t randomized: patients chose whether to get the surgery. And that the larger trial from which this study is drawn is looking at the endpoints of death rather than cancer incidence. Both of these factors can make the findings less conclusive. But the reporter wins those extra points back with the paragraph that quotes an independent source saying: ""This is one more piece of a complex puzzle""–thereby implying the limitations of the evidence. No disease-mongering here. The reporter interviewed two sources: An independent physician representing the American Cancer Society and the lead author of the study. This is adequate sourcing for the story, just barely. It would be useful to hear from another independent oncologist, obesity specialist or cancer epidemiologist. The story fails to mention other treatments for obesity [few are effective, and readers should know this], or other ways to reduce cancer risk. The number of such procedures, and how long they’ve been done, is pretty clear from the article. No claims are made for the novelty of bariatric surgery. There does not appear to be a press release linked to this study."
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32277
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Hillary Clinton was responsible for the siege on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, that ended with 76 civilian deaths.
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While the operation involved hundreds of law enforcement officers from numerous local, state and federal agencies, and its aftermath resulted in multiple investigations by both the government and news media, we found no credible evidence that one of the people involved in the multitude of decisions that were made concerning the standoff was Hillary Clinton.
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false
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Politics Conspiracy Theories, atf, bill clinton, election 2016
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As Hillary Clinton has risen to become one of the two people most likely to be the next president of the United States, so too have various legends and rumors implicating her in the deaths of everyone from Vince Foster to John F. Kennedy Jr. The latest rumor to crop up in 2016 is an accusation (which appears on conspiracy theory web sites under titles such as “WOMAN POWER: HILLARY CLINTON GAVE ORDER TO MURDER WACO BABIES” and “It Takes a Clinton to Murder a Village: Hillary Clinton Ordered Waco Massacre That Lead To The Death Of Woman And Children”) holding that Hillary Clinton issued the order that resulted in the deaths of 76 religious cult members at the Branch Davidian compound in 1993. When the FBI and other law enforcement agencies began their fateful 51-day standoff with a religious cult in Waco, Texas, known as the Branch Davidians on 28 February 1993, Bill Clinton had just taken office as President a month earlier. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was the lead agency on the issue, directing law enforcement operations during the standoff that started on a Sunday when agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) attempted to serve an arrest warrant on the group’s leader, Vernon Howell (better known by an assumed name, David Koresh): On February 28, 1993, at approximately 9:30 a.m. Central Time, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) came under heavy gunfire while attempting to execute an arrest warrant for Vernon Howell, otherwise known as David Koresh. The warrant authorized Koresh’s arrest for federal firearms and explosives violations. An accompanying search warrant authorized the ATF agents to search the compound where Koresh and his followers, known as the Branch Davidians, lived near Waco, Texas. Four ATF agents were killed and sixteen were wounded during the shootout with the Branch Davidians on February 28. Additionally, a number of individuals inside the compound were killed and injured; however, the number killed by ATF gunfire cannot be precisely determined. Within a few hours of the incident, and at the request of ATF officials, the FBI dispatched trained negotiators to the scene in Waco. By that afternoon, the FBI, in cooperation with the ATF and Department of Treasury officials, had also sent in advance units of its elite Hostage Rescue Team. The next day (March 1, 1993), also at the request of Treasury Department officials, the FBI became the lead agency responsible for resolving the standoff with the Branch Davidians. The Branch Davidians, an offshoot of the Seventh Day Adventists, strongly believed that the Second Coming of Christ was imminent, and that the end of the world was approaching rapidly. The Davidians had armed themselves heavily in anticipation of an apocalyptic showdown with government agents, who they likened to the Babylonians and Assyrians of Biblical times. David Koresh had been the “prophet” or leader of the Davidians since 1987. When the FBI assumed responsibility for resolving the standoff, it faced an unknown number of men, women, and children who had barricaded themselves in a large compound, and who refused to surrender. They were heavily armed with hundreds of weapons, including fully automatic machine guns and .50 caliber rifles, and with hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition. They had already demonstrated their willingness to use those weapons on February 28. During the next 51 days, over 700 law enforcement personnel participated in the effort to end the standoff. Between 250 to 300 FBI personnel were present in Waco at any given time, along with hundreds of officers and agents from other federal, state, and local agencies. The standoff finally ended on 19 April 1993, when the FBI attempted the expected non-lethal solution of introducing nonlethal tear gas into the compound and the Davidians responded by setting fire to the compound, culminating in a shootout with ATF agents: Seven weeks after the standoff began, the Attorney General approved an FBI request to introduce nonlethal tear gas into the compound. The Attorney General based her decision on a number of factors, including the impasse in the negotiations, the extreme difficulty in maintaining a safe and secure perimeter around the compound, the risk of disease caused by deteriorating sanitary conditions in the compound, the remaining Davidians’ refusal to leave any time in the foreseeable future, and the Davidians’ ability to hold out for many more months, given their large stockpiles of food and water. The Attorney General and her senior advisers, with input from the FBI and the U.S. military, reviewed several options before concluding that inserting tear gas was the only viable, non-lethal option. The plan was to insert gas periodically over a 48-hour period, to then withdraw, and then to wait as large numbers of people left the compound. The Attorney General approved the operation on Saturday, April 17, ordering that it be implemented beginning Monday, April 19. On April 19, the FBI telephoned the compound at 5:59 a.m. to inform the Davidians that tear gas would be released into the compound, and to assure them that the FBI was not launching an assault. At 6:02 a.m., an FBI tank with an attached boom began inserting gas into the compound. The Davidians opened fire on the FBI’s vehicle within two minutes. At 12:07 p.m., the Davidians started simultaneous fires at three or more different locations within the compound. This was established by a team of independent arson experts; by video shot from an aircraft utilizing Forward Looking Infrared Radar (FLIR) technology; by observations of FBI agents who saw an individual appearing to light one of the fires; by statements from survivors admitting that the Davidians set the fires; and by [material redacted as required by statute]. The fires rapidly engulfed the compound in flames and smoke. At approximately 12:25 p.m., the FBI agents closest to the compound heard what they described as “systematic” gunfire. Many agents believed at the time that those inside were killing themselves, killing each other, or both. The remains of 75 individuals (50 adults and 25 children under age 15) were recovered in the ruins of the compound. At least 17 of those individuals died of gunshot wounds, including several children. Another child was stabbed to death. In addition to the 75 persons who died during the April 19 fire, five other bodies, all with gunshot wounds, also were recovered. Those five bodies were of the Davidians presumably killed during the February 28 shootout with the ATF. Some of those five bodies showed evidence of having been shot from inside the compound. At least one of those five bodies showed evidence of suicide. So how could Hillary Clinton have been responsible for this bloody event? The only answers come from fringe conspiracy sites, who improbably claim that she — despite having no authority over the Department of Justice or any other law enforcement agency in her position as First Lady — was even more improbably running the Waco operation and issued an order for the final assault on the compound to Attorney General Reno through Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster … something apparently known only to Linda Tripp, a former U.S. civil servant White House employee: Appearing on CNN’s Larry King Live, fmr. White House aide Linda Tripp suggested that Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster — at Mrs. Clinton’s direction — transmitted the order to move on the Branch Davidian compound, which culminated in a military style attack. “Give me a reason not to do this,” Janet Reno is said to have begged aides shortly before orders were issued in the final assault — during which 85 Branch Davidians were burned alive. Tripp’s allegations lend weight to charges made previously by Special Forces expert and Waco investigator, Steve Barry — who claimed Hillary Clinton set up a special “crisis center” in the White House to deal with Waco. The typical narrative of this conspiracy scenario bizarrely maintains that Hillary Clinton held enough sway to issue the order for an assault on the Waco compound because White House counsel Vince Foster was her “longtime boyfriend” and “sexual partner,” while Associate Attorney General Webster (“Webb”) Hubbell was the real biological father of Clinton’s daughter Chelsea. This scenario even more bizarrely claims that Clinton’s putative motivation for issuing the order was that she was disgruntled over the Branch Davidian issue’s hogging all the headlines while she was working to craft a healthcare reform package: Hillary was the one who ordered the FUBAR final assault on the holed-up Branch Davidians in Waco on April 19th, 1993. Hillary was putting pressure on Vince Foster (her longtime boyfriend, sexual partner and emotional husband) and Webb Hubbell who was the #3 guy at Justice Department, to have a forceful resolution to the Waco standoff. Webb Hubbell is also probably the father of Chelsea, not Bill Clinton. One big reason Hillary placed Hubbell in the #3 spot at the Justice Department was so that he would not have to go through a Senate confirmation hearing where the ugly and probably true details about Hubbell being the biological father of Chelsea might be revealed in this process. Mrs Clinton grew more and more impatient as the Waco stand-off came to dominate the headlines. Hillary wanted to get so-called “heath care reform” done, and Waco was taking all the headlines in spring. The Department of Justice (DoJ) oversees the FBI, and the attorney general heads the DoJ. At the time of the Waco incident the attorney general was Janet Reno, who — after consulting with the President and FBI officials — gave the final approval for the assault on the compound (although the FBI maintained a great deal of leverage as the lead agency on the ground). A detailed Justice Department report described numerous FBI and Justice Department officials involved in the decision-making process that led up to the end of the siege — but made not a single mention of Hillary Clinton or Vince Foster: From the time the standoff at the Branch Davidian compound began on February 28, the principal headquarters responsibility in Washington for planning and decision-making lay with the Terrorism and Violent Crimes Section of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division (TVCS/CRM) and the Violent Crimes and Major Offenders Section (VCMOS) of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division (CID). As the Chief of the TVCS/CRM, James S. Reynolds was substantially involved, as were both Deputy Chief Mary Incontro and section attorney John Lancaster. John C. Keeney was the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division during the crisis, and Deputy Assistant Attorney General (DAAG) Mark Richard oversaw the activities of TVCS/CRM. AG Reno relied a great deal on DAAG Richard during the latter days of the crisis. The primary headquarters responsibility for decision-making throughout the crisis at the FBI lay with Director Sessions, Deputy Director Clarke, and Associate Deputy Director Gow. The Attorney General believes she was adequately informed and that the FBI was forthcoming. She was impressed with the quality and timeliness of responses to her questions or to her requests for additional information. When she asked the FBI to seek input from the military, she was impressed that the FBI arranged a face-to-face briefing within two days. The FBI did not try to “railroad” her. Instead, they were respectful and seemed genuinely appreciative of the hard questions she posed. She did not believe that anyone at the FBI deliberately played up the issue of child abuse. In any event, that was only one of the many factors she considered in deciding to approve the tear-gas plan. The FBI kept an open mind, and no one ever suggested to her that they knew best or that they knew it all.
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37538
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Saint Corona is the patron saint of epidemics.
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Is St. Corona the Patron Saint of Epidemics?
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false
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Fact Checks, Viral Content
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As novel coronavirus COVID-19 swept the majority Catholic country of Italy in March 2020, rumors appeared that Italians had begun praying to a St. Corona — who was, incidentally, “the patron saint of epidemics.”A March 11 post to the site Gloria.tv was titled “There Is A SAINT CORONA, And She Is the Patron Saint Against EPIDEMICS,” which claimed:Saint Corona was only fifteen when she professed her Christian Faith during the persecution of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius around 165.Corona was arrested and tied by her feet to the tops of two palm trees which were bent to the ground. When the palms were let loose she was torn apart. According to the Roman Martyrology, this happened in Syria. […]Saint Corona is especially venerated in Austria and Bavaria as the patron-saint of treasure hunters and against epidemics. Her feast day is May 14.It was easy enough to verify the existence of a Saint Corona, but the aspect of her purported association with protection against epidemics was a bit iffy:I have seen several places where St Corona is patron saint of treasure hunters but I can’t find where it states that she is patron saint of epidemics or pandemics. Can someone provide that information for me?Word of the rumor made its way to a Catholic forum:While it seems fitting to ask for her intercession with this virus, I couldn’t find any corroboration that St. Corona was previously invoked against epidemics. I read on Wikipedia that she is the patron saint for gamblers and treasure hunters. So is this a new practice that has arisen now in Italy?The patron saints against epidemics are St. Roch, the Four Holy Marshals and the Fourteen Holy Helpers. Aleteia had a story last week recommending some patron saints for pandemics[. ]Someone else on the forum claimed:So there is a town named Sankt Corona am Wechsel south of Vienna in Lower Austria with a church of the same name, and its website states that St. Corona is invoked for steadfastness in faith, against natural disasters, crop failures, and epidemics/pestilence, and for help with smaller difficulties of daily life. This dates back to the 16th century.That commenter linked to a page in German, which was indeed headlined “Patroness against epidemics, Holy Corona, pray for us.” That page was published on March 11 2020, after COVID-19 became a pandemic in Italy:According to the Ecumenical Encyclopedia of Saints, she is the patron saint against epidemics. But much of her existence remains in the dark, just like the origins of the treacherous epidemic. […]There are Corona pilgrimages in Lower Austria in St. Corona am Wechsel, and in 1504 a Corona statue was found there in a hollow linden tree and a chapel was then built, as the Heiligenlexikon further reports. Her veneration is also widespread in St. Corona am Schöpfl near Altenmarkt (Lower Austria) and in Vienna. The fact that the Austrian coin unit was called the “crown” until 1924 is probably due to the fact that Corona is not only the patron saint against epidemics, but is also called for help in money matters, in the search for treasure and even in the lottery.Another page was linked in German; it translated as the “Ecumenical Encyclopedia of Saints.” Using the site’s search tool, we did locate an entry for a St. Corona. Near the bottom, it read:Attributes: two palms, crown, with gold piece or SchatzkästchenPatron of Castelfidardo and Osimo ; the treasure hunter and butcher; against epidemics and storms, for steadfastness in faith; in money matters, the lotteryThe coronavirus which causes COVID-19 was not discovered until December 2019, with the earliest case eventually traced back to late November 2019 in China.We accessed a copy of the St. Corona page archived in July 2017. A section for “attributes” and “patron” of appeared, but without the inclusion of epidemics:Attributes: on two palm trees, crown, with gold piece or treasure chestPatroness of Castelfidardo and Osimo; in money matters, the lottery, treasure hunters and butchersThe Internet Archive appeared to have an August 2019 capture of the page, one which would definitively demonstrate whether the “against epidemics” section was added after COVID-19 started making headlines. However, clicking the August 2019 link led to a March 12 2020 capture of the page — published after Gloria.tv’s viral post made the claim.A broad search for mentions of the obscure Saint Corona and epidemics (singular or plural) restricted to entries in or before September 2019 did not yield any results other than a single misdated Italian reference from Facebook. Saint Corona clearly did exist before COVID-19 hit Italy (and the rest of the world), but by all accounts, she was not widely venerated.As for faithful Italian Catholics, they did plead for intercession from patron saints. However, The Guardian reported that residents of Palermo sought help from their patron, Saint Rosalia. Italy’s patron saints were St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena.Like places, epidemics do have patron saints. A Wikipedia list of the patron saints of ailments, illnesses, and dangers show that St. Roch (or Rocco) was the only specific patron saint of epidemics. In terms of plague, the martyr St. Sebastian is commonly associated with the black death in Europe. The site Catholic Saint Medals lists St. Roch, St. Remigius, and St. Francis Xavier as patron saints of epidemics.Historically, a little-known Saint Corona did exist, and after Italy was hammered by COVID-19, rumors circulated that she happened to be the “patron saint of epidemics.” A German-language source appeared to substantiate the claim that Saint Corona and epidemics were associated before coronavirus became notable in December 2019. However, viewing archived revisions of the page indicated that “epidemics” may have been added to the page around the time Gloria.tv’s blog post began circulating.Saint Corona was invoked for intercession on matters of money, luck, and hunting; St. Roch is the primary patron saint of epidemics (with St. Sebastian getting an honorable mention). The claim was interesting only because of the purported link between St. Corona and epidemics, but that link quickly vanished when we examined dates and edit histories.
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12642
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"CountyNewsroom.info Says ""2 moms, 5 kids killed in car crash"" in a nearby county."
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Fake news site alters real story of fiery car crash, tries to spread malware on your computer
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false
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Fake news, PunditFact, CountyNewsroom.info,
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"A fake news website looking to spread malware lured readers by altering details of a tragically true news story of a fatal car wreck that killed two women and several children. At least 22 posts we first noticed on April 10, 2017, on the website CountyNewsroom.info carried headlines that declared, ""2 moms, 5 kids killed in car crash,"" followed by the name of a county, such as Stark County or Schuyler County. Facebook users flagged multiple versions of the story as being potentially fake, as part of the social media site’s efforts to combat fake news in user feeds. The story is fake, although it does steal details from a real event (more on that in a second). The posts at CountyNewsroom.info appear to exist to goad readers into clicking on them because a familiar county name is used. When users get to the site, however, pornographic malware can be downloaded onto their computers. We won’t be linking to any of the stories for that reason. The site made a minimal attempt to look official, using the CountyNewsroom.info domain and listing the author of the posts as ""Police."" The graphics used evoke breaking news from a real media outlet, and can change from post to post. Some of the articles have comments posted expressing sympathy for the victims, although it’s not entirely clear if those comments are real or not. There is no contact information on the website, but it is registered to an administrator in Tbilisi, Georgia. The small country in the Caucasus has been a growing source of multiple fake news websites since the 2016 presidential campaign. We emailed the person listed in the WHOIS lookup, but have not heard back. The story, meanwhile, gives no indication in which state it is located, but the details of the accident are identical in each version. Two men — Carter Anderson, 35, and Nathan Mcconaghy, 47 — were the sole survivors of a crash that killed their families, the posts said. According to the story, the two men were in a minivan with their families when the minivan hit a black BMW on the side of the road. The minivan was then struck from behind by ""a big rig,"" sending the minivan toppling into a ravine. The minivan caught fire, the story read, and the two men managed to escape. Their wives and children, aged 1, 3, 6, 7 and 12 years old, were trapped and died in the fire. The men were severely burned on their hands and faces trying to rescue their families, but had to be restrained by authorities. ""Words can’t describe what that was like when we arrived on scene,"" a law enforcement official identified only as Officer Dan Williams was quoted in the posts. ""It was very horrific seeing them trying to get their families out, us trying to help get their families out. Like I said, the van went up in flames very, very quickly."" The two men were airlifted to an unspecified hospital, the article said. While that particular accident is fake, the framework of the article has been taken from a real-life tragedy in June 2016 near Gorman, Calif. Some, but not all, of the details were changed. Two California men named Aaron Hon Wing Ng, 34, of San Francisco and Wei Xiong Li, 45, of Daly City were involved in a nighttime accident that happened as described in the fake post. Their wives and four children, not five, were trapped in their minivan and killed in the fiery wreck. The children were aged 2, 3, 4 and 5, and the two men did suffer burns trying to save their families. The quote is unaltered, and came from a California Highway Patrol officer named Dan Williams. Another CHP officer also is quoted in some true reporting of the incident. The author of the post made minimal changes to real news stories about the accident, using the shocking specifics to fool readers into clicking. But visitors thinking they are reading about a local accident end up being fooled into exposing their computers to an attack with pornographic software."
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15125
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"There are a ""multitude"" of vaccines that do not prevent deadly and crippling diseases."
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"Ben Carson, one of two medical doctors running for the GOP nomination, said during the second Republican debate that there is a ""multitude"" of vaccines for diseases that are not deadly or disabling. The diseases targeted by the vaccines recommended for children on a set schedule, however, are nearly universally lethal. The one obvious exception, rubella, is a disfiguring disease that can lead to birth defects. A medical doctor would surely know that."
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false
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Georgia, Public Health, Ben Carson,
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"During the second GOP debate, Dr. Ben Carson backed up previous PolitiFact rulings when he said there is no correlation between vaccines and autism. But the retired pediatric neurosurgeon kept going and prompted another fact-check on the topic when he suggested that there are a ""multitude"" of vaccines that might not be necessary. ""Vaccines are very important. Certain ones,"" Carson said. ""The ones that would prevent death or crippling. There are others, there are a multitude of vaccines which probably don't fit in that category, and there should be some discretion in those cases."" We contacted Carson’s campaign to see what vaccines he meant and his source but did not receive a response. Based on context, in which the candidates were talking about the shots given to children, we decided to look at the vaccines on the childhood schedule supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics and our neighbors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommends a series of shots to protect children against 15 infectious diseases. They are measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Human papillomavirus (HPV), Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib), polio, influenza (flu), rotavirus, and pneumococcal disease. Most everyone likely knows about measles, the flu and the two types of hepatitis – and that all of those diseases can be deadly. But of the others, are any not lethal or, at the least, not crippling? Hardly. Several experts told us no such disease is prevented by those on the childhood immunization schedule. ""Every one of those can kill or cripple or maim you,"" said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrics professor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and one of three inventors of the rotavirus vaccine. And just what is rotavirus? Think of it as a particularly nasty stomach flu – one estimated to have killed 453,000 children under the age of 5 in 2008, most in developing countries, according to the World Health Organization. The others: Mumps – Death is rare, and happens usually in adults. But complications of childhood mumps include deafness and sterility in both genders. Rubella – A relatively mild virus that usually leads to severe birth defects and blindness and can cause miscarriage and stillbirth in expectant mothers. Chicken pox – Another relatively mild virus that killed 100-150 children annually before vaccines. Diphtheria – Once a major cause of death among U.S. children – including a record 15,520 in 1921 and the terror behind the original Iditarod sled-dog race in Alaska, this powerful disease killed a 6-year-old boy in Spain last year. Tetanus – This bacteria kills up to 20 percent of those infected, with many suffering from spasms severe enough to break bones. Whooping cough – A brutal disease that killed 20 in 2012, including 15 infants too young for the vaccine. The World Health Organization estimates it caused 89,000 deaths worldwide in 2012. HPV – The more controversial of all vaccines, largely because it prevents a sexually transmitted virus that can cause several types of cancer which can be deadly, even with treatment. HiB – A bacteria that can cause several invasive diseases, including meningitis, which that killed about 1,000 American children annually before vaccines. In 2008, it killed an estimated 199,000 children worldwide. Pneumococcal disease – One of the leading causes of illness in children that kills about 5 percent of those infected and leaves some survivors with permanent injury. ""I would bet that any single one of these vaccines have saved more children than the number of lives Ben Carson has saved as a neurosurgeon,"" said Dr. Adam Lauring, a professor at the University of Michigan medical school who specializes in infectious diseases. ""Because we don’t see many of these diseases anymore, they are almost perceived as inconveniences,"" Lauring continued. ""But fact is, people do die of these diseases and we have forgotten that because we haven’t seen them."" When they do appear, such as with last year’s measles outbreak, they are far less lethal disease than in year’s past. But that is likely a testament to technology and more ready access to healthcare than the fact the diseases remain incapacitating, said Arthur Caplan, director of medical ethics at NYU’s Langone Medical Center and director of a project on vaccine ethics and policy. ""High-tech medicine to pull you through but you still wouldn’t want to try to survive pneumonia in an artificial respirator in an ICU for weeks,"" Caplan said. ""It’s still devastating."" Our ruling Ben Carson, one of two medical doctors running for the GOP nomination, said during the second Republican debate that there is a ""multitude"" of vaccines for diseases that are not deadly or disabling. The diseases targeted by the vaccines recommended for children on a set schedule, however, are nearly universally lethal. The one obvious exception, rubella, is a disfiguring disease that can lead to birth defects. A medical doctor would surely know that."
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28879
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Zantac (ranitidine) or similar acid reflux medications cause users to falsely test positive for meth use.
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What's true: Studies of a now discontinued urine testing protocol for amphetamines did show that, under rare and specific circumstances, false positives could be caused by the acid reflux medication Zantac (ranitidine); there is, as well, limited evidence of similar false positives using one test still on the market, but the occurrence is rare and also subject to specific conditions. What's false: Zantac, ranitidine, or other related medications consistently cause false positives on drug tests.
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mixture
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Medical
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In 2016, a claim that use of the over-the-counter acid reflux medication Zantac (ranitidine) had produced a false positive result for methamphetamines appeared on social media; that claim resurfaced again in 2018. While the claim piqued the interest social media, it was not new: The prospect of a false positive for amphetamines due to Zantac has been discussed since the late 1980s, when a specific laboratory test for amphetamines produced by a company called Syva (now part of the German conglomerate Siemens AG) was introduced into the market. This test, named the monoclonal EMIT® d.a.u assay, was shown to have produced a single false positive in a brief 1989 report. As a followup to this report, researchers conducted a somewhat larger-scale study in 1991 to investigate the possibility of false positives. They concluded that, while possible, it required extremely specific circumstance: We have confirmed that ranitidine can give a positive result with the monoclonal EMIT d.a.u, assay, but this occurs only with high urine levels present in a small percentage of patients within a short period of time after a ranitidine dose. These examples are, essentially, moot, as the Syva monoclonal EMIT® d.a.u assay has been replaced by newer technology that does not suffer from his problem. Still, the issue of possible Zantac/amphetamine false positives has been raised for another test — the the Beckman Coulter Synchron AMPH — as recently as 2015. A report from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine concluded: Beckman Coulter AMPH assay is still prone to significant interference with ranitidine, presumably due to antibody cross-reactivity, whereas the Siemens EMIT II Plus assay [the new version of the Syva test] is free from such interference. The possible mechanism for false positives, in both cases, is not the chemical similarity of Zantac to amphetamines, but through the presence of unintended reactions between Zantac and the chemicals meant to interact with amphetamines, a problem known as cross-reactivity, which is described in a 2004 review on the topic: Substances that alter the measurable concentration of the analyte in the sample or alter antibody binding can potentially result in assay interference. Analytical interference is defined as the effect of a substance present in the sample that alters the correct value of the result. With this information in mind, we rate the claim that Zantac causes false positives for methamphetamine a mixture because, while there remains a possibility that at least one test on the market could conceivably produce a false positive for amphetamines from Zantac, the conditions that require such a result are rare and most tests do not suffer from this potential problem. Additionally, the test that generated the most attention in terms of potential false positives is no longer in regular use.
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34439
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An eighth Russian with ties to the Trump-Russia scandal has mysteriously died.
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As of 9 March 2017, no credible news reports have placed Oronov in the midst of the so-called Kremlin “peace plan” meeting, and according to his son-in-law and others he would have been physically unable to have been involved. He also did not die under suspicious circumstances.
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unproven
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Politics Conspiracy Theories, donald trump, russia
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In early March 2017 a number of conspiratorial political blogs, including the Palmer Report and Bipartisan Report, published posts (quoted below) claiming an eighth “Trump-Russia conspirator” had died “suspiciously”: One day after the announcement of the death of Alex Oronov, who played a key role in Donald Trump’s Russia scandal, the picture of Oronov is still coming together. For instance he was an in-law of Trump’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen. At the time of his death he was a resident of a Trump branded building in South Florida. And now it turns out Oronov had just bought real estate from Mar-a-Lago members shortly before his participation in the Trump-Russia plot began. And: Yet another Russian who was directly identified in the Donald Trump/Russia dossier have died under suspicious circumstances. Alex Oronov, the first of the list to be a citizen of the United States and a resident of Trump Hollywood, died two days ago. No details yet are available surrounding how he died, but it is reported that he was 69 years old and in good health. Contrary to these claims, we found no credible evidence that Ukrainian-American businessman Alex Oronov was a “conspirator” with President Trump. Oronov was not mentioned in a dossier containing unverified reports on Trump’s alleged Russian ties published by BuzzFeed in January 2017, and he was not the father-in-law of Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney. Oronov’s actual son-in-law, Bryan (who is Michael’s brother), told us that he had long been in poor health and was gravely ill when he passed away. Oronov was drawn into the conspiratorial fray because of misreported family connections, Bryan Cohen told us. A number of web sites took a Facebook post written by an embattled Ukrainian politician at face value and reported his claim that Oronov had introduced him to Michael Cohen as fact. In that 4 March 2017 Facebook post, Ukrainian politician Andrii Artemenko blamed Oronov’s death on stress to his heart brought on by New York Times reporting that detailed a meeting between Artemenko, Trump’s personal attorney (Michael Cohen), and Felix Sater, a business associate of Trump’s who had assisted him with Russian business deals. During the meeting the three men hashed out a so-called Kremlin-backed peace plan which was then to be presented to President Trump. Artemenko seemed to say that Oronov had orchestrated an introduction between himself and Michael Cohen, writing that (as translated from Ukrainian to English by Facebook): [Alex Oronov] was an American citizen who for the last 20 years had given his life to Ukraine and had invested in its prosperity, selflessly sacrificing his wealth, nerves, soul, and, finally, body! He created one of Ukraine’s most successful agricultural holdings, BZC — Baryshevskaya Grain Company, which was renamed Grain Alliance after it had attracted Swedish investment. He did not die of old age, nor by accident or from illness, but at the hands of American journalists who had intervened in his life!!! Worse yet, I am guilty as well. After all, I mentioned his name in response to an American journalist who had asked me, “How are you acquainted with Michael Cohen — President Trump’s personal lawyer?” Yes, I named Alex Oronov, my partner, mentor, teacher and friend. Alex was a relative of Michael Cohen and he was one of those who organized my meeting with him. From that moment onward, his life, and my own, became a kind of hell … I have survived, I am surviving and I will fight!!! Unfortunately, his heart could not endure it. He died! Overvoltage, nerves, injustice, resentment and suspicions based on a grave misunderstanding. In a follow-up post dated 7 March 2017, Artemenko seemed to walk back his previous statement, saying that Oronov was not a political person and wasn’t involved with the “peace plan” meeting (again as translated from Ukrainian by Facebook): Due to the fact that I cannot physically answer all callers “media sharks” requesting me to comment on Alex Oronov’s death, I shall do it here. 1. Alex Oronov did not and could not have co-authored “Artemenko’s plan” — simply because such a “plan” did not exist, which I publicly stated at my press conference on February 27. There are, however, our peace initiatives, the implementation of which I continue to work on at present. 2. Alex Oronov was a successful businessman and principally did not deal with politics. Anybody who’s met him, primarily in Ukraine and the United States, knows that. 3. And most importantly, if you do not have respect for human life, then at least have a conscience and find the courage to respect human death, and the mourning of the deceased by family and friends … The New York Times article in question made no mention of Oronov, and Bryan Cohen said there’s a good reason for that: Oronov was not, and couldn’t have been, involved in the referenced meeting due to illness. And Cohen said his father-in-law knew Artemenko only in passing. (Shortly after the Times story was published on 19 February 2017, Artemenko came under scrutiny for treason allegations by Ukrainian prosecutors for “conspiring with Russia to commit ‘subversive acts against Ukraine. '”) The Times reported the meeting took place in late January 2017, but “by the end of January my father-in-law was not in a position to be speaking or meeting,” Cohen told us, as Oronov was incapacitated by the illness that would soon take his life. Cohen went on to say that claims his father-in-law’s death was “mysterious” or “suspicious” were ridiculous. Oronov passed away at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City on 2 March 2017 after having battled an illness for months: The reality is that he died because he was sick. For several months, he laid in a hospital bed attached to a forced air flow machine because he was struggling to breathe for the final three months of his life. He died at Sloan Kettering under the care of amazing doctors who were unable to save him. (Due to medical privacy laws, the hospital was unable to comment on the nature of that illness.) As to whether his father-in-law had any ties to President Trump, Bryan said “[His only affiliation is that I married his daughter, and my brother works for the President.” Although some Internet sleuths have tried to claim that Oronov’s residence in a building bearing the Trump brand name is proof of a conspiracy, these claims seem to be little more than feeble attempts at guilt-by-association. (As the New Times reported back in 2011, the Trump Hollywood condo tower in which Oronov lived was a building from which “Donald Trump had distanced himself … saying that he had licensed only his name and was not responsible for what happened there.”) Conspiracy theories similar to ones long circulating about the Clinton family, asserting they have been responsible for dozens of politically-motivated murders, may be starting to crop up around President Trump — with those trying to promulgate such rumors linking the deaths of seven Russian diplomats with continuing queries into the President and his alleged ties to the Kremlin. But Oronov was not Russian, and he was not a diplomat. His son-in-law described him as an apolitical man, one who launched his agricultural business in Ukraine in the mid-1990s, growing it from nearly nothing into a business that left hundreds of co-workers and employees mourning his death.
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26694
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Viral image Says Tom Hanks has a volleyball to keep him company while he’s quarantined.
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Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson tested positive for COVID-19 in Australia, where Hanks is shooting a movie. The image of Tom Hanks apparently holding a Wilson volleyball during his COVID-19 quarantine comes from a satirical Australian website.
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false
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Pop Culture, Facebook Fact-checks, Coronavirus, Viral image,
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"Stars — they’re just like us: On March 11, actor Tom Hanks announced on Twitter that he and his wife, the actress Rita Wilson, tested positive for COVID-19 in Australia, where Hanks is shooting a movie. ""What to do next?"" he tweeted. ""The Medical Officials have protocols that must be followed. We Hanks will be tested, observed, and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires."" One of Hanks’ characters, Chuck Noland, experiences extreme isolation in the movie ""Cast Away"" after his plane crashes on a deserted island. His sole companion is a volleyball he paints a face on and names Wilson. Not long after Hanks’ revealed his coronavirus diagnosis, an image appeared on social media showing him holding what looks like Wilson. One Facebook post says: ""Hospitals in Australia have jokes. They rolled in a volleyball to Tom Hanks to keep him company while quarantined."" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We hate to break it to you, Hanks Nation. The image is from a satirical website called The Betoota Advocate. The story, which includes true information about Hanks and the coronavirus, ends on a cheeky note: ""To keep him company, the thoughtful and overworked staff at the Gold Coast hospital have brought Hanks in a Wilson volleyball to keep him company during the duration of his stay."" The image of Hanks holding a volleyball appears to be edited using this footage of Hanks holding a volleyball someone tossed him at a New York Rangers game in 2015."
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28277
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"We break down the factual claims made by the ""Other 98%"" about the cases of John Walker Lindh and Michael Alonzo Thompson."
|
Finally, according to Michigan Department of Corrections records, Thompson cannot undergo a parole hearing until April 2038, which was in 19 years’ time when the “Other 98” meme was published — contrary to the claim that Thompson “won’t be eligible for parole for 15 more years.” In fact, he will have to wait even longer than 15 years, so the meme actually slightly understated the case. As of May 2019, Thompson was 68 years old; at the latest, he might not be released until February 2047, by which time he would be 95 years old.
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mixture
|
Politics
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In May 2019, the early release of convicted terrorist John Walker Lindh prompted concerns about whether the man known as the “American Taliban” had abandoned his extremist beliefs and support of violent Islamic terrorist groups, as the Associated Pressreported: John Walker Lindh, the Californian who took up arms for the Taliban and was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2001, got out of prison Thursday after more than 17 years, released under tight restrictions that reflected government fears he still harbors radical views…Lindh, 38, left a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, after getting time off for good behavior from the 20-year sentence he received when he pleaded guilty to providing support to the Taliban… Under restrictions imposed by a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, Lindh’s internet devices must have monitoring software; his online communications must be conducted in English; he must undergo mental health counseling; he is forbidden to possess or view extremist material; and he cannot hold a passport or leave the U.S … Probation officers never explained why they sought the restrictions against Lindh. But in 2017, Foreign Policy magazine cited a National Counterterrorism Center report that said Lindh “continued to advocate for global jihad and to write and translate violent extremist texts.” On Wednesday, NBC reported that Lindh, in a letter to a producer from Los Angeles-based affiliate KNBC, wrote in 2015 that the Islamic State group was “doing a spectacular job.” In the aftermath of Lindh’s release, a widely shared meme highlighted concerns about whether his punishment had been inadequate, especially when compared to the relatively severe sentences imposed for what would widely be regarded as lesser crimes. The meme, posted by the left-leaning “Other 98%” page on 23 May, also suggested that Lindh’s case was part of a pattern of racial disparities and injustice in sentencing — a common theme of viral memes, some of which we have examined in the past. The meme contained photographs of Lindh, who is white, and a Michigan man Michael Alonzo Thompson, who is black, along with the following text: A white man named John Lindh, aka ‘American Taliban’, is a known terrorist who fought for the Taliban and was part of an uprising that killed a CIA officer. He was released from prison this week after 17 years. Michael Thompson, a black man, sold 3 lbs. of weed to a police informant. He’s been in a Michigan prison for 25 years. His record has been spotless during his time behind bars, but he won’t be eligible for parole for 15 more years. The meme was even more widely promulgated when the “Friends of Farrakhan” page shared it on Facebook on 28 May. The question of whether, and to what extent, race played a role in the sentencing decisions made in the cases of Lindh and Thompson is not one this article will address, in part precisely because the two men were convicted of such radically different crimes. Rather, what follows is our breakdown of the core and ancillary factual claims contained in the meme. John Walker Lindh U.S. forces captured Lindh in Afghanistan on 25 November 2001, after the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. The American, then aged 20, was captured and detained alongside Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. Hours later, those fighters conducted a coordinated and violent prison uprising during which Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agent Johnny Micheal “Mike” Spann was shot dead, and dozens of Afghans were killed. Lindh was brought back to the United States and charged in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, initially on 10 counts including conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals, conspiracy to provide material support to foreign terrorist groups, contributing services to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, using and carrying firearms during acts of violence, and using explosives in the commission of a felony. If he had been convicted on all those counts, Lindh would have been given a life sentence, but concerns over the treatment he received from U.S. forces during his transit from Afghanistan to the United States prompted prosecutors and Lindh’s attorneys to enter into a plea agreement in July 2002. In 2004, the Los Angeles Times cited leaked documents and court filings containing claims that then-Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld’s staff had instructed Lindh’s American interrogators to “take the gloves off,” as well as allegations that the interrogators had stripped Lindh of his clothes, starved him, and threatened to kill him. The Department of Defense has denied claims that Lindh was mistreated. Under the terms of the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped eight of the charges against Lindh, and he pleaded guilty to one count of supplying services to the Taliban and one count of using explosives in the commission of a felony. Lindh was also required to “put to rest his claims of mistreatment by the United States military.” In October 2002, Judge T. S. Ellis honored the terms of the plea agreement and gave Lindh a 20-year prison sentence, to be followed by three years of supervised release. On 23 May 2019, Lindh was released from the federal correctional institution at Terre Haute, Indiana, three years before his scheduled release date, reportedly on the grounds of good behavior. However, several observers, including the family of CIA agent Mike Spann, objected to Lindh’s early release, citing recent reports that suggested the 38-year-old had not abandoned his support for violent Islamic extremism. In June 2017, Foreign Policy magazine reported that a leaked National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) memo had warned: “As of May 2016, John Walker Lindh (USPER) — who is scheduled to be released in May 2019 after being convicted of supporting the Taliban — continued to advocate for global jihad and to write and translate violent extremist texts.” In March 2016, the NCTC memo claimed, citing FBI intelligence reports, that Lindh “told a television news producer that he would continue to spread violent extremist Islam upon his release.” In the lead-up to Lindh’s release in May 2019, Alison Spann — a television reporter for WLOX in Mississippi and the daughter of agent Spann — published an open letter to U.S. President Donald Trump, appealing to him to intervene against Lindh’s early release: “My dad wasn’t the only American in that prison that day — there was another American who had turned against his own people to support radical extremists in their terror pursuits. An American who didn’t warn his fellow countryman of the uprising that was to come. An American who sat back while his fellow countryman was brutally murdered. An American who said nothing allowing a father of three, a husband, son, brother and friend to be killed at the hands of his terrorist friends. An American named John Walker Lindh … I am asking you to stop the early release of John Walker Lindh. The American Al Qaeda fighter should be made to serve his full sentence — one that pales in comparison to the one that so many families have had to pay in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism.” The factual claims made about Lindh’s case in the “Other 98%” meme were highly accurate. Lindh is indeed a white American known as the “American Taliban,” who fought with the Taliban and was convicted of terrorist offenses. He was indeed released from prison in May 2019 after serving 17 years in prison for his crimes, although the meme did not note that his original sentence was 20 years. The only substantive point of dispute is the claim that he “was part of” the Qala-i-Jangi uprising. Lindh was undoubtedly present at the prison camp for the revolt and was one of the Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters brought there after being captured. However, in their initial indictment against Lindh, prosecutors did not specifically accuse him of having taken up arms in the uprising, but with a related offense instead: On or about November 25, 2001, Taliban detainees in the QIJ [Qala-i-Jang] compound attacked Spann and the other employee, overpowered the guards, and armed themselves. Spann was shot and killed in the violent attack. After being wounded, Lindh retreated with other detainees to a basement area of the QIJ compound. The bloody uprising took several days to suppress. From on or about November 25, 2001 through on or about December 1, 2001, Lindh remained in the basement area of QIJ with other Taliban and al Qaeda fighters until their recapture. Notably, the indictment added that Lindh’s convalescence in the basement of the compound amounted to a violation of U.S. Code Title 18, Section 2332 (b)(2), meaning that he had been a “co-conspirator after the fact” in an endeavor that killed a U.S. national, namely C.I.A. agent Mike Spann. However, that particular charge was later dropped as part of the plea agreement, and so it cannot unambiguously be stated that Lindh “was part of the uprising” that killed Spann as opposed to being present (and recovering from a gunshot wound) for its duration. Michael Alonzo Thompson In May 1996, 45-year-old Michael Alonzo “Meeko” Thompson was convicted and sentenced at Genesee District Court in Michigan on five charges: possession with intent to deliver marijuana; conspiracy to possess with intent to deliver marijuana; delivery of marijuana; possession of a weapon by a convicted felon; and possession of a weapon during the commission of a felony. Right away, it should be noted that the “Other 98%” meme was misleading in their description of Thompson’s crimes, claiming that he “sold 3 lbs of weed to a police informant.” That drug offense wasn’t the basis of the very lengthy sentence Thompson received; rather, he was sentenced to between 40 and 60 years in prison based on a weapons conviction, which was exacerbated by the fact that Thompson was already a thrice-convicted felon — two important and relevant facts the meme omitted. For the three drug offenses, the statutory maximum penalty was four years in prison and a fine of up to $2,000. For possession of a firearm in the act of a felony, the maximum sentence was two years. For possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, the maximum penalty was five years in prison. ; However, Thompson was charged as a “fourth habitual offender” under Michigan law, because by that time he already had three previous felony convictions for drug-related offenses dating back to the 1980s on his record, including conspiracy to bring contraband into prison. As a result of the prosecutors’ application of the habitual offender law, four of the sentences imposed on Thompson were significantly lengthened in accordance with Michigan law. For the three drugs offenses, Thompson received a 15-year prison sentence, which was completed in 2011. For possession of a firearm in the act of a felony, he received the regular two-year sentence. However, for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, Thompson received a sentence of between 40 and 60 years in prison. Thompson appealed his convictions, but in December 1998 the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld them. In their ruling, the court outlined the events of 19 December 1994 and Thompson’s role in them: On December 19, 1994, an informant working with the Flint Area Narcotics Group (FANG) arranged to purchase three pounds of marijuana from [Thompson]… After the informant arranged to purchase the marijuana from [Thompson] for $4,200, he contacted Lieutenant Compeau of FANG, informing him of the arrangement. Compeau met with the informant, giving him $4,200. The informant left the meeting place and drove to [Thompson’s] home. The informant gave [Thompson] the money, and [Thompson] told the informant that he would “take care of” the informant, but that he had to go to his safe house and would then be at the informant’s house after a short time. After the informant left [Thompson’s] house, a FANG surveillance team followed [Thompson] to a condominium owned by Bethany Gayden … A short time after the informant returned home, [Thompson] drove up in his car and beeped the horn. The informant went out to the car, got in and took a grocery bag that was sitting on the passenger-side floor. He took the bag into his home. After [Thompson] drove away, Compeau arrived at the informant’s home. He went inside. The informant pointed out a grocery bag. Campeau opened the bag and saw that it contained marijuana. He made a quick search of the house and left with the bag of marijuana. After [Thompson] left Gayden’s, FANG members searched the condominium with Gayden’s consent. The officers found a duffel bag of marijuana and a box containing an electronic scale in a closet in Gayden’s spare bedroom and a duffel bag containing a large sum of money, including the buy money in a closet in Gayden’s bedroom. Officers stopped [Thompson] in his car shortly after he left the informant’s home around 9 pm and arrested him. They found no weapons or drugs on [Thompson] or in his car. FANG members then met for a briefing and obtained a search warrant for [Thompson’s] home. The home was searched at midnight, and police seized a number of guns. Along with the use of “habitual offender” sentencing guidelines, perhaps the most controversial aspect of Thompson’s case was that he was convicted of possession of a weapon by a convicted felon and possession of a weapon in the commission of a felony (the drug deal), despite the fact that he did not have a weapon on his person when the drugs and money actually changed hands. The Court of Appeals addressed this issue in their ruling, explaining the somewhat complicated reasoning behind the principle of “constructive possession” and citing a 1995 Court of Appeals decision in People vs Williams: During the search of [Thompson’s] home, officers seized several guns. They found a .357 between the mattresses of the bed in the master bedroom and a .32 caliber gun in the master bedroom closet. The officers seized other guns from a locked closet in the second story of [Thompson’s] home. [Thompson’s] wife, Bridgit, asserted that she owned the .357 caliber and typically kept it in the locked closet. She said that the officers found the gun on her side of the bed. She also claimed that [Thompson] purchased the .32 caliber for his father, who ultimately gave the gun to her. Bridgit also claimed ownership of the remaining guns … A defendant may have actual or constructive possession of a firearm … Constructive possession is established if the defendant knows the location of the firearm and it is reasonably accessible to the defendant … As explained in Ben Williams, the purpose of the felony-firearm statute is to “reduce the possibility of injury to victims, passersby and police officers … The mere fact that a felon has a firearm at his disposal, should he need it, creates a sufficient enough risk to others that it is within the state’s power to punish its possession.” The court decided that because Thompson had access to the guns in his house as the informant handed him $4,200 there, and he received money on the understanding that drugs would be provided in exchange for it (part of the “delivery of marijuana” offense), Thompson therefore had constructive possession of those firearms while he was, in effect, committing a felony: “One who possesses a firearm while collecting payment for a controlled substance that will soon be delivered in exchange for that payment can be convicted of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony even though the controlled substance and the firearm are never actually possessed at the same time.” Thompson also appealed his 40-60 year prison sentence, claiming that it was so disproportionate that it amounted to a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The Court of Appeals members described the sentence as “quite severe” but did not find that the District Court had abused the discretion given to it by the sentencing guidelines contained in Michigan’s “habitual offender” statute: [Thompson] asserts that because the underlying offense of felon-in-possession is punishable by a maximum of only five years; the weapons were not used in the commission of any offense, belonged to his wife, and were for the most part found in a locked closet; and defendant had no notice that he was not permitted to possess firearms, the forty to sixty year sentence is cruel and unusual. While we agree that [Thompson’s] forty to sixty year sentence is quite severe and would likely have opted for a lesser minimum term ourselves, we are unable to conclude that the trial court abused its discretion in imposing such a lengthy term. [Thompson] had been convicted three times of cocaine-related offenses, once of conspiracy to bring contraband into prison, and once of possession of a fraudulent financial transaction device. The court noted that his first offense was in 1982 and that he had had continuous involvement with the criminal justice system for fourteen years at the time of sentencing. The court further observed that many of the offenses were committed while [Thompson] was on probation, parole or in prison, and that the purpose of the habitual offender provisions “is to provide for a longer sentence where a defendant has shown a persistent commission of crime and indifference to the law.” The remaining factual claims in the “Other 98%” meme were accurate, though not perfectly so. In response to our inquiries, the Michigan Department of Corrections told us that since 1994, Thompson’s prison record showed just two instances of minor misconduct, the most recent of which occurred in 2006 and was an “out of place” incident, meaning Thompson was briefly in a part of the prison where he should not have been. Although his behavioral record has not quite been “spotless,” as the meme claimed, it appears to have been more than satisfactory. Thompson was arrested in December 1994 and has been in prison for the past 24 years and five months, meaning the “Other 98” meme was almost fully accurate in stating that Thompson had “been in a Michigan prison for 25 years.”
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6437
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Clinic helps veterans, first responders with free care.
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They are there to protect and serve. They are Army Strong. They do whatever it takes and are exposed to trauma most people can’t fathom.
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true
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Post-traumatic stress disorder, Mental health, Health, Trauma, Veterans, Veterans affairs
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But what about when the shift, deployment or career ends? Suicide and addiction occur at a staggering rate among first responders and military members, due to post-traumatic stress disorder, coupled with a gaping hole in accessible, appropriate mental health care and a stigma that keeps many of them from seeking help, said Navy veteran Eric Golnick. The “epidemic” is the reason he founded Veteran & First Responder Healthcare, an outpatient clinic with a location in Paramus that recently partnered with the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs to offer free mental health services to veterans and first responders. During Golnick’s last deployment as a Navy officer, he said, he had a sailor die by suicide in front of him. Suicide is on the rise among veterans and first responders,statistics show. More police officers and firefighters died last year by suicide than in the line of duty, according to a study by the Ruderman Family Foundation, a nonprofit that works for the rights of people with disabilities. On average, 20 veterans die by suicide every day, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports. “I don’t want to ever have to look another family in the eyes and say, ‘I’m sorry that this happened to your son or daughter,’ ” Golnick said. To him as an officer, enlisted sailors were like his children, Golnick said. Still, it wasn’t until years later that feelings of guilt and shame about what happened surfaced and the PTSD began to take hold. Golnick began drinking to excess. When he tried to get help, he encountered a lack of “cultural understanding” between himself and a psychologist who had never served. “If I hadn’t been self-aware enough or in a place where I was ready to get help, I would have just been like, ‘The heck with this,’ which I think is what happens to many veterans,” he said. That’s why when a close friend asked Golnick to step in as the CEO of Veteran & First Responder Healthcare — part of Strive Healthcare, which serves the general population — he jumped at the chance. “For me, it’s a way to continue to serve,” he said. “I feel like I’m giving back to the folks that I served with.” The program is led and designed by people who understand where first responders and veterans are coming from, often via firsthand experience. They work in concert with the state and the federal Department of Veterans Affairs in an effort to fill in health care gaps. Veteran & First Responder Healthcare will be offered at the Strive Center and Community Health in Paramus. VFR Healthcare in partnership with the NJ Department of Military and Veteran Affairs will offer outpatient, substance-abuse and mental health trauma-informed treatment programs and services designed specifically for Veterans, First Responders, and their families. An open house was held at the Strive center in Paramus on Tuesday, December 11, 2018. Veteran & First Responder Healthcare will be offered at the Strive Center and Community Health in Paramus. VFR Healthcare in partnership with the NJ Department of Military and Veteran Affairs will offer outpatient, substance-abuse and mental health trauma-informed treatment programs and services designed specifically for Veterans, First Responders, and their families. An open house was held at the Strive center in Paramus on Tuesday, December 11, 2018. (Photo: Amy Newman/Northjersey.com) Deborah McKinley, vice president for programming at the clinic, said there’s a misconception among veterans and their loved ones that when they come home, they’re well. “Active military personnel today have to be hyperaware of everything that’s going on around them,” she said. “People think and veterans themselves think that once they’re home, any symptoms they have — PTSD, substance misuse, trauma — will be ameliorated right when they walk in their front door.” That’s not generally the case, McKinley said. Jenn Stivers, clinical outreach coordinator for the clinic, said multiple deployments compound the problem. “If you keep getting deployed, you’re more likely to experience trauma, traumatic brain injury, physical injury,” Stivers said. “Personal lives can be affected, relationships, families. It becomes harder and harder to readjust to civilian life and harder to relate to other people or ask for help.” What’s more, veterans are trained not to talk about their problems, Stivers said. “You pick yourself up by your bootstraps, and that works when you’re in active duty in a combat situation, but when you’re dealing with everyday life, that can get in the way if you’re experiencing problems,” she said. Vets are a “stubborn bunch of folks,” Golnick said. In their minds, they’re the protectors, there to help other people. The stigma surrounding mental illness makes veterans fear that they’re going to lose their job or security clearance, or be seen by peers in a different light. The same holds true for first responders, said Robert Williams, program manager at the Paramus clinic and a former emergency medical services technician in East Orange. Responding to devastating scenes “takes a toll on you mentally and psychologically,” he said. He recalls being particularly touched by incidents involving babies or pregnant women when he was about to become a father himself. Still, the first responder culture doesn’t promote talking about trauma with colleagues, Williams said. “It really affected me — I couldn’t sleep,” he said. “But it’s that culture: You can drink and get high together, but you don’t talk about the experiences you’ve had. It’s really about keeping the pretense of ‘We can handle it.’ ” Golnick said a particular focus of the program is treating the underserved veteran populations, such as women and the LGBTQ community. Many female veterans are affected by military sexual trauma — ranging from harassment to assault — though men are also affected, McKinley said. Women are also not always recognized as veterans by the general population and a have a less robust community of peers to rely on. “Recognizing that this is a population that has a different experience of combat and service and being able to provide for these folks is so important,” McKinley said. Williams said the specialized nature of the program — veterans helping veterans, first responders helping first responders — is key to creating a sense of trust and understanding and an ironclad support system. McKinley agrees. “Our tagline is ‘You served, now let us serve you,’ and that’s something everyone in our organization really stands behind, because we have experienced firsthand what service means,” she said. “We understand how the culture promotes teamwork, understanding, integrity, quality and commitment. We feel we can provide those things in helping someone access care when they come home.” ___ Online: https://njersy.co/2rYfWYc ___ Information from: The Record (Woodland Park, N.J.), http://www.northjersey.com
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9956
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New U.S. analysis backs annual breast screening
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This story reports on a new analysis of the scientific evidence used by the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) to make its 2009 recommendations regarding mammography screening. The authors of the analysis, published online by the American Journal of Roentgenology, arrived at different conclusions than the Task Force’s recommendations. But the story didn’t include any sense of how the new analysis was done or why its conclusions were different. There was no analysis of whether the new analysis took a reasonable approach. That’s what women needed in order to understand the story. The Task Force’s 2009 recommendations generated a lot of controversy. This new analysis is the first to use the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network to further examine the evidence used by the USPSTF. But this story did not provide strong or compelling data to help readers evaluate or compare the quality of the two analyses. And it did not present both sides of this controversy.
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false
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Reuters Health,Screening,women's health
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The piece does not include any discussion of the financial, physical, or emotional costs of beginning routine mammography screening at age 40, which the authors of the new analysis see as necessary. The financial costs of overdiagnosis are significant for both the individual diagnosed and for society. The article does not include information about the increased number of false positives that will result from annual screening beginning at age 40 or about the significant physical and emotional costs of false positives. The article is dismissive of these harms. From the article it is not clear whether the new analysis considered any of these harms or was solely based on breast cancer mortality. Recommendations about mammography screening beginning at age 40 have been controversial at least since the 1990s. Because of this history of controversy and women’s fear of breast cancer, the framing of a story about screening mammography is especially important. This article frames the new analysis in a totally favorable way and includes two significant inaccuracies. First, the article states that “…annual mammograms save 65,000 more women from breast cancer.” Mammograms do not prevent breast cancer. Their purpose is to detect breast cancer. Second, the article includes a misleading relative risk reduction by stating that beginning mammography at age 40 “…cuts…risk of dying from breast cancer by 71%.” The study calculated mortality reduction for annual mammograms beginning at age 40 at 39.6% versus 23.2% according to the USPSTF recommendation. The article does not include information about the potential harms resulting from routine, annual mammography beginning at age 40. Readers, especially women who may decide to begin annual screening at age 40, need to be told about the possibility of false positives and unnecessary biopsies. Authors such as Welch and Esserman have referred to overdiagnosis and overtreatment. The article does not adequately describe how results of the new analysis were generated or provide the reader with any way to compare how or why this model differed from the one used by the USPSTF. Explaining some of the assumptions used that led to different results would be helpful for readers. While the article does not exaggerate the incidence of breast cancer, it does state that “annual mammograms save 65,000 more women from breast cancer.” This could lead women to believe that mammography prevents breast cancer when its purpose is to detect breast cancer. Incorrect and misleading. . The only independent source quoted in the article is the chair of the Breast Imaging Commission of the American College of Radiology. This source would be biased toward recommending more frequent screening. The article should also have included reactions from members of the USPSTF or from groups that supported the recommendations of the Task Force. The article does not mention that one author of the analysis is a consultant to GE Healthcare, a major manufacturer of mammography equipment. The other author of the analysis has received grant support from GE Healthcare. The article fails to mention the disadvantages of annual mammography screening beginning at age 40. By not including balanced information, the article may lead readers to believe this new analysis is totally accurate. The choice of declining screening was not presented as a reasonable option. Not applicable. There’s no question about the availability of mammograms. The article does note that it is reporting on a new analysis of evidence that was also used by the USPSTF when it determined its 2009 mammography screening recommendations. The article does not adequately explain why this new analysis arrived at different conclusions than the USPSTF. By failing to do this, the article does not provide readers with sufficient information to judge the new analysis. The story does not rely on a news release. It includes quotes from one of the authors of the new analysis and from the chair of the American College of Radiology’s Breast Imaging Commission.
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10067
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New FAU study suggests benefits of regular mammography extend to the elderly
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Researcher Charles H. Hennekens, MD looms large in this news release — perhaps larger than the study itself.This news release issued on behalf of a prestigious researcher — one said to have “saved more than 1.1 million lives” according to Science Heroes — claims the evidence is in that regular mammograms after age 74 save lives. But does the evidence presented really show that? We expected to see many different studies and opinions released when the USPTF announced its final recommendations on screening with mammograms, and we were not disappointed. This release raises some important points but it also seems to be touting the professional reputation of the study’s senior author (ranked ahead of Jonas Salk in terms of lifesaving prowess!) when it should have devoted more space to cost and limitations, and making a stronger case for the benefits and evidence. After skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women across all races and ethnicities. Some health experts are challenging the stubborn view that more frequent and technically advanced screening is necessary to confront breast cancer, and have become very vocal in educating the public about the harms of over-diagnosis and erroneous diagnosis (false positives). This release matters now because the study it informs us about indirectly challenges the findings (some might say non-findings) of the newly released US Preventative Services Task Force final recommendations for mammography screening in women. (In a Q&A on the new recs, the USPsTF says about mammograms for senior women: “For women age 75 and older, the evidence of the overall benefit of mammography screening is unclear, and the Task Force is unable to make a recommendation for or against screening.”) This study by Florida Atlantic University looked at Medicare claims data and came out with a recommendation that elderly women should continue to get regular mammograms. We can assume this release, based on a study published in July 2015, came out this week to coincide with and contribute to the discussion about the USPSTF final recommendations.
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false
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Breast cancer,Diagnostic tests,Women's health
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Does not mention any costs — either direct or societal. And because patients over 74 are typically covered by Medicare, the financial costs to society would be substantial. In addition to covering the cost of screening mammography, Medicare also covers the use of computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) which multiple studies have found to increase the number of false positives. The release says the study revealed that “black and white women ages 75 to 84 years who had an annual mammogram had lower 10-year breast cancer mortality than corresponding women who had biennial or no/irregular mammograms.” The implication is, of course, that having a mammogram during those years and receiving treatment for it (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation) lowers the risk of dying from breast cancer. However, the release doesn’t tell us how many women went on to receive a cancer diagnosis, how many received any treatment and if so, what kind. The study is observational and doesn’t prove that annual mammograms in elderly women extends life. The release doesn’t mention any harms that might come from more frequent or aggressive screening of older women. As experts at the University of California-San Francisco and Harvard explained following their 2014 review of studies conducted from 1990 to 2014 on risk factors for women 65 and older and the value of mammography for women 75 and older, “Doctors should focus on life expectancy when deciding whether to order mammograms for their oldest female patients, since the harms of screening likely outweigh the benefits unless women are expected to live at least another decade.” While the release recommends elderly women should continue to receive regular mammograms, it doesn’t point out that this evidence is based on observation, which cannot prove cause and effect. The study itself published in the American Journal of Medicine states that “although the present data are promising, the results are not conclusive.” The liberal use of statistics such as “1 in 8 women” will be affected and “1 in 25” without qualification earns this release a Not Satisfactory. The release opens with a long list of stats but doesn’t explain for an already worried public that some breast cancers are not deadly. There’s a long-running debate among medical experts that one of the most frequently diagnosed breast cancers — carcinoma in situ (CIS) — shouldn’t necessarily be termed “cancer” because it’s more of precancerous abnormality rather than a definite cancer precursor. In addition, the first paragraph of the release ends by pointing out that 41% of breast cancer deaths in 2010 occurred in women between ages 65 to 84 but fails to add the important information that many, if not most of those women who died were diagnosed years, if not decades, before ages 65-84. The release leaves the reader with the impression that 41% of breast cancer deaths in 2010 occurred in women diagnosed between ages 65-84. There is no mention of funders or potential conflicts of interest in the release. The main alternatives to extending mammograms to this age group are: 1) no mammogram after age 74 or 2) patients/physicians deciding together to have mammograms based on the patient’s history and risk factors. The release should have urged women older than 74 to talk with their healthcare provider about continuing or ending screening. Instead, the first paragraph seems likely to frighten older readers into thinking they definitely need to continue mammograms. It’s common knowledge that mammograms are widely available. However, most current guidelines cap recommended annual or biannual mammograms at age 74. These recommendations have a direct effect on Medicare and private insurance coverage. Unlike other studies that are based on surveillance data and “self reports,” as noted in the release, this study looked at Medicare administrative claims filed from 1995 to 2009 to gather data on incidence and mortality rates. Aside from the fear-inducing litany of statistics found in the first paragraph (addressed under the Disease Mongering criteria), the rest of the release is free of unjustifiable language.
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9488
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A new study suggests it’s possible to get people off opioids and improve their pain
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This story tackles a study that rounded up dozens of small studies to probe the effectiveness of painkiller “tapering:” a slow, gradual weaning of opioid painkillers for those who are addicted to the drugs. The story is much more than that, however, as it lays out some the core issues with the U.S. opioid epidemic, which gives the study crucial context and potential meaning. Readers are expertly walked through the study’s weaknesses as well as an important related issue: The troubles of trying to treat people for chronic pain without using opioids, and how access to such care is problematic. One quibble, though: We think the story could have provided more numerical data on the studies themselves. Finding better strategies to help wean people off opioid drugs is critical, so any method (especially a cheap and effective one) could help turn the tide as researchers find and introduce effective alternatives to opioid prescription drugs.
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true
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opioids,painkiller addiction
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Tapering is presumably free in and of itself, since it’s a slow and gradual lessening of opioids (which a person might already be using to begin with), so we’ll mark this N/A. However, it would require medical oversight and perhaps other alternative pain treatments, both of which aren’t free. We’re told that with tapering, based on the literature review, “patients on average saw improved pain, function, and quality of life.” But what do those terms mean, exactly, and how much of an improvement on those criteria — numbers-wise — are we talking about here? Readers aren’t told. Some numbers would have helped readers make more sense of what “improved” means. The harms are addressed right away: Come off opioids too quickly, and patients can suffer by having little recourse to deal with chronic pain. Some even resort to illicit drugs or commit suicide. One of the study’s authors is also quoted as recommending doctors and patients to exercise caution if tapering is being attempted, and another explains that not all patients respond the same way (and do poorly with tapering). This article does a thorough job of laying out the study’s design, discussing what it found, and what its flaws might be. The author, in fact, dedicated several paragraphs to hedging the study’s conclusions by walking readers through its hang-ups, including its reliance on small studies with sometimes poor methodologies. The self-selecting nature of the subjects in those studies is also described— i.e. only those who volunteered to taper off opioids were studied, not people who didn’t want to go off opioids. We didn’t see any gratuitous wording about the opioid epidemic or treating painkiller addiction in this story. A refreshing number of outside experts are quoted or cited in this story, and their remarks weren’t the typical “the study was intriguing” variety. Their quotes added some helpful context, such as how long it can take doctors to wean people off opioids (“months or even years”) and how everyone responds differently to tapering — and how some do poorly with it. This is one of the appreciable strengths of the story. It not only implies going cold-turkey as an option (and the pitfalls of that approach), but also digs into the topic of non-opioid pain-relief treatments to help patients deal with chronic pain as people they taper. We’re also told how such treatments can be too expensive/out of reach for some, even those with health insurance — either due to lacking coverage or nearby access to capable doctors and facilities. The story delivers: It states that tapering is available, yet that it’s to be attempted with caution. Non-opioid pain-relief treatments, which are also noted by the story, are also said to be available, though out of reach for many. While the approach of tapering itself itself isn’t new, this article explains that the review is novel in that it increases confidence in the idea of tapering as an effective — though with many caveats, since the studies used in the review were mostly of “poor” or “fair” quality. We didn’t detect any evidence of copy-and-paste press release quotes or passages in this story.
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36611
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"Placing your feet on a car's dashboard can cause your knees to go ""through your eye sockets"" in the event of an airbag deployment."
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Can Airbags Send Your Knees ‘Through Your Eye Sockets’ When Deployed?
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unproven
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Fact Checks, Viral Content
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When the meme below appeared on Facebook via the page The Pink Shorts Movement on November 28 2018, we were skeptical:DID YOU KNOW: Airbags deploy between 100 & 220 MPH. If you ride with your feet on the dash, you may send your knees through your eye sockets if the airbag is deployed. Police are sharing this photo in hopes of spreading awareness of safety while driving.It’s worth pointing out that police appeared to be doing no such thing — the meme was shared by a civilian-operated Facebook page, not a law enforcement-related one. The claim also appeared to be twofold — first, it contains the claim that driving with one’s feet on the dashboard in the passenger seat is unsafe. Second, it attributes a highly specific and gruesome injury to anyone in the described position should an airbag deploy.The first question was addressed in a 2015 “Ask a Trooper” column, where members of the public posed questions to law enforcement about things like road safety. A reader wrote in to ask whether the commonly assumed passenger seat position of “feet on the dashboard” was safe, particularly in the event of an airbag deployment. In response, a trooper explained that the habit might not be illegal, but it was certainly unwise:There is no law that prohibits a passenger from placing their feet on the dashboard while the vehicle is in motion.However, passengers who put their feet up in a moving vehicle could be putting themselves at even greater risk of injury in the event of a crash. It comes down to using good judgement. I would bet that most passengers never think about what could happen to them in the event of a collision when the airbags deploy.Airbags are designed to cushion the head and chest of an adult passenger sitting in an upright position when wearing a correctly fitted seatbelt. If the passenger is sitting incorrectly, there is a greater risk of injury in a crash. This could result in their knees being forced into their chest or face that could cause a serious injury or death. There is also a risk of leg fractures or spinal injuries.There is no specific mention of knees through eye sockets, although the officer did say that a passenger’s knees could be “forced into their chest or face” and that the injury could be fatal. A separate article published on August 11 2017 profiled a Georgia woman named Audra Tatum, who was a passenger in a car which crashed while her feet were on the dashboard. Tatum was severely injured, but not in the way described in the meme:“I was going down the road riding passenger in the car with my husband driving and a car pulled out in front of us and we T-boned him at about 45 mph,” Tatum recalls. “I had my right ankle crossed over onto my left knee with my foot pushed up against the dash. When we hit, the airbag deployed and it broke the whole right side of my body.”The article was published by a Canadian outlet, and that outlet spoke with a Canadian road safety expert for the piece, who addressed possible serious injuries stemming from a collision during which a passenger’s feet are resting on the dashboard. Again, no mention of the specific injury mentioned in the meme was made:While these incidents are not very common, they’re not completely unheard of says Lewis Smith, manager of national projects at Canada Safety Council.“When you look [at this woman’s story] the initial impression is that it’s very shocking,” he says. “Something as simple and innocuous as putting your feet up on the dashboard can lead to a lot of long-term and severe impact on a person’s life. In this case, though, it’s not shocking for the folks in the safety industry because it’s a simple matter of physics. If you get into a collision and the airbag comes out, which is an explosive force, then it does what an airbag does – it pushes back as a form of resistance. So if your legs aren’t secure then they’re going to go flying back, and fast.”Experts seem to agree that serious, possibly fatal injuries could occur if a passenger was riding in that position during an accident. But where did the idea their knees could “go through their eye sockets” emerge? A separate August 2017 article from an Australian outlet about Tatum’s injuries included an August 3 2017 Facebook post that was very similar to the meme reproduced above:11 years ago we were t-boned. I had both feet on dash(passenger). The force was so great that I dislocated both of my hips, burnt the bottom of my feet and badly bruised my kneecap. That’s not counting all the bruises and bumps. It was a nightmare. Fast forward 10 years I was able to find a doctor willing to replace my hips. The damage was so bad it caused severe arthritis and bone spurs. My right hip actually fused. I couldn’t walk right, go up stairs, put on socks, tie my shoes. The pain was horrific 24/7.I ran an auto accident years ago where the victim’s legs blew up and back when the air bags deployed. The force was so great it fractured 6 of her 7 cervical vertebrae. She died before the vehicle stopped movingMy daughter had it happen to her. Sprained both ankles. Lucky it wasn’t worseTatum herself was among those who replied, leaving a comment which may have led to the flurry of news articles that immediately followed. She said:Two years ago yesterday a man in a stolen car pulled out in front of us. I was a passenger. We tboned him at 45mph. My foot was on the dash. The air bag went off… my foot broke my nose. Nose broke ankle. Femur broke into 4 pieces. And arm broke trying to stop impact. I have so many screws and Rods and I am miserable to this day!!! DON’T RIDE OR LET PEOPLE RIDE LIKE THIS!!!!!! I am disabled at 31 years old from this. No one else was hurt. Just me. I lost my career and all from that day.Several commenters recounted collisions under the circumstances described, many horrific. However, none of the injuries involved anyone’s knees “going through” their eye sockets.In its post, the Chattanooga Fire Department mentioned but did not link to the original (and more subtle) meme. In August 2017, Colin Bennett, the image’s creator, shared a different version of the photograph on the website DriveArrive.co.uk. Bennett’s image-based warning simply reinforced the presence of the airbag without claiming any specific gruesome injuries could occur:We contacted Bennett to ask about later iterations of the meme, and he expressed similar skepticism regarding the “knees through the eye sockets” claim:I started the meme nearly 2.5 years ago and since then lots of individuals and organisations have used the original image and done their own stories around it. I was horrified at the knees through the eye sockets comment which has been added and embellished by a sensationalist.I did a blog on my website some while back that gives more information, dates and my motives behind it. Please see https://www.drivearrive.co.uk/single-post/2017/08/05/Our-Feet-On-The-Dash-Message—againIn my travels this summer especially I have hardly noticed anyone with their feet up on the dash so I guess with my original message which went viral and subsequent uses of it it has done some good.The meme was created by an individual in the UK and then seemingly modified and shared by the Chattanooga Fire Department (not the police), from which Tatum’s comment caught the attention of news outlets’ “trending on social media” categories. As is not uncommon, many passed along the claim that a specific injury could result from placing one’s feet on the dashboard of a moving vehicle seemingly without determining if a.) such an injury had ever occurred and b.) whether such an injury was even physiologically possible. It also appeared that the confluence of the Chattanooga Fire Department’s warning and Tatum’s popular comment led readers to believe that she had been injured in the fashion described in many headlines.It is not difficult to substantiate the claim that riding in the passenger feet with one’s feet on the dashboard is dangerous, nor is it difficult to locate individuals who have been gravely injured in that exact manner. However, we were unable to uncover any accounts of anyone being specifically injured by an airbag that forced their knees into their eye sockets in the manner described. The basic message of the meme is fair (don’t engage in this behavior), and the aspect of the claim about general danger is certainly supported. However, we were unable to turn up any information suggesting the specific injury described had ever occurred, despite the inadvisability of riding with your knees on the dashboard.
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18397
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"A Wisconsin bill to limit use of food stamps for junk food would also ""prevent -- or limit -- the extent to which"" food stamps could be used for organic foods."
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"Clark said a bill to limit use of food stamps for junk food would also ""prevent -- or limit -- the extent to which"" food stamps could be used for organic foods. There would be limits on which types of organic foods a person could buy with two-thirds of their food stamps, but not for the other third. The meat-and-potatoes portion of Clark's statement is accurate, but it needs a garnish or two of clarification."
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true
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Federal Budget, Poverty, States, Welfare, Wisconsin, Fred Clark,
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"State Rep. Dean Kaufert said he was after things like soda and nachos when he proposed to limit how much junk food Wisconsinites could buy with food stamps. ""Hopefully, people’s health will get better,"" the Neenah Republican said in March 2013. But when the former potato chip salesman’s bill came up May 7, 2013, for a vote, there were signs of indigestion on the Assembly floor in Madison. ""The list of foods that you'd be restricted from buying under this is -- I don't know who came up with it. I think it's kind of shocking,"" complained Rep. Fred Clark, D-Baraboo. Clark continued by saying ""we're going to prevent -- or limit -- the extent to which"" food stamps could be used for a long list of foods -- including organic foods. Sure, sugary drinks and melty cheese might sometimes addle our brains. But organic foods are supposed to be better for you, right? So, is Clark correct -- would the junk food bill, approved by the Assembly minutes after his comments, prevent or limit the use of food stamps for organic foods? The program The food stamps program, known formally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Federal funds pay for all of the benefits, although the states share the administrative costs with Uncle Sam. Food stamps -- actually, it’s a plastic card you can swipe electronically at the store -- are available to working and non-working people who have a low income. The benefits can generally be used to buy any food or food product, but hot foods cooked in the store, as well as alcoholic beverages, tobacco and pet food, are prohibited. In Wisconsin, the program is called FoodShare. It serves more than 850,000 adults and children, or 15 percent of the state’s residents, at a cost of more than $1 billion per year. Junk-food bill To take effect, Kaufert’s bill would need approval not only from the state Senate and Gov. Scott Walker but also the federal government. That's unlikely (for Wisconsin and South Carolina, which is considering a similar measure), Governing magazine suggests, given the USDA has denied every request like Kaufert’s that's been submitted for a federal ""waiver."" But let’s get the bill out on the table, anyway. Kaufert’s measure does not define junk food; rather, it would require FoodShare recipients to spend at least two-thirds of their benefits on a list of foods deemed by the state as healthy. The healthy foods list would have two components. It begins with a roster of foods approved by another federal-state food program -- Women, Infants and Children (WIC); then the bill adds some other food types, as well. So, where does that leave organic foods? Well, since the bill wouldn’t make any changes for one-third of a FoodShare recipient’s benefits, they could be used to buy anything from Funyuns to organic specialty onions. A recipient wouldn’t be prevented from spending all of the one-third on organic foods. But for the two-thirds portion of a person’s FoodShare benefits, there would be limits. The bill explicitly says fresh produce, including white potatoes, as well as beef, pork, chicken, and fish, would be on the healthy foods list. So, using the two-thirds to buy organic versions of those foods would be OK, unless the state at some point specifically prohibited them, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau. On the other hand, WIC benefits can’t be used for organic versions of some foods -- such as milk, cereal, bread and canned or dried peas, beans and lentils. (The government wants to encourage cheaper alternatives to stretch the money beneficiaries receive, according to the state Department of Health Services). Likewise, that means a person on FoodShare couldn’t use the two-thirds portion of their benefits toward those organics, if Kaufert's bill takes effect. Got it? FoodShare recipients could still use one-third of their benefits on any kind of organic food (or junk food, for that matter). But they could use the two-thirds portion only for some kinds of organics. Our rating Clark said a bill to limit use of food stamps for junk food would also ""prevent -- or limit -- the extent to which"" food stamps could be used for organic foods. There would be limits on which types of organic foods a person could buy with two-thirds of their food stamps, but not for the other third. The meat-and-potatoes portion of Clark's statement is accurate, but it needs a garnish or two of clarification -- our definition of ."
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6138
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Study: Most Texas school districts have scant sex education.
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More than four-fifths of school districts offer no sex education or only teach abstinence in Texas, which has one of the country’s highest teen birth rates, according to a study released Tuesday.
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true
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Birth control, Health, Birth rates, Sex education, Education, Austin, Texas
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The study commissioned by Texas Freedom Network, a left-leaning education watchdog group, found that 25 percent of roughly 1,000 school districts statewide didn’t offer any sex education during the 2015-2016 school year and about 58 percent only taught students to abstain from sex. The remaining 17 percent, including eight of the 10 largest school districts in America’s second most-populous state, stress abstinence, which they are required to do under a 1995 Texas law. But they also teach students about other sexual topics, including birth control. The 17-percent figure is actually a marked increase from a 2009 study, which found that 96 percent of Texas school districts taught abstinence only. The number of districts that offer no sex education rose even more dramatically, from 2 percent in the study eight years ago to a quarter of them today. A major factor in districts dropping their sex education curriculums was a 2009 decision by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature to scrap passing a health course as a high school graduation requirement. Of the districts that still teach sex education, 31 percent of the ones in urban areas offer instruction on more than just abstinence, while only about 5 percent of rural districts do. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2014 ranked Texas tied with New Mexico for fourth nationwide in birth rates for mothers ages 15 to 19. Some studies have found that comprehensive sex education that includes birth control information is more effective than abstinence-only programs at reducing teen pregnancy rates. But 25 other states in addition to Texas require stressing abstinence, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research organization. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia require students to be taught about contraception. The authors of the new study sent surveys as open records requests to Texas’ 10 largest school districts and to a sample of 148 other districts seen as representative of the rest of the state. A breakdown by student population wasn’t provided, though the eight largest districts that teach more than just abstinence educate a combined 17 percent of the state’s roughly 5.3 million public students. The study found that many districts not offering abstinence only lessons rely on two major sex education programs designed specifically for Texas that incorporate classroom games, discussions and role-playing to help students feel more empowered. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has been less vocal preaching abstinence than his predecessor, Rick Perry, who boasted that he knew from his personal life that it worked. Still, the Texas House approved a state budget prohibiting schools from distributing sex education materials produced by abortion providers like Planned Parenthood, which in the past helped devise such materials for some districts, including Austin’s. Meanwhile, Texas’ state-approved health textbooks stress abstinence and haven’t been updated since 2004. Some abstinence-only classroom materials characterize using contraception as “high risk” sexual behavior, while at least one school cautioned students that sexual activity can lead to suicide. State Rep. Mary Gonzalez, a Democrat from Clint, proposed legislation that would guarantee sex education programs provide accurate medical information. It has little chance of passing in the Legislature, but Gonzalez said she’ll appeal to her anti-abortion colleagues, arguing that better sex education could lead to fewer terminated pregnancies. “If you’re truly for limiting abortions, then here’s one way to do it,” Gonzalez said.
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3575
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Secretary of state rejects 2 clean-energy initiatives.
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Two clean-energy ballot initiatives were rejected by Oregon Secretary of State Bev Clarno Thursday, drawing condemnation from climate change action advocates who claimed Clarno is bowing to pressure from polluters and business interests.
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true
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Environment, General News, Climate change, Climate, Oregon
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The Statesman Journal reports they added that Clarno’s rejection of initiative petitions 48 and 49 represents a pattern of her siding against environmental interests. She also rejected three petitions from the group Oregon Wild that proposed adding protections for the state’s forest waters. “There is now a pattern of flagrant abuse of power by this secretary of state, far outside the norms for any Democrat or Republican who has held the office,” Tera Hurst, executive director of Renew Oregon, said in a statement. Clarno’s staff didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Gov. Kate Brown appointed Clarno, a Republican and former state lawmaker, to replace Secretary of State Dennis Richardson, who died of brain cancer in February. According to Renew Oregon, Clarno’s reason for rejection was the inclusion of fair labor standards for clean energy projects. The proposed initiatives would require all retail electricity sold in Oregon to come from carbon-free sources by Jan. 1, 2045, up from about half today. Washington, California and Nevada already have similar targets.
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10099
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Aspirin Cuts Death Rate From Several Common Cancers
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Of the three stories we reviewed, this one provided the most numbers to describe the study on the anti-cancer benefits of aspirin, but it ended up presenting a picture of the study that was too boosterish and not not realistic enough about the limitations of the study, the potential harms, and the costs. Aspirin’s benefits to reduce cardiovascular problems are well established, but there appears to be a growing body of evidence about its strengths in preventing certain cancers, too. If aspirin turns out to be a simple solution to preventing cancer with negligible side effects, it could prove to be a massive boon to health worldwide. With stakes this high, it’s all the more important for reporters to carefully weigh the evidence and explain to readers the science in clear terms with real numbers.
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mixture
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Cancer,WebMD
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This story does not discuss the cost of daily aspirin intake. Because the cost to individuals is low and well-known, we won’t insist on this point. Nevertheless, were a recommendation made for everyone to begin taking aspirin daily starting at age 45 the national price tag would be substantial. Readers would also benefit from an acknowledgement that such a recommendation would lead to higher spending on treatment of bleeding ulcers and other adverse events that would offset some of the potential cancer-related savings. In contrast to some of the other stories about this study, this one reported that actul numbers of cancer deaths during the origial trials and over the follow-up period (up to 20 years) used by these researchers. “The study looked at eight trials examining the effects of a daily dose of aspirin on preventing heart attacks involving 25,570 patients, 674 of whom died from cancer.” That was almost enough to give it a satisfactory score in our minds, but then there were all those relative differences to contend with. “They showed a 21% reduction in the number of deaths caused by cancer among those who had taken aspirin, compared with people who had not.” Does this mean that 141 (21% of 674) more people lived than died of cancer? And, if so, what are we to make of all the other relative differences? Then, later in the story, it says “Participants were also followed up after 20 years, by which point 1,634 of the original participants had died as a direct result of cancer.” This is followed by more relative differences described in percentages. Still, there was a stronger attempt made here to quantify the benefits than in the other stories, so we are giving it a satisfactory rating, if only barely. The story flunks a key point here by saying the researchers found a 10 percent reduction in prostate cancer deaths when actually the differences in did not reach statisticaly significance. That error reflects a theme throughout this story of portraying the potential benefits as being more certain than the evidence justifies. Unlike the NPR Shots story, this one failed to provide a clear number about harms. It says, “Previous research has linked aspirin with reductions in heart attacks and strokes, but doctors have been wary when recommending whether people should take daily doses of aspirin because of the risk of gastric bleeding. Rothwell says, “The size of the effect on cancer I think is such that it does more or less drown out those sorts of risks.”” Right at the top there were problems with how this story evaluated the evidence. “Taking aspirin over a long period of time can substantially cut the risk of dying from a variety of cancers, according to a study showing that the benefit is independent of dose, gender, or smoking.” This gives readers the impression that any dose — either miniscule or massive — can have the same benefit, when what the study showed was that there was no additional benefit to be gained from doses higher than the amount found in low-dose pills commonly used by people concerned about heart disease risk. This also implies that women benefited equally to men, when, as the story later notes, “more research is required, in particular for the effect on breast cancer and other cancers affecting women as well as the effect on patients beyond the 20-year period.” There is no discussion of concerns about taking data collected during heart disease trials and then using the information to draw conclusions about cancer, nor was there an acknowledgement of other methodlogical issues raised by this sort of meta-anlysis. On a more basic level, the story does not distinguish between results that were statistically significant and those that were merely suggestive, but might have been the result of chance variations. The story provided a lot of numbers, as we will discuss in the benefits section, but did not bring a lot of clarity to the subject. The story does not engage in disease-mongering. The story quotes two outside experts to good effect. One of them, Dr. Peter Elwood, “an expert on aspirin from Cardiff University who was not involved in the study, says that doctors are often reluctant to recommend aspirin because “the risk of causing a bleed by what the doctor prescribes is going to be uppermost in a doctor’s mind.” A patient might interpret the risk differently, he says.” This story does not present alternative ways of reducing cancer risk. Some other news reports specifically noted that avoiding smoking and obesity are both known to reduce cancer risk. The story makes it clear that aspirin has been widely recommended for cardiovascular benefits. This story did a good job of putting the study in the context of earlier studies by saying, “A previous study by the same authors showed that low doses of aspirin (75-300 milligrams) reduced the number of cases of colorectal cancer by a quarter and deaths caused by the disease by more than a third. The latest study confirms the earlier results and concludes that similar effects can be shown for other types of cancers.” This story does not appear to rely on a news release.
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41357
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Rigevidon can cause blood clots, strokes, and burst aneurysms.
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A young black panther that escaped last week and was seen prowling the rooftops of a northern French town has been stolen from the zoo where it was held after being recaptured, police and city officials said on Tuesday.
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true
|
online
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Staff of the Maubeuge zoo noticed when they arrived for work that the security door of the feline’s pen had been forced open, the officials said. Police are checking footage from the zoo’s video surveillance system. The panther caused panic last week in Armentieres, a town close to the Belgian border, when it was spotted walking on a roof. The feline had been able to slip out after its owner, a private individual who had been keeping the panther in their home, had left a window open. The owner is wanted by police for keeping a dangerous animal in a private residence. After the escape, the fire brigade managed to catch the panther, and it was subsequently transferred to the Maubeuge zoo. The animal is a six-month old female, according to a local animal protection organization.
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2836
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Novartis employees may have violated trial protocol in Japan.
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Swiss drugmaker Novartis said on Friday it was looking into a report that employees of is Japanese unit may have violated clinical trial protocol by handling data from a small independent study of one of its cancer drugs.
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true
|
Health News
|
Employees of Novartis Pharma K.K. (NPKK) transferred some data from research centers to a Tokyo hospital when that data should have been sent directly without first passing through Novartis hands, according to a report by Japanese broadcaster NHK that was picked up by the Wall Street Journal. “NPKK is currently investigating the allegations,” Novartis said in a statement. The data was from a not yet fully enrolled 55-patient trial testing the Novartis cancer drug Tasigna, the company said. “Novartis Pharma K.K. is aware of the media report regarding a small investigator-initiated clinical study ... conducted to assess side effects in patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia,” Novartis said in a statement. “NPKK has conducted employee trainings on proper protocol related to investigator-initiated clinical studies and believes that any involvement of our medical representatives in investigator-initiated clinical studies is inappropriate.” The University of Tokyo Hospital said it was re-examining test results it had received but had uncovered no evidence that Novartis employees had manipulated any of the data during the transfers, according to the Wall Street Journal report.
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11818
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In a 2014 case involving a man convicted of abusing two underage girls, Judge Roy Moore disagreed and wrote the dissenting opinion.
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An ad from the Jones campaign said that Moore disagreed and dissented in a case involving the abuse of two underage girls. There is no question that Moore dissented, but the ad provides no context for what Moore disagreed with. The glaring lack of detail leaves reasonable viewers with the impression that Moore disagreed with the conviction. That’s not what he said. He disagreed with the court’s decision not to consider a legal question of admissible evidence. Several independent law professors told us that Moore raised a valid point that was legally separate from the underlying conviction in the case. The ad leaves out critical context that gives a highly misleading impression.
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false
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National, Elections, Ethics, Legal Issues, Doug Jones,
|
"In the Alabama Senate race, Democrat Doug Jones launched an ad to suggest Republican Roy Moore goes easy on sex offenders. Moore called on stations airing the ad to pull it, saying it ""blatantly misrepresents the facts and my judicial record."" The ad speaks of three cases from Moore’s days on the Alabama State Supreme Court. Here’s the full text from the ad, although this fact-check focuses only on the first case from 2014. ""Alabama, there's a pattern. In a 2014 case involving a man convicted of abusing two underage girls, Judge Roy Moore disagreed and wrote the dissenting opinion. In a 2015 case involving a man who pleaded guilty to raping an underage girl, Roy Moore dissented again. And Roy Moore was the only Supreme Court justice who sided with a felon convicted of sexual abuse of a child at a daycare center. Court documents, real facts. Roy Moore's disturbing conduct."" On television, the visuals are important. Here’s what viewers saw. In one of the most reliably Republican states, Moore has been fighting headwinds after multiple reports that he made sexual advances on young women under 18 when he was in his 30s. The Jones attack ad plays to that issue. In the 2014 case, Jones misappropriated technical elements of the legal saga to leave voters with the wrong idea. In 2010, Sherman Fitzgerald Tate, then in his mid 30s, worked as a mentor with the Youth Advocate Program at Pointe Academy in Mobile, Ala. The court-funded program aimed to help troubled teens. A security camera recorded Tate bringing two 15-year-old girls into a conference room. He was not their assigned mentor. There was no tape of what took place inside the room. The two girls accused him of coercing them to touch him and each other sexually. Tate was convicted on two counts of second-degree sodomy. His lawyer wanted to bring in testimony that the two girls had a romantic relationship with each other and that Tate had told one of the girls’ mother about it. That information would, the lawyer said, give the girls a reason to invent a charge against Tate. But under Alabama law, victims of sexual assault are shielded from any exploration of their past sexual activity, because it could bias a jury against them. This is a fundamental principle that holds in many states. The trial judge blocked the testimony and an appeals court agreed. Tate’s lawyer brought the issue to the state supreme court. The majority of the justices, five, declined to hear the case. Moore and two other justices disagreed. In his dissent, Moore basically argued that courts in Massachusetts, Mississippi, Colorado and elsewhere had allowed similar evidence in certain cases and there was a reasonable argument that the facts in Tate’s case ""would make the proposed cross-examination relevant to show that the victims had possibly fabricated the charges against Tate."" The key line in Moore’s dissent, however, is the last one: ""I believe that we should resolve this material question of first impression."" In other words, Moore's dissent was about resolving the legal question for future cases. We reached several experts in appellate law and all of them agreed that Moore was only arguing that the court should hear the case. ""He was saying there’s a decent legal issue in the case that the court ought to resolve,"" David Moran at the University of Michigan Law School. ""It read like a perfectly reasonable dissent, and it would be grossly unfair to attribute anything to him based on a dissent from a denial of review."" Peter Smith at George Washington University Law School agreed, saying that at that point in the process, Moore was not challenging the case itself against Tate, but the legal issue of what testimony was admissible. ""In theory, if the court had heard the case, he could have ruled against the guy,"" Smith said. Smith said Moore was telegraphing some sympathy for Tate’s position, but again, this dissent alone did not amount to disagreeing with Tate’s conviction. The ad raises two other cases to show Moore’s ""disturbing conduct."" The 2015 case involved second-degree rape and like the charges against Tate, the issue was whether the sexual activity of the victim should have been presented at the trial. Moore and two other justices joined in saying the court should decide the matter. In the ad’s final example, Moore was the lone dissenter. The case involved a 17-year-old boy who performed a sexual act on a 4-year-old boy at a daycare center. The teen was convicted on two counts -- first-degree sodomy of a child under 12 and first-degree sodomy by forcible compulsion. Moore took issue with the second count, arguing that there was no evidence of an implied threat of serious physical injury or death in the case. The matter was made more complicated because the offender was under 18, which put him in a gray zone under state law. Moore argued that the court was going beyond what lawmakers had written. An ad from the Jones campaign said that Moore disagreed and dissented in a case involving the abuse of two underage girls. There is no question that Moore dissented, but the ad provides no context for what Moore disagreed with. The glaring lack of detail leaves reasonable viewers with the impression that Moore disagreed with the conviction. That’s not what he said. He disagreed with the court’s decision not to consider a legal question of admissible evidence. Several independent law professors told us that Moore raised a valid point that was legally separate from the underlying conviction in the case. The ad leaves out critical context that gives a highly misleading impression."
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12364
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When you throw 23 million people off of health insurance -- people with cancer, people with heart disease, people with diabetes -- thousands of people will die. … This is study after study making this point.
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"Sanders said, ""When you throw 23 million people off of health insurance -- people with cancer, people with heart disease, people with diabetes -- thousands of people will die. … This is study after study making this point."" Sanders’ statement on Meet the Press was phrased generally enough to be defensible. We found ample evidence in the academic literature to suggest that legislation on the scale of the House bill would produce ""thousands’ of additional deaths. That said, we can’t say with any specificity how many deaths will occur. It’s important to note that the studies provide estimates only, and each study found a slightly different result. "
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true
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National, Health Care, Bernie Sanders,
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"During an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., didn’t hold back in his criticism of Republican efforts to roll back the Affordable Care Act: He said such legislative efforts will literally be deadly. ""What the Republican proposal (in the House) does is throw 23 million Americans off of health insurance,"" Sanders told host Chuck Todd. ""What a part of Harvard University -- the scientists there -- determine is when you throw 23 million people off of health insurance, people with cancer, people with heart disease, people with diabetes, thousands of people will die."" Sanders continued, ""I wish I didn't have to say it. This is not me. This is study after study making this point. It is common sense."" Even if it seems like common sense that insurance would save lives, would it be on the scale of ""thousands,"" as Sanders said? And would legitimate studies show that? When we contacted Sanders’ office, spokesman Josh Miller-Lewis cited two sources. One is the ""Harvard study"" Sanders mentioned -- published on June 22, 2017, by the liberal Center for American Progress. It was co-authored by a Harvard professor of social epidemiology; two medical students who graduated from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and two policy specialists at the Center for American Progress. To come up with their estimates, the authors of the Harvard-Center for American Progress report adapted the results of a peer-reviewed 2014 study of the Massachusetts state health care law -- a law that was a model for the Affordable Care Act. The 2014 study was lead-authored by Harvard professor Benjamin D. Sommers. The Harvard-Center for American Progress study projected that there would be one excess death for every 830 people who lose coverage as a result of the AHCA. Using Congressional Budget Office projections of the impact of the House version of the bill, the authors estimated an additional 217,000 deaths over the next decade, or 21,700 per year. The second piece of evidence Sanders’ office cited was an op-ed by yet more health policy specialists who are affiliated with Harvard -- David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, who are professors of public health at Hunter College-City University of New York as well as lecturers at Harvard Medical School. The op-ed -- published on Jan. 23, 2017, well before either chamber’s Republican health care bill was introduced -- used as its basis a different study lead-authored by Sommers. This 2012 study tracked what happened after states expanded Medicaid. Adapting the findings of the 2012 study to a scenario in which 20 million Americans lost coverage -- which turned out to be lower than what the CBO found for the House bill -- Himmelstein and Woolhandler estimated that there would be 43,956 deaths annually due to the GOP’s health policy changes. It’s worth noting, however, that both of these projections come from the ideological left. As we noted, the Center for American Progress is a liberal think tank. And Himmelstein and Woolhandler are founders of Physicians for a National Health Program, a group that advocates for single-payer national health insurance -- a proposal that is even further to the left than the Affordable Care Act. So can Sanders’ assertion be supported by the peer-reviewed literature alone? In our previous fact-checking of this issue, we found at least seven academic papers that detected a link between securing health insurance and a decline in mortality. Here’s a rundown. • In 2002, a panel of more than a dozen medical specialists convened by the federally chartered Institute of Medicine estimated that 18,000 Americans had died in 2000 because they were uninsured. In January 2008, Stan Dorn, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute, published a paper that sought to update the IOM study with newer data. Replicating the study’s methodology, Dorn concluded that the figure should be increased to 22,000. • A 2009 American Journal of Public Health study concluded that a lack of health insurance ""is associated with as many as 44,789 deaths in the United States, more than those caused by kidney disease."" • Three studies looked at state-level expansions of Medicaid and in each case found ""significant"" improvements in mortality after such expansions of coverage. These include a 2012 New England Journal of Medicine study of New York, Maine, and Arizona by Harvard researchers, and a 2014 study of Massachusetts by researchers from Harvard and the Urban Institute. (These were the two articles that formed the basis of the analyses cited by Sanders’ staff.) • A 2014 study published by the blog of the health policy publication Health Affairs looked at states that, at the time, had declined to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. It estimated that the 25 states studied would have collectively avoided between 7,000 and 17,000 deaths. • A 2014 study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found improved survival rates for young adults with cancer after securing insurance under the Affordable Care Act. • A 2017 study in the journal Medical Care looked at a provision of the Affordable Care Act that allows young adults to be covered under a parent’s policy. The study found a decline in mortality among this population from diseases amenable to preventive treatment. (Mortality from trauma, such as car accidents, saw no decrease, as would be expected.) We found two papers with results that were more equivocal. • A paper published in April 2009 in HSR: Health Services Research. In it, Richard Kronick of the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California (San Diego) School of Medicine, raised questions about the conclusions of the seminal Institute of Medicine study from 2002. Kronick’s study adjusted the data -- as the IOM had not -- for a number of demographic and health factors, including status as a smoker and body mass index, and found that doing so removed the excess number of deaths found in the original study. • A 2013 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine co-authored by Katherine Baicker of Harvard University compared about 6,000 patients in Oregon who got coverage through a 2008 Medicaid expansion and about 6,000 who didn’t. While the study found improvements in out-of-pocket medical spending and lower rates of depression among those who got coverage, key benchmarks for physical health -- including blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar -- did not improve in such patients. But even the two lead authors of the more equivocal studies have told us that the scholarly record demonstrates that having health insurance saves lives, and that not having insurance can lead to additional deaths. We asked several of the authors of these papers whether they believe Sanders’ assertion of ""thousands"" of deaths is generally supported by the scholarly evidence. We heard back from three of them. "" ‘Thousands’ is completely fair,"" Dorn said. Baicker agreed. ""It is of course difficult to pin down an exact number of deaths that would be caused by a specific new policy,"" she said. ""But a number like ‘thousands’ does not seem unreasonable, based on the available evidence."" And Sommers -- whose work formed the indirect basis of the studies cited by Sanders -- concurred. ""I agree that it’s challenging to pin down an exact number on this,"" Sommers said. But overall, the academic evidence ""certainly gets you into the range of thousands of deaths per year."" Sanders said, ""When you throw 23 million people off of health insurance -- people with cancer, people with heart disease, people with diabetes -- thousands of people will die. … This is study after study making this point."" Sanders’ statement on Meet the Press was phrased generally enough to be defensible. We found ample evidence in the academic literature to suggest that legislation on the scale of the House bill would produce ""thousands’ of additional deaths. That said, we can’t say with any specificity how many deaths will occur. It’s important to note that the studies provide estimates only, and each study found a slightly different result. On balance,"
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15434
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We are the only major country on Earth that doesn't guarantee health care to all people as a right.
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"Sanders said that the United States is the only major country that doesn’t guarantee health care to everyone as a right. Sanders was a bit vague about which countries he was comparing to America, but his office clarified that he was thinking of the group that belongs to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Among the wealthy OECD nations, America stands out as the only one that lacks universal coverage. Mexico also has not achieved universal coverage, but Mexico is also a much poorer country and not always considered an industrialized or advanced economy. As for a guaranteed right to health care, Sanders spoke as though every advanced economy had it. In reality, some do and some don’t. He should have talked about universal coverage, but he didn’t. Sanders’ statement lacked some much needed clarity."
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mixture
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National, Health Care, Bernie Sanders,
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"The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on Obamacare subsidies kept the program rolling, and Sen. Bernie Sanders was totally celebrating. Still, the independent from Vermont who is running as a Democrat for president told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos that the nation was far from out of the woods on health care. ""We still have 35 million Americans without insurance,"" Sanders said on June 28, 2015, during an interview on This Week. ""We need to join the rest of the industrialized world. We are the only major country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee health care to all people as a right."" We wanted to check Sanders’ claim that the United States is ""the only major country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee health care to all people as a right."" This is a common theme for Sanders but the words he used this time muddied his message on two fronts -- which countries and what guarantee? A spokesman for Sanders, Michael Briggs, said Sanders was referring to nations that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. We’re not sure Sanders made that entirely clear (for instance the OECD doesn’t include China or Russia, which many people would consider a major country), but we’ll put that aside for the moment. Anyway, Briggs directed us to a 2014 OECD report that found only two member countries, the United States and Mexico, lack universal health care coverage. ""However, Mexico passed a law in 2004 with the goal of establishing universal coverage, and they're currently at 90 percent,"" Briggs said. ""The ACA was never intended to establish universal coverage, and according to the January CBO estimate, 90 percent is about as good as it's going to get."" We checked and Briggs is close on his numbers. In Mexico, as of 2013, public insurance reached about 86.7 percent of the people. That’s actually not much different from where America stood, if you combine public and private coverage. The figure in the United States was 84.9 percent. However, in 2015, the CBO estimated that 89 percent of American residents -- excluding undocumented immigrants -- have coverage. The number drops to 87 percent if you include undocumented residents. The median income in Mexico is so low, about a third that in the United States, that some would not group it with the stronger OECD countries. In fact, Mexico is often referred to as an emerging or developing economy as opposed to an industrialized or developed one. But since Sanders’ spokesman included it, we thought it only fair to include it, too. Beyond the raw numbers, Sanders statement highlights the tricky questions that come up when you start talking about a right to health care. Is it defined as universal coverage, or a legal right to care? The two are not identical. The gold standard Europe covers both bases. Nearly every European nation has signed and ratified the European Social Charter. That treaty’s section on health care casts health care as a right. ""The system of health care must be accessible to the entire population. To that end, states should take as their main criterion for judging the success of health system reforms effective access to health care for all, without discrimination, as a basic human right."" Countries follow different paths to make good on that promise. Great Britain has its national health service where the government runs the hospitals and pays the doctors and nurses. Germany and France have a more complicated mix of highly regulated public and private insurance companies, and, as in America, a law that makes insurance mandatory for everyone. Those European nations score 100 when it comes to universal coverage. But so does Australia, and Australia operates under no legal claim that health care is a right. The government’s Attorney General’s Department posted on its website ""there is no Commonwealth legislation explicitly enshrining the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health."" That doesn’t stop the Aussies from running an extensive system of public hospitals and a robust public health insurance program. Japan uses a different mix of tools to achieve the same results, and it too lacks a formal legal right to health care. There is a substantial body of Japanese health care law, but it has to do with creating various government programs and setting the rules of the game. A weak guarantee There are several international treaties and conventions that speak of the obligation of countries to provide for the health of their residents. The list includes the World Health Organization constitution and the United Nations International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The United States signed and ratified the former, but is literally one of a handful of countries that has not ratified the latter. For some, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is a landmark document that comes very close to asserting health care as a right. The treaty’s language is ambitious. It speaks of ""the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health."" Countries that get behind it promise that they will aim to create the ""conditions which would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness."" But the convention’s legal heft is considerably less than its stated goals. It pushes no country to spend beyond its ""available resources,"" a quantity that could be whatever the leaders say it is. Lawrence Gostin is the director of Georgetown University’s O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. Gostin said the convention lacks teeth. ""These international obligations are vague and unenforceable so really don’t translate into a ‘right’ in all states,"" Gostin said. For Gostin, the test of a nation’s commitment should be measured by the facts on the ground. ""Does it provide even reasonably fair access to the entire population, and is there a way to enforce or implement the right,"" Gostin said. ""By those measures, the U.S. has many entitlements to health care, including Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Affairs, and ACA subsidies. Yes there are many left out but that is true in lots of countries, including China that provides a minuscule amount of health dollars to rural residents."" Whether China is an industrialized country of the sort Sanders mentioned is a matter of debate, but China helps illustrate the difference between a right in law and a right in practice. China has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. On top of that, its Constitution commits the state to provide health services and facilities ""all for the protection of the people's health."" But the record of the world’s most populous nation is checkered to say the least. David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund, a Boston-based health policy group, wrote about the evolution of health care in China. In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Blumenthal wrote that about 95 percent of the population has access to modest coverage. ""The government has decided to provide all Chinese some protection against the cost of illness, not necessarily as a matter of right, but as a matter of fact,"" Blumenthal told PolitiFact. Ake Blomqvist, a health care economist at Carleton University in Canada, has a dimmer view of the connection between China’s legal promises and what it delivers. China might have signed that UN convention but that has had limited effect. ""In reality the majority of people in China are at risk of not being able to receive even urgently needed health care if they are unlucky enough to require something that is expensive,"" Blomqvist said. Our ruling Sanders said that the United States is the only major country that doesn’t guarantee health care to everyone as a right. Sanders was a bit vague about which countries he was comparing to America, but his office clarified that he was thinking of the group that belongs to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Among the wealthy OECD nations, America stands out as the only one that lacks universal coverage. Mexico also has not achieved universal coverage, but Mexico is also a much poorer country and not always considered an industrialized or advanced economy. As for a guaranteed right to health care, Sanders spoke as though every advanced economy had it. In reality, some do and some don’t. He should have talked about universal coverage, but he didn’t. Sanders’ statement lacked some much needed clarity."
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15335
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One of the reasons I believe we’re in trouble in Yemen is we lost the population on drone strikes issues. That’s what stirred up the population. That’s what is happening in Yemen.
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"There is strong evidence that the U.S. drones in Yemen have antagonized many Yemenis who might have been allies in the fight against al-Qaida. But Chafee takes a big leap when he suggests that because of drone strikes ""we lost the population"" — especially when there are no public opinion polls to back him up. Others argue that a civil war, with little link, if any, to drone strikes, is what’s driving unrest in Yemen, pushing about one million people out of their homes. That makes more sense to us."
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mixture
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Rhode Island, Terrorism, Lincoln Chafee,
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"Lincoln Chafee campaigned for president in New Hampshire last month proudly showcasing his foreign policy credentials based in large part on his opposition to the Iraq war. He also had some things to say about U.S. policy in Yemen. The targeting of al-Qaida terrorists with drones has killed militants and civilians in recent years. And many Yemenis have called on the Obama administration to end drone strikes, which Chafee refers to as ""extrajudicial killings."" ""No more drone strikes,"" Chafee said in New Hampshire. ""One of the reasons I believe we’re in trouble in Yemen is we lost the population on drone strikes issues. That’s what stirred up the population. That’s what is happening in Yemen."" The New America Foundation has counted 114 strikes in Yemen, all but one since 2009, with 15 this year responsible for 57 deaths. The foundation bases this information on ""credible news reports."" Have drone strikes turned the Yemen population against the U.S.? Is that the main issue? We ask because there’s been heavy fighting in Yemen over the past eight months between Houthi rebels and Yemeni government forces backed by Saudi airstrikes. Cultural heritage sites have been destroyed. Food is in short supply. Rebels have chased the president from the capital city. And, according to a June 25 report in The New York Times, the warfare has displaced a million people. So why does Chafee place such a heavy emphasis on U.S. drone strikes? We asked Chafee’s spokeswoman, Debbie Rich, to provide evidence to support the candidate’s June 14 comments. An article provided by Rich from The Long War Journal, a respected source on the fight against terrorism, tells the story of a Yemeni provincial deputy governor, also the son of a prominent tribal leader, who was killed by a 2010 drone strike. At the other extreme, Rich also emailed an April 2014 Rolling Stone article, filled with the voices of Yemenis angered by U.S. drone strikes that have killed civilians. In addition, Peter Schaapveld, a British psychiatrist quoted in the Middle East Monitor, asserted that 99 percent of the people he met during a one-week visit to Yemen were suffering drone-related post traumatic stress syndrome. The fear of drones in Yemen, is ""traumatizing an entire generation,"" according to a quote in Rolling Stone. However, other experts we talked to say that what was happening in Yemen had a lot less to do with drones and a lot more to do with the war between militant Houthis, who are Shiite Muslims, and the current government, which is backed by the U.S. and by neighboring Saudi Arabia — a Sunni Muslim nation. Bruce Riedel, a Brookings Institution scholar with high-level foreign policy experience, including work for the Obama administration in 2009, wrote an analysis of the situation in Yemen one day after Chafee spoke. Riedel’s analysis doesn’t include a word about drones. ""It is safe to say that Yemen's civil war, the humanitarian catastrophe that it faces and the Saudi intervention in the country are not caused by drone strikes,"" Riedel told us in an email. ""Yemen's problems are much more complex than a result of the drones."" A more recent NPR clip provided by Rich, from January, includes comments from another Brookings Institution expert, Ibrahim Sharqieh, who asserted that U.S. drone strikes had contributed to instability in the country. But Sharqieh also blames the international community for ignoring the situation in Yemen over a two- to three-year period, not drones, when he talks about a solution to Yemen’s latest tumult. Another Yemen expert, Shaul Gabbay, a former professor at the University of Denver, asserts that it’s ""a very large leap"" to suggest that dissatisfaction with drone policy at the local level is an explanation ""for what is happening in Yemen."" ""For example, the fact that Iran is interested in destabilizing Yemen from the much more important macro conflict, arising from the Shiite/Sunni conflict, does not have anything to do with the specific use of drones,"" he said. And while surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center in other countries, including Pakistan and Jordan, have documented strong opposition to the targeting of militants with drones, no public opinion surveys have been done in Yemen. And the director of Pew’s Global Attitudes surveys warns against making judgments about public opinion in the absence of a credible survey. Our ruling There is strong evidence that the U.S. drones in Yemen have antagonized many Yemenis who might have been allies in the fight against al-Qaida. But Chafee takes a big leap when he suggests that because of drone strikes ""we lost the population"" — especially when there are no public opinion polls to back him up. Others argue that a civil war, with little link, if any, to drone strikes, is what’s driving unrest in Yemen, pushing about one million people out of their homes. That makes more sense to us. (If you have a claim you’d like PolitiFact Rhode Island to check, email us at [email protected] And follow us on Twitter: @politifactri.)"
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10904
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MRI Images May Pinpoint Time of Stroke
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This is a story about the possible use of MRI scans to help determine the onset time of stroke. It provided a clear explanation about how this can be an issue for people who awaken to find that they have had a stroke sometime while sleeping or someone who knows when their symptoms of stroke began but are able to articulate this information. The story explained that the decision about whether to treat a person who has had a stroke with the medication tPA rests on this piece of information. While discussing the results of the soon to be published story, the story indicated that these results need to be validated before the technology could be adopted for this purpose. It was noteworthy that this story largely avoided hype, injecting caution about further research that is needed, while clearly showing what the potential impact of this research could be.
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true
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HealthDay,Stroke
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There was no discussion of costs – not for the individual and not for health planners and society. As we discussed in the “availability” criterion above, this is an important question. The story reported that the test was 90% accurate, but it could have provided more insight to readers about what this 90% means. This study is really just about predicting whether the stroke was in the past 3 hours or not. It would have been helpful to show the net effect size for strokes within 3 hours vs. those > 3 hours – it is not a very big absolute difference, but that is the cut-point that has been used. It also could have included some information about how the rates of complication change when tPA is given to patients beyond this 3 (or 4.5 even) hour window. Nonetheless, we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. There was no mention of any possible harms associated this application of MRI technology. Although the harms would likely be small, the harm that may arise from incidental findings is worth noting. The more you scan – something being proposed in this study – the more you find, including things you didn’t need to find. That’s worth at least a line. The story mentioned that the study reported on studied MRI scans from 130 patients who had had strokes to examine how well this technology could be used to determine whether the stroke had started with the previous 3 hours or not. It mentioned that the study reported that the test had 90% accuracy in making this retrospective determination. The story mentioned a couple of limitations of the study and what the next research steps may be before deciding whether MRI really is a valuable tool to use as a diagnostic for time of stroke onset. No disease mongering about stroke in this story. The story included quotes from independent experts. The story provided insight about a couple of situations in which it wasn’t possible to determine the time of stroke onset. The study reported on whether MRI could be used in these sorts of situations when the patient isn’t able to provide information about the time of stroke onset. The story could have done a better job raising the question of availability of MRI around the US for urgent use at times like those described in the story or in the study – when there is a question about the 3 hour window. The story alluded to this but was not fully discussed in the context of availability of treatment. Do 80% of hospitals or hospital regions have MRIs ready for this use? 50%? 10%? Availability of the technology in question is a key concern – with huge cost implications. The story was clear about the ‘novelty’ of using MRI technology in this way. The story did not hype MRI as a new technology but rather as a technology that was not commonly used for the purpose reported on. The story did include a quote from the lead study author that the current study supported results that have been published in the past. It’s clear that the story did not rely solely or largely on a news release.
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8306
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Coronavirus test ramp-up to help Abbott weather 'toughest quarter'.
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Abbott Laboratories Inc (ABT.N) said on Thursday a recent ramp up in coronavirus tests production would help it ride out a tough current quarter as the outbreak chokes demand for its other diagnostic kits.
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true
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Health News
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The company has since mid-March launched three coronavirus tests, including an antibody test crucial in identifying immunity among people and one that can deliver results within minutes, which was heralded as a game changer by President Donald Trump. Shares of the company were up 6% at $96.48 in morning trading. Despite the strong uptake in coronavirus testing, the cancellation of non-essential surgeries and restrictions on people’s movement are expected to severely crimp sales of its medical devices and other lab tests, which contribute to more than half of total quarterly revenue. “(The second quarter) will likely be our toughest quarter in the year, especially for our core lab business, our cardio and neuro businesses,” Chief Executive Officer Robert Ford said on a post-earnings call. The company suspended its full-year forecast due to the uncertainty caused by the health crisis and said it expects to provide an update in the second half of the year. Abbott projected a recovery in elective procedures and testing volumes globally from the third quarter and said it was seeing signs of stabilization in China and areas where the outbreak has begun to abate. “We’re all hoping for a fast recovery here, but if it takes longer, we’ll have strong demand for testing and that will continue to help buffer the impact,” Ford said. Elective procedure declines were at the core of Johnson & Johnson’s (JNJ.N) decision to cut 2020 forecasts on Tuesday, with recovery expected in the second half of the year. Abbott beat first-quarter earnings expectations as shelter-in-place restrictions imposed by U.S. states boosted demand for nutrition products for children such as PediaSure, lifting sales in the unit by 6.3% to $1.90 billion. Results were also boosted by a strong flu season before the outbreak that helped minimize testing declines and on softer-than-expected COVID-19 impact across businesses, said J.P. Morgan analyst Robbie Marcus. Sales in the diagnostics unit fell nearly 1% to $1.83 billion, while demand for its FreeStyle Libre diabetes monitoring device remained strong fueled by expanded insurance coverage in Japan. Sales of the device surged 60% to over $600 million. Excluding items, the company earned 65 cents per share, beating expectation of 58 cents. Net sales of $7.73 billion also topped estimates of $7.34 billion.
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18586
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"Scott Henson Says Texas has ""11 different felonies you can commit with an oyster."
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Henson said there are 11 Texas felonies one can commit with an oyster. He could have said 16, according to the state’s breakdown of felony offenses, though Parks & Wildlife suggests such oyster-related crimes break down to seven distinct offenses. Significantly, too, these felony charges are rare. No one can even face one without having previously been convicted of at least one related misdemeanor.
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true
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Criminal Justice, Food Safety, Crime, Texas, Scott Henson,
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"Scott Henson of Austin, who writes the Grits for Breakfast blog on criminal justice policy and politics, told the Austin Post, an online community newspaper, that Texas and the nation have ""criminalized far too much of public life."" ""I think we have somewhere in the range of 2,500 or so felonies on the books in Texas,"" Henson said in an interview posted online Feb. 25, 2013. ""There are 11 different felonies you can commit with an oyster."" That cracked our interest, partly because the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation likewise said about a month earlier that Texas has 11 felonies (not a dozen, dang it) related to harvesting oysters. Felonies are considered the most serious criminal offenses. By email, the center’s Marc Levin, director of its Center for Effective Justice, pointed out a January 2012 publication, the ""Current Offense Severity Rankings List,"" written by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Henson told us by email that Levin was his source for the count when he initially wrote about the topic in 2007. He also said he would check his claim against the state’s ""offense severity"" list. Among the state-listed 2,324 felonies, Levin said, some are rather similar or are enhancements of lesser offenses, though the agency ""presumably uses a consistent methodology to delineate each separate offense."" He said the tally of oyster-related felonies aired by the foundation ""allows for some that the parole board counts as separate offenses which some might consider to be essentially the same offense."" We spotted 16 oyster-connected felonies on the list but pruned three that appeared to be duplicates. Also, as Levin noted, two felonies appeared distinct from others only because they take into consideration repeat offenses. Theft of oysters from a private bed is a felony, as is theft of oysters from a private bed and having two or more previous convictions. Similarly, harvesting oysters in a restricted area is a felony, as is oystering in a restricted area with a previous conviction. Adjusting for the seeming duplications and near-similar felonies knocked the oyster-tied felonies in state law to 11: theft of oysters placed on a private seabed; interfering with an oyster buoy or marker with two previous convictions; oystering in a restricted area as designated by the state; night dredging of oysters; night dredging in a restricted area with a previous conviction; night dredging in a polluted area; not having an oystering license; harvesting oysters for non-commercial purposes without a license; harvesting oysters without a commercial license; selling sport oysters; and violating oyster regulations. By telephone and email, a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department official confirmed the felonies, though Brandi Reeder, the agency’s fisheries law administrator, stressed that a person could be charged with each felony only if they have been convicted of similar misdemeanor violations in the previous five years--sometimes just once, in other cases two or more times, according to the relevant statutes. At our request, Reeder reviewed our identified 11 felonies, later saying by email that she would say there are seven distinct oyster-related offenses or crimes. Broadly, Reeder said, the oyster felonies are in place for a reason, to deter nefarious, potentially risky activities. ""An oyster can kill you,"" Reeder said, referring to the possible presence of viruses, bacteria and parasites in raw shellfish. ""That’s why we take it seriously."" But Texans rarely face oyster felony charges, Reeder said, because nearly all offenders stop after being charged with a misdemeanor. Statewide in the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2012, according to the agency, no such felonies were charged. By telephone, neither Henson nor Levin expressed surprise that no oyster felonies were charged in a recent year or that no one can be charged with such a felony without a prior misdemeanor conviction. With a laugh, Henson said: ""I guess the laws worked. They stamped out oyster crime in Texas."" Henson and Levin each said, too, the oyster felonies demonstrate regulatory issues--such as having a license or fishing in restricted waters--being placed inappropriately into criminal statutes. Levin said there is an opportunity to shrink the number of state crimes starting from a Texas House proposal to create a commission that would recommend changes in advance of the 2015 legislative session. Our ruling Henson said there are 11 Texas felonies one can commit with an oyster. He could have said 16, according to the state’s breakdown of felony offenses, though Parks & Wildlife suggests such oyster-related crimes break down to seven distinct offenses. Significantly, too, these felony charges are rare. No one can even face one without having previously been convicted of at least one related misdemeanor.s ."
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513
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Force-feeding off menu as France trials 'naturally fatty' foie gras.
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In a barn in southwest France, farmer Valerie Fosserie squirts serum into a gosling’s mouth as a prelude to what she says is production of the world’s first ethically friendly foie gras.
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true
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Environment
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The delicacy, long a feature on the menu of gourmet restaurants across the globe, is made by force-feeding geese to turn their livers to fat, a process long denounced as cruel by animal rights activists and increasingly viewed with unease by authorities in some western cities. In October, New York City, often considered the U.S. fine dining capital, prohibited the sale of foie gras, following similar bans in Chicago and the state of California. In response, French scientists at research company Aviwell near Toulouse have developed an alternative version of the delicacy that uses bacteria - ingested by the goose as a serum - to stimulate a natural, rather than forced, build-up of fat. “It’s the combination of certain bacteria that is capable of triggering in baby geese the natural composition, and completely biological growth, of fat in the liver,” company co-founder Remy Burcelin said. Aviwell raised 600 geese when it launched its project last year, and Fosserie has now become the first foie gras farmer to adopt the technique, which also doubles the birds’ average lifespan from three to six months. “It’s the future, because we see the animal welfare movement getting bigger and bigger,” she said. This next-generation foie gras will be aimed primarily at the U.S. market and Europe, where Britain, Finland and Poland have banned its production. But the French culinary establishment is taking note too. Toulouse chef Simon Carlier, who has been creating dishes with Aviwell’s foie gras for a month, described it as subtle and with an appealing density. It could be served cold or just with little garnishing. “We see a texture, which is less nauseating, let’s say. We can’t compare it to meat - but in some way, it’s easier to eat,” Carlier said. It will also be more expensive. While high-quality traditional foie gras sells for about 300 to 400 euros ($330-440) per kilo (2.2 lb), Aviwell’s version could fetch 1,000 euros. A naturally fatty goose liver weighs 300-400 grammas while that of a force-fed goose can weigh around 1 kg.
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13560
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"Catherine Cortez Masto Says ""Joe Heck voted 10 times to defund Planned Parenthood ... and Heck opposes a woman's right to choose, even when her health is at risk."
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"A Catherine Cortez Masto campaign ad claims Joe Heck ""voted 10 times to defund Planned Parenthood,"" and ""opposes a woman's right to choose, even when her health is at risk."" Heck has voted to defund Planned Parenthood, a fact he publicly admits. The harder question to answer is whether to count procedural votes leading up to formal votes on the defunding measures as votes to defund the group. The ad is mostly accurate, but needs some clarification on the actual number of votes."
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true
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Abortion, Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto,
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"Republican Rep. Joe Heck’s record on abortion is fast becoming the subject of many salvos in the unending television ad wars in Nevada’s competitive Senate race. Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto has run several ads attacking Heck on the issue, most recently one featuring a Las Vegas-area gynecologic oncologist who opposes Heck because he voted to strip funding for Planned Parenthood. ""Joe Heck voted 10 times to defund Planned Parenthood, which thousands of women depend on for cancer screenings,"" she says in the ad. ""And Heck opposes a woman's right to choose, even when her health is at risk."" Heck is no stranger to ads attacking his stance on abortion, as Democrats have sought to highlight the Republican military doctor’s adamant anti-abortion stance in both his current Senate race and past congressional races. A review of Heck’s voting record and public statements over the past six years shows that Cortez Masto’s ad is largely accurate, though over-simplified. Ten votes? Heck himself freely admits he voted to defund Planned Parenthood, and his voting record since entering Congress in 2010 reflects that position. It’s more difficult to argue that Heck has voted 10 separate times to defund the program, as that number relies on counting several procedural motions that weren’t strict up-or-down votes on funding for Planned Parenthood. For example, the ad cites five votes taken by Heck in September 2015 to ""shut down the government over Planned Parenthood,"" but not all of them are the same, including: Two procedural votes on Sept. 17 to end debate and adopt rules for floor consideration on a measure defunding Planned Parenthood. A Sept. 18 vote on a bill (Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015) barring federal funding to the organization for one year and redirecting the funding to community health centers. A Sept. 30 procedural vote allowing for floor consideration of continuing resolution to fund the government that would also defund Planned Parenthood, and a subsequent vote on that bill itself. All of the votes mentioned in the ad were taken as part of a legislative attempt to strip funding from the program, but they aren’t all strict up-or-down votes. Of the five votes listed above, two are actual roll call votes on barring federal funding the program, while the other three are procedural votes that certainly moved the legislation forward but, again, aren’t direct votes on the bill. Cortez Masto spokesman Zach Hudson said the campaign referenced every vote listed in Congressional Quarterly that references defunding Planned Parenthood. Heck campaign spokesman Brian Baluta told PolitiFact that counting procedural votes unfairly inflates the number. The other votes mentioned in the ad are a mix of procedural and more straightforward votes to defund the program. The ad cites three votes related to the same piece of 2015 defunding legislation, including the initial House vote, a reconciliation vote agreeing to changes made by the Senate, and a veto override vote. And it cites two votes on amending 2011 spending bills clearly designed to bar federal funding from the organization. Our friends at PolitiFact New Hampshire took similar issue with a claim about endangered Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte voting to defund the group six times, ruling that counting procedural votes is ""accurate but needs clarification."" Health exemptions The second part of the ad claims that Heck opposes ""a woman's right to choose, even when her health is at risk."" Generally, Heck opposes abortion. His campaign said he supports exemptions in cases of rape, incest and if the pregnancy threatens a mother’s life. The Cortez Masto campaign argues, however, that Heck opposes abortion even when the mother’s health is ""at risk."" There is a difference between situations where continuing a pregnancy threatens the life of the mother and pregnancies with serious future health concerns for the mother. Cortez Masto’s campaign pointed PolitiFact to a 2008 Newsweek article detailing the health exemption, in part citing a Supreme Court ruling in Doe v. Bolton that says health can be defined as medical judgment on factors including ""physical, emotional, psychological, familial and the woman's age."" The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), a pro-abortion rights group, provides several examples in a 2016 fact sheet of women whose pregnancies, while not life-threatening, would endanger their future ability to have children or seriously harm the mother if the pregnancy was brought to term. The ad cites as evidence Heck voting for a measure banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with exemptions for abortions necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman ""in reasonable medical judgment,"" and limited cases of rape and incest. Heck voted against a Democrat-led ""motion to recommit"" the bill that sought to add an exception to the 20-week ban by allowing abortions that would preserve the health of the mother. Our ruling A Catherine Cortez Masto campaign ad claims Joe Heck ""voted 10 times to defund Planned Parenthood,"" and ""opposes a woman's right to choose, even when her health is at risk."" Heck has voted to defund Planned Parenthood, a fact he publicly admits. The harder question to answer is whether to count procedural votes leading up to formal votes on the defunding measures as votes to defund the group. The ad is mostly accurate, but needs some clarification on the actual number of votes.
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4263
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Supermarket chain restricts “chemicals of concern”.
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A Maine supermarket corporation is executing new restrictions on the use of chemical products and packaging deemed hazardous by some environmental health groups.
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true
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Health, General News, Environment, Environmental health, Maine
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Ahold Delhaize says its U.S. subsidiaries will work with suppliers to meet standards higher than what is required by law and collaborate to address causes of contaminants. The company operates Food Lion, Giant Food, Giant/Martin’s, Hannaford, Peapod and Stop & Shop. The “chemicals of concern” outlined in the policy include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates. The Portland Press Herald reports these chemicals are still allowed under U.S. Food and Drug Administration rules; environmental health experts say there’s evidence the chemicals can contribute to chronic health issues.
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9097
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New osteoporosis treatment uses traditional Chinese herb to prevent bone loss
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This news release describes research showing that a chemical compound in the red sage plant blocks an enzyme that promotes the breakdown of collagen in bones. This might be an interesting lead for scientists, but the release prematurely dubs the plant a “treatment” for osteoporosis and doesn’t mention that effects observed in cells in a lab dish or in mice might not translate to a benefit for human patients. The result people care about — reducing fractures — isn’t brought up. The news release’s assertion that this herb “might hold the key to a new osteoporosis therapy that could prevent bone loss without causing side effects” might raise false hopes. The use of red sage to treat osteoporosis in traditional Chinese medicine has inspired researchers. A 2014 review found 36 clinical trials using the plant, also called danshen or salvia miltiorrhiza, which it says constituted “more than 30 percent of all herbal clinical trials successfully targeting osteoporosis.” Osteoporosis is common, affecting 5.1 percent of men and 24.5 percent of women over the age of 65, according to the CDC. The condition increases the risk of bone fractures, which can lead to pain and disability. But isolating a plant compound and testing it in the lab are preliminary steps, and there’s no guarantee that red sage can safely prevent bone fractures. News releases should refrain from predicting outcomes for human beings based on studies in lab dishes and mice.
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false
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osteoporosis,traditional Chinese medicine,University of British Columbia
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There’s no mention of cost. HealthNewsReview.org found a bottle of 60 capsules of 500-mg red sage online for $19.95. Of course, that could be far from the cost of an actual treatment should one be developed, since we don’t know the cost of processing, marketing, and quality assurance. The release says the red sage compound was tested “in human and mouse bone cells and a mouse model. They found that it prevented bone loss and increased the bone mineral density of the mice treated with the compound by 35 per cent, when compared with the control group.” The release should have mentioned that benefits shown in mice don’t necessarily translate to humans. The release doesn’t provide any results relating to the chemical compound’s effect on the cells that were tested. Further, bone mineral density doesn’t precisely measure fracture risk, which is what matters to patients. None of these important caveats are mentioned. No potential harms are mentioned. According to WebMD, red sage: “can cause some side effects, including itching, upset stomach, and reduced appetite. There is some concern that it might also cause drowsiness, dizziness, and a blood condition called thrombocytopenia.” The safety of long-term use hasn’t been rigorously studied. The release doesn’t tell us about the clinical trials other than that the compound was tested in “human and mouse bone cells and a mouse model.” We aren’t told how many cell samples were included in the various tests. The published study states that in one trial, the compound was given to six “12-week-old ovariectomized (OVX) mice for 3 months.” Ovarized means the ovaries had been removed. This is very preliminary research and the limitations of animal research and small samples should have been mentioned in the release. The news release states that osteoporosis “is a global health problem that will affect one out of three women and one out of five men worldwide.” We don’t know where these numbers came from and they appear to be on the high side. On the other hand, osteoporosis is common. One study put osteoporosis prevalence in nine industrialized countries at 9 to 38 percent of women and 1 to 8 percent of men ages 50 and over. In these countries, osteoporosis was found to affect up to 49 million people. On EurekAlert!, where the news release is hosted, we’re told that the study was funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research grants and a Canada Research Chair award. We encourage news releases to include funders in the body of the release, too. The authors listed no conflicts of interest in the published study. Existing treatments for osteoporosis including prescription drugs such as alendronate, risedronate, zoledronic acid and denosumab, as well as exercise and dietary changes, were not mentioned. The news release mentions “a multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical industry dedicated to finding treatments to stop its progression,” implying that red sage could constitute a cost-effective alternative, but it doesn’t delve into the effectiveness of current treatment options. The news release says the red sage is “widely used” in traditional Chinese medicine. That conveys that it’s easy to get. The news release states that a compound in red sage may block an enzyme called Cathespin K without the negative effects exhibited by osteoporosis drugs. It also notes that the study builds on the researcher’s previous work that looked at red sage as a treatment for “bone ailments.” It quotes a researcher saying: “All clinical trials to date have failed due to side effects ranging from stroke, skin fibrosis and cardiovascular issues. We’ve found a way to block CatK only in one tissue that we think will prevent these other negative effects.” This research seems to be unique in that respect. To call this a “treatment” as this news release and its headline does is premature.
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29616
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Article details 'four things you didn't know' about Martin Luther King, Jr.
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As for the assertion that “no other public holiday in the United States honors a single individual” besides Martin Luther King Day, we note that Columbus Day (honoring explorer Christopher Columbus) is a federal holiday, as is George Washington‘s Birthday.
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false
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History, American History, martin luther king
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Every January, as the federal holiday commemorating the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. approaches, a years-old item that refers to the famous civil rights leader as “a phony, a cheater, a traitor, and a sexual degenerate” is circulated anew: Four things you didn’t know about Martin Luther King 1. His name wasn’t Martin Luther. It was Michael. It was decided Martin Luther had a more prominent ring to it, so he went by that. He never legally changed his name. To this day, he lived and died as Michael King. 2. While working on his dissertation for his doctoral degree at Boston University, he heavily plagiarized from another author who had done research on a subject similar to King’s. As academic committee later found that over half of King’s work was plagiarized, yet would not revoke his doctrine. King was dead by this time, and the committee ruled that revoking the title would serve no purpose. It was also discovered that King’s famous I HAVE A DREAM speech was also not his own. He stole it from a sermon by Archibald Carey, a popular black preacher in the 1950’s. 3. King was under FBI surveillance for several years (until he died) due to his ties with communist organizations throughout the country. King accepted money from the organizations to fund his movements. In return, King had to appoint communist leaders to run certain districts of his SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), who then could project their communist ideas to larger audiences. A federal judge in the 60’s ruled that the FBI files on King links to communism to remain top-secret until 2027. Senator Jesse Helms appealed to the Supreme Court in 1983 to release the files, so the correct bill in the Senate to create the Martin Luther King Federal Holiday could be abolished. He was denied. 4. One of King’s closest friends, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, wrote a book in 1989 in which he talked about King’s obsession with white prostitutes. King would often use church donations to have drunken sex parties, where he would hire two to three white prostitutes, occasionally beating them brutally. This has also been reported by the FBI agents who monitored King. King was married with four children. Martin Luther King Day. A day when this country will come to a screeching halt so we can have parades and memorials to honor this man, a man that most of the world views as a saint for his role in the civil rights movement. No other public holiday in the United States honors a single individual. Of all the great leaders in our Nation’s history-none of them have their own holiday. All of our great war heroes share Memorial Day. All of our great presidents share President’s Day. Yet king — a man who was a phony, a cheater, a traitor, and a sexual degenerate gets a day of his own. Unfortunately, most of this information is false and thereby misleadingly denigrates the memory of a man whom the U.S. has chosen to honor. 1) To this day, questions remain over the names of both Martin Luther King, Jr. and his father: what names they were given by their parents, what names appeared on their birth records, and when (if ever) they changed their names are subjects of some murkiness. According to an account Martin Luther King, Sr. gave to a New York Post reporter in 1957, he had always intended his son’s name to be Martin Luther, and the appearance of the name ‘Michael’ in his son’s birth records was a mistake due to confusion over his own name: I had been known as Michael Luther King or “Mike” up until I was 22 … when one day my father, James Albert King, told me: ‘You aren’t named Mike or Michael either. Your name is Martin Luther King. Your mother just called you Mike for short.’ I was elated to know that I had really been named for the great leader of the Protestant Reformation, but there was no way of knowing if papa had made a mistake after all. Neither of my parents could read or write and they kept no record of Negro births in our backwoods county … I gladly accepted Martin Luther King as my real name and when [my son] M.L. was born, I proudly named him Martin Luther King, Jr. But it was not until 1934, when I was seeking my first passport … that I found out that Dr. Johnson, who delivered M.L., had listed him in the city records as Michael Luther King, Jr., because he thought that was my real name. No records documenting a formal name change for either King yet have been uncovered, so in a strict legal sense one might say that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s name officially remained “Michael” until his death. However, what constitutes a “legal name” can be quite fluid. My own mother, born in the same era as Martin Luther King, Jr., was raised by people other than her birth parents from an early age and did not know her real first and middle names. (Indeed, she did not learn which names were actually listed on her birth record until I obtained a copy of the document for her when she was in her mid-50s.) Nonetheless, the first and middle names she adopted in place of the unknown real ones were listed on every government-issued record pertaining to her created during her adult lifetime (e.g., marriage license, driver’s license, Social Security card, children’s birth certificates) and were therefore her “legal” names every bit as much, if not moreso, than the ones that appeared on her birth record. In any case, whether Martin Luther King, Sr. gave a true account of the issue in 1957 (i.e., that both he and his son were officially named ‘Martin’ by their fathers but called ‘Michael’ through confusion or mistake) or simply decided in his adulthood that he preferred he and his son be known as ‘Martin’ instead of ‘Michael,’ the name change was not, as suggested above, an affectation on the part of Martin Luther King, Jr.; it was something decided for him by his father while he was still very young. 2) This is the one claim presented here that has some element of truth to it. During the 1980s, archivists associated with The Martin Luther King Papers Project uncovered evidence that the dissertation King prepared for his Ph.D. in theology from Boston University, “A Comparison of the Conception of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman,” was plagiarized, and the story broke in the national media in 1990. King included in his dissertation a good deal of material taken verbatim from a variety of other sources without proper attribution (or any attribution at all), an act which constitutes plagiarism by ordinary academic standards. The Martin Luther King Papers Project addressed the issue in Volume II of The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. (and reproduced a statement therefrom in the FAQ on their web site): The readers of King’s dissertation, L. Harold DeWolf and S. Paul Schilling, a professor of systematic theology who had recently arrived at Boston University, failed to notice King’s problematic use of sources. After reading a draft of the dissertation, DeWolf criticized him for failing to make explicit “presuppositions and norms employed in the critical evaluation,” but his comments were largely positive. He commended King for his handling of a “difficult” topic “with broad learning, impressive ability and convincing mastery of the works immediately involved.” Schilling found two problems with King’s citation practices while reading the draft, but dismissed these as anomalous and praised the dissertation in his Second Reader’s report … As was true of King’s other academic papers, the plagiaries in his dissertation escaped detection in his lifetime. His professors at Boston, like those at Crozer, saw King as an earnest and even gifted student who presented consistent, though evolving, theological identity in his essays, exams and classroom comments … Although the extent of King’s plagiaries suggest he knew that he was at least skirting academic norms, the extant documents offer no direct evidence in this matter. Thus he may have simply become convinced, on the basis of his grades at Crozer and Boston, that his papers were sufficiently competent to withstand critical scrutiny. Moreover, King’s actions during his early adulthood indicate that he increasingly saw himself as a preacher appropriating theological scholarship rather than as an academic producing such scholarship … In 1991 a Boston University investigatory committee concluded that King had plagiarized portions of his doctoral dissertation but did not recommend the revocation of his degree: A committee of scholars at Boston University concluded that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. plagiarized portions of his doctoral dissertation, completed there in the 1950s. BU provost Jon Westling accepted the panel’s recommendation that a letter be attached to King’s dissertation in the university library, noting that numerous passages lacked appropriate quotations and citations of sources. The letter was placed in the archives yesterday afternoon, a BU spokesman said. Westling also accepted the committee’s statement that “no thought should be given to the revocation of Dr. King’s doctoral degree from Boston University” and the assertion that despite its flaws, the dissertation “makes an intelligent contribution to scholarship.” The investigatory committee, comprising three professors in the BU School of Theology and one from American University, was appointed by Westling after researchers at Stanford said they had discovered numerous instances of plagiarism in King’s work as a graduate student. While there was general agreement that King acted improperly, Clayborne Carson, head of the King Papers Project at Stanford where the plagiarism initially was uncovered, noted that King made no effort to conceal what he was doing, providing grounds for a belief that King was not willfully engaged in wrongdoing. Westling said in a prepared statement yesterday that it was “impractical to reach, on the available evidence, any conclusions about Dr. King’s reasons for failing to attribute some, but not all, of his sources. The committee’s findings, although important from the point of view of historical accuracy, do not affect Dr. King’s greatness, not do they change the fact that Dr. King made an unequalled contribution to the cause of justice and equal rights in this nation.” John H. Cartwright, a member of the committee and Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Social Ethics at BU, said the committee had examined King’s dissertation independently of the King Papers Project and “we did find serious improprieties.” The chair Cartwright occupies was created by the Boston University trustees after King’s assassination. Cartwright was entering BU as a seminary student when King was finishing his doctorate. “We had many of the same professors, we worked in the same atmosphere during our graduate studies,” Cartwright said, and “under no circumstances would the atmosphere under which he did his work condone what Dr. King did. It’s incredible. He was not unaware of the correct procedure. This wasn’t just done out of ignorance.” The committee found that King “is responsible for knowingly misappropriating the borrowed materials that he failed to cite or to cite adequately.” It found a pattern of appropriation of uncited material “that is a straightforward breach of academic norms and that constitutes plagiarism as commonly understood.” The letter to be attached to King’s dissertation, Cartwright pointed out, “indicates there are serious improprieties and points readers to sources where they can find chapter and verse.” The committee found no grounds for charges raised last year that King drew his organization and chapter headings from another person’s dissertation. The plagiarism, the panel said, was of passages from the works of philosophers whose concepts of God King was comparing in his work. The dissertation is titled “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman.” The committee also found no evidence that the professors reviewing King’s dissertation had a double standard for African-American students and examined their work less critically than the work of whites. “Standards were applied with equal strictness to black as well as to white students,” the panel concluded. “Black as well as white students failed out of the program.” Even though faculty supervision of King’s work “failed to detect the large number of uncited borrowings that breached academic norms,” the committee also found, the examining professors were not negligent “according to normal standards of supervision.” 3) The claim that Martin Luther King “stole” his famous “I Have a Dream” speech from black pastor Archibald Carey is overblown. Carey’s speech, a 1952 address to the Republican National Convention, and King’s speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on 28 August 1963, are quite different; the only substantive similarity between them occurs in their perorations: both speeches end with a recitation of the first verse of Samuel Francis Smith’s popular patriotic hymn “America” (composed in 1832) and references to several American geographic locations from which the speakers exhort their listeners to “let freedom ring”: [Carey, 1952] We, Negro Americans, sing with all loyal Americans: My country ’tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, Land of the Pilgrim’s pride From every mountainside Let freedom ring! That’s exactly what we mean — from every mountain side, let freedom ring. Not only from the Green Mountains and White Mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire; not only from the Catskills of New York; but from the Ozarks in Arkansas, from the Stone Mountain in Georgia, from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia — let it ring not only for the minorities of the United States, but for … the disinherited of all the earth — may the Republican Party, under God, from every mountainside, LET FREEDOM RING! [King, 1963] This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning: My country ’tis of thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, Land of the Pilgrim’s pride From every mountainside Let freedom ring! So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire! Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York! Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi! From every mountainside, let freedom ring! When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!” 4) J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI considered Martin Luther King to be a threat to white America (terming him “the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation”) and spent years trying to dig up and manufacture derogatory information about him in order to publicly discredit him and thereby neutralize his effectiveness as a civil rights leader. The FBI asserted that the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) organization which King headed was controlled and funded by the Communist party and spent years trying to prove it, making King the target of an extensive surveillance program intended to gather evidence documenting ties between the SCLC and communists. But the Bureau was unable to uncover any credible evidence of active participation or funding between the Communist party and the SCLC, as David Garrow chronicled in his exhaustive study of Martin Luther King and the SCLC: While King continued his criticism of the [Kennedy] administration, the Kennedys were in private consternation about FBI reports that American Communist party leaders were claiming that old ally Stanley Levison was the number one advisor to Martin Luther King. In fact, the reports said, word in the party had it that Levison was writing many of King’s most important speeches. Though the FBI’s informants had no dependable information that Levison was still loyal to the party’s commands, they did know that he continued to give it modest financial support even after severing direct ties. The FBI suspected that Levison’s 1955 departure from party activity might have been a cover, and that Levison’s friendship with King might be a secret assignment undertaken at the behest of American Communists and their Soviet sponsors. The FBI’s assertions provoked fear in [Attorney General] Robert Kennedy and his closest assistants. Within several weeks time, two courses of action were decided upon. First, electronic surveillance of Levison would be instituted to monitor both his advice to King and any telephone contacts with Soviet or Communist agents. Second, those in the Kennedy administration who had some personal acquaintance with King all would warn the civil rights leader that he ought to end his relationship with Levison immediately. King would also be warned about Jack O’Dell, the man Levison had brought in manage the SCLC’s New York office. O’Dell had been involved with the Communist party throughout the 1950s, and his public record of such associations could be used against King and SCLC. On several occasions during the spring, Robert Kennedy and his assistants warned King about Levison and O’Dell, without being specific about the allegations. Each time the warnings were voiced to King, he listened quietly, thanked the speaker for his concern, and said that he was not one to question the motives of people in the movement, certainly not one so selfless as Stanley Levison. As King explained, how could he give credence to such vague allegations, coming from who knew where, when Levison had a proven track record of five years of honest counsel? If the administration had anything more specific to offer, King would gladly listen, but until then, he would not doubt one of his closest friends. The FBI kept up its round-the-clock surveillance of Stanley Levison throughout the spring and summer. The wiretaps detected no contacts with Communist agents … Though his ties to the party were now in the past, such evidence of his final disengagement did not persuade FBI officials, who continued to suspect that Stanley Levison might be a Soviet agent exerting substantial influence on the civil rights movement through his close friendship with Martin King. Late in October serious controversy broke when several conservative newspapers ran almost identical front-page stories detailing the Communist party ties of SCLC staff member Jack O’Dell. The FBI-planted stories reported that the thirty-nine-year-old O’Dell not only had a public record of past association with the “CP,” but in fact still served as a “concealed member” of the party’s national committee. The Bureau hoped that this exposé would so embarrass King that the supposed Communist mole would be purged. After several days, King issued a statement saying that O’Dell had resigned from the SCLC. While King’s statement carefully noted that the SCLC had accepted the resignation, “pending further inquiry and clarification,” those in the know, including the FBI, were aware that O’Dell remained with SCLC as head of its New York office. The FBI reasoned that King’s deceptiveness in retaining O’Dell indicated that the civil rights leader was insensitive to the dangers of Communist subversion, as well as dishonest. At King’s request, O’Dell prepared a private letter explaining his political past. O’Dell stated in the letter that while he had previously supported the Communist party program, “quite awhile before” joining SCLC, he had concluded that his prior belief that “democratic reformation of the South … required a Communist movement in the South” was incorrect and “mistaken … I no longer hold such a viewpoint, and neither do I have any Communist affiliation,” O’Dell told King. Satisfied with that statement, [attorney Clarence] Jones advised King that O’Dell’s supposed “interim resignation” could be set aside, and that O’Dell could remain with SCLC because he “has no present communist affiliation whatsoever.” On the morning of June 30 [1963], the Birmingham News, relying upon information leaked by the FBI, revealed that Jack O’Dell was still on SCLC’s payroll and working in its New York office despite King’s claim that O’Dell had resigned. [Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights] Burke Marshall again pressed King to cut all ties with O’Dell and Levison. Reluctantly, King gave in and acted on the first request. He wrote to O’Dell, in a letter primarily intended for Marshall’s consumption, that the “temporary resignation” of the preceding November now was being made permanent. Although SCLC had not discovered “any present connections with the Communist party on your part,” the continuing allegation that O’Dell was a secret member of the the CP’s national committee was a damaging one, and “in these critical times we cannot afford to risk any such impressions.” Ralph Abernathy, who succeeded King as president of the SCLC after the latter’s assassination in 1968, also disclaimed ties between the SCLC and the Communist party in his autobiography: We assumed that, though filled with malice toward us, [FBI director J. Edgar Hoover] was a rational man who was merely misinformed about our ultimate aims. If we could disabuse him of his belief that we were Communists or else willing pawns of the international Communist conspiracy, perhaps he would call off his dogs. The idea that we could reason with such people was naive. Nevertheless, at the time it seemed the best course of action to follow. So, while Martin kept an appointment in Baltimore, Andy Young and I flew to Washington to meet with Hoover’s representative, Deke DeLoach, to see if we couldn’t explain our aims and achieve some sort of truce. It was a waste of time and money. DeLoach was not a man who could really speak for Hoover, and we spent most of our time trying to answer charges he was unwilling to admit the FBI had made. We assured him that Martin was not a Communist, that Communists did not control the SCLC and that we had no desire to tear down American society. We pointed out that even in the SCLC’s constitution it states very clearly that “No member of this organization shall be a communist nor a communist sympathizer.” All we wanted, we said, was equal protection under the law — the right to enjoy the full privileges of American citizenship. Toward the end of the interview we realized that he was playing an elaborate and patronizing game with us, treating us with a strict courtesy that barely hid his contempt. We left more frustrated than when we had arrived. Not only would the FBI not cease and desist, they would not even talk to us about the matter. Ralph David Abernathy did acknowledge in his 1989 autobiography, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, that Martin Luther King engaged in extramarital affairs (evidence of which was sometimes recorded by the FBI through hotel room bugs), but he said absolutely nothing in his book about King’s supposed “obsession with white prostitutes,” King’s using “church donations to have drunken sex parties,” or King’s hiring “white prostitutes and occasionally beating them brutally.” In fact, Abernathy stated quite emphatically that he never knew King to have any sexual involvement with white women at all: Much has been written in recent years about my friend’s weakness for women. Had others not dealt with the matter in such detail, I might have avoided any commentary. Unfortunately, some of these commentators have told only the bare facts without suggesting the reasons why Martin might have indulged in such behavior. They have also left a false impression about the range of his activities. Martin and I were away more often than we were at home; and while this was no excuse for extramarital relations, it was a reason. Some men are better able to bear such deprivations than others, though all of us in SCLC headquarters had our weak moments. We all understood and believed in the biblical prohibition against sex outside of marriage. It was just that he had a particularly difficult time with that temptation. In addition to his personal vulnerability, he was also a man who attracted women, even when he didn’t intend to, and attracted them in droves. Part of his appeal was his predominant role in the black community and part of it was personal. During the last ten years of his life, Martin Luther King was the most important black man in America. That fact alone endowed him with an aura of power and greatness that women found very appealing. He was a hero — the greatest hero of his age — and women are always attracted to a hero. But he also had a personal charm that ingratiated him with members of the opposite sex. He was always gracious and courteous to women, whether they were attractive to him or not. He had perfect manners. He was well educated. He was warm and friendly. He could make them laugh. He was good company, something that cannot always be said of heroes. These qualities made him even more attractive in close proximity than he was at a distance. Then, too, Martin’s own love of women was apparent in ways that could not be easily pinpointed — but which women clearly sensed, even from afar. I remember on more than one occasion sitting on a stage and having Martin turn to me to say, “Do you see that woman giving me the eye, the one in the red dress?” I wouldn’t be able to pick her out at such a distance, but already she had somehow conveyed to him her attraction and he in turn had responded to it. Later I would see them talking together, as if they had known one another forever. I was always a little bewildered at how strongly and unerringly this mutual attraction operated. A recent biography has suggested without quite saying so that Martin had affairs with white women as well as black. Such a suggestion is without foundation. I can say with the greatest confidence that he was never attracted to white women and had nothing to do with them, despite the opportunities that may have presented themselves. Of course, J. Edgar Hoover became preoccupied with Martin’s private life early in the civil rights movement, and this preoccupation was a significant factor in Hoover’s pathological hatred of him and the movement he headed. Early in the game the FBI began to bug our various hotel rooms, hoping to discover our strategy but also to gather evidence that could be used against Martin personally. I remember in particular a stay at the Willard Hotel in Washington, where they not only put in audio receivers, but video equipment as well. Then, after collecting enough of this “evidence” to be useful, they began to distribute it to reporters, law officers, and other people in a position to hurt us. Finally, when no one would do Hoover’s dirty work for him, someone in the FBI put together a tape of highly intimate moments and sent them to Martin. Unfortunately — and perhaps this was deliberate — [his wife] Coretta received the tape and played it first. But such accusations never seemed to touch her. She rose above all the petty attempts to damage their marriage by refusing to even entertain such thoughts. A commonly circulated item about Martin Luther King that is not included in this list is the claim that King was a Republican. Such claims are based purely on speculation; King himself never expressed an affiliation with, nor endorsed candidates for, any political party, and his son, Martin Luther King III, said: “It is disingenuous to imply that my father was a Republican. He never endorsed any presidential candidate, and there is certainly no evidence that he ever even voted for a Republican.”
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4717
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Meetings set to discuss higher cancer rates in 4 NY regions.
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The state Health Department is holding public meetings in four New York regions with higher rates of cancer.
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true
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Cancer, Health, General News, New York, Warren
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The department did studies to identify factors contributing to cancer rates and determine the best approach to prevention and screening. The regions are in Erie, Warren and Suffolk counties and on Staten Island. The meeting schedule is online . Investigators found Warren County had the highest rates of all cancers in the state. Contributing factors were smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity and HPV infection. A meeting is scheduled Nov. 7 at Adirondack Community College in Queensbury. The East Buffalo/Cheektowaga area was found to have elevated numbers of colorectal, kidney, prostate, oral, esophageal and lung cancers. Tobacco was noted as a contributing factor. A meeting is set for Oct. 22 at Buffalo Museum of Science.
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18457
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"New Virginia regulations on abortion clinics ""provide the same sanitary environment we expect of dental offices."
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"A PAC affiliated with the Susan B. Anthony List says in an ad that McAuliffe opposed new regulations that would ""require women’s health clinics to provide the same sanitary environment we expect of dental offices."" McAuliffe did oppose new regulations that were approved for abortion clinics earlier this month. But it is ridiculous to imply that these rules elevate the sanitary standards for clinics to those of dental offices. Abortion clinics will be held to hospital building codes, must comply with with federal guidelines for infection prevention and will be inspected at least once every two years. Dental offices do not have to meet any of these guidelines and will continue to be inspected only in response to a complaint. Without any evidence, the PAC has launched a misleading ad that trivializes very significant and polarizing changes Virginia has made to the way it regulates abortion clinics."
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false
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Abortion, Public Health, Regulation, Virginia, Susan B. Anthony List,
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"Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe’s opposition to stricter regulation of abortion clinics has drawn fire. Women Speak Out Virginia, a PAC affiliated with the Susan B. Anthony List that seeks to end abortion, is airing a radio ad that criticizes McAuliffe for opposing what it said are ""common ground abortion center health and safety standards."" ""McAuliffe refuses to require women’s health clinics to provide the same sanitary environment we expect of dental offices and hospitals,"" the narrator says. We were well aware that controversial regulations approved by the Virginia Department of Health on April 12 will require abortion clinics to adhere to the building standards for hospitals. Proponents said the new rules would make abortion clinics safer; opponents said the regulations were a ruse to put the clinics out of business. But this is the first time we’ve heard the claim that the rules would require the clinics to provide the same sanitary standards expected of dental offices. So we decided to see if this is the case. We asked Mallory Quigley, a spokeswoman for the PAC and the Susan B. Anthony List, for proof of the ad’s claim. She provided no facts. ""We -- meaning Virginia women -- expect a safe, sanitary environment inside abortion clinics, places that should be regulated at least as strict as dental offices and in fact, even stricter -- like hospitals -- which are mentioned immediately after that,"" she wrote in an email. The ad implies that prior to the new regulations, abortion clinics were allowed to operate at lower sanitary standards than dental offices. There’s no evidence to support that. They were treated pretty much the same. Before the change, neither abortions clinics nor dental offices were regulated by the Virginia Department of Health, according to Erik Bodin, the department’s director of the office of licensure and certification. The doctors and dentists were under the purview of the Virginia Department of Health Professions, which licenses medical practitioners. The department only inspected the cleanliness of a physician’s or dentist’s office if there had been a complaint. In the case of a dentist’s office, an inspector would be required to fill out a form evaluating the cleanliness of the facility, the disposal of needles, the sterilization of equipment and surfaces. The findings are sent to the Board of Dentistry, which can revoke the license of a dentist who endangers public welfare. Up until the rule change, abortion clinics were regulated under the general category of ""physician’s offices."" The Board of Medicine does not have specific regulations regarding sanitary standards in a doctor’s office, according to Diane Powers, spokeswoman for the Department of Health Professions. The board looks into complaints and may revoke licenses of physicians who provide ""an unsanitary office environment,"" Powers said. So what’s changed under the new regulations? Nothing for dental offices. But it’s a whole new world for abortion clinics, which now fall under the Department of Health. The clinics will have to meet certain building standards for new hospitals regulating the width of hallways, the number of parking spaces, the number of air exchanges used in a procedure room to keep infections from spreading and the type of hand washing sinks used by medical staff. Each clinic is required to have a plan for preventing infections that complies with guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Each facility will be inspected by the state Department of Health at least once every two years. Our ruling A PAC affiliated with the Susan B. Anthony List says in an ad that McAuliffe opposed new regulations that would ""require women’s health clinics to provide the same sanitary environment we expect of dental offices."" McAuliffe did oppose new regulations that were approved for abortion clinics earlier this month. But it is ridiculous to imply that these rules elevate the sanitary standards for clinics to those of dental offices. Abortion clinics will be held to hospital building codes, must comply with with federal guidelines for infection prevention and will be inspected at least once every two years. Dental offices do not have to meet any of these guidelines and will continue to be inspected only in response to a complaint. Without any evidence, the PAC has launched a misleading ad that trivializes very significant and polarizing changes Virginia has made to the way it regulates abortion clinics."
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30064
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"U.S. Representative Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona voted to ""allow abortions up to birth."
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We asked Sinema’s Congressional office and election campaign whether, setting aside her voting record as a legislator, she personally supports any gestational age limit or fetal viability limit on the performance of abortions, but we did not receive a response from either in time for publication.
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false
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Politics, abortion, kyrsten sinema
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As of 9 November 2018, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona was locked in a tight race with her Republican opponent, Martha McSally, with Sinema holding a narrow lead as a court challenge was mounted regarding post-election ballot verification. During the campaign, a report by pro-life website LifeNews.com took aim at Sinema’s record on abortion-related legislation in an article headlined “Arizona Senate Candidate Kyrsten Sinema Voted to Allow Abortions Up to Birth”: Today the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) and Center for Arizona Policy Action announced a ground campaign to expose Rep. Kyrsten Sinema’s extreme views on abortion ahead of the midterm election. Since the summer of 2017, SBA List’s field team of more than 700 pro-life canvassers has visited more than two million voters at their homes across Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Missouri, North Dakota, and Montana. The campaign is part of an historic effort to educate and mobilize voters for the 2018 midterm elections. “When it comes to abortion, Rep. Sinema could not be more out of step with her pro-life constituents. She has voted repeatedly to continue sending tax dollars to the country’s biggest abortion business, Planned Parenthood. She even voted against a compassionate popular measure to stop abortion after five months, a point by which unborn babies can feel pain,” said SBA List’s National Campaign Chair Jill Stanek … The article did not cite evidence of Sinema’s having voted specifically to allow abortion up to birth. The “measure to stop abortion after five months” which Jill Stanek referred to in her remarks was H.B. 2036, a 2012 bill that, along with several other provisions, would have made it a misdemeanor crime for any medical professional to perform an abortion on a fetus after five months in the absence of extenuating medical circumstances: Except in a medical emergency, a person shall not knowingly perform, induce or attempt to perform or induce an abortion on a pregnant woman if the probable gestational age of her unborn child has been determined to be at least twenty weeks. H.B. 2036 was signed into law by Republican governor Jan Brewer in 2014, but it immediately faced legal challenges from pro-choice groups and was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on the grounds that the requirements it imposed on abortion providers relating to abortion medication amounted to an undue burden on a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. H.B. 2036, the “measure to stop abortion after five months” which Stanek claimed Sinema voted against, was introduced in the Arizona legislature in December 2011, but the first Arizona state senate vote on the bill came on 27 March 2012, by which time Sinema was no longer a member of the Arizona Senate. In preparation for her 2012 U.S. House of Representatives campaign, Sinema resigned from the Arizona Senate in January 2012, meaning that contrary to Stanek’s claim in the LifeNews.com article, Sinema never voted on H.B. 2036. Other votes on abortion Nevertheless, Sinema is undoubtedly a firm supporter of abortion rights and has on other occasions opposed or voted against legislative measures which would enhance restrictions on access to, or the performance of, abortions. As a member of the Arizona House of Representatives in 2008, she voted against legislation that would have specified the criminal penalties for performing a “partial-birth abortion,” a non-clinical term for a rare but controversial procedure that the American Medical Association (AMA) describes as follows: The term ‘partial birth abortion’ is not a medical term. The AMA will use the term “intact dilatation and extraction” (or intact D&X) to refer to a specific procedure comprised of the following elements: deliberate dilatation of the cervix, usually over a sequence of days; instrumental or manual conversion of the fetus to a footling breech; breech extraction of the body excepting the head; and partial evacuation of the intracranial contents of the fetus to effect vaginal delivery of a dead but otherwise intact fetus. This procedure is distinct from dilatation and evacuation (D&E) procedures more commonly used to induce abortion after the first trimester. In 2003, President George W. Bush signed into law the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, a bill promoted by Republican senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania that imposed a nationwide ban on the procedure, except where it is deemed necessary to save the life of a woman. In the following years, several federal courts ruled that the law was unconstitutional because it did not include an exception to the ban which would protect the health (as opposed to merely the life) of the woman, but the U.S. Supreme Court definitively upheld the nationwide ban in 2007 in a high-profile case known as Gonzales v. Carhart. In 2008, Arizona lawmakers sought to incorporate the national partial-birth abortion ban into state law and increase the penalties for medical professionals who performed the procedure, taken from those set out in a 1997 Arizona law that was struck down by a federal court and remained unenforced. They did this through a bill (H.B. 2769 in the House of Representatives and S.B. 1099 in the Senate) which Sinema opposed and voted against as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives. In explaining her vote against H.B. 2769, Sinema said: Arizona law already prohibits late-term abortions, commonly known as partial-birth abortions. What this measure will do is increase the penalty for individuals who break the law, from a Class 6 felony to a Class 5 felony. We have seen no problems with the current implementation of Arizona state law, and so I can’t understand why we’d want to increase the penalty when the current penalty seems to be working just fine. While [Republican State Representative Andy] Tobin does state that this mirrors the U.S. Supreme Court statute, the concern that I have is that by changing the penalty we’re actually increasing the penalties existing in Arizona law, and doing nothing to change the situation about those women who face this difficult and sometimes terrible choice. When it comes to evaluating LifeNews.com’s claim that Sinema voted “to allow abortions up to birth,” there are a couple of important considerations. First, despite Sinema’s own somewhat loose equation of partial-birth abortion and late-term abortion, those phenomena are not synonymous. Although intact dilation and extraction typically happens relatively late in a pregnancy (after 16 or 20 weeks gestation) and usually in cases of miscarriage or a late diagnosis of a fatal fetal abnormality, the procedure is not synonymous with a “late-term abortion.” Intact dilation and extraction is, roughly-speaking, a variety of late-term abortion. Therefore, voting against a bill which increases the statutory penalties for performing a partial-birth abortion is not the same as voting to affirm the right of a woman to obtain a late-term abortion without any restrictions (that is, “abortions up to birth”). Second, given the nationwide ban on partial-birth abortions upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007, there was never any prospect of Sinema’s vote against the 2008 Arizona bill having the effect of suddenly legalizing or allowing unrestricted late-term or partial-birth abortions. As she outlined in her House floor explanation, she was instead voting against what she said was an unnecessary increase in criminal penalties in Arizona for something that was already prohibited by law. For these reasons, Sinema’s vote against H.B. 2769 was not a vote to “allow abortions up to birth,” either in the stated rationale behind her decision or in the possible consequences of her vote.
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40953
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In a day, Italy sent home more than 14,000 patients after treating them with Aspirin and Apronax.
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The Italian Medicines Agency doesn’t mention aspirin or apronax in its list drugs used to treat Covid-19 outside of clinical trials. And there’s no record of a day when 14,000 people were sent home from hospital in Italy.
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false
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online
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Italy has concluded Covid-19 is not a virus, and people are actually dying of amplified global 5G electromagnetic radiation poisoning. Italy disobeyed world health law from the WHO saying not to carry out autopsies on Covid-19 patients. The WHO never said autopsies couldn’t take place. Italy has found that Covid-19 is actually disseminated intravascular coagulation (thrombosis). The way to cure this is antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and anticoagulants. Antibiotics do not directly treat Covid-19, which is caused by a virus. The anti-inflammatory ibuprofen is being trialled for use against Covid-19 and an anticoagulant has been used in some Covid-19 cases. Aspirin is not a specific cure. Covid-19 is not a virus, but a bacterium being amplified by 5G which causes inflammation and hypoxia. Covid-19 patients can get secondary infections from bacteria. Hypoxia and types of inflammation can be symptoms of Covid-19. There’s no proof Covid-19 is in any way related to 5G. People with Covid-19 should take aspirin 100mg and Apronax or paracetamol. Trials into both of these drugs’ effectiveness in treating Covid-19 are ongoing, but haven’t concluded yet. Paracetamol can ease symptoms but isn’t a specific treatment. Covid-19 clots the blood causing thrombosis, stopping blood flow and oxygenating the heart and lungs. Severe Covid-19 can cause blood clotting problems and issues like this have been seen in Covid-19 patients, but this is not the only thing that can be fatal in patients. In a day, Italy sent home more than 14,000 patients after treating them with Aspirin and Apronax. The Italian Medicines Agency doesn’t mention aspirin or apronax in its list drugs used to treat Covid-19 outside of clinical trials. And there’s no record of a day when 14,000 people were sent home from hospital in Italy. There is an order to incinerate or immediately bury Covid-19 bodies without autopsy. There is no such order. Claim 1 of 10
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5335
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Ex-Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper supports universal health care.
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John Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado who is considering a run for president in 2020, said Thursday he supports universal health care and thinks the U.S. eventually should provide it.
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true
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John Kasich, New Hampshire, Colorado, Health, Universal health care, Denver, North America, Medicare, John Hickenlooper, Politics
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But as other Democrats already in the race endorse “Medicare-for-all,” Hickenlooper told a crowd at a New Hampshire college that it was more important now to get behind the general idea rather than argue over a specific approach. “I reject the notion that it should become a litmus test of what it takes to be a good Democrat,” said Hickenlooper, who expanded Medicaid while governor and has teamed with former Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, on a health care overhaul. The onetime Denver mayor, who’s considered a centrist politician, said after holding a town hall that he will not decide for several more weeks whether to join the crowded 2020 contest. He took questions mostly from students and faculty on topics including student debt, the ballooning national debt and relations with American allies around the world. Hickenlooper said he was concerned that the push for “Medicare-for-all” calls for dismantling the current system when less disruptive measures may achieve universal health care. “There are so many different ways to cut the pie and work on the issue that we too often are trying to say, ‘You’re wrong, I’m right,’ and this is even within the Democrat Party,” he said. “It’s more important to be unified and say we want universal coverage. We are not going to stop until we get universal coverage.” With Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts already running, the challenge for Hickenlooper is showing he is liberal enough to compete. He cited liberal policies he enacted as governor dealing with methane emissions and teenage pregnancies and abortion. “In many ways, I’m a lot more progressive than a lot of these other folks,” he asserted. Hickenlooper also insisted he would have no problem going up against President Donald Trump. “I grew up the skinny kid with thick glasses and a funny last name. I’ve dealt with bullies my whole life,” he said. “The way to deal with a bully is you don’t punch back and take them head on. You take what they say to you and ... you reframe it in a way that reveals the foolishness of what they’re saying and the weakness and insecurity that they’re demonstrating.” After his New Hampshire swing, Hickenlooper is scheduled to give an address at the Global Security Conference in Munich this weekend about trade and the trans-Atlantic partnership. The trip would help burnish the former governor’s foreign policy credentials ahead of any possible presidential campaign.
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9596
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Dry needling' for pain therapy is under scrutiny
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This is a story about an alternative therapy known as “dry needling.” It involves inserting needles into the skin, similarly to acupuncture. The story leads with an anecdote that comes dangerously close to being a promotional advertisement for an unproven alternative therapy for pain, but that’s just the hook. The story (and the headline) is more measured, sifting through what we know and what we don’t know yet about dry needling, largely through interviews with competing trade associations. We would have liked if the story had gone a step further and delved into the actual science behind dry needling and acupuncture more deeply, and if some of the interviews with people with vested interests had been exchanged for interviews with pain management experts who don’t have a predisposition for or against the procedure. There is enough evidence on acupuncture as a therapy to have persuaded at least some states to create medical licensure programs for its practice, and the story touches at the very end on the idea that there is a training component here that needs further exploration. [Editor’s note: The notion that the evidence on acupuncture has persuaded states to create medical licensure programs has been contested by the Society for Science-Based Medicine in this post. They argue that evidence is not a factor in state licensing of such practitioners. We have also amended our comments under the “Independent Sources” criterion below in response to their feedback.] For this type of story, which is trying to truth-test some of the claims being made about a buzzed about alternative therapy, we really appreciate the question and answer format. The story calls out some of the key elements, including risks and costs, that are necessary for patients to make informed decisions. Dry needling has become increasingly popular despite questionable evidence for the procedure. A pertinent question, which the story attempts to address, is whether or not it is acupuncture in disguise.
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true
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USA Today
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The story nicely calls out different questions that readers might have, including whether insurance will pay for the therapy. It answers, “Many will not. Charges for patients can range from $10 to $75 per session, says Edo Zylstra, CEO of KinetaCore, a company that offers intensive three-day weekend courses in dry needling to physical therapists.” This was a tough call, since the story includes a general discussion of the benefits. But what it doesn’t do is report on any quantified benefits, such as how much pain relief people report in the studies, or for how long. It does tell us that the evidence shows the technique “may be useful” and points out other findings, such as the evidence overall shows “mixed results.” We like that the story called out risks specifically, which is something we don’t see often. It says, “Needling can produce minor bleeding and some soreness, but in trained hands, and with the use of sterile needles and gloves, “it’s a very safe procedure,” Briggs says. In rare cases, deep needling can lead to a punctured lung or injuries to nerves and blood vessels, and acupuncturists fear non-specialists will be more likely to make such mistakes, Burgoon says.” The story would have been stronger if it had quoted a source with no vested interest in discussing risks. Also, it’s worth pointing out that these risks are real whether “trained hands” do the procedure or not. The section “What do published studies say?” includes a look at findings from a review and a meta-analysis, and lets us know the findings of these efforts are mixed. From early in the story, there are statements about the lack of evidence supporting this therapy and the need for more research. There is no disease mongering in this piece. The story should be commended for its extensive sourcing. There are many sources packed into this piece and likely more sources who were interviewed and not quoted given the amount of reporting that clearly went into it. At the same time, most of the sources have a potential conflict of interest in some way: All of these potential conflicts are called out in the piece, which is commendable. The one person who brings a fairly down-the-middle view is Matt Briggs, a physical therapist who is studying the technique to see whether it works. But our question about him is whether he also is a practitioner of the technique. We would have liked to have seen more exploration of alternatives — or shall we say the standard of care — for injuries like the one described in the lead, runner’s knee. We’re not given a strong idea of what the evidence says is generally the right path to choose for practitioners and patients. We know the toolkit for pain is quite shallow, but physical therapy, diet, exercise, carefully targeted medication, and, at times, surgical interventions all have long track records. We would have liked to have seen more weight given to the proven techniques along the way. The story essentially lets people know that this is something that is becoming more popular but that not very many physical therapists are trained in it yet. The story establishes what’s new and why it’s being written about with this statement: “And there, Briggs says, is where dry needling is lacking. While some studies have shown promise, he says, “the quality of the evidence is not strong.” That’s why Briggs and his colleagues are starting a study looking at dry needling in “runner’s knee,” the condition that has plagued Pierce. Their goal, and the goal of other researchers now looking at dry needling, is to produce results rigorous enough to show whether it really works.” The story does not rely on a news release.
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19455
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"CNSNews Says ""under Oregon law, girls from 15 years of age and up are given complete control over whether to be sterilized or not."
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In Oregon, do 15-year-olds have complete control over sterilization?
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false
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Oregon, Health Care, Public Health, CNSNews,
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"In early August, CNSNews.com published an article with the headline ""Obamacare Mandate: Sterilize 15-Year-Old Girls for Free –Without Parental Consent."" ""Thanks to an Obamacare regulation that took effect on Aug. 1,"" read the article, ""health care plans in Oregon will now be required to provide free sterilizations to 15-year-old girls even if the parents of those girls do not consent to the procedure."" The article went on to note that ""Under Oregon law, girls from 15 years of age and up are given complete control over whether to be sterilized or not."" The story got picked up by several websites, quickly making its way around the web – and into our mailbox. Of course, we were curious, too, so we got to checking. Before we get to our findings, here's a little context about CNSNews.com for those – like us – who had not heard of it. CNSNews.com, based in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., says its goal is to ""provide an alternative news source that would cover stories that are subject to the bias of omission and report on other news subject to bias by commission."" It is not affiliated with Catholic News Service, which sometimes uses the same CNS abbreviation. First, we checked the larger context of the article to see if ""Obamacare"" (the Affordable Care Act) requires health insurers to cover sterilization. We made several calls before we finally came up with a solid source that confirmed the new law requires providers to cover sterilization without cost to the patient. According to the U.S. Health Resource and Services Administration, services that fall under ""women's preventive health care"" are supposed to be covered for free, including mammograms, screenings for cervical cancer, prenatal care, contraception, sexually transmitted infection counseling and – yes –""sterilization procedures."" As for the more salient detail – the age of consent in Oregon – we found a piece of Oregon law, which states that ""a minor 15 years of age or older may give consent, without the consent of a parent or guardian of the minor, to: Hospital care, medical or surgical diagnosis or treatment by a physician licensed by the Oregon Medical Board …"" Essentially, CNSNews.com linked those two pieces of information – the new requirements that insurance companies cover sterilization for free and the fact that Oregon's age of consent for health care is 15 years old. The idea that 15-year-old girls would be lining up for free on-demand sterilizations struck our readers either as scary - ""Is this true?"" - or ridiculous - ""This can't be true."" We kept reporting. We checked whether sterilization had always been covered by the Oregon Health Plan, the state-run health care insurance program that covers 600,000 people a month. We called Oregon Health Authority spokeswoman Alissa Robbins, who confirmed that it has been included since the plan's inception in 1994. We also asked how many 15-, 16 – and 17-year-olds had received sterilizations under the plan. Robbins checked records for the last 10 years and found no sterilization procedure for a 15-year-old or a 16-year-old. As for 17-year-olds, she said, at most one such procedure is performed each year, though some years none is performed. She couldn't tell us the reason, she said, because it was ""protected health information."" However, it seems clear to us that the procedure for young women in that age bracket is exceedingly rare. Robbins also pointed us to ORS 436, which lays out the warnings and consent procedures for anyone seeking sterilization, including minors. If a physician feels a minor is not capable of making an informed consent to be sterilized, her only recourse is to go to court and ask a judge to order that she is. We also checked with OHSU Hospital to see what the process would be for a minor looking to be sterilized there. Spokeswoman Tamara Hargens-Bradley got back to us with a lengthy email. For any patient under 30, she said, the hospital offers counseling about ""long-acting reversible contraceptives"" and ""the risk of regret"" in young women who are sterilized. The ""most likely scenario in which a teenager would request sterilization,"" she wrote, ""is if she has a medical condition so severe that pregnancy would be life-threatening."" If sterilization is not needed medically and a teen insists, Hargens-Bradley said the OHSU ethics committee would get involved. ""(T)hat would be very unusual and cause concern about whether the patient is capable of providing fully informed consent."" She ended on this note: ""The health care reform offering contraception for free does not REQUIRE a physician to provide care they do not feel is safe for the patient. It requires that insurance plans cover all contraceptives available."" After some vacation phone tag, we were able to talk to Michael Chapman, the CNSNews.com managing editor who had worked closely with the story's author, an intern who is no longer there. ""Our story is factual,"" Chapman said. ""Out story reports what the law is in Oregon and it reports what the federal regulation is."" Chapman said the article was stymied in part by little response from the Oregon Health Authority. ""It's great they're willing to say more now that the story has come out. ""Nearly all health insurers must provide sterilization ... that's a fact."" In a subsequent email, Chapman pointed out language on the Oregon Health Authority's consent to sterilization form that reads ""I was told that the decision to be sterilized is completely up to me."" The form is the last step in many checks and balances that is only signed after the patient finds a physician willing to perform the procedure. Now let's pull this together. Our reporting found that it's true that the health care act requires sterilizations to be free. It's also true that 15-year-olds can consent to health care without parental consent. But CNSNews.com goes even further by alleging that ""under Oregon law, girls from 15 years of age and up are given complete control over whether to be sterilized or not."" The statement would be accurate if it said health care plans in Oregon are required to pay for sterilizations for 15-year-old-girls. But instead, the statement confuses the insurers with providers – i.e. physicians – stating that 15-year-olds have ""complete control."" That's not true. What a 15-year-old girl may want and what a medical provider is willing to do, at least in this case, are two very different things. Health care providers are under no obligation to provide sterilization on demand. In fact, free sterilization is not available on demand for 15-year-olds in Oregon. A 15-year-old must first convince a doctor that the procedure is medically necessary. While sometimes it is -- to treat cancer, for instance --a decade of records from the Oregon Health Plan and the explanation of procedures at OHSU show sterilization of 15-year-olds is incredibly rare. In Oregon, 15-year-old girls do not have ""complete control"" over whether to be sterilized. We rule the statement ."
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11317
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Weighing risk for obese youth
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This is a story about a study of the use of one particular weight loss surgery (gastric banding) for the treatment of children who are obese. This story did accurately report the results of the story, though selectively so. Further, the title of the research study mentioned that the results were 'short-term'. This is important because the surgeons promoting the use of the surgery make the claim that it would have an effect on the chronic diabetes and cardiovascular disease that these kids would be facing. There is no evidence that inserting a gastric band in children will decrease the risk of these diseases in adulthood because there is no evidence that the band will decrease the risk of obesity in these children as they become adults. While participants of the study lost about 63% of their excess weight by one year after surgery, they had already started to regain weight by 18 months. Thus while the story did contain accurate information about the increasing prevalence of obesity, it did not contain information about treatment options, costs of weight loss surgery or adequate information about the potential for weight regain.
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mixture
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"The story did not discuss costs of these treatments – a significant oversight. The benefits of the treatment (weight loss at 18 months) was accurately reported. It should have been clarified that this amount of weight loss did not represent the maximum weight loss, which was seen at 1 year. The fact that the children in the study were seen to have started to gain weight by 18 months after surgery should have been mentioned. Nonetheless, we'll again give the story the benefit of the doubt. The story did quantify the complications seen in the trial. But it let a study co-author get away with saying that these were ""minor compared to the chronic diabetes and cardiovascular disease teens would face…."". He failed to point out that the complications they experienced were concrete as opposed to hypothetical. It might be better to let patients dexcribe whether these were ""minor"" or not. The fact that the children in the study were seen to have started to gain weight by 18 months after surgery should have been mentioned. Nonetheless, because of the listing of complications at the end of story, we'll give it the benefit of the doubt. The evidence presented in this story come from a study of 53 children, which was accurately reflected. The story explained that the study participants had lost ""nearly half of their weight over 18 months…"" But more importantly, they had lost about 63% of their excess weight at 12 months, which means that they had already started to regain some lost weight by a year and half. This is an important point that could have been presented. Nonetheless, we'll give the story the benefit of the doubt on this criterion. ""…huge increases in the number of dangerously obese children….."" is disease mongering. A real estimate of prevalence would have been helpful. (About 5% of children nationwide have a BMI greater than 40). Although it is true that the number of children with a BMI > 40 has been increasing, and that children who are obese are commonly found to become obese adults, it could have easily been described as an increasing proportion of kids who are obese. It is true that health problems typically seen in older individuals can be seen in obese kids, it is extremely rare for these health problems to be 'dangerous' in the short term. One patient was interviewed for this story as was one of the authors of the research study. One surgeon at one of the hospitals with FDA approval for using this surgical procedure on children was interviewed. And one nutritionist who was not associated with the study and had a rather dim view of this mode of treatment of obesity was also interviewed. This story mentioned dieting only in passing (as in the one patient quoted as saying ""Dieting didn't work"") and failed to mention counseling or weight loss drugs that might be used to better enable children to reduce their weight. The story provides only a limited view on availability of these procedures. It does mention that four hospitals are testing various forms of weight loss surgery in children and that only three are approved for the laparoscopic gastric banding procedure detailed in the article. But the FDA does not regulate gastric bypass and can only decide on whether the gastric band is officially ""approved"" for use in kids. Many other treatments for kids do not have FDA approval for that age range, but some clinicians feel comfortable with ""off-label"" prescribing. So, in short. Both procedures may be available to kids all over the U.S. What people need to know is that the use of both procedures in kids is still very much experimental. There isn' t much evidence of efficacy and safety in this population. This story was about the use of an established treatment of morbid obesity in adults in a new population, children. This article does not appear to rely exclusively on a press release."
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3984
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Texas cattle groups dispute over tick treatment ban.
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A recent decision to ban a tool to treat a deadly tick could put cattle at risk, according to Texas ranchers and several government agencies.
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true
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Waco, Animal health, Health, Agriculture, Texas
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Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller last month halted the use of 15 cattle fever tick spray boxes in South Texas for lacking ventilation, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported. The boxes spray livestock with a chemical to eliminate ticks that spread bovine babesiosis. The disease kills 90 percent of the animals it infects, according to the Texas Animal Health Commission. But Miller said he’s received reports of cattle dying from the boxes’ poorly ventilated units. Nearly 920 cattle have been exposed to fever ticks in 82 counties since September 2016, the state Animal Health Commission said. “Portable spray boxes have been utilized for decades and have proven very effective in our containment and eradication efforts,” said commission director Andy Schwartz. Cattle raisers need a short-term solution to prevent their livestock from contracting the disease, said Gene Hall, Texas Farm Bureau spokesman. “They need to be spraying right now,” Hall said. “Every day they miss, cattle are being put in jeopardy.” Austin Brown III, director of the Texas and Southwest Cattle Raisers, has ranched cattle with his family in Bee County for decades. “Without tools to control these ticks, we run the risk of their spreading northward,” Brown said. “I’ve never had any trouble with spray boxes, and without their use, I believe there is a threat to local and state herds, even beyond.” Miller planned to meet this week with representatives of the animal health commission and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to discuss the issue. But representatives failed to show, said agency spokesman Mark Loeffler. “It’s hard to make a deal with thin air,” Miller wrote. “I’ve got a proposal to get those spray boxes open again, but everyone has to come to the table.” ___ Information from: Waco Tribune-Herald, http://www.wacotrib.com
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33656
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For every forwarded copy of an e-mail received, the American Cancer Society will donate three cents to cancer research.
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So please, if you get it, don’t forward it. You’re giving the wrong person immortality.
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false
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Inboxer Rebellion, american cancer society, Medical Appeals
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It sounds too easy to be true: forward an e-mail, rack up some cancer research money. And it is. Too easy to be true, that is. This “dying child chain letter” hoax now circulating on the net victimizes the American Cancer Society. In the name of a fictitious little girl, people are exhorted to forward the letter on because each forward drops more money into the research coffers. Such an offer is hard to resist because it’s a painless good deed, a way to enjoy a self-congratulatory pat on the back for “making a difference” without actually having to do anything. After all, it’s being underwritten by the American Cancer Society and nameless corporate sponsors, right? Uh, wrong. You see, there is no Jessica Mydek, and there is no such program to score up some easy cancer research money. What there is, however, is the long-suffering American Cancer Society who have been left holding the bag. But let’s take a look at what’s actually being bounced around the net, eh? Cancer research money, guys . . . not much effort.LITTLE JESSICA MYDEK IS SEVEN YEARS OLD AND IS SUFFERING FROM AN ACUTE AND VERY RARE CASE OF CEREBRAL CARCINOMA. THIS CONDITION CAUSES SEVERE MALIGNANT BRAIN TUMORS AND IS A TERMINAL ILLNESS. THE DOCTORS HAVE GIVEN HER SIX MONTHS TO LIVE. AS PART OF HER DYING WISH, SHE WANTED TO START A CHAIN LETTER TO INFORM PEOPLE OF THIS CONDITION AND TO SEND PEOPLE THE MESSAGE TO LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST AND ENJOY EVERY MOMENT, A CHANCE THAT SHE WILL NEVER HAVE. FURTHERMORE, THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY AND SEVERAL CORPORATE SPONSORS HAVE AGREED TO DONATE THREE CENTS TOWARD CONTINUING CANCER RESEARCH FOR EVERY NEW PERSON THAT GETS FORWARDED THIS MESSAGE. PLEASE GIVE JESSICA AND ALL CANCER VICTIMS A CHANCE. SEND A COPY OF THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW AND ONE TO THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY AT ACS@AOL.COM. That was the original version. Since January 1997, this “3 cent” e-mail hoax has undergone numerous major transformations: For every new person that this is passed on to The American Cancer Society will donate 3 cents to cancer research. Please help us. Forward this to everyone you know. Also add to your list ACS@aol.com. Thanks for helping!! o.k. you guys . . . this isn’t a chain letter, but a choice for all of us to save a little girl that’s dying of a serious and fatal form of cancer. please send this to everyone you know…or don’t know at that. this little girl has 6 months left to live her life, and as her dying wish, she wanted to send a chain letter telling everyone to live their life to the fullest, since she never will. she’ll never make it to prom, graduate from high school, or get married and have a family of her own. but by you sending this to as many people as possible, you can give her and her family a little hope, because with every name that this is sent to, the american cancer society will donate 3 cents per name to her treatment and recovery plan. one guy sent this to 500 people !!!! so, i know that we can send it to at least 5 or 6. come on you guys…. and here’s 2 great reasons to take 5-10 minutes to forward this to ANYONE:1) It’s a an awesome way to rack up POSITIVE karma points :) 2) just think, she could be you one day . . . and in addition there’s no need to send any form of money, just your time. So how about it? Thanks in advance! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!! By November 1997 the Tamara Martin e-mail had returned, this time with the ante upped to 6 cents per forward but copies still directed to <cool12@aol.com>. By January 1998, copies of this new 6 cent e-mail were being directed to <christmas@vasia.com>. HI! This is Dave Matthews from The Dave Matthews Band (duh). I got America Online just a little while ago and my screenname will be sent to you if you pass this on. I get a list of the people who send this to at least another 5 people online and my secratary will send all of you my screenname.I go online at least once a week. The reason I am doing this is because this little girl needs our help and I thought that I could use my fame to help out this sick little girl. Ok Listen I Just Spent 13 hours Getting Screen Names Just So that I Could Help a Little Girl So Read The bottom This isn’t a chain letter. Look you guys….. This isn’t a chain letter, but a choice for all of us to save a little girl that’s dying of a serious and fatal form of cancer. Please send this to everyone you know…or don’t know at that. This little girl has 6 months left to live, and as her dying wish, she wanted to send a Chain letter telling everyone to live their life to the fullest, since she never will. She’ll never make it to prom, graduate from high school, or get married and have a family of her own. But by you sending this to as many people as possible, you can give her and her family a little hope, because with every name that this is sent to, the American Cancer Society will donate 3 cents per name to her treatment and recovery plan. One guy sent this to 500 people!!!! So, I know that we can send it to at least 5 or 6. Come on you guys…. And if you’re too damn selfish to waste 10-15 minutes scrolling this and forwarding it to EVERYONE, (more than one person): you’re one sick puppy, and two: just think it could be you one day….and it’s not even your $money$, just your time. I know that ya’ll will impress me !!! !I love ya’ll!!!!! Love, Greg Harduk Hello. My name is Tamara Martin and I have severe lung cancer due to second hand smoke.This chain was a final attend to get me healthy again. Every letter sent gets 6 cents. Please send this to 10 people. (by the way for those who take 2 minutes to send this, what comes around goes around. Slow DanceHave you ever watched kids / on a merry-go-round / Or listened to the rain / slapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly’s / erratic flight / Or gazed at the sun into / the fading night? You better slow down / Don’t dance so fast / Time is short / The music won’t last Do you run through each day / on the fly / When you ask “How are you?” / do you hear the reply? When the day is done / do you lie in your bed / With the next hundred chores / running through your head? You better slow down / Don’t dance so fast / Time is short / The music won’t last Ever told your child / We’ll do it tomorrow / And in your haste / not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch / Let a good friendship die / ‘Cause you never had time / to call and say “Hi”? You better slow down / Don’t dance so fast / Time is short / The music won’t last When you run so fast / to get somewhere / You miss half the fun / of getting there. When you worry and hurry / through your day / It is like an unopened gift / thrown away… Life is not a race / Do take it slower / Hear the music / before the song is over. Hi, my name is Amy Bruce. I am 7 years old, and I have severe lung cancer from second hand smoke. I also have a large tumor in my brain, from repeated beatings. The doctors say I will die soon if this isn’t fixed, and my family can’t pay the bills. The Make A Wish Foundation, has agreed to donate 7 cents for every name on this list. For those of you who send this along, I thank you so much, but for those who don’t send it, what goes around comes around. Have a Heart, please send this. The Make-A-Wish Foundation helps the dreams of terminally ill children come true. By the time a child is brought to its attention, everything medically possible has already been done. It’s not a matter of collecting donations to pay for a child’s care; it’s about making final days special days. Make-A-Wish did not take kindly to being included in someone’s idea of a rousing good jest. They tracked down the person who’d started this particular version of the game. They also put up a web page denying that they had anything to do with this e-mail. Some of the numerous versions in circulation contain an exhortation from Dr. Dennis Shields of the Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. Like many others in the history of Internet lore, his name mysteriously came to be attached to a hoax. As he said about it: Unfortunately, this letter is a complete hoax; it has nothing to do with me, my Institution or the American Cancer Society. Several versions of this letter are now circulating, so please ignore all of them and DO NOT PASS IT ON. Thank God the American Cancer Society doesn’t have an America Online address, else by now they’d be swamped with copies of forwarded messages from well-meaning but terribly misguided people. (As is becoming the norm for large organizations, the ACS has its own domain name: www.cancer.org). Even so, the various ACS offices around the country have been hit with calls asking about this most touching e-mail, and manpower that could be put to much better use ended up staffing phones and answering e-mail. (It’s ironic, that. The families of real dying seven-year-olds end up getting the short end of the stick because of this outpouring of love for a fictitious child.) The ACS position is quite simple: they “do not endorse the use of chain letters.” Ever. They’ve also told me that this particular “use of the Society’s name is unauthorized.” Also, they don’t know any Jessica Mydek. Indeed, they’re doing their level best to investigate where this wild e-mail came from. It certainly wasn’t from them. (Check out what they have to say about it at the ACS web site.) Above and beyond the information obtained from my conversations with the ACS, common sense alone should show this up for the hoax it is. Think about it for a second. One of the primary purposes of the American Cancer Society is the direction of funds to cancer research. (The ACS is good at this: since its inception in the 1950s, it has directed $1.7 billion to the cause.) The concept of the ACS “donating” funds towards cancer research is akin to the notion of a hockey player “donating” all the goals he scores to his team. Then there is the matter of unnamed corporate sponsors; there just ain’t any such critters. Companies donate monies to worthy causes, and their reward for doing so is becoming identified in the public’s mind not only with that particular cause but also with the larger concepts of service to one’s community and a sense of social responsibility. These are powerful images to plant in the minds of consumers, far too powerful to just be thrown away by remaining anonymous. It all adds up to hoax. Even the child’s name provides a further clue: As has been pointed out by a few people, “Jessica Mydek” is nearly homophonous with a rudely-phrased request for oral sex (think about it), and the mentality that would create this chain letter would also get sniggering pleasure out of the thought of concealed dirty words being unknowingly e-mailed all over the globe by well-intentioned people. Likely as not the perpetrator of the original hoax had no idea of the havoc his creation could wreak. Perhaps he gave in to the urge that prompts some of us to reach for the spray paint upon sighting a prominent and ever-so-grafittable rockface. Urge for immortality and all that. Not immortality for a dying seven-year-old, you understand — immortality for the prankster.
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35187
|
A doctor in Italy shared numerous details about how hospitals in the country are dealing with COVID-19, a disease caused by the new coronavirus.
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I don’t spend a lot of words about the people who define us heroes these days and who until yesterday were ready to insult and report us. Both will return to insult and report as soon as everything is over. People forget everything quickly.
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true
|
Medical, COVID-19
|
In March 2020, as the coronavirus continued to spread around the globe, a viral message circulated on social media that was supposedly written by a doctor in Italy about how the new virus had impacted hospitals in the country. Silvia Stringhini, an epidemiologist, shared a translated version of this post on Twitter. A screenshot of Stringhini’s first few tweets appear below. The full thread can be viewed here: Stringhini’s viral tweets are a translated version of a real Italian-language Facebook post from Dr. Daniele Macchini, an intensive care unit physician at the Humanitas Gavazzeni hospital in Bergamo. A screenshot of a portion of Macchini’s post appears below. The full post can be viewed here, and a translated version appears in full at the bottom of this article: Macchini explained that hospitals in Italy were overwhelmed with new cases, urged people to stop downplaying the disease as just a “bad flu,” and asked those who were “unafraid” of the disease to consider how it will impact older populations. Macchini also complimented the cooperative efforts of medical professionals at the hospital, writing that there were “no more surgeons, urologists, orthopedists,” just doctors who “suddenly become part of a single team to face this tsunami that has overwhelmed us.” Here’s Macchini’s message in full (translated via Google): In one of the constant emails that I receive from my health department on a more than daily basis now these days, there was also a paragraph entitled “doing social responsibly”, with some recommendations that can only be supported. After thinking for a long time if and what to write about what is happening to us, I felt that the silence was not at all responsible. I will therefore try to convey to people “not involved in the work” and further away from our reality, what we are experiencing in Bergamo during these pandemic days from Covid-19. I understand the need not to create panic, but when the message of the danger of what is happening does not reach people and I still feel who cares about the recommendations and people who gather together complaining about not being able to go to the gym or to be able to do soccer tournaments I shudder. I also understand the economic damage and I am also worried about that. After the epidemic, the tragedy will start again. However, apart from the fact that we are literally also devastating our NHS from an economic point of view, I allow myself to raise the importance of the health damage that is likely throughout the country and I find it nothing short of “chilling” for example that a red zone already requested by the region has not yet been established for the municipalities of Alzano Lombardo and Nembro (I would like to clarify that this is pure personal opinion). I myself looked with some amazement at the reorganizations of the entire hospital in the previous week, when our current enemy was still in the shadows: the wards slowly “emptied”, the elective activities interrupted, the intensive therapies freed to create as many beds as possible. Containers arriving in front of the emergency room to create diversified routes and avoid any infections. All this rapid transformation brought into the corridors of the hospital an atmosphere of surreal silence and emptiness that we still did not understand, waiting for a war that was yet to begin and that many (including me) were not so sure would never come with such ferocity . (I open a parenthesis: all this in silence and without publicity, while several newspapers had the courage to say that private health care was not doing anything). I still remember my night guard a week ago passed unnecessarily without turning a blind eye, waiting for a call from the microbiology of the Sack. I was waiting for the outcome of a swab on the first suspect patient in our hospital, thinking about what consequences it would have for us and the clinic. If I think about it, my agitation for one possible case seems almost ridiculous and unjustified, now that I have seen what is happening. Well, the situation is now nothing short of dramatic. No other words come to mind. The war has literally exploded and the battles are uninterrupted day and night. One after the other the unfortunate poor people come to the emergency room. They have far from the complications of a flu. Let’s stop saying it’s a bad flu. In these 2 years I have learned that the people of Bergamo do not come to the emergency room at all. They did well this time too. They followed all the indications given: a week or ten days at home with a fever without going out and risking contagion, but now they can’t take it anymore. They don’t breathe enough, they need oxygen. Drug therapies for this virus are few. The course mainly depends on our organism. We can only support it when it can’t take it anymore. It is mainly hoped that our body will eradicate the virus on its own, let’s face it. Antiviral therapies are experimental on this virus and we learn its behavior day after day. Staying at home until the symptoms worsen does not change the prognosis of the disease. Now, however, that need for beds in all its drama has arrived. One after another, the departments that had been emptied are filling up at an impressive rate. The display boards with the names of the sick, of different colors depending on the operating unit they belong to, are now all red and instead of the surgical operation there is the diagnosis, which is always the same cursed: bilateral interstitial pneumonia. Now, tell me which flu virus causes such a rapid tragedy. Because that’s the difference (now I’m going down a bit in the technical field): in the classical flu, apart from infecting much less population over several months, cases can be complicated less frequently, only when the VIRUS destroying the protective barriers of the Our respiratory tract allows BACTERIA normally resident in the upper tract to invade the bronchi and lungs, causing more serious cases. Covid 19 causes a banal influence in many young people, but in many elderly people (and not only) a real SARS because it arrives directly in the alveoli of the lungs and infects them making them unable to perform their function. Sorry, but to me as a doctor it doesn’t reassure you that the most serious are mainly elderly people with other pathologies. The elderly population is the most represented in our country and it is difficult to find someone who, above 65 years of age, does not take at least the tablet for pressure or diabetes. I also assure you that when you see young people who end up in intubated intensive care, pronated or worse in ECMO (a machine for the worst cases, which extracts the blood, re-oxygenates it and returns it to the body, waiting for the organism, hopefully, heal your lungs), all this tranquility for your young age passes there. And while there are still people on social networks who pride themselves on not being afraid by ignoring the indications, protesting that their normal lifestyle habits are “temporarily” in crisis, the epidemiological disaster is taking place. And there are no more surgeons, urologists, orthopedists, we are only doctors who suddenly become part of a single team to face this tsunami that has overwhelmed us. The cases multiply, we arrive at the rate of 15-20 hospitalizations a day all for the same reason. The results of the swabs now come one after the other: positive, positive, positive. Suddenly the emergency room is collapsing. Emergency provisions are issued: help is needed in the emergency room. A quick meeting to learn how the first aid management software works and a few minutes later they are already downstairs, next to the warriors on the war front. The PC screen with the reasons for the access is always the same: fever and difficulty breathing, fever and cough, respiratory failure etc … The exams, radiology always with the same sentence: bilateral interstitial pneumonia, bilateral interstitial pneumonia, bilateral interstitial pneumonia. All to be hospitalized. Someone already to intubate and go to intensive care. For others it is late … Intensive care becomes saturated, and where intensive care ends, more are created. Each fan becomes like gold: those of the operating rooms that have now suspended their non-urgent activity become places for intensive care that did not exist before. I found it incredible, or at least I can speak for the HUMANITAS Gavazzeni (where I work) how it was possible to implement in such a short time a deployment and a reorganization of resources so finely designed to prepare for a disaster of this magnitude. And every reorganization of beds, wards, staff, work shifts and tasks is constantly reviewed day after day to try to give everything and even more. Those wards that previously looked like ghosts are now saturated, ready to try to give their best for the sick, but exhausted. The staff is exhausted. I saw fatigue on faces that didn’t know what it was despite the already grueling workloads they had. I have seen people still stop beyond the times they used to stop already, for overtime that was now habitual. I saw solidarity from all of us, who never failed to go to our internist colleagues to ask “what can I do for you now?” or “leave that hospitalization alone.” Doctors who move beds and transfer patients, who administer therapies instead of nurses. Nurses with tears in their eyes because we are unable to save everyone and the vital signs of several patients at the same time reveal an already marked destiny. There are no more shifts, schedules. Social life is suspended for us. I have been separated for a few months, and I assure you that I have always done my best to constantly see my son even on the day of disassembly at night, without sleeping and postponing sleep until when I am without him, but for almost 2 weeks I have not voluntarily I see neither my son nor my family members for fear of infecting them and in turn infecting an elderly grandmother or relatives with other health problems. I’m happy with some photos of my son that I regard between tears and a few video calls. So be patient too, you can’t go to the theater, museums or gym. Try to have mercy on that myriad of older people you could exterminate. It is not your fault, I know, but of those who put it in your head that you are exaggerating and even this testimony may seem just an exaggeration for those who are far from the epidemic, but please, listen to us, try to leave the house only to indispensable things. Do not go en masse to make stocks in supermarkets: it is the worst thing because you concentrate and the risk of contacts with infected people who do not know they are. You can go there as you usually do. Maybe if you have a normal mask (even those that are used to do certain manual work) put it on. Don’t look for ffp2 or ffp3. Those should serve us and we are beginning to struggle to find them. By now we have had to optimize their use only in certain circumstances, as the WHO recently suggested in view of their almost ubiquitous impoverishment. Oh yes, thanks to the shortage of certain devices, I and many other colleagues are certainly exposed despite all the means of protection we have. Some of us have already become infected despite the protocols. Some infected colleagues have in turn infected family members and some of their family members already struggle between life and death. We are where your fears could make you stay away. Try to make sure you stay away. Tell your elderly or other family members to stay indoors. Bring him the groceries please. We have no alternative. It’s our job. In fact, what I do these days is not really the job I’m used to, but I do it anyway and I will like it as long as it responds to the same principles: try to make some sick people feel better and heal, or even just alleviate the suffering and the pain to those who unfortunately cannot heal.
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9989
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Study: Poor Results From Lap-Band Surgery
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This story detailed the long-term outcomes at one institution for obese individuals who had gastric banding surgery. The story was clear about the drawbacks inherent in the study. For example, that the data were obtained from a relatively small number of patients, and these patients, by virtue of the time at which they had the surgery performed, may differ somewhat from the results in current patients. The story also presented information useful for setting up realistic expectations about the long-term benefits and potential harms of gastric banding. As more people consider the available options for assisting in obesity management, the information about the amount of weight lost and the lackluster impact on weight-related health conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and sleep apnea, this story serves as an important counterbalance to the direct-to-consumer advertising on the procedure. Obesity is a significant public health issue and impacts up to one third of American adults. Diet and exercise are still the preferred approach. Drug therapy for obesity remains elusive as evidenced by the recent refusal of the FDA to approve Qnexa. Increasingly, people with morbid obesity are turning to surgical treatments. Patients have two choices in this regard. The standard gastric bypass or placement of an adjustable band around the stomach opening. Both approaches are deemed safe. While the banding approach is simpler and carries fewer immediate risks, the weight loss is not as great as with the bypass procedure. This new study adds to our understanding of the longstanding outcomes of a group of patients who received an earlier generation banding device.
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true
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WebMD
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As with the HealthDay story we reviewed, there was no discussion of costs of the banding procedure nor for regular office visits for band adjustment. Although these costs were not detailed in the study reported on, this information is readily available. We think that this is unfortunate given the magnitude of the cost of the procedure. We also would have liked to have seen a comment or two about insurance coverage The only benefit reported on in this story was the average loss of excess weight experienced by those who had had the procedure and in those who still had their Lap-Bands at the end of the study period. The story did a good job providing information about the common harms, along with the percentage of individuals affected. The story did not engage in overt disease-mongering. The story included interview comments from a company spokesperson and one of the authors of the study, both of whom were clearly identified. The story also included this important detail about the quoted author, which was missed by the HealthDay story we reviewed. “Himpens reports consultant work for Ethicon Endosurgery, which makes another gastric band, Realize, and for Covidien, a health care products company.” In addition, the story had comments from two surgeons who do not appear to have direct ties with either the manufacturer of the product or the study reported on. We were a little concerned about some of the phrasing in the story. It says, “But some, including the manufacturer of the Lap-Band — used in a technique called laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding — take exception to the study, criticizing the small sample size and the number of patients lost to follow-up.The critics also point out that both the device itself and the expertise of surgeons placing it have improved greatly since the patients in the study had their bands placed, in the years 1994 through 1997.” This leads readers to believe that there are mulitple critics out there pointing out flaws in the study. The story itself, though, only quotes one actual critic: the company spokewoman. The criticisms may be valid, but readers deserved a strong independent analysis of the study’s limitations. While the story did mention at the very end how the pace of weight loss with the product reported on compared with weight loss following gastric bypass surgery, the story ought to have provided better insight about the long-term outcomes in those who have gastric bypass and those who chose not to have surgery to help manage their excess weight. That way, readers could compare the two commonly utilized surgical options and understand the differences between them. The story hints at this by paraphrasing a study author saying that Lap-Band patients, “may have less weight loss and more complications than those who choose other weight loss surgeries.” But it never provides any evidence to back that claim. We also would have liked to have seen some comment about diet and exercise. The story makes it clear that the gastric banding procedure is available and provides a link to information from the National Institutes of Health. The story was clear that it was not reporting on a new or novel treatment but rather was reporting on the long-term outcomes presented in a recent research paper. This story does not appear to be based exclusively on a news release.
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26601
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Facebook post Says Gov. Tony Evers is “pushing firearm confiscation orders”
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A Facebook post finding new life amid the coronavirus outbreak says Evers is pushing gun confiscation, but the linked article is from April 2019. At that time, Evers hadn’t proposed any such thing, and the article only details a call for red flag laws from the attorney general. So what was wrong in 2019 is now both wrong and ridiculous.
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false
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Guns, Wisconsin, Coronavirus, Facebook posts,
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"A year-old claim about Gov. Tony Evers and firearm confiscation is getting new life online amid the coronavirus pandemic. Many on Facebook have recently picked up a story from April 2019 headlined ""Wisconsin gov. pushing firearm confiscation orders."" When shared, no date for the story is visible on Facebook. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The new life and lack of date gives this claim a very different ring amid the flurry of executive orders by Evers. The first-term Democrat has taken a series of dramatic steps to limit activity in Wisconsin as he and officials across the country take steps to contain the spread of coronavirus. His latest ""Safe at Home"" order, issued Tuesday, March 24, 2020, closed non-essential businesses and gathering places until April 24. But none of those orders deals with gun confiscations. The headline was misleading in 2019. Surfaced a year later, it’s downright ridiculous. The article, from a website called Steadfast and Loyal, describes Evers as ""attacking the Second Amendment."" But it offers zero proof for that claim or the headline reference to the governor ""pushing firearm confiscation orders."" Instead it pastes in a series of paragraphs from a similarly headlined story from far-right Breitbart news, published back in January 2019. But neither story actually details Evers proposing any such thing. The Breitbart story — as quoted by Steadfast and Loyal — refers to a WISN-TV story about Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, calling for red flag laws during his inaugural address. We will note, though the stories didn’t, that Evers had generally voiced support for Kaul’s plan in January 2019. But there’s a huge difference between red flag laws and the widespread gun seizures implied by this headline. Red flag laws provide a mechanism — with a judge’s approval — to take guns from people exhibiting dangerous behavior before they harm themselves or others. He called a special session of the Legislature to consider proposals for a red flag law and universal background checks, but Republicans who control the Assembly and Senate immediately closed the session without action. Under Evers’ proposal, a law enforcement officer, family member or household member could petition a judge to intervene if they believe an individual is a danger to self or others. The judge then could issue a preliminary order good for up to 14 days, during which the guns could be taken away. A judge would then schedule a full hearing, where the gun owner could present his or her case and the judge could issue a final order valid for up to one year. A year-old story now circulating again on Facebook says Evers is ""pushing firearm confiscation orders."" That was an overreach in 2019, and it’s even more absurd now. The article was referring to red flag laws, but at the time of this post Evers hadn’t proposed one yet. And more importantly, red flag laws are a far cry from the implication this headline gives of some form of widespread gun confiscation."
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35269
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A drop of 21 million cellphone subscribers in China in early 2020 documents that the death toll from COVID-19 was vastly underreported in that country.
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The ruling Communist Party says it is trying to prevent large gatherings from causing a new outbreak. But its tight controls appear to be part of a concerted attempt to avoid an outpouring of anguish and anger that could be a visceral reminder of its early missteps and efforts to conceal the outbreak. Those same public displays or discussions of loss could also feed skepticism over how China has counted the dead.
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unproven
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Politics, COVID-19
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In the first few months of 2020, as the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic sprouted in China, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published figures showing a drop of about 21 million cellphone users and 840,000 landline users. According to The Associated Press, online data published by China’s three largest cellphone carriers indicated that for January and February 2020, China Mobile Ltd. reported a drop of nearly 7.25 million subscribers, while China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd. lost 7.8 million subscribers and China Telecom Corp. lost 5.6 million in February alone. As of April 2020, China had reported a total of about 81,000 COVID-19 cases and about 3,300 deaths from the disease. Some sources seized on the disparity between the numbers of afflicted and cellphone subscribers to assert that the true COVID-19 death in China had been concealed and vastly underreported. “21 Million Fewer Cellphone Users in China May Suggest a High CCP Virus Death Toll,” proclaimed a headline in The Epoch Times. “China Is Lying About the Number of COVID-19 Deaths,” declared the Panam Post: It is true that intelligence officials outside of China believe that the country’s government has understated the spread of the coronavirus and the damage the pandemic has caused there, as The New York Times, among others, reported in early April 2020: The C.I.A. has been warning the White House since at least early February that China has vastly understated its coronavirus infections and that its count could not be relied upon as the United States compiles predictive models to fight the virus, according to current and former intelligence officials. American intelligence agencies have concluded that the Chinese government itself does not know the extent of the virus and is as blind as the rest of the world. Midlevel bureaucrats in the city of Wuhan, where the virus originated, and elsewhere in China have been lying about infection rates, testing and death counts, fearful that if they report numbers that are too high they will be punished, lose their position or worse, current and former intelligence officials said. Bureaucratic misreporting is a chronic problem for any government, but it has grown worse in China as the Communist leadership has taken a more authoritarian turn in recent years under Mr. Xi. The Times reported again the following day that Chinese officials appeared to be pushing for quick burials of the dead and suppressing online discussion of fatalities in order to head off public opprobrium over the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak: For months, the residents of Wuhan had been told they could not pick up the ashes of their loved ones who had died during the height of China’s coronavirus outbreak. Now that the authorities say the epidemic is under control, officials are pushing the relatives to bury the dead quickly and quietly, and they are suppressing online discussion of fatalities as doubts emerge about the true size of the toll. China’s official death toll from the coronavirus stood at 3,322 on [April 3], but medical workers and others have suggested the count should be higher … As China tries to control the narrative, the police in Wuhan, where the pandemic began, have been dispatched to break up groups on WeChat, a popular messaging app, set up by the relatives of coronavirus victims. Government censors have scrubbed images circulating on social media showing relatives in the city lining up at funeral homes to collect ashes. Officials have assigned minders to relatives to follow them as they pick burial plots, claim their loved ones’ remains and bury them, grieving family members say.
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15741
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"A school uniform policy helps with ""school safety, helps with truancy."
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Adkins said school uniforms improve school safety and truancy. There are some studies that say there are changes for the better and worse for both school violence and attendance statistics once uniforms are adopted, but there’s hardly a consensus. Even if there is improvement, research suggests the positives are slight -- not exactly the evidence Adkins says overwhelmingly supports the benefits of these policies. Some experts think the actual impact on students is negligible or even negative. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details.
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mixture
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Education, Florida, Janet Adkins,
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"More Florida school districts may soon have millions of reasons to start requiring students to wear uniforms, thanks to a bill that just passed the House. Rep. Janet Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach, sponsored a bill that would give districts $10 per child to adopt standard attire policies in kindergarten through eighth grade. The state would set aside $10 million in all from the general revenue fund. Similar provisions have been amended to a school bill in the Senate, although without the cash incentive. Adkins said that school uniforms help create a positive learning environment, because it removes distractions. She cited testimony from officials from five Florida school districts that raved about their uniform policies. ""They were all saying the same thing, and that is when they implemented a school uniform policy in their schools, the climate, the culture at their schools improved,"" Adkins said. ""It's an issue of school safety, helps with school truancy."" The House passed the bill 102-8 on March 27, but we were curious whether requiring students to dress the same really did improve school safety and truancy records. Turns out the research is anything but uniform. Dressing up stats Adkins’ bill would not make uniforms mandatory in any district, although there are already five counties that do have at least a district-wide K-8 standard student attire policy, according to a House analysis. Those five are Alachua, Bay, Madison, Osceola and Polk counties. Otherwise the decision to require uniforms filters down to varying degrees at the local level, even school by school. Whether or not the practice makes students safer or fosters better attendance really comes down to what study you read. A 1996 study of Long Beach, Calif., schools found a marked decrease in fights, sexual violence and weapons possession two years after adopting school uniforms. A different take on the issue from 2007 using national data found average assaults had actually gone up by an average of 14 incidents in violent schools that required standard attire. One researcher we spoke with said that a big part of uniform policies is the perception they make schools safer. Jafeth Sanchez, a research assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, said surveys she gave students at three middle schools showed the kids felt like uniforms curbed violence, although that feeling dropped in the second year students were asked. (Adkins’ office directed us to this study as proof of her statement, but said she used a couple of others, as well.) Those results could be because the students got used to wearing uniforms. Or, it could be because the initial answers weren’t honest, but Sanchez thought that was unlikely. ""Generally, students do respond honestly to such things – particularly considering that the majority indicated they didn’t like wearing uniforms, even though they actually agreed or strongly agreed with their various benefits,"" she said. Other experts we interviewed said there was a kind of ""halo effect"" in which students and teachers felt things had improved, even if they hadn’t. Research into attendance is another matter, and often the two subjects aren’t studied at the same time. A Youngstown State University study from 2006 looked at Ohio secondary schools and found attendance and graduation rates clearly went up. University of Houston researchers checked into attendance in 2010 and found the difference was slight. ""Specifically attendance rates in middle and high schools increased by approximately ½ to 1 day per year. There was no impact on elementary attendance,"" according to Scott Imberman, who worked on the University of Houston research and now teaches economics at Michigan State. He added it is difficult to measure discipline stats along with uniform implementation because discipline standards may have changed along with the dress code. And some argue school uniforms are an all-around boondoggle. David Brunsma, a sociology professor at Virginia Tech, has studied the issue and wrote a 2004 book called The School Uniform Movement and What It Tells Us about American Education: A Symbolic Crusade. His research from national samples found no significant effects on behavior, absenteeism or student attitudes. ""This is classic,"" he told PolitiFact Florida via email. ""However, it is based on misinformation, common (non)sense, and, of course, pressure from the children’s clothier industry."" Our ruling Adkins said school uniforms improve school safety and truancy. There are some studies that say there are changes for the better and worse for both school violence and attendance statistics once uniforms are adopted, but there’s hardly a consensus. Even if there is improvement, research suggests the positives are slight -- not exactly the evidence Adkins says overwhelmingly supports the benefits of these policies. Some experts think the actual impact on students is negligible or even negative. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details."
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21137
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People are five to seven times more likely to be murdered in workplaces that allow firearms than in those that prohibit it.
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Workplace homicides more likely where guns allowed, anti-gun violence group says
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mixture
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Workers, Guns, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort Educational Fund,
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"Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s support of concealed carry gave his critics, some of whom want to recall him from office in 2012, another reason to slam him. On Oct. 30, 2011, two days before the concealed carrying of guns and other weapons became legal in Wisconsin, one visitor to a Facebook site that bashes Walker took a shot at the Republican governor and the law. She posted this statement from the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort Educational Fund: ""People are five to seven times more likely to be murdered in workplaces that allow firearms than in those that prohibit it."" Concealed carry has drawn high interest from gun owners -- more than 80,000 application forms for permits were downloaded by 9 a.m. on the first day the law took effect -- and from people who fear more gun carrying will lead to more violence. So we decided to check WAVE’s statement. In becoming the 49th state to legalize concealed carry, Wisconsin generally allows people age 21 and over to carry hidden handguns, stun guns, most knives and other weapons. But there are restrictions, including some that apply to workplaces. Owners and occupants of property can prohibit concealed carry on or in the property. And employers can prohibit employees from carrying concealed weapons while on the job. WAVE, which describes itself as the ""only statewide grassroots organization solely dedicated to reducing gun violence, injuries and deaths,"" has been pushing businesses to post signs prohibiting concealed carry on their premises. It has made the claim that people are five to seven times more likely to be murdered in workplaces that allow firearms to tens of thousands of people through its website, emails and direct mail, said executive director Jeri Bonavia. The claim, she said, is based on a May 2005 article in the American Journal of Public Health, which publishes peer-reviewed scientific research. The article was written by researchers from the University of North Carolina’s Department of Epidemiology and Injury Prevention Research Center. We also found an earlier article on the same study, which appeared in another research publication, the American Journal of Epidemiology. The researchers examined 152 homicides that occurred in 143 workplaces in North Carolina from January 1994 through March 1998. They concluded that workplaces where guns were permitted ""were five to seven times more likely to be the site of a worker homicide relative to those where all weapons were prohibited."" So, the researchers said workplaces that allowed guns were five to seven times more likely to be the site of a homicide. In contrast, WAVE said people are five to seven times more likely to be murdered in workplaces that allow firearms. We asked Stephen Marshall, one of the researchers, whether WAVE’s wording was an accurate expression of what his study found; he simply reiterated the phrasing used in the study. We put the same question to other researchers; some said they thought WAVE’s statement was an essentially accurate expression of what the study found, while others thought WAVE’s wording was problematic. But there’s a more important question in terms of whether WAVE’s claim is accurate: Does the study’s major finding -- North Carolina workplaces that allowed guns were much more likely to be the site of a homicide -- apply to other states, including Wisconsin? Marshall said one could not assume that the five-to-seven-times statistic from his study would be true for Wisconsin or any other place. Other experts, however, gave a range of answers on whether the finding of the North Carolina study is applicable to Wisconsin workplaces. Applicability unknown: Susan Gerberich, co-director of the Regional Injury Prevention Center at the University of Minnesota, said that because the study was limited to North Carolina, it is not known whether the increased risk of workplace homicide would be true in other places. Corinne Peek-Assa, director of the University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center, said ""generalizing epidemiologic studies is never simple."" And Mary Vriniotis, research specialist with the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, said: ""This study provides good evidence that workplaces allowing firearms increase the risk of workplace homicide,"" but ""it's hard to say whether the findings in Wisconsin would be the same."" Applicability possible: Epidemiology professor Sabrina Walsh of the University of Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center said it is possible the higher workplace homicide risk found in North Carolina would be true in other states. And Stephen Hargarten, director of the Medical College of Wisconsin Injury Research Center, said the North Carolina study should be cause for concern in Wisconsin that workplace homicides would occur more often in workplaces that allow guns than in those that don’t. Applicability likely: Daniel Webster, co-director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Gun Policy and Research, said that although the five-to-seven times statistic found in the North Carolina wouldn’t automatically apply to other states, ""I don’t have any reason to think you’d have radically different findings"" if the North Carolina study were replicated in Wisconsin. All the researchers said they were not aware of any other study like the one done in North Carolina. Our conclusion Citing a university study, the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort said: ""People are five to seven times more likely to be murdered in workplaces that allow firearms than in those that prohibit it."" Some experts faulted WAVE -- though others didn’t -- for using different wording than the study itself, which said North Carolina workplaces that allowed guns were five to seven times more likely to be the site of a homicide. Some experts said they could not conclude from the North Carolina study whether the higher likelihood of workplace homicide would be true in other places like Wisconsin. But other experts said the North Carolina study was proof that the workplace homicide rate in Wisconsin likely would be at least somewhat higher in workplaces that allow guns compared to workplaces that don’t. In sum, WAVE’s statement is generally accurate, but leaves out important details, such as that the study applied only to North Carolina. That’s our definition for ."
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8577
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Jakarta coffin maker faces gruelling days as coronavirus death toll climbs.
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As debate rages about the true death toll caused by the coronavirus outbreak in Indonesia, Jakarta coffin maker Sahroni has been too busy to pay the issue much attention.
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true
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Health News
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From his workshop in the Pondok Kelapa cemetery in the east of the capital, he has been putting in 16-hour days. “Usually we sell between five to seven coffins a day, but now it is up to 20 to 30 coffins a day,” said Sahroni, 38, as he applied base coat onto a wooden coffin. The shelves of his workshop were stacked with freshly painted coffins, while out front a row of white crosses dried under the tropical sun. “Our working hours are now from morning to midnight,” said Sahroni, who uses one name. The warehouse where Sahroni works normally specialises in coffins for Indonesia’s Christian minority, but now they are providing coffins for all denominations, including Muslims who would usually be buried in a shroud. New protocols for victims or suspected victims of COVID-19 call for the use of coffins. As of Wednesday, Indonesia had identified nearly 3,000 cases and recorded 240 deaths. But public health experts and epidemiologists point to the relatively low frequency of testing and high death rate as indications the true infection rate is likely substantially higher. Exclusive data obtained by Reuters revealed there were nearly 4,400 burials in Jakarta this March, a 40% jump from any month in the past two years, and a sign deaths from the virus could be higher than officially reported. Data from the Jakarta governor’s office further showed more than 438 people had been buried according to COVID-19 protocols between March 2 and April 6, despite the national death toll standing at just under half that figure. In some cases, victims suspected of contracting the disease have died before test results were available, seeing them buried according to COVID-19 protocols as a precaution. Whatever the true figures are, those working in the funeral industry in Jakarta, home to more than 10 million people and the epicentre of the outbreak in the world’s fourth most populous nation, are preparing for a mounting toll. Sahroni’s company has reopened an old coffin-making warehouse in West Java, Indonesia’s most populous province, started a new line of cheaper coffins and donated 1,000 coffins to hospitals. Those responsible for transporting coronavirus victims to their burial grounds are also grappling with the devastating fallout of the pandemic. “We have been burying dead bodies non-stop until 10 pm and we continue with the same thing in the morning,” said Sumiyati, a 48-year-old ambulance driver for the city’s department of parks and cemeteries who also uses one name. She added that burials had jumped from 30 to 40 a day in the past week and that a new burial ground had been opened this month. Sumiyati now carries out her job in protective gear – a plastic raincoat, gloves, masks and boots – and her family has also implemented new protocols. “At home, my children have prepared disinfectant spray, which they spray on me. If not, they won’t let me in,” she said. “That is the consequences of this job. We must accept the risk.”
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5260
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Alaska quake damage could have been much worse, experts say.
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The magnitude 7.0 earthquake that rattled Alaska’s largest city cracked roads and collapsed highway ramps, but there were no reports of widespread catastrophic damage or collapsed buildings.
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true
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AP Top News, Bill Walker, Anchorage, United States, Alaska, North America, Science, U.S. News, Earthquakes
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There’s a good reason for that. A devastating 1964 Alaska earthquake — the most powerful on record in the United States — led to stricter building codes that helped structures withstand the shifting earth Friday. “Congratulations to the people of Alaska for being really prepared for this earthquake,” U.S. Geological Survey Geophysicist Paul Caruso said Saturday. “Because a magnitude 7.0 in a city like that, you know, it could have been significantly worse.” Gov. Bill Walker said sometimes people, including himself, grouse about stringent building codes. But he’s “really glad” they were in place as he only had minor water damage at his home. “Building codes mean something,” he said Friday. The quake was centered about 7 miles (12 kilometers) north of Anchorage, which has a population of about 300,000. People ran from their offices or took cover under desks. A 5.7 aftershock arrived within minutes, followed by a series of smaller quakes. The two big back-to-back quakes knocked items off shelves, disrupted power, broke store windows and briefly triggered a tsunami warning for islands and coastal areas south of the city. Walker issued a disaster declaration, and President Donald Trump declared an emergency, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief. There were no reports of deaths or serious injuries. Still, aftershocks Saturday continued to fray nerves, with people worrying about being caught in more massive shakers. “They’re disturbing, and I’m not putting anything away that could fall until they calm down,” Randall Cavanugh, an Anchorage attorney, said following a restless night at home. “I kept waking up.” By mid-morning, there had been about 550 aftershocks, including 11 with magnitudes of 4.5 or greater, Caruso said. The aftershocks should be weaker and less frequent in the coming days, but officials can’t say for sure when they’ll stop, he said. Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz said the extent of damage was “relatively small” considering the scale of Friday’s earthquake. He also credited building codes for minimizing structure damage. “In terms of a disaster, I think it says more about who we are than what we suffered,” he said Saturday at a press briefing, adding that Anchorage was prepared for such an emergency. “People pulled together. We followed the plans that were in place. We looked after one another. And when people around the country and around the world look at this, they’re going to say, ’We want to do things in the Anchorage way because Anchorage did this right,” Berkowitz said. After the first earthquake, Alaska’s largest hospital activated its incident command center, but the trickle of patients into the emergency room at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage was more like a normal workday and not a mass casualty event. The injuries were described as minor, and there were no patients with life-threatening conditions. “The flow of patients into the emergency department was similar to a typical Monday,” hospital spokesman Mikal Canfield said Saturday. “It wasn’t a situation where there was a mass rush of people.” Roads didn’t fare so well, as reports of extensive damage came in. The Alaska Department of Transportation counted about 50 sites with damage, including eight considered major. Most of the damage was to highways north of Anchorage. The agency also was planning to conduct bridge inspections Saturday. Transportation officials said in a release that the aftershocks continue to contribute to settling and additional cracking. Rock falls exacerbated by the aftershocks were causing some problems on the Seward Highway south of Anchorage. Normal operations resumed at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport after flight operations were suspended Friday, Transportation Department spokesman Meadow Bailey told The Associated Press. The 800-mile (1,287-kilometer) trans Alaska oil pipeline was shut down for hours while crews were sent to inspect it for damage. Michelle Egan with Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., the pipeline operator, said the line was restarted at 3:30 p.m. Friday. She said there are no obvious signs of damage and no operational impact on the pipeline, whose closest section is 120 miles (193 kilometers) from the epicenter. Anchorage’s school system canceled classes through Tuesday while it examined buildings for damage. Alaska’s 1964 earthquake, with a 9.2 magnitude, was centered about 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of Anchorage. It and the tsunami it triggered claimed about 130 lives. The state averages 40,000 earthquakes a year, with more large quakes than the 49 other states combined. Southern Alaska has a high risk of earthquakes because the Earth’s plates slide past each other under the region, but it is rare for major quakes to strike so close heavily populated areas. ___ Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska; Dan Joling in Anchorage; Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon; Gene Johnson in Seattle; Jennifer Kelleher, Audrey McAvoy and Caleb Jones in Honolulu; Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington; and John Antczak in Los Angeles contributed to this report. ___ Follow Rachel D’Oro at https://twitter.com/rdoro
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11233
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The Doctor’s Not In: Checkup By Teleconference
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In this story we learn about a new concept in urgent care: checkups by teleconference. This technology purports to fill gaps in healthcare, providing convenient care for minor ailments. With long waits at emergency rooms, this concept is very appealing. However, this story fails to describe the evidence to support the claim that this type of care delivery is as safe and effective as traditional care. The medical ethics expert points out several potential harms of the technology, such as mistaking a major condition for a minor one or ignoring true emergencies. The story mentions emergency room and urgent care centers as the alternatives. The story should have provided some more detail about the pros and cons of the different options. The story quotes two sources, the physician who is affiliated with the teleconferencing company and an independent medical ethicist. The story could have provided some additional perspectives, such as from a doctor who works in urgent care settings. Most importantly, the story does not provide any evidence to support the claim that these centers provide care that is at least as safe or as good quality as regular visits. Also, the story does not attempt to quantify the benefits of the technology nor does it state where these centers are located and how common they are.
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true
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The story does mention that the co-pay of an ED visit is $100 compared to $65 for the teleconference. However, ED co-pays vary widely depending on insurance. The story does not attempt to quantify the benefits. The medical ethics expert points out several potential harms, such as mistaking a major condition for a minor one or ignoring true emergencies. The story does not provide any evidence to support the claim that these centers provide care that is at least as good quality as regular visits. Because this story does not deal with a specific disease, disease mongering is not applicable. The story quotes two sources, the physician who is affiliated with the teleconferencing company and an idependent medical ethicist. The story could have provided some additional perspectives, such as doctors who work in urgent care settings. The balance of the story would have been better if it addressed such issues as the percentage of Americans without insurance, a list of appropriate conditions that would be potentially handled in this manner, and other points of view. The story mentions emergency room and urgent care centers as the alternatives. The story should have provided some more detail about the pros and cons of the different options. The story does not state where these centers are located and how common they are. The story clearly states that this is new technology. Although the network turned to an independent medical ethicist for his perspective, the story still felt, for the most part, like an infomercial for a niche market area that is being introduced. Nonetheless, we can’t be sure if the story relied largely on a news release.
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36443
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John McCain was released after five years of captivity in Vietnam in 1973, the same year Donald Trump was sued by the Justice Department for racial bias in real estate.
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John McCain vs. Donald Trump in 1973 Meme
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true
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Fact Checks, Politics
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In March 2019, United States President Donald Trump made several comments about Sen. John McCain, who died of brain cancer the previous August. Trump’s 2019 comments continued a feud that he had had with McCain before his death:President Donald Trump’s feud with the late Sen. John McCain dates back many years, to long before the real estate magnate launched a campaign for president.Trump, who occasionally re-airs his grievances with the late Arizona Republican, launched a new line of attack during an address in Ohio Wednesday, suggesting the McCain family never thanked him for “the kind of funeral that he wanted.” Trump’s role in the services were limited to allowing McCain’s body to fly on planes used as Air Force Two.On March 18th, Facebook page “The Other 98%” shared the following meme (archived here), contrasting the purported activities of both men in 1973:The text, which was both on top of and beneath a black and white photograph of a young McCain, said:John McCain was released this week in 1973, after more than five years imprisoned by the North Vietnamese.In case you were wondering what Donald Trump was doing in 1973, he was getting sued by the Justice Department for systematically excluding African-Americans and Puerto Ricans from apartments he owned.The meme’s first claim was that in March 1973, McCain was released after he had been held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for five years. A March 14 2019 CBS story (“How CBS News covered John McCain’s 1973 release from the Hanoi Hilton”) covered the anniversary of McCain’s release and the length of his imprisonment:[March 14 2019] marked the 46th anniversary of John McCain’s release after being held captive as a prisoner of war at the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. McCain, who died [in 2018] at the age of 81 after a lifetime of service in the military and as a senator, was greeted by a cheering crowd at Clark Airbase in the Philippines on March 14, 1973. […]Then-Navy Lt. Commander John McCain was held captive in North Vietnam for five and a half years, from 1967 to 1973. The injuries he sustained would affect his mobility for the rest of his life.Its second part was not as specific, claiming that in the same year McCain was released, Trump was sued by the Justice Department for discriminatory practices in real estate. In January 2016, the Washington Post reported:In October 1973, the Justice Department filed a civil rights case that accused the Trump firm, whose complexes contained 14,000 apartments, of violating the Fair Housing Act of 1968.The case, one of the biggest federal housing discrimination suits to be brought during that time, put a spotlight on the family empire led by its 27-year-old president, Donald Trump, and his father, Fred Trump, the chairman, who had begun building houses and apartments in the 1930s. The younger Trump demonstrated the brash, combative style that would make him famous, holding forth at a news conference in a Manhattan hotel to decry the government’s arguments as “such outrageous lies.” He would also say that the company wanted to avoid renting apartments to welfare recipients of any color but never discriminated based on race.The article included images of the October 1973 suit in which Trump and his father were named as defendants:In September 2016, PolitiFact rated the claim true, and NPR revisited the issue after Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton raised the issue during a presidential debate:The Justice Department sued Donald Trump, his father, Fred, and Trump Management in order to obtain a settlement in which Trump and his father would promise not to discriminate. The case eventually was settled two years later after Trump tried to countersue the Justice Department for $100 million for making false statements. Those allegations were dismissed by the court.“Donald started his career, back in 1973, being sued by the Justice Department for racial discrimination — because he would not rent apartments in one of his developments to African-Americans, and he made sure that the people who worked for him understood that was the policy,” Clinton said [during a September 2016 debate].“Yes, when I was very young, I went into my father’s company — had a real estate company in Brooklyn and Queens,” Trump said. “And we, along with many, many other companies throughout the country — it was a federal lawsuit — were sued. We settled the suit with zero, with no admission of guilt.”[…]>“[The settlement] required the Trumps to place ads in newspapers saying that they welcomed black applicants,” [Trump biography author and Washington Post reporter Michael] Kranish says. “It said that the Trumps would familiarize themselves with the Fair Housing Act, which prohibited discrimination. So it also specifically said they don’t admit wrongdoing, but they did have to take several measures that the Trumps had fought for two years not to take.”The University of Michigan’s Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse maintained a case summary of the suit:This case was brought against Fred and Donald Trump, and their real estate company, in 1973 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. We are working to obtain the relevant documents … In October 1973, the Justice Department filed this civil rights case in federal court in Brooklyn against Fred Trump, Donald Trump, and their real estate company. The complaint alleged that the firm had committed systemic violations of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 in their many complexes–39 buildings, between them containing over 14,000 apartments. The allegations included evidence from black and white “testers” who had sought to rent apartments; the white testers were told of vacancies; the black testers were not, or were steered to apartment complexes with a higher proportion of racial minorities. The complaint also alleged that Trump employees had placed codes next to housing applicant names to indicate if they were black. […]The Justice Department called the decree “one of the most far-reaching ever negotiated.” Newspaper headlines echoed that assessment. The New York Amsterdam News, for example, titled its article “Minorities win housing suit,” and told readers that “qualified Blacks and Puerto Ricans now have the opportunity to rent apartments owned by Trump Management.”An archived New York Times article published on October 16 1973 (“Major Landlord Accused Of Antiblack Bias in City”) included comments from Trump at the time of the suit:Seeking an injunction to halt alleged discriminatory practises, the Government contended that Trump Management had refused to rent or negotiate rentals “because of race and color.” It also charged that the company had required different rental terms and conditions because of race and that it had misrepresented to blacks that apartments were not available.At the corporation’s main office, 600 Avenue Z in Brooklyn, Donald Trump, president, denied the charges.“They are absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “We never have discriminated, and we never would. There have been a number of local actions against us, and we’ve won them all. We were charged with discrimination, and we proved in court that we did not discriminate.”A point of contention for then-candidate Trump in 2016 was his counterclaim that the action was broad and taken against a number of developers. In response to Clinton’s comments, Trump said:“Yes, when I was very young, I went into my father’s company — had a real estate company in Brooklyn and Queens … And we, along with many, many other companies throughout the country — it was a federal lawsuit — were sued. We settled the suit with zero, with no admission of guilt.”But in the 1973 New York Times article — published more than four decades before Trump’s ultimately successful presidential run — the newspaper differentiated between the 1973 action against the Trumps and their organization and an earlier, unrelated action against a different New York City developer in 1971:In Washington, J. Stanley Pottinger, assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s civil‐rights division, termed the suit the second major rental discrimination action begun by the department in the last two years.The first involved Samuel J. Lofrak, one of the country’s largest builders. The Justice Department had charged racial discrimination in the renting of 21,000 Lefrak‐controlled apartments in 150 buildings in Brooklyn and Queens.That case was resolved on Jan. 28, 1971, in an agreement between the Justice Department and the Lefrak Organization. Lefrak promised to prohibit discrimination in apartment rentals, and subsequently fifty black families were assisted in moving into predominantly white buildings.In the meme reproduced above, “The Other 98%” claimed that March 2019 marked an anniversary of Sen. John McCain’s release from a Vietnamese prison after five years of captivity. A CBS article reported that McCain had actually been imprisoned for five and a half years, but the claim was essentially accurate.Additionally, the meme claimed that in 1973, Donald Trump was sued by the Justice Department for alleged violation of housing discrimination laws. That claim came to issue when Hillary Clinton raised it during a September 2016 debate, and was rated by fact-checkers examining it at that time. In response, Trump claimed that the action taken against him was broad and included multiple developers. But an October 1973 article reported that the action was in fact specific to Trump and his father, reporting a 1971 suit filed separately against a separate developer in New York City.
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12976
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Florida is ranked 50th in the nation for mental health care funding.
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"Smith said, ""Florida is ranked 50th in the nation for mental health care funding."" A key source of data for ranking states on mental health spending is the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Research Institute. That data shows that Florida ranked 51st in 2014. However, it is difficult to compare Florida with other states because it administers its Medicaid program differently than most states."
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true
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Health Care, Florida, Guns, Carlos Guillermo Smith,
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"The suspect in the mass shooting at the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport told the FBI in Alaska in November that he was hearing voices. Anchorage police confiscated Esteban Santiago’s handgun and took him for a mental health evaluation. Police returned his gun to him in December when he asked for it. On Jan. 6, he flew to Broward County and is the suspected gunman in a rampage at the airport that left five dead and several others injured. Days later, Democratic state legislators held a press conference in Tallahassee to argue for gun control measures and more mental health funding. Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, said that Republican legislators argue that the way to reduce gun violence is not through gun control but mental health care funding. But Florida, he said, has the worst record in the nation in terms of funding mental health care treatment. ""We see once again Florida is ranked 50th in the nation for mental health care funding — 50th,"" he said. ""There is no one that is doing worse than we are when it comes to making sure we that we are providing comprehensive mental health care."" Florida is near the bottom of the pack in mental health funding, and one key ranking cited by many experts places the state at 51st in per capita spending. However, there are some caveats about the ranking. Comparing state mental health funding Smith pointed to news articles about Florida’s low ranking on mental health funding and data from the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Research Institute. Mental health funding experts said they consider the institute’s data as the best source. The institute collects annual data on expenditures by state mental health agencies from the states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The total amount of expenditures is divided by the state population to compare the amount per capita. The most recent data, for fiscal year 2014, showed Florida ranked 51st out of 52 jurisdictions for total state mental health spending — behind 49 states and Washington, D.C. — at $36.05 per capita. The Sunshine State was only ahead of one jurisdiction: Puerto Rico, at $20.22. Florida has consistently been near the bottom of the rankings for years, said Ted Lutterman, senior director of the institute. In general, states in the northeast and northwest spend more, while southern states spend much less, he said. One key caveat about this data: It is based on money spent through Florida’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Office, managed by the Department of Children and Families, and it doesn’t include services paid from other sources, including Medicaid or local funds, on mental health programs. ""Those additional funding sources aren’t reported to DCF, but they’re still used within the local systems of care to treat individuals,"" said Jessica Sims, DCF spokeswoman. The national research institute asks the state mental health authority in each state to provide information on all the funds used for its public mental health provider system, including state psychiatric hospitals and community providers. If another state agency uses Medicaid funds to pay for services directly and doesn’t work with the state mental health authority, then the state mental health authority will not have that data, Lutterman said. In most states, the state mental health authority helps manage the Medicaid funds. However Florida administers Medicaid differently, Lutterman said, and therefore isn’t able to report the Medicaid data for this report. The National Alliance on Mental Illness uses the per-capita state expenditures to compare rankings, said the alliance’s spokesman Bob Carolla. ""It reflects the relative degree of commitment to mental health by the state,"" he said. ""Medicaid dollars compared to Medicaid dollars could be a separate indicator, except I believe it’s more problematic because of the differences that exist between the state Medicaid programs."" Florida lags behind the majority of states on Medicaid spending per enrollee and the state Legislature rejected Medicaid expansion as part of the Affordable Care Act. Another way to examine mental health funding is to look at whether states are increasing the amount each year. The National Alliance on Mental Illness annual survey of state mental health care legislation doesn’t rank states but shows general budgeting trends. The 2015 report shows Florida maintained funding in 2013 and increased it in 2014 and 2015. Our ruling Smith said, ""Florida is ranked 50th in the nation for mental health care funding."" A key source of data for ranking states on mental health spending is the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Research Institute. That data shows that Florida ranked 51st in 2014. However, it is difficult to compare Florida with other states because it administers its Medicaid program differently than most states.
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27257
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Tech billionaires such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs advocated limiting children's use of technology.
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A number of tech billionaires seemingly agree on at least one piece of parenting advice: Limit your children's use of technology.
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true
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Technology, bill gates, melinda gates, steve jobs
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In August 2018, a number of social media users came across an image offering a purported newspaper clipping of an article entitled “Tech Billionaire Parenting” and wondered if the article, as well as the information contained within it, was genuine: This image presents a slightly paraphrased version of an article written by Alice Thomson entitled “Help Kids to Kick Social Media Addiction” which was published in The Times of London in March 2018, the original text of which read as follows: The philanthropist Melinda Gates told me the same. Her children don’t have smartphones and only use a computer in the kitchen. Her husband Bill, the Microsoft co-founder, spends hours in his office reading books while everyone else is refreshing their homepage. The most sought-after private school in Silicon Valley, the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, bans technical devices for the under-11s and teaches the children of eBay, Apple, Uber and Google staff to make go-karts, knit and cook. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg wants his daughters to read Dr Seuss books and play outside rather than use Messenger Kids. Steve Jobs’s children had strict limits on how much technology they used at home. It’s astonishing if you think about it: the more money you make out of the tech industry, the more you appear to shield your family from its effects. The general theme of this article, that several prominent tech billionaires advocated limiting their children’s use of technology, is accurate and supported by various interviews and articles. Our only quibble is with the claim that Bill and Melinda Gates’ children don’t currently have smartphones. As far as we can tell, the Microsoft moguls didn’t allow their children to possess smartphones of their own until they reached the age of 14, but as of this writing Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe Gates are all now over the age of 14. In a June 2018 interview with The Mirror, Bill Gates explained some of his parental rules when it came to technology use by his children: “We often set a time after which there is no screen time and in their case that helps them get to sleep at a reasonable hour. “You’re always looking at how it can be used in a great way – homework and staying in touch with friends – and also where it has gotten to excess. “We don’t have cellphones at the table when we are having a meal, we didn’t give our kids cellphones until they were 14 and they complained other kids got them earlier.” Melinda Gates also penned an op-ed for the Washington Post in August 2017 in which she warned about putting a computer in a child’s pocket at too early of an age. Gates seemed to acknowledge that her children had cellphones at the time but said that she “probably would have waited longer” if she had the chance to do it again: Still, as a mother who wants to make sure her children are safe and happy, I worry. And I think back to how I might have done things differently. Parents should decide for themselves what works for their family, but I probably would have waited longer before putting a computer in my children’s pockets. Phones and apps aren’t good or bad by themselves, but for adolescents who don’t yet have the emotional tools to navigate life’s complications and confusions, they can exacerbate the difficulties of growing up: learning how to be kind, coping with feelings of exclusion, taking advantage of freedom while exercising self-control. It’s more important than ever to teach empathy from the very beginning, because our kids are going to need it. As for the remainder of the text at the head of this page, it appears wholly accurate. A number of Silicon Valley parents truly do send their children to the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, where an emphasis is placed on pen and paper rather than digital screens. News outlets such as the New York Times and the Guardian have reported on that school’s technology policy in relation to the student body’s connection to Silicon Valley: The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard. But the school’s chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home. Schools nationwide have rushed to supply their classrooms with computers, and many policy makers say it is foolish to do otherwise. But the contrarian point of view can be found at the epicenter of the tech economy, where some parents and educators have a message: computers and schools don’t mix. This is the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, one of around 160 Waldorf schools in the country that subscribe to a teaching philosophy focused on physical activity and learning through creative, hands-on tasks. Those who endorse this approach say computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction and attention spans. The web site for the Waldorf School of the Peninsula also includes a page in which they describe their “Media & Technology Philosophy”: Waldorf educators believe it is far more important for students to interact with one another and their teachers, and work with real materials than to interface with electronic media or technology. By exploring the world of ideas, participating in the arts, music, movement and practical activities, children develop healthy, robust bodies, balanced and well-integrated brains, confidence in their real-world practical skills and strong executive-function capabilities. In the high school curriculum, Waldorf embraces technology in ways that enhance the learning process, by using it as a tool, rather than replace the role of the teacher. Students quickly master technology, and many Waldorf graduates have gone on to successful careers in the computer industry. The claim that “Steve Jobs’s children had strict limits on how much technology they used at home” is supported by a 2014 New York Times article which labeled the Apple founder a low-tech parent: [N]othing shocked me more than something Mr. Jobs said to me in late 2010 after he had finished chewing me out for something I had written about an iPad shortcoming. “So, your kids must love the iPad?” I asked Mr. Jobs, trying to change the subject. The company’s first tablet was just hitting the shelves. “They haven’t used it,” he told me. “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.” I’m sure I responded with a gasp and dumbfounded silence. I had imagined the Jobs’s household was like a nerd’s paradise: that the walls were giant touch screens, the dining table was made from tiles of iPads and that iPods were handed out to guests like chocolates on a pillow. Nope, Mr. Jobs told me, not even close. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s reported desire to have his daughter read Dr. Seuss and play outside comes from an open letter he wrote after the birth of his second daughter in August 2017: But rather than write about growing up, we want to talk about childhood. The world can be a serious place. That’s why it’s important to make time to go outside and play. You will be busy when you’re older, so I hope you take time to smell all the flowers and put all the leaves you want in your bucket now. I hope you read your favorite Dr. Seuss books so many times you start inventing your own stories about the Vipper of Vipp. I hope you ride the carousel with Max until you’ve tamed every color horse. I hope you run as many laps around our living room and yard as you want. And then I hope you take a lot of naps. I hope you’re a great sleeper. And I hope even in your dreams you can feel how much we love you.
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11109
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Chrono Therapeutics' Smoking Cessation Technology Demonstrates Significant Reduction in Nicotine Cravings
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Nicotine delivery system and smartphone app. Image: Chrono TherapeuticsThis news release provides an overview of a smoking cessation product developed by Chrono Therapeutics, and discusses its reported benefits in reducing nicotine cravings. The news release cites a clinical trial that involved 24 men, smoking at baseline at least 11 cigarettes daily, who were randomly assigned to have nicotine delivered over a 30-hour time period through a wearable transdermal drug delivery device. Along with delivering nicotine, the device is synced with a smartphone app that provides “behavioral support.” Compared to the control group who received placebo, the device had a statistically significant effect on reducing nicotine cravings, according to the release. Although we appreciate the details regarding the clinical trial, we note that the trial compares the new device to placebo, so does not inform us about the effectiveness compared to other smoking cessation methods. We are also concerned about the transparency of the study data. When we requested the study abstract upon which the release is based, and which was presented at a national medical meeting, we found that the study pertains to a trial group of 12, not 24 as mentioned in the release. The study abstract also references another trial that was to be completed in October 2015, so we’re left confused about which study was presented at the Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco annual meeting. We are also dismayed at the unjustified claims about solving the world’s smoking problem, a bit grandiose for a trial lasting 30 hours that does not measure smoking outcomes. Smoking is a health risk spanning years or decades, and people trying to quit experience high relapse rates. [Editor’s note: After this review was published the news release issuer provided additional background on the research presented at the medical conference. According to the company’s representative, “Chrono ended up completing that second study in Sept 2015 and this is the study that generated the p-values for the cravings reduction. Therefore, the company presented more data at SRNT, and wrote the press release inclusive of this, beyond what had originally made it into the abstract. Knowing this, and with the presentation attached, I hope this allows for a fairer evaluation of the release, with the fuller data set clarified.” Although this background clears up the discrepancy between the number of volunteers cited in the news release and the study, it doesn’t affect the overall review rating since we apply our review criteria to the release and not the study.] According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 40 million American adults currently smoke, and smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death across the nation. Although no one can argue the importance of reducing smoking rates, public health efforts have helped reduce the rate of smoking by almost 5% since 2005. The CDC also estimates that 7 out of 10 smokers want to quit and that the average smoker makes 8-10 attempts. A new option to help people reach their quitting goal is welcome — if it works and is cost-effective.
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false
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industry/commercial news releases
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The news release fails to mention costs, and for a condition such as smoking, which disproportionately affects lower income populations, cost is crucial. The news release is quick to discard the value in nicotine patches and gum, which are available for under $50 at most drugstores. A “transdermal drug delivery device” would be much more expensive than the traditional methods. It wasn’t easy to find a cost for the kit but in 2014 it was reported that the system would cost an individual between $400 and $500 for a 10-week course of therapy. The news release states that “test subjects had a statistically significant and clinically meaningful reduction in cravings for all assessment methods (p=0.035; p=0.034 and p=0.016, respectively).” Although we appreciate the mention of the p-values, it would have been more helpful to understand what a reduction in nicotine cravings meant in real terms, and if it could be sustained since the trial was only over 30 hours. In addition, it should be made clear that craving reduction is not synonymous with smoking cessation. The news release also uses a quote from a member of Chrono’s Board of Directors who says that this product has “the potential to solve such a serious problem.” There doesn’t seem to be enough evidence to say that this device would “solve” smoking in the United States. The news release mentions that the subjects in the clinical trial did not have any adverse reactions to the device, and that a skin irritation assessment concluded there was no irritation or erythema. However, the study abstract provided by the news release issuer reported that 25% percent of the volunteers experienced itching. The news release fails to note the limitation of a trial that only includes up to 24 individuals (12 if going by the abstract presented at a medical conference named in the release) using the device over a short time period of 30 hours. Subjects may have failed to feel any withdrawal symptoms in only 30 hours, and smokers often require several attempts to quit. The news release doesn’t mention whether either group had access to other sources of nicotine. The news release accurately characterizes smoking as a serious global health problem. Although the news release is fairly clear that Chronos Therapeutics is the main funder of the clinical trial, it fails to mention that the company had received a study grant from the National Institutes of Health. That’s noted on the study abstract. Further, the release quotes only company executives — the CEO and a member of the board of directors. While we don’t expect a news release to consult an independent source as we would a news story, we’d like to point out that typically, a scientist involved with the research lends more credibility when reporting results. We’ll give the benefit of the doubt here. The news release does indeed compare this new device to nicotine patches, gum and prescription drugs, but it does so inaccurately. The issue being discussed here is craving control and this trial is moot regarding the control of smoking. There is no mention of the availability of this device, such as next steps in testing or application for FDA approval. The news release also does not discuss whether this device would require a prescription. This device provides nicotine in a novel way by administering it according to Chrono’s “peaks and troughs” profile and combining nicotine delivery with smartphone app monitoring. The release establishes this but doesn’t overstate things. The news release makes numerous unjustifiable claims about the product. Here is a sampling: “Our goal is to solve this crisis of public health with an innovative, integrated smoking cessation solution, and the data we presented demonstrates that we are on the right path.” It’s unrealistic to claim that this particular nicotine replacement therapy — added to the many available — will solve smoking addiction. “Chrono’s first application is in smoking cessation, enabling smokers to overcome the world’s deadliest addiction.” There’s no data presented about actual quit rates in this study. “Achieving statistical significance in a 24-subject trial is very striking and happens infrequently in biopharma; so these results are very encouraging.” A 24 subject trial doesn’t prove anything.
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18135
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"The city of Brookhaven’s ordinance could cause the Pink Pony to close, thereby ""putting 300 Pink Pony employees out of work in this economy."
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Pink Pony ad warns fight could cost jobs
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mixture
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Georgia, Legal Issues, Pink Pony,
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"We couldn’t resist. The folks who run the Pink Pony Gentlemen’s Club recently paid for an ad in a community newspaper claiming several hundred people would be unemployed if a city of Brookhaven ordinance forced the strip club to shut its doors. Dancers. Bartenders. Even ""house moms."" We’ll get to the house moms in a minute. ""FACT,"" the ad says in red letters. The ad said the city’s ordinance would put ""300 Pink Pony employees out of work in this economy."" A colleague saw the ad in a DeKalb County newspaper and forwarded it to us. The ad included a prior fact check we wrote looking into the Pink Pony’s claim that management has never been cited for a violation of a state law or ordinance. We at PolitiFact Georgia are typically digging into technical topics and slogging through long reports; so we virtually danced (with our clothes on) at another opportunity to fact-check a claim by the club. Does the Pink Pony really employ 300 people? ""Three hundred might be a conservative number,"" said Aubrey Villines, an attorney who specializes in First Amendment issues who represents the club. In May, the Pink Pony filed a lawsuit against the DeKalb County municipality claiming Brookhaven’s ordinance to regulate sexually oriented businesses would put the club out of business. Specifically, the ordinance would prohibit nude dancing, with or without serving alcohol. The city has said it will not enforce the ordinance until a DeKalb County Superior Court judge rules on its legality. The lawsuit is serious business, Villines says. The Pink Pony claims Brookhaven would lose $450,000 a year in property and sales taxes, along with license and permit fees. It’s also a big deal for Brookhaven taxpayers, who are paying legal fees associated with the lawsuit. There’s been plenty of news coverage over the years about how the strip club business has made it rain with greenbacks in Atlanta. (See: The Gold Club, Adam ""Pacman"" Jones.) Cab drivers, food delivery workers, they all make money off the Pink Pony, Villines said. ""If we leave that area (of Brookhaven), it will cave under,"" Villines said, stressing that was the main point of the ad. Villines estimated the Pink Pony employs about 200 dancers. Some work there a couple of days a week, he said. Others, he said, work as many as five days a week. There’s the bartending staff, servers, the kitchen crew, security, disc jockeys, the janitorial staff. And, yes, house moms. House moms, Villines explained, are women who help dancers if they encounter work-related trouble, such as a flat tire en route to the Pony. Their duties include making sure the dancers don’t drive home under the influence. ""They’re the first line of defense,"" Villines said of house moms. The Pink Pony, though, wouldn’t show us any proof that they have 300 people on the payroll. They couldn’t reveal that sort of information, Villines said. DeKalb County, though, requires strip club dancers, waitresses, bartenders and bouncers to get an annual license to work at adult entertainment establishments. The dancers pay $300 a year; the other occupations pay $200 a year. As of July 18, there were 352 men and women licensed to work at the Pink Pony, county records show. The records do not show each employee is currently working there. So, there are more than 300 people currently licensed to work at the club, which is more than what the Pink Pony claimed in its ad. Still, we don’t know if all of them are regularly working there. Do the majority of the 200 or so dancers work two days a week? Once every two months? The Pink Pony claim is partially accurate, but it ignores a lot of context that would give a reader a different impression."
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36232
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A photograph shows the bedroom of the sons of murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
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Is This the Bedroom of Medgar Evers’ Sons?
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true
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Fact Checks, Viral Content
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On August 23 2019, Facebook user Steven Pokin shared a photograph along with a lengthy status update, claiming that it shows the bedroom that Medgar Evers’ sons slept in:This is where the two little sons of Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers slept. When he had this house built in Jackson, Mississippi, he had the window you see elevated to make it less likely his children would be shot.He had the house built without a front door for security reasons. The main entrance was at the side of the house, at the end of a car port.His house was the only one on the street that had small stones and gravel on a flat roof. That way, it would not catch fire is someone tossed a lit torch on the roof.He had his children’s mattresses placed directly on the floor to make them less visible targets.He told his wife and children to sit on the floor while watching TV.In 1963, he was the NAACP’s first Mississippi field director. Three times that year, someone had fired into his home.As a boy, he had witnessed the separate lynchings of a black man and a 10-year-old black boy — who had made the mistake of going to the whites-only county fair.On June 10, he was not home when someone tried to enter through the rear door of his home. His wife moved the refrigerator to block entry. They left the refrigerator there.That week, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy spoke to the nation about civil rights, justice and a more perfect union. The President said it was coming and he asked the nation to give him time that, ultimately, he did not have.Medgar Evers gave a speech in Jackson the night of June 11,1963. He returned home — to this home — lugging many T-shirts that he planned to give out at a rally the next day. They said: “Say No to Jim Crow.”He was excited about the President’s speech.He parked behind his wife’s car in the driveway and was almost in the car port when an assassin across the street shot him with a high-powered rifle.No ambulance came.A neighbor took him to the whites-only hospital. Doctors were unsure if they should treat him. They were out of “Negro blood” and feared they could lose their medical licenses if they used white blood to try to save a black man.Then, a white doctor stepped in and said none of that mattered and worked valiantly to try to save the life of Medgar Evers, who had served this country at the invasion of Normandy.He died about 40 minutes after being shot.The bullet entered his back, came out his chest, went through a window, went through an interior wall leading to the kitchen and left a dent in the refrigerator.I touched that dent today. Then, I went into the bedroom and saw the mattresses on the floor with the Teddy Bears on them.I have never before felt history the way I felt it today.Medgar Evers was the first state field secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Mississippi. As the post describes, Evers was assassinated in the driveway of his Jackson, Mississippi home on June 12 1963 at the age of 37; nine days later, Klansman and white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was arrested — but all-white juries failed to reach a verdict. In 1994, Beckwith was finally convicted of first-degree murder.In May 2018, the House of Representatives passed a bill to establish Medgar Evers’ Jackson, Mississippi home as a national monument with bipartisan support. To that point, the site was managed by Tougaloo College, and its designation as a national monument allocated additional funding to maintain the home.In January 2019, Mississippi lawmakers issued a press release about the designation of Medgar and Myrlie Evers’ home in Jackson, Mississippi as a national monument:Mississippi’s two senators have reintroduced legislation to designate Medgar and Myrlie Evers’ Jackson home as a national monument within the National Park System.“The Medgar and Myrlie Evers home is of great historic significance to the civil rights movement as well as our American history and deserves to be recognized as a national monument,” U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker said in a news release [in January 2019]. “That is why I have continued to work with the members of our Mississippi congressional delegation to bring additional resources to the site. These efforts will help ensure future generations can learn about the life and legacy of the Evers family.”Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith added, that “The preservation of the Medgar and Myrlie Evers home as a national monument will help future generations understand this family’s important role in the pursuit of equality and justice as part of the civil rights movement.”A month later, the site was one of four newly-designated national monuments included in a “massive lands bill” passed by Congress. United States President Donald Trump signed the bill establishing the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in Jackson in March 2019. NBC News reported plans for the site, enabling visitors to tour it more formally.That article also noted that the home was vacant for three decades and restored with reproduction furnishings after the family donated it to Tougaloo College in 1993:The federal government will take over the modest ranch-style home from Tougaloo College, which supports the change, bringing money for preservation. The Evers family donated the home to historically black Tougaloo in 1993, and it is open by appointment for tours. The three-bedroom home stood vacant for years after the family moved away in the 1960s, and it was restored in the mid-1990s. It is now filled with midcentury furniture, and one of the bedrooms has a display about the family’s history. A bullet hole is visible in a kitchen wall.The National Park Service named the home a national historic landmark in 2016.Ben West of the National Park Service told Mississippi Public Broadcasting on [in March 2019] that the park service was waiting on the president’s signature to begin planning the project, including parking, access and tour sizes, restrooms and other visitor services.The National Parks Service maintains a page about the site, but no information about its interior is included. In March 2019, Smithsonian Magazine described pending updates to the new monument:After Evers was killed and his family moved away, the three-bedroom stood empty for many years. In 1993, the Evers family gifted the property to the historically black Tougaloo College, and tours became available by appointment. In 2016, the National Park Service named the Medgar Evers House Museum a national historic landmark. With the signing of the new bill, the federal government will take over the site, and experts who work there hope the change will enable the museum to make some important upgrades. Minnie White Watson, curator of the museum, tells WBUR’s Peter O’Dowd that the National Park Service can afford “to do things that possibly we could never afford to do,” such as installing a parking lot and restrooms.Multiple tourism-related sites showed the interior of the house (and the boys’ bedroom) in a way that indicaed that the images were accurately identified. TripAdvisor reviewers made mention of the low height of the childrens’ beds in relation to the window, as did people on other tours. Some said the beds lacked frames, while others claimed that the windows were specifically raised for the same reason:“Apparently, when Medgar built the house, he had the foresight to have the windows raised 2 or so extra inches so they could lay on the floor. That would allow them less likely to be seen through the window for a shooter.”“So sad his kids had to sleep on mattresses on the floor rather than in beds so bullets would harm them through windows.”“Amazing to hear and read about all that Medgar Evers endured, the sacrifices he and his family made, like: no front door, for safety reasons, beds were lower than the height of the window sills, for protection from gunshots, the safety drills for the children in case someone starts shooting. Very sobering.”Like TripAdvisor reviewers, it seemed the Facebook post’s author paraphrased the descriptions provided by tour guides. However, those descriptions were not entirely consistent with one another. A Wikipedia page for the site (lacking sources) stated that the Evers family chose the home, but it didn’t go so far as to say they were able to modify its structure. In December 2017, Medgar Evers house museum curator Minnie White Watson discussed the childrens’ beds in a profile of the site:“The first time the house was shot into, Medgar said put the kids beds on the floor,” said Minnie White Watson, Medgar Evers Home museum curatorA database of historical site markers explained the Evers’ family’s efforts to remain safe in the face of increasing violence, as threats to Evers and his family increased greatly in the weeks leading up to his assassination:With success in [civil rights] efforts, however, came increased tension and apprehension. The children were taught precautions, such as dropping to the floor and crawling to safety in the bathtub when they heard loud noises. They avoided sitting in the living room near the large window. One evening a firebomb exploded in the carport, and Myrlie rushed outside to put out the flames with the garden hose. The police dismissed the incident as a prank. A few weeks later, Medgar Evers was murdered in the driveway, shot with a high-powered rifle by an assassin hiding across the street.The claims about Medgar Evers’ home made in the Facebook post were accurate — by all accounts, the Evers family avoided sitting and sleeping near windows because gunshots had been fired and and through their home. An image circulating alongside the post showed the reconstructed bedroom of the Evers’ children, with beds placed low to the floor and away from windows. Evers and his family lived in the house from 1956 to 1963; the increasing safety precautions taken by the family likely occurred in the last year or two of their time in the house.We contacted Tougaloo archivists for additional information, but have not yet received a response.
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16344
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Jeanne Shaheen Says Scott Brown co-sponsored legislation to let employers deny women coverage for mammograms.
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Shaheen said Brown co-sponsored legislation to let employers deny women coverage for mammograms. The amendment, which Brown supported, was written loosely enough to allow a religious-conscience opt-out for almost any conceivable form of preventive care. But it didn't target mammograms, as Shaheen implied. And while the amendment would have protected religious-conscience objections, we failed to uncover any evidence that mammograms have inspired religious opposition, either now or in the past. The claim contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.
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false
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New Hampshire, Health Care, Legal Issues, Women, Jeanne Shaheen,
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"The U.S. Senate race in New Hampshire has been awash in claims about abortion and women’s health issues in recent days. One claim by incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen caught our eye. Shaheen is facing a challenge from former Republican Sen. Scott Brown. In a news release from her campaign, Shaheen said: ""I have always supported a woman’s right to choose because I know women should be making health care decisions in consultation with their doctors and their families, not their employer. Scott Brown’s record is clear: When it counts, he doesn’t stand up for women’s reproductive rights and economic security. He co-sponsored legislation to let employers deny women coverage for birth control or even mammograms. New Hampshire women can’t trust Scott Brown, and his record is move evidence that he is wrong for New Hampshire."" We noticed two claims that are related, but distinct enough to analyze separately. First, would the legislation in question have allowed employers deny women coverage for birth control? And would it have allowed employers to deny coverage for mammograms? We’ve heard of controversies over birth control, but not mammograms. So we decided to check it out. (We’ve addressed birth control in a separate fact-check.) Mammograms are used to screen for breast cancer, either preventively in women who have no signs of the disease, or as a diagnostic aid after a lump or other symptom is reported, according to the National Cancer Institute. In a different Shaheen campaign news release, the campaign explained its sourcing by writing, ""FACT: Scott Brown both co-sponsored and voted for the Blunt Amendment that would let employers deny women access to a range of healthcare services, including contraception and coverage for mammograms."" The amendment in question was proposed by Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. It was tabled -- that is, dispensed with -- by a 51-48 vote in which a simple majority was required. Among those who voted ""nay"" -- that is, those who wanted to keep it under consideration -- was Brown, then representing Massachusetts in the Senate. He also co-sponsored a predecessor measure, S.1467, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act of 2011. So Shaheen’s camp is correct that Brown acted in support of this measure. But what did the amendment say? It acted to widen the scope of acceptable actions for opting out of provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on religious or moral grounds. It focuses on mandates within the law for preventive services, called the ""essential health benefits package."" The Shaheen campaign pointed us to a Feb. 29, 2014, news release opposing the Blunt Amendment by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. The release said, ""the expansive nature of the proposed Blunt amendment ... could result in coverage denials of life-saving preventive services such as mammograms or tobacco cessation based on employer discretion."" But we aren’t accepting the claim of an advocacy group without digging further. So we read the relevant portions of the law ourselves. We agree that the provision is drawn broadly. It’s not targeted at abortion or birth control -- it simply says that employers cannot be required to cover ""specific items or services"" that are ""contrary to the religious beliefs or moral convictions of the sponsor, issuer, or other entity offering the plan."" So, presumably, any aspect of preventive care could qualify for a religious-conscience opt-out -- including mammograms. Or, for that matter, stethoscopes or tongue depressors. We can’t imagine any religious objections to the use of tongue depressors. But what about mammograms? We asked a number of experts in medicine and bioethics whether they had ever heard religious objections raised regarding mammograms. None said they had. ""I have not heard this claim in the specific context you describe,"" said Paul A. Lombardo, a specialist in medical law and ethics at Georgia State University. Adam Sonfield, a senior public policy associate at the Guttmacher Institute, noted that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissent in Hobby Lobby noted past religious objections to blood transfusions (by Jehovah’s Witnesses); antidepressants (by Scientologists); medications derived from pigs, including anesthesia, intravenous fluids, and pills coated with gelatin (by certain Muslims, Jews, and Hindus); and vaccinations (by Christian Scientists). However, Sonfield couldn’t recall hearing objections to mammograms. Opposition to mammograms would also be news to a leading anti-abortion group, the National Right to Life Committee. ""I've never heard of any argument being made against mammograms based on a conscience objection,"" said Susan T. Muskett, the group’s senior legislative counsel. Arthur Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at New York University Langone Medical Center, said the closest he can get ""to making any sense of"" the claim involves what in the game of pool would be known as a multiple bank shot. Here goes: Planned Parenthood has become a target of anti-abortion activists because it performs abortions, but the group’s clinics also provide other forms of health care to women. These include breast examinations, but not mammograms per se. If the clinic determines that a patient needs a mammogram, they will be referred to a health care provider that offers one. Some abortion opponents might ""see this as a ruse,"" Caplan said. ""So there might be a doctor or a nurse who would refuse a mammogram referral from Planned Parenthood on the grounds that that they are just funding abortions."" But this is all speculative, Caplan added. ""No doc I know of has any issue with mammograms,"" he said. Holly Fernandez Lynch, a Harvard bioethicist and author of Conflicts of Conscience in Health Care: An Institutional Compromise, called the claim ""technically true"" but ""a bit of a strawman."" Could it have been used to deny access to mammograms? ""Yes,"" she said. ""Would it have been? Almost certainly not. I have never heard of a religious or moral objection to mammograms. The better examples would have been contraceptives, abortion, vaccines (especially HPV), psychiatric care, or palliative care/hospices."" Our ruling Shaheen said Brown co-sponsored legislation to let employers deny women coverage for mammograms. The amendment, which Brown supported, was written loosely enough to allow a religious-conscience opt-out for almost any conceivable form of preventive care. But it didn't target mammograms, as Shaheen implied. And while the amendment would have protected religious-conscience objections, we failed to uncover any evidence that mammograms have inspired religious opposition, either now or in the past. The claim contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression."
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6630
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Trump directs government to revamp care for kidney disease.
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President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday revamping care for kidney disease so more people whose kidneys fail can have a chance at early transplants and home dialysis, and others don’t get that sick in the first place.
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true
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AP Top News, Government regulations, Dialysis, Health, General News, Politics, Kidney disease, Donald Trump
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Trump said his order was aimed at “making life better and longer for millions” by increasing the supply of donated kidneys, making it easier for patients to have dialysis in the comfort of their own homes and prioritizing the development of an artificial kidney. The changes won’t happen overnight because some initiatives will require new government regulations. Because a severe organ shortage complicates the call for more transplants, the Trump administration will try to ease the financial hardships for living donors by reimbursing them for expenses such as lost wages and child care. “Those people, I have to say, have never gotten enough credit,” Trump said. “What they do is so incredible.” Another key change: steps to help the groups that collect deceased donations do a better job. Trump said it may be possible to find 17,000 more kidneys and 11,000 other organs from deceased donors for transplant every year. For families like those of 1-year-old Hudson Nash, the lack of organs is frightening. Hudson was born with damaged kidneys, and his parents hope he will be big enough for a transplant in another year. Until then, “to keep him going, he takes numerous medicines, receives multiple shots, blood draws and more doctors’ visits than I can count,” said his mother, Jamie Nash of Santa Barbara, California. Today’s system favors expensive, time-consuming dialysis in large centers — what Trump called so onerous “it’s like a full-time job” — over easier-to-tolerate at-home care or transplants that help patients live longer. More than 30 million American adults have chronic kidney disease, costing Medicare a staggering $113 billion. Careful treatment — including control of diabetes and high blood pressure, the two main culprits — can help prevent further kidney deterioration. But more than 700,000 people have end-stage renal disease, meaning their kidneys have failed, and require either a transplant or dialysis to survive. Only about one-third received specialized kidney care before they got so sick. “My health care providers failed me at the beginning of the dialysis continuum,” said transplant recipient Tunisia Bullock of Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Her kidney failure struck while she was being treated for another disease, and she woke up in the hospital attached to a dialysis machine. She told Trump that she hoped the new initiatives help other patients find care “with less confusion and more ease.” More than 94,000 of the 113,000 people on the national organ waiting list need a kidney. Last year, there were 21,167 kidney transplants. Of those, 6,442 were from living donors, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation’s transplant system. “The longer you’re on dialysis, the outcomes are worse,” said Dr. Amit Tevar, a transplant surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who praised the administration’s initiatives. Too often, transplant centers don’t see a kidney patient until he or she has been on dialysis for years, Tevar said. While any transplant is preferable, one from a living donor is best because those organs “work better, longer and faster,” Tevar said. Among the initiatives that take effect first: —Medicare payment changes that would provide a financial incentive for doctors and clinics to help kidney patients stave off end-stage disease. The goal is to lower the number of new kidney failure cases by 25% by 2030. —a bonus to kidney specialists who help prepare patients for early transplant, with steps that can begin even before they need dialysis. —additional Medicare changes so that dialysis providers can earn as much by helping patients get dialysis at home as in the large centers that predominate today. Patients typically must spend hours three or four times a week hooked to machines that filter waste out of their blood. Home options include portable blood-cleansing machines, or what’s called peritoneal dialysis that works through an abdominal tube, usually while patients are sleeping. Today, about 11% of patients in kidney failure get at-home dialysis and an additional 3 percent get an early transplant. By 2025, the goal is to have 80% of people with newly diagnosed kidney failure getting one of those options, officials said. These changes are being put in place through Medicare’s innovation center, created under the Obama-era Affordable Care Act and empowered to seek savings and improved quality. The administration is relying on the innovation center even as it argues in federal court that the law that created it is unconstitutional and should be struck down entirely. Other initiatives will require new regulations, expected to be proposed later this year. Among them: —allowing reimbursement of lost wages and other expenses for living donors, who can give one of their kidneys or a piece of their liver. The transplant recipient’s insurance pays the donor’s medical bills. But donors are out of work for weeks recuperating, and one study found more than one-third of living kidney donors reported lost wages, a median of $2,712, in the year following donation. Details about who pays and who qualifies still have to be worked out. —clearer ways to measure how well the nation’s 58 organ procurement organizations, or OPOs, collect donations from deceased donors. Some do a better job than others, but today’s performance standards are self-reported, varying around the country and making it difficult for government regulators or the OPOs themselves to take steps to improve. “Some OPOs are very aggressive and move forward with getting organs allocated and donors consented, and there are those that are a little more lackadaisical about it,” said Pittsburgh’s Tevar. Unlike the medical advances in transplantation, “we haven’t really made big dents and progress and moves in increasing cadaveric organs or increasing live donor options.” ___ Associated Press writer Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar contributed to this report.
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1928
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After knee repair, half can't play sports the same.
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After knee reconstruction surgery, half of people who played sports both competitively and just for fun don’t perform as well as they used to, according to an Australian study.
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true
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Health News
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"Of more than 300 men and women who had the surgery, a third stopped playing sports entirely and 68 who were still active said they didn’t play as well as before, researchers reported in the American Journal of Sports Medicine. The anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, is the ligament inside the knee that helps keep the joint stable. About 150,000 ACL injuries occur each year in the United States. “Less than 50 percent of the study sample had returned to playing sport at their preinjury level or returned to participating in competitive sport when surveyed at 2 to 7 years after ACL reconstruction surgery,” wrote Clare Ardern at La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia, who led the study. Ardern and her colleagues followed more than 300 men and women for two to seven years. Participants had either played Australian-rules football, basketball, netball or soccer before their surgeries. At 39 months post-surgery, 208 out of the 314 people who had the operation were still playing a sport, the researchers said. Of those 208, 68 said they played at a lower level than before their injury and 140 said they played about the same as before their injury. The remaining 106 participants either were not playing sports or did not complete the entire study. “Although almost all people returned to playing some form of sport, they did not play continuously for many years after their surgery,” Ardern told Reuters Health in an email. She also noted there may be other reasons why people stopped playing sports, such as fear of getting injured again or less confidence in performing. Of the 196 people who played competitive sports before their injury, 91 returned to their competitive sport. “This is a big injury,” said Edward McDevitt, a spokesman for the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, who was not part of the study. “Many athletes who choose surgery have a long and difficult road to face. If you’re not willing to go through it, then you might be better off just getting a brace.” He added that while knee surgery does allow people to return to their sport, they couldn’t perform as well as doctors might wish. People who tear the ACL can either opt for physical therapy and surgery or just physical therapy alone. “Some people find that they are able to function well without surgery, provided they have adequate leg strength to support the injured knee,” Ardern said. “Other alternatives may be to avoid sports involving direction changes, jumping and landing or activities that make the knee feel unstable, or use knee braces and supports.” McDevitt speculates that after surgery, some athletes may not have the same range of motion, preventing them from playing as before. ""I tell my patients, 'I can't make you like before, I'm not God. But I'll do the best I can to restore you back to the way you were,'"" he added. SOURCE: bit.ly/pWId18"
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7488
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Arkansas gets donation of Trump-promoted anti-malarial drug.
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A pharmaceutical company has given Arkansas 100,000 tablets of an anti-malarial drug that President Donald Trump is heavily pitching as a treatment for the coronavirus.
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true
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Malaria, Health, General News, Tim Griffin, Arkansas, Science, Virus Outbreak, Donald Trump
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Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences on Wednesday announced the donation of hydroxychloroquine from Amneal. The pharmaceutical company has announced similar donations to other states, including Texas. Hydroxychloroquine has long been used to treat malaria, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Very small preliminary studies have suggested it might help coronavirus patients, and doctors can prescribe it off-label for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. But health experts have said more studies are needed to determine whether it’s safe and effective to use. COVID-19 IN ARKANSAS Arkansas health officials on Wednesday said the number of coronavirus cases in the state has reached at least 1,071. The Health Department reported the increase in cases, up from at least 997 on Tuesday night. Arkansas has had 18 deaths. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and a cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS RISING Arkansas officials expect the number of Arkansans filing unemployment claims during the outbreak to hit 150,000 by the end of the week. Commerce Secretary Mike Preston said more than 110,000 people have filed for unemployment and his department has been reassigning staffers to handle a flood of calls. The state has waived the requirement to file for unemployment in person. The state will have to build a new system to process claims by independent contractors, freelancers and self-employed workers newly eligible for unemployment benefits under the federal coronavirus aid. Preston said building that system will take three weeks, but that back pay of benefits will be available once the system is set up. ___ Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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9436
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Spit test may diagnose, predict duration of concussion in kids
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CNN’s story describes a study that identified microRNA markers in the saliva of children and teens who’ve sustained a concussion; five of these biomarkers could be used in an algorithm to predict whether or not the youngsters’ concussions symptoms would subside within four weeks of their injury. The story did a good job explaining the study’s limitations, and describing similar tests under development–helping readers understand this is by no means the only method that’s being studied. We were also pleased to see independent sources and disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. However, the story could have provided more information on the potential harms of screening tests, as well as expected costs. Concussions are a hot medical topic, as we explain in Communicating effectively about concussion research: 6 tips for writers. When it comes to screening tools, however, news outlets sometimes overlook the nuances. This CNN story, for example, didn’t discuss the potential downsides of false-positive and false-negative results.
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true
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concussions
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The story provides no discussion of how much this test might cost if and when it comes to market. The story states that the five key microRNA markers allowed doctors to predict with 85% accuracy which 52 of the children would have prolonged symptoms, compared to 64% accuracy for the standard concussion assessment survey doctors often use now (in conjunction with their own medical evaluations). But it’s not clear what “accuracy” means in this context. As discussed below, it would be more helpful to discuss the test’s false-negative and false-positive rates, since those statistics give readers a better sense as to whether the test results provide meaningful information. And it would be helpful to clarify exactly what benefit someone would derive from the test results, beyond knowing how long the concussion symptoms will endure. Readers might presume that this kind of testing will help avoid longer-term cognitive impairment resulting from concussions, but that would be a misconception. There’s no evidence that more testing leads to less long-term cognitive impairment. The story would have done well to point this out. The story does not directly address potential harms. The harms with screening tests are false-negative results–in this case, concluding a child doesn’t have a concussion when she really does–and false-positive results–concluding a child needs treatment when she doesn’t. The story does a fair job of describing the limitations of the research supporting use of the saliva test. First, the story notes that an editorial published with the study in JAMA Pediatric pointed out the small sample size (52), meaning additional large-scale studies would be required to determine whether the saliva test results would be reliable. The story also discusses the editorial’s warning that individuals with prolonged concussion symptoms are more likely than those with milder concussions to use nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, which could influence the presence of the microRNAs and thus confound the findings. One limitation the story didn’t point out was that all these children already had a clinical diagnosis of concussion. In a more real-world setting, where that hasn’t been confirmed, the accuracy of the test may be lowered. The story does not commit disease-mongering. However, one paragraph discussing data from the Centers for Disease Control could be viewed as conflating concussions with all traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). The story notes that CDC data showed 2.8 million TBI-related visits to the emergency room, hospitalizations and deaths in the United States in 2013. Following this figure immediately is a reference to two-thirds of concussions occurring in children and adolescents; the structure thus suggests that all 2.8 million TBIs were concussions. The story includes two independent sources: the JAMA Pediatrics editorial and a neurologist, Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, who directs The Sports Neurology Clinic at The CORE Institute in Michigan. In addition, the story explains that Quadrant Biosciences, which is hoping to market a saliva test for concussions, provided part of the funding for the original study. It also notes that Kutcher is consulting for a company working on an alternative approach to testing for concussion severity using electroencephalograms (EEG). As noted earlier, the story explicitly compared accuracy rates for the saliva test versus the survey tool doctors currently use. In addition, the story mentioned that researchers also are testing for concussion-related biomarkers in blood, using EEG records and “exploring functional MRI techniques to look at the metabolic function of different areas of the brain.” The story discusses all of these approaches as preliminary investigations. The story quotes the lead author of the saliva test study as saying that many hospitals and clinics already use the technology that would be needed to assess microRNAs in saliva. This implies that the saliva test could be readily available to patients if further research confirmed the association between specific microRNAs and prolonged concussion symptoms. The story does not provide any specific discussion of how long it could take or how much further study would be needed before the saliva test would be available for use. However, the story does communicate that the saliva test is not yet available. As mentioned earlier, the story quotes the JAMA Pediatrics editorial that accompanied the study as saying that the saliva test “represents an advance in the science of sport-related concussions.” Thus, the test does appear to be a novel approach. The story includes a substantial amount of information not included in the Penn State Health news release about the study.
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1799
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Happiness study draws frowns from critics.
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A high-profile 2013 study that concluded that different kinds of happiness are associated with dramatically different patterns of gene activity is fatally flawed, according to an analysis published on Monday which tore into its target with language rarely seen in science journals.
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true
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Health News
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The new paper, published like the first in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, slams the research for “dubious analyses” and “erroneous methodology” and says it “conjured nonexistent effects out of thin air.” In the 2013 study, researchers had adults answer a 14-item questionnaire meant to sort them into two groups: interested in hedonic well-being (fun and selfish pleasure) or eudaimonic well-being (leading a meaningful life). The two groups, researchers led by psychologist Barbara Frederickson of the University of North Carolina reported, had different patterns of activity in 53 genes. Hedonists had DNA activity akin to people suffering from chronic, illness-inducing stress. Stress-related genes including those involved in inflammation were overactive; genes involved in making antibodies that fight infection were underactive. Hedonists, it seemed, were headed for a disease-ridden existence and an early grave, as media reports warned in stories with headlines like “Meaning is healthier than happiness.” The claim caught the eye of Nick Brown, a British information technology worker who has become a persistent amateur critic of what he sees as shoddy statistical analysis in psychology research. As he and colleagues scrutinized the 2013 paper, they saw numerous problems, he said. For one thing, the authors failed to rule out that people with specific gene-activity patterns in the immune system might be under the weather when tested. More crucially, Brown said, the happiness questionnaire was flawed. People who scored high on three items meant to identify hedonists scored equally highly on 11 items meant to identify people who seek eudaimonic well-being. “The two constructs are essentially measuring the same thing,” Brown said, so putting people in one category rather than another was “meaningless.” Most devastating was what happened when Brown grouped the items randomly, calling those who scored high on questions 1, 7 and 8 (or any of 8,191 other combinations) one kind of person and those who scored high on others a second type. Even with such meaningless groupings, there were patterns of gene activity seemingly characteristic of each group. Statistics professor Andrew Gelman of Columbia University, who was not involved in either study, called Brown’s critique “reasonable.” Flawed statistics have become such a serious problem for journals that many of the world’s top titles are adding extra levels of statistical checks in the peer-review process. Deputy executive editor Daniel Salsbury said PNAS was not changing its longstanding practice, which is “to work within our review process to ensure the work is sound in all aspects.” In a reply to Brown, Frederickson and coauthor Steven Cole of the University of California, Los Angeles, reject the criticism and say they have replicated their 2013 findings in a new sample of 122 people.
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22816
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"Portland Public Schools invites ""well-paid, well-fed school bureaucrats, administrators, teachers, other staff, non-needy students, affluent parents of students, and other adults, including on the other extreme the adult homeless, illegal aliens, fanatical Muslim terrorists, or drug addicted street people, to enjoy cheap breakfasts in taxpayer-paid school facilities amidst school children."
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Portland Public Schools invites all adults for a cheap $1.75 breakfast?
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false
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Oregon, Education, Rees Lloyd,
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"Making the rounds on the World Wide Web is this entry from Rees Lloyd, an attorney who contributes to the blog of talk-radio host Victoria Taft. Lloyd is livid that West Sylvan Middle School (Portland Public Schools) is advertising low-cost breakfasts for students ($1) and adults ($1.75) regardless of their ability to pay. Students eligible for free or reduced-price meals don’t pay anything for breakfast. In his post, Lloyd says he’s OK with offering free or reduced-price meals to genuinely poor students. But he’s not OK extending meals to everyone else within walking distance of the school. ""It is quite another thing, and a wrongful thing, to invite well-paid, well-fed school bureaucrats, administrators, teachers, other staff, non-needy students, affluent parents of students, and other adults, including on the other extreme the adult homeless, illegal aliens, fanatical Muslim terrorists, or drug addicted street people, to enjoy cheap breakfasts in taxpayer-paid school facilities amidst school children."" Wow. That’s quite a range of adults eating for cheap on the taxpayer dime. We asked Portland Public Schools to explain, one, whether Lloyd had his facts correct, and two, if so, more about the program. Matt Shelby, spokesman for the school district, confirms that a Dec. 9 school e-mail re-posted on Taft’s blog is correct. In it, district nutrition services program manager Kristin Palmer reminds ""West Sylvan parents and staff"" that hot and cold breakfasts start up again in the new year. The memo reads: ""Breakfast is only $1.00 for students, $1.75 for adults and free for all students on reduced or free priced meals. Your breakfast will meet ¼ of the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for children for many vitamins and nutrients and will include a juice, milk and entree, so come hungry! Please remember you can put money on your child’s account at mylunchmoney.com or bring a check or cash to the cafeteria."" Clearly, the breakfast offer is not intended for the general public, which means no drug addicts, homeless or suspected terrorists, domestic or otherwise, get to mingle with the kids unless they happen to be staff or parents at the well-to-do school. Adults unaffiliated with the school need to sign in to get on campus, so the idea of an undocumented worker dropping ""in at West Sylvan School for a $1.75 breakfast on their way to a job ‘Americans don’t want’"" is pretty far-fetched (contrary to Lloyd’s musings). Strike this part as a claim. (By the way, Lloyd doesn’t buy it. He interprets the e-mail as a more sweeping invitation, despite it being addressed to ""West Sylvan parents and staff."" ""That’s what makes it so stupid, inviting adults to come in for $1.75. It’s without limitation and they know damn well we don’t want people walking into schools, what in the hell are they thinking? If they’re not inviting everyone in there, they should know how to say so."") But what about the broader gripe behind Lloyd’s post? Are taxpayers being cheated because schools such as West Sylvan offer high-quality, low-cost breakfasts to children and adults who can afford to eat at home? A bit of history first. Like the National School Lunch Program, the School Breakfast Program is housed under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Shelby says the USDA reimburses the district $1.76 for every free breakfast, $1.46 for every reduced-price breakfast and 26 cents for every fully paid breakfast. The district is not reimbursed for adult meals, which is why adults pay $1.75 to cover the cost of labor and food. The total districtwide budget for school lunches and breakfasts is $17.5 million, sustained by sales of meals to students and reimbursements from the federal government. Which gets us back to Sylvan, where adults pay $1.75 for a meal; the 8.3 percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price meals pay nothing; and the rest of students pay $1 for breakfast. First, the adults. Only two adults have eaten breakfast at Sylvan since the school year started in September. Of 623,563 breakfasts served this year districtwide, 1,783 have gone to adults. That’s 0.3 percent of meals. In other words, not a lot of adults eat a low-cost breakfast at school. Now what about the kids? In 46 school days, West Sylvan has served 2,949 breakfasts to students. Of those, the bulk -- 2,276 -- went to children who paid $1 for every meal. So why does Portland Public Schools subsidize meals for children and provide meals to adults who clearly can afford to pay more? The answer given by the district is that it’s more cost-effective in the end to sell more meals, since there is a minimum anyway for labor and supplies. ""You’re still going to have a staff member there administering meals to students,"" Shelby said. ""Three meals or 30, it takes at least one staff member to do it."" There are other reasons for offering breakfast at school. Sometimes kids don’t want to eat first thing in the morning. Or they don’t have time to eat. Sometimes, they don’t have food to eat at home. School districts and educational experts argue that breakfast helps students to concentrate. Lloyd is wise to question government use of taxpayer money. Only students and adults allowed on campus can partake of school breakfasts."
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